CHAUCER. 243 



sounded in such cases be marked by a competent metrist. 

 This simple expedient would, with a very few trifling 

 exceptions, where the errors are inveterate, enable anyone 

 to feel the perfect smoothness and harmony of Chaucer s 

 verse.&quot; But let us keep widely clear of Latin and Greek 

 terms of prosody ! It is also more important here than 

 even with the dramatists of Shakespeare s time to remem 

 ber that we have to do with a language caught more from 

 the ear than from books. The best school for learning 

 to understand Chaucer s elisions, compressions, slurrings- 

 over and runnings-together of syllables is to listen to the 

 habitual speech of rustics with whom language is still 

 plastic to meaning, and hurries or prolongs itself accord 

 ingly. Here is a contraction frequent in Chaucer, and still 

 common in New England : 



&quot;But me were lever than [lever n] all this town, quod he.&quot; 



Let one example suffice for many. To Coleridge s rules 

 another should be added by a wise editor ; and that is to 

 restore the final n in the infinitive and third person plural 

 of verbs, and in such other cases as can be justified by the 

 authority of Chaucer himself. Surely his ear could never 

 have endured the sing-song of such verses as 



&quot; I couthe telle for a gowne-cloth,&quot; 

 or 



&quot;Than ye to me schuld breke youre trouthe.&quot; 



Chaucer s measure is so uniform (making due allowances) 

 that words should be transposed or even omitted where the 

 verse manifestly demands it, and with copyists so long 

 and dull of ear this is often the case. Sometimes they 

 leave out a needful word : 



&quot; But er [the] thunder stynte, there cometh rain, 

 When [that] we ben y flattered and ypraised, 

 Tak [ye] him for the greatest gentleman.&quot; 



Sometimes they thrust in a word or words that hobble the 

 verse : 



