to hare ægene burh, to a high burgh. Layamon, Brut, 3610, vol. i. p. 153. At other times, we have the article placed between the adjec tive and the noun: as, he heo wolde habben. hæge to are queene. he her would have. high to a queen. that is, 'for a noble queen.' Ibid. 3132, vol. i. p. 133. And we may remark that similar variations occur in the position of pronouns : - his drichliche lond. his lordly land. that is, 'his noble maiden.' 297. Now, although the former construction has become the general rule in modern composition, we still have vestiges of the latter; for with the words many, such, and what joined with nouns, and accompanied by the article, we find the article in the middle place: as, When the merry bells ring round, Milton, L'Allegro. I had rather be a dog and bay the moon, What a piece of work is man!—Hamlet, ii. 2. A similar order occurs, when an adjective is qualified by the words too, so, how, as. You hold too heinous a respect of grief. King John, iii. 4. Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.—Galatians, vi. 11. 298. Curiously enough, in some passages of Early English we find instances of the other construction; as, A such will brought this lond to gronde. Robert o Mony blessyng He hadde, for he delivered men of an so foul thyng. A so grete beast.-Chaucer. Hence the phrase 'many a youth' is quite in accordance with the older forms of the language; 'many' is here a true adjective, while the article stands between the adjective and the noun. 299. Archbishop Trench (English Past and Present, pp. 160-162, ed. 1859) explains many a youth' as arising from confusion of thought, and forgetfulness of original form. In the phrase 'many a youth,' he observes that the following points are perplexing to the student :— 1. The place of the indefinite article between the adjective and the substantive. 2. That it is not lawful to change the order, and to bring back the article to its ordinary position. We cannot say, 'a many youth,' or 'a many maid.' 3, That the junction of 'many,' an adjective of number, with 'youth' and 'maid' in the singular, seems inconsistent; for withdraw that 'a,' and it is not lawful to say 'many youth,' or 'many maid.' 300. Now the first and second objections are met by comparing the older forms of the language, where we observe a variation in the order of words: the article takes sometimes the first place, and sometimes the middle place. In reply to the third objection, we admit that the form many youth' is not customary, but it would be warranted by the analogy of plurimus puer, in Latin. And so Virgil: Crudelis ubique Luctus, ubique pavor, et plurima mortis imago. Aeneid, ii. 369. where Heyne paraphrases plurima mortis imago, h. e. ubique cædes facta cernitur; passim cæsorum cadavera projecta. So Ovid: Plurima lecta rosa est; sunt et sine nomine flores; Ipsa crocos tenues liliaque alba legit. Fast. iv. 441. 301. The explanation offered by Archbishop Trench is this-that many was originally a substantive, the Old French 'mesgnée,' 'mesnie,' and signified a 'household,' which meaning it constantly has in Wycliffe, and which it retained down to the time of Spenser: Then forth he fared with all his many bad. Shepherd's Calendar. We still recognise its character as a substantive in the phrases 'a good many,' 'a great many,' and, in Old English or Scottish, even 'a few many.' There can be no doubt that 'many' is often used as a substantive; though it may be derived from the Anglo-Saxon manigeo, a multitude,' rather than from the Norman-French mesnie, 'meinie,' 'a household,' 'a retinue.' 302. Then Archbishop Trench argues, truly enough, that a is sometimes a corrupted form of the preposition on or of: in this instance he considers it to stand for of, quoting Wycliffe, I encloside manye of seintis [multos sanctorum] in prisoun. Acts, xxvi. 10. He concludes, there can be no reasonable doubt that such a phrase as 'many a youth' was once 'many of youths,' or 'a many of youths.' By much use' of' was worn away into 'a'; this was then assumed to be the indefinite article, that which was really such being dropped; and youths' was then changed into 'youth' to match: one mistake, as is so often the case, being propped up and made plausible by a second, and thus we arrive at our present strange and perplexing idiom. This explanation, however ingenious, is wholly unnecessary; because, as we have seen, 'many' can be explained, in this construction, as an adjective. 303. But in the phrases 'a many men,' a many ships,' ‘a great many years,' we cannot explain 'many' as an adjective; for if so, it qualifies a noun in the plural, and yet it is joined with 'a' (an = one'), which is singular. We have seen above, that in Anglo-Saxon mænigeo is a noun signifying 'multitude,' 'crowd;' and even in modern English 'the many' bears this interpretation : The many rend the skies with loud applause; So love was crowned, but music won the cause. Dryden, Alexander's Feast. In these phrases 'a many men,' &c., I consider 'many' a noun, and the words 'men,' 'ships,' &c., as genitives by juxtaposition. According to this view, 'a many men' may be rendered in Latin multitudo hominum, whereas many a youth' would be plurimus puer. I would apply the same principle to the phrases 'a thousand men,' 'a dozen bottles;' but I must admit that it does not apply to a few horses;' for few (Anglo-Saxon feawa) is properly an adjective; and I can find no authority, beyond this phrase or similar phrases, for the substantive use of that word. 304. We must not lose sight of the fact indicated by Archbishop Trench, that a is, in some instances, a contraction of the Anglo-Saxon preposition an or æt. For example, we find the particle a before nouns which are used distributively; as, And passing rich with forty pounds a year. where 'a year' means 'for each year,' or 'in each year.' So, too, in common conversation we say 'sixpence a pound,' 'four shillings a bushel.' It is a nice question whether, in these phrases, a is an indefinite article or a preposition. It may possibly be the relic of an old preposition; and the tendency in modern times to introduce the Latin per, 'sixpence per pound,' appears to show the want of a preposition. But, on reference to the Anglo-Saxon, we find that, in phrases of this kind, the noun was used in the dative or some other case, without a preposition, and that the word alc, 'ilk,' เ each was frequently introduced; as alce gear, 'ilk year,' 6 each year; alce day, 'ilk day,' ' each day.' On the whole, I am inclined to think that, in these phrases, a is the indefinite article, meaning one; and that 'forty pounds a year' means 'forty pounds for one year,' i. e. for each and every year.' 305. There is more difficulty with those phrases where the particle a is joined with numerals; as, And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings.-Luke, ix. 28. There is a vale between the mountains that dureth nere For him was lever han at his beedes hed Of Aristotle and his philosophie, Than robes riche, or fidel, or sautrie. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, Prologue, 295. Here Mr. Morris reads, Twenty bookes.' This construction deserves further inquiry. At present we leave it to the judgment of others. DEFINITE ARTICLE. 306. Etymologically, the is derived from a form of the demonstrative pronoun. In modern English it has no distinction of gender, number, or case; but in Early English the following inflections occur :— 307. The pronunciation of the is very important, especially in singing. It is the before a word beginning with a consonant, and the before a word beginning with a vowel; as, 'the time,' 'the race,' 'the course.' 308. The original use of the definite article is to 'demonstrate,' or 'point out,' a particular object, or class of objects; as, The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Merchant of Venice, v. 1. Hence it is very commonly used in reference to some object previously known or mentioned; as, 'The exhibition which you saw yesterday.' 309. In some languages, the definite article is used with proper names of persons, who are distinguished, and well known to all; as ō IIλárov 'the Plato,' which Cicero renders Ille Plato. So the Italians speak of Il Tasso, and the French of L'Arioste. |