A History of English Language

A history of the english language 232
Bible. Bote as the past tense of bite (like write—wrote) was still in occasional use. The
participle baken is more frequent in the Bible than baked. Brent and brast were common
forms for burnt and burst, while wesh and washen were prevalent as the past tense and
past participle of wash until the close of the sixteenth century. Because in all these cases
the forms current today were also in use, it is apparent that in Shakespeare’s day there
was much more latitude in the inflection of the verb than is permitted today.
184. Usage and Idiom.
Language isnotmerely a matter of words andinflections. We should neglect a very
essential element if we failed to take account of the many conventional features—matters
of idiom and usage—that often defy explanation or logical classification but are
nevertheless characteristic of the language at a given time and, like other conventions,
subject to change. Such a matter as the omission of the article where we customarily use
it is an illustration in point. Shakespeare says creeping like snail, with as big heart as
thou, in number of our friends, within this mile and half, thy beauty’s form in table of my
heart, where modern idiom requires an article in all these cases. On the other hand, where
we say at length, at last, Shakespeare says at the length, at the last. Again, usage
permitted a different placing of the negative—before the verb—as in such expressions as
I not doubt, it not appears to me, she not denies it. For a long time English permitted the
use of a double negative. We have now discarded it through a false application of
mathematical logic to language; but in Elizabethan times it was felt merely as a stronger
negative, as indeed it is today in the instinct of the uneducated. So Shakespeare could say
Thou hast spoken no word all this while—nor understood none neither; I know not, nor I
greatly care not; Nor this is not my nose neither; First he denied you had in him no right;
My father hath no child but I, nor none is like to have; Nor never none shall mistress be
of it, save I alone. It is a pity we have lost so useful an intensive.
Perhaps nothing illustrates so richly the idiomatic changes in a language from one age
to another as the uses of prepositions. When Shakespeare says I’ll rent the fairest house
in it after threepence a bay, we should say at; in Our fears in Banquo stick deep, we
should say about. The single preposition of shows how many changes in common idioms
have come about since 1600: One that I brought up of (from) a puppy; he came of (on) an
errand to me; ’Tis pity of (about) him; your name…. I know not, nor by what wonder you
do hit of (upon) mine; And not be seen to wink of (during) all the day; it was well done of
(by) you; I wonder of (at) their being here together; I am provided of (with) a torchbearer;
I have no mind of (for) feasting forth tonight; I were better to be married of (by)
him than of another; That did but show thee of (as) a fool. Many more examples could be
added. Although matters of idiom and usage generally claim less attention from students
of the language than do sounds and inflections or additions to the vocabulary, no picture
of Elizabethan English would be adequate that did not give them a fair measure of
recognition.