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Riches and inheritance they be given by God's providence, to whom of his wisdom he thinketh good: for touching riches and inheritance, or some such like preposition.

İf, is somewhat strangely lacking:

Nort. in Arsan.

Unwise are they that end their matters with,
Had I wist.

Lidgate, lib. 1:

For ne were not this prudent ordinance.
Some to obey, and above to gye

Destroyed were all worldly policy.

The superfluity of prepositions is more rare:
Jewel :

The whole university and city of Oxford.
Gower :

So that my lord touchend of this,
I have answered, how that it is.

CHAP. VIII.

OF THE SYNTAX OF CONJUNCTIONS.

HE syntax of conjunctions is in order only; neither and either are placed in the beginning of words; nor and or coming after.

Sir Thomas More:

He can be no sanctuary-man, that hath neither discretion to desire it, nor malice to deserve it. Sir John Cheek :

Either by ambition you seek lordliness, much unfit for you; or by covetousness, ye be unsatiable, a

thing likely enough in you, or else by folly, ye be not content with your estate, a fancy to be pluckt out of you.

Lidgate, lib. 2:

Wrong, clyming up of states and degrees,
Either by murder, or by false treasons
Asketh a fall, for their final guerdons.

Here, for nor in the latter member, ne is sometimes used:

Lambert:

But the archbishop set himself against it, affirming plainly, that he neither could, ne would suffer it.

The like syntax is also to be marked in so, and as, used comparatively; for, when the comparison is in quantity, then so goeth before, and as followeth.

Ascham :

He hateth himself, and hasteth his own hurt, that is content to hear none so gladly, as either a fool or a flatterer.

Gower, lib. 1:

Men wist in thilk time none

So fair a wight, as she was one.

Sometime for so, as cometh in.

Chaucer, lib. 5. Troil.

And said, I am, albeit to you no joy,

As gentle a man, as any wight in Troy.

But if the comparison be in quality, then it is contrary.

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And, in the beginning of a sentence, serveth instead of an admiration: And, what a notable sign of patience was it in Job, not to murmur against the Lord!

Chaucer, 3d book of Fame :
What, quoth she, and be
And, wene ye for to do good,

ye

wood!

And, for to have of that no fame!

Conjunctions of divers sorts are taken one for another as, But, a severing conjunction, for a conditioning:

Chaucer in the Man of Law's Tale:

But it were with the ilk eyen of his mind, With which men seen' after they ben blind. Sir Thomas More:

Which neither can they have, but you give it; neither can you give it, if ye agree not.

The self-same syntax is in and, the coupling conjunction;

The Lord Berners in the Preface to his Translation of Froisart:

What knowledge should we have of ancient things past, and history were not.

Sir John Cheek:

Ye have waxed greedy now upon cities, and have attempted mighty spoils, to glut up, and you could, your wasting hunger.

On the other side, for, a cause-renderer, hath sometime the force of a severing one.

Lidgate, lib. 3.

But it may fall a Drewry in his right,

To outrage a giant for all his great might.

Here the two general exceptions are termed, Asyndeton, and Polysyndeton.

Asyndeton, when the conjunction wanteth : The universities of christendom are the eyes, the lights, the leaven, the salt, the seasoning of the world.

Gower :

To whom her heart cannot heal,

Turn it to woe, turn it to weal.

Here the sundering conjunction, or, is lacking, and in the former example, and, the coupler.

Polysyndeton is in doubling the conjunction more than it need to be:

Gower, lib. 4:

So, whether that he frieze, or sweat,
Or 'tte be in, or 'tte be out,

He will be idle all about.

CHAP. IX

OF THE DISTINCTION OF SENTENCES.

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LL the parts of Syntax have already been declared. There resteth one general affection of the whole, dispersed thorough

every member thereof, as the blood is thorough the body; and consisteth in the breathing, when we pronounce any sentence. For, whereas our breath is by nature so short, that we cannot continue without a stay to speak long together; it was thought necessary as well for the speaker's ease, as for the plainer deliverance of the things spoken, to invent this means, whereby men pausing a pretty while, the whole speech might never the worse be understood.

These distinctions, are either of a perfect, or im

perfect sentence. The distinctions of an imperfect

sentence are two, a comma, and a semicolon.

A comma is a mean breathing, when the word serveth indifferently, both to the parts of the sentence going before, and following after, and is marked thus ().

A semicolon is a distinction of an imperfect sentence, wherein with somewhat a longer breath, the sentence following is included; and is noted thus (;). Hither pertaineth a parenthesis, wherein two commas include a sentence:

Jewel :

Certain falshoods (by mean of good utterance) have sometimes more likely-hood of truth, than truth itself.

Gower, lib. 1:

Division, (the gospel saith)
One house upon another laith.
Chaucer, 3d book of Fame:
For time, ylost (this know ye)
By no way may recovered be.

These imperfect distinctions in the syntax of a substantive, and an adjective give the former place to the substantive;

Ascham:

Thus the poor gentleman suffered grief; great
for the pain; but greater for the spite.

Gower, lib. 2. Speaking of the envious person:
Though he a man see vertuous,

And full of good condition,

Thereof maketh he no mention.

The distinction of a perfect sentence hath a more full stay, and doth rest the spirit, which is a pause or a period.

A pause is a distinction of a sentence, though per

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