1904.] HEWETT — PROXOUXS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 283 



cent, of all cases. In Tyndale's version we find a change, the 

 same pronouns occur 1150 times ; zvhich has gained in frequency of 

 use, occuring 562 times or in about 50 per cent, of all cases, that 

 503 times or in 44 per cent., who in 85 cases or in about 7.4 

 per cent. 



To summarize : that occurs in Wiclif 's version in 76 per cent, of 

 all cases, but in the Tyndale version in only 44 per cent, of such 

 cases, while which, appearing in but 16.4 per cent, of such cases in 

 Wiclif, has risen to 50 per cent, in Tyndale, and soon becomes the 

 leading relative. 



In Tyndale's translation of 1526, a usage was established which 

 was preserved with only limited exceptions in the King James ver- 

 sion of 161 1. As religion appeals to the strongest convictions of our 

 nature, and is associated with glowing feeling, the fixed forms 

 in which truth is conveyed in the Bible have stamped themselves 

 upon human thought and expression. From the restricted use of 

 which in 1200 it had in the fourteenth century, the period of Wiclif 

 and Chaucer, attained a recognized currency, while 150 years later 

 (1526) it divided almost equally the sovereignty with that. 



The dominant use of which with nouns is a fact which we might 

 have anticipated from the primitive meaning of which, hwi-lic or 

 \\\N^-\\c, -of what kind, how constituted, like the Latin qiialis. Sub- 

 stantives naturally possess character or quality, and the relative in 

 referring to them means of which kind. That merely identifies and 

 does not describe ; similarly, who indicates usually an individual. 

 Thus in Shakespeare, ''I have known those which {qualis) walked 

 in their sleep, wlio (equal to and yet they) died holily in their 

 beds" {Macbeth, V, i, 66). Quoted by Abbott, SJiakespearean 

 Grammar, page 182. 



Which is uniformly employed with proper names: *'And thou, 

 Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven" (Matthew 11 : 23); 

 ''Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar " 

 (John 4 : 5); '' For he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, luhich was the 

 high priest that same year " (John 18 : 13); " The same day came 

 to him the Sadducees, ze;>^/V>^ say that there is no such resurrection" 

 (Matthew 22 : 23); occurring in such use 151 times, while that is 

 similarly used but 5 times. 



In Tyndale's version of 1526, 7uhich refers in the Gospels to a 

 noun about 418 times, tiiat to a noun 119 times, a total of 537 

 times, or in the proportion of 78 per cent, to 22 per cent. Which 



