“Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy!”
        —­Shak., Cymb., Act iv, sc. 2.

    “Had not a voice thus warn’d me:  What thou seest,
    What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself.”
        —­Milton, B. iv, l. 467.

    “By those thou wooedst from death to endless life.”
        —­Pollok, B. ix, l. 7.

    “Attend:  that thou art happy, owe to God;
    That thou continuest such, owe to thyself”
        —­Milton, B. v, l. 520.

OBS. 40.—­If the grave and full form of the second person singular must needs be supposed to end rather with the syllable est than with st only, it is certain that this form may be contracted, whenever the verb ends in a sound which will unite with that of st.  The poets generally employ the briefer or contracted forms; but they seem not to have adopted a uniform and consistent method of writing them.  Some usually insert the apostrophe, and, after a single vowel, double the final consonant before st; as, hold’st, bidd’st, said’st, ledd’st, wedd’st, trimm’st, may’st, might’st, and so forth:  others, in numerous instances, add st only, and form permanent contractions; as, holdst, bidst, saidst, ledst, wedst, trimst, mayst, mightst, and so forth.  Some retain the vowel e, in the termination of certain words, and suppress a preceding one; as, quick’nest, happ’nest, scatt’rest, rend’rest, rend’redst, slumb’rest, slumb’redst:  others contract the termination of such words, and insert the apostrophe; as, quicken’st, happen’st, scatter’st, render’st, render’dst, slumber’st, slumber’dst.  The nature and idiom of our language, “the accent and pronunciation of it,” incline us to abbreviate or “contract even all our regular verbs;” so as to avoid, if possible, an increase of syllables in the inflection of them.  Accordingly, several terminations which formerly constituted distinct syllables, have been either wholly dropped, or blended with the final syllables of the verbs to which they are added.  Thus the plural termination en has become entirely obsolete; th or eth is no longer in common use; ed is contracted in pronunciation; the ancient ys or is, of the third person singular, is changed to s or es, and is usually added without increase of syllables; and st or est has, in part, adopted the analogy.  So that the proper mode of forming these contractions of the second person singular, seems to be, to add st only; and to insert no apostrophe, unless a vowel is suppressed from the verb to which this termination is added:  as, thinkst, sayst, bidst, sitst, satst, lov’st, lov’dst, slumberst, slumber’dst.

   “And know, for that thou slumberst on the guard,
    Thou shalt be made to answer at the bar.”—­Cotton.