Use of Auxiliary Vcj'bs in Romance Lang? t ages. 27 

 Instances of tomber used as a transitive verb : — 



Mes la contraire et la perverse 

 Quant de leur grant estat les verse 



Et les tombe autor de sa roe Du Cange. 



Icellui Giraut donna au dit Manson un si grand coup sur 



I'espaule qu'il le tomba par trois fois en la charriere Du Cange. 

 Puis le tombent en un fosse Roman de la Rose 52 



Now it is clear that Voltaire, in saying, " Eut tombe dans 

 le piege," was not wrong, since the verb tomber is conjugated 

 with the auxiliary avoir in Old French, and bears an active 

 meaning. The sentence of Voltaire, though obsolete in the 

 time he wrote, had nothing wrong in itself. 



With venir, je suis voiu is equivalent to_/V iiie suis venu. 



The reflexive form of this verb is generally found in con- 

 nection vv^ith en. But se venir and s en venir must be re- 

 garded, just as s en aller and sailer were regarded ; that is to 

 say, en does not change the reflexive nature of venir and 

 aller, but when that en is found in a sentence in connection 

 with venir and aller, it controls and necessitates in most 

 cases the use of the reflexive form, which, hovv^ever, is per- 

 fectly independent of it. It is only necessary to compare 

 the instances cited above, of s aller, and the Italian venirse, 

 or venirne, and venirsene. 



Ma viensi per veder le vostre pene . 

 Ma vienne oraai che gia tiene'l confine 

 Venir sen deve giii tra' miei meschini . 



L' un poco sovra noi a star si venne . 

 Sen venne suso ed io per le su' orme 

 lo mi vengo a star un po teco 



Si vinse il peggiore Ricardo Mai. . 990 



Ove in Leone ad incontrar si venne Orlando .... Orl. Furi. . . 46. 21 



Let us now examine a few of those verbs that take either 

 etre or avoir, according to their peculiar meaning, as gramma- 

 rians say. I hold, on the contrary, that when those neuter 

 verbs take etre, they are purely elliptical reflexive verbs, just 

 as those of the above list ; and that when they take avoir, 

 they follow the general tendency of development that pushed 

 the Romance verbal-system towards an active auxiliary. The 

 Old French used such forms as etre apparic and etre peri very 



57 



