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34
SYNTAX
interrogation and negation. In both these cases English
prose has in nearly all cases accepted a periphrasis with
the auxiliary verb do. The old language, however, did not
employ such a periphrasis: interrogation was expressed by
inverted word-order, and the negative particle was added
to the verb without an intermediary. In the same way
the higher style, which is always conservative, still uses
this method, but to an ever-decreasing extent.
Swinburne, however, has completely returned to the
old standpoint. And even so completely that, while some
cases of do being used as an auxiliary for interrogation
have been noted, there is hardly a single case of this use
for purposes of negation.
Interrogation of any kind, then, is usually expressed thus:
II, 247, Deny they or dissemble?
and negation thus:
II, 172, We spake not loud for thy sake.
Exceptions from the former rule are to be found now
and then.
I, 166, Did he lie? did he laugh? does he know it
Now he lies out of reach, out of breath?
IV, 326, Dost thou mock of our praise?
VI, 135, But thou, dost thou hear?
An instance of do used for purposes of negation
occurs in:
I, 190, I love you and I do not love.
It is rather striking that, though do is not commonly
to be found as a negative or interrogative auxiliary, it may
still be used for the reason of emphasis, just as in
Shakespeare; thus, in Laus Veneris:
I, 19, Let me think yet a little; 1 do know . . .
and III, 313, Do thou then answer me.
The subjunctive mood plays a very unimportant role
in modern English. It only retains its position in some
easily-counted cases of old-fashioned style. In the higher
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