Type B inverts the rhythm of A, as in the half-line "n[=e]
wintersc[=u]r."
Type C is characterized by the juxtaposition of the two accents, as in
the half-line "and forð gangan."
Type D commonly has only the accented syllable in the first foot, while
the second foot is characterized by a sort of dactylic rhythm, as in the
half-lines "s[=æ]l[=i]ðende" and "flet innanweard."
Type E inverts the rhythm of D, as in the half-line "gylp-wordum
spræc."[16]
In all the types many variations are found. The beginning of the line
may show anacrusis, and two short syllables may take the place of a long
syllable; while an indeterminate number of light syllables may often be
introduced before or after the principal accents.
Hafað [=u]s [=a]l[=y]fed _lucis auctor_,
þæt w[=e] m[=o]tun h[=e]r _merueri_
g[=o]dd[=æ]dum begietan _gaudia in celo_,
þ[=æ]r w[=e] m[=o]tun _maxima regna_
s[=e]can and gesittan _sedibus altis_,
lifgan in lisse _lucis et pacis_,
[=a]gan eardinga _almæ letitæ_,
br[=u]can bl[=æ]ddaga _blandem et mitem_
ges[=e]on sigora Fr[=e]an _sine fine_,
and him lof singan _laude perenne_
[=e]adge mid englum _Alleluia_.
(From the Anglo-Saxon _Ph[oe]nix_. ab. 700 A.D.)
These closing lines of the poem furnish an important opportunity to
compare the Latin half-lines with those in Anglo-Saxon. Each half seems
to be influenced by the metrical nature of the other; the Anglo-Saxon
being a little more regular in the number of syllables than usual, the
Latin less regular. Since, to the ear of the writer, the two halves of
each verse were doubtless fairly equivalent, metrically, and since each
of the Latin half-lines appears to have two accents, these combination
verses have been thought to be an argument for the "two-accent" theory
of Anglo-Saxon verse. On the other hand, the advocates of the
four-accent theory would read the Latin half-lines with four stresses
each, on the ground that nearly every syllable was stressed in the
chanting of such religious verse (_lú-cís aúc-tór_, etc.).
See also the specimens on pp. 13 and 14, above.
Alle beon he bliþe Þat to my song lyþe:
A song ihc schal [gh]ou singe Of Mury þe kinge.
King he was bi weste So longe so hit laste.
Godhild het his quen, Fairer ne mi[gh]te non ben.
He hadde a sone þat het Horn, Fairer ne mi[gh]te non beo born,
Ne no rein upon birine, Ne sunne upon bischine.
(_King Horn_, ll. 1-12. ab. 1200-1250.)
The metre of _King Horn_ is very irregular, and has proved somewhat
puzzling to scholars. It seems to be the direct result of the primitive
"long line" broken into two halves by internal rime. The number of
accents varies greatly: we may have verses which are easily read with
two, such as--
"Into schupes borde
At the furst worde."
Yet these it is evident might also be read with three accents, as in the
following couplet also:
"The se bigan to flowe,
And Horn child to rowe."
According as one reads the Anglo-Saxon verse with two or four accents to
the half-line, he will regard the typical half-line of _King Horn_ as
made up of two or four accents. If the fundamental number was two, the
additional accented syllables were doubtless introduced under the
influence of the French eight-syllable couplet. It is not difficult to
see how the more regular (Latin or French) and the less regular (native)
measures might have been confused, and soon have coalesced in popular
use. Ten Brink, reading the _King Horn_ lines with four accents, speaks
of them as "formed entirely on the Teutonic principle, with two accents
upon the sonorous close of the verse, so that it appears to be an
organic continuation of the chief form in Layamon and in Ælfred's
_Proverbs_. This circumstance makes the poem exceptional among the early
English romances." He also speaks of "an unmistakably strophic
construction in the text as we have it." (_English Literature_, Kennedy
translation, vol. i. p. 227.)
Anon out of þe north est þe noys bigynes:
When boþe breþes con blowe upon blo watteres,
Ro[gh] rakkes per ros with rudnyng anunder,
Þe see sou[gh]ed ful sore, gret selly to here,
Þe wyndes on þe wonne water so wrastel togeder,
Þat þe wawes ful wode waltered so hi[gh]e
And efte busched to þe abyme, þat breed fysches,
Durst nowhere for ro[gh] arest at þe bothem.
When þe breth and þe brok and þe bote metten,
Hit watz a ioyles gyn, þat Ionas watz inne;
For hit reled on roun upon þe ro[gh]e yþes.
(_Patience_, ll. 137-147. ab. 1375.)
Til þe kny[gh]t com hym-self, kachande his blonk,
Sy[gh] hym byde at þe bay, his burne[gh] bysyde,
He ly[gh]tes luflych adoun, leve[gh] his corsour,
Brayde[gh] out a bry[gh]t bront, & bigly forth stryde[gh],
Founde[gh] fast þur[gh] the forþ, þer þe felle byde,
Þe wylde wat[gh] war of þe wy[gh]e with weppen in honde.
Hef hy[gh]ly þe here, so hetterly he fnast,
Þat fele ferde for þe freke[gh], lest felle hym þe worre
Þe swyn sette[gh] hym out on þe segge even,
Þat þe burne & þe bor were boþe upon hepe[gh],
In þe wy[gh]t-est of þe water, þe worre had þat oþer;
For þe mon merkke[gh] hym wel, as þay mette fyrst,
Set sadly þe scharp in þe slot even,
Hit hym up to þe hult, þat þe hert schyndered,
& he [gh]arrande hym [gh]elde, & [gh]edoun þe water, ful tyt;
A hundreth hounde[gh] hym hent,
Þat bremely con hym bite,
Burne[gh] him bro[gh]t to bent,
& dogge[gh] to dethe endite.
(_Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight_, strophe xviii. ab. 1375.)
These two specimens, both doubtless the work of the same author (to whom
are also attributed the _Pearl_ and _Cleanness_), represent the
patriotic revival of the alliterative long line by contemporaries of
Chaucer in the latter half of the fourteenth century. In _Sir Gawayne_
the rimeless long line is gathered into strophes, each of which
concludes with four riming lines. (See above, p. 109.)
For analysis of this revived alliterative verse, see a valuable
article by Dr. Luick, _Die Englische Stabreimzeile im 14n, 15n, und
16n Jahrhundert_, in _Anglia_, vol. xi. pp. 392 and 553. Luick
analyzes not only the poems of the "Pearl poet," but also the _Troy
Book_, the _Alexander Fragments_, _William of Palerne_, _Joseph of
Arimathea_, _Morte Arthure_, and minor poems. He finds the _Troy
Book_ the most regular alliterative poem of Middle English, but in
all of the group a general tendency to preserve not only the early
laws of alliteration but also the "five types" of Sievers's
Anglo-Saxon metrics. Dr. Luick attributes the final decline of the
old measure in large degree to the falling away of the final
syllables in _-e_, etc.; without these numerous feminine endings
the primitive "long line" was impossible. This he regards as
regrettable, since the old alliterative verse, "growing up on
native soil with the language itself," represented the natural
accent-relations of the Germanic languages, especially the
recognition of two principal degrees of accent; whereas the modern
rimed verse requires the reduction of this to a uniform "tick-tack"
of alternating stress and non-stress.
He put on his back a good plate-jack,
And on his head a cap of steel,
With sword and buckler by his side;
O gin he did not become them weel!
(_Ballad of Bewick and Grahame_. In GUMMERE'S _English Ballads_, p.
176.)
The regular stanza of the old ballads was of this four-stress type, with
extra light syllables admitted anywhere yet not in great numbers. More
commonly, however, the fourth stress was lost from the second and fourth
lines. (See p. 264, below.)
I thanke hym full thraly, and sir, I saie hym the same,
But what marvelous materes dyd this myron ther mell?
For all the lordis langage his lipps, sir, wer lame,
For any spirringes in that space no speche walde he spell.
(_York Mystery Plays: The Trial before Pilate_. Ed. L. T. SMITH, p.
322.)
As Gammer Gurton, with manye a wyde styche,
Sat pesynge and patching of Hodg her mans briche,
By chance or misfortune, as shee her geare tost,
In Hodge lether bryches her needle shee lost.
(_Gammer Gurton's Needle_, Prologue. 1566.)
In these specimens we have the later descendant of the long line as used
in the early drama of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,--the
"tumbling verse," regular in rhythm and rime, but indifferent to the
number of syllables.[17] Sometimes, where most regular, as in lines 2-4
of the second specimen, the measure approximates closely to regular
four-stress anapestic.
The time was once, and may againe retorne,
(For ought may happen that hath bene beforne),
When shepheards had none inheritaunce,
Ne of land, nor fee in sufferaunce,
But what might arise of the bare sheepe,
(Were it more or lesse) which they did keepe.
Well ywis was it with shepheards thoe:
Nought having, nought feared they to forgoe;
For Pan himselfe was their inheritaunce,
And little them served for their mayntenaunce.
The shepheards God so wel them guided,
That of nought they were unprovided;
Butter enough, honye, milke, and whay,
And their flockes' fleeces them to araye.
(SPENSER: _The Shepherd's Calendar, May._ 1579.)
Spenser's use of the tumbling verse in the _Shepherd's Calendar_ was a
part of his imitation of older forms for the sake of an uncultivated,
bucolic effect. In his hands the irregular measure showed a tendency to
reduce itself to regular ten-syllable lines, like the first two of the
present specimen, which, by themselves, might easily be read as
decasyllabic iambics. On this, see further under Five-Stress Verse.
Spenser was perhaps the last cultivated poet to use the irregular
measure, until we come to modern imitators of the early popular poetry.
The following specimen is of this class.
It was up in the morn we rose betimes
From the hall-floor hard by the row of limes.
It was but John the Red and I,
And we were the brethren of Gregory;
And Gregory the Wright was one
Of the valiant men beneath the sun,
And what he bade us that we did,
For ne'er he kept his counsel hid.
So out we went, and the clattering latch
Woke up the swallows under the thatch.
It was dark in the porch, but our scythes we felt,
And thrust the whetstone under the belt.
Through the cold garden boughs we went
Where the tumbling roses shed their scent.
Then out a-gates and away we strode
O'er the dewy straws on the dusty road,
And there was the mead by the town-reeve's close
Where the hedge was sweet with the wilding rose.
(WILLIAM MORRIS: _The Folk-Mote by the River._ In _Poems by the Way_.
1896.)