Many of the \u2013e\u2019s at the ends of words in Chaucer\u2019s poetry must be sounded if his verse rhythms are to be regular. Since his poetry is only preserved in copies made by hand, those \u2013e\u2019s often did not survive in what are otherwise the most accurate versions we have of his poems. In other cases, scribes added an -e where no \u2013e was necessary because that is how they were used to spelling a particular word (or, sometimes, because they simply did not care very much about such details). Many of these \u2013e\u2019s are remnants of Old English inflectional endings which were crucial for grammar, and some think that Chaucer used the final \u2013e with an eye to this history, even though many of the -e\u2019s required to make his verse regular do not seem to have been commonly employed in his day. That is, while Chaucer\u2019s use of final -e appears to be \u2018historical\u2019 in the majority of cases, he will, occasionally, rely on an -e at the end of a word that is ‘inorganic’–which has no historical determinate and has been added (sometimes by analogy to another form) for the sake of rhythm alone. Although the irregular preservation of Chaucer’s final -e’s make it impossible to be certain, it is most likely that Chaucer\u2019s verse was, as a rule, regular, and any final \u2013e is to be pronounced (and printed) where it is required to ensure that regularity, and ignored (or not printed), wherever it would disrupt it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The regular rhythmic pattern Chaucer always relied upon alternated unstressed and stressed syllables (in which final -e would always be pronounced as an unstressed syllable). We sometimes call this \u2018iambic\u2019 rhythm now, although Chaucer would probably be thinking in terms of French models rather than abstract patterns. In his earliest poetry, he wrote in lines of roughly 8 syllables (\u2018roughly\u2019 because Chaucer did sometimes allow certain unstressed syllables to drop out) with 4 stresses in each line. In his later poetry he wrote in lines of roughly 10 syllables with 5 stresses in each line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A more detailed account of Chaucer\u2019s final \u2013e in his verse rhythms can be found in the section on \u2018The Metre of Chaucer\u2019s Poetry\u2019 in the Oxford Chaucer (2024). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is not difficult to learn to sound these \u2013e\u2019s (or hear them when reading silently). In the following line from The Miller\u2019s Tale <\/em>it is necessary to pronounce the \u2013e at the end of \u2018tale\u2019: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Why artow angry with my tale now?<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong> (1.3157)<\/p>\n\n\n\n When an \u2013e is followed by a vowel (or, in common words such as \u2018have\u2019 or \u2018him\u2019 and \u2018her\u2019), it is \u2018elided\u2019 into the vowel that follows so it is not sounded in this line from the Wife of Bath\u2019s Prologue<\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Telle of a somonour swich a tale or two<\/a> \u00a0<\/em><\/strong> (3.842)<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also usually necessary to pronounce the endings \u2013ed, -en, and \u2013es, as in the following examples: <\/p>\n\n\n\n But if I telle tales two or thre<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> (The Wife of Bath\u2019s Prologue <\/em>3.846) \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Save unto yow thus muche I tellen shal<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong> The Shipman’s Tale<\/em>\u00a0(7.169)<\/p>\n\n\n\n