1 Fairfax, before Waller and Denham were in being; and our numbers were in their nonage till these last appeared. an apparent Deficiency of a syllable or two. In some of these, perhaps the defect may still be supplied from Mss.: but for the greatest part I am persuaded no such assistance is to be expected; and therefore, supposing the text in these cases to be correct, it is worth considering whether the verse also may not be made correct, by adopting in certain words a pronunciation, different indeed from modern practice, but which, we have reason to believe, was used by the author himself. For instance, in the genitive case singular, and the plural number of nouns, (which, as has been remarked above, in the time of Chaucer had the same expression,) there can be no doubt that such words as, shoures, ver. 1. croppes, ver. 7. shires, ver. 15. lordes, ver. 47, &c. were regularly pronounced as consisting of two syllables. Whenever they are used as monosyllables, it must be considered as a poetical licence, warranted however even then (as we may presume, from the natural progress of our language,) by the practice of inaccurate speakers in common conversation. “In like manner, we may be sure that ed, the regular termination of the past tense and its participle, made, or contributed to make, a second syllable in the words, perced, ver. 2. bathed, ver. 3. loved, ver. 45. wered, ver. 75, &c. The first step toward reducing words of this form to monosyllables, seems to have been to shorten the last syllable, either by transposing the final letters, as inwolde, ver. 144. sayde, ver. 763, &c. or by throwing away the d, as in-coste, ver. 1910. caste, ver. 2083, &c. In both these cases the words still remained of two syllables, the final e being sounded as an e feminine; but they were prepared to lose their last syllable by the easy licence of I need say little of his parentage, life, and fortunes: they are to be found at large in all the changing an e feminine into an e mute, or of dropping it entirely, according to the modern practice. "But nothing will be found of such extensive use for supplying the deficiencies of Chaucer's metre, as the pronunciation of the e feminine; and as that pronunciation has been a long time totally antiquated, it may be proper here to suggest some reasons for believing (independently of any arguments to be drawn from the practice of Chaucer himself) that the final e in our ancient language was very generally pronounced, as the e feminine is at this day by the French. With respect to words imported directly from France, it is certainly quite natural to suppose, that, for some time, they retained their native pronunciation; whether they were Nouns substantive, as, hoste, ver. 753. face, ver. 1580, &c. or Adjectives, as, large, ver. 755strange, ver. 13, &c.-or Verbs, as, grante, ver. 12756. preche, ver. 12327, &c. and it cannot be doubted, that in these and other similar words in the French language, the final e was always pronounced as it still is, so as to make them dissyllables. "We have not indeed so clear a proof of the original pronunciation of the Saxon part of our language; but we know, from general observation, that all changes of pronunciation are usually made by small degrees; and therefore, when we find that a great number of those words, which in Chaucer's time ended in e, originally ended in a, we may reasonably presume, that our ancestors first passed from the broader sound of a to the thinner sound of e feminine, and not at once from a to e mute. Besides, if the final e in such words was not pronounced, why was it added? From the time that it has editions of his works. He was employed abroad, and favoured by Edward the Third, Richard the confessedly ceased to be pronounced, it has been gra dually omitted in them, except where it may be supposed of use to lengthen or soften the preceding syllable, as in -hope, name, &c. But according to the ancient orthography it terminated many words of Saxon original, where it cannot have been added for any such purpose, as herte, childe, olde, wilde, &c. In these therefore we must suppose that it was pronounced as an e feminine, and made part of a second syllable; and so, by a parity of reason, in all others, in which, as in these, it appears to have been substituted for the Saxon a. "Upon the same grounds we may presume, that in words terminated, according to the Saxon form, in en, such as the Infinitive modes and Plural numbers of Verbs, and a great variety of Adverbs and Prepositions, then only was at first thrown away, and the e, which became final, continued for a long time to be pronounced as well as written. "These considerations seem sufficient to make us believe, that the pronunciation of the e feminine is founded on the very nature of both the French and Saxon parts of our language; and therefore, though we may not be able to trace the reasons of that pronunciation in all cases so plainly as in those which have been just mentioned, we may safely, I think, conclude with the learned Wallis, that what is generally considered as an e mute in our language, either at the end or in the middle of words, was antiently pronounced, but obscurely, like the e feminine of the French. ["This reasoning concerning the final e" (Mr. Tyrwhitt observes in a Note,)" is equally applicable to the same vowel in the middle of words. Indeed (as Wallis has Second, and Henry the Fourth; and was poet, as I suppose, to all three of them. In Richard's observed, Gram. Ling. Ang. c. 1. § 2.) vix uspiam in medio dictionis reperitur e mutum, quod non ab origine fuerit finale.' If therefore it was pronounced while final, it would probably continue to be pronounced notwithstanding the addition of a syllable. If it was pronounced in swete, trewe, large, riche, it would be pronounced in swetely, trewely, largely, richely. [See ver. 123, and 3219, ver. 775 and 3692, ver. 2740 and 3034, ver. 1014 and 1913.] In another very numerous set of words (French verbals ending in ment) the pronunciation of this middle e is countenanced not only by analogy, but also by the subsisting practice in the French language. So Chaucer certainly pronounced the words jugement, ver. 780, 807, 820; commandement, ver. 2871, 2981; amendement, ver. 4183; pavement and avisement, ver. 4505, 6. Even Spencer in the same Canto (the 8th of B. v.) uses atonement and avengement as words of four syllables; [St. 21. 8.30. 5.] and Wallis takes notice that the middle e in commandement was pronounced in his time.] "The third kind of irregularity, to which an English. verse is liable, is from the Accents being misplaced. The restoring of Chaucer's words to their just number of syllables, by the methods which have been pointed out above, will often be of signal service in restoring his accents also to their proper places; but further, in many words, we must be cautious of concluding too hastily that Chaucer accented the same syllables that we do. On the contrary, I am persuaded that in his French words he most commonly laid his accent according to to the French custom (upon the last syllable, or the last but one in words ending in e feminine), which, as is well known, is the very reverse of our practice. Thus in time, I doubt, he was a little dipped in the rebel- ver. 3. he uses licoúr for liquour: ver. 11. coráges for coú- In the same manner he accents the last syllable of "These instances are all taken from the riming syllables, "It 66 may be proper however to observe, that we are |