Syncope (so far as regards the metre) regularly takes place in the following: _covere_ (_discovere_, &c.), _delivere_ (but not _deliverance_, i. 1584, v. 1657), _evene_, _evere_, _fievere_, _havene_, _hevene_, _levere_, _nevere_, _povere_, _sevene_ (also _sefne_), _swevene_ (also _swefne_), and some other words of a similar kind, to which add _heved_, _evel_, _devel_. In these cases a final _e_ is always pronounced unless elided, and in case of elision a word like _hevene_, _nevere_ is reduced to a monosyllable, as ‘This world which evere is in balance.’ The following also are sometimes syncopated: _lovede_, _loveden_, ii. 502, vi. 882, but without syncope ii. 2027, _beloved_, i. 1928, _belovëd_, i. 1920 f., _behovely_, _behovelich_, iii. 1330, v. 4012, vii. 1949 (but _unbehovëly_, viii. 2884), _leveful_, v. 7053, _Averil_, vii. 1029, _soverein_, vii. 1776 (but usually three syllables, as Prol. 186, i. 1609, and _sovereinete_, five syllables, i. 1847), _amorous_, iii. 745 (but usually three syllables, as i. 1414), _fader_, ii. 2387, cp. _fadre_, ii. 2519 (but ordinarily a dissyllable), _unkendeli_, ii. 3124 (but _unkindëly_, iii. 2065), _comelieste_, _comelihiede_, v. 3048, 6734 (but _comëly_, ii. 441), _namely_, viii. 3041, also _namly_, ii. 47 (but usually three syllables, as Prol. 144, iii. 63), _Termegis_, iv. 2408. We may note, however, that this kind of syncope is less used by Gower than by Chaucer, and that _chivalerie_, _chivalerous_, _foreward_, _foretokne_, _loveday_, _pilegrin_, _surquiderie_, &c., are fully pronounced. Unaccented _i_ before weak _e_ either final or in inflexions has the force of a semi-vowel, and forms no syllable of itself: so _studie_, _carie_, _tarie_, _chirie_, _merie_, _manye_, &c. are equivalent to dissyllables, and are reduced by elision to the value of monosyllables, as Prol. 323, ‘To _studie_ upon the worldes lore,’ i. 452, ‘To _tarie_ with a mannes thoght,’ i. 3238, ‘And _manye_ it hielden for folie,’ ii. 2648, ‘Thei _carie_ til thei come at Kaire’; and so also in the other parts of the same words, e.g. i. 1645, ‘And thus he _tarieth_ long and late,’ and in plurals like _bodies_, iv. 2463. Similarly _Mercurie_ is made into a dissyllable by elision, ‘And ek the god Mercurie also,’ i. 422. Akin to this in treatment is the frequent combination _many a_, _many an_, counting as two syllables (so ‘ful many untrewe,’ v. 2886), but _many on_, _manion_ as three. We may note also the case of _statue_, Prol. 891, ‘As I tolde of the Statue above,’ which is reduced by elision to a monosyllable.