laugh _ye_, dance _ye_, sing _ye_, vault, look gay,
And ruffle all the ladies in his play."--_King_, p. 574.

Some grammarians, who will have _you_ to be singular as well as plural,
ignorantly tell us, that "_ye_ always means more than one." But the fact
is, that when _ye_ was in common use, it was as frequently applied to one
person as _you_: thus,

"Farewell my doughter lady Margarete,
God wotte full oft it grieued hath my mynde,
That _ye_ should go where we should seldome mete:
Now am I gone, and haue left _you_ behynde."--_Sir T. More_, 1503.

In the following example, _ye_ is used for _thee_, the objective singular;
and that by one whose knowledge of the English language, is said to have
been unsurpassed:--

"Proud Baronet of Nova Scotia!
The Dean and Spaniard must reproach _ye_."--_Swift_.

So in the story of the Chameleon:--

"'Tis green, 'tis green, Sir, I assure _ye_."--_Merrick_.

Thus we have _ye_ not only for the nominative in both numbers, but at
length for the objective in both; _ye_ and _you_ being made everywhere
equivalent, by very many writers. Indeed this pronoun has been so
frequently used for the objective case, that one may well doubt any
grammarian's authority to condemn it in that construction. Yet I cannot but
think it ill-chosen in the third line below, though right in the first:--

"_Ye_! who have traced the Pilgrim to the scene
Which is his last, if in your memories dwell
A thought which once was his, if on _ye_ swell
A single recollection, not in vain
He wore his sandal-shoon, and scallop-shell."--_Byron_.

OBS. 24.--The three pronouns of the third person, _he, she_, and _it_, have
always formed their plural number after one and the same manner, _they,
their_ or _theirs, them_. Or, rather, these plural words, which appear not
to be regular derivatives from any of the singulars, have ever been applied
alike to them all. But _it_, the neuter pronoun singular, had formerly no
variation of cases, and is still alike in the nominative and the objective.
The possessive _its_ is of comparatively recent origin. In our common
Bible, the word is not found, except by misprint; nor do other writings of
the same age contain it. The phrase, _of it_, was often used as an
equivalent; as, "And it had three ribs in the mouth _of it_ between the
teeth _of it_."--_Dan._, vii, 5. That is--"in _its_ mouth, between _its_
teeth." But, as a possessive case wa