When did this stop rhyming?

March 24, 2022 8:20 AM

"So savage and ill-bred I ne'er can prove / Like Diomede, to wound the queen of love." The lines are from Nahum Tate's Ovid translation (late 1600s) - I presume they'd have rhymed cleanly in contemporary speech. Would the rhyming words have been pronounced like modern 'prove' (rhymes with 'move') or like modern 'love' (rhymes with... guv?). And when did this vowel shift take place?
posted by wattle to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

Imperfect rhyme is a thing, but do you know about the Great Vowel Shift?
posted by bluedaisy at 8:50 AM on March 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Good article on this subject here. Could also be imperfect, or eye rhyme.
posted by mani at 8:52 AM on March 24, 2022 [5 favorites]

Best answer: The David Crystal article mani posted is a good one. You can see David Crystal and his son Ben talking about "original pronunciation" in Shakespeare's time in this YouTube clip - go to the 6-minute mark and you can hear Ben read how the "proved/loved" rhyme would have sounded (at least according to Crystal).
posted by Jeanne at 9:05 AM on March 24, 2022 [3 favorites]

Like modern "love." This is all reconstructed from various forms of indirect evidence but I think that's pretty clearly established.

Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love
posted by praemunire at 9:42 AM on March 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

I was coming to share Jeanne's link! Double watch it!
posted by wellifyouinsist at 9:58 AM on March 24, 2022