Yoko Iyieri PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText - University ...

attention as far as early MnE is concerned. OED (s.v. not) spares a
separate entry for this usage, for which most examples are after
1500, although it cites two instances in the fifteenth century. As
mentioned above, Partridge (1953: 4), Visser (1963-73, III: 1440), and
Blake (1988: 90-1) notice the phenomenon in early MnE. Curme (1931:
136) argues that the phenomenon arises alongside the decline of the
adverb ne.
There is no reason to assume, however, that this is typical of
eatly MnE, even though it has been pointed out frequently about
early MnE. The OE antecedent of the adverb not occurs before the
finite verb as illustrated below, which implies that the position of the
adverb not before the finite verb is by no means impossible. The
following are examples from IElfric's Supplementary Homilies (ed. Pope
1967-8):
I)eah óe hit naht ne fremige, ne heora freondum ne him
(XI/272)
and Gode naht ne hearmaô Jeah e 1u hine forgite
(\X X /47).
In fact, the phenomenon is common in ME verse texts as well as in
early MnE, both in the cases of ne ... not and not. The examples are
so numerous that they can only be cited selectively:
Vor ich bi daie no3t ne flo (0&N 372)
Pat j'u no3t ne linne (KH 992)
Vp she stirte and nouth ne sat (Havelok 567)
Amang is deciples made is cene J?at Iou it no3t bileue
(SEL 144/228)
And J7at oJ)er nau3t for-bede j (WS 11/294)
jou bk Ji werk be noght vnslei,
A hous als in to drink and ete
And wardropp Jat J)ou noght for-get (CM 1684-6)
Olyuer J vitails no3t for-3 yt : bot after wente Jo
(Ferumbras 2774)
92