With these instances of the use of me (indef. or reflexive), the reader may compare the following:
(1) “Suche a touche in that tyde, he taȝte (Gauan) hym in tene
And gurdes me, Sir Gallerun, evyn grovelonges on grounde.”
(The Anturs of Arther at the Tarnewathelan, p. 22.)
(2) There at the dore he (the Fox) cast me downe hys pack.
Spenser’s Shep. Cal. ed. Morris, p. 460, l. 243.
Cp. Cut me, i. Hen. IV. Act 4. Sc. 4; steps me, Ib. Act 4, Sc. 3; comes me, runs me, Ib. Act 3, Sc. 1.
(3) “Juno enraged, and fretting thus,
Runs me unto one Æolus.”
(Virgile Travestie, 1664.)
The indefinite me = one is not uncommon in Elizabethan writers. Cf. “touch me his hat;” “touch me hir with a pint of sack,” etc.; “and stop me his dice you are a villaine” (Lodge’s Wit’s Miserie).
The following table exhibits the declension of the personal and relative pronouns:—
| SINGULAR. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. | I, | thou, | he, | ho, | hit. | |
| Gen. | My, myn, | thy, thyn, | his, | hir, her, | hit. | |
| Dat. | Me, | the, | him, | hir, her, | hit. | |
| Acc. | Me, | the, | him, | hir, her, | hit. | |
| PLURAL. | ||||||
| Nom. | We, | ȝe, | thay, | hit. | ||
| Gen. | Oure, | yor, youre, | her (here), hor, | hit. | ||
| Dat. | Vus (= uus), | yow, you, | hem, hom, | hit. | ||
| Acc. | Vus (= uus), | yow, you, | hem, hom, | hit. | ||
| Nom. | Who (quo). | |||||
| Gen. | Whose (quos). | |||||
| Dat. | Whom, Wham | (quom). | ||||
| Acc. | Whom, Wham | (quom). | ||||