“Save it should be” phraseology

The Book of Mormon has three instances of the phrase “save it should be.” The first one is followed by a that-clause, and the last two by an indefinite noun phrase:

2n0216
wherefore man could not act for himself
save it should be that he were enticed by the one or the other.

2n0907
Wherefore it must needs be an infinite atonement; save it should be an infinite atonement, this corruption could not put on incorruption.

2n2518
for there should not any come save it should be a false Messiah which should deceive the people.

This is a rare phrase outside of the Book of Mormon, analogous to the phrase “save it were,” which is plentiful in the 1829 text, but very uncommon before it. (Five previous original instances are currently known, none American; the first three are Scottish English, dated 1646, 1684, and 1749.)

In 2n0216, we see not only the subjunctive marker should of the phrase in question, but also that the following clause is in the subjunctive mood, which is shown by “he were.” This is sophisticated archaic usage, and so not directly assignable to Joseph Smith. In 1829, he was unlikely to have worded the above Book of Mormon passages in this way. “Save it should be” triggering the subjunctive mood was not nineteenth-century usage, nor was it the language of the uneducated.

Before 1830, I found only two instances of “save (that) it should be,” one in EEBO and one in Google Books (neither ECCO nor Evans had any examples):

1567, EEBO A08630, [226]
I scarce my laughter helde, / which whilste I striue to stay:
Saue that it should be so in déede, / I had no worde to say.

1731, Google Books, 141 (1754)
and therefore upon View of the said Account, I cannot find any Error in Favour of the Publick, save it should be in these two Sums,

The earlier example (with a that) is found in a translation of Ovid by the Elizabethan poet George Turberville, born around 1540. The later example is from legal proceedings of the General Assembly of the British colony of Pennsylvania, from William Fishbourne, probably born in 1677 in Maryland.

The analogous phrase “except it should be” occurs sixty times in EEBO, at a higher rate in the sixteenth century than in the seventeenth. We learn from this that historically there was hardly any analogical extension of this usage to save; analogical use was certainly not automatic. It theoretically could have been used quite frequently, yet it was not.

“Except it should be” even occurs twice with a following that-phrase, as in 2n0216:

1599, EEBO A02753, 278
If his fits did grow lesse towards the end of the day, as the booke reporteth, I can giue no reason of it, except it should bee that hee was possessed with two spirites, as the Booke doth seeme to insinuate,

1616, EEBO A00419, 498
Againe, you must not cause anie water to ouerflow anie old Medow grounds, in the time of great and excessiue cold, except it should be that they should continue a long time:

The 1616 example has an analytical subjunctive marker should in the following that-clause, similar to the synthetic subjunctive marking present in 2n0216. EEBO also has two instances of “except it were that . . should _{[subjunctive]}.”

1568, EEBO A00382, [49]
A fonde wench, what needeth it to lay mine eare to thine, seing we be alone? except it were that God shoulde not heare it.

1685, EEBO A67709, 186
But the Thebans refused to deliver them on any Condition whatsoever, except it were, that the Lacedemonians should march out of their Countrey, who gladly accepted it, and taking their dead retired out of Boeotia.

Most instances of “except it should be” in the eighteenth century are not the archaic variety. Sometimes the it is literal, often with following past participles; other times “it should be” is the beginning of an adjectival phrase. Here is a rare archaic example from the second half of the eighteenth century:

1769, ecco|dî»eç, 79
we cannot conceive who can have undertaken so malicious a prosecution against you; except it should be some disappointed heir at law, to Sir William.

By the end of the eighteenth century, examples of the older style of except it should be in ECCO are from the early modern period, often from Francis Bacon. Here is another one from ECCO, even earlier than Bacon’s time, and with spelling characteristic of the late sixteenth century:

1588, ecco|dtîm¢, 391 (1798)
where they shoulde take any succour, except it should be, that they do beare aboute the northe parte of Skotland,

The Book of Mormon does not have any instances of “except it should be,” although it does have “except it should destroy” (with a literal it), preceded by “except it were,” which occurs fifteen times in the text:

aa4213
For except it were for these conditions, mercy could not take effect except it should destroy the work of justice.

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