hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2024-11-30

■ #5696. royal we の古英語からの例？ [oe][me][royal_we][monarch][personal_pronoun][pronoun][beowulf][aelfric][philology][historical_pragmatics][number]

　「君主の we」 (royal_we) について「#5284. 単数の we --- royal we, authorial we, editorial we」 ([2023-10-15-1]) や「#5692. royal we --- 君主は自身を I ではなく we と呼ぶ？」 ([2024-11-26-1]) の記事で取り上げてきた．
　OED の記述によると，古英語に royal we の古い例とおぼしきものが散見されるが，いずれも真正な例かどうかの判断が難しいとされる．Mitchell の OES (§252) への参照があったので，そちらを当たってみた．

§252. There are also places where a single individual other than an author seems to use the first person plural. But in some of these at any rate the reference may be to more than one. Thus GK and OED take we in Beo 958 We þæt ellenweorc estum miclum, || feohtan fremedon as referring to Beowulf alone---the so-called 'plural of majesty'. But it is more probably a genuine plural; as Klaeber has it 'Beowulf generously includes his men.' Such examples as ÆCHom i. 418. 31 Witodlice we beorgað ðinre ylde: gehyrsuma urum bebodum . . . and ÆCHom i. 428. 20 Awurp ðone truwan ðines drycræftes, and gerece us ðine mægðe (where the Emperor Decius addresses Sixtus and St. Laurence respectively) may perhaps also have a plural reference; note that Decius uses the singular in ÆCHom i. 426. 4 Ic geseo . . . me . . . ic sweige . . . ic and that in § ii. 128. 6 Gehyrsumiað eadmodlice on eallum ðingum Augustine, þone ðe we eow to ealdre gesetton. . . . Se Ælmihtiga God þurh his gife eow gescylde and geunne me þæt ic mote eoweres geswinces wæstm on ðam ecan eðele geseon . . . , where Pope Gregory changes from we to ic, we may include his advisers. If any of these are accepted as examples of the 'plural of majesty', they pre-date that from the proclamation of Henry II (sic) quoted by Bøgholm (Jespersen Gram. Misc., p. 219). But in this too we may include advisers: þæt witen ge wel alle, þæt we willen and unnen þæt þæt ure ræadesmen alle, oþer þe moare dæl of heom þæt beoþ ichosen þurg us and þurg þæt loandes folk, on ure kyneriche, habbeþ idon . . . beo stedefæst.

　ここでは royal we らしく解せる古英語の例がいくつか挙げられているが，確かにいずれも1人称複数の用例として解釈することも可能である．最後に付言されている初期中英語からの例にしても，royal we の用例だと確言できるわけではない．素直な1人称複数とも解釈し得るのだ．いつの間にか，文献学と社会歴史語用論の沼に誘われてしまった感がある．
　ちなみに，上記引用中の "the proclamation of Henry II" は "the proclamation of Henry III" の誤りである．英語史上とても重要な「#2561. The Proclamation of Henry III」 ([2016-05-01-1]) を参照．

　・ Mitchell, Bruce. Old English Syntax. 2 vols. New York: OUP, 1985.

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