Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth 5
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yong sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y ronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open yë, 10
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages:)
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages..."

(_Skeat._)

On these two extracts it must be observed (1) that the accents and the
dotted e's in the first are Mr. Pollard's own contrivances for helping
the scansion; (2) in the second, l. 10, "yë" is a special contrivance
of Professor Skeat. "The scribes," he says (Introd. Vol. IV. p. xix.),
"usually write _eye_ in the middle of a line, but when they come to it
at the end of one, they are fairly puzzled. In l. 10, the scribe of Hn
('Hengwrt') writes _lye_, and that of Ln ('Lansdowne') writes _yhe_;
and the variations on this theme are curious. The spelling _ye_ (= yë)
is, however, common.... I print it 'yë' to distinguish it from _ye_,
the pl. pronoun." The other differences are accounted for by the
varying degrees in which the two editors depend on the Ellesmere MS.
Mr. Pollard sticks to the Ellesmere. Professor Skeat corrects it by
the others. Obviously the editor who allows himself the wider range
lays himself open to more criticism, point by point. He has to justify
himself in each particular case, while the other's excuse is set down
once for all in his preface. But after comparing the two texts in over
a dozen passages, I have had to vote in almost every case for
Professor Skeat.