B&W composite text file (pdf, 5670kb) - NLS Digital Library

vi PREFACE.
fourth ending with a word exceeding in the number of its syllables the
words respectively ending the first and third ; the first and second lines
rhyme together, as do the third and fourth. Alliteration is frequent,
and a word in the middle of one line often rhymes with a word in the
beginning or middle of the following line (e.g. 7-úiiiib, dúilib, lines 9, 10,
sordid, dorcha, ij, 18). Poem CLII is in a different metre, rcmnaigccht
mór, each line ending in a monosyllable, and only the second and fourth
lines rhyming. In CLIII-CLXII the first and third lines of each
quatrain regularly end in rhyming trisyllables, the second and fourth
in rhyming dissyllables. Internal rhymes are frequent, e. g. fogitr,
domnuch, 8021, 8023, luaichthi, cruaidi, 8037, 8039. The first, second
and third words in the first line of a quatrain sometimes rhyme re-
spectively with the first, second and last words of the third line ; see
e.g. 8125-8127,8137-8139.
The text has been printed with the utmost care. It is right to say
that in the MS- several of the marks of length are so faded that they
can be discerned only by the keenest eyes and in the most favourable
light. I may, therefore, have undesignedly omitted some of these marks.
Contractions have been extended, and the extensions represented by
italics. The text has also been punctuated, proper names spelt with
initial capitals, apostrophes have been used where vowels have been
omitted, and hyphens introduced to separate the transported / and ;/
from words beginning with vowels.
In conclusion, though several of the words are explained in the
Index, it contains so many new vocables as to the meanings of which I
am either doubtful or quite in the dark, that I have called it an Index
Verborum rather than a Glossarial Index. It will, it is hoped, be useful
to future Irish lexicographers.
W. S.