246 THE INFINITIVE IN THE OTHER GERMANIC LANGUAGES. 
mir wesan = oportet me esse ; 1 ib. 100.30: gilimphit mir zi gotspellone = oportet 
me evangelizare . 2 I, therefore, consider this idiom borrowed from the Latin 
originals in Old High German. But not so Dr. Zeitlin, 1 who, l. c., p. 33, thus 
expresses his view: “ In considering the usage with impersonal and neuter 
verbs we must remember that many Old High German expressions of this 
class govern an accusative case as direct object, e.g., Otfrid V, 1.1: ist filu 
manno wuntar, ‘ great wonder is on the men ; 9 ib. I, 9.27: wuntar was thia 
menigi, 1 wonder was on the multitude;’ ib. V, 6.14: thes thih mag wesan wola 
niot, ‘ of this you it may well be pleasing (you may well rejoice at this ); 1 ib. 
V, 22.7: thes ist sie iamer filu niot, ‘ they are ever pleased at this;’ ib. V, 9.11: 
ward wola thiu selbun mennisgon. When an object infinitive is added to sen¬ 
tences like the preceding, we have a combination which is hardly distinguish¬ 
able from the free Latin accusative with infinitive. But it is quite apparent 
from these illustrations that the assumption of Latin influence is not necessary, 
that the accusative, indeed, is almost always felt as directly connected with 
the main verb, and that these cases, therefore, do not differ from the other cat¬ 
egories of the accusative with infinitive which are found in Old High German.” 
He then gives examples of the idiom after gilustan (?), gilimphan, and bifahan, all 
from Tatian except the first example, after gilustan, which seems doubtful to 
me. He concludes: “ In Notker, impersonal verbs with this construction seem 
to follow Latin models in most cases, since often the accusative has no connec¬ 
tion whatever with the main verb, which is followed by another substantive in 
the dative case as indirect object.” Of his examples from Notker I cite only 
one: III, 124 b .29: fone diu ist not, chad si, misseliche namen haben diu finuiu 
und siu doh ein uuesen , 1 hence it is necessary . . . that the five should have 
different names and yet be a single thing.’ This is a clever, but to me not con¬ 
vincing plea: it allows more weight to a bare possibility than to the demon¬ 
strable and, as I believe, demonstrated origin of the construction in Gothic 
and in Anglo-Saxon; and it underrates the fact, stated by Dr. Zeitlin 1 (l. c., p. 35), 
that the idiom is not found in Old Saxon. 
In Old Saxon I find no example of the accusative and infinitive as subject, 
but frequent examples of the dative and subjective infinitive, as in Hel. 3298: 
that uuari an godes riki unobi odagumu manne up te cumanne? 
In the Germanic languages, then, as in Anglo-Saxon, the accusative and in¬ 
finitive as subject of a finite verb is an imported idiom. 
B. THE PASSIVE INFINITIVE. 
The passive infinitive with accusative subject, whether in objective or in 
subjective clauses, is rare in the Germanic languages, as in Anglo-Saxon. 
Dr. Apelt does not gather together in one place the passive infinitives in 
Gothic with accusative subject. But we find examples here and there of this 
idiom in subjective clauses, as in Skeir. I c: gadob nu was mais pans . . . ufhaus- 
jandans . . . gaqissans uairfian, and in objective clauses, as in I Cor. 10.20: 
ni wiljau auk izwis skohslam gadailans wairpan = ov <9eAo> Se fyxas koivuvovs tZw 
SaifxovLOiv yLveorOcu, in the latter in imitation of the Greek. Often, however, the 
Greek passive infinitive with accusative subject is rendered in Gothic by an 
1 From Denecke, l. c., p. 42. 
2 Ibidem, p. 66. 
3 From Steig, l. c., p. 496. 
