246 CHA UCER. 



But how about the elision ? 



11 Le pali esgarde sur le lit 

 Et ele est devant li alee 

 Bele amie [of. mie, above] ne il me celcz. 

 La dame ad sa fille amenee.&quot; 



These are all on a single page,* and there are some to spare. 

 How about the hiatus ? On the same page I find 



&quot; Ear 1 Erceveske i estoit 

 Pur eus beneistre e euseiner. 



What was the practice of Wace 1 Again I open at random. 



&quot; N osa remaindre en Normandie, 

 Maiz, quant la guerre fu fiiiio, 

 Od sou herneiz en Puille #la 

 Gil de Baienes lunge ment 

 Ne il nes pout par force prendre 

 Dune la vile mult amendout, 

 Prisons e preie s amenout. &quot;t 



Again we have the sounded final e, the elision, and the 

 hiatus. But what possible reason is there for supposing 

 that Chaucer would go to obscure minstrels to learn the 

 rules of French versification 1 Nay, why are we to suppose 

 that he followed them at all ? In his case as in theirs, as 

 in that of the Italians, with the works of whose two greater 

 poets he was familiar, it was the language itself and the 

 usuges of pronunciation that guided the poet, and not 

 arbitrary laws laid down by a synod of versemakers. 

 Chaucer s verse differs from that of Gower and Lydgate 

 precisely as the verse of Spenser differs from that of 

 Gascoigne, and for the same reason that he was a great 

 poet, to whom measure was a natural vehicle. But 

 admitting that he must have formed his style on the French 

 poets, would he not have gone for lessons to the most 

 famous and popular among them the authors of the 

 &quot; Roman de la Rose ? &quot; Wherever you open that poem, 



* Poesies de Marie de France, tome i. p. 168. 

 t Le Roman de la Rose, tome ii. p. 390. 



