The above are the results arrived at by examination of the rhymes with vowels of undoubted quality; i.e. _ę̄_ from O. E. _ēa_, and _ẹ̄_ from O. E. _ē_, _ēo_, _īe_. In addition to this, an investigation has been made of the rhyming of these words among themselves and with words of Romance origin, in the process of which some additional words with _ē_ from _ǣ_, as _dele_, _hele_, _swete_, ‘sweat,’ _wete_, are brought in. This cannot here be given in full, but it may be said that in almost all points it confirms the results arrived at above. A few words, however, to which an open vowel is assigned above, rhyme with other words from _ǣ_ which almost certainly have _ẹ̄_, and therefore must be set as having unstable pronunciation. Thus, in spite of the rhyme _lene_ (lend) : _bene_ mentioned above, we have _lene_ : _mene_ (both verb and subst.) and _lene_ : _clene_, and though _fere_ rhymes more than once with _ere_, we have _lered_ : _afered_ and _unlered_ : _afered_, which suggest that the close sound was possible. On the whole we may set down the following as the result of our examination. With open vowel: of the _ǣ_ (_ē_) class, _bede_, pret. pl., _breth_, _her_ (pl. _heres_), _lete_, _lewed_, _strete_: of the _ā_ = _ai_ class, _er_, _geth_, _leve_ (remain), _ȝee_ (yea). With close vowel: of the former class, _leche_, _meete_ (dream), _mete_ (fit), _slepe_, _speche_, _speke_, pret. pl., _thred_, _wete_, _wreche_, _ȝer_, and with one exception only in each case _dede_, _slep_: of the latter class, _areche_, _clene_, _del_, _evere_, _lere_, _mene_, _nevere_, _teche_, and with one exception in each case, _-hede_ (_-hiede_), _lede_, _sprede_. With unstable vowel: from _ǣ_ (_ē_), _drede_, _eve_, _fere_ (fear), _red_ (subst.), _rede_, _there_, _were_, _where_: from _ǣ_ = _ai_, _hete_, _lene_, _see_ (sea). The conclusions to which we are led are, first that in Gower’s usage there is less instability of vowel-sound in these words than in Chaucer, the number of words with unstable vowel being smaller and the variations even in their case more exceptional; secondly that Gower’s language has a strongly pronounced leaning towards _ẹ̄_; and finally that this tendency is quite as much visible in the words of the _ǣ_ = _ai_ class as in the others. O. E. =ēa=. The substantive _believe_ has _ẹ̄_ by influence of the verb. There is no use apparently of _nę̄de_ from _nēad_ or of _ȝę̄r_ from _gēar_, and _ek_, _eke_, seems invariably to have _ẹ̄_. From _ēage_, _flēah_, _hēah_, _nēah_ we have _yhe_, _flyh_, _hih_, _nyh_. There seems no reason to suppose that _stre_, _sle_ had _ẹ̄_, as has been concluded for Chaucer’s language because of such rhymes as _sle_ : _he_, _stre_ : _she_, _stree_ : _we_, see ten Brink, _Chaucers Sprache_, §23.