14 Arthur Garfield Kennedy 



(a) In the positive degree: 



The Sonne saugh nevere yet ... so inly faire, so goodly 

 as is she. Troylus and Cryseyde. Bk. III. 1555. — That yeveth 

 him ful ofte wel better than thei can hemself devyse. Knyghtes 

 Tale, 395. — And seyst thou hast to litel and he hath al. Man of 

 Lawes Tale, II. 



In the case of -verray right (Romaunt of the Rose, 1627) 

 verray seems to be in that transitional state where it is either 

 adjective or adverb. 



{h) In the comparative degree: 



Ne never saugh I a more boimtevotis ne a more graciouse. 

 Troylus and Cryseyde. Bk. I. 883. — And therto I saugh never 

 - yet a less Harmful than she was in doynge. Boke of the Du- 

 chesse, 993. 



5. Use with the article, 

 (a) The indefinite article. 



Of the use of the indefinite article with substantivized adjec- 

 tives, Maetzner^ says: "The transmutation of an adjective into 

 an uninflective substantive, as a name of a person, is not favored 

 in Modern English, in connection with the indefinite articles. Ad- 

 jectives and participles, otherwise capable of being used sub- 

 stantively with the definite article, support themselves when re- 

 ferred to an indeterminate individual by the pronominal one, 

 which is to be regarded as the substantive bearer of the adjective. 

 'There cometh one mightier than I after me' (Mark I, 7)." 

 This shows us modern conditions as Maetzner found them and 

 also gives us his opinion concerning the degree of substantiva- 

 tion of adjectives when so used with one. 



In Chaucer we find, however, a slight variation from present 

 usage in this respect. For examples we have : 



a true swynk and a .good was he. Cant. Tales : Prologue, 531. — 

 A theef he was, forsoth, of corn and mele And that a sleigh. 

 Reeves Tale, 20. 



^ Englische Grainmatik , vol. Ill, p. 182. 



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