[17.] “4. And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.
“5. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him.”
[22.] History of English Rhythms, vol. i. p. 159.
[23.] Syr Gawayn, ed. Madden, p. 302.
[24.] Wherever the Text has been altered, the reading of the MS. will be found in a foot-note.
[25.] Polychronicon R. Higdeni, ap. Gale, p. 210, 211. See Garnett’s Philological Essays, p. 43, and Specimens of Early English, p. 338.
[26.] It is to be regretted that Garnett did not enter upon details, and give his readers some tests by which to distinguish the “five distinctly marked forms.”
[27.] In English works of the fourteenth century the -en of the Midland, and the -es of the Northumbrian is frequently dropped, thus gradually approximating to our modern conjugation.
[28.] We are here speaking of works written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
[29.] Robert of Brunne, in his “Handlyng Synne,” often employs it instead of -en, but only for the sake of the rhyme.