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the English language, where they are in appearance quite identical with the reflective forms, it is necessary to examine this practice first in Anglo-Saxon. With regard to the inflection of ,seolf" in this case, we find the definite inflection only in the nominative case of the singular number, and here it prevails; in all other cases the indefinite inflection alone is used.

Examples.

Singular. Nominative (indefinite inflection).

Ic silf hit eóm. Luk. 24,39.

þam þe se þeóden self sceôp nihte naman. Genes. 139.

Ic vât hvät he me self bebeád, nergend ûser, þâ ic hine nêhst geseah. Genes. 535.

He his bryde ofslôh self mid sveorde. Metra IX, 31.

Nominative (definite inflection).

Svâ ic him pisne bodscipe selfa secge. Genes. 553.

He him selfa sceáf reáf of lice. ibd. 1564.

Me gâste pîne, god, selfa getryme. Psalm L. (Cott.) 102. pu eart selfa sigedryhten god. Metra XX, 260.

þu selfa eart sió fäste rest. Metra XX, 270.

Selfa ne dorste under yda gevyn aldre genêdan. Beóv. 1468 (with omission of the subject "he").

Nele he pâ earfeđu sylfa habban. Gen. 514.

Genitive.

Ongeat þâ geómormôd godes sylfes sid. Höllenfahrt 52.
Selfes gesccapu heofoncyninges. Genes. 842.

For examples where sylfes" stands in connection with "mîn, þîn", see pg. 18.

Dative.

Ic vât pät hit pohte peodric Vidian selfum gesyllan. Valdere II, 5. Ät gode sylfum. Reden der Seele an d. Leichn. 6.

Tô sylfum drihtne. Psalm 54,16.

Accusative.

Aer he haelend genom sylfne be sîdan. Satan 545. þät hi god silfne âhêngon. Elene 209.

Synnig vid seolfne sâvla nergend. Andr. 923.

Neuter.

On pät dägrêd sylf (just at break of day). Judith 204.

Plural. Nominative.

Ve besvican ûs sylfe. Höllenf. 96 (nom. or accus.). þaer him sylfe geseóð sorga maeste synfâ men.

Genitive.

Crist 1082.

þu Eve häfst yfele gemearcod uncer sylfra sîd. Genes. 791. þurh ûre sylfra gevill. Crist 362.

Dative.

Svâ him êđost bid, sylfum gesêftost. Elene 1295.

Accusative.

þät þu lête Sûđdene sylfe geveorđan gûđe ymb Grendel. Beóv. 1996. þâ (quos) him to gingran self metod mearcode selfa. Genes. 459.

The Anglo-Saxon language shows a great inclination to separate this reenforcing seolf" from the word to which it belongs by another word, especially by a pronoun, for instance:

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þat þu hie sylf vorhtest. beah he hit self forsvige, pät he his selfa ne mäg

Beóv. 1733.

Hymnen IX. 50.
Apol. of T. pg. 14.

for his unsnyhtrum ende geþencean.

Ve þurh gîfre môd besvican ûs sylfe. Höllenf. 96.
He sunce vyrced bid him sylfa fäder. Räthsel 38,8.
Forpam ve hit sylfe ne sâvon. Sax. Chron. 1106.
Nemnad (ge) hy sylfe. Räthsel 58,6.

A pronoun, suitable for this purpose is seldom wanting, because the Anglo-Saxon possesses a great number of verbs to which a reflective dative can be put; this dative may safely be called a pleonastic dative, in as much as its presence leaves the sense of the sentence nearly unaltered. This reflective or pleonastic dative, of which we shall have yet to speak more at large, is placed almost universally between „seolf" and the word to which the latter belongs: „Ic me sylf, þu þe sylf, he him sylf", and as this dative on account of its pleonastic nature forms no integral part of any other part of the sentence, it is quite natural that it gradually lost its original signification and became closely connected with,seolf". I shall show below, how out of this combination of the datives me, be, him" with "seolf" in old English the reenforcing pronouns myself, thyself, himself" etc. were developed, whilst in A. S. this combination was quite loose and a mere external one.

The first of our modern grammarians who paid attention to this peculiarity of the Anglo-Saxon language, but without trying to give an explanation nor apprehending its importance for the formation of the modern reenforcing pronouns, was Mr. Rask (A. S. grammar, transl. by Thorpe, p. 54). Mr. Fiedler (gram. I, 228) doubted the correctness of Mr. Rask's hypothesis and considered it to be contrary to the Anglo-Sax. idiom. Mr. Mätzner (II, 10 and 21) and Mr. Koch (II § 324), however, have understood it correctly.

Examples.

Rask: Ic com me sylf tô eóv. Älfr. N. T. p. 36.
Aer þu þe self hit me gerehtest. Boetius 5,1.

And pa circlîcan þeávas him sylf þaer getaehte. Älfr. N. T.

p. 33.

Mätzner: Ac volde beón him sylfon his sylfes anvealde. S. Basil. p. 18.

And him sylf väs on heofenas farende. Evang. Nicod. 34.

And him sylf his rôde åbär. Homil. of the A. S. church II, 62.

(In these sentences the pronominal subject is to be supplied, as is often the case in Anglo-Saxon).

And he cydde hym sylf þät gâstlîce and git þaere caldan gesetnysse his leorningcnihtum. S. Basil. p. 2.

Ac Pilatus pâ on his dôm-erne him self âvrât ealle þâ þing. Ev. Nicod. 34.

Koch: Leorna þe seolfa and gepancmeta pîne môde, on hvilce healfe þu ville cyrran. Genes. 1916.

pät þu þâ beorhtan ûs sunnan onsende and þe sylf cyme. Crist 113. On account of the great importance of this construction, I shall add a number of examples which I have found myself:

Indefinite form.

þu þe self hafast daedum gefremed þät þîn dôm lyfađ âva tô aldre. Beóv. 953.

þu meaht nu þe self geseón. Genes. 611.

Bidon ealle þaer þegnas prymfulle þeódnes gehâta in þaere forhtan

byrig tyn niht þâ gen, svâ him sylf bibeád svegles âgend. Crist 540. ("him" can be here dative plural and refer to „þegnas“).

Nu ic me sylf ne mäg fore mînum von-aehtum villan âdreágan. Hymn. IV, 102.

And þu þe sylf eart sodfäst dêma. Hymn. VII, 37.

And pu pe sylf vunast svîde stille u nâvendendlîc â ford simle. Metra XX, 16.

þâ him tô gingran self metod mearcode selfa. Genes. 458 (a remarkable passage; ,,seolf" is put twice to ,,metod" with definite and indefinite inflection).

And ponne Burgenda land väs ûs on bäc-bord (left side of a vessel) and pâ habbad him sylf cyning. Orosius 1, 1 § 20. Gif his hvâ sy lustfull mâre tô vitanne, sêce him ponne sylf. Oros. III, 2, 1.

pät hy voldon of älcere byrig him sylf anveald habban

Oros. III, 7 § 3.

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þâ ongeat Hannibal and him sylf saede.... Oros. IV, 10 § 2. And (he) him sylf leat ford, þät him man âslôh þät heáfod of. Oros. VI, 34, 2.

Rufinus volde habban him sylf þonne anveald þaer eást. Oros. VI, 37 § 2.

Odde hvet se cyng him sylf häfde landes and orfes innan þam lande. Sax. Chron. 1085.

And he sende of his mannan tô þisum lande and volde cuman him sylf äfter. Saxon. Chron. 1088.

And pâ heres him sylfe tô-eoden. ibd. 1016. (and the armies of themselves separated).

And eác him seolf þone pallium genamon sancti Petres weofode. ibid. 1022.

Definite form.

He him selfa sceáf reáf of lice. Genes. 1564.

Gâ be sylfa tô. Andreas 1350.

Feorcydde beód sêlran gesôhte þäm þe him selfa deáh. Beóv. 1838. Eart þe selfa þät hêhste gôd. Metra XX, 45.

And him sylfa häfd blaed and blisse and eác byrga geniht. Runenlied 8.

Plural.

And các svâ same ôđra gesceafta veordad him selfe sidđan tổ nâuhte. Metra XI, 86.

Eall piss mâgon him sylfe geseón þonne open orgete. Crist 1116. pä hi voldan him sylfe niman and hergian þaer hî hit findan mihton. Beda, lib. I cap. 15.

In a great number of other examples this reflective pleonastic dative is omitted, though it might be added without an essential change of the sense. This proves clearly of how little consequence this dative, in reality, was and how easily it could coalesce with seolf" into one word. Such examples are the following:

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Ic mäg heonon geseón hvaer he sylf sited. Genes. (he him sylf, cf. and heo sät hire feorran, Genes. 21,16).

Nu sceal he sylf faran tô incre andsvare.

sylf, cf. Genes. 543).

Genes. 556 (he him

Hu þec heofenes cyning side gesêced and sylf cymeđ, Crist 62 (him sylf, cf. Crist 113: and he sylf cyme).

Nu þu sylfa cum. Crist 149 (pu þe sylfa).

Gevât him pâ se hearda mid handscole sylf äfter sande saevong tredan. Beóv. 1963 (him sylf cf. Beóv. 1880: Him Beóvulfe gräsmoldan träd).

Svylce ic sylf geseah. Psalm 118, 159 (ic me sylf, cf. þu maht nu þe seolf geseón Genes. 611).

On heahsette sited self cyning. Metra XXIX, 75 (him self.) cf. Satan 218, 712. Also: Psalm L. (Cott.) 64, 66. Andreas 433. Gûdlâc 510 (cf. Hymnen IV, 102).

PERIOD II.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE FORMS USED TO EXPRESS A REFLECTIVE RELATION IN THE STAGE OF TRANSITION TO THE MODERN USAGE.

Having thus laid down and illustrated the forms which were used in the Anglo-Saxon language in order to express a reflective relation, we have to follow their subsequent development down to the time in which they became finally fixed, that is to the era of Spenser and Shakespeare. This period which embraces nearly 500 years, has been subdivided in several ways. Mr. Madden, for instance, (Lazamon, preface, page VI) distinguishes four stages:

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Mr. Mätzner (gram. I pg. 7,8) is of opinion that within this whole period no certain boundary-lines can be drawn. He denies that since the Norman conquest new distinguishing features appeared of such an essential importance as to demand a distinct division. Be this as it may, I think it to be the best plan for our investigation to make no subdivisions at all, but to follow the development of the reflective forms without interruption down to the Elisabethan era.

Of the three different ways which were used to express a reflective relation in Anglo-Saxon, the third disappears entirely, that is, the use of,,seolf" without a pronoun. The other two continue to exist with this modification that the use of the personal pronouns without ,,seolf" succumbs gradually to the use of the pronouns compounded with,,seolf".

A. Expression of the reflective relation by means of the

simple personal pronouns.

Before we can proceed to examine this way of expressing the reflective relation, I deem it to be necessary to speak first of the organic changes which the personal pronouns themselves underwent. In the first and second persons we find only few mutations of the forms. The Anglo-Sax. forms,,mec, pec, ûsic, eóvic", which at all times were of rare occurrence, disappear entirely and are replaced. by the dative forms,,me, þe, ûs, eóv". The vowel-sound in ,,ûs“, which in Anglo-Saxon must have been a long one, because the consonant,,n" had been given up, changes into a short one,,us" in Semi-Sax. and Old-English. Orm writes constantly,,uss", whilst he indicates a long vowel-sound by writing the succeeding consonant simple: ful (foul), sur (sour), ure (our), dun (down), tun (town), hus (house), ut (out).

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