_Imperative Mood._ Examples of the imperative mood singular, 2nd person, are _et_, _sit_, 925, _nim_, 1336, _yif_, 674; in the plural, the usual ending is _-es_, as in _liþes_, 2204, _comes_, 1798, _folwes_, 1885, _lokes_, 2292, _bes_, 2246, to which set belong _slos_, 2596, _dos_, 2592; but there are instances of the ending _-eth_ also, as in _cometh_, 1885, _yeueþ_, 911, to which add _doth_, 2037, _goth_, 1780. Indeed both forms occur in one line, as in _Cometh swiþe, and folwes me_ (1885). Instead of _-eth_ we even find _-et_, as in _herknet_, 1. These variations afford a good illustration of the unsettled state of the grammar in some parts of England at this period; we need not suppose the scribe to be at fault in all cases where there is a want of uniformity. Of reflexive verbs, we meet with _me dremede_, 1284, _me met_, 1285, _me þinkes_, 2169, _him hungrede_, 654, _him semede_, 1652, _him stondes_, 2983, _him rewede_, 503. The present participles end most commonly in _-inde_, as _fastinde_, 865, _grotinde_ (? _gretinde_), 1390, _lauhwinde_, 946, _plattinde_, 2282, _starinde_, 508; but we also find _gangande_, 2283, _driuende_, 2702. Compare the nouns _tiþande_, 2279, _offrende_, 1386, which are Norse forms, _tíðindi_ (pl.) being the Icelandic for _tidings_, and _offrandi_ the present participle of _offra_, to offer. But the true Icelandic equivalent of the substantive _an offering_ is _offran_, and the old Swedish is _offer_; and hence we see at how very early a date the confusion between the noun-ending and the ending of the present participle arose; a confusion which has bewildered many generations of Englishmen. Yet this very poem in other places has _-ing_ as a noun-ending _only_, never (that I remember) for the present participle. Examples of it are _greting_, 166, _dreping_, i.e. slaughter, 2684, _buttinge_, _skirming_, _wrastling_, _putting_, _harping_, _piping_, _reding_; see ll. 2322-2327. Such words are frequently called _verbal nouns_, but the term is very likely to mislead. I have found that many suppose it to imply _present participles used as nouns_, instead of _nouns of verbal derivation_. If such nouns could be called by some new name, such as _nouns of action_, or by any other title that can be conventionally restricted to signify them, it would, I think, be a gain. Amongst the auxiliary verbs, may be noted the use of _cone_, 622, as the subjunctive form of _canst_; _we mone_, 840, as the subjunctive of _mowen_; cf. _ye mowen_, 11; but especially we should observe the use of the comparatively rare verbs _birþe_, it behoves, pt. t. _birde_, it behoved, and _þurte_, he need, the latter of which is fully explained in the Glossary to William of Palerne, s.v. _þort_.