26 
THE SUBJECTIVE INFINITIVE. 
but he does not discuss the confusion in Anglo-Saxon. Professor Kenyon, in 
his The Syntax of the Infinitive in Chaucer, pp. 49-50, quotes the preceding 
statement by Einenkel, and adds this interesting comment: “ Einenkel does 
not here distinguish very clearly between the simple and prepositional infinitive, 
but his examples show that he has the latter in mind. My collections from 
O. E. [= A. SJ are not sufficient to test thoroughly his assumption that the 
prepositional infinitive as subject in this construction is the original syntax 
(or, what is equivalent, the simple infinitive, later replaced by the preposi¬ 
tional). But certain considerations seem to point to the zwecksinfmitiv as the 
original construction.” Dr. Kenyon then details his reasons for his belief in 
the priority of the final use of the inflected infinitive with adjectives to the sub¬ 
jective use with verbal phrases, which are too long for quotation in full, but 
which may be briefly summarized as follows: (1) “ The original function of 
the prepositional infinitive in 0. E. was to denote purpose, and (according to 
Kohler, p. 47, § 10) it was so used first with nouns and adjectives.” (2) The 
use of the uninflected infinitive as subject is rare in Beowulf and in Alfred. 
(3) The inflected infinitive with verb phrases is so often ambiguous in Beowulf 
and in Alfred that the number of examples in which the infinitive is clearly 
subjective is, Dr. Kenyon thinks, decidedly smaller than that of the examples 
in which the inflected infinitive is complementary to adjective or noun. I am 
not sure that the complete statistics given by me will enable one confidently to 
decide the question propounded by Dr. Kenyon. But my own belief is that 
the use of the inflected infinitive as subject of verbal phrases is probably con¬ 
temporaneous with the use of the inflected infinitive as the complement of an 
adjective, for in each use it is found in the poetry and in the more original 
prose as well as in the translations and in the later prose. Moreover, while, 
as stated at the outset of Chapter I, the use of the infinitive is ambiguous in 
a number of examples, the number of ambiguous examples seems smaller to me 
than to Dr. Kenyon. 
B. THE PASSIVE INFINITIVE. 
The passive infinitive is occasionally found as the subject of these active 
verbs: -— 
beon, be, plus an adjective. gelimpan, happen. 
gebyrian, be fitting. lystan, please. 
gedafenian, befitting. 
As the examples quoted below show, the passive infinitive is made up of beon 
plus the past participle, and the infinitive part of the phrase is never inflected, 
although the participle part occasionally is. 
The examples in full are: — 
beon, be, plus an adjective: 
Mlf. L. S. XXIII B. 438, 439: rihtlic is me swa besmitenre fram binre 
clsenan ungewemmednysse beon ascirod and fram aworpen. 
Napier’s Ad. to Th. 101.322 t2 : selre be bid anegede faran to heofonan rice, 
bonne mid twam eagum beon aworpen on ece susle. [Cf. Mat. 18.9 b : betere be 
ys mid anum eagan on life to ganne, bonne bu si mid twam asend on helle fyr, 
= bonum tibi est cum uno oculo in vitam intrare, quam duos oculos habentem 
mitti in gehennam ignis.] 
