Likewise before the participle present, a, an have the force of a gerund.

Nort. in Arsan.

But there is some great tempest a brewing towards

us.

Lidgate, lib. 7:

The king was slain, and ye did assent,

In a forest an hunting, when that he went. The article the, joined with the adjective of a noun proper, may follow after the substantive: Chaucer. There chanticleer the fair

Was wont, and eke his wives to repair.

Otherwise it varieth from the common rule. Again, this article by a synecdoche doth restrain a general, and common name to some certain and special one:

Gower, in his Prologue :

The Apostle writeth unto us all,
And saith, that upon us is fall
Th' end of the world:

for Paul. So by the philosopher, Aristotle; by the poet, among the Grecians, Homer; with the Latins, Virgil, is understood.

This and that being demonstratives; and what the interrogative, are taken for substantives:

Sir John Cheek, in his Oration to the Rebels:
Ye rise for religion: what religion taught you

that?

Chaucer, in the Reve's Tale:

And this is very sooth, as I you tell.

Ascham, in his discourse of the affairs of Germany : A wonderful folly in a great man himself, and some piece of misery in a whole commonwealth, where fools chiefly and flatterers, may speak

freely what they will; and good men shall
commonly be shent, if they speak what they
should.

What, also for an adverb of partition:

Lambert :

But now, in our memory, what by the decay of the
haven, and what by overthrow of religious
houses, and loss of Calice, it is brought in a
manner to miserable nakedness and decay.

Chaucer, 3d book of Troilus:

Then wot I well, she might never fail. For to been holpen, what at your instance, What at your other friends governance. That is used for a relative:

Sir John Cheek:

Sedition is an aposteam, which, when it breaketh inwardly, putteth the state in great danger of recovery; and corrupteth the whole commonwealth with the rotten fury, that it hath putrified with. For, with which.

They, and those, are sometimes taken, as it were, for articles :

Fox, 2d volume of Acts, &c.

That no kind of disquietness should be procured
against them of Bern and Zurick.

Gower, lib. 2:

My brother hath us all sold

To them of Rome.

The pronoun, these, hath a rare use, being taken < for an adjective of similitude: It is neither the part of an honest man to tell these tales; nor of a wise man to receive them.

In the other tongues, quid, rì, have not the force of partition, nor illud, ikɛivo, of a relative.

Lidgate, lib. 5:

Lo, how these princes proud and retchless, Have shameful ends, which cannot live in peace. Him, and them, be used reciprocally for the compounds, himself, themselves.

Fox: The garrison desired that they might depart with bag and baggage.

Chaucer, in the Squire's Tale :

So deep in grain he dyed his colours,

Right as a serpent hideth him under flowers.

His, their, and theirs, have also a strange use; that is to say, being possessives, they serve instead of primitives:

Chaucer :

And shortly so far forth this thing went,
That my will was his will's instrument.

Which in Latin were a solecism: for there we should

not say, suæ voluntatis, but voluntatis ipsius.

Pronouns have not the articles, a and the going before; the relatives, which, self, and same only excepted: The same lewd cancred carle, practiseth nothing, but how he may overcome and oppress the faith of Christ, for the which, you, as you know, have determined to labour and travel continually.

The possessives, my, thy, our, your, and their, go before words; as my land, thy goods; and so in the rest: mine, thine, ours, yours, hers, and theirs, follow as it were in the genitive case; as, these lands are mine, thine, &c.

His doth infinitely go before, or follow after: as, his house is a fair one; and, this house is his.

CHAP. IV.

OF THE SYNTAX OF ADJECTIVES.

DJECTIVES of quality are coupled with pronouns accusative cases.

Chaucer :

And he was wise, hardy, secret, and rich,
Of these three points, nas none him lych.

Certain adjectives include a partition: From the head doth life and motion flow to the rest of the members. The comparative agreeth to the parts compared, by adding this preposition, than:a

Chaucer, 3d book of Fame:

What did this Eolus, but he

Took out his black trump of brass,
That blacker than the divel was.

The superlative is joined to the parts compared by this preposition of.

Gower, lib. 1:

Pride is of every miss the prick:
Pride is the most vice of all wick.

Jewel:

The friendship of truth is best of all.

Oftentimes both degrees are expressed by these two adverbs, more, and most: as more excellent, most excellent. Whereof the latter seemeth to have his proper place in those that are spoken in a certain kind of excellency, but yet without comparison:

The Latins comparative governeth an ablative; their superlative a genitive plural. The Greeks both comparative and superlative hath a genitive; but in neither tongue is a sign going between..

Hector was a most valiant man; that is, inter fortissimos.

Furthermore, these adverbs, more and most, are added to the comparative and superlative degrees themselves, which should be before the positive:

Sir Thomas More:

Forasmuch as she saw the cardinal more readier to depart than the remnant; for not only the high dignity of the civil magistrate, but the most basest handicrafts are holy, when they are directed to the honour of God.

And this is a certain kind of English atticism, or eloquent phrase of speech, imitating the manner of the most ancientest and finest Grecians, who, for more emphasis and vehemencies sake, used so to speak. Positives are also joined with the preposition of, like the superlative:

Elias was the only man of all the prophets that was left alive.

Gower, lib. 4:

The first point of sloth I call
Lachesse, and is the chief of all.

CHAP. V.

OF THE SYNTAX OF A VERB WITH A NOUN.

ITHERTO we have declared the syntax of a noun: the syntax of a verb followeth, being either of a verb with a noun, or of one verb with another.

The syntax of a verb with a noun is in number and person; as