[Footnote 30: The Midland dialect is a very difficult one to deal with, as it presents us with no uniform type; and, moreover, works written in this idiom are marked by Northern or Southern peculiarities, which have led many of our editors altogether astray in determining the locality of their composition.] [Footnote 31: Published by the Camden Society, 1842.] [Footnote 32: Edited by Mr. Halliwell for the Percy Society.] [Footnote 33: Edited by me for the Philological Society, 1862.] [Footnote 34: _-us_ and _-ud_ for _-es_ and _-ed_, as well as _hom_, _hor_, do occasionally occur in the MS. containing our poems.] [Footnote 35: The Romance of William and the Werwolf is written in the West-Midland dialect as spoken probably in Shropshire.] [Footnote 36: Robson’s Metrical Romances, p. 54, l. 9.] [Footnote 37: _Woldus_ = _woldes_ = _wouldst_, appears in Audelay’s poems (in the Shropshire dialect of the fifteenth century), p. 32, l. 6.] [Footnote 38: The so-called Northumbrian records of the ninth and tenth centuries frequently use _-es_ instead of _-est_, in the 2nd pers. preterite of regular verbs, _e.g._, _ðu forcerdes usic on-bec_ = Thou turnedst us hindward. --(Ps. xliii. 11.) _ðu saldes usic_ = Thou gavest us. --(Ps. xliii. 12.) _ðu bi-bohtes folc ðin butan weorðe_ = Thou soldest thy folk without price. --(Ps. xliii. 12.) ðu _ge-hiowades_ me & _settes_ ofer me hond ðine = Thou madest me and settest over me thy hand. --(Ps. cxxxviii. 5.) ðu _ðreades ða_ ofer-hygdan = Thou hast rebuked the proud. --(Ps. cxviii. 21.) Ic ondeto ðe fader drihten heofnes forðon ðu _gedeigeldes_ ðas ilco from snotrum & hogum & _ædeaudes_ ða ðæm lytlum = I thank thee, O father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. --(Matt. xi. 25).] [Footnote 39: Þou _torned_ us hindward. --(Early English Nn. Psalter, xliii. 11.) Þou _salde_ þi folk. --(_Ibid._ xliii. 12.) Þou _meked_ us. --(_Ibid._ xliii. 20.) Þou _made_ me and set þi hand over me. --(_Ibid._ cxxxviii. 5.) Þou _snibbed_ proude. --(_Ibid._ cxviii. 21.)] [Footnote 40: I am informed by a Shropshire friend that it prevails in his county under the form _shinneh_. _Win_ = will, in _winnot_, _wunnot_ = will not, is still heard in the West-Midland districts. It is found in Robson’s Romances and in Liber Cure Cocorum.] [Footnote 41: They _shall_ know soon there is no goodness in man like Belshazzar’s virtues.] [Footnote 42: And those that seemly are and sweet _shall_ see His (God’s) face.] [Footnote 43: Peacocks and partriches parboiled _shall_ be.] [Footnote 44: For þer are beasts þat _shall_ be roasted.] [Footnote 45: All _shall_ be drawn (have the entrails removed), Sir, at the side.]