Part 30

"'What's a tall man unless he fight?'

"'The sword hath ended him: so shall it thee, Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner.'

"'Who but must laugh, if such a man there be? Who would not weep, if Atticus were he?'

"'I am to second Ion if he fail'; the failing is left quite doubtful. 'I should very imperfectly execute the task which I have undertaken if I were merely to treat of battles and sieges.' Macaulay thus implies that the scope of his work is to be wider than mere battles and sieges.

"The subjunctive appears in some other constructions. 'I hope to see the exhibition before it close'; 'wait till he return'; 'thou shall stand by the river's brink against he come'; 'take heed lest passion sway thy judgment'; 'speak to me, though it be in wrath'; 'if he smite him with an instrument of iron so that he die, he is a murderer'; 'beware this night that thou cross not my footsteps' (Shelley).

"Again. 'Whatever this be'; 'whoever he be'; 'howe'er it be' (Tennyson); and such like.

"'And as long, O God, as she Have a grain of love for me, So long, no doubt, no doubt, Shall I nurse in my dark heart, However weary, a spark of will Not to be trampled out.'

"The Future Subjunctive is given in our scheme of the verb as 'should' in all persons: 'If I should, if thou should, if he should.' In old English, we have 'thou shouldst': 'if thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities.'

"An inverted conditional form has taken deep root in our language, and may be regarded as an elegant and forcible variety. While dispensing with the conjunction, it does not cause ambiguity; nevertheless, conditionality is well marked.

"'If you should abandon your Penelope and your home for Calypso, ----': 'should you abandon ----.'

"'Go not my horse the better, I must become a borrower of the night For a dark hour or twain.'

"'Here had we now our country's honor roof'd Were the graced person of our Banquo present.'

"'Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou com'st in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee.'

"'Come one, come all, this rock shall fly From its firm base as soon as I.'--Scott.

"The following examples are given by Mätzner:

"'Varney's communications, be they what they might, were operating in his favor.'--Scott.

"'Governing persons, were they never so insignificant intrinsically, have for most part plenty of Memoir-writers.'--Carlyle.

"'Even were I disposed, I could not gratify the reader.'--Warren.

"'Bring them back to me, cost what it may.'--Coleridge, 'Wallenstein.'

"'And will you, nill you, I will marry you.'--'Taming of the Shrew.'

"Were is used in the principal clause for 'should be' or 'would be.'

"'I were (=should be) a fool, not less than if a panther Were panic-stricken by the antelope's eye, If she escape me.'--Shelley.

"'Were you but riding forth to air yourself, Such parting were too petty.'

"'He were (=would be) no lion, were not Romans hinds.'

"'Should he be roused out of his sleep to-night, ... It were not well; indeed it were not well.'--Shelley.

"Had is sometimes used in the principal clause for 'should have' or 'would have.'

"'Had I known this before we set out, I think I had (= would have) remained at home.'--Scott.

"'Hadst thou been kill'd when first thou didst presume, Thou hadst not lived to kill a son of mine.'