in south werk æt dhe tæbed æz əi lee, in fel Ashǝip, and pilgrimez wei dhee AAl 20 25 -devǝut: this form can scarcely come direct from the Lat. devotus: the analogy of the words given in § 36-though all of these have the ou followed by n-makes it more probable that it comes from the O. Fr. devot, now dévot. Hence also there is some degree of probability that the first syllable was never pronounced (dii)-I am confident Mr. Ellis will agree with me there-but (dee) or (dee), and hence, when shortened through the accent falling on the last syllable, it would become (de). 23. wei or wer: the final e was probably dropped, but its influence might still be felt in the trill of the r, especially before a k immediately following. -kuum: Orm. gives cumenn, testifying to the long vowel. 24. wel: the Scottish pronunciation weel (wiil) is familiarly known, and that too is the pronunciation pointed at by Orm's spelling wel. But Orm also writes well, indicating a short vowel. And just as Orm's usage was unsettled, so in Chaucer wel rhymes both with (ii) words as kele, whele, fele (vb.), and with (e) and (ee) words as dele and those that end in -elle. The latter usage slightly predominates. Moreover in all the seven MSS. there is in this instance only one e, and in Ca. there are two lls. -kumpenǝi: the pronunciation of the first syllable was probably with (u), as the word has that vowel occasionally in Old French; the MSS. of Chaucer sometimes so spell it; and the modern sound of (kǝm) points in the same direction. -kumpenǝi.: E. and He. have compaignye, the other MSS. companye. In O. Fr. the forms are cumpaignie, conpegnie, compaignie (the most common), conpagnie, compagnie, &c. The old spelling might still be preserved by some scribes even when the word had assumed in this syllable the obscure sound which the variety in the spelling in our MSS. seems to point to. 25. aa ventJyyr': the final before a vowel following would preserve its trill. 26. fel Ashǝip: in Orm. we find the termination -shipe always with the long vowel, as in mannshipe, wurrþshipe, &c. That it was still long in Chaucer's time is shown by the spelling in six MSS. out of the seven with a final e. Ca. alone has -ship. We might hope for assistance from rhymes, with pipe, ripe, &c., or with tip, lip, &c.; but no line in Chaucer, I believe, ends in -ship. 27. tu waid: I believe guard to preserve the old sound of the vowel in ward. In more modern times the w has affected the sound of a, making it (AA). But this was not the case in Chaucer's time: see § 76. But as the accent was apparently on the first syllable, the (waard) will at least have been shortened, if it did not even lose its more distinct sound and become (weid), as at present. The chambres and the stables weren wyde And shortly whan the sonne was to reste To take oure wey | ther as I yow deuyse But Er that I ferther | in this tale pace 330 35 -wuld en: if, as I have argued in § 57, the o in wolde even in A.S. was sounded (u), how comes it that the word is never written wulde? For schulde is not uncommon, like skulda in M.G. I suppose the reason to have been simply that in this word, as in wolf, woman, &c., our early orthographers entertained a prejudice against writing three us consecutively, since they regarded the w, according to the name it still bears, as equivalent to uu or vv. but in Kn. Ta. 28. tshaam beiz: all the MSS. in this passage have -bres, 1427 Ca. and L. have -bere, which Ca. and P. have in 1440. spelt in Kn. Ta. 1418 with bre in He., ber in E. and P., byr in and L. For tendre in Prol. 150 Ca. has -dere, and L. -dur. in l. 4, L. has -der. For murder in Nun.'s Priest's Ta. Ca. has -dere, P. -der, E., He., and Co. have -der, and Ha. both -dre and -der, in ll. 4242, 4243, and 4247. Shoulders in Prol. 678 ends in -dres in E., He., Co., and L., in -derys in Ca., and -ders in P. In Kn. Ta. 2225 bitter ends in -tre in E., He., and Co., in -tere in Ca., in -ter in P., L., and Ha. Like variety is found in the spelling of other words that end in -re or -er after a consonant ; and the reasonable conclusion seems to be that while the original spelling-for they all have or simulate a French origin-still has influence on the form of these words, their sound was completely anglicized and the vowel obscure; except however where the e was an adjective termination, and retained as such : see note on tendre, 1. 7. --stææ-belz: words with -le after a consonant show a similar (though less marked) variety of spelling to those in -bre, &c., just discussed. 29. eezed or eeiz ed: see § 101. -æte: for (æt dhe), therefore both syllables sounded. 30. shaat lǝi: in Orm. shorrtlike, shorrtli3. The rhythm, with a long syllable in the third place in the line, does not please the ear; but there are so many rhymes in Chaucer in which the adverbial -ly rhymes with I, I=aye, why, fy, aspye, &c., that it seems necessary to suppose (ləi) to have been the usual fourteenth century pronunciation. Hart too (1569) gives verelei, sertenlei, uniformlei, partlei, &c. spelt similarly to okupei, krusifei, &c. And Gil, as late as 1621, indicates the same sound, as I believe, in his opnlj, eksïdinglj, demvrlj, disonestly, &c. See also § 16. --waz: A.S. was, Orm. wass: it is the influence of the w which has in course of time changed (æ) into (A) in this word. dhe tshaambeiz and dhe stææ belz weer en wǝid, and wel wi weer en eez'ed æte best. and shait lǝi, when dhe sun'e wæz tu rest, soo Hæd ǝi spook'en widh Hem everitshoon, and mææd'e foor waid eerlǝi fax tu rǝiz tu tææk ǝui wee dher æz ǝi Jǝu devǝiz. but naa'dhelees whǝil ǝi Hæv tǝim and spææs, -waz; two reasons may be assigned for believing the s of this word to have been (z). First, it is the old strong preterite of wesan, in which the s between two vowels was most probably (z). Secondly, it is very rare for a sharp (s) to turn into r, as this word forms both its 2nd singular wære in A. S., and its plural wæron: it is (z), not (s), which undergoes this change. 31. ev eritshoon: on the numeral one, see p. 32 at bottom. All the compounds, non, anon, echon, &c. follow the sound of the simple word. 32. Hei: there is so much confusion of the forms hir and her in the MSS. that the words cannot have contained a clear sound of either e or i. 33. foot waid, fAI: in Orm. the preposition for is always forr, indicating the short vowel, and there are numerous compounds all similarly spelt; but there does not seem to be a single word derived from an A.S. original in fore-. We must fall back therefore on the A.S. fore-ward as affording evidence for the length of the first syllable of this noun. 34. tææk: see p. 55. -Jǝu: however this may offend the 19th century ear, the pronoun you, you, or 3owe, rhymed in Chaucer with how, now, thou, and prow (=profit), now also once rhyming with ynow (= enough); and nowhere does it rhyme either with owe, lowe, crowe, bowe, glowe, slowe, throwe, isowe, trowe, knowe, unknowe, ycrowe, windowe, growe, undergrowe, Dunmowe, nor with schoo, do, fordo, too, thereto, two, nor again with any of the ew or u words. And as there seems to be good reason for believing ou or ow to have borne commonly in Chaucer the same sound as at present in thou and now, we accept the conclusion in the case of you. 35. naa dhelees : see § 125. -spææs: French and English tradition alike point to the certain sounding of c ass before e, i, and y, in Chaucer's time as now. This is confirmed by the derivation of space from spatium, in which there is no (k), and of pace from passus; as also by occasional varieties of spelling, as bracer braser, manacynge manasynge manassinge, pencel pensel, sertres certres, mynstralcye mynstralsy, encense ensense encence, &c. 36. fer dher: comparative of far, with an epenthetic th borrowed from forth; but the modification of the vowel in the fer is just such as we find in the Ger. alt, älter. -pææs prolonged. with just the sound of the modern pass (the same word), but Me thynketh it acordaunt to reson Of ech of hem | so as it semed me A knyght ther was and that a worthy man That fro the tyme that he first bigan To riden out he loued chiualrie In Lettow | hadde he reysed and in Ruce 40 45 50 37. it when the pronoun hit began, as even in Chaucer's time, to lose its initial aspirate, the changed spelling indicated the loss; and no doubt if his, her, hem, &c. had been sounded as is, er, em, &c., as Mr. Ellis supposes, the MSS. would teem with evidence of the fact. 40. weere: all the six texts omit the final n of this word, although a vowel follows. It is no doubt the pause that renders the hiatus tolerable; though it is conceivable that the pause itself was the substitute for a syllable here, and that the word was (weer). 42. feist: the variety in the spelling in the different MSS.-first, ferst, furst -shows the indistinct sound of the vowel. 43. man: there were in A.S., according to Bosworth, the forms man and mon, the latter of which suggests that the word might be (man), like (land), (Hand), &c. But as it rhymes with began, which had only the form with a in A.S., we must believe the word to have been sounded with (a) or possibly (æ). 44. tǝime: the A.S. would be fram ðám tíman: see § 126. -Hi: it seems likely that as a general rule the pronoun would be sounded long if it had the ictus, and short otherwise. 45. luuv'ed: the long vowel is proved by Orm's form lufenn. It is still so sounded in Norfolk. See note on (frii'dum), 1. 46. 46. Honǝur: the h may have been dropped, as undoubtedly it often was in Early French. In Mätzner's Altfr. Lieder besides the form hounour we have ounour, onnour, onnor, onneur, which tell their own story. But in the MSS. of Chaucer we do not find the h dropped in this word or its compounds, though we do in ostelry (Ca., 11. 718 and 722) which we find as well as hostelrie, and ost which we have as well as hooste. . —frii'dum, 2nd syllable: the word is written with an o in all seven MSS., and therefore probably preserved the original (u) sound which we also find in mi think'eth it acardAAnt tu reezǝun' ov eetsh ev Hem, so æz it siim'ed mii, and whitsh dhee weer'e, and of what degrii'; and æt e knikht dhæn wul ǝi ferst bigin'. e knikht dher wæz, and dhæt e wurdhi man, the Ger. -thum. Yet as the change towards (e) or (ə) was beginning even in Chaucer's time-see § 152, bearing in mind that the two MSS. from which I edited the Castell off Loue were written about 1370-the (u) was most likely already shortened. There is no such evidence as to love, though Mr. Ellis may be right in pronouncing (luv ed). = 47. looid ez, Ist syllable: the A.S. hláford was probably nearly if not quite (Hloo vuad), with the ƒ between two vowels v, as also in La3amon, Ancren Riwle, Genesis and Exodus, Henry III.'s Proclamation, &c., we have lauerd, lauerd, lauard, louerd, lhoauerd, and other forms, with u, which no doubt was the consonant. This has disappeared from later forms, lhord, loard, lord, but when the two syllables have contracted into one, the resulting vowel is almost sure to have been long at first, and probably for a considerable period. Compare our e'er, ne'er, o'er. · -looid ez, 2nd syllable: I have above argued, on showres, 1. 1, that the true sound of the plural s is (z) not (s), relying mainly on the effect produced by the added letter or letters on the last letter of the root in certain words. A similar argument may be applied here, for though in modern English we say "my wife's brother," not 'my wive's brother," Chaucer's usage seems to have been different. Turning to a few passages in The Clerk's Tale and The Merchant's Tale, I have found in the seven MSS. 49 genitives with v against 7 that retain the f. The conclusion is obvious. 66 48. rid en the infinitive is (rǝid'en), the difference in the quantity of the vowel being just the same as in A.S. ridan and riden, or in modern English, ride and ridden. 49. kristendum: the i in christen (verb) was short when Orm wrote, his form being crisstnenn. 52. bood: the vowel is long in Orm., bord, as we still sound it. |