Chapter IV: Verbs

_Infinitive Mood._—The infinitive terminates in _-en_, which is seldom dropped.

There are no infinitives in _-y_ or _-ie_, as in Southern English writers, nor do we find them in the Ormulum, or in Robert of Brunne's "Handlyng Synne," and they were, most probably, wholly unknown to the East Midland district.

The _t_ in the 2nd pers. sing. pres. is occasionally dropped, as _beas_ (= _best_), art, _betes_, beatest, _findes_, findest, etc.; but not in the preterite of regular verbs.

There are no instances of the 3rd pers. sing. present in _-es_ in this poem.

The final _e_ of the first and third persons (sing.) of the preterite tense is often dropped before a vowel or an _h_,[63] and, in a few cases, through the carelessness of the scribe,[64] it is unwritten before a consonant, where we should expect to, and do, find it in the majority of instances.

Some few strong verbs have become weak, as _grapte_ (grasped, felt), _gette_ (poured), _smette_ (smote).

_Imperative Mood._—Verbs forming the past tense in _de_ or _te_ take no inflexion in the 2nd pers. sing. imperative.

_Participles._—1. The active or imperfect participle ends in _-ende_ or _-ande_, the former being the Midland and the latter the Northumbrian form. The Southern affix is _-inde_, from which we have the modern _-ing_ (O.E. _-inge_).

Our author rhymes _specande_ with _lockende_, and in the Bestiary we find that the participle in _-ande_ rhymes with an infinitive in _-en_,[65] and this accounts for such forms as _stinken_ = _stinkende_, _brennen_ = _brennende_, in the present poem.

2. The passive or perfect participle of regular or weak verbs terminates in _-ed_; of irregular or strong verbs in _-en_. In _bigote_ (begotten), _funde_ (found), _geue_ (given), the absence of the _n_ is probably an error of the scribe.

3. The prefix _i-_ or _y-_ (A.S. _ge-_) is not of frequent occurrence either in this poem or in the Bestiary; in the former we have _i-wreken_ (avenged), _i-wrogt_ (wrought), _ybiried_ (buried), _y-oten_ (called); and in the latter we find _i-digt_ (arranged).

There are two conjugations of verbs, regular (weak) and irregular (strong). The regular verbs form their past tense in _-ede_, _-de_, or _-te_; the past participle ends in _-ed_, _-d_, or _-t_. Irregular verbs form their past tense by a change of vowel, and the past participle terminates in _-en_.

CONJUGATION OF REGULAR VERBS.