124 THE PREDICATIVE INFINITIVE WITH ACCUSATIVE SUBJECT. 
It should be added that by some it is claimed that this predicative use of the 
participle (and, also, of the adjective and of the noun) had much to do with 
the origin of the predicative infinitive with accusative subject, — a claim dis¬ 
cussed in Chapter XIV, section viii. 
AS SUBJECT. 
A. THE ACTIVE INFINITIVE. 
That the accusative with an infinitive is used, though very rarely, as the sub¬ 
ject of an impersonal verb in Anglo-Saxon, is admitted by Erckmann, l. c., p. 6; 
by Matzner, l. c., Ill, p. 22; by De Reul, l. c., p. 135; and by Stoffel, l. c., p. 52. 
And what seems to me a clear example of the passive infinitive so used in 
Anglo-Saxon (Bede 338.11 a - b ), is given by Matzner, and is copied by Dr. 
Stoffel. But, in his recent The Accusative with Infinitive, p. 167, Dr. Zeitlin 
denies the existence of this construction in Anglo-Saxon: “The use of a sub¬ 
stantive with infinitive as the subject of a neuter or impersonal verb ... is 
not found at all in Old English [= Anglo-Saxon].” Below I give all the clearer 
examples that I have observed of this construction, with both active and 
passive infinitive. Although, as indicated, some of the examples are doubt¬ 
ful, and although the total number of clear examples is not large, it is suffi¬ 
cient, I believe, to establish the existence of the idiom in Anglo-Saxon. As is 
evident from my examples, the use of this idiom in Anglo-Saxon is due to the 
influence of the Latin originals. 
gebyrian, befitting: 
Gasp.: — Mat. 17.10: Hwset secgeab ba boceras bset gebyrige serest cuman 
Heliamf = Quid ergo scribse dicunt quod Eliarn oporteat primum venire. — Mk. 
8.31 b ’ e : Da ongan he hi Eeran bset mannes Sunu gebyred fela binga Solian, and 
beon aworpen fram ealdormannum . . . and beon ofslegen, and . . . arisan 
= Et coepit docere eos quoniam oportet Filium hominis pati multa, et reprobari 
a senioribus . . . et occidi; et . . . resurgere. — L. 13.33: Deah hwaebere me 
gebyreS to daeg and to morgen and by aefteran dsege gan = Verumtamen oportet 
me holdie et eras et sequenti die ambulare (or is me dative and gan subjective?). 
L. 24.46 a * b : bus gebyrede Crist Solian, and by briddan dsege of deabe avisan = 
sic oportebat Christum pati, et resurgere a mortuis tertia die. [In his 1893 edi¬ 
tion of The Gospel of Saint Luke in Anglo-Saxon, Professor J. W. Bright has, 
in 24.46, Criste, dative, instead of Crist, accusative. Three manuscripts have 
the accusative, while only one has the dative here.] 
gedafenian, befitting: 
Mat. 3.15: bus unc gedafenatS ealle rihtwisnesse gefyllan = sic enim decet nos 
implere omnem justitiam (or is unc dative and gefyllan subjective?). 
Possible, but not probable, examples of the active infinitive with accusative, 
as subject of a finite verb (impersonal), are found in the following passages, the 
infinitives in which seem to me rather subjective than predicative, and have 
accordingly been put in Chapter I, pp. 15,16, and 17: after gebyrian, Mat. 18.33, 
L. 11.42 b , 12.12; after gedafenian, Bede 342.18; L . 4.43; after lician, Bede 
276.12. See, too, p. 73 above, the comment on healdan. 
Once we have the inflected infinitive with accusative subject as subject of 
a passive verb, in the Chronicle 252 b , 1123 E c : bset wses forban baet hit wees don 
bone pape to understanden (sic!) beet he hsefde etc. 
