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than potential or hypothetical.' I agree with this in the main, but think that the uncertainty attached to an event merely conceived and still in the future is sufficient in itself to account for the mode, at least so for as temporal clauses are concerned. Delbrück1 says: Sodann ein überall im germanischen erscheinender typus, nämlich bei optativischem vordersatz ein nachsatz mit einer verbalform imperativischer Bedeutung. Wie bei dem entsprechenden typus mit jabai wird durch den optativischen vordersatz ausgedrückt, dass der sprechende den eintritt des satzinhaltes als möglich (wahrscheinlich, bevorstehend) in aussicht nimmt.'

BH. 76. 5 Du frugne eac swylce, ponne wiif cennende wære, æfter hu feola daga heo moste in circan gongan. In this example the optative is due to its occurrence in an indirect question, or to the hypothetical nature of the whole sentence.

The following are examples of the optative appearing in object-clauses: CP. 307. 11 he gehett ðæt he sua don wolde, donne he eft come on dæm ytemestan dæge; PPs. p. 61. 14 and he witegode eac þæt ylce be Ezechie, pe lange æfter him wæs, þæt he sceolde þæt ylce don, ponne he alysed wære æt Asirium.

In the following sentence, we may regard the mode of the temporal clause as being due to that of the verb on which it depends: BH. 76. 11 Forþon peah þe heo in þa ilcan tiid, pe heo acenned hæbbe, Gode poncunge to donne in circan gonge, ne bio heo mid nænige synne byrðenne ahefigad; CP. 389. 36 Ond eac forðæm ðætte hie dy fæsðlicor & dy untweogendlicor gelifden dara ecena ðinga, swa hwanne swa him ða gehete, dylæs . . &c.

1 Der Germanische Optativ im Satzgefüge, p. 288.

The hypothetical nature of the whole sentence leads to the use of the optative in the following example: Dial. 261. 11 ac efne hit is gelic þære wisan, þe man hwylc bearneacen wif genime 7 sænde in carcern 7 heo þær þonne cænde cniht, 7 ponne se cniht si geboren, þæt he sy afeted in þam carcerne.

In the following examples, both from Wulf., the change of tense is hard to account for. Evidently we have here the beginning of the Modern English use of were as an optative: Wulf. 147. 22 þa geongan men hopjað, þæt hi moton lange on þissere worulde libban, ac se hopa hi bepæco and beswico, ponne him leofost wære, þæt hi lybban moston; Wulf. 189. 5 and uton gecnawan, hu læne and hy lyðre þis lif is on to getruwjanne, and hu eft hit wurð raðost forloren and forlæten, ponne hit wære leofost gehealden.

The optative form in such examples as these, all found in late texts, is evidently due to the weakening of the ending, and we have really to do with indicatives: LS. 1. 534. 754 and mid by þe hi in becomen þa gemetton hi on þa swiðran hand ane teage; Chad. 145. 178 7 mittes hine fregnaden his ginran fur hwon he p dyde, pa andwyrde he him 7 cweð.

In a few cases the optative and the indicative stand in the same construction, thus: CP. 463. 4 dæt he hine selfne ne forlæte, dær he oderra freonda tilige, & him self ne afealle, dær dær he oore tiolad to ræranne; Wulf. 140. 28 þonne þu smercodest and hloge, ponne weop ic biterlice.

REMARK. It must not be inferred that we always find the optative after an imperative. There are exceptions, though they are not numerous. Examples follow: Lch. 3. 2. 6 læt reocan in þa eagan þa hwile hy hate synd; Jos. 8. 7 bonne fare ge to, mid pam þe we fleonde beod, and gegað

þa buruh. Fleischauer1 states the principle thus, that the optative is used when the action of the subordinate clause is conceived as preceding that of the main clause, the indicative when it is contemporaneous with it.

NOTE 1. All the dissertations on the syntax of OE. poetry agree, in almost the same words, in saying that the indicative is the prevailing mode in temporal clauses. Only two, however, mention the use of the optative in such cases as we have been discussing. Prollius says: 'Die temporalsätze stehen im conj. d) nach hwonne, wenn der inhalt des satzes der unsicheren zukunft angehört, e) ebenso nach ponne.' Schürmann makes a similar statement: 'Der Konjunctiv findet sich hier zweimal zum Ausdruck der blossen Möglichkeit, deren etwaige Verwirklichung in der Zukunft liegt.' There are the only attempts to account for the optative in such sentences that have been observed.

NOTE 2. In Gothic, according to Douse, the optative is used in clauses of this kind, much as in OE. He says: 'Some other temporal conjunctions take the indic. or subj. according as their clauses refer to actual fact or to what is merely possible or still in the future; in the latter case the temporal clause is generally attached to an imperative, optative, or subjunctive clause. Examples with the optative: a) after an imperative, M. 6. 6 þu þan bidiais, gang in hebjon þeina. b) in an object clause, John 14. 29 quaþ inzwis . . . ei, biþe wairbai, galaubjaiþ.' I do not find that there are examples of the optative in temporal clauses, due to such causes as led to its use in OE., in either OS. or OHG. But in the latter language we find the optative so used in the closely related comparative clause. Erdmann 5 says: 'In anderen Fällen ist der Vergleichsatz mit dem Satze zu welchem er gehört in den Conj. verschoben, . . . So beim Imperative':

1 Der Conjunktiv in der Cura Pastoralis, 255.

2 Über den syntactischen Gebrauch des Conjunctivs in den Cynewulfschen Dichtungen 'Elene,' 'Juliana,' und Crist 57.

Darstellung der Syntax in Cynewulf's Elene, 387.
Introduction to the Gothic of Ulfilas, 255.
Syntax der Sprache Otfrids, 113.

IV, 30. 32 irdeilet imo thare, so wizzod iwer lere.

Roetteken1

informs us that the same usage prevailed in Middle High German: Übergeordneter Imperativ des Hauptsatzes zieht auch hier oft den Nebensatz in den Conjunktiv: 368. 1 Nu wahset alle mit einander di wile ez gotes wille si.'

2

NOTE 3. Erdmann says: 'Im Nhd. ist jetzt der Conjunctiv beschränkt auf den Fall, daß das Eintreten des Nebenumstandes mit zum Inhalte des Befehles gehört und vom Sprechenden beabsichtigt wird, Schiller, Turandot 5. 2 teile sie mit einem würd'gen Gatten, der klug sei und den Mächtigen nicht reize.'

NOTE 4. For the Latin, Lane says, speaking of quando: 'quando, originally a temporal particle, has the meaning when, which readily passes over to a causal meaning, since, because. In both meanings it introduces the indicative. For special reasons, however, the subjunctive is used, as in indirect discourse or of action conceivable.'

B. THE MODE IN CLAUSES DENOTING IMMEDIATE SEQUENCE.

The indicative is the mode regularly found with clauses of this kind. The optative is found, but very rarely, and then is generally to be accounted for by the fact that the main clause contains an imperative or an adhortative optative.

Since most of the examples quoted in discussing the particles denoting immediate sequence have the indicative, it will not be necessary to illustrate the normal use here. I pass to the optative, giving the reason for its use in each case.

1 Der Zusammengesetzte Satz bei Berthold von Regensburg, p. 51. 2 Grundzüge der deutschen Syntax, p. 166. This contains the best general discussion of the optative dependent on imperatives and that due to attraction, pp. 164ff.

George M. Lane, A Latin Grammar, 1898, p. 341.

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BR. 101. 8 Sona swa he þæt gewrit uppan þone altare alecge, beginne þis fers and pus cwebe; Lch. 3. 122. 7 hæte hym man bæp, swa hrade swa hys wisa godige. In both of these examples the optative is due to the command expressed in the main clause.

O. 76. 9 he . . . getruwade þæt he hiene beswican mehte, sippan he binnan dæm gemære were 7 wicstowa name; Dial. 317. 7 7 he sæde, þæt sona swa he ware of þam lichaman atogen, þæt he gesawe helle witu 7 unarimendlice stowa para ligea. In these examples, the optative is explained by the fact of their occurring in object clauses.

These two categories include all the optatives which I have noted in clauses denoting immediate sequence.

NOTE 1. In none of the dissertations on the poetry have I found any mention of the optative in clauses denoting immediate sequence.

C. THE MODE IN CLAUSES DENOTING DURATION.

Again the indicative is the prevailing mode, and as before no reson for introducing examples exists. The optative, when it is found, is most often due to an imperative or hortatory optative in the main clause.

Examples follow: Chron. 163. 11 healde pa hwile þe him God unne; BR. 74. 17 and ne beo ymbe his rædinge, þa hwile pe pa oðre rædan; Lch. 2. 262. 9 ne do pu ponne mid sealte pa blædran on, ac on forewearde pa adle þenden þ sar læst sie.

The optative appears in an object-clause : Inst. 399.20 And we lærað þ ænig wifman neah weofode ne cume, þa hwile pe man mæssige; Cart. 2. 217. 12 Ɖa wilnede Æpelbald swa peh to pam bisceope 7 to pam higen heo him mildemode alefdan þ he his most brucan ða hwile pe he wore.

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