Of all =r=íches maist =r=íke, | in =r=íall a=rr=áy.
Wes neuer =f=úndun on =f=óld, | but =f=énȝeing or =f=ábill,
Ane =f=àyrar =f=lóure on ane =f=éild | of =f=résche men, in fáy;_ &c.
Lines like the four last quoted illustrate the normal structure of the
rhyming-alliterative verse, especially the relationship of rhyme and
alliteration to each other in monosyllabic and disyllabic words. It will
be seen that the rhyming syllable, as a rule the root-syllable, or at
least the accented syllable of the word, at the same time carries the
fourth accent of the line, and in consequence the fourth alliterative
sound. In all other respects the rhymed-alliterative verse is
structurally similar to that without rhyme, and it is therefore evident
that rhyme exercises no decisive influence on the rhythm of the verse.
In this comparatively pure form--if we do not take into account the
secondary accents occurring in the first hemistichs of the stanza in the
later poem--are written the great majority of the lines in the earliest
of poems mentioned above, viz. _The Awntyrs off Arthure_.
§ =62.= The relation, however, between rhyme and alliteration and
consequently the relation of the rhythmic accentuation of the words to
their natural accentuation is less clear in the first stanza quoted
above. The following verses rhyming together may serve to elucidate
this:
_Than schir =G=áwyne the =g=áy, | =g=úde and =g=ráciùs....
=J=óly and =g=éntill, | and full =ch=éuailrús._
Gol. 389, 391.
_Ouer heor =h=édes gon =h=ýng
Þe =w=ínce and þe =w=éderlȳ̀ng._
Susan, 101-2;
or the verses _Gol._ 648, 650, 654:
_Thus =é=ndit the =á=uynantis | with mékil h=ó=nòur;
Thair =b=ódeis wes =b=éryit | =b=áith in ane hòur,
Ane =ú=thir heght =É=dmond, | that =p=róuit =p=áramòur._
In the first couplet the last syllable of the word _gráciùs_, although
bearing only a secondary accent and forming the last thesis of the
verse, rhymes with the last syllable of the word _=ch=éuailrús_, which
likewise in ordinary speech has a secondary accent, but here is the
bearer of the fourth metrical accent of the verse. In the second
couplet the syllable _lyng_ of the word _wéderlỳng_, which has a
secondary accent and forms part of the thesis, rhymes with the word
_hyng_ which has the rhythmical accent. In the last group of verses the
last syllable of the words _paramour_, _honour_ having secondary accents
rhymes with the word _hour_, the bearer of the last rhythmical accent.
Similar rhymes occur even in Modern English poetry, e.g. in the works
of Thomas Moore: _Váin were its mélodỳ, Róse, without thée_ or _Whát
would the Róse bè Únsung by thée?_[115]
It also frequently happens that all the rhyming syllables, which have a
secondary accent and occur in the thesis of a verse, belong to
trisyllabic words, while the accented syllables in the arsis, whether
alliterating or not, do not take part in the rhyme, e.g.:
_Þou brak gódes Comáundement,
To slé such an Ínnocent
With ény fals júggement._ Susan, 321-3.
Similar unaccented rhymes are also met with in disyllabic words:
_'In fáith,' said Schir Rólland,
'That is fúll euill wýn land
To háue quhill thow ar léuand.'_ Rauf Coilȝear, 917-19.
Other rhymes of the same kind are _sémbland: léuand_, _conséntand:
endúrand_, Gol. 428 ff., &c.
In all such cases the natural accentuation of the words is not
interfered with by the rhythm of the verse.
The kind of irregular rhyme most frequently occurring, however, is that
which is formed by the unaccented syllable of a disyllabic word (the
first syllable of which alliterates and bears the last arsis of the
verse) rhyming with a monosyllabic word which likewise bears the fourth
rhythmical accent of another alliterative line (or the second of a short
line forming part of the cauda) and takes part in the alliteration as
well, as e.g. in the rhymes _=T=úskane: sane: =B=rítane: gane_ and
_=s=úmmovne: =r=énovne: =c=rovne_ of the above-mentioned stanza of the
poem _Golagras and Gawane_.
It is not likely that a complete shifting of accent in favour of the
rhyming syllable ever took place, as the first syllables of the words
usually take part in the alliteration, and therefore have a strongly
marked accent. Sometimes, it is true, in the poems of this epoch,
unaccented syllables do participate in the alliteration, and in the case
of the words _Tuskane_, _Britane_, _summovne_, _renovne_ their Romance
origin would explain the accent on the last syllable; but these words,
both as to their position and as to their treatment in the line, are
exactly on a par with the Germanic rhyme-words in ll. 870-2:
_For he wes =b=ýrsit and =b=éft, | and =b=ráithly =b=lédand ...
And wáld that he nane =h=árm hynt | with =h=árt and with =h=ánd._
In both cases we thus have 'accented-unaccented rhymes' (cf. Chapter I
in Book II), which probably were uttered in oral recitation with a
certain level stress. This is probable for several reasons. First it is
to be borne in mind that Germanic words in even-beat rhythms of earlier
and contemporary poems were used in the same way, e.g.:
_Quhen thái of Lórne has séne the kíng
Set ín hymsélff sa grét helpíng._ Barbour, Bruce, iii. 147-8.
_And bád thame wénd intó Scotlánd
And sét a sége with stálward hánd._ ib. iv. 79-80.
Only in these cases the rhythmical accent supersedes the word accent
which has to accommodate itself to the former, while in the uneven-beat
rhythm of the four-beat alliterative line the word-accent still
predominates. In the even-beat lines, therefore, the rhythmical accent
rests on the last syllable of a disyllabic rhyme-word, but in the
alliterative lines it rests on the penultimate. In the case of words of
Romance origin, however, which during this period of the language could
be used either with Germanic or with Romanic accentuation, the
displacement of the word-accent by the rhythmic accent in
non-alliterative words may in these cases have been somewhat more
extensive; cf. e.g. rhymes like _rage: curáge: suáge_ Gol. 826-8; _day:
gay: journáy_ ib. 787-9; _assáill: mettáill: battáil_ R.
Coilȝear, 826-8, &c. (but _ȝone =b=érne in the =b=áttale_ Gol.
806).
As a rule, however, for these too the same level-stress accentuation
must be assumed as for the rhyme-words of the first stanza of _Golagras_
quoted above (p. 102).
§ =63.= This is all the more probable because, in these
alliterative-rhyming poems, there are many sectional verses
corresponding to the old types C and C1, these answering best the
combined requirements of alliteration and of end-rhyme, for which
frequently one and the same Germanic or Romanic word had to suffice in
the second hemistich, as e.g. in the following sectional verses rhyming
together:--_What is þi góod réde: for his =k=níȝthéde: (by =cr=ósse
and by =cr=éde)_ Awnt. of Arth. 93-7; (_and =b=láke to þe =b=óne): as a
=w=ómáne_ ib. 105-7; _en=c=lósed with a =c=rowne: of the =t=résóne_ ib.
287-91; _of ane fáir =w=éll: =t=éirfull to =t=éll: with ane =c=ástéll:
=k=éne and =c=rúèll_, or, as Prof. Luick scans, _kéne and cruéll_ (but
l. 92 _=c=rúel and =k=éne_) Gol. 40-6; _at the mýddáy: (=w=ént thai
thar wáy)_ Howl. 665-7. &c.
Also in the even-beat metres the influence of this type is still
perceptible; cf. rhymes like
_Súmwhat óf his clóþíng
Fór þe lóue of héuene kýng._ Rob. Mannyng, Handl. Sinne, 5703-4.
which are of frequent occurrence.
For the rest both in these alliterative-rhyming poems and in the poems
with alliteration only the types A and A1, B C and B C1 are frequent.
These alliterative-rhyming lines have this feature in common with the
pure alliterative lines, that the first hemistich differs materially
from the second in having often an anacrusis of several syllables
(initial theses) and somewhat lengthened theses in the middle of the
line, and in permitting such theses with only a secondary accent to take
part in the alliteration. All this tends to give a somewhat heavy
rhythmic cadence to the whole line.
§ =64.= The same difference is perceptible, as Prof. Luick was the first
to show (_Anglia_, xii, pp. 438 ff.), in the single two-beat lines of
the _cauda_, the three first (ll. 10-12 of the whole stanza) having the
looser structure of the extended first hemistichs of the long lines,
while the last two-beat line (line 13 of the whole stanza) has the
normal structure (commonly type A, A1, as e.g. _Birnand =th=rétty
and =th=ré_ Gol. 247; _Of góld that wes cléir_ ib. 1) of second sections
of the long line, as is evident from the first stanza of _Golagras and
Gawane_ quoted above (p. 102). In this concluding line, however, other
types of verse peculiar to the second hemistich of long lines may also
be met with, as e.g. C, C1, BC, BC1, e.g.: _For thi mánhéde_ Awnt. of
Arth. 350; _Withoutin dístánce_ Gol. 1362; _As I am tréw kníght_ Gol.
169; _Couth na léid sáy_ ib. 920; _In ony ríche réime_ ib. 1258, _Quhen
he wes líghtit dóun_ ib. 130.
In other poems the group of short lines rhyming according to the scheme
_a a a b_ and forming part of the _cauda_ is preceded neither by a long
alliterative line nor by a one-beat half section of it (as in _Susan_),
but by a complete two-beat sectional verse, which then, in the same way
as the last verse rhyming with it, corresponds in its structure to that
of the second hemistich of the long line; as e.g. in _The Tournament of
Tottenham_ (Ritson's _Ancient Songs_, i. 85-94), rhyming on the scheme
_A A A A b c c c b_ (the capitals signifying the long lines), and in
_The Ballad of Kynd Kittok_, possibly by W. Dunbar (Laing, ii. 35, 36;
Small, i. 52, 53; Schipper, 70).
In _Sayne John the Euaungelist_ the 'cauda' has the structure of a
complete tail-rhyme-stanza, the order of rhymes of the whole stanza
being _A B A B A B A B c c d c c d_.
§ =65.= In connexion with this it is particularly interesting to note
that such two-beat sections of the alliterative line are also used by
themselves for whole poems written in tail-rhyme-stanzas (as was first
shown by Prof. Luick, _Anglia_, xii, pp. 440 ff.); cf. e.g. the
translation of the _Disticha Catonis_ (E.E.T.S. 68), the two first
stanzas of which may be quoted here:
_If þóu be made wíttenèsse,
For to =s=áy þat =s=óþ ìs,
=S=áue þine honóur,
Als míkil, as þou may fra bláme,
Lame þi fréndis sháme,
And sáue fra dishonóur._
_For-sóþ =f=lípers,
And alle =f=áls =f=láters
I réde, sone, þou =f=lé;
For þen sálle na gode mán,
Þat any góde lare cán,
Þár-fore blame þé._
In the same stanza _The Feest_ (Hazlitt, _Remains_, iii. 93) is written.
Still more frequently such lines were used for extended
tail-rhyme-stanzas rhyming on the scheme _a a a b c c c b d d d b e e e
b_, as e.g. in a poem, _The Enemies of Mankind_, of the beginning of
the fourteenth century, published by Kölbing (_Engl. Studien_, ix. 440
ff.).
The first stanza runs as follows:
_Þe =s=ìker =s=óþe who so =s=éys,
Wiþ =d=ìol =d=réye we our =d=áys
And =w=àlk máni =w=il =w=áys
As =w=ándrand =w=íȝtes.
Al our =g=ámes ous a=g=ás,
So mani =t=énes on =t=ás
Þurch =f=ónding of =f=ele =f=ás,
Þat =f=ást wiþ ous =f=íȝtes.
Our =f=lèsche is =f=óuled wiþ þe =f=énd;
Þer we =f=índe a =f=als =f=rénde:
Þei þai =h=éuen vp her =h=énde,
Þai no =h=óld nouȝt her =h=íȝtes.
Þis er =þ=ré, þat er =þ=rá,
Ȝete þe =f=érþ is our =f=á,
=D=èþ, þat =d=érieþ ous swá
And =d=íolely ous =d=íȝtes._
Here, again, the difference between the lines on the pattern of the
first hemistich of the long line, which form the body of the stanza (_a
a a, b b b, c c c, d d d_), and those on the pattern of the second
hemistich used as tail-rhyme lines (_b, b, b, b_) is plainly
recognizable.
The same is the case in other poems written in this form of stanza, as
e.g. in the Metrical Romances, _Sir Perceval_, _Sir Degrevant_
(Halliwell, _Thornton Romances_, Camden Society, 1844, pp. 1, 177) and
others; cf. Luick, _Anglia_, xii, pp. 440ff., and Paul's _Grundriss_, ii
a, p. 1016. But in these later works, one of the latest of which
probably is the poem _The Droichis Part of the Play_, possibly by Dunbar
(Laing, ii. 37; Small, ii. 314; Schipper, 190), the two-beat lines are
frequently intermingled and blended with even-beat lines, which from the
beginning of the fifth stanza onward completely take the place of the
two-beat lines in the last-mentioned poem. Likewise in the
'Bob-wheel-staves', i.e. stanzas of the structure of those
sixteenth-century stanzas quoted above (§§ 60, 61), the _cauda_, as is
expressly stated by King James VI in his _Revlis and Cavtelis_, is
written in even-beat lines of four and three measures, though the main
part of the stanza (the _frons_) is composed in four-beat
rhyming-alliterative lines (cf. Luick, _Anglia_, xii, P. 444).
§ =66.= In the contemporary =Dramatic Poetry= this mixture of four-beat
(or two-beat) alliterative lines with lines of even measures is still
more frequent, and may be used either strophically or otherwise.
In the first place, we must note that in the earlier collections of
Mystery Plays (_Towneley Mysteries_, _York Plays_, and _Ludus
Coventriae_) the rhyming alliterative long line, popular, as we have
seen, in lyric and in narrative poetry, is also used in the same or
cognate forms of stanzas.
But the form of verse in these Mysteries, owing to the loss of regular
alliteration, cannot with propriety be described as the four-beat
alliterative long line, but only as the four-beat long line. In many
instances, however, the remnants of alliteration decidedly point to the
four-beat character of this rhythm, as e.g. in the following stanza of
the _Towneley Mysteries_ (p. 140):
_Moste =m=ýghty =M=áhòwne | =m=éng you with =m=ýrthe,
Both of búrgh and of tówne | by =f=éllys and by =f=ýrthe;
Both =k=ýng with =c=równe | and =b=árons of =b=írthe,
That =r=ádly wylle =r=ówne, | many =g=réatt =g=ríthe
Shalle be hápp;
Take =t=énderly in=t=ént
What =s=óndes ar =s=ént,
Els =h=ármes shall ye =h=ént
And =l=óthes you to =l=ap._
In this form of stanza the different groups of lines or even single
lines are frequently, as e.g. in the so-called _Processus Noe_ (the
_Play of the Flood_), very skilfully divided between several persons
taking part in the dialogue. The interlaced rhyme in the long lines
connects it with the stanza form of the lyric poem quoted above (p.
100), and the form of the 'cauda' relates it to that of the lyric poem
quoted (p. 101), and in this respect is identical with that of _The
Pistill of Susan_.
The rhythmic treatment of the verses is, both with regard to the
relation between rhyme and the remnants of alliteration and to the use
of the Middle English types of verse, on the whole the same as was
described in §§ 62-4 treating of this form of verse in narrative poetry.
The types A and A1, B C and B C1, are chiefly met with; now and then,
however, type C1 also occurs in the second hemistich, as e.g. in the
verses _that wold vówch sáyf_ 172, _of the tént máyne_ 487, _wille com
agáne sóne_ 488, of the _Play of the Flood_ mentioned above.
But in the 'cauda' the difference explained in § 65 between first and
second short lines forming the close of a stanza is often very regularly
observed.
In other places of the _Towneley Mysteries_ similar stanzas are written
in lines which have almost an alexandrine rhythm (cf. _Metrik_, i. 229),
while, on the other hand, in the _Coventry Mysteries_ we not
unfrequently meet with stanzas of the same form written in lines which,
in consequence of their concise structure, approach even-beat lines of
four measures, or directly pass into this metre. The intermixture of
different kinds of line is even carried here to such a length that to a
_frons_ of four-beat lines is joined a _cauda_ of even-beat lines of
four or three measures corresponding to King James VI's rule quoted
above (p. 108) for such stanzas; and on the other hand to a _frons_ of
even-beat lines of four measures is joined a _cauda_ of two-beat short
lines.
§ =67.= The distinctly four-beat line, however, still forms the staple
of the different kinds of verse occurring in these poems, and was also
used in them for simple forms of stanza. In the further development of
dramatic poetry it remained much in use. Skelton's Moral Play
_Magnificence_, and most of the Moralities and Interludes contained in
Dodsley's _Old Plays_ (ed. Hazlitt), vols. i-iv, are written chiefly in
this popular metre. As a rule it rhymes here in couplets, and under the
influence of the even-beat measures used in the same dramatic pieces it
gradually assumes a pretty regular iambic-anapaestic or
trochaic-dactylic rhythm. This applies for the most part to the humorous
and popular parts; allegorical and historical personages are made to
converse in even-beat verses.
Verses of an ascending (iambic-anapaestic) rhythm were especially
favoured, as might be expected from the fact that the Middle English
alliterative line in the preceding centuries usually begins with one or
two unaccented syllables before the first accented one.
Of the different types used in the Middle English alliterative line type
C (C1), which does not harmonize well with the even-beat tendency of
the rhythm, and which is only very seldom if at all to be met with even
in the _Coventry Plays_, becomes very rare and tends to disappear
altogether, type A (A1) and (although these are much less frequent)
type B C (B C1) alone remaining in use.
§ =68.= Of the more easily accessible pieces of Bishop John Bale
(1495-1563) his _Comedye Concernynge Thre Lawes_, edited by A. Schröer
(_Anglia_, v, pp. 137 ff., also separately, Halle, Niemeyer, 1882) is
written in two-beat short lines and four-beat long lines, and his _King
Johan_ (c. 1548) (edited by Collier, Camden Society, 1838) entirely in
this latter metre. The latter play has a peculiar interest of its own,
containing as it does lines which, as in two Old English poems (cf. pp.
123, 124), consist either half or entirely of Latin words. Now, as the
accentuation of the Latin lines or half-lines admits of no uncertainty,
the four-beat scansion of the English verses of this play and of the
long lines in _The Three Lawes_ is put beyond doubt, though Schröer
considers the latter as eight-beat long lines on the basis of the
four-beat theory of the short line.
Some specimens may serve to illustrate the nature of these 'macaronic'
verses, e.g.:
_A péna et =c=úlpa | I desíre to be =c=lére._ p. 33.
_In nómine pátris, | of all that éver I hárd._ p. 28.
_Iudicáte pupíllo, | deféndite víduam._ p. 6.
Other verses of the same kind occur, pp. 5, 6, 53, 62, 78, 92.
But apart from this irrefutable proof of the four-beat scansion of the
long line, the rhythmic congruity of it with the rhyming alliterative
lines discussed in § 67 can easily be demonstrated by the reoccurrence
of the same types, although a difference between the first and the
second hemistich no longer seems to exist.
Type A, of course, is the most frequent, and occurs in many sub-types,
which are distinguished chiefly by monosyllabic, disyllabic, or
polysyllabic anacruses, disyllabic or polysyllabic theses between the
first and second arsis, and monosyllabic, disyllabic, or trisyllabic
theses after the latter. The most usual form of this type corresponds
to the scheme (×) × –́ × × –́ ×, while the form –́ × × –́ × is rarer.
Type A1 likewise admits of polysyllabic anacruses and theses,
corresponding mostly to the formula (×) × –́ × × –́, less frequently to
–́× × –́. Type B C (×) × × –́ × –́ × is rare, type B C1 (×) × × –́ ×
–́, on the other hand, very common; type C (×) × × –́ –́ × still occurs
now and then, but type C1 (×) × × –́ –́ has become exceedingly scarce.
§ =69.= Statistical investigations as to the frequency of occurrence,
and especially on the grouping of these different types are still
wanting, and would contribute greatly toward the more exact knowledge of
the development of the iambic-anapaestic and the trochaic-dactylic metre
out of the four-beat verse. Of course in such an investigation the use
of anacrusis in the types A and A1 should not be neglected. According
to the presence or absence of anacrusis in the two hemistichs four
different kinds of line may be distinguished:
1. Lines with anacrusis in both hemistichs. These are the most numerous
of all, and are chiefly represented by the combinations of types A(A1)
+ A(A1), A(A1) + B C1(B C):
A + A : _For by méasure, i wárne you, | we thýnke to be gýdyd._
Skelt. Magn. 186.
A + A1 : _For =m=ýschefe wyl =m=áyster vs, | yf =m=éasure vs forsáke._
ib. 156.
A1 + B C: _Full gréat I do abhór | this your wícked sáying._
Lusty Juventus, Dodsl. ii. 72.
A1 + B C1: _You may =s=áy you were =s=íck, | and your héad did áche,
That you lústed not this níght | any súpper máke._
Jack Juggler, ib. ii. 119.
A1 + A1 : _And you nóthing regárd | what of mé may betíde?_
Jacob and Esau, ib. ii. 216.
A1 + B C1: _Our láwes are all óne, | though you do thré apére._
Bale, Laws, line 63.
A + A1 : _Whome =d=áyly the =d=éuyll | to great sýnne doth allúre._
ib. 747.
A1 + B C1: _By hým haue I góte | thys fowle dyséase of bódye,_
A1 + A : _And, ás ye se hére, | am now thrówne in a léprye._
ib. 749-50.
A1 + B C : _Regárde not the pópe, | not yet hys whórysh kýngedom._
ib. 770.
A1 + A1 : _Such lúbbers, as háth | dysgysed =h=éads in their
=h=óodes._ Bale, Johan, p. 2.
A + A : _Peccávi mea cúlpa: | I submýt me to yowr hólynes._
ib. p. 62.
A + A : _With =á=ll the =ó=fsprynge, | of =Á=ntichristes
generácyon._ ib. p. 102.
A + B C1 : _Maister Ráufe Royster =D=óyster | is but =d=éad and gón._
Roister Doister, I. i. 43.
C + A : _And as thré téachers, | to hým we yow dyréct._
Bale, Laws, l. 67.
C + B C1 : _Of their =f=írst =f=rédome, | to their most hýgh decáye._
ib. 82.
A1 + C1 : _Such an óther is nót | in the whóle sóuth._ ib. 1066.
2. Lines with anacrusis in the first section and without it in the
second. These are almost exclusively represented by the combination
A(A1) + A(A1); rarely by B C1(B C) + A(A1):
A + A1 : _For wélthe without méasure | =s=ódenly wyll =s=lýde._
Skelton, Magn. 194.
A + A1 : _Howe sódenly =w=órldly | =w=élth dothe dekáy,_
A + A1 : _How =w=ýsdom thórowe =w=ántonnesse | =v=ányisshyth a=w=áy._
ib. 2579-80.
A + A1 : _Behóld, I práy you, | sée where they áre._
Four Elements, Dodsl. i. 10.
BC + A1 : _I am your =é=ldest són, | =É=sau by my náme._
Jacob and Esau, ib. ii. 249.
3. Lines without anacrusis in the first section and with anacrusis in
the second; likewise chiefly represented by the types A (A1) + A (A1),
rarely by A (A1) + B C (B C1):
A + A1 : _Méasure contínwyth | prospérite and wélthe._
Skelton, Magn. 142.
A1 + A : _Méasure and Í | will néuer be devýdyd._ ib. 188.
A + A1 : _=S=íghing and =s=óbbing | they =w=éep and they =w=áil._
Gammer Gurton's Needle, Prol.
A + A : _Ésau is gíven | to =l=óose and lewd =l=íving._
Jacob and Esau, Dodsl. ii. 196.
A1 + A1 : _Líving in this =w=órld | from the =w=ést to the éast._
Roister Doister, III. iii. 28.
A + A1 : _Chárge and enfórce hym | in the wáyes of vs to go._
Bale, Laws, line 102.
A + A : _Quáerite judícium, | subveníte opprésso._
Bale, Johan, p. 6.
A + B C : _=F=ór by con=f=éssion | the holy =f=áther knóweth._
ib. p. 11.
A + B C1: _=D=ó they so in =d=éde? | Well, they shall not =d=ó so
lónge._ ib. p. 97.
4. Lines without anacrusis in either section, so that they are wholly
dactylic in rhythm, only represented by A (A1) + A1 (A):
A + A : _Sáncte Francísse | óra pro nóbis!_
Bale, Johan, p. 25.
A + A : _Péace, for with my spéctables | vádam et vidébo._
ib. p. 30.
A + A : _Sýr, without ány | lónger délyaunce._
Skelton, Magn. 239.
A + A1 : _Wín her or lóse her, | =t=rý you the =t=ráp._
Appius and Virginia, Dodsl. iv. 132.
A + A1 : _Líkewise for a cómmonwealth | óccupied is hé._
Four Elements, ib. i. 9.
A + A1 : _Whát, you sáucy | málapert knáve._
Jack Juggler, ib. ii. 145.
The numerical preponderance of types A + A1 is at once perceptible, and
usually these two types of hemistichs are combined in this order to form
a long line.
The result is that in the course of time whole passages made up of lines
of the same rhythmical structure (A + A1) are common in the dramatic
poetry of this period, as e.g. in the Prologue to _Gammer Gurton's
Needle_:
_As Gámmer Gúrton, with mánye a wýde stítch,
Sat pésynge and pátching of Hódg her mans bríche,
By chánce or misfórtune, as shée her gear tóst,
In Hódge lether brýches her néedle shee lóst._
Possibly this preference of the type A1 in the second half line may
go back to the influence of the difference between the rhythmical
structure of the first and the second hemistich of the alliterative line
in early Middle English poetry.
§ =70.= This view derives additional probability from the manner
in which lines rhythmically identical with the alliterative hemistich
are combined into certain forms of stanza which are used
in the above-mentioned dramatic poems, especially in Bale's
_Three Lawes_.
For in this play those halves of tail-rhyme stanzas, which form the
'wheels' of the alliterative-rhyming stanzas previously described (§§ 61
and 66) as used in narrative poetry and in the mysteries, are completed
so as to form entire tail-rhyme stanzas (of six or eight lines) similar
to those mentioned in § 65. This will be evident from the following
examples:
_With holye óyle and wátter,
I can so =cl=óyne and =cl=átter,
That I =c=án at the látter
Manye súttelties contrýve.
I can worke wýles in báttle,
If I do ónes but spáttle,
I can make =c=órn and =c=áttle,
That =th=éy shall never =th=rýve._ ll. 439-446.
_I have chármes for the plówgh,
And álso for the cówgh,
She shall geue mýlke ynówgh,
So lóng as I am pléased.
Apace the mýlle shall gó,
So shall the crédle dó,
And the músterde querne alsó
No mán therwith dyséased._ ll. 463-470.
The difference in rhythm which we have previously pointed out between
the lines of the body of the stanza (corresponding to first halves of
the alliterative line) and those of the tail (corresponding to second
halves) may again be observed in most of the stanzas of this play,
although not in all of them.
In other passages the sequence of rhymes is less regular; e.g. in ll.
190-209, which rhyme according to the formulas _a a a b c c b_, _d d b e
e b_, _e e e f g g f_.
§ =71.= Lastly, we must mention another kind of verse or stave
originating in the resolution of the four-beat alliterative line into
two sections, and their combination so as to form irregular tail-rhyme
stanzas, viz. the so-called Skeltonic verse. This kind of verse,
however, was not invented (as is erroneously stated in several Histories
of English Literature) by Skelton, but existed before him, as is evident
from the preceding remarks. The name came to be given to the metre from
the fact that Skelton, poet laureate of King Henry VII, was fond of this
metre, and used it for several popular poems.
In Skelton's metre the strict form of the alliterative four-beat line
has arrived at the same stage of development which the freer form had
reached about three hundred years earlier in Layamon's _Brut_, and
afterwards in _King Horn_. That is to say, in Skelton's metre the long
line is broken up by sectional rhyme into two short ones. The first
specimens of this verse which occur in the _Towneley Mysteries_, in the
_Chester Plays_, and in some of the Moralities, e.g. in _The World and
the Child_ (Dodsl. i), resemble Layamon's verse in so far as long lines
(without sectional rhymes) and short rhyming half-lines occur in one and
the same passage. On the other hand, they differ from it and approach
nearer to the strophic form of the alliterative line (as occurring in
the Miracle Plays) in that the short lines do not rhyme in couplets, but
in a different and varied order of rhyme, mostly _a b a b_; cf. the
following passage (l. c., p. 247):
_Ha, há, now Lúst and Líking is my náme.
Í am =f=résh as =f=lówers in Máy,
Í am =s=émly-=s=hápen ín =s=áme,
And =p=róudly a=pp=áreled in =g=árments =g=áy:
My =l=óoks been full =l=óvely to a =l=ády's eye,
And in =l=óve-=l=ónging my héart is sore sét.
Might I =f=índ a =f=óode that were =f=áir and =f=rée
To lie in héll till dómsday for =l=óve I would not =l=ét,
My =l=óve for to wín,
All =g=áme and =g=lée,
All =m=írth and =m=élody,
All rével and ríot,
And of =b=óast will I never =b=lín_, &c.
In Skelton's _Magnificence_ the short lines rhyme in couplets like those
of _King Horn_, in a passage taken from p. 257 (part of which may be
quoted here):
_Nowe lét me se abóut,
In áll this rówte,
Yf I cán fynde óut
So sémely a snówte
Amónge this prése:
Éven a hole mése--
Péase, man, péase!
I réde, we séase.
So farly fáyre as it lókys,
And her bécke so comely crókys,
Her naylys shárpe as tenter hókys!
I haue not képt her yet thre wókys
And howe stýll she dothe sýt!_ &c., &c.
In other poems Skelton uses short lines of two beats, but rhyming in a
varied order under the influence, it would seem, of the strophic system
of the virelay, which rhymes in the order _a a a b b b b c c c c d_. But
the succession of rhymes is more irregular in the Skeltonic metre, as e.
g. in the passage:
_What cán it auáyle
To drýue fórth a snáyle,
Or to máke a sáyle
Of an hérynges táyle;
To rýme or to ráyle,
To wrýte or to endýte,
Eyther for delýte,
Or élles for despýte;
Or bókes to compýle
Of dívers maner stýle_, &c. Colin Cloute (i. 311).
In other cases short bob-lines of one beat only interchange with
two-beat rhythms, as e.g. in Skelton's poem _Caudatos Anglos_ (i. 193):
_Gup, Scót,
Ye blót:
Laudáte
Caudáte,
Sét in bétter
Thy péntaméter.
This Dúndás,
This Scóttishe ás,
He rýmes and ráyles
That Énglishman have táyles.
Skeltónus laureátus,
Ánglicus nátus,
Próvocat Músas
Cóntra Dúndas
Spurcíssimum Scótum
Úndique nótum_, &c.
The mingling of Latin and English lines, as in this passage, is one of
the characteristic features of the Skeltonic verse.
In some passages, as e.g. in the humorous poems _Phyllyp Sparowe_ and
_Elinour Rummyng_, the three-beat rhythm seems to prevail. In such cases
it probably developed out of the two-beat rhythm in the same way as in
_King Horn_.
_Yet óne thynge ìs behýnde
That nów còmmeth to mýnde;
An épytàphe I wold háue
For Phýllỳppes gráue;
But fór I àm a máyde,
Týmorous, hàlf afráyde,
That néuer yèt asáyde
Of Elycònys wéll,
Whère the Múses dwell;_ &c.
Phyllyp Sparowe (i. 69).
Skelton's verse was chiefly used by poets of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries for satirical and burlesque poetry. One of its
chief cultivators was John Taylor, the Water-poet. A list of Skeltonic
poems is given in Dyce's edition of Skelton's poems, i. introduction,
pp. cxxviii-cxxix.
=C. Revival of the old four-beat alliterative verse
in the Modern English period.=
§ =72.= If after what precedes any doubt were possible as to the
scansion of the verses quoted on p. 113 from the Prologue to the Early
Modern English comedy of _Gammer Gurton's Needle_, this doubt would be
removed at once by the following couplet and by the accents put over the
second line of it by the sixteenth-century metrician, George
Gascoigne[116]:
_No =w=ight in this =w=orld | that =w=ealth can attayne,
Unlésse hè bèléve | thàt áll ìs bùt váyne._
For the rhythm of these lines is perfectly identical with that of the
lines of the above-mentioned prologue, and also with that of the
alliterative line quoted ten years later (A. D. 1585), and called
tumbling-verse by King James VI in his _Revlis and Cavtelis_, viz.:
_Fetching fúde for to féid it | fast fúrth of the Fárie._
This is the very same rhythm in which a good many songs and ballads of
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are written, as e.g. the
well-known ballad of _King John and the Abbot of Canterbury_, which
begins with the following stanzas[117]:
_An áncient stóry | I'le téll you anón
Of a nótable prínce, | that was cálled king Jóhn;
And he rúled Éngland | with máine and with míght,
For he díd great wróng, | and maintéin'd little ríght._
_And I'le téll you a stóry, | a stóry so mérrye,
Concérning the Abbot | of Cánterbúrye;
How for his hóuse-kéeping, | and hígh renówne,
They rode póst for him | to faire Lóndon tówne._
This four-beat rhythm, which (as is proved by the definition King James
VI gives of it) is the direct descendant of the old alliterative line,
has continued in use in modern English poetry to the present day.
It occurs in the poem _The recured Lover_, by Sir Thomas Wyatt, one of
the earliest Modern English poets, where it is intermixed sometimes with
four-feet rhythms, as was the case also in several Early English poems.
The general rhythm, however, is clearly of an iambic-anapaestic nature.
Fifteen years after the death of Wyatt Thomas Tusser wrote part of his
didactic poem _A hundred good points of Husbandry_ in the same metre. In
Tusser's hands the metre is very regular, the first foot generally being
an iambus and the following feet anapaests:
_Whom fáncy persuádeth | amóng other cróps,
To háve for his spénding, | suffícient of hóps,
Must wíllingly fóllow, | of chóices to chóose.
Such léssons appróved, | as skílful do úse._
The four beats of the rhythm and the regular occurrence of the caesura
are as marked characteristics of these verses as of the earlier
specimens of the metre.
Spenser has written several eclogues of his _Shepheard's Calendar_ in
this metre (February, May, September), and Shakespeare uses it in some
lyric pieces of his _King Henry IV_, Part II, but also for dialogues, as
e.g. _Err._ III. i. 11-84. In more modern times Matthew Prior
(1664-1715) wrote a ballad _Down Hall_ to the tune, as he says, of _King
John and the Abbot of Canterbury_, which clearly shows that he meant to
imitate the ancient popular four-beat rhythm, which he did with perfect
success. In other poems he used it for stanzas rhyming in the order _a b
a b_. Swift has used the same metre, and it became very popular in
Scottish poetry through Allan Ramsay and Robert Burns, one of whose most
famous poems is written in it, viz.:
_My héart's in the Híghlands, | my héart is not hére;
My héart's in the Híghlands, | a-chásing the déer;
Chásing the wíld deer | and fóllowing the róe,
My héart's in the Híghlands | wheréver I gó._
Sir Walter Scott used it frequently for drinking-songs, and Thomas Moore
wrote his _Letters of the Fudge Family_ in it.
By Coleridge and Byron this metre was used in the same way as by Wyatt,
viz. intermixed with regular four-foot verse according to the subject,
the four-beat iambic-anapaestic rhythm for livelier passages, the pure
iambic for passages of narration and reflection. Byron's _Prisoner of
Chillon_ and his _Siege of Corinth_ are good specimens of this kind of
metre.[118] On the other hand the regular four-foot rhythm, as will be
shown below, if it is of a looser structure, develops into a kind of
verse similar to the iambic-anapaestic rhythm--an additional reason for
their existing side by side often in one poem.
A few variations of this metre remain to be mentioned, which occur as
early as Tusser. The first variety arises from interlaced rhyme, by
which the two four-beat verses are broken up into four two-beat verses
rhyming in the order _a b a b_.
_If húsbandry brággeth
To gó with the bést,
Good húsbandry bággeth
Up góld in his chést._
On the model of these stanzas others were afterwards formed by Tusser
consisting of three-beat verses of the same rhythm. The same verse was
used for eight-line stanzas rhyming _a b a b c d c d_ by Nicholas Rowe,
Shenstone, Cowper, and in later times by Thackeray in one of his
burlesque poems (_Malony's Lament_ in _Ballads_, _the Rose and the
Ring_, &c., p. 225). For examples of these variations see the sections
treating of the iambic-anapaestic verses of three and two measures.
§ =73.= In modern times a few attempts have been made to revive the old
four-beat alliterative line without rhyme, but also without a regular
use of alliteration. These attempts, however, have never become
popular.
The following passage from William Morris's dramatic poem _Love is
enough_ may give an idea of the structure of this kind of verse:
_Fáir Master =Ó=liver, | thóu who at =á=ll times
Mayst =ó=pen thy héart | to our lórd and máster,
=T=éll us what =t=ídings | thou hást to delíver;
For our =h=éarts are grown =h=éavy, | and whére shall we túrn to,
If thús the king's =g=lóry, | our =g=áin and salvátion,
Must =g=ó down the wínd | amid =g=lóom and despáiring._
The rhythm, together with the irregular use of alliteration, places
these four-beat alliterative lines on the same level with those of the
dramatic poems of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The same kind of versification is found in Longfellow's translation of
the late Old English poem on _The Grave_, and in James M. Garnett's
translations of _Beowulf_ and Cynewulf's _Elene_. On the other hand,
George Stephens, in his translation of the Old English poem on _The
Phoenix_, published 1844, not only adheres strictly to the laws of
alliteration, but confines himself to Germanic words, sometimes even
using inflexional forms peculiar to Middle English.
§ =74.= We shall conclude this survey of the development of the
four-beat alliterative line by giving a series of examples in reversed
chronological order, beginning with writers of the present day and
ending with the earliest remains of Old English poetry, in order to
illustrate the identity in rhythmic structure of this metre in all
periods of its history.
Nineteenth Century, End:
_For níne days the kíng | hath slépt not an hóur
And táketh no héed | of soft wórds or beseéching._
W. Morris.
Nineteenth Century, Beginning:
_So that =w=íldest of =w=áves, | in their ángriest móod,
Scarce =b=réak on the =b=oúnds | of the lánd for a róod._
Byron, Siege of Corinth, 382-4.
Eighteenth Century, End:
_My =h=éart's in the =H=íghlands, | my =h=éart is not =h=ére;
My =h=éart's in the =H=íghlands, | a-chásing the déer._ Burns.
Eighteenth Century, Middle:
_A cóbbler there wás, | and he líved in a stáll._[119]
Eighteenth Century, Beginning (1715):
_I síng not old Jáson | who trável'd thro' Gréece
To kíss the fair máids | and posséss the rich fléece._
Prior, Down-Hall, to the tune of King John and the Abbot.
Seventeenth Century, Beginning (or Sixteenth Century, End):
_An áncient stóry | I'le téll you anón
Of a nótable prínce, | that was cálled king Jóhn._
King John and the Abbot of Canterbury.
Sixteenth Century, End (1585):
_Fetching =f=úde for to =f=éid it | fast =f=úrth of the
=F=árie._[120]
Montgomery.
Sixteenth Century (1575):
_No =w=íght in this =w=órld | that =w=éalth can attáyne
Un=l=ésse hè bè=l=éve | thàt áll ìs bùt váyne._[121]
G. Gascoigne.
Sixteenth Century (before 1575):
_As =G=ámmer =G=úrton, | with mánye a wyde stýche,
Sat =p=ésynge and =p=átching | of Hódg her mans brýche._
Gammer Gurton's Needle.
Sixteenth Century, Middle (about 1548):
_Such lúbbers as =h=áth | dysgysed =h=éads in their hóods._
Bale (_died_ 1563), King Johan, p. 2.
_Thýnke you a Róman | with the Rómans cannot lýe?_
ibid. p. 84.
_For as =C=hríste ded say to Péter, | =C=áro et sánguis
Non revelávit tíbi | sed =P=áter meus celéstis._
ibid. pp. 92-3.
_A péna et =c=úlpa | I desýre to be =c=lére,
And thén all the dévylles | of héll I wold not fére._
ibid. p. 33.
_Judicáte pupíllo, | deféndite víduam:
Defénde the wýdowe, | whan she ís in dystrésse._
ibid. p. 6.
_Sáncte Domínice, | óra pro nóbis.
Sáncte pyld mónache, | I be-shrów vóbis.
Sáncte Francísse, | óra pro nóbis._
ibid. p. 25.
Sixteenth Century, Beginning:
_Apón the =m=ídsummer évin, | =m=írriest of níchtis._
Dunbar, Twa Mariit Wemen, 1.
Fifteenth Century, Second Half:
_In the =ch=éiftyme of =Ch=árlis, | that =ch=ósin =ch=íftane._
Rauf Coilȝear, 1.
Fifteenth Century, ? First Half:
_In the =t=ýme of Árthour, | as =t=réw men me =t=áld_.
Golagras and Gawane, 1.
Fourteenth Century, End:
_Moste =m=ýghty =M=áhowne | =m=éng you with =m=ýrthe,
Both of búrgh and of tówne, | by =f=éllys and by =f=ýrthe._
Towneley Mysteries, p. 140.
_Oute, alás, I am góne! | oute apón the, mans wónder!_
ibid. p. 30.
Fourteenth Century, Second Half:
_In a =s=ómer =s=éson, | whan =s=óft was the =s=ónne._
Piers Plowman, Prol. 1.
_Þen com a =v=óis to Jóseph | and séide him þise =w=órdes._
Joseph of Arimathie, 21 (about 1350).
Fourteenth Century, Beginning:
_Ich herde =m=én vpo =m=óld | =m=áke much =m=ón._
Wright's Pol. Songs.
_=L=ýstneþ =L=órdynges, | a newe sóng ichulle bigýnne._
ibid. p. 187.
Thirteenth Century, Middle:
_Álle =b=èon he =b=líþe | þat tò my sóng líþe:
A =s=óng ihc schàl you =s=ínge | of Múrry þe kínge._
King Horn, 1-4.
Thirteenth Century, Beginning:
_And swá heo gùnnen wénden | fórð tò þan kínge._
Layamon, 13811-12.
_Vmbe =f=íftene ȝér | þat =f=ólc is isómned._ ibid. 13855-6.
Twelfth Century:
_þat þe =ch=íriche hàbbe grýþ | and þe =ch=éorl bèo in frýþ
his =s=édes to =s=ówen, | his =m=édes to =m=ówen._
Proverbs of Alfred, 91-4.
_=b=úte if he =b=éo | in =b=óke iléred._ ibid. 65-6.
Eleventh Century, End:
_þat he nám be wíhte | and mid mýcelan únrìhte._
Chron. an. 1087.
Eleventh Century, First Half:
_súme hi man =b=énde, | =s=úme hi man =b=lénde._
Chron. an. 1037.
_ne wearð =d=reṓrlìcre =d=ǣ́d | ge=d=ṓn on þisan éarde._ ibid.
Eleventh Century, Beginning:
_se of ǽðelre =w=ǽs | vírginis pártū
=c=lǣ́ne a=c=énned, | =C=hrístus in órbem._
Oratio Poetica, ed. Lumby.
_hwæt! ic =ā́=na sǽt | =í=nnan béarwe,
mid =h=élme beþéaht, | =h=ólte tō-míddes,
þǣr þā wǽterbúrnan | swḗgdon and úrnon,
on míddan gehǽge, | éal =s=wā ic =s=écge._
Be Dōmes Dæge.
_þæt =S=ámson se =s=tránge | swā of=s=lḗan míhte
=ā́=n þūsend mánna | mid þæs =á=ssan cínbā́ne._
Ælfric, Judges, 282-3.
Tenth Century, End:
_ǣ́fre embe =s=túnde | he =s=éalde sume wúnde,
þā h=w=ī́le þe hē =w=ǣ́pna | =w=éaldan mṓste._
Byrhtnoth, 271-2.
Ninth Century:
_=w=ýrmum be=w=únden, | =w=ítum gebúnden,
=h=éarde ge=h=ǣ́fted | in =h=élle brýne._ Judith, 115-16.
Eighth Century:
_=h=ā́m and =h=ḗahsètle | =h=éofena rī́ces._ Genesis, 33.
_=w=úldre bi=w=únden | in þǣre =w=lítigan býrig.
háfað ūs ā=l=ȳ́fed | =l=ū̀cis áuctor
þæt wē =m=ṓtun hḗr | =m=éruḗrī[122]
=g=ṓddǣdum be=g=íetan | =g=áudia in cǣ́lō._
Phoenix, 666-9.
_on=f=ḗngon =f=úlwihte | and =f=réoðowǣ́re
=w=úldres =w=édde | wī́tum āspḗdde._ Andreas, 1632-3.
_þǣr wæs =b=órda ge=b=réc | and =b=éorna geþréc
=h=éard =h=ándgeswìng | and =h=érga gríng,
sýððan hēo =é=arhfære | =ǣ́=rest mḗtton._ Elene, 114-16.
_=b=úgon Þā tō =b=énce | =b=lǣ́d-ā́gènde
=f=ýlle ge=f=ǣ́gon. | =f=ǽgene geþǣ́gon
=m=édofull =m=ánig | =m=ā́gas þā́ra._ Beowulf, 1013-15.
Seventh Century:
_nu scýlun =h=érgan | =h=éfænrīcæs uárd,
=m=étudæs =m=ǽcti | end his =m=ṓdgidanc._ Cædmon's Hymn.
§ =75.= The evidence contained in this chapter, with regard to the
continuous survival, in its essential rhythmical features, of the Old
English native verse down to modern times, may be briefly summed up as
follows:--
1. In the oldest remains of English poetry (_Beowulf_, _Elene_,
_Andreas_, _Judith_, _Phoenix_, &c.) we already find lines with combined
alliteration and rhyme intermixed with, and rhythmically equivalent to,
the purely alliterative lines, exactly as we do in late Old English and
early Middle English poems such as _Byrhtnoth_, _Be Dōmes Dæge_,
_Oratio Poetica_, _Chronicle_ an. 1036, _Proverbs of Alfred_, and
Layamon's _Brut_.
2. In some of these poems, viz. the _Phoenix_ and the _Oratio Poetica_,
Latin two-beat hemistichs are combined with English hemistichs of
similar rhythm to form regular long lines, just as is done in Bale's
play of _Kinge Johan_ (sixteenth century).
3. The lines of this play agree in the general principle, and frequently
in the details of their rhythmical structure, with alliterative-rhyming
long lines which occur in lyric and epic poems of the same period, and
which two contemporary metrists, Gascoigne and King James VI, recognized
(independently of each other) as lines of four accents.
4. The rhythm of these sixteenth-century lines is indistinguishable from
that of a four-accent metre which is popular in English and German
poetry down to the present day.
These facts appear to leave no room for doubt that the Germanic metre
has had a continuous history in English poetry from the earliest times
down to the present, and that the long line, in Old and Middle English
as in Modern English, had four accents (two in each hemistich). The
proof acquires additional force from the fact, established by recent
investigations, that the most important of the metrical types of the Old
English hemistich are found again in Middle and Modern English poetry.
NOTES:
[107] This view has been combated by the author. The stages of the
discussion are to be found in articles by Einenkel, _Anglia_,
v. Anz. 47; Trautmann, _ibid._ 118; Einenkel's edition of _St.
Katherine_, E. E. T. S. 80; the author's 'Metrische
Randglossen', _Engl. Studien_, ix. 184; _ibid._ 368; and
_Anglia_, viii. Anz. 246. According to our opinion Otfrid's
verse was never imitated in England, nor was it known at all in
Old or Middle English times.
[108] This line is inaccurately quoted by King James from the poet
Alexander Montgomerie, who lived at his court. It should read
as follows:--
_Syne fetcht food for to feid it, | foorth fra the Pharie._
Flyting 476.
[109] Cf. the writer's paper 'Zur Zweihebungstheorie der
alliterierenden Halbzeile' in _Englische Studien_ v. 488-93.
[110] Cf. _Chapters on Alliterative Verse_ by John Lawrence, D. Litt.
London: H. Frowde. 1893. 8º (chapter iii).
[111] 'Die englische Stabreimzeile im 14., 15., 16. Jahrhundert'
(_Anglia_, xi. 392-443, 553-618).
[112] Prof. Luick, in his longer treatise on the subject (_Anglia_,
xi. 404), distinguishes between two forms of this type with
anacrusis (× –́ × × –́) and without (–́ × × –́), which he
calls A1 and A2, a distinction he has rightly now abandoned
(Paul's _Grundriss_, ed. 2, II. ii. p. 165).
[113] Also printed in Ritson's _Ancient Songs_, i, p. 12; Wright's
_Pol. Songs_, p. 69; Mätzner's _Altenglische Sprachproben_, i,
p. 152; Böddeker's _Altenglische Dichtungen, Pol. Lieder_,
no. i.
[114] Paul's _Grundriss_, ed. 2, II. ii, p. 158.
[115] Cf. _Metrik_, ii. 146; and Luick, _Anglia_, xii. 450, 451.
[116] See G. Gascoigne, _Certayne Notes of Instruction concerning the
making of verse or ryme in English_, 1575, in Arber's
_Reprints_, together with _The Steele Glas_, &c., London, 1868,
8vo, p. 34.
[117] Bürger's version _Der Kaiser und der Abt_ introduces a regular
alternation of masculine and feminine couplets not observed in
the original metre which he is copying.
[118] Cf. the chapter on the four-foot iambic verse.
[119] Recognized by Bishop Percy (1765) as rhythmically equivalent to
_In a sómer séason, | when sóft was the sónne
I shópe me into shróudes, | as I a shépe wére_
(Piers Plowman).
and
_Hā́m and hḗahsetl | héofena rī́ces_
(Gen. 33).
_Scḗop þā and scýrede | scýppend ū̀re_
(ibid. 65).
[120] This alliterative-rhyming long line is scanned by the
contemporary metrist King James VI in the manner indicated by
the accents.
[121] The second of these lines is thus marked by Gascoigne as having
four stresses.
[122] We retain the MS. reading; see Sievers, _Altgerm. Metrik_,
p. 17.
PART II. FOREIGN METRES
DIVISION I. THE FOREIGN METRES IN GENERAL
CHAPTER V. INTRODUCTION
§ =76.= It was not till about 150 years after the Norman Conquest that
foreign metres were introduced in English literature under the influence
of French and Low Latin versification. For these, too, the general law
observed in all accentual poetry holds good, viz. that the word-accent
and the syntactical accent must coincide with the rhythmical accent.
This rule, however, was easier to observe in the old native four-beat
alliterative metre, in which the proportion and order of accented and
unaccented syllables admit of many variations, than in metres consisting
of equal measures, which follow stricter rules in that respect. In the
older native verse accordingly we seldom find deviations from this
fundamental rule, whereas in the newer foreign metres they are more
frequent and striking.
The ordinary native alliterative metre was founded, as we have seen, on
the principle that four accented syllables had to occur in each long
line, together with an undefined number of unaccented ones, the position
and order of those different syllables admitting many variations. The
new metres constructed on foreign models during the Middle English
period differ from the earlier rhythmic forms by the regularity of the
alternation of unaccented and accented syllables and by the uniformity
of their feet or measures; they are accordingly styled even-measured or
even-beat verses.
Four different kinds are to be distinguished, viz. ascending and
descending disyllabic measures, and ascending and descending trisyllabic
measures, commonly called _iambic_, _trochaic_, _anapaestic_, and
_dactylic_ measures. In Middle English poetry, however, only iambic
rhythms were used. The three other kinds of rhythms did not come in till
the beginning of the Modern English period.
With regard to the development of various even-measured rhythms from
these four different kinds of feet, it will suffice to consider the
iambic and trochaic metres only, as these are the most important, and
the formation of the anapaestic and the dactylic metres is to be
explained in the same way.
§ =77.= According to the number of feet we may classify =the different
kinds of line=--retaining the classical nomenclature--as dimeters,
trimeters, tetrameters, &c.; (one meter always consisting of _two_
iambic or trochaic, or anapaestic feet), so that, for instance, an
iambic tetrameter contains eight iambic feet. Lines or rhythmical
sections consisting of complete feet, i.e. of an equal number of
accented and unaccented syllables, are called _acatalectic_ or
_complete_ lines (dimeters, trimeters, &c.). If, however, the last foot
of a line or of a rhythmical section be characterized by the omission of
the last syllable, i.e. by a pause, the line is called _catalectic_ or
_incomplete_. The following examples will serve to illustrate the
meaning of these terms:
Acatalectic iambic tetrameter:
_Y spéke óf Ihésu, Márie sóne, | of álle Kínges hé is flóur,
Þat súffred déþ for ál man-kín, | he ís our álder créatóur._
Seynt Katerine, i. ll. 89-92.[123]
_Come lísten tó my móurnful tále, | ye ténder héarts and lovers déar;
Nor wíll you scórn to héave a sígh, | nor wíll you blúsh to shéd a
téar._ Shenstone, Jenny Dawson.
Catalectic iambic tetrameter:
_Ne sólde nó man dón a fírst | ne sléuhþen wél to dónne;
For mány man behóteð wél, | þet hít forȝét wel sóne._
Moral Ode, ll. 36-7.
_They cáught their spéares, their hórses rán, | as thóugh there hád
been thúnder,
And strúck them éach amídst their shíelds, | wherewíth they bróke
in súnder._
Sir Lancelot du Lake, ll. 65-8.[124]
Acatalectic trochaic tetrameter (not represented in Middle
English):
_Wérther hád a lóve for Chárlotte, | súch as wórds could néver
útter;
Wóuld you knów how fírst he mét her? | shé was cútting bréad
and bútter._
Thackeray, Sorrows of Werther, ll. 1, 2.
Catalectic trochaic tetrameter:
_Áh! what pléasant vísions háunt me, | ás I gáze upón the séa:
Áll the óld romántic légends, | áll my dréams come báck to mé!_
Longfellow, Secret of the Sea, ll. 1, 2.
A line in which the whole last foot is supplied by a pause is called
_brachycatalectic_.
Brachycatalectic iambic tetrameter:
_The Brítons thús depárted hénce, | seven Kíngdoms hére begóne,
Where díverselý in dívers bróils | the Sáxons lóst and wón._
Warner, Albion's England.[125]
Brachycatalectic trochaic tetrameter:
_Hásten, Lórd, to réscue mé | and sét me sáue from tróuble;
Sháme thou thóse who séek my sóul, | rewárd their míschief dóuble._
Translation of Psalm lxix.
If both rhythmical sections of a tetrameter are brachycatalectic
we get one of the four varieties of the Middle English Alexandrine--the
only one that has continued in use in Modern English poetry.
Alexandrine:
_Mid ývernésse and prúde | and ýssing wés that ón;
He núste nouht þát he wés | bóþe gód and món._
The Passion of our Lord, ll. 35, 36.
_Of Álbion's glórious ísle | the wónders whílst I wríte,
The súndry várying sóils, | the pléasures ínfiníte._
Drayton, Polyolbion, ll. 1, 2.
These are the principal forms of rhythmical sections made up
of disyllabic feet that occur in Middle English and Modern
English Poetry.
§ =78. The breaking up of these long lines= (consisting of two
rhythmical sections) into shorter lines is usually effected by rhyme.
Thus, if both rhythmical sections of the acatalectic tetrameter are
divided by what is called leonine rhyme we get the short four-foot
couplet imitated from the French _vers octosyllabe_, as in the
following verses taken from the Middle English _A lutel soth sermon_
(ll. 17-20):
_He máde him ínto hélle fálle,
And éfter hím his chíldren álle;
Þér he wás fortó ure dríhte
Hine bóhte míd his míhte._
A Modern English example is--
_Amóngst the mýrtles ás I wálk'd,
Lóve and my síghs thus íntertálk'd:
'Téll me,' said Í in déep distréss,
'Where I may fínd my shépherdéss.'_
Carew, Poets, iii, p. 703.
Another stanza of four lines is formed when the first rhythmical
sections of two tetrameters rhyming together are also connected in the
corresponding place (viz. before the caesura) by another species of
rhyme, called _interlaced_ or _crossed_ rhyme (_rime entrelacée_):
_I spéke of Ihésu of hévene withín;
Off álle kýngys he is flóur;
Þat súffryd déþ for álle mankýn,
He ís our alle créatóur._
Saynt Katerine, ii, ll. 89-92.
Cf. these verses with an earlier version of the same legend (quoted p.
127), where only the second sections are connected by rhyme.
A Modern English example is--
_When yóuth had léd me hálf the ráce
That Cúpid's scóurge had máde me rún;
I lóoked báck to méte the pláce
From whénce my wéary cóurse begún._
Surrey, Restless Lover, p. 4, ll. 1-4.
Corresponding short trochaic lines result from the acatalectic trochaic
tetrameter broken by leonine or inserted rhyme. In Middle English
poetry, however, they occur but very seldom in their pure form, i.e.
with disyllabic rhymes; in most cases they have monosyllabic or
alternate monosyllabic and disyllabic rhymes.
In like manner the catalectic iambic tetrameter is broken up by inserted
rhyme into two short verses, viz. one of four feet with a monosyllabic
ending, and one of three feet with a disyllabic ending, as in the
following examples:
_Bytwéne mérsh and áverýl,
When spráy bigínneþ to sprínge,
Þe lútel fóul haþ híre wýl
On hýre lúd to sínge._
Wright's Spec. of Lyric Poetry, p. 27.
_A chíeftain tó the híghlands bóund
Cries: 'Bóatman, dó not tárry,
And Í'll give thée a sílver póund
To rów us ó'er the férry.'_
Campbell, Lord Ullin's Daughter, ll. 1-4.
A tetrameter brachycatalectic in both sections may also be broken up
either by leonine or by inserted rhyme. The following examples
illustrate respectively these two methods:
_Wiþ lónging ý am lád,
On mólde y wáxe mád,
Y gréde, y gróne, vnglád
For sélden ý am sád._
Wright's Spec. of Lyric Poetry, p. 29.
_Lo, Ióseph, ít is Í,
An ángelle sénd to thé;
We, léyf, I práy the, whý?
What ís thy wýlle with mé?_
Towneley Mysteries, p. 135.
In the same manner the verse of four feet mentioned above is broken up
into two lines of two feet, and the two-feet line into two lines of one
foot, as in the following examples:
_Moost góod, most fáir,
Or thíngs as ráre,
To cáll you's lóst;
For áll the cóst ... &c._
Drayton, An Amouret Anacreontic (Poets, iii. 582).
_What shóuld I sáy
Since fáith is déad,
And trúth awáy
From mé is fléd?_
Wyatt, p. 130.
_For míght is ríht, | _I ám the kníght,
Líht is níght, | I cóme by níght._
And fíht is flíht._ | The Nutbrowne Mayd,
Wright's Political Songs, | line 33.
p. 254. |
§ =79.= In the fourteenth century the =heroic verse= was added to these
Middle English metres; a rhyming iambic line of five feet, formed after
the model of the French line of ten syllables, e.g.:
_A kníght ther wás, | and thát a wórthy mán._
Chaucer, Prol. 43.
Finally, the verse used in the =tail-rhyme staves= (_rime couée_) must
be mentioned. As this verse, however, usually appears only in that form
in which it is broken up into three short ones which compose one half of
the stave, its origin will be more properly discussed in the second
Book, treating of the origin and form of the different stanzas. To begin
with, however, it was simply a long line of three rhythmical sections.
Indications of this are here and there found in the way in which it is
arranged in MSS. and early printed books, e.g. in the first version of
the _Legend of Alexius_,[126] where it is written in triple columns on
the large folio pages of the Vernon MS. in the Bodleian Library:
_Sítteþ stílle withóuten stríf, | And Í will télle yóu the líf |
Óf an hóly mán.
Álex wás his ríght náme, | To sérve gód thought hím no sháme, |
Therof néver hé ne blán._
§ =80.= These are the simplest forms of verse used in Middle English
poetry; they can be varied, however, in many ways. First, they are not
restricted to monosyllabic or masculine endings or rhymes, but like
their French models, admit also of disyllabic or feminine rhymes.
Further, the caesura, where it occurs at all, may be masculine as well
as feminine. The septenary line, however, in its strict form admits only
of monosyllabic caesura and disyllabic ending.
Caesura and rhyme are in this respect closely analogous. For the
difference between the two kinds of caesura and between the two kinds of
rhyme is, that in the case of a masculine caesura or rhyme the pause
occurs immediately after the last accented syllable of the rhythmical
section, whereas in the case of a feminine caesura or rhyme an
unaccented syllable (sometimes even two or more unaccented
syllables[127]) follows upon the last accented one before the pause
takes place. Combinations of masculine caesura with masculine or with
feminine line-endings or rhymes, or the reverse, are, of course, allowed
and of frequent occurrence.
We quote in the first place some Middle English and Modern English
examples of masculine caesura in the Septenary, in the Alexandrine, in
lines of five and of four measures and--for the sake of comparison--in
the four-beat verse:
_They cáught their spéares, their hórses rán, | as thóugh there
hád been thúnder._
Percy's Rel. (cf. p. 127).
_The lífe so shórt, so fráil, | that mórtal mén live hére._
Wyatt, p. 155.
_A kníght there wás, | and thát a wórthy mán._
Chaucer, Prol. l. 43.
_For wánt of wíll | in wóe I pláin._
Wyatt, p. 44.
_For wómen are shréws, | both shórt and táll._
Shakesp. 2 Hen. IV, v. iii. 36.
Of the feminine caesura there are two different kinds, viz. the
so-called _Epic_ and _Lyric_ caesura.[128] In the Epic caesura in Iambic
metre the pause occurs, as in the feminine rhyme, after a supernumerary
syllable which follows upon the last accented one of the section the
next iambic foot following upon it in the usual manner. In the Lyric
caesura in Iambic metre, on the other hand, the pause occurs within a
foot, i.e. after the regular unaccented syllable of an iambic foot.
These three different kinds of caesura may be more simply defined as
follows: In the ordinary iambic line the caesura occurring after a
regular unaccented syllable is a feminine Lyric one (thus:
...⏑–́⏑|–́⏑–́...); the caesura occurring after an accented syllable is a
masculine one (thus: ...⏑–́|⏑–́ ⏑–́...); and that which occurs after a
supernumerary unaccented syllable immediately following upon an accented
one is a feminine Epic caesura (thus: ...⏑–́⏑|⏑–́⏑–́...).
These different kinds of caesura strictly correspond to their French
models. The Epic caesura, which to some extent disturbs the regular
rhythmic flow of a verse, is by far the least frequent in metres of
equal feet.
In the alliterative line, on the other hand, as this metre does not
consist of equal feet, the feminine caesura, which is, from a rhythmical
point of view, identical with the Epic, is commonly used both in the Old
English and in the Middle English period, being produced by the natural
quality of the types A, C, D, and by the resolution of the last accented
syllable in the types B and D (of the Old English verse). For this
reason it also occurs more frequently than the other kinds of caesura in
the Modern English four-beat line.
This may be illustrated by the following examples:
Epic caesura:
_To Cáunterbúry | with fúl devóut couráge._
Chaucer, Prol. line 22.
_He knóweth how gréat Atrídës | that made Troy frét._
Wyatt, p. 152.
_And yét there ís anóther | between those héavens twó._
Wyatt, p. 161.
_Witóuten grúndwall | to bé lastánd: stand._
Cursor Mundi, line 125.
Lyric caesura:
_Þer hé was fóurty dáwes | ál withúte méte._
Passion, line 29.
_Se séttled hé his kíngdom | ánd confírmd his ríght._
Spenser. Faerie Queene, II, x. 60.
_And wél we wéren ésed | átte béste._
Chaucer, Prol. 29.
_Þat álre wúrste | þát hi wúste._
Owl and Night., line 10.
_And Í should háve it | ás me líst._
Wyatt, p. 30.
All three kinds of caesura will have to be treated systematically later
on in connexion with the iambic rhyming verse of five measures, the
character of which they affect very much.
§ =81.= The variety caused by the different kinds of caesura in the
structure of the metres of equal measures, formed on the principle of a
regular alternation of unaccented and accented syllables, is much
increased by other causes arising from the different nature of Romanic
and Germanic versification. These variations came into existence, partly
because the poets, in the early days of the employment of
equal-measured rhythms, found it difficult, owing to want of practice,
to secure the exact coincidence of the word-accent and the metrical
accent, partly because for linguistic or (in the case of the later
poets) for artistic reasons they considered it unnecessary to do so.
They therefore either simply suffered the discord between the two kinds
of accentuation to remain, or, in order to avoid it, permitted
themselves licences that did violence either to the rhythmic laws of the
verse itself, or to the customary pronunciation of the words as regards
the value of syllables (i.e. their being elided or fully sounded) or
word-accent.
The changes which the equal-measured rhythms have undergone and still
undergo from the causes mentioned thus have relation partly to the
rhythmic structure of the verse itself, partly to the value of
syllables, and partly to the word-accent. From these three points of
view we shall first consider the iambic equal-measured rhythm in general
(this being the only species used in Middle English, and the one which
in Modern English is of most frequent occurrence and influences all the
rest), before we proceed to examine its individual varieties.
NOTES:
[123] Horstmann, _Altenglische Legenden_, _Neue Folge_, p. 244.
[124] Percy's _Reliques_, I. ii. 7.
[125] Quoted in _Chambers's Cyclop. of Eng. Lit._, i. 242.
[126] Ed. by J. Schipper, _Quellen und Forschungen_, xx.
[127] In the 'tumbling'--or, to use the German name, the 'gliding'
(_gleitend_) caesura or rhyme.
[128] For the introduction and explanation of these technical terms
cf. Fr. Diez, 'Über den epischen Vers,' in his _Altromanische
Sprachdenkmale_, Bonn, 1846, 8vo, p. 53, and the author's
_Englische Metrik_, i, pp. 438, 441; ii, pp. 24-6.
[129] The occurrence of this licence in Chaucer's heroic verse has
been disputed by ten Brink (_Chaucer's Sprache und Verskunst_,
p. 176) and others, but see _Metrik_, i. 462-3, and
Freudenberger, _Ueber das Fehlen des Auftaktes in Chaucer's
heroischem Verse_, Erlangen, 1889.
CHAPTER VI
VERSE-RHYTHM
§ =82.= As in Greek and Latin metre, so also in the equal-measured
rhythms of Middle and Modern English, it is a general law that the
beginning or end of a metrical foot should, so far as possible, not
coincide with the beginning or end of a word, but should occur in the
middle, so that the individual feet may be more closely connected with
each other. When this law is not observed, there arises what is
technically called _diaeresis_, that is to say, the breaking up of the
line into separate portions, which as a rule renders the verse
inharmonious. On this account lines composed entirely of monosyllables
are to be avoided. This law is more frequently neglected in Modern
English poetry than in that of earlier times, because the rarity of
inflexional endings makes its constant observance difficult.
Even in Middle English poems, however, we often find lines, especially
if they are short, which are composed of monosyllabic words only.
These observations may be illustrated by the following examples:
(_a_) Lines with diaeresis:
_Ne ís no quéne so stárk ne stóur._
Wright's Spec. of Lyr. Poetry, p. 87, l. 4.
_And hé was clád in cóote and hóod of gréne._
Chaucer, Prol. line 103.
_Had cást him óut from Héaven with áll his hóst._
Milton, Parad. L. i. 37.
_Had shóok his thróne. What thóugh the fíeld be lóst?_
ib. 105.
(_b_) Lines without diaeresis:
_Nou shrínkeþ róse and lýlie flour._
Wright's Spec. of Lyr. Poetry, p. 87, line 1.
_And smále fówles máken mélodíe._
Chaucer, Prol. line 9.
_And réassémbling óur afflícted pówers._
Milton, Parad. L. i. 186.
§ =83.= With regard to modulation, too, the lines with diaeresis differ
from those without it. In lines with diaeresis all syllables or words
with a rhythmic accent upon them are pronounced with nearly the same
stress, while in lines without diaeresis the difference between the
accented syllables is more noticeable. The two following examples taken
from Milton's _Paradise Lost_ will serve to illustrate this, the
difference of stress being indicated by different numbers under the
accented syllables:
_Had cást him óut from Héaven with áll his hóst_
0 1 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 2
_And réassémbling óur afflícted pówers._
0 1 0 2 0 1 0 3 0 2
As a general rule, the syllables which stand in an arsis are, just
because they bear the metrical stress, of course more strongly accented
than those which stand in a thesis.
Occasionally, however, a thesis-syllable may be more strongly accented
than an arsis-syllable in the same line which only carries the
rhythmical accent, but neither the word-accent nor the logical accent of
the sentence.
Thus in the following line from _Paradise Lost_--
_Irreconcileable to our grand Foe_,
the word _grand_, although it stands in a thesis, is certainly, because
of the rhetorical stress which it has, more strongly accented than the
preceding word _our_ or the syllable _-ble_, both of which have the
rhythmical accent. Milton's blank verse abounds in such resolved
discords, as they might be called. In not a few cases, however, they
remain unresolved. This occurs chiefly in lines where the short
unaccented syllables or unimportant monosyllabic words must be
lengthened beyond their natural quantity in order to fit in with the
rhythm of the verse, as in the following lines:
_Of Thámuz yéarly wóunded: thé love-tále._ Par. L. i. 452.
_Únivérsal repróach far wórse to béar._ Par. L. vi. 34.
On the other hand long syllables standing in a thesis may be shortened
without harshness, e.g. the words _brought_ and _our_ in the following
line:
_Brought déath intó the wórld and áll our wóe._
§ =84.= With regard to the treatment of the rhythm the Middle English
even-beat metres in some respects are considerably different from the
Modern English metres, the reason being that the earlier poets, as yet
inexperienced in the art of composing in even-beat measures, found it
more difficult than Modern English poets to make the rhythmic accent
coincide with the word-accent and the syntactic-accent (cf. pp. 126-7,
134).
Certain deviations from the ordinary iambic rhythm which partly disturb
the agreement of the number of accented and unaccented syllables in a
line are more frequent in Middle English than in Modern English poetry.
One of these licences is the =suppression of the anacrusis= or the
absence of the first unaccented syllable of the line, or of the second
rhythmical section, e.g.
_Þán sche séyd: ȝe trówe on hím | þát is lórd of swíche pousté._
Horstmann's Altengl. Legend. N. F., p. 250, ll. 333-4.
_Gíf we léornið gódes láre,
Þénne ofþúncheþ hít him sáre._ Pater Noster, 15-16.
_Únnet líf ic hábbe iléd, | and ȝíet, me þíncð, ic léde._
Moral Ode, l. 5.
_Twénty bóokes, | clád in blák and réde._ Chaucer, Prol. 294.[129]
_Sóme, that wátched | wíth the múrd'rer's knífe._ Surrey, p. 59.
_Góod my Lórd, | give mé thy fávour stíll._
Shakesp. Temp. iv. i. 204.
_Nórfolk sprúng thee, | Lámbeth hólds thee déad._ Surrey, p. 62.
_Vor mánies mánnes sóre iswínch | hábbeð ófte unhólde._
Moral Ode, Ms. D. l. 34.
_Enhástyng hím, | tíl he wás at lárge._
Lydgate, Story of Thebes, 1075.
_The tíme doth páss, | yét shall nót my lóve!_ Wyatt, p. 130.
While this metrical licence may mostly be attributed to want of
technical skill in Middle English poets, it is frequently employed in
the Modern English period, as the last example shows, with distinct
artistic intention of giving a special emphasis to a particular word.
Several Middle English poets, however, make but scant use of this
licence, e.g. the author of _The Owl and the Nightingale_ and Gower,
while some of them, as Orm, never use it at all.
§ =85.= These latter poets, on the other hand, make very frequent use of
another kind of rhythmical licence, viz. =level stress= or _hovering
accent_, as Dr. Gummere calls it; i.e. they subordinate the word-accent
or the syntactic accent to the rhythmic accent, and so far violate the
principal law of all accentual metre, which demands _that those three
accents should fall on one and the same syllable_.
This licence is found chiefly in metres of a certain length, e.g. in the
Septenary or in the iambic five-foot line, but not so frequently in
shorter metres, as the resulting interruption of the flow of the rhythm
is not so perceptible in long as in short lines.
The least sensible irregularity of this kind occurs when the
(syntactically) less emphatic of two consecutive monosyllabic words is
placed in the arsis, as in the following lines:
_For whý this ís more thén that cáuse is._
Chaucer, H. of Fame, 20.
_There ís a róck in thé salt flóod._ Wyatt, p. 144.
_Now seemeth féarful nó more thé dark cáve._ ib. p. 210.
If the accented syllable of a word consisting of two or more syllables
is placed in the thesis, and the unaccented one in the arsis, the
licence is greater. This is a licence often met with in Middle English
poetry, as e.g.:
_I wílle not léyf you álle helpléss | as mén withóuten fréynd._
Towneley Myst. p. 182.
_Of clóth-makýng | she hádde súch an háunt._ Chaucer, Prol. 447.
_With blóod likewíse | ye múst seek yóur retúrn._ Surrey, p. 117.
The effect is still more harsh, if inflexional endings are used in this
way, though this does not often occur. The following are examples:
_Þa béodes hé b=eo=d=é=þ therínne._ Pater Noster, 23.
_Annd áȝȝ =a=fft=érr= þe Góddspell stánnt._ Orm. 33.
_All þúss iss þátt h=a=llgh=é= g=o=ddsp=é=ll._ ib. 73.
In most cases dissonant rhythmical accentuations of this sort are caused
by the rhyme, especially in Middle English poetry, e.g.:
_Sównynge alwáy th' encrés of his wynnýnge.
He wólde the sée were képt for ény thínge._
Chaucer, Prol. 275.
Cf. also: _thing: wr+i+t+ý+ng_ ib. 325-6; _br+e+mst+óo+n: non_ ib.
629-30; _+a+le-st+á+ke: cake_ ib. 667-8; _g+o+dd+é+sse: gesse_ Chaucer,
Knightes Tale, 243-4; _herde: +a+nsw+é+rde_ ib. 265-6; _ass+e+mbl+ý+nge:
thynge_ Barclay, Ship of Fools, p. 20; similar examples are even to be
met with in early Modern English poetry, e.g.: _n+o+th+í+ng: bring_ Sur.
15; _bem+oa+n+í+ng: king_ Wyatt, 206; _w+e+lf+á+re: snare_ ib. 92;
_g+oo+dn+é+ss: accéss_ ib. 209; _m+a+n+é+re: chere_ Surrey, 124, &c.
Sometimes it may be doubtful how a line should be scanned. In some cases
of this kind the usage of the poet will decide the question; we know,
for instance, that Orm never allows the omission of the first unaccented
syllable. Where decisive evidence of this kind is wanting, the verse
must be scanned in such a manner as to cause the least rhythmical
difficulty. If a compound, or a word containing a syllable with
secondary accent, does not fit in with the rhythmical accent, it is to
be read, as a rule, with level stress when it occurs in the middle of a
line (and, of course, always when it is the rhyme-word). On the other
hand, if according to the rhythmical scheme of the line an unaccented
syllable would be the bearer of the rhythmical stress, we must in most
cases assume suppression of the anacrusis.
It would not be admissible therefore to scan:
_Love, thát l+i+v+é+th | and réigneth ín my thóught_,
Surrey, p. 12.
but:
_Lóve that líveth | and réigneth ín my thóught._
The licence of displacement of accent is an offence against the
fundamental law of accentual verse, and therefore becomes more and more
rare as the technique of verse becomes more perfect.
§ =86=. Another metrical licence, which is not inadmissible, is
=the absence of a thesis in the interior of a line=. This
licence is not of the same origin in Middle English as in Modern
English poetry.
In Middle English it generally appears to be a relic of the
ancient alliterative verse (Types C and D) and to be analogous
to the similar usage of the contemporary Middle English alliterative
line, as e.g.:
_Ne léve nó mán to múchel | to chílde ne to wíue._
Moral Ode, line 24.
_Þet ís al sóth fúl iwís._ Pater Noster, 2.
_hálde wé gódes láȝe._ ib. 21.
_Óf the próphéte | that hátte Séynt Iohán._ Passion, 26.
Not unfrequently, also, this licence is caused by the rhyme, as in the
following examples:
_Myd Hárald Árfáger, | kýng of Nórthwéy: eye._ Rob. of Glouc. 22.
_As wás king Róbert of Scótlánd: hand._ Barbour, Bruce, 27.
_And gúd Schyr Iámes of Dóuglás: was._ ib. 29.
_Súmwhat óf his clóþíng: king._
Rob. Mannyng, Handlyng Sinne, l. 5703.
The same manner of treatment may be found applied to words which end in
_-lyng_, _-esse_, _-nesse_, and similar syllables, and which have a
secondary accent on the last syllable and the chief accent on the
preceding root-syllable.
In Modern English verse the absence of a thesis between two accented
syllables sometimes arises from phonetic conditions, i.e. from the pause
which naturally takes place between two words which it is difficult to
pronounce successively. This pause supplies the place of the missing
thesis, as e.g. in the following lines:
_And fírst cléns us fróm the fíend._ Townl. Myst. p. 9.
_An óld témple there stánds, | whereás some tíme._ Surrey, p. 142.
_And scórn the Stóry | thát the Kníght tóld._ Wyatt, p. 192.
In other instances the emphasis laid upon a particular word compensates
for the absence of the unaccented syllable, especially, if the accented
syllable is long: e.g.
_And thóu, Fáther, | recéive intó thy hánds._ Surrey, p. 142.
_Júst as you léft them | áll prísoners, sír._ Shak. Temp. V. i. 8.
_My ówn lóve, | my ónly déar._ Moore.
_Mórning, évening, | nóon and night
Práise Gód, | sang Théocríte._ R. Browning, ii. 158.
This licence is of frequent occurrence in even-beat measures.
§ =87.= Another metrical peculiarity caused by the influence of the
rhythm is the =lengthening= of a word by the introduction of an
unaccented extra syllable, commonly an _e_, to supply a thesis lacking
between two accented syllables.
This occurs in Middle English and in Modern English poetry also. (i) In
disyllabic words, commonly those with a first syllable ending with a
mute, the second beginning with a liquid, e.g.:
_Of Éng(e)lónd | to Cáunterbúry they wénde._ Chauc. Prol. 16.
_If yóu will tárry, | hóly píl(e)grím_.
Shakesp. All's Well, III. v. 43.
(ii) In Modern English poetry only in certain monosyllabic words ending
in _r_ or _re_, preceded by a diphthong, as e.g. in _our_, _hour_,
_fire_, &c., e.g.:
_So dóth he féel | his fíre mánifóld._ Wyatt, 205.
This peculiarity will be mentioned again in the next chapter.
§ =88.= Another deviation from the regular iambic line is the =inversion
of the rhythm=; i.e. the substitution of a trochee for an iambus at the
beginning of a line or after the caesura. The rhythmical effect of this
licence has some resemblance to that of the suppression of anacrusis. In
both cases the rhythmic accent has to yield to the word-accent. But
while in the latter case the whole verse becomes trochaic in consequence
of the omission of the first syllable, in the former the trochaic
cadence affects one foot only (generally the first), the rest of the
verse being of a regular iambic rhythm. Hence the number of syllables in
each line is the same as that in all the other regular lines (including
those with level stress), whereas verses with suppressed anacrusis may
easily be distinguished from the former by their smaller number of
syllables. On the other hand, the number of syllables (being the same in
both cases) affords no help in distinguishing between change of
word-accent and inversion of rhythm. Which of these two kinds of licence
is to be recognized in any particular case can be determined only by the
position which the abnormal foot occupies in the line. Inversion of
rhythm (i.e. the substitution of a trochee for an iambus) occurs, as a
rule, only at the beginning of a line or hemistich, where the flow of
the rhythm has not begun, so that the introduction of a trochee does not
disturb it. If, therefore, the discord between normal word-stress and
iambic rhythm occurs in any other position in the line, it must be
regarded as a case of level stress.
The following examples will serve to illustrate the difference between
these three species of metrical licence:
Omission of anacrusis:
_Herknet tó me góde men_. Hav. 1. 7 syll.
_Nórfolk sprúng thee, Lámbeth hólds thee déad._
Surrey, p. 62. 9 "
Level stress:
_A stálw+o+rþí man ín a flok_. Hav. 24. 8 "
_And Rýpheús that mét thee bý m+oo+nlíght._
Surrey, p. 126. 10 "
Inversion of rhythm:
_Míchel was súch a kíng to préyse_. Hav. 60. 8 "
_Míldly doth flów alóng the frúitful fíelds._
Surrey, p. 145. 10 "
_Shróuding themsélves únder the désert shóre._
Surrey, p. 113. 10 "
Inversion of rhythm may be caused in the interior of a rhythmical series
only when a particularly strong emphasis is laid upon a word, e.g. to
express an antithesis or for similar reasons:
_That íf_ góld ruste | _whát shal ýren dó?_ Chaucer, Prol. 500.
_And wé'll_ nót fail | _When Dúncan ís asléep._
Shakesp. Macb. I. vii. 61.
We may distinguish between two kinds of inversion of rhythm, viz. (i)
_natural_ inversion, and (2) _rhetorical_ inversion. The former is
caused by word-accent, the latter by the rhetorical accent, as
illustrated by the last examples. The second kind differs very clearly
from level stress, as the word in question or the first syllable of it
(see the second line of the following quotation) is to be uttered with
an unusually strong emphasis, e.g.:
Síck, or _in héalth, | in évil fáme or góod._ Surrey, p. 17.
Lústy _of scháip,_ lýght of _delíveránce_.
Dunbar, Thriss. and Rois 95.
In the second example inversion of rhythm occurs (as it often does)
twice over, viz. at the beginning of the verse and after the caesura.
Not unfrequently also two inversions of rhythm follow immediately upon
one another, e.g.:
Wórldly gládnes | _is mélled wíth affráy_.
Lydgate, Min. Poems, xxii, line 11.
Réigned óver | _so mány péoples and réalms._ Surrey, p. 135.
Such verses, however, may also be looked upon as instances of the
omission of anacrusis combined with epic caesura.
This would be the only admissible explanation in verses the first
accented word of which is a word which usually does not bear an accent
or is not accented rhetorically, e.g.:
_Óf the wórdes | that Týdeús had sáid._
Lydgate, St. of Thebes, line 1082.
_Tó have líved | áfter the cíty táken._ Surrey, p. 139.
But in a line with an emphasized first word inversion of rhythm is the
more probable explanation: e.g.
_Nát astónned, | nor ín his hérte afférde._
Lydgate, St. of Thebes, line 1069.
_Gód, that séndeth, | withdráweth wínter shárp._ Surrey, p. 58.
§ =89. Disyllabic or polysyllabic thesis.= Another important deviation
from the regular iambic rhythm, which is clearly to be distinguished
from the double thesis caused by inversion of rhythm, consists in the
use of two or sometimes even more unaccented syllables instead of one to
form a regular thesis of a verse. This irregularity, which is almost as
common in Modern English as it is in Early English poetry, may occur in
any part of the verse. If it occurs in the first foot, it may be called
disyllabic or polysyllabic anacrusis, as in the following examples:
_Gif we clépieþ híne féder þénne._ Pater Noster, 19.
_Se þe múchel vólȝeð hís iwíl, | him sélue hé biswíkeð._
Moral Ode, 15.
_To purvéie þám a skúlkyng, | on þe Énglish éft to ríde._
Rob. Mannyng, Chron. p. 3, l. 8.
_With a thrédbare cópe, | as ís a póure scolér._
Chaucer, Prol. 260.
_And why thís is a revelációun._ Chaucer, H. of Fame, l. 8.
_My comáundemént that kéeps trulý, | and áfter ít will dó._
Towneley Myst. p. 182.
_There was néver nóthing | móre me páin'd._ Wyatt, p. 57.
_I beséech your Gráces | bóth to párdon mé._
Shakesp. Rich. III, I. i. 84.
_By thy lóng grey béard and glíttering éye._
Coleridge, Anc. Mar. l. 3.
This metrical licence may occur also immediately after the caesura,
e.g.:
_Wel láte he léteþ úfel wéorc | þe hit né may dón na máre._
Moral Ode, 128.
_And thríes hádde sche bén | at Ierúsalém._ Chauc. Prol. 463.
_My wíll confírm | with the spírit of stéadfastnéss._
Wyatt, p. 220.
_But thén we'll trý | what these dástard Frénchmen dáre._
Shakesp. 1 Hen. VI, I. iv. 111.
It most frequently occurs, however, in the interior of the rhythmical
sections, and there it is found in any of the feet, except the last, as
will be seen by the following examples:
_Intó þis ðhísternesse hér benéðen._ Gen. and Exod. 66.
_For þér we hit míhte fínden éft | and hábben búten énde._
Moral Ode, 52.
_In Wéssex was thán a kíng, | his náme wás Sir Íne._
Rob. Mannyng, Chron. p. 2, l. 1.
_Of Éngelónd | to Cáunterbúry they wénde._ Chauc., Prol. 16.
_So fervent hót, | thy díssolute lífe._ Surrey, p. 68.
_And Windsor, alás! | doth cháse me fróm her síght._ ib. p. 14.
_Succéeding his fáther Bólingbróke, | did réign._
Shakesp. 1 Hen. VI, II. v. 83.
§ =90.= Unaccented extra syllables are found also before a caesura or at
the end of the line. In the former case they constitute what is known as
_epic caesura_, in the latter they form feminine or double endings (if
there is only one extra syllable) or tumbling endings (if there are two
extra syllables). In both cases this irregularity is softened or
excused, so to say, by the pause, except where the accented or masculine
ending of the hemistich is required by the very nature of the metre,
viz. in the first acatalectic half of the Septenary line. It does,
however, not unfrequently occur in some Early Middle English poems
written in Septenary metre, e.g. in the _Moral Ode_ and several others,
but this may be only owing to want of skill or carelessness on the part
of the authors of these poems. The following example taken from the
_Moral Ode_ may serve to illustrate this:
_Nis nán wítnesse éal se múchel, | se mánnes ágen héorte._ 114.
In the _Ormulum_ irregularities of this kind never occur, a certain
proof that Orm thought them metrically inadmissible, and felt that an
extra syllable at the end of the first hemistich would disturb the flow
of the rhythm.
Epic caesura certainly is more in place, or at any rate more common, in
other kinds of verse, especially in the Middle English Alexandrine
formed after the Old French model, e.g.:
_Untó the Ínglis kínges, | þat hád it ín þer hónd._
Robert Mannyng, Chron. p. 2, l. 4.
In the four-foot and five-foot rhymed verse, and especially in blank
verse, it is of frequent occurrence:
_Why thís a fántom, | why thése orácles._ Chauc. H. of F. 11.
_To Cáunterbúry, | with fúl devóut coráge._ id. Prol. 22.
_What shólde he stúdie | and máke hym séluen wóod?_ ib. 184.[130]
_So crúel príson | how cóuld betíde, alás._ Surrey, p. 19.
_O míseráble sórrow! | withóuten cúre._ Wyatt, p. 124.
_With hídden hélp or vántage, | or thát with bóth._
Shakesp. Macb. I. iv. 113.
_But hów of Cáwdor? | The tháne of Cáwdor líves._ ib. I. iii. 72.
_But thís delíver'd, | he sáw the ármies jóin._
Fletcher, Loyal Subj. II. i. 333.
_For íf my húsband táke you, | and táke you thús._
id. Rule a Wife, v. 495.
_By vísion fóund thee ín the Témple, | and spáke._
Milton, Par. Reg. i. 256.
_Creáted húgest | that swím the Ócean-stréam._ id. Par. L. i. 202.
_And chíefly thóu, O Spírit! | that dóst prefér._ ib. i. 17.
_Have fílled their víals | with sálutáry wráth._
Coleridge, Relig. Musings, 84.
§ =91.= Double or feminine endings are more frequent than epic caesuras,
especially in Middle English poetry. They become rarer, however, in the
course of time in Modern English in consequence of the gradual
disappearance of the inflexional endings, e.g.:
_Þet wé don álle hís ibéden,
Ánd his wílle fór to réden._ Pater Noster, 7-8.
_Tó my wýtte | that cáuseth swévenes
Éyther on mórwes | ór on évenes._ Chauc. H. of Fame, 3-4.
_Áfter Éthelbért | com Élfríth his bróther,
Þat was Égbrihtes sónne, | and ȝit ther wás an óþer._
Robert Mannyng, Chron. p. 21, ll. 7-8.
_Withóuten óther cómpainýe | in yóuthe,
But therof néedeth nóught | to spéke as nóuthe._
Chauc. Prol. 461-2.
_And ín her síght | the séas with dín confóunded?_ Sur. p. 164.
_Or whó can téll thy lóss, | if thóu mayst ónce recóver._
Wyatt, p. 154.
_Lie there, my árt. | Wípe thou thine eyes; have cómfort._
Shakesp. Temp. 1. ii. 25.
_The dífference 'twíxt the covetous | ánd the pródigall._
Ben Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 12.
_Nothing at áll! | I'll téach you tó be treacherous._
Fletcher, Mad Lover, iii. 255.
_Nó, Sir, | I dáre not leave her | tó that sólitariness._
id. Rule a Wife, iv. 479.
_What yóung thing's thís?-- | Good mórrow, béauteous géntlewoman._
id. Loy. Subj. v. ii. 402.
The two last quotations are noteworthy because the number of extra
syllables after the last accented one is two, three, or even four, a
peculiarity which is one of the characteristics of Fletcher's
versification. Other poets, e.g. Shakespeare, preferred feminine
endings in some periods of their literary career, so that it is possible
to use the proportion of masculine and feminine endings occurring in a
play, compared with others of the same poet, as a means of ascertaining
the date of its origin.
It is also to be observed that in certain epochs or kinds of poetry
feminine endings are more in favour than in others. In the eighteenth
century they are very scarce, whereas they become more frequent again in
the nineteenth century. Byron and Moore especially use them copiously in
their satirical and humorous poems to produce burlesque effects.
§ =92.= Another metrical licence also connected with the end of the line
is what is known as the =enjambement= or _run-on line_--that is to say,
the carrying over of the end of a sentence into the following line.
The rule that the end of a line must coincide with the end of a
sentence, is, from the nature of the case, more difficult to observe
strictly--and, consequently, the run-on line is more readily
admitted--in verse composed of short lines (which often do not afford
room for a complete sentence) than where the lines are longer. In blank
verse, also, the run-on line is more freely allowed than in rhymed
verse, where the pause at the end of the line is more strongly marked.
Generally speaking, enjambement is not allowed to separate two short
words that stand in close syntactical connexion and isolated from the
rest of the sentence, though examples of this do occur (especially in
the older poets) in which an adjective is separated from its
substantive:
_I wíll yive hím the álderbéste
Yífte, that éver he abóod his líve._ Chauc. Blaunche, 246.
_My lúte awáke, perfórm the lást
Lábour, that thóu and Í shall wáste._ Wyatt, p. 29,
or a verb from its subject or object, formed by a monosyllabic word:
_To téllen shórtly, whán that hé
Was ín the sée, thús in this wíse._ Chauc. Blaunche, 68.
_Me néed not lóng for tó beséech
Hér, that hath pówer me tó commánd._ Wyatt, p. 31.
But if, on the other hand, two closely connected parts of a sentence are
each of them long enough to fill up two measures, they may be separated
by enjambement:
_Whan Zéphirús eek wíth his swéte bréethe
Enspíred háth in évery hólte and héethe
The téndre cróppes, ánd the yónge sónne
Háth in the Rám his hálfe cóurs irónne_, &c. Chauc. Prol. 5-8.
_There áre a sórt of mén, whose vísagés
Do créam and mántle líke a stánding pónd._
Shakesp. Merch. I. i. 88-9.
The admissibility or inadmissibility, however, of run-on lines depends
on many different and complicated considerations, for which the reader
may be referred to ten Brink, _Chaucer's Sprache und Verskunst_, §§
317-20, and to our own larger work, vol. ii, pp. 59-62.
In Shakespeare's versification, and probably also in that of other
poets, the more or less frequent use of run-on lines is characteristic
of certain periods of their literary career, and is therefore looked
upon as a valuable help in determining the date of the different plays
(cf. § 91). The largest percentage of run-on lines probably occurs in
Milton's epics.
§ =93.= The judicious use of run-on lines is often resorted to for
the purpose of avoiding monotony. Another metrical licence connected
with the line-end, which is adopted for the same purpose, is
=rhyme-breaking=. This occurs chiefly in rhyming couplets, and consists
in ending the sentence with the first line of the couplet, instead of
continuing it (as is usually done) till the end of the second line. Thus
the close connexion of the two lines of the couplet effected by the
rhyme is broken up by the logical or syntactic pause occurring at the
end of the first line. This is used rarely, and so to say unconsciously,
by the earlier Middle English poets, but is frequently applied, and
undoubtedly with artistic intention, by Chaucer and his successors.
The following passage contains examples both of rhyme-breaking and of
the more normal usage:
_A Yéman hádde he, ánd servántz namó
At thát tyme, fór him líste ríde sóo;
And hé was clád in cóte and hóod of gréne:
A shéf of pécok árwes bríght and shéne
Únder his bélt he bár ful thríftilý.
Wél koude he drésse his tákel yémanlý;_ &c.
Chauc. Prol. ll. 101-6.
Rhyme-breaking may, of course, also take place in other metres, as e.g.
in four-foot iambic verses:
_Which hópe I kéep full súre in mé,
As hé, that áll my cómfort ís.
On yóu alone, which áre my blíss_, &c.
Surrey, pp. 79-80.
Chapman, in his translation of Homer, often uses it in Septenary
verses as well as in five-foot iambic verses. In certain stanzas
rhyme-breaking at particular places is a strict rule, as e.g. in the
Rhyme-Royal stanza (_a b a b . b c c_), in the ballade-stanza of eight
lines (_a b a b . b c b c_), and also between the two quatrains of the
regular Italian sonnet.
On the other hand this licence is rare in the works of the poets of the
eighteenth century who wrote under French influence, and in modern times
(especially at the present day) it seems to be rather avoided than
intentionally admitted.
§ =94.= Another peculiarity of frequent but irregular occurrence in
even-beat verse is =alliteration=, a feature which is derived from the
old native metre, and is still (consciously or unconsciously) employed
by many poets as an ornament of their verse.
The arbitrary use of alliteration in the freer form of the long line has
been already discussed.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it is mostly used merely to
give a stronger emphasis to those words of the verse which bear the
logical and rhythmical accent,[131] but even as early as this we can
observe a decided predilection for accumulated alliteration. Sometimes
the same alliterative sound is retained through several successive
lines. In other instances a fourth alliterating word is admitted in the
line (as in the example referred to above). In the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries this striving after accumulation of alliteration was
carried to such a length that it became a rule that as many words in the
line as possible, whether accented or not, should begin with the same
letter. This accounts for King James VI's metrical rule quoted above (p.
89), that in 'Tumbling verse' the line is to be 'literal'. Even Chaucer,
in spite of his well-known hostile attitude to regular alliterative
poetry,[132] allowed his diction to be influenced strongly by it, e.g.:
_I =w=réche_, =w=hích that =w=épe and =w=áylle thús_,
=W=as =w=hílom =w=ýf to =k=ýng =C=apáneús_.
Kn. Tale, ll. 73-4.
_And =h=é =h=im =h=úrtleth wíth =h=is =h=órs adóun_.
ib. line 1758.
This accumulation of alliterative sounds occurs in the works of many
Modern English poets, some of whom, as Peele and Shakespeare, have
themselves ridiculed it, but were unable, or were not careful, to avoid
it altogether in their own practice.
_And wíth =sh=arp =sh=rílling =sh=ríekes | doe bóotlesse crý_.
Spens. F. Q. I. iii. 127.
_=W=hich =w=íth a rúshy =w=éapon | Í =w=ill =w=óund_.
Peele, Old Wifes Tale, p. 467.
_Théy =l=ove =l=éast that =l=ét men know their =l=óve_.
Shak. Rom. i. 3.
For particulars see _Neuengl. Metrik_, pp. 68-76, and the following
treatises:
_Die Alliteration im Layamon_, by K. Regel; _Germanistische Studien_,
ed. K. Bartsch, Vienna, 1874, i. 172 ff.
_Die Alliteration bei Chaucer_, by Dr. F. Lindner, _Jahrbuch f. rom.
und engl. Literatur_, N. Ser. ii, p. 311 ff.
_Die Alliteration in den Werken Chaucers mit Ausschluss der
Canterbury Tales_, by E. Petzold. Dissertation, Marburg, 1889.
_Die alliterierenden Sprachformeln in Morris's Early English
Alliterative Poems und im Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight_, by Joh.
Fuhrmann. Dissertation, Kiel, 1886.
Prof. Dr. K. Seitz, _Die Alliteration im Englischen vor und bei
Shakspere_, and _Zur Alliteration im Neuenglischen_.
Realschulprogramme i-iii, Marne, 1875, Itzehoe, 1883, 1884.
M. Zeuner, _Die Alliteration bei neuenglischen Dichtern_.
Dissertation, Halle, 1880.
_Die stabreimenden Wortverbindungen in den Dichtungen Walter
Scott's_, by Georg Apitz. Dissertation, Breslau, 1893.
NOTES:
[130] We therefore hold ten Brink to be wrong in asserting
(_Chaucer's Sprache und Verskunst_, § 307, 3. Anm.) that no
redundant or hypermetrical syllable is permissible in the
caesural pause of Chaucer's iambic line of five accents,
although he recognizes that in lines of four accents Chaucer
admits the very same irregularity, which moreover has remained
in use down to the present day. Cf. Skeat, _Chaucer Canon_,
Oxford, 1900, pp. 31-3, and Schipper in Paul's _Grundriss_,
ed. 2, II. ii, pp, 217-18. On this point, as also on several
others, Miss M. Bentinck Smith, the translator of ten Brink's
work, is of our opinion (cf. her Remarks on Chapter III of ten
Brink's _Chaucer's Sprache und Verskunst_ in _The Modern
Language Quarterly_, vol. v, No. 1, April, 1902, pp. 13-19). A
contrary view with regard to 'extra syllables' in the heroic
and the blank-verse line (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries)
is taken by A. P. van Dam and Cornelis Stoffel, _Chapters on
English Printing, Prosody, and Pronunciation_ (1550-1700),
Heidelberg, 1902 (Anglistische Forschungen herausgegeben von
Dr. Johannes Hoops, Heft 9), pp. 48-113.
[131] Cf. the lines from Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 31,
quoted on p. 98.
[132] Cf. _Parson's Prologue_, 42-3.
CHAPTER VII
THE METRICAL TREATMENT OF SYLLABLES
§ =95.= As the root-syllables of words (leaving out of account the words
of Romanic origin) almost universally retain their full syllabic value,
whether occurring in arsis or in thesis, they require no notice in this
chapter. We therefore confine our remarks to the formative and
inflexional syllables, which, though as a rule found only in thesis,
admit of being treated metrically in three different ways. (1) A
syllable of this kind may retain its full value, so as to form by itself
the entire thesis of a foot. (2) It may be slurred, so that it combines
with another unaccented syllable to form a thesis. (3) It may lose its
syllabic value altogether, its vowel being elided and its consonantal
part (if it has any) being attracted to the root-syllable. By the
last-mentioned process, as is well known, the number of inflexional
syllables has been greatly reduced in Modern as compared with Middle and
Old English.
The inflexional endings which in Middle English (we are here considering
chiefly the language of Chaucer) have ordinarily the value of
independent syllables are the following:--
_-es_ (_-is_, _-us_) in the gen. sing. and the plur. of the substantive,
and in certain adverbs.
_-en_ in the nom. plur. of some substantives of the weak declension, in
certain prepositions, in the infinitive, in the strong past participle,
in the plur. of the pres. of strong verbs, and in the pret. plur. of all
verbs.
_-er_ in the comparative.
_-est_ in the superlative and the 2nd person pres.
_-eth_ (_-ith_) in the 3rd person pres. sing., in the plur. pres. and
plur. imperative.
_-ed_ (_-id_, _-ud_) in the past participles of weak verbs, and often in
the 1st and 3rd person sing. and the whole plur. pret. of the weak verbs
with short root-syllable, instead of the fuller endings _-ede_, _-eden_,
which also occur; in weak verbs with long root-syllable the endings are
_-de_, _-den_.
_-edest_, or _-dest_ in the 2nd pers. sing. pret. of the weak verb.
_-e_ in a certain number of inflexional forms of the verb (as e.g. in
the inf. and in the past part. of strong verbs, where _n_ is dropped),
and of the substantive and adjective, and as an ending of Romanic words,
&c.
Of all these endings only the comparative and superlative suffixes
_-er_, _-est_ are preserved in an unreduced state in Modern English. The
final _-e_ has disappeared in pronunciation (with some exceptions
occurring in Early Modern English). The important suffixes _-en_, _-es_,
_-ed_, _-est_ (2nd pers. sing.), _-eth_ (for which _-s_, the northern
ending, instead of _-es_, is commonly substituted) have been contracted
through syncope so as to form one syllable with the root, except where
the nature of the final consonant of the stem prevents syncope, e.g. in
_-es_ and _-est_ after sibilants, in _-ed_ after dentals, in _-en_ after
_v_, _s_, _t_, _d_, _k_ (as in _houses_, _ended_, _risen_, _written_,
_hidden_, _broken_, _driven_). As, however, these are always full
syllables they may here be disregarded. The ending _-edest_ has been
shortened into _-edst_.
It is to be observed that the syncopation of the vowel (_e_) of the
inflexional endings was not so nearly universal in Early Modern English
as it is at present; and further, that it is still much less prevalent
in poetry than in prose, because the poets for metrical reasons often
preserve the fuller endings when in ordinary speech they are no longer
used.[133] In examining the metrical treatment of the Early English
inflexional endings, we shall therefore have occasion to consider the
usage of the present day, notwithstanding the fact that some of these
endings are obsolete in modern prose.
The chief difference between Early and Modern English with regard to the
treatment of the inflexions is that in Early English poetry the full
pronunciation is the rule--in accordance with the practice in ordinary
speech--and the syncopation of the vowel (_e_, rarely _i_ or _u_) is the
exception; while in Modern English it is the shortened pronunciation
that is normal, the full syllabic form being used only exceptionally as
a poetic licence.
§ =96.= The first point that requires notice is the treatment of the
unaccented _e_ of words of three and four syllables in Middle English.
The following observations are founded on those of ten Brink, _Chaucer's
Sprache und Verskunst_, § 256.
1. If each of the two last syllables of a trisyllabic word has
an unaccented _e_, one of them is generally elided or slurred over under
the influence of the rhythmical accent. Thus the past tense singular of
the weak verbs _clepede_, _werede_, _makede_, _lovede_ may be scanned
either _clepte_, _werde_, _made_, _lovde_, or _cleped_, _wered_,
_maked_, _loved_. Just in the same way the plural forms _clepeden_,
_makeden_, &c., may be read either _clepten_, _maden_, &c., or _cleped_,
_maked_, &c.; likewise the plural endings of nouns _faderes_, _hevenes_
may be pronounced _fadres_, _hevnes_ or _faders_, _hevens_. In Early
Middle English, however, and also in the language of Chaucer, exceptions
to this rule are found, trisyllabic scansion occurring chiefly in the
plur. pret., e.g.:
_Þatt úre Lóverrd Iésu Chríst, swa þóledé þe déofell._
Orm. 11822.
_I dórste swére, they wéyedén ten póunde._
Chauc. Prol. 454.
_Yélledén_, id. N. Pr. Tale, 569; _wónedén_,
id. Leg. 712, &c.
The _e_ following upon an unaccented syllable which is capable of
receiving the accent, whether in a word of Teutonic or Romanic origin,
is commonly mute. E.g. _banere_, _manere_, _lovere_, _ladyes_,
_housbondes_, _thousandes_ are generally to be pronounced in verse (as,
indeed, they were probably pronounced in prose) as, _baner_, _maner_,
_lover_, _ladys_, _housbonds_, _thousands_. But this _e_, on the other
hand, not unfrequently remains syllabic, especially in the _Ormulum_,
where it is dropped only before a vowel or _h_. E.g. _cneolénn
meoklík(e) annd lútenn_ 11392, _meocnéss(e) is þrínne kíness_ 10699,
_Forr án godnéss(e) uss háveþþ dón_ 185. Before a consonant or at the
end of a line, however, it is always sounded: _Ennglísshe ménn to láre_
279, _God wórd and gód tiþénnde_ 158, _forrþí birrþ áll Cristéne fóllc_
303. _Goddspélless hállȝhe láre_ 14, 42, 54, _þa Góddspelléss neh álle_
30. Other examples are: _And þó þet wéren gítserés_ Moral Ode, MS. D. l.
269; _For thóusandés his hóndes máden dýe_ Chauc. Troil. v, 1816;
_enlúminéd_ id. A B C 73.
In words of four syllables a final _e_ which follows upon an unaccented
syllable with a secondary accent may at pleasure either become mute or
be fully pronounced. So words like _óutrydère_, _sóudanèsse_,
_émperòures_, _árgumèntes_ may be read either as three or four
syllables. Examples of _e_ sounded: _Bifórr þe Rómanísshe kíng_ Orm.
6902; _Annd síkerrlíke trówwenn_ ib. 11412; _þurrh hállȝhe
góddspellwríhhtess_ ib. 160; _Till híse lérninngcníhhtess_ ib. 235;
_Annd þúrrh þin góddcunndnésse_ ib. 11358; _An Gódd all únntodǽledd_
ib. 11518; _I glúternésse fállenn_ ib. 11636; _þurrh flǽshes
únntrummnésse_ ib. 11938; _in stránge ráketéȝe_ Moral Ode, 281; _a
thíng(e) unstédeféste_ ib. 319; _bifóre héovenkínge_ ib. 352, &c.
Examples of _e_ mute: _And þá, þe úntreownéss(e) dide þán_ Moral Ode,
267; _þéosternéss(e) and éie_ ib. 279. Orm has it only before vowels or
_h_: _Forr són se glúternéss(e) iss dǽd_ 11663, &c.
§ =97. Special remarks on individual inflexional endings.=
_-es_ (gen. sing., nom. plur., and adverbial) is in disyllables (a) as a
rule treated as a full syllable, e.g. _Ac þét we dóþ for gódes lúue_
Moral Ode 56; _from éuery shíres énde_ Chauc. Prol. 15; _And élles
cértain wére thei to blame_ ib. 375; (b) seldom syncopated or slurred
over, e.g. _Ure álre hláuerd fór his þrélles_ Moral Ode, 189; _He mákede
físses in þére sé_ ib. 83; _I sáugh his sléves purfíled_ Chauc. Prol.
193; _The ármes of dáun Arcíte_ id. Kn. Tale, 2033; _Or élles it wás_
id. Sq. Tale, 209.
In trisyllables the reverse is the case; only Orm, who always, as is
well known, carefully counts his syllables, treats the ending as a full
syllable. Otherwise syncopation or slurring over of the last syllable is
the rule in these words: _a sómeres dáy_ Chauc. Sq. Tale, 64;
_Gréyhoundes he hádde_ id. Prol. 190; _hóusbondes át that tóun_ id. Kn.
Tale, 78; _the távernes wél_ id. Prol. 240.
In Modern English in all these cases elision of the _-e_ is the rule,
those, of course, excepted in which the _-e_ is still sounded at the
present day (after sibilants, dentals, &c.) and which therefore we need
not discuss here. The use of _-es_ as a full syllable is otherwise quite
exceptional, chiefly occurring in the Early Modern English poets, who
use the sounded _e_, occasionally, to gain an unaccented syllable, e.g.:
_The níghtës cár the stárs abóut doth bríng._ Surrey, p. 15.
_Sometíme to líve in lóvës blíss._ Wyatt, p. 119.
_That líke would nót for áll this wórldës wealth._
Spens. F. Q. I. ix. 31.
_The héat doth stráight forsáke the límbës cóld_. Wyatt, p. 205.
_Bé your éyës yét moon-próofe._ Ben Jonson, i. 979.
The usual sound of these words is _night's_, _love's_, _world's_,
_limbs_, _eyes_, and so in all similar cases.
The syncopation of the _-e_ in the adverbial _-es_ is indicated, as is
well known, by the spelling, in certain cases: e.g. in _else_, _hence_,
_thence_, whence (instead of the Middle English forms _elles_, _hennes_,
&c.); but even in words where it is preserved in writing, as e.g. in
_whiles_, _unawares_, it has become mute and has, as a rule, no metrical
value in Modern English poetry. The archaic _certes_, however, is still
always treated as a disyllabic, e.g.
_I wáil, I wáil, and certës that is trúe._
Mrs. Browning, i, p. 55.
§ =98.= The ending _-en_ (plur. nom. of nouns; prepositions; infinitive;
strong past part.; plur. pres. and pret. of verbs) is in Middle English
(a) commonly treated as a full syllable during the first period, and
later on mostly, although not always, to avoid hiatus, before vowels and
_h_, e.g. _His éyen stépe_ Chauc. Prol. 201; _Bifórenn Críst allmáhhtig
Gódd_ Orm. 175; _Befóren ánd behýnde_ Alexius, ii. 393; _abóven álle
nációuns_ Chauc. Prol. 53; _þú schalt béren hím þis ríng_ Floris and
Blanch. 547; _Fór to délen with no swích poráille_ Chauc. Prol. 247;
_bifrórenn_ Orm. 13856; _forlórenn_ ib. 1395; _Sche wás arísen ánd al
rédy díght_ Chauc. Kn. T. 183; _Hir hósen wéren óf fyn scárlet reed_ id.
Prol. 456; _For thís ye knówen álso wél as I_ ib. 730; _Swa þátt
teȝȝ shúlenn wúrrþen þǽr_ Orm. 11867; _þatt háffdenn cwémmd
himm í þiss líf_ ib. 210; _Ál þet wé misdíden hére_ Moral Ode, 99; (b)
syncopated or slurred, especially in later times, after the _n_ has been
dropped already in prepositions and verbal inflexions, e.g. _His póre
féren he delde_ Alexius, ii. 210; _Hálles and bóures_, _óxen and plóugh_
ib. 12; _Bifórr þe Rómanísshe kíng_ (instead of _biforenn_) Orm. 6902;
_Hastów had fléen al nýght_ Chauc. Manc. Prol. 17; _She bóthe hir yónge
chíldren untó hir cálleþ_ id. Cl. T. 1081; _is bórn: þat wenten hím
bifórn_ id. Man of Lawes T. 995-7; _withínne a lítel whýle_ id. Sq. T.
590; _And únderfóngen his kínedóm_ Flor. and Blanch. 1264; _þei máde
sówen in þát cité_ Alexius, i. 577; _Bíddeþ his mén cómen him nére_ ib.
134; _Hórn_: _i-bórn_ King Horn, 137-8; _forlóren_: _Hórn_ ib. 479-80;
_Was rísen and rómede_ Chauc. Kn. T. 207; _my líef is fáren on lónde_
id. N. Pr. T. 59; _And fórth we ríden a lítel móre than páas_ id. Prol.
825; _þei drýven him ófte tó skornínge_ Alexius, i. 308; _þei rísen alle
úp with blíþe chére_ ib. 367; _þei cásten upón his cróun_ ib. 312; _And
wíssheden þat hé were déd_ Alexius, ii. 335, &c.
In Modern English this ending is much more rare, and is hardly ever used
as a full syllable of the verse. The plural ending _-en_ of the
substantive occurs now and then in Wyatt's and Surrey's verse, as e.g.
in _éyen_ instead of _éyes_, both in rhyme, e.g. _éyen_: _míne_ Sur. 14,
and in the interior of the line, ib. 126, 128; Wyatt 8, 17, &c.
Prepositions ending in _-en_ are scarcely ever used now; sometimes the
archaic _withóuten_ is to be met with in some Early Modern English
poets, and then, of course, as a trisyllable: _withóuten dréad_ Sur. 95;
_withóuten énd_ Spenser, F. Q. II. ix. 58. The obsolete infinitives in
_-en_ may also be found sometimes in the writings of the same and other
early Modern English poets: _in váyn_: _sáyen_ Sur. 31; _his flócke to
víewën wíde_ Spenser, F. Q. I. i. 23; _to kíllën bád_ Shak. Pericles,
II. Prol. 20. Likewise certain antiquated plural forms of the verb in
_-en_: _dischárgën cléan_ Sur. 30; _fen_: _lífedën_ Spenser, F. Q. II.
x. 7; _and wáxën ín their mírth_ Shak. M. N. Dr. II. i. 56.
It is only the _-en_ of the past participle that is at all often after
certain consonants treated as a full syllable, e.g. _the frózen héart_
Sur. 1; _gótten out_ ib. 10; _the strícken déer_ ib. 54; _hast táken
páin_ Wyatt, 99. Here the full forms are preserved in the ordinary
language. It is only exceptionally that participles that have undergone
shortening, as _come_, reassume their _n_ and regain an extra syllable,
e.g. _tíll he cómën háth_ West (Poets, ix. 484). Contracted forms like
_grown_, _known_, _drawn_, always remain monosyllabic, even in verse,
and words like _fallen_, _swollen_, which are normally disyllabic, are
often contracted in poetry: as _grown_ Sur. 13; _known_ ib. 45; _swoln_
ib. 8; _befallen_ ib. 26; _drawn_ Wyatt, 160. Complete contraction is
effected either by elision of the final consonant of the stem, e.g.
_ta'en_ (instead of _taken_) Sur. 44, or by slurring of the ending, e.g.
_hath gíven a pláce_ Sur. 108; _is béaten with wínd and stórm_ ib. 157,
&c.