How to parse. ...

302 ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

[Par. 558.

Participle in -ing (inge) had now become the usual
form.
Before this period many Passive Participles of Strong
Verbs dropped the final -n; and it is curious to observe that
the anti-inflectional tendency reached lengths from which it
has retrograded in modern English. Thus the -n or -en was
dropped not only in fought, bound, shrunk, sunk, but also
in spoke, broke, -curtailed forms that are found even in
Milton and Shakspeare, but are not accepted in modern
English. Chaucer (who drops -n as a rule) even uses "be"
for " been."
Note that we retain some of these old Participial forms
as Adjectives: "a molten image;" "our bounden duty;"
" a.foluhten field;" " a drunken man;" "a sunken ship."
It may be useful to compare the early part of this
period, when English had been just recognized by
royal edict as the language of the realm, with the
language of the First or " Synthetical Period." 1
1 Mr. Skeat suggests the following alternative names for the six
Periods. They may conveniently be set by the side of the names
suggested above.
1. Anglo-Saxon or Oldest English. 1. Inflectional.
2. Late Anglo-Saxon. 2. Period of " Confusion."
3 Early English. 3. Analytical.
4. Mliddle English. 4. National.
5. Tudor English. 5. Period of" License."
6. Modern English. 6. Modern English.