_Infinitive Mood._—The infinitive terminates in _-en_, which is seldom
dropped.
There are no infinitives in _-y_ or _-ie_, as in Southern English writers,
nor do we find them in the Ormulum, or in Robert of Brunne's "Handlyng
Synne," and they were, most probably, wholly unknown to the East Midland
district.
The _t_ in the 2nd pers. sing. pres. is occasionally dropped, as _beas_ (=
_best_), art, _betes_, beatest, _findes_, findest, etc.; but not in the
preterite of regular verbs.
There are no instances of the 3rd pers. sing. present in _-es_ in this
poem.
The final _e_ of the first and third persons (sing.) of the preterite tense
is often dropped before a vowel or an _h_,[63] and, in a few cases, through
the carelessness of the scribe,[64] it is unwritten before a consonant,
where we should expect to, and do, find it in the majority of instances.
Some few strong verbs have become weak, as _grapte_ (grasped, felt),
_gette_ (poured), _smette_ (smote).
_Imperative Mood._—Verbs forming the past tense in _de_ or _te_ take no
inflexion in the 2nd pers. sing. imperative.
_Participles._—1. The active or imperfect participle ends in _-ende_ or
_-ande_, the former being the Midland and the latter the Northumbrian form.
The Southern affix is _-inde_, from which we have the modern _-ing_ (O.E.
_-inge_).
Our author rhymes _specande_ with _lockende_, and in the Bestiary we find
that the participle in _-ande_ rhymes with an infinitive in _-en_,[65] and
this accounts for such forms as _stinken_ = _stinkende_, _brennen_ =
_brennende_, in the present poem.
2. The passive or perfect participle of regular or weak verbs terminates in
_-ed_; of irregular or strong verbs in _-en_. In _bigote_ (begotten),
_funde_ (found), _geue_ (given), the absence of the _n_ is probably an
error of the scribe.
3. The prefix _i-_ or _y-_ (A.S. _ge-_) is not of frequent occurrence
either in this poem or in the Bestiary; in the former we have _i-wreken_
(avenged), _i-wrogt_ (wrought), _ybiried_ (buried), _y-oten_ (called); and
in the latter we find _i-digt_ (arranged).
There are two conjugations of verbs, regular (weak) and irregular (strong).
The regular verbs form their past tense in _-ede_, _-de_, or _-te_; the
past participle ends in _-ed_, _-d_, or _-t_. Irregular verbs form their
past tense by a change of vowel, and the past participle terminates in
_-en_.