Chaucer's Works, Volume 6 — Introduction, Glossary, and IndexesChaucer, Geoffrey
General
Chaucer's Works, Volume 6 — Introduction, Glossary, and Indexes
Chaucer, Geoffrey
English poetry -- Middle English, 1100-1500
dhis-Troo.ilus. widhuu.ten r[`e][`e]d. or-l[`o][`o].r[*e],
az-man. dhat-hath. iz-joi.ez aek. forl[`o].r[*e],
waz-wei.tingg' on. iz-laa.di ev.erm[`o][`o].r[*e],
az-shee. dhat-waz. dh[*e]-sooth.fast krop. [*e]nd-m[`o].r[*e]
ov-al. iz-lust., or-joi.ez heer.toof[`o].r[*e].
but-Troo.ilus., nuu-far.wel al. dhii-joi.[*e],
for-shal.tuu nev.er seen.-ir eft. in-Troi.[*e].
The same distinction is preserved throughout the whole of the poem of
Troilus, as may be seen by the following references, where the numbers
refer, _not_ to the _lines_, but to the stanzas.
_lore_, _more_; I. 93. _sore_, _more_, _sore_; I. 96; where the former
_sore_ is from A.S. _s[=a]re_, adv., and the latter _sore_ is of French
origin[26], _sore_, _more_, _lore_; I. 108, 156; II. 81, 192; III. 35.
_more_, _sore_; III. 139, 151; IV. 19, 129, 161; V. 97, 106, 171. _rore_
(A.S. _r[=a]rian_), _sore_, _more_; IV. 54. _yore_ (A.S. _ge[=a]ra_),
_more_; IV. 214; V. 8. _yore_, _more_, _lore_, V. 47. _evermore_, _more_;
V. 117. _more_, _sore_, _evermore_, V. 194. _more_, _evermore_, _yore_, V.
248. Also: _more_, _Antenore_; IV. 95; where _Antenore_, being a proper
name, may be treated much as the author pleases. And further: _more_,
_restore_, IV. 193; V. 239; where the _o_ in _restore_ is due to Lat. _au_.
And lastly, _pore_, _rore_, V. 7: where the _o_ in _pore_ is of variable
quality, from O.F. _povre_ (Lat. _pauperem_).
On the other hand, we find another set of words in Troilus, in which the
open _o_ was originally short. Examples are: _tofore_, _wherfore_, _bore_,
i.e. born; II. 202: from A.S. _t[=o]foran_; from A.S. _hw[=ae]r_ combined
with _fore_; and A.S. _boren_. _y-shore_, _bifore_, _therfore_; IV. 143;
where _y-shore_, shorn, is from A.S. _gescoren_. _therfore_, _bifore_; IV.
149. _forlore_, _m[)o]re_, _heretofore_, V. 4; already noticed above.
In all the above examples, the open _o_ occurs before _r_; the only other
examples of open _o_ from original short _o_ are seen in Book I. stanzas 13
and 30. In both these stanzas we find the riming words _spoken_, _wroken_,
_broken_, which obviously belong to the same set. _Broken_ is from A.S.
_br[)o]cen_; but _spoken_ and _wroken_ are new forms, altered from the A.S.
_sprecen_ and _wrecen_ by analogy with the very word _broken_ here used.
Chaucer never rimes these words with _t[=o]ken_, from A.S. _t[=a]cen_.
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