_-eth_ are about 31 in number, of which 17 are of French, and
14 of A.S. origin. The words in which the ending _-eth_ is dropped are
42, of which 18 are of French, and 24 of A.S. origin. The three
following French words take _both_ forms; _avyse_ or _avyseth_, _awayte_
or _awayteth_, _wayte_ or _wayteth_; and the five following A.S. words,
_be_ or _beth_, _kepe_ or _kepeth_, _knele_ or _knelyth_, _loke_ or
_loketh_, _make_ or _maketh_. Thus the poet makes use, on the whole, of
one form almost as often as the other (that is, supposing the scribe to
have copied correctly), and he no doubt consulted his convenience in
taking that one which suited the line best. It is an instance of what
followed in almost every case of naturalization, that A.S. inflections
were added to the French words quite as freely as to those of native
origin. Both the _-eth_ and _-e_ forms are commonly used without the
word _ye_, though. _Be ye_ occurs in l. 58. In the phrase _avise you_
(l. 78), _you_ is in the accusative."

Commenting also on l. 71 of Caxton and Hill, Mr Skeat notices how they
have individualised the general 'child' of the earlier Oriel text:

"71. Here we find _child_ riming to _mylde_. In most other places it is
_Johan_. The rime shows that the reading _child_ is right, and _Johan_
is a later adaptation. The Oriel MS. never uses the word _Johan_ at all;
it is always _child_."

I may remark also, that on the question lately raised by Mr Bradshaw,
'who before Hampole,[1] or after him, used _you_ for the nominative as
well as the correct _ye_,' Hill uses both _you_ and _ye_, see l. 47, 51,
52, &c., though so far as a hasty search shows, Lydgate, in his Minor
Poems at least, uses _ye_ only, as do Lord Berners in his _Arthur of
Lytil Brytayne_, ab. 1530, the Ormulum, Ancren Riwle, Genesis and
Exodus, William of Palerne, Alliterative Poems, Early Metrical Homilies,
&c.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Pricke of Conscience_, p. 127, l. 4659; and p. xvii.]

[Footnote 2: Mr Skeat holds that in the various reading _3*ow drieth_
from the Univ. Coll. Oxford MS. (of the early part of the 15th century)
to the Vernon MS. _[th]ou drui3*est_, l. 25, Passus 1, of the Vision of
Piers Plowman, the 3*ow is an accusative, "exactly equivalent to the
Gothic in the following passage--'_hwana_ [th]aursjai, gaggai du mis, i.e.
_whom_ it may thirst, let him come to me.' John vii. 37. I conclude that
3*ow is accusative, not dative. The same construction occurs in Germ