242 CHAUCER. 



the contemporary habits of pronunciation. Till after the 

 time of Shakespeare we must always bear in mind that it 

 is not a language of books but living speech that we have 

 to deal with. Of this language Coleridge had little know 

 ledge, except what could be acquired through the ends of 

 his fingers as they lazily turned the leaves of his haphazard 

 reading. If his eye was caught by a single passage that 

 gave him a chance to theorise, he did not look farther. 

 Speaking of Massinger, for example, he says, &quot; When a 

 speech is interrupted, or one of the characters speaks aside, 

 the last syllable of the former speech and first of the suc 

 ceeding Massinger counts for one, because both are supposed 

 to be spoken at the same moment. 



&quot; And felt the sweetness oft 



How her mouth runs over. &quot; 



Now fifty instances may be cited from Massinger which tell 

 against this fanciful notion, for one that seems, and only 

 seems, in its favour. Anyone tolerably familiar with the 

 dramatists knows that in the passage quoted by Coleridge, 

 the how being emphatic, &quot;how her&quot; was pronounced how r. 

 He tells us that Massinger is fond of the anapaest in the 

 first and third foot, as : 



&quot; To your more | than mas | culine rea | son that | commands ern.H &quot; 



Likewise of the second paeon (^__ v_x_) in the first foot, 

 followed by four trochees ( ^-), as : 



&quot; So greedily | I5ng for, | know their | titill | ations.&quot; 



In truth, he was no fonder of them than his brother 

 dramatists who, like him, wrote for the voice by the ear. 

 &quot; To your &quot; is still one syllable in ordinary speech, and 

 &quot; masculine &quot; and &quot; greedily &quot; were and are dissyllables or 

 trisyllables according to their place in the verse. Coleridge 

 was making pedantry of a very simple matter. Yet he has 

 said with perfect truth of Chaucer s verse, &quot; Let a few 

 plain rules be given for sounding the final e of syllables, 

 and for expressing the terminations of such words as ocean 

 and nation, etc., as dissyllables, or let the syllables to be 



