[§ 490]. In English there is neither a passive nor a middle voice.
The following couplet from Dryden's "Mac Flecnoe" exhibits a construction which requires explanation:—
An ancient fabric, raised to inform the sight,
There stood of yore, and Barbican it hight.
Here the word hight = was called, and seems to present an instance of the participle being used in a passive sense without the so-called verb substantive. Yet it does no such thing. The word is no participle at all; but a simple preterite. Certain verbs are naturally either passive or active, as one of two allied meanings may predominate. To be called is passive; so is, to be beaten. But, to bear as a name is active; so is, to take a beating. The word, hight, is of the same class of verbs with the Latin vapulo; and it is the same as the Latin word, cluo.—Barbican cluit = Barbican audivit = Barbican it hight.
CHAPTER XXIII.
ON THE AUXILIARY VERBS.
[§ 491]. The auxiliary verbs, in English, play a most important part in the syntax of the language. They may be classified upon a variety of principles. The following, however, are all that need here be applied.