Chaucer's use. Words in (A) rime with each other, but never rime with words in (B). Words in (B) rime with each other, but never with words in (A). Words in (C) rime with words both in (A) and (B).
-eche. (A) tèche, bitèche. (B) séche, biséche. (C) eche, to eke, leche, speche.
-ede. (A) dede, dead, hede, head, lede, lead (metal), rede, red, sprede, to spread. (B) bede, to offer, blede, v., brede, v., crede, fede, forbede, glede, nede[[35]], spede, v., stede, a steed. (C) dede, deed, drede, s. and v., hede, to heed, rede, to advise. Words in -hede almost always shew open e, but a few exceptions occur.
-eke. (A) brĕke, v., spĕke, v., wrĕke, v., awrĕke, ywrĕke, with (original) short e; leke, leek. (B) meke, seke, v., seke, sick, biseke.
-ene. (A) bene, bean, clene, lene, adj., mene, to mean, unclene. (B) bitwene, grene, kene, quene, tene, vexation, wene, v. (C) sene, adj., visible, y-sene (the same), shene, bright[[36]].
-epe. (A) chepe, to buy, hepe, lepe, v., stepe, bright. (B) crepe, v., depe, kepe, wepe. (C) slepe.
-ere. (A) bĕre, a bear, bĕre, to bear, dĕre, to harm, ĕre, to plough, hĕre, her, spĕre, spear, stĕre, to stir, swĕre, to swear, tĕre, to tear, wĕre, a weir, wĕre, to defend; all with (original) short e. Also ere, ear, gere, gear, tere, tear; and there[[37]], were[[38]], where. (B) fere, companion, here, here, yfere, together. (Here belong the F. words, chere, clere, manere, matere, spere, sphere.) (C) bere, bier, dere, dear[[39]], fere, fear, here, to hear, lere, to teach, yere, year.
-ete. (A) bete, to beat, grete, great, hete, heat, spete, to spit, swete, to sweat, threte, v., wete, wet, ybete, beaten. Also ĕte, to eat, foryĕte, to forget, mĕte, meat (originally with short e). (B) bete, to mend, flete, to float, grete, to greet, swete, sweet. (C) bihete, to promise, forlete, to let go, lete, to let, mete, to dream, shete, sheet, strete, street.
-eve. (A) bireve, deve, pl., deaf, greve, grove, reve, to reave. (B) leve, dear, reve, a reeve. (C) eve, eve, leve, to believe, bileve, belief, leve, to permit. Note that yeve, to give, usually rimes with live, to live, as in mod. English.
-o. All words in -o are allowed to rime together; of these, to, therto, unto, do, fordo should have the close sound.
-olde. Nolde, sholde, wolde, usually rime together. Occasionally wolde rimes with other words. In only one case does sholde rime with tolde (B. Duch. 1200), where wolde would make better sense.
-one. (A) alone, echone, bone, bone, grone, to groan, lone, loan, mone, to moan, one, one. (B) bone, boon, eftsone, mone, moon, sone, soon. (C) done, to do. [Note that sŏne, son, wŏne, to dwell, are really written for sune, wune, and only rime with each other.]
-onge. [Note that songe, pp., spronge, pp., tonge, yonge, are really written for sunge, sprunge, tunge, yunge. They rime together, but are quite distinct from fonge, honge, longe, stronge, wronge; just as in mod. English.]
-ook. (A) ook, strook. (B) awook, book, cook, forsook, hook, look, quook, shook, took, wook.
-oot. (A) boot, he bit, goot, goat, hoot, hot, noot, know not, smoot, smote, woot, know, wroot, wrote. (B) foot, moot, must, soot.
-ooth. (A) clooth, gooth, looth, ooth, wrooth. (B) dooth, sooth, tooth.
-ore. Bifore, bore, pp., born, forlore, pp., more, a root, shore, pp., swore, pp., therfore, wherfore, originally had a short o, and usually rime together. Hore, pl., hoary, lore, more, rore, sore, yore, have open long o, and usually rime together. In a few cases, bifore and more rime with words in the other set.
-ote. (A) grote, groat, hote, hot, throte, throat (from A.S. þrotu). (B) bote, satisfaction, fote, rote, root, swote, sweet.
The above lists are offered for what they are worth. I believe them to be fairly correct; but they may not be quite exhaustive. Nevertheless, they record ascertained facts; and the facts remain true and useful, even if the theories be wrong.
[§ 42]. Some peculiarities of rime.
The subject of Chaucer's rimes is fully discussed by Ten Brink; Studien, p. 190. As the critical reader will necessarily consult this work, it is only necessary to give here a few of the chief results.
Chaucer's rimes are usually either (1) masculine, or (2) feminine. Masculine rimes are those in which the rime is confined to a single final syllable, as 'licour,' 'flour'; Prol. l. 3. Feminine rimes are those in which the rime extends through two syllables, as 'sote,' 'rote'; Prol. l. 1. It is necessary to remember that every unaccented final e at the end of a line is to be sounded, and constitutes a syllable.
Sometimes the rime extends, apparently, over more than two syllables; but it will be found that, in such a case, the penultimate or antepenultimate syllable can either be suppressed, or consists of the shortest possible sound. Ex. swévenis, swéven is, really swév'nis, swév'n is; B 4111. Béryis, méry is; B 4155. Victórië, glórië; A 2405. Mercúrië, múryë; A 1385. Máriëd, táriëd; B 3461. Bériëd, a-blákebériëd; C 405. To-scát'red, y-flát'red; D 1969. Contrárië, Ianuárië; E 2319; &c.[[40]] Note that feminine
rimes are extremely numerous, and are sometimes kept up through whole stanzas in such a poem as Troilus. Thus, in Troilus, iii. 407-434, we find four consecutive stanzas, or twenty-eight consecutive lines, in which every rime is feminine; and this is by no means an extreme case. Feminine rimes are extremely old in English, and are found even in Anglo-Saxon.
[§ 43]. The most striking examples are those in which the feminine rime is composed of two distinct words, as these prove at once the reality of the final -e. Thus Ro-me rimes with tó me; A 671. You-the rimes with allow thee (aluu·dhe); F 675. Ty-me, with by me; G 1204. Similarly, the final -es of the plural substantive constitutes a syllable, as shewn by such a rime as werk-ës, derk is; G 64. In such a case, some scribes write werkis for werkes, to make the rime more complete, but it is quite needless, as there is no necessity for an absolute coincidence of vowel-sound in a mere unaccented syllable. In Lenvoy a Scogan, 15, it would be quite absurd to alter goddes to goddis(!), merely because it rimes with forbod'is; the really weak part of the rime is in the linking of the short o in goddes, with the longer o in forbode. For the same reason, the rime of lyte is with dytees (HF. 621) is good enough; indeed, we cannot write dytis (as Ten Brink proposes to do) because the word meant is the plural of ditee. Unusual rimes of this sort are still in common use, especially where a slightly humorous effect is intended; and this may very well excuse the above examples, as well as such rimes as Davit[[41]] (for David), eructavit, D 1933; saveth, significavit, A 661; wounded, wounde hid, B 102; agon is, onis[[42]], D 9; and the like.
[§ 44]. There are several cases in which the rimes are rather to be considered as permissible than exact. The frequent riming of go (gao) with do (doo) has already been noted. Similarly, owing to the paucity of words ending in open ē, the word sèè, sea, is allowed to rime with close ē. The proper M.E. form of 'beast' is bèèst, which rimes, exactly, with èèst, east, and with almèèst, almost; but, inexactly, with forèst, in which the e is short. Yet, in Sir Thopas, B 1944-8, we find the words forest, best, est, almest,