“Thou cutst my head off with a golden axe,
    And smil’st upon the stroke that murders me.”—­Shakspeare.

OBS. 22.—­Dr. Lowth supposes the verbal termination s or es to have come from a contraction of eth.  He says, “Sometimes, by the rapidity of our pronunciation, the vowels are shortened or lost; and the consonants, which are thrown together, do not coalesce with one another, and are therefore changed into others of the same organ, or of a kindred species.  This occasions a farther deviation from the regular form:  thus, loveth, turneth, are contracted into lov’th, turn’th, and these, for easier pronunciation, immediately become loves, turns.”—­Lowth’s Gram., p. 46; Hiley’s, 45.  This etymology may possibly be just, but certainly such contractions as are here spoken of, were not very common in Lowth’s age, or even in that of Ben Jonson, who resisted the s.  Nor is the sound of sharp th very obviously akin to flat s.  The change would have been less violent, if lov’st and turnst had become loves and turns; as some people nowadays are apt to change them, though doubtless this is a grammatical error:  as,

   “And wheresoe’er thou casts thy view.”
        —­Cowley.

    “Nor thou that flings me floundering from thy back.”
        —­Bat. of Frogs and Mice, 1,123.

    “Thou sitt’st on high, and measures destinies.”
        —­Pollok, Course of Time, B. vi, 1, 668.

OBS. 23.—­Possibly, those personal terminations of the verb which do not form syllables, are mere contractions or relics of est and eth, which are syllables; but it is perhaps not quite so easy to prove them so, as some authors imagine.  In the oldest specimens given by Dr. Johnson in his History of the English Language,—­specimens bearing a much earlier date than the English language can claim,—­even in what he calls “Saxon in its highest state of purity,” both st and th are often added to verbs, without forming additional syllables, and without any sign of contraction.  Nor were verbs of the second person singular always inflected of old, in those parts to which est was afterwards very commonly added.  Examples:  “Buton ic wat thaet thu hoefst thara waepna.”—­King Alfred.  “But I know that thou hast those weapons.”  “Thaet thu oncnawe thara worda sothfaestnesse. of tham the thu geloered eart.”—­Lucae, i, 4.  “That thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed.”—­Luke, i, 4.  “And thu nemst his naman Johannes.”—­Lucae, i, 13.  “And his name schal be clepid Jon.”—­Wickliffe’s Version.  “And thou shalt call his name John.”—­Luke, i, 13.  “And he ne drincth win ne