- Project Runeberg -  On the language of Swinburne's lyrics and epics /
35

(1910) [MARC] Author: Frank Heller
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VERBS —ADVERBS 35

style it has never quite lost its sway, though even there
it is fading away.

Swinburne’s language, however, is the language of
the Elizabethan era even in this point. There the
subjunctive is still used according to the rules that Shakespeare
followed. The subjunctive is used in principal clauses as
well as in different kinds of subordinate clauses, and in
several of these latter it is almost obligatory.

In principal clauses it cannot, by the nature of the
thing, attain any important position. Still, it occurs in such
cases as:

II, 75, Be the ways of thy giving
As mine were to me . . .
The free life of thy living,
Be the gift of it free . . .

273, Die they in whom dies freedom, die and cease,
Though the world weep for these . . .
Live thou and love . . .

VI, 11, Fair befall the fair green close that lies below the mill!

Further, the subjunctive is found in principal clauses
of the type: I had rather;

IV, 199, Fain were I thou shouldst overtake

And fetch again that knight that spake . . .

200, And Balen answered: I were loth
To fight . . .

In consecutive and final clauses the subjunctive is also
found, and is used according to the rules of the
Elizabethan era.

II, 168, Kiss them . . . that there be no more sleep or death ...

202, It is better that war spare but one or two
Than that many live and liberty be slain . . .

156, Lest thine own sea disclaim thee,
Lest thine own sons despise . . .

IV, 201, [fear] Lest death in darkness yet were near . . .

Of course the modern periphrasis with shall, may,
also occurs.

In temporal clauses beginning with before, ere, till,

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