PRONOUN 3 PERS.: sg. fem. nom. sche a 32; pl. thei a 148; here a 144; hem a 112.
Unaccented final -e is treated as in Chaucer, having its full value in the verse when it represents an inflexion or final vowel in Old English or Old French, e.g.
And for he scholdė slepė softė a 93
An apė, which at thilkė throwė b 5
Sounds: e appears as in Kentish for OE. y: hell 'hill' a 65, 79, 86; keste 'kissed' a 178; note the rimes unschette: lette a 71-2; pet 'pit': let b 9-10; and less decisive pet: knet (OE. knyttan) b 29-30, 53-4; dreie: beie b 23-4.
Spelling: ie represents close ẹ̄: flietende a 157, hier b 34; diemed b 216.
Syntax: The elaborate machinery of sentence connexion deserves special attention; and many turns of phrase are explained by Gower's fluency in French.
a 1. Gower follows Ovid, Metamorphoses, Bk. xi. Chaucer tells the story of Ceix and Alcyone in his Death of Blanche the Duchess, ll. 62 ff. This is presumably the early work to which the Man of Law refers:
I kan right now no thrifty tale seyn