THE RIMES IN THE AUTHENTIC POEMS OF WILLIAM DUNBAR. 631 



the literary and technical qualities of Dunbar's verse ; and when it is borne in mind 

 that my own high opinion of Dunbar's technical excellence and conscientious workman- 

 ship, if independently formed, coincides with that of such unimpeachable authorities as 

 Sheriff Mackay, Professor Schipper, and others, it would surely be a reductio ad 

 absurdum of scientific scepticism to ask for further proof. 



If we only had a fair copy of Dunbar's original MS. a mass of uncertainties would 

 disappear. For we can seldom be quite certain whether the spelling is (l) Dunbar's 

 own, or (2) that of his own time, or (3) the Scotch and not the (4) English spelling. 

 These uncertainties are introduced in the case of MSS. by the scribe, or in that of print 

 by the compositor. Now in those times those persons do not seem to have been either 

 very careful or conscientious or skilful ; and that in the chaotic state of ME. spelling 

 complicated with the almost as chaotic MSc. spelling, and possibly also with attempts 

 at compromise between the two, creates elements of difficulty enough. 



There is fortunately one other reliable and, within certain limits, fixed foothold 

 for us in this examination, considered as an independent investigation, and that is the 

 pronunciation of modern Scotch (NSc), with which, owing to my long residence in 

 Scotland, I may claim some familiarity. And the Scotch with which I am most 

 familiar is, fortunately, locally Dunbar's Scotch, not Buens's west country Scotch, but 

 the Lowland, one may almost say Lothian Scotch of Scott and Stevenson, who is held 

 by those competent to judge to write particularly good Scotch, and who makes the 

 attempt to write phonetically, especially in the volume entitled " Underwoods," where 

 he gives a " Table of Common Scottish Vowel Sounds," which appears to me easily 

 intelligible and quite accurate. For more scientific and historic treatment of these 

 sounds one must naturally have recourse to the works of Sweet, Ellis, and Murray in 

 English, and to such modern investigators as Professor Luick in Germany, and the 

 Dissertations of Dr Curtis, " On the Middle Scotch Romana Clariodus " (Angiia, vols, 

 xvi, xvii), and of Dr Gerken, on "Die Sprache des Bishofs Douglas von Dunkeld " 

 (Strassburg, Karl J. Triibner, 1898). 



While one can know how a Scottish word is pronounced to-day in the very district 

 and city where Dunbar wrote and spoke, there remain still two elements to be supplied 

 before the problem of fixing the phonology of Dunbar and his time can be attempted. 

 The first is a knowledge of the original sounds of the words, i.e., the pronunciation of 

 the vowels, diphthongs, and consonants in the language from which his vocabulary is 

 derived, viz., Anglo-Saxon (Old English, OR), Old French (OF.), Old Norse (ON.), 

 Latin (Lat.), Old Irish (01.), Dutch (Du.), etc., and the second that of the correspond- 

 ing sounds in contemporary Middle English (ME.). Now the former, thanks to the 

 labours of such scholars as Sievers, Kluge, Sweet, Skeat and others, are fortunately 

 fairly well established, and affords us in this inquiry our first point of attachment so to 

 speak. If we then, so to speak, make fast one end of our line to the original sound and 

 lead the other to the corresponding modern Scotch sound, we know then that the path 

 of this sound through its successive changes must pass through these two points, and 



