A Study of the Metrical Structure of the Middle English Poem The Pearl

Abstract

The difference in the treatment of final unstressed -e among the various ME. dialects has long since been noticed. In Nth., according to Morsbach (Mittelenglische Grammatik §§ 6–9), it became silent (“ist stumm”) about 1350; in Ml. it was in part sounded throughout the fourteenth century, though as Morsbach remarks, “in vielen fällen ist es schon verstummt;” in WSth. and MSth. it was in general retained throughout the century; while Kt. on the whole retains it intact quite up to the middle of the century.