[Footnote 63: Garnett asserts that the present participle in _-ande_ is “a _certain criterion_ of a Northern dialect subsequent to the thirteenth century.” It is never found in any Southern writer, but is common to many Midland dialects. Capgrave employs it frequently in his Chronicles. It is, however, no safe criterion by itself.] [Footnote 64: The final _e_ is often dropped.] [Footnote 65: In _The Wohunge of Ure Lauerd_ the _e_ is constantly omitted.] V. +Adverbs.+ The Norse forms _hethen_, _quethen_ (_whethen_),[66] and _thethen_, seem to have been known to the West-Midland dialect as well as the Saxon forms _hence_ (_hennes_, _henne_), _whence_ (_whennes_), _thence_ (_thennes_), etc. The adverbs _in-blande_ (together), _in-lyche_ (alike), _in-mydde_ (amidst), _in-monge_ (amongst), are due, perhaps, to Scandinavian influence. [Footnote 66: “Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyȝt.”] VI. +Prepositions.+ The preposition _from_ never occurs in the following poems; it is replaced by _fro_, _fra_ (Northumbrian), O.N. _frá_. VII. +Conjunctions.+ The conjunction _if_ takes a negative form; as, _nif_ = if not, unless. DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPT USED IN THE PRESENT VOLUME.[67] +Cotton MS. Nero A. x.+ A small quarto volume, consisting of three different MSS. bound together, which originally had no connection with each other. Prefixed is an imperfect list of contents in the hand-writing of James, the Bodley Librarian. The first portion consists of a panegyrical oration in Latin by Justus de Justis, on John Chedworth, archdeacon of Lincoln, dated at Verona 16th July, 1468. It occupies thirty-six folios, written on vellum, and is the original copy presented by the author. The second portion is that we are more immediately concerned with. It is described by James as “_Vetus poema Anglicanum, in quo sub insomnii figmento multa ad religionem et mores spectantia explicantur_,” and this account, with some slight changes, is adopted by Smith and Planta, in their catalogues; both of whom assign it to the fifteenth century. It will appear, by what follows, that no less than four distinct poems have been confounded together by these writers. This portion of the volume extends from fol. 37 to fol. 126, inclusive, and is written by one and the same hand, in a small, sharp, irregular character, which is often, from the paleness of the ink, and the contractions used, difficult to read. There are no titles or rubrics, but the divisions are marked by large initial letters of blue, flourished with red, and several illuminations, coarsely executed, serve by way of illustration, each of which occupies a page. 1. Four of these are prefixed to the first poem. In the first the Author is represented slumbering in a meadow, by the side of a streamlet, clad in a long red gown, having falling sleeves, turned up with white, and a blue hood attached round the neck.