My curiosity aroused, I've been searching through my print anthologies in an attempt to find the earliest recorded use of ye in any form. There is, of course, that long period of early New England dialect where ye was used most lavishly as recorded in (among other works) Melville's Moby Dick and O'Neill's play Desire Under the Elms. Good colloquial examples are available in both these works. (I'm surprised wow and Dr. Bill haven't chimed-in here). Also, there are many examples of ye's use as "the" in titles like "Ye Olde Tin Shoppe," etc. So far I have these early examples (and, of course, the famous town crier's call, "Hear ye! Hear ye!").
an excerpt from the poem WISHES, TO HIS (SUPPOSED) MISTRESS
by Richard Crashaw (1613-1649)
"Meet you her, my wishes,
Bespeak her to my blisses,
And be ye called my absent kisses."
An earlier example comes from the 1st verse of an anonymous song/ballad attributed to the ancient roving bards (circa the year 1000?...pre-dating Chaucer, anyway):
TOM O'BEDLAM'S SONG
"From the hag and hungry goblin
That into rags would rend ye,
And the spirit that stands by the naked man
In the book of moons, defend ye,
That of your five sound senses
You never be forsaken,
Nor wander from yourselves with Tom,
Abroad to beg your bacon."
There is also the Irish ballad, "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye."
But, by far, the most curious and intriguing specimen comes from ol' Rabbie Burns (1759-1796),
SONG: GREEN GROW THE RASHES
5th Verse
"For you sae douce, ye sneer at this;
Ye're nought but senseless asses, O;
The wisest man the warl' e'er saw,
He dearly loved the lasses, O."
warl': world
Note Burns uses ye in the same sentence as you, and then again in contraction form!
Robert Herrick's is, of course, another of the earliest examples.
If anyone can figure out the pattern to all these interchangeable-seeming YEs and YOUs
please ring in!
So far no YEs in any form in Chaucer, Skelton, or Spenser...but that could be due to translation from olde and middle English.
If anyone wants or thinks we should take this to a new thread for further discussion, I'd be glad to paste it over.
