_bete_, to beat; _grete_, great; _hete_, heat; _spete_, to spit; _swete_, to sweat; _threte_, to threat. Also _[)e]te_, to eat, _fory[)e]te_, to forget. (I omit doubtful cases.) _reve_, to reave; _greve_, a grove. (But _leve_, to leave, is doubtful.) (B) The following (in Troilus) have close long _e_ only. _seche_, to seek; _biseche_, to beseech. _forbede_, to forbid; _nede_, need; _yede_, went. Also _bede_, to offer, _blede_, to bleed; _brede_, to breed; _fede_, to feed; _glede_, a glowing coal; _spede_, to speed; _stede_, a steed. _meke_, meek; _seke_, to seek. _bitwene_, between; _grene_, green; _kene_, keen; _quene_, queen; _tene_, vexation; _wene_, to ween. _kepe_, to keep; _wepe_, to weep; also _depe_, deep. _fere_, companion; _yfere_, together; _here_, here. _bete_, _flete_, _grete_, _mete_, to mend, float, greet, meet; _swete_, sweet. _leve_, dear. s. 37. Of course, the rime-tests consist in this, that not one of the words in class A can possibly rime with one of those in class B, either in Troilus or in any genuine work of Chaucer. To test this, we must first refer to Cromie's Rime-Index to the Canterbury Tales, under the headings, _-eche_, _-ede_ (_-eede_), _-eke_, _-ene_, _-epe_, _-ere_, _-ete_, _-eve_. The only apparent exceptions that I can find are two; and they are worth notice. Under _-eepe_, we are told that _leepe_, 3 s. perf., rimes with _keepe_, n. obj. The reference is to Group A, 2688. When we look, we find that the Ellesmere MS. has wrong spellings; the words should be _leep_, _keep_. Or rather, we find that the final _e_ is not real, but only represents a meaningless flourish in the MS. Now it is a neat point of grammar that, although _lepen_, to leap (A.S. _hl[=e]apan_), has an open _e_, its past tense (A.S. _hl[=e]op_) has a close _e_; so that the rime is quite correct. In both words, the _e_ is close. The other case (A 1422) is worth citing. Mr. Cromie says, at p. 108, that _here_, adv., rimes with the inf. _bere_, to bear; which is, in my view, impossible. The lines run thus:-- 'He fil in office with a chamberleyn, The which that dwelling was with Emelye. For he was wys, and coude sone aspye Of every servaunt, which that serveth _here_. Wel coude he hewen wode, and water bere.' This is a case where the sound decides the sense. The _e_ in _bere_ is properly short; hence the same is true of _here_. Accordingly, _here_ is not an adverb, nor does it mean 'here'; it is the personal pronoun, A.S. _hire_, and it means 'her'; precisely as it does in Troilus, ii. 1662. s. 38. In the Minor Poems, the following passages are the only ones that I can find that present any difficulty.