THE PREDICATIVE INFINITIVE WITH DATIVE SUBJECT 131 
As before, I quote only a few examples: — 
bebeodan: — Bede 350.28: Swa hwset swa bu me onsettest / bebeodest to 
donne = 263.25: quicquid mihi imposueris agendum (or, as the Latin suggests, to 
donne modifies hweet?). — Warf. 9.31: hu he bebead bsere ncedran ba wyrta 
to healdenne = no Latin. 
beodan: — AElf. Hept.: Deut. 32.46 a ’ b : beodaft <5a word eowrum bearnum 
to healdenne and to donne = ut mandetis ea filiis vestris custodire et facere. 
forbeodan: — JElf. L. S. XXV. 36: mete, be moyses forbead godes folce to 
dicgenne (or final?). — lb. XXV. 42: Moyses forbead . . . ba nytenu to etanne 
bam ealdan folce (or final?). — 76. XXXII. 105: be forbead petre mid wsepnum 
to winnenne wib ba . . . iudeiscan. 
hieran: — Wcerf. 221.25: wses cub, bset se . . . deofol . . . him hyrde ba 
scos of to donne = 269 D 2 : Ad cujus vocem mox coeperunt se caligarum corrigise 
in summa velocitate dissolvere, ut aperte constaret quod ei ipse qui nominatus 
fuerat ad extrahendas diabolus caligas obedisset. 
aliefan: — Mlj. Hept.: Deut. 3.25: Alife me to farenne and to geseonne bset 
seloste land = Transibo igitur et videbo terram hanc optimam. 
liefan: — JZlf. Hept.: Num. 21.22: Ic bidde bset bu me lyfe ofer bin land 
to ferenne = Obsecro ut transire mihi liceat per terram tuam. 
Some of the foregoing examples, as indicated, are doubtful. In most of 
them, however, we have a dative and an inflected objective infinitive, and, with 
the exception of the infinitive after hieran, all have been put under the objec¬ 
tive use, in Chapter II. A few examples are quoted in this chapter on the 
Predicative Infinitive with a Dative Subject merely to show the affinity of 
these inflected infinitives with a dative, like the uninflected infinitives with a 
dative already treated, to Grimm’s dative-with-infinitive construction. But 
in none of the foregoing examples does the infinitive seem to me predicative with 
the possible exception of the infinitive after hieran. In this example the inflected 
infinitive is probably due to the gerundive of the Latin original. The inflected 
infinitive with the other verbs has been explained already in Chapter II. 
For the dative with inflected infinitive after personal verbs in the other 
Germanic languages, see Chapter XVI, section ix. 
In a word, I doubt whether we have a genuine dative-with-infinitive con¬ 
struction in Anglo-Saxon, that is, a predicative infinitive with dative subject 
substantially equivalent to a predicative infinitive with accusative subject, 
after either impersonal or personal verbs. Normally, after the former class 
of verbs the infinitive is subjective, and after the latter class the infinitive is 
objective; and after both the dative depends on the chief verb. In a few 
sporadic cases, almost exclusively in Late West Saxon, after a few personal 
verbs like don and Icetan, we do have an uninflected predicative infinitive whose 
subject is dative in form, but probably bj^ that time the distinction between the 
accusative forms (hine and hie) and the dative form (him) had broken down 
to such an extent that him was felt as an accusative. And once possibly (after 
hieran) we may have an inflected infinitive used predicatively with a dative; if so, 
the inflected infinitive is probably due to the gerundive in the Latin original. 
This general conclusion is fortified, I believe, by what we learn of the same 
construction in the other Germanic languages, especially in Old High German: 
see Chapter XVI, section ix. 
