The Works of Ben Jonson

The Second Book of the English Grammar.

OF SYNTAX.

CHAP. L

OF APOSTROPHUS.

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 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.
If y' utter such words of pure love, and
friendship,

What then may we look for, if y' once
begin to hate?

Gower, lib. 1. de Confess. Amant.

is proper to us, which though it be not of any, that I know, either in writing or 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, follow nature's call.

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

There is no fire, there is no sparke,
There is no dore, which may charke.
Gower, lib. iv.

Who answered, that he was not privy
to it, and in excuse seem'd to be very
sore displeased with the matter, that
his men of war had done it, without
his commandment or consent.

CHAP. II.

OF THE SYNTAX OF ONE NOUN WITH
ANOTHER,

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.

If thou'rt of his company, tell forth, my Of the former kind of syntax is that of

son,

It is time t' awake from sleep.

Vowels suffer also this apostrophus before the consonant h.

Chaucer, in the 3rd book of Troilus.
For of fortune's sharp adversitie,
The worst kind of infortune is this:
A man t' 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,

* The Latins and Hebrews have none.

a noun, and verb.

The syntax of a noun, with a noun, is in number and gender; as

Esau could not obtain his father's blessing, though he sought it with

tears.

Jezabel was a wicked woman, for she slew the Lord's prophets.

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

he, Jezabel and she, idol and it, do agree in In all these examples you see Esau and

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 the whole English syntax) order and the placing of words is one special 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 commonwealth, as effeminate writers, unprofitable members, and enemies to virtue.

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 man's righteousness is like a de-
filed cloth.

Gower, lib. 1:

An owl flieth by night,

Out of all other birds' sight.

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

Ignorance is the mother of Error.
Gower, lib.

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.
Nort. in Arsan.

A road made into Scanderbech's country by the Duke of Mysia's men: for, the Duke's men of Mysia. Here the absolute serveth sometimes instead of a genitive:

All trouble is light, which is endured
for righteousness 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 all points fortunate.

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

Foxe, in the 2d volume of Acts and
Monuments:

King Henry the Eight, married with
the Lady Katherine his brother,
Prince Arthur's wife.

The general exceptions:
The substantive is often lacking.

Sometime without small things, greater
cannot stand. Sir Thomas More.
[The verb is also often wanting :]
Chaucer :

For some folk woll be won for riches,
And some folk for strokes, and some
folk for gentleness:
Likewise the adjective:

It is hard in prosperity to preserve true
religion, true godliness, and true
humility.

Lidgate, lib. 8, speaking of Constantine,
That whilome had the divination

As chief monarch, chief prince, and
chief 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 lurk. Gower, lib. 2:

Forthy the wise men ne demen
The things after that there they semen;
But, after that, which they know, and
find.

Psal. 118, 22. The stone the builders re

fused: 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 3d book of Fame.
This is the mother of tidings.
As the sea is 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 com-
manded 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.

* In Greek and Latin this want were bar barous: the Hebrews notwithstanding use it.

Gower, lib. 1:

For, whoso woll another blame, He seeketh oft his owne shame. Special exceptions, and first of number. Two singulars are put for one plural:

All authority and custom of men, exalted against the word of God, must yield themselves prisoners.

Gower :

In thine aspect are all alich,
The poor man, and eke the rich.

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

Gower, lib. 1:

O good father deare,

Why make ye this heavy cheare.

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

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

Exceptions of Genders.

known truth, ought not therefore to be called a Goliah, that is a monster, and impudent fellow, as he was.

Jewel against Harding:

You have adventured yourself to be the noble David to conquer this giant. Nort. in Arsan.

And if ever it were necessary, now it is, when many an Athanasius, many an Atticus, many a noble prince, and godly personage lieth 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:

Nort. in Gabriel's Oration to Scanderbech:

For you know well enough the wiles of the Ottomans.

Perkin Warbeck, a stranger born,

feigned himself to be a Plantagenet. When a substantive and an adjective are

The articles he and it, are used in each joined together, these articles are put beother's gender.

Sir Thomas More: The south wind sometime swelleth of himself 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 himself enough,
So that his need is least.

It also followeth for the feminine: Gower,

lib.

He swore it should nought be let, That, if she have a daughter bore, That it ne should be forlore.

CHAP. III.

OF THE SYNTAX OF A PRONOUN WITH A NOUN.

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

William Lambert in the Perambulation of Kent:

fore the adjective:

A good conscience is a continual feast. Gower, lib. I.

For false semblant hath evermore
Of his counsel in company,

The dark untrue hypocrisy.

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

Sir Tho. More:

Such a serpent is ambition, and desire of vain-glory.

Chaucer :

Under a shepherd false, and negligent, The wolf hath many a sheep and lamb

to rent.

Moreover both these articles are joined to any cases of the Latins, the vocative only excepted: as,

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 zeal

The cause only, and not the death maketh of the apostle: give ear to the apostle:

a martyr.

Yet, with a proper name used by a metaphor, or borrowed manner of speech, both articles may be coupled:

Who so avoucheth the manifest and

VOL. III.

follow the apostle: depart not from the apostle.

construction almost of the Latins is conSo that in these two pronouns, the whole tained. The agreeth to any number; a only to the singular, save when it is joined

450

And the protecter had layd to her for
manner sake, that she was a councell
with the Lord Hastings to destroy
him.

Chaucer, 2nd book of Troilus:

And on his way fast homeward he sped, And Troilus he found alone in bed. Likewise before the participle présent, a, an, have the force of a gerund.

Gower, in his Prologue:

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

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

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

Sir John Cheeke, in his Oration to the Rebels:

Ye rise for religion: what religion taught you that?

Chaucer, in the Reve's Tale :

And this is very sooth, as I you tell. Ascham, in his discourse of the affairs of Germany:

A wonderful folly in a great man himself, and some piece of misery in a whole commonwealth, where fools chiefly and flatterers, may speak freely what they will; and good men shall commonly be shent, if they speak what they should.

What, also for an adverb of partition :*

Lambert:

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

Chaucer, 3rd book of Troilus:

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

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

which.

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

Fox, 2nd volume of Acts, &c.

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

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

Lo, how these princes proud and retchless,

Have shameful ends, which cannot live in peace.

Him, and them, be used reciprocally for the compounds, himself, themselves.

Fox: The garrison desired that they

might depart with bag and baggage.

Chaucer, in the Squire's Tale:

So deep in grain he dyed his colours, Right as a serpent hideth him under flowers.

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

Chaucer :

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

Which in Latin were a solecism: for there we should not say, suæ voluntatis, but voluntatis ipsius.

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

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

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

CHAP. IV.

OF THE SYNTAX OF ADJECTIVES.

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, than.*

Chaucer, 3rd book of Fame :

What did this olus, but he Took out his black trump of brass, That blacker than the divel was. The superlative is joined to the parts compared by this preposition of.

Gower, lib. 1:

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

The friendship of truth is best of all. Oftentimes both degrees are expressed by these two adverbs, more, and most: as more excellent, most excellent. Whereof the latter seemeth to have his proper place in those that are spoken in a certain kind of excellency, but yet without comparison: Hector was a most valiant man; that is, inter fortissimos.

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

Sir Thomas More:

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

And this is a certain kind of English Atticism, or eloquent phrase of speech, imitating the manner of the most ancientest and finest Grecians, who, for more emphasis and vehemencies sake, used so to speak.

Positives are also joined with the preposition of, like the superlative:

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