---
title: He would bethink him what 'twere best to do ere he let him be slain… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: He would bethink him what 'twere best to do ere he let him be slain or maimed; thus did he hold him within his fortress. Who acts: host, guest. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tre
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 6, sentence 36

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He would bethink him what 'twere best to do ere he let him be slain or maimed; thus did he hold him within his fortress.

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**Who acts:** host, guest · **What happens:** bethink, do, ere, let, slay, maim · **To what, where:** guest

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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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (host, guest), 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:pg8447:6:36
# text = He would bethink him what 'twere best to do ere he let him be slain or maimed; thus did he hold him within his fortress.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	bethink	bethink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
6	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	twere	twere	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	parataxis	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	csubj	_	_
11	ere	ere	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	slain	slay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	xcomp	_	_
17	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	maimed	maim	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
20	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
21	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	within	within	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	fortress	fortress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bethink** | would | host | guest |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **ere** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **let** | infinitive | host | guest |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **slay** | infinitive · passive | guest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP» |
| 6 | **maim** | participle | guest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **hold** | past · do-support | host | guest |  |  |  | within host's fortress; thus *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

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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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