[166] foreign; Lat. advena.
[167] realm.
[168] divided.
[169] Scarcely.
[170] hardly.
[171] dwelleth.
[172] far.
[173] I find in an "Essay on the language and versification of Chaucer" prefixed to Bell's edition of his works, part of this extract copied from a Harlein manuscript, said to be more correct than the manuscript from which Dr. Hickes copied it. But on comparing the extracts in both, I find none but verbal differences; the sense of both is the same.
[174] In a charter of Edward III. dated 1348, yeven is used for given. Yave for gave is used by Chaucer.—Knight's Tale, line 2737. "And yave hem giftes after his degree." In a charter of Edward the Confessor, gif is used in its Saxon purity. In the same charter, Bissop his land, is used for a genitive. The Scotch wrote z for y; zit for yet; zeres for years.—Douglass. I do not find, at this period, the true Saxon genitive in use: The Bissop his land, is deemed an error. This mode of speaking has however prevailed, till within a few years, and still has its advocates. But it is certain the Saxons had a proper termination for the genitive or possessive, which is preserved in the two first declensions of the German.
Example of the declension of nouns among the Saxons.