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

DIALECTAL FORMS.
XIX
On a fly-leaf at the beginning are some accounts scribbled in
Latin, which commence thus "Lud«s specialis tent/-s apid Petyngton
vndesimo die mejsis septembris pe/- () Magisfram Toma[m]
castell p^io^e^, E. Heryngton existejte seneschallo anno domiu'i
Milesimo quizgentesimo tercio," &c. This is interesting as containing
an allusion to a play held at "Petyngton," -which maybe the
modern Pittington, at no groat distance from Durham, where there
is now a railway station; and as giving us the date 1503. This
again associates the MS. with the North of England, and leads us to
suppose that the main part of the MS. was written, as would also
otherwise appear, towards the close of the fifteenth century.
§ 10. The Dublin MS., like the otlaer, shews decided marks of a
Northumbrian dialect, as seen in the use of sail (688), of the pres.
part, in -aiid, as syl-and (698), of -es in the pres. pi. indie, as draio-es
(706), oi-yn in the pp. of strong verbs, as knaio-yn (719) ; &c. But
the remarks prefixed to Dr. Morris's second edition (1869) of the
Early English Alliterative Poems warn us how extremely difficult it is
to separate the pure Northumbrian dialect from the Midland dialect,
where it borders upon the Northumbrian; for the latter is often
marked by the use of Northumbrian forms. "We have, first of all,
to consider which of the MSS. probably gives the dialect more correctly
;
and here I have very little hesitation in at once preferring
the Ashmole MS., which ought certainly to be most considered as
being at once the older, more correct, and more consistent MS. of the
two.
If we compare, e. g., lines 678—722 (pp. 22— 25), we find that
the Ashmole MS. steadily keeps to the Northumbrian forms where
the Dublin MS. varies from them. Examples are ^ : A. wald, 1 ).
wold (690) ; A. /m, D. from (694) ; A. waytis, D. watyn (700) ; A.
mon, D. must (707); A. slike, D. seiche (711). And a further collation
of paraUel passages will amply confirm these results. "We
even find, though rarely, in MS. A. such a clear mark of the
Northumbrian dialect as the use of at for to to denote the gerund ; as
in at grete, i. e. to weep (872), at drede, to dread (4294). It would
take a prolonged examination to enable me to speak decisively on
^ I here (and below) denote the Ashmole MS. by "A.," and the Dublin
MS. by "D."