all reduced by the scribe to the same apparent form. In G 1324, we find bréést (A.S. brēost), breast, riming with préést, priest, exactly; but elsewhere bréést is treated as if the e were short, so that it rimes with lest (Kentish form of lust), A 2983; E 617. The mod. E. form suggests that the vowel was beginning to be shortened. In the rime upŏn, gōn, G 562, the o in the former word is short, but in the latter is long; both are open, and the rime is admissible. A similar variation in vowel-length is seen in the riming of hădde, had, with blāde, blade, A 617, and with spāde, spade, A 553; and here again, some scribes try to better the matter by using the form hade. The rime is really (had·də), (spaa·də); and the right lesson to be learnt from it is, that the a in spade was still (aa), and thus very different in sound from the a in mod. E. spade (speid). Long and short u are rimed in hous (huus), Caucasus (kau·kasus·) D 1139; and elsewhere. Note neyghebores, dores[[43]], i.e. (nei·həbuu·rez), (du·rez); in HF. 649. One of the most licentious rimes is in Troil. ii. 933, viz. riden, abiden, yeden, properly (rid·n), (abid·n), (yééd·n); which suggests that yeden is here (yĕd·n); and we are reminded of the M.E. form of the verb 'to give,' which hovers between yĕven and yiven, and rimes in Chaucer with liven, to live, though frequently written yeven. The singular form yēde rimes with nede (néé·də) in G 1280, and with dede (déé·də) in G 1140.
Chaucer certainly sometimes uses two forms of the same word; the most noticeable are heer and here for 'here'; theer and there for 'there'; eek and eke for 'eek.' These can be explained by the tendency to add a final -e in adverbial forms. Of course the double form was highly convenient. Remarkable double forms are chivachyë, A 85, and chevauchee, Mars, 144; perryë, A 2936, and perree, B 3550.
[§ 45]. Repetitions. Such rimes as aff-ecciouns, prot-ecciouns, F 55, wherein the penultimate and antepenultimate syllables are repeated, are disliked by later writers. Chaucer had found many such in Le Roman de la Rose[[44]]. In discussing such repeated rimes as seke, to seek, seke, sick, A 17, we must remember that they are common in Old French poetry, though it was usual
for the poet to take care that the repeated forms should be used in different senses. This rule Chaucer usually observes; cf. séé, see, sèè, sea, A 3615; here, here, here, to hear, A 4339; style, style, style, a stile, F 105; fern, fern, fern, long ago, F 255; &c. But he also allowed himself such repetitions as nones, noon is, A 523; clerkes, clerk is, B 4425; places, place is, D 1767; &c. We now avoid such rimes as acordes, cordes, HF. 695; acorde, recorde, Parl. Foules, 608; and still more, such rimes (all too easy) as goodnesse, soothfastnesse, E 793; soothfastnesse, wrecchednesse, I 34; more, evermore, Anelida, 240.
[§ 46]. Mistakes as to Chaucer's uses. Some of the facts concerning Chaucer's rimes have been misunderstood, even by so good a scholar as Prof. Lounsbury, in his Studies of Chaucer, vol. ii[[45]]. It is therefore desirable to point out some of these errors.
He calls attention, among others, to the following false rimes:—
Desyre, manere, T. iv. 817 (p. 54). But the right reading is martyre, which alone makes sense. For the actual use of the false rime here censured, see Rom. Rose, 2779.
Kinde, binde, wende, T. iii. 1437 (p. 54). Read winde, that thou mayst wind. 'Gower will furnish a number of similar illustrations' (p. 54)[[46]].
Prof. Lounsbury is extremely anxious to prove that assonances (i.e. such imperfect rimes as we see in kepe, eke, with a mere correspondence in the vowel-sound only) occur in Chaucer; and endeavours to strengthen his position by considering various difficult rimes. At p. 60, he says: 'All difficulty with crown and person (R.R. 3201) disappears the moment they receive the forms coroun and persoun (as in Gower, iii. 112, 141, 227, 234).' But Gower has no such forms; he has coróne, persóne in every instance, emphasised by the use of coróned, enviróned (iii. 112), and by such lines as, 'If it in his persón-e be'; ii. 202. Chaucer rimes
persone with allone, D 1162; and with done, T. ii. 701, 1485, iv. 83; and he uses the forms córone or córoune and coróne. But R.R. 3201 has, 'And on hir heed she hadde a crown'; and, only two lines below, has the dissyllabic crownet.