It is certain that _ea_ represents in many
words the French _e_ and _ai_,--as in _measure_ and _pleasure_. The
Irish, who were taught English by Anglo-Normans, persist in giving
the _ea_ its original sound (as _baste_ for _beast_); and we Northern
Yankees need not go five miles in any direction to hear _maysure_ and
_playsure_. How long did this pronunciation last in England? to how
many words did it extend? and did it infect any of Saxon root? It
is impossible to say. Was _beat_ called _bate_? One of Mr. White's
variations from the Folio is "bull-baiting" for "bold-beating." The
mistake could have arisen only from the identity in sound of the _ea_
in the one with _ai_ in the other. Butler, too, rhymes _drum-beat_ with
_combat_. But _beat_ is from the French. When we find _least_, (Saxon,)
then, rhyming with _feast_, (French,) and also with _best_, (Shakspeare
has _beast_ and _blest_,) which is more probable, that _best_ took the
sound of _beest_, or that we have a slightly imperfect rhyme, with the
[=a] somewhat shorter in one word than the other? We think the latter.
One of the very words adduced by Mr. White (_yeasty_) is spelt _yesty_
in the Folio. But will rhymes help us? Let us see. Sir Thomas Wyat
rhymes _heares_ and _hairs_; Sir Walter Raleigh, _teares_ and
_despairs_; Chapman, _tear_ (verb) with _ear_ and _appear_; Shakspeare,
_ear_ with _hair_ and _fear_, _tears_ with _hairs_, and _sea_ with
_play_; Bishop Hall, _years_ with _rehearse_ and _expires_, and _meales_
with _quailes_.
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