90 PREDICATIVE INFINITIVE WITH VERBS OF MOTION AND REST. 
Guthlac, in An Old English Martyrology, in Apollonius , and in JElfric’s Lives 
of Saints. In the poetry the predicative infinitive is found over one hundred 
times, and occurs in most of the poems. 
Normally the infinitive follows the finite verb, as in Beow. 703 ( Com on 
wanre niht scriSan sceadugenga), but occasionally it precedes , 1 especially in 
dependent clauses, as in Dan. 698 (beah be feonda folc feran cwome) and Ps. 
76.15 (bonne ligette lixan cwoman). 
The infinitive is active in sense as well as in form. 
The following verbs of motion are followed by a predicative infinitive of 
a verb of motion (occasionally of other verbs, as blican , lixan , and scinan , each 
meaning ‘ shine; ’ and hlynnan, ‘ resound ’): 
becuman [bi-J, come. fleon, fly. 
cuman, come. gewitan, go f depart . 
daelan (?), distribute. 
The verbs most frequently so used are cuman and gewitan. The various 
infinitives that follow the verbs named above are given, in alphabetic sequence 
after each verb, in my statistics, and need not be named here. The number 
of infinitives is far larger than the number of finite verbs; but, as the usage 
is substantially the same, regardless of the verb, I quote only a few examples. 
It remains only to add that at times it is difficult, if not impossible, to decide 
whether we have the predicative or the final use of the infinitive in some pas¬ 
sages, — concerning which see section v of Chapter XIV. 
Typical examples are: — 
becuman [bi-], come: 
And. 789: bset he on Mambre becom beorhte blican. 
Beow. 2553: stefn in becom heabotorht hlynnan under harne stan. [But 
Dr. Riggert, l. c., p. 41, construes differently.] 
Chr. 1114: beer blod ond wseter butu setsomne ut bicwoman fore eagna 
gesyhb, rinnan fore rincum ba he on rode wses. 
cuman, come: 
A. S. Horn. & L. S. II. 15.329: And ba ure drihten him self com of heofonum 
to eorban astigan , and hire sona to cwseb = 218.370: loose paraphrase. 
Bede 400.28: ba ic hreowsende wses, ba ic mid by heafde 7 mid honda com 
on bone stan dryfan; 7 se buma gebrocen wses, 7 eac swylce seo gebeodnes bses 
heafdes tobrocen wses 7 tolesed = 290.19: euenit . . . ut hunc [= lapidem] 
capite ac manu, quam capiti ruens subposueram, tangerem, atque infracto 
pollice capitis quoque iunctura solueretur. 
Beow. 2915: sybban Higelac cwomfaran flotherge on Fresna land. 
Gen. 852: Da com feran frea selmihtig ofer midne dseg. 
Pr. Gu. X. 5: ba comon bser semninga in twa swalewan fleogan = forte 
hirundines duae subito domum intrantes , velut magna laetitia . . . sese non 
haesitantes humeris . . . Guthlaci imposuerunt. 
A. S. Horn. & L. S. II. 15.292: And ba bser com fleogan drihtnes sengel and 
he ba gehalgode bset . . . wseter = 217.326: veniat super me sancta tua 
columba, . . . et benedicat aquam. 
1 See Riggert, l. c., p. 41. 
