Early Britain - Anglo-Saxon Britain by Grant Allen
page 156 of 206 (75%)
page 156 of 206 (75%)
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pronouns, the auxiliary verbs, and the connecting particles, are all
necessarily and purely English. Two examples will suffice to make this principle perfectly clear. In the first, which is the most familiar quotation from Shakespeare, all the words of foreign origin have been printed in italics:â To be, or not to be,âthat is the _question_: Whether 'tis _nobler_ in the mind to _suffer_ The slings and arrows of _outrageous fortune_; Or to take _arms_ against a sea of _troubles_, And, by _opposing_, end them? To die,âto sleep,â No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end The heart-ache, and the thousand _natural_ shocks That flesh is _heir_ to,â'tis a _consummation_ _Devoutly_ to be wished. To die,âto sleep;â To sleep! _perchance_ to dream: ay, there's the rub For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this _mortal_ coil, Must give us _pause_: there's the _respect_ That makes _calamity_ of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The _oppressor's_ wrong, the proud man's _contumely_, The _pangs_ of _despised_ love, the law's _delay_, The _insolence_ of _office_, and the _spurns_ That _patient merit_ of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his _quietus_ make With a bare bodkin? Here, out of 167 words, we find only 28 of foreign origin; and even these are Englished in their terminations or adjuncts. _Noble_ is |
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