VI 
PREFACE. 
insisted upon by Professor E. P. Morris in his instructive work, On Some Prin¬ 
ciples of Latin Syntax; whether or not I have succeeded, must be left to others 
for determination. It is believed that the devices already named and the full 
table of contents render an index unnecessary. 
In the chapter on “the Infinitive in the Other Germanic Languages,” the 
same general plan is followed as far as is possible. As already stated, this 
chapter is based mainly upon the studies of others. What makes me hope that, 
despite this, the chapter may prove of interest to Germanic grammarians, 
is the fact that, with slight modifications for some of the individual languages, 
the theories that I have advanced for the infinitive in Anglo-Saxon seem to 
apply also to the infinitive in the other Germanic languages. It is hardly 
probable that, where so many different lines apparently converge, they should 
not more or less converge in reality. 
This is the first attempt to treat the syntax of the Infinitive in the whole 
of Anglo-Saxon literature, prose and poetical. Portions of the field, however, 
have been treated hitherto. The accusative-with-infinitive construction has 
been discussed by Dr. Carl Krickau, in his Goettingen dissertation, Der Accu- 
sativ mil dem Infinitiv in der Englischen Sprache, Besonders in dem Zeitalter der 
Elisabeth , 1877; by Professor J. H. Gorrell, in his Johns Hopkins dissertation, 
Indirect Discourse in Anglo-Saxon, 1895; and by Dr. Jacob Zeitlin, in his 
Columbia dissertation, The Accusative with Infinitive and Some Kindred Con¬ 
structions in English, 1908. But, as the titles of the first and the third of these 
monographs indicate, neither is restricted to the Anglo-Saxon period; and, as 
shown in their bibliographies, no one of the three attempts to cover the whole 
of Anglo-Saxon literature. The final use of the infinitive is briefly treated by 
Professor H. G. Shearin, in his Yale dissertation, The Expression of Purpose in 
Old English Prose, 1903, and in his pendant thereto, The Expression of Purpose 
in Old English Poetry, 1909. Less restricted in one way and more restricted in 
another is the scope of Dr. Karl Koehler’s Der Syntaktische Gebrauch des Infin- 
itivs und Particips im Beowulf, Muenster, 1886; Dr. T. J. Farrar’s The Gerund 
in Old English, a Washington and Lee dissertation of 1902; Dr. Georg Riggert’s 
Der Syntaktische Gebrauch des Infinitivs in der Altenglischen Poesie, a Kiel 
dissertation of 1909; and Dr. H. Willert’s “Vom Infinitiv mit To,” in Eng- 
lische Studien, xliii, 1910, pp. 100-104. Several uses of the infinitive in Anglo- 
Saxon are touched on in the dissertations dealing with the syntax of the verb 
in a single monument, the full titles of which are given in my bibliography. 
Moreover, most of the uses of the infinitive are briefly discussed in these stand¬ 
ard grammars of Anglo-Saxon: A Comparative Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon 
Language, by F. A. March, New York, 1873; Angelsaechsische Grammatik, by 
Theodor Mueller, Goettingen, 1883; Die Syntax in den Werken Alfreds des 
Grossen, by Dr. J. E. Wuelfing, Bonn, 1894-1901; and in these standard 
grammars of the English language as a whole: Historische Grammatik der 
Englischen Sprache, by C. F. Koch, 2d ed., Cassel, 1878-1891; Englische Gram¬ 
matik, by Eduard Maetzner, 3d ed., Berlin, 1880-1885; Historical Outlines of 
English Syntax, by Dr. Leon Kellner, London, 1892; A New English Grammar , 
