[§ 49]. My position is, in short, that the attack upon Chaucer in this passage (Studies in Chaucer, i. 402-405) fails in every single instance. It is called 'a formidable' list; but is nothing of the kind. The attack against Gower also fails in every single instance. Omitting the two charges which the author himself withdraws, the passage (p. 405) runs thus:—
'In the Confessio Amantis, the preterites herde, wente, tremblede, and com will be found ryming respectively with the past participles answerd, went, assembled, and overcome (see i. 151, ii. 7, iii. 263, 350). He has also the infin. wedde ryming with the pp. sped (iii. 265).'
Answer. Herde rimes with the plural pp. answerde. In ii. 7, the text is wrong, and makes nonsense[[49]]. Trembled is a correct preterite. Cōm could not rime with overcŏme in the least, if it were a preterite; the reading cŏme is right, and represents the pres. sing. subj. = may come. In iii. 265, the reading is obviously false, as the line consists of eleven syllables; we have merely to strike out were, which reduces the line to the normal length, and turns the pp. sped into the pt. t. spedde, correctly. The syllables should have been counted.
[§ 50]. Assonances. I have drawn attention to the above passages because it affords an opportunity of illustrating Chaucer's habits. I have said that Prof. Lounsbury is very anxious to fasten upon Chaucer the charge of using mere assonances, i.e. syllables in which nothing rimes but the vowel-sound; for specimens of which see vol. i. p. 5. I doubt if the charge can be fairly proved. But it is well to examine the cases.
Book of the Duchesse, 79, 80. L. 79 ends with terme. L. 80, according to Thynne's edition[[50]], ends in yerne. The correction of yerne to erme, which produces a perfect rime, is so obvious, that it occurred to Mr. Bradshaw, to myself, and to Ten Brink (to the best of my belief) independently. As the reading yerne is due to no MS., but rests upon Thynne, who is, practically, the sole authority for ll. 31-96, I decline to bow down to him; seeing that Chaucer himself uses erme elsewhere (C 312), to rime with the same word terme.
In Troil. v. 9, most MSS. have clere, to rime with grene and quene; a mere assonance. But, as some MSS. have shene (see vol. ii. p. lxxii), it seems absurd to reject such an easy correction. In the Parl. Foules, 296, the same two words grene and quene rime with 'the somer-sonne shene'; a highly suggestive fact. And in the Cant. Tales, shene rimes six times with grene, and three
times with queene, and with no other word except sustene (once); which is, again, a suggestive fact.
Only one more instance is known, viz. in Troil. ii. 884, where syke rimes with endyte and whyte. It is not impossible that Chaucer wrote syte; see my note.
These three doubtful instances, being all that have been found in the whole of Chaucer's works, compare favourably, to say the least, with the six indubitable instances occurring in Fragment B (only) of the Romaunt of the Rose; see vol. i. p. 5. In calculating in errors, we must observe the percentage.