A History of English Language

The renaissance, 1500-1650 229
It made use of the definite article (sē, sēo, þæf), which, however it was felt in Old
English times, strikes us as having more demonstrative force than relative. Sometimes the
indeclinable particle þe was added (sē, þe, which that) and sometimes þe was used alone.
At the end of the Old English period the particle þe had become the most usual relative
pronoun, but it did not long retain its popularity. Early in the Middle English period its
place was taken by þæt (that), and this was the almost universal relative pronoun, used
for all genders, throughout the Middle English period. In the fifteenth century which
begins to alternate fairly frequently with that. At first it referred mostly to neuter
antecedents, although occasionally it was used for persons, a use that survives in Our
Father, which art in heaven. But the tendency to employ that as a universal relative has
never been lost in the language, and was so marked in the eighteenth century as to
provoke Steele to address to the Spectator (No. 78) his well-known “Humble Petition of
Who and Which” in protest. It was not until the sixteenth century that the pronoun who 52
as a relative came into use. Occasional instances of such a use occur earlier, but they are
quite exceptional. There is no example of the nominative case in Chaucer. Chaucer,
however, does use the oblique cases whose and whom (infrequently) as relative pronouns,
and it is clear that the use of who as a pure relative began with these forms. Two earlier
uses of who are the sources of the new construction: who as an indefinite pronoun (Who
hath ears to hear, let him hear; Who steals my purse steals trash) and as an interrogative
in indirect questions. The latter appears to have been the more important. The sequence
Whom do you want? (direct question), They asked whom you wanted (indirect question), I
know the man whom you wanted (relative) is not a difftcult one to assume. In any case,
our present-day widespread use of who as a relative pronoun is primarily a contribution
of the sixteenth century to the language.
183. The Verb.
Even the casual reader of Elizabethan English is aware of certain differences of usage in
the verb that distinguish this part of speech from its form in later times. These differences
are sometimes so slight as to give only a mildly unfamiliar tinge to the construction.
When Lennox asks in Macbeth, Goes the King hence today? we have merely an instance
of the more common interrogative form without an auxiliary, where we should say Does
the king go? or Is the king leaving today? Where we should say has been Shakespeare
often says is: Is execution done on Cawdor? and ’Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that’s
done; or Arthur, whom [who] they say is killed tonight. A very noticeable difference is
the scarcity of progressive forms. Polonius asks, What do you read, my Lord?—that is,
What are you reading? The large increase in the use of the progressive is one of the
impor-
52
Hwā was in Old English an interrogative pronoun.