respects, are the Scots: Blind Harry, Henrysoun, King James I, Douglas,
and Dunbar. The verse of Dunbar, in particular, stands on an equality
with Chaucer's in rhythmical euphony, while David Lyndesay often
struggles with difficulties of form, and, by frequent use of level
stress, offends against the first principle of even-beat rhythm, viz.
the coincidence of the metrical accent with the natural accentuation of
the word and sentence.
§ =157.= In Modern English the rhymed five-foot verse remains
essentially the same as in the Middle English period. Feminine rhymes
are indeed rarer than in Middle English poetry in consequence of the
disuse of flexional endings.
For the same reason, and owing to the advance in technical execution,
the epic caesura is also rarer. Still, examples of this as well as of
the other kind of caesuras employed by Chaucer are found in Modern
English:
I. _The níghtingále | with féathers néw she síngs._ Sur. p. 3.
II. _The sóte séason | that búd and blóom forth bríngs._ ib. p. 3.
III. _Itsélf from trávail | óf the dáys unrést._ ib. p. 2.
IV. _The sún hath twíce brought fórth | his ténder gréen._
V. _He knóweth how gréat Atrídes, | that máde Troy frét._
Wyatt, 152.
VI. _At lást she ásked sóftly, | whó was thére._ ib. 187.
In positions nearer to the beginning or the end of the line the
different kinds of caesura are also rare in Modern English, and occur
mostly in consequence of enjambements.
In Wyatt's poems epic caesuras are found in comparatively large number;
in Spenser, on the other hand, they are probably entirely lacking, owing
to a finer feeling for the technique of the verse.
Inversions of accent occur in the usual positions and at all times with
all the poets. Level stress, on the other hand, is more frequently
detected in such poets as do not excel in technical skill, as, for
instance, in Wyatt and Donne, who also admit initial truncation, and
more rarely the omission of a thesis in the middle of the line. In their
poems disyllabic theses also often occur initially and internally, while
more careful poets more rarely permit themselves these licences. To
Wyatt's charge must be laid further the unusual and uncouth licence of
unaccented rhyme, such rhymes, for example, as _begínnìng: eclípsìng_,
p. 56, 1-3; _dréadèth: séekèth_, _inclósèd: oppréssèd_ 54, &c. In
other poets this peculiarity is hardly ever found.
§ =158.= In narrative poetry the five-foot verse rhyming in couplets,
_heroic verse_, was a favourite metre. As a close in the sense coincides
with that of each couplet, this metre tends to assume an epigrammatic
tone, especially since enjambement seldom occurs after the Restoration.
To avoid the monotony thus occasioned, many Restoration poets linked
three verses together by one and the same rhyme, whereby the regular
sequence of couplets was then interrupted wherever they pleased.
Sometimes such threefold rhymes (_triplets_) serve the purpose of laying
a special stress on particular passages, a practice which is, moreover,
to be observed as early as in some contemporaries of Shakespeare, e.g.
in Donne. A somewhat freer structure than that of the heroic verse is,
as a rule, exhibited by the five-foot line when employed in poems in
stanza form. In this verse a considerable part is played by enjambement.
This also holds good for the rhymed five-foot verse employed in dramatic
poetry, which usually rhymes in couplets, though alternate rhymes are
occasionally used.
After Lyly's _The Maid's Metamorphosis_, entirely written in heroic
verse, this metre was chiefly employed by Shakespeare and his
contemporaries for prologues and epilogues. Rhymed five-foot verses
frequently occur in Shakespeare's earlier dramas, e.g. in _Romeo and
Juliet_, where their technical structure is found to be fairly strict.
In his later dramas, on the other hand, e.g. in the Prologue and
Epilogue to _Henry VIII_, the heroic verse is, on the analogy of the
freer treatment of his later blank verse, also more loosely constructed.
Enjambement, and the caesuras connected with it after the first and
fourth accents, are often met with.
§ =159.= Dryden's dramatic heroic verse does not differ essentially from
that of his satirical poems and translations. After Dryden returned to
blank verse for dramatic writing, heroic verse ceased to be employed for
this purpose. Rhymed verse, rhyming in couplets and stanzas, however,
still continued to be in vogue in lyrical, satirical, didactic, and
narrative poetry.
Pope's heroic verse is still more uniformly constructed than that of
Dryden. Both poets hardly ever employ any caesura but the masculine and
the lyric after the second and third beat, and the end of the line is
almost exclusively masculine. Initial truncation or the absence of an
unaccented syllable internally is hardly to be met with in their poems.
The earlier diversity in the structure of this line was (under the
influence of the French models whom they closely imitated) considerably
restricted. Even transposition of accent occurs comparatively seldom, so
that the word-accent generally exactly coincides with the rhythmical
accent. Enjambement is, however, employed more frequently by Dryden than
by Pope; and the former, moreover, occasionally admits at the close of a
triplet a verse of six feet, while Pope, in his original poems,
completely avoids triplets as well as six-accent lines. The breaking of
rhyme both poets purposely exclude.
A similar uniform character is exhibited by the heroic verse of most of
the poets of the eighteenth century. It is not before the nineteenth
century that this metre, in spite of the persistence of individual
poets, e.g. Byron, in adhering to the fashion set by Pope, again
acquires greater freedom. Shelley and Browning, for instance, are fond
of combining lines of heroic verse by enjambement so as to form periods
of some length. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and others again admit
couplets and triplets with occasional six-foot lines at the close. But
the caesura remains nearly always restricted to the places which it
occupies in Pope's verse, and the close of the line is masculine. Keats
only often indulges in feminine rhymes.
It is, however, remarkable that such rhymes more often occur in
five-foot verses combined in stanzas when employed for satirical and
comic compositions, as e.g. in Byron's _Beppo_ and _Don Juan_. In these
poems the disyllabic thesis, the slurring of syllables, and other
rhythmical licences, also more frequently occur.
NOTES:
[141] See ten Brink, _The Language and Metre of Chaucer_ (English
transl.), § 280, where the metrical treatment of these words
is described. The German term used by ten Brink is
_Anlehnungen_.
[142] _Old English Homilies_, ed. R. Morris, First Series, Part I,
E.E.T.S., No. 29, pp. 55-71.
[143] Cf. Charles L. Crow, _On the History of the Short Couplet in
Middle English_. Dissert., Göttingen, 1892.
[144] Cf. _John Heywood als Dramatiker_, von Wilh. Swoboda, 1888, p.
83 ff.
[145] Cf. our metrical notes ('Metrische Randglossen') in _Engl.
Studien_, x, p. 192 seq.
[146] In _Old English Homilies_, ed. R. Morris, pp. 190ff.
[147] Trautmann, _Anglia_, v, Anz., p. 124; Einenkel, ibid., 74;
Menthel, _Anglia_, viii, Anz., p. 70.
[148] According to Guest (ii. 233) 'because the poulterer, as
Gascoigne tells us, giveth twelve for one dozen and fourteen
for another'.
[149] These poems are also printed in Böddeker, _Altengl.
Dichtungen_, Geistl. Lieder, xviii, Weltl. Lieder, xiv.
[150] _Chaucer's Sprache und Verskunst_, § 305, note.
[151] The verses he calls five-foot lines have, on the other hand,
decidedly not this structure, but are four-foot lines with
unaccented rhymes; for a final word in the line, such us
_wrécfúl_, as is assumed by Ten Brink, with the omission of an
unaccented syllable between the last two accents, would be
utterly inconsistent with the whole character of this metre.
[152] According to Ten Brink, _Chaucer's Sprache und Verskunst_,
§ 305, the shifting character of Chaucer's caesura was chiefly
caused by his acquaintance with the Italian _endecasillabo_.
This influence may have come in later, but even in Chaucer's
early _Compleynt to Pitee_ (according to Ten Brink,
_Geschichte der englischen Literatur_, ii. p. 49, his first
poem written under the influence of the French decasyllabic
verse) the caesura is here moveable, though not to the same
extent as in the later poems. The liability of the caesura to
shift its position was certainly considerably increased by the
accentual character of English rhythm. On the untenableness of
his assertion, that in Chaucer's five-accent verse the epic
caesura is unknown, cf. p. 145 (footnote), _Metrik_, ii. 101-3
note, and Schipper in Paul's _Grundriss_, ed. 2, II. ii, pp.
217-21.
DIVISION III
VERSE-FORMS OCCURRING IN MODERN ENGLISH
POETRY ONLY
CHAPTER XII
BLANK VERSE
§ =160. The Beginnings of Modern English Poetry.= Puttenham, in his
_Arte of English Poesie_, i. 31, speaks of Surrey and Wyatt as having
originated the modern period of English poetry. This is true in so far
as their poems are the first to show clearly--especially in metrical
form--the influence of the spirit of the Renaissance, which had been
making itself felt in English Literature for some time past. The new
tendencies manifested themselves not only in the actual introduction of
new rhythms and verse-forms borrowed from Classical and Italian poetry,
but also in the endeavour to regulate and reform the native poetry
according to the metrical laws and peculiarities of foreign models,
especially of the ancient classics.
There were, indeed, several features of classical poetry which invited
imitation, and the introduction of which produced the chief differences
between Modern English and Middle English versification. These features
are:
First, the quantitative character of the ancient rhythms as opposed to
the accentual character of English verse. Secondly, the strict
separation of rising and falling rhythms. In Middle English we have only
the rising rhythm, which, however, sometimes becomes a falling one if
the first thesis is wanting. Finally, the absence of rhyme in the poetry
of the ancients, whereas in late Middle English poetry--apart from some
North-English and Scottish productions written in the conservative,
rhymeless form of the alliterative line--rhyme is all but universal.
§ =161.= The heroic couplet, the most popular and most important metre
in later Middle English poetry, was, naturally, first of all influenced
by the new classical movement.
It was the Earl of Surrey who, by dispensing with the rhyme, first
transformed this metre into what is now known as Blank Verse. He adopted
the unrhymed decasyllabic line as the most suitable vehicle for his
translation of the second and fourth books of the _Aeneid_, written
about 1540. In so doing, he enriched modern literature with a new form
of verse which was destined to take a far more important place in
English poetry than he can have foreseen for it. In its original
function, as appropriate to the translation of ancient epic poetry, it
has been employed by many late writers, e.g. by Cowper in his version
of Homer; but this is only one, and the least considerable, of its many
applications. Shortly after Surrey's time blank verse was used for court
drama by Sackville and Norton in their tragedy of _Gorboduc_ (1561), and
for popular drama by Marlowe in _Tamburlaine the Great_ (1587).
From the latter part of the sixteenth century onwards it has continued
to be the prevailing metre for dramatic poetry, except for a short time,
when its supremacy was disputed by the heroic couplet used by Lord
Orrery, Davenant, Dryden, and others. Meanwhile blank verse had also
become the metre of original epic poetry through Milton's use of it in
his _Paradise Lost_; and in the eighteenth century it was applied to
descriptive and reflective poetry by Thomson and Young.
It is uncertain whether Surrey invented it himself on the basis of his
studies in classical rhymeless poetry, or whether he was influenced by
the example of the Italian poet Trissino (1478-1550), who, in his epic
_Italia liberata dai Goti_ and in his drama _Sofonisba_, introduced into
Italian poetry the rhymeless, eleven-syllabled verses known as _versi
sciolti_ (sc. _della rima_, i.e. freed from rhyme). There are at least
no conclusive grounds for accepting the latter view, as there are some
peculiarities in Surrey's blank verse which are not met with in
Trissino, e.g. the occurrence of incomplete lines, which may have been
introduced after the model of the unfinished lines found occasionally
amongst Vergil's Latin hexameters.
Blank verse being in its origin only heroic verse without rhyme,[154] we
may refer for its general rhythmical structure to what we have said on
this metre. The rhythmical licences of this and the other iambic metres
discussed in §§ 82-8 are common also to blank verse. But in addition to
these, blank verse has several other deviations from the normal rhymed
five-foot iambic verse, the emancipation from rhyme having had the
effect of producing greater variability of metrical structure. It is for
this reason it has been thought advisable to treat heroic verse and
blank verse in separate chapters.
At first, it is true, the two metres are very similar in character,
especially in Surrey; with the further and independent development of
blank verse, however, they diverge more and more.
§ =162.= In conformity with Surrey's practice in his heroic verse,
which, as we have seen, usually had masculine rhymes, his blank verse
has also as a rule masculine endings, and is thus distinguished not only
from Chaucer's heroic verse, which frequently had feminine endings, but
from the blank verse of later poets like Shakespeare and some of his
contemporaries.
As to the principal kinds of the caesura after the second and third foot
there is no material difference between Surrey's blank verse and the
heroic verse of the same period (cf. §§ 154, 157).
The Epic caesura occurs occasionally after the second foot, e.g.:
_Líke to the ádder | with vénomous hérbes féd._
p. 131;
but apparently not after the third, although it does not seem to have
been avoided on principle, as we often find lyric caesuras in this
place, and even after the fourth foot:
_His tále with ús | did púrchase crédit; || sóme
Trápt by decéit; | some fórced bý his téars._
p. 120.
The run-on line (or enjambement) is already pretty frequently used by
Surrey (35 times in the first 250 lines), and this is one of the chief
distinctions between blank verse and heroic verse. In most instances the
use of run-on lines is deliberately adopted with a view to artistic
effect. The same may be said of the frequent inversion of rhythm. On the
other hand, it seldom happens that the flow of the metre is interrupted
by level stress, missing thesis, or the use of a disyllabic thesis at
the beginning or in the interior of the verse.[155]
As to the peculiarities of the word-stress and the metrical treatment of
syllables in Surrey, the respective sections of the introductory remarks
should be consulted. Apart then from the metrical licences, of which it
admits in common with heroic verse, the most important peculiarities of
Surrey's blank verse are the masculine endings, which are almost
exclusively used, and the frequent use of run-on lines.
Cf. the opening lines of the fourth book of his _Aeneid_:
_But nów the wóunded Quéen, | with héavy care,
Throughóut the véins | she nóurishéth the pláie,
Surprísëd wíth blind fláme; | and tó her mínd
'Gan éke resórt | the prówess óf the mán,
And hónour óf his ráce: | whíle in her bréast
Imprínted stáck his wórds, | and píctures fórm.
Né to her límbs | care gránteth quíet rést.
The néxt mórrow, | with Phóebus' lámp the éarth
Alíghted cléar; | and éke the dáwning dáy
The shádows dárk | 'gan fróm the póle remóve:
When áll unsóund, | her síster óf like mínd
Thús spake she tó: | 'O! Síster Ánne, what dréams
Be thése, | that mé torménted | thús affráy?
What new guést is thís, | that tó our réalm is cóme?
Whát one of chéer? | how stóut of héart in árms?
Trúly I thínk | (ne váin is mý belíef)
Of Góddish ráce | some óffspring shóuld he bé.'_
§ =163.= With regard to the further development of this metre in the
drama of the second half of the sixteenth and the first half of the
seventeenth centuries we must restrict ourselves to a brief summary of
its most important peculiarities, for details referring the reader to
_Metrik_, ii, pp. 256-375; for bibliography see ib., pp. 259-60.
The employment of blank verse in the court drama hardly brought about
any change in its structure. In _Gorboduc_, apart from a few instances
in which a line is divided in the dialogue between two speakers
(generally two and three feet) and the occasional (for the most part no
doubt accidental) use of rhyme, the blank verse is exceedingly similar
to that of Surrey, having masculine endings with hardly any exceptions.
This character was maintained by blank verse in all the other court
plays of this time, only occasionally rhyming couplets are used at the
end of a scene in Gascoigne's _Iocasta_, and prose passages now and then
occur in Lyly's _The Woman in the Moon_.
The next and greatest step in the further development of the metre was
its introduction into the popular drama by no less a poet than Marlowe
in his drama _Tamburlaine the Great_ (1587). Marlowe's mastery over this
metrical form was supreme. His skill is shown in his use of the
inversion of accent, particularly the rhetorical inversion, to give
variety to his rhythm, e.g.:
_Áh, sacred Máhomet, | thóu that hast seen
Míllions of Túrks | pérish by Támburláine._
Tam, ii, p. 213.
_But stíll the pórts were shút: | víllain, I sáy._
ib., p. 206.
_And hágs hówl for my déath | at Cháron's shóre._
Vol. ii. 255.
In his practice with regard to the caesura, the suppression of the
anacrusis, and the use of disyllabic theses in the interior of the
verse, he differs little from his predecessors. One distinctive feature
of his verse is that he usually gives their full syllabic value to the
Teutonic inflexional endings (_-ed_, _-est_), as well as to the Romanic
noun- and adjective-suffixes; as _-iage_, _-iance_, _-ion_, _-eous_,
_-ial_ &c. (cf. §§ 102-7).
By a frequent use of these endings as full syllables which is not always
in conformity with the spoken language of his time, his verse obtains a
certain dignity and pathos; cf. the following lines:
_Yét in my thóughts | shall Chríst be hónouréd._ Tamb. ii, p. 148.
_They sáy, | we áre a scáttered | nátión._ Jew of M. I, Sc. i.
_These métaphýsics | óf magíciáns._ Faust. I, Sc. ii.
Allied with this is the fact that Marlowe still has a great predilection
for masculine endings, although feminine endings are also met with now
and then, especially in his later plays. Run-on lines do not often
occur, but many two- and three-foot lines as well as heroic couplets are
found at the end of longer speeches, scenes, and acts.
The blank verse of Greene, Peele, Kyd, and Lodge has a similar structure
to that of Marlowe, especially as regards the prevalence of masculine
endings. The verse of Greene and Peele, however, is rather monotonous,
because generally the caesura occurs after the second foot. On the other
hand, the metre of Kyd and Lodge stands in this respect much nearer to
that of Marlowe and in general shows greater variety.[156]
§ =164. The blank verse of Shakespeare=,[157] which is of great interest
in itself, and moreover has been carefully examined during the last
decades from different points of view, requires to be discussed somewhat
more fully.
It is of the first importance to notice that Shakespeare's rhythms have
different characteristic marks in each of the four periods of his career
which are generally accepted.[158] For the determination of the dates of
his plays the metrical peculiarities are often of great value in the
absence of other evidence, or as confirming conclusions based on
chronological indications of a different kind; but theories on the dates
of the plays should not be built solely upon these metrical tests, as
has been done, for instance, by Fleay. Such criticisms, generally
speaking, have only a subordinate value, as, amongst others, F.J.
Furnivall has shown in his treatise _The Succession of Shakespeare's
works and the use of metrical tests in settling it_ (London, Smith,
Elder & Co., 1877. 8º).
The differences in the treatment of the verse which are of greatest
importance as distinctive of the several periods of Shakespeare's work
are the following:
§ =165.= In the first place the numerical proportion of the rhymed and
rhymeless lines in a play deserves attention. Blank verse, it is true,
prevails in all Shakespeare's plays; but in his undoubtedly earlier
plays we find a very large proportion of rhymed verse, while in the
later plays the proportion becomes very small.
Some statistical examples, based on careful researches by English and
German scholars, may be quoted to prove this; for the rest we refer to
the special investigations themselves.
In _Love's Labour's Lost_, one of Shakespeare's earliest plays, we have
1028 rhymed lines and 579 unrhymed. In _The Tempest_, one of his last
plays, we find 1458 unrhymed and only two rhymed five-foot lines. In the
plays that lie between the dates of these two dramas the proportion of
rhymed and unrhymed verse lies between these two numbers. In _Romeo and
Juliet_, e.g. (which belongs to the end of Shakespeare's first period,
though Fleay thought it a very early play) we have 2111 unrhymed and 486
rhymed five-foot lines; in _Hamlet_ (belonging to the third period)
there are 2490 unrhymed and 81 rhymed lines.
In many cases, however, the use of rhyme in a play is connected with its
whole tone and character, or with that of certain scenes in it. The
frequency of rhymes in _Romeo and Juliet_ finds its explanation in the
lyrical character of this play. For the same reason _A Midsummer Night's
Dream_, although it is certainly later than _Love's Labour's Lost_ and
_Romeo and Juliet_, shows a larger proportion of rhymed lines (878
blank: 731 rhymes). This seems sufficient to show that we cannot rely
exclusively on the statistical proportion of rhymed and unrhymed verses
in the different plays in order to determine their chronological order.
§ =166.= The numerical proportion of feminine and masculine endings is
of similar value. In the early plays we find both masculine and feminine
endings; the masculine, however, prevail. The number of feminine endings
increases in the later plays. On this point Hertzberg has made accurate
statistical researches. According to him the proportion of feminine to
masculine endings is as follows:
_Love's Labour's Lost_ 4 per cent., _Romeo and Juliet_ 7 per cent.,
_Richard III_ 18 per cent., _Hamlet_ 25 per cent., _Henry VIII_ 45·6 per
cent.[159] This proportion, however, as has been shown by later
inquiries,[160] does not depend solely on the date of the composition,
but also on the contents and the tone of the diction, lines with
masculine endings prevailing in pathetic passages, and feminine endings
in unemotional dialogue, but also in passionate scenes, in disputations,
questions, &c.
§ =167.= The numerical proportion of what are called 'weak' and 'light'
endings to the total number of verses in the different plays is
similarly of importance. These are a separate subdivision of the
masculine endings and are not to be confused with the feminine. They are
formed by monosyllabic words, which are of subordinate importance in the
syntactical structure of a sentence and therefore stand generally in
thesis (sometimes even forming part of the feminine ending of a line),
but which under the influence of the rhythm are used to carry the arsis.
To the 'weak' endings belong the monosyllabic conjunctions and
prepositions if used in this way: _and_, _as_, _at_, _but_ (_except_),
_by_, _for_, _in_, _if_, _on_, _nor_, _than_, _that_, _to_, _with_; as
e.g. in the three middle lines of the following passage taken from
_Henry VIII_ (III. ii. 97-101):
_What thóugh I knów her vértuous
And wéll desérving? | Yét I knéw her fór
A spléeny Lútheran, | ánd not whólsome tó
Our cáuse, | that shé should lýe | i' th' bósom óf
Our hárd-rul'd kíng._
The 'light' endings include a number of other monosyllabic words, viz.
articles, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, that are used by Shakespeare in a
similar way.
These are, according to Ingram, _am_, _are_, _art_, _be_, _been_, _but_
(=_only_), _can_, _could_, _did_(2), _do_(2), _does_(2), _dost_(2),
_ere_, _had_(2), _has_(2), _hast_(2), _have_(2), _he_, _how_(3), _I_,
_into_, _is_, _like_, _may_, _might_, _shall_, _shalt_, _she_, _should_,
_since_, _so_(4), _such_(4), _they_, _thou_, _though_, _through_,
_till_, _upon_, _was_, _we_, _were_, _what_(3), _when_(3), _where_(3),
_which_, _while_, _whilst_, _who_(3), _whom_(3), _why_(3), _will_,
_would_, _yet_ (=_tamen_), _you_.
According to Ingram, the words marked (2) are to be regarded as light
endings 'only when used as auxiliaries'; those marked (3), 'when not
directly interrogative'; those marked (4), 'when followed immediately by
_as_.' _Such_ belongs to this class, 'when followed by a substantive
with an indefinite article, as _Such a man_.'
There are hardly any weak or light endings in the first and second
periods of Shakespeare's work. In the third they occur now and then and
become more frequent in the last period. So we have e.g. in _Antony and
Cleopatra_ (1600) 3·53 per cent.; in _The Tempest_ (1610) 4·59 per
cent.; in _Winter's Tale_ (1611) 5·48 per cent.
In the application of this test we must chiefly keep in mind that these
two groups of words are only to be considered as 'weak' and 'light'
endings when they form the last arsis of the line, as is the case in the
lines quoted from _Henry VIII_; but they are to be looked upon as part
of a disyllabic or feminine ending if they form a supernumerary thesis
following upon the last arsis:
_Upón this groúnd; | and móre it woúld contént me._
Wint. II. i. 159.
§ =168.= Intimately connected with the quality of the line-endings is
the proportion of unstopt or 'run-on' and 'end-stopt' lines, or the
frequent or rare use the poet makes of enjambement. Like the feminine,
weak, and light endings, this metrical peculiarity also occurs much more
rarely in Shakespeare's earlier than in his later plays. According to
Furnivall's statistics, e.g. in _Love's Labour's Lost_ one run-on line
occurs in 18·14 lines; in _The Tempest_, on the other hand, we have one
run-on line in 3·02 lines; in _Winter's Tale_ the proportion rises to
one in 2·12.
As in the later plays run-on lines are often the result of the use of
weak and light endings, we may perhaps assume with Hertzberg that at
times the poet deliberately intended to give a greater regularity to the
verse, if only by introducing the more customary masculine endings. From
this point of view, then, both the weak and light endings and the run-on
lines would have much less importance as metrical and chronological
tests than they otherwise might have had.
§ =169.= But there is another peculiarity of Shakespeare's rhythms
noticed by Hertzberg which is of greater value as a metrical test; viz.
the use of the full syllabic forms of the suffixes _-est_, and
especially of _-es_ or _-eth_ in the second and third pers. sing., as
well as that of _-ed_ of the preterite and of the past participle. These
tests are all the more trustworthy because they do not so much arise
from a conscious choice on the part of the poet as from the historical
development of the language. This is indicated by the fact that the
slurring of these endings prevails more and more in the later plays.
According to Hertzberg's statistics the proportion of fully sounded and
slurred _e_ is as follows:
1 _H. VI._ _T. Andr._ 1 _H. IV._ _H. VIII._
3 Pers. Sing. 15·58% 6·4% 2·25% 0%
Pret. and P.P. 20·9% 21·72% 15·41% 4·2%
It thus appears that in this respect also there is a decided progress
from a more archaic and rigorous to a more modern usage.
These are the five chief distinctive marks of Shakespeare's verse in the
different periods of his dramatic work. Besides these, Fleay has pointed
out some other characteristics distinctive of the first period, namely,
the more sparing use of Alexandrines, of shortened verses, and of prose,
and the more frequent use of doggerel verses, stanzas, sonnets, and
crossed rhymes.
§ =170.= There are, however, some other rhythmical characteristics that
have not yet been sufficiently noticed by English or German scholars,
probably because they cannot be so easily represented by means of
statistics.
The caesura is of special importance. Although from the first
Shakespeare always allowed himself a great degree of variety in the
caesura, he prefers during his first and second period the masculine and
lyrical caesura after the second foot; in his third period, in _Macbeth_
especially, both the masculine and lyrical caesura occur as frequently
after the third foot, and side by side with these the epic caesura after
the second and third foot pretty often (§ 90); during the fourth period
a great many double caesuras occur corresponding to the numerous run-on
lines.[161]
The old-fashioned disyllabic pronunciation of certain Romanic
terminations (as _-ion_, _-ier_, _-iage_, _-ial_, &c.), so often met
with in Marlowe, is not uncommon in Shakespeare, chiefly in his early
plays, but also in those of later date (cf. § 107).
As to inversion of rhythm (cf. § 88), it is a noteworthy feature that
during the first period it occurs chiefly in the first foot and
afterwards often in the third also.
Disyllabic theses may be found in each of the five feet, sometimes even
two at the same time:
_Having Gód, her cónscience, | ánd these bárs agaínst me._
R. III, I. ii. 235.
_Succéeding his fáther Bólingbróke, | did réign._
1 H. VI, II. v. 83.
_But thén we'll trý | what these dástard Frénchmen dáre._
1 H. VI, I. iii. 111.
_Thén is he móre behólding | to yóu than Í._
R. III, III. i. 107.
_Pút in their hánds | thy brúising írons of wráth._
R. III, V. iii. 110.
_My survéyor is fálse; | the ó'ergreat cárdinál._
H. VIII, I. i. 222.
Disyllabic or polysyllabic line-endings are likewise of frequent
occurrence:
_I dáre avóuch it, sír, what, fífty fóllowers?_ Lear, II. iv. 240.
_To yóur own cónscience, sír, befóre Políxenes._ Wint. III. ii. 47.
Slurring and other modifications of words to make them fit into the
rhythm are very numerous and of great variety in Shakespeare; we have
referred to them before, §§ 108-11; here only some examples may be
repeated, as _(a)bove_, _(be)cause_, _(ar)rested_, _th' other_, _th'
earth_, _whe(th)er_, _ha(v)ing_, _e(v)il_, _eas(i)ly_, _barb(a)rous_,
_inn(o)cent_, _acquit_ for _acquitted_, _deject_ for _dejected_, &c.
On the other hand, many lengthenings also occur, as _wrest(e)ler_ A. Y.
L. II. ii, 13; _pilg(e)rim_ All's Well, III. v. 43, &c. (Cf. §§ 87,
112.)
In some monosyllabic words, as _fear_, _dear_, _hear_, _wear_, _tear_,
_year_, it is not always necessary to assume with Abbott (§§ 480-6) a
disyllabic pronunciation, e.g. _déàr_, _yéàr_. On the contrary, in many
cases it is more probable that the emphasis laid on the monosyllable
takes the place of the missing thesis, e.g.:
_The kíng would spéak with Córnwall: | the déar fáther._
Lear, II. iv. 102.
_Déar my lórd, | íf you in yóur own próof._ Ado, IV. i. 46.
Hor. _Whére my lórd? | Haml. In my mínd's éye, Horátio._
Ham. I. ii. 185.
The two last examples also show the absence of the first thesis, which
often occurs in Shakespeare; frequently, as in these cases, it is
compensated by an extra stress laid on the first accented syllable (cf.
§ 84); e.g.:
_Stáy! | the kíng has thrówn | his wárder dówn._
Rich. II, I. iii. 118.
_Upón your Gráce's part; | bláck and féarful._
All's Well, III. i. 4.
For the same reason a thesis is sometimes wanting in the interior of a
line:
_Of góodly thóusands. | Bút, for áll thís._ Macb. IV. iii. 44;
or for phonetic reasons (cf. § 86):
_A thírd thínks, | withóut expénse at áll._ 1 Hen. VI, I. i. 76.
With respect to the word-stress and the metrical value of syllables
there are in Shakespeare many archaic peculiarities. Some of those we
have already dealt with; for the rest the reader must consult the works
in which they are specially discussed.
§ =171.= Of great interest are the other metres that occur in
combination with blank verse in Shakespeare's plays.
Alexandrines are frequently met with, especially where one line is
divided between two speakers:
Macb. _I'll cóme to yóu anón._ | Murd. _We áre resólved, my lórd._
Macb. III. i. 139.
Macb. _Hów does your pátient, dóctor?_ | Doct. _Nót so síck, my lórd._
ib. V. iii. 37;
but also in many other cases:
_Hów dares thy hársh rude tóngue | sound thís unpléasing néws?_
R. II, III. iv. 74.
_And thése does shé applý | for wárnings, ánd porténts._
Caes. II. ii. 80.
Frequently, however, such apparent Alexandrines can easily be read as
regular five-foot lines, for which they were certainly intended by the
poet, by means of the ordinary metrical licences, as slurring, double
theses, epic caesuras, or feminine endings[162]; e.g.:
_I had thóught, my lórd, | to have léarn'd his héalth of yóu._
R. II, II. iii. 24.
_I prómise you, | Í am afráid | to héar you téll it._
R. III, I. iv. 65.
_O'erbéars your ófficers; | the rábble cáll him lórd._
Haml. IV. v. 102.
Among the blank verse lines in Shakespeare's plays there are sometimes
interspersed examples of the native four-beat long line. This occurs,
apart from lyrical passages, most frequently in the early plays, e.g.
in _Love's Labour's Lost_ and in _The Comedy of Errors_, III. i. 11-84,
from which the following specimen is taken:
Ant. E. _I thínk thou art an áss._ |
Dro. E. _Marry, só it doth appéar
By the wróngs I súffer | and the blóws I béar.
I should kíck, being kíck'd; | and, béing at that páss,
You would kéep from my héels | and bewáre of an áss._
Ant. E. _You're sád, Signior Bálthasar: | pray Gód our chéer
May ánswer my good wíll | and your good wélcome hére._
Occasionally these verses exhibit a somewhat more extended
structure, so that they might pass for Alexandrines; mostly,
however, a line of this type is connected by rhyme with an
unmistakable four-beat line; cf.
_If thóu hadst been, Drómio, | to dáy in my pláce,
Thou wouldst have changed thy fáce for a náme, | or thy náme
for an áss._
Com. of Err. III. i. 47.
For this reason the second line also is to be scanned somehow or
other in conformity with the general four-beat rhythm of the passage;
possibly we should assume an initial thesis of five syllables. In
lyrical passages four-beat lines are often combined also with four-foot
iambic verse of the freer type (cf. § 132); e.g. in the following
passage from _Midsummer Night's Dream_, II. i. 2-7:
_Over híll, over dále, | thorough búsh, thorough bríer,
Over párk, over pále, | thorough flóod, thorough fíre,
I do wánder évery whére,
Swífter thán the móon's sphére;
Ánd I sérve the fáiry quéen,
To déw her órbs upón the gréen_, &c.
The two first lines belong to the first, the following to the latter
species. Sometimes the rhythm of such rhymed four-foot verses is purely
trochaic, e.g. in the witches' song in Macbeth, IV, sc. i.
There are also unrhymed iambic lines of four feet, which usually have a
caesura in the middle; e.g.:
_The mátch is máde, | and áll is dóne._ Shrew, IV. iv. 46.
_Befóre the kíngs | and quéens of France._ Hen. VI, I. vi. 27.
Not unfrequently, however, such verses only apparently have four feet,
one missing foot or part of it being supplied by a pause (cf. _Metrik_,
ii, § 164):
_He's tá'en_ ⏑–́ (_Shout_). || _And hark! | they shóut for jóy._
Caes. V. iii. 32.
Mal. _As thóu didst léave it._ –́ || Serg. _Dóubtful it stóod._
Macb. I. ii. 7.
_Thínk on lord Hástings._ –́ || _Despáir and díe!_
Rich. III, V. iii. 134.
Isolated two- and three-foot lines occur mostly at the beginning or at
the end of a speech, or in pathetic passages of monologues; this usually
causes a somewhat longer pause, such as is suitable to the state of
feeling of the speaker.
Short exclamations as _Why_, _Fie_, _Alack_, _Farewell_ are often to be
regarded as extra-metrical.
Prose also is often used for common speeches not requiring poetic
diction.[163]
§ =172.= One passage from an early play of Shakespeare, and another,
chosen from one of his last plays, will sufficiently exhibit the
metrical differences between these periods of his work. (For other
specimens cf. _Metrik_, ii, §166.)
Capulet. _But Móntagúe | is bóund as wéll as Í,
In pénaltý alíke; | and 'tis not hárd, I thínk,
For mén so óld as wé | to kéep the péace._
Paris. _Of hónouráble réckoning | áre you bóth;
And píty 'tís | you líved at ódds so lóng.
But nów, my lórd, | what sáy you tó my súit?_
Capulet. _But sáying ó'er | what Í have sáid befóre:
My child is yét | a stránger ín the wórld;
She hás not séen | the chánge of fóurteen yéars:
Let twó more súmmers | wíther ín their príde,
Ére we may thínk her rípe | to bé a bríde._
Paris. _Yóunger than shé | are happy móthers máde._
Capulet. _And tóo soon márr'd | are thóse so éarly máde.
The éarth hath swállow'd | áll my hópes but shé,
Shé is the hópeful lády | óf mý éarth:
But wóo her, géntle Páris, | gét her héart,
My wíll to hér consént | is bút a párt_; &c.
Romeo and Juliet, I. ii. 1-19.
Miranda. _Íf by your árt, | my déarest fáther, you háve
Pút the wild wáters |ín this róar, | alláy them.
The ský, it séems, | would póur down stínking pítch,
Bút that the séa, | móunting to the wélkin's chéek,
Dáshes the fíre óut. | Ó, I have súffered
With thóse thát I saw súffer: | a bráve véssel,
Who hád, no dóubt, | some nóble créature ín her,
Dash'd áll to píeces. | Ó, the crý did knóck
Agáinst my véry héart. | Poor sóuls, they pérish'd.
Had Í been ány gód of pówer, | I wóuld
Have súnk the séa | withín the éarth, | or ére
It shóuld the góod ship | só have swállow'd | ánd
The fráughting sóuls withín her._ |
Prospero. _Bé collécted:
No móre amázement: | téll your píteous héart
There's nó harm dóne._ |
Miranda. _O wóe the dáy!_
Prospero. _No hárm!
Í have done nóthing | bút in cáre of thée,
Of thée, my déar one, | thée, my dáughter, | whó
Art ígnoránt of whát thou árt, | nought knówing
Of whénce I ám, | nór that I ám more bétter
Than Próspero, | máster óf a fúll poor céll,
And thý no gréater fáther._ |
Miranda. _Móre to knów
Did néver méddle wíth my thóughts._ | &c.
Tempest, I. ii. 1-22.
§ =173.= The further development of blank verse can be dealt with here
only very briefly.
For the dramatic blank verse of Shakespeare's contemporaries and
immediate successors see _Metrik_, vol. ii, §§ 167-78, and the works
there enumerated. The reader may also be referred to various special
treatises[164] of later date, which supply detailed evidence in the main
confirming the correctness of the author's former observations.
In this place we mention only the characteristic peculiarities of the
most important poets of that group.
=Ben Jonson's blank verse= is not so melodious as that of Shakespeare.
There is often a conflict between the logical and the rhythmical stress,
as e.g.:
_Be éver cáll'd | the fóuntayne óf selfe-lóve._
Cynthia's Rev. I. ii.
Theses of two and even more syllables likewise occur in many verses,
e.g.:
_Sir Péter Túb was his fáther, | a saltpétre mán._
Tale of a Tub, I. 22;
frequently also feminine or even disyllabic unaccented endings are used:
_The dífference 'twíxt | the cóvetous ánd the pródigal._
Staple of News, I. iii. 39.
These licences often give to his verse an uneven and rugged rhythm.
There are only slight differences from Shakespeare's usage with regard
to the caesura, inversion of accent, &c. Run-on lines, as well as rhyme
and the use of prose, are common in his plays; some of his comedies are
almost entirely written in prose.
§ =174.= In =Fletcher=, on the contrary, run-on lines, rhymed verses,
and prose are exceedingly rare.
Feminine and gliding endings, however (sometimes of three, and even of
four supernumerary syllables), are often used; in some plays even more
often than masculine ones. (For specimens cf. § 91.)
Feminine endings, combined with disyllabic or polysyllabic first thesis,
are common; now and then we find epic caesuras or other theses in the
interior of the line:
_They are too hígh a méat that wáy, | they rún to jelly._
Loyal Subj. I. i. 371.
_A cóach and four hórses | cánnot dráw me fróm it._
ib. III. ii. 361.
_Thís was hard fórtune; | but íf alíve and táken._
Hum. Lieut, I. i. 7.
_You máy surpríse them éasily; | they wéar no pístols._
Loyal Subj. I. ii. 314.
It deserves particular notice that in such feminine endings or epic
caesuras, where the superfluous thesis consists of one monosyllabic
word, this very often has something of a subordinate accent:
_And lét sóme létters | tó that énd be féign'd tòo._
Mad Lov. III. 268.
_That spírits háve no séxes, | I belíeve nòt._
ib. 272.
_You múst look wondrous sád tòo.-- | I néed not lóok sò._
ib. V. iii. 105.
The following passage from _The Maid's Tragedy_[165] shows the character
of Fletcher's rhythms:
Mel. _Fórce my swoll'n héart no fúrther; | Í would sáve thee.
Your gréat maintáiners áre not hére, | they dáre not:
'Wóuld they were áll, and árm'd! | I wóuld speak lóud;
Here's óne should thúnder tó them! | will you téll me?
Thou hást no hópe to 'scápe; | Hé that dares móst,
And dámns awáy his sóul | to dó thee sérvice,
Wíll sóoner fetch méat | fróm a húngry líon,
Than cóme to réscue thée; | thou'st déath abóut thee.
Who hás undóne thine hónour, | póison'd thy vírtue,
Ánd, of a lóvely róse, | léft thee a cánker?_
Evadne. _Lét me consíder._ |
Mel. _Dó, whose chíld thou wért,
Whose hónour thóu hast múrder'd, | whose gráve open'd
And só pull'd ón the góds, | thát in their jústice
They múst restóre him | flésh agáin, | and lífe,
And ráise his drý bònes | tó revénge his scándal._
§ =175.= There are no plays extant written by =Beaumont= alone; plays,
however, from Fletcher's pen alone do exist, and we can thus gain a
clear insight into the distinctive features of his rhythm and style, and
are so enabled to determine with some prospect of certainty the share
which Beaumont had in the plays due to their joint-authorship. This has
been attempted with some success by Fleay, and especially by Boyle.[166]
The characteristics of Beaumont's style and versification may be summed
up as follows:
He often uses prose and verse, rhymed and unrhymed verses in the same
speech; feminine endings occur rarely, but there are many run-on lines;
occasionally we find 'light' and 'weak' endings; double theses at the
beginning and in the interior of the line are met with only very seldom.
His verse, therefore, is widely different from Fletcher's; cf. the
following passage from _The Maid's Tragedy_ (II. i, pp. 24-5):
Evadne. _I thánk thee, Dúla; | 'wóuld, thou cóuld'st instíl
Sóme of thy mírth | intó Aspátiá!
Nóthing but sád thòughts | ín her bréast do dwéll:
Methínks, a méan betwíxt you | wóuld do wéll._
Dula. _Shé is in lóve: | Háng me, if Í were só,
But Í could rún my cóuntry. | Í love, tóo,
To dó those thíngs | that péople ín love dó._
Asp. _It wére a tímeless smíle | should próve my chéek:
It wére a fítter hóur | for mé to láugh,
When át the áltar | thé relígious príest
Were pácifýing | thé offénded pówers
With sácrifíce, than nów. | Thís should have béen
My níght; and áll your hánds | have béen emplóy'd
In gíving mé | a spótless ófferíng
To yóung Amíntor's béd, | as wé are nów
For yóu. | Párdon, Evádne; 'wóuld, my wórth
Were gréat as yóurs, | ór that the kíng, or hé,
Or bóth thought só! | Perháps, he fóund me wórthless:
But, tíll he díd so, | ín these éars of míne,
These crédulous éars, | he póur'd the swéetest wórds
That árt or lóve could fráme. | Íf he were fálse,
Párdon it Héaven! | ánd if Í did wánt
Vírtue, | you sáfely máy | forgíve that tóo;
For Í have lóst | nóne that I hád from yóu._
§ =176.= Fewer peculiarities appear in the verse of =Massinger=, who
(according to Fleay and Boyle) wrote many plays in partnership with
Beaumont and Fletcher; for this reason his verse has been examined by
those scholars in connexion with that of Beaumont and Fletcher. Like
Fletcher, Massinger uses a great many feminine endings; but he has many
run-on lines as well as 'light' and 'weak' endings. In contradistinction
to Beaumont's practice, he seldom uses prose and rhyme, but he has a
great many double endings. His verse is very melodious, similar on the
whole to that of Shakespeare's middle period.
The following passage may serve as an example:
Tib. _It ís the dúchess' bírthday, | ónce a yéar
Solémnized wíth all pómp | and céremóny;
In whích the dúke is nót his ówn, | but hérs:
Nay, évery dáy, indéed, | he ís her créature,
For néver mán so dóated;-- | bút to téll
The ténth part óf his fóndness | to a stránger,
Would árgue mé of fíction._ | Steph. _Shé's, indéed,
A lády óf most éxquisite fórm._ | Tib. _She knóws it,
And hów to príze it._ | Steph. _I néver héard her tainted
In ány póint of hónour._ | Tib. _Ón my lífe,
She's cónstant tó his béd, | and wéll desérves
His lárgest fávours. | Bút, when béauty is
Stámp'd on great wómen, | gréat in bírth and fórtune,
And blówn by flátterers | gréater thán it ís,
'Tis séldom únaccómpaníed | with príde;
Nor ís she thát way frée: | presúming ón
The dúke's afféction, | ánd her ówn desért,
She béars hersélf | with súch a májestý,
Lóoking with scórn on áll | as thíngs benéath her,
That Sfórza's móther, | thát would lóse no párt
Of whát was ónce her ówn, | nor hís fair síster,
A lády tóo | acquáinted wíth her wórth,
Will bróok it wéll; | and hówsoé'er their háte
Is smóther'd fór a tíme, | 'tis móre than féar'd
It wíll at léngth break óut._ | Steph. _Hé in whose pówer it ís,
Turn áll to the bést._ | Tib. _Come, lét us tó the cóurt;
We thére shall sée all bráverý and cóst,
That árt can bóast of._ | Steph. _I'll béar you cómpaný._
Massinger, Duke of Milan, I. i. end.
The versification of the other dramatists of this time cannot be
discussed in this place. It must suffice to say that the more defined
and artistic blank verse, introduced by Marlowe and Shakespeare, was
cultivated by Beaumont, Massinger, Chapman, Dekker, Ford, &c.; a less
artistic verse, on the other hand, so irregular as sometimes to
approximate to prose, is found in Ben Jonson and Fletcher, and to a less
degree in Middleton, Marston, and Shirley. (Cf. _Metrik_, ii. §§ 171-8.)
§ =177. The blank verse of Milton=, who was the first since Surrey to
use it for epic poetry, is of greater importance than that of the minor
dramatists, and is itself of particular interest. Milton's verse, it is
true, cannot be said to be always very melodious. On the contrary, it
sometimes can be brought into conformity with the regular scheme of the
five-foot verse only by level stress and by assigning full value to
syllables that in ordinary pronunciation are slurred or elided (see §
83).
Generally, however, Milton's blank verse has a stately rhythmical
structure all its own, due to his masterly employment of the whole range
of metrical artifices. In the first place, he frequently employs
inversion of accent, both at the beginning of a line and after a
caesura; sometimes together with double thesis in the interior of the
line, as e.g.:
_Báck to the gátes of Héaven; | the súlphurous háil._
Par. Lost, I. 171.
Quite peculiar, however, to Milton's blank verse is the extensive use he
makes of run-on lines, and in connexion with the great variety in his
treatment of the caesura.
Milton has more than 50 per cent. run-on lines; sometimes we have from
three to six lines in succession that are not stopt.
As to the caesura, we mostly have masculine and lyric caesura (more
seldom epic caesuras) after the second or third foot; besides, we have
frequent double caesuras (generally caused by run-on lines), about 12
per cent.[167]
Finally, as the third peculiarity of Milton's epic blank verse, the
almost exclusive use of masculine endings deserves mention. The number
of feminine endings in the various books of _Paradise Lost_ and of
_Paradise Regained_ is only from 1 to 5 per cent.; in _Samson
Agonistes_, on the other hand, we have about 16 per cent., nearly as
many as in the plays of Shakespeare's second period.[168]
The following example (_Paradise Lost_, V. 1-25) may illustrate Milton's
blank verse:
_Now Mórn, | her rósy stéps | in the éastern clíme
Adváncing, | sówed the éarth with órient péarl,
When Ádam wáked, so cústomed; | fór his sléep
Was áery líght, | from púre digéstion bréd,
And témperate vápours blánd, | which the ónly sóund
Of léaves and fúming rílls, | Auróra's fán,
Líghtly dispérsed, | ánd the shrill mátin sóng
Of bírds on évery bóugh. | So múch the móre
His wónder wás | to fínd unwákened Éve,
With trésses díscompósed, | and glówing chéek,
As thróugh unquíet rést. | Hé, on his síde
Léaning half ráised, | with lóoks of córdial lóve
Hung óver hér enámoured, | ánd behéld
Béauty | which, whéther wáking | ór asléep,
Shot fórth pecúliar gráces; | thén, with vóice
Míld as when Zéphyrús | on Flóra bréathes,
Her hánd soft tóuching, | whíspered thús:-- | 'Awáke,
My fáirest, mý espóused, | my látest fóund,
Heaven's lást best gíft, | my éver-néw delíght!
Awáke! | the mórning shínes, | ánd the fresh fíeld
Cálls us; | we lóse the príme | to márk how spríng
Our ténded plánts, | how blóws the cítron gróve,
What dróps the mýrrh, | and whát the bálmy réed,
How Náture páints her cólours, | hów the bée
Síts on the blóom | extrácting líquid swéet._'
§ =178. The dramatic blank verse of the Restoration= is strongly
influenced by the heroic verse of the same period, and is on this
account very different from the blank verse of Shakespeare and his
contemporaries.
For this period the blank verse of Dryden is most interesting; he uses
it with great skill, but also with great restriction of its former
licences.
Even the number of the inversions of accent decreases considerably and
is only about 12 per cent. We find scarcely any examples of double
thesis, slurring of syllables, missing theses in the beginning or in the
interior of the line, &c.
The caesura, which is the chief means by which variety is imparted to
the metre, is generally masculine or lyric, and as a rule occurs after
the second or third foot; occasionally we have double caesuras. Epic
caesuras are rare, if they occur at all. Feminine endings are frequent,
their proportion being about 25 to 28 per cent. Light and weak endings
are rarely to be found amongst the masculine endings, nor are run-on
lines (about 20 per cent.) frequently used by Dryden.
Most of the characteristic features of his blank verse will be found
exemplified in the following extract:
Emperor. _Márry'd! | I'll nót belíeve it; || 'tís impósture;
Impróbable | they shóu'd presúme t'attémpt,
Impóssible | they shóu'd efféct their wísh._
Benducar. _Have pátience tíll I cléar it._ |
Emperor. _Í have nóne:
Go bíd our móving Pláins of Sánd | lie stíll,
And stír not, | whén the stórmy Sóuth blows hígh:
From tóp to bóttom | thóu hast tóss'd my Sóul,
And nów 'tis ín the mádness | of the Whírl.
Requír'st a súdden stóp? | unsáy thy lýe,
That máy in týme do sómewhat._ |
Benducar. _Í have dóne.
For, sínce it pléases yóu | it shóu'd be fórg'd
'Tis fít it shóu'd: | Fár be it fróm your Sláve,
To ráise distúrbance | ín your Sácred Bréast._
Emperor. _Sebástian ís my Sláve | as wéll as thóu;
Nor dúrst offénd my Lóve, | but thát Presúmption ..._
Benducar. _Most súre he óught not._ |
Emperor. _Thén all méans were wánting;
No Príest, no Céremónies | óf their Séct:
Or, gránt we thése defécts | cou'd bé supplý'd,
Hów cou'd our Próphet dó | an áct so báse,
Só to resúme his Gífts, | and cúrse my Cónquests,
By máking mé unháppy! | Nó, the Sláve
That tóld thee só absúrd a stóry, | lý'd._
Dryden, Sebastian, III.
The blank verse of Lee, Otway, N. Rowe, and Addison[169] is
of similar structure.
§ =179.= Blank verse was treated even more strictly by =Thomson= in _The
Seasons_. Thomson followed Dryden with regard to his treatment of the
caesura and the inversion of accent, but made no use at all of feminine
endings. Cf. the following passage from _Summer_:
_From bríghtening fíelds of éther | fáir disclós'd,
Chíld of the sún, | refúlgent Súmmer cómes,
In pride of yóuth, | and félt through náture's dépth:
He cómes atténded | bý the súltry hóurs,
And éver-fánning bréezes, | ón his wáy;
Whíle, from his árdent lóok, | the túrning Spríng
Avérts her blúshful fáce; | and éarth, and skíes
All smíling, | to his hót domínion léaves.
Hénce let me háste | intó the míd-wood sháde,
Where scárce a sún-beam | wánders through the glóom;
And ón the dárk-green gráss, | besíde the brínk
Of háunted stréam, | that bý the róots of óak
Rólls o'er the rócky chánnel,| líe at lárge,
And síng the glóries | óf the círcling yéar._
The blank verse of Young (_Night Thoughts_), Cowper (_The Task_), and
other less important poets of the eighteenth century is of a similar
uniform structure; cf. _Metrik_, ii, §193.
§ =180.= In the =blank verse of the nineteenth century= we find both
tendencies, the strict and the free treatment of this verse-form;
according to their predominant employment in epic and dramatic poetry
respectively, we may call them the epic and the dramatic form of the
verse. They may be chiefly distinguished by the peculiarities to be
observed in the blank verse of Milton and Thomson on the one hand, and
of Dryden on the other; i.e. by the admission or exclusion of feminine
endings.
The strict form of the epic blank verse, with masculine endings, is
preferred in the narrative or reflective poems of Coleridge, Wordsworth,
Southey, Shelley, Keats, W.S. Landor, Longfellow, D. G. Rossetti, Mrs.
Browning, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, Tennyson, Swinburne, and
Edwin Arnold.[170]
The free form is represented, mainly, in the dramatic verse of the same
and other poets, being used by Coleridge (in his translation of _The
Piccolomini_), Wordsworth, Southey, Lamb, Byron, Shelley, W.S. Landor,
Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, and others.[171]
NOTES:
[153] For the accentuation of the word cf. _inter alia_ rhymes such
as _mérie: Cáunterbúry_, Prol. 801-2, and Schipper, l.c., pp.
217-18.
[154] This definition is also given by Milton in his introductory
note on 'The Verse' prefixed in 1668 to _Paradise Lost_.
[155] Cf. _Metrik_, ii. §§ 132-5.
[156] Cf. _Metrik_, ii. §§ 136-46.
[157] Cf. on this subject the essays and treatises by T. Mommsen,
Abbott, Furnivall, Ingram, Hertzberg, Fleay, A.J. Ellis (_On
Early English Pronunciation_, iii), &c. (quoted _Metrik_, ii,
p. 259); besides G. König, _Der Vers in Shakspere's Dramen_,
Strassburg, Trübner, 1888, 8º (_Quellen und Forschungen_,
61); _Der Couplet-Reim in Shakspere's Dramen_ (Dissertation),
von J. Heuser, Marburg, 1893, 8; H. Krumm, _Die Verwendung des
Reims in dem Blankverse des englischen Dramas zur Zeit
Shaksperes_, Kiel, 1889; H. Conrad, _Metrische Untersuchungen
zur Feststellung der Abfassungszeit von Shakspere's Dramen_
(_Shakespeare-Jahrbuch_, xxx. 318-353); _William Shakespeare,
Prosody and Text_, by B. A. P. van Dam and C. Stoffel, Leyden,
1900, 8º; _Chapters on English Printing Prosody, and
Pronunciation_ (1550-1700), by B.A.P. van Dam and C. Stoffel,
Heidelberg, 1902 (_Anglistische Forschungen_, ix).
[158] I. 1587-1592; II. 1593-1600; III. 1600-1606; IV. 1606-1613;
according to Dowden.
[159] Cf. Furnivall, p. xxviii.
[160] Cf. Mayor, _Chapters on English Metre_, pp. 174-7.
[161] Cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 154.
[162] Cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 161.
[163] Cf. N. Delius, _Die Prosa in Shakespeares Dramen_ (Jahrbuch d.
deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, v. 227-73).
[164] Cf. the Halle dissertations by _Hannemann_ (on Ford, Oxford,
1889); _Penner_ (on Peele, Braunschweig, 1890); _Knaut_ (on
Greene, 1890); _Schulz_ (on Middleton, 1892); _Elste_ (on
Chapman, 1892); _Kupka_ (on Th. Dekker, 1893); _Meiners_ (on
Webster, 1893); _Clages_ (on Thomson and Young, 1892); and the
criticism of some of them by Boyle, _Engl. Studien_, xix.
274-9.
[165] IV. i, p. 66, cf. _Engl. Studien_, v, p. 76.
[166] _Engl. Studien_, iv-vii.
[167] On the many combinations of the three kinds of caesura in the
different places of the verse, cf. _Metrik_, ii, pp. 28-31.
[168] Cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 179-185. |
[169] See _Englische Metrik_, ii, §§ 188-90.
[170] Cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 195-201.
[171] Cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 202-6.
CHAPTER XIII
TROCHAIC METRES
§ =181.= Trochaic metres, which, generally speaking, are less common in
English poetry than iambics, were not used at all till the Modern
English Period. The old metrical writers (Gascoigne, James VI, W. Webbe)
only know rising metres.
Puttenham (1589) is the first metrician who quotes four-foot trochaic
lines; similar verses also occur during the same period in Shakespeare's
_Love's Labour's Lost_, _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, and other plays.
Whether they were introduced directly on foreign models, or originated
indirectly from the influence of the study of the ancients by means of a
regular omission of the first thesis of the iambic metres, we do not
know. It is likewise uncertain who was the first to use strict trochaic
verses deliberately in English, or in what chronological order the
various trochaic metres formed in analogy with the iambic ones entered
into English poetry.
The longest trochaic lines, to which we first turn our attention, seem
to be of comparatively late date.
The =eight-foot trochaic line=, more exactly definable as the
acatalectic trochaic tetrameter (cf. § 77), is the longest trochaic
metre we find in English poetry. As a specimen of this metre the first
stanza of a short poem by Thackeray written in this form has been quoted
already on page 127. As a rule, however, this acatalectic feminine line
is mingled with catalectic verses with masculine endings, as e.g. in the
following burlesque by Thackeray, _Damages Two Hundred Pounds_:
_Só, God bléss the Spécial Júry! | príde and jóy of Énglish gróund,
Ánd the háppy lánd of Éngland, | whére true jústice dóes abóund!
Brítish júrymén and húsbands, | lét us háil this vérdict próper:
Íf a Brítish wífe offénds you, | Brítons, yóu've a ríght to whóp her._
While the catalectic iambic tetrameter is a line of seven feet (the last
arsis being omitted), the catalectic trochaic tetrameter loses only the
last thesis, but keeps the preceding arsis; and on this account it
remains a metre of eight feet.
Rhyming couplets of this kind of verse, when broken up into short lines,
give rise to stanzas with the formulas _a ~ b c ~ b₄, d ~ e ~ f ~ e ~₄_,
or, if inserted rhymes are used, we have the form _a ~ b a ~ b₄_
(alternating masculine and feminine endings), or _a ~ b ~ a ~ b ~₄_ (if
there are feminine endings only). In both these cases the eight-foot
rhythm is distinctly preserved to the ear. But this is no longer the
case in another trochaic metre of eight feet, where the theses of both
the fourth and the eighth foot are wanting, as may be noticed in
Swinburne, _A Midsummer Holiday_, p. 132:
_Scárce two húndred yéars are góne, | ánd the wórld is pást awáy
Ás a nóise of bráwling wínd, | ás a flásh of bréaking fóam,
Thát behéld the sínger bórn | whó raised úp the déad of Róme;
Ánd a míghtier nów than hé | bíds him tóo rise úp to-dáy;_
still less when such lines are broken up by inserted rhyme in stanzas of
the form _a b a b₄_. In cases, too, where the eight-foot trochaic
verse is broken up by leonine rhyme, the rhythm has a decided four-foot
cadence on account of the rapid recurrence of the rhyme.
§ =182.= The =seven-foot trochaic line= is theoretically either a
brachycatalectic tetrameter with a feminine or a hypercatalectic
trimeter with a masculine ending. An example of the first kind we had on
p. 128. A more correct specimen is the following line from the same
poem:
_Hásten, Lórd, who árt my Hélper; | lét thine áid be spéedy._
The verses quoted on p. 128 are incorrect in so far as the caesura
occurs at an unusual place, viz. in the middle of the fourth foot,
instead of after it, as in the example just quoted.
They show, however, the origin of a pretty frequently occurring
anisorhythmical stanza, which is derived from this metre by means of the
use of inserted rhyme; lines 1 and 3 having a trochaic, lines 2 and 4,
on the other hand, an iambic rhythm; cf. e.g. the following stanza from
a poem by Suckling (_Poets_, iii. 741):
_Sáy, but díd you lóve so lóng?
In trúth I néeds must bláme you:
Pássion did your júdgement wróng,
Or wánt of réason sháme you._
When there are masculine rhymes throughout, the stanza is felt
distinctly as consisting of alternate lines of four and three feet (_a₄
b₃ a₄ b₃_).
The seven-foot rhythm, however, remains, if the three-foot half-lines
only have masculine endings, and the four-foot half-lines remain
feminine; as is the case in Swinburne's poem _Clear the Way_ (_Mids.
Hol._, p. 143):
_Cléar the wáy, my lórds and láckeys, | yóu have hád your dáy.
Hére you háve your ánswer, Éngland's | yéa against your náy;
Lóng enóugh your hóuse has héld you: | up, and cléar the wáy!_
This, of course, is likewise the case, if the verses are broken up into
stanzas by inserted rhyme (_a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃_).
More frequently than this correct seven-foot verse, with either a
feminine or masculine ending, we find the incorrect type, consisting of
a catalectic and a brachycatalectic dimeter, according to the model of
the well-known Low Latin verse:
_Mihi est propositum | in taberna mori_,
which is often confounded with the former (cf. § 135). The following
first stanza of a poem by Suckling (_Poets_, iii. 471) is written in
exact imitation of this metre:
_Óut upón it, Í have lóved | thrée whole dáys tógether;
Ánd am líke to lóve three móre, | íf it próve fair wéather._
Although only the long lines rhyme, the stanza is commonly printed in
short lines (_a₄ b₃ ~ c₄ b₃ ~_). Still more frequently we find
short-lined stanzas of the kind (_a₄ b₃ ~ a₄ b₃ ~_) as well as the other
sub-species with masculine rhymes only: _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃_.
§ =183.= The =six-foot trochaic line= occurs chiefly in Modern English,
and appears both in acatalectic (feminine) and catalectic (masculine)
form; e.g. in Swinburne _The Last Oracle_ (_Poems and Ballads_, ii. 1):
_Dáy by dáy thy shádow | shínes in héaven behólden,
Éven the sún, the shíning | shádow óf thy fáce:
Kíng, the wáys of héaven | befóre thy féet grow gólden;
Gód, the sóul of éarth | is kíndled wíth thy gráce._
Strictly the caesura ought to occur after the third foot, as it does in
the first line; generally, however, it is within the third foot, and so
this metre as well as the stanza formed by insertion of rhyme acquires
an anisorhythmical character, as e.g. in the following quatrain by
Moore:
_Áll that's bríght must fáde,--
The bríghtest stíll the fléetest;
Áll that's swéet was máde
But to be lóst when swéetest._
When masculine rhymes are used throughout, the six-foot rhythm is
preserved in anisorhythmical stanzas of this kind just as well as when
lines like the first of those in the example quoted above, _Day by day_,
&c., are broken up by inserted rhymes (_a ~ b ~ a ~ b₃ ~_); or again
when they have masculine endings in the second half-lines (_a ~ b a ~
b₃_). If the first half is masculine, however, and the second feminine
(or if both have masculine endings on account of a pause caused by the
missing thesis), the verses have a three-foot character, e.g. in Moore:
_Whíle I tóuch the stríng,
Wréathe my bróws with láurel,
Fór the tále I síng
Hás for ónce a móral._
§ =184.= The =five-foot trochaic line= also occurs both in acatalectic
(feminine) and catalectic (masculine) form, and each of them is found in
stanzas rhyming alternately, as e.g. in Mrs. Hemans's _O ye voices_
(vii. 57):
_Ó ye vóices róund | my ówn hearth sínging!
Ás the wínds of Máy | to mémory swéet,
Míght I yét retúrn, | a wórn heart brínging,
Wóuld those vérnal tónes | the wánderer gréet?_
Such verses, of course, can be used also in stanzas with either
masculine or feminine endings only.
As in the five-foot iambic verse, the caesura generally occurs either
after the second or third foot (in which case it is feminine), or
usually within the second or third foot (masculine caesura).
In a few cases this metre is also used without rhyme; e.g. in Robert
Browning's _One Word More_ (v. 313-21); feminine endings are used here
throughout; run-on lines occasionally occur, and the caesura shows still
greater variety in consequence. A specimen is given in _Metrik_, ii, §
217.
§ =185.= The =four-foot trochaic line= (discussed above in its
relationship to the eight- and seven-foot verse) is the most frequent of
all trochaic metres. It likewise occurs either with alternate feminine
and masculine rhymes or with rhymes of one kind only. We find it both in
stanzas and in continuous verse. The latter form, with feminine rhymes
only, we have in Shakespeare's _Tempest_, IV. i. 106-9:
_Hónour, ríches, márriage-bléssing,
Lóng contínuance, ánd incréasing,
Hóurly jóys be stíll upón you!
Júno síngs her bléssings ón you_, &c.
With masculine endings only it is found in _Love's Labour's Lost_, IV.
iii. 101:
_Ón a dáy--aláck the dáy!--
Lóve, whose mónth is éver Máy,
Spíed a blóssom pássing fáir
Pláying ín the wánton áir._
As in the five-foot verse, here also the caesura if used at all may fall
at different places; mostly its place is after or within the second
foot.
Generally speaking this metre is used in continuous verse in such a way
that masculine and feminine couplets are intermixed without regular
order;[172] when it is used in stanzas the forms previously mentioned in
§ 181 are usually adopted.
This metre is used also, in an unrhymed form and with feminine endings
throughout, in Longfellow's _Song of Hiawatha_, in which there are
noticeably more run-on lines than in rhymed four-foot trochaics.
§ =186.= The =three-foot trochaic line=, both with feminine and with
masculine endings, has been discussed in previous sections (§§ 182-3) so
far as it is derived from seven- and six-foot verse. It may also be
derived from the six-foot metre through the breaking up of the line by
means of leonine rhyme, as in the following rhyming couplets:
_Áge, I dó abhór thee,
Yóuth, I dó adóre thee;
Yóuth ís fúll of spórt,
Áge's bréath is shórt._
Passionate Pilgrim, No. 12.
§ =187. Two-foot trochaic lines= generally occur among longer lines of
anisometrical stanzas; but we also find them now and then without longer
lines in stanzas and poems. Feminine verses of this kind, which may be
regarded as four-foot lines broken up by leonine rhyme, we have in
Dodsley (_Poets_, xi. 112):
_Lóve comméncing,
Jóys dispénsing;
Béauty smíling,
Wít beguíling_;
and masculine ones in a short poem, possibly by Pope, _To Quinbus
Flestrin, the Man-Mountain_ (p. 481):
_Ín a máze,
Lóst, I gáze,
Cán our éyes
Réach thy síze?
Máy my láys
Swéll with práise_, &c.
§ =188. One-foot trochaic lines= seem only to occur among longer
verses in regular stanzas, as e.g. in a stanza of Addison's opera
_Rosamund_ (I. ii. 38):
_Túrning,
Búrning,
Chánging,
Ránging._
We even find sometimes a line consisting of a single (of course
accented) syllable in Swinburne, as e.g. in his poem in trochaic verse,
_A Dead Friend_ (_A Century of Roundels_, pp. 12-19):
_Góne, O géntle héart and trúe,
Friénd of hópes forgóne,
Hópes and hópeful dáys with yóu,
Góne?_
It is common to all these trochaic metres that their structure,
especially that of the longer ones, is (except for the varying caesura)
very regular, and that they have only very few rhythmical licences,
chiefly slight slurring.
NOTES:
[172] For examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 218.
CHAPTER XIV
IAMBIC-ANAPAESTIC AND TROCHAIC-DACTYLIC
METRES
§ =189.= The =iambic-anapaestic rhythm= has been touched on before in
connexion with the four-stressed verse (cf. § 72) which was developed
from the alliterative long line, and which at the end of the Middle
English and in the beginning of the Modern English period, under the
growing influence of the even-beat metres, had assumed more or less
regular iambic-anapaestic character.
When during the same period a definitive separation of the rising and
falling rhythms took place, the even-measured rhythm of this
four-stressed modern metre became more conspicuous and was made up
frequently, although not always, of a regular series of
iambic-anapaestic measures. It was thus differentiated still more
distinctly from the uneven-beat Old and Middle English long line, the
character of which mainly rested on the four well-marked beats only. It
deserves notice further that it was not until the Modern English period
that the rest of the iambic-anapaestic and trochaic-dactylic metres (the
eight-, seven-, six-, five-, four-, three-, and two-foot verses) were
imitated from the then common corresponding iambic rhythms.
In the sixteenth century Puttenham quotes four-foot dactylics, and in
his time the dactylic hexameter had already been imitated in English.
But most of the other trisyllabic rising and falling metres, except the
Septenary, occur first in English poetry at the end of the eighteenth
and during the course of the nineteenth century.
It must also be noted that in many cases, especially in the eight-,
four-, and two-foot verses of this kind (i.e. in those metres that are
connected with the old four-stressed verse), the rising and falling
rhythms are not strictly separated, but frequently intermingle and even
supplement one another.
I. Iambic-anapaestic Metres.
§ =190. Eight-foot iambic-anapaestic verses= rhyming in long lines are
very rare, but appear in the following four-lined stanza of four-foot
verses by Burns, _The Chevalier's Lament_ (p. 343):
_The smáll birds rejóice in the gr+ée+n l+ea+ves retúrning,
The múrmuring stréamlet winds cléar thro' the vále;
The háwthorn trees blów in the déws of the mórning,
And wíld scatter'd cówslips bedéck the gr+ee+n d+á+le._
In this metre each of the two periods begins with an iambic measure and
then passes into anapaests, the feminine ending of the first (or third)
line and the iambic beginning of the second (or fourth) forming together
an anapaest.
In a poem by Swinburne (_Poems_, ii. 144) four-foot anapaestic and
dactylic lines alternate so as to form anapaestic periods:
_For a dáy and a níght Love sáng to us, pláyed with us,
Fólded us róund from the dárk and the líght_, &c.
For other less correct specimens of such combinations of verse cf.
_Metrik_, ii, §225.
§ =191. The seven-foot iambic-anapaestic verse= would seem to be of
rare occurrence except in the most recent period; in long lines and
masculine rhymes it has been used by Swinburne, as e.g. in _The Death of
Richard Wagner_;[173] we quote the middle stanza:
_As a vísion of héaven from the hóllows of ócean, | that nóne
but a gód might sée,
Rose óut of the sílence of thíngs unknówn | of a présence, a
fórm, a míght,
And we héard as a próphet that h+éa+rs G+o+d's méssage | agáinst
him, and máy not flée._
The occurrence of an iambus or a spondee at the end and sometimes in the
middle of the verse is remarkable, as well as the arbitrary treatment of
the caesura, which does not, as in the iambic Septenary verse, always
come after the fourth foot (as in the second line), but sometimes in
other places; in the first and third lines, for instance, there is a
feminine caesura in the fifth foot.
More often this Septenary metre occurs in short lines (and therefore
with fixed masculine caesura). In this form it appears as early as the
seventeenth century in a poem by the Earl of Dorset, _To Chloris_:
_Ah! Chlóris, 'tis tíme to disárm your bright éyes,
And lay bý those térrible glánces;
We líve in an áge that's more cívil and wíse,
Than to fóllow the rúles of románces._
Poets, vii. 513.
Another specimen of the same rhythm, very artistically handled (cf.
_Metrik_, i, § 226) is Charles Wolfe's well-known poem _The Burial of
Sir John Moore_. The same metre also occurs with masculine rhymes.
§ =192.= The =six-foot iambic-anapaestic verse= sometimes occurs in
Modern English poets, as Tennyson, _The Grandmother_, _Maud_, &c.,
Robert Browning, _Abt Vogler_, Mrs. Browning, _Confessions_, Swinburne,
_Hymn to Proserpine_, &c.
We quote the following verses from Tennyson's _Maud_ to illustrate this
metre, which, however, in consequence of the fluctuating proportion of
iambic and anapaestic measures occurring in it is handled very
differently by different poets (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 227):
_Did he flíng himself dówn? who knóws? | for a vást speculátion
had fáil'd,
And éver he mútter'd and mádden'd, | and éver wánn'd with despáir,
And óut he wálk'd when the wínd | like a bróken wórldling wáil'd,
And the flýing góld of the rúin'd wóodlands | dróve thro' the áir._
The caesura is sometimes masculine after the third foot (as in lines 1
and 3), sometimes feminine in the fourth (line 2) or the fifth (line 4);
so that its position is quite indeterminate. The rhymes are mostly
masculine, but feminine rhymes are also met with, as e.g. in Mrs.
Browning's _Confessions_. Swinburne's verses are printed in long lines,
it is true, but they are broken into short lines by inserted masculine
and feminine rhymes.
§ =193.= The =five-foot iambic-anapaestic verse= likewise does not occur
till recent times, and is chiefly used by the poets just mentioned.
Rhymed in couplets it occurs in Mrs. Browning's _The Daughters of
Pandarus_, Version II (vol. iv, p. 200):
_So the stórms bore the dáughters of Pándarus | óut into thráll--
The góds slew their párents; | the órphans were léft in the háll.
And there cáme, to féed their young líves, Aphrodíte divíne,
With the íncense, the swéet-tasting hóney, the swéet-smelling wíne._
The rhythm is here almost entirely anapaestic; the caesura occurs in the
most diverse places and may be either masculine or feminine. The ending
of the line is masculine throughout, as well as in Robert Browning's
_Saul_ (iii. 146-96), but with many run-on lines.
In Swinburne's _A Word from the Psalmist_ (_A Mids. Holiday_, p. 176) we
have another treatment of this metre. As a rule the line begins with an
anapaest, and continues in pure iambic rhythm:
_But a lóuder | thán the Chúrch's écho | thúnders
In the éars of mén | who máy not chóose but héar;
And the héart in hím | that héars it léaps and wónders,
With triúmphant hópe | astónished, ór with féar._
In other examples it has an iambic or spondaic rhythm at the beginning
and end, with an anapaestic part in the middle, as in _The Seaboard_
(ib., p. 3) by the same poet:
_The séa is at ébb, | and the sóund of her útmost wórd,
Is sóft as the l+éa+st w+a+ve's lápse | in a stíll sm+a+ll r+éa+ch.
From báy into báy, | on quést of a góal deférred,
From héadland éver to héadland | and bréach to bréach,
Where éarth gives éar | to the méssage that áll days préach._
In _A Century of Roundels_, p. 1, &c., Swinburne uses this metre, which
also occurs in Tennyson's _Maud_, with feminine and masculine endings
alternately.
§ =194.= The =four-foot iambic-anapaestic verse= is essentially
identical with the four-stressed verse treated of above (§ 72), except
that it has assumed a still more regular, even-beat rhythm in modern
times; generally it begins with an iambus and anapaests follow, as in
the stanza quoted from Burns (§ 190). Occasionally this metre has an
almost entirely anapaestic structure; as e.g. in Moore, _In the Morning
of Life_:
_In the mórning of lífe, | when its cáres are unknówn,
And its pléasures in áll | their new lústre begín,
When we líve in a bríght-beaming | wórld of our ówn,
And the líght that surróunds us | is áll from withín._
In other examples the rhythm is chiefly iambic, intermingled with
occasional anapaests; as e.g. in Moore's _You Remember Ellen_:
_You remémber Éllen, | our hámlet's príde
How méekly she bléssed | her húmble lót,
When the stránger Wílliam, | had máde her his bríde,
And lóve was the líght | of her lówly cót._
Verses like these, which in their structure recall the earlier
four-stressed verses, frequently occur (see §§ 72, 132) mixed with
four-foot verses of a somewhat freer build in the narrative poems of
Coleridge, Scott, and Byron.
§ =195.= The =three-foot iambic-anapaestic verse= took its origin by
analogy to the corresponding four-foot line, or perhaps to the two-foot
line derived from it by inserted rhymes; it occurs as early as Tusser,
_Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_ (cf. Guest, ii, p. 251):
_What lóokest thou hérein to háve?
Fíne vérses thy fáncy to pléase?
Of mány my bétters that cráve;
Look nóthing but rúdeness in thése._
We have the same metre (two anapaests following the first iambic
measure) in Rowe, Shenstone, Moore, and others, sometimes with alternate
masculine and feminine rhymes.
§ =196.= The =two-foot iambic-anapaestic verse= sprang from the
breaking-up of the corresponding four-foot (or four-stressed) line by
inserted or leonine rhyme, as we find it even in the Middle English
bob-wheel stanzas; in Modern English we have it in Tusser for the first
time:
_Ill húsbandry brággeth
To gó with the bést,
Good húsbandry bággeth
Up góld in his chést.
Ill húsbandry lóseth
For lácke of good fénce,
Good húsbandry clóseth
And gaíneth the pénce._
This metre is used by Gay, Goldsmith, Scott, Moore, Longfellow, Robert
Browning, and others; it is also found with an anapaest following the
first iambic measure, and either with masculine and feminine rhymes
alternately, as in the example quoted above, or (as is most usual) with
these rhymes in indiscriminate succession.
§ =197.= The =one-foot iambic-anapaestic verse= occasionally occurs in
the Middle English bob-wheel stanzas. In Modern English we find it only
as an element in anisometrical stanzas, as e.g. in the following
half-stanza of Shelley's _Autumn_ (iii. 65):
_The ch+í+ll r+ai+n is fálling, the n+í+pt w+o+rm is cráwling,
The rívers are swelling, the thúnder is knélling
For the yéar;
The blithe swállows are flówn, and the lízards each góne
To his dwélling._
In Shakespeare's _Midsummer Night's Dream_, III. ii. 448-63
(apart from the four-foot trochaic end-lines of the half-stanzas),
we also have such verses apparently; the iambic-anapaestic
character being clearly shown by a couplet like the following:
_When thou wákest,
Thou tákest._[174]
II. Trochaic-dactylic Metres.
§ =198.= These are much rarer than the iambic-anapaestic metres.
Specimens of all of them are quoted, but some are only theoretical
examples invented by, and repeated from, English or American metrists.
Theoretically the acatalectic dactylic verse in its rhymed form ought
always to have trisyllabic or at least feminine caesura and ending. As a
fact, however, these metres have just as frequently or perhaps more
frequently masculine caesuras and rhymes.
The =eight-foot trochaic-dactylic verse=, alternating occasionally with
iambic-anapaestic lines, occurs in Longfellow's _The Golden Legend_,
iv:[175]
Elsie.
_Ónward and ónward the híghway rúns || to the dístant cíty, |
impátiently béaring
Tídings of húman jóy and disáster, || of lóve and of háte, |
of dóing and dáring!_
Prince Henry.
_This lífe of óurs | is a wíld aeólian hárp | of mány a jóyous
stráin,
But únder them áll there rúns | a lóud perpétual wáil, | as of
sóuls in páin._
Elsie.
_Fáith alóne can intérpret lífe, || and the héart that áches and
bléeds with the stígma
Of pain, | alóne bears the likeness of Chríst, || and cán
comprehénd its dárk enígma._
There are, as appears from this specimen, a great many licences in these
verses; the caesura, mostly in the fourth foot, is masculine in lines 1,
5, 6, feminine in 2; so that the second half of the line has an
iambic-anapaestic rhythm. Besides this most of the lines have secondary
caesuras in different places of the verse; iambic-anapaestic verses
(like 3, 4, 6) are decidedly in the minority. The rhymes are both
feminine and masculine, but there is no regular alternation between
them, as might be supposed from the above short specimen.
§ =199.= The form of the =seven-foot trochaic-dactylic verse= may be
illustrated by the following theoretical specimen, quoted from _The
Grammar of English Grammars_ (p. 880), by Goold Brown:
_Óut of the kíngdom of Chríst shall be gáthered, | by ángels o'er
Sátan victórious,
Áll that offéndeth, that líeth, that fáileth | to hónour his náme
ever glórious._
Verses of this form with masculine endings printed in short lines occur
in a song by Burns (p. 217):
_Whére are the jóys I have mét in the mórning, | that dánc'd to the
lárk's early sáng?
Whére is the péace that awáited my wánd'ring | at évening the wíld
woods amáng?_
§ =200.= The =six-foot trochaic-dactylic verse= may be illustrated by a
theoretical specimen from Goold Brown (p. 880), which is strictly
dactylic, with inserted rhymes:
_Tíme, thou art éver in mótion, | on whéels of the dáys, years
and áges;
Réstless as wáves of the ócean, | when Eúrus or Bóreas ráges._
Generally this metre is combined with iambic-anapaestic verses, as e.g.
in Mrs. Browning's _Confessions_ (iii. 60) mentioned above, § 192, which
is, for the greatest part, written in this form:
_Fáce to fáce in my chámber, | my sílent chámber, I sáw her:
Gód and shé and I ónly, | there Í sate dówn to dráw her
Sóul through the cléfts of conféssion,-- | spéak, I am hólding
thee fást
As the ángel of résurréction | shall dó it át the lást!_
§ =201.= The =five-foot trochaic-dactylic verse= occurs now and then in
Swinburne's _A Century of Roundels_, as e.g. on p. 5:
_Súrely the thóught | in a mán's heart hópes or féars
Nów that forgétfulness | néeds must hére have strícken
Ánguish, | and swéetened the séaled-up spríngs | of téars_, &c.
The verses are trochaic with two dactyls at the beginning. The caesura
is variable; masculine in line 1; trisyllabic after the second arsis in
line 2; a double caesura occurs in line 3, viz. a feminine one in the
first foot, a masculine one in the fourth. The rhymes are both masculine
and feminine.
§ =202.= The =four-foot trochaic-dactylic verse= is mentioned first by
Puttenham (p. 140), and occurs pretty often; seldom unrhymed as in
Southey, _The Soldier's Wife_;[176] mostly rhymed, as e.g. in
Thackeray, _The Willow Tree_ (p. 261):
_Lóng by the wíllow-trees | váinly they sóught her,
Wíld rang the móther's screams | ó'er the grey wáter:
Whére is my lóvely one? | whére is my dáughter?_
For other specimens with occasional masculine rhymes see _Metrik_, ii,
§ 238; amongst them is one from Swinburne's _A Century of Roundels_, of
principally trochaic rhythm.
§ =203.= The =three-foot trochaic-dactylic verse= with feminine rhymes
occurs in R. Browning, _The Glove_ (iv. 171):
_Héigho, yawned óne day King Fráncis,
Dístance all válue enhánces!
Whén a man's búsy, why, léisure
Stríkes him as wónderful pléasure._
Masculine rhymes occur in a song by Moore:
_Whére shall we búry our Sháme?
Whére, in what désolate pláce,
Híde the last wréck of a náme,
Bróken and stáin'd by disgráce?_
We have a strict dactylic rhythm, extending to the end of the line, in a
short poem, _To the Katydid_, quoted by Goold Brown.[177]
§ =204. Two-foot dactylic= or =trochaic-dactylic verses= (derived from
the corresponding four-foot verses by means of inserted or leonine
rhyme) are fairly common; generally, it is true, they have intermittent
rhyme (_a b c b_), so that they are in reality four-foot rhyming
couplets, merely printed in a two-foot arrangement, as in Tennyson, _The
Charge of the Light Brigade_ (p. 260). There are, however, also some
poems consisting of real short lines of this metre, i.e. of two-foot
lines with alternately tumbling and feminine or tumbling and masculine
rhymes; as, e.g., in Burns's _Jamie, come try me_ (p. 258), and in
Hood, _The Bridge of Sighs_ (p. 1):
Burns. Hood.
_If thou should ásk my love, _Óne more unfórtunate,
Cóuld I dený thee? Wéary of bréath,
Íf thou would wín my love, Rashly impórtunate,
Jámie, come trý me._ Góne to her déath!_
Masculine rhymes throughout occur in Thackeray, _The Mahogany Tree_ (p.
51), and in an imitation of the old four-stressed alliterative long line
in Longfellow, _The Saga of King Olaf I_ (p. 546):
Thackeray. Longfellow.
_Chrístmas is hére: _Í am the Gód Thor,
Wínds whistle shríll, Í am the Wár God,
Ícy and chíll, Í am the Thúnderer!
Líttle care wé: Hére in my Nórthland,
Líttle we féar My fástness and fórtress,
Wéather withóut, Réign I for éver!
Shéltered abóut Hére amid ícebergs
The Mahógany Trée._ Rúle I the nátions._
§ =205. One-foot dactylic verses= are not likely to occur
except in anisometrical stanzas. We are unable to quote any
proper example of them, but the following two four-lined
half-stanzas from Scott's _Pibroch of Donald Dhu_ (p. 488), in
which some of the two-foot lines admit of being resolved into
verses of one foot, may serve to illustrate this metre:
_Cóme away, _Fáster come,
Cóme away, Fáster come,
Hárk to the summons! Fáster and fáster,
Cóme in your Chíef, vassal,
Wár-array, Páge and groom,
Géntles and cómmons._ Ténant and Máster._
NOTES:
[173] _A Century of Roundels_, p. 30.
[174] Cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 232.
[175] _Prince Henry and Elsie_, pp. 249-51.
[176] Cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 238.
[177] Cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 239.
CHAPTER XV
NON-STROPHIC, ANISOMETRICAL COMBINATIONS
OF RHYMED VERSE
§ =206.= Non-strophic anisometrical combinations of rhymed verse consist
of lines of different metres, rhyming in pairs, and recurring in a
definite order of succession. One of these combinations, known as the
=Poulter's Measure= (Alexandrine + Septenary), already occurs in the
Middle English Period (cf. § 146) and has remained in use down to the
present day. It was at one time extremely popular, and has in the Modern
English Period been imitated in other metres.
The most common variety of this metre is that in which the verses have
an iambic-anapaestic rhythm; they are usually printed in short lines, as
e.g. in a poem by Charles Kingsley:
_When Í was a gréenhorn and yóung,
And wánted to bé and to dó,
I púzzled my bráins about chóosing my líne,
Till I fóund out the wáy that things gó._
Before his time Burns had composed a poem in the same metre, _Here's a
Health to them that's awa_ (p. 245); and at the end of the seventeenth
century Philips (_Poets_, vi. 560) wrote a _Bacchanalian Song_ in
similar verses.
In the same metre are the _Nonsense Rhymes_ by Edward Lear,[178] as well
as many other quatrains of a similar kind, the humour of which is often
somewhat coarse.
An unusual sub-species of this metre, consisting of trochaic verses,
occurs only very rarely in Leigh Hunt, e.g. in _Wealth and Womanhood_
(p. 277):
_Háve you séen an héiress ín her jéwels móunted,
Tíll her wéalth and shé seem'd óne, ánd she míght be cóunted?
Háve you séen a bósom wíth one róse betwíxt it?
And díd you márk the gráteful blúsh, whén the brídegroom fíx'd it?_
§ =207.= Other anisometrical combinations consist of a five-foot line
followed by one consisting of four, three, or two feet. This form we
find pretty often; Ben Jonson, e.g., uses it (five + four feet) in his
translation of Horace, _Odes_ v. 11 (_Poets_, iv. 596):
_Háppy is hé, that fróm all búsiness cléar,
Ás the old ráce of mánkind wére,
Wíth his own óxen tílls his síre's left lánds,
And ís not ín the úsurer's bánds;
Nor sóldier-líke, stárted with róugh alárms,
Nor dréads the séa's enráged hárms_, &c.
He used the reverse order in _Odes_ iv. 1. In Wordsworth's poem _The
Gipsies_ (iv. 68) we have the couplets: _a a₅ b b₄ c c₅ d d₄_, &c., but
not divided into stanzas.
Five- and three-foot lines _a₅ a₃ b₅ b₃ c₅ c₃ d₅ d₃_, &c., occur in Ben
Jonson, _The Forest, XI. Epode_ (_Poets_, vi, pp. 555-6); and with
reverse order (_a₃ a₅ b₃ b₅ c₃ c₅_, &c.) in his _Epigrams_ (_Poets_, iv.
546).
The combination of five- and two-foot lines seems to occur in modern
poets only; e.g. in W. S. Landor, _Miscellanies_, clxxv (ii. 649):
_Néver may stórm thy péaceful bósom véx,
Thou lóvely Éxe!
O'er whóse pure stréam that músic yésterníght
Pour'd frésh delíght,
And léft a vísion for the éye of Mórn
To láugh to scórn_, &c.
With crossed rhymes (feminine and masculine rhymes, alternately) this
combination occurs in Mrs. Browning, _A Drama of Exile_ (i. 12), where
the scheme is _a ~₅ b₂ a ~₅ b₂ c ~₅ d₂ c ~₅ d₂_, and in R. Browning, _A
Grammarian's Funeral_ (iv. 270), the formula being _a₅ b ~₂ a₅ b ~₂ c₅ d
~₂ c₅ d ~₂_, &c.
§ =208.= Combinations of four- and two-foot lines (masculine and
feminine endings) occur in Ben Jonson, _Epigrams_, cxx (_Poets_, iv.
545); iambic and anapaestic verses similarly combined in R. Browning,
_Prospice_, vi. 152.
In the same poet we have three- and two-foot iambic-anapaestic lines
with the formula _a ~₃ b₂ c ~₃ b₂ d ~₃ e₂ f ~₃ e₂_; in _The Englishman
in Italy_ (iv. 186):
_Fortú, Fortú, my belóved one,
Sit hére by my side,
On my knées put up bóth little féet!
I was súre, if I tried_, &c.
In Mrs. Browning we find this metre, which might be taken also as
five-foot iambic-anapaestic couplets, broken up by internal rhyme
(according to the formula _a ~₃ b₂ a ~₃ b₂ c ~₃ d₂ c ~₃ d₂_, &c.) in _A
Drama of Exile_ (i. 3). For other specimens see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 244-8.
A number of other anisometrical combinations of verses will be mentioned
in Book II, in the chapter on the non-strophic odes.
NOTES:
[178] _Book of Nonsense_, London, Routledge, 1843.
CHAPTER XVI
IMITATIONS OF CLASSICAL FORMS OF VERSE
AND STANZA
§ =209. The English hexameter.= Of all imitations of classical metres
in English the best known and most popular is the hexameter. In the
history of its development we have to distinguish two epochs--that of
the first and somewhat grotesque attempts to introduce it into English
poetry in the second half of the sixteenth century, and that of its
revival in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The hexameter was introduced into English poetry by Gabriel Harvey
(1545-1630), who, in his _Encomium Lauri_, attempted to imitate the
quantitative classic verse in the accentual English language, paying
attention as much as possible to the quantity of the English words.
Sir Philip Sidney followed with some poetical portions of his _Arcadia_
written in this metre; Stanyhurst (1545-1618) translated the first four
books of Virgil in quantitative hexameters; in 1591 Abraham Fraunce
translated Virgil's _Alexis_, and William Webbe, the metrist, turned
into English the _Georgics_ and two eclogues of the same poet, also in
quantitative hexameters; but all these efforts had little success on
account of the unfitness of English for quantitative treatment. Robert
Greene also employed this metre in some of his minor poems, but followed
the accentual system; on this account he was more successful, but he
found no imitators, and during the latter part of the seventeenth
century the metre fell altogether into disuse.
In one isolated case about the middle of the eighteenth century it was
revived by an anonymous translator of Virgil's first and fourth
eclogues. But English hexameters did not begin to come into favour again
before the close of the eighteenth century, when the influence of the
study of German poetry began to make itself felt. Parts of Klopstock's
_Messiah_ were translated by William Taylor (1765-1836) in the metre of
the original. He also turned several passages of Ossian into hexameters
(published in June, 1796, in the _Monthly Magazine_), and maintained
that the hexameter, modified after the German fashion by the
substitution of the accentual for the quantitative principle and the use
of trochees instead of spondees, could be used with as good effect in
English as in German. About the same time, Coleridge used the hexameter
in some of his minor poems, _Hymn to the Earth_, _Mahomet_, &c., and
Southey chose this form for his longer poem, _A Vision of Judgement_.
But it was not till the middle of the nineteenth century that the
English hexameter came into somewhat more extensive use. It was at first
chiefly employed in translations from the German. Goethe's _Hermann und
Dorothea_ has been translated five times at least (for the first time by
Cochrane, Oxford, 1850). The metre has also been employed in
translations of classical poetry, especially Homer and Virgil, and in
original poems, none of which, however, have attained general popularity
except those by Longfellow, especially his _Evangeline_ and _The
Courtship of Miles Standish_.
§ =210.= The hexameter is a six-foot catalectic verse theoretically
consisting of five successive dactyls and a trochee. But the greatest
rhythmical variety is given to this verse by the rule which allows a
spondee to be used instead of any of the dactyls; in the fifth foot,
however, this rarely occurs. In the sixth foot, moreover, the spondee is
admissible instead of the trochee. The structure of the verse may thus
be expressed by the following formula:
–́ ⏑͞⏑ –́ ⏑͞⏑ –́ ⏑͞⏑ –́ ⏑͞⏑ –́ ⏑ ⏑ –́ ⏑̄.
The main difficulty in imitating this metre in English is caused by
the large number of monosyllabic words in the English language, and
especially by its lack of words with a spondaic measurement.
Some recent attempts to imitate the hexameter in English according
to the principles of quantity have been altogether unsuccessful, as
e.g. Cayley's (_Transactions of the Philological Society_, 1862-3,
Part i, pp. 67-85). Matthew Arnold's method too proved impracticable
(_On Translating Homer_, London, 1862); he attempted and recommended
the regulation of the rhythm of the verse by the accent and at the
same time sought not to neglect the quantity altogether. But the only
successful method of adapting the hexameter to English use is that
adopted by William Taylor, who followed the example of the Germans
in observing only the accentual system and substituting the accentual
trochee for the spondee. Sir John Herschel in his translation of Homer
and Longfellow in his original poems have done the same.
Even with these modifications a certain harshness now and then is
inevitable in hexameters both in German and particularly in English,
where many lines occur consisting nearly throughout of monosyllables
only, as e.g. the following lines from Longfellow's _Evangeline_:
_Whíte as the snów were his lócks, and his chéeks as brówn
as the óak-leaves.
Ánd the great séal of the láw was sét like a sún on a
márgin._
Other passages, however, prove the English hexameter to be as capable
of harmony as the German if treated in this way; cf. e.g. the
introductory verses of the same poem:[179]
_Thís is the fórest priméval. The múrmuring pínes and the
hémlocks,
Béarded with móss, and in gárments gréen, indistínct in the
twílight,
Stánd like Drúids of éld, with vóices sád and prophétic,
Stánd like hárpers hóar, with béards that rést on their
bósoms.
Lóud from its rócky cáverns, the déep-voiced néighbouring
ócean
Spéaks, and in áccents discónsolate ánswers the wáil of the
fórest._
§ =211.= Besides these repeated attempts to naturalize the hexameter in
English, many other kinds of classical verses and stanzas have been
imitated in English literature from the middle of the sixteenth and
afterwards during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among these
the =Elegiac= verse of the ancients (hexameter alternating with
pentameter) was attempted by Sidney in his _Arcadia_. Of more modern
experiments in accordance with the accentual principle, Coleridge's
translation of Schiller's well-known distich may be quoted:
_Ín the hexámeter ríses the fóuntains sílvery cólumn,
Ín the pentámeter áye fálling in mélody báck._
Swinburne, among others, has written his _Hesperia_ (_Poems and
Ballads_, i, 1868, p. 200) in rhymed verses of this kind:
_Óut of the gólden remóte wild wést, where the séa without shóre is,
Fúll of the súnset, and sád, if at áll, with the fúllness of jóy,
As a wínd sets ín with the áutumn that blóws from the région of
stóries,
Blóws from a pérfume of sóngs and of mémories belóved fróm a bóy._
The third line is remarkable for its anacrusis, which occasionally
occurs also in other English hexameters.
Sidney in his _Arcadia_, p. 229 (333, xxxvii), also tried the =minor
Asclepiad=, which has the following scheme:
–́–̆–́⏑⏑–́|–́⏑⏑–́⏑–̆.
_Ó sweet wóods, the delíght | óf solitáriness!
Ó how múch I do líke | yóur solitárinesse!
Whére man's mínde hath a fréed | cónsiderátion,
Óf goodnésse to recéive | lóvely diréction_, &c.
As an example of Spenser's =six-foot iambic line= Guest (ii. 270)
quotes the verses:
_Nów doe I níghtly wáste, | wánting my kíndely réste,
Nów doe I dáily stárve, | wánting my lívely fóode,
Nów doe I álwayes dýe, | wánting my tímely mírth._
In his _Arcadia_, p. 228 (232, xxxvi), Sidney used the =Phaleuciac=
verse of eleven syllables in stanzas of six lines marked by the
recurrence of a refrain. The rhythm is the same as in the
=Hendecasyllabics= of modern poets, in the following lines of
Swinburne (_Poems_, i. 233):
_Ín the mónth of the lóng declíne of róses
Í behólding the súmmer déad befóre me,
Sét my fáce to the séa and jóurneyed sílent_, &c.
The same metre was inaccurately imitated by Coleridge (p. 252) who put a
dactyl in the first foot:
_Héar, my belóvëd, an old Milésian stóry!
Hígh and embósom'd in cóngregáted laúrels,
Glímmer'd a témple upón a bréezy héadland_, &c.
Finally, the =rhymed Choriambics= may be mentioned, used
also by Swinburne (_Poems_, ii. 141-3):
_Lóve, what áiled thee to léave lífe that was máde lóvely, we thóught,
with lòve?
Whát sweet vísions of sléep lúred thee awáy, dówn from the líght
abòve?
Whát strànge fáces of dréams, vóices that cálled, hánds that were
ráised to wàve,
Lúred or léd thee, alás, óut of the sún, dówn to the súnless gràve?_
&c.
§ =212.= Among the =classical stanzas=, which may appropriately be
discussed in this connexion, the =Sapphic metre= deserves the first
place, as it has been imitated pretty often; its scheme is as follows:
–́ ⏑ – – –́ | ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – –
–́ ⏑ – – –́ | ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – –
–́ ⏑ – – –́ | ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – –
–́ ⏑ ⏑ – –
It is certainly not an easy task to write in this form of stanza, as
it is rather difficult in English to imitate feet of three or even two
long syllables (Molossus and Spondee). Yet it has been used by several
poets, as by Sidney and his contemporary, the metrist William Webbe; in
the eighteenth century by Dr. Watts, Cowper, and Southey (cf. _Metrik_,
ii, § 253); and in later times by Swinburne, from whose _Poems and
Ballads_ a specimen may be quoted:
_Áll the nī́ght slēep cā́me not upṓn my ḗyelids,
Shēd not dḗw, nōr shṓok nor unclōsed a fḗather,
Yḗt with lī́ps shūt clṓse and with ḗyes of ī́ron
Stṓod and behḗld me._
Of other kinds of classical verses and stanzas the =Alcaic metre= has
occasionally been imitated, e.g. by Tennyson. The scheme of the Latin
original is as follows:
⏑̄ –́ ⏑ – – | –́ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ –̆
⏑̄ –́ ⏑ – – | –́ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ –̆
–̆ –́ ⏑ – - –́ ⏑ - ⏑̄
–́ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑̄
Tennyson's poem is an _Ode to Milton_ (p. 281):
_O mī́ghty mṓuth'd īnvḗntŏr ŏf hā́rmŏnĭes,
O skī́lled tŏ sī́ng ōf Tī́me ŏr Etḗrnĭty,
Gōdgī́ftĕd ṓrgān-vṓice ŏf Énglānd,
Mī́ltŏn, ă nā́me tŏ rĕsṓúnd fōr ā́gĕs._
There are besides in Sidney's _Arcadia_, pp. 227 (232, xxxv) and 533,
=Anacreontic stanzas= of varying length, consisting of 3-11 verses and
constructed in this way:
_My Múse, what áiles this árdour?
To bláse my ónely sécrets?
Alás, it ís no glóry
To síng mine ówne decáid state._
§ =213.= In connexion with these imitations of classical verses and
stanzas without rhyme some other forms should be mentioned which took
their rise from an attempt to get rid of end-rhyme. Orm was the first
to make the experiment in his rhymeless Septenary, but he found no
followers in the Middle English period; Surrey, several centuries
later, on the other hand, did achieve success with his blank verse.
In the beginning of the seventeenth century Thomas Campion, in his
_Observations on the Arte of English Poesy_ (London, 1602), tried
to introduce certain kinds of rhymeless verses and stanzas, mostly
trochaic; e.g. trochaic verses of three measures (with masculine
endings) and of five measures (with feminine endings); distichs
consisting of one five-foot iambic and one six-foot trochaic verse
(both masculine); then a free imitation of the Sapphic metre and
other kinds of rhymeless stanzas, quoted and discussed in _Metrik_,
ii, § 254. But these early and isolated attempts need not engage our
attention in this place, as they had probably no influence on similar
experiments of later poets.
In Milton, e.g., we find a stanza corresponding to the formula _a
b₅ c d₃_, in his imitation of the fifth Ode of Horace, Book I, used
also by Collins, _Ode to Evening_ (_Poets_, ix. 526):
_If áught of oáten stóp or pástoral sóng
May hópe, chast Éve, to soóthe thy módest éar
Like thý own sólemn spríngs
Thy spríngs and dýing gáles._
Southey uses the same stanza (ii. 145); to him we owe several other
rhymeless stanzas of the form _a b₄ c d 3_ (ii. 212), _a₃ b c₄ d₃_
(ii. 210) (both of anapaestic verses), _a b c₄ d₃_ (ii. 148), _a₃ b
c₅ d₃_ (ii. 159), _a₄ b c₃ d₅_ (ii. 182), _a b₄ c₅ d₃_ (ii. 187),
_a₄ b₃ c₅ d₃_ (ii. 189); all consisting of iambic verses.
The same poet also uses a stanza of five iambic lines of the form
_a₅ b₃ c₄ d e₃_ (iii. 255), and another of the form _a₅ b₃ c₅ d₄ e₃_
in his ode _The Battle of Algiers_ (iii. 253):
_One dáy of dréadful occupátion móre,
Ere Éngland's gállant shíps
Sháll, of their béauty, pómp, and pówer disróbed,
Like séa-birds ón the súnny máin,
Rock ídly ín the pórt._
A stanza of similar construction (formula _a b c₅ d e₃_ is used
by Mrs. Browning in _The Measure_ (iii. 114).
Various isometrical and anisometrical stanzas of this kind occur in
Lord Lytton's _Lost Tales of Miletus_; one of these consists of three
of Coleridge's Hendecasyllabics, followed by one masculine verse of
similar form, and has the formula _a ~ b ~ c ~ d₅_; it is used, e.
g., in _Cydippe_:
_Fáirest and hárdiest óf the yóuths in Céos
Flóurish'd Acóntius frée from lóve's sweet tróuble,
Púre as when fírst a chíld, in hér child-chórus,
Chánting the góddess óf the silver bów._
In another stanza used in _The Wife of Miletus_ an ordinary masculine
blank verse alternates with a Hendecasyllabic; a third of the form _a b
c d₄_ consists of trochaic verses.
Other stanzas of ordinary five- and three-foot verses used by him in
the _Lost Tales_ have the formulas _a b₅ c₃ d₅_, _a b c₅ d₃_, _a ~ b
~₅ c₃ d₅_.
In another stanza (_Corinna_), constructed after the formula
_a b₄ c d₃_, a dactylic rhythm prevails:
_Gláucon of Lésbos, the són of Euphórion,
Búrned for Corinna, the blúe-eyed Milésian.
Nor móther nor fáther hád she;
Béauty and wéalth had the órphan._
Stanzas of a similar kind consisting of trochaic verses are used by
Longfellow; one of the form _a₃ b c₄ d ~₂_ in _To an old Danish Song
Book_, and another which corresponds to the formula _a b₅ c₂ d₅_ in
_The Golden Mile-Stone_.
Iambic-anapaestic verses of two stresses and feminine ending are found
in Longfellow's poem _The Men of Nidaros_ (p. 579); the arrangement into
stanzas of six lines being marked only by the syntactical order, in the
same way as in Southey's poem _The Soldier's Wife_ (ii. 140), in which,
too, four-foot dactylic verses are combined in stanzas of three lines.
Two-foot dactylic and dactylic-trochaic verses of a similar structure to
those mentioned in Book I, § 73, are joined to rhymeless stanzas of five
lines (the first four have feminine endings, the last a masculine one)
by Matthew Arnold in his poem _Consolation_ (p. 50). Stanzas of five
iambic verses of three and five measures, corresponding to the formula
_a₃ b₅ c₃ d₅ e₃_ occur in his poem _Growing Old_ (p. 527). In Charles
Lamb's well-known poem, _The Old Familiar Faces_, written in stanzas of
three lines, consisting of five-foot verses with feminine endings, the
division into stanzas is marked by a refrain at the end of each stanza.
For examples of these different kinds of verses the reader is referred
to the author's _Metrik_, ii, §§ 255-8.
In conclusion it may be mentioned that many of the irregular, so-called
Pindaric Odes (cf. Book II, chap. viii) are likewise written in
rhymeless anisometrical stanzas.
NOTES:
[179] Specimens of earlier hexameter verse with detailed
bibliographical information may be found in our _Metrik_, ii,
§§ 249-50; and especially in C. Elze's thorough treatise on
the subject, _Der englische Hexameter_. Programm des
Gymnasiums zu Danzig, 1867. (Cf. F. E. Schelling, _Mod. Lang.
Notes_, 1890, vii. 423-7.)
BOOK II. THE STRUCTURE OF STANZAS
PART I
CHAPTER I. DEFINITIONS
STANZA, RHYME, VARIETIES OF RHYME
§ =214.= The strophe in ancient poetry, and the stanza in mediaeval and
modern analogues and derivatives of that poetic form, are combinations
of single lines into a unity of which the lines are the parts. The word
_strophe_[180] in its literal sense means a turning, and originally
denoted the return of the song to the melody with which it began. The
melody, which is a series of musical sounds arranged in accordance with
the laws of rhythm and modulation, has in poetry its counterpart in a
parallel series of significant sounds or words arranged according to the
laws of rhythm; and the melodic termination of the musical series has
its analogue in the logical completion of the thought. But within the
stanza itself again there are well-marked resting places, divisions
closely connected with the periods or sentences of which the stanza is
made up. The periods are built up of rhythmical sequences which are
combinations of single feet, dominated by a rhythmical main accent. In
shorter lines the end of the rhythmical sequence as a rule coincides
with the end of the verse; but if the line is of some length it
generally contains two or even more rhythmical sequences.[181] The
essential constituents of the stanza are the lines; and the structure of
the stanzas connected together to make up a poem is in classical as well
as in mediaeval and modern poetry subject to the rule that the lines of
each stanza of the poem must resemble those of the other stanzas in
number, length (i.e. the number of feet or measures), rhythmical
structure, and arrangement. (This rule, however, is not without
exceptions in modern poetry.) In the versification of the ancients it
was sufficient for the construction of a strophic poem that its verses
should be combined in a certain number of groups which resembled each
other in these respects. In modern poetry, also, such an arrangement of
the verses may be sufficient for the construction of stanzas; but this
is only exceptionally the case, and, as a rule, only in imitation of the
classic metrical forms (cf. §§ 212-13). The stanza, as it is found in
the mediaeval and modern poetry of the nations of western Europe,
exhibits an additional structural element of the greatest importance,
viz. the connexion of the single lines of the stanza by end-rhyme; and
with regard to this a rule analogous to the previously mentioned law
regarding the equality in number and nature of verses forming a stanza
holds good, viz. that the arrangement of the rhymes which link the
verses together to form stanzas, must be the same in all the stanzas of
a poem.
§ =215.= Of the three chief kinds of rhyme, in its widest sense
(mentioned § 10), i.e. alliteration, assonance, and end-rhyme, only the
last need be taken into consideration here. There are, indeed, some
poems in Old English in which end-rhyme is used consciously and
intentionally (see §§ 40-1), but it was never used in that period for
the construction of stanzas. This took place first in Middle English
under the influence and after the model of the Low Latin and the Romanic
lyrics.
The influence of the Low Latin lyrical and hymnodic poetry on the Old
English stanzas is easily explicable from the position of the Latin
language as the international tongue of the church and of learning
during the Middle Ages. The influence of the lyrical forms of Provence
and of Northern France on Middle English poetry was rendered possible by
various circumstances. In the first place, during the crusades the
nations of Western Europe frequently came into close contact with each
other. A more important factor, however, was the Norman Conquest, in
consequence of which the Norman-French language during a considerable
time predominated in the British Isles and acted as a channel of
communication of literature with the continent. One historical event
deserves in this connexion special mention--the marriage in the year
1152 of Henry, Duke of Normandy (who came to the throne of England in
1154), and Eleonore of Poitou, widow of Louis VII of France; in her
train Bernard de Ventadorn, the troubadour, came to England, whither
many other poets and minstrels soon followed him, both in the reign of
Henry and of his successor Richard Coeur de Lion, who himself composed
songs in the Provençal and in the French language. The effect of the
spread of songs like these in Provençal and French in England was to
give a stimulus and add new forms to the native lyrical poetry which was
gradually reviving. At first indeed the somewhat complicated strophic
forms of the Provençal and Northern French lyrics did not greatly appeal
to English tastes, and were little adapted to the less flexible
character of the English tongue. Hence many of the more elaborate
rhyme-systems of Provençal and Northern French lyrical versification
were not imitated at all in English; others were reproduced only in a
modified and often very original form; and only the simpler forms, which
occurred mostly in Low Latin poetry as well, were imitated somewhat
early and with little or no modification.
§ =216.= The end-rhyme, which is so important a factor in the
formation of stanzas, has many varieties, which may be classified
in three ways:
A. According to the =number= of the rhyming syllables.
B. According to the =quality= of these syllables.
C. According to the =position of the rhyme= in relation to
the line and the stanza.
Intimately connected with this last point is the use of rhyme
as an element in the structure of the stanza.
A. With regard to the number of the syllables, rhymes are divided into
three classes, viz.:
1. The =monosyllabic= or =single rhyme= (also called =masculine=), e.g.
_hand: land_, _face: grace_.
2. The =disyllabic= or =double rhyme= (also called =feminine=), as
_ever: never_, _brother: mother_, _treasure: measure_, _suppression:
transgression_; or _owe me: know me_ Shakesp. Ven. and Ad. 523-5;
_bereft me: left me_ ib. 439-41. The terms _masculine_ and _feminine_
originated with the Provençal poets and metrists, who were the first
among the people of Western Europe to theorize on the structure of the
verses which they employed, and introduced these terms in reference to
the forms of the Provençal adjective, which were monosyllabic or
accented on the last syllable in the masculine, and disyllabic or
accented on the last syllable but one in the feminine: _bos-bona_,
_amatz-amada_.
3. The =trisyllabic, triple=, or =tumbling rhyme=, called _gleitender_
(i.e. gliding) _Reim_ in German. Of this variety of rhyme, which is
less common than the two others, examples are _gymnastical:
ecclesiastical_ Byron, Beppo, 3; _quality: liberality_ ib. 30; _láugh of
them: hálf of them_ ib. 98. Rhymes like this last, which are made up of
more words than two, might, like those given above under the
disyllables, such as _owe me: know me_, also form a separate sub-species
as =compound rhymes=, as they resemble the broken rhymes (cf. § 217, B.
3) and have, like these, mostly a burlesque effect.
§ =217.= B. According to the second principle of classification, by the
quality of the rhyming syllables, the species of rhyme are as follows:
1. The =rich rhyme= (in French _rime riche_), i.e. two words completely
alike in sound but unlike in meaning rhyming with each other. Of this
three special cases are possible:
_a._ Two simple words rhyming with each other, as _londe_ (inf.)_:
londe_ (noun) K. Horn, 753-4; _armes_ (arms)_: armes_ (weapons) Chaucer,
Compleynt of Mars, ll. 76-7; _steepe_ (adj.)_: steepe_ (inf.) Spenser,
F. Q. I. i. 39; _sent_ (perf.)_: sent_ (_=scent_, noun) ib. 43; _can_
(noun); _can_ (verb) ib. I. iv. 22, &c. In the earlier Modern English
poetry we find many rhymes of this class between words that are alike or
similar in sound, but of different spelling, as _night: knight_, _foul:
fowl_, _gilt: guilt_, _hart: heart_, &c. (cf. Ellis, 'Shakespere's Puns'
in _Early Engl. Pron._ iii. 920, iv. 1018).
_b._ A simple and a compound word rhyming together, as _leue: bileue_ K.
Horn, 741-2; _like: sellike_ Sir Tristr. 1222-4; _ymake: make_ Wright's
Spec. of Lyr. Poetry, p. 27, ll. 16-18; _apart: part_ Spenser, F. Q. I.
ii. 21, _hold: behold_ ib. I. iii. 40; here also identity of sound and
difference of spelling is possible, as _renew: knew_ ib. I. iii. 25.
_c._ Two compound words rhyming together, as _recorde: accorde_ Chaucer,
C. T. Prol. 828-9; _affirmed: confirmed_ Wyatt, p. 98; _expeld:
compeld_ Spenser, F. Q. I. i. 5.
2. The =identical rhyme=. This is, properly speaking, no rhyme at all,
but only a repetition of the same word intended as a substitute for
rhyme; and therefore was and is avoided by careful and skilful poets;
_sette: sette_ K. Horn, 757-8; _other: other_ Wyatt, p. 45; _down:
down_ ib. p. 194; _sight: sight_ Spenser, F. Q. I. i. 45, &c.
3. The =broken rhyme= has two sub-species:
_a._ In the first of these one part of the rhyme is composed of two or
three words (unlike the rhymes spoken of under A. 3, consisting of two
words each), e.g. _time: bi me_ K. Horn, 533-4; _scolis: fole is_,
Chaucer, Troil. i. 634-5; _tyrant: high rent_ Moore, Fudge Fam., Letter
iv; _wide as: Midas_ ib.; _well a day: melody_ ib. x; _Verona: known a_
Byron, Beppo, 17; _sad knee: Ariadne_ ib. 28; _endure a: seccatura_ ib.
31; _estrangement: change meant_ ib. 53; _quote is: notice_ ib. 48;
_exhibit 'em: libitum_ ib. 70; _Julia: truly a: newly a_ Byron, Don
Juan, ii. 208.
_b._ In the second sub-species the rhyme to a common word is formed by
the first part only of a longer word, the remainder standing at the
beginning of the following line. This sort of rhyme seems to be unknown
in Middle English literature; modern poets, however, use it not
unfrequently in burlesque, as well as the previously mentioned
sub-species, e.g. _kind: blind-_(_ness_) Pope, Satire iii. 67;
_forget-_(_ful_)_: debt_ ib. iv. 13; _beg: egge-_(_shells_) ib. iv.
104; _nice hence-_(_forward_)_: licence_ Byron, Don Juan, i. 120;
Thackeray, Ballads, p. 133:
_Winter and summer, night and morn,
I languish at this table dark;
My office window has a corn-
er looks into St. James's Park._
4. The =double rhyme=. This is always trisyllabic like that mentioned
under A. 3; but there is a difference between them, in that the two
closing syllables of the gliding rhyme stand outside the regular rhythm
of the verse; while the first and the third syllable of the double rhyme
bear the second last and last arsis of the verse.
_For dóuteth nóthinge, mýn inténción
Nis nót to yów of reprehénción._
Chaucer, Troil. i. 683-4.
This sort of rhyme does on the whole not very often occur in Modern
English poetry, and even in Middle English literature we ought to regard
it as accidental. The same is the case with another (more frequent)
species, namely,
5. The =extended rhyme=, in which an unaccented syllable preceding the
rhyme proper, or an unaccented word in thesis, forms part of the rhyme,
e.g. _biforne: iborne_ Chaucer, Troil. ii. 296-8; _in joye: in Troye_
ib. i. 118-19; _to quyken: to stiken_ ib. 295-7; _the Past: me last_
Byron, Ch. Harold, ii. 96; _the limb: the brim_ ib. iii. 8, &c.
6. The =unaccented rhyme=, an imperfect kind of rhyme, because only the
unaccented syllables of disyllabic or polysyllabic words, mostly of
Germanic origin and accentuation, rhyme together, and not their accented
syllables as the ordinary rule would demand, e.g. _láweles, lóreless,
námeless_; _wrécful_, _wróngful_, _sínful_ Song of the Magna Charta, ll.
30-2, 66-8; many rhymes of this kind occur in the alliterative-rhyming
long line combined into stanzas.[182] In Modern English we find this
kind of rhyme pretty often in Wyatt[183]; e.g.: