It is only the _-en_ of the past participle that is at all often after certain consonants treated as a full syllable, e.g. _the frózen héart_ Sur. 1; _gótten out_ ib. 10; _the strícken déer_ ib. 54; _hast táken páin_ Wyatt, 99. Here the full forms are preserved in the ordinary language. It is only exceptionally that participles that have undergone shortening, as _come_, reassume their _n_ and regain an extra syllable, e.g. _tíll he cómën háth_ West (Poets, ix. 484). Contracted forms like _grown_, _known_, _drawn_, always remain monosyllabic, even in verse, and words like _fallen_, _swollen_, which are normally disyllabic, are often contracted in poetry: as _grown_ Sur. 13; _known_ ib. 45; _swoln_ ib. 8; _befallen_ ib. 26; _drawn_ Wyatt, 160. Complete contraction is effected either by elision of the final consonant of the stem, e.g. _ta'en_ (instead of _taken_) Sur. 44, or by slurring of the ending, e.g. _hath gíven a pláce_ Sur. 108; _is béaten with wínd and stórm_ ib. 157, &c. § 99. The comparative and superlative endings _-er_, _-est_ are, as a rule, syllabic. _Hórn is fáirer þáne beo hé_ King Horn, 330; _No lénger dwélle hý ne mýghte_ Alexius, ii. 85; _But ráther wólde he yéven_ Chauc. Prol. 487. These endings are treated, moreover, as full syllables in the unaccented rhymes _Hǽngest_: _fǽirest_ Layamon, 13889-90; _Hǽngest_: _héndest_ ib. 13934-5. If an inflexional _-e_ is added to such words, so as to make them trisyllables, it is commonly elided or apocopated, e.g. _Fór he ís the fáireste mán_ Horn, 787; _hire grétteste óoth_ Chauc. Prol. 120; _The férreste in his párisshe_ ib. 494. Slurring or syncopation takes place in the following examples, _Sche móst wiþ hím no lénger abíde_ Sir Orfeo, line 328; _No lénger to héle óf he bráke_ Alexius, ii. 127; more rarely in the superlative, _Annd állre láttst he wúndedd wáss_ Orm. 11779, 11797; _Was thóu not fárist of ángels álle?_ Towneley Myst. p. 4. In Modern English these endings are treated similarly. The comparative-ending _-er_ is mostly syllabic on account of the phonetic nature of the final _r_, and even if slurred, it does not entirely lose its syllabic character, e.g.: _The nígher my cómfort ís to mé._ Surrey, p. 37. _Or dó him míghtier sérvice ás his thrálls._ Milton, Par. L. i. 149. The ending of the superlative _-est_, too, is commonly syllabic, e.g. _In lóngest níght, or ín the shórtest dáy._ Surrey, p. 16. _Now léss than smállest dwárfs, in nárrow róom._ Milton, P. L. i. 779. Nevertheless many examples of syncopation are found, chiefly in the writings of the Early Modern English poets: e.g. _the méekest of mínd_ Sur. 77; _the swéet'st compánions_ Shak. Cymb. V. v. 349; _the stérn'st good níght_ id. Macb. II. ii. 4. Such forms are often used by Ben Jonson.