384 On English Prceterites. 1. fallen, (inf.) feol, feollen. fallen. 2. haten. fhaihte en. heihte. hate, hote. .haten. hoten. 3 hleapen. hlep. hleop. (hlup)en. hleapen. 4. slsepen. slep. en. slaepen. 5. blawen. blew, bleow en. blawen. bio wen. anc in the six last. 7. slajen. sloj (sloh). en. islajen. (slavven) far en. for. en. i-faren. 8. drifen. fdraf [later drove drif-en. i-driven. rid en. rad. r id-en. riden. 9. for-ledsel lese 1 for-leas for-loren. for-loren. 10. queSen quaS, queSen. iqueSen. 11. cumen.l comen J com. >• cume connen. ficumen. [icomen. 12. finden. funde. funden. i-funden. gin n en. jgan gunnen. i-gunnen. and all these are to be found in the first named Codex of Lajamon. The Middle English, that is to say, Chaucer and the Romancers, still keep to the law in their strong conju- gations, varying the vowel of the praeterite only as the same vowel varied in every other word ; but generally mulcting the infinitive and praeterite plural of its final n^. I refer the reader to J. GrimnVs Deutsche Grammatik for the forms of the Middle and New English strong conjugations, Vol. i. pp. 981 and 994<. observing that excepting where the vowel
- A useful thing by the way to bear in mind when we read Chaucer; for the final e
one meets with is of two kinds ; 1. It is a sign that the vowel next before it is long, as in rede (consilium)^ Anglo-Saxon raed^ and in this case it may not be pronounced; 2. It represents a perished inflection, as tim-e (tempus)^ Anglo-Saxon tim-a, ban-e (mors)^ Anglo-Saxon ban-a, luf-e (amor)^ Anglo-Saxon luf-u, luf-e (amare)^ Anglo-Saxon luf-an, and then it must be pronounced ; for no doubt long after the inflections themselves had perished from the written language, they were retained m the feeling of speakers and readers.
