In a Scotch Ballad, called _Edom o Gordon_, we find the word _dreips_ for _drops_.
"--And clear, clear was hir zellow hair Whereon the reid bluid _dreips_."
But it was often spelt _drap_, agreeable to the pronunciation. See Edward. Rel. An. Poet. 53.
The dialect in America is peculiar to the descendants of the Scotch Irish.
Mought is the past time or participle of an old Saxon verb _mowe_ or _mowen_, _to be able_. It answered to the _posse_ of the Romans, and the _pouvoir_ of the French. This verb occurs frequently in Chaucer.
"But that science is so fer us beforne, We _mowen_ not, altho we had it sworne, It overtake, it slit away so fast, It _wol_ us maken beggers at the last."
"To _mowen_ such a knight done live or die."----Troil. and Cres. 2. 1594. That is, _to be able_ to make such a knight live or die.
"And _mought_ I hope to winne thy love, Ne more his tonge could saye."
"The thought they herd a woman wepe, But her they _mought_ not se."
Adam Bell, &c. part 3. l. 2. in Rel. of An. Poet.
"So _mought_ thou now in these refined lays Delight the dainty ears of higher powers. And so _mought_ they in their deep scanning skill, Allow and grace our Collen's flowing quill."
There seem to have been among our Saxon ancestors two verbs of nearly or exactly the same signification, _may_ and _might_; and _mowe_ and _mought_. There is some reason to think they were not synonimous; that _may_ was used to express _possibility_, as _I may go next week_; and _mowe_ to express _power_, as _they mowen go_, they are able to go. But it is not certain that such a distinction ever existed. The Germans use _moegen_, in the infinitive; _mag_, in the indic. pres. _mæge_, in the subj. pres. in the imperfect of the ind. _mochte_; and in the imp. of the subj. _mæchte_. The English use _may_ and _might_ solely in their writing; but _mought_ is still pronounced in some parts of America.
_Holpe_ or _holp_ was not obsolete when the Bible was last translated, in the reign of king James; for it occurs in several places in that translation. It occurs frequently in old authors.
"Unkindly they slew him, that _holp_ them oft at nede."
In Virginia it is pronounced _hope_. "Shall I hope you, Sir."
But we must look among the New England common people for ancient English phrases; for they have been 160 years sequestered in some measure from the world, and their language has not suffered material changes from their first settlement to the present time. Hence most of the phrases, used by Shakespear, Congreve, and other writers who have described English manners and recorded the language of all classes of people, are still heard in the common discourse of the New England yeomanry.