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302 



OBSERVATIONS 



CONFESSIO 



(fem.), which are written with an e only when that 

 vowel is pronounced or elided. The pronominal 

 forms, the comparative more, and the verbs have 

 and were, were necessarily very much used, and 

 were very likely therefore to be shortened. All of 

 these, excepting the pronoun here (their), are found 

 both in the shortened and the full form. 



Several words besides the pronouns just men- 

 tioned are found written both with and without 

 a final e. Thus, 



and my manere so mistorned, iii. 5.] 



in such manere for to lede, iii. 141. 



in what maner she shuld him save, ii. 306. 



and write in such a maner wise, i. 4. 



and right of such a maner kinde, i. 88. 



So, i. 107, 123, 184, 206, 342, etc. 



(It will be observed that when the e is dropped 

 the accent is generally thrown forward.) We find 

 also mater written twice without a final e, i. 146, 180 

 but as in both cases the following word begins with 

 a vowel, we cannot be sure that the e is not lost by 

 elision : matere is found, i. 343, 365: ii. 207, 383 : 

 iii. 157, 176, etc. We have also the double forms 

 c6mun, comune ; divers, diverse ; here the longer 

 form seems to be a license for the sake of rhyme 

 See § 30, b ; § 35, d.. 



The Comparative of Adjectives is always written 

 in Pauli's text, as it generally is in Wright's text 

 of the Canterbury Tales, with -er, instead of the 

 Saxon -re. French words are written indifferently 

 with both terminations, though the French re is 

 more commonly preserved than not : thus, letter, i. 

 10, 201, 305: iii. 314; tender, i. 115, 266 j fever, V 

 146; chamber, i. 102; ponder, i. 24: and tendre," 

 l 115; chambre, i. 112; chartre, i. 155; ordre, i. 

 50 ; monstres, i. 56 j suffre, i. 334 ; attempre, i. 333, 

 335; sobre, i. 11 : iii. 365. We even find philos- 

 ophy, in imitation of the French spelling, iii. 234, 

 272. Slight reliance, however, is to be placed upon 

 the ed.tor's spelling, and from this alone we could 

 not be justified in assuming that -re was already 

 pronounced as -er. 



The e final of here, their, is silent ; * e. g., 



§85. 



does not form a full 



stable. Whether the , e tt er was absolute ^ T™ ™ ' 



i. 5, 8, 9, 10; 17, 52, 59, 63, 80, 81, 113, 114, 115, 



etc. The form her is perhaps equally common : L 



10, 17, 19, 62, 69, 87, 88, etc. 



In a few cases oure, youre, have the e sounded, 

 as, oure, i. 262: ii. 90, 192, 215: youre, ii. 108, 

 226 : i. 316. ( See § 45.) The forms our, your, 

 are more common : our, i. 191, 192, 329, 359 : ii 

 191 : iii. 379, 380, 385 ; your, i. 150, 153, 155,' 

 166, 178, 210, 272, 300, 328, 371, etc. 



The dative and accusative of the feminine per- 

 sonal pronoun often preserves the Saxon e : see the 

 forms hire, here, § 45 : but her is much more 

 common for the personal pronoun, and is the only 

 form for the possessive : see, i. 7, 47, 54, 56, 68, 

 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, etc. Accepting the' 

 spelling of Pauli's text, we can only say that here 



their has the e silent. (No account can be 

 taken of a few cases in which, for example, youre 

 is found before a word beginning with a vowel.) 



were: e final is sometimes "silent" in 



were. 



were thou afered of her eye, ii. 21. 



165 



six gates were there of the town, ii. 376. 

 and was long time or we were bore, i. 231. 

 for me were lever (levr) to lacke bretl, i. 177. 

 but he were lustles in his herte, i. 227 . 

 So, i. 265, 309, 333 (?) : ii. 93, 143, 212, 276, 296 : 

 iii. 212, 265, 365. 



On the other hand, were, ph Iraperf. Ind-, i, 4, 



10, 33, 55, 75, 78, 79, 101, 110, 111, 115, 127, 170, 

 189, 212, 242; ii. 74, 80, 88, 148, 166, 173, etc., 

 etc. 



were, Subj., i. 8, 15, 39, 96, 156, 197, 207, 210, 

 211, 233, 241, 243, 283, 305, 333, 356, 359, 



; 365 : ii. 33, 62, 80, 88, 114, 141, 154, 173, 190, 

 226, etc., etc. 



• 



§ 87. The foregoing are the only cases of e 

 silent after er, except a few isolated ones : e. g. 







125. 



305. 



wel(e), ii. £ 

 (answre ? ) 



by, iii. 



It has been observed already that such repre- 

 sentatives as occur of the Saxon noun in -ere, 

 denoting an agent, want the final vowel, but non* 



t 



i 



