200 ORIGIN OF CONSTRUCTIONS OF INFINITIVE IN ANGLO-SAXON. 
B. THE PASSIVE INFINITIVE. 
As to the origin of the passive infinitive as complement to ( w)uton, I cannot 
speak with certainty, as only three examples occur, all in iElfric. 
VII. PREDICATIVE INFINITIVE WITH “ BEON ” (“ WESAN ”). 1 
A. THE INFINITIVE DENOTES NECESSITY. 
As to the inflected infinitive with beon (wesan ) denoting necessity and pas¬ 
sive in sense, it seems to me highly probable that, in Anglo-Saxon, the con¬ 
struction was first suggested by the Latin, because: — 
1. Only ten examples in all have been found in the poems ( S. & S. 54: to 
begonganne; Seizure and Death of Alfred 13: to gelyfenne; Rid. 42.8: to ge'Qenc- 
anne; Rid. 29.12 and 32.23: to hycganne; Met. 21.42: to meianne; Gu. 502 and 
510: to secganne; And. 1481: to secganne; and Ps. 77.10: to wenanne ); of 
which examples the majority come from poems known to be based on Latin 
originals (Met., And.,Gu., and Ps.). Three examples come from a poem (the 
Riddles) believed 2 to be by an author, Cynewulf, some of whose works are 
known to be based on Latin originals. As to the other two poems concerned, 
Salomo and Saturnus and the Seizure and Death of Alfred, although the direct 
source of the former has not been discovered, the poem is believed to be based 
on Latin originals; 3 and the second poem occurs in the later part of the Chron¬ 
icle. Again, in three of the ten examples the same infinitive, to secganne , 
occurs, while two others show to hycganne; and all of the words so used in the 
poems occur also in the prose, most of them in direct translation of the Latin 
periphrastic conjugation. In the face of these facts, no one, I think, will 
claim that this construction is organic in Anglo-Saxon poetry. 
2. Although, as we have seen already, the construction is very common in 
Early West Saxon, still, in Alfred and in Wserferth, out of a total of about 
552 examples, 478 correspond to the Latin periphrastic conjugation (either 
complete, 445; or elliptical, 33) made up of sum and the gerundive; while 29 
others correspond to Latin locutions of similar form or meaning (ad -f- a gerund 
(1), ad+ a gerundive (3), an adjective in -oilis (2), debeo-\- an infinitive (5), a 
gerundive in the genitive (1), dignum + an ablative (2), possum + a passive 
infinitive (1), sum + an infinitive (2); licet + an infinitive (1); — and less 
closely akin: an accusative and a passive infinitive (1), a passive indicative (8), 
or a passive subjunctive (2) ). I believe, therefore, that the inflected infini¬ 
tive of necessity or obligation in Anglo-Saxon was first suggested by, and was 
used normally in translation of, the Latin passive periphrastic conjugation, 
though it was occasionally suggested by the other Latin locutions of kindred 
signification above named. 
3. Nor is the induction of 2 invalidated, I think, by the fact that we have 
about forty-five infinitives in Early West Saxon not yet accounted for by the 
Latin originals. Of these forty-five, seven (Bede 88.23: cweSan; 128.13: don; 
1 See Chapter VII, p. 97. 
2 The claims of Cynewulf to the authorship of the Riddles has been much strengthened by Dr. F. Tupper. 
Jr.’s recent article, “ The Cynewulfian Runes of the First Riddle,” in Modern Language Notes for December, 1910. 
3 See Vincenti, l. c., pp. 122 ff. 
