[1543.] The perfect subjunctive sometimes refers to past action now completed: as, utinam abierit malam crucem, Pl. Poen. 799, I hope he’s got him to the bitter cross ([1165]). utinam spem implēverim, Plin. Ep. 1, 10, 3, I hope I may have fulfilled the expectations.
[1544.] (2.) The imperfect represents a wish as hopeless in the present or immediate future, the pluperfect represents it as unfulfilled in the past: as,
([a.]) tēcum lūdere sīcut ipsa possem, Cat. 2, 9, could I with thee but play, e’en as thy mistress’ self, to Lesbia’s sparrow. utinam ego tertius vōbīs amīcus adscrīberer, TD. 5, 63, would that I could be enrolled with you myself, as the third friend, says tyrant Dionysius to Damon and Phintias. (b.) utinam mē mortuum prius vīdissēs, QFr. 1, 3, 1, I wish you had seen me dead first. (c.) utinam nē in nemore Pēliō secūribus caesa accēdisset abiēgna ad terram trabēs, E. in Cornif. 2, 34, had but, in Pelion’s grove, by axes felled, ne’er fallen to the earth the beam of fir, i.e. for the Argo. utinam ille omnīs sēcum cōpiās ēdūxisset, C. 2, 4, I only wish the man had marched out all his train-bands with him.
[1545.] In old or poetical Latin, the imperfect sometimes denotes unfulfilled past action, like the usual pluperfect; as, utinam in Siciliā perbīterēs, Pl. R. 494, would thou hadst died in Sicily. utinam tē dī prius perderent, Pl. Cap. 537, I wish the gods had cut thee off before. See [2075].
[1546.] In poetry, a wish is sometimes thrown into the form of a conditional protasis with sī or ō sī: as, ō sī urnam argentī fōrs quae mihi mōnstret, H. S. 2, 6, 10, oh if some chance a pot of money may to me reveal.
[(B.) Exhortation, Direction, Statement of Propriety.]
[1547.] The subjunctive may be used to express an exhortation, a direction, or a statement of propriety.
The subjunctive of exhortation is sometimes preceded in old Latin by utī or ut, originally interrogative. In negative exhortations or directions, nē, nēmō, nihil, or numquam, &c., is used, rarely nōn.
[1548.] (1.) The present expresses what is to be done or is not to be done in the future: as,