#Dialect#: South-Western, with some admixture of Northern forms due to a
copyist.
#Inflexions#:—
VERB: pres. ind. 1 sg. _ichaue_, &c. (see note to l. 129).
2 sg. _makest_ 169, _worst_ 170.
3 sg. _geþ_ (in rime) 238; contracted _fint_ 239,
_last_ 335, _sitt_ 443, _stont_ 556.
2 pl. _ȝe beþ_ 582.
3 pl. _strikeþ_ 252 (proved by rime with 3 sg.
_likeþ_).
imper. pl. _make_ 216, _chese_ 217; beside _doþ_ 218.
pres. p. _berking_ 286 (in rime with verbal sb.);
_daunceing_ (in rime) 298. The forms _kneland_ 250,
_liggeand_ 388, are due to a Northern copyist.
strong pp. (various forms): _go_ (: _wo_) 196, _ygo_
(: _mo_) 349, _ydone_ (: _-none_) 76, _comen_ 29, _come_
181, _ycomen_ 203, _yborn_ 174, _bore_ 210.
infin. Note _aski_ (OE. _acsian_) 467 (App. § 13 vii).
PRONOUN 3 PERS.: fem. nom. _he_ 408, 446, _hye_ 337, beside _sche_
75, 77, &c.
pl. nom. _he_ (in rime) 185, _hye_ 91, beside _þai_ 32, 69,
&c.;
poss. _her_ 'their' 87, 413, 415; obj. _hem_ 69, &c.
NOUN: Note the plurals _honden_ 79, _berien_ 258.
The original text preserved final _-e_ better than the extant MSS., e.g.
_And seyd<ė> þus þe king<ė> to_ 119.
_Þat noþing help<ė> þe no schal_ 172.
_Al þe vt<ė>mast<ė> wal_ 357.
_So, sir, as ȝe seyd<ė> nouþė_ 466.
#Sounds#: _ǭ_ for OE. _ā_ is proved in rime: _biholde_ (OE.
_beháldan_): _gold_ (OE. _góld_) 367-8 (cp. 467-8); and _yhote_ (OE.
_gehāten_): _note_ (OFr. _note_) 601-2.
The rime _frut_: _lite_ 257-8 points to original _frut_: _lut_ (OE.
_lȳt_), with Western _ǖ_, from OE. _ȳ_, riming with OFr.
_ǖ_.
* * * * *
1-22. These lines, found also in _Lai le Freine_, would serve as preface
to any of the Breton lays, with the couplet ll. 23-4 as the special
connecting link. In the Auchinleck MS., _Orfeo_ begins on a fresh leaf
at l. 25, without heading or capitals to indicate that it is a new poem.
The leaf preceding has been lost. There is good reason to suppose that
it contained the lines supplied in the text from the Harleian MS.