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

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

I am content. You are mis-informed.

Chaucer's 2nd book of Fame:

For, as flame is but lighted smoke;
Right so is sound ayr ybroke.

I, myself, and ourselves, agree unto the first person: thou, you, ye, thyself, yourselves, 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. Me, us, thee, her, them, him, whom, 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:

oft understood

The person governing by that went before: True religion glorifieth them that honour it; and is a target

unto them that are a buckler unto it.

Chaucer :

Womens counsels brought us first to

woe,

And made Adam from Paradise to go. But this is more notable, and also more common in the future; wherein for the most part we never express any person, not so much as at the first:

Fear God. Honour the king. Likewise the verb is understood by some other going before:

Nort. in Arsan.

When the danger is most great, natural strength most feeble, and divine aid most needful.

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 been, that I fear me ever they will be.

Chaucer, 3rd 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 cave with dreadful fate she

start.

Special exceptions.

Nouns signifying a multitude, though they be of the singular number, require a verb plural.

Although a man be wise himselve,
Yet is the wisdom more of twelve.
Chaucer :

Therefore I read you this counsel take,
Forsake sin, ere sin you forsake.

In this exception of number, the verb sometime agreeth not with the governing but with the noun governed: as Riches is noun of the plural number, as it should, a thing oft-times more hurtful than profitable to the owners. After which manner the Latins also speak: Omnia pontus erat. The other special exception is not in use.*

CHAP. VI.

OF THE SYNTAX OF A VERB WITH A VERB.

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 join together in good things.

* Which notwithstanding the Hebrews use very strangely: Kullain tazubu ubouna, Job XVII. IO. All they return ye and come now.

But will, do, may, can, shall, dare (when it is in transitive), must and let, when it signifieth a sufferance, receive not the sign. 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.

Nort. in Arsan.

To win is the benefit of fortune: but to keep is the power of wisdom.

General exceptions.

The verb governing is understood:
Nort. in Arsan :

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 go 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 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 ear to flatterers. Lidgate, lib. I:

Truth and falseness in what they have done,

May no while assemble 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; can love, I could love.

The futures are declared by the infinite, and the verb shall, or will; as amabo, I shall or will love.

Amavero addeth thereunto have, taking the nature of two divers times; that is, of the future and the time past.

I shall have loved: or

I will have loved.

* So in the Greek and Latin, but in Hebrew this exception is often, Esai. vi. 9; which Hebraism the New Testament is wont to retain by turning the Hebrew infinite either into a

For, as the fish, if it be dry
Mote in default of water dye:
Right so without air, or live,
No man, ne beast, might thrive,

And, in the beginning of a sentence, serveth instead of an admiration: And, what a notable sign of patience was it in Job, not to murmur against the Lord! Chaucer, 3rd book of Fame:

What, quoth she, and be ye wood!
And, wene ye for to do 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 mind,

With which men seen' after they ben blind.

J

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 is in and, the coupling conjunction;

The Lord Berners in the Preface to his Translation of Froisart:

What knowledge should we have of ancient things past, and history

were not.

Sir John Cheek:

your

Ye have waxed greedy now upon cities, and have attempted mighty spoils, to glut up, and you could wasting hunger. On the other side, for, a cause-renderer, hath sometime the force of a severing one. Lidgate, lib. 3:

But it may fall a Drewry in his right, To outrage a giant for all his great might.

Here the two general exceptions are termed, Asyndeton, and Polysyndeton. Asyndeton, when the conjunction wanteth: The universities of Christendom are the eyes, the lights, the leaven, the salt, the seasoning of the world. Gower:

To whom her heart cannot heal, Turn it to woe, turn it to weal. 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:

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 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 following is included; and is noted with this shorter semicircle (,).

Hither pertaineth a parenthesis, wherein two commas include a sentence:

Ascham :

Thus the poor gentleman suffered grief; great for the pain; but greater for the spite.

Gower, lib. 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. (:) in all respects perfect, and is marked with A period is the distinction of a sentence, one full prick over against the lower part of the last letter, thus (.)

If a sentence be with an interrogation, we use this note (?)