For to tell you of his aray; A. 73. In hope to stande in his ladyes grace; A. 88. And Frenche she spake ful fetously; A. 124. Her mouth smale, and therto softe and reed; A. 153. It was almost a span brode, I trowe; A. 155. Another None with her had she; A. 163. And in harping, whan he had song; A. 266. Of hem that helpen him to scholay; A. 302. Not a worde spake more than nede; A. 304. Was very felicite perfite; A. 338. His barge was called the Maudelain; A. 410. It is needless to proceed; it is obvious that Stowe was not the man who would care to eke out a line by filling it up with convenient monosyllables. And it is just because these old editors usually let the text alone, that the old black-letter editions still retain a certain value, and represent some lost manuscript. § 18. One editor, apparently Speght, actually had an inkling of the truth; but he was promptly put down by Dryden (Pref. to the Fables). 'The verse of Chaucer, I confess, is not harmonious to us; ... there is the rude sweetness of a Scotch tune in it, which is natural and pleasing, though not perfect. It is true, I cannot go so far as he who published the last edition of him; for he would make us believe the fault is in our ears, and that there were really ten syllables in a verse where we find but nine; but this error is not worth confuting; it is so gross and obvious an error[19], that common sense (which is a rule in everything but matters of faith and revelation) must convince the reader, that equality of numbers in every verse which we call Heroic, was either not known, or not always practised in Chaucer's age. It were an easy matter to produce some thousands of verses, which are lame for want of half a foot, and sometimes a whole one, and which no pronunciation can make otherwise.' We cannot doubt that such was the prevalent opinion at that time. [xxiii] § 19. For such readers as do not wish to study the language or the grammar of Chaucer, but merely wish to read the text with some degree of comfort, and to come by the stories and their general literary expression with the least possible trouble, the Ellesmere MS. furnishes quite an ideal text. Such a reader has only to observe the following empirical rules[20]. 1. Pronounce every final _e_ like the final _a_ in _China_, except in a few very common words like _wolde_, _sholde_, _were_, and the like, which may be read as _wold'_, _shold'_, _wer'_, unless the metre seems to demand that they should be fully pronounced. The commonest clipped words of this character are _have_, _hadde_ (when a mere auxiliary), _were_, _nere_ (were not), _wolde_, _nolde_ (would not), _thise_ (like mod. E. _these_), _othere_, and a few others, that are easily picked up by observation.