We cannot help observing, because certain critics observe otherwise,
that Chaucer utters as true music as ever came from poet or musician;
that some of the sweetest cadences in all our English are extant in his
"swete upon his tongue," in completest modulation. Let "Denham's
strength and Waller's sweetness join" the Io paean of a later age, the
"eurekamen" of Pope and his generation. Not one of the "Queen Anne's
men," measuring out tuneful breath upon their fingers, like ribbons for
topknots, did know the art of versification as the old rude Chaucer knew
it. Call him rude for the picturesqueness of the epithet; but his verse
has, at least, as much regularity in the sense of true art, and more
manifestly in proportion to our increasing acquaintance with his dialect
and pronunciation, as can be discovered or dreamed in the French school.
Critics, indeed, have set up a system based upon the crushed atoms of
first principles, maintaining that poor Chaucer wrote by accent only!
Grant to them that he counted no verses on his fingers; grant that he
never disciplined his highest thoughts to walk up and down in a
paddock--ten paces and a turn; grant that his singing is not after the
likeness of their singsong; but there end your admissions. It is our
ineffaceable impression, in fact, that the whole theory of accent and
quantity held in relation to ancient and modern poetry stands upon a
fallacy, totters, rather than stands; and that, when considered in
connection with such old moderns as our Chaucer, the fallaciousness is
especially apparent. Chaucer wrote by quantity, just as Homer did
before him, just as Goethe did after him, just as all poets must. Rules
differ, principles are identical. All rhythm presupposes quantity.
Organ-pipe or harp, the musician plays by time. Greek or English,
Chaucer or Pope, the poet sings by time. What is this accent but a
stroke, an emphasis, with a successive pause to make complete the time?
And what is the difference between this accent and quantity but the
difference between a harp-note and an organ-note? otherwise, quantity
expressed in different ways? It is as easy for matter to subsist out of
space, as music out of time.--_Mrs. E. B. Browning's 'The Book of the
Poets.'_