anto_ iv, stanza 10.

_Quoth_ and _quod_, for _say, saith_, or _said_, are obsolete, or used only
in ludicrous language. Webster supposes these words to be equivalent, and
each confined to the first and third persons of the present and imperfect
tenses of the indicative mood. Johnson says, that, "_quoth you_," as used
by Sidney, is irregular; but Tooke assures us, that "The _th_ in _quoth_,
does not designate the third person."--_Diversions of Purley_, Vol. ii, p.
323. They are each invariable, and always placed before the nominative: as,
_quoth I, quoth he_.

"Yea, so sayst thou, (_quod_ Troeylus,) alas!"--_Chaucer_.

"I feare, _quod_ he, it wyll not be."--_Sir T. More_.

"Stranger, go! Heaven be thy guide!
_Quod_ the beadsman of Nith-side."--_Burns_.

OBS. 6.--_Methinks_, (i. e., _to_ me _it_ thinks,) for I think, or, it
seems to me, with its preterit _methought_, (i. e., _to_ me _it_
thought,) is called by Dr. Johnson an "ungrammatical word." He imagined it
to be "a Norman corruption, the French being apt to confound _me_ and
_I_."--_Joh. Dict._ It is indeed a puzzling anomaly in our language, though
not without some Anglo-Saxon or Latin parallels; and, like its kindred, "me
_seemeth_," or "_meseems_," is little worthy to be countenanced, though
often used by Dryden, Pope, Addison, and other good writers. Our
lexicographers call it an _impersonal verb_, because, being compounded with
an objective, it cannot have a nominative expressed. It is nearly
equivalent to the adverb _apparently_; and if impersonal, it is also
defective; for it has no participles, no "_methinking_," and no participial
construction of "_methought_;" though Webster's American Dictionary,
whether quarto or octavo, absurdly suggests that the latter word may be
used as a participle. In the Bible, we find the following text: "_Me
thinketh_ the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz."--_2
Sam._, xviii, 27. And Milton improperly makes _thought_ an impersonal verb,
apparently governing the separate objective pronoun _him_; as,

"_Him thought_ he by the brook of Cherith stood."
--_P. R._, B. ii, l. 264.

OBS. 7.--Some verbs from the nature of the subjects to which they refer,
are chiefly confined to the third person singular; as, "It _rains_; it
_snows_; it _freezes_; it _hails_; it _lightens_; it _thunders_." These
have been called _impersonal verbs_; because the neuter pronoun it, which
is commonly used