Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

XviiiINTRODUCTION.ceased to be pronounced, so that the spelling serche (p. 77,1. i), means that the word had at one time been pronouncedserch^, a disyllable. Unfortunately, one result of this wasthat a silent e was often ignorantly added, as in the wordkvHgc (p. 77,1. 4), which only four lines above is rightlyspelt kvng. To determine when the final e is rightly addedis one of the most useful exercises v;hich occur in OldEnglish grammar. Somewhat similar remarks apply to final-cs. The word iownes (p. 77, 1. i) was once called townh(disyllable), A. S. tunas ; but it does not follow that it wasdisyllabic in the time of Malory. In the extract fromSurrey, the metre shews at once that costes (p. 208, 1. 324)was a monosyllable ; and so on, for other words. It isimpossible to enlarge upon this here, for want of space ;butexperience shews that the spelling very seldom causes anyreal difficulty, and that the words which are so disguised byit as not to be at once intelligible, are very few indeed.Those who do not care to investigate the spelling, have onlyto read right on, making the best they can of it, and theywillnot find much difiiculty ^T/y^r the first page of each extracthas been fairly considered. To give the beginning of a pieceof literature, in whatever language it may be written, a fair trial,is a principle of the highest importance. The present writerwell remembers spending two hours over the first dozenlines of a manuscript, which, not long aftenvards, he couldread as easily as a newspaper.§P. Pronunciation. Owing to the conservatism introducedinto spelling by theinvention of printing, our spellinghas not sulTercd any very considerable alteration since the