Note 1.—To express agency, Mn.E. employs by, rarely of; M.E. of, rarely by; O.E. frǫm (fram), rarely of: Sē ðe Godes bebodu ne gecnǣwð, ne bið hē oncnāwen frǫm Gode, He who does not recognise God’s commands, will not be recognized by God; Betwux þǣm wearð ofslagen Ēadwine ... fram Brytta cyninge, Meanwhile, Edwin was slain by the king of the Britons.
Note 2.—O.E. had no progressive forms for the passive, and could not, therefore, distinguish between He is being wounded and He is wounded. It was not until more than a hundred years after Shakespeare’s death that being assumed this function. Weorðan, which originally denoted a passage from one state to another, was ultimately driven out by bēon (wesan), and survives now only in Woe worth (= be to).
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Vocabulary.
ðā Beormas, Permians.
ðā Dęeniscan, the Danish (men), Danes.
ðā Finnas, Fins.
ðæt gewald, control [wealdan].
sēo sǣ, sea.
sēo scīr, shire, district.