CHAPTER XIII. 
THE INFINITIVE WITH NOUNS . 1 * 
A. THE ACTIVE INFINITIVE. 
When a Noun is modified by an infinitive, the infinitive normally is inflected, 
but in a few cases is uninflected. About 242 instances of the former occur to 
four of the latter. 
The infinitive regularly follows the noun that it modifies, sometimes immedi¬ 
ately, as in Wcerf. 198.17 (onfangenre leafe to lifigenne = 241 C 4 : vivendi licentia 
accepta); sometimes with a few words intervening, as in Woerf. 211.20 a ’ b 
(gif bu hwylce leafe habbe me to sleanne y to wundianne = 257 C 2 : Si licentiam 
accepisti ut ferias, ego non prohibeo). 
To me the infinitive with nouns seems prevailingly, if not exclusively, 
active in sense as in form. Dr. Riggert, l. c., p. 71, declares, “ Es steht nur 
der Infinitiv des Aktivs, der jedoch passiven Sinn haben kann,” but he does 
not specifically cite any infinitives as passive in sense. If we have an infini¬ 
tive that is passive in sense when used with a noun, we probably have it in 
such sentences as these: And. 23: nses bser hlafes wist werum on bam wonge, 
ne wseteres drync to bruconne; Mlf. Hept.: Ex. 16.12: ic sende bisum folce 
flcesc to etanne = Vespere comedetis carnes; Mk. 3.20: baet hi naefdon hlaf to 
etanne = ita ut non possent neque panem manducare. But, as the Latin sug¬ 
gests, there is no necessity for considering the infinitive passive, and, in all 
probability, to the Anglo-Saxon mind the infinitive was active in his transla¬ 
tion as in his Latin original; perhaps it was active to him even when trans¬ 
lating a Latin passive, as in L. 24.41: Hsebbe ge her senig Sing to etanne f 
=Habetis hie aliquid quod manduceturf though, of course, it is possible that 
in the latter case it seemed to him passive. Dr. K. Kohler and Dr. Farrar say 
nothing as to the voice of the infinitive with nouns; nor do Dr. Wtilfing and 
Dr. Kenyon.—In the adjectivized infinitive, discussed below (pp. 180 ff.), 
on the other hand, the inflected infinitive is probably passive in sense. 
I. THE INFINITIVE UNINFLECTED. 
Of the four examples of the active uninflected infinitive modifying a noun, 
three occur in the prose and one in the poetry: — 
anweald, power: 
L. 12.5: adrsedab bone be anweald hsefb, sebban he ofslyhb, on helle asendan 
= timete eum qui, postquam occiderit, habet potestatem mittere in gehennam. 
myne, purpose , intention: 
And. 1538: Weox wseteres brym; weras ewanedon, ealde seseberend; waes 
him ut mynefleon fealone stream, woldon feore beorgan, to dunsersefum drohtab 
secan, eorban ondwist. [On this passage Dr. Riggert, l. c., p. 67, comments as 
follows: “ Der reine Infinitiv nach einem Substantive erscheint nur An. 1537 
[= my 1538], und zwar bezeichnet das Hauptwort eine Absicht, einen Plan. 7 ’] 
1 In some instances the infinitive modifies, not a noun, but a pronoun. 
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