OTHER STRANGE RIMES.--Other rimes which occur here, but not in Chaucer, are these and others like them: _aboute_, _swote_, 1705 (already noticed); _desyre_, _nere_, 1785, 2441; _thar_ (Ch. _there_), _to-shar_, 1857; _Ioynt_, _queynt_[187], 2037; _soon_ (Ch. _son-e_), _doon_, 2377; _abrede_, _forweried_, 2563; _anney_ (Ch. _annoy_), _awey_, 2675; _desyre_, _manere_, 2779; _Ioye_, _convoye_ (Ch. _conveye_), 2915, &c. It is needless to multiply instances.
§ 10. It would be easy to employ further tests; we might, for example, make a minute critical examination of the method in which the final _-e_ is grammatically employed. But the results are always the same. We shall always find irrefragable proof that fragment B exhibits usages far different from those which occur in the undoubted works of Chaucer, and cannot possibly have proceeded from his pen. Repeated investigations, made by me during the past thirteen years, have always come round to this result, and it is not possible for future criticism to alter it.
Hence our first result is this. Fragment B, consisting of ll. 1706-5810 (4105 lines), containing more than fragments A and C together, and therefore more than half of 'the translation,' _is not Chaucer's, but was composed by an author who, to say the least, frequently employed Northern English forms and phrases. Moreover, his translation is too diffuse; and, though spirited, it is not always accurate._
I shall now speak of fragment C. The first noticeable point about it is, that it does _not_ exhibit many of the peculiarities of B. There is nothing to indicate, with any certainty, a Northern origin, nor to connect it with B. In fact, we may readily conclude that B and C are by different authors. The sole question that remains, as far as we are now concerned, is this. Can we attribute it to Chaucer?
The answer, in this case, is not quite so easily given, because the differences between it and Chaucer's genuine works are less glaring and obvious than in the case above. Nevertheless, we at once find some good reasons for refraining to attribute it to our author.
§ 12. RIME-TESTS.--If, for instance, we apply the simple but effective test of the rimes of words ending in _-y_ with those ending in _-y-e_, we at once find that this fragment fails to satisfy the text.