Here, in (b) and (d), there is an additional syllable at the caesura or middle pause; and, in (c) and (d) there is an additional syllable at the end of the line. Hence the number of syllables is, in (a), ten; in (b) and (c), eleven; and in (d) twelve. But the number of accents is the same in all, viz. five. It is therefore better to speak of these lines as containing five accents than to call them ten-syllabled lines.
All the above varieties are found in Chaucer; and we thus see TWO of the particulars in which he differs from Goldsmith, viz. (1) that he sometimes introduces an additional syllable at the end of the line; and (2) that he does the same after the caesura, or at what may (roughly) be called the end of the half-line.
[§ 104]. But the fact is that Old French verse admits of more licences than the above. It was also permissible for the poet (besides adding to the line at the end) to subtract from it at the beginning, viz. by omitting the first weak syllable at the beginning, or the first weak syllable in the second half-line; i.e. after the caesura. This accounts for TWO MORE particulars of variation from the modern line of Goldsmith.
The result is that the Old French verse absolutely exhibited no less than sixteen varieties; and the actual number of syllables varied from eight (the least) to twelve (the greatest number). Dr. Schipper gives the true scheme in his Englische Metrik, p. 440, as follows; where the number following each scheme expresses the number of syllables.
[§ 105]. Thus Chaucer had, unquestionably, sixteen forms of verse to choose from. It only remains to discover how many of these he actually employed.
The shortest answer is, that he freely accepted the principles of adding a syllable at the end of the line and at the end of the half-line. He also allowed himself to accept the principle of dropping the first syllable of the line[[73]]. But he disliked forms 9, 11, 13, and 15, which introduce a most disagreeable jerk into the middle of the line, such as he very rarely allows[[74]].
[§ 106]. The general rules for the mode of reading Chaucer's lines have been given above ([§ 67]); and need not be here repeated.
I now subjoin some examples. In each case the prefixed number refers to one of the sixteen forms given in [§ 104]; whilst the symbols following the lines give the natural method of scansion. Words joined by hyphens are pronounced in the same jet of breath. I may also note here that a trochee is