6 
INTRODUCTION. 
Of the imperative use of the infinitive I have found no clear example in 
Anglo-Saxon. The alleged examples of this idiom cited by Dr. K. Kohler * 1 
and by Dr. Jacob Zeitlin, 2 I, in common with most students of Anglo-Saxon, 
interpret otherwise. Nor have I found any clear example of the so-called 
historical infinitive in Anglo-Saxon. Messrs. Roethe and Schroeder, the editors 
of Grimm’s Deutsche Grammatik, hold that we have a historical infinitive in the 
Anglo-Saxon Exodus: “ Ags. Csedm. Exod. 158 auf blicon, sungon, folgt dunian, 
tredan (sc. ongunnon ); vgl. galan Exod. 577.” 3 To me, however, Sunian and 
tredan are predicative, each, to a subject accusative; and, instead of galan, 
I read, with Grein and with Professor Blackburn, golan. 
As the position of the infinitive in Anglo-Saxon varies considerably in the 
different uses, the matter is treated in the chapters dealing with the several 
uses. 
In form each of the two infinitives so far considered (the one in -an and the 
one made up of to + the dative in -ne) is active; and in my judgment each of 
these infinitives is active in sense except when the inflected infinitive is used 
with the verb beon (ivesan ) to denote necessity or obligation, in which con¬ 
struction the Anglo-Saxon infinitive is habitually passive in sense, though oc¬ 
casionally it is active in sense: for further details see the chapter on “ the 
Infinitive with Beon ("Wesan ).” Perhaps, too, the adjectivized inflected infini¬ 
tive with nouns is passive in sense: see Chapter XIII. Some, however, hold 
that the uninflected infinitive in -an is passive in sense after certain verbs 
(chiefly of commanding, of causing, and of sense perception), but to me thi3 
infinitive seems regularly active in sense after this group of verbs as after all 
other groups, the reasons for which belief are stated in the chapter on “ the 
Objective Infinitive.” Once more: some hold that the inflected final infinitive 
and the inflected infinitive with adjectives are each sometimes passive in 
sense, — a topic discussed in Chapters X and XL Finally, it should be added 
that a brief paragraph concerning the voice of the infinitive is given under the 
respective uses. 
But we do have in Anglo-Saxon, though relatively seldom (especially in the 
poetry), a true passive infinitive, which is made up of the present infinitive 
active of the verb beon (occasionally of the verb wesan or of the verb weorSari) 
plus the past participle of a transitive verb, as in: Bede 372.34: geearnode 
onfongen beon = 275.21: meruisset recipi; Lcece. 152.19: mseg seo wund wesan 
gehceled; Greg. 399.18: (5onne magon hie (5eah weorSan gehcelede suibe ieSelice 
<5urh forgiefnesse & <5urh gebedu = 318.4: et tamen venia salvantur. In this 
compound passive infinitive, the strictly infinitive part of the phrase is not 
inflected; the participle part is sometimes inflected and sometimes not. In 
each of the chapters on the several uses of the infinitive, the passive infinitive 
is treated after the active infinitive. 
1 L. c., p. 63: Beow. 1860: wesan, benden ic wealde widan rices, mabmas gemsene, manig oberne godum gegretan 
ofer ganotes baeb. — Wesan and gegretan may be considered as subjunctives, as by some; or as complements to 
sculon (sceal ), as by others. 
1 L. c., p. 154: Met. Ps. 74.5: Ne ahebbab ge to hea eowre hygeSancas ne ge wib gode sefre gramword sprecan; 
ib. 94.6: Cumab him fore ond cneow bigeab on ansyne ures drihtnes, ond him wepan fore, be us worhte aer 
*» Venite, adoremus, et procidamus; et ploremus ante dominum, qui fecit nos. — As Dr. Zeitiin states, most 
other scholars consider sprecan and wepan to be subjunctives. 
* See Grimm, l. c., IV, p. 99. 
