Thus the line B 3385 used to be cut up after the following fashion--Which that | my fa | der in his | prosper | itee; and the third foot was called trisyllabic. Yet the truth is, that the syllable _-der_ in _fader_ really belongs to the former part of the line (for we cannot pause after _fa-_), and therefore belongs to the 'second foot'; and it would have been better to cut up the line accordingly. But the whole system of chopping up into imaginary equal lengths is inefficient and clumsy; and we have only to adopt a natural accentuation. Thus, in B 3368 (just below), the final _-y_ in _many_ causes no real difficulty, though it adds a syllable to the line:-- And-y['a]f him-w['i]t | and-th['a]n with-m['a]ny a-t['e]re. |¯ |¯ . |¯ |¯' |¯| So again, in B 3105, the final _-es_ in _ell-es_ is easily sounded:-- Or-['e]ll[:e]s I-['a]m but-l['o]st | but-['i]f that-I. |¯' |¯ |¯ . |¯ |¯ Compare Sir Thopas, B 2097:-- And-th['e]r-in st['i]ked | a-l['i]ly fl['o]ur. |¯| ¯| . |¯| ¯¯ The poet's chief business, in such a case, is to see to it, that the syllable thus inserted shall be a light one, in order to prevent the line from becoming clogged. Chaucer is very particular about this; and we shall find that he almost invariably employs, in such a position, such light syllables as these; viz. _-e_ before a consonant, and _-ed_, _-el_, _-en_, _-er_, _-es_, often before a vowel. This is a matter which requires a good ear and skilful care; which he certainly possessed. Even at the caesura, it will be found that he usually inserts only light syllables of this character, and the effect is extremely good. A beautiful example occurs in A 2144:-- As-['a]ny r['a]v'nes f['e]ther | it-sh['o]on for-bl['a]k. |¯| ¯| ¯' . |¯ |¯ We may also compare B 1659:-- Thou-r['a]vi.sed[`e]st | doun-fr['o] the-d['e].it['e]e. |¯' |¯ . |¯ |¯ |¯ Also D 334:-- A-m['a]n to-l['i]ght' his-c['a]ndle | at-h['i]s lant['e]rne. |¯ |¯ |¯' . |¯ |¯| s. 110. We have now to consider the possibility, that Chaucer sometimes dropped the initial syllable of the _latter_ part of a line, after the caesura; a licence of which Lydgate availed himself to a painful extent. It is clear that his ear disliked it; yet there seem to be just a few cases that cannot fairly be explained away, the MSS. being sadly unanimous. It is better to learn the truth than to suppress what we should ourselves dislike. One example occurs in E 1682:-- My-t['a]l is-d['o]on | f['o]r my-w['i]t is-th['i]nne |¯ |¯ . ¯ |¯ |¯| The two worst MSS. alter _doon_ to _don-e_, which is impossible. The rest agree. Another occurs in B 2141:-- I-m['e]n' of-M['a]rk | M['a]thew, L['u]k, and-I['o]hn. |¯ |¯ . ¯| ¯¯ |¯ Four MSS. have a tag after the _k_ in _Mark_; hence I have printed _Mark-e_. But I fear it can hardly be justified. Lines B 3384, 3535 are unsatisfactory. Line E 2240, which is obviously incomplete, is easily mended.