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Page xlviii
intreated Job xix. 16, but entreated in the next verse; while in Job xxiv. 21 the second is intreateth. In Jer. xv. 11 text and margin, intreat and entreat actually change places in 1611, and are not put right until 1638. Between enquire and inquire, on the contrary, the choice is purely indifferent; the former is chiefly adopted in 1611 (but inquired Deut. xvii. 4 Oxford reprint; Ps. lxxviii. 34; Ezekiel xx. 31 bis; John iv. 52, &c.; inquiry Prov. xx. 25), the latter is our practice, derived from our model (1858) and the recent Cambridge Bibles. Thus also we take informed with 1611 in Acts xxv. 2, rather than enformed as in 2 Macc. xiv. 1; Acts xxiv. 1; xxv. 15: but enrolled of 1611 in 1 Macc. x. 36 in preference to inrolled of the margins of Luke ii. 1; Heb. xii. 23. In Isai. v. 11 enflame is in 1611, but inflaming in Isai. lvii. 5; modern Bibles reverse this, yet all keep inflamed of 1611 in Hist. of Susanna ver. 8. Many words, the exact orthography of which is quite indifferent, we have laboured to reduce to a uniform method. Thus ankles, the usual modern practice, which we take in all five places, is found in 1611 only in Ps. xviii. 36 marg., but ancles in 2 Sam. xxii. 37 marg.; Ezek. xlvii. 3 text and marg.; Acts iii. 7: in 1629 ancles is set in the first place, ankles in the third and fourth, later Bibles recalling this last correction, but bringing ankles into 2 Sam. xxii. 37 marg. Sometimes the later Bibles issuing from different presses exhibit their characteristic varieties of spelling. Instead of inquire, noticed above as a peculiarity of the Cambridge books, those of Oxford (1857) and London or the Queen’s Printer (1859) read enquire: for axe (which word is thus spelt ten times in 1611) these last, after the example of their predecessors from 1629 (Camb.) downwards, wrongly print ax, against the modern Cambridge editions. In 1 Kin. v. 9; 2 Chr. ii. 16; 1 Esdr. v. 55 we find flotes in 1611, but recent Cambridge Bibles have needlessly changed it into floats. These last are again wrong in soap, which, after 1611, the Oxford and London Bibles spell sope in both places (Jer. ii. 22; Mal. iii. 2). The truer form rasor occurs seven times in 1611 and the Cambridge text, while the books of Oxford and London have razor. In Judg. ix. 53 the Oxford editions, with 1611, adopt scull, but the Cambridge, and 1611 in all other places, prefer skull. The Cambridge books, after 1611, have gray (greyhound Prov. xxx. 31, rightly so spelt in 1629 Camb., 1630, has no connection with it), the Oxford and London grey. With the Cambridge Bible we also spell counseller (not counsellor with those of Oxford and London), as does also that of 1611 except in three places, where it has counsellours (Ezra viii. 25; Prov. xii. 20; xv. 22). Council (variously spelt councill, councel, councell in 1611) is ordinarily distinguished from counsel or counsell, but the latter is put for the former in 1 Esdr. iii. 15 marg. (χρηματιστηρίῳ); Matt. v. 22; Mark xiv. 55, all subsequently set right. Since ours, yours, theirs are possessive cases plural of the personal pronouns, the apostrophe set before s in the editions of 1762 and 1769, as also in the London and Oxford Bibles to this day, is positively incorrect: hence the Cambridge practice, which never admitted the apostrophe, has been followed in this respect.
Again, there are forms not wholly banished from our modern books, though their number is diminished in later times, whose presence tends to lend richness and variety to the style. Such is marish Ezek. xlvii. 11; 1 Macc. ix. 42, 45, for the more familiar marsh: the pathetic astonied, yet standing for the more common-place astonished in Ezra ix. 3, 4; Job xvii. 8; xviii. 20; Jer. xiv. 9; Ezek. iv. 17; Dan. iii. 24; iv. 19; v. 9, and restored to its rightful position in the great passage Isai. lii. 14, whence a false taste has removed it subsequently to 1638. Stablish also has been brought again into twelve places (e.g. Lev. xxv. 30; Deut. xix. 15) instead of established of later books: grin or grinne (Job xviii. 9; Ps. cxl. 5; cxli. 9) has been treated as a legitimate modification of gin or ginne (Job xl. 24 marg.; Isai. viii. 14; Amos iii. 5), though cast out in 1762. Once only, it would appear, a superficial difficulty is attempted to be concealed by a slight change in the spelling. In Gen. l. 23 marg. borne, which in 1611 was equivalent to born, was sufficiently correct to convey no wrong impression. To ensure clearness the final e was dropped in 1629 (Camb.), but restored again in 1762, by which time it would be sure to suggest a false meaning.
Enough has been said of those variations in orthography which are due to accident or the caprice of fashion. Others, more interesting, spring from grammatical inflections common in the older stages of our language, which have been gradually withdrawn from later Bibles, wholly or in part, chiefly
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