§ =120. Four-syllable words= of French origin when they are substantives or adjectives frequently have disyllabic or trisyllabic suffixes such as: _-age_, _-iage_, _-ian_, _-iant_, _-aunce_, _-iance_, _-iaunce_, _-ence_, _-ience_, _-ient_, _-ier_, _-ioun_, _-ious_, _-eous_, _-uous_, _-ial_, _-ual_, _-iat_, _-iour_, _-ure_, _-ie (-ye)_. As most of these words already have a trochaic or iambic rhythm, they are used without difficulty in even-beat disyllabic verses, chiefly in rhymes, and then always with their full syllabic value, as e.g.: _pílgrimáge: coráge_ Prol. 11-12; _hóstelrýe: cómpanýe_ ib. 23-4; _resóun: condícióun_ ib. 37-8; _chývalrýe: cúrtesýe_ ib. 45-6; _chívachíe: Pícardíe_ ib. 185-6; _cónsciénce: réverénce_ ib. 141-2; _tóun: conféssióun_ ib. 217-18; _curát: licénciát_ 219-20; _góvernáunce: chévysáunce_ ib. 291-2, &c. In the interior of a verse also the words not ending in an unaccented _e_ are always metrically treated according to their full syllabic value, e.g.: _That héeld opínyóun that pléyn delýt_ Prol. 337; _Of hís compléxióun he wás sangwýn_ ib. 333. In those words, on the other hand, which end in an unaccented _e_, this vowel is in the interior of the verse generally elided or apocopated: _no vílanýe is ít_ ib. 740; _ín that óstelríe alíght_ ib. 720; _So móche of dáliáunce and fáir langáge_ ib. 211; _And ál was cónsciénce and téndre hérte_ ib. 150. Further shortenings, however, which transform an originally four-syllable word into a disyllabic one, as in the present pronunciation of the word _conscience_, do not take lace in Middle English before the transition to the Modern English period. In Lyndesay's _Monarchie_ we meet with accentuations of this kind, as e.g.: _The quhílk gaif sápience tó king Sálomóne._ 249. _Be tháy contént, mak réverence tó the rést._ 36. In a similar way adjectives ending in _-able_ and verbs ending in _-ice_, _-ye_ adapt themselves to the disyllabic rhythm, and likewise verbs ending in _-ine_ (Old French _-iner_); only it must be noticed that in the preterite and in the past participle verbs of the latter class tend to throw the accents on the antepenultimate and last syllables, e.g. _enlúminéd_, _emprísonéd_. =Words of five syllables= almost without exception have an iambic rhythm of themselves and are used accordingly in even-beat verses, as e.g. _expériénce_; the same is the case with words which have Germanic endings, like _-ing_, _-inge_, _-nesse_, e.g. _discónfytýnge_. The rhythmic accentuation of foreign proper names both in disyllables and in polysyllables varies. Thus we may notice the accentuations _Junó_, _Plató_, _Venús_, and, on the other hand, _Júno_, _Pláto_, _Vénus_; _Arcíte_, _Athénes_, and _Árcíte_, _Áthenes_; _Antónie_ and _Ántoníe_. Wherever in such cases level stress may help to smooth the rhythm it certainly is to be assumed in reading. II. Word-accent in Modern English.