THE RIMES IN THE AUTHENTIC POEMS OF WILLIAM DUNBAR. 



641 



§ 28. p and y. 



deid (daed) forbid (55), 118, 11. 



feir (fear) : cheir, 97, 94. feir : cheir, 97, 96. 246, 



101. 

 sweir (adj : cheir, 34, 19. feir : presoneir : 115, 46. 

 freiris : leiris, 80, 46. 



deid : speid, 245, 81. and remeid, 363, 101. 

 „ : meid, 250, 2. weid : neid, 237, 12. 315, 13. 



deidis : neidis, 250, 4. deid : dreid, 245, 82. 

 „ : procedis, 281, 41. leidis : remeid, 131, 90. 

 ,, : briedis, 281, 42. meidis : reidis, 104, 55. 

 ,, : posseid, 296, 15. weidis : ,, 104, 58. 



upspreidis : ,, 104, 59. 



shreidis : „ 104, 62. 



seid : speid, 221, 24. 



§ 29. a, /3 and y. 

 steid : reid (randan) : remeid : pleid, 75, 38, etc. 



| weill : deill : feill : 75, 26. 



This table amply proves that Dunbar rimed these three classes of sounds fre- 

 quently together, so that they must to his ear have been very similar, and this can 

 hardly mean anything else than that e had in MSc. already become i, at least before 

 certain consonants. This is an important distinction, especially as we notice that in 

 Dunbar there are only six consonantal in the final letters of these rimes, viz., d, ch,f, Jc, 

 11, and r. In Clariodus there are also v, m, st, t, s, and p. The most striking point 

 here is the complete absence from both of the nasal n, and the frequency of d and r. 

 One is almost driven to the conclusion that, while before these last two consonants at 

 least e had already the i quality, it had still before n and possibly before m an e- sound. 



E- 



§ 30. 1. Not before g rimes with 



a) itself. 



heris (v) : deris (hurts) 270, 73. 

 beir (v) : speir, 194, 84. 

 „ (s) (NE. bear) : spear, 194, 92. 



b) OE. ea (see § 55 and following). 



c) OE. ea. 



beir : eir, 115, 41. 



mere : eir, 79, 6. 



forbeir : eir, 251, 34 and 32. 



meit (OE. mete) : threit, 251, 11. 



d) OE. e, J, le, and eo=y rimes, 

 speir : heir : deir, 99, 163. 107, 132. 



e) OE. WS. ae Angl. e. 



meir (NE. mare) : weir (NE. war), 79, 3. eit : 

 bleit (v) (NE. bleat) : quheit (NE. wheat), 

 175, 332. 



speiris : weiris, 98, 130. 



speir : feir, 194, 88. beir (bear), 194, 92. 



f) OF. e. 



speiris : effeiris 98, 130. 137, 64. smellis : ex- 

 cellis, 358, 12. 



g) OE. ae (see § 50). 



eit : sweit (NE. sweat) : 175, 330. 



The e in beir (v) beir (s) = (bear), speir and deir and also in meit and eit appears 

 to be lengthened and to have in these cases an I-sound (see Curtis, § 131), with whom I 

 am inclined to agree in spite of al] said by Dr Gerken, § 10. 4). We must again, 

 however, notice that with the exception of iveit : threit, and eit : sweit, all these rimes 

 end in r, a confirmation, it would seem, of the lightening- effect of the Scotch r already 

 noticed in § 29, and confirmed, to my thinking, by such cases as whir and thlr {where 

 and there), awlr for aware, which occur as often in NSc. In this connection it must 

 be borne in mind that there are in England and Scotland at least three different rs, the 

 South English trilled r, with up-turned point of the tongue, the North English burr or 

 slurred guttural r, and the Scotch rolled r, made, like the German, with down-turned 



