It may well be thought that, in a field that has been so carefully reaped and garnered and gleaned by so many learned workers as have the works of the great Scottish poet, William Dunbar, there remained nothing still to be accomplished. Where such erudite students of Scottish literature as Laing, Small, Gregor, and Æneas Mackay, and such an illustrious scholar as Professor Schipper have laboured, and where even the poet's metrical forms have been the subject of careful investigation by Mr M'Neill, it might be thought alike vain and presumptuous to attempt to follow. Yet it so happens, nevertheless, that there has never been a thorough investigation made of Dunbar's rimes with a view of throwing light on the phonology or, in more popular phrase, the pronunciation of his day. And yet, perhaps, no more suitable, interesting, and instructive subject could be found for such treatment than just this same William Dunbar.