(4) CONSONANTS. The termination _-liche_ (_-lich_) in adjectives and adverbs, which Fahrenberg judging by the rhymes sets down as very uncommon compared with _-ly_, is by far the more usual of the two. It is true that _-ly_ occurs more frequently in rhyme, but that is due chiefly to the greater abundance of rhyme words corresponding to it, e.g. _forthi_, _by_, _cri_, _merci_, _enemy_: we have, however, _redely_ : _properly_, Prol. 947 f. The general rule of usage is this: _-ly_ usually in rhyme (but _besiliche_ : _swiche_, iv. 1235 f.), and before a consonant in cases where the metre requires a single syllable, as i. 2069, ‘Al prively behinde his bak’ (but _frendlich_, viii. 2173), _-liche_ or _-lich_ before a vowel, as i. 373, ‘That ronne besiliche aboute,’ cp. ii. 1695, v. 1247, and _-liche_ of course where two syllables are required, as i. 1035, ‘Was thanne al openliche schewed,’ so ii. 918, iv. 57, and compare also iii. 2065 f., ‘Unkindely for thou hast wroght, Unkindeliche it schal be boght.’ But in Prol. 719 we have _only_ before a vowel, ‘Noght al only of thorient,’ though _onliche_ occurs in a similar position, i. 1948, and _onlich_, iii. 42. Again, 911, ‘And sodeinly, er sche it wiste,’ but Prol. 503, ‘Al sodeinliche, er it be wist,’ cp. iv. 921, compared with i. 1336. The treatment of the O. E. spirant _h_ (= χ) deserves some attention. This occurring before _t_ is recognized as having in M. E. a palatal or a guttural sound, according to the nature of the preceding vowel, but the texts of our period usually give it as _gh_ in both cases. Gower, however, makes a distinction, writing almost regularly _alihte_, _briht_, _dihte_, _fihte_, _flihte_, _kniht_, _liht_, _miht_, _mihte_, _niht_, _riht_, _sihte_, _wiht_, _heihte_, _sleihte_, &c., but _aghte_, _caghte_, _straghte_, _boghte_, _broghte_, _noght_, _oght_, _oghte_, _soghte_. Occasionally however in the first class we find _g_, as rarely _bryghte_, _lighte_, more frequently _heighte_, _sleighte_, and pretty regularly _eighte_; and there are several words in the second which have variants with _h_, but in these cases _w_(_u_) is inserted, as _cawhte_, _strawhte_, _dowhter_ (_douhter_), _owhte_ : otherwise _u_ is generally absent, as we have already seen. The form referred to is commoner with the vowel _a_ than with _o_. It is hardly necessary to repeat here that _plit_ is a word of Romance origin, and rhymes properly with _delit_, _appetit_, not with _liht_, _niht_, &c., being separate in etymology from O. E. _pliht_. From the fact that there is no rhyming of _-iht_ with _-it_ either in Gower or Chaucer, we may certainly gather that the sounds were somewhat different; but the fact that Gower does not usually write _gh_ after _i_ indicates, no doubt, that in this case the sound of the spirant was less marked than when preceded by broader vowels.