It has already been shown that _see_ (sea), which we have supposed to have unstable vowel quality, very seldom rhymes with words having _ẹ̄_, notwithstanding the frequent opportunity for such rhymes, and _ȝee_, ‘yea,’ never. It may be questioned whether the rule laid down by ten Brink for Chaucer is a sound one, and whether Chaucer’s practice does not really depend simply upon the larger supply of rhymes in _ẹ̄_, such as _he_, _she_, _me_, _thee_, _be_, _se_ (verb), _tre_, _three_, &c. It is at least possible that the difference here between Gower and Chaucer arises from the fact that the latter was less strict in his rhymes, and certainly the later developments of _sle_, _see_, _stre_, _ȝee_ supply no confirmation of the idea that they had _ẹ̄_ regularly in Chaucer’s language. O. E. =ēo=. By the side of _sek_ (_siek_) there is occasionally _sik_. The form _fil_, _fille_ for _fell_, _felle_, pret. sing. and pl. from _falle_, are not used by Gower. He rhymes _fell_ (_fēoll_) : _hell_ (_hyll_) and _felle_, pret. pl.: _felle_ (_fyllan_). The personal pronoun _ȝow_ (_ȝou_) from _ēow_ rhymes with _thou_, _now_, &c. O. E. =ī=. Fahrenberg’s instances of _ī_ : _ē_, i. 177 f. and iii. 413 f., are both founded on mistakes. O. E. =ū=. The personal pronoun from O. E. _ūs_ is always written _ous_, but rhymes in some instances with _-us_ in Latin names, e.g. _Tricolonius_ : _ous_, _Tereüs_ : _ous_. _būtan_ is shortened to _bot_, not _but_. It occurs also as a dissyllable in the form _bote_. O. E. =ȳ=. The only example of _ȳ_ as _ē_ is _fer_ from _fȳr_, which occurs in rhyme with _ȝer_, iii. 694, (elsewhere _fyr_). Chaucer has _fere_, dat., rhyming with _here_, adv., _Troilus_, iii. 978, and also _afere_ in rhyme with _stere_, ‘stir,’ _Troilus_, i. 229. The cases of _hedde_, _hed_, pret. and past participle (from _hȳdan_), are examples of shortened _ȳ_ passing naturally to _e_, and so also _fest_ from _fȳst_, _felthe_ from _fȳlþe_, _threste_ from _þrȳsta_. From _ȳg_ in _drȳge_ we have _dreie_, but also _drye_. O. E. =ō=. Gower, like Chaucer, rhymes the word _do_ (_misdo_, _undo_, &c.), and occasionally _to_ in _therto_, with words that have _ǭ_ derived from _ā_, not only _so_, _also_, _two_, _wo_, but also _tho_, adv. (i. 2609, iii. 683, v. 5331, &c.), _go_, _ago_ (ii. 2483, 3513, iv. 1161, 3465, v. 5173, &c.), _overmo_ (i. 2385), _no_ (v. 4776), _fo_ (iv. 3407). These words also rhyme with proper names, such as _Juno_, _Lichao_, Babio. The other forms of _do_, as _doth_, _don_, rhyme nearly always with _ọ̄_, but once we have _doth_ : _goth_, v. 3967 f., and once _don_ : _anon_, v. 3627 f. The rhyme _soth_ : _goth_ also occurs, v. 1579 f. This latter class of rhyme, as _don_ : _anon_, _don_ : _gon_, _sothe_ : _bothe_, _soth_ : _wroth_, occurs frequently in Chaucer’s earlier work, as the _Book of the Duchess_, but much less so in the later.