And smale foweles | maken melodye That slepen al the nyght | with open eye So priketh hem nature in hir corages ΙΟ 15 -Half: Gil's half proves that at least two centuries and a half ago the a in this word was sounded as the a or aw in walk (I give his spelling), wâl, fâl, lâu, drâ, strâ, &c.; as Butler also (1633) and Cooper (1685) teach. -P. has halfe. From E Mr. Furnivall gives half[e], but the other four MSS. have no e, and I have followed their lead. If half is the true reading, it follows that Chaucer in this line allows a pause instead of the short syllable of the fourth foot, and does not always keep the final e after a determinative. -irun: A.S. urnen, Ger. geronnen. The u points to the sound of (u) which the rhyme demands. 9. smaal'e or smææle: see §§ 73 and 75. -fǝu ǝlez: the word is trisyllabic in E. and He., so that the second foot of this line is a tribrach, as in 1. 3. -mel odǝi: see §§ 17 and 90. 10. AAL: see § 73. -nikht: the vowel is short in the Orm., where the form is nihht: when it became long, as at present sounded, I have failed to discover. Probably when the guttural went out of use. -oop'en: almost all our pure English words that now have a long (00) had á in A.S.: this word is one of the very few exceptions, the earliest form being like the present one open. From the A.S. spelling I conclude that it was sounded (open), as it still is in the West of England. Orm. shows that both sounds existed in his time, writing the adjective as openn and the verb as oppnenn. II. Her: I follow here the reading of Ca., Co., P., L., and Ha. in preference to that of E. and He. which give hir. For the sound, see note on 1. 32. -kuræædzhez: it admits of doubt whether the -age in this class of words has a short a, so that they would rhyme with the modern badge and Madge, or a long one, as I have assumed in § 75. On the whole, as the vowel is always sounded long in the French courage, &c., and these words in Chaucer's time had not been very long in the language, it is more likely that the syllable was long in English also. -kuræædzhez: Mr. Ellis writes (koo). But it is the general rule of our language to shorten every syllable except the accented one; indeed exceptions, such as almighty (AAlmǝiti), are not numerous. Moreover in the French, if we appeal to the modern pronunciation, we find that the stress of the voice is on the cou, but yet it is pronounced short (ku). This o is most likely to have been (u), as in French the form curage was the more ancient. 12. hæn'e: A.S. þænne, an old accusative singular. This form in E. and He. gives us an anapæst in the first foot, admissible also in Greek iambics. and smaal'e fǝu'elez mææk'en melodǝi, soo prik'eth Hem hatJyyr' in Heл kuræædzhez-. ; IO 15 -folk: there seems to be no evidence of the antiquity of the custom of not sounding the / in this word, though Butler (1633) tells us that in his time the I was dropped in calf, half, salve, calves, walk, talk, Halkin, Malkin, alms, almond, and many other words. As all the best MSS. exhibit the 7, it was most probably sounded. —pilgrimæædzh'ez: E. has the singular pilgrimage. 13. pal miirez: palmere is the modern Fr. paumier, and all such words (see § 92, in which this word ought to have been mentioned) rhyme with here, not with there (see p. 67). Co. spells the word palmeris, and this by no means infrequent form of the plural termination makes it clear that though the original -as became thinned down into -es and is, it did not commonly change the vowel into the obscure (e). See § 153. -siik en: see § 97. Independently of the rhymes which this word forms, that the e is long may be safely concluded from its being doubled in the three MSS., He., L., and Ha. -straAndzhe: Mr. Ellis for this (AA) writes (au), which he would pronounce as in the Ger. haus; but where does the (u) element come from? See below on Caunturbury, l. 16. (On p. 144, when quoting Sir Thomas Smith, Mr. Ellis seems quite to misunderstand Smith's protest against the then prevailing mode of sounding aůdáw: what Smith objected to was the Modern Greek pronunciation of αὐδάω as ἀβδάω.) 14. Hal wez: possibly Hæl wez; but no derivative of hálig with a short e appears in A. S. The Orm. does not help beyond showing that the vowel is short, the form being hallpenn. —sun'drẻ: that the A. S. word had u in the first syllable, and that the modern form is sundry, seem to be sufficient reasons for reading the o as (u), as in yonge sonne, 1. 7. On the (i) see on hooly, l. 17. 15. spesialǝi. that the s in such words was not sounded as sh up to the 16th century may perhaps be inferred from its not being mentioned; but the strongest argument seems to me to be one which Mr. Ellis has overlooked, namely that Hart had a special symbol for (sh) and does not use it in writing observasion, derivasion, nasion, &c. -spesialǝi: for the pronunciation of adjectives in -al down to the seventeenth century, see § 120, foot note † 3, p. 89. —spesialǝi: for the -ly, see note on shortly, 1. 30. -shǝir ez, perhaps shiir ez: the word shire undoubtedly has an exceptional pronunciation as (shii1), and as in Chaucer it nowhere ends a line except in 1. 356, rhyming with sire which does not, I believe, occur elsewhere, the argument of § 109 will not apply to it.. Of Engelond to Caunturbury they wende The hooly blisful martir for to seke That hem hath holpen | whan þat they were seeke —iind·e, and wiind·e l. 16: in the word find we preserve the sound which I believe friend (which habitually rhymes with it in Chaucer) to have formerly possessed. But ende in Chaucer repeatedly rhymes with friend; in the Orm. it has a long vowel (endenn); and Cooper, 1685, expressly records eend as belonging to the "barbara dialectus," which doubtless means an old and now unfashionable pronunciation. In like manner wende continually rhymes with ende in Chaucer, and this too has ē in Orm. (wendenn), except in the past tense (wennde), where the e is short as in the modern went. 16. ¿q'geland: possibly the (iq') should be (eq') as written. But both Co. and L. write Ing-, and this is certainly an ancient pronunciation of the word. Jones (1704) so sounds England, English, Englefield, and Bullokar (1580) writes Inglish. Our two MSS. however are yet higher authority. And their evidence is corroborated by that of the MS. of Lawrence Minot, assigned by Mr. Wright "to the earlier part of the 15th cent., probably to the reign of Henry V." In this MS. the common forms are Ingland and Ingliss. (See Wright's Political Poems and Songs, vol. i. pp. 64, 70, 78, &c.) Where there are such exceptional pronunciations, evidences of their longevity abound on every hand. -iq geland: the hard g was most probably sounded in Angle (as we still sound it in that word, and in jangle, wrangle, tangle-not ang-l, &c. as in the Ger. Angel); and therefore also in Engelond. -kAAntiberi: Ist syllable. Here five of our MSS. write Caunt-, only L. and Ha. have Cant-. In 1. 801 Co. and P. also have Cant-. This syllable Mr. Ellis sounds (kaunt) distinctly introducing an (u) sound. Not only is the spelling Cant-. opposed to this, but the question of necessity arises, Where did this (u) come from? There seems to have been only a simple vowel when Cæsar wrote the name Cantium, and when our A. S. forefathers wrote of the Cantwaras and their Cantwaraburh in Centland or Centríce, as it still is in Kent. Was there an "interregnum" between A.D. 1130, under which date the A.S. Chronicle mentions Cantwaraburuh, or A. D. 1088, where Cent is mentioned, and modern times when the simple (a) or (e) is alone known, in which an intrusive (u) came in, only to be thrust out again? It is not easy to believe in such vagaries in spoken language. -kaAnteuberi: 2nd syllable. Mr. Ellis writes (er); but -tur- is the spelling of E., Co. and Ha., and of Co. in ll. 793 and 801; and -tir- is found in P., 1. 22, and Ca., 1. 801. These varieties of spelling surely prove an obscure sound: I confidently believe this syllable to have been sounded just as at present. -kaAnteberi: 3rd syllable. Again Mr. Ellis gives (be). But the word is spelt almost without exception with u in every MSS. in each place where it occurs only once is it -er-. And this agrees with the derivation from A. S. burh, burge, byrig. The most probable conclusion seems to be that the origi ov iq geland tu kaant'exberi dhee wiind dhe Hool'i blis ful mate fai tu siik, dhæt Hem Hæth Holpen whæn dhæt dhe wei siik. nal sound was (u) or (y), according to the case; but when it was possible for a careless scribe to write an e, this indicates just the obscure sound which the syllable now bears. -kAAnteлberi: 4th syllable. In 11. 801, 802, this word and mury (or myry or mery) are made to rhyme, the ictus being on the penultimate, and the rhyme a weak one. It is therefore scarcely possible to suppose the final vowel to be long. -Hooli: A.S. hålig. This word in A.S. seems not to occur with 1, but in the Orm. the vowel is long, as it is also in prisstiz, chariz, twenntiz, wurrþiz, &c., this last being the only word of this class that I have found at the end of a line in Chaucer, and there it rhymes with I. But a long syllable here so interferes with the rhythm of the verse, that it seems probable that the change of sound which the word has undoubtedly undergone was already partly effected in Chaucer's time. So probably with sondry (sun-dri), l. 14. -mate: the word is spelt martir, martyr, and marter, so that the variety of spelling in the second syllable seems to indicate obscurity of sound. Moreover until I am shown to be wrong in believing (iir) or (ii) to be always written ere in Chaucer, I cannot believe the word to have ended in (iir). 18. Holpen: o in a pure English word before / and another consonant, and therefore probably sounded (0), as in modern English. -siik: from A. S. seóc: see §§ 106, 107. : 19. Bifel the preposition bi or by (aided perhaps by the confusion which some suppose between bi and ge) bears also the form be, not only in Chaucer but even in A. S. In this line the Lansdowne MS. has befel, and in ll. 42, 52, 215, 277, 445, 572, two or more of the six MSS. have beginne, besides, before, &c. The conclusion is, that even though by was sounded like the Ger. bei, the vowel in compounds was often or regularly shortened. It is an obvious, but by no means a valid objection that (i) is the shortened sound not of (əi) but of (ii) or (ii); but as (əi) is a diphthong, if it is to be shortened at all, it is the latter part alone which rapid pronunciation allows to survive. Bifel (bǝifel) most naturally and readily shortens into bifel (bifel), the sound which we still use. Compare the shortening of ou (ǝu) first into (u) and then into (ǝ). -see zun or seei zun: the derivation of the word from the French saison makes it plain that the e is not (ii): see § 101. -see zun: Mr. Ellis takes the second s as (s), the common surd sibilant. But among the multitudinous proofs of the tendency of spoken language to continue the same century after century is the rule (evidently overlooked by Mr. Ellis) given by Palsgrave for the sounding of s, being just the same as now holds after three centuries and a half: "If a syngle s come bytwene two vowelles in the meane syllables of a frenche worde by hymselfe, he shall in that place ever be sounded lyke an z [i.e. like an izzard, the old name of the letter], so that for disánt, faisánt, tresór, resórt, maisón, they sounde dizant, K In Southwerk | at the Tabard as I lay To Caunterbury | with ful deuout corage At nyght were come in to that hostelrye Of sondry folk | by aventure y-falle 20 25 In felaweschipe | and pilgrimes were they alle faizant, trezor, rezort, maizon, and so of all suche lyke." Giles du Wes confirms this: "An s, in the begynnynge of a worde hath his full sounde, as dothe appere by these wordes folowyng, sage, sauuage, sapient, etc. but in the myddes beynge eyther before a consonant or a uowell, shall be sounded lyke a z, as in these words disoie, faisoie, brisoie, taisoie, etc." Whether the rule is the same in modern French when the s "in the myddes" comes before a consonant, I cannot say, as no word occurs to me in which such an s has not now disappeared, as in esgard, now égard; for words with st of Latin derivation, like protester, are expressly excepted by du Wes in his next rule. -see zun: if this word stood alone, or as a final, I hold that it would be sounded (see zǝun): see § 36. (Additional words that might have been cited in that section as representing the original French on by oun (əun) are—bound, rebound, council, crown, ounce, pounce, count, counter and all its compounds, countenance, redound, roundelay, trounce (O.Fr. troncer), frounce, amount, paramount.) But whether it would be so sounded when immediately followed by other words without any pause is obviously a different question. You rarely find in Chaucer-perhaps never, but I have not searched our seven MSS. all through with this object, though I have turned over a good many pages to see -words of French derivation in -on written with -oun, if not at the end of a line. This fact affords at least a presumption that the fuller sound was kept only where it was useful for the rhyme, but that in ordinary pronunciation these words had commenced the change they have undergone when sliding down from (ǝun) to (un) and thence to the present (en). This shortening of (ǝu) into (e) or (ə) we find in various English words, not only in unaccented syllables, as in New-ton from New-town, Ald-us from Ald-house; but even in spite of the accent, as when down gives us Dun-wich, south, south-ern, (sədh·eïn), &c. 20. sǝuth werk: perhaps (south'weak). Co. has work. -æt: A. S. not at, but at. -tæbd: it is true the word comes from O. Fr. tabar, or It. tabarro, or most probably the Sp. tabardo, none of which have (a); but the spelling Tabbard in P. shows the vowel was short, and the word is likely soon to have been completely anglicized. 21. reed'i: the Du. gereed, Ger. bereit, Pl. Du. reed, Orm. rædig, leave no doubt that the first vowel is long. As to the second syllable, see on holy, l. 17. -wiind en see on ende, l. 15. 22. ful: the Du. vol, Ger. voll, and Orm. full, all indicate the short vowel, with probably the very same sound in A.S. (where the form is the same, full) as we give the word now. |