§ =119. Trisyllabic words.= I. Words, the last syllable of which in French has the chief accent, the first having a secondary accent. In these words the two accents are transposed in English, so that the first syllable bears the chief accent, the last the secondary accent, and both of them as a rule receive the rhythmical accent: _émperóur_, _árgumént_. But if two syllables of such a word form a disyllabic thesis, generally the last syllable which has the secondary accent is lowered to the unaccented grade: _árgument_, _émperour_. II. Words which in French have the chief accent on the middle syllable, the last being unaccented. These are sometimes used with the original accentuation, mostly as feminine rhymes, e.g.: _viságe: uságe_ Prol. 109-10; _chére: manére_ ib. 139-40; _penánce: pitánce_ ib. 233-4; _poráille: vitáille_ ib. 247-8; _prudénce: senténce_ ib. 305-6; _offíce: áccomplíce_ Kn. T. 2005-6, &c.; more rarely in the interior of the verse, where the last syllable may either form a thesis as in _Ál your plesánce férme and stáble I hólde_ Cl. T. 663, or part of it, being elided or slurred, as in _The sáme lúst was híre plesánce alsó_ ib. 717. In other instances, mostly in the interior of the verse, they have the accent on the first syllable, the last being always elided or slurred: _And sáugh his vísage was in anóther kýnde_ Kn. T. 543; _He fél in óffice wíth a chámberléyn_ ib. 561. Verbs ending in _-ice_ (_-isse_), _-ishe_, _-ie_, as e.g. _chérisse_, _púnishe_, _stúdie_, _cárrie_, _tárrie_, nearly always have the accent on the first syllable, the last syllable being elided or apocopated, except where it is strengthened by a final consonant, as e.g. _chérishëd_, _tárriëd_. If the first syllable of a trisyllabic word be formed by an unaccented particle, the root-syllable of the word, in this case the middle one, likewise retains the accent, as e.g. in _despíse_, _remaíne_.