1403, but wozes, 1424. OE. ōw appears both as aw (au) and ow: stawed, 360; staued, 352; stowed, 113.

(b) Consonants. Following a nasal, final g is often, and medial g is sometimes, written k:1 pink, 1359 (for þing); þinkez, 916; inspranc, 408. Similarly after nasals, g frequently stands for k: ring, 592 (for rink); stangez, 439, plural of stanc, 1018 (OF. estanc). Final s is often written (MS. 3), probably indicating the voicing of the consonant: askez, 2; weldez, 17; but folzes, 6. The spelling ts (2) occurs chiefly in unstressed forms like hatz, 1597; watz, 134. W sometimes occurs for wh, as in wen, 343 (cf. p. lvii on the alliteration of wh with w). Often w represents v in words of various origin: þewes (for þeves), 1142; awayled, 408; wenge, 201.

II. Inflection.2

(a) Nouns. The plural generally ends in -es (-s), -ez. Some plurals without ending occur: sype, 1188, 1417; myle, 1387; þink, 1359; zer, 1192. Some remains of the OE. weak plural are to be found, for example, yzen, 588, and the ending -(e)n has been added analogically to a few French words: trumpen, 1402, and perhaps paune, 1697 (see note). The adjectives pover and sturn have the plurals poveren, 127 and sturnen, 1402. The genitive case of nouns is frequently without ending in the singular: kyte paune, 1697; zisterday steven, 463 (here perhaps because of the initial s); especially in proper names, Baltazar þewes, 1436; Israel Dryztyn, 1314. In the plural the genitive case often ends in -en (OE. -ena): blonkken bak, 1412; besten blod, 1446; chyldryn fader, 684.

1That this confusion of ng with nk (which is one of Skeat's canons for Anglo-French spelling) is here not merely a scribal error, but due to the author himself, is shown by the rhyme in Pearl: flonc (for flong), 1165, with ronk, bonc, wlonk. On the unvoicing of final d see note on 1. 473.

2 The glossary should be consulted for the forms of the pronouns.

(b) Verbs. The infinitive ends in -e, sometimes in -en. The endings of the present indicative should be noted: sg. I -e, 2 and 3 -es (-ez); plur. -e, -en, sometimes -es (-ez). The present participle in Purity always ends in -ande; the past participle of strong verbs in -en, seldom in -e. The preterite 2 sg. sometimes ends in -es (-ez): lantez, 348; moztez, 655. The preterite and past participle of weak verbs sometimes omit the final -d1: wyrle, 475; wer, 69.

1 Mabel Day (Mod. Lang. Rev. 14. 413) finds in the Gawain-poet 30 cases in which weak verbs ending in l, n, r, or a vowel, exhibit this irregularity before a vowel or unstressed h, or unstressed voiced th. Some of the cases here cited, e. g. sware, 1415, may be simply presents, since sudden change of tense is not uncommon in the poem.

PURITY

TEXT

ABBREVIATIONS

M. Morris, revised edition of 1869 (for full titles, see Bibliog

raphy).

M. Morris, 1864 |

M.2= Morris, 1869 (when differences between the editions are noted.

Sk. Morris and Skeat, Specimens, 1884.

=

K.=Knigge.

Fi. Fischer, pp. 61-3, unless otherwise stated.

Sch. Schumacher, pp. 183-4, unless otherwise stated.

=

E. Emerson, Publ. Mod. Lang. Ass. 34. 494-522.

PURITY

I. CHRIST'S PRAISE OF PURITY; THE WEDDING-FEAST

Clannesse who so kyndly cowpe comende,
And rekken up alle þe resounz þat ho by rizt askez,
Fayre formez my3t he fynde in for[b]ering his speche,
And in þe contrare, kark and combraunce huge.
For wonder wroth is be Wy3 þat wrozt alle pinges
Wyth be freke þat in fylpe folzes hym after-
As renkez of relygioun þat reden and syngen,
And aprochen to hys presens, and prestez arn called.
Thay teen unto his temmple and temen to hymselven,
Reken wyth reverence pay r[ec]hen his auter,
Þay hondel þer his aune body and usen hit bope:
If þay in clannes be clos, þay cleche gret mede;
Bot if þay conterfete crafte, and cortaysye wont,
As be honest utwyth, and inwith alle fylþez,
Þen ar þay synful hemself, and sulped altogeder,
Lope God and his gere, and hym to greme cachen.
He is so clene in his corte, pe Kyng þat al weldez,
And honeste in his housholde and hagherlych served,
With angelez enorled in alle þat is clene,
Bope wythinne and wythouten, in wedez ful bryzt,
Nif he nere scoymus and skyg and non scape lovied,
Hit were a mervayl to much, hit mozt not falle.
Kryst kydde hit hymself in a carp onez,

[61a]

4

8

12

16

20

ΙΟ

2 and here, as generally, represented by & in MS. 3 MS., M. forering; M. note forbering (?); Th. (p. 44), B. forþering. MS., wt which M. here, as always, expands with, I have expanded wyth, since this is the spelling in over two-thirds of the cases where the scribe writes it out: MS. r..hen with second and third letters blurred, though c is partly legible.—16 MS. (but see Introd., p. x); M. bobe. - 17 corte, M. here, as always, expands courte (but see Introd., p. x, n. 3).