s. 103. When we come to apply a similar system of scansion to Chaucer, we find that he differs from Goldsmith in FOUR important particulars. This is because he followed, more immediately, the rules of verse as exhibited in the Old French metres. I quote the following from P. Toynbee's Specimens of Old French, p. liii:-- 'In ten-syllabled lines [i.e. in lines of five accents] the pause or caesura is after the fourth syllable:-- Mors est Rollanz, | Deus en ad Panme es cielz. At the caesura, and also at the end of the line, a feminine syllable [i.e. a weak or light additional syllable] is admissible, which does not count, even if it is not elided. It is thus possible to have no less than four different forms of ten-syllabled epic lines, all equally correct; viz. (_a_) Plurent lur filz | lur frer[:e]s, lur nevulz. (_b_) Encuntre ter_re_ | se pasment li plusur. (_c_) A lur chevals | unt toleit[:e]s les sel_[:e]s_. (_d_) Cons fut de Ro_m[:e]_ | del mielz qui donc i er_[:e]t_.' Here, in (_b_) and (_d_), there is an _additional_ syllable at the caesura or _middle pause_; and, in (_c_) and (_d_) there is an additional syllable at the end of the line. Hence the number of syllables is, in (_a_), _ten_; in (_b_) and (_c_), _eleven_; and in (_d_) _twelve_. But the number of accents is the same in all, viz. _five_. It is therefore better to speak of these lines as containing _five accents_ than to call them _ten-syllabled_ lines. All the above varieties are found in Chaucer; and we thus see TWO of the particulars in which he differs from Goldsmith, viz. (1) that he sometimes introduces an additional syllable at the end of the line; and (2) that he does the same after the caesura, or at what may (roughly) be called the end of the half-line. s. 104. But the fact is that Old French verse admits of more licences than the above. It was also permissible for the poet (besides _adding_ to the line at the _end_) to _subtract_ from it at the _beginning_, viz. by omitting the first weak syllable at the beginning, or the first weak syllable in the second half-line; i.e. after the caesura. This accounts for TWO MORE particulars of variation from the modern line of Goldsmith. The result is that the Old French verse absolutely exhibited no less than sixteen varieties; and the actual number of syllables varied from eight (the least) to twelve (the greatest number). Dr. Schipper gives the true scheme in his Englische Metrik, p. 440, as follows; where the number _following_ each scheme expresses the number of syllables. I. Chief forms. 1. v - v - | v - v - v - 10. 2. v - v - v | v - v - v - 11. 3. v - v - | v - v - v - v 11. 4. v - v - v | v - v - v - v 12. II. Without the first syllable. 5. - v - | v - v - v - 9. 6. - v - v | v - v - v - 10. 7. - v - | v - v - v - v 10. 8. - v - v | v - v - v - v 11. III. Syllable dropped after the caesura.