The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1873-12-06

singular, JBdC IN spite OF good example
and faithful instruction, in this combi-
nation, the objective is used instead of
the nominative. Some of us may re-
peat the old rule 1.-THE verb TO BE
must have the same case after it as be-
fore It," Yet the moment we are un-
conscious of the grammatical proprieties
of language, out comes the old form "it
is me-" The current can scarcely be
changed. 1t is so general, that Afford
advocates change. and those who use
the form should not be charged with the
violation of any law of language
Though this law of sequence seems to be
maintained with temerity by all the
grammarians, 1t is singular how fire.
quently we find its violation in the old
authors. In Hamlet we find the line
From the first corse till he that died to-day.
In the Merchant of Venice .......
All debts are cleaned between you and l.
Though the rhyme may furnish an ex-
PLANTATION, we find the following couplet
in the Sonnets of Shakespeare
Unless you would divine some virtuous lie,
Ana hang some praise upon deceased L.
In the Twelfth Nights, Mabrolio asks
Did you never see the pictures of zoe three
And as crowning illustration we quote
a couplet from tombstone in the church.
yard at Hampshire-very pathetic
Him shall never come again to we.
But we shall surely one day go to he.
In this connection, the attention is
naturally directed to a form which has
perplexed the grammarians, the form
methought and meseems. 1t will be
observed, the form is used only In pas
sages implying high emotional state.
1t may be regarded as practical form,
and yet requiring grammatical expla-
nation. 1t abounds in lyrical poetry
the condition of which. is the surrender
of the whole being to the feeling. Me-
thought occurs scores Of times in such
poets as Byron, and Moore, and Shelley.
In Richard III. is this line
Me rather hadmy heart might feel your love
In the Dream of Clarence, it is used
seven times. 1t is passage where the
speaker is relating his feelings while
drowning, and very appropriately, the
dramatist has put in his mouth pro-
noun more expressive of deep emotion {:
Lord, Lord, methought, what pain it was to
drown;
Methought saw thousand fearful wrecks,
Ten thousand men that fishes gnawed upon
o, then began the tempest in my soul,
Who passed, metho"Ght, the melancholy
flood,
With that. grim ferryman, which poets
write of
Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.
If throughout this passage, we should
substituted i thought" for "methought,
it would well nigh destroy the force and
beauty of it. 1t would take away that
charm of intense personality which now
belongs to it. 1t would be 80 tame as
to be unnatural. 1t would not be the
narrative of man who had looked upon
the secret things of the deep and the
wonders that lie beyond the melancholy
flood" In analyzing the form "me-
thought" all the gramlnarians resolve
into an .impersopal verb, with Inc as an
objective" 1t thought me-" Yet this
is an exceedingly awkward explanation,
and at the. same time contrary to the
real meaning. The me is not the object
of the thought, but the subject thinking.
And in the analysis, the me should be
regarded as subject of the verb thought,
the objective form being used by poetic
license and for rhetorical effect. The
interesting question arises why this
tenacity of the form me and why in
these several combinations, the objective
form holds its place SO firmly against
the form L? We answer, me Is an older
and simpler pronominal form is a
mere relic. 1t has been mutilated until
we have only fragment. Me Is ex-
pressive of more intense personality so
to speak, 1T is more subjective. The
oldest form of the pronoun as yet dis
coyered among the Indo- European
tongues is maga. In process OF time,
the m was lost, leaving us simply aga.
By well known laws regulating the
changes in vowels, this aga appears In
the Greek as ego. You will observe,
is the leading letter but G ranges Ia
sound from the hard cultural of the
German TO the soft sound of In the
English. Thus the g finally disappeared
from the pronoun, leaving us only the
initial vowel e, passing by the law of
procession into l. Thus 1t is easily per-
celved that me Is an older form, and
bHab 10 bObh NSAiNotlNO anu q lcllC Vi
the more complete form.
In some parts of the country we yet
hear the words ourn and yourn, and
more frequently the word his'n. These
are now regarded as localisms and colo
quialisnI, aud out of place even in con-
versatloD. The II in these words is un-
doubtedly n fragment of the word own.
Ourn is our own, yourn Is your own
and hizzen is his own. And there is a
little Berkshire song where the is ap-
pended to the pronoun she--
But tother young maiden looked sly at me,
And from her seat she risin-
Let's you and go our Olcn way,
And Well let she go shesn.
We have time to turn the attention to
but one other popularity of the pronoun,
the use of thou and you. The history
of these words Is singularly interesting.
In the dramatic writers of the age of
Elizabeth, they are used with great sig
ni6cance, and the transition from one TO
the other In the same passage, made to
express the emotion OF respect and con.
tempt--0f affection, or serious adinoni-
tlOn and reprOach In the LIST part Of /
King Henry, in Shakespeare, mark how
H0tspur passes from th0u 70 Won. In his