OBSERVATIONS ON THE LANGUAGE OF CHAUCER. 
trillé this pyn, and he wol vanyssh anoon (vansh), 
10642. 
thus hath this widow hir litel child itaught (widw), 
14920.* 
thou woldist han be a tredé-foul aright (woldst), 15431. - 
but sire, I dede it in no wicked entent[e] (wickd), 
16909. f 
$ 97. Cases like the following, in which contigu- 
ous words are blended, are not common in Chaucer, 
but there is no reason to suspect the correctness of 
the lines. 
493 
for him was lever have at his (at’s) beddeshead, 295. 
a swerd and a ("n a) bocler baar he by his side, 560. 
I ne (I n") saugh this yeer so mery a companye, 766. 
we moste endure it (endur't), this is the schort and 
pleyn, 1093. 
whethir it (whert) be by desteny or adventure, 
9841. 
Contractions of the various kinds noticed in $$ 93 
— 97 are on the whole not so frequent in Chaucer as 
in Shakespeare and Milton: see very numerous ex- 
amples in Guest's English Rhythms, B. I. C. III. 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 
§ 98. Letters. 
a. ch, for the Saxon e (K), before or after e, i, 
occurs in several cases where modern English has 
retained the primitive sound. 
seche (= seek), 786, 7537, 7539. 
recche (= reck), 1400, 5911. 
wirche (= work), 2761f; worche, ii. 379, iii. 143. 
thenche (= think), 3253 f. 
yliche, liche (— like), 7797, 10376 f. 
ich (— ik, I), 10037, and in theech, 12857, 14362. 
So, rubriche (= rubric, Fr. rubrique), 5928 f. 
On the other hand, k is often preserved in Chau- 
cer where we have substituted ch; as, biseke (— 
beseech), 7251, ii. 979, etc. 
b. Saxon g is changed to w, instead of y, i, as in 
modern English, in dawes (— days), 11492 ; fawe, 
from S. feah = faegen, fain, 5802 f ; i-slawe — slain, 
14271,16500: so wawe (S. weg), 4888 — Eng. wave. 
c. th is dropped after t, or changed to t, in the 
following contracted forms : — 
wiltow (wilt thou), woltow, 1546, 6422. 
hastow (hast thou), 3534, 3538, 11893. 
wostow, 3544. 
slepistow, 4167. 
* Similar forms, though not contracted, are sorwe, 
1456; wilw, 2924 ; morw, 9622. 
1 This is an unusual contraction, but by no means un- 
paralleled ; thus, 
Why, fool! says Venus, thus provokst thou me, 
That being naked thou knowst could conquer thee ? 
Crashaw (ed. Turnbull), p. 123. 
VOL. VIII. 64 
herdistow, 4168. 
artow, 4728. 
hydestow, 5890. 
schaltow, 6998. 
atte beste (at the beste), 29. 
atte siege, 56. 
atte fulle, 653. 
atte laste, 2828. 
atte boord, 10393. 
atte halle, 10394, etc., etc. 
d. 'The letters r and s were unstable in the older 
English, and subject to frequent metathesis. In the 
transition to modern English these letters have 
changed their position more than once in some 
words, e. g.:— 
berstles, 558 ; S. bristl, Mod. E. bristle. 
brid, 17104; S. bridd, E. bird. 
brast, 2612; breste, 2613; S. berstan, E. burst. 
brent, 948 ; brenne, 17161; S. byrnan, brinnan, E. 
burn. 
carte, 2043 ; S. craet, E. cart. 
crispe, 2167 (crips, House of Fame, iii. 296) ; S. cirps, 
crisp, E. crisp. : 
crulle, 81; E. curl. 
kers, 9754 ; S. cerse, cresse, E. cress. 
thirled, 2712; (nose-) thurles, 559 ; S. thyrlod, thyrel, 
E. thrilled, (nos) trils. 
thridde, 14251; threttene, 7841; thritty, 14437; 
S. thridda, etc., E. third, etc. 
throp, 8075, 8084; S. thorp, E. -thorp, -throp. 
thurgh, 1098 ; S. thurh, E. through. 
axe, 1349, 12354; axyng, 1828 ; S. ascjan, acsjan. 
aske, 3557. dj 
crispe, S. cirps, see above. 
