410 it]
Craik (1864, rpt. 1902, pp. 160-71): <p. 161>“The word
Its does not occur in the authorized translation of the Bible; its place is always supplied either by
His or by
Thereof. [. . .]
Its, however, is found in Shakespeare. There is one instance [and only one, according to
Rolfe, where it is not spelled
it’s, with an apostrophe] in [
MM 1.2.4 (100)] [. . .]. But the most remarkable of the Plays in regard to this particular is probably [
WT 2.3.180 (1112); </p. 161> <p. 162> and other passages] . </p. 162> <p. 163> “[L]ong before
its was generally received, we have
it self commonly printed as two words, evidently under the impression that
it was a possessive [. . .]. And even now we do not write
itself. [. . .] There is also one passage in the English Bible,
Levit. xxv, 5, in which the reading of the original edition is ‘of it own accord.’ The modern reprints give ‘its.’ </p. 163><p. 164> Dr. Trench, in his
English, Past and Present, doubts whether Milton has once admitted
its into
Paradise Lost, ‘although, when that was composed, others frequently allowed it.” But he does use it occasionally,
e.g. ‘The mind is its own place’—
Par. Lost i, 254 . . . . Generally, however, he avoids the word, and easily manages to do so by personifying most of his substantives; it is only when this cannot be done that he reluctantly accepts the services of the little
parvenu monosyllable.” Bacon frequently has
his in the neuter. “Dr. Trench notices the fact of the occurrence of
its in
Rowley’s Poems as
decisive against their genuineness.” </p. 164> [The rest of this is from
Furness’s paraphrase:] The modern practice is the last of three distinct stages through which the language passed, as to this use of
its, in the course of less than a century. First, we have
his serving for both masculine and neuter; secondly, we have
his restricted to the masculine, and the neuter left with hardly any recognized form; thirdly, we have the defect of the second stage remedied by the frank adoption of the heretofore rejected
its. And the most curious thing of all in the history of the word
its is the extent to which. before its recognition as a word admissible in serious composition, even the occasion for its employment was avoided or eluded. This is very remarkable in Sh. The very conception which we express by
its probably does not occur once in his works for ten times that it is to be found in any modern writer. So that we may say the invention or adoption of this form has changed not only our English style, but even our manner of thinking. The Saxon personal pronoun was, in the nominative singular,
He, masculine;
He, feminine;
Hit, neuter.
He we still retain; for
Hewe have substituted
She, apparently a modification of
Se, the feminine of the demonstrative;
Hit we have converted into
It (though the aspirate is still often heard in the Scottish dialect). The genitive was
Hire for the feminine (whence our modern
Her), and
His both for the masculine and the neuter. It is to be understood, of course, that
its, however convenient, is quite an irregular formation; the
t of
it (originally
hit) is merely the sign of the neuter gender, which does not enter into the inflection, leaving the natural genitive of that gender (
hi, hi-s) substantially identical with that of the masculine (
he, he-s, hi-s).”