with i, ou with o or u [ül, ey with oy, c.g. ME.

awey: annoy etc. take great care that the quite alike, and it is by

aboute socoure: cure In general ME. poets riming vowels shall be the rimes that we can often recognize the original dialect of ME. poets in spite of the arbitrary orthography of the scribes.

With the development of the English vowels and their changes during centuries the rimes had to keep pace. Thus rimes formerly correct had to vanish (cp. § 140), and new rimes formerly impossible took their place. But in the NE. period, especially since the eighteenth century, departures have been made from the strict rule that rime must be correct for the ear. Thus we find in modern poetry rimes, which were formerly pure but are now impure, e.g. lore: prove-love: grove come: home one: alone blood: stood done: yone profound: wound are: faire etc. much license,

burn: mourn

forth: worth sword: word

Many poets allow themselves too

e.g. Byron (Don Juan) man: sun chaste: best

Assonance occurs when the vowels of the final stressed syllables (and those of the following unstressed syllables) are alike, but the consonants

following the riming vowels are different. But in English only those consonants may be used, which are produced in a similar way, e.g. wepe: swete -lyf: wip aliue: blipe escape: make

fyn Rome: sone ·

storm: corn

youme: sune

doun: tourn etc.

rym:

honde: stronge

We find such

assonance especially in early ME. poems, e.g. Passion, Josephslied etc., but only occasionally and not continuously as in Old French Roland and other OF. chansons de geste.

In NE. assonance is avoided as far as possible.

§ 143. Inexact Rime.

The name inexact rime may perhaps be used for those cases where a masculine ending rimes with a feminine ending, where the poet neglects final e, e.g. ME. day: seye (inf.) by: lye (inf.) thing: springe (inf.)

I: maladye (inf.) ill: wille

as all: tale

doon: sone

al: falle ywis: kisse (inf.) feet: lete (inf.) it: sitte (inf.) honest: request knew (pret. sg.): hewe etc. Rimes such set (part.): ete (inf.) are impure and inexact. In ME. we find such rimes used by less careful poets, e.g. by the author of fragment B of the Romaunt of the Rose. Chaucer never uses such rimes (§ 137 note).

NOTE. In NE, rimes such as done: sun care: despair are correct, because the final e is silent. In ME., too, these rimes suggest that the final e was beginning to be silent.

$144. Identical Rime.

It is essential in rime that the riming words shall be different words with the same ending, yet in ME. we sometimes find the same word at the end of two verses, e.g. name: name. Careful poets avoid such rimes, but Chaucer uses them sometimes. On closer examination we find that these words, although etymologically the same, are used with different meanings or are used in a different grammatical connection; cp. gode men (people): men (men) Havelok 1 f. hool (healthy): hool (quite) Chaucer BD 553 name (fame) CT, E 415 hede (of bed): hede (of person) Troil. III, 954 — (by al) weyes: (noon other) wreyes BD 1271 (in this) wise: (in no) wise CT, B 793 - woot (3. sg.): (god) woot B 436 etc. By using the words in a different sense or in a different grammatical connection the poet avoids offending the ear of the listener. In ME. identical rime became an art, which met with approval. Chaucer especially uses it.

name (naine):

$145. Identical Rime (cont.).

Chaucer probably took his identical rime from French poetry, where it was common; cp. Freymond, Über den reichen Reim bei altfranzösischen Dichtern. (Zfrom Phil. 6, 1 ff.). Since in French stressed verbal endings such as -er, -é, -ée, -ant, -ait, -a etc. were sufficient for rime, all verbs of the same conjugation could rime when the same

forms were used. This was impossible in English, since the inflexional endings except -ing were unstressed. Since it was easy to find rimes in French, careful poets tried to make riming more difficult by including the consonant preceding the riming vowel in the rime system. Sometimes even the vowel of the penultimate was also included. Thus in place of the rime amer: trover, identical rime irer: trover amer: clamer prover: trover was used. In English, as we see from the examples below, identical rime is used. mostly in words of romance origin.

amer: mer

Identical rime occurs in English when not only the final stressed vowels (and the sounds which follow them) are alike, but also the preceding consonants are the same; e.g. beautee: citee lond: Engelond-dye: maladye- mervaile: travaile etc.

NOTE. In German a distinction is made between 1. rimes where the words rime with themselves, e.g. name: name (gleicher Reim) and 2. rimes where the words have different meanings, or are used in different constructions, e.g. chese (cheese): chese (choose), telle (inf.): telle (1. sg. pres.) (reicher or rührender Reim). In this translation both kinds are called identical rime. Reicher Reim' may perhaps be translated 'rich rime'.

§ 146. Different Kinds of Identical Rime

(reicher Reim).

According to the meaning and the relation between the two riming words sub-forms of identical rime are distinguished:

1. The words have the same form but different

may

meanings; e.g. Chaucer: see (sea): see (see) (vb.): May (noun) reed (advice) reed (red) been (vb.) been (bees) beste (beast): beste (best) chese (cheese) cheese (choose) here (adv.): here (hear) dede (deed): dede (dead, pl.) etc. Also without an initial consonant, e.g. armes (of body) armes (weapons).

Here, too, may be included the words in § 144, which are etymologically alike but differ somewhat in meaning, e.g. name (name): name (fame) hool (quite): hool (healthy) etc.

Different forms of the same verb may rime, e.g. telle (inf.): telle (3. sg. pr.) tolde (1. sg. pret.): tolde (3. sg. pret.) fare (inf.): fare (part.), or a noun and a verb of the same stem, harpe (noun): harpe (vb.) thought: thought.

love: love

Here belong those cases of broken rime (§ 139), in which the same word is in the plural in one line and in the singular with the verb is in another line, e.g. clerkis clerk is flouris: flour is prophetis: prophete is, and cases such as deedis (deeds): deed is (dead is).

2. A simple word rimes with a compound, e.g. so: also man : woman thing:

doun: adoun

-

nothing -lond Engelond take: undertake come ouercome holde biholde stonde understonde serve deserve etc., or without the same initial consonant, e.g. oon: anoon - oon everichoon

-

ever never etc. Also woot: god woot (see § 144) might be included here.