1904.] HEWETT — PRONOUNS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 281 



prevailing relative ; who, whose and who??i occur but in few- 

 instances, and may then relate either to persons or things, as 

 in Shakespeare. Chaucer stood more under French influence as 

 regards language than his great contemporary, Wiclif (1324-1384), 

 who in his translation of the Bible was influenced more by Latin 

 constructions. If we examine the Morte d' Arthur of Sir Thomas 

 Malory (1400-1470), which lies intermediate in time between 

 Wiclif and Tyndale, we find in 555 lines 30 cases of the use of 

 that as a relative, 6 cases of the use of who or ivhom in indirect 

 questions, or as an indefinite relative equal to whoever, while which 

 {the whiche) occurs but once in the nominative and once, ^^Jor the 

 whiche,'^ governed by a preposition. This shows that that retained 

 its supremacy in the fifteenth century. 



If we now compare the use of the relative pronouns in Wiclif 's 

 (1384) and in Tyndale's (1526) translations of the Gospels, which 

 are separated by about a century and a half, w^e find the following 

 results. 



The approximate number of times that the relative pronouns 

 which, that and laho occur in the four Gospels in the Wiclif and 

 Tyndale versions is as follows : 



In Wiclif 's version of the Gospels 



which occurs 29 times in Matthew 

 18 " " Mark 

 97 " " Luke 

 27 «' " John 



171 " " the four Gospels 



In Tyndale's version 



which occurs 135 times in Matthew 

 61 « " Mark 

 241 « •* Luke 

 125 <« " John 



562 " <' the four Gospels 



In Wiclif 's version 



that occurs 205 times in Matthew 

 84 «« " Mark 

 284 " " Luke 

 228 '< " John 



801 " <* the four Gospels 



