[64] The prefix y- is not counted as a syllable in this case; y-shette is the same as shette.
[65] The Ellesmere MS. has hise as the plural form; but it is monosyllabic.
[66] In speaking to one person, thou and ye are frequently confounded. Hence in the imperative, the singular and plural forms are frequently confounded also.
[67] See the long list of 183 strong verbs, with an alphabetical index, in Morris's Specimens of English, Part I; Introduction, p. lxix.
[68] But amb, and, ang become omb, ond, ong; hence clomb, &c.
[69] Note the infin. answer-y, short for answer-i-en.
[70] The Glossary (s.v. Ben) gives 'Be, 1 pr. s. am, 3. 588.' This is an oversight; be is here the infinitive = 'to be.'
[71] 'The air that is supplied for the production of the voice-vibrations is capable of being used only in volumes or jets; or, if we attend to the force used in producing them, in pressures.... The law of monopressures, as it may be termed, is a law that operates, and must operate, in the process of articulation. Speech is possible only in monopressures.... One inhalation may suffice for several monopressures. One full breath may suffice, for one who is an expert in husbanding the vocal current, for 30, 60, or even 80 monopressures. Each of these, however, is a vocalised jet of air, condensed and made vocal by a separate effort of the will, just as each note, in a tune rapidly played on the pianoforte, is produced by a special touch, however slight.'—From Accent and Rhythm, explained by the law of Monopressures. Part I. Edinburgh, 1888; an anonymous work, which deserves to be better known.
[72] These symbols are somewhat varied from those employed by the author of 'Accent and Rhythm,' whom I have quoted in the last note (p. lxxxiv.). I owe to him the idea of using them.
[73] See, on this subject, the essay by M. Freudenberger, Ueber das Fehlen des Auftakts in Chaucers heroischem Verse; Erlangen and Leipzig, 1889. I may claim to have been the first to notice this peculiarity, viz. in the Aldine edition of Chaucer, by Dr. Morris, 1866; i. 174.