Mr. White supposes that _ea_ was sounded like _ee_. We are inclined to question it, and to think that here again the French element in our language has made confusion. It is certain that _ea_ represents in many words the French _e_ and _ai_,--as in _measure_ and _pleasure_. The Irish, who were taught English by Anglo-Normans, persist in giving the _ea_ its original sound (as _baste_ for _beast_); and we Northern Yankees need not go five miles in any direction to hear _maysure_ and _playsure_. How long did this pronunciation last in England? to how many words did it extend? and did it infect any of Saxon root? It is impossible to say. Was _beat_ called _bate_? One of Mr. White's variations from the Folio is "bull-baiting" for "bold-beating." The mistake could have arisen only from the identity in sound of the _ea_ in the one with _ai_ in the other. Butler, too, rhymes _drum-beat_ with _combat_. But _beat_ is from the French. When we find _least_, (Saxon,) then, rhyming with _feast_, (French,) and also with _best_, (Shakspeare has _beast_ and _blest_,) which is more probable, that _best_ took the sound of _beest_, or that we have a slightly imperfect rhyme, with the [=a] somewhat shorter in one word than the other? We think the latter. One of the very words adduced by Mr. White (_yeasty_) is spelt _yesty_ in the Folio. But will rhymes help us? Let us see. Sir Thomas Wyat rhymes _heares_ and _hairs_; Sir Walter Raleigh, _teares_ and _despairs_; Chapman, _tear_ (verb) with _ear_ and _appear_; Shakspeare, _ear_ with _hair_ and _fear_, _tears_ with _hairs_, and _sea_ with _play_; Bishop Hall, _years_ with _rehearse_ and _expires_, and _meales_ with _quailes_. Will Mr. White decide how the _ea_ was sounded? We think the stronger case is made out for the [=a] than for the _ee_,--for _swears_ as we now pronounce it, than for _sweers_; though we fear our tired readers may be tempted to perform the ceremony implied by the verb without much regard to its orthoëpy.