the Perfect of the Strong verb is brought down to the level of the more modern Weak verb.
In line 77, we see in the transcript of 1290,
Sunne ne foundest þou never non.
In line 189, the transcriber of 1313 writes,
Do nou þat þou byhihtest me.
It was many years before this corruption could take root; it is seldom found in Wickliffe, who tries to avoid translating dedisti by either the old gave or the new gavest, and commonly writes didest give.
In the transcript of 1290, lording is seen instead of loverding, and this is found in Kent and Lincolnshire much about the same time. la the lines of page 28,
I shal go fro man to man
And reve þe of mani an —
the last two words give us the same phrase found in the Yorkshire poems already quoted.
At page 32, we find a line thus written in the transcript of 1290, ‘we þi comaundement forleten;’ in the transcript of 1313, this is ‘we þin heste dude forleten.’ If this latter represent the original of 1280 best, it is the first instance of a revived auxiliary verb, of which I shall give instances in the next Chapter.
Much ink has lately been spent upon Byron's expression, ‘there let him lay’ (jaceat). The bard might have appealed to the transcript of 1313:
Sathanas, y bynde þe, her shalt þou lay
O þat come domesdai — Page 30.
