Use of Auxiliary Verbs in Romance Languages. 29 



With descendre, je suis descendu is equivalent \o je me suis 

 descendu. 



Si se descendirent et se firent leurs logis sur ces beaux pres 



sur la riviere de Dordogne Froissard II. . . 3 



Et loerent auroy que il se descendit de la nef 1&. ou il estoit Joinville . . . 342 

 II n'y avoit en la mer ilecques pres ancun port la oh. il se 



peut descendre Joinville ... 28 



With courir,je S7iis couru is equivalent \.ojc me suis couru. 



We have seen that Racine's expression, y'j suis couru, has 

 been condemned by grammarians. But M. Littre, in his 

 Dictionary, has justined the great poet in the following man- 

 ner : " Les Grammairiens condamnent cet emploi et disent 

 que courir exprimant une action ne peut recevoir I'auxiliaire 

 etre. Mais venir exprime aussi une action et ne s'en con- 

 jugue pas moins avec I'auxiliaire etre. Ici encore I'usage est 

 pour I'auxiliaire avoir. L'auxiliaire etre est tres peu usite, 

 mais il est egalement correct, dans I'ancienne langue il etait 

 de plein usage." Here M. Littre recognizes the fact that 

 the auxiliary etre is as justifiable as the auxiliary avoir in that 

 neuter verb, and that everything depends on usage, — rather, 



I should say, on the development of the laifguage, as it is 

 very clearly seen in the case of venir and courir. Conse- 

 quently M. Littre ought not to defend, as he does everywhere 

 in his Dictionary, the idea of grammarians who say that 

 neuter verbs are conjugated with etre when they express a 

 state or condition, and with avoir when they express an 

 action. The rules of grammarians are rules of assertion and 

 not of investigation, made for the present stage of the lan- 

 guage without any reference to the past. Hence such rules 

 are not always observed by great writers, nor by the people 

 either. Racine was right in that particular instance, and, 

 according to our own theory, fy suis couru stands for je iny 

 suis couru. Compare the Old French : — 



Roland regarde puis (se) lui est couru Roland . . . 153 



Chascuns y est couru la merveille esgarder Berthe III. 



lis se coururent sus I'espee au poing Montaigne I. . . 256 



II s'en court en disant : A Dieu me recomniande . . . Regnier St. XI. 

 Le pauvre homme s'en courut La Fontaine. 



59 



