But a real exception occurs in the riming of _lere_, to teach, with _here_, here (T. ii. 97, iv. 440). _Lere_, A.S. _l[=ae]ran_, Goth. _laisjan_, should have the open _e_; but it here rimes with a word in which the _e_ is close. This is one of the exceptional words noted by Ten Brink (_Chaucers Sprache_, s. 25). No explanation is offered, and I know of none, unless it be that it was confused with _l['e]re_, cheek, from A.S. _hl[=e]or_. But we must note the fact. -ETE. The exceptional words are _bihete_, _mete_ (to dream), _strete_, street. _Bihete_ is really a false form for _bihote_ (A.S. _bih[=a]tan_); the _e_ is due to confusion with the pt. t. _bih[=e]t_, where _h[=e]t_ is for A.S. _h[=e]ht_, the result of contraction; hence the _e_ is doubtful and unstable. _Mete_, to dream, is from A.S. _m[=ae]tan_, of unknown origin; hence we may regard the _e_ as doubtful. _Strete_, a street, answers to A.S. _str[=ae]t_, Mercian _str[=e]t_, mod. E. _street_; hence the _e_ is unstable, as explained above. -EVE. Ten Brink (_Ch. Studien_, ss. 25, 23) thinks that _leve_, sb., leave, was treated as if with close _e_ by confusion with _bil[=e]ven_, to believe, which, he says, has close e. Whatever be the right explanation, we must set aside _leve_, leave, as an exceptional word. So also _eve_, eve, A.S. _[=ae]fen_, Mercian _[=e]fen_, has a variable vowel; see Sweet, O.E. Texts, p. 602. s. 36. Having now considered the doubtful cases, which may be altogether set aside, it remains to draw up the list of words in which the quality of the long _e_, at least in Troilus, admits of no doubt. The result gives us a valuable set of test-rimes, by which the genuineness of a poem attributed to Chaucer may be investigated. Of course, a _few_ divergences may admit of explanation; but the presence of a large number of them should make us extremely suspicious. The list is as follows. (A) The following words (in Troilus) have _open e_ only. (I omit some doubtful cases, in addition to those discussed above; and only give those which ought certainly to have the open vowel.) _teche_, to teach. _dede_, dead; _lede_, lead (the metal); _rede_, red. Also _lede_, to lead; _sprede_, to spread. Other words in _-ede_ are doubtful. _breke_, to break, _speke_, to speak, _wreke_, to wreak, have open _e_; but it was originally short, and these words are kept apart from others. _bene_, bean; _clene_, clean; _lene_, lean; _mene_, to mean. _hepe_, heap; _lepe_, to leap. _there_, there; _were_, were; _where_, where. Also _ere_, ear; _gere_, gear; _tere_, a tear. (_Fere_, fear, has unstable _e_; cf. G. _Gefahr_.) _bere_, to bear, _dere_, to harm, _swere_, to swear, _tere_, to tear, besides _bere_, a bear, _spere_, a spear[33], _were_, a weir, _here_, her, _stere_, to stir, likewise have open _e_; but the _e_ was originally short, and these words are kept apart from those in the preceding set.