---
title: Twas past belief, the maiden's sorrow and shame; how she scarce migh… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: Twas past belief, the maiden's sorrow and shame; how she scarce might bear to be smitten by the cruel knight; she wept and wrung her hands. Who acts: ware, Twas, cruel knight, maiden. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, 
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 4, sentence 80

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Twas past belief, the maiden's sorrow and shame; how she scarce might bear to be smitten by the cruel knight; she wept and wrung her hands.

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**Who acts:** ware, Twas, cruel knight, maiden · **What happens:** scarce, bear, smite, weep, wring, sorrow · **To what, where:** hands

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This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ware, Twas, cruel knight, maiden), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg8447:4:80
# text = Twas past belief, the maiden's sorrow and shame; how she scarce might bear to be smitten by the cruel knight; she wept and wrung her hands.
1	Twas	twa	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
2	past	past	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	belief	belief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	shame	shame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
12	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	scarce	scarce	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
15	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	smitten	smite	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	xcomp	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	wept	weep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	wrung	wring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
29	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scarce** | past | ware |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **bear** | might | Twas past belief and the maiden's sorrow and shame |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **smite** | to-infinitive · passive | the cruel knight |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **weep** | past | ware |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **wring** | past | ware *not said here* | ware's hands |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Patient |
| 6 | **sorrow** |  | the maiden |  |  |  |  |  | nom sorrow «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Project Gutenberg book 8447 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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