192 ORIGIN OF CONSTRUCTIONS OF INFINITIVE IN ANGLO-SAXON. 
objective infinitive, uninflected and inflected, is indeterminable, so few are the 
examples; with forlcetan, the infinitive, whether uninflected or inflected, is 
partly due to Latin influence. 
2. With a Passive Finite Verb. 1 
The active infinitive as “ the retained object” of passive verbs is most prob¬ 
ably of Latin 2 origin. The idiom is found only once, if at all, in Anglo-Saxon 
poetry ( Exod . 44), and then in a poem based on a Latin original. In the Anglo- 
Saxon translations it is rare, and usually corresponds to the same construction 
in the Latin originals (8), though occasionally to other Latin idioms (an indica¬ 
tive active, 1; a gerundial periphrastic passive, 1; ad+ a gerund in the accusative 
after a passive verb, 1). It is almost unknown in the more original Anglo-Saxon 
prose (the Chronicle and the Laws ) and, strange to say, in iElfric. The fore¬ 
going statement is substantially true whether the objective infinitive is unin¬ 
flected or inflected, concerning which see Chapter II, p. 69 above. 
As stated in Note 2 to Chapter II, owing to the Anglo-Saxon translator’s 
mistaking a deponent verb for a passive verb, he occasionally gives an active 
infinitive (uninflected and inflected) after an Anglo-Saxon finite verb that is 
passive in form but active in sense. 
Despite the statement of Dr. Kenyon, l. c., p. 100, that “ In 0. E. [= A. S.] 
the simple infinitive seems to have been the original construction, but the prepo¬ 
sitional came in early,” it seems probable that, from the outset, both the unin¬ 
flected infinitive and the inflected infinitive could be used as the object of active 
verbs, the differentiation between the two forms resting on the principles laid 
down in Chapter II, pp. 60-69. 
B. THE PASSIVE INFINITIVE. 3 
1. With an Active Finite Verb. 
The passive infinitive as the object of active verbs is of Latin origin. The 
idiom is not found in the poetry. In the Anglo-Saxon translations it is rare, 
and almost invariably corresponds to the same construction in the Latin, 
though occasionally it corresponds to a Latin objective infinitive active ( Wcerf . 
206.14, 24), occasionally to a Latin passive subjunctive {Bede 402.24), and once 
it has no Latin correspondent {Mat. 20.28 b ). It is unknown in the more 
original Anglo-Saxon prose (the Chronicle, the Laws, and Wulfstan) and, strange 
to say, in ^Elfric. 
2. With a Passive Finite Verb. 
The passive infinitive as “ the retained object ” after passive verbs, found 
four times in Bede, each time translates the same idiom in the Latin original, 
as it does also in the one example in Wserferth. 
In the other Germanic Languages we find matters surprisingly similar as 
regards the objective infinitive, both active and passive: see Chapter XVI, 
section ii. 
1 See Chapter II, p. 59. 
2 Cf. Erckmann, l. c., p. 11: “ Thia personal construction [= infinitive as retained object of a passive verb] 
is very rarely to be found in the former stages of the language, in Anglo-Saxon and Semi-Saxon. We may there¬ 
fore ascribe the modern usage principally to the influence of the classic languages.” 
3 See Chapter II, pp. 71 ff. 
