Bilive and Blive: Distribution and Metrical Function

by MYRA STOKES, University of Bristol


The adverb derived from the phrase bi live appears in Middle English either with or without elision of the vowel of bi: that is, as bilive or blive. References to the two forms in what follows should be taken to include the variants recorded for each (such as belive, bileve, belef, for the former, and blif, bleve, bleive for the latter). Consideration of the form in which the word appears in any given text(s) is, it will emerge, of significant diagnostic value with regard to dialect and meter and can have surprisingly far-reaching textual and editorial implications. the way in which bilive/ blive figures in alliterative verse will be the special focus of this paper, but there are several general points that should first be made about the adverb (which in Middle English is used in a sense—'quickly,' 'promptly,' 'at once'—which is not in fact recorded in Old English for be life).