rule, syllabic. _Hórn is fáirer þáne beo hé_ King Horn, 330; _No lénger
dwélle hý ne mýghte_ Alexius, ii. 85; _But ráther wólde he yéven_ Chauc.
Prol. 487.
These endings are treated, moreover, as full syllables in the unaccented
rhymes _Hǽngest_: _fǽirest_ Layamon, 13889-90; _Hǽngest_:
_héndest_ ib. 13934-5. If an inflexional _-e_ is added to such words, so
as to make them trisyllables, it is commonly elided or apocopated, e.g.
_Fór he ís the fáireste mán_ Horn, 787; _hire grétteste óoth_ Chauc.
Prol. 120; _The férreste in his párisshe_ ib. 494. Slurring or
syncopation takes place in the following examples, _Sche móst wiþ hím no
lénger abíde_ Sir Orfeo, line 328; _No lénger to héle óf he bráke_
Alexius, ii. 127; more rarely in the superlative, _Annd állre láttst he
wúndedd wáss_ Orm. 11779, 11797; _Was thóu not fárist of ángels álle?_
Towneley Myst. p. 4.
In Modern English these endings are treated similarly. The
comparative-ending _-er_ is mostly syllabic on account of the phonetic
nature of the final _r_, and even if slurred, it does not entirely lose
its syllabic character, e.g.:
_The nígher my cómfort ís to mé._ Surrey, p. 37.
_Or dó him míghtier sérvice ás his thrálls._
Milton, Par. L. i. 149.
The ending of the superlative _-est_, too, is commonly syllabic, e.g.
_In lóngest níght, or ín the shórtest dáy._ Surrey, p. 16.
_Now léss than smállest dwárfs, in nárrow róom._
Milton, P. L. i. 779.
Nevertheless many examples of syncopation are found, chiefly in the
writings of the Early Modern English poets: e.g. _the méekest of mínd_
Sur. 77; _the swéet'st compánions_ Shak. Cymb. V. v. 349; _the stérn'st
good níght_ id. Macb. II. ii. 4. Such forms are often used by Ben
Jonson.
§ =100.= The ending _-est_ (2nd pers. pres. sing. ind. and pret. sing.
of weak verbs) is in Middle English generally syllabic: _Annd
séȝȝest swíllc annd swíllc was þú_ Orm. 1512; _Annd ȝíff þu
féȝesst þréo wiþ þréo, þa fíndesst tú þær séxe_ id. 11523-4; _That
bróughtest Tróye_ Chauc. N. Pr. T. 408; _Thow wálkest nów_ id. Kn. T.;
_þat gód þat þóu þénkest do mé_ Alexius, ii. 304; _Hou mýȝtest þóu
þus lónge wóne_ Alexius, i. 445; _And wóldest névere ben aknówe_ ib.
461.
Frequently, however, syncopation or slurring also occurs: _ȝiff þú
seȝȝst tátt tu lúfesst Gódd_ Orm. 5188; _Þu wénest þat éch song
béo grislích_ Owl and Night. 315; _Þu schríchest and ȝóllest to þíne
fére_ ib. 223; _Thou knówest him well_ Chauc. Blaunche, 137; _Trówest
thou? by our Lórd, I wíll thee sáy_ ib. 551; _þou mýȝtest have bén a
grét lordíng_ Alexius, i. 511.
In Modern English syncopation is extremely common, e.g. _Now knówest
thou áll_ Sur. 27; _That mákest but gáme_ Wyatt, 30, &c.; but the full
syllabic pronunciation (in accordance with the modern prose usage) is
also frequent, both in the poetry of the sixteenth century, e.g. _What
frámëst thóu_ Sur. 158; _And lóokëst tó commánd_ Shak. H. VI. I. i. 38;
and in that of recent times, e.g.:
_Súch as thou stándëst, pále in thé drear líght_.
Mrs. Browning, i. 4.
_Wan Scúlptor, wéepëst thóu to táke the cást?_
Tennyson, Early Sonn. 9.
§ =101.= The ending _-eth_, in the North _-es_, _-is_ (3rd pers. sing.
pres., plur. pres., and 3rd pers. sing. imperative), is in most cases
syllabic in Middle English, especially before the fifteenth century;
e.g. _It túrrneþþ hémm till sínne_ Orm. 150; _þat spékeþþ óff þe
déofell_ ib. 11944; _þat ǽfre annd ǽfre stándeþþ ínn_ ib. 2617;
_þánne hi cumeþ éft_ Moral Ode, 236; _Hi wálkeþ éure_ ib. 239; _So
príkeþ hem natúre_ Chauc. Prol. 11; _Cómeþ álle nów to mé_ Alexius, ii.
337; _Ánd a-fóngeþ ȝóure méde_ ib. 375.
But already in the earlier portion of this epoch of the language
slurring or syncopation is often to be met with, and it became gradually
more and more frequent. _Boc séȝȝþ þe bírrþ wel ȝémenn þé_ Orm.
11373, 11981; _Annd áȝȝ afftérr þe góddspell stánnt_ ib. 33; _And
thínkeþ, here cómeþ my mórtel énemý_ Chauc. Kn. T. 785; _Comeþ nér,
quoth hé_ id. Prol. 839; _þat háveþ traváille_ Alexius, i. 350; _Thai
háldis this lánd agáyne resóune_ Barbour's Bruce, i. 488.
In Modern English the endings _-eth_ and _-es_ (_'s_) were at first used
promiscuously; later _-eth_ is employed, if a full syllable is required,
_-es_ (_'s_) if syncopation is intended; but this rule is not strictly
observed.
The dropping of _e_ on the whole is the more usual: e.g. _begins_ Sur.
1; _seems_ ib. 2; _learns_ Wyatt, 1; also if written _-eth_: _On hím
that lóveth not mé_ Wyatt, 57; _that séeth the héavens_ Sur. 2.
Treatment as a full syllable is less usual: _But áll too láte Love
léarnëth mé_ Sur. 5; _Lóve that lívëth and réignëth ín my thóught_ Sur.
12. Shakespeare and his contemporaries still use it somewhat frequently
(cf. Hertzberg in _Shakspeare-Jahrb._ xiii, pp. 255-7), and occasional
instances are found even in later poets, as for instance in Keats, who
rhymes: _death: ouershádowéth_, p. 336; Chr. Rossetti, _déath:
fashionéth_ p. 28, ii. ll. 5-6.
§ =102.= The ending _-ed_, in the North _-id_, _-it_ (past part. of weak
verbs), is, as a rule, syllabic in Middle English: e.g. _Min Dríhhtin
háfeþþ lénedd_ Orm. 16; _Annd ícc itt háfe fórþedd té_ ib. 25; _Annd
tǽrfore háfe icc túrrnedd ítt_ ib. 129; _ipróved ófte síthes_ Chauc.
Prol. 485; _hadde swówned wíth a dédly chére_ ib. Kn. T. 55; _Nóu is
Álex dwélled þóre_ Alexius, i. 121; _Lóverd, iþánked bé þou áy_ ib. 157;
_A wéile gret quhíle thar duellyt hé_ Barbour, Bruce, i. 359.
But slurring and syncopation likewise are of frequent occurrence: _þatt
háffdenn cwémmd himm í þiss líf_ ib. 211; _þet scúlle béo to déþe idémd_
Moral Ode, 106; _His lónge héer was kémbd behýnde his bák_ Chauc. Kn. T.
1285; _Fulfíld of íre_ ib. 82; especially in words with the accent on
the antepenultima, e.g. _Ybúried nór ibrént_ ib. 88; _and hán hem
cáried sófte_ ib. 153; _And ben yhónowrid ás a kýng_ Alexius, i. 5, 12
(MS. N).
In this ending, too, syncopation (_-ed_, _'d_, _t_) is the rule already
in the earliest Modern English poets: _offer'd_ Sur. 6; _transgrést_ ib.
11; _that prómised wás to thée_ ib. 35. The use of it as a full
syllable, however, is very frequently to be met with, chiefly in
participles used as adjectives: _the párchëd gréen restórëd ís with
sháde_ Sur. 1; _by wéll assúrëd móan_ Wyatt, 4; _but ármëd síghs_ ib. 4;
_false féignëd gráce_ ib. 4. The dramatists of the Elizabethan time (cf.
_Engl. Metrik_, ii. 336) similarly often use the full ending; and even
in modern poets it is not uncommon: _where wé've involvëd óthers_ Burns,
Remorse, l. 11 ; _The chármëd God begán_ Keats, Lamia, p. 185, &c.
§ =103.= The ending _-ed_ (_-od_, _-ud_) of the 1st and 3rd pers. sing.
pret. and the whole plur. pret. of weak verbs, which is shortened from
_-ede_, _-ode_, _-ude_, _-eden_, _-oden_, _-uden_ (cf. § 96), is in
Middle English usually syllabic: e.g. _Mést al þét me líked(e) þó_
Moral Ode, 7 ; _Oure lóverd þát al máked(e) iwís_ Pop. Science, 2; _He
énded(e) and cléped(e) yt Léicestre_ Rob. of Glouc., p. 29; _The fáder
hem lóued(e) álle ynóȝ_ ib.; _Híre overlíppe wýpud(e) sché so cléne_
Chauc. Prol. 107; _An óutridére þat lóved(e) vénerýe_ ib. 165; _Ne máked
hím a spíced cónsciénce_ ib. 526; _þei préced évere nére and nére_
Alexius, i. 583 (MS. V).
As several of these examples show, slurring occasionally takes place, so
that the ending forms part of a disyllabic thesis, but real syncopation
never occurs; cf. further: _Ánd asségit it rýgorouslý_ Barbour, Bruce,
i. 88; _and évere I hóped(e) of be to hére_ Alexius, ii. 482.
With regard to these endings from the beginning of the Modern English
epoch onward syncopation (_[e]d_, _'d_, _t_) is the rule; _defied_ Sur.
10; _sustain'd_ ib. 15; _opprest_ Wyatt, 107. But the full syllable not
infrequently occurs: _I lóokëd báck_ Sur. 4; _I néver próvëd nóne_
Wyatt, 39. It is characteristic of Spenser's archaistic style, and is
often met with in the Elizabethan dramatists; Shakespeare, however, uses
it much more frequently in his earlier than in his later plays. The more
recent poets admit it in single cases: _said_: _vánishéd_ Keats, Lamia,
p. 202.
§ =104.= The final _-e_ is treated in Modern English poetry in the same
manner as in Modern High German: it may be either used as a thesis, or
be slurred over, or become quite silent. In Middle English, however, the
treatment of the final _-e_ depends much more on the following word than
on the etymological origin of the _-e_. It becomes mute, of course,
mostly before _h_ or a vowel, but is generally preserved (as a thesis)
or slurred before a consonant. This rule has, however, many exceptions.
Orm and other poets of the beginning of the thirteenth century give the
final _e_ its full syllabic value in certain classes of words in which
Chaucer[134] in the second half of the fourteenth century generally
slurs it.
These words are the pronouns _hire_, _oure_, _ȝoure_, _here_, _myne_,
_thyne_ (also spelled without _e_), if they do not stand in rhyme; the
plural forms _thise_, _some_, _swiche_, _whiche_; the past part. of
strong verbs with an originally short root, the inflexional _n_ being
apocopated, e.g. _come_, _write_, _stole_; the 2nd pers. sing. of the
strong pret., e.g. _bare_, _tooke_, except such words as _songe_,
_founde_, and others of the same group; the preterites _were_ and
_made_; the nouns _sone_, _wone_; the French words in _-ye_, _-aye_,
_-eye_, and, finally, the words _before_, _tofore_, _there_, _heere_.
In most of these cases it is easy enough to give examples of the
syllabic use of the _-e_, both from the earliest and from later poets:
_Off úre sáwless néde_ Orm. 11402; _þatt úre Láferrd Iésu Críst_ ib.
11403, 11803, &c.; _ȝérne hy þónkede óure dríghte_ Alexius, ii. 35;
_Annd ȝúre sáwless fóde íss éc_ Orm. 11691, &c.; _þatt ȝúre
préostess hállȝhenn_ ib. 11694; _Till híse déore þéowwess_ ib. 11556;
_Att álle þíne néde_ ib. 11366, 11914, &c.; Owl and Nightingale, 220,
221, &c.; _Cástel gód an míne ríse_ ib. 175, 282; _Forgíve hémm hére
sínne_ Orm. 86; _Annd wílle iss híre þrídde máhht_ ib. 11509; _For híre
héorte wás so grét_ Owl and N. 43, 44, &c.; _At súme síþe hérde ich
télle_ ib. 293; _þése wíkkede fóde_ ib. 333; _And máde mé wíþ him ríde_
Sir Orfeo, 153. &c.
All these words may, however, also be found with slurring or syncopation
of the _e_, even in Early Middle English: _Annd þéowwtenn wél wiþþ áll
þin máhht_ Orm. 11393; _þa wǽre he þǽr bikǽchedd_ ib. 11628;
_Annd súme itt áll forrwérrþenn_ ib. 11512; _Min héorte atflíhþ and fált
mi túnge_ Owl and N. 37; _þár þe úle sóng hir tíde_ ib. 26, 441; _þat
ich schúlle tó hire fléo_ ib. 442; _he wére ischóte_ ib. 23, 53, &c. In
later Middle English this is more common: _An ýmage óf hire sóne_
Alexius i. 105; _þeróf to gód þei máde here móne_ ib. 32; _Sómme þat óf
þe ínne wére_ Alexius ii. 325; _Fáste þey wére ysóught þoróugh_ ib. 14;
_And lóke síre at ȝóure pilgríme_ ib. 394; _And thére our óst bigán_
Chauc. Prol. 827; _Entúned ín hire nóse_ ib. 123; _Nought gréveth ús
youre glórie ánd honóur_ id. Kn. T. 59; _þúrgh yóure géntilnésse_ ib.
62; _ánd hire fálse whéel_ ib. 67; _And pílgryms wére they álle_ Chauc.
Prol. 26, 59; _At níght was cóme intó that hóstelríe_ ib. 23; _With hím
ther wás his sóne, a yóung squyér_ ib. 79; _In mótteléye and hígh_ ib.
271; _cómpanýe in yóuthe_ ib. 461; _no vílanýe is ít_ ib. 740, &c.
§ =105.= The following examples serve to show the arbitrary use of the
final _-e_ in other words, either (_a_) syllabic, or (_b_) slurred or
syncopated.
=1. Infinitive=, (a) _And stónde úpe gódes knýght_ Alexius ii. 269; _to
télle yów áll the condícióun_ Chauc. Prol. 38. (b) _to táke our wéy_ ib.
34; _Mén mote ȝeve sílver_ ib. 232.
=2. Past part.= of strong verbs, (a) _ydráwe né ybóre_ Sq. T. 336; _þó
þe chíld ybóre wás_ Alexius ii. 37; (b) _Ybóre he wás in Róme_ ib. 6;
_Though hé were cóme agáin_ Chauc. Sq. T. 96; _ycóme from hís viáge_ id.
Prol. 77, &c.
=3.= Various =inflexional endings of the verb=, (a) _þát ich réde wé
begínne_ Cant. Creat. E. 225; _And yét I hópe, pár ma fáy_ Chauc. Sir
Thopas l. 2010; _and máde fórward_ id. Prol. 33; _and wénte fór to dóon_
ib. 78; _yet hádde hé but lítel góld in cóffre_ ib. 298; _And séyde tó
her þús_ Alexius i. 69; _gládly wólde préche_ Chauc. Prol. 480. (b)
_devóutly wólde he téche_ ib. 481; _I trówe ther nówher nón is_ ib. 524;
_I trówe some mén_ id. Sq. T. 213; _So hádde I spóken_ id. Prol. 31;
_hádde he bé_ ib. 60; _if thát sche sáwe a móus_ ib. 144; _chíldren
betwéen them hédde þei nóne_ Alexius i. 31; _Bote méte fóunde þeȝ nón
saundóute_ Cant. Creat. O. 62.
=4. Inflexional endings of Germanic substantives=, (a) _His nékke whít_
Chauc. Prol. 238; _Of wóodecráft_ ib. 210; _whán the sónne wás to réste_
ib. 30; _a spánne bróod_ ib. 155; _At méte wél itáught_ ib. 127; _Ne óf
his spéche dáungeróus_ ib. 517; _As wéll in spéche ás in cóntenánce_
id. Sq. T. 93; _of sínne léche_ Alexius i. 59; _He ȝéde tó a
chírche-héi_ ib. 97; _ál for lóve míne_ Alexius ii. 87; _of héwe bríght_
ib. 100; _while gód in érþe máde mán_ Cant. Creat. E. 26. (b) _Tróuthe
and honóur_ Chauc. Prol. 46; _Thát no drópe ne fílle_ ib. 131; _In hópe
to stónden_ ib. 88; _And bý his sýde a swérd_ ib. 112; _tó the pýne of
hélle_ Cant. Creat. O. 240; _þurch príde þat ín his wórd was líȝt_
ib. E. 14.
=5. Romanic substantives=, (a) _átte síege hádde he bé_ Chauc. Prol.
56; _ín hire sáuce dépe_ ib. 129; _Is sígne thát a mán_ ib. 226. (b)
_And báthed éuery véyne in swích licóur_ ib. 3; _of áge he wás_ ib. 81;
_his bénefíce to hýre_ ib. 507.
=6. Adjectives.= (a) Chiefly after the definite article, pronouns, and
in plural forms: _and ín the Gréte Sée_ Chauc. Prol. 59; _The téndre
cróppes ánd the yónge sónne_ ib. 7; _his hálfe cóurs irónne_ ib. 8;
_wíth his swéete bréethe_ ib. 5; _to séken stráunge strondes_ ib. 13;
_the férste niȝt_ Alexius i. 55; _þat ílke dáy_ ib. 159; _þe déde
córs_ ib. 420; _Póuere mén to clóþe and féde_ ib. 10, 13, 93, &c.;
_cómen of hýe kínne_ Alex. ii. 99; _with mílde stévene_ ib. 72; _annd
álle fúle lússtess_ Orm. 11656. (b) Chiefly after the indefinite
article, but in other cases as well: _Annd álle þe flǽshess
kággerléȝȝc_ Orm. 11655; _a fáyr forhéed_ Chauc. Prol. 254; _as ís
a póure scolér_ ib. 260; _as méke as ís a máyde_ ib. 69; _a shéef of
pécock árwes bríght and kéne_ ib. 104.
=7. Adverbs and prepositions.= (a) _Míldelíche hé him grétte_ Alexius
ii. 296; _Ríght abóute nóne_ ib. 387; _And sófte bróuȝte hém obédde_
ib. 23; _Ful ófte time_ ib. 52; _Ful lúde sóngen_ Chauc. Sq. T. 55;
_Abóute príme_ id. Kn. T. 1331; _abóue érpe_ Cant. Creat. E. 573. (b)
_Fáste þei wére ysóught þorúgh_ Alexius ii. 14; _And éek as lóude as
dóth_ Chauc. Prol. 171; _Ther ís namóre to séyne_ ib. 314; _stílle as
ány stóon_ id. Sq. T. 171; _Abóute this kýng_ id. Kn. T. 1321; _Chíldren
betwéne hem hédde þei nóne_ Alexius i. 31; _wiþýnne a whýle_ Cant.
Creat. O. 29; _ȝif ȝít oure lórd abóue þe ský_ ib. O. 186.
=8. Numerals.= (a) _she hádde fýve_ Chauc. Prol. 460; _Fúlle séventéne
ȝére_ Alexius i. 179, 187, 321; _of fíue þóusende wínter and ón_
Cant. Creat. E. 462; _nóþer férste tíme ne lást_ ib. O. 356. (b) _and
fíue and twénti wínter and mó_ ib. E. 463; _táken þe ténde part óf þy
gúod_ ib. O. 332; _álle þe béstis_ ib. 173; _For séventene ȝér hít is
gán_ Alexius i. 194.
§ =106.= In poems written in more southern dialects the final _-e_
retains its syllabic value later than in those of the North, in
agreement with the actual usage of the dialects of these districts. _Sir
Tristrem_ (c. 1300) has still many syllabic _e_'s in thesis; in the
_Cursor Mundi_ (c. 1320) and the _Metrical Homilies_ (c. 1330) they are
not so numerous, and they are still rarer in the poems of Laurence Minot
(c. 1352) and of Thomas of Erceldoune. The editor of the last-mentioned
poet, Prof. Alois Brandl, rejects the syllabic final _-e_ altogether in
opposition to ten Brink and Luick. In Barbour's _Bruce_ (c. 1375) it is
entirely silent.[135]
But in the later poetry of the North, which was largely under the
influence of southern English models, chiefly of Chaucer, many
inflexional endings, especially various kinds of final _-e_, have a
metrical value. King James I, one of the most eminent Scottish poets,
e.g., is a strict follower of Chaucer in this respect, both in
versification and language.[136] This will be shown by the following
examples: _Myn éyen gán to smért_ stanza 8; _To séken hélp_ 99; _that
néver chánge wóld_ 83; _That féynen óutward_ 136; _That ménen wéle_ 137;
_We wéren áll_ 24; _Lýke to an hérte schápin vérilý_ 48; _Thús sall on
thé my chárge béne iláid_ 120; _in lúfe fór a whíle_ 134; _Now, swéte
bírd, say ónes tó me pépe, I dée for wó; me thínk thou gýnnis slépe_ 57;
_And ón the smále gréne twístis sát_ 33; _Withín a chámber, lárge, równ,
and fáire_ 77.
Other Scottish poets, like Dunbar, use the final _e_ in the same way,
but much more sparingly: _Amáng the gréne ríspis ánd the rédis_ Terge
56; _And gréne lévis dóing of déw doun fléit_ Thrissil and Rois 49;
_scho sénd the swífte Ró_ ib. 78; _when Mérche wés with váriand wíndis
past_ ib. 1.
Only the inflexional endings of substantives and of verbs are used by
Dunbar somewhat more frequently as full syllables, e.g.: _Had máid the
bírdis to begín thair hóuris_ Thrissil and Rois 5; _of flóuris fórgit
néw_ ib. 18; _the blástis óf his hórne_ ib. 34; _In át the wíndow lúkit
bý the dáy_ ib. 10; _And hálsit mé_ ib. 11; _Bálmit in déw_ ib. 20; _The
pérlit dróppis schúke_ Terge 14. Even Lyndesay still uses certain full
endings now and then in this way: _Éleméntis: intént is_ Monarchie
247-8; _thay cán nocht ús it: abúsit_ Satire 2897-8; _Quhow Í ressávit
cónfort_ Monarchie 132; _Lyke áurient péirles ón the twístis háng_ ib.
136. But the final _-e_ is hardly ever found in his verses forming a
thesis.
On the other hand some contemporary authors of the South, reckoned as
included in the Modern English period, continue to admit in several
cases the syllabic final _-e_, but this can only be regarded as an
exception. E. g. _The sótë séason, that búd and blóom forth bríngs_
Surrey, p. 3; _Thát the Gréeks bróught to Tróyë tówn_ ib. 21; _Hersélf
in shádow óf the clósë níght_ ib. 138; _Agáinst the búlwark óf the
fléshë fráil_ Wyatt 207; _But tréated áfter á divérsë fáshion_ ib. 7.
Spenser does not seem to admit syllabic final _-e_, in spite of his
archaic style.
§ =107.= Like the inflexional syllables, the suffixes of derivatives may
be treated in a twofold manner. Those of Germanic origin for the most
part call for little remark, as many of them have coalesced with the
root of the word, and others, as e.g. the syllables _-ing_, _-ness_,
_-y_, _-ly_, can, on account of their phonetic character, only be
metrically treated as full syllables. Only a few fluctuate in their
metrical treatment, as e.g. _-en_, _-er_, _-le_, mostly after a
consonant; these will be dealt with in the section on the slurring of
syllables.
Of much greater importance are the formative endings of Romanic origin,
especially those which begin with an _i_, _e_, or _u_ + a vowel, as
_-iage_, _-ian_, _-iaunt_, _-iance_, _-ience_, _-ient_, _-ier_, _-ioun_,
_-ious_, _-eous_, _-uous_, _-ial_, _-ual_, _-iat_, _-iour_. Such endings
may either have their full value, or be slurred in rhythm, i.e. they may
be treated either as disyllabic or as monosyllabic.
The full forms do not occur frequently in the interior of the line, but
mostly in the last foot, where the endings bear the last arsis and offer
a convenient rhyme. Hence we conclude, that the slurred pronunciation
(synizesis) had in the later Middle English period already become
general in ordinary speech, although the full value is in rhyme-words
certainly more common: e.g. _viáge: pílgrimáge_ Chaucer, Prol. 77-8;
_langáge: márriáge_ ib. 211-12; _térciáne: báne_ N. Pr. Tale 139-40;
_córdiál: spéciál_ Prol. 443-4; _ethériáll: impériáll_ Lyndesay,
Monarchie 139-40; _curát: licénciát_ Chauc. Prol. 219-20; _láste:
ecclésiáste_ ib. 707-8; _réverénce: cónsciénce_ ib. 225-6; _offénce:
páciénce_ Kn. T. 225-6; _dísposícióun: cónstellációun_ ib. 229-30;
_prisóun: compássióun_ ib. 251-2; _áscendént: páciént_ Prol. 117-18;
_obédiént: assént_ ib. 851-2; _óriént: résplendént_ Lyndesay,
Monarchie 140-2; _glorióus: précióus_ ib. 28-32, 44-5, 48-52, 75-9,
151-2, &c.; _ymágynációun: impréssióun: illusióun_ James I, Kingis
Quair, st. 12; _nációun: mýlióun: méncióun_ ib. st. 78. Slurred
endings: _Ful wél bilóved and fámuliér was hé_ Chauc. Prol. 215; _And
spéciallý_ ib. 15; _a cúrious pýn_ ib. 196; _Perpétuellý, not ónly fór
a yéer_ Kn. T. 600; _Suspécious wás the_ Clerk's T. 540; _This sérgeant
cám_ ib. 575, 582, &c.
Later on slurring becomes more frequent, mainly in the North, e.g. in
Dunbar's poems: _with váriand wíndis pást_ Thrissil and Rois 1; _wíth
ane órient blást_, ib. 3; _So bústeous ár the blástis_ ib. 35; _ane
ínhibítioun tháir_ ib. 64 (but _condítióun: renówn: fassóun_ 79-82); _A
rádius crówn_ ib. 132; Lyndesay, Monarchie: _On sénsuall Lúste_ 9; _Lyke
áurient péirles_ 136; _and búrial bémes_ 142; _his régioun áuroráll_
148; _Quhilk sítuate ár_ 166; _melódious ármonýe_ 195; _off thát
mellífluous, fámous_ 232; _And síc vaine súperstítioun tó refúse_ 242;
_The quhílk gaif sápience_ 249.
In the Modern English period of the language slurring of such syllables
is the rule, in conformity with the actual pronunciation in prose,
contrary to the usage of Chaucer and other Early Middle English poets.
Only exceptionally the unshortened use obtains chiefly in earlier Modern
English, as the following examples show:
_To wóe a máid in wáy of márriáge._
Shakesp. Merch. II. ix. 13.
_My búsiness cánnot bróok this dálliánce._ id. Err. IV. i. 59.
_Becáme the áccents óf the váliánt._ id. 2 Henry IV, II. iii. 25.
_And yét 'tis álmost 'gáinst my cónsciénce._ id. Haml. v. ii. 307.
_I dó volítient, nót obédiént._ Mrs. Browning, i, p. 6.
_The véry chúrches are fúll of sóldiers._
Coleridge, Piccolomini. i. sc. 1.
_And áfter hárd condítións of péace._ Surrey, p. 173.
_Áll the sad spáces óf oblívión._ Keats, p. 257.
_But Brútus sáys he wás ambítióus._
Shakesp. Caesar, III. ii. 91.
_And lóoking róund I sáw, as úsuál._ D. G. Rossetti, i. p. 64.
For other examples cf. _Metrik_, ii. § 40.
§ =108.= By the side of this artificial attribution of full syllabic
value to Romanic endings which in ordinary pronunciation are contracted,
there are many examples of the opposite process, namely the contraction,
for metrical purposes, of words that are ordinarily pronounced in full.
Both these devices serve the same purpose, that of adjusting the number
of syllables to the requirements of the rhythm.
In the former case a syllable which commonly is pronounced quickly and
indistinctly is uttered more distinctly and more slowly than in ordinary
speech. In the latter, a couple of successive syllables or words are
uttered more indistinctly and quickly than in ordinary speech,
frequently so much so that a syllable may be entirely suppressed. Hence
the slurring of syllables results, according to the degree of
contraction, either in a disyllabic thesis, or in the complete
coalescence of two syllables. The former takes place if the final
unaccented vowel of a polysyllable is run into the following unaccented
word consisting of, or beginning with, a vowel, e.g.:
_For mány a mán | so hárd is óf his hérte._ Chauc. Prol. 229.
_Nowhér so bísy a mán | as hé ther nás._ ib. 321.
_Wél coude she cárie a mórsel | ánd wel képe._ ib. 130.
_With múchel glórie | and grét solémpnitée._ id. Kn. T. 12.
_Oh! háppy are théy | that háve forgíveness gótt._
Wyatt 211.
_My kíng, my cóuntry I séek, | for whóm I líve._
ib. 173.
_Sórry am Í | to héar what Í have héard._
Shakesp. 2 Henry VI, II. i. 193.
In cases like these it cannot be supposed that there is actual elision
of a syllable, by which _many a_, _busy a_, _carie a_, _glorie and_,
_happy are_, _country I_, _sorry am_, would be reduced to regular
disyllabic feet. In several of the instances such an assumption is
forbidden not only by the indistinctness of pronunciation which it would
involve, but also by the caesura.
Further, we find both in Middle and in Modern English poetry many
examples of similar sequences in which there is neither elision nor
slurring, the syllable ending with a vowel forming the thesis, and the
following syllable beginning with a vowel forming the arsis. Hiatus of
this kind has always been perfectly admissible in English verse.
_And yít he wás but ésy óf dispénse._ Chaucer, Prol. 441.
_Mówbray's síns so héavy ín his bósom._
Shakesp. Rich. II, I. ii. 50.
§ =109.= The second possibility, viz. complete amalgamation of two
syllables, may occur if a word with an initial vowel or _h_ is preceded
by a monosyllabic word, standing in thesis, e.g. _th'estat_, _th'array_
Chauc. Prol. 716; _th'ascendent_ ib. 117; _t'allege_ (_to allege_) Kn.
T. 2142; _nys_ (_ne ys_) ib. 43. Even in Modern English poetry such
contractions occur rather frequently: _Th'altar_ Sur. 118; _t'assay_
Wyatt 157; _N'other_ ib. 21; often also the words are written in full,
although the first vowel is metrically slurred or elided: _the͡ ónly
darling_ Shakesp. All's Well, II. i. 110. Yet in all such cases the
entire loss of the syllable must not be assumed unless the distinctness
of the pronunciation--which must be the only guide in such matters, not
the silent reading with the eyes--be sufficiently preserved.[137]
Accordingly words like _the_, _to_ are not so often contracted with the
following word, as _ne_, the amalgamation of which, with the verb to
which it belongs, is in accordance with normal Middle English usage:
_nas_ = _ne was_, _nil_ = _ne wil_, _nolde_ = _ne wolde_, _noot_ = _ne
woot_, _niste_ = _ne wiste_, e.g.:
_There nas no dore that he nolde heve of harre._
Chauc. Prol. 550.
Neither in Middle English nor in Modern English poetry, however, is
there any compulsion to use such contractions for the purpose of
avoiding the _hiatus_, which never was prohibited. They merely serve the
momentary need of the poet. Forms like _min_ and _thin_, it is true, are
regularly used by Middle English poets before vowels, and _my_ and _thy_
before consonants, and Chaucer applies--according to ten Brink--_from_,
_oon_, _noon_, _an_, _-lych_, _-lyche_ before vowels, and _fro_, _a_,
_o_, _no_, _-ly_ before consonants. But many examples of epic caesura
show that ten Brink goes too far in maintaining that hiatus was strictly
avoided, e.g.: _Whan théy were wónnë; | and ín the Gréete sée_ Prol.
59. This is still more clearly shown by verses in which the final _-e_
forms a necessary thesis before a vowel, e.g.:
_Fro the senténcë | óf this trétis lýte._
Sir Thopas 2153.
_Than hád yóur tálë | ál be tóld in váyn._
N. Pr. Prol. 3983.
§ =110.= Slurring or contraction is still more frequently the result of
indistinct pronunciation or entire elision of a vowel in the interior of
a word. This is especially the case with e (or another vowel) in the
sequence: conson. + _e_ + _r_ + vowel or _h_, where _e_ is slurred over
or syncopated: e.g. _And báthed év(e)ry véin_ Chauc. Prol. 3; _Thy
sóv(e)rein témple wól I móst honóuren_ Kn. T. 1549; and _év(e)ry trée_
Sur. 9; _the bóist(e)rous wínds_ Sur. 21; _if ám(o)rous fáith_ Wyatt 15;
_a dáng(e)rous cáse_ Sur. 4, &c. The full pronunciation is, of course,
here also possible: _and dángeróus distréss_ Sur. 150. Slurring of a
vowel is also caused by this combination of sounds formed by two
successive words: _a bétre envýned mán_ Chauc. Prol. 342; _Forgétter of
páin_ Wyatt 33. Other words of the same kind are _adder_, _after_,
_anger_, _beggar_, _chamber_, _silver_, _water_, &c.[138] The same rule
applies to the group _e_ + _l_ + vowel or _h_ (also _l_ + _e_ + vowel or
_h_): _hire wýmpel ͡ipynched was_ Chauc. Prol. 151; _At mány a
nóble ͡arríve_ ib. 60; _nóble ͡and hígh_ Wyatt 55; _the néedle his
fínger prícks_ Shak. Lucrece 319.
If a consonant takes the place of the vowel or _h_ at the end of such a
group of sounds, we have a disyllabic thesis instead of slurring: _With
hórrible féar as óne that gréatly dréadeth_ Wyatt 149; _The cómmon
péople by númbers swárm to ús_ Shak. 3 Hen. VI, IV. ii. 2. Similar
slurrings are to be found--although more seldom and mainly in Modern
English poetry--with other groups of sounds, e.g.: _én'mies sword_ Sur.
137; _théat'ner_ ib. 162; _prís'ners_ ib. 12. The vowel _i_, also, is
sometimes slurred; _Incónt(i)nent_ Wyatt, 110; _dést(i)ny_ ib. 8, &c. In
all these cases we must of course recognize only slurring, not
syncopation of the vowel; and in general these words are used with their
full syllabic value in the rhythm of a verse.
Another kind of slurring--occurring almost exclusively in Modern English
poetry--is effected by contraction of a short vowel with a preceding
long one, so that a disyllabic word becomes monosyllabic, e.g.,
_flower_, _lower_, _power_, _tower_, _coward_, _prayer_, _jewel_,
_cruel_, _doing_, _going_, _being_, _seeing_, _dying_, _playing_,
_praying_, _knowing_, &c.: _Whose pówer divíne_ Sur. 118; _prayer:
prayr_ Wyatt 26; _His crúel despíte_ Sur. 7.
All these words are, of course, not less frequently used as disyllables
sometimes even when their usual pronunciation is monosyllabic, e.g.:
_How óft have Í, my déar and crúël foe._ Wyatt 14.
_I'll práy a thóusand práyërs fór thy death._
Shak. Meas. III. i. 146.
_There ís no pówer ín the tóngue of mán._ id. Merch. IV. i. 241.
§ =111.= Other groups of sounds which allow slurring are: vowel + _r_ +
vowel, where the second vowel may be slurred, e.g., _spirit_, _alarum_,
_warrant_, _nourish_, _flourish_, &c.; _My fáther's spírit in árms!_
Shak. Haml. I. ii. 255; _flóurishing péopled tówns_ id. Gentl. V. iv. 3;
_I wárrant, it wíll_ id. Haml. I. ii. 243. In the group vowel + _v_ +
_e(i)_+cons. the _v_ is slurred, if a consonant appears as the initial
sound of the following word, and _e(i)_ if the following word begins
with a vowel. Such words are: _heaven_, _seven_, _eleven_, _devil_,
_even_, _ever_, _never_, &c.; e.g., _and é'en the whóle_ Wyatt 80; _had
néver his fíll_ id. 108; _disdáin they né'er so múch_ Shak. 1 Hen. VI,
V. iii. 98; _and drível on péarls_ Wyatt 195. These words have, of
course, not less frequently their full syllabic value: _Of Héaven
gátes_ Wyatt 222; _Then sét this drível óut of dóor_ Sur. 79. Also _th_
between vowels may be subjected to slurring, as in _whether_, _whither_,
_hither_, _thither_, _either_, _neither_, _rather_, _further_, &c.;
e.g., _go ásk him whíther he góes_ Shak. 1 Hen. VI, II. iii. 28; _Good
Sír, say whéther you'll ánswer mé or nót_, id. Caes. V. iv. 30; _Whether
óught to ús unknówn_ id. Haml. II. ii. 17.
When a syllabic inflexional ending forms one thesis with a following
syllable, as in _The ímages of revólt_ Shak. Lear, II. iv. 91; _I hád
not quóted him_ id. Haml. II. i. 112, &c., it is preferable to assume a
disyllabic thesis rather than a slurring. Sometimes, however, the _-ed_
of past participles (rarely of preterites) of verbs ending in _t_ is
actually cut off, as _torment_ instead of _tormented_ Wyatt 137;
_deject_ instead of _dejected_ Shak. Haml. III. i. 163.
Contractions of another kind--partly to be explained by negligent
colloquial pronunciation--are: _ta'en_ (=_taken_) Wyatt 182; _I'll_ (=_I
will_) Shak. Tempest, II. ii. 419; _carry 'em_ (=_carry them_) id. 2
Hen. VI, I. iv. 76, &c.; _Ma(d)am_ id. Gent. II. i. 6; _in's_ (=_in
his_), _doff_ (=_do off_), _dout_ (=_do out_), _o' the_ (=_of the_),
_w'us_ (=_with us_), _let's_ (=_let us_), _thou'rt_ (=_thou art_), &c.,
&c.
Finally, we have to mention the apocopation, for metrical reasons, of
unaccented prefixes, as _'bove_ (_above_), _'cause_ (_because_),
_'longs_ (_belongs_), &c., which on the whole cannot easily be
misunderstood.[139]
§ =112=. A contrast to these various forms of shortening is presented by
the =lengthening= of words for metrical purposes, which we have already
in part discussed in the preceding chapter (see for examples § 87).
Disyllabic words are made trisyllabic by inserting an _e_ (or rarely
_i_) between mute and liquid, e.g., _wond_(_e_)_rous_, _pilg_(_e_)_rim_,
_count_(_e_)_ry_, _breth_(_e_)_ren_, _ent_(_e_)_rance_, _child(e)ren_,
_Eng_(_e_)_land_, _troub_(_e_)_lous_, _light_(_e_)_ning_,
_short_(_e_)_ly_, _jugg_(_e_)_ler_, &c.[140]
Among the monosyllabic words or accented endings of words which admit of
a disyllabic pronunciation for the sake of metre we have mainly to
consider such as have a diphthong in their root, as _our_, _sour_,
_devour_, _hour_, _desire_, _fire_, _ire_, _sire_, _hire_, _squire_,
_inquire_, &c., or such as approach diphthongal pronunciation and
therefore admit of being treated as disyllables, e.g., _dear_, _fear_,
_hear_, _near_, _tear_, _clear_, _year_. The disyllabic use of words of
the latter class is very rare, though a striking example is afforded by
the rhyme _see her: clear_ Mrs. Browning, iii, p. 57. Some other words,
phonetically analogous to these, but popularly apprehended as containing
a simple long vowel, as _fair_, _fare_, _are_, _here_, _there_, _rare_,
_sphere_, _were_, _more_, _door_, _your_, are added to the list by
Abbott, but with doubtful correctness (cf. _Metrik_, ii. 115-17).
NOTES:
[133] In the reading of the Bible and Liturgy the older syllabic
pronunciation of certain endings is still common, and it is
occasionally heard in sermons, where a more elevated and
poetical kind of diction is admissible than would be used in
secular oratory.
[134] See ten Brink, _Chaucer's Sprache und Verskunst_, § 260.
[135] Cf. Luick, _Anglia_, xi. 591-2.
[136] Cf. King James I, _The Kingis Quair_, ed. by W. W. Skeat,
1883-4.
[137] Cf. _Metrik_, ii. 101-3 _note_.
[138] Cf. Ellis, _E. E. Pr._, i. 367-8.
[139] A long list of the words so treated is to be found in Abbott,
_Shakespearian Grammar_, § 460.
[140] Cf. Abbott, § 477; Ellis, _E. E. Pr._, iii. 951-2; _Metrik_,
ii, 117-18.
CHAPTER VIII
WORD-ACCENT
§ =113.= In discussing the English Word-accent and its relationship to
rhythmic accent it is necessary to consider the Middle English and the
Modern English periods separately, for two reasons. First, because the
inflexional endings which play an important part in Middle English are
almost entirely lost in Modern English, and secondly, because the
word-accent of the Romanic element of the language differs considerably
in the Middle English period from what it became in Modern English. In
the treatment of each period it will be convenient to separate Germanic
from Romanic words.
I. Word-accent in Middle English.
=A. Germanic words.= The general laws of Germanic accentuation of
words, as existing in Old English, have been mentioned above (cf. §§ 18,
19). The same laws are binding also for Middle English and Modern
English.
The main law for all accentual versification is this, that verse-accent
must always coincide with word-accent. This holds good for all even-beat
kinds of verse, as well as for the alliterative line.
The language in all works of the same date and dialect, in whatever
kinds of verse they may be written, must obey the same laws of
accentuation. For this reason the results derived from the relation in
which the word-accent and the metrical value of syllables stand to the
verse-accent, with regard to the general laws of accentuation, and
especially those of inflexional syllables, must be the same for the
language of all even-beat kinds of verse as for that of the contemporary
alliterative line, or the verse of Layamon's _Brut_ and other works
written in a similar form of verse and derived from the ancient native
metre.
Now, when we wish to ascertain the state of accentuation of forms of
words no longer spoken the evidence supplied by the even-beat rhythms is
especially valuable. This is so, chiefly because it is much more
difficult to make the word-accent agree with the verse-accent in this
kind of rhythm, in which it is essential that accented and unaccented
syllables should alternate continuously, than in the alliterative line,
which allows greater freedom both in the relative position of accented
and unaccented syllables and in the numerical proportion between the
unaccented and the accented syllables.
In the alliterative line the position of the rhythmic accent depends on
the accent of the words which make up the verse. In the even-beat metres
on the other hand the regular succession of thesis and arsis is the
ruling principle of the versification, on which the rhythmic accent
depends, and it is the poet's task to choose his words according to that
requirement. The difficulties to be surmounted in order to bring the
word-accent into conformity with the verse-accent will frequently drive
the poet using this kind of rhythm to do violence to the accented and,
more frequently still, to the unaccented syllables of the word. He will
be induced either to contract the unaccented syllables with the accented
ones, or to elide the former altogether, or to leave it to the reader to
make the word-accent agree with the verse-accent by making use of level
stress, or by slurring over syllables, or by admitting disyllabic or
even polysyllabic theses in a verse. On the other hand, the poet who
writes in the native alliterative long line or in any of its descendants
is allowed as a rule to use the words required for his verse in their
usual accentuation or syllabic value, or at least in a way approximating
very closely to their ordinary treatment in prose. Hence those
unaccented syllables which, in even-beat rhythms, are found to be
subjected to the same treatment (i.e. to be equally liable to slurring,
elision, syncopation, or apocopation, according to the requirements of
the verse) must be presumed to have been at least approximately equal in
degree of accentual force.
Now when we examine the relation between word-accent and verse-accent in
certain poetical works of the first half of the thirteenth century, viz.
the _Ormulum_ (which on account of its regularity of rhythm is our best
guide), the _Pater Noster_, the _Moral Ode_, the _Passion_, and other
poems, we arrive at the following results:--
§ =114.= The difference in degree of stress among inflexional endings
containing an _e_ (sometimes _i_ or another vowel) which is alleged by
some scholars--viz. that such endings (in disyllabic words) have
secondary stress when the root-syllable is long, and are wholly
unaccented when it is short--has no existence: in both cases the endings
are to be regarded as alike unaccented. For we find that in even-beat
measures (especially in the _Ormulum_) these endings, whether attached
to a long or to a short root-syllable, are treated precisely alike in
the following important respects:--
1. Those inflexional endings which normally occur in the thesis, and
which are naturally suited for that position, are found in the arsis
only in an extremely small number of instances, which must undoubtedly
be imputed to lack of skill on the part of the poet, as e.g. in
_hallȝhé_ Orm. 70, _nemmnéd_ ib. 75, whereas this is very frequent in
those disyllabic compounds, the second part of which really has a
secondary accent, as e.g. _larspéll_ ib. 51, _mannkínn_ ib. 277.
2. It is no less remarkable, however, that such syllables as those last
mentioned, which undoubtedly bear a secondary accent, are never used by
Orm to form the catalectic end of the septenary verse, evidently because
they would in consequence of their specially strong accent annul or at
least injure the regular unaccented feminine verse-ending. On the other
hand, inflexional endings and unaccented terminations containing an _e_
are generally used for that purpose, as on account of their lightness of
sound they do not endanger in any way the feminine ending of the
catalectic section of the verse. In any case, inflexional syllables
following upon long root-syllables cannot have the same degree of
stress, and cannot be used for the same rhythmic functions, as the
end-syllables of disyllabic compounds, which undoubtedly bear a
secondary accent.
The _regular_ rhythmic employment of the two last-mentioned groups of
syllables proves their characteristic difference of stress--the former
being wholly unaccented, the latter bearing a secondary accent. Further
inquiry into the _irregular_ rhythmic employment of the two similar
classes of inflexional endings, those following upon long
root-syllables, and those following upon short ones, tends to prove no
less precisely that they do not differ in degree of stress, and so that
they are both unaccented. For it is easy to show that with regard to
syncope, apocope, elision, and slurring they are treated quite in the
same way.
Elision of the final _-e_ before a vowel or an _h_ takes place quite in
the same way in those inflexional syllables following upon long
root-syllables as it does in those less numerous syllables which follow
upon short ones, e.g. _Annd ȝétt ter tákenn marẹ inóh_ Orm. 37; _Wiþþ
állẹ swillc rímẹ alls hér iss sétt_ ib. 101; _For áll þat ǽfrẹ onn érþẹ
is néd_ ib. 121; _a wíntrẹ and éc a lóre_ Moral Ode 1; _Wel lóngẹ ic
hábbe chíld ibíen_ ib. 3; _Icc háfẹ itt dón forrþí þatt áll_ Orm. 115,
&c. It is the same with apocopation: _Forr gluternésse wácneþþ áll
Galnésses láþe strénncþe, Annd állẹ þe flǽshess kággerleȝȝc Annd álle
fúle lússtess_ Orm. 11653-6; cf. also: _þatt hé wass hófenn úpp to kíng_
ib. 8450, and _wass hófenn úpp to kínge_ ib. 8370; _o fáderr hállf_ ib.
2269, and _o fáderr hállfe_ 2028, &c.; similarly with syncopation, cf.
_ȝiff þú seȝȝst tátt_ ib. 5188, and _annd séȝȝest swíllc_ ib. 1512; _þet
scúlen bén to déaþe idémd_ Moral Ode 106; _for bétere is án elmésse
bifóren_ ib. 26, &c.; and again with the slurring of syllables following
upon long as well as upon short root-syllables, as the following
examples occurring in the first acatalectic sections of septenary verse
will show sufficiently: _Ál þet bétste þét we héfden_ Moral Ode 51;
_Gódes wísdom ís wel míchel_ ib. 213, &c.
Now as a syllable bearing a secondary accent cannot become mute, as an
unaccented syllable does, if required, it is evident that those
inflexional syllables which follow upon long root-syllables and
frequently do become silent cannot bear that secondary accent which has
been ascribed to them by several scholars; on the contrary, all
syllables subject in the same way to elision, apocope, syncope, and
slurring must have the same degree of stress (i.e. they must be alike
unaccented) whether preceded by short or by long root-syllables.
Other terminations of disyllabic words which, though not inflexional,
consist, like the inflexional endings, of _e_ + consonant, are treated
in the same way, e.g. words like _fader_, _moder_, _finger_, _heven_,
_sadel_, _giver_, &c. Only those inflexional and derivational endings
which are of a somewhat fuller sound, as e.g., _-ing_, _-ling_, _-ung_,
_-and_, _-ish_, and now and then even the comparative and superlative
endings _-er_, _-est_, and the suffixes _-lic_, _-lich_, _-ly_, _-y_,
may be looked upon as bearing a secondary accent, as they may be used at
will either in the arsis of the verse or lowered to the state of
unaccented syllables as the thesis.
§ =115.= In a trisyllabic simple word the root-syllable, of course, has
the primary accent, and of the two following syllables, that which has
the fuller sound, has the secondary accent, as in _áskedèst_,
_wrítìnge_, _dággère_, _clénnèsse_, _híèste_. If, however, the two last
syllables are equally destitute of word-accent, as e.g. in _clepede_,
_lufede_, they are both metrically unaccented; and, as mentioned before
(cf. § 96), may be shortened either to _lufde_, _clepte_, or to _lufed_,
_cleped_. If they are used, however, as trisyllables in the iambic
rhythm they naturally admit of the metrical accent on the last syllable.
It is the same with compounds of nouns or adjectives. The first syllable
takes the chief accent, and of the two others that has the secondary
accent which is the root-syllable of the second part of the compound, as
in _fréendshìpe_, _shírrève_, but _wódecràft_, _bóldelỳ_.
In verbal compounds the primary accent, in conformity with the Old
English usage, generally rests on the root-syllable of the verb, while
the first and last syllable are mostly unaccented, as e.g. _alihten_,
_bisechen_, _forgiven_, _ibidden_, _ofþunchen_. In denominatives, which
in Old English have the primary accent on the first syllable, as e.g.
_ándswarian_, both kinds of accentuation are allowed: _ánswere_ and
_answére_.
In disyllabic and trisyllabic compounds of nouns with certain prefixes,
partly accented in Old English, as e.g. _al-_, _un-_, _for-_, _mis-_,
_y-_, _a-_, _bi-_, the primary accent does not rest on these syllables,
but on the second syllable, this being the root-syllable of the word,
e.g. _almíhti_, _forgétful_, _unhéele_, _bihéeste_; the first syllable
in this case bears a secondary accent if it has a determinative
signification, as e.g. _al-_, _mis-_, _un-_, but it is unaccented if it
is indifferent to the meaning, as e.g. _a-_, _y-_, _bi-_.
§ =116.= A peculiar rhythmical position is held by those words which we
may call parathetic compounds.[141] To these belong certain compound
nouns formed by two words of almost the same weight from a syntactical
and metrical point of view, as e.g. _goodman_, _goodwyf_, _longswerd_,
and also by similar composite particles, as e.g. _elleswhere_, _also_,
_into_, _unto_. Although the regular colloquial pronunciation was
probably in the Middle English period, as it is in Modern English, with
the accent on the first syllable, they may be pronounced with the accent
on the second syllable, or at least with level stress, as e.g.
_g+oo+dm+á+n_, _+a+ls+ó+_, _+i+nt+ó+_, &c. To this class also belong
certain compounds of adverbs with prepositions, as e.g. _herein_,
_therefore_, _thereof_, the only difference being that the usual accent
rests here on the last syllable, but may be placed also on the first, as
in _hereín_ and _hérein_, _thereóf_ and _théreof_, &c.
§ =117.= These gradations of sound in the different words regulate their
rhythmical treatment in the verse. In disyllabic words as a rule the
syllable with the primary accent is placed in the arsis of the verse,
the other syllable, whether it be an unaccented one, or have a secondary
accent, is placed in the thesis. Such words as those described in the
preceding section may much more easily be used with level stress than
others. In that case the rhythmical accent rests on the syllable which
has the secondary accent, while the syllable which in ordinary speech
has the chief accent is used as a thesis.
The ordinary as well as the abnormal use of one and the
same word will be illustrated by the following example:--
_O mánnkinn swá þatt ítt mannkínn._ Orm. 277.
With regard to the rhythmical treatment of trisyllables two classes of
such words are to be distinguished, namely, (1) those in which the
syllable bearing the primary accent is followed or (rarely) preceded by
a syllable bearing a secondary accent, as e.g. _gódspèlles_, _énglìshe_,
and (2) those in which the syllable bearing the primary accent is
preceded or followed by a syllable wholly unaccented, as e.g.
_bigínnen_, _òvercóme_, _crístendòm_, _wéathercòck_. In the latter case
level stress is hardly ever met with, as the natural word-accent would
be interfered with to an intolerable extent by accentuations like
_cristéndom_, _weathércock_, _ovércome_, _bíginnén_, _fórgottén_,
_béhavióur_, &c.
Words like these therefore can in regular iambic or trochaic verse be
used only with their natural accentuation, and hence those syllables
which either have the primary or the secondary accent are always placed
in the arsis, and the unaccented ones in the thesis, e.g.: _To wínnenn
únnder Crísstenndóm_ Orm. Ded. 137; _off þátt itt wáss bigúnnenn_ ib.
88; _Though the séas thréaten, théy are mércifúl_ Shakesp. Temp. V. 178;
_Ónly compóund me wíth forgótten dúst_ id. 2 Hen. IV, IV. v. 116, &c. On
the other hand, when primary and secondary accent occur in two adjacent
syllables level stress is very common, in Middle English, especially
between the first and the second syllable, as _g+o+dspélles háll[gh]he
láre_ Orm. 14, more rarely between the second and the third syllable, as
_þa Góddsp+e+ll+é+ss neh álle_ ib. 30; it also occurs in Chaucer's
poems, as _For thóus+a+nd+é+s his hóndes máden dýe_ Troil. v. 1816; in
the same way Modern English words are treated to fit the rhythm, as e.g.
_mídsùmmer_, _faíntheàrted_, in _Farewéll_, _f+á+int-h+éa+rted ánd
degénerate kíng_ Shak. 3 Hen. VI. I. i. 138; _And górgeous ás the sún at
míds+u+mm+é+r_ 1 Hen. IV, IV. i. 102. With the more recent poets this
latter kind of rhythmical accentuation becomes the more usual of the
two, although the nature and the meaning of the compound word always
play an important part in such cases.
With regard to their accentuation and metrical employment words of four
syllables also fall into three classes: 1. Inflected forms of words
belonging to the first group of trisyllables, like _crístendómes_, which
can be used in the rhythm of the verse only with their natural
accentuation; 2. words like _fordémde_ (first and last syllable
unaccented, the second syllable having the chief accent) with a
determinative prefix, as e.g. _únfordémde_; these likewise are used in
the rhythm of the verse according to their natural accentuation; 3.
words of the third group with a prefix which either has the secondary
accent, or is unaccented, as _ùnwíslìce_ or _iwítnèsse_; the metrical
usage of these is regulated according to the rules for the trisyllabic
words. The same is to be observed with regard to words of five and six
syllables like _únderstándìnge_, _únimételiche_, which, however, are
only of rare occurrence.
§ =118. B. Romanic words.= It was not till the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries that Romanic words passed in considerable numbers into the
English language; and they were then accommodated to the general laws of
accentuation of English. The transition, however, from Romanic to
Germanic accentuation certainly did not take place at once, but
gradually, and earlier in some districts and in some classes of society
than in others; in educated circles undoubtedly later than amongst the
common people. The accentuation of the newly introduced Romanic words
thus being in a vacillating state, we easily see how the poets writing
at that period in foreign even-beat rhythms, of whom Chaucer may serve
as a representative, could use those words with whichever accentuation
best suited their need at the moment, admitting the Romanic accentuation
chiefly in rhymes, where it afforded them great facilities, and the
usual Germanic accentuation mostly in the interior of the line. A few
examples will suffice to illustrate this well-known fact. We arrange
them in five classes according to the number of syllables in the words;
the principles of metrical accentuation not being precisely identical in
the several classes.
=Disyllabic words.= I. Words whose final syllable is accented in French.
They are used in even-beat rhythms (1) with the original accentuation,
e.g. _prisóun: raunsóun_ Kn. T. 317-18; _pítouslý: mercý_ ib. 91-2;
_pitóus: móus_ Prol. 143-4; (2) with the accent on the first syllable
according to the accentuation which had already become prevalent in
ordinary English speech, e.g. _This prísoun cáusede me_ Kn. T. 237;
_With hérte pítous_ ib. 95; _But wé beséken mércy ánd socóur_ ib. 60.
II. Words having in French the accent on the first syllable, the last
syllable being unaccented. These words, partly substantives or
adjectives, as _people_, _nombre_, _propre_, partly verbs, as _praye_,
_suffre_, _crie_ (in which case the accentuation of the sing. of the
present tense prevails), are always used in verse with the original
accentuation, the second unaccented syllable either (1) forming a full
thesis of the verse, as in _the péple préseth thíderward_ Kn. T. 1672;
_bý his própre gód_ Prol. 581, or (2) being elided or slurred and
forming only part of the thesis, as in _the nómbre and éek the cáuse_
ib. 716; _and crýe as hé were wóod_ ib. 636.
As a rule also the original and usual accent is retained by disyllabic
words containing an unaccented prefix, as in _accord_, _abet_, _desyr_,
_defence_, &c. Only words composed with the prefix _dis-_ occur with
either accentuation, as _díscreet_ and _discréet_.
§ =119. Trisyllabic words.= I. Words, the last syllable of which in
French has the chief accent, the first having a secondary accent. In
these words the two accents are transposed in English, so that the first
syllable bears the chief accent, the last the secondary accent, and both
of them as a rule receive the rhythmical accent: _émperóur_, _árgumént_.
But if two syllables of such a word form a disyllabic thesis, generally
the last syllable which has the secondary accent is lowered to the
unaccented grade: _árgument_, _émperour_.
II. Words which in French have the chief accent on the middle syllable,
the last being unaccented. These are sometimes used with the original
accentuation, mostly as feminine rhymes, e.g.: _viságe: uságe_ Prol.
109-10; _chére: manére_ ib. 139-40; _penánce: pitánce_ ib. 233-4;
_poráille: vitáille_ ib. 247-8; _prudénce: senténce_ ib. 305-6;
_offíce: áccomplíce_ Kn. T. 2005-6, &c.; more rarely in the interior of
the verse, where the last syllable may either form a thesis as in _Ál
your plesánce férme and stáble I hólde_ Cl. T. 663, or part of it, being
elided or slurred, as in _The sáme lúst was híre plesánce alsó_ ib. 717.
In other instances, mostly in the interior of the verse, they have the
accent on the first syllable, the last being always elided or slurred:
_And sáugh his vísage was in anóther kýnde_ Kn. T. 543; _He fél in
óffice wíth a chámberléyn_ ib. 561.
Verbs ending in _-ice_ (_-isse_), _-ishe_, _-ie_, as e.g. _chérisse_,
_púnishe_, _stúdie_, _cárrie_, _tárrie_, nearly always have the accent
on the first syllable, the last syllable being elided or apocopated,
except where it is strengthened by a final consonant, as e.g.
_chérishëd_, _tárriëd_. If the first syllable of a trisyllabic word be
formed by an unaccented particle, the root-syllable of the word, in
this case the middle one, likewise retains the accent, as e.g. in
_despíse_, _remaíne_.
§ =120. Four-syllable words= of French origin when they are
substantives or adjectives frequently have disyllabic or trisyllabic
suffixes such as: _-age_, _-iage_, _-ian_, _-iant_, _-aunce_, _-iance_,
_-iaunce_, _-ence_, _-ience_, _-ient_, _-ier_, _-ioun_, _-ious_,
_-eous_, _-uous_, _-ial_, _-ual_, _-iat_, _-iour_, _-ure_, _-ie (-ye)_.
As most of these words already have a trochaic or iambic rhythm, they
are used without difficulty in even-beat disyllabic verses, chiefly in
rhymes, and then always with their full syllabic value, as e.g.:
_pílgrimáge: coráge_ Prol. 11-12; _hóstelrýe: cómpanýe_ ib. 23-4;
_resóun: condícióun_ ib. 37-8; _chývalrýe: cúrtesýe_ ib. 45-6;
_chívachíe: Pícardíe_ ib. 185-6; _cónsciénce: réverénce_ ib. 141-2;
_tóun: conféssióun_ ib. 217-18; _curát: licénciát_ 219-20; _góvernáunce:
chévysáunce_ ib. 291-2, &c. In the interior of a verse also the words
not ending in an unaccented _e_ are always metrically treated according
to their full syllabic value, e.g.: _That héeld opínyóun that pléyn
delýt_ Prol. 337; _Of hís compléxióun he wás sangwýn_ ib. 333. In those
words, on the other hand, which end in an unaccented _e_, this vowel is
in the interior of the verse generally elided or apocopated: _no vílanýe
is ít_ ib. 740; _ín that óstelríe alíght_ ib. 720; _So móche of
dáliáunce and fáir langáge_ ib. 211; _And ál was cónsciénce and téndre
hérte_ ib. 150.
Further shortenings, however, which transform an originally
four-syllable word into a disyllabic one, as in the present
pronunciation of the word _conscience_, do not take lace in Middle
English before the transition to the Modern English period. In
Lyndesay's _Monarchie_ we meet with accentuations of this kind, as e.g.:
_The quhílk gaif sápience tó king Sálomóne._ 249.
_Be tháy contént, mak réverence tó the rést._ 36.
In a similar way adjectives ending in _-able_ and verbs ending in
_-ice_, _-ye_ adapt themselves to the disyllabic rhythm, and likewise
verbs ending in _-ine_ (Old French _-iner_); only it must be noticed
that in the preterite and in the past participle verbs of the latter
class tend to throw the accents on the antepenultimate and last
syllables, e.g. _enlúminéd_, _emprísonéd_.
=Words of five syllables= almost without exception have an iambic rhythm
of themselves and are used accordingly in even-beat verses, as e.g.
_expériénce_; the same is the case with words which have Germanic
endings, like _-ing_, _-inge_, _-nesse_, e.g. _discónfytýnge_.
The rhythmic accentuation of foreign proper names both in disyllables
and in polysyllables varies. Thus we may notice the accentuations
_Junó_, _Plató_, _Venús_, and, on the other hand, _Júno_, _Pláto_,
_Vénus_; _Arcíte_, _Athénes_, and _Árcíte_, _Áthenes_; _Antónie_ and
_Ántoníe_. Wherever in such cases level stress may help to smooth the
rhythm it certainly is to be assumed in reading.
II. Word-accent in Modern English.
§ =121.= Modern English accentuation deviates little from that of the
Old English and Middle English; the inflexional endings, however, play a
much less important part; further, in many cases the Romanic
accentuation of Middle English is still in existence, or at least has
influence, in words of French or Latin origin. This is evident from many
deviations in the rhythmic accentuation of such words from the modern
accentuation which we here regard as normal, though it is to be noted
that in the beginning of the Modern English epoch, i.e. in the sixteenth
century, the actual accentuation in many cases was still in conformity
with the earlier conditions.
Only these real and apparent anomalies are noticed here. We have first
to consider the =Romanic endings= _-ace_, _-age_, _-ail_, _-el_, _-ain_,
_-al_, _-ance_, _-ence_, _-ant_, _-ent_, _-er_, _-ess_ (Old French
_-esse_), _-ice_, _-ile_, _-in_, _-on_, _-or_, _-our_, _-une_, _-ure_,
_-y(e)_ (in disyllabic words). As the final _e_ has become mute, all
these endings are monosyllabic.
In the works of the earlier Modern English poets some words ending in
these syllables are only exceptionally used with the accent on the last
syllable according to the Old French or Middle English accentuation, the
Modern English accentuation being the usual one; others are employed
more frequently or even exclusively with the earlier accentuation, e.g.
_paláce_ Sur. 174, _bondáge_ Wyatt 224, _traváil_ Sur. 82, Wyatt 19,
_certáin_ ib. 179, _mountáin_ Sur. 37, _chieftáin_ ib. 112, _cristál_
Wyatt 156, _presénce_ ib. 81, _grievánce_ ib. 55, _penánce_ ib. 209,
_balánce_ ib. 173, _pleasánt_ ib. 130, _tormént_ (subst.) ib. 72,
_fevér_, _fervóur_ ib. 210, _mistréss_ ib. 109, _richés_ ib. 209,
_justíce_ ib. 229, _servíce_ ib. 177, _engíne_ Sur. 130, _seasón_ ib.
149, _honóur_ ib. 166, _armóur_ 148, _colóur_: _therefóre_ Wyatt 6,
_terrór_: _succóur_ ib. 210, &c., _fortúne_: _tune_ ib. 152, Sur. 115,
_measúre_ Wyatt 125, _natúre_: _unsúre_ ib. 144, _glorý_: _mercý_ ib.
208.
In almost all these cases and in many other words with the same endings
this accentuation seems to be due to the requirements of the rhythm, in
which case level stress must be assumed.
§ =122.= It is the same with many other disyllabic words, especially
those both syllables of which are almost of equal sound-value and degree
of stress, as in cases in which two different meanings of one and the
same word are indicated by different accentuation, a distinction not
unfrequently neglected in the metrical treatment of these words.
So the following adjectives and participles are used by Shakespeare and
other poets with variable accentuation: _complete_, _adverse_, _benign_,
_contrived_, _corrupt_, _despised_, _dispersed_, _distinct_, _distract_,
_diverse_, _eterne_, _exact_, _exhaled_, _exiled_, _expired_, _express_,
_extreme_, _famous_, _insane_, _invised_, _misplaced_, _misprised_,
_obscure_, _perfect_, _profane_, _profound_, _remiss_, _secure_,
_severe_, _sincere_, _supreme_, _terrene_; and so are also the many
adjectives and participles compounded with the prefix _un-_, as e.g.
_unborn_, _unchaste_, _unkind_, &c. (cf. Alexander Schmidt,
_Shakespeare-Lexicon_).
Substantives and verbs are treated in a similar way, e.g. _c+o+mf+ó+rt_
(subst.) Wyatt 14, _r+e+c+ó+rd_ ib. 156, _d+i+sc+ó+rd_ Sur. 6,
_c+o+nfl+í+ct_ ib. 85, _p+u+rch+á+se_ ib. 58, _m+i+sch+íe+f_ Wyatt 78,
_s+a+fegu+á+rd_ ib. 212, _M+a+d+á+me_ ib. 149, _pr+o+m+é+ss_ ib. 25. So
also in Shakespeare (cf. Alexander Schmidt, l.c.): _+á+cc+e+ss_,
_+a+sp+é+ct_, _c+o+mm+é+rce_, _c+o+ns+ó+rt_, _c+o+ntr+á+ct_,
_c+o+mp+á+ct_, _+e+d+í+ct_, _i+nst+í+nct_, _+ou+tr+á+ge_, _pr+e+c+é+pts_,
_c+é+m+e+nt_, _c+ó+nd+u+t_ (vb.), _c+ó+nf+i+ne_, _p+ú+rs+ue+_,
_r+é+l+a+pse_ (cf. _Metrik_, ii. § 62).
§ =123.= Trisyllabic and polysyllabic words, too, of French or Latin
origin are still used frequently in the beginning of the Modern
English period with an accentuation contrary to present usage.
Words e.g. which now have the chief accent on the second syllable,
the first and third syllable being unaccented, are often used with
the rhythmical accents on these two syllables, e.g.: _c+ó+nf+e+ss+ó+r_
Meas. IV. iii. 133, _c+ó+nt+i+n+úe+_ Wyatt 189; _d+é+p+a+rt+ú+re_
ib. 129; _r+é+p+e+nt+á+nce_ ib. 205, _+é+nd+ea+v+óu+r_ ib. 232;
_d+é+t+e+st+á+ble_ John III. iv. 29, _rh+éu+m+a+t+í+c_ Ven. 135, &c.
Likewise in words the first and third syllables of which are now
accented and the second unaccented, the rhythmical accent is placed on
this very syllable, e.g. _charácter_ Lucr. 807, _confíscate_ Cymb. V. v.
323, _contráry_ Wyatt 8, _impórtune_ Ant. IV. xv. 19, _oppórtune_ Temp.
IV. i. 26, _perséver_ All's Well IV. ii. 37, _prescíence_ Troil. I. iii.
199, _siníster_ Troil. IV. v. 128. Certain verbs also in _-ise_, _-ize_
are used with fluctuating accentuation; Shakespeare e.g. always has
_advértise_ Meas. i. 142, _authórise_ Sonn. 35, _canónize_ Troil. II.
ii. 202; sometimes also _solémnize_ Temp. v. 309 (cf. _Metrik_, ii. §§
64, 65).
Foreign proper names especially in many cases are subject, as in earlier
times, to variable accentuation, as e.g.: _Ajáx_ Sur. 129, _Cæsár_
Wyatt 191, _Cató_ ib. 191, the more usual accentuation also occurring in
the writings of the same poets; similarly _Átridés_ Sur. 129 and
_Atríde_ ib. 116, _Cárthages_ ib. 149 and _Cartháge_ 175. Shakespeare
has always the unclassical _Andrónicus_, _Hypérion_, _Cleopátra_, but
for rhythmical reasons _N+ó+rth+a_mpt+ó+n_ Rich. III, II. iv. 1 instead of
_Northámpton_, and so in several other cases (cf. _Metrik_, ii. § 67).
§ =124.= Amongst the =Germanic vocables= the parathetic compounds
chiefly call for notice, as their accentuation in common speech also
approaches level stress, and for this reason they may be used with
either accentuation. This group includes compounds like _moonlight_,
_welfare_, _farewell_, and some conjunctions, prepositions, and
pronouns, as _therefore_, _wherefore_, _something_, _nothing_,
_sometimes_, _into_, _unto_, _towards_, _without_, as e.g.: _thérefore_
Wyatt 24, &c., _therefóre_ ib. 42, _nóthing_ Rich. II, II. ii. 12,
_nothíng_ Rich. III, I. i. 236, _únto_ Sur. 125, _untó_ Sur. 117 (cf.
_Metrik_, ii. § 58).
Greater arbitrariness in the treatment of word-accent, explained best by
the influence of Middle English usage, is shown in the rhythmical
accentuation of the final syllable _-ing_ in words like _endíng_:
_thing_ Wyatt 27; and of the suffixes _-ness_, _-ly_, _-y_, _-ow_, e.g.
_goodnéss_: _excéss_ Wyatt 206, _free_: _trulý_ 147; _borrów_: _sorrów_:
_overthrów_ ib. 227. Less admissible still are such accentuations with
the endings _-er_, _-est_, used on the whole only by the earlier Modern
English poets, e.g. _earnést_ Wyatt 11, _aftér_ ib. 207, and least of
all with inflexional endings, e.g. _scornéd_ Sur. 170, _causéth_ Wyatt
33 (cf. _Metrik_, ii. §§ 59-61).
As a rule, however, such unnatural accentuations can be avoided by
assuming the omission of a thesis at the beginning or in the interior of
a line. With regard to trisyllabic and polysyllabic words the remarks on
pp. 176-7 are to be compared.
DIVISION II
VERSE-FORMS COMMON TO THE MIDDLE AND
MODERN ENGLISH PERIODS
CHAPTER IX
LINES OF EIGHT FEET, FOUR FEET, TWO FEET,
AND ONE FOOT
§ =125.=. Among the metres introduced into Middle English poetry in
imitation of foreign models, perhaps the oldest is the four-foot verse,
rhyming in couplets. This metre may be regarded as having originally
arisen by halving the eight-foot line, although only an isolated example
of this, dating from about the middle of the thirteenth century, quoted
above (p. 127), is known in Middle English poetry. This, however, serves
with special clearness to illustrate the resolution, by means of
inserted rhyme, of the eight-foot long-line couplet into four-foot lines
rhyming alternately (cf. § 78).
In the manuscript the verses, though rhyming in long lines, are written
as short lines, with intermittent rhyme _a b c b d b e b_, just as the
example of Modern English eight-foot iambic verse, quoted before (p.
127), is found printed with this arrangement, as is indeed generally the
case with most long-line forms of that type. This metre calls for no
other remarks on its rhythmical structure than will have to be made with
regard to the four-foot verse.
§ =126.= The four-foot line, rhyming in couplets, first appears in a
paraphrase of the _Pater Noster_ of the end of the twelfth century,[142]
doubtless in imitation of the Old French _vers octosyllabe_ made known
in England by Anglo-Norman poets, such as Gaimar, Wace, Benoit, &c.
This French metre consists of eight syllables when the ending is
monosyllabic, and nine when it is disyllabic.
The lines are always connected in couplets by rhyme, but masculine and
feminine rhymes need not alternate with one another.
It is exactly the same with the Middle English four-foot line, except
that the rising iambic rhythm comes out more clearly in it, and that,
instead of the Romanic principle of counting the syllables, that of the
equality of beats is perceptible, so that the equality of the number of
syllables in the verses is not so strictly observed. Hence, all the
deviations before mentioned from the strict formal structure of
even-beat verses occur even in this early poem, and quite regularly
constructed couplets are indeed but rare in it. Examples of this type
are the following:
_Ah, láverd gód, her úre béne,
Of úre súnne máke us cléne,
Þet hé us ȝéue alswá he méi,
Þet ús bihóueð úlche déi._ ll. 167-170.
The first ten lines of the poem give a sufficient idea of the structure
of the verse, and its characteristics:
_Ure féder þét in héouene ís,
Þet ís all sóþ fúl iwís!
Weo móten tó þeos wéordes iséon,
Þet to líue and to sáule góde béon,
Þet wéo beon swá his súnes ibórene,
Þet hé beo féder and wé him icórene,
Þet wé don álle hís ibéden
Ánd his wílle fór to réden.
Lóke weo ús wið hím misdón
Þurh béelzebúbes swíkedóm._
Here we find almost all the rhythmical licences to be found in even-beat
metres. Thus we have suppression of the anacrusis in line 8 and again in
two consecutive lines, such as 15, 16:
_Gíf we léornið gódes láre,
Þénne of-þúnceð hít him sáre;_
and very often in the course of the poem, e.g. ll. 22, 29, 30, 37, &c.,
so that it acquires a loose, iambic-trochaic cadence; further, the
absence of an unaccented syllable in the middle of the line (line 2);
inversion of accent in line 9, and again in line 81, _Láverd he ís of
álle scáfte_; two unaccented syllables at the beginning and in the
interior of the verse in 4; light slurrings ll. 1, 3, 5; only ll. 7 and
10 are regularly constructed throughout. The same proportion of regular
to irregular verses runs through the whole poem, in which, besides the
licences mentioned, that of level stress is also often to be met with,
especially in rhymes like _w+u+rþ+í+ng: héovenkíng_ 99-100; _h+a+t+í+ng:
king_ 193-4, 219-20; _fóndúnge: swínkúnge_ 242-3.
§ =127.= The treatment of the caesura in this metre also deserves,
special mention, for this, as has already been stated, is one of the
chief points in which the four-foot even-beat metre differs from the
four-stress metre, as represented either by the old alliterative long
line or by the later non-alliterating line. For there must be a caesura
in every four-beat verse, and it must always be found in one definite
place, viz. after the second beat next to any unaccented syllable or
syllables that follow the beat, the line being thus divided into two
rhythmically fairly equal halves. On the other hand, for the four-foot
verse, not only in this, its earliest appearance, but in the rest of
Middle and Modern English literature, the caesura is not obligatory, and
when it does occur it may, theoretically speaking, stand in any place in
the line, although it most frequently appears after the second foot,
particularly in the oldest period.
The caesura may (§ 80) be of three kinds:
(1) Monosyllabic or masculine caesura:
_Ne képeð he nóht | þet wé beon súne._ 18.
(2) Disyllabic or feminine caesura, two kinds of which are to
be distinguished, viz.
(_a_) Lyric caesura, within a foot:
_And ȝéfe us míhte | þúrh his héld._ 240.
(_b_) Epic caesura caused by a supernumerary unaccented
syllable before the pause:
_Ure gúltes, láverd, | bon ús forȝéven._ 173.
These three kinds of caesura, the last of which, it is true, we meet
here only sporadically, may thus in four-foot verse also occur _after_,
as well as _in_ the other feet. Thus we find in the very first line, a
lyrical caesura after the first foot:
_Ure féder | þét in héouene ís._
This, however, seldom happens in the oldest examples, in which caesuras
sharply dividing the line are rare, enjambement being only seldom
admitted. Examples of verses without caesuras are to be found, among
others, in the following: _Þúrh béelzebúbes swíkedóm_ 10, _Intó þe
þósternésse héllen_ 104. As a rule, in the four-foot verse as well as in
French octosyllabics, a pause does not occur until the end, on account
of the shortness of this metre, which generally only suffices for one
rhythmic section, while in four-beat verse a regular division into two
rhythmic sections, and consequently the constant occurrence of a
caesura, is rendered possible by the greater number of unaccented
syllables.
The end of the line may, in any order, have either a masculine rhyme, as
in ll. 1-4, 9, 10, or a feminine rhyme, as in ll. 7 and 8. There occur
besides, but seldom, trisyllabic rhymes, such as those in ll. 5-6, or
_súnegen: múnegen_ 141-2.
§ =128.= This metre continued to be very popular in Middle and Modern
English poetry, and is still extensively used. As a rule its structure
constantly remained the same; nevertheless we may, in both periods,
distinguish between two well-marked ways of treating it. It was, for
instance, at the end of the thirteenth and in the first half of the
fourteenth century, very freely handled in the North of England in the
_Surtees Psalter_, further by Robert Mannyng in his _Handlyng Sinne_,
and by Richard Rolle de Hampole in his _Pricke of Conscience_. Their
treatment of this verse is characterized, for instance, by the
remarkably frequent occurrence of two and even three unaccented
syllables at the beginning and in the middle of the line, e.g.:
_In þi rightwísenésses biþénke I sál
Þine sághes nóght forgéte withál._
Psalm cxviii, v. 16.
_And rékened þe cústome hóuses echóne,
At whých þey had góde and at whýche nóne._
Mannyng, Handlyng Sinne, ll. 5585-6.
Other rhythmical licences, such as the omission of unaccented syllables
in the middle of a verse, and inversion of accent, are frequent in these
compositions. Level stress, on the other hand, for the most part is
found only in rhyme, as _sh+e+nsh+é+pe_: _kepe_ Hampole 380-1; _come_:
_b+o+ghs+ó+me_ ib. 394-5.
The other extreme of strict regularity in the number of syllables is
exhibited in another group of North English and Scottish compositions of
the fourteenth century, such as the _Metrical Homilies_, the _Cursor
Mundi_, Barbour's _Bruce_, Wyntoun's _Chronykyl_. The metrical licences
most frequent here are level stress, suppression of the anacrusis, and
the omission of unaccented syllables in the middle of the line, in the
_Metrical Homilies_. The rhythm is, however, as a rule, strictly iambic,
and the number of syllables eight or nine, according as the rhymes are
masculine or feminine.
§ =129.= The contemporaneous literary productions of the Midlands and
South written in this metre generally observe a mean between the free
and the strict versification of the two northern groups.
These are inter alia _The Story of Genesis and Exodus_, _The Owl and
Nightingale_, _The Lay of Havelok_, _Sir Orfeo_, _King Alisander_,
several compositions of Chaucer's,[143] as, for instance, _The Book of
the Duchesse_, _The House of Fame_, Gower's _Confessio Amantis_, and
others. The last work, as well as _The Owl and Nightingale_, is written
in almost perfectly regular iambic verses, in which the syllables are
strictly counted. The other compositions more frequently admit the
familiar rhythmical licences and have a freer movement, but none to the
same extent as the _Pater Noster_. In artistic perfection this metre
presents itself to us in Chaucer, who was particularly skilful in
employing and varying the enjambement. A short specimen from his _House
of Fame_ (ll. 151-74) will illustrate this:
_Fírst sawgh I thé destrúccióun
Of Tróy, thórgh the Gréke Synóun,
Wíth his fálse fórswerýnge,
And his chére and hís lesýnge
Máde the hórs broght into Tróye,
Thorgh whích Tróyens lost ál her joýe.
And áfter thís was gráve, allás,
How Ílyóun assáyled wás
And wónne, and kýnge Pr+iá+m ysláyne
And Políte his sóne, certáyne,
Dispítouslý of dáun Pirr+ú+s,
And néxt that sáwgh I hów V+e+n+ú+s,
Whan thát she sáwgh the cástel brénde,
Dóune fro the hévene gán descénde,
And bád hir sóne Enéas flée;
And hów he fléd, and hów that hé
Escáped wás from ál the prés,
And tóoke his fáder, Ánch+i+sés,
And báre hym ón hys bákke awáy,
Crýinge 'Allás and wélawáy!'
The whíche Anchíses ín hys hónde
Báre the góddes óf the lónde,
Thílke thát unbrénde wére.
And Í saugh néxt in ál hys fére_, &c.
§ =130.= Four-foot verses often occur also in Middle English in
connexion with other metrical forms, especially with three-foot verses,
e.g. in the Septenary, which is resolved by the rhyme into two short
lines, and in the tail-rhyme stanza, or _rime couée_ (cf. §§ 78, 79).
In these combinations the structure of the metre remains essentially the
same, only there are in many poems more frequent instances of
suppression of the anacrusis, so that the metre assumes a variable
cadence, partly trochaic, partly iambic. At the end of the Middle
English period the four-foot verse was, along with other metrical forms,
employed by preference in the earlier dramatic productions, and was
skilfully used by Heywood, among others, in his interlude, _The Four
P.'s_.[144]
§ =131.= In he Modern English period this metre has also found great
favour, and we may, as in the case of other metres, distinguish between
a strict and a freer variety of it. The strict form was, and is, mostly
represented in lyric poetry, in verses rhyming in couplets or in cross
rhyme. The rhythm is generally in this case (since the separation
between iambic and trochaic verse-forms became definitely established)
strictly iambic, generally with monosyllabic rhymes.
A greater interest attaches to the freer variety of the metre, which is
to be regarded as a direct continuation of the Middle English four-foot
verse, inasmuch as it was practised by the poets of the first Modern
English period in imitation of earlier models, and has been further
cultivated by their successors down to the most recent times. The
characteristic feature in this treatment of the four-foot verse is the
frequent suppression of the anacrusis, by which it comes to resemble the
four-beat verse, along with which it is often used. But whilst the
latter generally has an iambic-anapaestic or trochaic-dactylic
structure, and is constantly divided by the caesura into two halves, the
Modern English four-foot verse of the freer type has, as a rule, an
alternately iambic and trochaic rhythm, with a rare occurrence of
caesuras. Shakespeare and other dramatists often employ this metre for
lyrical passages in their dramas. Of longer poems in the earlier period
Milton's _L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_ are conspicuous examples.
The following passage from _L'Allegro_ (ll. 11-16) may serve as a
specimen:
_But cóme thou Góddess fáir and frée,
In héaven yclépt Euphrósyné,
Ánd by mén héart-easing Mírth,
Whom lóvely Vénus, át a bírth,
Wíth two síster Gráces móre,
To ívy-crównëd Bácchus bóre_, &c.
The structure of the verse is essentially iambic, though the iambic
metre frequently, by suppression of the initial theses, as in the
thirteenth and fifteenth lines of this passage, falls into a trochaic
cadence. Pure trochaic verses, i.e. those that begin with an accented
syllable and end with an unaccented one, occur in these two poems, in
couplets, only once, _L'Allegro_ (ll. 69-70):
_Stráight mine éye hath cáught new pléasures,
Whíles the lándscape róund it méasures._
With masculine endings such couplets are frequent, e.g. _Il Penseroso_,
67-8:
_Tó behóld the wándering móon,
Ríding néar the híghest nóon;_
further, ll. 75-6, 81-2, 141-2, &c.
As a rule, pure iambic lines rhyme together, or an iambic with a line
that has a trochaic cadence, as, for instance, in the above specimen,
_L'Allegro_, 13-14 and 15-16.
Besides initial truncation there also occur here the other metrical
licences observed in iambic rhythm.
§ =132.= Many sections of the narrative poems of Coleridge, Scott, and
Byron, e.g. the latter's _Siege of Corinth_, are written in this form,
with which, in especially animated passages, four-beat verses often
alternate. Cf., for instance, the following passage, xvi, from the
last-named poem:
_Stíll by the shóre Alp mútely músed,
And wóo'd the fréshness níght diffúsed.
There shrínks no ébb in that tídeless séa,
Which chángeless rólls etérnallý;
So that wíldest of wáves, in their ángriest móod,
Scarce bréak on the bóunds of the lánd for a róod;
And the pówerless móon behólds them flów
Héedless if she cóme or gó:
Cálm or hígh, in máin or báy,
Ón their cóurse she háth no swáy._
Lines 5-7 can be at once recognized as four-stress verses by the
iambic-anapaestic rhythm, as well as by the strongly-marked caesura,
which, in the four-foot verses 4, and especially 8 and 10, is entirely
or almost entirely absent (cf. pp. 98-9); and both metrical forms, the
calmer four-foot verse and the more animated four-stress metre, are in
harmonious agreement with the tone of this passage.
Four-foot lines, forming component parts of metrically heterogeneous
types of stanzas, such, for instance, as the tail-rhyme stave, are
generally more regularly constructed than in the Middle English period.
§ =133.= Among the metrical forms which took their rise from the
four-foot line, the most noteworthy are the two-foot and the one-foot
verse, the former the result of halving the four-foot verse, the latter
of dividing the two-foot verse, as a rule, by means of the rhyme. These
verse-forms only seldom occur in the Middle English period, as a rule in
anisometrical stanzas in connexion with verses of greater length. Thus,
in the poem in Wright's _Specimens of Lyric Poetry_, p. 38, composed in
the entwined tail-rhyme stanza, the short lines have two accents:
_wiþóute stríf: y wýte, a wýf_ 10-12; _in tóune tréwe: while ý may
gléwe_ 4-6. The eighteen-lined enlarged tail-rhyme stave of the ballad,
_The Nut-brown Maid_ (Percy's _Reliques_, iii. 6), also consists of two-
and three-foot lines; in this case the two-foot lines may be conceived
as the result of halving the first hemistich of the septenary line.
In Modern English two-foot lines are also rare and are chiefly found in
anisometrical stanzas. They do occur, however, here and there in
isometrical poems, either written in couplets or in stanzas of lines
rhyming alternately; as, for instance, in Drayton, _An Amouret
Anacreontic_:
_Most góod, most fáir,
Or thíngs as ráre
To cáll you's lóst;
For áll the cóst
Wórds can bestów,
Só póorly shów
Upón your práise
That áll the wáys
Sénse hath, come shórt_, &c.
The commonest rhythmical licences are inversion of accent and initial
truncation. In stanzas verses of this sort occur, for the most part it
seems, with the rhyme-order _a b c b_, for instance in Burns, _The Cats
like Kitchen_, and Moore, _When Love is Kind_, so that these verses
might be regarded as four-foot lines rhyming in couplets.
§ =134.= One-foot lines, both with single and with double ending,
likewise occur in Middle English only as component parts of
anisometrical stanzas, as a rule as _bob_-verses in what are called
_bob-wheel_ staves; as, for instance, in a poem in Wright's _Songs and
Carols_ (Percy Society, 1847), the line _With áye_ rhyming with the
three-foot line _Aye, áye, I dár well sáy_; in the _Towneley Mysteries_,
the verse _Alás_ rhyming with _A góod máster he wás_; in an _Easter
Carol_ (Morris, _An Old Engl. Miscellany_, pp. 197-9), the line _So
strónge_ rhyming with _Jóye hím wit sónge_, or _In lónde_ and _of hónde_
rhyming with _Al with jóye þat is fúnde_.
Metrical licences can naturally only seldom occur in such short lines.
One-foot iambic lines occur also in the Modern English period almost
exclusively in anisometrical stanzas. A little poem entitled _Upon his
Departure hence_, in Herrick's _Hesperides_, may be quoted as a
curiosity, as it is written in continuous one-foot lines of this kind,
rhyming in triplets:
_Thus Í_, _As óne_ _I'm máde_ _I' the gráve,_ _Where téll_
_Passe bý_, _Unknówn_, _A sháde_ _There háve,_ _I dwéll._
_And díe_, _And góne_, _And láid_ _My cáve:_ _Farewéll._
One-foot lines with feminine ending are employed by Moore as the middle
member of the stanza in the poem _Joys of Youth, how fleeting_.
CHAPTER X
THE SEPTENARY, THE ALEXANDRINE, AND THE
THREE-FOOT LINE
§ =135. The Septenary= is a favourite Middle English metre, going back
to a Mediaeval Latin model. It cannot, however, be definitely determined
whether this is to be found in the (accentual) catalectic iambic
tetrameter, an example of which is preserved, among other instances, in
the _Planctus Bonaventurae_ (1221-74) printed by Mone in his _Latin
Hymns of the Middle Ages_, which begins as follows:
_O crux, frutex salvificus, | vivo fonte rigatus,
Quem flos exornat fulgidus, | fructus fecundat gratus_,
or possibly in another Latin metre which was a far greater favourite
with the Anglo-Norman Latin poets. This is the (accentual)
brachycatalectic trochaic tetrameter, which frequently occurs, among
other instances, in the poems ascribed to Walter Map, e.g. in the still
popular verses:
_Mihi est propositum | in taberna mori,
Vinum sit appositum | morientis ori._
The result of an attempt to adopt this metre in Middle English might, on
account of the preference of the language for iambic rhythm, very
naturally be to transform it into the iambic catalectic tetrameter by
the frequent addition of an unaccented opening syllable at the beginning
of each half-line. Probably the latter verse-form was the model, as may
be seen from Leigh Hunt's Modern English translation of the Latin
drinking-song just quoted.[145]
Moreover, many mediaeval Latin verses also have a wavering rhythm
resulting in a form at times characterized by level stress, e.g.
_Fortunae rota volvitur; | descendo minoratus,
Alter in altum tollitur | nimis exaltatus.
Rex sedet in vertice, | caveat ruinam,
Nam sub axe legimus | 'Hecubam' reginam._
Carmina Burana, lxxvii.
§ =136.= These verses correspond pretty exactly, in their metrical
structure, to the opening lines of the _Moral Ode_, which, as far as is
known, is the earliest Middle English poem in septenary lines, and dates
from the twelfth century:
_Íc am élder þánne ic wés, | a wíntre and éc a lóre;
ic éaldi móre þánne ic déde: | mi wít oȝhte tó bi móre.
Wel lónge ic hábbe chíld ibíen | on wórde ánd on déde;
þéȝh ic bí on wíntren éald, | to ȝíung ic ám on réde._
The other common licences of even-beat metre which affect the rhythm of
the line, the metrical value of syllables, and the word-accent, also
occur in the _Moral Ode_. Suppression of the anacrusis is very often met
with; it occurs, for instance, in the first hemistich, in lines 1 and 4
above; in the second hemistich, _ér ic hít iwíste_ l. 17, in both, _þó
þet hábbeð wél idón | éfter híre míhte_, l. 175; so that a pure iambic
couplet seldom occurs, although the iambic rhythm is, on the whole,
predominant. The omission of unaccented syllables in the middle of the
line is also often found (although many verses of this kind probably
require emendation), as _Ne léve nó mán to múchel_ 24; also in the
second hemistich, as _and wól éche dede_ 88. Transpositions of the
accent are quite usual at the beginning of the first as well as of the
second hemistich: _Elde me ís bestólen ón_ 17; _síððen ic spéke cúðe_ 9.
Level stress is also not absent: _For bétere is án elmésse bifóre_ 28.
We often meet with elision, apocope, syncope, slurring of syllables, and
the use of a disyllabic thesis both at the beginning of the line and in
other positions: _þo þet wél ne dóeþ þe wíle he múȝe_ 19; _nís hit
búte gámen and glíe_ 188. A noteworthy indication of want of skill in
the handling of the Septenary in this first attempt is the frequent
occurrence of a superfluous syllable at the close of the first
hemistich, which should only admit of an acatalectic ending, e.g.: _Hé
scal cúme on úuele stéde | búte him Gód beo mílde_ 26; _Eíðer to lútel
ánd to múchel | scal þúnchen éft hem báthe_ 62, &c. The end of the
second hemistich, on the other hand, in accordance with the structure of
the metre, is in this poem always catalectic.
§ =137.= The irregularity of the structure of the Septenary rhyming line
of the _Moral Ode_ stands in marked contrast with the regularity of the
rhymeless Septenary verse of the _Ormulum_. The first hemistich here is
always acatalectic, the second catalectic, and the whole line has never
more nor less than fifteen syllables.
Hence the only metrical licences that occur here are elision, syncope,
and apocope of the unaccented _e_ of some inflexional endings, and the
very frequent admission of level stress in disyllabic and polysyllabic
words, which are to be found in all places in the line:
_Icc þátt tiss Énnglissh háfe sétt | +E+nnglísshe ménn to láre,
Icc wáss þær þǽr I crísstnedd wáss | +O+rrmín bi náme némmnedd,
Annd ícc +O+rrmín full ínnwarrdlíȝ | wiþþ múð annd éc wiþþ
hérrte._
Dedic. 322-7.
In all such cases, in the versification of Orm, whose practice is to
count the syllables, there can only be a question of level stress, not
of inversion of accent. _Ennglisshe_ at the beginning of the second
hemistich of the above line, 322, is no more an example of inversion of
rhythm than in the hemistich _Icc háfe wénnd inntill +E+nnglíssh_ l. 13.
§ =138.= After the _Moral Ode_ and the _Ormulum_ the Septenary often
occurs in combination with other metres, especially the Alexandrine, of
which we shall speak later on.
In some works of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Septenary
was, however, employed in a fairly unmixed form, as, for instance, in
the _Lives of Saints_, ed. Furnivall, 1862, the _Fragment of Popular
Science_, ed. Wright in _Popular Treatises on Science_, London, 1841,
and several others.
The most important deviation from the Septenary of Orm and of the _Moral
Ode_ is the frequent occurrence of long lines with a masculine instead
of the usual feminine ending. Both forms are to be found in the opening
lines of the _Fragment of Popular Science_:
_The ríȝte pút of hélle ís | amídde the úrþe wiþínne,
Oure Lóverd þát al mákede iwís, | quéinte ís of gýnne,
Héuene and úrþe ymákede iwís, | and síþþe alle þíng þat ís,
Úrpe is a lútel húrfte | aȝén héuene iwís._
It may fairly be assumed that the structure of the Alexandrine (which,
according to French models, might have either a masculine or a feminine
ending) may have greatly furthered the intrusion of monosyllabic feet
into the Septenary verse, although the gradual decay of the final
inflexions may likewise have contributed to this end. For the rest, all
the rhythmic licences of the Septenary occurring in the _Moral Ode_ are
also to be met with here; as, for instance, the suppression of the
anacrusis in the first hemistich of l. 4 of the passage quoted, and in
the second of l. 2, and the omission of the unaccented syllable in the
second hemistich of the fourth line, the inversion of accent and
disyllabic thesis in the first hemistich of the third line, and other
licences, such as the anapaestic beginning of the line, &c., in other
places in these poems (cf. _Metrik_, i, p. 246).
§ =139.= In lyrical poems of this time and in later popular ballad poetry
the Septenary is employed in another manner, namely, in four-lined
stanzas of four- and three-foot verse, rhyming crosswise, each of which
must be looked on as consisting of pairs of Septenaries with middle
rhyme inserted (interlaced rhyme), as is clearly shown by the Latin
models of these metrical forms quoted above (p. 192). Latin and English
lines are thus found connected, so as to form a stanza, in a poem of the
fifteenth century:
_Fréeres, fréeres, wó ȝe bé!
Mínistrí malórum,
For mány a mánnes sóule bringe ȝé
Ad póenas ínfernórum._ Political Poems, ii. 249.
In many lyrical poems of the older period some stanzas rhyme in long
lines, others rhyme in short lines, which shows the gradual genesis of
the short-lined metre, rhyming throughout. Thus, in the poem in Wright's
_Spec. of Lyr. P._, p. 90, the opening verses of the first stanza rhyme
in long lines:
_My déþ y lóue, my lýf ich háte, | fór a léuedy shéne,
Héo is bríht so daíes líht, | þat ís on mé wel séne_,
whereas those of the second rhyme in short lines:
_Sórewe and sýke and dréri mód | býndeþ mé so fáste,
Þát y wéne to wálke wód, | ȝef hít me léngore láste._
Instances of this kind are frequent; but the four lines of the single
stanzas are never completely rhymed throughout as short-lines, as, for
instance, is the case in the opening parts or 'frontes' of the stanzas
of the poems in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. P._, pp. 27 and 83, the lines of
which are far more regularly constructed. The rhymes are in these
compositions still generally disyllabic.
The metrical structure of the old ballads _The Battle of Otterborn_ and
_Chevy Chase_ is similar to that of the poem just quoted. In those
ballads some original long lines are provided with middle rhyme, others
not, so that the stanzas partly rhyme according to the formula _a b c
b_, partly according to the formula _a b a b_. The versification is,
moreover, very uneven, and the endings are, as a rule, if not without
exception, masculine:
_Sir Hárry Pérssy cam to the wálles,
The Skóttish óste for to sé;
And sáyd, and thou hast brént Northómberlónd,
Full sóre it réwyth mé._
The ballads of the end of the Middle English period are generally
composed in far more regular lines or stanzas. The feminine endings of
the Septenary are, however, as a rule replaced by masculine endings,
whether the lines rhyme crosswise or only in the three-foot verses. Cf.
the ballad, _The Lady's Fall_ (Ritson, ii. 110), which, however, was
probably composed as late as the Modern English period:
_Mark wéll my héavy dóleful tále,
You lóyal lóvers áll,
And héedfullý béar in your bréast
A gállant lády's fáll._
§ =140.= In Modern English the Septenary has been extensively used, both
in long and in short rhyming lines. One special variety of it,
consisting of stanzas of four lines, alternately of eight and six
syllables (always with masculine ending), is designated in hymn-books by
the name of Common Metre.
In the long-lined form this metre occurs at the beginning of this period
in poems of some length, as, for instance, in William Warner's _Albion's
England_, and in Chapman's translation of the _Iliad_. Here, too, the
ending of the line is almost without exception masculine, and the
rhythm, on the whole, pretty regular, although this regularity,
especially in Chapman, is, in accordance with the contemporary practice,
only attained by alternate full pronunciation and slurring of the same
syllables (Romanic _-ion_, _-ious_, &c., and Germanic _-ed_, &c.) and by
inversion of accent. The caesura is always masculine at the end of the
first hemistich, but masculine or feminine minor caesuras are often met
with after the second or in the third foot, sometimes also after the
first or in the second:
_Occásioned thús: | Chrýses the príest || cáme to the fléet to
búy._ i. 11.
_To plágue the ármy, | ánd to déath || by tróops the sóldiers
wént._ ib. 10.
Secondary caesuras also occur, though less frequently, in other places
in the line, particularly in the second hemistich:
_But íf thou wílt be sáfe begóne. || This sáid, | the séa-beat
shóre._ ib. 32.
_All mén in óne aróse and sáid: || Atrídes, | nów I sée._
ib. 54.
These last examples suffice to show the rich variety of the caesura,
which may be referred perhaps to the influence of blank verse, in the
management of which Chapman displays great skill, and to the frequent
use which he makes of the enjambement. Rhyme-breaking also sometimes
occurs in his verse. Occasionally three consecutive lines rhyme
together, as in W. Warner, whose versification is otherwise extremely
regular, similar to that of lyrical poetry. In this branch of poetry the
Septenary, with the simple rhyme-order _a b c b_ and especially with the
more artistic form _a b a b_, has continued to be very popular from the
time of Wyatt down to the present day. The three-foot line has naturally
in most instances a masculine ending, but lines also occasionally occur
with feminine rhyme. In many poems the feminine rhyme is, moreover,
regularly employed in this metre; as, for instance, in Burns's _To John
Taylor_ (p. 158):
_With Pégasús upón a dáy,
Apóllo wéary flýing,
Through frósty hílls the jóurney láy,
On fóot the wáy was plýing._
In ballad poetry, on the other hand, the Septenary metre tends to assume
a somewhat freer construction, similar to, though not so capricious as
that in the old ballads edited by Percy. A well-known example is offered
by Coleridge's _Rime of the Ancient Mariner_:
_It ís an áncient Márinér, | And he stoppeth óne of thrée:
'By thy lóng grey béard and glíttering éye, | Now whérefore
stópp'st thou mé?'_
Two unaccented opening syllables and two unaccented syllables in the
middle of the line are, in particular, often met with.
§ =141. The Septenary in combination with other metres.= After its
occurrence in the _Moral Ode_ and the _Ormulum_ the Septenary, as we
have seen, appears at first very seldom by itself, but generally in
connexion with other metres, especially the old long line in its freer
development, the four-foot metre (though more rarely), and,
particularly, the Alexandrine.
The Middle English Alexandrine was constructed on the model of the Old
French Alexandrine--except for the use of Teutonic licences in even-beat
rhythm--and it thus possessed four different types, which the following
examples from _On god Ureison of ure Lefdi_[146] may serve to
illustrate. We give the corresponding Old French metrical types from the
_Roman d'Alixandre_ (Bartsch, _Chrestomathie de l'ancien français_, p.
175).
_a._ Masculine caesura with masculine line-ending:
_En icele forest, | dont voz m'oëz conter._ 24.
_Nim nu ȝéme to mé, | so me bést a béo ðe béo._ 129.
_b._ Feminine (epic) caesura with masculine line-ending:
_nesune male choze | ne puet laianz entrer._ 25.
_vor þín is þé wurchípe, | ȝif ich wrécche wel iþéo._ 130.
_c._ Masculine caesura with feminine line-ending:
_Moult fut biaus li vregiers | et gente la praële._ 1.
_Þine blísse ne méi | nówiht únderstónden._ 31.
_d_. Feminine (epic) caesura with feminine line-ending:
_Moult souëf i flairoient | radise et canele._ 2.
_Vor ál is gódes ríche | an únder þíne hónden._ 32.
Alexandrines of this sort, particularly of the last type, are
found in a group of poems of the close of the twelfth, or beginning
of the thirteenth century, intermingled with Septenaries,
and also, though more seldom, combined with four-beat alliterative
rhyming long lines and with four-foot verses. Such poems
are _On god Ureison of ure Lefdi_ (quoted above), _A lutel soth
sermon_ (_Old English Miscellany_, ed. R. Morris, pp. 186 ff.),
and _A Bestiary_ (ib. pp. 1-25).
The following lines from _A lutel soth sermon_ may serve to illustrate
this mixture:
_Hérknied àlle góde mèn, | and stílle sìtteþ adún,
And ích ou wùle téllen | a lútel sòþ sermún.
Wél we wìten álle, | þag ìch eou nóȝt ne télle,
Hu ádam ùre vórme fàder | adún vel ìnto hélle.
Schómeliche hè vorlés | þe blísse þàt he hédde;
To ȝívernèsse and prúde | nóne nèode he nédde.
He nòm þen áppel òf the tré | þat hìm forbóde wás:
So reúþful dède idón | néuer nòn nás.
He máde him ìnto hélle fàlle, | and éfter hìm his chíldren àlle;
Þér he wàs fort ùre dríhte | hìne bóhte mìd his míhte.
He hìne alésede mìd his blóde, | þàt he schédde upòn the róde,
To déþe he ȝèf him fòr us álle, | þó we wèren so strònge
at-fálle.
Álle bácbìteres | wéndet to hélle,
Róbberes and réueres, | and þe mónquélle,
Léchurs and hórlinges | þíder sculen wénde,
And þér heo sculen wúnien | évere buten énde._
Here we have Septenaries (ll. 1, 4, 7) and Alexandrines (ll. 2, 3, 5, 6,
8) intermixed in ll. 1-8, eight-foot long lines resolved by means of
_sectional rhyme_ into four-foot lines in ll. 9-12, and four-beat
rhyming alliterative long lines of the freer type in ll. 13-16. The easy
intermixture of metres may be explained by the fact that in all these
different long-lined metrical forms four _principal stresses_ are
prominent amid the rest, as we have indicated by accents (´).
§ =142.= In the _Bestiary_ this mixture of metrical forms has assumed
still greater proportions, inasmuch as alongside of the long-lined
rhyming Septenaries and alliterative long lines there are found also
Layamon's short-lined rhyming verses and Septenary lines resolved into
short verses by middle rhyme.
The following passages may more closely illustrate the metrical
construction of this poem; in the first place, ll. 384-97:
_A wìlde dér is, þàt is =f=úl | of =f=éle wíles,
=F=óx is hère tó-nàme, | for hìre quéðscípe;
Húsebondes hìre =h=áten, | for hère =h=árm-dédes:
þe =c=óc and tè =c=apún | ge fècheð ófte ìn ðe tún,
And te =g=ándre ànd te =g=ós, | bì ðe =n=écke and bì ðe =n=óz,
=H=áleð is tò hire =h=óle; | forðí man hìre =h=átieð,
=H=átien and =h=úlen | bòðe mén and fúles._
Here we have unmistakable long lines of the freer type.
In other passages the alliterative long lines pass into Septenaries, as,
for instance, ll. 273-98:
_ðe =m=íre =m=úneð us | =m=éte to tílen,
=l=óng =l=ívenoðe, | ðis =l=ítle wíle
ðe we on ðis =w=érld =w=únen: | for ðanne we óf =w=énden,
ðánne is ure =w=ínter: | we sulen =h=únger =h=áuen
and =h=árde súres, | buten we ben wár =h=ére.
Do wé forðí so dóð ðis dér, | ðánne wé be dérue
Ón ðat dái ðat dóm sal bén, | ðát ít ne us hárde réwe_:
* * * * *
_þe córn ðat gé to cáue béreð, | áll ge it bít otwínne,
ðe láge us léreð to dón gód, | ánd forbédeþ us sínne_, &c.
In a third instance (ll. 628-35) Septenary and four-foot lines run into
one another:
_Hú he résteð him ðis dér,
ðánne he wálkeð wíde,
hérkne wú it télleð hér,
for hé is ál unríde.
A tré he sékeð to fúligewís
ðát is stróng and stédefast ís,
and léneð hím tr+o+stl+í+ke ðerbí,
ðánne he ís of wálke w+e+r+í+._
In many passages in the poem one or other of these different types of
verse occurs unmixed with others. Thus we have short couplets in the
section 444-5; in ll. 1-39 alliterative rhymeless verse, occasionally of
marked archaic construction, concluding with a hemistich (39) which
rhymes with the preceding hemistich so as to form a transition to the
following section (ll. 40-52), which again consists of four-foot and
Septenary verses. These are followed by a section (ll. 53-87) in which
four-foot and three-foot lines (that is to say, Alexandrines) rhyming in
couplets are blended; and this is succeeded by a further section (ll.
88-119) mostly consisting of Septenaries resolved by the rhyme into
short lines. (Cf. _Metrik_, i, §§ 79-84.)
Hence we may say that the poet, in accordance with his Latin model
(likewise composed in various metres), has purposely made use of these
different metrical forms, and that the assertion made by Trautmann and
others,[147] that the Septenary of the _Ormulum_ and the _Moral Ode_,
which is contemporary with Layamon, represents the final result of the
development of Layamon's verse (the freer alliterative long line), must
be erroneous.
§ =143.= In _On god Ureison of ure Lefdi_, on the other hand, the
alliterative long lines play only an insignificant part, a part which is
confined to an occasional use of a two-beat rhythm in the hemistichs and
the frequent introduction of alliteration. Septenaries and Alexandrines
here interchange _ad libitum_.
The following short passage (ll. 23-34) will suffice to illustrate these
combinations of metres:
_Nís no wúmmen ibóren | þét þe béo ilíche,
Ne nón þer nís þin éfning | wiðínne héoueríche.
Héih is þi kínestól | onúppe chérubíne,
Biuóren ðíne léoue súne | wiðínnen séraphíne.
Múrie dréameð éngles | biuóren þín onséne,
Pléieð and swéieð | and síngeð bitwéonen.
Swúðe wél ham líkeð | biuóren þe to béonne,
Vor heo néuer né beoð séad | þi uéir to iséonne.
Þíne blísse ne méi | nówiht únderstónden,
Vor ál is gódes ríche | anúnder þíne hónden.
Álle þíne uréondes | þu mákest ríche kínges;
Þú ham ȝíuest kínescrúd, | béies and góldrínges._
Lines 26 and 34, perhaps also 25 and 30, are Septenaries, l. 28 is the
only line of the poem which contains two beats in both hemistichs
(hemistichs of this sort are further found in the first hemistich of ll.
3, 12, 44, 72, 77, and in the second of ll. 30, 45, 46, 52, and 70); the
remaining lines of this passage are most naturally scanned as
Alexandrines.
§ =144.= Now, this unsystematic combination of Alexandrines
and Septenaries is a metre which was especially in vogue in the
Middle English period. In this metrical form two religious
poems, _The Passion of our Lord_ and _The Woman of Samaria_
(Morris, _Old English Miscellany_), were composed so early as
the beginning of the thirteenth century. From the first we
quote ll. 21-4:
_Léuedi þu bére þat béste chíld, | þat éuer wés ibóre;
Of þe he mákede his móder, | vor hé þe hédde ycóre.
Ádam ánd his ófsprung | ál hit wére furlóre,
Ýf þi súne nére, | ibléssed þu béo þervóre._
Many lines of these poems may be scanned in both ways;
in the third line of the preceding extract, for instance, we may
either take the second syllable of the word _ofsprung_, in the manner
of the usual even-beat rhythm, to form a thesis (in this case
hypermetrical, yielding an epic caesura), or we may regard it as
forming, according to ancient Germanic usage, a fourth arsis of
the hemistich, which would then belong to a Septenary. At any
rate, this scansion would, in this case, be quite admissible, as
indeed the other licences of even-beat rhythm all occur here.
It is in this metre that the South English Legends of Saints (_Ms.
Harleian_ 2277) and other poems in the same MS., as the _Fragment on
Popular Science_ (fourteenth century), are written. The same holds good
for Robert of Gloucester's Rhyming Chronicle (cf. _Metrik_, i, §§ 113,
114). Mätzner (in his _Altengl. Sprachproben_, p. 155), and Ten Brink
(_Literaturgeschichte_, i, pp. 334, 345) concur in this opinion, while
Trautmann (in _Anglia_, v, Anz., pp. 123-5), on a theory of metrical
accentuation which we hold to be untenable, pronounces the verses to be
Septenaries.
The following passage (Mätzner, _Altengl. Sprachproben_, i, p. 155) may
serve to illustrate the versification of Robert of Gloucester:
_Áftur kýng Báthulf | Léir ys sóne was kýng,
And régned síxti ȝér | wél þoru álle þýng.
Up þe wáter of Sóure | a cíty óf gret fáme
He éndede, and clépede yt Léicestre, | áftur is ówne náme.
Þre dóȝtren þis kýng hádde, | þe éldeste Górnorílle,
Þe mýdmost hátte Régan, | þe ȝóngost Córdeílle.
Þe fáder hem lóuede álle ynóȝ, | ác þe ȝóngost mést:
For héo was bést an fáirest, | and to háutenésse drow lést.
Þó þe kýng to élde cóm, | álle þré he bróȝte
Hys dóȝtren tofóre hým, | to wýte of hére þóuȝte._
§ =145.= At the end of the thirteenth century the Septenary and
Alexandrine were, however, relegated to a subordinate position by the
new fashionable five-foot iambic verse. But we soon meet them again in
popular works of another kind, viz. in the Miracle Plays, especially in
some plays of the _Towneley Collection_, like the _Conspiratio et
Capcio_ (p. 182), and actually employed quite in the arbitrary sequence
hitherto observed, Alexandrine sometimes rhyming with Alexandrine,
Septenary with Septenary, but, more frequently, Alexandrine with
Septenary. A passage from the Towneley Mysteries may make this clear:
_Now háve ye hárt what Í have sáyde, | I gó and cóm agáyn,
Therfór looke yé be páyde | and álso glád and fáyn,
For tó my fáder I wéynd, | for móre then Í is hé,
I lét you wýtt, as fáythfulle fréynd, | or thát it dóne bé.
That yé may trów when ít is dóne, | for cértes, I máy noght nów
Many thýnges so sóyn | at thís tyme spéak with yóu._
This metre is also employed in many Moral Plays with a similar liberty
in the succession of the two metrical forms.
But we may often observe in these works, as, for instance, in Redford's
_Marriage of Wit and Science_ (Dodsley, ii, p. 325 sq.), that
Alexandrines and Septenaries are used interchangeably, though not
according to any fixed plan, so that sometimes the Septenary and
sometimes the Alexandrine precedes in the couplet, as, for instance, in
the last four lines of the following passage (Dodsley, ii, p. 386):
_O lét me bréathe a whíle, | and hóld thy héavy hánd,
My gríevous fáults with sháme | enóugh I únderstánd.
Take rúth and píty ón my pláint, | or élse I ám forlórn;
Let nót the wórld contínue thús | in láughing mé to scórn.
Mádam, if Í be hé, | to whóm you ónce were bént,
With whóm to spénd your tíme | sometíme you wére content:
If ány hópe be léft, | if ány récompénse
Be áble tó recóver thís | forpássed négligénce,
O, hélp me nów poor wrétch | in thís most héavy plíght,
And fúrnish mé yet ónce agáin | with Tédiousnéss to fíght._
§ =146.= In other passages in this drama, e.g. in the speech of _Wit_,
p. 359, this combination (Alexandrine with Septenary following) occurs
in a sequence of some length. It existed, however, before Redford's
time, as a favourite form of stave, in lyrical as well as in narrative
poetry, and was well known to the first Tudor English prosodists under
the name of _The Poulter's Measure_.[148]
The opening lines of Surrey's _Complaint of a dying Lover_ (p. 24)
present an example of its cadence:
_In wínter's just retúrn, | when Bóreas gán his réign,
And évery trée unclóthed fást, | as Náture táught them pláin:
In místy mórning dárk, | as shéep are thén in hóld,
I híed me fást, it sát me ón, | my shéep for tó unfóld._
Brooke's narrative poem _Romeus and Juliet_, utilized by Shakespeare for
his drama of the same name, is in this metre. Probably the strict iambic
cadence and the fixed position of the caesura caused this metre to
appear especially adapted for cultured poetry, at a time when rising and
falling rhythms were first sharply distinguished. It was, however, not
long popular, though isolated examples are found in modern poets, as,
for instance, Cowper and Watts. Thackeray uses it for comic poems, for
which it appears especially suitable, sometimes using the two kinds of
verse promiscuously, as Dean Swift had done before him, and sometimes
employing the Alexandrine and Septenary in regular alternation.
§ =147. The Alexandrine= runs more smoothly than the Septenary. The
Middle English Alexandrine is a six-foot iambic line with a caesura
after the third foot. This caesura, like the end of the line, may be
either masculine or feminine.
This metre was probably employed for the first time in Robert Mannyng's
translation of Peter Langtoft's rhythmical Chronicle, partly composed in
French Alexandrines. The four metrical types of the model mentioned
above (p. 198) naturally also make their appearance here.
_a. Méssengérs he sent | þórghout Ínglónd_
_b. Untó the Ínglis kýnges | þat hád it ín þer hónd._
p. 2, ll. 3-4.
_c. Áfter Éthelbért | com Élfríth his bróther,_
_d. Þát was Égbrihtes sónne, | and ȝít þer wás an óþer;_
p. 21, ll. 7-8.
The Germanic licences incidental to even-beat rhythm are strikingly
perceptible throughout.
In the first line we have to note in both hemistichs suppression of the
anacrusis, in the second either the omission of an unaccented syllable
or lengthening of a word (_Ing(e)lond_). The second line has a regular
structure: in the third the suppression of the anacrusis is to be noted
and the absence of an unaccented syllable in the second hemistich. The
last line has the regular number of syllables, but double inversion of
accent in the first hemistich. A disyllabic thesis at the beginning or
in the middle of the line also frequently occurs.
_To purvéie þám a skúlking, | on the Énglish éft to ríde_;
p. 3, l. 8.
_Bot soiórned þám a whíle | in rést a Bángóre_;
p. 3, l. 16.
_In Wéstsex was þán a kýng, | his náme wás Sir Íne_;
p. 2, l. 1.
There is less freedom of structure in the Alexandrine as used in the
lyrical poems of this period, in which, however, the verse is generally
resolved by middle rhyme into short lines, as may be seen from the
examples in § 150.
§ =148.= The structure of the Alexandrine is, on the other hand,
extremely irregular in the late Middle English Mysteries and the Early
English Moral Plays, where, so far as we have observed, it is not
employed in any piece as the exclusive metre, but mostly occurs either
as the first member of the above-mentioned _Poulter's Measure_, and
occasionally in uninterrupted sequence in speeches of considerable
length. We cannot therefore always say with certainty whether we have in
many passages of _Jacob and Esau_ (Dodsley's _Old Plays_, ed. Hazlitt,
vol. ii, pp. 185 ff.) to deal with four-beat lines or with unpolished
Alexandrines (cf. Act II, Sc. i). In other pieces, on the other hand,
the Alexandrine, where it appears in passages of some length, is pretty
regularly constructed, as, for instance, in Redford's _Marriage of Wit
and Science_ (Dodsley, ii, pp. 325 ff.), e.g. in Act II. Sc. ii (pp.
340-1):
_How mány séek, that cóme | too shórt of théir desíre:
How mány dó attémpt, | that daíly dó retíre.
How mány róve abóut | the márk on évery síde:
How mány think to hít, | when théy are much too wíde:
How mány rún too fár, | how mány light too lów:
How féw to góod efféct | their trávail dó bestów!_ &c.
The caesura and close of the line are in this passage, which comprises
eighteen lines, monosyllabic throughout.
§ =149.= In Modern English the Alexandrine is also found in a long-lined
rhyming form, as, for instance, in the sixteenth century in certain
poems by Sidney, but notably in Drayton's _Polyolbion_.
The Modern English Alexandrine is particularly distinguished from the
Middle English variety by the fact that the four types of the Middle
English Alexandrine are reduced to one, the caesura being regularly
masculine and the close of the line nearly always so; further by the
very scanty employment of the Teutonic rhythmical licences; cf. the
opening lines of the _Polyolbion_ (_Poets_, iii. pp. 239 ff.):
_Of Álbion's glórious ísle | the wónders whílst I wríte,
The súndry várying sóils, | the pléasures ínfiníte,
Where héat kills nót the cóld, | nor cóld expéls the héat,
The cálms too míldly smáll, | nor wínds too róughly gréat_, &c.
Minor caesuras seldom occur, and generally in the second hemistich, as,
e.g., minor lyric caesuras after the first foot:
_Wise génius, | bý thy hélp || that só I máy descrý._
240 a;
or masculine caesura after the second foot:
_Ye sácred bárds | that to || your hárps' melódious stríngs._
ib.
Enjambement is only sporadically met with; breaking of the rhyme still
more seldom.
Less significance is to be attached to the fact that Brysket, in a poem
on Sidney's death, entitled _The Mourning Muse of Thestylis_ (printed
with Spenser's works, Globe edition, p. 563), makes Alexandrines rhyme
together, not in couplets, but in an arbitrary order; further, that
Surrey and Blennerhasset occasionally composed in similarly constructed
rhymeless Alexandrines (cf. _Metrik_, ii, p. 83).
Of greater importance is the structure of the Alexandrine when used as
the concluding line of the Spenserian stanza and of its imitations.
It is here noteworthy that the lyric caesura, unusual in Middle English,
often occurs in Spenser after the first hemistich:
_That súch a cúrsed créature || líves so lóng a spáce._
F. Q. I. i. 31;
as well as in connexion with minor caesuras:
_Upón his fóe, | a Drágon, || hórriblé and stéarne._
ib. I. i. 3.
The closing line of the Spenserian stanza is similarly handled by other
poets, such as Thomson, Scott, Wordsworth, while poets like Pope, Byron,
Shelley, and others admit only masculine caesuras after the third foot.
By itself the Alexandrine has not often been employed in Modern English.
Connected in couplets it occurs in the nineteenth century in
Wordsworth's verse, e.g. in _The Pet Lamb_ (ii. 149), and is in this use
as well as in the Spenserian stanza treated by this poet with greater
freedom than by others, two opening and medial disyllabic theses as well
as suppression of anacrusis, being frequently admitted, while on the
other hand the caesura and close of the verse are always monosyllabic.
§ =150. The three-foot line= has its origin theoretically, and as a
rule also actually, in a halving of the Alexandrine, and this is
effected less frequently by the use of leonine than by cross rhyme.
Two Alexandrine long lines are, for instance, frequently resolved in
this metrical type into four three-foot short lines with crossed rhymes,
as, e.g., in Robert Mannyng's _Chronicle_, from p. 69 of Hearne's
edition onwards.
From our previous description of the four types of the Middle English
Alexandrine, determined by the caesura and the close of the verse, it is
clear that the short verses resulting from them may rhyme either with
masculine or feminine endings, as, e.g., on p. 78, ll. 1, 2:
_Wílliam the Cónqueróur_ _Óut of his fírst erróur_
_Chángis his wícked wíll;_ _repéntis óf his ílle_.
In accordance with the general character of the metre the verses in this
Chronicle are, even when rhyming as short lines, printed as long lines,
especially as this order of rhymes is not consistently observed in all
places in which they occur.
In lyrical poetry this metre is naturally chiefly found arranged in
short lines, as in the following examples:
Wright's Spec. of L. P., 97: Minot, ed. Hall, 17:
_Máyden móder mílde,_ _Tówrenay, ȝów has tíght_
_oiéz cel óreysóun;_ _To tímber tréy and téne_
_from sháme þóu me shílde, A bóre, with brénis bríght_
_e dé ly málfelóun._ _Es bróght opón ȝowre gréne_.
With another order of rhymes these verses are also met
with in tail-rhyme stanzas of different kinds, as, for instance,
in Wright's _Spec. of L. P._, p. 41:
_Of a món mátheu þóhte,_ _In márewe mén he sóhte,_
_þo hé þe wýnȝord wróhte;_ _at únder mó he bróhte,_
_and wrót hit ón ys bóc,_ _and nóm, ant nón forsóc_.
As a rule, the verses in such lyrical compositions intended to be sung
are more regularly constructed than in those of narrative poetry, where
the usual Germanic metrical licences occur more frequently.
In Modern English the three-foot verse has remained a favourite, chiefly
in lyrical poetry, and occurs there as well with monosyllabic as with
disyllabic rhymes, which may either follow one another or be crossed,
e.g.:
Surrey, p. 128: Surrey, p. 39:
_Me líst no móre to síng_ _Though Í regárded nót_
_Of lóve, nor óf such thing,_ _The prómise máde by mé;_
_How sóre that ít me wríng;_ _Or pássed nót to spót_
_For whát I súng or spáke,_ _My fáith and hónestý:_
_Mén did my sóngs mistáke._ _Yét were my fáncy stránge_, &c.
We seldom find three-foot verses with disyllabic rhymes throughout.
There is, on the other hand, in lyrical poetry a predilection for
stanzas in which disyllabic rhymes alternate with monosyllabic, as, for
instance, in Sheffield, _On the Loss of an only Son_:
_Our mórning's gáy and shíning,
The dáys our jóys decláre;
At évening nó repíning,
And níght's all vóid of cáre.
A fónd transpórted móther
Was óften héard to crý,
Oh, whére is súch anóther
So bléss'd by Héaven as Í?_ &c.
Rhythmical licences, such as suppression of the anacrusis, seldom occur
in such short lines. The species of licence that is most frequent
appears to be inversion of accent.
CHAPTER XI
THE RHYMED FIVE-FOOT VERSE
§ =151.= Among all English metres the five-foot verse may be said to be
the metre which has been employed in the greatest number of poems, and
in those of highest merit.
Two forms can be distinguished, namely, the rhymed and the rhymeless
five-foot verse (the latter being known as _blank verse_), which are of
equal importance, though not of equal antiquity.
The rhymed five-foot verse was known in English poetry as far back as
the second half of the thirteenth century, and has been a favourite
metre from Chaucer's first poetic attempts onward to the present, whilst
the blank verse was first introduced into English literature about the
year 1540 by the Earl of Surrey (1518-47), and has been frequently
employed ever since that time. The rhymed five-foot verse was, and has
continued to be, mainly preferred for lyrical and epic, the blank verse
for dramatic poetry. The latter, however, has been employed e.g. by
Milton, and after him by Thomson and many others for the epic and allied
species of poetry; while rhymed five-foot verse was used during a
certain period for dramatic poetry, e.g. by Davenant and Dryden, but by
the latter only for a short time.
=Rhymed five-accent verse= occurs in Middle English both in poems
composed in stanza form and (since Chaucer's _Legend of Good Women_, c.
1386) in couplets.
This metre, apart from differences in the length of the line and in
number of accents, is by no means to be looked upon as different from
the remaining even-stressed metres of that time. For, like the Middle
English four-foot verse and the Alexandrine, it derives its origin from
a French source, its prototype being the French decasyllabic verse. This
is a metre with rising rhythm, in which the caesura generally comes
after the fourth syllable, as e.g. in the line:
_Ja mais n'iert tels | com fut as anceisors._ Saint Alexis, l. 5.
To this verse the following line of Chaucer's corresponds
exactly in point of structure:
_A kníght ther wás, | and thát a wórthy mán._
Cant. Tales, Prol. 43.
§ =152.= The English verse, like the French decasyllabic, admits
feminine caesuras and feminine line-endings, and the first thesis
(anacrusis) may be absent; there are, therefore, sixteen varieties
theoretically possible.
I. Principal Types.
1. ⏑ – ⏑ – | ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ 10 syll.
2. ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ | ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – 11 "
3. ⏑ – ⏑ – | ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ 11 "
4. ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ | ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ 12 "
II. With Initial Truncation
(omission of the first thesis).
5. – ⏑ – | ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – 9 syll.
6. – ⏑ – ⏑ | ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – 10 "
7. – ⏑ – | ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ 10 "
8. – ⏑ – ⏑ | ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ 11 "
III. With Internal Truncation
(omission of the thesis after
the caesura).
9. ⏑ – ⏑ – | – ⏑ – ⏑ – 9 syll.
10. ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ | – ⏑ – ⏑ – 10 "
11. ⏑ – ⏑ – | – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ 10 "
12. ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ | – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ 11 "
IV. With both Initial and Internal
Truncation.
13. – ⏑ – | – ⏑ – ⏑ – 8 syll.
14. – ⏑ – ⏑ | – ⏑ – ⏑ – 9 "
15. – ⏑ – | – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ 9 "
16. – ⏑ – ⏑ | – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ 10 "
This table at the same time also contains the formal exposition, and
indeed possibly the actual explanation (by suppression of the thesis
following the epic caesura), of such lines as may be regarded as lines
with lyric caesura, and are identical with these in regard to rhythm and
number of syllables. To this class belong the forms given under 10, 12,
14, and 16.
The following examples will serve to illustrate these sixteen types:
I. Principal Types.
1. _A kníght ther wás, | and thát a wórthy mán._ Prol. 43.
2. _What schúlde he stúdie, | and máke himsélven wóod?_ ib. 184.
3. _But thílke téxt | held hé not wórth an óystre._ ib. 182.
4. _To Cáunterbúry | with fúl devóut coráge._ ib. 22.
II. With Initial Truncation.
5. _Úpon whích | he wíl auénged bé._
Lydgate, Story of Thebes, 1086.
6. _Óf the wórdes | that Týdeús had sáid._ ib. 1082.
7. _Fró the kíng | he gán his fáce tóurne._ ib. 1068.
8. _Nát astónned, | nor ín his hért aférde._ ib. 1069.
III. With Internal Truncation after the caesura.
9. _A stérne pás | thórgh the hálle he góth._ ib. 1072.
10. _And whích they wéren, | ánd of whát degré._ Chaucer, Prol. 40.
11. _And yét therbý | sháll they néuer thrýve?_
Barclay, Ship of Fooles, p. 20.
12. _And máde fórward | érly fór to rýse._ Chaucer, Prol. 33.
IV. With Initial Truncation and Truncation after the caesura.
13. _Ín al hást | Týdeús to swé._ Lydgate, Story of Thebes, 1093.
14. _Twénty bókes, | clád in blák and réed._ Chaucer, Prol. 294.
15. _Spáred nát | wómen gréet with chýlde._
Lydgate, Guy of Warwick, 16.
16. _Fór to délen | wíth no súch poráille._ Chaucer, Prol. 247.
In this five-foot metre all the Germanic licences of the even-beat
rhythm may occur in the same way as in the other even-beat metres. The
caesura, for instance, may occur in both (or all three) varieties in the
five-foot verse of Chaucer and of many other poets, either after or
within any of the remaining feet. Hence the structure of this metrical
form gains to an extraordinary degree in complexity.
By the mere fact that the variations adduced above may also occur after
the first, third, and fourth foot, the number of verse-forms produced by
the above-mentioned types of caesura in combination with initial
truncation and the different kinds of verse-ending rises to sixty-four,
to say nothing of the other metrical licences due to inversion of
accent, level stress, and the presence of hypermetrical unaccented
syllables at the beginning, or in the middle and the end of the line. At
any rate, the varieties of even-beat metres, especially of the five-foot
verse, resulting from these metrical licences, are much more numerous
than those connected with the five main types of the alliterative
hemistich. The great diversity of rhythm allowed by this metrical theory
has, indeed, been objected to, but evidently without sufficient reason,
and, as it seems, only because of the unfamiliarity of the idea.
§ =153.= This variable position of the caesura is, however, not found in
the earliest specimens of this metre presented to us in the two poems in
the Harl. MS. 2253 dating from the second half of the thirteenth
century, which are edited in Wright's _Specimens of Lyric Poetry_, Nos.
xl and xli (wrongly numbered xlii).[149] These are written in tripartite
eight-lined, anisometrical stanzas of the form _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c₅ c₅ d₇
d₅_, in which the fifth, sixth, and eighth lines are evidently of five
feet. Ten Brink,[150] it is true, says that he has not been able 'to
convince himself that this was a genuine instance of a metre
which--whether in origin or character--might be identified with
Chaucer's heroic verse, although in isolated instances it seems to
coincide with it'. According to my conviction, there is not the
slightest doubt as to the structure of these verses as lines of five
feet, and Ten Brink has not expressed any opinion as to the nature of
the verse to which they must otherwise be referred.[151]
In both these poems there occur only verses of the type indicated by the
formulas 3, 4, 7, 12:
3. _His hérte blód | he ȝéf for ál monkúnne._ xl. 35.
4. _Upón þe róde | why núlle we táken héde?_ ib. 27.
7. _Ȝéf bou dóst, | hit wól me réowe sóre._ xli. 20.
12. _Bote héo me lóuye, | sóre hil wól me réwe._ ib. 27.
Among the Germanic licences the presence of a disyllabic initial or
internal thesis is most noticeable in these which are, so far as is
known, the earliest five-foot verses in English poetry; as, e.g. in xli.
33, 34:
_Ase stérres beþ in wélkne, | and gráses sóur ant suéte;
Whose lóueþ vntréwe, | his hérte is sélde séete._
§ =154.= The main difference between Chaucer's five-foot verse and these
early specimens of this metre is that the caesura does not always occupy
a fixed place in it, but is liable to shift its position.[152] It is
either masculine, epic, or lyric, and occurs chiefly after the second or
in and after the third foot, or in the fourth, so that there are thus
(in Chaucer's verse and that of most of the following poets) =six main
types of caesura=:
1. Masculine (monosyllabic) caesura after the second foot; the principal
kind (types 1 and 3):
_Whan Zéphirús | eek wíth his swéte bréethe._ Prol. 5.
2. Feminine (disyllabic) epic caesura after the second foot; far rarer
(types 2 and 4):
_To Cáunterbúry[153] | with fúl devóut coráge._ ib. 22.
3. Feminine (disyllabic) lyric caesura in the third foot; more frequent
than the preceding (types 10 and 12):
_And máde fórward | érly fór to rýse._ ib. 83.
4. Masculine (monosyllabic) caesura after the third foot (first
subordinate type to 1 and 3 = 1a and 3a):
_That slépen ál the níght | with ópen éye._ ib. 10.
5. Feminine (disyllabic) epic caesura after the third foot, rare (first
subordinate type to 2 and 4 = 2a and 4a):
_Ther ás he wás ful mérye | and wél át ése._ Nonne Pr. T. 438.
6. Feminine lyric caesura in the fourth foot (first subordinate type to
10 and 12 = 10a and 12a):
_An ánlas ánd a gípser | ál of sílk._ Prol. 357.
Besides these six principal caesuras we also find all the three types
occurring in rarer instances in the corresponding remaining positions of
the verse, namely, after the first or in the second foot, and after the
fourth or in the fifth foot. Enjambement often gives rise to logical
caesuras in unusual positions, alongside of which another metrical
caesura is generally noticeable in one of the usual positions:
_Byfél, || that ín that sésoun | ón a dáy._ Prol. 18.
_In Sóuthwerk | át the Tábard || ás I láy._ ib. 20.
_Farwél, || for Í ne máy | no lénger dwélle._ Kn. T. 1496.
_O régne, || that wólt no félawe | hán with thé._ ib. 766.
_Now cértes, || Í wol dó | my díligénce._ Prioresse T. 1729.
_Is ín this lárge | wórlde ysprád || --quod shé._ ib. 1644.
_To Médes ánd | to Pérses yíuen || quod hé._ Monkes T. 3425.
_And sófte untó himsélf | he séyde | : Fý._ Kn. T. 915.
By the various combinations of such principal and subordinate caesuras
the number of the varieties of this metre is increased to an almost
unlimited extent. Many lines also are devoid of the caesura completely,
or, at most, admit, under the influence of the general rhythm, a light
metrical caesura without any strict logical need, as, for instance, when
it occurs after a conjunction or a preposition, as in the verses:
_By fórward ánd | by cómposícióun._ Prol. 848.
_That Í was óf | here félaweschípe anón._ ib. 32.
§ =155.= The end also of the line may be either masculine or feminine.
Both kinds occur side by side on a perfectly equal footing, the feminine
endings probably somewhat oftener in Chaucer's verse owing to the
numerous terminations consisting of _e_ or _e_ + consonant which were
still pronounced at his time. Besides the variety in the caesura and the
end of the verse, the well-known licences of even-beat rhythm play a
considerable part; as, for instance, inversion of accent, ordinary and
rhetorical, at the beginning of the verse and after the caesura: rédy
_to wénden_ Prol. 21; Sýngynge _he wás_ ib. 91; Schórt _was his góune_
ib. 93; Tróuthe _and honóur_, frédom _and cóurteisíe_ ib. 46.
Although omission of the anacrusis is on the whole unfrequent, it yet
undoubtedly occurs (cf. p. 137, footnote):
_Ál besmótered | wíth his hábergeóun._ Prol. 76.
_Gýnglen ín a | whístlyng wýnd as clére._ ib. 170.
Disyllabic theses are often found initially and internally.
_With a thrédbare cópe | as is a póure schóler._ Prol. 262.
_Of Éngelónd, | to Cáunterbúry they wénde._ ib. 16.
Similar rhythmical phenomena are caused by the slurring of
syllables, such, e.g., as _Many a, tharray_ from _the array_, &c., &c.,
in regard to which reference should be made to the chapter on
the metrical value of syllables.
Level stress occurs most frequently in Chaucer in rhyme: _f+i+ft+é+ne_:
_Trámasséne_ 61-2; _d+a+gg+é+re_: _spere_ 113-14; _thing_: _wr+i+t+ý+ng_
325-6. Enjambement and rhyme-breaking are used by him with great skill
(cf. §§ 92, 93).
§ =156.= In later Middle English this metre on the whole retained the
same character, and individual poets vary from one another only in a few
points.
Of Gower's five-foot verse only short specimens are preserved. Like his
four-foot verse, they are very generally regular. Inversion of accent is
the licence he most often employs. Gower uses almost exclusively the
masculine caesura after the second foot and the lyric caesura in the
third foot. But epic caesura also occasionally occurs in his verse:
_Fór of batáille | the fínal énde is pés._ Praise of Peace, 66.
A decline in the technique of the five-foot verse begins with Lydgate
and Hoccleve.
These writers deprived the caesura of its mobility and admitted it
almost exclusively after the second beat. Hoccleve uses hardly any
caesuras but the masculine and lyric, whilst in Lydgate's verse epic
caesura is often met with (cf. p. 211). Both indulge in the licences of
initial truncation and omission of the unaccented syllable after the
caesura (cf. l. c.) as well as level stress and the admission of several
unaccented syllables at the beginning of the verse and internally; there
are even cases of the omission of unaccented syllables in the middle of
the verse:
_Of hárd márble | they díde anóther máke._ Min. P., p. 85, 24.
The slight license of inversion of accent is also taken advantage
of.
Stephen Hawes and Barclay again imparted to this line greater freedom
with regard to the caesura. And yet the metre exhibits under their
hands, in consequence of the frequent occurrence of disyllabic initial
and internal theses, a somewhat uneven rhythm.