Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/192

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The Old and Middle English.
163

found in all the three manuscripts, and the absence of are (sunt), point to the Southern border of the Dane­lagh; at the same time, the Northern wiþ (cum) has driven out the Southern mid. Thei (illi) sometimes replaces hi; both Ich and I are found. The Midland form þrist (sitis) has been altered by all the three tran­scribers; the two Southern ones use þurst, something like our sound of the word: Dr. Mall, by the help of the rime, has here restored the true reading. Ch had replaced c, for michel, not mikel, is found in the Northern manuscript. The dialogue is most curious; Satan swears, par ma fei, like the soundest of Christians; and our Lord uses a metaphor taken from a game of hazard. The comic business, as in the Antigone of Sophocles, falls to a warder. The oath God wot comes once more; and also the Danish word gate (via), which never made its way into the South.[1]

A sad corruption, which first appeared in the Besti­ary, is now once more seen: it is one of the few things that has escaped Dr. Mall's eye. The second person of

  1. I give a specimen from page 33 of Dr. Mall's work. Abraham speaks: —

    Louerd, Crist, ich it am,
    Þat þou calledest Abraham;
    Þou me seidest, þat of me
    Shulde a god child boren be,
    Þat ous shulde bringe of pine,
    Me and wiþ me alle mine,
    Þou art þe child, þou art þe man,
    Þat wes boren of Abraham;
    Do nou þat þou bihete me,
    Bring me to hevene up wiþ þe.

    The New English, as we see, is all but formed.