text:  It is true I cannot go so far as he who published the last edition of him; for he would make us believe the fault is in our ears and that there were really ten syllables in a verse where we find but nine; but this opinion is not worth confuting; it is so gross and obvious an error that common sense (which is a rule in every thing but matters of faith and revelation) must convince the reader that equality of numbers in every verse which we call heroic was either not known or not always practised in Chaucer's age