I1I—ENGLISH INTERJECTIONS IN THE FIFTEENTH 
CENTURY 
BY MARY CRAWFORD 
INTRODUCTION 
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF TREATMENT 
The interjections listed in the present study are grouped accord- 
ing to usage. Their various forms and meanings are noted, to- 
gether with examples of their occurrence. The treatment has 
been expanded to include not only simple interjections but inter- 
jectional phrases, since the latter, in idea, represent single words. 
In the York Mystery Plays, when Moses again changes the ser- 
pent into a wand, Pharao’s Hopp illa hayl is not a curse but an 
expression of astonishment. Further, oaths can in no sense be 
considered other than as ejaculations, else, in the Towneley Plays 
the shepherds would not be made to swear, anachronistically, by 
Saint Thomas of Kent; nor would Herod refer so frequently 
to Mahomet. 
The Chester cycle of mystery plays is not included in the mate- 
rial examined. Although the plays themselves were presented 
before 1400, the four manuscripts which have come down to us 
date from 1592-1607. On the other hand, the works of Gavin 
Douglas and of John Skelton have been included, though they are 
assigned to a time later than the fifteenth century. For example, 
Mr. Ramsay, who edited the Magnyfycence in 1906, decides that it 
was written about 1516.1. Both Douglas and Skelton have been 
considered, however, as affording legitimate material for this 
study. They were born near the middle of the fifteenth century, 
and, doubtless, they drew largely upon the experience of their 
earlier years for the interjections found in their pages. 
1FE, E. T. S., extra series 98. Introd., p. 25. 
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