to that of the present day had begun to prevail. But the spelling dogge, for instance, which is common, gives no support to this opinion, because the second g was required to indicate the hard pronunciation of that letter, if the e of prolongation were used: doge would of course have been pronounced doje, like the title of the head of the Venetian republic. But in the short time which I have been able to devote to this subject I have not observed the rhymes and spellings indicative of the sounds of o and oa sufficiently to express more than the general opinion that words in which they occurred had the pure name sounds of o much more generally among educated people than they have The word hot' is a noticeable case in point. It was spelled hot, hote, and hoat, indiscriminately, by the same writers; but I should think not oftener than once in ten times in the first manner.

now.

'One' is a word the modern pronunciation of which is at variance with analogy, to which the best usage of Shakespeare's day seems to have conformed. Its modern pronunciation is a unique violation of a rule which is in force as to this very word in its compounds only,' 'alone,' and atonement,' the unaccountable dropping of the e in the first of which has not even yet substituted its analogical pronunciation, on-ly, for its elementary, one-ly. (See the Notes on 'only,' Vol. II. p. 184, and 'atone,' Vol. IV. p. 384.) That the presumption justified by analogy, and by these facts, is sustained by the evidence of rhymes and of spelling, no observant reader of our ancient authors need be told. Such rhymes as the following are numberless: "one with "grone," Seneca's Ten Tragedies, 1581, fol. 184 b; "once" with "stones," Ib. fol. 5, and fol. 216; with "bones," Ib. fol. 33, fol. 43 b, and fol. 209; ones with "bones," Ib. fol. 62 b, and with "zones, Ib. fol. 34b; - "everychone" with "alone," lb. fol. 111; 66 one with "foen," (plural of 'foe,') Arcadia, 1605, p. 228; with "owne," Ib. p. 344; -"one" with "known" and "mone," Albion's England, 1605, p. 36; with "knowne," Ib. p. 324; with "throne," p. 283; with "loane," Brown's Pastorals, Vol. I. p. 11; with "mone," Romeus and Juliet, ed. Collier, p. 74; with "grone, Honour's Academy, 1610, P. III. p. 94;" once" with "groanes, Ib. p. 123; "one "with" alone," Drayton's Heroic Epis., 1619,

p. 189; with "throne" and "alone," Daniel's Letter of Octavia, 1599, St. 14; with "throwne," Pastor Fido, 1647, p. 28; and see Robert the Devyll, passim. This word was even spelled own. See Addition is the practicke to ioyne divers somes in owne," Interpreter of the Academie, 1648, p. 137; "it's necessary for owne that undertak's the building," &c. Ib. p. 173. 173. This supports the reading A hundred mark is a long ow'n, 2 Henry IV. Act II. Sc. 1.; for in phonographic spelling if one' could be spelled огоп, 'own' of course could be spelled one.

To this evidence must be added that of Butler's Grammar, 1633, passim. Butler devoted one third of his work to orthoepy and spelling, and he was a rigid phonographist in practice as well as theory, writing tung, dubble, nou, reddi, &c., with invariable uniformity. He invented characters to express the compound and inflected sounds of vowels, and also the consonants in combination with the aspirates. The e of production or prolongation he indicates by an inverted comma ('), writing 'made' mad', 'like' lik', 'most' most', 'ope' op', 'use' us', and the like; and he (expressing, be it observed, the new and “civil” pronunciation. See the Note on 00, p. 429) invariably writes on', and only; as for instance, "C and G had each of them anciently on' only sound which was hard," p. 14. If the pronunciation of his day had been wun, or on, he would have so written.

In support of examples like the foregoing there is the direct and very unmistakable evidence, both positive and negative, of Poole's English Parnassus, 1657, (but written several years before,) where, in the "Alphabet of Monosyllables," which "treats of all rhimes imaginable in English . . according to their several terminations," we find 'one' set down to rhyme with 'bone,' 'cone,' 'drone,' flown,' 'moan,' 'shone,' throne,' &c., while it is omitted from the tables under on and un.

But countless as the examples indicative of the analogical pronunciation of this word are, I have noticed a few passages which show that it was also pronounced wone and wun in the Elizabethan period. These, however, are chiefly in homely ballads. See, for instance, "as won on no ground," Wyt and Science, Shak. Soc. Ed. p. 31; "For darker there hath been many a wone,” Arise, Arise, Ib. p. 91; "Ye be welcome won by wone, In Praise of a good Welcome, Ib. p. 111; "He telth each wone," Against Slander, Ib. p. 114.

I think that the origin of the universal modern pronunciation

of this word may be traced to the tendency in some of the provincial dialects of England, that of Dorsetshire in particular, to introduce w before o. Thus, 'hot' was pronounced and spelled whot, and 'old' wold, and 'home' whome, don't' dwont, 'point' pwint, 'coat' cwot, &c. This view is sustained by a provincial pronunciation, exactly analogous to wun, which affords the author of Tom Brown's School Days an occasion for a characteristic passage:

“What is the name of your hill, landlord?'

• Blawin-stwun Hill, sir, to be sure.'

[READER.
AUTHOR.

• Sturm?'

Stone, stupid! the Blowing Stone.']"

Here we see a provincial corruption, identical with that which now prevails in the pronunciation of one.' And without further troubling the reader, I will merely add that I believe that in this pronunciation we have one of not very rare instances in which the rude and provincial usage has prevailed over that which is cultivated, metropolitan, and analogical. Its prevalence was probably owing to the greater ease with which we can say 'a wone,' or 'a wun,' than 'a own;' and in the very common use of 'an' instead of 'a' before 'one' we have yet farther evidence that this word was not generally pronounced with the w sound.

OI.

It is hardly necessary to mention the pronunciation of this diphthong as simple i—join, jine; point, pint; boil, bile; &c. which prevailed among the most elegant people, poets and all Pope among them until after the middle of the last century.

00.

As the doubling of the consonant indicated the shortening of the vowel of a syllable, (bagg, ragg, dunn, sunn, sonne, &c.,) so the doubling of the vowel indicated originally its long, name sound. But early in the Elizabethan period, if not before, oo appears to have been coming into use to express those sounds of u as in 'cud' and blood,'intrude' and brood' -- for which it now stands. The consequence was an ambiguity of pronunciation in regard to many words which before this change had the name sound of o, and were spelled either with the single vowel and the final e of prolongation, or with o0. From the effect of this variation

6

the language is not yet entirely free. We are at present, however, only concerned in observing the evidence of rhymes and spelling as to the pronunciation of Shakespeare's day. We find in the books of the early part of that period 'good' spelled goad and gode, boar' boore, droop' droup, 'forth' foorthe and foarth, 'book' boke, 'shoot' shote, 'fool' fole, 'holes' hooles, 'cooper' cowper, 'room' rome, 'stool' stole, 'boon' bown, ‘cope' coope, and rhyming with 'pope,' as 'poor' with 'yore' and 'store'; 'woo' spelled woe and wow, and 'lore' loore, and rhyming with before,' and so forth; for I must ask the reader, for the sake of brevity, to forego long lists of examples and citations of authors, and accept my assurances as to their number and character. But the short u sound of oo appears to have gained ground rapidly in the latter part of the sixteenth century; and it is to this fact (if I am right in my conclusion) that I attribute the use of ow, oa, and o with the e of prolongation (all indicating the name sound of o) by those who adhered to the old pronunciation, and wished to avoid the ambiguity consequent upon the use of oo. Butler, in his Grammar, completed and published in 1633, mentions (Sig. A. 2) that at that date the English had "generally or in the more civil parts (as the Universities and Citties) forsaken the old pronunciation." Moon,' a word the pronunciation of which with the name sound of o has been noticed in Vol. III. p. 466 of this work, is a striking case in point of the change just mentioned. Instances like the following,

"When sodaynly the lowring light of Mone is hid and blynd." Seneca's Tenne Tragedies, 1581, fol. 150.

"The conning witch dame Michale did teach Thessalia dames, Who onely forst the Mone to stoupe to her from heauenly frames." Ibid. fol. 196, b.

and the general, in fact, the almost universal spelling of 'month' moneth until the second quarter of the 17th century, show that this word had that vowel sound. Yet Butler says, "Moonth coming of Moone is unfitly written moneth which agreeth neither to the original nor sound of the woord," p. 13. See the Notes on woo,' Vol. IV. p. 124, on 'poor,' Vol. VI. p. 133, and on 'Birone,' Vol. III. p. 466.

6

As to the pronunciation of Rome' and 'room,' which is

necessarily brought to the reader's attention several times in the course of these plays, it is worthy of remark that although we often find 'room' spelled rome, (see the Note on "That I have room with Rome," Vol. VI. p. 121,) we never, according to my observation, find Rome' spelled Room, or either word The pronunciation of the name of the sevenhilled city, Room, which prevailed on the stage, at the bar, and in the pulpit during the last century, I am inclined to class among the many elegant affectations of that period.

rume or rum.

OU

Had the sound which it now has in house,' 'louse,' 'mouse,' or that which it has in rendezvous,' so that, when we hear an Irishman say, 'Bless me sowl,' we but hear the sounds that came from Spenser's or from Sidney's tongue. So also, I think, when he talks of a clergyman's discoorse,' or 'the soorce of me information;' for the o sound of ou appears to be of comparatively modern introduction.

OW.

This combination had much more generally than in the usage of the present day the pure or name sound of o.

Q.

"its handmaid u," was pronounced like

This letter, with its handmaid u,

simple k, and often represented by it, in many words in which the full sound of the former combination is now heard. This was partly a consequence of that affectation of French pronunciation which Butler notices. I have little doubt that this pronunciation obtained in the following words: 'banquet,' 'quality,' 'quantity,' 'quay' (as now), quern,' 'quintain,' 'quoif,' quoil,' quoit,' 'quote,' and perhaps 'quart,' and 'quit.' See the Notes on, "And how quote you," &c., Vol. II. p. 185; “qui, quæ, quod," Ibid. p. 320; "qualm, perhaps," Vol. III. p. 472, and "sick of a calm," Vol. VI. p. 542.

S.

S before a vowel had often the sound of sh, as it has now in 'sugar' and 'sure.' Such was its sound in 'sue,'' suit' and its compounds, and I believe in 'super' and its compounds, and