The profit of grammar is great to strangers who are to live in communion

and commerce with us, and it is honourable to ourselves. For by it we communicate

all our labours, studies,  profits, without an interpreter.

We free our language from the  opinion of rudeness and  barbarism, wherewith

it is  mistaken to be diseased. We show the  copy of it and matchableness with other 5

tongues. We ripen the wits of our own children and youth sooner by it, and advance

their knowledge.

 Confusion of language, a curse.

 Experience breedeth art; lack of experience, chance.

Experience, observation, sense, induction are the four  triers of arts. It is ridiculous 10

to teach anything for undoubted truth that sense and experience can confute.  So  

Zeno, disputing of  quies, was confuted by  Diogenes rising up and walking.

In grammar, not so much the  invention as the  disposition is to be commended.

Yet we must remember that the most excellent creatures are not ever born perfect,

to leave  bears and whelps, and other failings of nature. 15

A word^(c) is a part of speech, or  note, whereby a thing is known or called, and

consisteth of one or more  syllabes. A syllabe^(d) is a  perfect sound in a word and

consisteth of one or more letters.  A letter ^(e) is an indivisible part of a syllabe, whose

prosody,^(f) or right sounding, is  perceived by the power; the orthography, or right

writing, by the form.  Prosody ^(g) and orthography are not parts of grammar, but 10

diffused, like the blood and  spirits, through the whole.

In  our language we use these  twenty-and-four letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K,

L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z: a, b c, d, e, f, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r,

s, t, v, w, x, y, z. The great letters serve to begin sentences with us, to lead proper

names, and express numbers. The less make the fabric of speech.

Our numeral letters are: I, V, X, L, C, D, M for 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000. 5

All letters are either vowels or consonants,⁽ⁱ⁾ and are principally known by their

powers.^(k) The figure is an accident.

A vowel^(l) will be pronounced by itself, a consonant not without the help of a

vowel, either before or after. The received vowels in our tongue are a, e, i, o, u.

 Consonants  ^(m) be either mutes, and  close the sound, as b, c, d, g, k, p, q, t, or 10

half-vowels and  open it, as f, l, m, n, r, s, x, z. H is rarely other than an aspiration

in power, though a letter in form.  W and Y have shifting and uncertain  seats, as

shall be shown in their places.

All our vowels⁽ⁿ⁾ are sounded  doubtfully. In quantity (which is time), long or

short; or, in  accent(which is tune), sharp or flat.  Long in these words and their like:

debāting,  congēling, expīring, oppōsing, endūring.  Short in these: stomăching, sevĕring,

vanquĭshing, ransŏming, pictŭring. Sharp in these: háte,  méte, bíte, nóte,  púle. Flat in

these: hàt, mèt, bìt, nòt,  pùl. 5

  A ^(o)

with us in most words is pronounced less than the French à, as in art, act, apple,

 ancient. But, when it comes before l in the end of a syllabe, it obtaineth the full

French sound^(p) and is uttered with the mouth and throat wide opened, the tongue

bent back from the teeth, as in  al, smal, gal, fal, tal, cal. So in the  syllabes where a 10

consonant followeth the l as in  salt, malt, balme, calme.

  E ^(q)

 is pronounced with a  mean opening the mouth, the tongue turned to the inner

roof of the palate and softly striking the upper  great teeth. It is a letter of diverse

 note and use, and either soundeth or is silent. When it is the last letter and 15

soundeth, the sound is sharp,  as in the French i,   example in mé, sé, agré, yé, shé  in

all, saving the article,  thè.  Where it endeth, and  soundeth obscure and faintly, it

serves as an  accent, to produce the vowel preceding, as in  máde,  stéme, strípe,  óre,

cúre, which else would sound màd, stèm, strìp, òr, cùr. It altereth the power of c, g, s,

so placed, as in hence, which else would sound henc, swinge to make it differ from 20

swing, use to distinguish it from us. It is mere  silent in words where l is coupled

with a consonant in the end, as whistle, gristle, britle, fickle, thimble, etc., or  after v

consonant, or double ss as in love, glove, move, redresse, crosse, losse.

Where it endeth a  former  syllabe, it soundeth  longish, but flat, as in dérive,

prépare, résolve, except in derivatives or  compounds of the sharp e, and then it 25

 answers the  primitive or  simple in the first sound, as agreeing, of agree; foreseeing,

of foresee; being, of bee.  Where it endeth a last syllabe, with one or more consonants

after it, it either soundeth flat and full, as in descent, intent, amend, offend, rest, best,

or it passeth away obscured, like the faint i, as in these –  written, gotten, open, saieth,

 divel, etc. – which two letters,  e and i,^(r) have such a nearness in our tongue as 30

oftentimes they interchange places, as in enduce for induce, endite for indite,    her, hir.

I ^(s)

is of a narrower sound than e and uttered with a less opening of the mouth, the

tongue brought back to the palate and striking the teeth  next the  cheek-teeth.

It is a letter of a double power. As a vowel in the former or single syllabes it 35

hath sometimes the sharp accent, as in bínding, mínding, píning, whíning, wíving,

 thríving, míne, thíne, or all words of one syllabe qualified by e; but the flat in more,

as in these: bìll, bìtter, gìddy, lìttle, ìncident and the like. In the derivatives of sharp

primitives it keepeth the sound, though it  deliver over the primitive consonant

to the next syllabe, as in diví-ning, requí-ring, repí-ning, for a consonant falling 40

between two vowels in the word will be spelled with the latter. In syllabes and

words composed of the same  elements it varieth the sound, now sharp, now flat,

as in  gíve, gìve; alíve, lìve; dríve, drìven;  títle,  tìtle. But these, use of speaking and

acquaintance in reading will teach, rather than rule.

   I ^(t) in the other power is merely another letter and would ask to  enjoy another 45

character; for, where it leads the sounding vowel and beginneth the syllabe,

it is ever a consonant, as in James, John, jest, jump, conjurer, perjur’d; and before

   diphthongs, as in jay, joy, juyce, as having the force of the Hebrews’  jod ^(u) and  the

Italians’ gi.^(w)

  O ^(x) 50

is pronounced with a round mouth, the tongue drawn back to the root; and is

a letter of much change and uncertainty with us. In the long time it naturally

soundeth  sharp and high,^(y) as in chósen,  hósen, hóly,  fólly, ópen, óver, nóte, thróte; in

the short time more flat and  a kin to u,^(z) as còsen, dòsen, mòther, bròther, lòve,  pròve.  In

the  diphthong sometimes it  soundeth out, as óught, sóught, nóught, wróught, mów, 55

sów; but  oftener upon the u, as in sòund, bòund, hòw, nòw, thòu, còw.

 In the last syllabes before n and w it frequently  loseth, as in persòn, actiòn, willòw,

billòw. It  holds up, and is sharp, when it ends the word or syllabe, as in gó, fró, só, nó,  

except in tò, the preposition, twò, the numeral, dò, the verb, and the compounds

of it, as undò, and the derivatives, as dòing. It varieth the sound in syllabes of the 60

same character and  proportion, as in shòve,  shróve, glòve, gróve, which double sound

it hath from the Latin,^(a) as: voltus, vultus; vultis, voltis.

 V^(b)

is sounded with a narrower and  mean compass, and some depression of the middle

of the tongue and is, like our i, a letter of double power. As a vowel it soundeth 65

thin and sharp, as in  úse, thick and flat, as in  ùs. It never endeth any word  for

the nakedness, but yieldeth to the termination of the diphthong ew, as in new,

trew, knew , etc., or the qualifying e, as in sue, due, and the like.  When it leadeth a

sounding vowel in the syllabe, it is a consonant,^(c) as in  save,  reve, prove, love, etc.,

which double force is not the unsteadfastness of our tongue, or incertainty of our 70

writing, but fallen upon us from the Latin.

  W ^(d)

is but the V  geminated in the full sound and, though it have the  seat of a consonant

with us, the power is always vowellish, even where it leads the vowel

in any syllabe. As if you  mark it, pronounce the two uu like  ου, quick in 75

passage, and these words – ου-ine, ου-ant, ου-ood, ου-ast, sου-ing, sου-am – will

sound wine, want, wood, wast, swing, swam.  So put the aspiration afore and these

words – hου-at, hου-ich, h-ουeele, h-ουether – will be what, which, wheele, whether.

In the diphthongs there will be  no doubt, as in draw, straw, sow, know; nor in the

derivatives, as knowing, sowing, drawing,  where the double w is of necessity used, 80

rather than the single u, lest it might alter the sound and be pronounced    knouing,

souing, drauing, as in sauing, hauing.

 Y

is also  mere vowellish in our tongue and hath only the power of an i, even where

it obtains the seat of a consonant, as in young,  younker, which the  Dutch,  whose 85

primitive it is, write iunk, iunker. And so might we write  iouth, ies, ioke, ionder, iard,

ielke  for youth, yes, yoke, yonder, yard,  yelke, but that we choose y to distinguish from

jconsonant.

 In the diphthong it sounds always i, as in may, say, way, joy, toy, they; and in

the ends of words as in deny, reply, defy, cry, which sometimes are written by i, 90

but qualified by e. But where two ii are sounded, the first will be ever a y, as in

derivatives: denying, replying, defying. Only, in the words received by us from the

 Greek, ^(f) as syllabe, tyran and the like, it keeps the sound of the thin, sharp u in

some proportion. And this we had to say of the vowels.

B

hath the same sound with us as it hath with the  Latins, always one, and is uttered

with closing of the lips.^(g)

C  ^(h)

is a letter which our forefathers might very well have spared in our tongue; but 5

since it hath obtained place, both in our writing and language, we are not now to

 quarrel orthography or custom, but to note the powers.

Before a, u, and o it plainly sounds k,   chi, or kappa, as in cable,  coble, cudgell;  or

before the  liquids, l and r, as in clod, crust; or when it ends a former syllabe before a

consonant, as in acquaintance, acknowledgement, action; in all which it sounds strong. 10

Before e and i⁽ⁱ⁾ it hath a weak sound and hisseth like s, as in certaine, center, civill,

citizen, whence; or before the  diphthongs, as in cease, deceive.

 Among the English Saxons^(k) it obtained the weaker force  of chi or  the Italians’

c, as in capel, canc, cild, cyrce, which were pronounced chapel, chance, child, church. It

is sounded^(l) with the top of the tongue striking the upper teeth and rebounding 15

against the palate.

 D

hath the same sound, both before and after a vowel with us, as it hath with the

Latins,  and is pronounced softly, the tongue^(m) a little  affecting the teeth, but the

nether teeth most. 20

 F

is a letter of two forces with us, and in them both sounded with the nether lip

rounded and a kind of blowing out, but gentler in the one than the other. The

more general sound is the softest and expresseth⁽ⁿ⁾  the Greek ϕ, as in faith, field,

 feight, force, where it sounds ‘ef’. The other ^(o) is  ∊ὐ or  vau, the  digamma of  Claudius, 25

as in cleft of cleave, left of leave. The difference will be found in the word of, which

as a preposition sounds    ov –  of him; as the adverb of distance, off – far off.

 G^(p)

is likewise of double force in our tongue and is sounded with an impression made

on the midst of the palate. Before a, o, and u, strong, as in these – gate, got, gut; 30

or before the  aspirate h, or liquids l and r, as in ghost, glad, grant; or in the ends of

words, as in  long, song, ring, swing, eg, leg, lug, dug, except the qualifying efollow,

and then the sound is ever weak, as in age, stage, hedge, sledge, judge, drudge.

Before u  the force is double, as in guile, guide, guest, guise, where it soundeth like

the French gu, and in    Guin,  guerdon, languish, anguish, where it speaks the Italian 35

gu. Likewise, before e and i the powers are confused, and uttered now  strong,

now weak, as in get, geld, give, gitterne, finger (strong), in  genet, gentle, gin, gibe, ginger

(weak). But this, use must teach, the one sound being  warranted to our letter from

the Greek,  the other from the Latin throughout.

We will leave H in this place and come to 40

  K ^(q)

which is a letter the Latins never acknowledged, but only  borrowed in

the word kalendae:  they used qu for it. We sound it as the Greek κ, and as a necessary letter

it precedes and follows all vowels with us. It goes before no consonants but n,

as in  knave, knel, knot, etc., and l with the quiet e after, as in  mickle, pickle, trickle, 45

fickle,  which were better written without the c, if that which we have received

for orthography would yet be contented to be altered. But that is an emendation

rather to be wished than hoped for, after so long a reign of ill-custom amongst us.

It followeth the s in many words, as in     skape, skoure, skirt, skirmish, skrape, skuller,

which do better so sound than if written with c. 50

 L^(r)

is a letter  half-vowellish which, though the Italians (especially the Florentines)

abhor, we keep entire with the Latins, and so pronounce. It melteth in the sounding

and is therefore called a liquid, the tongue striking the root of the palate

gently.  It is seldom doubled, but  where the vowel sounds hard upon it, as in hell, 55

bell, kill, shrill,  trull, full. And even in these it is rather the haste and  superfluity of

the pen, that cannot stop itself upon the single l, than any necessity we have to

use it, for the letter should be doubled only for a following syllabe’s sake, as in

killing, beginning, begging, swimming.

  M ^(s) 60

is the same with us in sound as with the Latins. It is pronounced with a kind of

humming inward, the lips closed;  open and full in the beginning, obscure in the

end, and meanly in the midst.

 N^(t)

ringeth somewhat more in the lips and nose, the tongue striking back on the 65

palate, and hath a threefold sound, shrill in the end, full in the beginning, and

flat in the midst. They are letters near of kin, both with the Latins and us.

 P^(u)

 breaketh softly through the lips and is a letter of the same force with us as with

the Latins. 70

 Q^(w)

is a letter we might very well spare in our alphabet, if we would but use the

serviceable k as he should be, and restore him to the right of reputation he had

with our forefathers.  For the English Saxons knew not this  halting q, with her

waiting-woman u after her, but expressed quaile, quest, quick, quil by kuaile, kuest, 75

kuick, kuil, till custom, under the excuse of expressing  enfranchised words with

us, entreated her into our language in quality, quantity, quarel, quintescence, etc.,

and hath now given her the best of k’s possessions.

 R^(x)

is the dog’s letter and  hurreth in the sound, the tongue striking the inner palate, 80

with a trembling about the teeth. It is sounded  firm in the beginning of the words

and more liquid in the middle and ends, as in rarer, riper; and so in the Latin.

S ^(y)

is a most easy and gentle letter, and softly hisseth against the teeth in the  prolation.

It is called the serpent’s letter and  the chief of the consonants. It varieth the powers 85

much in our pronunciation, as in the beginning of words it hath the sound of weak

c before vowels,  diphthongs, or consonants, as salt, say, small, sell,  shrik, shift, soft,

etc. Sometime it inclineth to z, as in these – muse, use, rose, nose, wise – and the like,

where the latter vowel serves for the mark or accent of the former’s production.

So, after the half-vowels or the obscure e, as in bels, gems,  wens, burs, chimes, rimes, 90

games.  Where the vowel sits hard, it is commonly doubled.

T

is^(x) sounded with the tongue striking the upper teeth, and  hath one constant

power, save where it precedeth  i, and that followed by a vowel, as in faction, action,

generation, corruption, where it hath the  force of s or c. 95

X^(y)

is rather an abbreviation or way of short writing with us than a letter, for it hath

the sound of k and s.  It begins no word with us that I know, but ends many, as ax,

 kex, six, fox, box, which sound the same with these – backs, knacks, knocks, locks, etc.

  Z ^(z) 100

is a letter often heard amongst us, but seldom seen, borrowed of the Greeks at

first, being  the same with  ζ, and  soundeth a double ss. With us it hath obtained

another sound, but in the end of words, as muse, maze, nose, hose, gaze, as.  Never

in the beginning, save with rustic people, that have zed, zay, zit, zo, zome, and the

like, for said, say, sit, so, some, or in the body of words  endenizened, as azure, zeale, 105

zephyre, etc.

 H,^(a)

whether it be a letter or no, hath been much examined by the Ancients, and by

some,  too much of the Greek party, condemned and thrown out of the alphabet as

an aspirate, merely, and  in request only before vowels in the beginning of words 110

and after  ῥ, where it added a strong  spirit,  which the Welsh retain after many

consonants. But, be it a letter or spirit, we have great use of it in our tongue, both

before and after vowels. And though I dare not say she is (as I have heard one call

her) the queen mother of consonants, yet she is the life and quickening of them.

 What her powers are before vowels and  diphthongs will appear in hal, heale, 115

hill, hot, how, hew,  hoiday, etc. In some  it is written, but sounded without power,

as  host, honest, humble, where the vowel is heard without the aspiration – ost, onest,

umble.  After the vowel it sounds, as in ah and oh. Beside, it is coupled with divers

consonants, where the force varies and is particularly to be examined.

We will begin with Ch. 120

 Ch^(b)

hath the force of the Greek χ or κ in many words derived from the Greek, as in

 charact, Christian, chronicle, archangel, monarch; in  mere English words, or  fetched

from the Latin, the force of  the Italian c – chaplaine,  chast, chest, chops, chin,  chuf, churle. 125

 Gh^(c)

is only a piece of ill writing with us. If we could obtain of custom to mend it, it

were not the worse for our language or us, for the g sounds just nothing in trough,

cough, might, night, etc. Only, the writer was at leisure to add a superfluous letter,

as there are too many in our  pseudography. 130

Ph and Rh^(d)

are used only in  Greek enfranchised words, as Philip, physick, rhetorick, Rhodes, etc.

Sh^(e)

is  merely English and hath the force of Hebrew שׁ,  shin, or the French ch, as in shake,

shed, shine, show, shrinke, rush, blush. 135

Th^(f)

hath a double and  doubtful sound, which must be found out by use of speaking:

sometimes like the Greek θ, as in thief, thing, lengthen, strengthen, loveth, etc.; in

others  like their δ or the Spanish d, as this, that, then, thence, those, bathe, bequeath.

And in this consists the greatest difficulty of our alphabet and true writing, since   140

we have lost the Saxon characters, ð and þ, that distinguished the ðe, ðou, ðine,  ðo

from þick, þin, þred, þrive.

Wh

hath been inquired of in w. And this for the letters.

Diphthongs are the  complexions or couplings of vowels, when the two letters

send forth a joint sound, so as in one syllabe both sounds be heard, as in:

 Ai or Ay aide, maide, said, pay, day, way

 Au or Aw audience, author, aunt, law, saw, draw

Ea earle, pearle, meate, seate, sea, flea(  to which add  yea and plea, and you 5

have at one view all our words of this termination)

Ei sleight, streight, weight, theirs, peint, feint

Ew   few, strew, dew,     anew

 Oi or Oy point, joynt, soile, koile, joy, toy, boy

 Oo good, food, moode, brood, etc. 10

 Ou or Ow rout, stout, how, now, bow, low

Vi or Vy  buye or buie, juice or juyce

These nine are all I would observe, for to mention more were but to perplex the

reader. The oa and ee will be better supplied in our orthography by the accenting

e in the end, as in bróde, lóde, cóte, bóte, quéne, séne.  Neither is the double ee to be 15

thought on, but in derivatives, as trees, sees, and the like, where it is as two syllabes.

And for eo, it is found but in three words in our tongue –  yeoman, people,  jeopard –

which were truer written ye-man, péple, jépard. And thus much shall suffice for the

 diphthongs.

The  triphthong is of a  complexion rather to be feared than loved, and would 20

fright the young grammarian to see him. I therefore let him pass and make haste

to the    notion

 A syllabe is a part of a word that may of itself make a perfect sound, and is

sometimes of one only letter, sometimes of more. Of one, as in every first vowel

in these words – a: abated, e: ecclipsed, i: imagin’d, o: omitted, u: usurped. A syllabe of

more letters is made either of vowels only, or of consonants joined with vowels.

Of vowels only, as the  diphthongs ai in  Aiton, ayding; au in austere, audients; ea in 5

easy, eating; ei in eirie of hawkes; ew in ewer, etc., and in  the triphthong yea.

Of the vowels mixed, sometimes but with one consonant, as to, sometimes two,

as try, sometimes three, as best, or four, as nests, or five, as stumps, otherwhile six,

as the latter syllabe in re-straints. At the most they can have but seven, as  strengths.

Some syllabes, as the, then, there, that, with,  and which are often compendiously 10

 and shortly written as ye, y en, yere, yt, w th, and wch, which whoso list may use, but

orthography commands it not. A man may forbear it without danger of  falling

into praemunire.

 Here order would require to speak of the  quantity of syllabes, their special

prerogative among the Latins and Greeks, whereof so much as is constant and 15

derived from nature hath been handled already. The other, which grows by position

and placing of letters, as yet (not through default of our tongue being able

enough to receive it, but our own carelessness, being negligent to give it) is ruled

by no art. The principal cause whereof seemeth to be this: because our verses and

 rhythms (as it is almost with all other people whose language is spoken at this day) 20

are natural, and such whereof Aristotle speaketh: ‘  ἐκ τῶν αὐτοσχεδιασμάτων’; that

is, made of a natural and voluntary composition, without regard to the quantity

of syllabes.

This would ask a larger time and field than is here given for the examination,

but, since I am assigned to this province, that it is the lot of my age, after thirty 25

years’ conversation with men, to be  elementarius senex,  I will promise and obtain

so much of myself as to give, in the heel of the book, some spur and incitement to

that which I so reasonably seek. Not that I would have the vulgar and practised

way of  making abolished and abdicated (being both sweet and delightful, and

much taking the ear), but to the end our tongue may be made equal to those 30

of the renowned countries, Italy and Greece, touching this particular. And, as

for the difficulty, that shall never  withdraw or put me off from the attempt, for

neither is any excellent thing done with ease,  nor the compassing of this any whit

to be despaired, especially when  Quintilian hath observed to me, by this natural

rhythm, that we have the other, artificial, as it were, by certain marks and   footing 35

first traced and found out. And the Grecians themselves, before Homer, as the

Romans, likewise, before  Livius Andronicus, had no other metres. Thus much,

therefore, shall serve to have spoken concerning the parts of a word, in a letter and

a syllabe. It followeth to speak of the common  affections, which unto the Latins,

Greeks, and Hebrews are two – the accent and notation.  And first: 40

 The accent (which unto them was a tuning of the voice, in lifting it up or letting it

down) hath not yet obtained with us any sign, which notwithstanding were most

needful to be added, not wheresoever the force of an accent lieth, but where for

want of one the word is in danger to be  mistuned, as in abásed, excéssive, besóted,

obtéine, ungódly, surrénder. 5

But the use of it will be seen much better by  collation of words that,The f according

unto  the diverse place of their accent, are diversely pronounced and have

diverse significations. Such are the words following, with their like, as díffer: différ;

désert:desért; présent:presént; réfuse:refúse; óbject:objéct; íncense:incénse; cónvert:convért; tórment:

tormént, etc. 10

In original  nouns adjective or substantive, derived according to the rule of  the

writer of analogy, the accent is  entreated to the first, as in fátherlinesse, mótherlinesse,

 péremptory, háberdasher. Likewise, in the adverbs – brótherly, sísterly.  All nouns disyllabic,

simple, in the first, as  béleefe, hónor, crédit, sílver, súrety. All nouns trisyllabic,

in the first: coúntenance, jéopardy, etc. All nouns  compounded, in the first, of how 15

many syllabes soever they be, as ténnis-court-keeper, chímney-sweeper.

Words simple in -able draw the accent to the first, though they be of four

syllabes, as sóciable, tólerable. When they be compounded they keep the same

accent, as insóciable, intólerable. But in the way of comparison it altereth thus: some

men are sóciable, some ínsociable; some tólerable, some íntolerable; for the accent sits 20

on the syllabe that puts difference, as síncerity, ínsincerity. Nouns ending in -tion

or -sion are accented  in antepenultima, as condítion, infúsion, etc. In -ty,  a Latinis,

in antepenultima, as vérity, chárity, simplícity. In -ence, in antepenultima, as péstilence,

ábstinence, sústenance, cónsequence.

All verbs  disyllabes ending in -er, -el, -ry, and -ish accent  in prima, as cóver, cáncel, 25

cárry, búry, lévy, rávish, etc. Verbs made of nouns follow the accent of the nouns,

as to blánket, to  básquet. All verbs coming from the Latin, either of the  supine or

otherwise, hold the accent as it is found in the first person present of those Latin

verbs, as from ánimo, ánimate, célebro, célebrate, except words compound of facio, as

liquefácio, liquefí, and of statuo – constítuo, constitúte. All variations of verbs hold the 30

accent in the same place as the  theme: I ánimate, thou ánimatest, etc.

And thus much shall serve to have opened the fountain of  orthography. Now

let us come to the  notation of a word.

is when the original thereof is sought out, and consisteth in two things – the

 kind and the    figure. The kind is to know   whether the word be a primitive or

derivative, as man, love are primitives, manly, lover are derivatives. The figure is

to know whether the word be simple or compounded, as learned, say are simple,

unlearned, gain-say are compounded.           In which kind of composition our English  5

tongue is above all other very hardy and happy, joining together, after a most

eloquent manner, sundry words of every kind of speech, as mil-horse,  lip-wise,

self-love, twy-light, there-about, not-with-standing, by-cause, cut-purse, never-the-lesse.

 These are the   common  affections of a word; his divers sorts now follow. A

word is of number or without number. Of number, that word is termed to be, 10

which signifieth a number singular or plural: singular, which expresseth one

only thing, as tree,  booke, teacher; plural, when it expresseth more things than one,

as trees, bookes, teachers. Again, a word of number is finite or infinite: finite, which

varieth his number with certain ends, as   man, run, horse; infinite, which varieth

not, as true, strong, running. Moreover, a word of number is a noun or a verb. But, 15

here it were fit we did first number our words or parts of speech of which our language consists.

 In our English speech we number the same parts with the Latins: noun, pronoun,

verb, participle, adverb, conjunction, preposition, interjection.  Only, we add a

ninth, which is the article, and that is twofold: finite, as the, infinite, as a.

 The finite is set before  nouns appellatives, as the horse, the tree, the earth or,

 specially, the nature of the earth.  Proper names and pronouns refuse articles, but 5

for emphasis’ sake, as the Henry of Henries, the only hee of the towne, where hee

stands for a noun and signifies ‘man’.

The infinite hath a power of declaring and  designing uncertain or infinite

things, as a man, a house.  This article a answers to the German ein, or the French

or Italian articles,  derived from one, not numeral, but prepositive, as a house, ein 10

  Hausz,  un maison, una casa.

The is put to both numbers and answers to the  Dutch article, der, die, das, save

that it admits no inflection.

 All nouns are words of number – singular or plural.  They are common, proper,

personal, and are all substantive or adjective.  Their  accidents are gender, case,

declension.

Of the genders there are six. First, the  masculine, which comprehendeth all

males, or what is understood under a masculine species, as angels, men, stars, 5

and (by   prosopopoeia) the  months, winds, almost all the planets. Second, the

feminine, which compriseth women and  female species – islands, countries, cities,

and  some rivers with us, as Severn, Avon, etc.  Third, the  neuter or  feigned gender,

whose notion conceives neither sex, under which are comprised all inanimate

things, a ship excepted, of whom we say, shee sayles well, though the name be 10

‘Hercules’,  or ‘Henry’, or ‘The Prince’. As Terence called his comedy,  Eunuchus,

 per vocabulum artis. Fourth, the promiscuous or   epicene, which understands both

kinds, especially when we cannot make the difference, as when we call them horses

and dogges in the masculine, though there be bitches and mares amongst them.

So, to fowls, for the most part, we use the feminine; as of eagles, hawks, we say 15

shee flies well,  and call them geese, ducks, and doves which they fly at.   Fifth, the common,

or rather,  doubtful gender, we use often, and with elegance, as in cosin,  gossip,

friend, neighbour, enemie, servant, theefe, etc., when they may be of either sex.  Sixth

is the  common of three genders, by which a noun is divided into substantive and

adjective. For a substantive is a noun of one only gender, or (at the most) of two.   20

And an adjective is a noun of three genders, being always infinite.

The common affection of nouns is diminution. A diminutive is a noun noting the

diminution of his primitive.

The diminution of substantives hath these four divers terminations:

-ell  part:parcell, cock:cockrell;

-et capon: caponet,  poke:poket, baron:baronet; 5

-ock hill:hillock, bull:bullock;

- ing goose:gosling, duck:duckling. So, from the adjective deare, darling.

Many diminutives there are, which rather be  abusions of speech than any

proper English words. And such, for the most part, are men’s and women’s

names – names which are spoken in a kind of flattery, especially among familiar 10

friends and lovers, as Richard:Dick, William:Will, Margery:Madge, Mary:Mal.

 Diminution of adjectives is in this one end, -ish, as white:whitish, greene: greenish,

after which manner certain adjectives of likeness are also formed from their

substantives, as divel:divelish, theefe:theevish;  coult:coultish; elf:elvish. Some nouns

steal the form of diminution, which neither in signification show it, nor can 15

derive it from a primitive, as gibbet, doublet, peevish.

These, then, are the common affections, both of substantives and adjectives. There

follow certain other, not general to them both, but proper and peculiar to each

one. The proper affection, therefore, of adjectives, is comparison, of which, after

the positive, there be two degrees reckoned, namely, the comparative and the

superlative. 5

 The comparative is a degree declared by the positive with this adverb, more, as

wiser:more wise. The superlative is declared by the positive with this adverb most, as

wisest:most wise. Both which degrees are formed of the positive: the comparative by  putting to -er, the superlative

by putting to -est, as in these examples:

 learned: learneder:learnedest; simple:simpler:simplest; trew:trewer:trewest; black:blacker: 10

blackest.  From this general rule a few special words are excepted, as good:better:best;

ill:worse:worst; little:lesse:least; much:more:most.

Many words have no comparison, as reverend, puissant, victorious, renowned.  

Other have both degrees, but lack the positive, as former, formost. Some are formed

of adverbs, as wisely:wiselier:wiseliest; justly:justlier:justliest. Certain comparisons 15

form out of themselves, as  lesse:lesser; worse:worser.

And thus much concerning the proper affection of adjectives. The proper affection

of substantives followeth, and that consisteth in declining.

A declension is the varying of a noun substantive into divers terminations,

where, besides the absolute, there is, as it were, a genitive case, made in the

singular number by putting to -s.  Of declensions there be two kinds: the first 5

maketh the plural of the singular, by adding thereunto -s, as tree:trees; thing:things;

steeple:steeples.  So with  -e, by reason of the near affinity of these two letters, whereof

we have spoken before: parke:parkes; bucke:buckes; dwarfe:dwarfes;  pathe:pathes. And

in this first declension, the genitive plural is all one with  the plural absolute:

singular  father, fathers; plural fathers, fathers. 10

General exceptions.  Nouns ending in -z, -s, -sh, -g, and -ch in the declining take

to the genitive singular i and to the plural e, as: singular prince,  princis; plural princes,

princes. So rose, bush, age, breech, etc., which distinctions, not observed, brought in

first  the monstrous syntax of the pronoun, his, joining with a noun, betokening

a possessor, as the prince his house for the princis house. 15

 Many words ending in  diphthongs or vowels take neither -z nor -s, but only

change their diphthongs or vowels, retaining their last consonant, as mouse:mice

or  meece; louse:lyce or leece; goose:geece; foot:feet; tooth:teeth.

Exception of number. Some nouns of the first declension lack the plural, as

rest, gold, silver, bread, other the singular, as riches, goods. 20

Many, being in their principal signification adjectives, are here declined and in

the plural stand in stead of substantives, as other:others; one:ones; hundred:hundreds;

thousand:thousands; necessarie:necessaries, and such like.

The second declension formeth the plural from the singular by putting to  -n,

which, notwithstanding it have not so many nouns as hath the former, yet lacketh

not  his difficulty, by reason of sundry exceptions that cannot easily be reduced to

one general head. Of this former are oxe:oxen, hose:hosen.

Exceptions. Man and woman by a contraction make  men and women or wemen, 5

instead of manen and  womanen.  Cow makes kine or keene. Brother for  brotheren hath

 brethren and brethern. Child formeth the plural by adding -r besides the root, for we

say not childen, which, according to the rule given before, is the right formation, but

  children, because that sound is more pleasant to the ears. Here the genitive

plural is made by adding -s unto the absolute, as: singular childe, childes; plural 10

children,  childrens.

Exceptions from both declensions. Some nouns have the plural of both declensions,

as house:houses: housen, eye:eyes:eyen, shoo:shooes:shooen.

 A few irregular nouns, varying from the general precepts, are commonly termed

pronouns, whereof the first four instead of the genitive have an accusative case,

as: I, me; plural, we, us; thou, thee; plural  you or ye. Hee, shee,   yt – all three make in the

plural they, them. Four possessives: my or myne, plural our, ours; thy, thine,

plural your, yours;  his, hers, both in the plural making their, theirs. 5

As many demonstratives: this, plural these; that, plural those; yonne or yonder,

  same. Three interrogatives, whereof one requiring both genitive and accusative,

and taken for a substantive – who? whose? whom? The other two  infinite, and adjectivally

used – what,  whether.  Two articles, in gender and number infinite, which

the Latins lack – a, the. One relative – which. One other signifying a  reciprocation – 10

self, plural selves. Composition of pronouns is more common: my-self, our-selves;

thy-self, your-selves; him-self, her-self, it-self, plural them-selves.  This-same, that-same, yonne-same, yonder-same, self-same.

 Hitherto we have declared the whole etymology of nouns, which in easiness and

shortness is much to be preferred before the Latins and the Grecians. It remaineth

with like brevity, if it may be, to  prosecute the etymology of a verb.  A verb is a

word of number, which hath both  time and person. Time is the difference of a

verb by the present, past, and future or  to come. A verb finite therefore hath three 5

only times and those always  imperfect. The first is the present, as  amo, love. The

second is the time past, as amabam, loved. The third is  the future, as ama, amato –

love, love. The other times – both imperfect, as amem, amarem, amabo, and also

perfect, as amavi, amaverim, amaveram, amavissem, amavero –  we use to express by a

syntax, as shall be seen in the proper place. 10

 The future is made of the present and is the same always with it. Of this future

ariseth a verb infinite, keeping the same termination;  as likewise of the present

and the time past are formed the participle present by adding of -ing, as love, loving.

 The other is all one with the time past.

The passive is expressed by a syntax, like the times going before, as hereafter 15

shall appear.

A person is the special difference of a verbal number, whereof the present and

the time past have in every number three. The second and third person singular

of the present are made of the first by adding -est and -eth,  which last is sometime

shortened into -z or -s.  The time past is varied by adding in like manner in the 20

second person singular -est and making the third like unto the first.  The future

hath but only two persons, the second and the third ending both alike.

The persons plural keep the termination of the first person singular. In former

times, till about the reign of King Henry the Eighth, they were wont to be formed

by adding -en, thus: loven, sayen, complainen. But now (whatsoever is the cause) it 25

hath quite grown out of use, and that other so generally prevailed that I dare not

presume to set this afoot again. Albeit (to tell you my opinion), I am persuaded

that the lack hereof, well considered, will be found a great blemish to our tongue.

For, seeing time and person be, as it were, the right and left hand of a verb, what

can the maiming bring else, but a lameness to the whole body? 30

And by reason of these two differences, a verb is divided two manner of ways.

First, in respect of persons, it is called personal or impersonal: personal, which

is varied by three persons, as love, lovest, loveth; impersonal, which only hath the

third person, as  behoveth, yrketh. Secondly, in consideration of the times, we term

it  active or neuter: active, whose participle past may be joined with the verb am, 35

as I am loved, thou art hated; neuter, which cannot be so coupled, as pertaine, dye, live.

This, therefore, is the general forming of a verb, which must to every special one hereafter be applied.

 The varying of a verb by persons and times, both finite and infinite, is termed

conjugation, whereof there be two sorts. The first fetcheth the time past from the

present by adding -ed, and is thus varied:

Present love, lovest, loveth. Plural love, love, love.

Past love, loved’st, loved. Plural loved, loved, loved. 5

Future love, love. Plural love, love.

Infinitive love. Participle present loving. Participle past loved.

Verbs are oft-times shortened, as  sayest, sest; would, woud; should, shoud; holpe, hope.

But this is more common in the leaving out of -e, as loved’st for lovedest; rubbed,

rub’d; tookest, took’st. 10

 Exceptions of the time past. For -ed have -t, as licked, lick’t;  leaved, left; gaped,

gap’t; blushed, blush’t. Where verbs ending with -d, for avoiding the concourse of

 too many consonants, do cast it away, as  lend, lent; spend, spent; gyrd, gyrt. Make, by

a rare contraction, is here turned into made. Many verbs in the time past vary not

at all from the present: such are cast, hurt, cost, burst, etc. 15

And so much for the first conjugation, being indeed the most usual forming of a

verb, and thereby also the common inn to lodge every strange and foreign guest.

That which followeth, for anything I can find (though I have with some diligence

searched after it) entertaineth none but natural and home-born words which,

though in number they be not many – a hundred and twenty or thereabouts – 5

yet in variation are so divers and uncertain that they need much the stamp of

some good logic to beat them into proportion. We have set down that that in our

judgement agreeth best with reason and good order, which, notwithstanding, if

it seem to any to be too rough-hewed, let him plane it out more smoothly and I

shall not only not envy it, but, in the behalf of my country, most heartily thank 10

him for so great a benefit, hoping that I shall be thought sufficiently to have done

my part if, in tolling this bell, I may draw others to a deeper consideration of

the matter. For, touching myself, I must needs confess that, after much painful

churning, this only would  come which here we have devised.

The second conjugation therefore turneth the present into the time past  by 15

the only change of his letters, namely of vowels alone or consonants also.

Verbs changing vowels only have no certain termination of the participle

past, but derive it as well from the present as the time past, and that otherwhile

differing from either, as the examples following do declare.

The change of vowels is either of simple vowels or of  diphthongs, whereof the 20

first goeth by the order of vowels, which we also will observe.

An a is turned into oo:

Present shake, shakest, shaketh. Plural shake, shake, shake.

 Past shooke, shookest, shooke. Plural shooke, shooke, shooke.

Future shake, shake. Plural shake, shake, shake. 25

Infinitive shake. Participle present shaking. Participle past shaken.

This form do the verbs take,  wake, forsake, and  hang follow, but hang, in the time

past, maketh hung, not hangen.

Hereof the verb am is a special exception, being thus varied:

Present am, art, is. Plural are, are, are,  or be, be, be of the unused word bee, beëst, 30

beëth in the singular.

Past was, wast, was,  or were, wert, were. Plural were, were, were.

Future be, be. Plural be, be.

Infinitive be. Participle present being. Participle past bene.

Ea maketh first e short: 35

Present leade. Past ledde Participle past ledde.

The rest of the times and persons, both singular and plural in this and the other

verbs that follow, because they  jump with the former examples and rules in every

point, we have chosen rather to omit than to thrust in needless words. Such are

the verbs eat, beate (both making participles past, besides  ette and 40

bette, eaten and beaten),  spread, shead, dreade, sweate, shreade, treade.

 Then a or o, indifferently:

Present breake. Past brake or broke. Participle past broke or broken.

Hither belong speake, sweare, teare, cleave, weare, steale, beare, sheare, weave. So,  gett

and helpe, but halpe is seldom used, save with the poets. 45

i is changed into a:

Present give. Past gave. Participle past given.

So, bid and sit. And here sometimes i is turned into  a and o both:

Present winne. Past wanne or wonne. Participle past wonne.

Of this sort are fling, ring, wring, sing, sting, stick, spinne,  strick, drinke, sinke, spring, begin, stinke, shrinke, swing, swimme. 50

Secondly, long  ee into  e:

Present reede. Past   red. Participle past red.

Also feed, meet, breed, bleed, speed.

Then into o: 55

Present  seeth. Past sodde. Participle past sodde or sodden.

Lastly, it makes aw:

Present see. Past saw. Participle past seene.

o hath a:

Present come. Past came. Participle past come. 60

And here it may besides keep his proper vowel:

Present   ronne. Past ranne or ronne. Participle past ronne.

oo maketh o:

Present choose. Past chose. Participle past chosen.

And one more, shoote, shotte, in the participle past shott or shotten. Some pronounce 65

the verbs by the  diphthong ew –  chewse, shewte – and that is Scottish-like.

The change of diphthongs is of ai and  y, or aw and ow, all which are changed into

ew:

ai Present slay. Past slew. Participle past slaine.

y Present fly. Past flew. Participle past  flyne or flowne.

aw Present draw. Past drew. Participle past drawne. 5

ow Present know. Past knew. Participle past knowne.

This form cometh oftener than the three former:  snow, grow, throw, blow, crow.

Secondly, y is particularly turned, sometimes, into the vowels i and o:

i Present byte. Past bitte Participle past bitte or bitten.

Likewise, hyde, quyte, chyde,  stryde, slyde. 10

o Present  hyght.  Past hoght. Participle past hoght.

So,   shyne, stryve, thryve.

And, as y severally frameth either, so may it jointly have them both:

Present ryse. Past  rise or rose. Participle past rise or risen.

To this kind pertain smyte, wryte, byde, ryde,  clyme, dryve,  clyve. 15

Sometimes into the  diphthongs, ai and ou:

ai Present lye. Past lay. Participle past  lyne or layne.

ou Present fynd. Past found. Participle past found.

So, bynde, grynde, wynde,  fyght.

Last of all,  aw and ow do both make e. 20

aw Present fall. Past fell. Participle past fallen.

Such is the verb fraught,  with Chaucer in the Man of Law’s Tale:

 This, merchants have done,   fret their ships new.

 ow Present howld. Past held. Participle past  held or howlden.

Exceptions of the time past. Some that are of the first conjugation only, have 25

in the participle past, beside their own, the form of the second and the third, as

hew, hewed, and hewne; mow, mowed, and mowen; load, loaded and loaden.

Verbs that convey the time past  from the present by the change both of vowels

and consonants, following the terminations of the first conjugation, end in -d

or -t:

Present stand. Past stood.

Such are these words: 5

 Present wolle, wolt, wolle. Past wolde or woulde, wouldest, would. Future wolle, woll.

The infinite times are not used:

Present can, canst, can. Past   colde or could.

 Present  sholle  , sholt, sholl. Past sholde or shoulde.

The other times of either verb are lacking: 10

Present heare. Past heard.

Present sell. Past sold.

So, tell, told.

Of the other sort are these and such-like:

Present feele. Past felt. 15

So, creepe, sleepe, weepe, keepe, sweepe, meene.

Present teach. Past taught.

To this form belong thinke,  retch, seake, reach, catch, bring, worke, and buy and owe,

which make bought and ought.

Present dare, darest, dare. Past durst, durst, durst. 20

Present may, mayst, may. Past might, mightest, might.

These two verbs want the other times.

A general exception from the former conjugations. Certain verbs have the

form of either conjugation, as: hang, hanged, and hung; reach, reach’t, and   rought. So,

cleave, sheare, sting, clyme,  catch, etc. 25

 Thus much shall suffice for the etymology of words that have number, both in a

noun and a verb, whereof the former is but short and easy, the other longer and

wrapped with a great deal more difficulty. Let us now proceed to the etymology of words without number.

A word without number is that which, without his principal signification, 5

noteth not any number, whereof there be two kinds, an adverb and a conjunction.

An adverb is a word without number that is joined to another word, as:

well-learned; hee fighteth valiantly; hee disputeth very subtlely. So that an adverb is, as it

were, an adjective of nouns, verbs, yea and adverbs also themselves. Adverbs are

either of quantity or quality. Of quantity, as enough, too much, altogether. Adverbs 10

of quality be of divers sorts. First of number, as once, twice, thrice. Secondly of time,

as to day, yesterday, then, by and by, ever, when. Thirdly of place, as here, there, where,

yonder. Fourthly in affirmation or negation, as  I, yes, indeed, no, not, nay.  Fifthly in

wishing, calling, and exhorting: wishing, as O,  yf; calling, as ho, sirrah; exhorting,

as  so, so; there, there.  Sixthly in similitude and likeness as so, even so, likewise, even as. 15

To this place  pertain  adverbs of quality whatsoever, being formed from nouns,

for the most part, by adding -ly, as just, justly; true, truly; strong, strongly; name, namely.

Here also adjectives, as well positive as compared, stand for adverbs: When he least

weeneth, soonest shall he fall.

 Interjections, commonly so termed, are in right adverbs and therefore may 20

justly lay title to this room. Such are these that follow, with their like, as: ah, alas,

wo, fie, tush, ha ha,  he; st,  a note of silence; rr, that serveth  to set dogs together by

the ears; hrr, to chase birds away.

Prepositions are also a peculiar kind of adverbs and ought to be referred hither.

Prepositions are separable or inseparable. Separable are for the most part of time 25

and place, as: among, according, without; afore, after, before, behind; under, upon, beneath,

over; against, besides, neere.  Inseparable prepositions are they which signify nothing

if they be not compounded with some other word, as re-, un- in release, unlearned.

A conjunction is a word without number, knitting divers  speeches together, and

is declaring or reasoning. Declaring, which  uttereth the parts of a sentence, and

that again is  gathering or separating. Gathering, whereby the parts are affirmed to

be true together, which is coupling or conditioning. Coupling, when the parts are

severally affirmed, as and, also, neither. Conditioning, by which the part following 5

dependeth, as true, upon the part going before, as if, unlesse, except.

A separating conjunction is that whereby the parts (as being not true together)

are separated, and is severing or sundering. Severing, when the parts are separated

only in a certain respect or reason, as but, although, notwithstanding. Sundering,

when the parts are separated indeed and truly, so as more than one cannot be 10

true, as either,  whether, or.

Reasoning conjunctions are those which  conclude one of the parts by the

other, whereof some render a reason and some do infer.  Rendering are such as

yield the cause of a thing going before, as for, because. Inferring, by which a thing

that cometh after is concluded by the former, as therefore, wherefore, so that, insomuch 15

that.

  As yet we have handled etymology and all the parts thereof. Let us come to the

consideration of the syntax.

Syntax is the second part of grammar, that teacheth the  construction of words,

 whereunto apostrophus, an  affection of words coupled and joined together, doth

belong. Apostrophus is the rejecting of a vowel from the beginning or ending of a 5

word, the  note whereof, though it many times through the negligence of writers

and printers is quite omitted, yet by right  should, and of the learneder sort hath

his sign and mark, which is such a  semicircle ’ placed in the top. In the end a vowel

may be cast away when the word next following beginneth with another, as:

  Th’outward man decayeth: so th’inward man getteth strength. 10

If   ye’utter such words of pure love and friendship, what then may wee looke for, if ye’once

begin to hate?

 Gower, liber 1, De confessio amantis:  If  thou’art of his company, / Tell forth, my sonne.

  It is time to’awake from sleepe.

Vowels suffer also this apostrophus before the consonant h: 15

 Chaucer in the third book of Troilus: For of Fortunes sharpe adversitie, / The worst

kind of infortune is this: / A man   to’have been in prosperitie, / And it   to remember when it

passed is.

 The first kind, then, is common with the Greeks. But, that which followeth

is proper to us, which, though it be not of any that I know, either in writing or 20

printing, usually expressed, yet, considering that in our common speech nothing

is more familiar (upon the which all precepts are grounded, and to the which they

ought to be referred), who can justly blame me if, as near as I can, I follow nature’s

call?   This rejecting, therefore, is both in vowels and consonants going before:

Gower, liber 4: There is no fire; there is no sparke; / There is no dore which may  charke. 25

 And in vowels going after:

Syntax appertaineth both to words of number and without number, where

the  want and superfluity of any part of speech are two general and common

exceptions. Of the former kind of syntax is that of a noun and verb. The syntax

of a noun with a noun is in number and gender, as:

 Esau could not obtaine his fathers blessing, though he sought it with teares. 5

 Jezabel was a wicked woman, for she slew the Lords prophets.

 An idol is no god, for it is made with hands.

In all these examples  you see Esau and hee, Jezabel and shee, idol, and it, to agree in the

singular number; the first example also in the masculine gender; the second, in

the feminine; the third, in the neuter. And in this construction (as also throughout 10

the whole English syntax) order and the placing of words is one especial thing to

be observed, so that when a substantive and an adjective are immediately joined

together, the adjective must go before, as:

  Plato shut poets out of his common-wealth as effeminate writers, unprofitable members,

and enemies to vertue. 15

When two substantives come together, whereof one is the name of a possessor,

the other of a thing possessed, then hath the name of a possessor the former place,

and that in the genitive:

  All mans righteousnesse is like a defiled cloth.

 Gower,  liber 1: An owle flieth by night, / Out of all other birds sight. 20

But, if the thing possessed go before, then doth the preposition of come between:

Ignorance is the mother of errour.

 Gower, liber 1: So that it proveth well, therefore, / The strength of man is  sone lore.

Which preposition may be coupled with the thing possessed, being in the  genitive:

 Norton in Arsanes: A road made into Scanderbech’s countrey by the Duke of Mysia’s men. 25

For  the Dukes men of Mysia.

Here the  absolute serveth sometimes instead of a genitive:

All trouble is light, which is endured for righteousnesse sake.

Otherwise, two substantives are joined together by apposition:

 Sir Thomas More in King Richard’s story: George, Duke of Clarence, was a prince at 30

all points fortunate.

Where, if both be the names of possessors, the latter shall be in the genitive:

 Foxe in the second volume of Acts and Monuments: King Henry the Eight married

with the Lady Katherine, his brother, Prince Arthurs wife.

The general exceptions. The substantive is often lacking: 35

  Sir Thomas More: Sometime without small things, greater cannot stand.

 Chaucer: For some folke woll be wonne for riches, / And some

{folke} for strokes, and some { folke} for gentlenesse.

Likewise, the adjective:

It is hard in prosperitie to preserve true religion, {true} godlinesse and {true} humilitie. 40

 Lydgate, liber 8, speaking of Constantine: That  whilome had the  domination / As chiefe

monarch, {chiefe} prince, and {chiefe} president / Over all the world, from east to occident.

  But the more notable lack of the adjectives is in the want of the relative:

 In the things {which} we least mistrust, the greatest danger doth often lurke.

 Gower,  liber 3:  For-thy the wise-men ne demen / The things  after that their they semen, / 45

But, after that { which} they know and finde.

Psalms, 118.22: The stone the builders refused for which the builders refused.

And here, besides the common wanting of a substantive, whereof we spake before,

there is another, more special, and proper to the absolute and the genitive:

 Chaucer in the third book of Fame: This is the mother of tydings, / As the sea {is 55

mother} of wells and {is mother of} springs.

  Rebecca clothed Jacob with garments   of his brothers.

Superfluity also of  nouns is much used:

 Sir Thomas More: Whose death King Edward (although he commanded it), when

he wist it was done, pitiously  bewailed it, and sorrowfully repented it.

 Chaucer in his prologue to the Man of Law’s Tale: Such law as a man  yeveth another

wight, / He should himself   usen it by right.

 Gower,  liber 2: For, whoso woll another blame, / Hee seeketh oft his owne shame.

Special exceptions, and first of number. Two singulars are put for  one plural:

All authority and custome of men, exalted against the word of God, must yeeld 60

themselves prisoners.

 Gower: In thine aspect are all  alich, / The poore man and  eke the rich.

The second person plural  is for reverence’ sake to one singular thing:

 Gower, liber 1: O good father  deare, / Why make ye this heavie  cheare?

Where also, after a verb plural, the singular of the noun is retained: 65

I know you are a discreet and faithfull man, and therefore am come to aske your advice.

Exceptions of genders.  The articles hee and it are used in each other’s gender:

 Sir Thomas More: The south wind sometime swelleth of  himselfe before a tempest.

 Gower, of the earth: And for-thy men it delve and ditch, / And  earen it with strength of

plough, / Where it hath of  himselfe enough, / So that  his need  is least. 70

It also followeth for the feminine:

The articles a and the are joined to substantives common, never to proper names

of men:

 William Lambert in the Perambulation of Kent: The cause only, and not the death

maketh a martyr.

Yet, with a proper name used by a metaphor or borrowed manner of speech, both 5

articles may be coupled:

   Jewel against Harding: Who so  avoucheth the manifest and knowne truth, ought not

therefore to be called a  Goliath, that is a monster and impudent fellow, as he was.

 Jewel against Harding: You have adventured your selfe to be the noble David, to conquer

this giant. 10

 Norton in Arsanes: And if ever it were necessarie, now it is, when many an Athanasius,

many an Atticus, many a noble prince, and godly personage lyeth prostrate at your feet for

succour.

Where this metaphor is expounded. So, when the proper name is used to note

one’s parentage, which kind of nouns the grammarians call patronymics: 15

Norton in Gabriel’s oration to Scanderbech:  For you know well enough the wiles

of the Ottomans.

Perkin Warbeck, a   stranger borne, fained himselfe to be a Plantaginet.

When a substantive and an adjective are joined together, these articles are put

before the adjective: 20

A good conscience is a continuall feast.

 Gower,  liber 2: For  False Semblant hath evermore / Of his counsell in companie, / The

darke untrue Hypocrisie.

Which construction in the article a, notwithstanding, some adjectives will not

admit: 25

 Sir Thomas More: Such a serpent is ambition and desire of vain-glory.

 Chaucer: Under a shepheard false and negligent, / The wolfe hath many a sheepe and

lamb   to-rent.

Moreover, both these articles are joined to any cases of the Latins, the vocative

only excepted, as: 30

A man saith. The strength of a man. I sent to a man. I hurt a man. I was sued by a man.

Likewise:

The apostle testifieth. The zeale of the apostle. Give eare to the apostle. Follow the

apostle. Depart not from the apostle.

So that in these two  pronouns the whole construction almost of the Latins 35

is contained. The agreeth to any number; a, only to the singular, save when it is

joined with those adjectives which do of necessity require a plural:

The conscience is a thousand witnesses.

 Lydgate, liber 1: Though for a season they sit in high cheares, / Their fame shall fade

within a few yeares. 40

A goeth before words beginning with consonants, and before all vowels

(    diphthongs whose first letter is y or w excepted) it is turned into an:

  Sir Thomas More: For men use to write an evill turne in marble stone, but a good turne

they write in the dust.

 Gower, liber 1: For all shall dye and all shall passe; / As well a lyon as an asse. 45

So may it be also before h:

 Sir Thomas More: What mischiefe worketh the proud enterprize of an high heart.

A hath also the force of governing before a noun:

 Sir Thomas More: And the Protector had  layd to her  for manner sake, that she was a

  councell with the Lord Hastings to destroy him. 50

 Chaucer, second book of Troilus: And on his way fast homeward he sped, / And Troylus

he found alone     a bed.

Likewise, before the participle present,     a or an hath the force of a gerund:

 Norton in Arsanes: But there is some great tempest  a brewing towards us.

 Lydgate,  liber 9: The king was slaine, and ye did  assent, / In a forrest an hunting, when 55

that he went.

The article the, joined with the adjective of a noun proper, may follow after

the substantive:

 Chaucer: —   Their Chaunticleer the faire / Was wont, and eke his wives to repaire.

Otherwise it varieth  not from the common rule. Again, this article by a synecdoche 60

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. 65

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

substantives:

 Sir John Cheke, in his oration to the rebels: Ye rise for religion. What religion taught

you that?

Chaucer, in the  Reeve’s Tale: And this is very sooth, as I you tell. 70

 Ascham, in his Discourse of the Affairs of Germany:  A wonderfull folly in a great man

himselfe, and some peece of miserie in a whole common-wealth, where fooles, chiefly, and

flatterers may speake freely what they will; and good men shall commonly be  shent, if they

speake what they should.

What, also for  an adverb of partition: 75

           Lambert: But now, in our memorie,  what by decay of the haven, and  what by overthrow

of Religious Houses,  and losse of  Calice,  it is brought   in manner to miserable nakednesse

and decay.

Chaucer,  second book of Troilus:  Then, wot I well, shee might never faile / For to beene

holpen, what at your  instance, / What at other friends governance. 80

That is used for a relative:

 Sir John Cheke: Sedition is an  aposteame  which, when it breaketh inwardly, putteth the

state in great danger of recovery, and corrupteth the whole common-wealth with the rotten

 furie that it hath putrefied with. For with which.

They and those are sometimes taken, as it were, for articles: 85

 Foxe, second volume of Acts: That no kind of disquietnesse should be procured against

them of Bern and Zurick.

 Gower, liber 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. 90

 Lydgate, liber 5: Lo, how these princes, proud and  retchlesse, / Have shamefull ends,

which cannot live in peace.

 Him and them be used reciprocally for the compounds, himselfe, themselves:

 Foxe: The garrison desired that they might  depart  them with bagge, and baggage.

 Chaucer, in the Squire’s Tale: So deepe in graine he dyed his colours, / Right as a serpent 95

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 farre forth this thing went, / That my will was his wills

instrument. 100

Which in Latin were a solecism, for there we should not say  suae voluntatis, but

  voluntatis ipsius.

Pronouns have not the articles a and the going  before; which, the relative, selfe,

and same, only excepted:

  Norton in Arsanes: The same lewd cancred  carle practiseth nothing but how he may 105

overcome and oppresse the faith of Christ, for  the which you, as you know, have determined

to labour and travell continually.

The possessives, my, thy,

our, your, and their go before words, as my land, thy goods, and so in the rest. Myne, thyne, ours, yours, hers, and theirs follow, as it were,

in the genitive case, as these lands are mine, thine, etc. His doth indifferently go before 110

or follow after, as his house is a faire one, and this house is his.

    Adjectives 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,   then: 5

 Chaucer, third book of Fame: What did this Aeolus, but he / Tooke out his blacke trumpe

of brasse, / That blacker then the divell was.

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

 Gower, liber 1: Pride is  of every  misse the  prick. / Pride is the worst vice of all  wick.

 Jewel: The friendship of truth is best of all. 10

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:

Hector was a most valiant man. That is,  inter fortissimos.

 Furthermore, these adverbs, more and most, are added to the comparative and 15

superlative degrees themselves, which   should before the  positive:

Sir Thomas More: Forasmuch as she saw the cardinall more readier to depart then the

remnant.

    For, not only the high dignitie of the civill magistrate, but the most basest handycrafts are

holy, when they are directed to the honour of God. 20

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 vehemency’s 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. 25

 Gower, liber 4: The first point of slouth I call /  Lachesse, and is the chiefe of all.

 Hitherto we have declared the syntax of a noun. The syntax of a verb followeth,

being either  of verb with a noun, or of one verb with another.

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

I am content. You are mis-inform’d.

 Chaucer, second book of Fame: For, as flame is but lighted smoke, / Right so is sound 5

  ayr ybroke.

I myselfe and  ourselves agree unto the first person; you,  thou, thyselfe, yourselves, to

the second; all other nouns and pronouns (that are of any person), to the third.

Again, I, we, thou, he, she, they, who do ever  govern, unless it be in the verb am, that

requireth the like case after it as is before it. Mee, us, thee, her, them, him, whom 10

are  governed of the verb. The rest, which are absolute, may either govern or be

governed.

 A verb impersonal in Latin is here expressed by an English impersonal, with

this article, it, going before, as oportet – it behoveth; decet – it becometh.

General Exceptions. The person governing is oft understood by  that went 15

before:

True religion glorifieth them that honour it and is a   target unto them that are a   buckler

unto it.

 Chaucer: Womens counsells brought us first to woe, / And made Adam from Paradise to goe.

 But this is more notable and also more common in the future, wherein for the 20

most part we never express any person, not so much as at the first:

Feare God. Honour the king.

Likewise the verb is understood by some other going before:

 Norton in Arsanes: When the danger is most great, naturall strength most feeble, and

divine ayde most needfull. 25

 Certain pronouns, governed of the verb, do here abound:

 Sir Thomas More: And this  I say, although they were not abused as now they be, and so

long have beene that I feare me ever they will be.

 Chaucer, third book of Fame: And as  I wondred me, ywis, / Upon this house.

 Idem in Thisbe: She  rist her up with a full dreary heart, / And in  a cave with dreadfull 30

  foote   she   start.

Special exceptions. Nouns signifying a multitude, though they be of the

singular number, require a verb plural:

 Lydgate, liber 2: And wise men rehearsen in sentence, / Where folke be drunken, there is

no resistance. 35

This exception is in other nouns also very common, especially when the verb is

joined to an adverb or conjunction:

  It is preposterous to execute a man before he have been condemned.

 Gower,  Prologue: Although a man be wise himselve, / Yet is the wisdome more of twelve.

 Chaucer: Therefore I  read you this counsell take, /  Forsake sinne, ere sinne you forsake. 40

 In this exception of number the verb sometime agreeth not with the governing

noun of the plural number, as it should, but with the noun governed, as:

 Riches is a thing oft-times more hurtfull, then profitable to the owners.

After which manner the Latins also speak:  omnia pontus erat. The other special 45

exception  is not in use.

 When two verbs meet together, whereof one is governed by the other, the latter

is put in the  infinite, and that with this sign to coming between, as:

Good men ought to joyne together in good things.

But will, doe, may, can, shall, dare (when it is  intransitive), must, and lett, when it

signifieth  a sufferance, receive not the sign: 5

 Gower: To God no man may be fellow.

This sign set before an infinite, not governed of a verb, changeth it into the nature

of a noun:

 Norton in Arsanes:  To winne is the benefit of fortune; but to keepe is the power ofwisdome.

General Exceptions. The verb governing is understood: 10

 Norton in Arsanes: For if the head, which is the life and stay of the body,  betray the

members, must not the members also needs betray one another; and so the whole body and

head goe altogether to utter wreck and destruction?

The other general exception is wanting.

            The Special Exception. Two verbs, have and am, require always a participle past 15

without any sign, as: I am pleased. Thou art hated. Save when they import a necessity

or conveniency of doing anything, in which case, they are very eloquently   joined

to the infinite, the sign coming between:

By the example of Herod, all princes are to take heed how they give eare to flatterers.

 Lydgate, liber 1: Truth and falsnesse, in what they have  to done, / May no while assemble 20

in one person.

And here those  times which in etymology we  remembered to be wanting are set

forth by the syntax of verbs joined together. The syntax of imperfect times in this

manner: the presents by the infinite and the verb may or can, as for  amem, amarem:

I may love, I  might love; and again, I can love, I could love; the futures are declared by 25

the infinite and the verb shall or will, as amabo: I shall or will love; amavero addeth

thereunto have, taking the nature of two diverse times, that is, of the future

and the time past: I shall have loved or I will have loved.

The perfect times are expressed by the verb have, as amavi, amaveram: I have

loved, I had loved. Amaverim and amavissem add might unto the former verb, as I 30

might have loved. The infinite past is also made by adding have, as amavisse: to have

loved.

Verbs passive are made of the participle past and am, the verb. Amor and amabar

by  the only putting to of the verb, as amor: I am loved, amabar: I  was loved. Amer

and amarer have it governed of the verb may or can, as: amer: I may be loved, or I can 35

be loved; amarer: I might be loved, or I could be loved. In amabor it is governed of shall

or will, as I shall, or will be loved.

  This, therefore, is the syntax of words having number. There remaineth that of

words without number, which standeth in adverbs or conjunctions.

 Adverbs are taken one for the other, that is to say, adverbs of  likeness for

adverbs of time:

  As he spake those words, he gave up the ghost. 5

 Gower, liber 1: Anone, as he was meeke and tame, / He found towards his God the same.

The like is to be seen in adverbs of time and place used in each other’s stead, as

among the Latins and the Grecians:

 Norton in Arsanes: Let us not be ashamed to follow the counsell and example of our

enemies, where it may doe us good. 10

Adverbs stand instead of relatives:

 Lydgate, liber  5: And little worth is fairnesse, in certaine, / In a person where no vertue

is seene.

 Norton to the northern rebels: Few women storme against the marriage of priests, but

such as have beene priests harlots, or faine would be. 15

 Chaucer, in his Ballad: But great God disposeth, / And maketh  casuall by his providence, /

Such things as fraile man purposeth. For those things  which. . .

Certain adverbs in the syntax of a substantive and an adjective meeting

together cause a, the article, to follow the adjective:

 Sir John Cheke: O with what spite was sundred so noble a body from so godly a mind! 20

 Jewel: It is too light a labour to strive for names.

 Chaucer: Thou art at ease and hold thee well therein; / As great a praise is to keepe well as

win.

Adjectives          compared, when they are used adverbially, may have the article the

going before: 25

 Jewel: The more inlarged is your libertie, the lesse cause have you to complaine.

Adverbs are wanting:

 Sir Thomas More: And how farre be they off that would help, as God send grace, they

hurt not for that they hurt not.

Oftentimes they are used without any necessity, for greater vehemency’ sake, as: 30

  Then, afterward. Againe, once more.

 Gower: Hee saw also the bowes spread / Above all earth, in which were / The kinde of all

birds there.

Prepositions are joined with the accusative cases  of pronouns:

 Sir Thomas More: I exhort and require you, for the love that you have borne to me, and 35

for the love that I have borne to you, and for the love that our Lord beareth to us all.

 Gower, liber 1: For Lucifer,  with them that fell, / Bare Pride with him  into hell.

They may also be coupled with the possessives, myne, thyne, ours, yours, his, hers,

theirs:

 Norton to the rebels: Thinke you her majestie and the wisest of the realme have no care 40

of their owne soules, that have charge both of their owne and yours?

These prepositions  follow sometimes the nouns they are coupled with:

God hath made   princes their subjects guides, to direct them   in the way which they have to

walke  in.

But  ward or wards, and toward or towards have the same syntax that  versus and 45

 adversus have with the Latins, that is,  the latter coming after the noun which it

governeth, and the other contrarily:

 Norton in Paul Angell’s oration to Scanderbech: For his heart, being uncleane to

God-ward and spitefull towards men, doth alwayes imagine mischiefe.

 Lydgate,  liber 2: And south-ward runneth to Caucasus, / And folke of Scythie, that bene 50

laborious.

Now, as before in two articles, a and the, the whole construction of the Latins

was contained, so their whole  rection is by prepositions  near-hand declared: where

the preposition  of hath the force of the genitive; to, of the dative; from, of, in, by,

and such-like, of the ablative, as: 55

The praise of God. Be thankfull to God.  Take the cock of the hoope. I was saved from you,

by you, in your house.

Prepositions matched with the participle present      supply the place of gerunds,

as: in loving, of loving, by loving, with loving, from loving, etc. Prepositions do also

govern adverbs    : 60

 Lydgate, liber 9: Sent  from above, as shee did understand.

General Exceptions. Divers prepositions are very often wanting, whereof it

shall be sufficient to give a taste in those that, above the rest, are most worthy to

be noted. Of, in an adjective of partition:

 Lydgate, liber 5:  His lieges eche one being  of one assent, / To live and dye with him in his 65

intent.

The preposition, touching, concerning, or some such like  doth often want, after the

manner of the Hebrew  lamed:

 Gower: The privities of mans heart, / They speaken, and sound in his eare, / As though

they loude windes were. 70

  Sir John Cheke: Riches and inheritance, they be given by Gods providence to whom of his

wisdome hee thinketh good for touching riches and inheritance, or some such-like

preposition.

 If is somewhat strangely lacking:

 Norton in Arsanes: Unwise are they that end their matters with ‘ Had I wist’. 75

 Lydgate,  liber 2: For,  ne were not this prudent ordinance, / Some to obey,  and some above

to   gye, / Destroyed were all wordly policie.

The superfluity of prepositions is more rare:

 Jewel: The whole universitie and city of Oxford.

 Gower: So that, my Lord, touchend of this, / I have answered how that it is. 80

 The syntax of conjunctions is in order only. Neither and either are placed in the

beginning of words, nor and or coming after:

 Sir Thomas More: Hee can be no   sanctuary-man, that hath neither discretion to desire

it, nor  malice to deserve it.

 Sir John Cheke: Either by ambition you seeke lordlinesse, much unfit for you, or by 5

covetousnesse ye be unsatiable, a thing likely enough in you; or else by folly ye be not

content with your estate, a fancie to be pluckt out of you.

 Lydgate, liber 2: Wrong clyming up of states and degrees, / Either by murder or by false

treasons, / Asketh a fall for their finall guerdons.

Here, forbnor in the latter member,  ne is sometime used: 10

 Lambert: But the archbishop set himselfe against it, affirming plainly that hee neither

could ne would suffer it.

The like syntax is also to be marked in so and as, used comparatively. For when

the comparison is in quantity, then so goeth before and as followeth:

 Ascham: He hateth himselfe and hasteth his owne hurt, that is content to heare none so 15

gladly as either a foole or a flatterer.

 Gower,  liber 4: Men wist in  thilk time none / So faire a wight, as she was one.

Sometime for so, as cometh in:

 Chaucer, liber 5, Troilus: And said, I am, albeit to you no joy, / As gentle a man as any

wight in Troy. 20

But, if the comparison be in quality, then it is contrary:

 Gower: For, as the fish, if it be  dry, /  Mote in default of water dye, / Right so, without ayre

    on live, / No man ne beast might thrive.

And, in the beginning of a sentence, serveth instead of an  admiration:

And what a notable signe of patience was it in Job, not to murmure against the  Lord! 25

 Chaucer,  third book of Fame: What, quoth shee, and be ye     wood? / And  wene ye for to

doe good, / And for to have of that no fame?

Conjunctions of divers sorts are taken one for another, as but,  a severing conjunction,

for a conditioning:

 Chaucer, in the Man of Law’s Tale:  But it were with  the ilk eyen of his minde, / With 30

which men seen after they ben blinde.

 Sir Thomas More: Which, neither can they have, but you give it;

neither can you give it, if ye agree not.

The self-same syntax as in  and, the coupling conjunction:

 The Lord Berners, in the preface to his translation of Froissart:  What knowledge 35

should we have of ancient things past,  and historie were  not?

 Sir John Cheke: Yee have waxed greedie now upon cities and have  attempted mightie

spoiles to glut up, and you could, your wasting hunger.

On the other side, for, a  cause-renderer, hath sometime the force of a severing one:

 Lydgate, liber 3:  But it may fall a  drewry, in his right, / To   outraye a giant for all his 40

great might.

Here the two general exceptions are termed  asyndeton and polysyndeton.

Asyndeton, when the conjunction wanteth:

The universities of Christendome are the eyes, the lights, the leaven, the salt, the seasoning

of the world. 45

 Gower: To whom her heart cannot  heale, /  Turne it to woe, turne it to weale.

Here the  sundering conjunction, or, is lacking, and in the former example, and,

the coupler. Polysyndeton is in doubling the conjunction more than it need to be:

 Gower, liber 4: So, whether that  he frieze or sweat, / Or he be in, or he be out, / Hee will

be idle all about. 50

All the parts of syntax have already been declared. There resteth one general

affection of the whole, dispersed through every member thereof, as the blood

is through the body, and consisteth in the breathing, when we pronounce any

sentence. For, whereas our breath is by nature so short that we cannot continue

without a  stay to speak long together, it was thought necessary, as well for the 5

speaker’s ease as for the plainer deliverance of the things spoken, to invent this

means whereby, men pausing  a pretty while, the whole speech might never the

worse be understood.

These distinctions are either of a perfect or imperfect sentence. The distinctions

of an imperfect sentence are two, a  subdistinction and a comma. A subdistinction 10

is a mean breathing, when the word serveth indifferently, both to the

parts of the sentence going before and following after, and is marked thus  (;). A

comma is a distinction of an imperfect sentence, wherein with somewhat a longer

breath the sentence  going before is marked off from the sentence following, and

is noted with this shorter semicircle (,). 15

Hither pertaineth a parenthesis , wherein  two commas include a sentence:

 Jewel: Certaine falshoods (by meane of good utterance) have sometime more likely-

hood of truth, then truth it selfe.

 Gower,  Prologue:  Division (the Gospel saith) / One house upon another laith.

 Chaucer,  third book of Fame: For time, ylost (this know ye) / By no way may recovered 20

be.

These imperfect distinctions in the syntax of a substantive and an adjective

give the former place to the substantive:

 Ascham: Thus the poore gentleman suffered griefe; great for the pain; but greater for the

spite. 25

 Gower, liber 2, speaking of the envious person: Though he a man see vertuous, / And

full of good condition, / Thereof maketh he no mention.

The distinction of a perfect sentence hath a more full stay and doth rest the

 spirit, which is a  pause or a period. A pause is a distinction of a sentence, though

perfect in itself, yet joined to another, being marked with two  pricks (:). A period 30

is the distinction of a sentence in all respects perfect, and is marked with one full

prick, over against the lower part of the last letter, thus (.).

If a sentence be with an interrogation, we use this note (?):

 Sir John Cheke: Who can perswade, where treason is above reason; and might ruleth

right; and it is had for lawfull, whatsoever is lustfull; and commotioners are better then 35

commissioners; and common woe is named commonwealth?

 Chaucer,  second book of Fame: Loe, is it not a great mischance, / To let a foole have

governance, / Of things, that he cannot   demayne ?

 Lydgate, liber 1: For, if wives be found variable, / Where shall husbands find  other stable?

If it be pronounced with an admiration, then thus (!). 40

 Sir Thomas More: O Lord God, the blindnesse of our mortall nature!

 Chaucer,  first book of Fame: Alas! What harme doth apparence, / When it is false in

existence!

These distinctions (whereof the first is commonly neglected), as they best

agree with nature, so come they nearest to the ancient  stays of sentences among 45

the Romans and the Grecians. An example of all four, to make the matter plain, let

us take out of that excellent oration of Sir John Cheke against the rebels, whereof

before we have made so often mention:

  When common order of the law can take no place in unruly, and disobedient subjects: and

all men will of wilfulnesse resist with rage, and thinke their owne violence to be the best 50

justice: then be wise magistrates compelled by necessitie, to seeke an extreme remedy, where

  meane salves helpe not, and bring in the martiall law, where none other law serveth.

THE END