[115] Bot ser that Virgil standis but compare.—Gawin Douglass.
[116] An occurs frequently for if in the earliest English writers. Bacon frequently uses it in this sense. “Fortune is to be honoured and respected, an it be but for her daughters, Confidence and Reputation.” “And certainly it is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set their house on fire, an it were, but to roast their eggs.”—Bacon’s Essays, Civ. and Mor. In the folio edition, printed in 1740, it is improperly spelled and. An for if is still retained in our address to royalty, An ’t please your majesty: and in Scotland is in general use.
[117] The correctness of most of these, and several other of Tooke’s etymologies, has been disputed, in a learned and ingenious article in the Quarterly Review (No. 108). In many of the critic’s animadversions it is impossible not to concur; but we do not agree with him, when he rejects the derivation of if from the Anglo-Saxon verb gifan, “to give;” nor do we consider that Jamieson’s argument, to which he refers, is such as to justify the critic’s conclusion. The distinction between bot and but he confidently pronounces to be “a mere chimera,” and maintains that but is in every instance be utan, “be out,” without corresponding to the Latin words sed, vero, autem, sine. It must be acknowledged that Tooke’s derivation is erroneous, there being no such Anglo-Saxon verb as “botan,” of which bot could be the imperative. But we agree with Dr. Jamieson in thinking, whatever may be the etymology, that but and bot are originally distinct words. Indeed, it appears to us, that the reasoning of the critic is neither correct, nor quite consistent with itself. We do not consider but for bot to be discriminative; nor can we allow, that, if but be equivalent to sed, se, sine, implying separation, it can also be equivalent to autem, “moreover,” to which bot corresponds, implying adjection, or subjunction. Nor can we admit, that the synonymous words mais (French), maar (Dutch), ma (Italian), imply preference, as the critic affirms, but something to be added, corresponding with what has been previously said.
[118] The critic to whom we have alluded in the preceding note contends, that except cannot be an imperative, “because it has no subject; and that a verb could not be employed, in any language that distinguishes the different persons, without a gross violation of idiom.” He considers the word to be an abbreviated participle. The correctness of this opinion I am disposed to question. In our Anglo-Saxon translation, the term except is rendered by buton, which is no participle; moreover, to place the participle perfect before the noun, the clause being absolute, is irreconcilable with the idiom of our language. “‘All were involved in this affair, except one;’ that is,” says Webster, who seems divided between the imperative and the participle, “‘one excepted.’” Now “one excepted,” and “excepting one,” are perfectly consonant with analogy; but “excepted one” is sanctioned by no authority. I am inclined to think that our translators, without regarding the Latin or the Icelandic idiom, to which the reviewer refers, used the word except as an imperative, without a subject. He denies, however, that it can be so employed. He surely will not deny, that usage warrants us in saying, “His arguments, take them as here exhibited, amount to nothing.” The use of the imperative, infinitive, and participles, in an absolute sense, or without a subject, is a common idiom in our language, and recommends itself, as shall be afterwards shown, by some peculiar advantages.
[119] This phraseology has been censured by Buchanan and the author of the British Grammar; but, as I apprehend, without the shadow of authority. To ask a question with a principal verb, as burns he, the latter affirms to be a barbarism. To disprove the assertion, I shall only, in addition to the one quoted from Macbeth, produce these examples. “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”—Bible. “Died he not in bed?”—Shakspeare. “Or flies the javelin swifter to its mark?”—Ib. “And live there men who slight immortal fame?”—Pope.
[120] Our translators, as the judicious critic last quoted observes, have totally enervated the strength of the original, which runs thus, ἔπεσε, ἔπεσε, Βαβυλὼν ἡ πόλις ἡ μεγάλη, and which they have rendered, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city.”
[121] The ellipsis of the copulative, in such examples, was termed by the ancients asyndeton; and this deviation from the established rules of syntax they referred to a grammatical figure termed syllepsis indirecta, or “indirect comprehension of several singulars under one plural,” opposed to the syllepsis directa, or that expressed by a copulative.
[122] It is sometimes used for every, and applied to more than two.
[123] In the vulgar translation of the Bible, this mode of expression frequently occurs, thus, “I am thy exceeding great reward.” “I will make thee exceeding fruitful.”
Wallis’s admission of this phraseology proves it to have been good English when he wrote, or that, in his opinion at least, it was unobjectionable. His translation of vir summe sapiens, is “a man exceeding wise.” This, and similar modes of expression, appear to have been in his time very common, thus,