The wars of Alexander: an alliterative romance translated chiefly ...

DESCRIPTION OP THE DUBLIN M3.
XV
English, Part IL, we easily find, in the Ashmole text, all the marks
of the N'orthumbrian dialect. It may suffice to instance the use of
the suffix -is in the first person singular of the indicative mood, as
in I ettillis (15) ; the use of -id or -yd for all persons of the preterite
indicative of weak verbs, as / neuenyd (76), he hauntid (16), \ai
lerid (36)
; the frequent^ loss of e in the infinitive mood or the
gerund, as in rehers (21), to hiaio {pi), flay (110); the use of sail
for shall (21), and of suld for sholde (100); present participles in
-and, as fe^tand (91), comand, heruand (63) ; the omission of i- or y-
as a prefix to past participles, as in fourmed (3) ; the preservation of
the final -en or -ijn of past participles of strong verbs, as in comyn
(85), coruen (129); the use of ]>ir iota these (262); the use of scho
for she (267) ; the use of thai, thair, and thaim (very common) ; the
use of hethen for he7ice (see Glossary); fra for from (139); at for
that (161); &c. But it will be convenient to defer any further
discussion of the dialect till after the Dublin MS. has been described.
§ 8. The Dublin MS. D. 4. 12 contains not only a portion of
Alexander, but also part of a copy of the A-text of Piers the
Plowman, and has already been partially described in a foot-note to
my edition of Piers Plowman (E. E. T. S.), part ii. p. vi; and
again, in my Notes to P. Plowman, p. 836.
But I take the present
opportunity of giving a more minute account of it. It is a paper
MS., the size of each page being about 8f inches by 5|, and each
page containing about 30 lines or rather more. The first 26 leaves
contain an imperfect copy of the A-text of Piers Plowman, the
contents of which have been turned by the scribe into a Northumbrian
dialect. This copy shews a close connection with the curious copy
in the library of University CoUege, Oxford, denoted in my collation
of the A-text by the letter U, as the following selected readings from
it will shew.
Prologue, 1. 1. whan— sonne] as I south went. 2. into] in.
A— were] as I a scheepe were. 4. Wende— icydene] I went
wide. 9. leonede] lened me. 14. ima^et] entyred (sic).
32. flit— to] it is sene in.
^ The scribes often write an idle final e where it was not meant to be
sounded ; this is common, for example, in the MSS. of Barbour's Bruce.