§ 19. For such readers as do not wish to study the language or the grammar of Chaucer, but merely wish to read the text with some degree of comfort, and to come by the stories and their general literary expression with the least possible trouble, the Ellesmere MS. furnishes quite an ideal text. Such a reader has only to observe the following empirical rules[20].
1. Pronounce every final _e_ like the final _a_ in _China_, except in a few very common words like _wolde_, _sholde_, _were_, and the like, which may be read as _wold'_, _shold'_, _wer'_, unless the metre seems to demand that they should be fully pronounced. The commonest clipped words of this character are _have_, _hadde_ (when a mere auxiliary), _were_, _nere_ (were not), _wolde_, _nolde_ (would not), _thise_ (like mod. E. _these_), _othere_, and a few others, that are easily picked up by observation.
2. Always pronounce final _-ed_, _-es_, _-en_, as distinct syllables, unless it is particularly convenient to clip them. Such extra syllables, like the final _-e_, are especially to be preserved at the end of the line; a large number of the rimes being double (or feminine).
3. But the final _-e_ is almost invariably elided, and other light syllables, especially _-en_, _-er_, _-el_, are frequently treated as being redundant, whenever the next word following begins with a vowel or is one of the words (beginning with _h_) in the following list, viz. _he_, _his_, _him_, _her_, _hir_ (their), _hem_ (them), _hath_, _hadde_, _have_, _how_, _heer_.
These three simple rules will go a long way. An attentive reader will thus catch the swing of the metre, and will be carried along almost mechanically. The chief obstacle to a succession of smooth lines is the jerk caused by the occasional occurrence of a line defective in the first foot, as explained above. Perhaps it may be further noted that an _e_ sometimes occurs, as a distinct syllable, in the middle of a word as well as at the end of it. Exx.: _Eng-e-lond_ (A. 16); _wod-e-craft_ (A. 110); _sem-e-ly_ (A. 136).
§ 20. We must also remember that the accentuation of many words, especially of such as are of French origin, was quite different then from what it is now. A word like 'reason' was then properly pronounced _resóun_ (rezuun), i. e. somewhat like a modern _ray-zóon_; but even in Chaucer's day the habit of throwing back the accent was beginning to prevail, and there was a tendency to [xxiv] say _réson_ (reezun), somewhat like a modern _ráy-zun_. Chaucer avails himself of this variable accent, and adopts the sound which comes in more conveniently at the moment[21]. Thus while we find _resóun_ (rezuun) in l. 37, in l. 274 we find résons (reezunz).