it be for that we vnderstand it for a bearer or supporter of a song or
ballad, not vnlike the old weake bodie, that is stayed vp by his staffe,
and were not otherwise able to walke or to stand vpright. The Italian
called it _Stanza_, as if we should say a resting place: and if we
consider well the forme of this Poeticall staffe, we shall finde it to be
a certaine number of verses allowed to go altogether and ioyne without any
intermission, and doe or should finish vp all the sentences of the same
with a full period, vnlesse it be in som special cases, & there to stay
till another staffe follow of like sort: and the shortest staffe
conteineth not vnder foure verses, nor the longest aboue ten, if it passe
that number it is rather a whole ditty then properly a staffe. Also for
the more part the staues stand rather vpon the euen nomber of verses then
the odde, though there be of both sorts. The first proportion then of a
staffe is by _quadrien_ or foure verses. The second of fiue verses, and is
seldome vsed. The third by _sizeine_ or sixe verses, and is not only most
vsual, but also very pleasant to th'eare. The fourth is in seven verses, &
is the chiefe of our ancient proportions vsed by any rimer writing any
thing of historical or graue poeme, as ye may see in _Chaucer_ and
_Lidgate_ th'one writing the loues of _Troylus_ and _Cresseida_, th'other
of the fall of Princes: both by them translated not deuised. The first
proportion is of eight verses very stately and _Heroicke_, and which I
like better then that of seuen, because it receaueth better band. The fixt
is of nine verses, rare but very graue. The seuenth proportion is of tenne
verses, very stately, but in many mens opinion too long: neuerthelesse of
very good grace & much grauitie. Of eleuen and twelue I find none ordinary
staues vsed in any vulgar language, neither doth it serue well to continue
any historicall report or ballade, or other song: but is a dittie of it
self, and no staffe, yet some moderne writers haue vsed it but very
seldome. Then last of all haue ye a proportion to be vsed in the number of
your staues, as to a caroll and a ballade, to a song, & a round, or
virelay. For to an historicall poeme no certain number is limited, but as
the matter fals out: also a _distick_ or couple of verses is not to be
accompted a staffe, but serues for a continuance as we see in Elegie,
Epitaph, Epigramme or such meetres, of plaine concord not harmonically
entertangled, as some other songs of more delicate musick be.
A staffe of foure verses containeth in it selfe matter sufficient to make
a full periode or complement of sence, though it doe not alwayes so, and
therefore may go by diuisions.
A staffe of fiue verses, is not much vsed because he that can not
comprehend his periode in foure verses, will rather driue it into six then
leaue it in fiue, for that the euen number is more agreeable to the eare
then the odde is.
A staffe of sixe verses, is very pleasant to the eare, and also serueth
for a greater complement then the inferiour staues, which maketh him more
commonly to be vsed.
A staffe of seuen verses, most vsuall with our auncient makers, also the
staffe of eight, nine and ten of larger complement then the rest, are
onely vsed by the later makers, & vnlesse they go with very good bande, do
not so well as the inferiour staues. Therefore if ye make your staffe of
eight, by two fowers not entertangled, it is not a huitaine or a staffe of
eight, but two quadreins, so is it in ten verses, not being entertangled
they be but two staues of fiue.
_CHAP. III._
_Of proportion in measure._
Meeter and measure is all one, for what the Greekes call [Greek: metron],
the Latines call _Mensura_, and is but the quantitie of a verse, either
long or short. This quantitie with them consisteth in the number of their
feete: & with vs in the number of sillables, which are comprehended in
euery verse, not regarding his feete, otherwise then that we allow in
scanning our verse, two sillables to make one short portion (suppose it a
foote) in euery verse. And after that sort ye may say, we haue feete in
our vulgare rymes, but that is improperly: for a foote by his sence
naturall is a member of office and function, and serueth to three
purposes, that is to say, to go, to runne, & to stand still so as he must
be sometimes swift, sometimes slow, sometime vnegally marching or
peraduenture steddy. And if our feete Poeticall want these qualities it
can not be sayd a foote in sence translatiue as here. And this commeth to
passe, by reason of the euident motion and stirre, which is perceiued in
the sounding of our wordes not alwayes egall: for some aske longer, some
shorter time to be vttered in, & so by the Philosophers definition, stirre
is the true measure of time. The Greekes & Latines because their wordes
hapned to be of many sillables, and very few of one sillable, it fell out
right with them to conceiue and also to perceiue, a notable diuersitie of
motion and times in the pronuntiation of their wordes, and therefore to
euery _bissillable_ they allowed two times, & to a _trissillable_ three
times, & to euery _polisillable_ more, according to his quantitie, & their
times were some long, some short according as their motions were slow or
swift. For the sound of some sillable stayd the eare a great while, and
others slid away so quickly, as if they had not bene pronounced, then
euery sillable being allowed one time, either short or long, it fell out
that euery _tetrasillable_ had foure times, euery _trissillable_ three,
and the _bissillable_ two by which obseruation euery word, not vnder that
sise, as he ranne or stood in a verse, was called by them a foote of such
and so many times, namely the _bissillable_ was either of two long times
as the _spondeus_, or two short, as the _pirchius_, or of a long & a short
as the _trocheus_, or of a short and a long as the _iambus_: the like rule
did they set vpon the word _trissillable_, calling him a foote of three
times: as the _dactilus_ of a long and two short: the _mollossus_ of three
long, the _tribracchus_ of three short, the _amphibracchus_ of two long
and a short, the _amphimacer_ of two short and a long. The word of foure
sillables they called a foote of foure times, some or all of them, either
long or short: and yet not so content they mounted higher, and because
their wordes serued well thereto, they made feete of sixe times: but this
proceeded more of curiositie, then otherwise: for whatsoeuer foote passe
the _trissillable_ is compounded of his inferiour as euery number
Arithmeticall aboue three, is compounded of the inferiour numbers as twise
two make foure, but the three is made of one number, videl. of two and an
vnitie. Now because our naturall & primitiue language of the _Saxon
English_, beares not any wordes (at least very few) of moe sillables then
one (for whatsoeuer we see exceede, commeth to vs by the alterations of
our language growen vpon many conquestes and otherwise) there could be no
such obseruation of times in the sound of our wordes, & for that cause we
could not haue the feete which the Greeks and Latines haue in their
meetres: but of this stirre & motion of their deuised feete, nothing can
better shew the qualitie then these runners at common games, who setting
forth from the first goale, one giueth the start speedely & perhaps before
he come half way to th'other goale, decayeth his pace, as a man weary &
fainting: another is slow at the start, but by amending his pace keepes
euen with his fellow or perchance gets before him: another one while gets
ground, another while loseth it again, either in the beginning, or middle
of his race, and so proceedes vnegally sometimes swift somtimes slow as
his breath or forces serue him: another sort there be that plod on, & will
neuer change their pace, whether they win or lose the game: in this maner
doth the Greeke _dactilus_ begin slowly and keepe on swifter till th'end,
for his race being deuided into three parts, he spends one, & that is the
first slowly, the other twaine swiftly: the _anapestus_ his two first
parts swiftly, his last slowly: the _Molossus_ spends all three parts of
his race slowly and egally _Bacchius_ his first part swiftly, & two last
parts slowly. The _tribrachus_ all his three parts swiftly: the
_antibacchius_ his two first partes slowly, his last & third swiftly: the
_amphimacer_, his first & last part slowly & his middle part swiftly: the
_amphibracus_ his first and last parts swiftly but his midle part slowly,
& so of others by like proportion. This was a pretie phantasticall
obseruation of them, & yet brought their meetres to haue a maruelous good
grace, which was in Greeke called [Greek: rithmos]: whence we haue deriued
this word ryme, but improperly & not wel because we haue no such feete or
times or stirres in our meeters, by whose _simpathie_, or pleasant
conueniencie with th'eare, we could take any delight: this _rithmus_ of
theirs, is not therfore our rime, but a certaine musicall numerositie in
vtterance, and not a bare number as that of the Arithmeticall computation
is, which therefore is not called _rithmus_ but _arithmus_. Take this away
from them, I meane the running of their feete, there is nothing of
curiositie among them more then with vs nor yet so much.
_CHAP. III._
_How many sorts of measures we use in our vulgar._
To returne from rime to our measure againe, it hath bene sayd that
according to the number of the sillables contained in euery verse, the
same is sayd a long or short meeter, and his shortest proportion is of
foure sillables, and his longest of twelue, they that vse it aboue, passe
the bounds of good proportion. And euery meeter may be aswel in the odde
as in the euen sillable, but better in the euen, and one verse may begin
in the euen, & another follow in the odde, and so keepe a commendable
proportion. The verse that containeth but two silables which may be in one
word, is not vsuall: therefore many do deny him to be a verse, saying that
it is but a foot, and that a meeter can haue no lesse then two feete at
the least, but I find it otherwise aswell among the best Italian Poets, as
also with our vulgar makers, and that two sillables serue wel for a short
measure in the first place, and midle, and end of a staffe: and also in
diuerse scituations and by sundry distances, and is very passionate and of
good grace, as shalbe declared more at large in the Chapter of proportion
by scituation.
The next measure is of two feete or of foure sillables, and then one word
_tetrasillable_ diuided in the middest makes vp the whole meeter, as thus
_Re-ue- re-ntli-e_
Or a trissillable and one monosillable thus. _Soueraine God_, or two
bissillables and that is plesant thus, _Restore againe_, or with foure
monosillables, and that is best of all thus, _When I doe thinke_, I finde
no fauour in a meetre of three sillables nor in effect in any odde, but
they may be vsed for varietie sake, and specially being enterlaced with
others the meetre of six sillables is very sweete and dilicate as thus.
_O God when I behold
This bright heauen so hye
By thine owne hands of old
Contrivd so cunningly._
The meter of seuen sillables is not vsual, no more is that of nine and
eleuen, yet if they be well composed, that is, their _Cesure_ well
appointed, and their last accent which makes the concord, they are
commendable inough, as in this ditty where one verse is of eight an other
is of seuen, and in the one the accent vpon the last, in the other vpon
the last saue on.
_The smoakie sighes, the bitter teares
That I in vaine haue wasted
The broken sleepes, the woe and feares
That long time haue lasted
Will be my death, all by thy guilt
And not by my deseruing
Since so inconstantly thou wilt
Not loue but still be sweruing_.
And all the reason why these meeters in all sillable are allowable is, for
that the sharpe accent falles vpon the _penulitma_ or last saue one
sillable of the verse, which doth so drowne the last, as he seemeth to
passe away in maner vnpronounced, & so make the verse seeme euen: but if
the accent fall vpon the last and leaue two flat to finish the verse, it
will not feeme so: for the odnes will more notoriously appeare, as for
example in the last verse before recited _Not loue but still be sweruing_,
say thus _Loue it is a maruelous thing._ Both verses be of egall
quantitie, vidz. seauen sillables a peece, and yet the first seemes
shorter then the later, who shewes a more odnesse then the former by
reason of his sharpe accent which is vpon the last sillable, and makes him
more audible then if he had slid away with a flat accent, as the word
_swéruing._
Your ordinarie rimers vse very much their measures in the odde as nine and
eleuen, and the sharpe accent vpon the last sillable, which therefore
makes him go ill fauouredly and like a minstrels musicke. Thus sayd one in
a meeter of eleven very harshly in mine eare, whether it be for lacke of
good rime or of good reason, or of both I wot not.
_Now sucke childe and sleepe childe, thy mothers owne ioy
Her only sweete comfort, to drowne all annoy
For beauty surpassing the azured skie
I loue thee my darling, as ball of mine eye._
This sort of compotition in the odde I like not, vnlesse it be holpen by
the _Cesure_ or by the accent as I sayd before.
The meeter of eight is no lesse pleasant then that of sixe, and the
_Cesure_ fals iust in the middle, as this of the Earle of Surreyes.
_When raging loue, with extreme payne._
The meeter of ten sillables is very stately and Heroicall, and must haue
his _Cesure_ fall vpon the fourth sillable, and leaue sixe behind him
thus.
_I serue at ease, and gouerne all with woe._
This meeter of twelue sillables the French man calleth a verse
_Alexandrine_, and is with our moderne rimers most usuall: with the
auncient makers it was not so. For before Sir _Thomas Wiats_ time they
were not vsed in our vulgar, they be for graue and stately matters fitter
than for any other ditty of pleasure. Some makers write in verses of
foureteene sillables giuing the _Cesure_ at the first eight, which
proportion is tedious, for the length of the verse kepeth the eare too
long from his delight, which is to heare the cadence or the tuneable
accent in the ende of the verse. Neuerthelesse that of twelue if his
_Cesure_ be iust in the middle, and that ye suffer him to runne at full
length, and do not as the common rimers do; or their Printer for sparing
of paper, cut them of in the middest, wherin they make in two verses but
halfe rime. They do very wel as wrote the Earle of Surrey translating the
booke of the preacher.
_Salomon Davids sonne, king of Ierusalem._
This verse is a very good _Alexandrine_, but perchaunce woulde haue
sounded more musically, if the first word had bene a dissillable, or two
monosillables and not a trissillable: hauing his sharpe accent vppon the
_Antepenultima_ as it hath, by which occasion it runnes like a _Dactill_,
and carries the two later sillables away so speedily as it seemes but one
foote in our vulgar measure, and by that meanes makes the verse seeme but
of eleuen sillables, which odnesse is nothing pleasant to the eare. Iudge
some body whether it would haue done better (if it might) haue bene fayd
thus,
_Robóham Dauids sonne, king of Ierusalem._
Letting the sharpe accent fall vpon _bo_, or thus
_Restóre king Dáuids sónne vntó Ierúsalém_.
For now the sharpe accent falles vpon _bo_, and so doth it vpon the last
in _restóre_, which was not in th'other verse. But because we haue seemed
to make mention of _Cesure_, and to appoint his place in euery measure, it
shall not be amisse to say somewhat more of it, & also of such pauses as
are vsed in vtterance, & what commoditie or delectation they bring either
to the speakers or to the hearers.
_CHAP. IIII._
_Of Cesure._
There is no greater difference betwixt a ciuill and brutish vtteraunce
then cleare distinction of voices: and the most laudable languages are
alwaies most plaine and distinct, and the barbarous most confuse and
indistinct: it is therefore requisit that leasure be taken in
pronuntiation, such as may make our wordes plaine & most audible and
agreable to the eare: also the breath asketh to be now and then releeued
with some pause or stay more or lesse: besides that the very nature of
speach (because it goeth by clauses of seuerall construction & sence)
requireth some space betwixt them with intermission of sound, to th'end
they may not huddle one vpon another so rudly & so fast that th'eare may
not perceiue their difference. For these respectes the auncient reformers
of language, inuented, three maner of pauses, one of lesse leasure then
another, and such seuerall intermissions of sound to serue( besides
easment to the breath) for a treble distinction of sentences or parts of
speach, as they happened to be more or lesse perfect in sence. The
shortest pause or intermission they called _comma_ as who would say a
peece of a speach cut of. The second they called _colon_, not a peece but
as it were a member for his larger length, because it occupied twice as
much time as the _comma_. The third they called _periodus_, for a
complement or full pause, and as a resting place and perfection of so much
former speach as had bene vttered, and from whence they needed not to
passe any further vnles it were to renew more matter to enlarge the tale.
This cannot be better represented then by example of these common
trauailers by the hie ways, where they seeme to allow themselues three
maner of staies or easements: one a horsebacke calling perchaunce for a
cup of beere or wine, and hauing dronken it vp rides away and neuer
lights: about noone he commeth to his Inne, & there baites him selfe and
his horse an houre or more: at night when he can conueniently trauaile no
further, he taketh vp his lodging, and rests him selfe till the morrow:
from whence he followeth the course of a further voyage, if his business
be such. Euen so our Poet when he hath made one verse, hath as it were
finished one dayes iourney, & the while easeth him selfe with one baite at
the least, which is a _Comma_ or _Cesure_ in the mid way, if the verse be
euen and not odde, otherwise in some other place, and not iust in the
middle. If there be no _Cesure_ at all, and the verse long, the lesse is
the makers skill and hearers delight. Therefore in a verse of twelue
sillables the _Cesure_ ought to fall right vpon the sixt sillable: in a
verse of eleuen vpon the sixt also leauing fiue to follow. In a verse of
ten vpon the fourth, leaving sixe to follow. In a verse of nine vpon the
fourth, leauing fiue to follow. In a verse of eight iust in the middest,
that is, vpon the fourth. In a verse of seauen, either vpon the fourth or
none at all, the meeter very ill brooking any pause. In a verse of sixe
sillables and vnder is needefull no _Cesure_ at all, because the breath
asketh no reliefe: yet if ye giue any _Comma_, it is to make distinction
of sense more then for any thing else: and such _Cesure_ must neuer be
made in the middest of any word, if it be well appointed. So may you see
that the vse of these pawses or distinctions is not generally with the
vulgar Poet as it is with the Prose writer because the Poetes cheife
Musicke lying in his rime or concorde to heare the Simphonie, he maketh
all the hast he can to be at an end of his verse, and delights not in many
stayes by the way, and therefore giueth but one _Cesure_ to any verse: and
thus much for the sounding of a meetre. Neuerthelesse he may vse in any
verse both his _comma, colon_, and _interrogatiue_ point, as well as in
prose. But our auncient rymers, as _Chaucer, Lydgate_ & others, vsed these
_Cesures_ either very seldome, or not at all, or else very licentiously,
and many times made their meetres (they called them riding ryme) of such
vnshapely wordes as would allow no conuenient _Cesure_, and therefore did
let their rymes runne out at length, and neuer stayd till they came to the
end: which maner though it were not to be misliked in some sort of meetre,
yet in euery long verse the _Cesure_ ought to be kept precisely, if it
were but to serue as a law to correct the licentiousnesse of rymers,
besides that it pleaseth the eare better, & sheweth more cunning in the
maker by following the rule of his restraint. For a rymer that will be
tyed to no rules at all, but range as he list, may easily vtter what he
will: but such maner of Poesie is called in our vulgar, ryme dogrell, with
which rebuke we will in no case our maker should be touched. Therfore
before all other things let his ryme and concordes be true, cleare, and
audible with no lesse delight, then almost the strayned note of a
Musicians mouth, & not darke or wrenched by wrong writing as many doe to
patch vp their meetres, and so follow in their arte neither rule, reason,
nor ryme. Much more might be sayd for the vse of your three pauses,
_comma_, _colon_, & _periode_, for perchance it be not all a matter to vse
many _commas_, and few, nor _colons_ likewise, or long or short
_periodes_, for it is diuersly vsed, by diuers good writers. But because
it apperteineth more to the oratour or writer in prose then in verse, I
will say no more in it, then thus, that they be vsed for a commodious and
sensible distinction of clauses in prose, since euery verse is as it were
a clause of it selfe and limited with a _Cesure_ howsoeuer the sence
beare, perfect or imperfect, which difference is obseruable betwixt the
prose and the meeter.
_CHAP. V._
_Of Proportion in Concord, called Symphonie or rime._
Because we vse the word rime (though by maner of abusion) yet to helpe
that fault againe we apply it in our vulgar Poesie another way very
commendably & curiously. For wanting the currantnesse of the Greeke and
Latine feete, in stead thereof we make in th'ends of our verses a certaine
tunable sound: which anon after with another verse reasonably distant we
accord together in the last fall or cadence: the eare taking pleasure to
heare the like tune reported, and to feele hie returne. And for this
purpose serue the _monosillables_ of our English Saxons excellently well,
because they do naturally and indifferently receiue any accent, & in them
if they finish the verse, resteth the shrill accent of necessitie, and so
doth it not in the last of euery _bissillable_, nor of euery
_polisillable_ word: but to the purpose, _ryme_ is a borrowed word from
the Greeks by the Latines and French, from them by vs Saxon angles and by
abusion as hath bene sayd, and therefore it shall not do amisse to tell
what this _rithmos_ was with the Greekes, for what is it with vs hath bene
already sayd. There is an accomptable number which we call _arithmeticall
(arithmos)_ as one, two, three. There is also a musicall or audible
number, fashioned by stirring of tunes & their sundry times in the
vtterance of our wordes, as when the voice goeth high or low, or sharpe or
flat, or swift or slow: & this is called _rithmos_ or numerositie, that is
to say, a certaine flowing vtteraunce by slipper words and sillables, such
as the toung easily vtters, and the eare with pleasure receiueth, and
which flowing of wordes with much volubilitie smoothly proceeding from the
mouth is in some sort _harmonicall_ and breedeth to th'eare a great
compasiion. This point grew by the smooth and delicate running of their
feete, which we haue not in our vulgare, though we use as much as may be
the most flowing words & slippery sillables, that we can picke out: yet do
not we call that by the name of ryme, as the Greekes did: but do give the
name of ryme onely to our concordes, or tunable consentes in the latter
end of our verses, and which concords the Greekes nor Latines neuer vsed
in their Poesie till by the barbarous souldiers out of the campe, it was
brought into the Court and thence to the schoole, as hath bene before
remembred: and yet the Greekes and Latines both vsed a maner of speach, by
clauses of like termination, which they called [Greek: illegible] and
was the nearest that they approched to our ryme: but is not our right
concord: so as we in abusing this terme (_ryme_) be neuertheless excusable
applying it to another point in Poesie no lesse curious then their
_rithme_ or numerositie which in deede passed the whole verse throughout,
whereas our concordes keepe but the latter end of euery verse, or
perchaunce the middle and the end in metres that be long.
_CHAP. VI._
_Of accent, time and stir perceiued euidently in the distinction of mans
voice, and which makes the flowing of a meeter._