I suspect they followed the same rule of proximity we follow today.  In Standard English disjunctive subjects with number disagreement the verb tends to agree with the second disjunct:

Either the girls or Jack has just arrived.

In less formal Engish, the verb tends to agree with the nearest noun, even if that noun is not the head noun of the Subject NP.

All ten thousand  books about the 2000 election is in that room.
The book about the architect who designed those buildings are interesting.

Not the best of examples of this phenomenon, but we've seen it in our students' writing and probably when editing our own.  Proximity carries considerable weight in agreement phenomena.  I suspect, though, that a plural subject ending in a singular noun is less likely to cause proximity concord, as in my first example, than a singular subject ending in a plural noun.

Herb


Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of English
Ball State University
Muncie, IN  47306
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________________________________________
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul E. Doniger [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: June 17, 2008 3:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: a subject-verb agreement question

Shakespeare (as well as his contemporaries) often puts a singular verb with a plural subject: "Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives" (_Macbeth_ 2.1.61), even when the subject is a simple plural word and not a compound subject. It is quite common for the period (did they speak that way as well?).

Paul D.

----- Original Message ----
From: Karl Hagen <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 1:58:10 PM
Subject: Re: a subject-verb agreement question

Also note that when you go back to the 18th century and earlier, it's
fairly easy to find examples where conjunction with 'and' does not make
the NP take a plural verb, even though current usage would definitely
require the plural (i.e., we're not talking about instances like
"drinking and driving _is_ illegal"),

Hence you have Shakespeare writing:

"The nature of our people,
Our city's institutions, and the terms
For common justice, you are as pregnant in
As art and practice _hath_ enriched any
That we remember." (Measure for Measure, I.i)

Even Lowth did not wholly disapprove of it. Here are his remarks. Note
particularly his rationalization of the exceptions:

'Two or more Nouns in the Singular Number, joined together by one or
more Copulative Conjunctions (1), have Verbs, Nouns, and Pronouns,
agreeing with them in the Plural Number: as, "_Socrates and Plato were_
wise; _they were_ the most eminent _Philosophers_ of Greece." But
sometimes, after an enumeration of particulars thus connected, the Verb
follows in the Singular Number; and is understood as applied to each of
the preceding terms: as,--"The glorious Inhabitants of those sacred
places, where nothing but light and blessed immortality, no shadow of
matter for tears, discontentments, griefs, and uncomfortable passions to
work upon; but all _joy, tranquility, and peace_, even for ever and ever
_doth dwell_." Hooker B. i. 4. "Sand, and salt, and a mass of iron, _is_
easier to bear, than a man without understanding" Eccles xxii. 15 (1).'

With Lindley Murray and later writers, though, this exception is removed.

Craig Hancock wrote:
>    The OED lists a number of uses of "As well as" in conjunctive role,
> dating way back. This, from Mallory, is typical: 1470-85 MALORY Arthur
> IX. xxxvi. 397 Whan men ben hote in dedes of armes ofte they hurte
> their frendes as wel as their foes.
>
>    In this example, you could think "their friends" as news and "their
> foes" almost as given, so that may be a useful pattern to emulate.
>
>    It's interesting that their one example of a structure in subject
> position is treated as singular: 1821 CRAIG Lect. Drawing etc. vii. 404
> The back-ground as well as other parts is dotted or stippled.
>
>    I think the commentary in Karl's post is by far the most thoughtful.
> In a nutshell, common sense would call for some flexibility even
> though prescriptive grammars present the singular as "correct."
>
> Craig
>
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