288 HEWETT — PRONOUNS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. [April 9, 



99 per cent, of all, cases, that 2, or in i per cent.; which is used in 

 co-ordinate clauses 12 times, that once. What is used as a rela- 

 tive 68 times in the same essays, that which 4 times. The use of 

 what as a relative shows a steady and remarkable growth in 

 frequency in later writers. Its use by Matthew Arnold in the* 

 above selections occurs 6d> times, or in 25 per cent, of all cases of 

 the use of a relative pronoun. Which is the common relative in 

 co-ordinate clauses, being used in about 92 per cent, of all the cases. 



The striking frequency of which in modern literature is shown in 

 the writings of Mrs. Humphry Ward. The conclusions reached in 

 our examination of the works of Macaulay and De Quincy are 

 maintained, though not in as extreme a degree. Thus in Robert 

 Elsmere (1888), Book i, in about one-fourth of the volume, the 

 relatives that and which occur 400 times ; of these, which occurs 

 350 times, or about 873^ per cent., that 50 times, or 121^ per cent. 

 Of relatives referring to noun antecedents which is used 341 

 times, to pronoun antecedents 9 times; that is used referring to 

 a noun antecedent 41 times or 82 per cent., to a pronoun anteced- 

 ent 9 times or 18 per cent. Mrs. Ward's use of these relatives is 

 apparently confined to restrictive clauses. 



Proverbs which have existed in the popular language for many 

 centuries have preserved an archaic type of expression and are per- 

 manent representatives of primitive usage. Similarly children's 

 rhymes, such as '' The house that Jack built," which goes back to 

 a mediaeval Hebrew version in a hymn. In "This is the house 

 that Jack built," '' This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack 

 built," we have the early use of the relative that in restrictive 

 clauses; so also, in such proverbs as " Handsome is tliat handsome 

 does," quoted from Goldsmith in the Vicar of Wakefield, 

 chapter first; "He that will not when he may, when he will he 

 shall have nay ''; " There is none so blind as they that won't see "; 

 " 'Tis an ill dog that is not worth whistling for." 



We thus see that the dominant relative pe of early English times 

 was displaced by that in the thirteenth century, that what also ap- 

 peared at that time in isolated cases in its relative use, while who 

 and ivhose occur but seldom and then usually in direct and indirect 

 questions. At the close of the fourteenth century, tJiat was used in 

 Wiclifs translations of the Gospels in 76 per cent, of all cases of 

 the use of the relative, which in 16 per cent, of such cases. 



One hundred and fifty years later, in 1526, that occurs as a rela- 



