Middle English WŌ: WŌAuthor(s): George HemplSource: The Journal of Germanic Philology, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1898), p. 102Published by: University of Illinois PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27699054 .

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102 Hempl, Middle English W? : W? [Vol. II

MIDDLE ENGLISH WO : W?.

I AM glad that the hope I expressed on page 23 of the first volume of this Journal has so soon been fulfilled,

and that Mr. Blackwell has so carefully applied the

wo : wo rime test to Middle English texts. He also cor

rects my figures in three cases, giving 42 for 41 -wo : so

rimes, 39 for 37 ? : two rimes, and 4 for 2 d? : so rimes.

This last slip is also responsible for the slight discrepancy between our statements as to the relative force of the

evidence presented by the C. T. and the T. & C. The cases

Blackwell gives of rimes with final Latin -0 I had, but I

purposely avoided using them as evidence because of the

uncertain value of the -0. I made no attempt to find cases of rimes of wot in T. & C, because, as I stated, the

word regularly rimes with ? in Middle English, and the

rimes in the index to the C. T. clearly showed that

Chaucer was no exception. The statement (p. 479) that even the Midland belt has wo, not wo is not a contradic

tion but a corroboration of my statement (p. 29). Prof.

Manley writes me that he has made use of the wo : wo

test in differentiating the authorship of parts of the Ches

ter and York Cycles. George Hempl.

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

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