. The comic English grammar; a new and facetious introduction to the English tongue . understood: as, Row with me downthe river, that is Row thou, or do thou row. Come where the aspens quiver, come thou,or do thou come. Fly not yet; fly notthou, or do not thou fly. Pass the ruby; passthou, or do thou pass the ruby (not the Rubicon).Drink to me only; drink thou, or do thoudrink only. Wake, dearest, wake; wakethou, or do thou wake. Tell her I love her; tell thou, or do thou tell her I love her. Inshort, you cannot listen to a hawker of ballads,crying his commodities about the streets, withouthea
. The comic English grammar; a new and facetious introduction to the English tongue . understood: as, Row with me downthe river, that is Row thou, or do thou row. Come where the aspens quiver, come thou,or do thou come. Fly not yet; fly notthou, or do not thou fly. Pass the ruby; passthou, or do thou pass the ruby (not the Rubicon).Drink to me only; drink thou, or do thoudrink only. Wake, dearest, wake; wakethou, or do thou wake. Tell her I love her; tell thou, or do thou tell her I love her. Inshort, you cannot listen to a hawker of ballads,crying his commodities about the streets, withouthearing illustrations of the foregoing rule. Moveon! the well known mandate of poUcemen tothose who create obstructions, is a very commonexemplification of it. The nominative case is easilyunderstood in the latter instance; and the personaddressed, if he pretend that it is not, does so athis own peril. 128 THE COMIC ENGLISH GRAMMAR. A well known popular song affords an exampleof the violation of this rule. Ven as the Captain corned for to hear ont,Wery much applauded vot she d The verb a})plauded has here no nominativecase, whereas it ought to have been governed bythe pronoun he. He very much applauded, &c. SYNTAX. 129 Every nominative case, except when made ab-solute, or used, like the Latin Vocative, in ad-dressing a person, should belong to some verb,implied if not expressed. A beautiful exampleof this grammatical maxim, and one, too, thatexplains itself, is impressed upon the mind verysoon after its first introduction to letters : as, « Who kiird Cock Robin?/, said the sparrow,With my bow and arrow;I kilFd Cock Robin. Of the neglect of this rule also, the balladlately mentioned presents an instance : as, Four-andtwenty brisk young fellowsClad in jackets, blue array,—And they took poor Billy TaylorFrom his true love all avay. The only verb in these four lines is the verbtook, which is governed by the pronoun tliey. Thefour-and-twenty brisk young fellows, therefore,tho
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Keywords: ., bookauthorleighpercival18131889, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840
