“Beith larg and iffis frely of thi thing,”
the Scottish form iffis (give) and the Southern beith in close conjunction; and we find no less than six or seven forms of the plural of the past tense of the verb “to be;” as, for example, war ([3136]), veir ([818]), ware ([825]), waren ([3301]), veryng ([2971]), waryng ([443]), etc. If we could suppose that the scribe was not himself a Scotchman, we might in some measure account for such a result; but the supposition is altogether untenable, as the peculiar character of the handwriting (resembling that found, not in English, but in French MSS.) decides it to be certainly Scottish; as is also evident from the occurrence, in the same hand-writing, of a Scotticised version of Chaucer’s “Flee from the press.”
The best that can be done is to collect a few instances of peculiarities.
1. The broad Northumbrian forms a, ane, baith, fra, ga, haill, hame, knaw, law, sa, wat, although occasionally retained, are also at times changed into o, one, boith, fro, go, holl, hom, know, low, so, and wot. Thus, at the end of [l. 3246], we find haill, which could not have been altered without destroying the rime; but in [l. 3078], we find it changed, in the middle of the line, into holl. In [l. 3406], we find sa, but only three lines further on we find so twice.
So, too, we not only find tane (taken), gais (goes), but also the forms tone and goß. See lines [1071], [1073].
2. The true plural form of the verb is shewn by lines [203], [204],
“Of quhois fame and worschipful dedis
Clerkis into diuerß bukis redis,”
where alteration would have ruined the rime utterly; and the same termination (-is) is correctly used in the imperative mood, as,
——“ſo giffis ws delay” ([l. 463]);