Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1912-02-01
Quaint Grammatical Usages
Chaucer's Prologue.

Chaucer's Prologue.
In reading "Chaucer's Prologue.
written many years ago, we meet with
various grammatical usages, forms OF
spelling, and the like, which sound
quaint and peculiar to us of late day;
and it sometimes seems as if Chaucer
uses so many words in expressing his
thought that he almost spoils its mean.
ing.
Were we to get hold of an original
copy of this great authors works, the
first thing perhaps that would attract
our attention is the fact that he uses nc
punctuation. He must have had some
knowledge of capital letters, however,
for each of his verses is set in line by
itself and begins with capital letter.
But judging from his word aprille, it
seems that proper names in those times
were not begun with capitals as they
are today.
Another ancient custom to be noted
in Chaucer is his many different ways of
spelling the same word. For instance,
our word showers is spelled in three
different ways, as is also the word
much Season has at least two differ
emit spellings and great many of his
other words correspond to these ex-
amples. Now a glance back at the
original again shows us that the article
the at the beginning of the lines is
spelled the while in every other
place it is spelled with only two letters.
OF course in studying "The Prologue
we realize that nouns were not declined
nor verbs corrugated as they are today,
but much more fully, and, just as now
all nouns did not form their plurals
in the same way. Some plurals were
formed by adding n to the singular,
others by adding IS or 'es, and oc-
casionally we meet with q noun which
has two plurals, and yet in other cases
the plural is exactly the same as the
singular. Some possessives were also
like the singular, or like the plural
noaninative; that is, they were formed,
by adding an 'es. The conjugation of
verbs was very different from that of
modern times and it is perplexing to see
how Chaucer may say had he BEEN in
ono line and in the very next use had
he be-
In the first verse of the Canterbury
Tales we notice what would be to US
an unnecessary use of words. when
Chaucer introduces his clause by saying,
'whan that. And in the next few lines
he uses q similar kind OF a clause but
leaves out the that in introducing it..
Several explanations are given for this.
One is that the word was put in here
from habit, since it was used before
clauses of other kinds and standing in
different relations to the main part of
the sentence. But it must be remem-
bored that expressions such as where
rs that. 'whan that, and SO on were
used regularly for our words when
and where and it was not until later
time that these conjunctive adverbs
came to be used with their restricted
meaning of today.
Peculiar uses of propositions are also
found in Chaucer's works. For exam
pie, take the verse In what array they
were inne. As to negatives they were
sometimes combined with the verb as
i moot how men him call this sentence
illustrates also peculiar use of the
,pronoun), and sometimes two negatives
were used where only one is necessary.
An illustration of the latter is the SEN
tence in the description of the knight,
but he ne was nat gay However,
Chaucer sometimes goes to the other
extreme and leaves out words which, if
we are following strict grammatical
rules are necessary. But the meaning
is clear without them as can be seen
from the following part of sentence,
OF small hounds hadde she, that she
fedde, in which itseems some such word
as some or number should be supplied.
Chaucer is also fond of laying stress
on certain qualities by the use of the
adverbs full and we'll and also by using
many adjectives and adverbs. He was
a very parfit, gentil knight.
But having called to mind these many
forms of expression of the author let US
not think of them in a fault finding
way. For Chaucer is not to be criticized
in the least for these since they are
forms Of his day, and he lived and wrote
In day and age when there were no
set rules regarding grammer and spell
ing and when writing was a compare
lively new art. Moreover, his descrip-
tive words are full of significance; 80
that on the whole Chaucer's statements
are concise and full of meaning.
ALICE KRAUs.
Forty-Five Minute Examinations.
Francis Bacon.
Francis Bacon has been called the
greatest man of his age after Shakes