The French Idea of Book Ending Verbs

French made verbs negative with two words, ne and another element, usually pa. In early middle english, this french idea of book ending verbs in this manner actually spread into english. So based on the french model, nay went before the verb, just as it always had. And not was now added after theverb, just like pa in french. We recognize those constructions from shakespeare and the king james's bible. But by the 15 s and 16 hundreds, that older construction of fear not and know not began to die out, thanks to a new construction using the word do.