in the sound of _I_, the same
elements are more quickly blended. (See a note at the foot of page 162.)
When this sound is suddenly repeated, some writers make a new word of it,
which must be called an _interjection_: as, "'Pray, answer me a question or
two.' '_Ey, ey_, as many as you please, cousin Bridget, an they be not too
hard.'"--_Burgh's Speaker_, p. 99. "_Ey, ey_, 'tis so; she's out of her
head, poor thing."--_Ib._, p. 100. This is probably a corruption of _ay_,
which is often doubled in the same manner: thus,

"_Ay, ay_, Antipholus, look strange, and frown."--_Shakspeare_.

OBS. 20.--The common fashion of address being nowadays altogether in the
plural form, the pronouns _thou, thy, thine, thee_, and _thyself_, have
become unfamiliar to most people, especially to the vulgar and uneducated.
These words are now confined almost exclusively to the writings of the
poets, to the language of the Friends, to the Holy Scriptures, and to the
solemn services of religion. They are, however, the _only genuine_
representatives of the second person singular, in English; and to displace
them from that rank in grammar, or to present _you, your_, and _yours_, as
being literally singular, though countenanced by several late writers, is a
useless and pernicious innovation. It is sufficient for the information of
the learner, and far more consistent with learning and taste, to say, that
the plural is fashionably used _for the singular_, by a figure of syntax;
for, in all correct usage of this sort, the _verb_ is plural, as well as
the pronoun--Dr. Webster's fourteen authorities to the contrary
notwithstanding. For, surely, "_You was_" cannot be considered good
English, merely because that number of respectable writers have happened,
on some particular occasions, to adopt the phrase; and even if we must
needs concede this point, and grant to the Doctor and his converts, that
"_You was_ is _primitive_ and _correct_," the example no more proves that
_you_ is singular, than that _was_ is plural. And what is one singular
irregular preterit, compared with all the verbs in the language?

OBS. 21.--In our present authorized version of the Bible, the numbers and
cases of the second person are kept remarkably distinct,[211] the pronouns
being always used in the following manner: _thou_ for the nominative, _thy_
or _thine_ for the possessive, and _thee_ for the objective, singular; _ye_
for the nominative, _your_ or _yours_ for the possess