A-mán to-líght' his-cándle | at-hís lantérne.
[§ 110]. We have now to consider the possibility, that Chaucer sometimes dropped the initial syllable of the latter part of a line, after the caesura; a licence of which Lydgate availed himself to a painful extent. It is clear that his ear disliked it; yet there seem to be just a few cases that cannot fairly be explained away, the MSS. being sadly unanimous. It is better to learn the truth than to suppress what we should ourselves dislike. One example occurs in E 1682:—
My-tál is-dóon | fór my-wít is-thínne