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diff --git a/old/56187-0.txt b/old/56187-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5faeb98..0000000 --- a/old/56187-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,15916 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Historical Manual of English Prosody, by -George Saintsbury - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Historical Manual of English Prosody - -Author: George Saintsbury - -Release Date: December 16, 2017 [EBook #56187] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH PROSODY *** - - - - -Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Simon Gardner and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - -Transcriber's Notes - -Any changes made to the text have been listed in notes at the end of -the book. - -The author makes extensive use of diacritics such as macron, breve -and grave accent to indicate stress, length etc. In the original, -these symbols often float over the text to show that they apply to -the syllable, but in this e-book are marked on the first vowel of the -syllable only. - -Bold typeface is represented by by surrounding #hash symbols#; italic -by _underscores_; small caps by ALL CAPS and strikethrough by ~tilde -characters~. The caret symbol (^) precedes superscript characters. - - * * * * * - -BY THE SAME AUTHOR - - #A HISTORY OF ENGLISH PROSODY FROM THE TWELFTH CENTURY TO THE - PRESENT DAY.# 3 vols. 8vo. - - Vol. I. FROM THE ORIGINS TO SPENSER. 12s. 6d. net. - Vol. II. FROM SHAKESPEARE TO CRABBE. 18s. net. - Vol. III. FROM BLAKE TO SWINBURNE. 18s. net. - - #A HISTORY OF ENGLISH PROSE RHYTHM.# 8vo. 18s. net. - - #A HISTORY OF ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE.# Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d. - - #A HISTORY OF NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE.# Crown 8vo. 8s. - 6d. - - #A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.# Crown 8vo. 10s. Also - in Five Parts. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. each. - - #LIFE OF DRYDEN.# Library Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. net. Pocket - Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. net. - -LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. - - HISTORICAL MANUAL - OF - ENGLISH PROSODY - - [Illustration] - - MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED - - LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA · MADRAS - MELBOURNE - - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - - NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO - DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO - - THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. - - TORONTO - - - - -HISTORICAL MANUAL -OF -ENGLISH PROSODY - -BY -GEORGE SAINTSBURY - -M.A. AND HON. D.LITT. OXON. -HON. LL.D. ABERD.; HON. D.LITT. DURH.; FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY -HON. FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD; LATE PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC -AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH - -MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED -ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON -1919 - - COPYRIGHT - - _First Edition_ 1910 - _Reprinted_ 1914, 1919 - - - - -PREFACE - - -The reception of the first two volumes of a larger work (since -completed) on English Prosody suggested, to the author and to the -publishers, that there might be room for a more compressed dealing with -the subject, possessing more introductory character, and attempting -the functions of a manual as well as those of a history. It did -not, however, seem that the matter could be satisfactorily treated -in extremely brief form, as a primer or elementary school-book. The -subject is one not very well suited for elementary instruction; and in -endeavouring to shape it for that use there is a particular danger of -too positive and peremptory statement in reference to matters of the -most contentious kind. Catechetical instruction has to be categorical; -if you set hypotheses, or alternative systems, before young scholars, -they are apt either to distrust the whole thing or to become hopelessly -muddled. And the opposite danger--of unhesitating adoption of positive -statements on doubtful points--must have been found to be only too -real by any one who has had to do with education. Schoolboys cannot -be too early, or too plentifully, or too variously supplied with good -_examples_ of verse; but they should be thoroughly familiar with the -practice before they come to the principles. - -To the Senior Forms of the higher Secondary Schools, on the other hand, -and to students in those Universities which admit English literature as -a subject, this function of it is quite suitable and well adapted, and -it is for their use that this volume is planned (as well as for that of -the general reader who may hardly feel inclined to tackle three large -octavos). An effort will be made to include everything that is vital -to a clear understanding of the subject; while opportunity will, it is -hoped, be found for insertion of some information, both of a historical -and of a practical kind, which did not seem so germane to the larger -_History_. It has been a main object with me in preparing this book, -while reducing prosodic theory to the necessary minimum, but keeping -that, to "load every rift" with prosodic fact; and I could almost -recommend the student to devote himself to the Contents and the Index, -illustrated by the Glossary, all of which have been made exceptionally -full, before attacking the text. - -The work, like the larger one of which it is not so much an abstract -as a parallel with a different purpose, cannot hope to content those -who think that prosody should be, like mathematics or music, a science, -immutable, peremptory, abstract in the other sense. It will not content -those who think--in pursuance or independently of such an opinion--that -it should discard appreciation of the actual poetry, on which, from -my point of view, it is solely based. It will, from another point, -leave dissatisfied those who decline the attempt to reduce this poetry -to some general but elastic laws, and who concentrate themselves on -the immediate musical or rhetorical values (as they seem to them) of -individual poems, or passages, or even (as is not uncommon) lines. Nor -will it provide, what some seem to desire, a tabular analysis of every -verse-form in the language, for reasons explained in the proper place -(_v. inf._ p. 336 _note_). But, from past experience, it seems that it -may find some public ready for it; and it is perhaps not wholly fatuous -to hope that it may help to create a larger.[1] - - GEORGE SAINTSBURY. - - EDINBURGH, - ALL SOULS' DAY, - 1910. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] _Note to Second Edition. Christmas 1913._--The opportunity of this -second edition[2] has been taken to read the text carefully, and to -correct a certain number of errors of pen and press, connected more -especially with division of feet and quantification of syllables. How -difficult it is to avoid errors here, nobody who has not tried the -matter on an extensive scale can well conceive. Few more substantial -alterations have been found necessary; but I may mention here an -addition to the evidence of distinct, if clumsy, anapæstic metre in -the mid.-sixteenth century, which I had not noticed when writing -this book, or my larger one. It is a translation of the 149th Psalm, -contributed to the "Old Version" (1561-2) by John Pulleyne, Student of -Christchurch, Archdeacon of Colchester, and Prebendary of St. Paul's. -It may be found in the Parker Society's _Select Poems_, and begins: - - Sing unto the Lord with hearty accord - A new joyful song; - His praises resound, in every ground - His saints all among. - -[2] And of a third.--BATH, _Sept._ 1919. - - - - - CONTENTS - - - BOOK I - - INTRODUCTORY AND DOGMATIC - - - CHAPTER I - - PAGE - - INTRODUCTORY 3 - - - CHAPTER II - - SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH PROSODY--THE ACCENTUAL OR STRESS - - Classical prosody uniform in theory--English not so--"Accent" - and "stress"--English prosody as adjusted to them--Its - difficulties--and insufficiencies--Examples of its application--Its - various sects and supporters 6 - - - CHAPTER III - - SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH PROSODY--THE SYLLABIC - - History of the syllabic theory--Its results--_Note:_ Cautions 14 - - - CHAPTER IV - - SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH PROSODY--THE FOOT - - General if not always consistent use of the term "foot"--Particular - objections to its systematic use--"Quantity" in English--The - "common" syllable--Intermediate rules of arrangement--Some - interim rules of feet (expanded in note)--The different systems - applied to a single verse of Tennyson's--and their application - examined--Application further to his "Hollyhock" song--Such - application possible always and everywhere 19 - - - CHAPTER V - - RULES OF THE FOOT SYSTEM - - § A. Feet.--Feet composed of long and short syllables--Not all - combinations actual--Differences from "classical" feet--The - three usual kinds: iamb, trochee, anapæst--The spondee--The - dactyl--The pyrrhic--The tribrach--Others. § B. Constitution of - Feet.--Quality or "quantity" in feet--Not necessarily "time"--nor - vowel "quantity"--Accumulated consonants--or rhetorical stress--or - place in verse will quantify--Commonness of monosyllables. § - C. Equivalence and Substitution.--Substitution of equivalent - feet--Its two laws--Confusion of base must be avoided--(Of which - the ear must judge)--Certain substitutions are not eligible. § D. - Pause.--Variation of pause --Practically at discretion--Blank verse - specially dependent on pause. § E. Line-Combination.--Simple or - complex--Rhymes necessary to couplet--Few instances of successful - unrhymed stanza--Unevenness of line in length--Stanzas to be - judged by the ear--Origin of commonest line-combinations. § F. - Rhyme.--Rhyme natural in English--It must be "full" --and not - identical--General rule as to it--Alliteration--Single, etc., - rhyme--Fullness of sound--Internal rhyme permissible--but sometimes - dangerous. § G. Miscellaneous--Vowel-music--"Fingering"--Confusion - of rhythms intolerable 30 - - - CHAPTER VI - - CONTINUOUS ILLUSTRATIONS OF ENGLISH SCANSION ACCORDING TO THE FOOT - SYSTEM - - I. Old English Period: Scansion only dimly visible--II. Late Old - English with _nisus_ towards Metre: "Grave" Poem--III. Transition - Period: Metre struggling to assert itself in a new way--IV. Early - Middle English Period: Attempt at merely Syllabic Uniformity - with Unbroken Iambic Run and no Rhyme--V. Early Middle English - Period: Conflict or Indecision between Accentual Rhythm and - Metrical Scheme--VI. Early Middle English Period: The Appearance - and Development of the "Fourteener"--VII. Early Middle English - Period: The Plain and Equivalenced Octosyllable--VIII. Early Middle - English Period: The Romance-Six or _Rime Couée_--IX. Early Middle - English Period: Miscellaneous Stanzas--X. Early Middle English - Period: Appearance of the Decasyllable--XI. Later Middle English - Period: The Alliterative Revival (Pure)--XII. Later Middle English - Period: The Alliterative Revival (Mixed)--XIII. Later Middle - English Period: Potentially Metrical Lines in Langland (_see_ Book - II.)--XIV. Later Middle English Period: Scansions from Chaucer--XV. - Later Middle English Period: Variations from Strict Iambic Norm in - Gower--XVI. Transition Period: Examples of Break-down in Literary - Verse--XVII. Transition Period: Examples of True Prosody in Ballad, - Carols, etc.--XVIII. Transition Period: Examples of Skeltonic and - other Doggerel--XIX. Transition Period: Examples from the Scottish - Poets--XX. Early Elizabethan Period: Examples of Reformed Metre - from Wyatt, Surrey, and other Poets before Spenser--XXI. Spenser - at Different Periods--XXII. Examples of the Development of Blank - Verse--XXIII. Examples of Elizabethan Lyric--XXIV. Early Continuous - Anapæsts--XXV. The Enjambed Heroic Couplet (1580-1660)--XXVI. - The Stopped Heroic Couplet (1580-1660)--XXVII. Various Forms - of Octosyllable-Heptasyllable (late Sixteenth and Seventeenth - Century)--XXVIII. "Common," "Long," and "In Memoriam" Measure - (Seventeenth Century)--XXIX. Improved Anapæstic Measures (Dryden, - Anon., Prior)--XXX. "Pindarics" (Seventeenth Century)--XXXI. The - Heroic Couplet from Dryden to Crabbe--XXXII. Eighteenth-Century - Blank Verse--XXXIII. The Regularised Pindaric Ode--XXXIV. Lighter - Eighteenth-Century Lyric--XXXV. The Revival of Equivalence - (Chatterton and Blake)--XXXVI. Rhymeless Attempts (Collins to - Shelley)--XXXVII. The Revived Ballad (Percy to Coleridge)--XXXVIII. - Specimens of _Christabel_; Note on the Application of the - _Christabel_ System to Nineteenth-Century Lyric generally--XXXIX. - Nineteenth-Century Couplet (Leigh Hunt to Mr. Swinburne)--XL. - Nineteenth-Century Blank Verse (Wordsworth to Mr. Swinburne)--XLI. - The Non-Equivalenced Octosyllable of Keats and Morris--XLII. The - Continuous Alexandrine (Drayton and Browning)--XLIII. _The Dying - Swan_ of Tennyson scanned entirely through to show the Application - of the System--XLIV. The Stages of the Metre of "Dolores" and the - Dedication of "Poems and Ballads"--XLV. Long Metres of Tennyson, - Browning, Morris, and Swinburne--XLVI. The Later Sonnet--XLVII. - The Various Attempts at "Hexameters" in English--XLVIII. Minor - Imitations of Classical Metres--XLIX. Imitations of Artificial - French Forms--L. Later Rhymelessness--LI. Some "Unusual" Metres and - Disputed Scansions 37 - - - BOOK II - - HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ENGLISH PROSODY - - - CHAPTER I - - FROM THE ORIGINS TO CHAUCER--THE CONSTITUTION OF ENGLISH VERSE - - Relations of "Old" to "Middle" and "New" English--generally--and - in prosody--Anglo-Saxon prosody itself--Prosody of the Transition - to Middle English--Contrast in Layamon--Examinations of it: - Insufficient--Sufficient--Other documents The _Ormulum_--The - _Moral Ode_ and the _Orison of Our Lady_--The _Proverbs of - Alfred_ and _Hendyng_--The _Bestiary_--Minor poems--_The Owl - and the Nightingale_ and _Genesis and Exodus_--Summary of - results to the mid-thirteenth century--The later thirteenth - century and the fourteenth--Robert of Gloucester--The - Romances--Lyrics--The alliterative revival--The later fourteenth - century--Langland--Gower--Chaucer--His perfecting of M.E. - verse--Details of his prosody 133 - - - CHAPTER II - - FROM CHAUCER TO SPENSER--DISORGANISATION AND RECONSTRUCTION - - Causes of decay in Southern English prosody--Lydgate, Occleve, - etc.--The Scottish poets--Ballad, etc.--Dissatisfaction and - reform--Wyatt and Surrey--Their followers--Spenser--The _Shepherd's - Calendar_--The _Faerie Queene_ 161 - - - CHAPTER III - - FROM SHAKESPEARE TO MILTON--THE CLOSE OF THE FORMATIVE PERIOD - - Blank verse--Before Shakespeare--In him--and after him in - drama--Its degeneration--Milton's reform of it--_Comus_--_Paradise - Lost_--Analysis of its versification, with application of different - systems--Stanza, etc., in Shakespeare--in Milton--and others--The - "heroic" couplet--Enjambed--and stopped--Lyric 173 - - - CHAPTER IV - - HALT AND RETROSPECT--CONTINUATION ON HEROIC VERSE AND ITS - COMPANIONS FROM DRYDEN TO CRABBE - - Recapitulation--Dryden's couplet--and Pope's--Their - predominance--Eighteenth-century octosyllable and anapæst--Blank - verse--and lyric--Merit of eighteenth-century "regularity" 190 - - - CHAPTER V - - THE ROMANTIC REVIVAL--ITS PRECURSORS AND FIRST GREAT STAGE - - Gray and Collins--Chatterton, Burns, and Blake--Other - influences of change--Wordsworth, Southey, and - Scott--Coleridge--Moore--Byron--Shelley: his longer poems--His - lyrics--Keats 198 - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE LAST STAGE--TENNYSON TO SWINBURNE - - From Keats to Tennyson--Tennyson himself--Special example of his - manipulation of the quatrain--Browning--Mrs. Browning--Matthew - Arnold--Later poets: The Rossettis--W. Morris--Mr. Swinburne--Others - 207 - - - CHAPTER VII - - RECAPITULATION OR SUMMARY VIEW OF STAGES OF ENGLISH PROSODY - - I. Old English Period--II. Before or very soon after 1200: Earliest - Middle English Period--III. Middle and Later Thirteenth Century: - Second Early Middle English Period--IV. Earlier Fourteenth Century: - Central Period of Middle English--V. Later Fourteenth Century: - Crowning Period of Middle English--VI. Fifteenth and Early - Sixteenth Centuries: The Decadence of Middle English Prosody--VII. - Mid-Sixteenth Century: The Recovery of Rhythm--VIII. Late Sixteenth - Century: The Perfecting of Metre and of Poetical Diction--IX. - Early Seventeenth Century: The further Development of Lyric, - Stanza, and Blank Verse; Insurgence and Division of the Couplet--X. - Mid-Seventeenth Century: Milton--XI. The Later Seventeenth Century: - Dryden--XII. The Eighteenth Century--XIII. The Early Nineteenth - Century and the Romantic Revival--XIV. The Later Nineteenth Century - 220 - - - BOOK III - - HISTORICAL SURVEY OF VIEWS ON PROSODY - - - CHAPTER I - - BEFORE 1700 - - Dearth of early prosodic studies--Gascoigne--His remark on feet-- - Spenser and Harvey--Stanyhurst--Webbe--King James VI.-- Pattenham - (?)--Campion and Daniel--Ben Jonson, Drayton, Beaumont--Joshua - Poole and "J. D."--Milton--Dryden-- Woodford--Comparative - barrenness of the whole 233 - - - CHAPTER II - - FROM BYSSHE TO GUEST - - Bysshe's _Art of Poetry_--Its importance--Minor prosodists of - the mid-eighteenth century--Dr. Johnson--Shenstone--Sheridan-- - John Mason--Mitford--Joshua Steele--Historical and Romantic - prosody--Gray--Taylor and Sayers--Southey: his importance - --Wordsworth--Coleridge--_Christabel_, its theory and its - practice--Prosodists from 1800 to 1850--Guest 242 - - - CHAPTER III - - LATER NINETEENTH-CENTURY PROSODISTS - - Discussions on the _Evangeline_ hexameter--Mid-century prosodists - --Those about 1870--and since--Summary 256 - - - BOOK IV - - AUXILIARY APPARATUS - - - CHAPTER I - - GLOSSARY - - #Accent#--Acephalous--Acrostic--Alexandrine--Alcaic--Alliteration - --Amphibrach--Amphimacer--Note on Musical and Rhetorical - Arrangements of Verse--Anacrusis--Anapæst--Anti-Bacchic - or Anti-Bacchius--Antispast--Antistrophe--Appoggiatura-- - Arsis and its opposite, Thesis--Assonance--Atonic--Bacchic - or Bacchius--Ballad (rarely Ball_et_)--Ballade--Ballad - Metre or Common Measure--Bar and Beat--Blank Verse--Bob - and Wheel--Burden--Burns Metre--Cadence--Cæsura--Carol-- - Catalexis--Catch--Chant-Royal--Choriamb--Coda--Common - --Common Measure ("C.M.")--Consonance--Couplet-- - Cretic--Dactyl--Di-iamb--Dimeter--Dispondee--Distich-- - Ditrochee--Dochmiac--Doggerel--Duple--Elision-- - End-stopped--Enjambment--Envoi--Epanaphora--Epanorthosis - --Epitrite--Epode--Equivalence--Eye-Rhyme--Feminine Rhyme - (Feminine Ending)--"Fingering"--Foot; Table of Feet - --Fourteener--Galliambic--Gemell or Geminel--Head-Rhyme - --Hendecasyllable--Heptameter--Heroic--Hexameter-- - Hiatus--Iambic--Inverted Stress--Ionic; Note on Ionic - _a minore_ as applicable to the Epilogue of Browning's - _Asolando_--Leonine Verse--Line--Long and Short--Long Measure - ("L.M.")-- Lydgatian Line--Masculine Rhyme--Metre--Molossus-- - Monometer--Monopressure--Octave--Octometer--Ode--Ottava - Rima--Pæon--Pause--Pentameter--Pindaric--Position--Poulter's - Measure--Proceleusmatic--Pyrrhic--Quantity--Quartet - or Quatrain--Quintet--Redundance--Refrain--Rhyme - --Rhyme-Royal--Rhythm--Riding Rhyme--_Rime Couée_ or - Tailed Rhyme--Romance-Six--Rondeau, Rondel--Sapphic-- - Section--Septenar--Septet--Sestet, also Sixain--Sestine, - Sestina--Short Measure ("S.M.")--Single-moulded--Skeltonic - --Slur--Sonnet--Spenserian--Spondee--Stanza or - Stave--Stress--Stress-Unit--Strophe--Substitution--Synalœpha-- - Syncope--Synizesis--Syzygy--Tailed Sonnet--Tercet--Terza - Rima--Tetrameter--Thesis--Time--Tribrach--Triolet-- - Triple--Triplet--Trochee--Truncation--Tumbling Verse--Turn of - Words--Verse--Verse Paragraph--Vowel-Music-- Weak Ending--Wrenched - Accent 265 - - - CHAPTER II - - REASONED LIST OF POETS WITH SPECIAL REGARD TO THEIR PROSODIC - QUALITY AND INFLUENCE - - #Arnold#, Matthew (1822-1888)--Barham, Richard H. - ("Thomas Ingoldsby") (1788-1845)--Beaumont, Sir John - (1583-1623)--Blake, William (1757-1827)--Bowles, William Lisle - (1762-1850)--Browne, William (1591-1643)--Browning, Elizabeth - Barrett (1806-1861)--Browning, Robert (1812-1889)--Burns, Robert - (1759-1796)--Byron, George Gordon, Lord (1788-1824)--Campbell, - Thomas (1777-1844)--Campion, Thomas (?-1619)--Canning, George - (1770-1827)--Chamberlayne, William (1619-1689)--Chatterton, - Thomas (1752-1770)--Chaucer, Geoffrey (1340?-1400)--Cleveland, - John (1613-1658)--Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834)--Collins, - William (1721-1759)--Congreve, William (1670-1729)--Cowley, - Abraham (1618-1667)--Cowper, William (1731-1800)--Donne, - John (1573-1631)--Drayton, Michael (1563-1631)--Dryden, John - (1630-1700)--Dixon, Richard Watson (1833-1900)--Dunbar, William - (1450?-1513? or -1530?)--Dyer, John (1700?-1758?)--Fairfax, - Edward (d. 1635)--Fitzgerald, Edward (1809-1883)--Fletcher, - Giles (1588-1623), and Phineas (1582-1650)--Fletcher, John - (1579-1625)--Frere, John Hookham (1769-1846)--Gascoigne, George - (1525?-1577)--Glover, Richard (1712-1785)--Godric, Saint - (?-1170)--Gower, John (1325?-1408)--Hampole, Richard Rolle - of (1290?-1347)--Hawes, Stephen (d. 1523?)--Herrick, Robert - (1591-1674)--Hunt, J. H. Leigh (1784--1859)---Jonson, Benjamin - (1573?-1637)--Keats, John (1795-1821)--Kingsley, Charles - (1819-1875)--Landor, Walter Savage (1775-1864)--Langland, William - (fourteenth century)--Layamon (late twelfth and early thirteenth - century)--Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)--Locker (latterly - Locker-Lampson), Frederick (1821-1895)--Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth - (1807-1882)--Lydgate, John (1370-1450?)--Macaulay, Thomas - Babington (1800-1859)--Maginn, William (1793-1842)--Marlowe, - Christopher (1664-1693)--Milton, John (1608-1674)--Moore, Thomas - (1779-1852)--Morris, William (1834-1896)--Orm--O'Shaughnessy, - Arthur W. E. (1844-1881)--Peele, George (1558?-1597?)--Percy, - Thomas (1729-1811)--Poe, Edgar (1809-1849)--Pope, Alexander - (1688-1744)--Praed, Winthrop Mackworth (1802-1839)--Prior, - Matthew (1664-1721)--Robert of Gloucester (_fl. c._ - 1280)--Rossetti, Christina Georgina (1830-1894) and Dante - Gabriel (1828-1882)--Sackville, Thomas (1536-1608)--Sandys, - George (1578-1644)--Sayers, Frank (1763-1817)--Scott, Sir Walter - (1771-1832)--Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)--Shelley, Percy - Bysshe (1792-1822)--Shenstone, William (1714-1763)--Sidney, Sir - Philip (1554-1586)--Southey, Robert (1774-1843)--Spenser, Edmund - (1552?-1599)--Surrey, Earl of (1517-1547)--Swinburne, Algernon - Charles (1837-1909)--Tennyson, Alfred (1809-1892)--Thomson, - James (1700-1748)--Tusser, Thomas (1524?-1580)--Waller, Edmund - (1606-1687)--Watts, Isaac (1674-1741)--Whitman, Walt[er] - (1819-1892)--Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)--Wyatt, Sir Thomas - (1503?-1542) 298 - - - CHAPTER III - - ORIGINS OF LINES AND STANZAS - - A. Lines.--I. Alliterative--II. "Short" Lines--III. - Octosyllable--IV. Decasyllabic--V. Alexandrine--VI. - Fourteener--VII. Doggerel--VIII. "Long" Lines. B. Stanzas, etc.--I. - Ballad Verse--II. Romance-Six or _Rime Couée_--III. Octosyllabic - and Decasyllabic Couplet--IV. Quatrain--V. _In Memoriam_ Metre--VI. - Rhyme-Royal--VII. Octave--VIII. Spenserian--IX. Burns Metre--X. - Other Stanzas 316 - - - CHAPTER IV - - BIBLIOGRAPHY - - Abbot, E. A.--Alden, R. M.--[Blake, J. W.]--Brewer, R. F.--Bridges, - R. S.--Bysshe, Edward--Calverley, C. S.--Campion, Thomas--Cayley, - C. B.--Coleridge, S. T.--Conway, Gilbert--Crowe, William--Daniel, - Samuel--Dryden, John--Gascoigne, George--Goldsmith, Oliver--Guest, - Edwin--Hodgson, Shadworth--Hood, T. (the younger)--Jenkin, - Fleeming--Johnson, Samuel--Ker, W. P.--King James the First (Sixth - of Scotland)--Lewis, C. M.--Liddell, Mark H.--Mason, John--Masson, - David--Mayor, J. B.--Mitford, William--Omond, T.S.--Patmore, - Coventry--Poe, E. A.--[Puttenham, George?]--Ruskin, John--Schipper, - J.--Shenstone, William--Skeat, W. W.--Southey, Robert--Spedding, - James--Spenser, Edmund--Steele, Joshua--Stone, W. J.--Symonds, J. - A.--Thelwall, John--Verrier, M.--Wadham, E.--Webbe, William 337 - - INDEX 341 - - - - -BOOK I - -INTRODUCTORY AND DOGMATIC - - - - -CHAPTER I - -INTRODUCTORY - - -Prosody, or the study of the constitution of verse, was, not so long -ago, made familiar, in so far as it concerned Latin, to all persons -educated above the very lowest degree, by the presence of a tractate -on the subject as a conclusion to the Latin Grammar. The same persons -were further obliged to a more than theoretical knowledge of it, in -so far as it concerned that language, by the once universal, now (as -some think) most unwisely disused habit of composing Latin verses. The -great majority of English poets, from at least the sixteenth century, -if not earlier, until far into the nineteenth, had actually composed -such verses; and even more had learnt the rules of them, long before -attempting in English the work which has given them their fame. It -is sometimes held that this fact--which as a fact is undeniable--has -had an undue influence on the way in which English prosody has been -regarded; that it must have exercised an enormous influence on the way -in which English poetry has been produced may be denied, but hardly by -any one who really considers the fact itself, and who is capable of -drawing an inference. - -It was, however, a very considerable time before any attempt was -regularly made to construct a similar scientific or artistic analysis -for English verse itself. Although efforts were made early to adjust -that verse to the complete forms of Latin--and of Greek, which is in -some respects prosodically nearer than Latin to English,-- although -such attempts have been constantly repeated and are being continued -now,--it has always been impossible for any intelligent person to -make them without finding curious, sometimes rather indefinite, but -extremely palpable differences and difficulties in the way. The -differences especially have sometimes been exaggerated and more often -mistaken, and it is partly owing to this fact that, up to the present -moment, no authoritative body of doctrine on the subject of English -prosody can be said to exist. It is believed by the present writer -that such a body of doctrine ought to be and can be framed--with the -constant proviso and warning that it will be doctrine subject, not -to the practically invariable uniformity of Science, but to the wide -variations of Art,--not to the absolute compulsion of the universal, -but to the comparative freedom of the individual and particular. The -inquiries and considerations upon which this doctrine is based will be -found, at full, in the larger work referred to in the Preface. In the -first Book, here, will be set forth the leading systems or principles -which have actually underlain, and do underlie, the conflicting views -and the discordant terminology of the subject, and this will be -followed by perhaps the most valuable part, if any be valuable, of the -whole--a series of selected passages, scanned and commented, from the -very beginning to the very end of English poetry. In the second, a -survey will be given of that actual history of the actual poetry which -ought to be, but has very seldom been, the basis of every discussion -on prosody. In the third a brief conspectus will be supplied of the -actual opinions which have been held on this subject by those who have -handled it in English. The fourth will give, in the first place, a -Glossary of Terms, which appears to be very much needed; in the second, -a list of poets who have specially influenced the course of prosody, -with reasoned remarks on their connection with it; in the third, a -selected list of important metres with their origins and affiliations; -any further matter which may seem necessary following, with a short -Bibliography to conclude. The object of the whole is not merely to -inculcate what seems to the author to be the best if not the only -adequate general system of English prosody, but to provide the student -with ample materials for forming his own judgment on this difficult, -long debated, often mistaken, but always, if duly handled, profitable -and delectable matter. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH PROSODY--THE ACCENTUAL OR STRESS - - -[Sidenote: Classical prosody uniform in theory.] - -The great difficulty attending the study of English prosody, and -the cause of the fact that no book hitherto published can be said -to possess actual authority on the subject, arises from the other -fact that no general agreement exists, or ever has existed, on the -root-principles of the matter.[3] Classical writers on metre, of -whom we possess a tolerable stock, differed with each other on many -minor points of opinion, and from each other in the ways in which -they attacked the subject. But they were practically agreed that -"quantity" (_i.e._ the difference of technical "time" in pronunciation -of syllables) and "feet"--that is to say, certain regular mathematical -combinations of "long" and "short" quantity--constituted metre. -They had indeed accent--the later Greeks certainly and the Latins -probably--which was independent of, and perhaps sometimes opposed to, -quantity; but except in what we call the ante-classical times of Latin -and the post-classical times of both Latin and Greek, it had nothing -to do with metrical arrangement. They had different values of "long" -and "short"; but these did not affect metre, nor did the fact that in -both languages, but especially in Greek, a certain number of syllables -were allowed to be "common"--that is to say, capable of taking the -place of "long" or "short" alike. The central system of prosodic -arrangement (till the flooding of the later Empire with "barbarians" -of various nationality and as various intonation and modes of speech -broke it down altogether) remained the same. "Longs" and "shorts" -in the various combinations and permutations possible, up to three -syllables most commonly, up to four in fewer cases, and possibly up to -five in still fewer, made up _lines_ which experiment discovered to be -harmonious, and practice adopted as such. These lines were sometimes -used continuously (with or without certain internal variations of -feet, considered equivalent to each other), as in modern blank verse; -sometimes arranged in batches corresponding more or less to each other, -as in modern couplet or stanza poetry. - -[Sidenote: English not so.] - -On the other hand, though English prosodists may sometimes agree on -details, translated into their different terminologies, the systems -which lie at the root of these terminologies are almost irreconcilably -different. Even the reduction of these systems to three types may -excite protest, though it is believed that it can be made out without -begging the question in favour of any one. - -[Sidenote: "Accent" and "stress."] - -The discord begins as early as possible; for there are some who would -maintain that "accentual" systems and "stress" systems ought not to be -identified, or even associated. It is quite true that the words are -technically used[4] with less or more extensive and intensive meaning; -but definitions of each are almost always driven to adopt the other, -and in prosodic systems they are practically inseparable. The soundest -distinction perhaps is that "accent" refers to the habitual stress -laid on a syllable in ordinary pronunciation; "stress" to a syllable -specially accented for this or that reason, logical, rhetorical, or -prosodic purely. - -[Sidenote: English prosody as adjusted to them.] - -According to this system (or systems) English poetry consists of -syllables--accented or unaccented, stressed or unstressed--arranged -on principles which, whatever they may be in themselves, have no -analogy to those of classical feet. According to the more reckless -and thorough-going accentualists--the view is expressed, with -all but its utmost crudity, in Coleridge's celebrated Preface to -_Christabel_[5]--all you have got to do is to look to the accents. -Cruder advocates still have said that "accents take the place of -feet" (which is something like saying that points take the place -of swords), or that unaccented syllables are "left to take care of -themselves." It has also been contended that the number and the -position of accents or stresses give a complete and sufficient scheme -of the metre. And in some late forms of stress-prosody the regularity, -actual or comparative, which used to be contended for by accentualists -themselves, is entirely given up; lines in continuous and apparently -identical arrangement may have two, three, four, five, or even more -stresses. While yet others have gone farther still and deliberately -proposed reading of verse as a prose paragraph, the natural stresses -of which will give the rhythm at which the author aimed.[6] Some again -would deny the existence of any normal form of staple lines like the -heroic, distributing them in "bars" of "beats" which may vary almost -indefinitely. - -On the other hand, there are some accentualists who hardly differ, -in more than terminology, from the upholders of a foot-and-quantity -system. They think that there is no or little time-quantity in English; -that an English "long" syllable is really an accented one only, and -an English short syllable an unaccented. They would not neglect the -unaccented syllables; but would keep them in batches similar to, if -not actually homonymous with, feet. In fact the difference with them -becomes, if not one of mere terminology, one chiefly on the previous -question of the final constitution and causation of "long" and -"short" syllables. Of these, and of a larger number who consciously -or unconsciously approach nearer to, though they do not actually -enter, the "go-as-you-please" prosody of the extreme stressmen, -the majority of English prosodists has nearly always consisted. -Gascoigne, our first writer on the subject, belonged to them, calling -accent itself "emphasis," and applying the term "accent" only to the -written or typographical symbols of it; while he laid great stress on -its observance in verse. With those who adopt this system, and its -terminology, the substitution of a trochee for an iamb in the heroic -line is "inversion of accent," the raising or lowering of the usual -pronounced value of a syllable, "wrenching of accent," and so on. And -the principal argument which they advance in favour of their system -against the foot-and-quantity scheme is the very large prevalence of -"common" syllables in English--an undoubted fact; though the inference -does not seem to follow. - -[Sidenote: Its difficulties] - -The mere use of the word "unaccented" for "short" and "accented" -for "long" does no particular harm, though it seems to some clumsy, -irrational, and not always strictly correct even from its own point of -view, while it produces unnecessary difficulty in the case of feet, -or "sections," with _no_ accent in them--things which most certainly -exist in English poetry. But the moment that advance is made upon this -mere question of words and names, far more serious mischief arises. -There can be no doubt that the insistence on strict accent, alternately -placed, led directly to the monotonous and snip-snap verse of the -eighteenth century. In some cases it leads, logically and necessarily, -to denial of such feet as those just mentioned--a denial which flies -straight in the face of fact. Although it does not necessarily -involve, it most frequently leads also to, the forbidding, ignoring, -or shuffling off of trisyllabic feet, which are the chief glory and -the chief charm of English poetry, as substituted for dissyllabic. -And, further still, it leads to the most extraordinary confusion of -rhythms--accentualists very commonly, if not always, maintaining that, -inasmuch as there are the same number of accented syllables, it does -not matter whether you scan - - Whēn | thĕ Brī|tĭsh wār|rĭŏr quēen | - -iambically or - - Whēn thĕ | Brītĭsh | wārrĭŏr | quēen - -trochaically, - - Īn thĕ hĕx|āmĕtĕr | rīsĕs thĕ | fōuntāin's | sīlvĕry̆ | cōlūmn - -dactylically or - - Īn | thĕ hĕxām|ĕtĕr rī|sĕs thĕ fōun|tāin's sīl|vĕry̆ cōl|ūmn - -anapæstically. - -Further still, and almost worst of all, it leads to the enormities of -fancy stress above referred to, committed by people who decline to -regard as "long" syllables not accented in ordinary pronunciation. - -[Sidenote: and insufficiencies.] - -But its greatest crime is its hopeless inadequacy, poverty, and -"beggarly elementariness." At best the accentual prosodist, unless -he is a quantitative one in disguise, confines himself to the mere -skeleton of the lines, and neglects their delicately formed and softly -coloured flesh and members. To leave unaccented syllables "as it were -to take care of themselves" is to make prosody mere singsong or patter. - -Finally, it may be observed that, in all accentual or stress prosodies -which are not utterly loose and desultory, there is a tendency to -multiply exceptions, provisos, minor classifications to suit particular -cases, and the like, so that English prosody assumes the aspect, not -of a combination of general order and individual freedom, but of a -tangle of by-laws and partial regulations. Unnecessary when it is not -mischievous, mischievous when it is strictly and logically carried -out, the accentual system derives its only support from the fact -above mentioned (the large number of common syllables to be found in -English), from the actual existence of it in _Old_ English before the -language and the poetry had been modified by Romance admixture, and -from an unscientific application of the true proposition that the -classical and the English prosodies are _in some respects_ radically -different. - -[Sidenote: Examples of its application.] - -It will, however, of course be proper to give examples of the manner -in which accentual (or stress) scansion is worked by its own partisans -and exponents. Their common formula for the English heroic line in its -normal aspect is 5^_xa_:[7] - - What òft | was thòught, | but nè'er | so wèll | exprèst. - -If they meet with a trisyllabic foot, as in - - And ma|ny an am|orous, ma|ny a hu|morous lay, - -they either admit _two_ unaccented syllables between the accents, or -suggest "slur" or _synalœpha_ or "elision" ("man-yan"), this last -especially taking place with the definite article "the" ("th'"). But -this last process need not be insisted on by accentualists, though it -must by the next class we shall come to. - -It is common, if not universal, for accentual prosodists to hold that -two accents must not come together, so that they are troubled by that -double line of Milton's where the ending and beginning run-- - - Bòth stòod - Bòth tùrned, - -They admit occasional "inversion of accent" (trochaic -substitution)--especially at the opening of a verse,--as in the line -which Milton begins with - - Màker; - -but, when they hold fast to their principles, dislike it much in other -cases, as, for instance, in - - fàlls to | the gròund. - -And they complain when the accent which they think necessary falls, as -they call it, on one of two weak syllables, as in - - And when. | - -This older and simpler school, however, represented by Johnson, has -been largely supplemented by another, whose members use the term -"stress" or _ictus_ in preference to "accent," and to a greater or less -extent give up the attempt to establish normality of line at all. - -[Sidenote: Its various sects and supporters.] - -Some of them[8] admit lines of four, three, or even two stresses, as, -for instance-- - - His mìn|isters of vèn|geance and pursùit. | - -Others[9] break it up into "bars" or "sections" which need not contain -the same or any fixed number of "beats" or "stresses," while some -again[10] seem to regard the stresses of a whole passage as supplying, -like those of a prose paragraph, a sufficient rhythmical skeleton the -flesh of which--the unaccented or unstressed part--is allowed to huddle -itself on and shuffle itself along as it pleases. - -This school has received large recent accessions; but even now the -greater number of accentualists do little more than eschew the terms -of quantity, and substitute for them those of accent, more or less -consistently. Many of them even use the classical names and divisions -of feet; and with these there need not, according to strict necessity, -be any quarrel, since their error, if it be one, only affects the -constitution of prosodic material before it is verse at all, and not -the actual prosodic arrangement of verse as such. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[3] Or, it may be added, on its terminology; whence it results that -there is no subject on which it is so difficult to write without being -constantly misunderstood. It is perhaps not surprising that some people -almost deny the existence of English prosody itself, and decline at any -rate to take it seriously; while others talk about it in ways which -half justify the sceptics. - -[4] It is inevitable, in dealing with this subject, that -technicalities, historical and literary references, etc., should -be plentifully employed. To explain them always in the text would -mean endless and disgusting delay and repetition; to give notes of -cross-reference in every case would bristle the lower part of the page -unnecessarily and hideously. Not merely the Contents and Index, but the -various Glossaries and Lists in the Fourth Book have been expressly -arranged to supply explanation and assistance in the least troublesome -and most compendious manner. But special references will be given when -they seem absolutely necessary. - -[5] See on this in Book III. - -[6] See the article in Glossary on "Musical and Rhetorical Arrangements -of Verse," and Rule 41, _infra_, p. 35. - -[7] This formula seems due to Latham, the compiler of a well-known -work on Language. The foot-division mark | has been sometimes adopted -(by Guest) and defended (by Professor Skeat, who, however, does -not personally employ it) as a substitute for the accent mark. For -arguments against this which seem to the present writer strong, see _H. -E. P._ i. 8, and iii. 276, 544-545. - -[8] Of whom the most important by far is Mr. Bridges, though he has -never, I think, reduced the number to two, or increased it above five. -Others, however, have admitted _eight_! - -[9] _E.g._ Mr. Thomson, Sir W. M'Cormick, M. Verrier. - -[10] _E.g._ Mr. J. A. Symonds, Mr. Hewlett. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH PROSODY--THE SYLLABIC - - -[Sidenote: History of the syllabic theory.] - -A strictly syllabic system of prosody has hardly at any time been -a sufficient key, even in appearance, to English verse. But it has -preserved a curious insistence of pretension, and the study of it is -of great and informing prosodic interest. It is, of course, French -in origin--French prosody, except in eccentric instances, has been -from the first, and is to the present day, strictly syllabic. It is -innocuous in so far as in the words "octosyllable," "decasyllable," -"fourteener," and the like, the irreducible syllabic minimum (save -by licence of certain metres) is conveniently indicated. In so early -an example as Orm (_v. inf._) we find it carried out exactly and -literally. But the inherited spirit of Old English, surviving and -resisting all changes and reinforcements of vocabulary, accent, -and everything else, will have none of it. In the _fif_teener[11] -itself; in its sequel and preserver, ballad measure; in octosyllabic -couplet--not merely in the loose form of _Genesis and Exodus_, but to -some extent even in the strict one of _The Owl and the Nightingale_; -in almost all mixed modes, when once they have broken free from direct -copying of French or Provençal, it is cast to the winds. It can only -be introduced into Chaucer, as far as his heroic couplet is concerned, -by perpetual violations of probability, document, and rhythm. Even -in Gower, the principal representative of it, and one who probably -did aim at it, there are some certain, and many probable, lapses from -strict observance. But in the linguistic and phonetic changes of the -fifteenth century, with the consequent decadence of original literary -poetry, the principle of syllabic liberty degenerates into intolerable -licence, and the doggerel which resulted, after triumphing or at least -existing for some generations, provoked considerable reaction in -practice and a still more considerable mistake in principle. - -Wyatt, Surrey, and their successors in the middle of the century and -the first half of Elizabeth's reign, are pretty strict syllabically; -and it was from their practice, doubtless, that Gascoigne--one -of the last of the group, but our first English preceptist in -prosody--conceived the idea that English has but one foot, of two -syllables. Spenser's practice in the _Shepherd's Kalendar_ is not -wholly in accordance with this; but even he came near to observing it -later, and the early blank-verse writers were painfully scrupulous in -this respect. - -But it was inevitable that blank verse, and especially dramatic blank -verse, should break through these restraints; and in the hands of -Shakespeare it soon showed that the greatest English verse simply -paid no attention at all to syllabic limitations; while lyric, though -rather slower, was not so very slow to indulge itself to some extent, -as it was tempted by "triple-timed" music. The excesses, however, of -the decayed blank verse of the First Caroline period joined with those -of the enjambed couplet, though these were not strictly syllabic, to -throw liberty into discredit; and the growth and popularity of the -strict _closed_ couplet encouraged a fresh delusion--that English -prosody _ought_ to be syllabic. Dryden himself to some extent -countenanced this, though he indemnified himself by the free use of the -Alexandrine, or even of the fourteener, in decasyllabics. The example -of Milton was for some time not imitated, and has even to this day been -misunderstood. About the time of Dryden's own death, in the temporary -decadence of the poetic spirit, syllabic prosody made a bold bid for -absolute rule. - -In the year 1702 Edward Bysshe, publishing[12] the first detailed and -positive manual of English prosody, laid it down, without qualification -or apology, that "the structure of our verses, whether blank or -rhyming, consists in a certain number of syllables; not in feet -composed of long or short syllables, as the verses of the Greeks and -Romans." And although all Bysshe's details, which, as will be seen -below, were rigidly arranged on these principles--so that he made -no distinction between verse of triple time (though he grudgingly -and almost tacitly admitted it) and verse of double, as such,--were -not adopted by others, his doctrine was always (save in a very few -instances to be duly noticed later) implicitly, and often explicitly, -the doctrine of the eighteenth century. Nor has this ever lost a -certain measure of support; while it is very curious that the few -foreign students of English prosody who have arisen in late years are -usually inclined to it. - -One difficulty in it, however, could never escape its most peremptory -devotees; and a shift for meeting it must have been devised at the same -time as the doctrine. It was all very well to lay down that English -verse _must_ consist of a certain number of syllables; but it could -escape no one who had ever read a volume or even a few pages of English -poetry, that it _did_ consist of a very uncertain number of them. The -problem was, therefore, how to get rid of the surplus where it existed. -It was met by recourse to that very classical prosody which was in -other respects being denied, and by the adoption of ruthless "elision" -or "crushing out" of the supposed superfluities. This involved not -merely elision proper--the vanishing or metrical ignoring of a vowel -at the end of a word before a vowel (or an _h_) at the beginning of -another, "th('/e) Almighty," "t('/o) admire." Application of a similar -process to the interior of words like "vi('/o)let," "di('/a)mond," -was inculcated, and in fact insisted on; and even where consonants -preceded and followed a vowel of the easily slurrable kind, as in -"wat_e_ry," the suppression of the _e_ and sometimes even of other -vowels--"del('/i)cate"--was prescribed. - -[Sidenote: Its results.] - -There may possibly be two opinions (though it seems strange that -there should be) on the æsthetic results of this proceeding. To the -present writer they seem utterly hideous; while the admission of the -full syllables seems melodious and satisfying. It may also be pointed -out that there is a very tell-tale character about the fact that not -a few prosodists who defend "elision" in principle defend it only -as a metrical fiction, and even lay down positively that the elided -syllables are _always_ to be pronounced.[13] But it is far less matter -of opinion--if it is even matter of opinion at all--first, that this -process of mangling and monotonising English poetry is unnecessary; -and, secondly, that it is inconsistent with the historic development -of the language and the literature. That it is unnecessary will, it -is hoped, be demonstrated in the next of these Introductory Chapters; -and that it is unhistorical the whole body of the historical survey -to follow will show. And another objection of great importance can -be made good at once and here. The rigid observance of the syllabic -system produces, and cannot but produce, an intolerable monotony--a -monotony which has made the favourite verse of the eighteenth century -positively (if perhaps excessively and unreasonably) loathsome to -succeeding generations. It would be condemned by this, if it had no -other fault; while it has, as a matter of fact, hardly a virtue. It was -tried once for all by Orm, and failed once for all, in the beginning of -modern English, and it has never been tried in practice or maintained -in theory since without validating inferior poetry and discouraging -good.[14] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[11] For the almost necessary precedence, owing to the inflexional _e_, -of the _four_teener by this, and for expansion and explanation of other -historic facts mentioned in this chapter, see Scanned Conspectus and -Books II. and III. - -[12] See Bibliography and Book III. - -[13] This, it may be pointed out, is in flat contradiction to the older -doctrine of, for instance, Dryden, that no vowel can be cut out before -another in scansion which is not so in pronunciation. - -[14] Examples here can hardly be needed. At any rate, one (Shenstone's, -_v. inf._, own) may suffice: - - The loose wall _tottering_ o'er the trembling shade, - -[Sidenote: Cautions.] - -Here syllabic prosody would pronounce, and in strictness spell, -"tott'ring."--This is perhaps as good a place as any to make some -remarks on the connection of syllables with English prosody. In -that prosody there are no _extrametrical_ syllables, except at the -end of lines, and (much more doubtfully) at the cæsura, which is a -sort of end. Every syllable that occurs elsewhere must be part of, -or constitute, a foot; and it is for this reason that the "Rules" -following begin with feet, not syllables. It is practically impossible, -in many, if not in most cases, to tell the prosodic value of an English -syllable, or an English word, till you see it in actual verse.--Again, -although there are, of course, innumerable instances where a foot -coincides with a word, the composition of the foot out of syllables -belonging to different words, as in - - The thun|_der of_ | the trum|_pets of_ | the night, - -or - - To set|_tle the_ | success|_ion of_ | the state, - -is usually more effective.--And, lastly, although there have, -at different times, been strange prejudices against the use of -monosyllables and of polysyllables, these prejudices are, in both -cases, wholly unreasonable. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH PROSODY--THE FOOT - - -[Sidenote: General if not always consistent use of the term "foot."] - -Although the accentual and the syllabic systems--sometimes separate, -but oftener combined--have, on the whole, dominated English preceptist -prosody almost from the time when it first began to be formally -studied, there has, until very recently, been a constant tendency -to blend with these, if not the full acceptance, at any rate a -certain borrowing, of the terminology of a _third_ system--the -foot-and-quantity one, so well known in the classical prosodies. Not -before Bysshe (_c._ 1700) do you find any positive denial of "feet." -Gascoigne (_c._ 1570) talks of them; Milton speaks of "committing short -and long"; Dr. Johnson, though using a strict accent-and-syllable -scheme, admits (whether with absolute accuracy or not does not matter) -that "our heroic verse is derived from the iambic." And in more modern -times, from Mitford downwards, arguments against the applicability of -the terms in English have not unfrequently been found consistent with -an occasional, if not a regular, employment of them. - -In fact, nothing but a curious suspicion, as of something cabalistical -in them, can prevent their use, or the use of some much more clumsy -and inconvenient equivalents--bars, beats, sections, what not;[15] -for that use is based on the most unalterable of all things, except -the laws of thought, the laws of mathematics. Everybody, whatsoever -his prosodic sect, admits that verse consists of alternations of two -values--some would say of more than two, but that only complicates the -application of an unchanged argument. Now the possible combinations -of two different things, in successive numerical units of two, three, -four, etc., are not arbitrary, but naturally fixed; and the names of -feet--iambic, trochaic, dactylic, etc.--are merely tickets for these -combinations. - -[Sidenote: Particular objections to its systematic use.] - -The reasons of the objection have been various, and are perhaps not -always fully stated, or even fully appreciated, by those who advance -them. It is most common perhaps now (though it was not so formerly) -to find the objection itself lodged thus--that the so-called English -iambs, anapæsts, etc., are different things from the feet so called -in Greek or Latin. This is sufficiently met by the reply that they -are naturally so, the languages being different, and that all that is -necessary is that the English foot should stand to English prosody as -the Latin or Greek foot does to Latin or Greek, that is to say, as -the necessary and constituent middle stage between the syllable and -the line. But a less vague and, in appearance at least, more solid -objection is that the Latin and the Greek foot were constituted out -of definite "quantities" attaching to definite syllables, and that -there is "no syllabic quantity in English," though there may be vowel -quantity. And this objection is generally, if not always, based on or -backed by a further one, that "quantity" depends directly on _time_ -of pronunciation; while this again is supported, still further back, -by elaborate discussions of accent and quantity,[16] by denials that -accent can constitute quantity, and by learned expatiations in quest -of proof that Greeks and Romans scanned their verses as they did _not_ -pronounce them--that there was a sort of amicable pitched battle, -always going on, between quantity and accent. - -[Sidenote: "Quantity" in English.] - -Now it can be easily shown that, even if these contentions as to -classical verse be accepted (and some of them are very doubtful), they -supply no sort of bar to the application of the foot system, with -such quantity as it requires, to English. It is quite true that the -proportion of syllables of absolutely fixed quantity--that is fixed -capacity of filling up what corresponds to the long or short places of -a classical verse--is, in English, very small. There are some which -the ear discovers by the awkwardness of the sound when they are forced -into a "short" place. So also there are some which--by the coincidence -of vowel quality, position, and absence of accent--it is practically -impossible to put into a "long" place, such as the second syllable -of "Deity." Nor are what are called "long vowel sounds"--the sounds -of "rīte," "fāte," "bēat," "Ēurope," "ōmen," "āwkward," etc.--always -sufficient to make a syllable inflexibly long; though they may be -sometimes. Again, the extremest "shortness" of vowel sound, as in "and" -or "if," will not prevent such syllables from being indubitably long in -certain values and collocations. - -[Sidenote: The "common" syllable.] - -In other words, that peculiarity of being "common"--that is to say, of -being capable of holding either position--which was far from unknown -in the classical languages, is very much more prevalent in English. It -would be quite false to say that every syllable in English is common; -but it is scarcely at all false to say that almost every English -_mono_syllable is, and an extremely large proportion of others. - -The methods and movements by which this commonness is turned into -length or shortness for the purposes of the poet are obvious enough, -and in practice undeniable; though the processes of professional -phonetics sometimes tend to obscure or even to deny them. Every -well-educated and well-bred Englishman, who has been accustomed to -read poetry and utter speech carefully, knows that when he emphasises -a syllable like "and," "if," "the," etc., it becomes what the Germans -would call _versfähig_--capable of performing its metrical duty--in the -long position; that when he does not, it is not so capable. Every one -knows in practice, though it may be denied in theory, that similar -lengthening[17] follows the doubling of a consonant after a short -vowel, or the placing of a group of consonants of different kinds -after it--the vowel-sound running, as it were, under the penthouse of -consonants till it emerges. Extreme loudness and sharpness would have -the same effect in conversation, but, unless very obviously suggested -by sense, would escape notice in silent reading. Not very seldom, the -mere art of the poet will get weight enough on a short syllable to fit -it for its place as "long," or conjure away from a long one length -enough to enable it to act as "short." - -At any rate, it is with these two values, and with syllables endowed -with them by custom, incidental effect, place, sense, the poet's -sleight of hand, or otherwise, that the English poet deals; and has -dealt, ever since a period impossible to nail down with exactness to -year or decade, but beginning, perhaps, early in the twelfth century -and perfecting itself in the thirteenth and later. And impartial -examination of the whole facts from that period shows that he deals -with them on a system, in early times no doubt almost or quite -unconsciously adopted, but perfectly recognisable. In still earlier -or "Old" English verse this system is not discernible at all; in the -earliest period of "Middle" English it is discernible, struggling to -get itself into shape. Later, with advances and relapses, it perfects -itself absolutely. Its principles are as follows:-- - -[Sidenote: Intermediate rules of arrangement.] - -#Every English verse consists of a certain number of feet, made up of -long and short syllables, each of which is of equal consequence in the -general composition of the line.# - -#The correspondence of the foot arrangements between different lines -constitutes the link between them, and determines their general -character.# - -[Sidenote: Some interim rules of feet (expanded in note).] - -#But this correspondence need not be limited to repetition of feet -composed of a fixed and identical number of syllables in the same -order; on the contrary, the best verse admits of large substitution -of feet of different syllabic length, provided--(1) that these are -equal or nearly equal in prosodic value to those for which they are -substituted; (2) that the substituted feet go rhythmically well with -those next to which they are placed.#[18] - - A fuller list of observed rules for English verse - generally will be found in the next chapter, but between - the two a set of remarks, specially on the foot, may be - extracted from the larger _History_, vol. i. pp. 82-84. - - #Every English verse which has disengaged itself from - the versicle[1] is composed, and all verses that are - disengaging themselves therefrom show a _nisus_ towards - being composed, of feet of one, two, or three syllables.# - - #The foot of one syllable is always long, strong, - stressed, accented, what-not.#[19] - - #The foot of two syllables usually consists of one long - and one short syllable, and though it is not essential - that either should come first, the short precedes rather - more commonly.# - - #The foot of three syllables never has more than one - long syllable in it, and that syllable, save in the most - exceptional rhythms, is always the first or the third. In - modern poetry, by no means usually, but not seldom, it - has no long syllable at all.# - - #The foot of one syllable is practically not found except# - - _a_, #In the first place of a line.# - - _b_, #In the last place of it.# - - _c_, #At a strong cæsura or break, it being almost - invariably necessary that the voice should rest on it - long enough to supply the missing companion to make up - the equivalent of a "time and a half" at least.# - - _d_, #In very exceptional cases where the same trick of - the voice is used apart from strict cæsura.# - - #The foot of two syllables and that of three may, subject - to the rules below, be found anywhere.# - - But: - - #These feet of two and three syllables may be very freely - substituted for each other.# - - #There is a certain metrical and rhythmical norm of - the line which must not be confused by too frequent - substitutions.# - - #In no case, or in hardly any case,[20] must such - combinations be put together so that a juxtaposition of - more than three short syllables results.# - -But, for the purpose of this present book, illustration and example -are of much more value than abstract exposition; and to them we shall -now turn. - -Here, for instance, is a line from Tennyson's "Brook": - - Twinkled the innumerable ear and tail. - -[Sidenote: The different systems applied to a single verse of -Tennyson's,] - -Now the system which regards syllabic precision first of all, with -a minor glance at accent, but rejects "feet," surveys this line and -pronounces it passable with the elision - - Twinkled _th'_ innumerable ear and tail, - -but rather shakes its head at the absence of accent, or the slight -and weak accent, in "innumer_a_ble," and the "inversion" of accent in -"twìnkled." - -The system which looks at accent first of all pronounces that there are -only _four_ proper accents [stresses] here: - - Twìnkled the innùmerable èar and tàil. - -Both these systems, moreover--the syllabic, as far as it recognises -accent; the accentual, of necessity,--regard "twinkled" as the -admittance (pardonable, censurable, or quite condemnable, according -to individual theory) of "wrenched accent," "inverted stress," or -something of the kind--as a thing abnormal and licentious. - -The foot system simply scans it-- - - Twīnklĕd | thĕ ĭnnū|mĕrā|blĕ ēar | ănd tāil; - -regarding "twinkled" as a trochee substituted in full right for an -iamb, and "the innu-" as an anapæst in like case; "merā" as raised, -by a liberty not out of accordance with the actual derivation, to a -sufficiently long quantity for its position, and the other two feet as -pure iambs. - -[Sidenote: and their application examined.] - -Now let us examine these three views. - -In the first place, the bare syllabic view (which, it is fair to -say, is almost obsolete, save among foreigners, though in consistency -it ought to find defenders at home) takes no account of any special -quality in the line at all. It is turned out to sample; the knife is -applied at "th'" to fit specification; and there you are. It differs -only from Southey's favourite heroic ejaculation - - Aballiboozabanganorribo! - -in being less "pure." - -The syllabic-_plus_-accentual view passes it; but with certain -reservations. "Twinkled" is an "aberration," a "licence" perhaps -(in some views certainly), a more or even less venial sin, while -"-āble" with _a_ in a stressed or accented place is a case for more -head-shaking still. The line is saved; yet so as by fire. - -So is it under the looser stress-accentual system, but by a fire more -devouring still. According to this latter, all rhythmical similarity -with its companion five-stress lines is lost on the one hand, and -on the other a jumble, with difficulty readable and absolutely -heterogeneous, is created in the line itself. Your first rhythmical -mouthful is "twink-," then you gabble over "led the innū-" till you -rest on this last; then you repeat the process (as soon as you have -breath enough) with "-merable ear," and finally you reach "and tail." -But you never find your fifth stress, and instead of continuous blank -verse you make the context a sort of clumsy Pindaric.[21] - -Even if this last description be regarded as exaggerated, it will -remain a sober fact that, in all these handlings, either the beauty of -the line is obscured altogether, or it is smuggled off as a "licence," -or it is converted into something individual, separated from its -neighbours, and possessing no kinship to them. - -Yet the line, though not "a wonder and a wild desire," is a good one; -and (therein differing from their eighteenth-century ancestors) the -syllabists and accentualists would mostly nowadays allow this, though -their principles have to submit it to _privilegia_ and allowances to -make it out. - -The foot arrangement makes no difficulty, needs no _privilegium_, and -necessarily applies none. The line is at once recognised by the ear as -a good line and correspondent to its neighbours, which, as a body, and -also at once when a few have been read, informed that ear that they -were five-foot lines of iambic basis. Therefore it will lend itself to -foot-arrangement on that norm. The five feet may be iambs, trochees, -anapæsts, spondees, tribrachs, and _perhaps_ (this is a question of -ear) dactyls and pyrrhics. These may be substituted for each other as -the ear shall dictate, provided that the general iambic base is not -overthrown or unduly obscured. - -Further, these feet are composed of long and short syllables, the -length and shortness of which is determined to some extent by ordinary -pronunciation, but subject to various modifying influences of position -and juxtaposition. Under those laws to which all its companions are -equally and inevitably subject, _mutatis mutandis_, it makes itself out -as above: - - Twīnklĕd | thĕ ĭnnū|mĕrā|blĕ ēar | ănd tāil-- - -trochee, anapæst, iamb, iamb, iamb. The justification of _ā_ in "āble" -has already been partly given; it may be added that in the actual -pronunciation of the word by good speakers there is a "secondary -accent" (as they call it) on the syllable. - -Here there is no straining, no "private bill" legislation, no -separating of the line from its fellows, only a reasonable Reign of Law -with reasonable easements. - -[Sidenote: Application further to his "Hollyhock" song.] - -Let us now take a more complicated instance, also from Tennyson. In -that poet's first volume there was a "Song" which, unlike most of its -fellows, remained practically unaltered amid the great changes which he -introduced later. It has, I believe, always been a special favourite -with those who have been most in sympathy with his poetry. But, nearly -twenty years after its first appearance, it was described by no -ill-qualified judge (an admirer of Tennyson on the whole) in the words -given in the note:[22] and I believe it had been similarly objected -to earlier. Now what were the lines that excited this cry of agonised -indignation? They are as follows:-- - - A spirit haunts the year's last hours - Dwelling amid these yellowing bowers: - To himself he talks; - For at eventide, listening earnestly, - At his work you may hear him sob and sigh - In the walks; - Earthward he boweth the heavy stalks - Of the mouldering flowers: - Heavily hangs the broad sunflower - Over its grave in the earth so chilly; - Heavily hangs the hollyhock, - Heavily hangs the tiger-lily. - -Now it is not very difficult to perceive the defects of this extremely -beautiful thing in the eyes of a syllabic-accentualist, as this critic -(whether knowing it or not) probably was. - -The syllabists have always, by a perhaps natural though perhaps also -irrational extension of their arithmetical prepossession, disliked -lines of irregular length on the page. Bysshe would have barred -stanzas; a very few years before Tennyson's book, Crowe, then Public -Orator at Oxford, had protested against the exquisite line-adjustments -of the seventeenth century. To the pure accentualists the thing might -seem an unholy jumble, accented irregularly, irregularly arranged in -number, seemingly observing different rhythms in different parts. - -Now see how it looks under the foot system: - - A spi|rit haunts | the year's | last hours - Dwelling | amid | these yel|lowing bowers: - To himself | he talks; - For at e|ventide, list|ening ear|nestly, - At his work | you may hear | him sob | and sigh - In the walks; - Earth|ward he bow|eth the hea|vy stalks - Of the moul|dering flowers: - Hea|vily hangs | the broad | sunflower - O|ver its grave | in the earth | so chilly; - Hea|vily hangs | the hol|lyhock, - Hea|vily hangs | the ti|ger-lily-- - -the feet being sometimes, at the beginning of the lines, monosyllabic, -and of course of one long syllable only (Ēarth-|, Hēa-|, Ō-|); -sometimes dissyllabic, iambic mainly, but occasionally at least -_semi_-spondaic-- - - Ă spīr|ĭt hāunts | thĕ yēar's | lā̆st hōurs; - -often trisyllabic, and then always anapæstic-- - - Fŏr ăt ē|vĕntĭde līst|ĕnĭng ēarn|ĕstlȳ̆. - -Even so early in the present book this should need little comment; -but it may be the better for some. It is an instance of substitution -carried out boldly, but unerringly; so that, iamb and anapæst -being the coin of interchange and equivalence, the rhythm is now -iambic, now anapæstic chiefly, the two being not muddled, but -_fluctuant_--a prosodic part-song. And the foot system brings this -out straightforwardly and on its general principles, with no beggings -or assumptions whatever for the particular instance. Moreover, the -structure of the piece may be paralleled freely from the songs in -Shakespeare's plays.[23] - -[Sidenote: Such application possible always and everywhere.] - -It is indeed sometimes said that such methods of scansion as these -may apply very well to nineteenth-century poets, but that they are -out of place in regard to older ones. This is demonstrably false. The -method applies alike, and in like measure obviates all difficulties, -in examples of the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, -seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. It is as applicable to the -early and mostly anonymous romancers and song-writers as to Tennyson, -it accommodates Shakespeare as well as Browning. To Milton as to -Shelley, to Dryden and Pope as to the most celebrated of our modern -experimenters, say to Miss Christina Rossetti or Mr. Swinburne, it -"fits like a glove." The rules in the next chapter, and the subjoined -examples fully scanned in Chapter VI., will show its application as -a beginning; the whole contents of this volume must give the fuller -illustration and confirmation.[24] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[15] The most recent, perhaps, and the most unfortunate competitor is -"stress-unit"--for there are most certainly feet (_i.e._ constitutive -divisions of lines) which include no stress at all. - -[16] A full account of these would occupy a book bigger than the larger -_History_. Among the latest and most curious attempts on the subject is -one to mark off certain metrical rhythms as "accentual," certain others -as "quantitative." This (which partly results from the superfluous -anxiety to discover and isolate the sources of length and shortness) -makes something very like a chimera or a hotch-potch of English verse. - -[17] In metrical quantity, not in vowel sound. - -[18] Of Anglo-Saxon and very early Middle English poetry. See Scanned -Conspectus and Book II. - -[19] Except, to speak paradoxically, when it is nothing at all. The -pause-foot or half-foot, the "equivalent of silence," is by no means -an impossible or unknown thing in English poetry, as, for instance, in -Lady Macbeth's line, I. v. 41-- - - Under | my bat|tlements. | ʌ Come, | you spirits, - -where | spĭrīts, | though not actually impossible, would spoil the line -in one way, and "come," as a monosyllabic foot, in another. - -[20] The exceptions, and probably the only ones, are to be found, -if anywhere, in some modern blank verse, where two tribrachs, or a -tribrach and an iamb or anapæst, succeed each other. - -[21] It is difficult to see how this effect can be avoided by those who -think that accents or stresses, governing prosody, vary in Milton from -_eight_ to _three_. - -[22] Having already called it "an odious piece of pedantry," the critic -(_Blackwood's Magazine_, April 1849) adds: "What metre, Greek or Roman, -Russian or Chinese, it was intended to imitate we have no care to -inquire: the man was writing English and had no justifiable pretence -for torturing our ears with verse like this." - -[23] Such as "Under the Greenwood Tree." - -[24] For cautions and additions, as well as explanations, see Glossary, -especially under "Foot," "Stress-unit," "Quantity," etc. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -RULES OF THE FOOT SYSTEM - - -§ A. FEET - - (_These_ Rules _are not imperative or compulsory precepts, but - observed inductions from the practice of English poets. He - that can break them with success, let him._) - -[Sidenote: Feet composed of long and short syllables.] - -#1. English poetry, from the first constitution of literary Middle -English to the present day, can best be scanned by a system of _feet_, -or groups of syllables in two different values, which may be called for -convenience _long_ (̄) and _short_ (̆).# - -[Sidenote: Not all combinations actual.] - -#2. The nature of these groups of syllables is determined by the -usual mathematical laws of permutation; but some of them appear more -frequently than others in English poetry, and some hardly occur at all.# - -[Sidenote: Differences from "classical" feet.] - -#3. Although, in the symbols of their constitution, these feet -resemble those of the classical prosodies, it does not follow that -they are identical with them, except mathematically,[25] the nature -of the languages being different; and, in particular, their powers of -combining in metre are far from being identical, so that combinations -of feet which are successful in Greek and Latin need by no means be -successful in English. Success is indeed almost limited to instances -where the metrical constituents are restricted to iambs (̆̄]), anapæsts -(̆̆̄]), and trochees (̄̆), with the spondee (̄̄) as an occasional -ingredient.# - -[Sidenote: The three usual kinds--iamb, trochee, anapæst.] - -#4. The iamb (̆̄), the trochee (̄̆), and the anapæst (̆̆̄) are by far -the commonest English feet; in fact, the great bulk of English poetry -is composed of them.# - -[Sidenote: The spondee.] - -#5. The spondee (̄̄) is not so unusual as has sometimes been thought; -but owing to the commonness of most syllables, especially in _thesis_, -it may often be passed as an iamb, and sometimes as a trochee.# - -[Sidenote: The dactyl.] - -#6. The dactyl (̄ ̆ ̆), on the other hand, though observable enough -in separate English words, does not seem to compound happily in -English, its use being almost limited to that of a substitute for the -trochee. Used in continuity, either singly or with other feet, it has a -tendency, especially in lines of some length, to rearrange itself into -anapæsts with anacrusis. In very short lines, however, this "tilt" has -not always time to develop itself.# - -[Sidenote: The pyrrhic.] - -#7. The pyrrhic (̆̆]) may occur in English, but is rarely wanted (see -note above on spondee).# - -[Sidenote: The tribrach.] - -#8. The tribrach (̆̆̆), however, has become not unusual.# - -[Sidenote: Others.] - -#9. Other combinations (for names see Glossary) than these are -certainly rare, and are perhaps never wanted in English verse, though -they are plentiful in prose. (See Rule 41 and Glossary.)# - - -§ B. CONSTITUTION OF FEET - -[Sidenote: Quality or "quantity" in feet.] - -#10. The quality, or contrast of quality, called "quantity," which fits -English syllables for their places as long or short in a foot, is not -uniform or constant.# - -[Sidenote: Not necessarily "time,"] - -#11. It does not necessarily depend on the amount of time taken to -pronounce the syllable; though there is probably a tendency to lengthen -or shorten this time according to the prosodic length or shortness -required.# - -[Sidenote: nor vowel "quantity."] - -#12. It does not wholly depend on the usual quantity[26] of the vowel -sound in the syllable; for long-sounding vowels are not very seldom -shortened, and short-sounding ones are constantly made long.# - -[Sidenote: Accumulated consonants,] - -#13. An accumulation of consonants after the vowel will lengthen it -prosodically, but need not necessarily do so.# - -[Sidenote: or rhetorical stress,] - -#14. Strong rhetorical stress will almost always lengthen if required.# - -[Sidenote: or place in verse will quantify.] - -#15. The place in verse, if cunningly managed by the poet, will -lengthen or shorten.# - -[Sidenote: Commonness of monosyllables.] - -#16. All monosyllables are common, the articles being, however, least -susceptible of lengthening, and the indefinite perhaps hardly at all.# - - -§ C. EQUIVALENCE AND SUBSTITUTION - -[Sidenote: Substitution of equivalent feet.] - -#17. The most important law of English prosody is that which permits -and directs the interchange of certain of these feet with others, or, -in technical language, the substitution of equivalent feet.# - -[Sidenote: Its two laws.] - -#18. This process of substitution is governed by two laws: one in a -manner _a priori_, the other the result of experience only.# - -[Sidenote: Confusion of base must be avoided.] - -#19. Substitution must not take place in a batch of lines, or even -(with rare exceptions) in a single line, to such an extent that the -base of the metre can be mistaken.# - -[Sidenote: (Of which the ear must judge.)] - -#20. Even short of this result of confusion the ear must decide whether -the substitution is allowable.# - -[Sidenote: Certain substitutions are not eligible.] - -#21. As a result of experience we find that the feet most suitable--if -not alone suitable--as substitutes for the iamb--the commonest -foot-staple--are the trochee, the anapæst, and the tribrach; that the -dactyl substitutes well, if not too freely used, for the trochee.[27] -These equivalences are reciprocal.# - - -§ D. PAUSE - -[Sidenote: Variation of pause.] - -#22. Next to equivalence, the most important and valuable engine in -the constitution of English verses is the variation of the middle or -internal pause.# - -[Sidenote: Practically at discretion.] - -#23. Except in very long lines--which always tend to pause themselves -either at the middle or at _two_ places more or less equidistant--there -is no reason why the pause of an English line should not be at any -syllable from the first to the penultimate, and none why it should or -should not occur at the end of a line, couplet, or even stanza--though -in the last-named case rather special reasons are required for its -omission. Not every line need necessarily have any pause at all.# - -[Sidenote: Blank verse specially dependent on pause.] - -#24. The effect of blank verse depends more upon pause-variation than -upon anything else; and by this variation, accompanied by stop or -overrun ("enjambment") at the end of the line, _verse-paragraphs_ are -constituted, which can contain _verse-clauses_ or _sentences_, in like -manner brought into existence by pauses.# - - -§ E. LINE-COMBINATION - -[Sidenote: Simple or complex.] - -#25. Lines, composed as above of feet, can be used in English either -continuously on the same or equivalent patterns, or in batches of two -or more.# - -[Sidenote: Rhymes necessary to couplet.] - -#26. The batches of two almost necessarily require rhyme to indicate -and isolate them, especially if the individual lines are of the same -length. Other batches [stanzas] might, as far as any _a priori_ -objection goes, consist of unrhymed lines, symmetrically correspondent, -or irregular [Pindaric].# - -[Sidenote: Few instances of successful unrhymed stanza.] - -#27. It is, however, found in practice, despite the examples of -Campion, Collins, and one or two others, that rhymeless batching or -stanza-making is very seldom successful.#[28] - -[Sidenote: Unevenness of line in length.] - -#28. There is neither _a priori_ objection nor _a posteriori_ -inconvenience to be urged against the construction of stanzas or -batches in lines of very uneven length.# - -[Sidenote: Stanzas to be judged by the ear.] - -#29. Every stanza-scheme must undergo, and is finally to be judged by, -the test of the ear, and that only.# - -[Sidenote: Origin of commonest line-combinations.] - -#30. The commonest and oldest line-combinations--octosyllabic couplet, -"common" or "ballad" measure, "long" and "short" measure, etc.--in some -cases demonstrably, in all probably, result from the breaking up of the -old long line ("fifteener" or "fourteener"), which itself came from the -metricalising of the O.E. double stave.# - - -§ F. RHYME - -[Sidenote: Rhyme natural in English.] - -#31. It is natural to English poetry--_i.e._ Middle and Modern English, -or English poetry proper--to rhyme; and, except in the case of blank -verse, no unrhymed measure for the last seven centuries has ever -produced large quantities of uniformly satisfactory quality.# - -[Sidenote: It must be "full,"] - -#32. Rhyme in English must be "full," _i.e._ consonantal (on the vowel -_and_ following consonant or consonants), not merely assonantal (on the -vowel only). Assonance by itself is insufficient.# - -[Sidenote: and not identical.] - -#33. It should not, according to modern usage, be _identical_--that is -to say, the rhyming syllables should not consist of exactly the same -vowels and consonants. But exceptions to this may be found in good -poets, especially when the _words_ are not the same.# - -[Sidenote: General rule as to it.] - -#34. Good rhyme has necessarily varied, at different times, with -pronunciation; but a certain rough rule may be seen prevailing not -uncommonly, that vowels in rhyme may take the value which they have in -words other than those actually employed.[29]# - -[Sidenote: Alliteration.] - -#35. What is sometimes called "_head_-rhyme" (_i.e._ "alliteration") -has now no place in English as rhyme at all, nor does it constitute -either metre or stanza; but it is a permissible, and often a very -considerable, ornament to verse.# - -[Sidenote: Single, etc., rhyme.] - -#36. Rhyme is either single (on the last syllable only), double (on the -two last), or triple (on the three last). Beyond three the effect would -be burlesque, and this is hard to keep out of triple rhyme, and even -sometimes seems to menace the double.# - -[Sidenote: Fullness of sound.] - -#37. In serious poetry the fuller in sound the single rhyme is the -better.# - -[Sidenote: Internal rhyme permissible,] - -#38. Rhyme is usually at the end of the line; but it may be "internal"; -that is to say, syllables at one or even more than one place within -the line may rhyme to the syllable at the end or to each other, and -syllables within one line may rhyme to those at corresponding places -within another.# - -[Sidenote: but sometimes dangerous.] - -#39. But this has a dangerous tendency to break the lines up.# - - -§ G. MISCELLANEOUS - -[Sidenote: Vowel-music.] - -#40. The effect of English poetry at all times, but especially for -the last hundred years, has been largely dependent on _Vowel-music_. -This is by no means limited to the practice of what used to be called -"making the sound suit the sense," though the two sometimes coincide. -Vowel-music, not without occasional assistance from consonants, -establishes a sort of _accompaniment_ to the intelligible poetry--a -prosodic _setting_.# - -[Sidenote: "Fingering."] - -#41. In the management of this, as of rhyme, pause, enjambment, -and even the selection and juxtaposition of feet themselves, the -poet often, if not as a rule in the best examples, uses particular -sleights of fingering and execution parallel to those of the musical -composer and performer. The results of this may appear to constitute -verse-sections different from the feet. But these, however, never -supersede feet, and are always resolvable into them; nor do they ever -supply criteria for anything except the individual line or passage. -They stand to prosody proper very much as delivery or elocution -does to rhetoric. The conveniences of this "fingering," or poetic -elocution, as well as sense and other things, may sometimes bring about -_alternative_ scansions, but all these connect themselves with and are -obedient to the general foot system.#[30] - -[Sidenote: Confusion of rhythms intolerable.] - -#42. Despite this possibility of alternative scansion, and the other -and commoner possibility of substitution of individual feet, iambic -and trochaic, dactylic and anapæstic, metre or rhythm remain entirely -distinct. Any system which regards these as merely different names -for the same thing is self-condemned as disregarding the evidence, or -rather verdict, of the ear.# - -FOOTNOTES: - -[25] See above, Rule 2. It should be hardly necessary to remark -that the explanations and exemplifications of these rules are to be -furnished by the whole book, and that the Glossary in particular should -be in constant use. - -[26] _E.g._ "fāte" or "fāst" as opposed to "făt"; "mēet" to "dĕter"; -"rīte" to "fĭt"; "ōmen" to "ŏtter"; "dūpe" to "bŭt." - -[27] The combination of dactyl and trochee in English, however, will -not produce the same effect as the combination of dactyl and spondee in -Latin or Greek. - -[28] Rules 26 and 27 do not apply to _un_metrical verse, such as the -old alliterative couplet-line, or the rhythmed prose-verse of _Ossian_, -Blake, and Whitman. - -[29] Thus Dryden rhymes "travell_er_" to "st_ar_," giving the _er_ the -value it has in "cl_er_k." - -[30] For elucidation and example see below, in Glossary, as above -noted, p. 8. The "sections" referred to are not those of Guest. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -CONTINUOUS ILLUSTRATIONS OF ENGLISH SCANSION ACCORDING TO THE FOOT -SYSTEM - - -I. OLD ENGLISH PERIOD - -_Scansion only dimly visible._ - -No better examples can be taken for this than two already used by -Dr. Sievers--the close of the _Phœnix_ with its illuminative Latin -admixture, and a bit of _Beowulf_ (205 _ff._)(dotted foot division -added in first case): - - Háfað ¦ us alýfed ¦ _lucis_ | _auctor_ - Þœt we mó¦tun hér ¦ _meru_ |_eri_ - ȝóddædum be¦ȝiétan ¦ _gaudia in_ | _coelo_ - Pǽr we ¦ mótun ¦ _maxima_ | _regna_. - - Hǽfde se ȝoda || Géata téoda - cémpan ȝecórene || þara þe ne cénóste - findan míhte || fíftener súm - súndwudu sóhte || sécȝ wísade - láȝucræftig món || lándȝemýrcu. - -In these the general trochaic run and the corresponding tendency to -dactylic substitution, which are so evident in the Latin, as it were -_muffle_ themselves in the English; and the contrast, so strikingly -brought out in the mixed passage, is not really less evident in the -pure Anglo-Saxon one. The muffling is the result, partly of the -imperfect substitution, or rather the actual presence of syllables -not digested into the metre; partly of the overbearing middle pause, -which, suggesting another in each section, chops the whole up into -disconnected grunts or spasmodic phrases. - - -II. LATE OLD ENGLISH WITH _NISUS_ TOWARDS METRE - - (_"Grave" Poem. Guest's text, spelling, and accentuation; - the usual marks for the latter being substituted for his - dividing bars, and foot division added in dots._) - - Thé wes ¦ bóld ge¦býld || er ¦ thú i¦bóren ¦ wére, - Thé wes ¦ mólde i¦mynt || er ¦ thú of ¦ móder ¦ cóme, - Ác hit ¦ nés no i¦díht ¦|| né theo ¦ deópnes i¦méten, - Nés gyt i¦lóced || hu ¦ lóng hit the ¦ wére. - -Here an immense advance is made. The rhythm is still trochaic, -though it is by no means certain that it does not show symptoms -of _iambicisation_. It is far more well marked; and one of the -means of the marking is that the "ditch in the middle"--the formal -pause,--though no doubt technically and even rhetorically existing, is -overrun by the suggested feet as long as the trochee is kept. But if -this pause holds its place it suggests _iambic_ scansion-- - - The | wes bold | gebyld; - -and something like the whole future of English poetry lies in the -suggestion. Do not omit to notice the metrical assistance given by the -epanaphora, or repetition of the same word and phrases in the same -place, and by the imperfect and irregular assonances emphasising the -divisions. - - -III. TRANSITION PERIOD - -_Metre struggling to assert itself in a New Way._ - -_Part of the verses of St. Godric._ - - Sainte ¦ Mari¦e Vir¦gine - Moder Je¦su Cris¦tes Na¦zarene - Onfang ¦ schild ¦ help thin ¦ Godric, - Onfang ¦ bring he ¦ gelich ¦ mit the ¦ in God¦es ric. - -A distinct effort at iambic stanza, such as that of the great Ambrosian -hymn, _Veni Redemptor gentium_. - -It is not surprising if the experimenter stumbles, if the old trochaic -rhythm is sometimes in his head, and if, in the last verse, he either -overruns or divides and makes a quintet. The struggle towards feet--and -new feet--is there, and rhyme, if imperfect, is there also. - - -IV. EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD - -_Attempt at merely Syllabic Uniformity with Unbroken Iambic Run and no -Rhyme._ - -_Orm._ - - And nu | icc wil|le shæ|wenn yuw - summ-del | withth God|ess hellp|e - Off thatt | Judiss|kenn follk|ess lac - thatt Drih|htin wass | full cwem|e. - -The moral of this (whether it be written as above in eights and sevens -or continuously as "fifteeners") is unmistakable, as stated before: -the writer, for all his scrupulous indication of short _vowels_, seems -to care no more than if he were a modern Frenchman for _syllabic_ -quantity, or even for accent. He will have his fifteen syllables, -his pause at the eighth, and his sing-song run of seven dissyllabic -batches and a feminine ending. But, will he nill he, he impresses--with -whatever sing-song effect and whatever merciless iteration--the iambic -beat throughout his whole enormous work. - - -V. EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD - -_Conflict or Indecision between Accentual Rhythm and Metrical Scheme._ - -_Layamon._ - - 1. {Þa an|swære|de Vor|tiger-- - {of ælc | an vu|ele he | wes wær. - - 2. {Nulle ¦ ich heom ¦ belauen || - {bi mine ¦ quike live. - - 3. {For Hen|gest is | hider | icumen, - {He is | mi fa|der and ich | his sune. - - 4. {And ich ¦ habbe ¦ to leof-monne || - {his dohter ¦ Rowenne. - -These four couplets (continuous in the original) exhibit perfectly the -process which was going on. (2) is a rather shapeless example of the -old scarcely metrical Anglo-Saxon line with a roughly trochaic rhythm; -and (4) is not very different. But (3) is a not quite successful, -though recognisable, attempt at a rhymed (it is actually assonanced) -iambic dimeter or octosyllabic couplet. And (1) is this couplet -complete at all points in rhythm, metre, and rhyme--capable, in fact, -of being exactly quantified and rendered exactly into modern English, -all but the dropped final _e_: - - Thĕn ān|swĕrēd|[ĕ] Vōr|tĭger - ŏf īlk | ăn ē|vĭl hē | wăs wāre. - - -VI. EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD - -_The Appearance and Development of the "Fourteener."_ - -The exact origin[31] of the "fourteener," "septenar" (as the Germans -call it), "long Alexandrine" (as it was very improperly termed in -England for a time), "seven-foot" or "seven-accent" line--to give its -various designations--is a matter of conjecture. The "fifteener" of -Orm with the redundant syllable lopped off; a variation with iambic -or "rising stress" rhythm substituted for trochaic or falling, and a -syllable added in the popular Latin metre of - - Meum est propositum in taberna mori; - -with other things; most probably of all, a shortened metrification of -the old long line, to represent the frequent inequality of its halves -better than the octosyllabic couplet--have been suggested. It holds, -however, such an important place in English prosody from the early -thirteenth to the late sixteenth century, and its resolution into the -ballad couplet or "common measure" is of so much greater importance -still, that it can hardly have too much attention. - -The extraordinarily prosaic and "stumping" cadence of the _Ormulum_ -perhaps obscures the connection, especially as this rigid syllabisation -makes trisyllabic feet impossible. But the true rhythm appears, though -still with a redundant syllable, in the famous _Moral Ode_, the older -versions of which are dated before Orm. The oldest, as it is supposed -to be, of these shows the form in full existence-- - - Ich em | nu al|der thene | ich wes | a win|tre and | a la|re. - -But the youngest-- - - Ich | am el|der than | ich wes | a win|ter and eke | on lo|re-- - -gives a priceless improvement; for even if "nu" has dropped out, the -resulting monosyllabic foot is quite rhythmical, the trisyllabic "-ter -and eke" is unmistakable, and the life and spirit that it gives to the -verse equally so. - -In the course of the thirteenth century the form develops immensely. -As a continuous one, it furnishes the staple of the _Chronicle_ and -_Saints' Lives_, attributed--the former certainly and the latter -probably in at least some cases--to Robert of Gloucester. As thus in -Lear's complaint: - - Mid yox|ing and | mid gret | wop || þas | began | ys mone - Alas! | alas! | þe luþ | or wate | that fyl|est me | þos one: - Þat | þus | clene | me bryngst | adoun || wyder | schal I | be broȝht? - For more | sorwe | yt doþ | me when || it co|meth in | my thoȝht. - . . . . . . . - Le|ve doȝ|ter Cor|deille, || to sþo|e þou seid|est me - Þat as muche | as ych | hadde y | was worþ | pei y | ne lev|ed the. - -But before long it shows, though it may be still written on, an -evident tendency to break up into ballad measure, as in the (also -thirteenth-century) _Judas_ poem: - - Hit wes upon a scere-Thursday - That ure Laverd aros, - Ful milde were the wordes - He spec to Judas: - "Judas, thou most to Jursalem - Oure mete for to bugge, - Thritti platen of selver - Thou bere upo thi rugge. - - -VII. EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD - -_The Plain and Equivalenced Octosyllable._ - -We have seen how, in Layamon, the regular rhymed octosyllabic couplet -or iambic dimeter ("four-stress line," etc.) shows itself, either as a -deliberate alternative to the old long line, or as a half-unconscious -result of the endeavour to adjust it to the new metrical tendencies -of the language. And we saw, also, that its examples in Layamon -himself vary from absolute normality to different stages of licence -or incompleteness. Before long, however, we find _two_ varieties -establishing themselves, with more or less distinct and definite -contrast. The first, which seems to keep French or Latin examples -more or less strictly before it, is exemplified in _The Owl and the -Nightingale_, and scans as follows: - - Wi nul|tu singe | an oth|er theode, - War hit | is much|ele mo|re neode? - Thu nea|ver ne | singst in | Irlonde, - Ne thu | ne cumest | nogt in | Scotlonde: - Hwi nul|tu fa|re to Nor|eweie?[32] - And sing|en men | of Gal|eweie? - Thar | beoth men | that lut|el kunne - Of songe | that is | bineothe | the sunne. - -Here, it will be observed, there is practically no licence except -a few doubtful _e_'s, and that of omitting one syllable and making -the line "acephalous" iambic or catalectic trochaic. This form was -followed largely, and, from Chaucer and Gower onwards, by most poets, -except Spenser, till the time of Chatterton, Blake, and Coleridge in -_Christabel_. - -Side by side with it, however, a form embodying the special -characteristic of the new English prosody-- equivalent -substitution--exhibits itself in full force in the -mid-thirteenth-century _Genesis and Exodus_, as well as in other -miscellaneous poems and in the romances. Here are specimens from -_Genesis and Exodus_, 2367-2376: - - Josep | gaf ilc | here twin|ne srud, - Benia|min most | he ma|de prud; - Fif we|den best | bar Ben|iamin - Thre hun|dred plates | of sil|ver fin, - Al|so fele | o|there | thor-til, - He bad | ben in | is fa|deres wil, - And x | asses | with se|mes fest; - Of all | Egyp|tes welth|e best - Gaf he | is brethe|re, with her|te blithe, - And bad | hem ra | pen hem hom | ward swithe. - -And from _Richard Cœur de Lion_, 3261-3268: - - Nay quod | Kyng Rich|ard, be God | my lord, - Ne schal | I ne|vyr with him | acord! - Ne hadde ne|vyr ben | lost A|cres toun - Ne had|de ben | through hys | tresoun. - Yiff he yil|de again | my fad|erys tresour - And Jeru|salem | with gret | honour, - Thenne | my wrath|e I hym | forgive - And ne|vyr ellys | whyl that | I live. - -Here, it will be observed, the foot of _three_ syllables--generally, -if not always, an anapæst--and even, it would seem, that of _one_ -sometimes, are freely substituted for that of _two_, adding immensely -to the variety, spirit, and freedom of the line. The first "ne hadde" -is perhaps run together. - - -VIII. EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD - -_The Romance-Six or "Rime Couée."_ - -At an uncertain period in the thirteenth century this makes its -appearance--no doubt directly imitated from the French, but probably -also in part a derivative of the application of metrical tendency -to the aboriginal line-couplet. Its French name[33] is not, to -our eyes, appropriate --one would rather call it "waisted" or -"waisted-and-tailed rhyme"; and as it is very largely (in fact, -with the plain couplet predominantly) used in the English romances, -"romance-six" as opposed to "ballad-four" seems a good name for it. It -sometimes, however, extends to three, four, or even six sets of two -eights and a six, and is found both plain and equivalenced, as thus: - - The brid|des sing|e, it is | no nay, - The spar|hauk and | the pap|ejay, - that joy|e it was | to here. - The thrus|telcok made eek | his lay, - The wo|de dowv|e upon | the spray - She sang | ful loud|e and clere. - - (Chaucer, _Sir Thopas_.) - - As soon|e as the em|peroure yil|dyd the gast, - A prowd|e gar|son came | in haste, - Sir Syn|agote | hight he-- - And broght | an hun|dred hel|mes bright - Of har|dy men | that cowd|e wel fight - Of felde | wolde ne|ver oon flee. - - (_Le Bone Florence of Rome_, 778-783.) - -The plain form, as Chaucer, of malice prepense, showed in the above, is -particularly liable to sing-song effect. - - -IX. EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD - -_Miscellaneous Stanzas._ - -(_a_) A very considerable number of these were introduced, sometimes -no doubt by direct imitation of French or (as in the case of the -"Burns-metre,"[34]) Provençal originals, sometimes by the ingenuity of -the individual poet, working on the plastic material of the blended -language, according to the new metrical foot-system. They all scan -easily by this, as may be seen in a stanza of _Tristrem_, one of the -Harleian Lyrics, and a "Burns stanza" from the York Plays; while -anapæstic substitution, amounting to something like "triple time" as a -whole, appears in the Hampolian extract. - - The king | had a douh|ter dere, - That mai|den Y|sonde hight, - That gle | was lef | to here - And romaun|ce to rede | aright. - Sir Tram|tris hir | gan lere, - Tho, | with al | his might, - What al|le poin|tès were - To se | the sothe |in sight, - To say, - In Yr|lond nas | no knight, - With Y|sonde | durst play. - - (_Sir Tristrem_, 1255-63.) - -(_Three_-foot iambic with single-foot "bob." All final _e_'s sounded or -elided. One monosyllabic, and two or three trisyllabic, substitutions.) - - Bytuen|e Mershe | ant A|veril - when spray bigin|neth to springe, - The lut|el foul | hath hi|re wyl - on hy|re lud | to synge; - Ich lib|be in ^|^ love-|longinge - For sem | lokest | of al|le thynge, - He may | me ^|^ blis|se bringe, - icham | in hire | baundoun. - An hen|dy hap | ichab|be y-hent, - Ichot | from hevene | it is | me sent, - From alle | wymmen | mi love | is lent - ant lyht | on A|lysoun. - - (_Alison_, Harleian MS. p. 27, ed. Wright.) - -(From the other stanzas it appears that the middle quatrain -should consist of three eights and a six, and that something has -dropped--supplied now by carets. Otherwise the scheme is clear.) - - Fro thaym | is lost[e] | both[e] game | and glee. - He bad|de that they | schuld mais|ters be - Over all[e] kenn[e] thing, | outy-taen | a tree - He taught | them to be - And ther-|to went[e] | both she | and he - Agagne | his wille. - - ("York" Plays, vi. § 2.) - -(The final _e_'s are beginning to be neglected, and the whole is -probably in strict iambics _here_, though vacillation between four- -and five-foot lines is not absolutely impossible. But there is -trisyllabic substitution elsewhere, though not very much. It may be -remembered that there is little of it in Burns's own examples of this -metre. Closer still to his is the following): - - _Eve._ Sethyn[35] it | was so | me knyth | it sore, - Bot syth|en that wo|man witte|lles ware, - Mans mais|t[i]rie | should have | been more - Agayns | the gilte. - - _Adam._ Nay at | my speech|e would thou ne|ver spare - That has | us spilte. - - (_Ibid._ § 24.) - -(_b_) - - My tru|est trea|sure so trai|torly ta|ken, - So bit|terly bound|en with by|tand band|es, - How soon | of thy ser|vants wast thou | forsa|ken - And loathe|ly for my | life hurled | with hand|es - - (Horstmann's _Hampole_, i. 72.) - -(Probably, when first written, the ultimate _e_'s of the even lines -were sounded; but even this is not certain, and the superiority of the -shortening would soon have struck the ear.) - -(_c_) More elaborate stanza from the Drama: - - Myght|ful God | veray, || Ma|ker of all | that is - Thre per|sons without|en nay, || oone God | in end|les blis, - Thou maid|è both night | and day, || beest, fowle | and fish, - All crea|tures that | lif may || wrought | thou at | thy wish, - As thou | wel myght: - The sun, | the moyn|è, ve|rament - Thou maid|è: [and] | the fir|mament, - The star|rès al|so full | fervent - To shyn|e thou maid|e ful bright. - - ("Townley" Plays, iii. p. 23, E.E.T.S.) - - -X. EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD - -_Appearance of the Decasyllable._ - -The idea that the new metres in English were invariably direct copies -of those already existing in French (or Latin) seems to be decisively -negatived by the fact that the decasyllabic line--the staple, not -indeed in couplet but in long batches or _tirades_, of the earlier -French _chansons de geste_--makes a rare appearance in English verse -before the late fourteenth century. But it does appear, thereby, on the -other hand, negativing the notion that Chaucer "introduced" it, and -suggesting that it was, in part at least, a genuine _experiment_--not -in imitation, but in really independent development, of the -possibilities of English metre. Here are scanned examples of different -periods. - -(_a_) Uncertain in _intention_, but assuming distinct couplet _cadence_: - - Cristes | milde | moder | seynte | marie, - Mines | liues | leome | mi leou|e lefdi, - To the | ich buwe | and mi|ne kneon | ich beie, - And al | min heor|te blod | to the | ich offrie. - - (_Orison of Our Lady_ (_c._ 1200).) - -(_b_) Expansion of octosyllable in single line: - - And nu|tes amig|deles | thoron|ne numen. - - (_Genesis and Exodus_, 3840 (_c._ 1250).) - -(_c_) In couplet: - - And swore | by Je|su that | made moon | and star - Agenst | the Sara|cens he | should learn | to war. - - (_Richard Cœur de Lion_, 2435-36 (before 1325?).) - -(_d_) Overflow of octosyllable into decasyllable; probably, in the -first place, from the equivalenced lines lending themselves to another -run: - - The bugh|es er | the ar|mes with | the handes, - And the | legges, | with the | fete | that standes. - - (In Hampole's _Prick of Conscience_, 680, 681 - (before 1350), with scores of others.) - - -XI. LATER MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD - -_The Alliterative Revival--Pure._ - -The examples of this revival (see Book II.) cannot, of course, in their -nature, be strictly _scanned_. But it is important to bring out the -change of _rhythm_ as compared with the older examples (_v. sup._ p. -37). - -(To prevent confusion with positive _metrical_ scansion, I have made -the scanning bars dotted, and have doubled the foot-division line for -the middle pause in the first extract.) - - Hit bifel ¦ in that fo¦rest there fast ¦ by-side, - Ther woned ¦ a wel old cherl |¦| that was ¦ a couherde. - - (_William of Palerne._) - -(Notice that the _nisus_ towards anapæstic cadence overruns the break -both in the metre and, as at "-glent," "stor," "-port" below, in the -half line.) - - Wende, wor¦thelych wyght ¦ vus won¦ez to seche, - Dryf ouer ¦ this dymme wa¦ter if thou ¦ druye findez, - Bryng bod¦worde to bot ¦ blysse ¦ to vus alle. - - (_Cleanness._) - - Thenne ho gef ¦ hym god-day ¦ and wyth a¦glent laghed, - And as ho stod ¦ ho stonyed hym ¦ with ful ¦ stor wordes, - "Now he that spedes ¦ uche spech ¦ this dis¦port yelde, - Bot that ye ¦ be Gaw¦ayn hit gotz ¦ in mynde." - - (_Gawain and the Green Knight._) - - -XII. LATER MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD - -_The Alliterative Revival--Mixed._ - -The metrical _additions_, on the other hand (see Book II.), and those -poems which, while employing alliteration, subject it to metrical -schemes, scan perfectly, as: - - Quen thay | hade play|ed in halle, - As long|e as her wyll|e hom last, - To cham|bre he con | hym calle - And to | the chem|ne thay past. - . . . . . . . - "A' mon | how may | thou slepe, - This mor|ning es | so clere?" - He watz | in droup|ing depe - Bot thenne | he con | hir here. - - ("Wheels" of _Gawain and the Green Knight_.) - - Fro spot | my spyryt | ther sprang | in space, - My bo|dy on balk|e ther bod | in sweven, - My gost|e is gon | in God|es grace, - In a|ventur|e ther mer|vayles meven. - - (_The Pearl_, ii.) - - Mone | makeles | of mighte, - Here co|mes ane er|rant knighte, - Do him | reson|e and righte - For thi | manhead. - - ("Wheel" of _The Awnyrs of Arthur_, xxvii.) - - -XIII. LATER MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD - -_Potentially Metrical Lines in Langland_ (see Book II). - -Decasyllables: - - For Ja|mes the gen|tel bond | it in | his book. - - (A. i. 159.) - - Thus I | live lov|eless lik|e a lu|ther dogge. - - (A. v. 97.) - -Alexandrines: - - And ser|ved Treu|the soth|lyche | somdel | to paye. - - (C. viii. 189.) - - Adam | and A|braham | and Y|say the | prophete. - - (B. xvi. 81.) - -Fourteeners: - - But if | he wor|che well | there-with | as Do|wel him | techeth. - - (B. viii. 56.) - - Of a|ny sci|ence un|der son|ne the se|ven arts | and alle. - - (B. xi. 166.) - -A large number might be added where the pronunciation which was shortly -to come in necessarily makes such lines, though they may not have been -intended as such; for instance-- - - Take we | her words | at worth, | for her | witness | be true; - - (B. xii. 125.) - -and even octosyllables will appear-- - - Ne no say robe in rich[e] pelure; - - (A. iii. 277.) - -partly explaining to us the chaos of lines in fifteenth-century poetry. - - -XIV. LATER MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD - -_Scansions from Chaucer._ - -Octosyllable: - - Hit was | of Ve|nus re|dely, - This tem|ple; for | in por|treyture, - I saw | anoon | right hir | figure - Na|ked fle|tyng_e_ in | a see. - And al|so on hir heed, | parde, - Hir ro|se gar|lond white | and reed, - And | hir comb | to kemb|_e_ hir heed, - Hir dow|ves, and | daun Cu|pido, - Hir blin|de son|_e_, and Vul|cano, - That in | his fa|ce was | ful broun. - - (_House of Fame_, i. 130-139.) - -(_Two_ "acephalous" lines, initial monosyllabic feet, or trochaic -admixtures; some unimportant elisions before vowels and _h_; middle -pause not kept in lines 1, 4, 6, and 10.) - -Rhyme-royal: - - And down | from then|nès fast_e_ | he gan | avise - This li|tel spot | of erthe | that with | the see - Embra|cèd is, | and ful|ly gan | despise - This wrec|ched world, | and held | al vanite, - To re|spect of | the pleyne | feli|cite - That is | in heven|_e_ above. And at | the laste - Ther he | was slayn | his lo|king down | he caste. - - (_Troilus and Criseyde_, v. 1814-20.) - -(Metre quite regular, but pause much varied--practically _none_ in line -5. Elisions as above, but _e_'s not valued, or elided, in _erthe_, -_pleyne_. Final couplet hendecasyllabic, as indeed most are.) - -(_a_) Riding rhyme or heroic couplet: - - Whan that April|le with | his shou|res soote - The droght|e of March | hath per|ced to | the roote, - And bath|ed ev|ery veyn|e in swich | licour - Of which | vertu | engen|dred is |the fleur; - Whan Ze|phirus | eek with | his swe|te breeth - Inspi|red hath | in ev|ery holt | and heeth - The ten|dre crop|pes, and | the yon|ge sonne - Hath in | the Ram | his half|e cours | y-ronne, - And smal|e fowel|es ma|ken me|lodye, - That sle|pen al | the nyght | with o|pen eye,-- - So pri|keth hem | Nature | in hir | corages,-- - Thanne long|en folk | to goon | on pil|grimages, - And pal|meres for | to se|ken straun|ge strondes, - To fer|ne hal|wes, kowth|e in son|dry londes; - And spec|ially, | from ev|ery shi|res ende - Of En|gelond, | to Caun|terbury | they wende, - The hoo|ly blis|ful mar|tir for | to seke - That hem | hath hol|pen whan | that they | were seeke. - - (Opening paragraph of _Canterbury Tales_.) - -(Very regular; but possible trisyllabic feet wherever "every" occurs, -and a certain one in "Caunt|erbury|." Pause almost indifferently -at 4th and 5th syllables. French-Latin accent in "Natùre." Many -hendecasyllables or redundances; but all made by the _e_ in one form or -another.) - -(_b_) "Acephalous" or nine-syllable lines: - - Twen|ty bo|kes clad | in blak | or reed. (_Prol._ 274.) - -(_c_) Alexandrines: - - Westward, | right swich | ano|ther in | the op|posite. - - (_K. T._ 1036.) - - So sor|weful|ly eek | that I | wende ver|raily. - - (_Sq. T._ 585.) - - -XV. LATER MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD - -_Variations from Strict Iambic Norm in Gower._ - -(_a_) Trochaic substitution: - - Ūndĕr | the gren|e thei | begrave. - - (_Conf. Am._ i. 2348.) - -(_b_) Anapæstic substitution: - - Sometime | in cham|bre sometime | in halle. - - (iv. 1331.) - - Of Je|lousi|e, but what | it is - - (v. 447.) - -(_if the dissyllabic "ie" is insisted on_). - - And thus | ful oft|e about|e the hals. - - (v. 2514.) - - It was | fantosm|e but yet | he heard. - - (v. 5011.) - -(It will be observed that in these four instances, all acknowledged by -Professor Macaulay, the final _e_ is required to make the trisyllabic -foot, though the first instance differs slightly from the others. I -should myself add a large number where Mr. Macaulay sees only "slur," -but in which occur words like "ever" (i. 3), "many a" (i. 316, 317), or -syllables like "eth," which _must_ be valued in one case at least here-- - - To break_eth_ and renn_eth_ al aboute, - - (_Prol._ 505.) - -where Mr. Macaulay reads "tobrekth," and where the copyists very likely -made it so.) - -(_c_) Acephalous lines: - -Very rare if the _e_ be always allowed. Perhaps non-existent. - - -XVI. TRANSITION PERIOD - -_Examples of Break-down in Literary Verse._ - -(_a_) Lydgate's decasyllabic couplet: - - Ther he | lay to | the lar|kè song [̆̄] - With no|tès herd|è high | up in | the ayr. - The glad|è mor|owe ro|dy and | right fayr, - Phe|bus al|so cast|ing up | his bemes - The high|e hyl|les ʌ | gilt with | his stremes. - - (_Story of Thebes_, 1250 _sqq._) - -(3, tolerable; 2, ditto, with hiatus at cæsura; 1, last foot missing; -4, "acephalous"; 5, syllable missing at cæsura.) - -(_b_) His rhyme-royal: - - This is | to sein |--douteth | never | a dele-- - That ye | shall have | ʌ ful posses|sion - Of him | that ye | ʌ cher|rish now | so wel, - In hon|est man|er, without|e offen|cioun, - Because | I know|e your | enten|cion - Is tru|li set | in par|ti and | in al - To loue | him best | and most | in spe|cial. - - (_Temple of Glass_, st. 16.) - -(_Two_ examples (2 and 3) of the so-called "Lydgatian" missing syllable -at cæsura.) - -(_c_) A typical minor, John Metham, in _Amoryus and Cleopes_, stanza 1: - - The charms | of love | and eke | the peyn | of Amo|ryus | the knyght - For Cleo|pes sake | and eke | how bothe | in fere - Lovyd | and af|tyr deyed, | my pur|pos ys | to indight. - And now, | O god|dess, I thee | beseche | off kun|ning that | have | - syche might, - Help me | to adorne | ther charms | in syche | maner - So that | qwere this | matere | doth yt | require - Bothe ther | lovys I | may compleyne | to loverys | desire. - -(A fourteener, a decasyllable, an Alexandrine, a _six_teener, and three -decasyllables, the last very shaky either as that or as an Alexandrine! -In fact, sheer doggerel of the unintended kind.) - - -XVII. TRANSITION PERIOD - -_Examples of True Prosody in Ballad, Carols, etc._ - -(_a_) _Chevy Chase_: - - The Per|cy out | of Northum|berland, - And a vow | to God | made he, - That he | would hunt | in the moun|tains - Of Chev|iot within | days three, - In the mau|gre of dough|ty Doug|las - And all | that ever with | him be. - -(It must be observed that this modern spelling _exactly_ represents the -old prosodically. The reader will then see that there are no liberties, -on the equivalent system, except the _crasis_ of "-viot" and "ever." -The former, insignificant in any case, is still more so here, for the -actual Northumbrian pronunciation is or was "Chevot"; while if "ever" -changes places with "that," there is not even any crasis needed. -For a piece so rough in phrase, and copied by a person so evidently -illiterate, the exactness is astonishing.) - -(_b_) "E.I.O.": - - To doom | we draw | the sooth | to schaw - In life | that us | was lent, - Ne la|tin, ne law, | may help | ane haw,[36] - But rath|ely us | repent. - The cross, | the crown, | the spear | bees bown, - That Je|su rug|ged and rent, - The nail|ès rude, | shall thee | conclude - With their | own ar|gument. - With E | and O take keep | thereto, - As Christ | himself | us kenned - We com|e and go | to weal | or woe, - That dread|ful doom | shall end. - -(Spelling modernised as before, but not a word altered.) - - -XVIII. TRANSITION PERIOD - -_Examples of Skeltonic and other Doggerel._ - -(_a_) Skelton: - -I. - - Mirry | Marga|ret - As mid|somer flower, - Gen|tyll as fau|coun - Or hauke | of the tower-- - With sol|ace and glad|ness, - Much mirth | and no mad|ness, - All good | and no bad|ness:-- - So joy|ously, - So maid|enly, - So wom|anly. - Her de|menyng - In ev|ery thyng - Far far | passyng - That I | can indite - Or suffyce | to write. - - (_Crown of Laurel._) - -II. - - But to make | up my tale, - She bru|eth nop|py ale, - And ma|kethe there|of sale, - To travel|lers, || to tink|ers, - To sweat|ers, || to swink|ers, - And all | good || ale-drink|ers - That will noth|ing spare - But drynke | till they stare - And bring | themselves bare, - With "now | away | the mare, - And let | us slay Care, - As wise | as an hare." - - (_Elinor Rumming._) - -(_b_) Examples from Heywood and other interludes. - -(1) Continuous long doggerel: - - I can|not tell | you: one knave | disdains | another, - Wherefore | take ye | the tone | and I | shall take | the other. - We shall | bestow | them there | as is most | conven|ient - For such | a coup|le. I trow | they shall | repent - That ev|er they met | in this | church here. - -(2) Singles: - - (_Shortened six._) - This | wyse him | deprave, - - (_Octosyllable._) - And give | the ab|solu|tion. - - (_Irregular decasyllable._) - The aboun|dant grace | of the | powèr | divyne - - (_Alexandrine._) - Preserve | this aud|ience | and leave | them to | inclyne. - - (_Irregular fourteener._) - Then hold | down thine | head like | a pret|ty man | and take | - my blessing. - -(In all these examples the doggerel is probably _intended_; that is -to say, the writers are not aiming at a regularity which they cannot -reach, but cheerfully or despairingly renouncing it.) - - -XIX. TRANSITION PERIOD - -_Examples from the Scottish Poets._ - -(_a_) Barbour (regular octosyllables): - - The kyng | toward | the vod | is gane, - Wery, | for-swat and vill | of vayn; - Intill | the wod | soyn en|terit he, - And held | doun to|ward a | valè, - Quhar throu | the vod | a vat|tir ran. - Thiddir | in gret | hy went | he than, - And | begouth | to rest | hym thair, - And said | he mycht | no for|thirmair. - -(_One_ "acephalous" line.) - -(_b_) Wyntoun (octosyllables somewhat freer): - - Thir sev|yn kyng|is reg|nand were - A hun|der ful|l_y and for_|ty year, - And fra | thir kyng|is thus | can cess - In Ro|me thai che|_sit twa con_|sulès. - - (IV. ii. 157-160.) - -(_c_) Blind Harry (regular decasyllables on French model): - - Than Wal|lace socht | quhar his | wncle suld be; - In a | dyrk cawe | he was | set|dul|fullè, - Quhar wat|ter stud, | and he | in yrn|yss strang. - Wallace | full sone | the brass|is wp | he dang; - Off that | myrk holl | brocht him | with strenth | and lyst, - Bot noyis | he hard, | off no|thing ellis | he wyst. - So blyth | befor | in warld | he had | nocht beyn, - As thair | with sycht, | quhen he | had Wal|lace seyn. - -(_d_) James I. (rhyme-royal): - - For wak|it and | for-wal|owit, thus | musing, - Wery | forlain | I list|enyt sod|dynlye, - And sone | I herd | the bell | to ma|tyns ryng, - And up | I rase, | no lon|ger wald | I lye: - Bot soon, | how trow|e ye? Suich | a fan|tasye - Fell me | to mynd | that ay | me thoght | the bell - Said to | me, "Tell | on, man, | what the | befell." - -(_e_) Henryson (ballad measure; slight anapæstic substitution): - - Makyne, | the night | is soft | and dry, - The wed|_dir is warm_ | and fair, - _And the gre_|nè wuid | richt neir | us by - To walk | out on | all quhair: - Thair ma | na jan|gloor us | espy, - That is | to lufe | contrair, - Thairin, | Makyne, | bath ye | and I - Unseen | we ma | repair. - -Those who deny the valued _e_ in "grenè," as not Scots, may refuse the -second instance of trisyllabic feet, but the first will remain. - -(_f_) Dunbar (alliterative): - - I saw thre gay ladeis sit in ane grein arbeir, - All grathit into garlandis of fresche gudelie flouris; - So glitterit as the gold wer thair glorius gilt tressis, - Quhill all the gressis did gleme of the glaid hewis; - Kemmit was thair cleir hair, and curiouslie sched - Attour thair schulderis doun schyre, schyning full bricht. - -Dunbar (dimeter iambic quatrains with refrain, and much anapæstic -substitution): - - Come ne|vir yet May | so fresch|e and grene, - Bot Jan|uar come | als wud and kene-- - Wes nev|ir sic drowth | bot anis | come raine, - _All erd_|_ly joy_ | _returnis_ | _in pane_. - -(_g_) Alexander Scott (stanzas): - - It cumis | yow luv|aris to | be laill, - Of bo|dy, hairt | and mynd | al haill, - And though | ye with | year la|dyis daill-- - Ressoun; - Bot and | your faith | and law|ty faill-- - Tressoun! - . . . . . . . - Be land | or se, - Quhaur ev|ir I be, - As ye | fynd me, - So tak | me; - And gif | I le, - And from | yow fle, - Ay quhill | I de - Forsaik | me! - -(_h_) Montgomerie (_Cherry and Slae_ stanza): - - About | ane bank | quhair birdis | on bewis - Ten thou|sand tymis | thair notis | renewis - Ilke houre | into | the day, - The merle | and ma|ueis micht | be sene, - The Prog|ne and | the Phel|omene, - Quhilk caus|sit me | to stay. - I lay | and leynit | me to | ane bus - To heir | the bir|dis beir; - Thair mirth | was sa | melo|dious - Throw na|ture of | the yeir; - Sum sing|ing, || some spring|ing - With wingis | into | the sky, - So trim|lie, || and nim|lie, - Thir birdis | they flew | me by. - - -XX. EARLY ELIZABETHAN PERIOD - -_Examples of Reformed Metre from Wyatt, Surrey, and other Poets before -Spenser._ - -(_a_) Wyatt (sonnet) - - The long[e] | love that | in my | thought I | harbèr - And in | my heart | doth keep | his re|sidence, - Into | my face | presseth | with bold | pretence, - And there | campèth | display|ing his | bannèr: - She that | me learns | to love | and to | suffèr, - And wills | that my | trust and | lust[e]s neg|ligence - Be rein|ed by rea|son, shame, | and rev|erence, - With his | hardì|ness tak|ès dis|pleasùre, - Wherewith | love to | the hart[e]s | forest | he fleèth, - Leaving | his en|terprise | with pain | and cry, - And there | him hi|deth and | not àp|pearèth. | - What may | I do? | when my | master | feareth, - But in | the field | with him | to live | and die, - For good | is thè | life end|ing faith|fully. - -(I formerly scanned line 9: - - Wherewith | love to |the hart's fo|rest he | fleèth. - -But "forèst" is so frequent and makes such a much better rhythm -that perhaps it should be preferred. It will, however, emphasise -still further the poet's curious uncertainty about the "-_eth_" -rhymes--whether he shall arrange them on that syllable only, or take -in the penultimate. Besides this point, the student should specially -notice the pains taken to get, not merely the feet, but the syllables -right at the cost sometimes of pretty strongly "wrenched" accent. On -all this see Book II. The final _è_'s are rather a curiosity than -important: longè _may_ have been sounded, "lust_e_" and "hart_e_" (so -printed in Tottel) improbably.) - -(_b_) Wyatt (lyric stanza): - - Forget | not yet | the tried | intent - Of such | a truth | as I | have meant, - My great | travàil, | so glad|ly spent, - Forget | not yet! - - Forget | not yet | when first | began - The wea|ry life | ye know, | since whan - The suit, | the ser|vice, none | tell can-- - Forget | not yet! - -(It will be observed that this rondeau-like motion, with its short -lines and frequent repetition, is brought off better than the sonnet, -though the French accent sticks in _travàil_.) - -(_c_) Surrey (sonnet): - - I nev|er saw | my la|dy lay | apart - Her cor|net black, | in cold | nor yet | in heat, - Sith first | she knew | my grief | was grown | so great; - Which o|ther fan|cies dri|veth from | my heart, - That to | myself | I do | the thought | reserve, - The which | unwares | did wound | my woe|ful breast. - But on | her face | mine eyes | mought ne|ver rest - Yet, since | she knew | I did | her love, | and serve - Her gold|en tress|es clad | alway | with black, - Her smil|ing looks | that hid[es] | thus ev|ermore - And that | restrains | which I | desire | so sore. - So doth | this cor|net gov|ern me, | alack! - In sum|mer sun, | in win|ter's breath, | a frost - Whereby | the lights | of her | fair looks | I lost. - -(Observe how much more surely and lightly the younger poet treads in -the uncertain pioneer footsteps of the elder.) - -(_d_) Surrey ("poulter's measure"): - - Good la|dies, ye | that have || your pleas|ures in | exile, - Step in | your foot, | come take | a place | and mourn | with me | - a while; - And such | as by, | their lords || do set | but lit|tle price, - Let them | sit still, | it skills | them not | what chance | come on | - the dice. - But ye | whom love | hath bound || by or|der of | desire - To love | your lords, | whose good | deserts | none oth|er would | - require, - Come ye | yet once | again || and set |your foot | by mine, - Whose wo|ful plight | and sor|rows great | no tongue | can even | - define. - -(Very little to be said for it, except as a school of regular rhythm. -Broken up into "short measure" (6, 6, 8, 6) it has been not ineffective -in hymns.) - -(_e_) Gascoigne (lyric stanza): - - Sing lull|aby, | as wom|en do, - Wherewith | they bring | their babes | to rest, - And lull|aby | can I | sing too, - As wom|anly | as can | the best. - With lull|aby | they still | the child; - And if | I be | not much | beguiled, - Full ma|ny wan|ton babes | have I - Which must | be stilled | with lull|aby. - -(_f_) Turberville (lyric stanza): - - As I | in this | have done | your will, - And mind | to do, - So I | request | you to | fulfil - My fan|cy too, - A green | and lov|ing heart | to have, - And this | is all | that I | do crave. - -(Observe in both of these the absolute syllabic regularity, and -_observance_ of foot-rhythm.) - - -XXI. SPENSER[37] AT DIFFERENT PERIODS - -(_a_) _Shep. Kal._ (strict stanza): - - Thou bar|ren ground, | whom win|ter's wrath | has wasted, - Art made | a mir|ror to | behold | my plight: - Whilome | thy fresh | spring flower'd, | and af|ter hasted - Thy sum|mer proud, | with daf|fodil|lies dight; - And now | is come | thy win|ter's storm|y state, - Thy man|tle marr'd | wherein | thou mask|edst late. - -(Regular iambs throughout. One double rhyme.) - -(_b_) _Shep. Kal._ (equivalenced octosyllable--_Christabel_ or _Genesis -and Exodus_ metre): - - His harm|ful hat|chĕt hĕ hēnt | in hand, - (Alas! | that it | so read|y̆ shŏuld stānd!) - And to | the field | alone | he speedeth, - (Aye lit|tle help | to harm | there needeth!) - Anger | nould let | him speak |tŏ thĕ trēe, - Enaun|tĕr hĭs rāge | mought cool|ed bee; - But to | thĕ rŏot bēnt | his sturd|y stroke, - And made | măny̆ wōunds | in the | waste oak. - The ax|e's edge | did oft turne | again, - As half | unwill|ĭng tŏ cūt | the grain. - Seemed | the sense|less ir|on did fear, - Or to | wrong ho|ly eld | dĭd fŏrbēar-- - For it | had been | an an|cient tree, - Sacred | with ma|ny̆ ă mȳs|tery, - And of|ten crossèd | with the pries|tès cruise - And of|ten hal|lowed with ho|ly wa|ter dews. - -(Observe that this last is the only distinct, if not the only -_possible_, decasyllabic couplet, while it can become an Alexandrine -by valuing "hal|lowèd" |; and that "priestès" is the only attempt at -valued Chaucerian _e_.) - -(_c_) _Shep. Kal._ (equivalenced stanza): - - Bring hi|thĕr thĕ pīnk and pur|ple col|umbine, - With gil|lyflowers; - Bring cor|ona|tions | and sops | in wine, - Worn of | părămōurs: - Strow me | the ground | with daf|fadown | dillies,[38] - And cow|slips and | kingcups | and lov|ed lil|liès: - The pret|ty paunce, - And the chev|isaunce, - Shall match | with the fair | flow'r delice. - -It may be just desirable to remind the student that a final "-ion" -is commonly dissyllabic in the sixteenth and earlier seventeenth -centuries. "Worn of par|amours" is possible. - -(_d_) "Spenserian" stanza (occasional, but mostly slight, equivalence. -Pause in ll. 1-8 at discretion; in 9 usually at middle, but, as in the -following, not always): - - So pass|eth, in | the pass|ing of | a day - Of mor|tal life, | the leaf, | the bud, | the flower; - No more | doth flour|ish af|ter first | decay - That erst | was sought | to deck | both bed | and bower - Of ma|ny̆ ă lā|dy̆ ănd mā|ny̆ ă pār|amour! - Gather, | therefore, | the rose | while yet | is prime, - For soon | comes age | that will | her pride | deflower: - Gather | the rose | of love | whilst yet | is time, - Whilst lov|ing thou | mayst lov|èd be | with e|qual crime. - -(_e_) _Mother Hubberd's Tale_ (antithetic and stopped heroic couplet): - - Full litt|le know|est thou | that hast | not tried, - What hell | it is, | in su|ing long | to bide: - To lose | good days | that might | be bet|ter spent; - To waste | long nights | in pen|sive dis|content; - To speed | to-day, | to be | put back | to-morrow; - To feed | on hope, | to pine | with fear | and sorrow; - To have | thy Prin|ce's grace, | yet want | her Peer's; - To have | thy ask|ing, yet | wait ma|ny years; - To fret | thy soul | with cross|es and | with cares; - To eat | thy heart | through com|fortless | despairs; - To fawn, | to crouch, | to wait, | to ride, | to run, - To spend, | to give, | to want, | to be | undone. - -(_f_) _Epithalamion_ (elaborate quasi-Pindaric stanza concerted in -different line length, but almost strictly iambic; "the," etc., before -a vowel being probably elided): - - Open | the tem|ple gates | unto | my Love, - Open | them wide | that she | may en|ter in, - And all | the posts | adorn | as doth | behove, - And all | the pil|lars deck | with gar|lands trim, - For to | receive | this Saint | with hon|our due, - That com|eth in | to you. - With trem|bling steps, | and hum|ble rev|erence, - She com|eth in, | before | th' Almight|y's view: - Of her, | ye vir|gins, learn | obe|dience, - When so | ye come, | into | those ho|ly places, - To hum|ble your | proud faces: - Bring her | up to | th' High Al|tar, that | she may - The sa|cred ce|remo|nies there | partake - The which | do end|less ma|trimo|ny make; - And let | the roar|ing or|gans loud|ly play - The prai|ses of | the Lord | in live|ly notes, - The whiles | with hol|low throats - The cho|risters | the joy|ous an|them sing, - That all | the woods | may an|swer, and | their ech|o ring! - - -XXII. EXAMPLES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF BLANK VERSE - -(_a_) _Surrey_ (translation of _Aeneid_): - - It was | the night; | the sound | and qui|et sleep - Had through | the earth | the wear|y bod|ies caught, - The woods, | the ra|ging seas, | were fallen |to rest, - When that | the stars | had half | their course | declined. - The fields | whist: beasts | and fowls | of di|vers hue, - And what | so that | in the | broad lakes | remained, - Or yet | among | the bush|y thicks | of briar, - Laid down | to sleep | by sil|ence of | the night, - 'Gan swage | their cares, | mindless | of tra|vails past. - Not so | the spirit | of this | Phenic|ian. - Unhap|py she | that on | no sleep | could chance, - Nor yet | night's rest | enter | in eye | or breast. - Her cares | redoub|le: love | doth rise | and rage | again, - And ov|erflows | with swell|ing storms | of wrath. - -(The interest of the new mode here is manifold. The lines are almost -wholly "single-moulded," the author's anxiety to keep himself right -without rhyme necessitating this. The cæsura at the fourth syllable -is _almost_ always kept, according to the tradition of the French -line. _Once_ (in the penultimate line) he has to overflow; but -into an Alexandrine, not into the next line. Whether by intention -or not--"sprite" being possible--he _once_ discovers the enormous -advantage of the trisyllabic foot.[39] _Once_ he makes with "rest" and -"breast" the oversight of a "Leonine" rhyme. But, on the whole, the -success is remarkable for a beginning; and there are indications of -what has to be done to secure the end.) - -(_b_) First dramatic attempts--_Gorboduc_ onwards: - -[Sidenote: _Sackville and Norton._] - - Your won|ted true | regard | of faith|ful hearts - Makes me, | O king, | the bold|er to | resume, - To speak | what I | conceive | within | my breast: - Although | the same | do not | agree | at all - With that | which o|ther here | my lords | have said, - Nor which | yourself | have seem|èd best | to like. - - (_Gorboduc._) - -[Sidenote: _Hughes and others._] - - What! shall | I stand | whiles Ar|thur sheds | my blood? - And must | I yield | my neck | unto | the axe? - Whom fates | constrain |let him | forego | his bliss. - But he | that need|less yields | unto | his bane - When he | may shun, | does well | deserve | to lose - The good | he can|not use. | Who would | sustain - A ba|ser life | that may | maintain | the best? - - (_Misfortunes of Arthur._) - -[Sidenote: _Peele._] - - Were ev|ĕry̆ shīp | ten thou|sand on | the seas, - Manned with | the strength | of all | the eas|tern kings, - Convey|ing all | the mon|archs of | the world, - Tŏ ĭnvāde | the is|land where | her High|ness reigns-- - 'Twere all | in vain: | for heav|ĕns ănd dēs|tinies - Attend | and wait | upon | her Maj|esty! - - (_Battle of Alcazar._) - -[Sidenote: _Greene._] - - Why thinks | King Hen|ry's son | that Mar|gărĕt's lōve - Hangs in | thĕ ŭncēr|tain bal|ance of | proud time? - That death | shall make | a dis|cord of | our thoughts? - No! stab | the earl: | and ere | the morn|ing sun - Shall vaunt | him thrice | over | the lof|ty east, - Mārgărĕt | will meet | her Lac|y in | the heavens! - - (_F. Bacon and F. Bungay._) - -[Sidenote: _Marlowe._] - - Black is | the beau|ty of | the bright|est day! - The gol|den ball | of Heav|en's eter|nal fire, - That danced | with glo|ry on | the sil|ver waves, - Now wants | the glo|ry that | inflamed | his beams: - And all | for faint|ness and | for foul | disgrace, - He binds | his tem|ples with | a frown|ing cloud, - Ready | to dark|en earth | with end|less night. - - (_Tamburlaine._) - -(An extreme stiffness and "single-mouldedness" in the lines; modified -in Peele and Greene by trisyllabic feet, perhaps not intended as such -("heav'n" was pretty certainly regarded and generally spelt as a -monosyllable, and the pronunciations "ev'ry" and "Margret" are old; -while "t'invade" and "th'uncertain" would be likely), but virtually so, -and inviting, especially in "Margaret," the full and beautiful value. -The _Gorboduc_ form, as is natural, is much the least accomplished. It -is indeed what, by an almost incomprehensible inversion of sense and -nature, some people call "blank verse _according to the rules_"--ten -syllables only, five almost strictly iambic feet (="accent on the even -places"); pause near the middle; stop, metrical, if not grammatical, at -every end--in fact, the roughest and most rudimentary form possible.) - -(_c_) Early non-dramatic blanks (Gascoigne): - - And on | their backs | they bear | both land | and fee, - Castles | and towers, | reven|ues and | receipts, - Lordships | and ma|nors, fines,|--yea farms|--and all. - "What should | these be?" | (speak you, | my love|ly lord?) - They be | not men: | for why, | they have | no beards. - They be | no boys, | which wear | such side|long gowns. - They be | no gods, | for all | their gal|lant gloss. - They be | no devils, | I trow, | which seem | so saintish. - What be | they? wom|en? mask|ing in | men's weeds - With dutch|kin doub|lets and | with jerk|ins jagged? - With Span|ish spangs, | and ruffs | set out | of France, - With high | copt hats | and feath|ers flaunt-|a-flaunt? - They be, | so sure, | even _woe_ | to _men_ | indeed. - -(It will be noticed that the "single-moulded" character is even more -noticeable here than in drama, and is emphasised by the _epanaphora_. -There is one redundance--"saintish" ("jagged" is probably "jagg'd"), -and, as we know that the author thought the iamb the only English foot, -we must not read "rĕvĕnue," but, with "tow'rs," "revènue"--which indeed -was, by precisians, regarded as the correct pronunciation not so very -long ago.) - -(_d_) Perfected "single-mould": - -[Sidenote: _Peele._] - - Come, gen|tle Ze|phyr, trick'd | with those | perfùmes - That erst | in E|den sweet|en'd Ad|am's love, - And stroke | my bos|om with |thy silk|en fan: - This shade, | sun-proof, | is yet | no proof | for thee; - Thy bo|dy, smooth|er than | this wave|less spring, - And pu|rer than | the sub|stance of | the same, - Can creep | through that | his lan|ces can|not pierce: - Thou, and | thy sis|ter, soft | and sa|cred Air, - Goddess | of life, | and gov|erness | of health, - Keep ev|ery fount|ain fresh | and ar|bour sweet; - No bra|zen gate | her pas|sage can | repulse, - Nor bush|y thick|et bar | thy sub|tle breath: - Then deck | thee with | thy loose | delight | some robes, - And on | thy wings | bring del|icate | perfumes, - To play | the wan|ton with | us through | the leaves. - - (_David and Bethsabe._) - -[Sidenote: _Marlowe._] - - If all | the pens | that ev|er po|ets held - Had fed | the feel|ing of | their mas|ters' thoughts, - And ev|ery sweet|ness that | inspir'd | their hearts, - Their minds, | and mu|ses, on | admir|èd themes; - If all | the heav|enly quint|essence | they 'still - From their | immort|al flowers | of po|esy, - Wherein | as in | a mir|ror we | perceive - The high|est reach|es of | a hu|man wit; - If these | had made | one po|em's per|iod, - And all | combined | in beau|ty's worth|iness, - Yet should | there hov|er in | their rest|less heads - One thought, | one grace, | one won|der at | the least, - Which in|to words | no vir|tue can | digest. - - (_Tamburlaine._) - -(These passages, despite their extreme poetical beauty, are still -prosodically immature. Even when, as in the last, there are lines -with no technical "stop" at the end, as at "held" and "heads," the -grammatical incompleteness does not interfere with the rounding off of -the prosodic period or sub-period. Marlowe (_v. inf._) could enjamb -_couplet_ beautifully, but not blank verse. Note also that the lines -are strictly decasyllabic, the only hints at trisyllabic feet being -in words like "Heaven," then regularly a monosyllable, "ev_e_ry," and -"flow_e_rs.") - -(_e_) Shakespeare. - -(1) Early single-moulded: - - Upon | his blood|y fin|ger he | doth wear - A pre|cious ring, | that light|ens all | the hole, - Which, like | the ta|per in | some mon|ument, - Doth shine | upon | the dead | man's earth|y cheeks, - And shows | the rag|ged en|trails of | the pit. - - (_Titus Andronicus._) - -(Same remarks applying as to the last citation.) - -(2) Beginning of perfected stage: - - Why art | thou yet | so fair? | shall I | believe - That un|substan|tial death | is am|orous, - And that | the lean | abhor|rèd mon|ster keeps - Thee here | in dark | to be | his par|amour? - For fear | of that, | I still | will stay | with thee: - And ne|ver from | this pal|ace of | dim night - Depart | again: | here, here | will I | remain - With worms | that are | thy cham|ber-maids; | O, here - Will I | set up | my ev|erlast|ing rest. - And shake | the yoke | of in|auspic|ious stars - From this | world-wear|ied flesh. - - (_Romeo and Juliet._) - -(No trisyllabic feet yet, and no redundance: but, by shift of pause and -completer juncture of lines, the paragraph effect solidly founded.) - -(3) Further process in the same direction: - - Nay, || but this dotage of our general's - O'erflows the measure: || those his goodly eyes, - That o'er the files | and musters of the war - Have glowed like plated Mars, || now bend, | now turn, - The office and devotion of their view - Upon a tawny front: || his captain's heart, - Which | in the scuffles of great fights | hath burst - The buckles on his breast, || rene[a]g[u]es all temper, - And is become | the bellows and the fan - To cool a gipsy's lust. - - (_Antony and Cleopatra._) - -(Here the double division marks indicate stronger, and the single -lighter, _pauses_--not, as usually in the latter case, _feet_. The -variation of the pause for paragraph effect is here consummate; but the -verse, as its conditions require, is of the severer type.) - -(4) Perfection in passion: - - Blow winds, | and crack | your cheeks! | rage! | blow! - You cat|aracts | and hur|rica|noes, spout - Till you | have drench'd | our stee|ples, drown'd | the cocks! - You sul|phurous and | thought-ex|ecut|ing fires, - Vaunt-cour|iers to | oak-cleav|ing thun|derbolts, - Singe my | white head! | And thou, | all-shak|ing thunder, - Smite flat | the thick | rotund|ity o' | the world! - Crack na|ture's moulds, | all ger|mens spill | at once, - That make | ingrate|ful man! - - (_King Lear._) - -(Every extension taken. Monosyllabic feet either at the first "blow" -and "winds," or the last, and "rage," perhaps at both (an Alexandrine). -Trisyllabic at "-phŭrŏus ānd," "rĭĕrs tō," and "ĭty̆ ō̆'." Redundance -at "-ing thun⋮der." Pause fully played upon as above: enjambment at -"spout"; parenthetic enjambment at "fires.") - -(5) Perfection in quiet: - - Our rev|els now | are end|ed. These | our actors, - As I | foretold | you, were | all spir|its, and - Are melt|ed in|to air, | into | thin air: - And, like | the base|less fab|ric of | this vision, - The cloud-|capped towers, | the gor|geous pal|aces, - The sol|emn tem|ples, the | great globe | itself, - Yea, all | which it | inher|it, shall | dissolve - And, like | this in|substan|tial pa|geant faded, - Leave not | a rack | behind. | We are | such stuff - As dreams | are made | of, and | our lit|tle life - Is round|ed with | a sleep. - - (_The Tempest._) - -(Not much trisyllabic--the dreaminess not requiring it. A good deal -of redundance, and enjambment pushed nearly to the furthest by taking -place at "and."[40]) - -(_f_) Redundance encroaching. - -Beaumont and Fletcher: - - "Oh | thou conqu[e]ror, - Thou glo|ry of | the world | once, now | _the pity_: - Thou awe | of na|tions, where|fore didst | _thou fail us_? - What poor | fate fol|lowed thee, | and plucked | thee on - To trust | thy sa|cred life | to an | _Egyptian_? - The life | and light | of Rome | to a | _blind stranger_, - _That hon|oura|ble war | ne'er taught | a no|bleness_ - Nor wor|thy cir|cumstance | show'd what | _a man was_? - That ne|ver heard | thy name | sung but | _in banquets_ - And loose | lasciv|ious pleas|ures? to | a boy - That had | no faith | to com|prehend | _thy greatness_, - No stud|y of | thy life | to know | _thy goodness_?... - _Egyp|tians, dare | you think | your high | pyra|mides_ - Built to | out-dure | the sun, | as you | suppose, - Where your | unworth|y kings | lie rak'd | _in ashes_, - Are mon|uments fit | for him! | No, brood | _of Nilus_, - Nothing | can cov|er his | high fame | _but heaven_; - No pyr|amid | set off | his mem|ories, - But the | eter|nal sub|stance of | _his greatness_, - To which I leave him." - - (_The False One._) - -(Here it will be seen there are two actual Alexandrines (_three_ if we -allow the full value to "con|queror|") and _twelve_ redundant lines to -_four_ non-redundant! The fire of the poetry fuses this, but cannot -always be counted on, as in the next.) - - (2) If I | had swelled | the sol|dier, or | _intended_ - An act | in per|son lean|ing to | _dishonour_, - As you | would fain | have forced | me, _wit|ness Heaven_, - Where clear|est und|erstand|ing of | _all truth is_ - (For men | are spite|ful men, | and know | _no pi[e]ty_). - When O|lin came, | grim O|lin, when | _his marches_, - etc., etc., etc. - - (_The Loyal Subject._) - -(Which, with its repetition of stumbling amphibrachic ends, is rather -hideous.) - -(_g_) Spread of the infection, and complete decay of blank verse from -various causes. - -(1) Shirley: - - I dare, - With conscience or my pure intent, try what - Rudeness you find upon my lip, 'tis chaste - As the desires that breathe upon _my language_. - I began, Felisarda, to _affect thee_ - By seeing thee at prayers; thy virtue winged - Love's arrows first, and 'twere a sacrilege - To choose thee now for sin, that hast a power - To make | this place | a tem|ple by | thy in|nocence. - I know thy poverty, and came not to - Bribe it against thy chastity; if thou - Vouchsafe thy fair and honest love, it shall - Adorn my fortunes which shall stoop to serve it - In spite of friends or destiny. - - (_The Brothers._) - -(Actual _scansion_ quite correct, and therefore not marked throughout. -Redundance not excessive ("innocence" may be taken as such, and not -as making an Alexandrine, if liked); hardly any, and no misused, -trisyllabic feet. But enjambment at "what," "to," "thou," and "shall" -badly managed.) - -(2) Suckling: - - Softly, | as death | itself | comes on - When it | doth steal | away | the sick | man's breath, - And standers-by perceive it not, - Have I trod the way unto their lodgings. - How wisely do those powers - That give | us hap|piness or|der it! - - (_Aglaura._) - -(A hopeless jumble. The 1st, as a fragment, and 2nd lines are all -right, and the 6th could be completed properly. But 3, 4, and 5--though -3 and 5 _could_ come in with other companions--upset any kind of -continuous arrangement, and 4 would hardly be good anywhere.) - -(3) Davenant: - - Rhodolinda doth become her title - And her birth. Since deprived of popular - Homage, she hath been queen over her great self. - In this captivity ne'er passionate - But when she hears me name the king, and then - Her passions not of anger taste but love: - Love of her conqueror; he that in fierce - Battle (when the cannon's sulphurous breath - Clouded the day) her noble father slew. - - (_Albovine._) - -(More hopeless still, and left unscanned for the student's edification.) - -(_h_) The Miltonic Restoration. - -Early dramatic experiment. - -_Comus_ is evidently written under three different influences, which -may be said to be in the main those of Marlowe, Shakespeare, and -Fletcher. The poet often uses Fletcher's heavy trisyllabic endings-- - - Bore a bright golden flower, but not | ĭn thĭ̄s sŏ̄il; - -and has not infrequent Alexandrines, the most certain of which is-- - - As to | make this | rela|tion. - Care | and ut|most shifts. - -But he makes the verse more and more free and original, as in the -following extracts: - - Yea, there | where ve|ry des|ola|tion dwells, - By grots | and ca|verns shagged | with hor|rid shades, - She may | pass on | with un|blenched maj|esty, - Be it | not done | in pride | or in | presump|tion. - Some say | no ev|il thing | that walks | by night, - In fog | or fire, | by lake | or moor|ish fen, - Blue mea|gre hag, | or stub|born un|laid ghost, - That breaks | his mag|ic chains | at cur|few time, - No gob|lin or |swart fa|ery of | the mine, - Hath hurt|ful power | o'er true | virgin|ity. - Do ye | believe | me yet, | or shall | I call - Anti|quity | from the | old schools | of Greece - To test|ify | the arms | of chas|tity? - - Hence had | the hunt|ress Di|an her | dread bow, - Fair sil|ver-shaft|ed queen | for ev|er chaste, - Wherewith | she tamed | the brind|ed li|oness - And spot|ted moun|tain-pard, | but set | at nought - The fri|vŏlŏus bōlt | of Cu|pid; gods | and men - Feared her | stern frown, | and she | was queen | ŏ' thĕ wōods. - . . . . . . . - - Methought it was the sound - Of riot and ill-managed merriment, - Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe - Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds, - When, for their teeming flocks and granges full, - In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan, - And thank the gods amiss. - -(The full comments given on previous passages make it unnecessary -to annotate this much. The last passage has the full paragraph -combination.[41]) - - -XXIII. EXAMPLES OF ELIZABETHAN LYRIC - -(_a_) Prae-Spenserian: - - Not light | of love, la|dy, - Though fan|cy do prick | thee, - Let con|stancy | possess | thy heart: - Well wor|thy of blam|yng - They be | and defam|ing, - From plight|ed troth | which back | do start. - Dear dame! - Then fick|leness ban|ish - And fol|ly extin|guish, - Be skil|ful in guid|ing, - And stay | thee from slid|ing, - And stay | thee, - And stay | thee! - - (_Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions_ (1578).) - -(Anapæstic substitution (if not definite anapæstic base) arising -doubtless rather from _tune_ than from deliberate prosodic purpose; but -quite prosodically correct, and sure to propagate itself.) - -(_b_) Post-Spenserian: - - My bon|ny lass, | thine eye, - So sly - Hath made | me sor|row so-- - Thy crim|son cheeks, | my dear, - So clear, - Have so | much wrought | my woe, - - (_Phœnix Nest_ (1593).) - -(Pure iambics; effect produced by short "bob" rhymes.) - -(_c_) Ben Jonson (strict common measure): - - Drīnk tŏ | me on|ly with | thine eyes - And I | will pledge | with mine; - Or leave | a kiss | but in | the cup - And I'll | not look | for wine. - The thirst | that from | the soul | doth rise - Doth ask | a drink | divine; - But might | I of | Jōve's nēc|tar sip, - I would | not change | for thine. - -(As mostly with Ben, strict iambics, save for the opening trochee, -and something like a spondee in "Jove's nec-." The wonderful effect -which he, or Donne, or the Spirit of the Age, taught to the next two -generations is produced entirely by careful choice and fingering of the -words and rhymes.) - -(_d_) Ben Jonson (anapæstic measure): - - See the cha|riot at hand | here of Love! - Wherein | my La|dy rid|eth. - Each that draws | is a swan | or a dove, - And well | the car | Love guid|eth. - As she goes, | all hearts | do du|ty - Unto | her beau|ty; - And enam|oured do wish, | so they might - But enjoy | such a sight, - That they still | were to run | by her side - Th[o]rough ponds, | th[o]rough seas, | whither she | would ride. - -("Through," as often, is probably to be valued "thorough," and -"chariot" was generally "chawyot" or "charret." It will be observed -that although this is fine it is slightly laboured. The age was hardly -at ease with the anapæst as yet.) - -(_e_) Campion (selections): - - { _English_ Fōllŏw, | fōllŏw, - { _anacreontic._ Though with | mischief - { Armed like | whirlwind - { How she | flies still. - { - { _English_ Constant | to none, | but ev|er false | to me, - (1) { _elegiac._ Traitor | still to | love through thy | false - Classical { desires, - { Not hope | of pit|y now, |nor vain | redress, - { Turns my | grief to | tears and - { re|newed la|ments. - { - { _English_ Rose-|cheeked Lau|ra, come; - { _iambic._ Sing | thou smooth|ly with | thy beauty's - { Sil|ent mu|sic, ei|ther other - { Sweet|ly gracing. - - { Fōllŏw thȳ făir sūn, ŭnhāppy̆ shādŏw! - { Thŏugh thōu | bĕ blāck ăs nīght, - { And she | made all | of light, - { Yet fol|low thy | fair sun,| unhap|py shadow! - (2) { - Natural { Break now,| my heart, | and die! | O no, | she may | relent-- - { Let my | despair | prevail! O stay, | hope is | not spent. - { Should she | now fix | one smile | on thee, | where were | - { despair? - { The loss | is but ea|sy which smiles | can repair; - { A stran|ger would please | thee, if she | were as fair. - -The student should require little assistance here, odd as some of the -rhythms may seem. But "Rose-cheeked Laura" ought to be _trochaically_ -scanned, and will then be _naturally_ "English." Nothing can make the -"English elegiac" harmonious. Note that line 3 of "Break now" _may_ be -anapæstic like 4 and 5: - - Shŏuld shĕ nōw | fĭx ŏne smīle, etc.[42] - - -XXIV. EARLY CONTINUOUS ANAPÆSTS - -(_a_) Tusser (1st ed. 1557; complete, 1573): - - Now leeks | are in sea|son for pot|tage full good, - And spar|eth the milch | cow and purg|eth the blood: - These hav|ing with pea|son for pot|tage in Lent, - Thou spar|est both oat|meal and bread | to be spent. - -(Perfectly good, though not very euphonious.) - -(_b_) Gifford, H. (1580): - - If I | should write rash|ly what comes | in my train - It might | be such mat|ter as likes | you not best, - And ra|ther I would | great sor|row sustain - Than not | to fulfil | your law|ful request. - -(_c_) _Mary Ambree_ (_c._ 1584): - - [When] cap|tains coura|geous whom death | could [not] daunt - [Did march | to the siege of] the ci|ty of Gaunt, - They mus|tered their sol|diers by two | and by three, - And the fore|most in bat|tle was Ma|ry Ambree. - -(Percy patched the bracketed words (his copy being evidently corrupt) -in lines 1 and 2. But 3 and 4 are exactly as in the folio; and their -anapæstic base is quite clear. At the same time, it is worth remarking -that these early lines are apt, frequently though not regularly, to -buttress their start on a dissyllabic foot.) - - -XXV. THE ENJAMBED HEROIC COUPLET (1580-1660) - -(_a_) Spenser. - -The very opening of _Mother Hubberd's Tale_ (1591), quoted above (p. -62) in its stopped aspect, shows the way to enjambment: - - It was | the month | in which | the right|eous Maid, - That for | disdain | of sin|ful world's | upbraid, - Fled back | to heaven. - -And we have, further, an instance as shocking to "regular" prosodists -as anything in the seventeenth century: - - Whilome, | said she, | before | the world | was civil, - The Fox | and th' Ape, | _dislik|ing of | their evil - And hard | estate_. - -(_b_) Marlowe--as remarkable in _Hero and Leander_ for this as for -"single-moulding" in blank verse: - - Where the ground - Was strewed with pearl, and in low coral groves - Sweet-singing mermaids sported with their loves - On heaps of heavy gold. - -(_c_) Drayton began with fairly separated couplets; but indulged in -overrunning later, as in _David and Goliath_: - - Grim vis|age war | more stern|ly doth | awake - Than it | was wont | and _fur|ĭŏusly̆̄ - Her light|ning sword_. - -(_d_) Browne: - - It chanced one morn, clad in a robe of grey, - And blushing oft, as rising to betray, - Enticed this lovely maiden from her bed - (So when the roses have discoverèd - Their taintless beauties, flies the early bee - About the winding alleys merrily) - Into the wood, and 'twas her usual sport, - Sitting where most harmonious birds resort, - To imitate their warbling in Aprìl, - Wrought by the hand of Pan, which she did fill - Half full of water. - -(The actual verse-sentence does not end for another half-dozen lines; -but the scansion is so perfectly regular that it seems unnecessary to -mark it. "Aprìl" is quite Spenserian, and has both Latin and French -justification.) - -(_e_) The later seventeenth-century enjambers: - - _Chalkhill._ The rebels, as you heard, being driven hence, - Despairing e'er to expiate their offence - By a too late submission, fled to sea - In such poor barks as they could get, where they - Roamed up and down, which way the winds did please, - Without a chart or compass: the rough seas - Enraged with such a load of wickedness, - Grew big with billows, great was their distress; - Yet was their courage greater; desperate men - Grow valianter with suffering: in their ken - Was a small island, thitherward they steer - Their weather-beaten barks, each plies his gear; - Some row, some pump, some trim the ragged sails, - All were employed and industry prevails. - - (_Thealma and Clearchus_, 2203-2216.) - - _Marmion._ When you are landed, and a little past - The Stygian ferry, you your eyes shall cast - And spy some busy at their wheel, and these - Are three old women, called the Destinies. - - (_Cupid and Psyche_, iii. 259-262.) - - _Chamberlayne._ But ere the weak Euriolus (for he - This hapless stranger was) again could be - By strength supported, base Amarus, who - Could think no more than priceless thanks was due - For all his dangerous pains, more beastly rude - Than untamed Indians, basely did exclude - That noble guest: which being with sorrow seen - By Ammida, whose prayers and tears had been - His helpless advocates, she gives in charge - To her Ismander--till that time enlarge - Her than restrained desires, he entertain - Her desolate and wandering friend. Nor vain - Were these commands, his entertainment being - Such as observant love thought best agreeing - To her desires. - - (_Pharonnida_, IV. iii. 243-256.) - -(The same remark applies here as to Browne. Some of these poets are -indeed great "apostrophators," such things as "t'" for "to," "b'" -for "by," and "'s" for "his" being common. But these uglinesses -are generally resorted to in order to attain or keep the strict -decasyllabic. Chalkhill (an actual Elizabethan, if he was anything) -is less shy of at least apparent trisyllabics, as in "bĕĭng drīv|en," -"ex|pĭăte thēir.|" The double rhyme of "sea" to "they" and "seas" to -"please" is worth noticing; _v. sup._ Rule 34, p. 34.) - - -XXVI. THE STOPPED HEROIC COUPLET (1580-1660) - -(_a_) Spenser (_Mother Hubberd's Tale_), _v. sup._ p. 62. - -(_b_) Drayton (_Heroical Epistles_, "Suffolk to Margaret"): - - We all do breathe upon this earthly ball, - Likewise one Heav'n encompasseth us all; - No banishment can be to us assigned - Who doth retain a true resolved mind; - Man in himself a little world doth bear, - His soul the monarch ever ruling there; - Wherever then his body doth remain - He is a king that in himself doth reign. - -(Here all the characteristics of the eighteenth-century couplet may be -found--the central cæsura or split, the balance of the two halves, the -completion of sense in the couplet and almost in the line.) - -(_c_) Fairfax (end couplets): - - If fictious light I mix with Truth Divine - And fill these lines with other praise than Thine. (i. 2.) - - We further seek what their offences be: - Guiltless I quit; guilty I set them free. (ii. 5.) - - Thro' love the hazard of fierce war to prove, - Famous for arms, but famous more for love. (iii. 40.) - - In fashions wayward, and in love unkind, - For Cupid deigns not wound a currish mind. (iv. 46.) - -(Observe here the tendency, not merely to balance, but to positive -antithesis, in the halves.) - -(_d_) Beaumont, Sir John: - - The relish of the Muse consists in rhyme: - One verse must meet another like a chime. - Our Saxon shortness hath peculiar grace - In choice of words fit for the ending-place, - Which leave impression in the mind as well - As closing sounds of some delightful bell. - -(_e_) Sandys. - -Compare the openings of _Job_ I. and II.: - - In Hus, a land which near the sun's uprise - And northern confines of Sabæa lies, - A great example of perfection reigned, - His name was Job, his soul with guilt unstained. - - * * * * * - - Again when all the radiant sons of light - Before His throne appeared, Whose only sight - Beatitude infused; the Inveterate Foe, - In fogs ascending from the depth below, - Profaned their blest assembly. - -(_f_) Waller: - - With the sweet sound of this harmonious lay - About the keel delighted dolphins play; - Too sure a sign of sea's ensuing rage - Which must anon this royal troop engage; - To whom soft sleep seems more secure and sweet - Within the town commanded by our fleet. - -(_g_) Cowley (_Davideis_): - - Lo! with pure hands thy heavenly fire to take, - My well-chang'd muse I a pure vestal make. - From Earth's vain joys and Love's soft witchcraft free, - I consecrate my Magdalene to thee. - Lo, this great work, a temple to thy praise - On polish'd pillars of strong verse I raise-- - A temple where if thou vouchsafe to dwell - It Solomon's and Herod's shall excel. - -(It should be observed on these that in Beaumont, Sandys I., Waller, -and Cowley the separation of the couplets is strictly maintained; in -Sandys II. not. In fact, this passage, but for the rhymes, has almost -the run of Miltonic blank verse. Waller once approaches an initial -trochee or "inversion of accent" in "With the." Here Cowley is pretty -regular. But not far off may be found such a line as-- - - Themselves at first against themselves _they excite_; - -where he must either have intended "they-ex-" to be elided or have -meant an anapæstic ending of the kind so common in the dramatists his -contemporaries. And he constantly uses (explicitly defending it) the -Alexandrine, as in-- - - Like some | fair pine | o'erlook|ing all | th' igno|bler wood, - -or-- - - Which runs, | and, as | it runs, | for ev|er shall | run on; - -while he often employs trochees or spondees. He does not use the -triplet in the _Davideis_, but does elsewhere, and, after Virgil, he -sometimes indulges in half-lines.) - - -XXVII. VARIOUS FORMS OF OCTOSYLLABLE-HEPTASYLLABLE (LATE SIXTEENTH AND -SEVENTEENTH CENTURY) - -(_a_) Shakespeare (doubtfully?): - - (1) King Pan|dion | he is | dead, - All thy | friends are | lapped in | lead. - - (2) Let | the bird | of loud|est lay - On | the sole | Ara|bian tree. - -(These distichs from the _Passionate Pilgrim_ will illustrate the -two different forms which the heptasyllable--really an octosyllable -acephalous or catalectic--can take. The catalectic form (1) becomes -trochaic; the acephalous (2), iambic. They can be interchanged, and -either can group with the full iambic dimeter; but, _individually_, it -would spoil (1) to scan it as iambic, (2) to scan it as trochaic. Yet -on "accentual" scansion there is no difference; and some advocates of -recent fancy "stress"-systems maintain that the rhythms are identical!) - -(_b_) Shakespeare (almost certainly): - - The cat | with eyne |of burn|ing coal - Now couch|es 'fore | the mou|se's hole, - And crick|ets sing | at the ov|en's mouth - As | the ¦ blith|er ¦ from | their ¦ drouth. - -(In this famous and eminently Shakespearian passage from _Pericles_, -the last line, a heptasyllable, goes perfectly with the rest, or -octosyllables, either as acephalous or as catalectic, either as an -iambic fellow or a trochaic substitute.) - -(_c_) Shakespeare (certainly): - - And we fairies, that do run - By the trìple Hecate's team, - From the presence of the sun - Follow¦ing | dark¦ness | like a dream, - Now are frolic: not a mouse - Shall disturb this hallowed house: - I am sent with broom before, - To sweep the dust behind the door. - -(From _A Midsummer Night's Dream_. Same as last, except that the -full octosyllable is only reached at the end, and perhaps in line 4. -"Hecat[e]," as often, is dissyllabic.) - -(_d_) Browne, W.: - - Be ev|er fresh! | Let no | man dare - To spoil | thy fish, | make lock | or wear, - But on | thy mar|gent still | let dwell, - Those flowers | which have | the sweet|est smell, - And let | the dust | upon | thy strand - Become, | like Ta|gus, gold|en sand. - Let as | much good | betide | to thee - As thou | hast fa|vour showed | to me. - -(Pure octosyllables. There is a catalectic line now and then elsewhere, -but it is an evident exception.) - -(_e_) Wither: - - For | in ¦ her | a ¦ grace |there ¦ shines, - That o'er-daring thoughts confines, - Making worthless men despair - To be loved of one so fair. - Yea, the Destinies agree, - Some good judgments blind should be, - And not gain the power of knowing - Those rare beauties in her growing. - -(Pure heptasyllables, taking either cadence, and, when extended, owing -the extension mainly, if not wholly, to the double rhyme. The first -line gives the alternative scansion; but Wither's run is, on the whole, -trochaic, as Browne's is iambic.) - - -XXVIII. "COMMON," "LONG," AND "IN MEMORIAM" MEASURE (SEVENTEENTH -CENTURY) - -(_a_) See above, § XXIII., for "Drink to me only." - -(_b_) Donne(?), Ayton(?), Anon.(?), (C.M.): - - Thou sent'st | me late | a heart | was crowned, - I took | it to | be thine; - But when | I saw | it had | a wound, - I knew | that heart | was mine. - - A boun|ty of | a strange | conceit! - To send | mine own | to me, - And send | it in | a worse | estate - Than when | it came | to thee. - -(A capital example of the possibility of rhetorical _addition_ to the -strict foot-system, as in line 2, "I took it || to be thine."[43] For -"conc_ay_t" and "estate" _cf. sup._ § XXV. _sub fin._) - -(_c_) Herrick (C.M.): - - Bid me | to live | and I | will live - Thy Pro|testant | to be; - Or bid | me love, | and I | will give - A lov|ing heart to | thee. - -(Strongly flavoured, and greatly improved, by trochaic substitution in -first foot.) - -(_d_) Marvell (L.M.): - - My love | is of | a birth | as rare - As 'tis | for ob|ject, strange | and high-- - It was | begot|ten of | Despair - Upon | Impos|sibil|ity. - -(_e_) Lord Herbert of Cherbury (_In Memoriam_ metre): - - For whose | affec|tion once | is shown, - No long|er can | the world | beguile; - Who sees | his pen|ance all | the while - He holds | a torch | to make | her known. - -(Great regularity of feet; but already the "circular" motion which -Tennyson was to perfect.) - - -XXIX. IMPROVED ANAPÆSTIC MEASURES (DRYDEN, ANON., PRIOR) - -(_a_) Dryden (1691?): - - While Pan | and fair Sy|rinx are fled | from our shore, - The Gra|ces are ban|ished, and Love | is no more: - The soft | god of plea|sure that warmed | our desires - Has brok|en his bow, | and extin|guished his fires, - And vows | that himself | and his moth|er will mourn, - Till Pan | and fair Sy|rinx in tri|umph return. - -(These early anapæsts, as noted, are very apt to begin with dissyllabic -feet. But it was no rule: in this same piece, "The Beautiful Lady of -the May," occurs the line: - - _All the nymphs_ | were in white | and the shep|herd in green. - -(_b_) Anon. in _Pills to Purge Melancholy_ (1719, but contents often -much older): - - Let us drink |and be mer|ry, sing, dance, | and rejoice, - With cla|ret and sher|ry, theor|bo and voice. - The change|able world | to our joys | is unjust, - All trea|sure's uncer|tain, then down | with your dust! - On fro|lics dispose | your pounds, shil|lings, and pence, - For we | shall be no|thing a hun|dred years hence. - -(_c_) Prior (1696): - - While with la|bour assid|uous due plea|sure I mix, - And in one | day atone | for the bus|iness of six, - In a lit|tle Dutch chaise | on a Sat|urday night, - On my left | hand my Hor|ace, a nymph | on my right. - -(Observe here in "assid[u]ous" and "bus[i]ness" the liberty -of combining adjacent vowels (-_uo_us) and following familiar -pronunciation (_biz_ness) which this light verse especially authorises. - - -XXX. "PINDARICS" (SEVENTEENTH CENTURY) - -Dryden (complete stanza from "Anne Killigrew" ode): - - VI - - Bōrn tŏ | the spa|cious em|pire of | the Nine, - One would | have thought | she should | have been | content - To man|age well | that migh|ty gov|ernment; - But what | can young | ambi|tious souls | confine? - To the | next realm | she stretched | her sway, - For Pain|ture near | adjoin|ing lay, - A plen|teous prov|ince, and | allur|ing prey. - A cham|ber of | depen|dencies | was framed, - (As con|querors | will nev|er want | pretence, - When armed, | to just|ify | the offence,) - And the | whole fief, | in right | of po|etry, | she claimed. - The coun|try op|en lay | without | defence; - For po|ets fre|quent in|roads there | had made, - And per|fectly | could rep|resent - The shape, | the face, | with ev|ery lin|eament, - And all | the large | domains | which the | Dumb Sis|ter swayed; - All bowed | beneath | her gov|ernment, - Received | in tri|umph where|soe'er | she went. - Her pen|cil drew | whate'er | her soul | designed, - And oft | the hap|py draught | surpassed | the im|age in | her mind. - The syl|van scenes | of herds | and flocks, - And fruit|ful plains | and bar|ren rocks, - Of shal|low brooks | that flowed | so clear, - The bot|tom did | the top | appear; - Of deep|er too | and am|pler floods, - Which, as | in mir|rors, showed | the woods; - Of lof|ty trees, | with sa|cred shades, - And pèr|spectives of plea|sant glades, - Where nymphs | of bright|est form | appear, - And shag|gy sat|yrs stand|ing near, - Which them | at once | admire | and fear. - The ru|ins, too, | of some | majes|tic piece, - Boasting | the power | of an|cient Rome | or Greece, - Whose sta|tues, frie|zes, col|umns, bro|ken lie, - And, though | defaced, | the won|der of | the eye; - What na|ture, art, | bold fic|tion, e'er | durst frame, - Her form|ing hand | gave fea|ture to | the name. - So strange | a con|course ne'er | was seen | before, - But when | the peo|pled ark | the whole | crea|tion bore. - -(88-91, heroics; 92, 93, octosyllables; 94-96, heroics; 97, -octosyllable; 98, Alexandrine; 99, 100, heroic; 101, octosyllable; 102, -heroic; 103, Alexandrine; 104, octosyllable; 105, 106, heroics; 107, -fourteener; 108-118, continuous octosyllables; 119-125, continuous -heroics capped and finished off by 126, Alexandrine. In 97, probably -"th' offence.") - - -XXXI. THE HEROIC COUPLET FROM DRYDEN TO CRABBE - -(_a_) Dryden (early non-dramatic): - - Our setting sun, from his declining seat, - Shot beams of kindness on _you_, not of heat; - And, when his love was bounded in a few - That were unhappy, that they might be true, - Made _you_ the favourite of his last sad times, - That is, a sufferer in his subjects' crimes. - Thus, those first favours _you_ received, were sent, - Like heaven's rewards, in earthly punishment: - Yet fortune, conscious of _your_ destiny, - E'en then took care to lay _you_ softly by, - And wrapped _your_ fate among her precious things, - Kept fresh to be unfolded with _your_ king's. - -(Note recurrent _you_ and _your_ employed like pauses to vary verse. -Otherwise strictly "regular.") - -(_b_) Dryden ("heroic"-dramatic type at best): - - Fair though you are - As summer mornings, | and your eyes more bright - Than stars that twinkle ¦ in a winter's night; - Though you have eloquence to warm and move - Cold age ¦ and praying hermits ¦ into love; - Though Almahide with scorn ¦ rewards my care,-- - Yet, | than to change, | 'tis nobler to despair. - My love's my soul; | and that from fate is free; - 'Tis that unchanged and deathless part of me. - - (_Conquest of Granada_ II., III. iii.) - -(Observe how the alternation of central pause, strongly (|) and weakly -(¦) or hardly at all (no mark) emphasised, knits and shades the verse; -and how, in the first line, there is positive enjambment. Yet there is -still no trisyllabic substitution. This type is continued and perfected -in the great satires and didactic pieces for argument and attack, and -in the _Fables_ for narrative. It admits, to relieve monotony, the -Alexandrine (_Hind and Panther_, i. 23, 24))-- - - Their corps[e] to perish, but their kind to last, - So much | the death|less plant | the dy|ing fruit | surpassed; - -the triplet (_ibid._ a little further)-- - - Can I believe eternal God could lie - Disguised in mortal mould and infancy, - That the great Maker of the world could die? - -both combined (_Palamon and Arcite_, ii. 560-562)-- - - There saw I how the secret felon wrought, - And treason labouring in the traitor's thought, - And mid|wife time | the ri|pened plot | to mur|der brought; - -and sometimes the fourteener (_Medal_, 94)-- - - Thou leapst o'er all eternal truths in thy Pindaric way. - -(_c_) Passages from Garth, (1), and Pope, (2) and (3), to illustrate -the mechanical character of the eighteenth-century couplet, the ease -with which it can be shifted from decasyllabic to octosyllabic, and its -peculiar construction of ridge-backed antithetic pause: - - (1) With ~breathing~ fire his pitchy nostrils blow, - As from his sides he shakes the ~fleecy~ snow. - Around this ~hoary~ prince from wat'ry beds - His subject islands raise their ~verdant~ heads. - . . . . . . . - Eternal spring with ~smiling~ verdure here - Warms the mild air and crowns the ~youthful~ year. - . . . . . . . - The vine undressed her ~swelling~ clusters bears, - The labouring hind the ~mellow~ olive cheers. - - (_The Dispensary._) - -(Read, omitting the interlined epithets, and you get perfectly fluent -octosyllables.) - - (2) First in these fields, I try the _sylvan_ strains, - Nor blush to sport on Windsor's _blissful_ plains. - Fair Thames, flow gently from thy _sacred_ spring, - While on thy banks _Sicilian_ Muses sing; - Let _vernal_ airs thro' _trembling_ osiers play - And Albion's cliffs resound the _rural_ lay. - - (_Windsor Forest._) - -Now this, in the same way, by the omission of some of the italicised -_gradus_ epithets, becomes-- - - First in these fields I try the strains, - Nor blush to sport on Windsor's plains. - Fair Thames, flow gently from thy spring, - While on thy banks [the] Muses sing; - Let vernal airs through osiers play - And Albion's cliffs resound the lay. - - (3) Not with more glories in th' _ethereal_ plain - The sun first rises o'er the _purpled_ main, - Than issuing forth the rival of his beams - Launch'd on the bosom of the _silver_ Thames. - Fair nymphs and well-drest youths around her shone, - But ev'ry eye was fix'd on her alone. - On her _white_ breast a _sparkling_ cross she wore, - Which _Jews_ might kiss and _Infidels_ adore. - Her _lively_looks a _sprightly_ mind disclose, - Quick as her eyes and as unfixed as those. - _Favours_ to none to all she _smiles_ extends, - _Oft_ she rejects but never _once_ offends. - Bright as the sun her eyes the gazers strike, - And like the sun they shine on all alike. - Yet graceful ease and sweetness void of pride - Might hide her faults if Belles had faults to hide. - If to her share some female errors fall, - Look in her face and you'll forget them all. - - (_The Rape of the Lock._) - -Of course Pope,[44] in the close of the _Dunciad_ and elsewhere, has -passages of the utmost dignity; and the antithetic arrangement is -good for satire. But perhaps the finest passages of this class of -couplet--certainly the finest _with_ the _Dunciad_ close--are the -following, from - -(_d_) Johnson (_Vanity of Human Wishes_--end): - - Where then shall Hope and Fear their objects find? - Must dull suspense corrupt the stagnant mind? - Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, - Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate? - Must no dislike alarm, no wishes rise, - No cries invoke the mercies of the skies? - . . . . . . . - Yet, when the sense of sacred presence fires - And strong devotion to the skies aspires, - Pour forth thy favours for a healthful mind, - Obedient passions, and a will resigned; - For love which scarce collective man can fill; - For patience sovereign o'er transmuted ill; - For faith that, panting for a happier seat, - Counts death kind nature's signal of retreat. - These goods for man the laws of Heaven ordain, - These goods He grants who grants the power to gain; - With these celestial Wisdom calms the mind, - And makes the happiness she does not find. - -and - -(_e_) Crabbe ("Delay brings Danger"--end): - - Early he rose, and looked with many a sigh - On the red light that filled the eastern sky; - Oft had he stood before, alert and gay, - To hail the glories of the new-born day: - But now dejected, languid, listless, low, - He saw the wind upon the water blow, - And the cold stream curled onward as the gale - From the pine hill blew harshly down the dale; - On the right side the youth a wood surveyed, - With all its dark intensity of shade; - Where the rough wind alone was heard to move, - In this, the pause of nature and of love, - When now the young are reared, and when the old, - Lost to the tie, grow negligent and cold-- - Far to the left he saw the huts of men, - Half hid in mist, that hung upon the fen; - Before him swallows gathering for the sea, - Took their short flights and twittered on the lea; - And near the bean-sheaf stood, the harvest done, - And slowly blackened in the sickly sun; - All these were sad in nature, or they took - Sadness from him, the likeness of his look - And of his mind--he pondered for a while, - Then met his Fanny with a borrowed smile. - -(Observe, besides the other points mentioned, that trisyllabic feet -practically never occur in Garth, Pope, and Johnson--"wat'ry for -watery," and words like "ether(ea)l," "celest(ia)l," "happ(ie)r," being -_intended_ to take the benefit of elision, though, as a matter of fact, -they _give_ that of extension. Only Crabbe, in "gath_e_ring," may -perhaps not have meant "gath'ring.") - - -XXXII. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BLANK VERSE - -(_a_) Thomson: - - First the flaming red - Sprung vivid forth; the tawny orange next; - And next delicious yellow; by whose side - Fell the kind beams of all-refreshing green. - Then the pure blue that swells autumnal skies, - Etherial played, and then of sadder hue - Emerged the deepened indigo (as when - The heavy-skirted evening droops with frost), - While the last gleamings of refracted light - Died in the fainting violet away. - -(This, from the poem on Newton, is Thomson at his very best in blank -verse, or nearly so. He was, however, too apt to emphasise his phrases -into full stops, producing what Johnson justly called "broken style," -as thus: - - On he walks - Graceful, and crows defiance. In the pond - The finely-chequered duck, before her train, - Rows garrulous. The stately sailing swan, etc.) - -The trick was pushed to a pitch of absurdity by - -(_b_) Glover: - - Mindful of their charge, - The chiefs depart. Leonidas provides - His various armour. Agis close attends, - His best assistant. First a breastplate arms - The spacious chest; - -and is somewhat noteworthy in Young and others. The reason probably was -a sort of nervous fear lest, in the absence of rhyme, the versification -should not be sufficiently marked. But at length the proper flow was -recovered by - -(_c_) Cowper: - - Tīme māde | thee what | thou wast, | kīng ŏf | the woods, - And time hath made thee what thou art--a cave - For owls to roost in. Once thy spreading boughs - O'erhung the champaign; and the nu|mĕrŏus flōcks - That grazed it stood beneath that ample cope - Uncrowded, yet safe-sheltered from the storm. - No flock frequents thee now. Thou hast outlived - Thy popularity, and art become - (Unless verse rescue thee awhile) a thing - Forgotten, as the foliage of thy youth. - - (_Yardley Oak._) - -(The spondee "Tīme māde" and trochee "kīng ŏf" are certainly -intentional, whether consciously as such or not. The anapæst "-mĕrŏus -flōcks" may not have been _meant_, for Cowper had not cleared his mind -up about "elision," but is one in fact.) - - -XXXIII. THE REGULARISED PINDARIC ODE - -Analysis of Gray's _Bard_ (the second and third divisions coincide to -the minutest degree): - - I. i. - - 1. "Ruin seize thee, ruthless King! - 2. Confusion on thy banners wait; - 3. Tho' fanned by Conquest's crimson wing - 4. They mock the air with idle state. - 5. Helm, nor hauberk's twisted mail, - 6. Nor e'en thy virtues, Tyrant, shall avail - 7. To save thy secret soul from nightly fears, - 8. From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears!" - 9. --Such were the sounds that o'er the crested pride - 10. Of the first Edward scatter'd wild dismay, - 11. As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side - 12. He wound with toilsome march his long array:-- - 13. Stout Glo'ster stood aghast in speechless trance; - 14. "To arms!" cried Mortimer, and couch'd his quivering lance. - - I. i. (_Strophe_) - - 1. Troch. dim. cat. ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄. - 2. Iamb. dim. acat. ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄. - 3. ditto - 4. ditto - 5 as 1. - 6 and 7. Heroics nearly pure, ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄. - 8 as 2 to 4. - 9 to 13. Heroics - 14. Alexandrine ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄. "Quiv'ring," probably. - - I. ii. - - 1. On a rock, whose haughty brow - 2. Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood, - 3. Robed in the sable garb of woe - 4. With haggard eyes the Poet stood - 5. (Loose his beard and hoary hair - 6. Stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air), - 7. And with a master's hand and prophet's fire - 8. Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre: - 9. "Hark, how each giant-oak and desert-cave - 10. Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath! - 11. O'er thee, oh King! their hundred arms they wave, - 12. Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe; - 13. Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day, - 14. To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay. - - I. ii. (_Antistrophe_) - -Identical. - - I. iii. - - 1. "Cold is Cadwallo's tongue, - 2. That hush'd the stormy main: - 3. Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed: - 4. Mountains, ye mourn in vain - 5. Modred, whose magic song - 6. Made hugh Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head. - 7. On dreary Arvon's shore they lie - 8. Smear'd with gore and ghastly pale: - 9. Far, far aloof the affrighted ravens sail; - 10. The famish'd eagle screams, and passes by. - 11. Dear lost companions of my tuneful art, - 12. Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes, - 13. Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart, - 14. Ye died amidst your dying country's cries-- - 15. No more I weep; They do not sleep; - 16. On yonder cliffs, a griesly band, - 17. I see them sit; They linger yet, - 18. Avengers of their native land: - 19. With me in dreadful harmony they join, - 20. And weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line. - - -I. iii. (_Epode_) - - 1. Iamb. dim. brachycat. ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄. - 2. " "" - 3. Heroic. - 4, 5, as 1, 2, with trochee substituted in first place. - 6 as 3. - 7. Iamb. dim. acat. - 8. Troch. dim. cat. - 9 to 14. Heroics: the last 4 in quatrain. - 15 to 18. Iamb. dims. arranged in stanza quatrain; internal rhymes - only in lines 15 and 17. - 19. Heroic. - 20. Alexandrine. - - Rhyme scheme of Strophe Rhyme scheme of - and Antistrophe. Epode. - _a_ _a_ - _b_ _b_ - _a_ _c_ - _b_ _b_ - _c_ _a_ - _c_ _c_ - _d_ _d_ - _d_ _e_ - _e_ _e_ - _f_ _d_ - _e_ _f_ - _f_ _g_ - _g_ _f_ - _g_ _g_ - _o_[45] - _h_ - _o_[45] - _h_ - _i_ - _i_ - - -XXXIV. LIGHTER EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LYRIC - -(_a_) Gay: - - The school|boy's desire | is a play-|day, - The school|master's joy | is to flog, - The milk|maid's delight | is on May-|day, - But mine | is on sweet | Molly Mog. - -(Remarkable for the improvement, by the redundant syllable in the -odd lines, on the plain anapæstic three-foot quatrain used later by -Shenstone and Cowper, as well as for its leading up to the more obvious -successes of Praed and Mr. Swinburne; _v. inf._ § XLIV.) - -(_b_) Gray: - - 'Twas on a lofty vase's side - Where China's gayest art had dyed - The azure flowers that blow-- - Demurest of the tabby kind, - The pensive Selima reclined, - Gazed on the lake below. - -(Eleventh-century poets employed the old romance-six, or _rime couée_, -almost more largely than any other metre for general lyrical purposes.) - -(_c_) (D. Lewis?): - - And when with envy Time, transport|ed, - Shall think to rob us of our joys, - You'll in your girls again be court|ed, - And I'll go wooing in my boys. - -(Another instance of the refreshing and alterative effect of -redundance--in this case on the old "long measure." But even in its -stricter form the century managed "L.M." better than "C.M.," which, -till Blake, was almost always sing-song.) - - -XXXV. THE REVIVAL OF EQUIVALENCE (CHATTERTON AND BLAKE) - -Percy's _Reliques_, however, taught it something better; though Percy's -own imitations and those of others were often as described above. Yet -soon we find in - -(_a_) Chatterton, such adaptations of ballad metre as-- - - I ken | Syr Ro|ger from | afar - Trippynge | over | the lea, - Ich ask | whie | the lov|erd's son - Is moe | than mee? - -and such equivalenced octosyllabic couplet and stanza as-- - - Sĭr Bō|tĕlĭer thēn | hăvĭng cōn|quĕr'd hīs twāyne, - Rŏ̄de cōn|qŭerŏr ōff | thĕ tōur|nĕyĭng plāyne, - Rĕcēiv|ĭng ă gār|lănd frŏm Āl|ĭcĕ's hānd, - Thĕ̄ fāir|ĕst lā|dy̆e īn | thĕ lānde. - -But the real Columbus here was - -(_b_) Blake, who from 1780 onwards wrote such things as-- - - Thĕ wīld | wĭ̄nds wēep - Ănd thĕ nīght | ĭs ă-cōld; - Cŏme hī|thĕr, Slēep, - Ănd my̆ grīefs | ŭnfōld. - Bŭt lō! | thĕ mōrn|ĭng pēeps - Ōvĕr | thĕ ēast|ĕ̄rn stēeps, - Ănd thĕ rūst|lĭng bēds | ŏf dāwn - Thĕ ēarth | dŏ scōrn. - - Lō! | tŏ thĕ vāult - Ŏf pā|vè̆d hēaven, - Wĭth sōr|rŏw frāught, - My̆ nōtes | ă̄re drīven. - Thĕy strīke | thĕ ēar | ŏf nīght, - Māke wēep | thĕ ēyes | ŏf dāy; - - Thĕy măke mad | thĕ rōar|ing winds, - Ănd wĭth tēm|pĕsts plāy. - Lĭke ă fīend) | in ă clōud, - Wĭth hōwl|ĭng wōe - Ăftĕr nīght | Ĭ dŏ crōwd - Ănd wĭth nīght | wĭll gō; - Ĭ tūrn | my̆ bāck | tŏ thĕ Ēast, - Frŏm whĕnce cōm|fŏrts hāve | ĭncrēased, - Fŏr līght | dŏth sēize | my̆ brāin - Wĭth frān|tĭc pāin. - -(This cannot be studied too carefully, and is almost a typical example -of sound prosody, orderly without monotony and free without licence. -Every substitution is justified, both on the general principles -expounded throughout this book, and to the ear in each individual case.) - - -XXXVI. RHYMELESS ATTEMPTS (COLLINS TO SHELLEY) - -(_a_) Collins (_Ode to Evening_): - - If aught | of oat|en stop | or pas|toral song - May hope, | O pen|sive Eve, | to soothe | thine ear - Like thy | own sol|emn springs, - Thy springs | and dy|ing gales. - -(Perfectly regular heroics and sixes; "pastoral" most probably intended -to be "past'ral.") - -(_b_) Sayers (Choruses of _Moina_): - - -I. - - Hail to | her whom | Frea | loves, - Moina | hail! - When first | thine in|fant eyes | beheld - The beam | of day, - Frea | from Val|halla's | groves - Mark'd thy | birth in | silent | joy; - Frea, | sweetly | smiling saw - The swift-|wing'd mes|senger | of love - Bearing | in her | rosy | hand - The gold-|tipt horn | of gods. - -(This--which is fairly but not wholly free from the fault noted in -II.--is ordinary iambic and trochaic mixture.) - -II. - - Dark, dark | is Moi|na's bed, - On earth's | hard lap | she lies. - [Where is | the beau|teous form - That he|roes loved?] - [Where is | the beam|ing eye, - The rud|dy cheek?] - Cold, cold | is Moi|na's bed, - And shall | no lay | of death - [With pleas|ing mur|mur soothe - Her part|ed soul?] - [Shall no | tear wet | the grave - Where Moi|na lies?] - The bards | shall raise | the lay | of death, - The bards | shall soothe | her part|ed soul, - [And drop | the tear | of grief - On Moi|na's grave.] - -(It will be observed that each of the couplets enclosed in square -brackets is simply a blank-verse line, arbitrarily split. This is -probably the result of the effort at rhymeless _stanza_. Observe the -unbroken iambic rhythm--another danger.) - -(_c_) Southey (_Thalaba_): - - How beau|tiful | is Night! - A dew|y fresh|ness fills | the si|lent air; - No mist | obscures, | nor cloud | nor speck | nor stain - Brēaks thĕ | serene | of heaven: - In full-|orbed glo|ry yon|der moon | divine - Rōlls thrōugh | the dark | blue depths. - Beneath | her stead|y ray - The des|ert-cir|cle spreads, - Līke thĕ | rōund ō|cean, gir|dled with | the sky. - How beau|tiful | is Night! - -(Iambic lines of various lengths with trochaic and spondaic but no -other substitution (there are anapæsts elsewhere). The couplet-six, or -split Alexandrine, is intentional, but Southey expressly avoids split -heroics.) - -(_d_) Shelley (_Queen Mab_): - - How wonderful is Death, - Death and his brother Sleep! - One, pale as yonder waning moon - With lips of lurid blue; - The other, rosy as the morn - When throned on ocean's wave - It blushes o'er the world: - Yet both so passing wonderful! - - -XXXVII. THE REVIVED BALLAD (PERCY TO COLERIDGE) - -(_a_) Percy's imitation of equivalence and extension of scheme (_Sir -Cawline_): - - Then she | held forth | her lil|y-white hand - Towards | that knight | so free; - He gave | to it | one gen|til kiss, - His heart | was brought | from bale | to bliss, - The tears | sterte from | his ee. - -(Not bad; might have been improved by "_And_ the tears|.") - -(_b_) Goldsmith (regularised sing-song): - - Turn An|geli|na, ev|er dear, - My charm|er, turn | to see - Thy own, | thy long-|lost Ed|win here - Restored | to love | and thee! - -(_c_) Southey (quite sound in principle, and not bad in effect; but a -little more poetic powder wanted): - - They laid | her where | these four | roads meet - Here in | this ver|y place-- - The earth | upon | her corpse | was pressed, - This post | was driv|en into | her breast, - And a stone | is on | her face. - -(_d_) Coleridge (the real thing in simpler and more complex form): - - It is | an an|cient ma|riner, - And he stop|peth one | of three-- - "By thy long | grey beard | and glit|tering eye, - Now where|fore stop'st | thou me?" - . . . . . . . - Her lips | were red, | her looks | were free, - Her locks | were yel|low as gold; - Her skin | was as white | as lep|rosy-- - The night|mare Life-|in-Death | was she, - Who thicks | man's blood | with cold. - . . . . . . . - We list|ened and | looked side|ways up! - Fear at | my heart, | as at | a cup, - My life-|blood seemed | to sip! - The stars | were dim | and thick | the night, - The steers|man's face | by his lamp | gleamed white; - From the sails | the dew | did drip-- - Till clomb | above | the east|ern bar - The horn|èd moon, | with one | bright star - Within | the neth|er tip. - -(The presence and absence of anapæstic substitution here, with its -effect in each case, should be carefully studied.) - - -XXXVIII - -Specimens of _Christabel_, with note on the application of the system -to later lyric. (Some have said that in _Christabel_ "the consideration -of feet is dropped altogether," and others, that it "cannot be -analysed," or can only be so by the rough process of counting accents. -Let us go and do it.) - - 'Tĭs thĕ mīd|dlĕ ŏf nīght | by̆ thĕ cās|tlĕ clōck, - Ănd thĕ ōwls | hăve ăwā|kĕned thĕ crōw|ing cōck, - Tŭ̄--whīt--tŭ̄ whŏ̄o! - Ănd hārk, | ăgāin! | thĕ crōw|īng cō=ck, - Hŏ̄w drōw|sĭlȳ | ĭt crēw.| - -(A five-lined ballad stanza, freely but regularly equivalenced -with anapæsts. Line 3 may be four monosyllabic feet, or an iambic -monometer--two feet,--according to the value put on the first -note of the owl's cry.) The rest of the piece is _not_ in ballad -stanza, but in octosyllabic couplet, again more or less freely but -regularly equivalenced, and allowing itself occasional licences of -rhyme-order, line-length, etc. Thus the succeeding lines are in -two batches, where the substitution--anapæstic, trochaic, spondaic -or monosyllabic--increases, dwindles, disappears and reappears _ad -libitum_: - - Sĭr Lē|ŏlīne, | thĕ Bā|rŏn rīch, - Hāth | ă tōoth|lĕss mās|tĭff, whīch - Frōm | hĕr kēn|nĕl bĕnēath | thĕ rōck - Mā|kĕth ān|swĕr tō | thĕ clōck, - Fōur | fŏr thĕ quār|tĕrs ănd twēlve | fŏr thĕ hōur; - Ēv|ĕr ănd āye, | by̆ shīne | ănd shōwer, - Sī̆xtēen | shō̆rt hōwls | nŏt ō|vĕr lōud; - Sō̆me sāy, | shĕ sēes | my̆ lā|dy̆'s shrōud. - Īs | thĕ nīght | chīlly̆ | ănd dārk? - Thĕ nīght | ĭs chīl|ly̆, būt | nŏt dārk. - Thĕ thīn | grāy clōud | ĭs sprēad | ŏn hīgh, - Ĭt cōv|ĕrs būt | nŏt hīdes | thĕ skȳ. - Thĕ mōon | ĭs bĕhīnd, | ā̆nd ă̄t | thĕ fūll; - Ănd yēt | shĕ lōoks | bŏ̄th smāll | ănd dūll. - Thĕ nīght | ĭs chīll, | thĕ clōud | ĭs grāy: - 'Tĭs ă mōnth | bĕfōre | thĕ mōnth | ŏf Māy, - Ănd thĕ sprīng | cŏ̄mes slōw|ly̆ ūp | thĭs wāy. - -The whole of the rest follows suit, with occasional variations (_not_, -save in one case perhaps, "irregularities"), as, for instance-- - - Ă̄nd || in ¦ si|lence ¦ pray|eth ¦ she. - . . . . . . . - From || the ¦ love|ly ¦ la|dy's ¦ cheek, - -where a triple scansion might appear possible: (1) monosyllabic -beginnings indicated by ||; (2) three-foot lines with anapæstic opening -(|); and (3) the trochaic variation common in seventeenth-century poets -(¦). A famous third line-- - - Bēau|tĭfŭ̄l | ĕ̄xcēed|ĭnglȳ,| - -decides in favour of (1), for (2) and (3) would exceedingly spoil its -beauty. There is sometimes almost _complete_ anapæstic substitution-- - - Săve thĕ bōss | ŏf thĕ shīeld | ŏf Sĭr Lē|ŏlĭne tāll, - Whĭch hūng | ĭn ă mūr|ky̆ ŏld nīche | ĭn thĕ wāll; - -which is still further developed in the spell of Geraldine-- - - Ĭn thĕ tōuch | ŏf thĭs bō|sŏm thĕre wōrk|ĕth ă spēll. - -(This, in couplet, is a little dangerous.) - -_Note on the Application of the "Christabel" System to -Nineteenth-Century Lyric generally._ - -It is most remarkable, but suggestive to a further extent of the fact -that Coleridge did not entirely comprehend what he was doing, that -_Christabel_, especially its opening stanza, supplies a complete key to -the later nineteenth-century lyrical scansion which (_v. sup._ p. 27) -he and others failed to understand in Tennyson. That opening stanza, -placed side by side with the "Hollyhock Song" (see above again), will -completely interpret it to any one who has eye and ear enough to -mutate the _mutanda_. And when the connection and the interpretation -have once been seized, there is nothing, from Shelley's apparently -impulsive and instinctive harmonies to the most complicated experiments -of Browning and Swinburne, which will not yield to the master keys -of equivalent substitution and varying of line-length, subject to -the general law of rhythmical uniformity, or at least symphonised -change. It has been said, for instance, by the latest and most painful -French student of English prosody, M. Verrier, that in Shelley's -_Cloud_ "traditional metric renounces the attempt" to divide it into -feet. Here is the division, made without its being necessary to think -twice--hardly to think once--about a single article of it: - - I bring | fresh showers | for the thirst|ing flowers, - From the seas | and the streams; - I bear | light shade | for the leaves | when laid - In their noon|day dreams. - From my wings | are shaken | the dews | that waken - The sweet | buds ev|ery one, - When rocked | to rest | on their mo|ther's breast, - As she dan|ces about | the sun. - I wield | the flail | of the lash|ing hail, - And whi|ten the green | plains un|der, - And then | again | I dissolve | it in rain, - And laugh | as I pass | in thun|der. - -(Base anapæstic, and normal length dimeter; but shortened to three and -two feet, thus--424243434343. The two last three-foot lines catalectic -dimeter, or, to put the same thing in another way, the first threes -plain, the last redundanced. Substitution of iamb or spondee for -anapæst perfectly regular, and (to keep the anapæstic base specially -marked against the iambic) not very much indulged in. "Showers" and -"flowers" as well as probably "shaken" and "waken" used in their -shortened or practically monosyllabic value. Nothing in the least -incalculable, eccentric, or even difficult, on the foot system.) - - -XXXIX. NINETEENTH-CENTURY COUPLET (LEIGH HUNT TO MR. SWINBURNE) - -(The examples given will be found to be all more or less of the -enjambed variety. Not only has the other been much less practised, -owing to reaction from the over-fondness of the eighteenth century -for it, but that century, including the period of throwing back to -Dryden,[46] practically found out all its considerable but limited -possibilities.) - -(_a_) Leigh Hunt (_Story of Rimini_): - - Āll thĕ | sweet range-wood, flowerbed, grassy plot - Francesca loved, but most of all this spot. - Whenever she walk'd forth, wherever went - About the grounds, to this at last she bent: - Here she had brought a lute | ānd ă | few books. - Here would she lie for hours, | ōftĕn | with looks - More sorrowful by far, yet sweeter too; - Sometimes with firmer comfort, where she drew - From sense of in|jŭry̆'s sēlf | and truth sustained, - Sometimes with rarest indignation gained, - From meek, self-pitying mixtures of extremes, - Of hope, and soft despair, and child|lī̆ke drēams, - And all that promising calm smile we see - In Nature's face when we look patiently. - -(Various substitutions marked, as also in the following.) - -(_b_) Keats (_Endymion_): - - At this, from every side they hurried in, - Rubbing their sleepy eyes with lazy wrists, - And doubling over head their little fists - In backward yawns. But all were soon alive: - For as delicious wine doth, sparkling, dive - In nectar'd clouds and curls through water fair, - So from the arbour roof down swell'd an air - Ō̆dō̆r|ous and | enli|vening; mak|ing all - To laugh, and play, and sing, and loudly call - For their sweet queen: when lo! the wreathed green - Disparted, and far upward could be seen - Blue heaven, and a silver car, air-borne, - Whose silent wheels, fresh wet from clouds of morn, - Spun off a drizzling dew,--which falling chill - On soft Adonis' shoulders, made him still - Nestle and turn uneasily about. - -(As in the seventeenth-century patterns, not much equivalence:--the -paragraph effect, produced by enjambment and varied pause, being -chiefly relied on to prevent monotony. Later, in _Lamia_, Keats tried, -after study of Dryden, a less fluent pattern, with stop as well as -enjambment, Alexandrine, and triplet.) - -(_c_) Browning (_Sordello_): - - As, shall I say, some Ethiop, past pursuit - Of all enslavers, dips a shackled foot, - Burnt to the blood, into the drowsy black - Enormous watercourse which guides him back - To his own tribe again, where he is king; - And laughs because he guesses, numbering - The yellower poison-wattles on the pouch - Of the first lizard wrested from its couch - Under the slime (whose skin, the while, he strips - To cure his nostril with, and festered lips, - And eyeballs bloodshot through the desert-blast), - That he has reached its boundary, at last - May breathe;--thinks o'er enchantments of the South - Sovereign to plague his enemies, their mouth, - Eyes, nails, and hair; but, these enchantments tried - In fancy, puts them soberly aside - For truth, projects a cool return with friends, - The likelihood of winning more amends - Ere long; thinks that, takes comfort silently, - Then, from the river's brink, his wrongs and he, - Hugging revenge close to their hearts, are soon - Off-striding for the Mountains of the Moon. - -(Practically a long blank-verse paragraph with the addition of rhyme, -which sometimes almost escapes notice.) - -(_d_) M. Arnold (_Tristram and Iseult_): - - The young surviving Iseult, one bright day, - Had wander'd forth. Her children were at play - In a green cir|cular hol|low in the heath - Which borders the sea-shore--a country path - Creeps over it from the till'd fields behind. - The hollow's grassy banks are soft-inclined, - And to one standing on them, far and near - The lone unbroken view spreads bright and clear - Over the waste. This cirque of open ground - Is light and green; the heather, which āll rōund - Creeps thickly, grows not here; but the pale grass - Is strewn with rocks, and many a shiver'd mass - Of vein'd white-gleaming quartz, and here and there - Dōttĕd with holly-trees and juniper. - -(An admirable following of Keats's model; the rhymes not too much -kept out of view, and suggestions of trochaic and spondaic as well as -trisyllabic substitution deftly used. For some strange reason he never -returned to it, but left it for William Morris to develop, completely -and most effectively, in _Jason_ and _The Earthly Paradise_.) - -(_e_) Tennyson very seldom tried the couplet, but when he did, as in -"The Vision of Sin," he achieved it magnificently: - - I had a vision when the night was late: - A youth came riding toward a palace gate. - He rode a horse with wings, that would have flown - But that his heavy rider kept him down. - And from the palace came a child of sin, - And took him by the curls and led him in, - Where sat a company with heated eyes, - Expecting when a fountain should arise: - A sleepy light upon their brows and lips-- - As when the sun, a crescent of eclipse, - Dreams over lake and lawn, and isles and capes-- - Suffused them, sitting, lying, languid shapes, - By heaps of gourds, and skins of wine, and piles of grapes. - -(Observe how fine this couplet is, and how _personal_. We have seen how -Keats studied Dryden: this is as if Dryden had studied Keats.) - -(_f_) Mr. Swinburne (_Tristram of Lyonesse_): - - Love, that is first and last of all things made, - The light that has the living world for shade, - The spirit that for tem|poral veil | has on - The souls of all men, wo|ven in un|ison, - One fi|ery rai|ment with all lives inwrought - And lights of sun|ny and star|ry deed and thought. - -(In this splendid metre the characteristics of stopped and enjambed -couplet are to a great extent combined. Considerable anapæstic -substitution to gain speed.) - - -XL. NINETEENTH-CENTURY BLANK VERSE (WORDSWORTH TO MR. SWINBURNE) - -(_a_) Wordsworth ("Yew Trees"): - - Beneath whose sable roof - Of boughs, as if for festal purpose, decked - With unrejoicing berries--ghostly shapes - May meet at noontide; Fear and trembling Hope, - Sīlĕnce | and Foresight, Death the Skeleton - And Time the Shadow;--there to celebrate, - As in a na|tural tem|ple scattered o'er - With altars undisturbed of mossy stone, - United worship; or in mute repose - To lie, and listen to the mountain flood - Murmuring | from Glaramara's inmost caves. - -(The student should notice the difference, slight but distinctly -perceptible, from the Miltonic model.) - -(_b_) Shelley (_Alastor_): - - Soft mossy lawns - Beneath these canopies extend their swells, - Fragrant with perfumed herbs, and eyed with blooms - Minute yet beautiful. One darkest glen - Sends from its woods of musk-rose, twined with jas|mine, - A soul-dissolving odour, to invite - To some more lovely mys|tery. Through | the dell, - Silence and Twilight here, twin-sisters, keep - Their noonday watch, and sail among the shades, - Like va|porous shapes | half seen; beyond, a well, - Dark, gleaming, and of most translucent wave, - Images all the woven boughs above, - And each depending leaf, and every speck - Of azure sky, darting between their chasms, - -(There are actually seven lines more before the paragraph comes at once -to a line-end and a full stop in punctuation. Note also the Thomsonian -mid-stops; the Wordsworthian atmosphere (cf. citation above); the -actual or suggested trisyllables; the actual redundance in "jas|mine," -and the suggested one in "chas|m.") - -(_c_) Browning--early (_Pauline_): - - Sun-treader!--life and light be thine for ever! - Thou art gone from us; years go by, and spring - Gladdens, and the young earth is beautiful, - Yet thy songs come not, other bards arise, - But none like thee: they stand, thy majesties, - Like mighty works which tell some spirit there - Hath sat regardless of neglect and scorn, - Till, its long task completed, it hath risen - And left us, never to return, and all - Rush in to peer and praise when all in vain. - The air seems bright with thy past presence yet, - But thou art still for me as thou hast been - When I have stood with thee as on a throne - With all thy dim creations gathered round - Like mountains, and I felt of mould like them, - And with them creatures of my own were mixed, - Like things half-lived, catching and giving life. - -(Wordsworthian-Shelleyan, but with a greater touch of dramatic -soliloquy in it. Redundance, but no trisyllabics.) - -(_d_) Browning--later (_Mr. Sludge_, "_The Medium_"): - - O|ver the way - Holds Captain Sparks his court:| is it bet|ter there? - Have you not hunting-stories, scalping-scenes, - And Mex|ican War | exploits to swallow plump - If you'd be free | o' the stove-|side, rocking-chair, - And tri|o of af|fable daugh|ters? Doubt succumbs! - . . . . . . . - Yet screwed him into henceforth gulling you - To the top | o' your bent,|--all out of one half-lie! - -(This unhesitating trisyllabic substitution sometimes reaches the very -dangerous adjustment of trochee-anapæst, as in-- - - Gūilty̆ | fŏr thĕ whīm's | sā̆ke! Gūil|ty̆ hĕ sōme|how thinks. - - _The Ring and the Book._) - -(_e_) Tennyson--early (_Lover's Tale_): - - Glēams ŏf the water-circles as they broke, - Flīckĕred | like doubtful smiles about her lips, - Qūivĕred | a flying glory in her hair, - Lēapt lĭke a passing thought across her eyes. - And mine, with one that will not pass till earth - And heaven pass too, dwell on _my_ heaven--a face - Most starry fair, but kindled from within - As 'twere with dawn. - -(Substitution trochaic only, except for "heaven"--always ambiguous in -value.) - -(_f_) Tennyson--standard middle (_Ulysses_): - - There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail: - There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners, - Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me-- - That ever with a frolic welcome took - The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed - Free hearts, free foreheads--you and I are old; - Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; - Death closes all: but something ere the end, - Some work of noble note, may yet be done, - Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. - The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: - The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep - Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, - 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. - Push off, and sitting well in order smite - The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds - To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths - Of all the western stars, until I die. - It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: - It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, - And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. - Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' - We are not now that strength which in old days - Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; - One equal temper of heroic hearts, - Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will - To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. - -(Verse-paragraph completely achieved by variation of pause and -different weighting of line, with, again, little or no trisyllabic -substitution.) - -Tennyson--later (_The Holy Grail_): - - "There rose a hill that none but man could climb, - Scarr'd with a hundred wintry wa|tercourses-- - Storm at the top, and when we gain'd it, storm - Round us and death; for ev|ery mo|ment glanced - His silver arms and gloom'd: so quick and thick - The lightnings here and there to left and right - Struck, till the dry old trunks about us, dead, - Yea, rotten with a hundred years of death, - Sprang into fi|re: and at | the base we found - On either hand, as far as eye could see, - A great black swamp and of an evil smell, - Part black, part whiten'd with the bones of men, - Not to be crost, save that some ancient king - Had built a way, where, link'd with many a bridge, - A thousand piers ran into the great Sea. - And Ga|lahad fled | along them bridge by bridge, - And ev|ery bridge | as quickly as he crost - Sprang into fire and vanish'd, tho' I yearn'd - To fol|low; and thrice | above him all the heavens - Open'd and blazed with thunder such as seem'd - Shoutings of all the sons of God: and first - At once I saw him far on the great Sea, - In silver-shining armour starry-clear; - And o'er his head the Holy Vessel hung - Clothed in white samite or a lu|minous cloud. - And with exceeding swiftness ran the boat, - If boat it were--I saw not whence it came. - And when the heavens o|pen'd and blazed | again - Roaring, I saw him like a silver star-- - And had he set the sail, or had the boat - Become a living creature clad with wings? - And o'er his head the Holy Vessel hung - Redder than any rose, a joy to me, - For now I knew the veil had been withdrawn. - Then in a moment when they blazed again - Opening, I saw the least of little stars - Down on the waste, and straight beyond the star - I saw | the spiri|tual cit|y and all | her spires - And gateways in a glory like one pearl-- - No larger, tho' the goal of all the saints-- - Strike from the sea; and from the star there shot - A rose-red sparkle to the cit|y, and there - Dwelt, and I knew it was the Holy Grail, - Which never eyes on earth again shall see." - -(Paragraph still more ambitious and elaborate, with much trisyllabic -substitution and some redundance.) - - -XLI. THE NON-EQUIVALENCED OCTOSYLLABLE OF KEATS AND MORRIS - -(_a_) Keats (_Eve of St. Mark_): - - Upon a Sabbath day it fell; - Twice holy was the Sabbath-bell, - That called the folk to evening-prayer; - The city streets were clean and fair - From wholesome drench of April rains; - And on the western window-panes - The chilly sunset faintly told - Of unmatured green valleys cold, - Of the green thorny bloomless hedge, - Of rivers new with spring-tide sedge, - Of primroses by sheltered rills, - And daisies on the aguish hills. - Twice holy was the Sabbath-bell: - The silent streets were crowded well - With staid and pious companies, - Warm from their fire-side orat'ries, - And moving, with demurest air, - To even-song and vesper prayer. - Each archèd porch, and entry low, - Was filled with patient folk and slow, - With whispers hush, and shuffling feet, - While played the organ loud and sweet. - -(_b_) Morris (_The Ring given to Venus_): - - By then his eyes were opened wide. - Already up the grey hillside - The backs of two were turned to him: - One, like a young man tall and slim, - Whose heels with rosy wings were dight; - One like a woman clad in white, - With glittering wings of many a hue, - Still changing, and whose shape none knew. - In aftertime would Laurence say - That though the moonshine, cold and grey, - Flooded the lonely earth that night, - These creatures in the moon's despite - Were coloured clear, as though the sun - Shone through the earth to light each one-- - And terrible was that to see. - -(Here the effect is entirely achieved by dividing the couplets, with -full stops or strong pauses at the end of the first line, and running -the sense of the second into the first of the next; by considerable -variations of internal pause, and by placing emphatic or brightly -coloured words at different spots. Equivalence is practically limited -to such things as "glittering," "aguish," "many a," etc., where it is -at minimum strength.) - - -XLII. THE CONTINUOUS ALEXANDRINE (DRAYTON AND BROWNING) - -(_a_) Drayton (_Polyolbion_): - - Whenas the pliant Muse, with fair and even flight, - Betwixt her silver wings is wafted to the Wight,-- - That Isle, which jutting out into the sea so far, - Her offspring traineth up in exercise of war; - Those pirates to put back, that oft purloin her trade, - Or Spaniards or the French attempting to invade. - Of all the southern isles she holds the highest place, - And evermore hath been the great'st in Britain's grace. - Not one of all her nymphs her sovereign fav'reth thus, - Embracèd in the arms of old Oceanus. - For none of her account so near her bosom stand, - 'Twixt Penwith's furthest point and Goodwin's queachy sand. - -(_b_) Browning (_Fifine at the Fair_): - - O trip and skip, Elvire! Link arm in arm with me! - Like husband and like wife, together let us see - The tumbling troop arrayed, the strollers on their stage, - Drawn up and under arms, and ready to engage. - -(Printing of lines disjoined to show the _extra_ stress which Browning -lays on the middle pause, and which, though not universal, is general -throughout the poem. The case is rather the other way with Drayton. -He _observes_ the pause, which is indeed the law of the line; but he -does not seem to avail himself of it much as a prosodic or rhetorical -instrument.) - - -XLIII - -_The Dying Swan_ of Tennyson, scanned entirely through to show the -application of the system. (It brings out a scheme of _dimeters_ wholly -iambic at the lowest rate of substitution, wholly anapæstic at the -highest, mixed between. A few instances occur of the other usual and -regular licences--trochaic and spondaic substitution, monosyllabic feet -(_or_ catalexis) and one or two of brachycatalexis, three feet instead -of four. And it is to be specially noted that the poet uses these, not -at random, but so as to swell and raise his rhythm, proportionately -and progressively, from the slow motion and scanty syllabising of the -opening scene-stanza to the "flood of eddying song" at the close. This -process is entirely unaccounted for on the bare "four-stress" system.) - -I. - - Thĕ plāin | wă̄s grāss|y̆, wīld | ănd bāre, - Wīde, wīld, | ănd ō|pĕn tō | thĕ āir. - Whīch | hăd būilt | ŭp ēv|ĕry̆whēre - Ăn ūn|d̆er-rōof | ŏf dōle|fŭl grāy. - Wĭth ăn īn|nĕr vōice | thĕ rīv|ĕr rān, - Ădōwn | ĭt flōat|ĕd ă dȳ|ĭng swān, | - Ănd lōud|ly̆ dīd | lămēnt. - Ĭ̄t wă̄s | thĕ mīd|dlĕ ōf | thĕ dāy. - Ēvĕr | thĕ wēa|ry̆ wīnd wĕnt ōn, - Ăn]d tōok | thĕ rēed-|tōps ā̆s |ĭt wēnt. - -II. - - Sŏ̄me ¦ blŭ̄e | pēaks ¦ ĭ̄n | thĕ dīs|tănce rōse, - Ănd whīte | ăgāinst | thĕ cōld-|whīte skȳ, - Shŏne ōut | thĕir crōwn|ĭng snōws. - Ŏne wīl|lŏw ō|vĕr thĕ rīv|ĕr wēpt, - Ănd shōok |thĕ wāve | ăs thĕ wīnd | dĭd sīgh; - Ăbōve | ĭn thĕ wīnd | wăs thĕ swāl|low, - Chās¦ĭng | ĭtsēlf | ăt ĭts ōwn | wīld wīll, - Ănd fār | thrŏ' thĕ mār|ĭsh grēen | ănd stīll | - Thĕ tān|glĕd wā|tĕr-cōur|sĕs slēpt, - Shŏt ō|vĕr wĭth pūr|plĕ ănd grēen, | ănd yēl|low. - -III. - - Thĕ wīld | swă̄n's dēath-|hy̆mn tōok | thĕ sōul - Ŏf thāt | wāste plāce | wĭth jōy - Hīddĕn | ĭn sōr|rŏw: ăt fīrst | tŏ thĕ ēar - Thĕ wār|blĕ wăs lōw, | ănd fūll | ănd clēar; - Ănd flōat|ĭng ăbōut | thĕ ūn|dĕr-skȳ, - Prĕvāil|ĭng ĭn wēak|nĕss, thĕ cōr|ŏnăch stōle - Sōme|tĭmes ăfār, | ănd sōme|tĭmes ănēar; - Bŭt ănōn | hĕr āw|fŭl jū|bĭlănt vōice, - Wĭth ă mū|sĭc strānge | ănd mān|ĭfōld, - Flōw'd fōrth | ŏn ă cār|ŏl frēe | ănd bōld; - Ăs whēn | ă mīht|y̆ pēo|plĕ rĕjōice - Wĭth shāwms, | ănd wĭth cȳm|băls, ănd hārps | ŏf gōld, - Ănd thĕ tū|mŭlt ŏf thēir | ăcclāim | ĭs rōll'd - Thrŏ' thĕ ō|pĕn gātes | ŏf thĕ cī|ty̆ ăfār, - Tŏ thĕ shēp|hĕrd whŏ wātch|ĕth thĕ ē|vĕnīng stār. - Ănd thĕ crēep]|ĭng mōss|ĕs ănd clām|bĕrĭng wēeds, - Ānd thĕ wīl|lŏw-brān|chĕs hōar | ănd dānk, - Ănd thĕ wā|vy̆ swēll | ŏf thĕ sōugh|ĭng rēeds, - Ănd thĕ wāve-|wōrn hōrns | ŏf thĕ ēch|ŏĭng bānk, - Ănd thĕ sīl|vĕry̆ mār|ĭsh-flōwers | thăt thrōng - Thĕ dē|sŏlăte crēeks | ănd pōols | ămōng, - Wĕre flōod|ĕd ō|vĕr wĭth ēd|dy̆ĭng sōng. - -This piece, with the "Hollyhock" (_v. sup._ p. 27), Blake's "Mad Song" -(§ XXXV.), Shelley's "Cloud" (note, p. 100), and the _Christabel_ -selections (§ XXXVIII.), will almost completely exemplify substitution -in lyric. But the germ is far older--in Shakespeare, in "E.I.O.," and -even in pieces earlier still. - - -XLIV. THE STAGES OF THE METRE OF "DOLORES" AND THE DEDICATION OF "POEMS -AND BALLADS" - -This remarkable measure illustrates, with especial appositeness, the -natural history of metrical evolution, and so may be dealt with more -fully as a specimen. There can be little doubt that its original, or -the earliest form to which it can be traced, is the split Alexandrine -or three-foot iambic, which appears in the French of Philippe de Thaun, -and in several English poems, such as the _Bestiary_, translated from -Philippe's-- - - After | him he | filleth, - Drageth | dust with | his stert, - -and as even _King Horn_. But this gives far too little room in -English; and the rhymes, when rhyme is introduced, come too quick. -Substitution of trisyllabic feet remedies both faults; while the actual -six, with _interchanged_ rhyme, gives beautiful work, though the lines -are still rather short: - - With lon|gyng y | am lad, - On mol|de I wax|e mad, - a maid|e mar|reth me; - Y grede, | y grone, | un-glad, - For sel|den y | am sad - that sem|ly for | te se; - Levedi, | thou rew|e me, - To rou|the thou havest | me rad; - Be bote | of that | y bad, - My lyf | is long | on the. - (Wright's _Specimens of Lyric Poetry_, No. vii.) - -This shortness kept it back, more especially when the fear of _mainly_ -trisyllabic measures came in after the fifteenth-century anarchy. But -as soon as that fear disappeared, and the anapæst forced itself into -general use, logic, assisted by tune, suggested a cutting down of the -popular dimeter or four-foot anapæstic line to three. This, for a long -time, maintained itself in strict literature without much variety -of structure, as, at different times, is shown by Shenstone in the -well-known-- - - Since Phyl|lis vouchsafed | me a look, - I nev|er once dreamt | of my vine; - May I lose | both my pipe | and my crook, - If I know | of a kid | that is mine; - -and by Cowper in the still better known "Alexander Selkirk" lines-- - - I am mon|arch of all | I survey, - My right | there is none | to dispute: - From the cen|tre all round | to the sea - I am lord | of the fowl | and the brute; - -and in "Catherina"-- - - She came-- | she is gone-- | we have met, - And meet | perhaps nev|er again: - The sun | of that mo|ment is set - And seems | to have ris|en in vain. - -Now, though these lines are pretty, they are exposed to the charge -of being pretty sing-song, and monotonous jingle. But this had, long -before Cowper, been to a great extent remedied, though for comic -purposes only or mainly, in such things as Gay's "Molly Mog," quoted -above, and Chesterfield-Pulteney's - - Had I Hanover, Bremen, and Ver|den, - And likewise the Duchy of Zell, - I would part with them all for a far|thing, - To have my dear Molly Lepell! - -(Pronounce "Verden" with the proper English value of _er_, and give -"farthing" its then correct form of "farden," and the rhyme will be -spotless.) - -What it was that made Byron take this up for a serious purpose in the -lines to Haidee (before _Don Juan_) is not, I believe, known: - - I en|ter thy gar|den of ro|ses, - Belov|ed and fair | Haidee, - Each morn|ing where Flo|ra repo|ses, - For sure|ly I see | her in thee. - -The gain here, from the redundant syllable and double rhyme in the odd -lines, and from a rather more frequent use of _dissyllabic_ feet to -prevent monotony, is immense. Praed adopted the measure, and improved -it still further, in his admirable "Letter of Advice": - - Remem|ber the thrill|ing roman|ces - We read | on the bank | in the glen; - Remem|ber the suit|ors our fan|cies - Would pic|ture for both | of us then. - They wore | the red cross | on their shoul|der, - They had van|quished and par|doned their foe-- - Sweet friend, | are you wi|ser or cold|er? - My own | Aramin|ta, say "No!" - -And then Mr. Swinburne had the probably final inspiration of shortening -the last line to two feet (or an anapæstic monometer), with an -astonishing result of added and finished music: - - Though the ma|ny lights dwin|dle to one | light, - There is help | if the heav|en has one, - Though the skies | be discrowned | of the sun|light, - And the earth | dispossessed | of the sun, - They have moon|light and sleep | for repay|ment - When, refreshed | as a bride | and set free, - With stars | and sea-winds | in her rai|ment, - Night sinks | on the sea. - - -XLV. LONG METRES OF TENNYSON, BROWNING, MORRIS, AND SWINBURNE - -(_a_) Tennyson (_The Lotos-Eaters_): - - For they | lie be|side their | nectar, | and the | bolts are | hurl'd - Fār bĕ|lōw thĕm | īn thĕ | vāllĕys, | ānd thĕ | clōuds ăre | līghtly̆ | - curl'd - Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world, - Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands, - Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery - sands, - Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships, and praying - hands. - -(Trochaic six- and seven-foot lines, always hypercatalectic, or, in -stricter language, trochaic trimeters hypercatalectic and tetrameters -catalectic.) - -At the close the poet avails himself of the iambic alternative which is -so effective, and has a pure fourteener: - - Ŏ̄ rēst | yĕ, brō|thĕr mā|rĭnērs, | wĕ wīll | nŏt wān|dĕr mōre. | - -(There is no trisyllabic substitution.) - -(_b_) Tennyson (_Maud_): - - Cōld ănd clēar-cŭt fāce, why̆ cōme yŏu sŏ crūelly̆ mēek, - Brēakĭng ă slūmbĕr ĭn whīch āll splēenfŭl fōlly̆ wăs drōwn'd, - Pāle wĭth thĕ gōldĕn bēam ŏf ăn ēyelăsh dēad ŏn thĕ chēek, - Passionless, pale, cold face, star-sweet on a gloom profound; - Womanlike, taking revenge too deep for a transient wrong - Done but in thought to your beauty, and ever as pale as before - Growing and fading and growing upon me without a sound, - Luminous, gemlike, ghostlike, deathlike, half the night long - Growing and fading and growing, till I could bear it no more, - Bŭt ărōse, and all by myself in my own dark garden ground, - Listening now to the tide in its broad-flung shipwrecking roar, - Now to the scream of a madden'd beach dragg'd down by the wave, - Walk'd in a wintry wind by a ghastly glimmer, and found - Thĕ shīning daffodil dead, and Orion low in his grave. - -(A rather deceptive metre; for which reason foot-division has been -postponed above.) It may look at first sight like a trochaic run, but -this will be found not to fit. Then hexameters of the _Evangeline_ -type, with a syllable cut off at the end, suggest themselves; but it -will be seen that some openings make this very bad. It is really a -six-foot anapæst with the usual allowance of iambic substitution and of -monosyllabic ("anacrustic") beginning, as thus: - - Cold | and clear-|cut face, | why come | you so cru|elly meek, - . . . . . . . - But arose, | and all | by myself | in my own | dark gar|den ground, - . . . . . . . - The shin|ing daf|fodil dead,| and Ori|on low | in his grave. - -(_c_) Tennyson (_Voyage of Maeldune_): - - And we came | to the Isle | of Flowers: | their breath | met us out | - on the seas, - For the Spring | and the mid|dle Sum|mer sat each | on the lap | - of the breeze; - And the red | passion-flower | to the cliffs, | and the dark-|blue - clem|atis, clung, - And starr'd | with a myr|iad blos|som the long | convol|vulus hung. - -(Same metre, but almost purely anapæstic; the central pause frequently -strong.) - -(_d_) Tennyson (_Kapiolani_) - - When ¦ from the | ter¦rors of | Na¦ture a | peo¦ple have | fash¦ioned - and | wor¦ship a | spir¦it of | E¦vil. - -(Apparently intended for a dactylic _octometer_. Like all these things -in English, it probably goes better as anapæstic with anacrusis and -hypercatalexis. See dotted scansion.) - -(_e_) Browning (_Abt Vogler_): - - Would ¦ that the | struc¦ture | brave, ¦ the | man¦ifold | mu¦sic I | - build,¦ - Bid¦ding my | or¦gan o|bey, ¦| call¦ing its |keys ¦ to their | work, - Claim¦ing each | slave ¦ of the | sound ¦ at a | touch, ¦ as when | - So¦lomon | willed - Ar¦mies of | an¦gels that | soar, ¦| le¦gions of | de¦mons that | - lurk. - Man, brute, ¦| reptile, ¦| fly, ¦|| alien ¦ of | end ¦ and of | aim, - Ad¦verse | each ¦ from the | oth¦er, | hea¦ven-high ¦ hell-¦deep - re|moved, - Should rush ¦ into sight ¦ at once ¦ as he named ¦ the ineff¦able name, - And pile ¦ him a pal¦ace straight, ¦ to plea¦sure the prin¦cess he - loved. - -(Note the alliteration.) - -At first, as you read this, you can, if your ears are accustomed -to classical metres, have no doubt about the scheme. It is simply -the regular elegiac couplet "accentually" rendered in English, with -the abscission of the last syllable of the hexameter--a catalectic -hexameter and a pentameter acatalectic. For the first four lines of -the first octave there is no doubt at all. But when you get on to -the second half you are pulled up. In the fifth and sixth lines the -pentameter seems to have got to the first place, and the seventh is -no more a hexameter than the eighth is its proper companion. For a -moment you may fancy that this was intended--that the poet meant -octaves of two different parts. But when you look at the other stanzas -you will find that this is by no means the case. Truncated elegiac -cadence appears, reappears, disappears in the most bewildering fashion, -till you recognise--sooner or later according to your prosodic -experience--that it was only simulated cadence after all, a sort of -leaf-insect rhythm, and that the whole thing (as marked by the dotted -scansion lines) is in six-foot anapæsts equivalenced daringly, but -quite legitimately, with monosyllabic and dissyllabic feet. - -(_f_) W. Morris ("The Wind"): - - Ah! | no, no, | it is no|thing, sure|ly no|thing, at all, - On|ly the wild-|going wind | round | by the gar|den wall, - For the dawn | just now | is break|ing, the wind | begin|ning to fall. - _Wind, wind, | thou art | sad, art | thou kind? - Wind, | wind, | unhap|py! thou | art blind, - Yet still | thou wan|derest | the lil|y-seed | to find._ - -(First three lines six-foot (trimeter) anapæsts with full substitution. -Refrain a graded "wheel" of four, four _or_ five, and six iambic feet.) - -(_g_) Morris (_Love is Enough_): - - Such words shall my ghost see the chronicler writing - In the days that shall be--ah!--what would'st more, my fosterling? - Knowest thou not how words fail us awaking, - That we seemed to hear plain amid sleep and its sweetness. - -(Intentionally irregular "accentual" lines, but with an anapæstic -or amphibrachic "under-hum." There is a good deal of alliteration -elsewhere, and some here.) - -(_h_) Morris (_Sigurd_ metre, but the actual example from _The House of -the Wolfings_): - - Thou sayest it, I am outcast: || for a God that lacketh mirth - Hath no more place in God-home || and never a place on earth. - A man grieves, and he gladdens, || or he dies and his grief is gone; - But what of the grief of the Gods? and || the sorrow never undone? - Yea, verily, I am the outcast. || When first in thine arms I lay, - On the blossoms of the woodland || my godhead passed away; - Thenceforth unto thee I was looking || for the light and the glory of - life, - And the Gods' doors shut behind me || till the day of the uttermost - strife. - And now thou hast taken my soul, thou || wilt cast it into the night, - And cover thine head with the darkness || and cover thine eyes from the - light. - Thou would'st go to the empty country || where never a seed is sown, - And never a deed is fashioned || and the place where each is alone; - But I thy thrall shall follow, || I shall come where thou seem'st to - lie, - I shall sit on the howe that hides thee, || and thou so dear and nigh! - A few bones white in their war-gear, || that have no help or thought, - Shall be Thiodolf the Mighty, || so nigh, so dear--and nought! - -(A splendid construction from older and newer examples. Strongly -stressed, strictly middle-paused, but perfectly regular anapæstic -sixes, with substitution _and a hypercatalectic syllable or half foot -at the pause_.) - -(_i_) Mr. Swinburne (_Hesperia_ and _Evening on the Broads_). - -The first line of _Hesperia_ is practically a Kingsleyan hexameter (_v. -inf._) of the very best kind-- - - Out | of the gold|en remote | wild west | where the sea | - without shore | is; - -while the second-- - - Full of the sunset and sad ¦ if at ¦ all with the fulness of joy, - -is a pentameter of similar mould, with the centre gap cunningly filled -in by the two short stitches "if at," capable, as you see below in - - Thee I beheld as bird ¦ borne ¦ in with the wind from the west, - -of being duly equivalenced with one long stitch, like "borne." Yet -the second line is capable also of being scanned exactly as the -first--anacrusis and five anapæests--but without the final redundance -or hypercatalexis; and in other long lines you will find that the -principle of equivalence is preserved throughout--that two shorts, as in - - Ăs ă wind | blows in | from the au|tumn that blows | from the re|gion - of stories, - -defeat the hexametrical movement, and pull off the mask at the -beginning, though it returns at the end. The metre is really anapæstic -throughout. And in _Evening on the Broads_ the poet has carried this -further still, providing in some cases regular apparent elegiacs: - - O|ver the ¦ sha|dowless ¦ wa|ters a¦drift | as a ¦ pin|nace ¦ - in per|il, - Hangs | as in ¦ hea|vy sus¦pense || charged | with ir¦re|solute ¦ - light. - -(_j_) Mr. Swinburne (_Choriambics_): - - Lōve, whăt | āiled thĕe tŏ lēave | līfe thăt wăs māde | lōvely̆ wĕ - thōught | wĭth lōve?-- - -(_k_) Mr. Swinburne (other long anapæstic and trochaic measures): - - If again | from the night | or the twi|light of a|ges Aris|tophanes | - had ari|sen. - . . . . . . . - That the sea | was not love|lier than here | was the land, nor the - night | than the day, | nor the day | than the night. - . . . . . . . - Night is | utmost | noon, for|lorn and | strong, with | heart a|thirst - and | fasting. - . . . . . . . - Till the dark|ling desire | of delight | shall be far, | as a fawn | - that is free | from the fangs | that pursue | her. - -(These are respectively seven-foot anapæsts with redundance -(anapæstic tetrameter catalectic); ditto eight-foot (tetrameter -acatalectic); trochaic tetrameter acatalectic; and anapæstic tetrameter -hypercatalectic (eight feet and a half).) - - -XLVI. THE LATER SONNET - -(To illustrate the strict octave and sextet pattern with final rhymes -adjusted on the Italian pattern.) - -Dante Rossetti: - - Under the arch of Life, where love and death, - Tērrŏr and mys|tĕry̆, gūard | her shrine, I saw - Beauty enthroned; and though her gaze struck awe, - I drew it in as simply as my breath. - Hers are the eyes which, over and beneath - The sky and sea, bend o'er thee--which can draw - By sea, or sky, or woman, to one law - Thĕ ăllōt|ted burden of her palm and wreath. - - This is that Lady Beauty, in whose praise - Thy voice and hand shake still--long known to thee - By flying hair and flut|tĕrĭng hēm |--the beat - Fōllŏwĭng | her daily of thy heart and feet. - How pas|sĭonătelȳ | and irretrievably - In what fond flight, how many ways and days! - - -XLVII. THE VARIOUS ATTEMPTS AT "HEXAMETERS" IN ENGLISH - -(_a_) Earlier (Elizabethan): - - All travel|lers do | gladly re|port great | praise of U|lysses, - For that he | knew many | men's man|nĕrs and | saw many | cities. - - (Watson, ap. Asch. _Schoolmaster_, p. 73, ed. Arber.) - - But thē | Queene in | meane while | carks quan|dare deepe | anguisht, - Her wound | fed by Ve|nus, with | firebayt | smoldred is | hooked: - Thee wights | doughtye man|hood, leagd | with gen|tilytye | nobil, - His woords | fitlye | placed, with his | heunly | phisnomye | pleasing, - March throgh her | hert mas|tring, all in | her breste deepelye she | - printeth. - - (Stanyhurst, _Æn._ iv. 1-5, ed. Arber, p. 94.) - - What might I | call this | tree? A | Laurell? | O bonny | Laurell. - Needes to thy | bowes will I | bow this | knee and | vayle my bo|netto. - - (Harvey in letter to Spenser, _Eliz. Crit. Essays_, - ed. Gregory Smith, i. 106.) - - See yee the | blindefold|ēd pretie | god, that | feathered | archer - Of lo|vērs mise|ries || which maketh | his bloodie | game. - - (Spenser in letter to Harvey, _ibid._ i. 99.) - -(All these tried to _accommodate_--though sometimes rather -roughly--English pronunciation to such of the rules of Latin quantity, -by "nature" and "position," as could be applied. Some of them even -tried to make general rules for English quantity. But the wiser, from -Ascham to Campion, admitted that dactylic rhythm was difficult, if not -impossible, to keep up in our language.) - -(_b_) Later Georgian and Victorian. - -(1) Coleridge (Specimen _c._ 1799?): - - In ¦ the hex|am¦eter | ri¦ses the | foun¦tain's | sil¦very | col¦umn; - In ¦ the pen|ta¦meter | aye || fall¦ing in | mel¦ody | back. - -(A very fair attempt, but already showing the natural tendency of the -lines, when _poetically_ rhythmed, to anapæstic--the dotted--scansion.) - -(2) Southey (_Vision of Judgment_): - - 'Twas at that | sober | hour when the | light of | day is re|ceding - And from sur|rounding | things the | hues wherewith | day has a|dorned - them - Fade like the | hopes of | youth, till the | beauty of | - each has de|parted. - -(Anapæstic run avoided with some skill, save now and then; but at the -cost of weak beginnings, frequent, and admitted, substitution of -trochaic for spondaic effect, and, above all, as in line 1, an ugly -rocking-horse division into three batches of two feet each instead of -the proper 2-1/2 + 3-1/2 or 3-1/2 + 2-1/2.) - -(3) Longfellow (_Evangeline_): - - Long with|in had been | spread the | snow-white | cloth on the | table; - There stood the | wheaten | loaf, and the | honey | fragrant with | - wild flowers; - There stood the | tankard of | ale and the | cheese fresh | brought | - from the | dairy; - And at the | head of the | board the | great arm-|chair of the | - farmer. - Thus did Ev|angeline | wait at her | father's | door as the | sunset - Threw the long | shadows of | trees o'er the | broad am|brosial | - meadows. - Ah! on her | spirit with|in a | deeper | shadow had | fallen. - -(A popular, tunable sort of rhythm, obtained by a very large proportion -of dactyls--often really giving (and always when really good) the -anapæstic effect,--unhesitating adoption of trochees and even pyrrhics -for spondees, and not seldom the Southeyan split at feet 2 and 4. An -essentially _rickety_ measure.) - -(4) Clough--earlier (in the _Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich--Evangeline_ -type, but with more spondees and spondaic endings): - - I was quite | right last | night, it | is too sōon, tōo | sudden. - -(5) Later he attempted English "quantitative" things of this kind: - - Tō thĕ păl|āte grāte|ful; more | luscious | were not in | Eden; - -and - - Unto the | sweet flut|ing, girls, of a swarthy shĕphērd. - -This deliberate _neglect_ of pronunciation ("pălāte" for "pālăte," -"shĕphērd" for "shēphĕrd") has, in the last half-century or so, -developed itself into a still more deliberate crusade _against_ -pronunciation; it being supposed that a conflict of accent and quantity -has something attractive about it. Thus the late Mr. Stone wrote as a -hexameter: - - Is my | weary tră|vāil[47] end|ēd? Much | further is | īn store. - -(6) On the other hand, Kingsley's _Andromeda_--the best poem of -some length intended for English hexameters--is clearly, though not -consciously, anapæstic, as thus: - - O|ver the moun|tain aloft | ran a rush | and a roll | and a roar|ing - Down|ward the breeze | came malig|nant and leapt | with a howl | - to the wa|ter, - Roar|ing in cran|ny and crag | till the pil|lars and clefts | - of the ba|salt - Rang | like a god-|swept lyre. - -And Mr. Swinburne did the same thing (see above) consciously. - - -XLVIII. MINOR IMITATIONS OF CLASSICAL METRES - -(_a_) Sapphics (Watts): - - When the | fierce North-|wind with his | airy | forces - Bears up | the Bal|tic to a | foaming | fury, - And the | red light|ning with a | storm of | hail comes - Rushing a|main down. - -This illustrates--as do the pieces which it, beyond all doubt, -patterned, though in succession rather than directly (Cowper's "Hatred -and Vengeance," Southey's "Cold was the Night Wind," and Canning's -triumphant parody of this latter, the "Needy Knifegrinder")--the -unyokeableness of classical metres--when not merely iambic, trochaic, -or anapæstic--to English rhythm. The proper run of the Sapphic line is-- - - tumti-tumtum-tumtity-tumti-tum {-ti - {-tum; - -but this constantly in English, though not so much in the first line as -elsewhere, changes itself into - - { -tum - tumtity-tum { || tumtiti-titumty. - { -ti - -Mr. Swinburne has got it right, but only as a _tour de force_, and, as -in line 2, not always quite certainly. - - Saw the | white im|placable | Aphro|dite, - Saw the | hair un|bound and the | feet un|sandalled - Shine as | fire of | sunset on | western |waters, - Saw the re|luctant. - -But Southey and Canning always suggest the wrong: - - Shē hăd nŏ ¦ hōme, thē̆ ¦ wōrld wăs ăll ¦ bĕfōre hĕr, - -and - - Stōry̆, sĭr? ¦ Blēss yŏu! ¦ Ī hăve nŏne ¦ tŏ tēll yŏu; - -(_b_) Alcaics (Tennyson): - - O migh|ty-mouthed | in|ventor of | harmonies, - O skilled | to sing | of | Time or E|ternity, - God-gift|ed or|gan-voice | of Eng|land, - Milton, a | name to re|sound for | ages. - -(Correct, but not natural.) - -(_c_) Hendecasyllabics (Coleridge): - - Hear, my be|loved, an | old Mi|lesian | story!-- - High, and em|bosom'd in | congre|gated | laurels, - Glimmer'd a temple upon a breezy headland; - In the dim distance, amid the skiey billows, - Rose a fair island; the god of flocks had blest it. - -(These very pretty lines exhibit a most curious instance of the -unconscious force of the prosodic genius of a language. Coleridge was a -good classical scholar, and quite enough of a mathematician to know the -difference between 11 and 12. Yet every one of these _hendeca_syllabics -will be found to be a _dodeca_syllabic; the poet having substituted -(as in English prosody is quite allowable) an initial dactyl for the -dissyllabic foot of the original metre. Once more this shows the -English _impatience_ of classical form.) - -(_d_) Hendecasyllabics (Tennyson): - - O you chorus of indolent reviewers, - Irresponsible, indolent reviewers, - Look, I come to the test, a tiny poem - All composed in a metre of Catullus. - . . . . . . . - Hard, hard, hard is it, only not to tumble, - So fantastical is the dainty metre. - -A triumph, but a criticism as well, as its own ending shows: - - As some rare little rose, a piece of inmost - Horticultural art-- - -or "_versi_cultural" rather. - -(_e_) Galliambics. - -These have been tried splendidly by Tennyson in _Boadicea_, -interestingly by Mr. George Meredith in _Phaethon_, unsuccessfully by -the late Mr. Grant Allen in his version of the _Atys_ of Catullus. But -the metre is not quite plain sailing even in Greek and Latin, and it is -therefore better to leave it alone here and return to it in Glossary. - - -XLIX. IMITATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL FRENCH FORMS - -(_a_) Triolet: - - Rose kissed | me to-day. - Will she kiss | me to-mor|row? - Let it be | as it may, - Rose kissed | me to-day. - But the plea|sure gives way - To a sa|vour of sor|row;-- - Rose kissed | me to-day,-- - _Will_ she | kiss me to-morrow? - -(_b_) Rondeau: - - With pipe and flute the rustic Pan - Of old made music sweet for man; - And wonder hushed the warbling bird, - And closer drew the calm-eyed herd,-- - The rolling river slowlier ran. - - Ah! would,--ah! would, a little span, - Some air of Arcady could fan - This age of ours, too seldom stirred - With pipe and flute! - - But now for gold we plot and plan; - And from Beersheba unto Dan, - Apollo's self might pass unheard, - Or find the night-jar's note preferred;-- - Not so it fared, when time began, - With pipe and flute! - -(The number of lines in a rondeau is not immutable, nor is it in a -rondel, where the principle is the return of whole lines as in the -triolet, but, since the poem is longer, giving room for more _not_ -repeated matter.) - -(_c_) Ballade: - - Ship, to the roadstead rolled, - What dost thou?--O, once more - Regain the port. Behold! - Thy sides are bare of oar, - Thy tall mast wounded sore - Of Africus, and see, - What shall thy spars restore?-- - Tempt not the tyrant sea! - - What cable now will hold - When all drag out from shore? - What god canst thou, too bold, - In time of need implore? - Look! for thy sails flap o'er, - Thy stiff shrouds part and flee, - Fast--fast thy seams outpour,-- - Tempt not the tyrant sea! - - What though thy ribs of old - The pines of Pontus bore! - Not now to stern of gold - Men trust, or painted prore! - Thou, or thou count'st it store - A toy of winds to be, - Shun thou the Cyclads' roar,-- - Tempt not the tyrant sea! - -ENVOY. - - Ship of the State, before - A care, and now to me - A hope in my heart's core,-- - Tempt not the tyrant sea! - -(All these examples are Mr. Austin Dobson's, and inserted here by his -kind permission. It will be observed that the _lines_ follow general -English prosodic rules. It is only the stanza that is borrowed.) - - -L. LATER RHYMELESSNESS - -(_a_) M. Arnold (_The Strayed Reveller._ Words printed exactly as -original, except the added "_and_"; the also added brackets show the -unconscious decasyllabism): - - [Ever new magic! - Hast thou then lured hither,] - [Wonderful Goddess, by thy art, - The young], [languid-eyed Ampelus, - Iacchus' darling--] - . . . . . . . - [They see the Indian - Drifting, knife in hand,] - [His frail boat moor'd to - A floating isle thick-matted] - [With large-leaved [_and_] low-creeping melon-leaves,] - [_x_] And the dark cucumber. - [He reaps, and stows them, - Drifting--drifting;--round him, - [Round his green harvest-plot, - Flow the cool lake-waves,] - [_y_] The mountains ring them. - -(Here the first piece is three pure decasyllables, with redundance, -cut into five. The second requires only the addition of the italicised -"and" to make it a complete blank-verse passage with two shortened -lines or half-lines, _x_ and _y_, of the kind common in Shakespeare. -The poem is crammed with shorter stanza-pieces of the same kind.) - -(_b_) Mr. Henley ("Speed." Printed as original and as prose): - - Roads where the stalwart - Soldier of Cæsar - Put by his bread - And his garlic, and girding - [His conquering sword - To his unconquered thigh,] - Lay down in his armour, - And went to his Gods - By the way that he'd made. - - Roads where the stalwart soldier of Cæsar put by his - bread and his garlic, and girding [his conquering sword - to his unconquered thigh,] lay down in his armour, and - went to his Gods by the way he had made. - -(The decasyllable is not quite avoided even here, as in the bracketed -phrase. But the main point is that the thing reads perfectly well as -prose, with no obvious suggestion of metre at all.) - - -LI. SOME "UNUSUAL" METRES AND DISPUTED SCANSIONS - -Some measures of recent poets have been objected, or at least proposed, -as offering difficulties in respect of the system of this book. It has -therefore seemed well to scan them here. - -(_a_) Frederic Myers (_St. Paul_): - - Yēs, wī̆th|out ¦ cheer | of ¦ sis|ter ¦ or | of ¦ daugh|ter-- - Yēs, wī̆th|out ¦ stay | of ¦ fa|ther ¦ or | of ¦ son-- - Lōne ō̆n | the land | and home|less on | the water - Pāss Ī̆ | in pa|tience till | the work | be done. - -(There is nothing very peculiar or at all original in this, though it -was probably now first used continuously for a poem of some length. -It is only decasyllabic quatrain with uniform redundance in the first -and third lines, and a strong inclination to trochaic opening, which -in its turn suggests a primary dactyl and trochees to follow, as an -alternative (see dotted scansion). Examples of it anterior to Myers -may be found--commented on in the larger _History_ (vol. iii. 481)--in -_Zophiel_, very likely known to Myers, as he was much connected by -family friendship with the Lake School; in the famous poem - - From the lone sheiling on the misty island, - -the authorship of which has been so much contested; and in Emily -Bronte's _Remembrance_ (see again vol. iii. of _Hist. Pros._ p. 378), -of which he cannot possibly have been ignorant.[48] His own share in -the matter would seem to have been limited to the persevering adoption -of it in an unvaried form. Whether this be an advantage or not is a -question of taste: the prosodic description of the metre is clear and -in no way recondite.) - -(_b_) Ernest Dowson (_Cynara_) [_Non sum qualis eram_, etc.]: - - Last night, | ah! yes|ter night | betwixt | her lips | and mine - There fell | thy sha|dow, Cy|nara! | thy breath | was shed - Upon | my soul | between | the kiss|es and | the wine, - And I | was de|solate, | and sick | of an | old passion; - Yea, I | was de|solate | and bowed | my head. - I have | been faith|ful to | thee, Cy|nara, in my fashion. - -(Sextet of Alexandrines with decasyllable (or brachycatalexis) in the -5th line, and with hypercatalexis, redundance, or double rhyme in the -4th and 6th. An original collocation, so far as I know, but nothing -new or strange in principle. The actual poem is a rather beautiful -one; but how much is contributed to the beauty by the special metre is -another question. At any rate, once more, it has no difficulties for -foot-scansion.) - -(_c_) The universally known passage in _Macbeth_-- - - To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow, - -with the following lines, has also been proposed as a _crux_. But this -must have been a not very brilliant joke; and it would be an insult to -the student to scan the passage. It is one of the finest specimens -of Shakespearian equivalence and "fingered" blank verse, but offers -no more difficulties, on the system of this book, than any couplet -of Pope or any verse of the "Old Hundredth." On the other hand, many -passages of Shakespeare may not illegitimately puzzle the student if -he does not realise that, although (it is believed) every line which -is not corrupt can be scanned on our system, every line is by no means -an exact five-foot. In accordance with the best English practice, -older and newer, Shakespeare does not scruple to _extend_ his lines -to Alexandrines, and even to fourteeners, while the exigencies of -drama entitle him to use lines of _less_ than five full feet. _But all -these--the fragments as well as the extended lines--obey the general -law of iambic arrangement with substitution in individual feet._ Thus -in Lady Macbeth's invocation of the Spirits of Evil (I. v. 49)-- - - And take | my milk | for gall, | you mur|dering min|isters, - -is a regular Alexandrine. Her husband's hallucination-- - - I see thee yet, in form as palpable - As this | which now | I draw, - -stops in the second line at the third foot. Different lines of the -ghost's great speech in _Hamlet_ (I. v. 42-91) show the Alexandrine-- - - O, hor|rible! | O, hor|rible! | most hor|rible! - -and a fragment of two feet and a half-- - - All my | smooth bo|dy. - -If studied in this way, even the scenes where short speeches of the -conversational kind form the staple will be found to piece themselves -together perfectly well in continuous scansion. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[31] More will be found on this and the origin of other metres in Bk. -IV. - -[32] Or possibly - - Hwi nul|tu fa|re to | Nor[e]weie, - -which is more likely as to "farè" ("farè[n]"), and looks forward to the -fashion in which we now say "Norway," but "Gall_o_way." The remark will -extend to not a few other scansions. - -[33] For origin and explanation see Glossary. - -[34] See again Bk. IV. for fuller information on this. - -[35] The MS. has the contraction "Sēn." - -[36] As in "hips and haws." - -[37] From Spenser onward the spelling is modern. - -[38] Spenser here takes (as he sometimes continued to do even in -_F. Q._) the liberty of shifting the rhyming syllable. There is no -doubt that this is not a good liberty. But in struggling out of the -fifteenth-century slough Wyatt was constantly driven to it, and it -was not till the seventeenth that poets recognised the fact that the -easement was more of a disfigurement than it was worth. - -[39] "Fallen" is pretty certainly "fall'n." - -[40] For more on Shakespeare's blank verse see the close of this -chapter and the next Book. - -[41] For _Paradise Lost_, _Paradise Regained_, and _Samson Agonistes_, -_v. inf._ Book II. - -[42] For scanned examples of Shakespeare's complete prosodic grasp in -lyric, _v. inf._ pp. 182-3. - -[43] See Glossary, "Musical and Rhetorical Arrangements." - -[44] For more on the differences of his couplet and Dryden's, see next -Book. - -[45] Unrhymed termination as far as end-syllable goes. - -[46] See next Book. - -[47] I regret that in my larger _History_ (iii. 430-431) I did not -notice the misprint of "travel"; metrically, however, it makes no real -difference. - -[48] In fact, there are even much older examples, as in Cleveland's -_Mark Antony_ and some things of Dryden's, on one of their possible -scansions, see _Hist. Pros._ III. chap. iii. - - - - -BOOK II - -HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ENGLISH PROSODY - - - - -CHAPTER I - -FROM THE ORIGINS TO CHAUCER--THE CONSTITUTION OF ENGLISH VERSE[49] - - -[Sidenote: Relations of "Old" to "Middle" and "New" English] - -The main fact, at once central and fundamental--a pivot whereon the -whole structure at once rests and turns,--which it is necessary to -understand in order to understand English prosody, is connected -with--is indeed one side or case of--the other fact of the history -of English language and English literature. So far as is known to -the present writer, no other language and no other literature stand -in precisely the same condition, as regards the relation of their -technically "Old," "Middle," and "New" or "Modern" forms. The relation -of what is called "Old" French to Modern is not that of "Old" English -to Modern, but rather that of "Middle," if not a closer one still. And -though "High" and "Low" German have had their various stages separated -for philological purposes, the Continental Teutonic dialects have -never undergone anything like the process of modification by Romance -influence, older and younger, popular and literary, which turned -Anglo-Saxon into English between the eleventh and the thirteenth -centuries. - -[Sidenote: generally,] - -This process was one not so much--if indeed it was one at all--of -conscious borrowing: it was one not so much of deliberate imitation -(though there was much of that in a way) as one of actual physical -impregnation, fertilising, blending, which resulted in a true and -permanent "cross" or "hybrid perpetual," possessing and exercising the -faculties of self-development and self-propagation. - -[Sidenote: and in prosody.] - -In perhaps no way were these faculties more strikingly and remarkably -exercised and illustrated than in regard to prosody; and it must, -unluckily, be added that in no instance has their exercise been more -frequently and more fatally misconstrued. The present writer begins -a fresh attempt to set forth what really happened with the following -encouragement--in the way of a reviewer's sentence on his earlier and -larger effort--before his eyes: "Mr. S.'s contention is that A.S. -prosody died out, and that English prosody is entirely drawn from the -Latin, with the aid of French and Provençal." Now the "contention" -of the _History of English Prosody_ is as directly and deliberately -bent _against_ this doctrine as against Dr. Guest's theory, that the -principles of Anglo-Saxon prosody have governed English throughout -its course. These "falsehoods of extremes" appear to have more lives -than a cat, if not as many heads as a hydra; and their main principle -of vitality no doubt is that it is possible to put them in plump -plain-looking phraseology "which the Beaver can well understand." What -did actually happen was far less simple; but the attempt to explain it -must once more be made. - -[Sidenote: Anglo-Saxon prosody itself.] - -As to what Anglo-Saxon prosody itself was, although, as in all these -matters, there are minor dissidences among the authorities, the main -arrangement is sun-clear. There is practically only one line; though -(and the fact is of inestimable importance, and when once really -understood will carry the understander through to the very present day) -the syllabic lengths of that line may differ largely even in normal -cases, and to an at first sight almost irrational degree in what are -called the "extended" varieties. - -This normal line in its most normal condition--neither cut short nor -drawn out--consists usually of about nine or ten syllables. These are -not arranged so as to produce a definite foot-rhythm, though there is -a general suggestion of the trochee. And attempts (not to be spoken -of with anything but encouragement and wishes for their success, if -with some doubt as to its attainment) have been made to assign, in all -cases, definite division into associations of syllables which might be -called "feet." Other features are unmistakable and incontestable. There -is always a sharp middle division--so strong that the lines may be, -and often are, printed as halves. There are always more or fewer (most -frequently two in the first half and one in the second) _alliterated_ -syllables (one consonant or any vowel). And these syllables, with -occasionally another or so, are usually _accented_, but divided from -each other by a certain or uncertain number of _unaccented_ ones. The -proportion and arrangement of these fall into the controverted things; -and the _extension_ of the normal line is a point only of indirect -importance, though of very great importance indirectly, here. The -attempts which have been made to trace ballad metre, nursery-rhyme -metre, etc., to A.S. originals are also outside our limits. To the -present writer they appear to be hopelessly vitiated by two absolutely -certain facts: (1) that we do not know how Anglo-Saxon was pronounced; -(2) that its pronunciation, whatever it was, must have been radically -affected by the changes which made it into Middle English. But four -cardinal points remain, of such importance that they cannot be too -attentively studied or too constantly remembered. They are these: -that the oldest English prosody rested on (1) a system of hard and -fast middle pause; (2) alliteration, distributed over the whole line; -(3) accented and unaccented syllables, the former usually knit to the -alliteration in some kind of sub-combination; but (4) that the laws -of this combination, and the principle on which the sub-combinations -could be substituted, omitted, or multiplied, were of the freest -description. It is said, and it can well be believed, that they forbade -some things. It is certain that they permitted very many, combining -the freest _substitution_ in the same line, of the kind observable in -the Latin and Greek hexameter or trimeter, with an apparent variety of -lengths, in different lines, hardly inferior to that of a Greek chorus -or ode. - -[Sidenote: Prosody of the Transition to to Middle English] - -This prosody governed English verse from a time certainly anterior to -the existence of any "English" nationality to about 1000 A.D., the -great bulk of the production resulting under it being considerably -older than the last-named date. At or about that date, certainly -before the "Conquest," it began to be subjected to devitalising and -disintegrating influences, not necessary to be discussed in detail -here. The important fact is that from _c._ 1000 to _c._ 1200 the -existing amount of Old English verse is very small indeed; and that, -even in the few existing probably dated examples, singular changes -begin to exhibit themselves. In the "Rhyming Poem" (before 1000?) -the introduction of the element indicated in the title completely -revolutionises the system.[50] In the "Grave Poem" (_c._ 1100?) a new -element of rhythm appears, the tendency being, here and henceforth, -to substitute iambic, varied by anapæestic, cadence for the general -trochaic run, and to associate two lines or four halves in a kind of -quatrain.[51] In the remarkable fragments of St. Godric (1150?) rhyme, -which does not appear in the "Grave Poem," assists the rhythmical -tendency of this latter to make a new music;[52] and the well-known -"Canute Song"[53] chimes in. While if the "Paternoster" be really of -the twelfth century, as some have said, there are in it iambic dimeter -couplets[54] of a kind which never, by any chance, suggests itself in -the whole corpus of Anglo-Saxon poetry proper. - -This couplet is neither more nor less than a pair of iambic dimeters or -"four-accent ['-beat'] lines in rising stress," shortened occasionally -to seven syllables instead of eight, probably from the first also -admitting extension, _not_ by addition of feet, but by substitution of -them. - -[Sidenote: Contrast in Layamon.] - -Two couplets, or two batches of short (half) lines, from Layamon will -show the difference at once and unmistakably to any one who possesses -an ear: - - Eorles ¦ ther com¦en || - riche ¦ and wel ¦ idone. - . . . . . . . - Thă ān|swĕrē|dĕ Vōr|tĭgēr - Ŏf ēl|chĕn vū|ĕl hē | wĕs wēr. - -The first distich, it will be observed, is a loose and broken-down -one on the schemes of perfect O.E. verse. There is hardly any real -alliteration, and the accented syllables are clumsily placed and -valued. But the thing does retain, and that pretty sufficiently, the -strong centre pause, and the folding-back swing of the two halves, -like those of a flail or a pair of lemon-squeezers, which are the -real characteristics of O.E. or A.S. verse. It is not itself "riche" -versification; it is not "wel idone"; but you cannot mistake it for -anything but what it is. - -With the other you have got into a new world. There _is_ alliteration -here; but it has nothing on earth to do with the construction and run -of the verse. There is what you may call accent if you insist upon -it; but it is quite differently and much more regularly arranged, -constituting, moreover, a rhythm perfectly distinct to the ear. There -are two halves; but the second half is not so much a completion as a -repetition. And instead of the strong middle break--a break and nothing -else--the halves are tipped with _rhyme_--a division which, if they -were printed straight on, you would not notice till you got to the end -of the second, and which requires very little (hardly any) stop of the -voice, while the breach of the old couplet insists on this. - -[Sidenote: Examinations of it--Insufficient.] - -Now the question legitimately suggests itself, "Why is this strange -contrast present?"--a contrast which, it should be added, is not only -present but _omnipresent_ in this great poem of 30,000 (half) lines -in all forms, from something quite near the old A.S. line, through -things farther from it, to imperfect forms of the new couplet and so -to perfect ones. One answer is as follows: "This couplet was already -established in _French_ literature--in fact in the very French -literature (Wace) which formed part of Layamon's originals. Moreover, -it exists also in _Latin_--the Latin of the hymns with which the priest -Layamon must have been perfectly familiar. When, therefore, it appears, -he is simply imitating it with more or less success." Now the facts -of this answer, as far as they go, are indisputable. The octosyllabic -couplet, though not so old as the decasyllabic _line_ in O.F., is -very old, and by Layamon's time had been written very largely indeed. -Octosyllabic lines, both of iambic and trochaic cadence, form the very -staple of the Latin hymns; and both in Latin (earlier far) and in -French, after a period of assonance, rhyme had thoroughly established -itself. - -So far, so good; but it is to be hoped that intelligent minds will -perceive an occurring difficulty. If this selection of metre is an -elaborate attempt to imitate French or Latin, or both, why are its -results so extraordinarily _sporadic_? One could understand the -presence of many imperfect lines and couplets; it might even be -surprising that in a first attempt there should be such good ones as -that above quoted. But how could the man, in an actual majority of -cases, produce stuff like the other distich quoted, and many more -unrhythmical still, which are not even _attempts_ at the iambic -couplet--which have no connection whatever with it? - -[Sidenote: Sufficient.] - -No; an explanation at once more subtle and more natural is wanted; for -it is a great mistake to think that the subtler is necessarily the less -natural. Does not this immense mass of apparently confused experiment -suggest that the language itself has passed into a new rhythmical -atmosphere?--that two different metrical systems, one dropping and -dying off ever fainter to the ear, the other becoming clearer and -clearer to it, were sounding in Layamon's brain? Sometimes he writes -under one influence; sometimes under the other; more frequently under -confused echoes of both. Such a set of causes would produce exactly -such a set of results. - -Nor is it of the slightest relevance, as an objection, to say that -the total number of new Romance _words_ in Layamon is very small--a -couple of hundred perhaps in both forms of the poem taken together. -You do not necessarily require one Romance word to fashion the most -complicated metres of Tennyson and Mr. Swinburne. The point is, "What -was the general _rhythm_, and what were the means of obtaining it, -which sounded most gratefully in English ears at the opening of the -thirteenth century and onwards?" - -The facts, if they, as they too seldom have been, are carefully -arranged and impartially considered, answer this further question as -clearly as any reasonable person can desire. - -We possess a relatively considerable number of poems composed probably -between 1200 and 1250. The most important of these are, besides -Layamon's _Brut_ itself, the _Ormulum_, the _Poema Morale_ or _Moral -Ode_, the _Orison of Our Lady_, a _Bestiary_, the _Proverbs of Alfred_ -and of _Hendyng_, the _Love-Rune_ and other minor pieces, the Middle -English _Genesis and Exodus_, and _The Owl and the Nightingale_. - -[Sidenote: Other documents.] - -Hardly two of these are in the same metre, at least in the same form -of the same metre, and none of them exhibits exactly the same curious -blend of old and new as that which appears in the _Brut_. But, for that -very reason, they enforce the same general lesson--for they do enforce -it--in the most striking and conclusive way possible. That lesson is, -as we saw, that the new _language_ of English was seeking in every -possible way for a new _prosody_ of English, and was finding it under -several and special forms of experiment, but in the same general spirit. - -[Sidenote: The _Ormulum_.] - -Orm--evidently, from his punctilio about spelling,[55] a man curious -and particular about details--adopts the French principle of absolute -syllabic uniformity; though he does not accept any of the actually -existing French metres, and rejects--possibly to save trouble, possibly -as thinking them unsuitable to his sacred subject--both assonance and -rhyme. He writes--in the strictest and most humdrum iambic cadence, -as of the least-inspired French or Latin poetry--"fifteeners" or -combinations of eights and _sevens_. Of the old long-lined stave he -has kept no positive quality but its centre pause, and hardly any -important negative one save its rhymelessness. Of the new metre, he -has aimed at--he has certainly reached--nothing but its foot-division -and consequent rhythm. But he has got these in the most pronounced, -if hardly in the most attractive, form. Except for the odd syllable, -we are here already in full presence of the jog-trot ballad and hymn -"common measure" of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Nay, -this odd syllable itself is of great interest, for it reappears in the -_sung_ "breath" or "grunt"--"a": - - Your sad one tires in a mile-a, etc. - -[Sidenote: The _Moral Ode_ and the _Orison of Our Lady_.] - -Opinions may differ slightly on the question whether this _fif_teener -is actually the same as the _four_teener which later became so common, -and which directly engendered the common measure itself; or whether -the two were independent attempts to _metricise_ the old long line. -It is of course clear that, as final _e_'s dropped off, fifteen -would become fourteen in any case. But in two of the poems mentioned -above, the _Moral Ode_ and the _Orison of Our Lady_, although the -first-named has many fifteeners, and the last is highly irregular, -the set towards iambic seven-foot rhythm is well marked. And there -are two still more interesting things about these two poems. We have -several versions of the _Poema Morale_ which have been arranged--_not_ -on prosodic grounds--in order of chronological sequence. And it is in -the highest degree noteworthy that the latest of these forms, like -the later version of Layamon, exhibits remarkable touches of prosodic -_melioration_. It is still more important that among the irregular and -experimental varieties of the _Orison_ actual iambic _decasyllables_, -and, what is more, something like the decasyllabic couplet, make their -appearance nearly two centuries before Chaucer.[56] - -[Sidenote: The _Proverbs of Alfred_ and _Hendyng_.] - -These remarkable lessons in comparison are repeated, with the usual and -invaluable confirmation of variety, in the curious documents called -respectively the _Proverbs Alfred_ and the _Proverbs of Hendyng_. -The relation, in point of matter, of the latter to the former, and -of the former itself to a possible A.S. collection made by the king, -or under his auspices, need not concern us. It is enough that our -existing _Proverbs of Alfred_ are M.E. in language and early thirteenth -century in date; while those of "Hendyng" are perhaps half a century -younger. These latter are slightly more modern in language; but this -is accompanied by, and no doubt not a little directly connected -with, still greater modernisation of form. The earlier rehandler (or -some of the rehandlers, for the work is pretty certainly not of one -only) evidently stuck as near as he could to his original--words -and all. But he was, or they were, in Layamon's state--only more -so. Rhyme appears fitfully; regular iambic and trochaic rhythm more -fitfully; alliteration most fitfully of all. The various sections -are stanza-bundles of short lines or half lines, which, taken singly -and printed straight on, might tempt no very hasty, ill-informed, or -unintelligent reader to regard them as sheer prose, with an irregular -sing-song and jingle here and there. On the other hand, the _Proverbs -of Hendyng_ are unmistakable English verse, the stanza called in French -_rime couée_, from the Latin _versus caudatus_ (afterwards common and -famous as the six-line stanza in which a very large proportion, if not -the majority, of our romances are written). It is a combination of -eight- and six-syllabled lines arranged 8, 8, 6, 8, 8, 6, and rhymed -_aabccb_; the rhythm being regularly iambic, and the whole differing -in no respect from similar verse of the nineteenth century, and in -only one respect from such as Gray's "Cat" ode in the eighteenth. And -that one is priceless, for it is the appearance of substitution--the -great English characteristic which separates our verse from its French -patterns--if patterns they were--which the seventeenth and eighteenth -centuries unwisely gave up, for which Shenstone pleaded,[57] and -which Chatterton, and Blake, and Southey, and Coleridge restored. -Monosyllabic and trisyllabic feet, as shown in the examples,[58] are -freely employed; and the result is that a double advantage is secured. -The actual shapelessness of one direct parent, the broken-down A.S. -versicle, is effectually cured: there is no possibility of mistaking -_this_ composition for prose. The possible monotony and sing-song of -the other--the regular syllabic French model, long afterwards parodied -and exposed immortally in Chaucer's _Sir Thopas_--is avoided likewise. -There is a little assonance, but for the most part quite regular and -satisfactory rhyme. There is effective correspondent rhythm, resulting -from feet clearly marked, but, as has been said, boldly handled in -the English, not the French or Low Latin manner. The stanza is well -kept, though the substitution prevents its being a mere mechanic -reproduction. In short, there is freedom, and there is order. - -[Sidenote: The _Bestiary_.] - -Not less worthy of study is the _Bestiary_.[59] Here the direct origins -are fortunately known and are of the utmost importance. The ultimate -one is the Latin of Thetbaldus in "Leonine" hexameters--that is to say, -hexameters with, in this case not very complete or regular, but still -unmistakable, rhyme at the cæsura and the end. This gives something of -a ready-made correspondence to the old A.S. line with its middle break, -and, at the same time, suggests rhyming halves. But there was also at -hand a _French_ bestiary by Philippe de Thaun, where the writer, taking -the other already established hexameter-trimeter of his own literature, -the Alexandrine, breaks _it_ into regular six-syllabled couplets. The -Englishman, whoever he was, endeavours to follow this arrangement, and -perhaps something more. He has got the six-syllable line and couplet in -his ear; he has got even a sort of notion of stanza in addition, and he -now and then hears rhyme. But he is a very rough verse-smith, in the -_Proverbs of Alfred_ stage or near it, and he is perpetually hitting -and missing cadences and constructions which were not to be perfected -for long, but half developed--queer creatures rearing themselves from -the earth like those in the old woodcuts of the Creation. He has more -variety than Layamon, and sometimes more music than the _Alfred_ man; -but with them he provides the great museum of examples of English verse -in the first stage of making. - -[Sidenote: Minor poems.] - -Every now and then, too, he provides us with something that is not -rough at all, as in the passage appended,[60] which is perfect -modern English rhythm and goes to a well-known carol tune. And of -this more perfect craftsmanship, in forms precise enough to bring -out the qualities and capacities of the new prosody, the minor and -miscellaneous poems of the thirteenth century supply ample and varied -instances. There is Romance-six, probably earlier than the _Proverbs -of Hendyng_; "fourteener" metre, more polished than that of the _Moral -Ode_; and, best of all, the beginning, in the _Love-Rune_,[61] of the -great alternately rhymed octosyllabic quatrain, the "long measure" -("common," or the split fourteener, was to be a little later) of -a myriad hymns and secular pieces since. This long measure is in -some ways more advanced than almost anything of the seventeenth and -eighteenth centuries, displaying equivalence, admitting internal -rhyme[62]--prophesying, through Chatterton and Blake, the Great -Instauration of Coleridge, Southey, and Scott. - -But we must complete this group by what are perhaps its most important, -though not its earliest members, the two great examples of the -octosyllabic line itself in its simplest couplet form. It may almost be -said that _Genesis and Exodus_ (the M.E. not the A.S. paraphrase) and -_The Owl and the Nightingale_ are sufficient between them to teach all -the main secrets of English prosody. They are certainly sufficient to -show what it is and what it is not. - -[Sidenote: _The Owl and the Nightingale_ and _Genesis and Exodus_.] - -We have seen how this couplet emerges in the _Brut_ of Layamon, and how -it there presents itself as a "transient and embarrassed" alternative -to mostly broken-down and shapeless pairs of something like the old -half-line. In the two poems just mentioned it is not transient, but -abides; nor is it in the least embarrassed. It has quite shaken off its -dilapidated companions, and abides in its own house. But that house is -a house of two wings or two fronts. The one which the author of _The -Owl and the Nightingale_ prefers approximates in its verse-building -to the French system of architecture, and is, if not rigidly uniform -in syllabic arrangement (and especially patient as the metre always -has been since of limitation to _seven_ with a consequent hint of -trochaic rhythm), yet almost rigidly iambic _or_ trochaic in run. The -other, of which _Genesis and Exodus_ is the main occupant, admits, -with the utmost freedom, that principle of trisyllabic (if not also -monosyllabic) equivalence into which the old liberty of Anglo-Saxon had -transformed itself under the sufficient but not tyrannical pressure -of the new foot prosody. And it presents an almost perfect specimen -of the metre which Spenser (whether intentionally or not) employed in -parts of the _Shepherd's Calendar_, and which Coleridge, more than 500 -years later, believed himself to have invented, and explained in a very -insufficient manner. - -[Sidenote: Summary of results to the mid-thirteenth century.] - -It is upon the understanding which the student attains and upon the -interpretation which he makes or accepts of the group of pieces from -the _Brut_ to _Genesis and Exodus_, which have just been discussed, -that this student's whole conception of English prosody will depend. -Unfortunately, he will not find such authorities as have delivered -themselves on the subject by any means unanimous; more unfortunately -still, it must be said here, he will find most of them inadequate, and -not a few positively wrong. In another part of this book some account -of the more usual theories is given. It is enough to say here, that -neither the system which regards this verse as consisting of a certain -number of "stressed" syllables and a certain or uncertain number of -"unstressed," nor that which would regard some of it as following -old English, some new French models, appears to fit the actual facts -or explain their actual consequences. To assign the "equivalenced" -varieties to a northern, the "unequivalenced" to a southern origin, -may or may not be in accordance with historical and geographical fact, -but is prosodically irrelevant. To be content with discovering actual -or possible _particular_ foreign models for each metre may not be -useless (something on the subject will again be found elsewhere in -this volume), but will be inadequate, and may be misleading, if the -_general_ phenomena are not examined or if their lesson is not learnt. - -It should not be hard to learn for any one who will patiently consider -the facts narrated in this chapter, the dates (as far as they are known -or guessed), and the scanned examples given in the text, the notes, -and the general survey. It will be strange if he does not perceive -that there is here something much more than a mere regularising of -accentual verse with the addition of rhyme, something much more than a -mere imitation of French and Latin models, like the frequent attempts -at English hexameters, or those at English ballades and rondeaux -which were revived some thirty years ago; above all, something not in -the least adequately described by the phrases "adopting the French -principles of prosody," "following the rhythm of the foreigner," and -so forth. If, as he should,[63] he possesses some knowledge of Latin -verse, classical and mediæval, some of French, a little (the more the -better) of Old English, and as much as possible of Modern; if he will -allow this knowledge to settle and clarify his observation of this -Middle English verse of the latest twelfth and the first half of the -thirteenth century, without allowing arbitrary theories of any kind -to interfere, it seems almost impossible that he can fail to see what -was going on. The prosody of English was changing from accent and -alliteration to feet and rhyme; but it was not following French, or the -general run of mediæval Latin, in adopting syllabic uniformity as a -rule; and it was, in a large number, if not the majority of instances, -allowing the substitution of equivalent feet (especially anapæsts for -iambs) exactly as some, but not all, classical metre had allowed it. - -Another point with which the student cannot familiarise himself too -early, and one which he will find rarely or never insisted on in works -dealing with English prosody, is that this apparent irregularity of -foot arrangement brings out the existence, the importance, and, so to -speak, the _personality_ of the feet themselves, in a way impossible -of achievement when a uniform number of syllables is insisted on in a -line, and when "accent," "stress," or whatever the emphasising agent be -called or considered, is restricted wholly or as much as possible to -exactly corresponding places in that line. This monotony may sometimes -seem to soothe, but in reality only deadens the susceptibility of the -ear, and that ear comes to recognise only, if not only to demand, such -coarser stimulus as that given by strong and more or less uniform -centre-pause, as the sharp snap or clang of the concluding rhyme, -and as rhetorical, not strictly poetical, emphasis placed on special -points, especially by the aid of antithesis. On the other hand, the -slight effort necessary to recognise the unity of the equivalent feet, -under their diversity of substitution, demands and begets an active -sensitiveness, which very soon yields positive, keen, and varied -delight. No modern poetry can vie with English in the possession and -provision of this, and those who neglect it deprive themselves of one -of the greatest privileges of an Englishman. - -But it is, of course, not contended that perfection in so difficult -and exquisite an accomplishment was, or could have been, attained at -once. The prosody, like the language, had to "make itself," to "grow," -and, even more than the language, it had not merely to grow like a -vegetable, but to make itself by animated, if often unconscious, -efforts. Had things been otherwise it would have been far less -interesting. As it is, there is not one of the imperfect efforts which -have been briefly reviewed here that is not a "document in the case," a -step in the progress, a fresh attempt of the bird to chip the shell and -get clear of the fragments. - -[Sidenote: The later thirteenth century and the fourteenth.] - -These documents, speaking approximately, have brought us to, and -perhaps a little beyond, the middle of the thirteenth century. -Philologists and palæographers do not give us much as dating from the -latter part of that century, or at least from the third quarter of -it. But towards the close, and onwards to the supposed birth date of -Chaucer (1340), we have an ever-increasing mass of interesting material -continuing the demonstration just given. At an uncertain period (not -impossibly close to that birth itself) we find also a new phenomenon -of a general kind and of first-rate importance; and in the last half -or, say, the last third of the century we come, not only to Chaucer -himself, but to two other poets, lesser than himself as masters of -form, but by no means small in that respect, and contrasted with him in -it after a really marvellous fashion. - -[Sidenote: Robert of Gloucester.] - -We can give less individual attention to the first-named group of -documents; but as a matter of fact they require less, and sub-group -themselves. At the close of the thirteenth century we have a body of -verse, the whole of it sometimes ascribed by guess-work, part of it -ascribed with certainty, and yet more not without probability, to -Robert of Gloucester. This work, consisting of a _Chronicle_ and of -many _Saints' Lives_, is entirely written in fourteener (or, when there -is a final _e_, fifteener) couplets of the same general stamp as those -which we have seen in the _Moral Poem_, but differentiated from those -of the _Ormulum_ by the admission of equivalence. They are, however, -much more advanced than even the latest version of the _Poema Morale_; -and the writer, or writers, can make them into a capital narrative -vehicle, distinctly indicating, if not freely expressing, the further -resolution into the ballad metre of eight and six. - -But this craving for narrative in verse did not confine itself to a -single vehicle; indeed, in probably a very great majority of instances, -it preferred another, or two others, with which we are also acquainted, -and further varieties still which we have not yet seen, but which -show, unmistakably, the advance in prosodic aptitude. The great body -of narrative verse, known as "the Romances," begins to date from the -end of the thirteenth century--a few, such as _Havelok_ and _Horn_, are -certainly earlier than the fourteenth; by the end of the first third, -if not of the first quarter, of this latter, a very large number were -as certainly in existence. - -[Sidenote: The Romances.] - -Now probably the whole of these Romances were more or less directly -imitated from French originals, nearly all of which we actually -possess; but it is extremely remarkable that they by no means always -followed the metre of those originals, and that when they did they -took considerable liberties with it. That metre was almost invariably -Alexandrine or decasyllabic, in long batches not couplets, or -octosyllabic in couplet. Of the two probably oldest of ours, _Havelok_ -and _Horn_, the first does attempt this octosyllabic couplet, but -treats it in a very rough and independent fashion, something in the -_Genesis and Exodus_ line, while _King Horn_ seems to favour something -like what we observe in part of the English _Bestiary_ and the whole -of the French one--a split Alexandrine or six-syllabled couplet. Very -soon the _rime couée_ or Romance-six (which had not been a staple -romance-metre in French) appears, and occasionally more elaborate -stanzas still, such as the complicated arrangement of _Sir Tristrem_. -Those writers who prefer couplet improve upon _Horn_ and _Havelok_, -but they follow _Genesis and Exodus_ much more than _The Owl and the -Nightingale_. - -Indeed, some of them develop this couplet in a manner possessing almost -infinite "future." They not merely follow the writer of _Genesis and -Exodus_ in substituting trisyllabic, if not also monosyllabic, feet -for dissyllabic to the number of _four_, but some of them develop -hints, which may be found in that composition, by extending the actual -foot-length of the line to _five_, and sometimes repeating this in an -actual "heroic" pair. Whether this was in some, or even at first in -all, cases accidental, does not really matter. The decasyllable or -five-foot line was already existent in great masses of French poetry, -though not in single couplets; it was natural that, occasionally, more -room should be wanted than the octosyllable provides; and there is the -undoubted fact that, in more than one other European language, ten, or -according to the structure of the particular tongue, eleven syllables -were suggesting themselves as the most convenient size. The fourteener -was so long as to invite breaking up quite early; the Alexandrine -has never naturalised itself for continuous use in English; and the -octosyllable, though its early appearance, the wealth of models for -it, and its ease, fostered and sustained it, had the already mentioned -drawback of lack of _content_. It was certain that, in a language which -was showing itself so fortunately free from hide-bound qualities, -the decasyllable would establish itself. It has been usual to say -that, in couplet at any rate, Chaucer "took it from the French." As -a matter of actual practice he may have done so; but in the order of -nature and thought it was not in the least necessary for him to do it. -Indeed, it would be almost literally true[64] to say that English had -decasyllabic couplet before French--that it was an English invention. - -[Sidenote: Lyrics.] - -For the time, however, the octosyllable was the staple for narrative, -varied to no mean extent by the stanzas already described; while these -stanzas, often of the most elaborate and complicated descriptions, -were adopted from French (and perhaps Provençal) or extemporised -by the taste and fancy of the writers. One famous collection[65] -indicates the school of which our poets were scholars by alternating -French poems with English. But this very collection shows amply that -these same writers refused to undergo the syllabic constraints of -French, and held to what were to be always the real, if frequently the -unrecognised and sometimes the denied, principles of the New English -in verse--that is to say, the constitution of the line by feet, _not_ -syllables--and the consequent possibility of obtaining equivalent lines -by the substitution of feet, varying in syllabic constituence, but -interchangeable in metrical value. Some examples of all these things -will be found in the Scanned Conspectus; the student should search the -books named in the notes for more, which he will find in the fullest -abundance. What is important is that by this study he may and should -discover the real and too commonly misunderstood relation of Chaucer to -precedent English verse. - -There is, however, another fact of the fourteenth century which it is -not less important for him to recognise, and which also has been too -often misunderstood, or at least not put in its proper place. This is -the revival of alliterative-accentual verse. - -[Sidenote: The alliterative revival.] - -As there are few things, in treating prosody, of greater weight than to -keep carefully before the student the difference between controversial -and uncontroversial points, it should be said at once that "revival" is -not quite one of the latter. There have been some who have taken it -for granted that the alliterative-accentual form _never_ ceased out of -the land. It may be so; there is even a sort of antecedent plausibility -about the notion. But the important historical fact is that no such -verse apparently exists of a probable date between about 1250 (the -later form of Layamon itself, much further encroached upon by metre -and rhyme) and about 1350. Somewhere about this latter time it does -reappear; and before very long has its chief pure representative in -Langland, at the same time as metre has _its_ chief pure representative -in Chaucer. - -But this reappearance is conditioned and qualified by a very remarkable -fact. There is, as has just been said, pure alliterative verse. It -is not, indeed, an exact representation of the old A.S. line. It is -somewhat longer than the shorter forms of that line, and very much -shorter than the "extended" variety. In some cases, especially in the -later examples, the alliteration is richer, extending to four, five, -or even six syllables. Most noteworthy of all is the substitution, in -the general rhythmical run, of anapæstic-iambic for trochaic basis--a -fact the importance of which, in the general history of the morphology -of English poetry and of the change from A.S. to M.E., cannot be -exaggerated. - -But it is also worthy of the most careful remark that, in a relatively -large number of instances, the alliterative-accentual system is -apparently unable to rely upon itself. It is tempted or driven to -borrow metre, or rhyme, or both. Of the two best pieces in the -alliterative division, outside _Piers Plowman_, _Gawain and the Green -Knight_ combines, with an unrhymed body or _tirade_, a rhymed "bob and -wheel" in every stanza; while _The Pearl_, though alliterated almost to -the highest possible strength, is strictly metrical and strictly rhymed -throughout. Others form their stanzas of lines roughly rhythmed but -fairly well rhymed. - -[Sidenote: The later fourteenth century.] - -By the last quarter of the fourteenth century, therefore, there were -in England two contrasted and in a way rival, but, as has been said, -overlapping, systems of versification: one a sort of atavistic -revival, the other the result of a process--_two_ centuries old to a -certainty, and probably nearer _four_--of blending the characteristics -of Low Latin and French prosody with those of Old English. - -In the three chief poets of the later fourteenth century (Chaucer, -Gower, and Langland) we have three object lessons as to the results -of this process, which could not have been improved if the course -of events had been exclusively devoted to the task of making these -results, and the process itself, clear to the student. They had best be -taken in reverse order. - -[Sidenote: Langland.] - -Langland represents, in the greatest perfection that can reasonably -be expected, the attempt to preserve, or revert to, verse arranged -without rhyme, without metre in the strict sense, and depending for -its separation from prose upon alliteration, accent, and strong middle -pause. In spite of himself, and in consequence of the state of the -language, actually metrical lines--decasyllables, Alexandrines, and -fourteeners--do appear; but, as a rule, he avoids them either with -singular skill or with remarkable luck, and on the whole achieves -a consistent medium, not so much dominated as permeated by a sort -of anapæstic underhum of rhythm, but otherwise maintaining its -independence. Being possessed of great literary and even distinctly -poetical genius, he makes it a by no means unsuitable vehicle for -his tangle of apocalyptic dreams, and no ill one for the occasional -passages of a more mundane description which he interlards. But it is -deficient in beauty, if not in vigour; it is clearly unsuited for many -of the subjects of poetry; and to any one acquainted with metre and -rhyme it constantly suggests the question and complaint, "_Why_ are we -to be deprived of these already-won beauties and conveniences, and cut -off with this rough makeshift?" - -[Sidenote: Gower.] - -As Langland represents the purely accentual division or phase of -English prosody at this time, so does Gower represent the almost -purely syllabic. He uses, with insignificant exceptions,[66] the old -octosyllabic couplet; but he comes closer than any other English -writer of the Middle English period to the strict French model. He -does not, like his forerunners, and like even Chaucer, allow himself -the seven-syllable line as a variation; and though he does, by the -admission of those who are opposed to the system of this book, -occasionally admit an "extrametrical syllable," and, according to that -system, much oftener a trisyllabic foot, this interferes little with -the general uniformity of his verse-run. Almost the only variations -that he relies upon are frequent initial trochees an occasional -balanced arrangement of the halves of the line-- - - The cloth was laid, the board was set-- - -contrasted with less strongly marked pauses, and especially a device -whereby a full stop comes at the first line of two couplets separated -by another, so that a sort of _In Memoriam_ quatrain effect, with first -and last lines blank, is obtained, as thus: - - Hew down this tree and let it fall, - The leavès let defoul in haste, - And do the fruit destroy and waste, - And let offshredden every branch. - -To this the present writer would add distinct trisyllabic feet where -others see slur, as in-- - - The weath|er was mer|ry and fair | enough. - -The result, especially with syncopation of these trisyllables, is what -some call "pre-eminent smoothness" of metre, others dominant monotony. -The metre had proved itself of old well suited for actual narrative, -and, as Gower can tell a story, when he has a good one to tell, the -effect, as in the passages about Nebuchadnezzar, Medea, Ceyx and -Alcyone, Rosiphelè, the "Trump of Death," and other persons and things, -is quite excellent. But in the didactic and conversational parts it is -often terribly tedious and lamentably limp. - -[Sidenote: Chaucer.] - -Thus Langland, from yet another point of view, represents the rejection -of the new English prosody altogether or as far as possible, and Gower, -the timid imitation of French. Chaucer, on the other hand, despite his -undoubted attention to French and Italian models, is in the direct line -which we have been tracing, and represents, if not completely, yet to -a very large extent, at once the development and the perfecting of the -processes which we have described. It has indeed been urged by some -that Chaucer probably knew nothing, or very little, of _English_ poetry -before his own day. But while, on the one hand, this is quite unproven, -and not a little improbable, those who urge it do not seem to see that, -even if it were so, it is comparatively irrelevant. It is not in the -least necessary to suppose that Chaucer must have borrowed the Vernon -MS. or another like it, carried it home to the rooms above Aldgate, -"stirred the fire and taken a drink" as Henryson did later with his -own _Troilus_, and then, after discussing to himself principles of -versification, have decided that this was to be followed, that to be -avoided, that again to be perfected and carried further. The main and -undoubted facts remain that Chaucer was an Englishman of 1340(?)-1400; -that he was the greatest Englishman of letters of his time; that he -spoke and wrote the English language, and that thus, by what he would -himself have called "the law of kind," he entered into the inheritance -of all that had been done in this English matter by Englishmen for -generations beforehand. As a matter of fact, there is plenty of -evidence destructive of the contention referred to. He had read the -Romances, or he could not have written _Sir Thopas_; he knew the -alliterative poems, or he could not have made the famous reference to -_rum ram ruf_ in the Prologue to the _Parson's Tale_, which Gascoigne -caught up. It is odd if he had not heard (even if he had not read) the -plays that folk like his own Absolon played "upon a scaffold high." -But, as has been said, it does not matter. - -[Sidenote: His perfecting of M.E. verse.] - -For his work is there, and it is incontestably--whatever its author -had read or not read--the logical and biological continuation -and perfecting of all that had gone before from Godric and the -_Paternoster_. He begins with the fluent octosyllable and the melodious -and usefully stringent rhyme-royal, as well as other more or less -elaborate stanzas. He communicates to the couplet[67] a greater -combination of order and variety than it had ever known in English; -he makes of the stanza,[68] in the case of rhyme-royal, the most -perfect formal arrangement of verse that English had yet seen. Later -he takes up,[69] very probably because he had written so many separate -examples of it in rhyme-royal itself at the close of each stanza, the -_decasyllabic_ couplet, and makes of that something greater still--a -metrical instrument or vehicle escaping at once the scanty content and -slightly insignificant bearing of the octosyllable, the elaborateness -and rather melancholy quality of rhyme-royal. In doing this it is -inevitable that, as Spenser did in parallel case afterwards, he should -lean rather towards precision than towards great laxity and luxuriance -of form; for things needed order. But he sets the example of that -variation of pause in rhyme-royal which was fortunately taken as a -rule, and which preserved for English one of the very greatest means -of metrical achievement. In the octosyllable he reproduced knowingly, -and with definite apology, that "failing of a syllable" which gives -acephalous or trochaic alternation, and which all the greatest masters -of the metre, except (following Gower) William Morris, have imitated. -And he broke up the lines very largely by conversation-fragments, by -putting full stops at the end of the first line of a couplet, and by -making a whole paragraph end at the same place. - -[Sidenote: Details of his prosody.] - -But next to his provision of a perfectly finished stanza--in other -words, of a complete, and _pro tanto_ final, prosodic result--in -rhyme-royal, the most important thing done by Chaucer in this -department was the arranging and setting on foot of the decasyllabic -couplet, which he began well in the _Legend of Good Women_, but carried -on much better in the _Canterbury Tales_. Not half of his actual -achievement here, and a very much smaller part of his promise and -stimulus for the future, can be perceived by those who limit him to -the decasyllable as such by devices of elision and syncope; still less -by those who would have his varieties of line exactly to represent -variations of the French decasyllable. The former proceeding is -inadequate and defacing; the latter practically impossible, except as a -bare and barren matter of arithmetic. You cannot imitate the prosodic -effect of one language in another, even though you take the exact -number of syllables and (as far as you can) divide the words, arrange -the accents, etc., with the most slavish copying. The result will laugh -at you prosodically; and while it is very unlikely to give you anything -similar, it is nearly certain to give you something quite different.[70] - -When Chaucer's verse in "heroic" or "riding rhyme" is examined, -simply on its own merits and without regard to arbitrary theories of -pronunciation, but with all necessary remembrance of the value of the -final _e_, etc., it is seen to follow, in every respect, the general -principles which we have seen evolving themselves in all English -poetry hitherto, subject only to the general reforming or regimenting -tendency which has been noticed. The normal line is beyond all question -five-foot iambic, or decasyllabic with short and long syllable -alternately. But there are a few instances[71] of so-called acephalous -lines where the first syllable seems to have been missed--where, at any -rate, there are only nine to account for, and where you consequently -have to choose between a monosyllabic foot in the first place or -trochaic cadence throughout. There is little doubt in the mind of the -present writer that if these lines (which, after all, are very few) -were deliberately written and meant to be kept, the reason of their -existence was a false analogy with the octosyllable, where, as we have -said, such acephalous lines, trochaic and heptasyllabic, do occur, -and where they produce not only no ill, but a positively good effect. -Unluckily the cutting down does _not_ produce a good effect in the -larger couplet; and if trochaic rhythm is permitted--in other words, -if the missing syllable is shifted from the beginning to the end--it -produces a very bad one. But they are, as has been said, in very small -proportion, though there are too many of them to be simply "mended" out -of existence. - -Proceeding, we find, in a far larger number of instances, not a defect -but an excess of syllables. As far as these syllables are found at -the end of the line (in great measure caused by the final _e_) there -is no difficulty and no dispute about them. They are allowed by -everybody; and they come under that general law of almost (not quite) -all prosodies which makes the final place of a line one of liberty. -But it is different with those which come _within_ the line, and with -apparent extensions beyond the eleventh syllable. Many, perhaps most, -prosodists would shut their eyes to the latter, regarding them as -mere extra-redundances, and explain away those which occur within the -line by elision before a vowel, by syncope or crasis or the like (see -Glossary) when they come before a consonant. - -To the present writer these devices and shifts appear unnecessary, -discordant, the reverse of natural, and alike the consequence and the -cause of prosodic error. With regard to _hiatus_ (_i.e._ the actual -contact of vowels) it has to be fully admitted that there is a strong -tendency in MSS. to sink one of them and to write not merely "tharray" -for "the array," but even "in thalyghte" for "in thee alyghte." The -habit continued for a long time, and we find even in Wyatt and Surrey -"tembrace" for "to embrace" and so forth. But it is important to -observe first that this habit is not constant, as we should expect -it to be if it represented a definite and reasoned wish always to -reduce two such syllables to one; and further, that it will not affect -the other cases of syllables, such as the last of "Heav_e_n" (which, -however, pretty certainly _was_ monosyllabic at this time and later), -"ev_e_r" the _-eth_ of the third person singular and plural, _y_ in -"many a," _i-_ in scores of words, and the like. - -To the present writer, once more, it is certain, and even indisputable, -that whether Chaucer deliberately used trisyllabic feet or not, there -are trisyllabic feet by nature and poetic right in Chaucer, for any one -who chooses them. And he is of opinion, though not so strongly, that -Chaucer allowed himself an occasional Alexandrine or twelve-syllabled -line,[72] just as preceding writers had allowed themselves occasional -ten-syllabled lines in octosyllabics. What is once more certain, -and almost indisputable, is that his lines can be so scanned with -euphonious effect, and that similar phenomena manifest themselves all -the way up to his time. - -Of his rhymes nothing necessarily need be said here. He often avails -himself for rhyme, as well as for rhythm, of the choice between -Teutonic and Romance accent--the former always seeking the beginning of -the word, the latter generally the end. This was hardly even a licence -at his period. - -One much-vexed point it is, however, impossible to omit, though far -more, in every sense, has been made of it than it is worth. It occurred -many years ago to a distinguished scholar, the late Mr. Bradshaw of -Cambridge, to make a test out of the rhyme of y and ye, which, he -thought (despite a famous example in _Sir Thopas_[73]), never occurs in -the work unquestionably Chaucer's. To the present writer the occurrence -of the rhyme in _Sir Thopas_ closes the question, and he would have -much to say against the establishment of the test, even if _Sir Thopas_ -were acknowledged as not Chaucerian. But from the strict point of -view of this book the whole thing is really irrelevant. It does not -matter to us _who_ wrote certain pieces of English poetry, but what -the characteristics of those and other pieces of English poetry are. -The student of prosody may and should note that in some pieces of this -period the rhyme of _y_ and _ye_ certainly does occur, that in others -it apparently does not; but beyond this he need not, and, as a student -of prosody, should not, go. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[49] Running illustrations of the following chapters will be found -in the preceding Scanned Conspectus, but additional ones will be -supplied in notes when necessary. It may not be superfluous to call the -student's special attention to this chapter. All correct appreciation -of English prosody depends upon the facts contained in it; and while -the ignoring or mistaking of these facts is fatal, it has unfortunately -been too common. - -[50] - - Werig winneth: widsith onginneth - Sar ne sinneth: sorgum cinnith - Blæd his blumith: blisse linnath - Listum linneth: lastum ne linneth. - -[51] _V. sup._ Scanned Survey II. - -[52] _V. sup._ Scanned Survey III. - -[53] - - Merie sungen the muneches binnen Ely - Tha Cnut ching rew therby. - Roweth cnihtes neer the land - And here we thes muneches sang. - -[54] - - Vre feder thet in heouene is, - That is al soothful iwis. - Wee moten to theos weordes iseon - Thet to liue and to saule gode beon. - Thet weo beon swa his sunes iborene - Thet he beo feder and we him icorene - Thet we don alle his ibeden - And his wille for to reden. - -[55] In doubling the consonant after a short vowel-sound. - -[56] Examples of all this will be found in the Scanned Survey and in -the Glossaries and Form-lists of Book IV. - -[57] For more on all this see Scanned Conspectus and next Book. - -[58] - - Thus queth Alured. - Wis childe is fader blisse. - If hit so bi-tideth - that thu bern ibidest, - the hwile hit is lutel - ler him mon-thewes - than hit is wexynde; - hit schal wende thar to. - the betere hit schal iwurthe - euer buuen eorthe, - ac if thu him lest welde - werende on worlde - lude and stille - his owene wille. - - Mon that wol of wysdam heren, - At wyse Hendyng he may lernen, - That wes Marcolues sone; - Gode thonkes and monie thewes - Forte teche fele shrewes; - For that wes ever is wone. - . . . . . . . - Wis mon halt is wordes ynne, - For he nul no gle begynne - Er he have tempted is pype. - Sot is sot, and that is sene, - For he wol speke wordes grene - Er then hue buen rype, - "Sottes bolt is sone shote," - Quoth Hendyng. - -[59] _Latin._ - - Nam leo stans fortis super alta cacumina montis, - Qualicunque via vallis descendit ad ima, - Si venatorem per notum sentit odorem, - Cauda cuncta linit quae pes vestigia figit. - -_French._ - - Uncore dit Escripture - Leuns ad tele nature, - Quant l'om le vait chazant, - De sa cue en fuiant - Desfait sa trace en terre, - Que hom ne l' sace querre; - Ceo est grant signefiance, - Aiez en remembrance. - -_English._ - - The leun stant on hille, - And he man hunten here, - Other thurg his nese smel - Smake that he negge, - Bi wile weie so he wile - To dele nither wenden, - Alle hise fet-steppes - After him he filleth, - Drageth dust with his stert - Ther he [dun] steppeth, - Other dust other deu, - That he ne cunne is finden, - Driueth dun to his den - Thar he him bergen wille. - -[60] - - All is man so is this erne [eagle], - Would[è] ye now listen, - Old in his[è] sinn[e]s derne [dark], - Or he becometh Christen. - -The spelling is designedly modernised, but very slightly. - -[61] - - Maid[è] here thou mightst behold - This world[è]s love is but o res [a race], - And is beset so fele-vold [manifoldly], - Fick|le and frack|le [frail] and wok | and les [weak and false]. - -[62] - - Und|er mould | they li|eth [plural] cold - And fal|loweth [groweth yellow] as | doth mead|ow grass. - -[63] It is sometimes asked by persons who should know better, "What -has _English_ prosody to do with these mostly un-English things?" -The answer is simple--that these un-English things went largely, and -essentially, to the making of English prosody. - -[64] The poem commonly reputed as the oldest in French, _St. Eulalia_, -is in something very like it, but was not followed up. - -[65] MS. Harl. 2253. Published by Thomas Wright for the Percy Society -(London, 1847) as _Specimens of Lyric Poetry_. - -[66] The rhyme-royal decasyllables of the "Supplication," or "Letter to -Venus and Cupid," at the close of the _Confessio_, and of the poem "In -Praise of Peace." - -[67] In the disputed _Romance of the Rose_, and the undisputed _Death -of Blanche_, and the somewhat later _House of Fame_. - -[68] The _Parliament of Fowls_, _Troilus and Criseyde_, etc. - -[69] First in the _Legend of Good Women_ and then in the _Canterbury -Tales_. - -[70] These words are written, not merely on general principles, but -from long and extensive knowledge of French fourteenth-century poetry. - -[71] Such as the well-known - - Twen|ty ¦ bok|ès ¦ clad | in ¦ black | or ¦ red - -of the Oxford clerk. - -[72] - - Westward | right swich, | ano|ther in | the op|posite. - - (_Knight's Tale_, 1036.) - - And said, | O deer|e housbond|e, be|nedi|citee! - - (_Wife of Bath's Tale_, 231.) - - Doth so | his ce|rimo|nies and | obei|saunces, - And ke|peth in | semblant | all his | obser|vaunces. - - (_Squire's Tale_, 515, 516.) - -[73] "Sir Guy," which cannot have an _e_, and "chivalrye," which must -have one. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -FROM CHAUCER TO SPENSER--DISORGANISATION AND RECONSTRUCTION - - -[Sidenote: Causes of decay in Southern English prosody.] - -It might be supposed, especially in face of the unquestionable -reputation which Chaucer had attained before his death--and which he -maintained undisturbed, and hardly approached, for the entire period -until Spenser's birth,--that his prosodic work, once done, would have -been done once for all; that in points of form, though individual -inferiority of poetic gift might show itself, there could be no great -technical falling off. To think this, however, would be to ignore--as, -in fact, men too usually do ignore, and have ignored--the necessary and -intricate connection between language and prosody. Chaucer had raised -the state of English versification to the highest point possible in -his time; in fact, there are reasons for saying that he had screwed -it up beyond the level possible to ordinary men. To mention nothing -else, the exactness, and at the same time the rhythmical variety of -his verse, depend on two special points--the valuing of the final -_e_ and the optional but carefully selected shift from French to -English accentuation.[74] We know that, even in the mouths and on the -pens of his own contemporaries, the _e_ was breaking down, and that -it "went" more and more during the fifteenth century; and we know -likewise, though less certainly, that though, even at the close of -the period with which we are dealing, French accentuation was still -permissible to poets, an English standard was gradually establishing -itself, violation of which was disapproved.[75] Moreover, the fact -remains undeniable that the poetic quality of the followers of -Chaucer, in Southern English of the literary kind, was low to a point -unprecedented, and never yet again reached since. - -The progress of prosody between Chaucer and Spenser divides itself, -sharply but unequally in point of time, between a longer space (about -a century and a quarter) from Chaucer to poets like Hawes, Skelton, -and Barclay; a shorter (of about half a century or less) from Wyatt to -Spenser. In the first division a subdivision--of matter, not time--has -to be made between the literary poets in Southern English, the Scottish -Chaucerians from James the First to Douglas or Lyndsay (if not even -to Montgomerie, who died later than Spenser himself), and the ballad, -carol, and other folk-song writers of the fifteenth century. - -[Sidenote: Lydgate, Occleve, etc.] - -The history of the first division is the history of the breakdown -just referred to. Except in the so-called _Chauceriana_--pieces such -as "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale," "The Flower and the Leaf," "The -Court of Love," etc., once attributed to Chaucer himself, but cast -out on various kinds of evidence ranging from practically conclusive -to very doubtful--and sometimes even in such poets as Lydgate and -Occleve, who for no very small portion of their lives were Chaucer's -own contemporaries, downwards, seem to be struck with metrical palsy or -metrical blindness. Examples, given in the Scanned Conspectus above, -will show the way in which they confuse different metres, vary the -lengths of their lines not by intentional substitution but by sheer -muddlement, violate rhythm and cadence--turn, in fact, the perfect -harmony of their master into a cacophony which is not even prosaic. -Sometimes, especially in Occleve, by rigid counting of syllables, they -escape worse blunders, though they seldom make real music. Generally, -even this resource fails them, and there is no worse chaos than in -Hawes, one of the latest and not one of the least of them; while -Skelton, perhaps the acutest intelligence of all, takes refuge in -frank, _not_ clumsy, and intentional doggerel. - -[Sidenote: The Scottish poets.] - -To this spectacle of disorganisation and decay the Scottish followers -of Chaucer (who, generally with acknowledgment as eager and hearty as -that of their English comrades, take him for their master) present -what may at first sight seem an astonishing and almost unintelligible -contrast. With final _e_'s allowed for (or in case of necessity touched -in), the _Kingis Quair_, traditionally ascribed, and never with solid -reason denied, to James the First, is a piece of rhyme-royal as soundly -constructed, and as well fitted and polished, as if it were Chaucer's -own. Henryson, in his following of Chaucer's _Troilus_, and in his -other poems, never breaks down in metre, but handles every form that -he touches with equal precision and charm. Even more may be said of -Dunbar, whose lyrics possess the peculiar grace only given by metrical -accomplishment, who can manage alliterative metre more smoothly than -Langland and with not less vigour, and who, if he wrote the "Friars -of Berwick," is, next to Chaucer himself, the greatest master of the -early (Middle English) heroic couplet. Of the verse-chroniclers, -Wyntoun, though not very poetical, uses octosyllabic couplet, with not -infrequent equivalence, effectively enough, and Blind Harry writes -very strict decasyllabic couplet with cæsura at the fourth syllable, -after the French model. The earlier sixteenth-century writers, Douglas -and Lyndsay, if not perhaps quite impeccable, appear so beside Hawes -and his fellows; while the two latest strictly Scots poets, Scott and -Montgomerie, manage most complicated measures--reminding us of early -French and Provençal, or of those of the English fourteenth century in -lyric and drama--with unerring accuracy and finished grace. Of this -strange contrast the simple fact of writing in a different dialect, -requiring more care in imitation, may supply some explanation; the -other fact, that this dialect was rather a literary convention than -a vernacular speech, some more; and the higher quality of individual -genius, more still; but a margin of surprise remains. - -[Sidenote: Ballad, etc.] - -It is difficult to say whether that margin is reduced or widened by -the fact that a contrast, almost as striking, is found between the -English literary poetry of the period and the "folk-song," sacred and -profane. It is probable that the bulk of our older ballads date from -the earliest fifteenth century or the very close of the fourteenth. The -latter would seem to be true of the "Robin Hood" ballads; the former is -pretty certainly true of "Chevy Chase." We have also from the fifteenth -century a large body of carols, or sacred poems for singing. - -Now in these, though they naturally vary much in poetic merit and in -prosodic accomplishment, it is remarkable that this latter scarcely -ever falls to the level of the worst literary poetry, and never falls -in exactly the same way. The ballad-writers invariably, and the -carol- and hymn-writers very commonly, preserve the English licence -of equivalence in the fullest fashion; and this seems to relieve -their motion of the staggering and fatal cramp which rests on their -superiors in formal literary rank. They sing naturally: they do not -aim at, and break down in, a falsetto. Although it would be impossible -to have anything in a worse condition, as far as copying goes, than -our oldest version of "Chevy Chase," its natural ballad motion carries -it safe through all the corruptions and defacements; the sacred song -of "E.I.O." is admirable metre; the Carol of the Virgin, "I sing of -a maiden," is matchless in quiet metrical movement; and the famous -"Nut-brown Maid," which is certainly not later than this century, -deserves the same praise in more rapid melody. - -These compositions, however, though they did a precious office -in preserving the true principles of English prosody, could not -exercise immediate influence; and the disorganising of literary -versification was no doubt partly cause and partly consequence of the -continuance of the alliterative revolt which did not die till after -Flodden--indeed, not till after Musselburgh (Pinkie). But, indirectly, -this revolt encouraged fresh developments of English metre itself. -The old fourteener had taken new and lively form in such pieces as -_Gamelyn_[76] (late fourteenth century) and _Beryn_ (middle fifteenth), -and through it and other things--the musical adaptations of songs -and hymns and the like--there was arising, in dramatic literature -especially, a disorderly, imperfect, but very important notion of -wholly "triple-timed" or anapæstic metre. In fact, it is not excessive -to regard the English fifteenth century as a period when all elements -of prosody were thrown into a sort of cauldron, sack, sieve, or -lucky-bag, in which, as according to the different metaphors suiting -these objects, they were to be boiled down, shaken together, sifted -out, and taken as fortune would have it, to supply the stock of a new -venture in more orderly and polished verse-manufacture when actual -speech had settled itself once more. - -[Sidenote: Dissatisfaction and reform.] - -At what period, in what manner, and by what persons exactly, conscious -discontent with this confusion and dilapidation was made manifest, -is not known. That it was felt consciously about the middle of the -sixteenth century we do know positively from a passage in the _Mirror -for Magistrates_; and later still we find the precepts of Gascoigne -virtually, if not always expressly, directed against it. But, as has -been hinted, even Skeltonic evinces an earlier attempt to escape -from it in practice as far back as the first quarter of the century; -while, at an uncertain time for first efforts, during the second, and -then ever increasingly during the third, till the death of Gascoigne -himself, poetical practice proclaims the fact, even more emphatically -than any preceptist rules of criticism could do. Indeed, there has -hardly ever been any mistake, and it is difficult to think that by -persons possessed of ears and eyes any could be made, about the -surprising revolution manifest in the verse of Sir Thomas Wyatt, and -of his younger disciple, Henry Howard, known by his courtesy title as -the Earl of Surrey. Instead of the weltering and staggering discords -of the poets from Lydgate onward, we come back to verse almost as -clear, regular, and harmonious as Chaucer's, though with a much more -modern pronunciation and accent, to which it occasionally seems to -have some difficulty in reconciling itself. The final _e_ has in most -cases disappeared, though it is probably there in a few cases, and in -a few others has settled itself into _y_.[77] The inordinate variety -of syllables in the line, not explicable by any trisyllabic foot, is -reformed. Indeed, the need of the reform is so strongly felt that the -poets run into the opposite error--salutary for the time--of excessive -syllabic uniformity. - -[Sidenote: Wyatt and Surrey.] - -There can be no question that Wyatt, and, through or after him, Surrey, -were enormously helped, if not originally stimulated to reform, by -the existence of new, exact, and attractive foreign models derived, -at any rate originally, from a new language. French had hitherto been -almost the only source of such models, and it had lost its virtue--not -least perhaps because _ballades_ and other formal devices, though -excellent in themselves, had been practised all through the period of -disorganisation. Italian supplied, in the sonnet, _terza rima_, and -blank verse, fresh models, in the attempt to imitate which precision -of syllabic and rhythmical arrangement almost inevitably enjoined -itself. To write either sonnet or _terza_ in shuffling doggerel would -destroy the particular form; to write blank verse in such a way (as was -actually shown a hundred years afterward by the later "Elizabethan" -dramatists) is to lose _all_ form; so that the instinct of preservation -kept the new experimenters right. Precisely why they adopted another -form which is not Italian at all--the poulter's measure of alternate -Alexandrine and fourteener--is not so easy to decide; but it may very -reasonably be taken to be an attempt to regularise two of the shapes -to which the doggerel of the time and its predecessor most nearly -approximated. It is not a very good form (though when it splits up -into "short measure" it has some merits), and even in the hands of two -such poets as Wyatt and Surrey it is terribly sing-song. But this very -sing-song carried regularity with it. Of the imported measures _terza_ -has never suited English very well, though numerous attempts have been -made at it by poets sometimes of supreme quality. On the other hand, -the sonnet--not the commonest Italian form at first, but that also -later--has made itself thoroughly at home; and blank verse--not much -more of a success in Italian itself than _terza_ in English--has, in -English, grown to be one of the greatest metres in the world's prosodic -history. - -It should be at once seen that these processes of reform involved an -almost inevitable--a certainly very natural--"drawing-in of the horns" -of verse, which was positively beneficial in practice, but which led -to rather disastrous mistakes in theory. On the one hand, so far as -Italian admits of foot-distribution, it is distributable only into -dissyllabic feet in the metres affected.[78] On the other, the utter -disorganisation of English verse which had prevailed might well seem -to have been caused by the neglect to observe accurate division into -such feet--a division which, in our language, will always chiefly -favour the iamb, or foot with the first syllable short and the second -long. Accordingly we find that in Wyatt and Surrey themselves; in -their companions when (long after the death of the first, and nearly -a decade after that of the second) their work came to be published in -_Tottel's Miscellany_; in the huge rubbish-heap of the _Mirror for -Magistrates_ with its one pearl of price in Sackville's contributions; -and in the poets of the third quarter of the sixteenth century--George -Turberville and Gascoigne himself--this iambic rhythm is omnipresent, -though the line-length and other combinations may be largely variable. -There is, it is true, one remarkable exception in the Georgic poet -Tusser, who uses frequent and accurate anapæst; but the nature of -his subject, the homeliness of his diction, and the character of his -intended readers, may have been thought to put him out of strictly -poetical consideration. When Gascoigne--merely as narrating and -regretting a fact, _not_ announcing, as some have erroneously thought, -a principle--stated the limitation, his fact was for the most part a -fact, and had been so for more than a generation. - -[Sidenote: Their followers.] - -It would, however, be a gross mistake in criticism, as well as a piece -of unpardonable ingratitude, to find fault with these poets for their -prosodic limitation. It was their business to limit and be limited--to -substitute, at whatever cost of temporary restriction of freedom, order -for the abominable disorder of the preceding century, rhythm for its -limping or staggering movement, harmonious and well-concerted metrical -arrangement for its hubbub of halting verse or scarcely more than even -half-doggerelised prose. And they did this. When, as in the cases of -Wyatt, Surrey, and Sackville, they were men of real and genuine poetic -gift they did much more; though the two first were still hampered by -the uncertainty of pronunciation. From this Sackville is comparatively -free; though the deliberate archaism in him no doubt assists this -freedom, and may have suggested something similar to Spenser. Even -Turberville and Gascoigne, though their strictly poetic powers are -less, manage to produce, by no means seldom, sweet and harmonious -measures. And all do the inestimable work of drilling, regimenting, and -preparing the raw and demoralised state of English prosody so that it -may be ready to the hands of a real master and commander. - -[Sidenote: Spenser.] - -Such a master and commander duly presented himself in Spenser. -Naturally enough--and even commendably enough on the principle of -proving all things and holding fast that which is good--he spent a -little time on classical "versing"; only to give it up so completely -that (as is not the case with his friend Sidney) no single example of -it, or of any approach to it, occurs in his actual poetical works. -He must have spent much more on experiments in English verse proper, -before the ever-famous and admirable _Shepherd's Calendar_ appeared in -the winter of 1579-80. - -[Sidenote: The _Shepherd's Calendar_.] - -For poetical excellence, combined with prosodic regularity, there had -been nothing like this since Chaucer; for poetical excellence combined -with prosodic variety it may be questioned whether Chaucer himself--his -whole work being set against this novice's essay--can show anything -equal. Spenser had not yet ventured to publish (though it is more than -probable that he had sketched it out[79]) his immortal stanza, and he -did not issue till later any exact and complete followings of Chaucer's -riding rhyme. But he uses (the exact order is for special reasons not -followed) a very fine six-line stanza (decasyllables rhymed _ababcc_); -slightly altered Romance-six with fresh substitution and redundance in -the short lines; various stanzas much "cuttit and broken" (_i.e._ of -very varied line-length and rhyme-order); the Chaucerian octave; common -ballad measure; and another metre, much discussed and not universally -agreed upon, but, on the more probable interpretation of it, one of the -most interesting in the whole history of English poetry. - -This arrangement, which is found in the "February," "May," and -"September" pieces, but most characteristically in the part of -"February" devoted to the tale of "The Oak and the Brere" (Briar), -has been thought by some to be evidence that Spenser misunderstood -Chaucer's "riding rhyme" owing to the disuse of the final valued -_e_ and other changes, these pieces presenting the result of the -misconception. Unfortunately for this notion, the pieces themselves -contain large numbers of consecutive decasyllabics perfectly well -filled and rhythmed; while Spenser later wrote another piece, _Mother -Hubberd's Tale_, which is in impeccable "riding rhyme" from first -to last. He is also, not merely in his later work, but in the other -nine-twelfths of the _Calendar_ itself, an equally impeccable master -of every rhythm and metre that he tries, so that it is practically -inconceivable that he should here have been stumbling blindfold, or -wandering aimlessly, between perfect decasyllabic couplets, perfect -octosyllabic couplets, and doggerel anapæstic lines inconsistent with -both. On the other hand, there had been in English, as we have seen, -from _Genesis and Exodus_ downwards, a variety of octosyllabic couplet -which had admitted anapæstic equivalence freely, which reappeared in -the Romances, and which, though not favoured by Chaucer or Gower or -their immediate followers, had persevered in various places down to -Spenser's own time. It seems to the present writer, as it did to Gray a -hundred and fifty years ago, and has to many others since _Christabel_, -though Coleridge himself strangely did not notice it, that Spenser here -followed his elders, and anticipated Coleridge himself, in choosing -equivalenced octosyllable to vary his non-equivalenced decasyllable. -And on this theory we have in _Genesis and Exodus_, the _Shepherd's -Calendar_, and _Christabel_, the three main piers of a great bridge -which unites the earliest and the latest ages of English prosody, and -which carries that prosody's most vital and differential principle. - -[Sidenote: The _Faerie Queene_.] - -The result, however, of Spenser's experiments was that, for his chief -poem the _Faerie Queene_, he chose none of the metres in which he -had thus experimented, nor any which had been previously employed by -poets, English or other, but invented (the possible stages of the -invention being given elsewhere) the magnificent Spenserian stanza of -eight decasyllables and an Alexandrine. With this he got more room -than in either rhyme-royal or the octave--an unsurpassed medium for -the individual descriptive effects in which he delighted, and yet one -which could combine itself (for the purpose of larger description or of -narrative) into most attractive sequence. He did not, however, confine -himself to this in his later poems, but showed himself a master, not -merely of the octave in both its forms and of the couplet, but also of -two extensive verse combinations more elaborate than the Spenserian -itself, but less original, and both really suggested, as the Spenserian -was _not_, by Italian. The first was the sonnet, which, after the -successors of Wyatt and Surrey had been apparently afraid to venture -on it, had been taken up by Sidney and Watson probably about the same -time that he was himself at work upon his _Calendar_, and in which he -did very beautiful things. The other was the still more extensive and -complicated arrangement, suggested no doubt by the Italian _canzone_, -which he employed in the _Epithalamion_ and _Prothalamion_--stanzas of -unequal line-length and intertwisted rhyme-order which sometimes extend -to a score of lines or thereabouts. - -Spenser did not, after the _Shepherd's Calendar_, attempt the lighter -kind of lyric, nor anything in trisyllabic measures; while he seems -distinctly to eschew trisyllabic substitution in others, though -it appears sometimes. But this was, in fact, a condition of his -completing, and informing with full poetic spirit, the prosodic reform -of the second and third quarters of the century. He left English -poetry once more provided--and indeed had furnished it long before -his too early death--with a perfect form of verse, and with a nearly -perfect form of poetic diction. This diction, which was almost as -much his own work as his stanza, was at the time, and has been since, -much misunderstood. Ben Jonson called it "no language"--an insidious -proposition which, under the truth that it is no language that was at -the time, had been before, or has since been the living speech of any -person or group, conveys the falsehood that it is therefore unfit for -poetry. It is probable that Chaucer's was, though slightly mixed, much -nearer the actual language of his own time, and for that very reason -it grew obsolete, and, until it was studied from the antiquarian point -of view, carried the verse with it. Spenser's blend of actuality, -archaism, dialect, borrowings from French and Italian, and the like, -provided a literary medium which, though parts of it too have become -antiquated, has as a whole provided patterns for all subsequent poets. -The most disputable of his devices, though it has a certain quaint -charm of its own, is what is called his "eye-rhyme"--a system of -altering the spelling of some words so that they may not only sound -alike on the voice but look alike on the page. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[74] These are certain and incontestable. The present writer would -add the sprinkling of trisyllabic feet, Alexandrines, etc.--even more -difficult for clumsy followers to imitate successfully. - -[75] As by Gascoigne (_v. inf._). - -[76] - - Litheth and lesteneth · and herkeneth aright, - And ye schulle here a talking · of a doughty knight; - Sire Johan of Boundys · was his righte name, - He cowde of norture enough · and mochil of game. - Thre sones the knight hadde · that with his body he wan; - The eldest was a moche shrewe · and sone he bigan. - His bretheren loved wel here fader · and of him were agast, - The eldest deserved his father's curse · and had it at the last. - The goode knight his fader · livede so yore, - That deth was comen him to and handled him full sore. - The goode knight cared sore · syk ther he lay, - How his children scholde · liven after his day. - He hadde ben wyde-wher · but no housband he was, - Al the lond that he hadde · it was verrey purchas. - Fayn he wolde it were · dressed among hem alle, - That ech of hem hadde his part · as it might falle. - - (_Gamelyn_, 1-16.) - -(Here l. 8, with the almost certain _crasis_ of "theldest," is a -pure iambic fourteener. Elsewhere there are monosyllabic beginnings, -contractions of whole or half feet, and great apparent "irregularity," -but at the same time nearer and nearer approach to the anapæstic -dimeter, which was to become so popular.) - -[77] _I.e._ forms like "hugy" (Sackville), "bleaky" (Dryden), and -"paly" (Coleridge). These forms somehow identified themselves with the -artificial poetic diction of the eighteenth century, and have, since -the early part of the nineteenth, been rather eschewed by poets. - -[78] Or, rather, as any one may see from different editions of Dante, -the trisyllables which do occur are almost always capable of being -"slurred up." - -[79] The scheme of the _Faerie Queene_ was sent to Harvey soon -afterwards. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -FROM SHAKESPEARE TO MILTON--THE CLOSE OF THE FORMATIVE PERIOD - - -The high and (it is believed) thoroughly well-deserved praise bestowed -upon Spenser at the close of the last chapter must not lead the -student to suppose that Spenser worked alone, that he was the sole -restorer and perfecter of English prosody at this time, or even that -his work included all that was necessary or desirable. That work, -as has been pointed out, tended towards the complete restoration of -regular and at the same time thoroughly musical and spirited verse, -but it kept--except in the early experiments of the _Shepherd's -Calendar_--to the regular side, avoiding much trisyllabic substitution -as well as "triple time" generally, and eschewing, likewise, strictly -lyrical movements save of the stateliest kind, very much "broken and -cuttit"[80] verse, and the like. - -As regards pure triple or anapæstic measures, no great advance was -made until nearly the close of this present period, though a few -isolated attempts can be quoted. But the principle of trisyllabic -substitution was secured, once for all, by the development of blank -verse, and the variation of lyric was fully maintained by the practice -of a hundred poets, from the contributors, sometimes quite obscure, -to the _Miscellanies_ which came later than _Tottel_, through Sidney -and others of the first great Elizabethan division, through Drayton -and many more of the second, down to the famous group of "Caroline," -"Cavalier," or "metaphysical" poets who were contemporary with Milton. - -[Sidenote: Blank verse.] - -And first of blank verse. - -[Sidenote: Before Shakespeare.] - -The earliest examples of this great metre in Surrey were, naturally -enough, very exact in syllabic length and somewhat monotonous in -arrangement and effect. Deprived of the warning bell of rhyme, and -having nothing but the structure of the verse itself to rely upon, the -poet was almost inevitably tempted to make very sure of that structure -by moulding it singly, and ensuring a distinct stop at the close. This -rather aggravates than relieves itself in the satiric blank verse of -Gascoigne (_The Steel Glass_) and the dramatic blank verse of Sackville -and Norton (_Gorboduc_); while when the immediate predecessors of -Shakespeare, called the University Wits (Marlowe, Peele, Greene, and -the rest), took up the vehicle for general theatrical practice, they -never completely got clear of the same fashion--which Shakespeare -himself adopted in his earliest attempts. Admiration, just in itself, -for Marlowe has made some try to discover in him, and perhaps also in -Peele (where there is really a little more of it), the trisyllabic -substitution, the variation of pause, and the overrunning of sense -and rhythm from line to line, which are necessary to break up this -"single-mouldedness." But, except as to a very few passages where -actual passion melts the ice, they deceive themselves. In the couplet -(_v. inf._) Marlowe did arrive at enjambment; in blank verse, hardly -ever. The beauty of such verse as his in the more majestic, as Peele's -in the sweeter kind, can hardly be exaggerated, but neither has yet got -complete command of all means of achieving beauty. - -The three chief means which they, on the whole, missed, and over -which Shakespeare (profiting by their advance as far as they made it) -gradually gained the mastery, have been indicated as the overrunning of -the line, the variation of the pause, and, above all, the employment of -trisyllabic feet. We can see Shakespeare step by step attaining these, -as well as the more doubtful and dangerous redundant syllable, which -in his last stage he rather abused, and which Beaumont and Fletcher -and later dramatists were to abuse still more. All these means, -but especially the three first (for redundance is compatible with -single-mouldedness), break up the single-moulded line, and substitute -for it (except in cases where it is specially wanted) the verse-clauses -and verse-paragraphs, which it is the glory of Shakespeare to have -perfected. - -[Sidenote: In him,] - -In his certainly earliest plays--_The Comedy of Errors_, _Titus -Andronicus_, _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_, _Love's Labour's Lost_ -to some extent--single-mouldedness still appears strongly. But there -are exceptions even in them; and these exceptions gradually pervade, -mellow, and diversify the prosodic composition, till it attains -the perfect accomplishment of _As You Like It_ and _Hamlet_. Yet a -fifth peculiarity and innovation--the lengthening and shortening of -lines--though it may have originally been a mere easement or liberty, -and is often much abused by other dramatists, becomes in Shakespeare's -hands a fresh instrument of concerted music--the frequent regular -Alexandrines relieving the decasyllable by direct contrast, and -fragments being generally (_v. sup._) so arranged as to give genuine -fractions of the normal scansion itself. - -[Sidenote: and after him in drama.] - -Practically all the secrets and all the accomplishments shown--perhaps -all the accomplishments possible--at this period are to be found -in Shakespeare. The differences of the other dramatists are rather -rhetorical than strictly prosodic; and the efforts sometimes made to -construct special prosodies for them are mostly lost labour. Beaumont -and Fletcher (who seem, from uncertain but pretty strong evidence, to -have actually collaborated with Shakespeare in the _Two Noble Kinsmen_) -develop his latest mood--that where, as in _Cymbeline_, _The Winter's -Tale_, and _The Tempest_, there is much redundance.[81] They carried -it much further than he did, and undoubtedly too far; though the -great poetical power which both possessed saved them. On the other -hand, Ben Jonson, all whose tastes were classical (_i.e._ in favour -of restriction and order), adopted a rather hard and limited, though -rhetorically fine, fashion of blank verse. On the others it would be -unprofitable to enlarge much here. Massinger is perhaps interesting as -working with the most obviously _literary_ eye on his predecessors--a -tendency which is continued in Shirley. But in the latter there is -some, if not much, of a special degeneration which by Shirley's own -later days had nearly destroyed dramatic blank verse itself, and which -was only arrested by the substitution for it of the "heroic" couplet, -as used in the plays called by the same name. - -[Sidenote: Its degeneration.] - -This degeneration, which is most evident in Davenant and Suckling, but -which appears to some, though not to a great extent, in Shirley, and -in most others of the play-writers up to the closing of the theatres, -should be carefully compared with the initial stage of the measure in -English. Then, as we saw, the absence of the guiding and preserving -influence of rhyme made writers especially and excessively careful -of exact syllabisation, of punctilious though monotonous rhythm, -and of meticulous separation of one line from another. So also we -have seen that, in the second or great period, the restrictions were -loosened--that Shakespeare, preserving perfect metrical harmony, -substituted an ordered licence for them all. But even he perhaps a -little latterly, and his followers Beaumont and Fletcher much more, -exceeded in the redundant syllable. The third generation, though -including, as in the three cases specially mentioned above, men of -no small poetic talent, made the common, the apparently inevitable, -but the disastrous mistake of considering beauty not merely as -directly connected with apparent irregularity, but as to be secured by -irregularity itself. Much of their blank verse is extremely blank, but -not verse at all; nor yet prose, but an awkward hybrid. Not a little -is prose pure and simple. It is scarcely surprising that, after the -Restoration, the metre should have been regarded as "too mean even for -a copy of verses," and discarded, for more than a few years, in drama -itself. Except the broken-down rhyme-royal of the fifteenth century -(to which it bears a striking resemblance without the excuse there -available) there is no more really disgraceful department of English -poetry. - -[Sidenote: Milton's reform of it.] - -At the very time, however, when this disorganisation of dramatic blank -verse was at its worst, and when it had as yet only been used on the -rarest occasions for any other purpose, its great restorer began, -though he did not for a long time continue, the process of restoration. - -[Sidenote: _Comus._] - -Milton's _Comus_ (1634) exhibits him as a student, and consequently -an imitator, of all the three preceding schools, excepting the -contemporary degradation, which was impossible to such a born master -of harmony. He has now caught, and often directly reproduces, the -single-moulded line of Marlowe; and, on the other hand, he is almost -equally inclined to the excessively redundanced endings of Beaumont -and Fletcher, even to the extent of frequently making the last foot an -anapæst.[82] Yet he not seldom closely approaches Shakespeare himself -in the varied modulation, without excessive laxity, of his lines, and -in the weaving of them, through overlapping, presence, absence and -shifting of pause, and the like, into a verse paragraph. He inserts -Alexandrines, but does not use verse-fragments much. And he begins a -process--of which he was to be the greatest master--of adding to the -colour, and enhancing the form, of lines by striking and important -words, especially proper names. But fine as the blank verse of _Comus_ -is, it is, when we compare it with the lyrical close of the piece -itself, evidently in the experimental stage. And it does not show the -complete and assured command which is visible in the octosyllables and -mixed lyrics. - -[Sidenote: _Paradise Lost._] - -When, later, he once more employed blank verse (and this time blank -verse only) in _Paradise Lost_,[83] there was nothing of experiment -left in it. The system, in whatever way it may be interpreted, is -quite obviously one which the poet has completely mastered, and which -he is using without the slightest doubt or difficulty. It has given -the pattern for all narrative, in fact for all non-dramatic, blank -verse since; it established, though not quite at once, the measure as -one of the great staples for this general use; and though there have -been times at which it was not generally popular, and persons by whom -it was heartily disliked, there has been a sort of general consensus, -sometimes grudging, but oftener enthusiastic, that it is one of the -greatest achievements of English poetry. - -It is therefore inevitable that the partisans of the various systems -of that poetry on its formal side, of which accounts were given in the -beginning of this _Manual_, should all try to vindicate it for their -own views. Attempts are still made (though chiefly by foreigners who -naturally cannot bring the necessary ear) to reduce _Paradise Lost_ to -a strict decasyllabic arrangement, no extra syllables being allowed at -all. This, of course, is merely hideous, and involves numerous crass -absurdities, such as the reduction of, "so oft" to "soft."[84] - -[Sidenote: Analysis of its versification, with application of different -systems.] - -The accentualists, as such, are not driven to equal straits unless they -choose; indeed, though accentual prosody can never give an adequate -account of Milton's verse, there is no reason why it should not give a -partially correct one. If any one says that Milton employs a verse of -five accents--these usually occurring at the even places of a normal -line, but not infrequently varied in position, sometimes separated by -more than one unaccented syllable, but usually by one only--he will -give, in his own language and with his own limitations, a correct, -though scanty and jejune, account of the thing. He will, however, in -most cases be found going on, and entering upon very disputable matter. -He will notice "licences," and will, in some cases, be inclined to -deplore, or even denounce, the variation of accent just noted. He -will also, in most cases, be found declining to accept the unaccented -syllables as they stand--indeed he has no machinery ready for doing so -without making them a disorderly crowd,--and will endeavour to dispose -of them by some process of "elision," inventing extremely ingenious, -but mostly arbitrary and sometimes self-confessedly inadequate, -specifications of the employment of this. If he is of the class of -accentualists who prefer the term "stress" and its applications, he -will probably go much further still, and allow, or insist upon, the -widest variation in the number of stresses, lines of five being indeed -the average, but four, three, and, in some extreme cases, even two, -being allowed.[85] Further intricate subdivisions will be found between -believers in these theories who, while ruling out syllables from -_scansion_ by an elaborate system of metrical fictions, maintain that -they are not to be dropped in _pronunciation_, and others who, as most -people did unhesitatingly in the eighteenth century, as many did in -the earlier nineteenth, and as a few boldly and consistently do still, -drop the pronunciation altogether, spelling and pronouncing, as well as -scanning, "am'rous," "om'nous," "pop'lar," "del'cate," and the like. - -The foot system, on the other hand, as it always does, accepts Milton's -verse exactly as it stands, takes no kind of liberty with it, and -merely strives to discover its characteristics. This system finds (with -the exception of a very few daring experiments, no one of which can -be called wrong in principle, though there may be different opinions -about the success of some of them in practice) nothing different from -the general laws of English verse, as observed at all its best periods, -and as visible, if only in the breach of them, at all, best and worst. -Milton's normal line is a five-foot iambic: - - ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ - -But for these iambics he will substitute trochees or anapæsts, -sometimes perhaps tribrachs, very freely; and his use of the trochee -for this purpose is more lavish and more audacious than that of any -other English poet, so much so that he will allow two to follow each -other at the opening of the line, and frequently adopts a choriambic -ending by placing one at the fourth foot. On the other hand, he seldom -has the final anapæst which we found in _Comus_, or perhaps the -Alexandrine, though sometimes there are fractional lines. By dint of -these variations--of which the trisyllabic (generally anapæstic) foot -is the most frequent, the most successful, and, despite objections, the -most certain--he attains great variety in his line, which he increases -and utilises, for one great purpose, by the same devices of pause, -diction, etc., formerly noticed in _Comus_, but in a more accomplished -manner and to a higher degree. - -The purpose is this, that by these, by equally elaborate and -extraordinarily successful variation of the pause, by devices of -diction, and by the use of brilliantly coloured and heavily weighted -proper names and of others, he may construct a verse-paragraph similar -to that which Shakespeare had already accomplished, but without the -special characteristics of spoken verse. He altered his methods a -little--though perhaps not so much as has been sometimes thought--in -_Paradise Regained_, and still more in _Samson Agonistes_, where, -however, the renewed dramatic intention has to be considered. And, -on the whole, especially when taken in combination with his master -Shakespeare, he established not merely the freedom and order of blank -verse itself, but the whole principle of equivalent substitution in -English prosody. - -[Sidenote: Stanza, etc., in Shakespeare,] - -But it was not in blank verse only that Shakespeare and Milton played, -in prosody, almost more than the part which they played in poetry -generally. In their other work it is quite as true of them that, from -it, all the principles of English versification could be derived by -intelligent study. Shakespeare's early long poems, _Venus and Adonis_ -and the _Rape of Lucrece_--the one in the six-line stanza, the other -in rhyme-royal--rank as the greatest stanza-verse of the last decade -of the sixteenth century except Spenser's; while his _Sonnets_ are, -not merely for their poetic spirit, the greatest in the English form, -exhibiting remarkable individuality in the arrangement of the three -quatrains, and an unmatched power of bringing the last couplet to -bear suddenly, with the utmost prosodic as well as poetic effect. The -largely shortened octosyllabic couplets, scattered about his plays -and among the smaller (some of them technically "doubtful") poems, -show equal mastery of that form, and have indeed inspired Fletcher, -Wither, Milton, and all practitioners of it since. But the songs in -the plays are, next to his blank verse, his greatest prosodic triumph. -He has got in them all the contemporary variety and much more than -the usual contemporary freedom, so that such pieces as those in _The -Tempest_,[86] in _Much Ado About Nothing_, and in _As You Like It_[87] -might, had they been attended to and understood, have saved the early -critics of Tennyson and some other nineteenth-century poets from -blunders about the "irregularity," "discord," "un-English character," -etc., of their versification. t | sprītes, thĕ | būrthĕn | bear. Hārk, -| hārk! | Bŏ̄w-wōw. | Thĕ wātch-|dŏgs bārk: Bŏ̄w-wōw. P/ - -(Alternate trochaic and iambic rhythm capable of being made all iambic -by starting with monosyllabic feet: "Cōme" | "Cōurt-" | "Fōot" | etc. -Monosyllabic equivalence in "Hark, hark!" to "The watch-|dogs bark.")] - -[Sidenote: in Milton,] - -Except in this last respect (for he does not much indulge in -triple-timed measures), Milton's examples are as striking, while -they are more numerous. In grave stanza of purely iambic cadence -but varied line-length, the ode on the _Nativity_ is unsurpassed -in our poetry. The octosyllabic couplets (with catalexis) of the -_Arcades_, _L'Allegro_, and _Il Penseroso_, and the already-mentioned -latter part of _Comus_, stand at the head of their class. _Lycidas_, -which is written in lines mainly decasyllabic, though sometimes of -different length, arranged (except in the last stanza) on no identical -principle, is a practically unique combination of rhyme and blank -verse--the ends being sometimes left unrhymed, but generally rhymed, -though on an apparently irregular system which never violates harmony, -but makes--first each paragraph and then the whole poem--a piece of -concerted music, a definite prosodic symphony or sonata. And lastly, -the choruses of _Samson Agonistes_, when he had returned to rhyme, -apply this system on more extensive principles[88] still, occasionally -attempting quite new measures,[89] and getting the utmost possible -result out of large variation of line-length in the same or in mixed -cadences. Some of the experiments are less successful than others, -and, on the whole, _Samson_ displays a _harder_ style of verse than -the earlier poems; but it is equally important as exhibiting the true -principles of English prosody. Indeed, when Milton had published it, he -may be said to have closed the formative period of our versification, -not in the sense that he had not left infinite things to be done, -but that he had, after Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare, almost -completely indicated the principles of doing them. - -[Sidenote: and others.] - -But these principles had been illustrated by others during the lifetime -of the two,[90] after fashions which even the most summary account -of English prosody cannot leave unnoticed; and these fashions, with -some general phenomena of this double lifetime, not always specially -noticeable in Shakespeare and Milton themselves, must be indicated. The -performances of these two "primates"--the one in the English, the other -in the Italian form of the sonnet--make it unnecessary to say more of -that form, though it was very largely practised in the last decade of -the sixteenth century, and beyond all doubt helped much to discipline -verse generally. And the same is true of the octosyllabic couplet, -which, however, was very beautifully practised by the Jacobean poets -Browne, Wither, and others. But more must be said of the stanza, of -the decasyllabic couplet, the fortunes of which in this time were most -momentous (and which, as it happens, was only occasionally practised -by Shakespeare,[91] scarcely at all by Milton[92]), and of the various -forms, so far as their multiplicity does not forbid, of lyric. - -The novelty, splendour, and apparent difficulty of the Spenserian seem -to have imposed on contemporaries to such an extent as to prevent them -from copying it in typical form at all; while many years passed before -it was attempted in slightly altered forms.[93] The favourite stanza -in the later years of Elizabeth was the octave, chiefly in the Italian -form, which was very largely written by Drayton, by Daniel, and many -others, including Edward Fairfax in his very influential translation of -Tasso. Rhyme-royal fell especially out of favour, though Milton used -it in his early days, and Sir Francis Kynaston wrote a long poem in -it as late as 1648. The decasyllabic quatrain, alternately rhymed, was -used by Davies and others. Yet not merely Ben Jonson (_v. inf._) but -Drayton himself expressed weariness of the stanza generally, and this -undoubtedly grew, though it continued to be used. The new favourite was -the decasyllabic couplet. - -[Sidenote: The "heroic" couplet.] - -It has been said that this couplet, despite its splendid success, and -the abundance of varied model for it in Chaucer, was not much used -(and never used well save perhaps in _The Friars of Berwick_) by his -successors. It acquired, however, without any clearly traceable cause, -a considerable hold on the early drama; and, when it was ejected from -this, it revenged itself by turning the stanza out to a large extent -in non-dramatic verse. Drayton, in the passage referred to, speaks of -the attraction of "the _gemell_," _i.e._ "the _twinned_ line," and -practised it not a little. Jonson, we are told, thought couplets (made -in a fashion the specification of which is unfortunately not clear) -"the bravest sort of verses." He did not, however, write them very -largely; but Drayton did. And while Marlowe set a magnificent example -in _Hero and Leander_, and others employed the measure independently, -the same sort of influence in its favour, which was noticed formerly as -exercised in Chaucer's case by the final couplets of rhyme-royal, was -beyond all question now exercised afresh by those of the fashionable -_ottava_. In fact, the already-mentioned _Tasso_ of Edward Fairfax -(1600) is one of the recognised originals of a particular form--the -stopped or self-ended couplet. This the octave, like the English -sonnet, which doubtless had influence too, especially encourages. -Drayton and others wrote as Chaucer, we saw, had written, almost -indifferently in both kinds, at least so that neither has marked -and dominant character. But Marlowe, in striking contrast to his -blank-verse practice, decidedly preferred, and practised exquisitely, -the opposite or "enjambed" variety. - -[Sidenote: Enjambed] - -By degrees, however, there grew up in the seventeenth century what -has been perhaps not incorrectly described as a "battle of the -couplets"--certain poets definitely employing one form, others the -other; while in at least one case[94] the preference is distinctly -and combatively avowed. As a sect, clearly marked, the enjambers -or disciples of Marlowe are the older. Their most distinguished -representatives are, in the earlier part or first quarter of the -century, William Browne, George Wither--who in the piece called -_Alresford Pool_ produced one of the most beautiful separate examples -of the kind,--a rather mysterious person named John Chalkhill, to -whom Izaak Walton was godfather and usher; in the second and at the -beginning of the third, the dramatist Shakerley Marmion and William -Chamberlayne. The latter's poem of _Pharonnida_[95] is the longest -example of the style, and in flashes and short passages the most -poetical of all; but it also exhibits the defects of that style most -flagrantly. These defects come from the fact that the poet--allowed to -neglect his rhyme as a warning bell of termination of something, and -to use it as a mere accompaniment--allows his clauses and sentences to -run into a sometimes quite bewildering prolixity, and very frequently -neglects even that modified restriction of the line itself to some -distinct form and outline which both good blank verse and this form -of couplet equally require. The result, assisted by the ugly fancy -of the time for apostrophated elisions, sometimes comes near to the -contemporary degradation of blank verse itself which has been mentioned. - -[Sidenote: and stopped.] - -There can be no reasonable doubt that these excesses and defects -stimulated attention to the stopped form of the couplet; and as little -that this attention was, though not unmixedly, decidedly beneficial to -English verse. It was becoming, and had soon become, desirable, not -merely that such things as this excessive enjambment in couplet and -as the degeneration of blank verse should be corrected, but that the -valuable and indeed inestimable assertion of the right to trisyllabic -substitution which blank verse had once more brought out, and which -was prompting the use once more of purely or mainly trisyllabic -_measures_, should be met, and for a time at any rate restrained, by -the counter-assertion of the necessity of rhythmical smoothness and -regularity. The language--though there is no reason to believe that the -general pronunciation of Shakespeare's time was so different from ours -as some have thought--was still going through changes of accent and -the like; and, as yet, general notions on prosody were rare, for the -most part very ignorant of the actual history of English poetry, and -as a rule badly expressed. In these circumstances it is not surprising -that the form--even the music--of the stopped and as nearly as possible -normal decasyllabic couplet should appeal to many. The accepted growth -of it is marked traditionally by the names of Fairfax, Sandys, and, -above all, Waller, from whom Dryden (not to be noticed in detail till -the next chapter) derived his pattern. But the clearest notion both of -the principles and of the attraction of the form is to be obtained from -the lines of Sir John Beaumont, quoted and discussed elsewhere. - -For the present, however, the stopped couplet--even as such, and in -comparison with its rival--was struggling not so much for mastery as -for recognition, and Ben Jonson's idea of its being (if he really -thought so) "the bravest of all" was nowhere near general acceptance. -In particular, the production of lyric between Spenser's time and the -Restoration--if not even considerably later--was immense in quantity, -almost unique in variety, and never surpassed in poetical merit, though -until late in the period it mostly, except in Shakespeare and a few -others, confined itself to dissyllabic feet.[96] - -[Sidenote: Lyric.] - -The poetical miscellanies of the later Elizabethan time, and the -lyrical work of Sidney, Drayton, Jonson, Campion, and many others, -brought out the song capacity of English as it had never been brought -out before; and in the later portion of the period the poets specially -known as "Caroline"--that is to say, of the period of Charles the -First, with a smaller but remarkable contingent from the earlier days -of his son--Herrick, Carew, Crashaw, Vaughan, Stanley, King, and almost -dozens of others down to Rochester, Sedley, and Afra Behn--tried almost -infinite varieties of line-length and line-adjustment with delightful -results. And it is specially to be noticed that this lyric never broke -down as couplet and blank verse were doing--that it always retained the -tradition of metrical harmony which Wyatt and Surrey had reintroduced -into English literary poetry, and which Spenser had perfected. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[80] A phrase of King James (VI. of Scotland and I. of England); _v. -inf._ Bks. III. and IV. - -[81] That, reversing the order, Shakespeare borrowed this from them, -is a recent notion, extremely difficult to reconcile with external -evidence, and going in the very teeth of internal. - -[82] Not, of course, that this is not sometimes most successful, as in -Tennyson's - - And flashing round and round and whirled | _in an arch_, - -but that it is dangerous, and if often used would be intolerable. - -[83] Published in 1667, and so more than thirty years after _Comus_. -But perhaps begun at least fifteen years earlier. - -[84] To give a thoroughly satisfactory discussion of Milton's prosody -would need space quite out of proportion here. The writer has done what -he could, in this direction, in the long chapter devoted to the subject -in his larger _History_. But some examples, illustrations, and parallel -scannings under different systems may be added to the text of this -_Manual_. And first in regard to printing: - -(_a_) In the printed _Paradise Lost_ the line - - Above _th' A_onian mount, while it pursues - -appears with the apostrophe; but below-- - - Delight thee more, and Sil_oa_'s brook that flowed-- - -has no attempt to indicate elision by printing. - -(_b_) - - And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer-- - -if this is to be made strictly dissyllabic, we must pronounce "spir't," -though not so printed; but, a little lower-- - - Innu|mera|ble force | of spir|its armed - -absolutely requires the full value. - -(_c_) - - Sing, Hea_v'n_ly Muse, that, on the secret top - -favours the idea that Milton, as most Elizabethans certainly did, -thought "Heaven" a monosyllable. But compare line 297-- - - On Hea|ven's a|zure; and | the tor|rid clime. - -(_d_) Note, too, words like "ominous," "popular," "delicate," printed -without attempt to apostrophate, though the middle syllabic makes a -trisyllabic foot. - -Again, consider the comparative euphony of the following lines: - -(_e_) - - Of glo|ry̆ ŏbscūred | ăs whēn | thĕ Sūn | nĕw rīsĕn, - -or - - Of glor|y̆obscūred, | etc. - -(_f_) - - The form | attempt|ing. Where|fŏre dŏ Ī | ăssūme, - -or - - Thĕ̄ fōrm | ăttēmpt|ĭng. Whēre|fŏre d'Ī | ăssūme, - -or - - The form | attempt| Wherefore | do I | assume, - (_ing_). - -with the "-ing" sunk or swallowed somehow "extrametrically." - -(_g_) - - Thĕ ănĭ|măl spĭrĭts | thăt frōm | pŭ̄re blōod | ărīse, - -or - - Th'ănĭ|măl spīr'ts | thăt frōm | pŭ̄re | blōod | ărīse. - -(_h_) - - Bĕcāuse | thŏu hăst hār|kĕned tō | thĕ vōice | ŏf thy̆ wīfe, - -or - - Because | thou'st har|kened to | th' vōice ō̆f | thy wife. - -[85] With possible extension to _eight_, and (for aught I can see on -the system) to _ten_. - -[86] - - Cōme ŭn|tō thĕse | yēllŏw | sānds, - Ănd thēn | tăke hānds: - Cōurtsĭed | whēn yŏu | hāve ănd | kiss'd - Thĕ wīld | wā̆ves whīst, - Fōot ĭt | fēatly̆ | hēre ănd | thēre; - Ā̆nd, swĕ̄e - -[87] - - Ūn|dĕr thĕ grēen|wō̆od trēe - Whŏ lōves | tŏ līe | wĭth mē, - Ănd tūne | hĭs mēr|ry̆ nōte - Ŭ̄ntŏ | thĕ swēet | bĭ̄rd's thrōat, - Cŏme hī|thĕr, cŏme hī|thĕr, cŏme hī|ther: - Hēre | shăll hĕ sēe - Nŏ ēn|ĕmȳ - Bŭt wīn|tĕr ānd | rō̆ugh wēather. - -("Ūndĕr | thĕ grēen-" and "Hē̆re shā̆ll | hĕ sēe" would scan equally -well in themselves, but line 5, "Come hither," gives the anapæstic hint -and key. "Nō | ĕnĕmȳ" is possible.) - -[88] - - _Oct., Iamb., {This, this | is he; | softly | awhile; - and Troch._ {Let us | not break in up|on him. - _Dec._ O change | beyond | report, | thought, or | belief! - _Alex._ See how | he lies | at ran|dom, care|lessly | diffused, - _Hexasyl._ With lan|guished head | unpropt, - _Hexasyl. hyperc._ As one | with hope | aban|doned, - _Hexasyl. hyperc._ And by | himself | given o|ver, - _Oct._ In sla|vish hab|it, ill-fit|ted weeds | - _Tetrasyl._ O'er-worn | and soiled. - _Alex._ Or do | my eyes | misre|present? | Can this | be he? - _Oct. cat._ That he|roic, | that re|nowned, - _Dec._ Irre|sisti|ble Sam|son whom, | unarmed, - _Alex._ No strength | of man | or fier|cest wild | beast could | - withstand; - _Alex._ Who tore | the li|on as | the li|on tears | the kid; - _Dec._ Ran on | embat|tled ar|mies clad | in iron, - _Hexasyl._ And, wea|ponless | himself, | - _Alex._ Made arms | ridi|culous, | useless | the for|gery - _Dec._ Of bra|zen shield | and spear, | the ham|mered cuirass, - _Dec._ Chalyb|ean-tem|pered steel | and frock | of mail - _Hexasyl._ Ada|mante|an proof: - -Hardly anything here needs remark, except the use made of the old -catalectic octosyllable beloved from _Comus_ days, with its trochaic -cadence, and that of half-Alexandrines or hexasyllables. There is only -one monometer, towards the centre or _waist_ of the scheme ("O'er-worn -and soiled"). - -[89] - - Ōh, hōw | cōmely̆ ĭt | īs, ănd | hōw rĕ|vīvĭng, - Tō thĕ | spīrĭts ŏf | jūst mĕn | lōng ŏp|prēssĕd, - Whēn Gŏd | īntŏ thĕ | hānds ŏf | thēir ŏp|prēssŏr - Pūts ĭn|vīncĭblĕ | mīght. - -(Catullian hendecasyllable?) - -[90] Milton was eight years old when Shakespeare died, and their -combined lives, 1564-1674, more than cover the whole "major" -Elizabethan period, 1557-1660, except part of its incipient stage, -1557-1580. - -[91] As a variation to blank verse. - -[92] Some quite boyish things, a beautiful passage of the _Arcades_, -and a few couplets in _Comus_ are the exceptions. - -[93] By the two Fletchers, Giles reducing it to an octave _ababbccc_ -and Phineas to a septet _ababccc_. - -[94] That of Sir John Beaumont (_v. sup._ p. 78 _et inf._ Book III.). - -[95] This, like Marmion's _Cupid and Psyche_, Chalkhill's _Thealma -and Clearchus_, and other pieces exemplifying the form, is a -verse-_romance_, a kind for which that form has special, though -dangerous, adaptation. - -[96] The continuous anapæst appears, after Tusser, in Elizabethan -poetry chiefly in popular ballad; and it is only about 1645 that -literary poets, like Waller and Cleveland, take it up. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -HALT AND RETROSPECT--CONTINUATION ON HEROIC VERSE AND ITS COMPANIONS -FROM DRYDEN TO CRABBE - - -[Sidenote: Recapitulation.] - -It is desirable, if not absolutely necessary, at this point (_circa_ -1660, which, though not in strict number of years or centuries, is in -fact the central stage of English prosody) to halt and recapitulate -what had been done since the formation of Middle English by the -influence of Latin and French upon Old. The conditions of the blend -having necessitated a new prosody, that prosody was, as was natural, -slowly elaborated; but the lines which it was to take, in consequence -of the imposition of strict form upon a vigorous and strongly -characterised but rather shapeless material, appeared almost at once. -Metre replaced the unmetrical rhythm of Anglo-Saxon; but this metre had -to take forms greatly more elastic than the strict syllabic arrangement -of French, and differently constituted from the also mainly syllabic -arrangement of Lower Latin. And so, in the verse of the thirteenth and -earlier fourteenth century, a foot-system, with allowance of equivalent -substitution, makes its appearance--roughly, but more and more clearly. -Nor is this at all affected by the alliterative revival of the -last-mentioned period, which partly makes terms with metre and rhyme, -partly pursues its own way--to reach its highest point with Langland, -and to die away soon after the close of the fifteenth century. At -the very same time with Langland himself, the pure metrical system -is brought to its highest perfection by Chaucer. But this perfection -depends on a state of the language which is "precarious and not at all -permanent," and in the fifteenth century English metre, as far as the -Southern and main division of the language is concerned, falls, to a -great extent, into anarchy. - -From this anarchy it is rescued, no doubt, as a general determining -influence by the settling once more of pronunciation, but directly -and particularly by the efforts of Wyatt, Surrey, and their minor -successors from 1525 to 1575. Then Spenser comes, and performs -almost more than the work of Chaucer, inasmuch as his material is -more trustworthy and has fewer seeds of decay in it. He, like his -predecessors, recoiling from the frightful disorder of the preceding -century, inclines, save in his earliest work, to a rather strict form -of verse, mostly dissyllabic. But the mere exigencies of the stage, the -nature of blank verse itself when once established, and the genius of -Shakespeare, restore there the liberty of trisyllabic substitution, and -the influence of music helps to bring in trisyllabic measures--"triple -time"--as such. In Shakespeare first the whole freedom, as well as -nearly the whole order, of English prosody discovers itself. But -this freedom is pushed by others to licence, and blank verse becomes -practically as ruinous a heap as the rhyme-royal of the fifteenth -century, with one form of decasyllabic couplet keeping it company, if -not quite in actual cacophony, at any rate in disorderly slackness. -Then Milton restores blank verse to almost all the freedom and more -than the order of Shakespeare, infusing also into all the other -metres that he touches this same combination; so that in these two -practically everything is reached. But poetic fervour dies down; blank -verse becomes for a time unpopular; the age calls for the more prosaic -subject-kinds of verse--satire, didactics, etc.; prevailing standards -of prosody are strictly regulated to an accomplished but decidedly -limited "smoothness." The results of this, with a few exceptions -reserved, we are to see in the present chapter. - -[Sidenote: Dryden's couplet] - -It was fortunate that the poet under whom this "Reign of Order" was -introduced, was one who had in himself a certain irrepressible vigour -and _verve_, which would not tolerate mere monotony. John Dryden wrote -most of his most famous poems in the couplet, and in a stopped form -of it; but he did not confine himself thereto, using also the heroic -quatrain (which he made an exceedingly fine measure); "Pindarics" (of -which the same may be said); occasional, though few, octosyllabics; -and lyrical measures of the most varied kind, both dissyllabic and -trisyllabic, which sometimes do not fall far short of all but the very -best work of the preceding generation. His couplet itself, moreover, -was not quite rigidly stopped; and even if it had been, was so -largely varied by the licences of triplet, Alexandrine, and sometimes -these two combined, that the purely or mainly mechanical effect with -which his successor Pope is charged, and which is undoubtedly to be -observed in that successor's imitators, does not impress itself. Even -had these devices (which may be said themselves to have something -mechanical about them) not been present, the extraordinary nerve and -full-bloodedness of Dryden's verse would have been almost if not quite -sufficient to remove the reproach. The antithetic yet never snip-snap -explosion of his distichs; the way in which they fling themselves -against the object; the momentum given to them by striking words -strikingly placed, ingenious manipulation of pause, unexpected and -exciting turns of phrase--are unprecedented. His prosody may be called -a somewhat rhetorical prosody, but it is the very highest of its own -kind. It exercised strong and good influence over the whole classical -period with which we are dealing in this chapter; a little after the -middle of the eighteenth century it effected a diversion from the too -monotonous limitation of Pope; and in the very hey-day of the Romantic -movement it taught new devices, and revealed new sources of prosodic -beauty, to Keats. - -Great, however, as are the merits of this couplet verse of Dryden's, -and incomparably well as it is adapted for argument, satire, -exposition, and other things somewhat extra-poetical in themselves, -there is something artificial in its limitations. And it is a matter -of experience, that when you make artificial rules for a game, this -artificiality always tends to make itself more artificial. Moreover, -it is not only fair, but important, to allow that Dryden's licences -of triplet and Alexandrine (in the latter case sometimes extended -even to a fourteener) require ability and judgment, equal to his own, -to prevent mismanagement of them. In clumsy hands something almost -as amorphous as the broken-down blank verse and the unduly enjambed -couplet of the preceding generation might easily come of them. It is -therefore not surprising that, the attention of the average poet being -more and more concentrated on this couplet, attempts should be made to -reduce the liberties, and perfect the correctness, as much as possible. - -[Sidenote: and Pope's.] - -They are visible even in such writers as Garth, between Dryden -and Pope; they are still more visible in Pope himself, when, some -decade after Dryden's death, he began to publish verse. He does not, -especially at first, entirely discontinue triplet and Alexandrine, but -he uses them more and more sparingly, and indeed sneers at the latter. -He draws the pause more invariably to the centre, and sets up a more -distinct division between the halves of his line. While separating his -couplets more closely, he lightens the vowel-effects of his rhymes, so -that there shall be no temptation to linger at couplet-ends. And though -he is traditionally said to have had a special fancy for a couplet of -his which contains an almost indestructible trisyllabic foot,[97] such -feet, as a rule, are quite smoothed out of his verse. - -[Sidenote: Their predominance.] - -The unmatched regularity, harmony (as far as it went), and -accomplishment of Pope's couplet, and his great superiority to all -other poets in these respects during the second, third, and fourth -decades of the eighteenth century, assisted the general taste, which -has been mentioned, in raising his form of couplet to the highest -place in popular estimation, as well as--sometimes expressly, sometimes -by a sort of silent taking for granted--in formal discussions of -poetry. Savage to some extent, Churchill still more, and after him -Cowper, reverted, as has been said, to a standard nearer Dryden's. But -Johnson, Goldsmith, and others, with the whole mob of inferior writers, -followed Pope; as did also Crabbe, who maintained the practice of the -form till the very time of the appearance of Tennyson. The defects, or -at least the limitations, of it were indeed sometimes seen, and were -commented on, in striking though not fully informed fashion, by poets -like Shenstone in the first half of the century, and Cowper again in -the second. But it constituted, none the less, the orthodox mode of -the whole time, and longer; and when, nearly at the end of the first -quarter of the nineteenth century, Keats's critics found fault with his -ignorance or mismanagement of the structure of the English heroic line -and couplet, what they meant was, whether they knew it or not, that he -managed that line and that couplet differently from Pope. - -[Sidenote: Eighteenth-century octosyllable and anapæst.] - -Although, however, the stopped couplet thus gradually established -in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and exercised during -the whole of the eighteenth, a sort of tyranny, not every poet nor -every metre bowed his or its head to this. Even in the first half -of the eighteenth, poets like Collins and Gray practically shook it -off, the first using it only in his early and immature work, the -second hardly at all. They will therefore be reserved for the next -chapter. Others, though using it, also practised metres different -from it, and some of these were of a character peculiarly suited to -counteract any bad influence that it might have. Among these the most -important and the earliest--for both of them passed a considerable -portion of their lives in the seventeenth century itself--were Prior -and Swift, both of whom, but especially Prior, were proficients in -the "Hudibrastic" octosyllable and in the new continuous anapæstic. -The octosyllable, with its easy ambling pace, its fluent overlapping, -and its often prolonged and fanciful rhymes, corrected the somewhat -stiff snip-snap of the larger couplet; while the anapæst peremptorily -brought back trisyllabic rhythm, with all its marvellous refreshments -and advantages, and, if only for convenience, suggested substitution -of feet.[98] The great literary authority and popularity of these -two poets, and the intrinsic charm of Prior, established, for metres -that they used, a safe position throughout the period of decasyllabic -domination. Even Bysshe put "lines of eight and seven syllables" -almost on a level with those of "ten or eleven"; and though he sneered -at anapæsts, and introduced them by a singular roundaboutness of -expression,[99] did not absolutely bar them in fact. - -[Sidenote: Blank verse] - -Blank verse--than which, in its perfection, there is no more powerful -guard and corrective as regards the possible errors of the stopped -couplet--was not put in operation, except by Milton at the very -beginning of the period, so early as these. In fact, as has been said, -it was the degradation of blank verse, almost as much as anything -else which encouraged the growth of this form of rhyme. Nor was the -all-powerful influence of Milton himself at once felt, except by a -very few persons;[100] while, when it began to be felt, it was not -fully understood. Attempts, however, were by degrees made in it;[101] -and, some sixty years after the appearance of _Paradise Lost_, the -beginning of Thomson's _Seasons_ brought to bear a new, popular, and -powerful agency. Although Thomson may have been under the elision and -"apostrophation" delusions of his time, he did not attempt to avoid -what his younger contemporary, Shenstone, called "virtual" trisyllabic -feet. One of his best lines, for instance-- - - The yellow wall-|flŏwĕr, stāin|ed with iron-brown, - -contains such a foot naturally, though you may slur and "apostrophate" -it into "flow'r"; and there are endless others, ready to suggest -themselves to a nice ear, whenever you come across such words as -"pastoral" and "impetuous" in-- - - Shines o'er | the rest | the pas|tŏrăl quēen, | and rays - . . . . . . . - Impet|ŭŏus rūsh|es o'er | the sound|ing void. - -But an even more valuable effect of blank-verse practice was the -inevitable reappearance of the verse-paragraph, with its necessary -constituents the verse-sentences and verse-clauses, which need -not--and, if a good effect is to be produced, _must_ not--be made of -successive batches of complete lines, still less of batches of equal -size. In forging the verse-paragraph, variation of pause, overrunning -of sense as regards line-ends, strong breaks in the actual lines (a -thing almost abused by Thomson himself, and quite so by his followers, -but in itself a caustic to one of the evils of couplet verse), are -necessary implements and materials. Accordingly the staunchest devotees -of the couplet, such as Johnson, always dislike blank verse; and -when, later, a poet like Cowper takes it up, his action is similarly -connected with dislike to the "mechanic warbling" of the Popian -style. In his hands, especially in the late and splendid example of -"Yardley Oak," almost the full Miltonic variety is recovered. But -always, and throughout its practice during the eighteenth century, it -acts as a foil, a relief and a refuge to and from the limitations and -restrictions of the couplet itself. - -[Sidenote: and lyric.] - -Lastly, a similar enfranchising influence was exercised by lyric; but -to a comparatively limited extent. The genius of the latest seventeenth -century and of almost the whole eighteenth, except in a few poets -(mostly to be kept as exceptions, with Gray and Collins, who were of -them, to the next chapter), was by no means lyrical. The healthiest -influence of it was supplied by anapæstic forms, especially in light -verse. "Pindarics" were at first much used, but were too often of -a most prosaic character. "Romance-six" was affected to an almost -surprising degree, but for the most part in a rather _Sir Thopas_-like -form, exact and sing-song. This was also the fault of most of the -common measure or ballad-quatrain, such as the well-known examples of -Percy and Goldsmith; though the _Reliques_ of the former gave better -models (somewhat tampered with by the editor) forty years before -1800; and the miscellaneous collections of Durfey and Philips had to -some extent done so nearly as much earlier still. The Evangelical -revival, by infusing more passion and reality into hymns, had a good -effect; and when we come to Cowper, this influenced his profane as -well as his sacred poetry. Nor should we omit to mention--as a really -powerful counter-agent to the couplet, with its monotonous regularity, -unqualified rhyme, and so on--the irregularly rhythmed prose of -Macpherson's _Ossian_, which appeared about the same time as the -_Reliques_, and attracted much attention. - -[Sidenote: Merit of eighteenth-century "regularity."] - -By all these things, and by the special influence of the poets to be -mentioned in the early part of the next chapter, useful testimony was -continuously given, to the effect that, after all, the decasyllabic -couplet, especially in the prevailing form, was not the only metre, -nor even the only important metre, in English. But its predominance -continued, and its characteristics, as has been said, to some extent -infected or inoculated its rivals. "Inoculated" rather than "infected," -for, once more let it be repeated, this predominance undoubtedly beat -into the English tongue, ear, and mind a sense of the importance of -real and regular rhythm--a sense which, for another hundred years and -more, has prevented, in the freest expatiation of released prosody, any -kind of return to the disorder of the whole fifteenth century, and in -some respects, at any rate, of the mid-seventeenth. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[97] - - Lo! where Mæotis sleeps, and hardly flows - The freez|ĭng Tănă | is through a waste of snows. - - _The Dunciad_, iii. 87, 88. - -[98] In the actual case, of course, dissyllabic feet for trisyllabic; -but this could not but suggest the converse process in dissyllabic -verse. And the octosyllable was not used for light verse only; Dyer in -_Grongar Hill_ (1726) revived the Miltonic form of _L'Allegro_, etc., -with an effect all the more certainly excellent, that it was demurred -to by the mistaken critics of the time. - -[99] _V. inf._ pp. 242-5. - -[100] Among whom Lord Roscommon deserves honourable mention. - -[101] As by Watts the hymn-writer, John Philips, and Gay. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE ROMANTIC REVIVAL--ITS PRECURSORS AND FIRST GREAT STAGE - - -[Sidenote: Gray and Collins.] - -We must now take up, somewhat more minutely, the phenomena mentioned -in the last chapter as showing revolt against, and recovery from, the -partly beneficial but excessive tyranny of the stopped decasyllabic -couplet. These may be considered, still briefly but more particularly, -under two heads: the first concerning chiefly the influence of -individual poets--Collins, Gray, Chatterton, Burns, Blake; the second, -agencies various in kind and source. Neither Collins nor Gray can be -said to have directly attacked the task--though Gray at least was, as -we see from his _Metrum_, not ignorant of the facts--of re-leavening -and re-illustrating prosody by an infusion of trisyllabic substitution. -With rarest exceptions, they still cling to the iamb as a base-foot. -But they rearrange its line-groups in a fashion as alien as possible -from that of the couplet. Collins even discards rhyme altogether in -the quatrains of _Evening_, and in his famous "Passions" varies his -construction as much as possible within the general limits. Gray -follows, but improves upon, Dryden in the rhymed decasyllabic quatrain; -adapts, with an effect somewhat stiff, but often very beautiful, the -Greek system of strophe, antistrophe, and epode in the _Progress of -Poetry_ and _The Bard_; employs Romance-six with singular felicity -in both serious and serio-comic verse; and, though retaining a -strongly artificial poetic diction, informs this with new touches and -spirit from sources as a rule quite closed to his contemporaries and -predecessors--Norse and Welsh as well as Greek. Both these poets, -in short, disregard, to a large extent, equality of line-length, -and employ mixed rhymes. Now equality of line-length and strictly -_consecutive_ rhymes were almost as dear to the chief lovers of the -couplet as its unvarying syllabic arrangement and its regular accent. - -[Sidenote: Chatterton, Burns, and Blake.] - -Gray, it has been said, knew substitution, but did not use it; the -ill-fated genius of Chatterton not only knew it, but used it. It -is present, and very effective, in Burns; but it was not the chief -means of good of which Burns availed himself in regard to prosody. -His dialect, with its relief from the conventional "lingo" of -eighteenth-century poetry, did much; but the forms which he used, and -especially the famous "Burns metre," did more. It would be almost -impossible to devise a greater contrast to the couplet; or--since -(which is at least worth noting) the six lines of this stanza contain -exactly as many syllables (forty) as two ordinary couplets--to arrange -these same numbers in ways more rhythmically different. But the first -eighteenth-century poet thoroughly to understand and exemplify the -powers of equivalence is Burns's slightly older contemporary, William -Blake, whose _Poetical Sketches_ appeared as early as 1780, while his -_Songs of Innocence and Experience_, and his remaining poems, display a -knowledge of the secrets of this equivalence, and a command over them, -which had not been shown since Shakespeare. - -[Sidenote: Other influences of change.] - -Blake, however, expressed rather than exercised influence, for his -poems remained long almost unknown; and it may be doubtful whether even -the others brought about many conscious prosodic changes. The gradual -recovery of knowledge of older English literature, and especially of -the ballads, had in all probability much more direct power. Durfey's -_Pills to Purge Melancholy_, Philips's _Collection of Old Ballads_, -and Percy's _Reliques_--with constantly increasing editions of the -Elizabethan dramatists and other writers, even such as Skelton and -Occleve--could not but awaken men's minds to the fact that (as -Gascoigne had put it in a matter closely connected if not absolutely -identical) "we had used in times past other kinds of metres" than the -stopped couplet. And towards the end of the century revolt of various -kinds appeared--copious though usually very tame ballad; multiplied -blank verse of the usual kind; and (in imitation partly of some older -English models and of Collins, partly of the German) rhymeless verse of -different sorts, the chief early practitioner of which was Frank Sayers -of Norwich, a physician and man of letters who was more influential on -others than important in himself. Bowles (after Warton, whose _History -of Poetry_ worked in the same direction) reintroduced the sonnet. -William Taylor, another member of the Norwich group, revived (again -after the German) English hexameters; and though Hayley, Darwin, and -others continued the eighteenth-century couplet unchanged, the spirit -of the youth of the period was clearly tending in a different direction. - -[Sidenote: Wordsworth, Southey, and Scott.] - -Of the four great champions of reaction who were born about 1770, -Wordsworth, though he illustrates the change generally, and never, in -his principal work, uses the stopped couplet, is not very noticeable -prosodically.[102] The three others are, in different ways, of the -first importance. Southey, as early as 1796, not merely practised, -but, which is much more, practised deliberately, and definitely -defended in a letter to an objecting friend, the use of three -syllables for two. Moreover (not confining himself to the ballad -metre, which he had employed and which he was specially justifying), -he alleged the practice of Milton, frankly stigmatising as "asses" the -editors who had endeavoured to disguise this practice as "elision." -Scott--assisted perhaps to some extent by hearing a recitation or -reading of Coleridge's unpublished _Christabel_, but undoubtedly -also following[103] the example of the innumerable ballad- and -romance-writers with whom he was almost better acquainted than any -other man in Britain--produced first ballad-pieces, and then, in and -after _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_, continuous narrative poems of -great length, for the most part couched in equivalenced octosyllables, -but often much varied in rhyme-arrangement and diversified by shorter -and longer lines. And there is no doubt that the enormous popularity -of these poems of his did more than anything else to familiarise the -public ear with metres and cadences as different as possible from the -couplet. - -[Sidenote: Coleridge.] - -But the influence of Coleridge, independent of that indirectly applied -through Scott, was the most important of all. It was indeed not (as it -should have been) exhibited, at once and in bulk, by the simultaneous -publication of _The Ancient Mariner_ and _Christabel_, the latter of -which, though, at least in great part, written at the same time as the -former, was separated from it in publication by nearly twenty years. -_The Ancient Mariner_ itself is in ballad metre, but ballad metre -treated in the freest possible fashion, not only with equivalence -used at pleasure in individual lines, but with the four lines of the -strict quatrain extended to five, or any number up to nine--thereby -increasing and varying the stanza-effect in the widest possible manner, -though never expanding it into positive paragraphs. More important -still, because more apparently novel, though it had been in fact -preluded both by Chatterton and Blake, and had been recognised by Gray -in the work of Spenser, was the use, in _Christabel_, of continuous -octosyllabic couplets, only sometimes, and rarely, broken into stanza, -but constantly equivalenced and frequently varied by shorter lines. Of -these, Coleridge himself gave in his preface a curiously inadequate -account, regarding them--or at least giving them out--as constructed -on the principle of counting only the accents. They, however, in fact -follow the strictest foot-division, and have been the pattern of all -similar verses, with equivalent substitution, since. - -[Sidenote: Moore.] - -Moore, who comes in point of date between this group and the -second great trio of Byron, Shelley, and Keats, is very important -prosodically. Since the earlier seventeenth century at latest, music, -though it had had much and rather deleterious influence on theories of -English prosody, had had little on its practice, a few light things -excepted. But Moore was an accomplished musician both in theory and -practice, in composition and in execution; he belonged to a race -distinguished for song-gift; and the great majority of his almost -innumerable lyrics were directly composed for old airs or adapted -to new. The consequence was, almost inevitably, that they present -a variety of cadence and rhythm which had hardly ever before been -seen. Occasionally this variety oversteps the bounds of pure prosody, -allowing, as in the well-known "Eveleen's Bower,"[104] a syllable -which, corresponding to an _appoggiatura_ in music, requires, in strict -scansion, to be slurred or else to be considered extra-metrical, as -in the "Song to a Portuguese Air,"[105] and others, further licences. -He was himself aware of this, and it did little harm; while the -tunefulness of his trisyllabic measures, and the great range of "broken -and cuttit" line-arrangements which his work presented, were both of -the first importance in promoting variety and freedom of metrical -arrangement. - -[Sidenote: Byron.] - -His expertness in the two arts, however, and his constant combination -of them, as well as perhaps his inferiority (though this is only -relative) in strictly poetical power, somewhat reduce Moore's -importance as compared with that of Byron, Shelley, and Keats. The -first-named was the least of the three in prosody, as in poetry; but -his prosodic merits have, as a rule, been far undervalued, even by -his adorers as a poet. He affected, and perhaps really to some extent -felt, much greater admiration for the eighteenth-century poets, and -for those who mainly or partly followed them in his own time, than for -the innovators of the Romantic school; and he himself wrote the stock -couplet with correctness and vigour. But he chose for his principal -serious poem, _Childe Harold_, the Spenserian, which "regular" -classical critics had always disliked; and, though he never achieved -its proper character, did finely in it sometimes, and undoubtedly -restored its popularity. Again, he chose for his greatest serio-comic -pieces, _Beppo_ and _Don Juan_, the _ottava_; while his minor tales -were in Scott-_Christabel_ octosyllables. In lyric, too, he showed -varied power, and once turned[106] what had been a burlesque before in -its exact, and a very sing-song metre in its restricted, form into a -thing of remarkable prosodic beauty, to be made more beautiful still by -Praed and Mr. Swinburne. His most consummate prosodic achievement is -undoubtedly the above-mentioned octave of _Don Juan_, which can hardly -be surpassed, either in suitability to its subject, or in the way in -which the particular characteristics of the metre itself are brought -out. - -[Sidenote: Shelley: his longer poems.] - -But the greatest poets are naturally, and almost inevitably, the -greatest prosodists; and this was well seen in the case of the two whom -we have yet to mention, Shelley and Keats, who also present a valuable -and interesting contrast in this as in other ways. It is probable that -in all cases Shelley began with direct though not studious imitation. -His early and almost worthless poems were based on "Monk" Lewis and -others of that type; his first striking thing, the opening of _Queen -Mab_, is a sort of variation on that of Southey's _Thalaba_; and his -first great poem, _Alastor_, had Wordsworth evidently before it; while -_Laon and Cythna_ (_The Revolt of Islam_) would probably not have been -in Spenserians if _Childe Harold_ had not adopted them, nor perhaps -_The Witch of Atlas_ in octaves but for _Beppo_. Yet, as soon as he -has attained poetic gift, he goes off from his models entirely, and, -without much apparent care for preconceived forms, achieves the most -marvellous beauty in whatever he touches. In _Prometheus Unbound_ -especially, the blank-verse dialogue, and the abundant lyrical choruses -and interludes, not only exhibit wholly astonishing variety and -individual excellence, but adapt themselves to each other, as nowhere -else in drama. The Spenserians of _Adonais_, taking some liberties, -attain, at their best, absolute perfection; of the octosyllabic -couplets, shortened or not in several minor poems, almost as much may -be said; and the octaves of _The Witch of Atlas_ (with the very best of -Keats's _Isabella_) are the greatest examples of that metre in English -for serious use. He even tries the often failed-in _terza rima_, and -does beautiful things in it, though perhaps not such beautiful examples -of it. - -[Sidenote: His lyrics.] - -But it is in his lyrics that Shelley's prosodic, like his poetic, power -shows highest. Those in _Prometheus Unbound_ have been spoken of; but -the numerous and glorious short and separate pieces defy enumeration -or specification here. The two popular favourites, "The Cloud" and -"The Skylark," would each serve as a text for an exemplary lecture on -English prosody, and a dozen others, with dozens more added to them, -would do the same. None is ever really "irregular": to say, as has been -said of "The Cloud," that it defies ordinary scansion, is simply to -say that the speaker does not understand either the poem or ordinary -scansion, or both (see above, Book I. p. 100). But almost all exhibit, -in endless variety of relief and colour, the great laws of equivalence -and substitution, and the enormous advantage of varied and even -complicated metre, rhyme, line-length, and stanza-arrangement. Shelley -never seems to have studied metre much, and, as has been said, his -first pattern is the merest starting-point for him. But he touches none -that he does not adorn; none that he does not make matter of delight; -and none, likewise, in which he does not supply a text for infinite -technical instruction as well. - -[Sidenote: Keats.] - -The case of Keats is curiously different. He too--as indeed practically -everybody does--begins with imitation, but it is imitation of a -different kind. Chapman, Spenser, the sonneteers, the Jacobean poets -probably, Leigh Hunt certainly, supply him not merely with hints -and "send-offs," but with carefully studied models. He hits, in -consequence, first in his _Juvenilia_ and then in _Endymion_, upon a -very much enjambed form of decasyllabic couplet--a form opposed to all -the traditions of Pope, and deemed horrible by the orthodox critics -of the day. But he sees for himself the defect of this, and applies -himself earnestly to the study of Dryden and Milton as tonics and -astringents. The results are the fine, less fluent, still slightly -overrun, but tripleted and Alexandrined heroics of _Lamia_, and the -splendid blank verse of _Hyperion_. But he has not confined himself -to these, or to their lessons; and he has never confined himself to -the mere lessons of any poet or of any period. He produces in turn the -touching octaves of _Isabella_; the magnificent Spenserians of _The Eve -of St. Agnes_; the Sonnets, most of them among the finest examples of -the form in English; the varied stanza-measures of the Odes; the unique -ballad adaptation[107] of _La Belle Dame sans Merci_; and lastly, two -forms of octosyllabic couplet--the mainly catalectic or seven-syllabled -form of some earlier poems, and the complete one of _The Eve of St. -Mark_, which overleaps all other examples back to Gower, picks out the -finest qualities of Gower's own form, and rearranges them in an example -unfinished in itself, but serving as a guide, in the production of a -great body of finished and admirable work, to the late Mr. William -Morris. In no poet is the lesson--which it was the business of this -generation to exemplify, and should be of this chapter to expound--of -ordered variety, in foot, in line, in stanza, more triumphantly shown. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[102] His greatest prosodic achievement is also his greatest -achievement in poetry, the "Immortality" Ode. But, though he varies -line-length admirably, the prevailing rhythm is merely iambic; -and when, in stanza 4, he tries to vary _it_, the effect is very -unfortunate. - -[103] Scott was a debtor for something as well to "Monk" Lewis. See -"List of Poets," Book IV. - -[104] - - Ă̄nd wēpt | bĕhĭnd [thĕ] clōuds | ŏ'er thĕ māid|ĕn's shāme. - . . . . . . . - Thă̄t stāin | ŭpŏn [thĕ] snōw | ŏf făir Ēv|ĕlĕen's fame. - - -[105] Where three lines like the following occur: - - Shōuld thŏ̄se | fōnd hŏ̄pes | ē'er fŏr|sāke thē̆e, - . . . . . . . - Whĭ̄ch nōw | sŏ̄ swēet|ly̆ thy̆ hēart | ĕmplōy, - . . . . . . . - Ŏn ŏur thrēsh|ŏld ă wēl|cŏme stĭll fōund. - -and are quite irreconcilable. - -[106] In the "Haidee" song. _V. sup._ Scanned Conspectus, § XLIV. - -[107] With "long measure," but with the last line cut down to a -monometer: - - what | can ail | thee, knight-|at-arms, Alone | and pale|ly loi|tering? - The sedge | has with|ered from | the lake, And no | birds sing. - -This last line being sometimes exquisitely equivalenced in the first -foot: - - Ănd hĕr ēyes | wĕre wīld. - . . . . . . . - Ŏn thĕ cōld | hill side. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE LAST STAGE--TENNYSON TO SWINBURNE - - -[Sidenote: From Keats to Tennyson.] - -The lesson of the last chapter, if properly learnt, will have shown -the substitution of a more really "correct," because wider and freer, -view of English prosody than that which had produced the narrow and -blinkered pseudo-correctness of the eighteenth century, and the way -in which this extension was, whether consciously or unconsciously, -utilised by the great poets of 1798-1830. Consciously, however, this -lesson was not learnt by all of these poets themselves; yet it spread, -and rapidly became the general, if not yet the acknowledged, principle -of English poetry. It is observable in most and in all the best of what -have been called the "Intermediates"--the poets who were born between -1790 and 1810, such as Beddoes and Darley,[108] Macaulay and Praed. -But in Tennyson at once and in Browning--the one born just before, -the other just after, the end of the first decade of the nineteenth -century--it manifests itself in the most unmistakable degree; so much -so, indeed, as to have actually puzzled, if not shocked, Coleridge -himself, the greatest restorer of its mainspring. Tennyson's first -volumes are open to many just criticisms. But if the student will -turn to the scanned examples of the "Hollyhock Song" and the "Dying -Swan" given previously, he will see that the young poet, so far from -having "begun to write without knowing very well what metre is," had -begun with an almost absolutely perfect knowledge of it, whatever his -shortcomings in other matters might be.[109] - -[Sidenote: Tennyson himself.] - -The variety of metres in which this accomplishment was shown was -extraordinary, and was no doubt felt by contemporaries to be -bewildering. Even from the poets of the first Romantic school they had -been principally (though of course not entirely) accustomed to lines -of the same length, couched in more or less uniform metre throughout. -The pieces which composed the two volumes of 1830 and 1832, even -before they were revised and augmented in 1842, contained a greater -variety of metres than had been seen in the same bulk of work of any -single English poet from Chaucer to Keats. There was blank verse, if -not at first quite of the absolute perfection which it reached ten -years later, of a new and remarkable pattern, adjusting the Miltonic -paragraph to a much more fluent movement, and quite discarding the -Thomsonian stiffness. There were Spenserians (in the opening of the -"Lotos-Eaters") of the very best kind. There was a little very fine -decasyllabic couplet. But the great majority of the poems were lyrics, -couched in a dazzling variety of metres. It was not only that the poet -expanded the apparent but not real "irregularity" of Shakespeare into -examples such as the two noted above. It was not merely that, as in -the "Lotos-Eaters" itself and "The Vision of Sin,"[110] he arranged -different metres in the same piece on the principles of an elaborate -musical symphony. The way in which he handled metres previously known -must have startled--indeed we know that it did startle--the precisians -still more. - -[Sidenote: Special example of his manipulation of the quatrain.] - -A good instance of this is the threefold rehandling of the old -decasyllabic quatrain, familiar to everybody from Dryden's _Annus -Mirabilis_ and Gray's _Elegy_. This quatrain itself, as a consequence -of its gravity, is rather apt to be monotonous. Simple shortening of -the even verses gives rather better outline, but not much less--in fact -even greater--monotony. In three different poems Tennyson handles it -in three different ways. "The Poet"[111] is couched in 10, 6, 10, 4, -giving a succinct and rather sententious metre, which suits admirably -for the sharply cut cumulative phrases of that fine piece. But, by -this shortening, ten syllables, the equivalent of a whole line, were -lost; and this gave too little room for description, and especially -for the series of pictures, in scene- or figure-painting, which form -so large a part of the other two poems and communicate to them such -extraordinary charm. So, in the "Palace of Art," Tennyson "eked" -the stanza, extending the second line to eights and the fifth to -sixes.[112] This, besides actually giving a little more room, admits -more varied "fingering," together with an effect of outline, which is -wonderfully attractive--a taper, but with a swell in it. In the "Dream -of Fair Women"--more narrative and with larger aims--he wanted more -space still, and a form that would link itself better. He gets this -by keeping _three_ decasyllables with a final six.[113] This is an -exceedingly cunning as well as beautiful device, for, on the one hand, -the large majority of decasyllables, batched in threes, assists the -narrative effect, which is always hard to achieve with stanzas of very -irregular outline; and, on the other, the short final line serves at -once as finial to the individual stanza, and hinge to join it to the -next. - -Many examples could be given, and may be found in the larger _History_, -but these will suffice, with the addition that Tennyson continued -his experimentation to the very last, as in the remarkable metre of -"Kapiolani," and that his handling of blank verse, like Shakespeare, -became almost perilous in its freedom, by the temptation that it -offered to others to traverse the bounds, though he himself never -actually did so. - -[Sidenote: Browning.] - -Browning, who was to illustrate the prosodic lesson of the century -with, if possible, an even greater variety, did not exactly begin -in that direction; though his prosodic practice was almost equally -independent after the very first. That "very first"--_Pauline_--showed -a distinct effort to imitate the blank verse of Shelley; and this -was continued, though with more idiosyncrasy, in the dramatically -arranged, but not really dramatic, _Paracelsus_, which had, however, -one or two beautiful lyrics of a kind also to some extent Shelleyan. -The blank verse in these two is not much equivalenced, nor even very -much enjambed, but it runs with a peculiar _breathlessness_ from -verse to verse, even if each be fairly complete in itself. And this -breathlessness continues--being, indeed, the main source of the -much-talked-of "obscurity" of the piece--in _Sordello_. Here the -couplet used is utterly opposed to that of the eighteenth century; but, -once more, it is by no means the enjambed variety of the seventeenth. -It is almost a kind to itself, progressing in immense involved -paragraphs (often largely parenthetic) after a fashion which almost -drowns the rhyme, even if there be definite stops at the end of the -verses. - -Fortunately, after this, in _Bells and Pomegranates_, he devoted -a large part of his attention to lyric, in which he produced -examples exquisite in quality and inexhaustible in variety.[114] -His octosyllables in _Christmas Eve_ and _Easter Day_ are daringly -equivalenced, and rhymed still more daringly, but very effective; and -much later, in _Fifine at the Fair_, he almost succeeded in making the -continuous Alexandrine a real success. But the bulk of his immense work -in later days was written in blank verse, as strongly equivalenced as -his octosyllables. Browning was never an incorrect prosodist; even his -rhymes, though frequently extravagant, are almost always defensible; -and it is a vulgar error to think him even rough in verse, though he -was so in diction. But he, once more, pushed the lesson of variety to -its extreme in one way. - -[Sidenote: Mrs. Browning.] - -His wife, both before and after she became his wife, gave a third -important example of this attention to lyric, and this determination -to give it the most multitudinous and original forms. She had one -unfortunate, and indeed disgusting, prosodic defect--a toleration of, -if not a positive preference for, really atrocious rhymes. But her ear -for metre was quite differently tuned, and often exquisite; though (as -was _not_ the case with her husband) her bad rhymes, and, as was the -case with him, though in a different way, her extravagant diction, -sometimes created a false idea of metrical carelessness. - -[Sidenote: Matthew Arnold.] - -But, in a way, the most remarkable witness to the general tendency of -the period was to be found in Mr. Matthew Arnold, who disapproved of -Tennyson, and must (though personal friendship seems to have prevented -him from saying so) have disapproved of the Brownings still more. For -all Mr. Arnold's "classical" tastes, in different senses of that word, -he became "romantic" in his variety of lyric forms, in his handling -of them, in his dealing with the couplet, and in the adoption of -elaborate stanza forms for his longer poems. Only his blank verse is of -somewhat classical pattern, and of this he did not write very much. - -[Sidenote: Later poets--The Rosettis.] - -In the poets who specially represent the last half of the nineteenth -century (with, in one case and the chief of all, an actual extension -over nearly the whole of the first decade of the twentieth)--and who -consisted mainly of the school often, though not very accurately, -called Pre-Raphaelite--these tendencies are exhibited to a still -greater extent, and in some cases, beyond all doubt, consciously -followed and elaborated. In Dante and Christina Rossetti, brother -and sister--more remarkable for genius perhaps than any brother and -sister in history, literary or other,--but especially in the brother, -the Italian and English elements blended. Dante showed, though in -great variety, more of the Italian tendency to slow and stately music; -Christina, more of the English to light and rapid movement as well. But -both thoroughly mastered the secrets of equivalence, as well as those -of largely broken and variegated line-length and stanza-arrangement. -The sonnets of both are the finest, on what is called the Italian -model, in our language, and Christina's command, both of simple song -metres and of regular short verse--almost Skeltonic in apparent -character, but far apart from doggerel--is specially noticeable. She -is indeed one of the most daring of experimenters in metrical licence, -but, even more than Browning's, her verse, with all its audacity, never -transgresses the laws of prosodic music.[115] - -Earlier to appear than Rossetti, except in little-read periodicals, -but a younger man, was William Morris, whose place in the history -of English prosody is a very important one. In his first book, _The -Defence of Guenevere_, he tried, with remarkable success, a very large -number of lyrical metres, sometimes exhibiting great originality of -substitution. He passed from this to a still more remarkable revival -of the enjambed decasyllabic couplet in _The Life and Death of Jason_ -and part of _The Earthly Paradise_, following not so much Keats as the -best of the early seventeenth-century examples. With this, in _The -Earthly Paradise_ itself, he combined octosyllabic couplet of almost -more exceptional quality still--very little equivalenced, but varied -by pause and fingering in a manner which only Gower in his very finest -passage, and Keats in the fragment of the _Eve of St. Mark_, had -achieved. He also wrote excellent rhyme-royal. In _Love is Enough_, -besides many more beautiful lyrical devices, he endeavoured a sort of -alliterative semi-metrical rhythm of fifteenth-century kind, which -has not pleased every one; but in _Sigurd the Volsung_, while still -hovering about the same period, he pitched upon one of the numerous -arrangements of the fourteener and perfected it into a thoroughly great -metre.[124] - -[Sidenote: Mr. Swinburne.] - -Although not an artist in quite so many kinds of verse as Morris, and -confining himself as a rule to strict metre, Algernon Charles Swinburne -was, however, by far the greatest metrist of this group and time, and -one of the greatest in the history of English poetry. In his copious -critical work he did not bestow much explicit attention on matters -prosodic; but when he did, made important remarks, and once gave one -of the most important to be found definitely expressed by any English -poet. This was to the effect, that English would always lend itself -readily and successfully to any combinations of iamb, trochee, or -anapæst, never to those of dactyl and spondee. He himself produced -magnificent verse which looks like dactylic hexameter or elegiac, but -is really (and was meant by him for) anapæstic work with anacrusis -and catalexis. He wrote beautiful choriambics and more beautiful -Sapphics. But these, at least the last two, were merely experiments and -_tours de force_. He also experimented in the artificial French forms -(_v. inf._). But his principal work was straightforward composition -in the direct lines of the English poetical inheritance, utilising -to the utmost all the liberties of equivalence and substitution on -the principles of Tennyson, but never abusing them, and informing -particular metres with a spirit that made them entirely his own. His -blank verse, though sometimes exceedingly fine, was also sometimes -a little too voluble; and of his couplets much the same may be said -in both ways. But in lyric--giving that word the widest possible -extension--he is unsurpassed as to variety and individuality of -practice, while, in two striking cases, he made improvements of the -most remarkable kind on previous improvements made by others.[125] - -The first of these was the fresh adaptation (after FitzGerald, but -with an important difference) of the decasyllabic quatrain in _Laus -Veneris_. The translator of _Omar Khayyám_ had, with great effect, made -the first, second, and fourth lines rhyme together, leaving the third -entirely blank. Mr. Swinburne made the third line of each of his pairs -of quatrains rhyme as well, a completion of the music which has a very -fine effect. And a still greater achievement was the shortening of the -last line of the "Praed Metre," which makes one of the most beautiful -arrangements to be found in English. But it is perhaps only in these -two that even guidance of any definite kind can be assigned. For the -most part the prosodic effect is produced by original extension of -the general laws, and by entirely individual fingering of particular -metres. Nothing in the whole range of English poetry is more remarkable -than the handling, in this way, of the ordinary Long Measure with -alternate redundance in "At a Month's End";[126] and the examples of -other varied metres, also given below, will complete the exposition, as -far as it can be done in anything but a monograph of great extent. - -[Sidenote: Others.] - -Many poets, in the later years of the nineteenth century, have been -remarkable for prosodic accomplishment; but, except in the outside -department of experiment in quantitative and classical metres, they -have rarely touched principle. Arthur E. O'Shaughnessy[127] and -James Thomson the Second showed extraordinary proficiency, the -first in the more rapid, the second in the statelier variation of -metre. Canon Dixon, who was sometimes extremely happy in lyric,[128] -wrote, in _Mano_, the one long English poem in _terza rima_, but -without removing the objections which seem to hold, in our language, -against the arrangement that is so magnificent in the _Divina -Commedia_. In the late 'seventies a fancy came in, and remained for -some time, of reviving the artificial French (and to some extent -English) metres of the fifteenth and earlier centuries--ballades, -rondeaux, triolets, etc. Mr. George Meredith, when he employed verse -and not prose, used a considerable number of odd measures unusually -rhythmed, as well as others perfectly adjusted to the demands of the -ear. Mr. Henley and others carried on the rhymeless revival from Mr. -Arnold, and yet others, such as the late Mr. John Davidson, while -using rhyme reviled it. A few attempts have recently been made at -"_stress_-metres"--rebellious to any uniform system of scansion, even -with full liberty of substitution, and, in fact, irregularly rhythmed -prose. But nothing really good and unquestionably poetic has been -produced which will not obey the principles set forth in this treatise, -and everything really good has furnished fresh illustrations of -them.[129] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[108] Especially in these two, as here: - - _Half Alex._ Winds | ŏf thĕ Wēst, | arise! - _Alex._ Hesper|ĭăn bāl|mĭĕst āirs, | O waft | back those | - sweet sighs - _Dec. couplet._ {To her | that breathes | them from | her own | - pure skies, - {Dew-drop|ping, mixt | with Dawn's | engold|ened dyes - _Half Alex._ O'er my | unhap|py eyes! - _Fourteener._ From prim|rose bed | and wil|low bank | where your | - moss cra|dle lies. - _Alex._ O! from | your rush|y bowers | to waft | back her | - sweet sighs-- - _Half Alex._ Winds | of the West, | arise! - - (DARLEY.) - - If thou | wilt ease | thine heart - Of love | and all | its smart, - Then sleep, | dear, sleep; - And not | a sor|row - Hang a|ny tear | on your | eyelash|es; - Lie still | and deep, - Sad soul, | until | the sea-|wave wash|es - The rim | ŏ' thĕ sūn | tŏ-mōr|row - In east|ern sky. - - (BEDDOES.) - -The redundant syllables are specially marked off here, to bring out -their contrast with the acatalectic lines. - -[109] Macaulay's prosody is mostly plain sailing; but in _The Last -Buccaneer_ he has (perhaps following Moore) attempted a rather unusual -rhythm. See _Hist. Pros._ iii. 135-137. For Praed _v. sup._ p. 114. - -[110] This did not appear till 1842. - -[111] - - The poet in a golden clime was born, - With golden stars above; - Dower'd with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, - The love of love. - -[112] - - I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house, - Wherein at ease for aye to dwell. - I said, "O Soul, make merry and carouse, - Dear soul, for all is well." - -[113] - - I read, before my eyelids dropt their shade, - _The Legend of Good Women_, long ago - Sung by the morning star of song, who made - His music heard below. - -[114] A few examples may be given:-- - - (1) Oh || heart! oh! | blood that | freezes, | blood that | burns! - Earth's re|turns - For whole | centu|ries of | folly, | noise, and | sin! - Shut them | in - With their | triumphs | and their | glories, | and the | rest; - Love is | best. - - (_Love, among the Ruins._) - -(Regular trochees alternately trimeter and monometer, but both -catalectic. _One_ monosyllabic substitution.) - - (2) What hand and brain went ever paired? - What heart alike conceived and dared? - What act proved all its thought had been? - What will but felt the fleshly screen? - We ride | and I see | her bosom heave. - There's ma|ny a crown | for who can reach. - Ten lines, a statesman's life in each! - The flag stuck on a heap of bones, - A soldier's doing! what atones? - They scratch his name | on the Ab|bey stones. - My ri|ding is bet|ter, by their leave. - - (_The Last Ride Together._) - -(Iambic dimeter stanza; three or four trisyllabic substitutions.) - - (3) Oh, | what a dawn | of day! - How the March | sun feels | like May! - All is blue | again - After last | night's rain, - And the South | dries the haw|thorn spray. - On|ly, my Love's | away! - I'd as lief | that the blue | were grey. - -(Iambic-anapæstic with monosyllabic feet admitted into partnership.) - - (4) Is all | our fire | of ship|wreck wood, - Oak ¦ and | pine? - Oh, for | the ills | half-un|derstood, - The dim | dead woe | - Long ¦ a|go - Befallen | this bit|ter coast | of France! - Well, poor | sailors | took their | chance] - I ¦ take | mine. - -(Iambic-trochaic; or, if monosyllabic initial feet be granted in some -lines, all iambic, and perhaps better so.) - -[115] - - (a) Morning | and eve|ning - Maids heard | the gob|lins cry: - "Come buy | our or|chard fruits, - Come buy, | come buy: - Apples and | quinces, - Lemons and | oranges, - Plump unpecked | cherries, - Melons and | raspberries." [116] - . . . . . . . - -(Where, as almost always, the dactylic lines can be made anapæstic with -anacrusis, "Mel|ons and rasp|berries," etc.) - - (b) She clipped | a pre|cious gold|en lock, - She dropped | a tear | more rare | than pearl, - Then sucked | their fruit | globes fair | or red. - Sweeter | than hon|ey from | the rock, - Stronger | than man-|rejoic|ing wine, - Clearer | than wa|ter flowed | that juice. [117] - - (c) But ev|er in | the noon|light - She pined | and pined | away; - Sought them | by night | and day, - Found them | no more, | but dwin|dled and | grew grey; - Then fell | with the | first snow, - While to | this day | no grass | will grow - Where she | lies low: - I plant|ed dai|sies there | a year | ago - That nev|er blow. [118] - - (d) Laughed every | goblin - When they | spied her | peeping: - Came towards her | hobbling, - Flying, | running, | leaping, | - Puffing and | blowing. [119] - - (2) Where sun|less riv|ers weep - Their waves | into | the deep, - She sleeps | a charm|èd sleep: - Awake | her not. - - Led by | a sin|gle star, - She came | from ver|y far, - To seek, | where sha|dows are, - Her plea|sant lot. [120] - - (3) Come to | me in | the si|lence of | the night; - Come in | the speak|ing si|lence of | a dream; - Come with | soft round|ed cheeks | and eyes | as bright - As sun|light on | a stream; - Come back | in tears, - O mem|ory, | hope, love, | of fin|ished years. [121] - - (4) One by one | slowly, - Ah | how sad | and slow! - Wailing and | praying - The spir|its rise | and go: - Clear stainless | spirits, - White, as | white as | snow; - Pale spirits, | wailing - For an | over|throw. [122] - - (5) "Oh! whence | do you come,|| my de|ar friend, | to me? - With your gold|en hair || all fallen | below | your knee, - And your face | as white || as snow|drops on | the lea, - And your voice | as hol||low as | the hol|low sea?" [123] - -(This last extract is a most audacious, but quite justifiable, -fingering of the ordinary five-foot iambic line, with substitutions -and adaptations which give it now anapæstic, now trochaic undertone. -The first exhibits, in a batch of five from _Goblin Market_, the same -audacity and the same success in varying line-_length_ as well as -constitution; (2), (3), and (4), with more of what is commonly called -"regularity," show the same various address.) - -[116] Iamb and trochee followed by dactyl and trochee. - -[117] Pure iambic dimeter with a trochee or two. - -[118] Iambic, with length varied from two to five feet. - -[119] Dactyl and trochee, or mere trochee. - -[120] Iambic. - -[121] Iambic, with some trochaic beginnings. - -[122] Dactylic-trochaic and iambic alternately. - -[123] Really "irregular." Norm dimeter anapæstic-- - - ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ - -but largely varied in rhythm and length. Best scanned as above, with -strong pause, making _five_ feet. - -[124] For examples of Morris's prosody see Scanned Conspectus. - -[125] Examples of lyric: - - (1) You have cho|sen and clung | to the chance | they sent | you, - Life sweet | as per|fume, and pure | as prayer; - But will | it not one | day in heav|en repent | you? - Will they sol|ace you whol|ly, the days | that were? - Will you lift | up your eyes | between sad|ness and bliss? - Meet mine | and see | where the great | love is, - And trem|ble and turn | and be changed? | Content | you, - The gate | is strait; | I shall not | be there. - -(Anapæstic dimeter with iambic substitution and redundance. A most -perfect combination.) - - (2) If love | were what | the rose | is - And I | were like | the leaf, - Our lives | would grow | togeth|er - In sad | or sing|ing wea|ther, - Blown fields | or flower|ful clo|ses, - Green plea|sure or | grey grief: - If love | were what | the rose | is - And I | were like | the leaf. - -(Pure iambics. Dimeter catalectic and brachycatalectic by turns.) - - (3) When the | game be|gan be|tween them | for a | jest, - He played | king and | she played | queen to | match the | best. - Laughter | soft as | tears, and | tears that | turned to | - laughter, - These were | things she | sought for | years and | sorrowed | - after. - -(Trochaic trimeter catalectic; quite pure throughout.) - -[126] - - As a | star feels | the sun | and fal|ters, - Touched to | death by | divin|er eyes-- - As on | the old gods' | untend|ed altars - The old fire | of with|ered wor|ship dies. - -("Long measure"; but completely transfigured by the redundance and -double rhyme in the odd places, and the trochaic and anapæstic -substitution.) - -[127] - - We | are the mu|sic-mak|ers, - And we | are the dream|ers of dreams, - Wan|dering by lone | sea-break|ers, - And sit|ting by de|solate streams: - World-los|ers and world-|forsakers, - On whom | the pale | moon gleams; - For we | are the mov|ers and shak|ers - Of the world | for ev|er, it seems. - -(Anapæsts used with singular skill.) - - The stars are dimly seen among the shadows of the bay, - And lights that win are seen in strife with lights that die away. - - The wave is very still--the rudder loosens in our hand; - The zephyr will not fill our sail, and waft us to the land; - O precious is the pause between the winds that come and go, - And sweet the silence of the shores between the ebb and flow. - . . . . . . . - Say, shall we sing of day or night, fair land or mighty ocean, - Of any rapturous delight or any dear emotion, - Of any joy that is on earth, or hope that is above, - The holy country of our birth, or any song of love? - . . . . . . . - Our heart in all our life is like the hand of one who steers - A bark upon an ocean rife with dangers and with fears: - The joys, the hopes, like waves or wings, bear up this life of ours-- - Short as a song of all these things that make up all its hours. - -(The old fourteener--but made almost new by the great variation of -pause, by occasional redundance, and by the grouping of the lines.) - -[128] - - If ev|er thou | didst creep - From out | the world | of sleep, - When the sun | slips | and the moon | dips, - If ev|er thou | wast born; - Or upon | the starv|ing lips - Of the gray | uncol|oured morn. - -(Especial effect produced by the anapæsts and monosyllabic feet of line -3.) - - Thou go|est more | and more - To the sil|ent things: | thy hair | is hoar, - Emp|tier thy wear|y face: | like to | the shore - Far-ru|ined, and | the deso|late bil|low white - That recedes | and leaves | it waif-wrin|kled, gap-|rocked, weak. - The shore | and the bil|low white - Groan|--they cry | and rest | not: they | would speak - And call | the eter|nal Night - To cease | them for ev|er, bid|ding new | things is|sue - From her | cold tis|sue: - Night | that is ev|er young, | nor knows | decay, - Though old|er by | eter|nity | than they. - -(Very fine "modern Pindaric," with extremely well-managed substitution.) - -[129] For some supposed exceptions _v. sup._ last section of Scanned -Conspectus, pp. 128-130. One of the most interesting things in the -study of prosody is the tracing of the history of lyric forms. -Examples have been given above, and more will be found below; but -_completeness_ is here again impossible. Again, also, the "principles," -properly followed out, will carry the student safely through all -such investigations, as, for instance, that into the connection of -Mr. Swinburne's "Anima Anceps" with Curran's "Deserter," and the -entire pedigree of both. Perhaps it may be well to add that, where a -choriambic effect occurs (̄ ̆ ̆ ̄), choice is often, if not always, -open between scansion as trochee and iamb or as monosyllabic foot and -anapæst. This has been already indicated expressly in some examples. -See, especially, pp. 183, 184, 212. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -RECAPITULATION OR SUMMARY VIEW OF STAGES OF ENGLISH PROSODY - - -I. OLD ENGLISH PERIOD - -Prosody rhythmical, not metrical; determined exclusively by -alliteration and accent. Combinations of accented and unaccented -syllables perhaps classifiable, but seldom, if ever, reducible to -any combination corresponding to the flow of later Middle and Modern -English verse, though the _principle_ (of syllabic irregularity in -corresponding lines) _survives as the most important basis of that -verse itself_. Rhyme, except in the piece specially entitled "Rhyming -Poem" and other very late examples, practically non-existent; the -instances collected from other places being very few and quite possibly -accidental. - - -II. BEFORE OR VERY SOON AFTER 1200 - -_Earliest Middle English Period._ - -_No_ pure and unmixed alliterative-accentual verse of the old kind, but -a choice between pure syllabic metre of iambic type (_Ormulum_), less -regular but clearly metrical (_i.e._ "_foot_-measured") verse, iambic -or trochaic (_Paternoster_, _Moral Ode_, etc.), and singular mixtures -of the alliterative kind (badly done), and the metrical kind (sometimes -done rather better) (_Layamon_, _Proverbs of Alfred_). - - -III. MIDDLE AND LATER THIRTEENTH CENTURY - -_Second Early Middle English Period._ - -The metrifying process going on, with stronger emphasising of the -metrical character and almost complete discarding of the alliterative -(_King Horn_, late in the century, has sometimes been claimed as -an exception, but without good reason). Definite forms emerge: the -two great kinds of octosyllabic couplet--more strictly _syllabic_ -(_Owl and Nightingale_), or less so (_Genesis and Exodus_); the -fifteener-fourteener or seven-foot iambic (_Robert of Gloucester_); -the _rime couée_ or "Romance-six" (_Proverbs of Hendyng_). _Of pure -alliterative verse there is no trace whatever._ - - -IV. EARLIER FOURTEENTH CENTURY - -_Central Period of Middle English._ - -The metrical development attains complete predominance in the -_Romances_ (chiefly octosyllabic couplet or "Romance-six"), and in -lyrics such as those of the Harleian MS. 2253. In both there is -considerable _equivalence_, or substitution of trisyllabic (and perhaps -also monosyllabic) for dissyllabic feet. The fourteener begins to break -itself down into the ballad measure of eight and six, with or without -full alternate rhyme. Decasyllabic couplet appears (as it had done even -earlier) sporadically. But at an uncertain time--probably about the -second third of the century--alliteration again makes its appearance, -sometimes alone (_William of Palerne_), sometimes in company with some -rhyme-arrangement (_Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_); and the two -methods continue side by side (though with the alliteration always in -the minority and seldom quite pure) for the best part of two hundred -years, till well within the sixteenth century itself. - - -V. LATER FOURTEENTH CENTURY - -_Crowning Period of Middle English._ - -The tendencies already indicated, and shown after 1350 by Laurence -Minot, the writers in the Vernon MS., and others, culminate in three -remarkable poets--Langland, Gower, and Chaucer. The first, who is -probably the oldest (though the most plausible theory of his work -puts it in stages from the sixth or seventh to the last decade of -the century), eschews rhyme altogether, and (as far as he can, but -not entirely) declines metrical form--preferring a modernised Old -English line, strongly middle-paused, and regularly, but not lavishly, -alliterated. Gower, with a little rhyme-royal, employs elsewhere, -throughout his voluminous English work, octosyllabic couplet, nearer -to the French or strictly syllabic norm than that of any other Middle -English writer, though with some tell-tale approaches to variety. -Chaucer, between the two, represents the true development of English -prosody proper. He practises, from the (disputed) _Romaunt of the -Rose_, to the (certain) _House of Fame_, the octosyllabic couplet; -varies it remarkably and consciously; and gets from it effects -excellent in their way, but never, apparently, quite satisfactory to -himself. He adopts or imitates from the French, besides minor forms, -the great rhyme-royal or _Troilus_ stanza. He has, in his prose, -curious "shadows before" of blank verse. But his greatest metrical -achievement is the taking up--whether wholly from French or with some -consciousness of earlier sporadic attempts in English is disputed, -but certainly in the perhaps unconscious line of those attempts--the -decasyllabic or heroic couplet, which is first the sole vehicle of -his _Legend of Good Women_, and secondly the main vehicle of _The -Canterbury Tales_. - - -VI. FIFTEENTH AND EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURIES - -_The Decadence of Middle English Prosody._ - -The prosodic accomplishment of Chaucer, while representing all that -Middle English was capable of attaining, represented more than it was -capable of maintaining. His followers in Middle Scots, employing not -the actual vernacular, but a "made" literary language, carried out his -lessons for some time with great success. But those in Southern English -appear to have--except in more or less pure folk-poems--succumbed -partly to influences of change in pronunciation (which are very -imperfectly understood, though the disuse of the final valued _e_ -is the certain and central fact), partly to a loss of understanding -(which is still more obscure in its nature and causes) of the -metres themselves. From Lydgate to Hawes, rhyme-royal most of all, -decasyllabic couplet (not so often tried) hardly less, and octosyllabic -to a somewhat minor degree, exhibit the most painful irregularity, -clumsiness, and prosaic effect, there being sometimes no regular -rhythm, and nothing at all but the rhyme to give a poetical character -to the composition. The "doggerel" of Skelton is a pretty obvious -attempt to escape from this. Only ballad, carol, and the like seem to -escape the curse. - - -VII. MID-SIXTEENTH CENTURY - -_The Recovery of Rhythm._ - -In the second quarter of the sixteenth century attention seems to have -been drawn to the "staggering state" of prosody; by the end of that -quarter, or a very little later, we know from positive evidence that -it was theoretically felt. But much earlier Sir Thomas Wyatt, and, in -his tracks, Henry Howard, Lord Surrey, expressed the fact practically -by their imitations of Italian forms. Both tried the sonnet; Wyatt -attempted, with little success, _terza rima_; and Surrey, with more, -tried blank verse. The regular quantification or accentuation necessary -for the reproduction of these forms evidently gave them (and Wyatt -more particularly and naturally, as the pioneer) a great deal of -trouble; but they managed it--if not universally or perfectly--somehow; -and they kept the practice up in lyric measures less strictly -imitated. They also popularised--if they did not introduce--a new -combination-variation of the old long lines into the so-called -"poulter's measure" or couplet of twelve-fourteen syllables, easily -breaking down into six, six, eight, six. Their example was followed -by many poets between 1550 and 1580, iambic regularity establishing -itself rather at the expense of poetic variety, but with an immense -gain to the ear. A very important, though not in itself very poetical, -development was also made in the regular anapæstics of Tusser; and -the drama, taking up at last Surrey's blank verse, in the meantime -experimented with all sorts of forms, regular and doggerel. - - -VIII. LATE SIXTEENTH CENTURY - -_The Perfecting of Metre and of Poetical Diction._ - -This invaluable if not always very stimulating period of drill and -discipline (in which Wyatt and Surrey themselves, with Sackville later, -are the chief and almost the only poets who transcend experiment) -passes, a little before 1580, into one of complete poetic and -proportionately complete prosodic accomplishment, with Spenser and -his companions and followers for non-dramatic poetry, with Peele and -Marlowe preluding Shakespeare in dramatic blank verse. The greatest -pioneer, one who not only explores but attains, is Spenser; and he, -after presenting in the _Shepherd's Calendar_ the most remarkable -record of experiment in the history of English poetic form, proceeds to -the perfect structure and exquisite diction of the _Faerie Queene_. He, -however, hardly touches blank verse, and, after the _Calendar_, eschews -the lighter lyric. But both these are taken up by others; and while -lyric attains all but the highest possible stage of that diversity in -harmony which is especially required by it, the possibilities of blank -verse are more than suggested in Shakespeare's predecessors, and are, -in the dramatic range, exhausted by Shakespeare himself. Outside the -drama, however, and blank verse, the abiding fear of doggerel keeps -back the due development of regularised substitution: verse is mostly -iambic. But here also Shakespeare pierces the heart of the mystery, and -the songs in his plays are as prosodically complete as his blank verse -itself. There is much practice in sonnet, and, towards the end of the -century, "riding rhyme" or heroic couplet, which had fallen into some -disuse, is revived, chiefly for satiric or semi-satiric purposes (as -by Spenser in _Mother Hubberd's Tale_, by Hall, Donne, and Marston in -their definite satires, etc., and for "history" by Drayton). - - -IX. EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY - -_The further Development of Lyric, Stanza, and Blank Verse. Insurgence -and Division of the Couplet._ - -Between the latest years of the sixteenth and the earliest of the -seventeenth century there is naturally little difference, but the -total transformation is rather rapid. Blank verse no sooner attains -its absolute perfection in Shakespeare than it begins to show signs of -overripeness, in the great tendency to redundance which even he shares -in his latest plays, and which distinguishes Beaumont and Fletcher. -Stanza does not, after the similar consummateness of Spenser, show -a similar formal decline; but there arises a distaste for it. Only -lyric perseveres in practically full flourishing; and even exhibits a -certain further quintessence of beauty, though some loss of strength. -Meanwhile, the decasyllabic couplet revives in a complicated fashion. -It does not yet make much recovery of drama, but is very largely -practised by Drayton, is declared (at least on Drummond's authority) -to be "the bravest sort of verse" by Jonson, and made, towards the end -of James the First's reign, the subject of a formal critical-poetical -encomium by Sir John Beaumont. But it is a house divided against -itself, and it is not till the "stopped" form (in which the rhymes -sharply punctuate the sense) conquers the "enjambed" (which in _this_ -sub-period is the favourite) that it attains complete popular favour. - - -X. MID-SEVENTEENTH CENTURY - -_Milton._ - -The period, or sub-period, which may be called "mid-seventeenth -century," on one side continues the developments described in the -last section, and on another begins those which will be described -in the next. But it contains almost the whole work of Milton, who -belongs in one sense to both, in another to neither. If he had written -no blank verse, he would still be of the first rank as a practical -prosodist, in virtue of his stanza-forms, such as that in the "Hymn -on the Nativity"; of his remarkably varied octosyllabic couplet in -_L'Allegro_, _Il Penseroso_, _Arcades_, and _Comus_; of the almost -unique strophes, with irregular rhyme, in _Lycidas_; of the _Sonnets_, -adjusted not to the Elizabethan-English, but to the commoner Italian -forms; and of the peculiar choric arrangements of _Samson Agonistes_. -But it is undoubtedly as the introducer of blank verse for general -poetic practice, and as the modulator of that verse in the directions -previously described, that he stands as one of the very greatest -masters of English prosody. For, on the one hand, he rescues "blanks" -from the chaos into which, by the laches of the dramatists, they were -falling; and, on the other, he establishes for ever (though it may -sometimes be mistaken by individuals and periods) the principle of -foot-equivalence and substitution in the individual line, with that of -combination of several lines into a verse-paragraph. - - -XI. THE LATER SEVENTEENTH CENTURY - -_Dryden._ - -For the moment, however, the work of Milton produces no effect, and -though Dryden, his younger contemporary, uses, with great effect, a -large variety of metres, his main importance, in the general history of -prosody, consists in the establishment of the stopped heroic couplet -as at once the most popular and the most dignified of English metres. -But he does not at once make it into the strictly decasyllabic, -strictly middle-paused kind which dominates the following century. -On the initiation (partly at least) of Cowley, he varies it with the -Alexandrine, which he sometimes includes in a triplet, while the same -extension to three similarly rhymed lines, in decasyllable only, is -still more frequent. If he does not exactly introduce, he popularises -and for a time maintains, the same couplet in drama, but uses it most -successfully in satiric and didactic verse, of extraordinary weight and -vigour, while entirely destitute of monotony. He himself and his minor -but more lyrical contemporaries, Rochester, Sedley, Afra Behn, etc., -continue the older Caroline tradition of song in varied measures, but -it dies out. On the other hand, his practice (suggested, doubtless, by -Davenant's _Gondibert_) of the decasyllabic quatrain, and the majestic -if not fully Pindaric strophes of his _Odes_, supply models which serve -to vary the unbroken prevalence of the couplet, and are followed by -Gray and others, during the succeeding century, with exceptionally fine -results. - - -XII. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY - -The summary of the history of eighteenth-century prosody has been -foreshadowed in the above lines. Addison, Garth, and others follow -Dryden; and Pope further "corrects" him in a couplet which becomes -polished to the extreme, but, when handled without almost supreme -genius, is distinctly monotonous. And this couplet, with almost -complete and definite acceptance by theorists and little overt protest -on the part of practitioners, assumes the position of premier metre -in English for long poems, continuing to hold it throughout the -hundred years. Lyric, too, confines itself to relatively few forms, -chiefly iambic--the "common" and "long" measure, the Romance-six, the -decasyllabic quatrain, the regular or irregular Pindaric ode. There -are, however, certain privileged exceptions to the uniformity. Two -poets not in their first youth at the beginning of the century--Prior -and Swift--secure a position for the light octosyllable and for -anapæstic measures; Gray and Collins raise the ode; Thomson--preceded -by one or two minor poets, and followed by a considerable number, some -of whom are not so minor--takes up "the manner of Milton," that is -to say, blank verse. Even in the first half of the century Shenstone -timidly pleads for trisyllabic substitution, while in the second half -Chatterton and Blake boldly practise it; and that study of old (and -especially ballad) English verse, of which Percy's _Reliques_ is the -central example, slowly but surely leads the way to a restoration of -its principles. - - -XIII. THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY AND THE ROMANTIC REVIVAL - -In no department of poetic practice does the great Romantic revival, -after forerunnings in Chatterton and Blake, show itself, in the -latest years of the eighteenth century, and the earliest of the -nineteenth, more perceptibly than in that of prosody. Only one of -its masters--Wordsworth--slights this revival in theory, while he is -not of the first mark in practice. But Coleridge, in _The Ancient -Mariner_ and _Christabel_, restores and perfects equivalence on a -doubtful principle, but with consummate practical effect. Southey, less -effective practically, is both sounder and more original in theory; -Scott takes up Coleridge's example in all his verse-romances, and -completely vindicates the freedom of lyric; Byron, affecting admiration -of the couplet, achieves his own best work in Coleridge-Scott -octosyllables, in Spenserians, in octaves, and in lyric; Shelley pushes -the various and unfettered lyrical movement to its almost inconceivable -farthest; and Keats revives (after Leigh Hunt) the enjambed couplet -in decasyllable, recovers an octosyllabic form unknown since Gower -and only partially utilised by him, writes exquisite Spenserians and -beautiful octaves, comes perhaps nearest Milton in blank verse and -nearest Dryden in the other kind of couplet, and achieves forms of ode, -classical and Romantic, of astonishing flexibility and charm. By and in -these, and in many minors from Moore downwards, the freedom of prosody, -and the great instrument of that freedom, the equivalenced foot, are -championed and practised with almost all the variety possible. - - -XIV. THE LATER NINETEENTH CENTURY - -The process of varying and extending the forms of prosody, by the -special instrument above noticed and others, and under the direction of -a general effort to give those forms a wider visual and audible appeal -to the mind's senses, continues in the two later groups or stages--of -which the chief representatives are, in the first case, Tennyson and -Browning; in the second, Mr. Swinburne, the Rossettis, and William -Morris--with constant recovery or fresh invention of prosodic effect. - - * * * * * - -It is on the continuity of this history that the student should keep -his eye. Looked at partially, it may seem to lack this continuity; -looked at as a whole, it will be seen to exhibit exactly the alternate -or successive predominance of different tendencies and developments in -which all healthy life-history consists. No partial and inconsecutive -explanations as to widely differing pronunciation of vowels at -different times, none of "quantity" having the preference at one time -and "accent" at another, or of certain feet inclining to these things -respectively, are necessary, or should be entertained. The birth, -progress, and perfecting of the foot under the guidance of equivalent -substitution, now vividly present, now apparently in abeyance, but -always potentially existing--this is "the mystery of this wonderful -history," the open secret of English prosodic life. - - - - -BOOK III - -HISTORICAL SURVEY OF VIEWS ON PROSODY - - - - -CHAPTER I - -BEFORE 1700 - - -[Sidenote: Dearth of early prosodic studies.] - -In hardly any language are studious investigations into the form -of verse likely to be early, and in a language with such a history -as English they could not possibly be so. We have indeed, from the -early fourteenth century, some remarks of Robert of Brunne on kinds -of verse--"cowee" (Romance-six), "baston,"[130] "enterlace" (pretty -obvious), etc., but with no explanation or discussion; and Chaucer -himself (who, in this respect as in others, is slavishly followed by -Lydgate[131]) makes apologies for roughness and inexperience.[132] In -Gower (_Conf. Am._ iv. 2414) there is a reference, but after Chaucer -and not yet quite satisfactorily explained, to the difference between -"rhyme" and "cadence," while in the Scottish chronicler Wyntoun -there is another reference[133] to "cadence." Again, in Chaucer we -have the Parson's famous disclaimer of indulgence in "rum ram ruf," -because the speaker is "a Southern man." But not one of these things -makes the slightest pretence to be even a prosodic discussion, let -alone a prosodic treatise; and it is not till towards the end of the -third quarter of the sixteenth century--when a whole generation had -already followed Wyatt in endeavouring to effect, in practice, the -reform of the prosodic breakdown from Lydgate to Hawes, if not even to -Barclay--that the first English prosodic treatise appears in the shape -of Gascoigne's _Notes of Instruction_ (1572-75). They had been a little -anticipated in time by remarks of Ascham's, and perhaps of others, on -a new fashion of classical "versing," on which more presently; but -this, though essentially prosodic in character, had not yet formed -the subject of a regular treatise, and its exponents implicitly or -expressly declined all meddling with "beggarly rhyme," _i.e._ with the -form of English poetry proper. - -[Sidenote: Gascoigne.] - -Gascoigne's little book[134] is very short, very practical, very -sensible, and--except in one unlucky remark, which (or rather the -misunderstanding of it) has done harm to the present day--in the -main, perfectly sound. He dwells on the importance of accent and of -the observation of it; and he was quite right, for even Wyatt had -been very loose in this respect, and the desire to get out of the -doggerel of the fifteenth century[135] had led novices in precision -to strain the accent, in order that they might keep the quantity. But -he insists also--and with more than a century of awful examples to -justify him if he had cared to use them--on "keeping metre"--on not -wandering from lines of one length or character to those of another -as the rhyme-royalists of the preceding century constantly do. He -gives rules for the pause, leaving rhyme-royal itself free in that -respect. He mentions especially, besides rhyme-royal, "riding rhyme" -(Chaucerian couplet), "poulter's measure" (the alternate Alexandrine -and fourteener), and octosyllables. He deprecates poetic commonplaces -("cherry lips" and the like), and gives some positive rules for -pronunciation ("Heav'n" is to be always monosyllabic). - -[Sidenote: His remark on feet.] - -The excepted unlucky point is his remark that "commonly nowadays in -English rhymes we use no other than a foot of two syllables, whereof -the first is depressed and made short, and the second elevated or made -long." He says that "we have used in times past other kinds of metres," -giving as example the anapæstic line-- - - No wight | in this world | that wealth | can attain;[136] - -laments the restriction to iambs, and shows a remarkable appreciation -of Chaucer's "liberty that the Latinists do use," _i.e._ equivalent -substitution, though he may not have quite correctly understood this. - -The desire for order and regularity in all this is very noticeable, -and perfectly intelligible to any one who has appreciated (see last -Book) the hopeless breakdown, due to the neglect of these qualities, -in English prosody between 1400 and 1530. Gascoigne's statement about -the iamb is, moreover, true of the majority of his own contemporaries, -though it overlooks such a writer as Tusser. But it would be a grievous -mistake (and unfortunately it has often been committed) to accept this -not quite accurate declaration of ephemeral fact--accompanied as it is, -more especially, by another expression of regret for that fact--as a -rule and principle governing Elizabethan and English poetry. - -Gascoigne's little treatise was followed at no great intervals, but -after his own death, by more elaborate dealings with the subject--some -of them exclusively or mainly devoted to the new craze for classical -metres, others treating the subject at large and merely referring to -the "versing" attempts. The order of these compositions, with a very -brief sketch of their contents, may now be given. - -[Sidenote: Spenser and Harvey.] - -In the winter of 1579-80, the date of the appearance of the _Shepherd's -Calendar_, Spenser and his pragmatical friend Gabriel Harvey exchanged -certain letters (which we have) dealing with the "versing" attempt that -Spenser himself makes. An experiment in quantified trimeter refers -to "rules" on the subject made by a Cambridge man named Drant, but -does not (unfortunately) give them, and asks for Harvey's own. Harvey -blows rather hot and cold on the matter, approving the system, but -criticising the details. - -[Sidenote: Stanyhurst.] - -Next, in 1582, came the _Preface_ to Richard Stanyhurst's translation -of the _Aeneid_, a book famous for the strange language in which it -is written, but, as far as its Preface is concerned, a very sober and -scientific attempt to do an impossible thing. Stanyhurst endeavours -to arrange a set of rules for determining the quantity of every -syllable in English, _not_ necessarily according to its Latin or other -derivation, but on principles germane to the language itself. He does -not and cannot succeed; but his attempt is interesting, and rather less -contrary to facts than some recent attempts of the same kind. - -[Sidenote: Webbe.] - -He was followed, in 1586, by William Webbe, whose _Discourse of English -Poetry_ is notable for the enthusiasm displayed by the author towards -Spenser (the _Shepherd's Calendar_ had appeared some years previously); -for his curiously combined enthusiasm as regards the classical metres -which Spenser had tried and dropped; for the first _published_ sketch -of the history of English poetry (erroneous, but interesting); and for -a certain number of desultory remarks on prosodic subjects, mostly -brought round to the classical fancy, though showing the interest which -these questions were exciting. But between Stanyhurst and Webbe one -book of the kind had appeared, and another had been perhaps composed, -though not printed, in the same year--1584. - -[Sidenote: King James VI.] - -The first was King James the Sixth of Scotland's _Rewlis and Cautelis_ -for the making of verse in his native dialect. Obligation has been -traced in it to Gascoigne and to the great French poet Ronsard. It -is very clear and precise, but of no wide interest, being simply -an analysis of recent actual Scots verse with some peculiarities of -terminology. It is our first methodical book of prosody, and some of -its titles, such as "cuttit and broken" verse for the metres of very -irregular line-length which were growing so fashionable, and which were -to excite the displeasure of the eighteenth century, are distinctly -useful. Not so perhaps another--"tumbling verse"--which is of uncertain -application to alliterative-anapæstic or to mere doggerel rhythm--which -has complicated the question of "cadence" (_v. sup._), (of this it has -been, perhaps correctly, thought to have been intended as an English -translation), and which was adopted rather arbitrarily by Guest (_v. -inf._). - -[Sidenote: Puttenham (?)] - -The other book, written in or before 1584, though not published -till 1589, was the most elaborate treatment of English prosody yet -attempted, and continued to be so until Mitford's treatise (_v. inf._) -nearly two hundred years later. The _Art of English Poesy_, as it not -too arrogantly called itself, has no certain author, but has been -by turns attributed to two brothers, George and Richard Puttenham. -It is, in the original, a treatise of some 257 well-filled pages. -About half of these is indeed occupied by an immense list of the -fancifully devised "Figures of Speech" which the Greek rhetoricians -had excogitated, and which apply (in so far as they have any real -application at all) not more to poetry than to prose. But the First -Book contains an elaborate discussion or defence of poetry generally, -ending with a sketch of English poets, probably, if not certainly, -written earlier than Webbe's. And the Second is a very full and formal -handling of the formal part of poetry, the discussion being carried -so far as to include those artificial figures in squares, lozenges, -altars, wings, etc., which more than one age fancied, but which, in -English, hardly survived the satire of Addison. Puttenham, however, -takes great pains to point out the exact form of different regular -stanzas; arranges line-lengths; dwells on rhyme, pause, accent, and -other matters of importance; considers the classical "versing" (though -he does not like it); and, in short, treats the whole subject, as -far as his lights and opportunities permit, in a really business-like -manner. It was somewhat unfortunate that he came a little too soon, -neither the _Faerie Queene_ nor probably any of the greatest plays of -the "University Wits" having appeared at the time he wrote--nothing, in -short, of the best time and kind but the _Shepherd's Calendar_. - -[Sidenote: Campion and Daniel.] - -The later years of the sixteenth century were less fruitful in regular -prosodic discussion, though the old wrangle about "versing"[137] -continued at intervals between Harvey and Nash, and some scattered -observations on prosody exist, by Drayton and others. But in the -earliest years of the seventeenth the first-named dispute, after -hanging about for more than half a century since Ascham's day, was laid -to rest, for the time and (except in scattered touches) for nearly -two centuries afterwards, by the poet Thomas Campion's tractate on -certain new forms of verse (not hexameters) devised by himself, and -the reply of another poet, Samuel Daniel, in his _Defence of Rhyme_. -Campion, an exquisite master of natural rhymed verse, did not wholly -fail with his artificial creations of "English elegiacs," "English -anacreontics," etc.--metres based mainly on iambs and trochees, though -with some trisyllabic feet grudgingly allowed. He not merely does not -support the dactylic hexameter, but pronounces against it; and his -main objection seems to lie against rhyme. He also, like Stanyhurst, -attempts a scheme of English quantity, though he admits the abundance -of "common" syllables with us. Daniel in his answer confined himself to -generalities, but with the most triumphant effect--basing his defence -of rhyme on "Custom and Nature"; alleging the omnipotence of delight -which is unquestionably given by and received from rhyme; and asking -why, when in polity, religion, etc., we notoriously and profoundly -differ from the Greeks and Latins, we are to imitate them in verse? He -points out, again with absolute truth, that Campion's own versification -is mostly or wholly nothing but old forms stripped of rhyme, and urges -the hopelessness of adjusting, even on the reformer's own system, -English quantity to classical. With this the thing became, and was long -wisely allowed to be, _res judicata_. - -[Sidenote: Ben Jonson, Drayton, Beaumont.] - -In a sense this little book, or rather pamphlet, may be said to -conclude the first batch or period of prosodic study in English. For -the whole of the seventeenth century after it, though one of the -most important practically in the entire history, sees very little -theoretical discussion. Ben Jonson had, we are told, written a treatise -against both Campion and Daniel, especially the last, praising couplets -"to be the bravest sort of verses, especially when they are broken -like hexameters," and against "cross-rhymes and stanzas." But we have -not his own authority for this, which is only reported by Drummond, -and the exact interpretation to be put upon "broken like hexameters" -is absolutely uncertain. The surfeit of stanza[138] is, however, an -obvious fact, and is borne witness to by Drayton, in the remarks above -referred to, and by others--things culminating in the verse precepts -of Sir John Beaumont (_v. sup._) recommending the stopped distich in -a form which is almost eighteenth century. Had Jonson finished his -_English Grammar_ and given the prosodic section which he promised, we -should know more. - -[Sidenote: Joshua Poole and "J. D."] - -As it is, there is nothing of importance before the Restoration except -the _English Parnassus_ of Joshua Poole, published posthumously, -with a remarkable Preface signed "J. D.," which in point of time -might be--but which there is not the slightest reason except date -and initials to suppose to be--Dryden's. This Introduction is partly -historical and not ignorant, while the author shows good sense and -taste by objecting to "wrenched" rhymes ("náture" and "endùre"), to -the habit of "apostrophation" or cutting out syllables supposed to -be extra-metrical, and substituting apostrophes,[139] which was -infesting the printing of the day, and was, to the great corroboration -of prosodic heresies, not got rid of for a century and a half. He -dislikes, too, the heavily overlapped verses then prevalent. - -[Sidenote: Milton.] - -Milton, inferior to no English poet in his practical importance as a -master of prosody, and perhaps superior to all except Shakespeare, has -nothing about it in the preceptist way, except his rather petulant -outbreak against rhyme[140] in the advertisement to _Paradise Lost_ (an -outbreak largely neutralised by his own practice, not only earlier, -but later), and the reference to "committing short and long" in Sonnet -XIII.[141] - -[Sidenote: Dryden.] - -And Dryden almost repeats the tantalising conditions of Jonson's -attitude to the subject. He tells us that he actually had in -preparation a treatise on it; but nothing more has ever been heard of -this, and, large as is the amount of his work in literary criticism, -his references to this part of it are few and are mostly vague. He -does indeed tell us that no vowel can be cut off before another when -we cannot sink the pronunciation of it, and if this observation be -extended to elision generally it is important. - -[Sidenote: Woodford.] - -But, on the whole, the most significant passages on prosody of the -later seventeenth century are the work of a more obscure writer, Samuel -Woodford, in his Prefaces to Paraphrases of the _Psalms_ (1667) and -the _Canticles_ (1678). Here criticising, as no one else did, Milton -from the prosodic point of view soon after date, he recognises and -defends trisyllabic feet, but is disinclined to blank verse, regarding -(and actually arranging) it as rhythmed prose. The references of Lord -Roscommon and one or two others in verse, as well as of critics of -shadowy notoriety like Rymer and Dennis in prose, are mostly trivial. - -[Sidenote: Comparative barrenness of the whole.] - -In this first division of English prosodists there is observable -a want of thoroughness--at first sight perhaps strange, but -easily explicable--which makes most of their work little more -than a curiosity. The only book which attempts to grapple -somewhat methodically with the whole subject--that attributed to -Puttenham--labours under two fatal disadvantages. The first is that -the writer has a most imperfect knowledge, or rather an almost unmixed -ignorance, of what has come before him; and the second is that he -naturally cannot know what will come after him, while what actually did -come immediately after him happens to be one of the greatest bodies, -in bulk and merit and variety, of English poetry. The two most gifted -persons who think of treating it, Jonson and Dryden, do not actually -do so; and it may be more than doubted whether, had they done so, -ignorance of the past would not still have stood in their way. It is -true that Dryden's _obiter dictum_, that you must not elide what you -must pronounce, is a sort of ark of salvation which carries all the -elements of a sound prosody in it. But it is not certain that the -writer quite saw its full bearing, and that bearing was certainly not -seen by others. On the other hand, Gascoigne's innocent but unlucky -remark about the single two-syllabled foot expresses an opinion which, -though wholly erroneous, undoubtedly did prevail very widely throughout -the whole period. The evidence of its falsity was indeed constantly -accumulating in blank verse during the first half of the seventeenth -century, in definite trisyllabic metres during the second. But this -evidence was ignored or disobligingly received; and when, at the very -beginning of the eighteenth, Bysshe once more attempted formulation -of prosodic orthodoxy, he arranged a code which, as long as it was -observed, half maimed the sinews and half throttled the song of English -poetry. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[130] Perhaps general for a stanza. Certainly used in one case for a -six-lined one of four longer lines and two shorter. - -[131] In his _Troy Book_ he says that, "as tho" [at that time] he "set -aside truth of metre," "had no guide in that art," and "took no heed of -short and long." - -[132] _House of Fame_, Book III., where he disclaims intention to -"shew art poetical," speaks of his "rhyme" as "light and _lewed_" -[unlearned], admits that "some verses" may "fail in a syllable," and -precedes (possibly patterning) Gower in distinguishing "rhyme" and -"cadence." - -[133] He says that the substitution of "Procurator" for "Emperor" "had -mair grievèd the _cadence_ Than had relievèd the sentence [meaning]." - -[134] For editions, etc., of this and other books named and discussed -in this survey, see Bibliography. - -[135] The passage referred to above (p. 166) as illustrating this, in -the _Mirror for Magistrates_ (ed. Haslewood, ii. 394, and see _Hist. -Pros._ ii. 188), is anterior to Gascoigne. - -[136] Observe that this _might_ be scanned - - No wight | in this | world that | wealth can | attain. - -But then it would not be "another kind of metre." The remark is not -without bearing on the suggested possibility of Spenser's "February" -being mistaken heroic. - -[137] At this time the technical phrase for classical-quantitative -versification without rhyme. - -[138] Which, let it be remembered, had dominated English poetry, in -rhyme-royal, for nearly two centuries from Chaucer to Sackville, and -then in the Spenserian, the octave, and others, for three-quarters of -a century more. These surfeits always recur, though the octosyllabic -couplet has suffered least from them. - -[139] "Wat'ry," "prosp'rous," and even "vi'let." - -[140] As "the invention of a barbarous age to set off wretched matter -and lame metre," "a barbarous and modern bondage," contrasting with -"apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn -out from one verse to another." - -[141] This phrase, which has been treated as enigmatic, is quite clear -in the context, addressed to Lawes the musician as one - - Whose tuneful and well-measured song - First taught our English music how to span - Words with just note and accent, not to scan - With Midas' ears, committing short and long. - -That is to say, Lawes was not guilty, as most composers notoriously -are, of laying musical stress on a syllable that could not prosodically -bear it. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -FROM BYSSHE TO GUEST - - -[Sidenote: Bysshe's _Art of Poetry_.] - -In 1702, just after the beginning of the new century, there appeared -a book which, though it received little directly critical notice, -and was spoken of with disapproval by some who did notice it, was -repeatedly reprinted, and which expressed, beyond all reasonable doubt, -ideas prevalent largely for a century or more before it, and almost -universally for a century or more after it. This was the _Art of -Poetry_ of Edward Bysshe. The bulk of it is composed of dictionaries of -rhyme, etc. But a brief Introduction puts with equal conciseness and -clearness the following views on English prosody. - -"The structure of our verses, whether blank or in rhyme, consists in -a certain number of syllables; not in feet composed of long and short -syllables." He works this out carefully--explaining that verses of -double rhyme will always want one more syllable than verses of single; -decasyllables becoming hendecasyllables, verses of eight syllables -turning to nine, verses of seven to eight. "This must also be observed -in blank verse." Then of the several sorts of verses. Our poetry, he -thinks, admits, for the most part, of but three verses--those of ten, -eight, or seven syllables. Those of four, six, nine, eleven, twelve, -and fourteen are generally employed in masques and operas and in the -stanzas of lyric and Pindaric odes. We have few entire poems composed -in them; though twelve and fourteen may be inserted in other measures -and even "carry a peculiar grace with them." In decasyllabic verse -two things are to be considered--the seat of the accent and the pause. -The pause ought to be at the fourth, fifth, or sixth syllable. The -strongest accent must be on the second, fourth, and sixth. But he -says nothing about accent in the last four places; indeed he is less -explicit about the second half of the line throughout. And he says less -about accent generally than about pause, though he is sure that "wrong -placing" of it is as great a fault in English as a false quantity was -in the classical languages. To make a good decasyllable you must be -careful that the accent is neither on the third nor on the fifth--a -curious crab-like way of approaching the subject, but bringing out in -strong relief the main principle of all this legislation, "Thou shalt -not." The verse of _seven_ syllables, however, is most beautiful when -the strongest accent _is_ on the third. - -More curious still is his way of approaching trisyllabic metres. As -such, he will not so much as speak of them. "Verses of nine and eleven -syllables," it seems, "are of two sorts." "Those accented on the last -save one" are merely the redundant eights and tens already spoken of. -"The other [class] is those that are accented on the last syllable, -which are employed only in compositions for music, and in the lowest -sort of burlesque poetry, the disagreeableness of their measure -having wholly excluded them from grave and serious subjects." These -are neither more nor less than anapæstic three- and four-foot verses; -though for some extraordinary reason Bysshe does not even mention -the full twelve-syllable form under any head whatever. I suppose the -"lowness and disagreeableness" of the thing was too much for him, and -as he had disallowed feet he had, at any rate, some logical excuse in -making nothing of them. He admits triplets in heroic, and repeats his -admission of Alexandrines and fourteeners. "The verses of four or six -syllables have nothing worth observing," though he condescends to give -some from Dryden. - -Under the head of "Rules conducing to the beauty of our -versification," and with the exordium, "Our poetry being very much -polished and refined since the days of Chaucer, Spenser, and other -ancient poets," we find that you must avoid hiatus; _always_ cut off -the _e_ of "the" before a vowel; never allow such collocations as -"th_y_ _i_ambics" or "int_o_ _a_ book"; never value such syllables as -"amaz_è_d" and "lov_è_d," but always contract them; avoid alliteration; -never split adjective from substantive, or preposition from verb, at -the end of a line. "Beauteous" is but two syllables, "victorious" but -three. You must not make "riot" one syllable as Milton does.[142] You -_may_ contract "vi'let" and "di'mond," and if you do, should write them -so. "Temp'rance," "diff'rent," etc., are all right; and you may use -"fab'lous" and "mar'ner." But Bysshe acknowledges that "this is not so -frequent." And he rejects or doubts some of the more violent and most -hideous apostrophations, such as, "b'" for "by," but has no doubt about -"t'amaze," "I'm," "they've," and most others. Rhyme is not very fully -dealt with, but for the most part correctly enough--so far as Bysshe's -principles go. Stanzas of "intermixed rhyme" (like rhyme-royal, the -octave, and the Spenserian) "are now wholly laid aside," for long poems -at least. Shakespeare invented blank verse to escape "the tiresome -constraint of rhyme." Acrostics and anagrams "deserve not to be -mentioned." - -[Sidenote: Its importance.] - -If any one has read this account carefully he will perceive at -once what Bysshe's ideals and standards are. They put the strict -decasyllabic couplet, with no substitution, no overrunning of lines, -a fixed middle pause, and as nearly as possible an unvaried iambic -cadence, into the principal place--if not quite the sole place of -honour--in English poetry. They frown upon stanzas, upon varied metres -of any kind, and even upon unvaried anapæestic or "triple" measures. -Strict syllabic scansion, with a consideration of accent, is the only -process allowed; and even Dryden, just dead, and still regarded as the -greatest of English poets, is directly though gently reproached for -too great variety and laxity, as well as indirectly blamed for using -"low" and "disagreeable" forms. The author seems to have been a very -obscure person, of whom little or nothing is known; but any one who -really knows English poetry will see that he practically expresses -the mind that dominated it during almost the whole of the eighteenth -century. - -[Sidenote: Minor prosodists of the mid-eighteenth century.] - -Either from Bysshe's starting the question; or from the same general -influence which made him start it; or from the supposed tendency, not -to be too hastily accepted, of a lull in creative poetry to be followed -by an access of criticism--there is, from this time onward, no lack -of prosodic work. John Brightland, in an _English Grammar_ (1711), -opposed Bysshe on the subject of accent; and he was also spoken of -disparagingly by Charles Gildon, who produced two books, _The Complete -Art of Poetry_ (1718) and the _Laws of Poetry_ (1721). Gildon was -a pert and rather superficial writer who deservedly came under the -lash of Pope; and, though neither quite ignorant nor quite stupid, -he initiated a course of error which has never yet been stopped, by -confusing prosody with music and arranging it by musical signs. Between -Bysshe and his two critics Dr. Watts had, in the preface to his _Horae -Lyricae,_ given some prosodic remarks indicating discontent with the -monotony of the couplet, an appreciation (not unmixed with criticism) -of Milton, and other good things. But, before long, the question -whether Accent or Quantity governs English verse--often complicated -with the attempt to interpret this latter by musical notation--absorbed -an altogether disproportionate amount of attention. The works of -Pemberton (1738), Mainwaring, Foster, Harris, Lord Kames, Webb, and -Say (1744) must be consulted by exhaustive students of the subject, -and will be found duly commented upon in the larger _History_ by the -present writer. But they hardly need detailed notice here, any more -than the later lucubrations of Lord Monboddo, Tucker, Nares, Fogg, -and others. Their general tendency--which was indeed, as has been -said, the general tendency of the century, correctly harbingered by -Bysshe--was to concentrate attention on the heroic line, and indeed to -regard it as strictly iambic, trisyllabic feet being wholly rejected, -and even trochaic substitution either rejected likewise, as by -Pemberton, or regarded as a more or less questionable licence. But the -subject was also handled by persons of more literary importance, and in -some cases, though not in all, of more insight and more knowledge. - -[Sidenote: Dr. Johnson.] - -The most remarkable exponent of the general prosodic ideas of the -century is undoubtedly Dr. Samuel Johnson, who, though he wrote no -special prosodic treatise, dealt with the subject in his _Dictionary_, -in the _Rambler_ (especially in connection with Milton), and in his -_Lives of the Poets_. Except that Johnson does admit feet--or at least -their names--his doctrine in the _Dictionary_ hardly differs from -Bysshe's as to the syllabic norm of lines, the strict regularity of -accent constituting "harmony," and the duty of compounding superfluous -syllables by elision, synalœpha, etc. He applies these doctrines in the -_Lives_, and still more in his papers on Milton, Spenser, etc., in the -_Rambler_. The spondees in Milton's lines-- - - Bōth stōod, - Bōth tūrned, - -and the trochees in his - - Uncropped fālls tŏ the ground, - -and in Cowley's - - And the soft wings of peace cōvĕr him round, - -are condemned as "inharmonious." He objects to Milton's -"elisions"--that is to say, the devices necessary on his own system -to avoid trisyllabic feet--and so to these feet themselves. He -thinks the Spenserian stanza, _Lycidas_, and the end of _Comus_ bad, -because the lines and rhymes are not regularly arranged. In short, -he is an unhesitating--and almost the greatest--believer in the -sheer, alternately accented, middle-paused, syllabically limited -decasyllable; though, with perhaps inevitable inconsistency, he does -admit that, without variation of accent, the series of sounds would -be not only very difficult but "tiresome and disgusting," while -maintaining at the same time stoutly that this variation "always -injures the harmony of the line considered by itself." - -[Sidenote: Shenstone.] - -The inconveniences of this rigid system were not, however, entirely -unnoticed. At an uncertain time, but probably between 1740 and his -death, the poet William Shenstone urged, in a posthumously published -Essay, the beauty of what he called "virtual dactyls"--that is to say, -words like "wat_e_ry" and "tott_e_ring,"--distinctly arguing that -"it seems absurd to print them otherwise than at full length"--the -"otherwise" being the established practice, based upon definite theory, -of the century. - -[Sidenote: Sheridan.] - -Johnson's friend the elocutionist Sheridan, in his _Art of Reading_ -(1775), calls it absurd (as it certainly is) to regard "echoing" -as metrically "ech'ing." And, later, the poet Cowper, though using -ambiguous and irresolute terminology on the subject, admits the "divine -harmony" of Milton's "elisions"--by which, he explains in the most -self-contradictory way, "the line is _lengthened_." - -[Sidenote: John Mason.] - -While much earlier, at the very middle of the century, John Mason, a -little-known dissenting minister, who was, like Sheridan, a teacher of -elocution, quoting and scanning the lines-- - - And many an amorous, many a humorous lay, - Which many a bard had chanted many a day, - -observes that this, "though it increases the number of syllables, -sweetens the flow of the verse," "gives a sweetness that is not -ordinarily found in the common iambic verse." It would be impossible -to state more correctly or more definitely the case for the equivalent -substitutional trisyllabic foot in English. But, as we shall see, it -was to be nearly two generations before considerable poets boldly -adopted (even then not always distinctly championing) the idea, and -an entire century, if not more, before the principle was thoroughly -accepted and understood. - -[Sidenote: Mitford.] - -Two deliberate prosodists, in two books published within a twelvemonth -of each other, are memorable as (if not exactly starting) formulating, -in a more elaborate way than had ever been done before, the one a -mischievous and false, the other the only true method of dealing -with prosody. Joshua Steele, in his _Prosodia Rationalis_ (1775), is -not always wrong; and William Mitford is not by any means invariably -right--in fact, he partly shares Steele's error. But his _Harmony -of English Verse_ (1774) is even then to a great extent, and in -its second edition, thirty years later, much more, occupied with a -careful historical inquiry as to the actual successive forms of his -subject from the earliest period. At first he had not even Tyrwhitt's -invaluable _Chaucer_--which appeared in the year after Steele's -book--to guide him: later he availed himself of the great accessions -to the study of Middle and Elizabethan English which the intervening -generation had seen. And so, though he believed too much in accent, and -relied too much on the dangerous assistance of music, he frequently -came right. He has no doubt (as it is astonishing that an historical -student should have any doubt) about trisyllabic feet; he likes what -he calls "aberration of accent," _i.e._ trochaic substitution; and -he shows the possession of a fineness and cultivation of ear not as -yet noticeable in any English prosodist, by observing the presence -of anapæstic rhythm in the revived alliterative verse of Langland. -Except the inadequate and perfunctory, as well as of necessity merely -inchoate, sketches of Webbe and Puttenham, this was the first attempt -really to take English poetry into consideration when studying English -prosody; and it had its reward. - -[Sidenote: Joshua Steele.] - -On the other hand, Steele, who has been followed by many other -prosodists of the same school, entirely neglected the historical -contents of his subject, approaching it absolutely _a priori_, deciding -that it is essentially a matter of music, and basing his scansions on -purely musical principles. This led him to begin with an anacrusis in -every case, and so to invert the whole rhythm of the line. He has been -praised for his views on "time" in the abstract, and may deserve the -praise; while he was certainly right in regarding pause as an important -metrical constituent. But whatever merit there may be in his principles -from an abstract point of view, his concrete practice is simply -atrocious, and proves him to have had absolutely no ear for English -verse whatever. He makes _six_ feet or "cadences with proper rests," at -least, and sometimes more, in every heroic line, so that he would scan -one famous line thus-- - - O | happiness, | our | being's | end and | aim, - -and he arranges the opening lines of _Paradise Lost_ for scansion thus-- - - Of man's | first diso|bedience | and the | fruit of that for- | - bidden | tree | whose | mortal | taste brought | death | into the | - world | and | all our | woe, | Sing, | Heavenly | Muse. - -It must be perfectly evident to any one who will read these examples, -even to himself, but still more aloud, not merely that they entirely -destroy the actual cadence and rhythm of the actual verses, but -that they provide a new doggerel which is absolutely inharmonious, -unrhythmical, and contrary to every principle and quality of English -poetry. It would doubtless be possible to accommodate them with a tune; -in fact, any one who has ever looked at a "set" song will see how they -correspond to it. But then any one who has ever looked at a set song -must, in a majority of cases, have been convinced at once that musical -arrangement has nothing to do with prosodic. - -[Sidenote: Historical and Romantic prosody.] - -It was inevitable that the "Romantic" movement--one of the principal -causes and features of which was a demand for variety, while another -was its disposition to return to older modes--should be largely -concerned with prosody; but, with some notable exceptions, this -concernment did not take the form of actual prosodic deliverances or -discussions. - -[Sidenote: Gray] - -Gray, one of the chief precursors of the movement, had projected a -regular history of English poetry, and has left invaluable notes under -the general head of _Metrum_--notes in which he goes back, deliberately -and directly, to Middle English, discovers therein the origin and -nature of the metre of Spenser's _February_, etc., and has very good -remarks about others. But it was not till the stir of the revolutionary -period that much more was done, and even then more was done than said. - -[Sidenote: Taylor and Sayers.] - -The German explorations of William Taylor of Norwich induced English -writers to follow the German attempt at accentual hexameters; and -another of the Norwich group, Frank Sayers, not merely wrote, but -expounded and defended in prose, rhymeless metres of a choric -character; both being--in part, if not mainly--revolts from the -mechanical heroic couplet. - -[Sidenote: Southey. His importance.] - -Before the end of the century, long before Coleridge published the -explanatory note on _Christabel_ metre, and not improbably before he -had even thought of that note, Southey had not only used trisyllabic -equivalence in his _Ballads_, but had formally and independently -defended it as such in a letter to his friend Wynn.[143] - -[Sidenote: Wordsworth.] - -Wordsworth says very little about metrical detail in his famous -Preface to the second edition of the _Lyrical Ballads_ and its -successors--appearing to think, and indeed in one place asserting, that -"harmony of numbers" comes of itself to a person who has other poetical -qualifications. - -[Sidenote: Coleridge.] - -His two just-mentioned friends, however, lodged, at a slightly later -period, two of the most important preceptist documents of English -prosody, though they were documents differing very widely in the -extent and character of their importance. These were Coleridge's note -on the metre of _Christabel_, and Southey's Preface to the _Vision -of Judgment_. The latter is too long to give, and is written from a -mistaken point of view; but it, and the much-ridiculed poem which it -accompanied, undoubtedly restarted the practice of attempting to write -English hexameters, which has been continued, with some intervals and -some episodes, but at times most busily, ever since. The former must be -given at length, and some comment made on it:-- - -[Sidenote: _Christabel_, its theory and its practice.] - -"The metre of the _Christabel_ is not, properly speaking, irregular, -though it may seem so from its being founded on a new principle, -namely, that of counting, in each line, the accents, not the syllables. -Though the latter may vary from seven to twelve, yet in each line the -accents will be found to be only four. Nevertheless this occasional -variation in number of syllables is not introduced wantonly, or for the -mere ends of convenience, but in correspondence with some transition in -the nature of the imagery or passion." - -What _Christabel_ metre really was has been expounded earlier, and its -author's account of it is not a little surprising. When he called its -principle "new" he must have forgotten--not exactly the Middle English -writers, whom he very likely did not know, nor perhaps Gray, though the -latter's remarks on Spenser's _February_ were actually published before -_Christabel_, but--Spenser himself and Chatterton (both of whom he -certainly knew, if not Blake also), as well as the very ballad-writers -whom he had himself imitated in the _Ancient Mariner_. His mention -of "accents" and not "feet" argues an erroneous and inadequate theory -which leaves much of the beauty of his own work unexplained; while it -can be shown from the text itself that the variation of syllables, -though metrically beautiful, often does not correspond at all with any -special point of sense, passion, imagery, or anything else. But his -practice more than cured any wound which his theory may have inflicted. - -[Sidenote: Prosodists from 1800 to 1850.] - -In comparison with Southey's and Coleridge's remarks, and still more -with the practice of the latter in _Christabel_ and the _Ancient -Mariner_, the preceptist prosody of the extreme end of the eighteenth -century, and the first third of the nineteenth becomes, except for -exhaustive students of the subject, a mere curiosity, and not a very -interesting one. Prosodic remarks, mostly erroneous or inadequate, -found their way into popular handbooks, such as Walker's _Dictionary_ -(almost wholly wrong) and Lindley Murray's _Grammar_ (partially -right). The musical theories of Steele were taken up by others, such -as Odell, Roe, and, above all, the republican lecturer Thelwall, who, -escaping the consequences of his earlier extravagances, became a -teacher of elocution. The new Reviews gave opportunity for occasional -critical remarks on the subject--the most notable of which was the -_Quarterly_ review, by Croker, of Keats's _Endymion_,--usually -embodying the cramped and ignorant doctrinairism of the preceding -century. Southey's hexameters started a large amount of writing on -that subject. In 1816 John Carey, compiler of the best-known Latin -_Gradus_ and author of many "cribs" and school editions, repeated most -of the errors of Bysshe, but did grudgingly allow trisyllabic feet; -and in 1827 William Crowe, a minor poet and Public Orator at Oxford, -wrote a treatise of _English Versification_--good in method, but bad -in principle--condemning the adjustment of very short to longer lines, -etc. Nothing of this period comes in importance near to that second -edition of Mitford (1804, with most of the historical matter added) -which has been noticed. - -[Sidenote: Guest.] - -But in 1838--after the appearance of Tennyson and Browning, but -when no public attention had been paid to them--appeared the most -elaborate, ambitious, and, partly at least, valuable work that had -yet been written on the subject--the _History of English Rhythms_, by -Edwin Guest, then Fellow, afterwards Master, of Gonville and Caius -College, Cambridge. Guest took nearly two years between the publication -of the first and second volumes of his book, and admittedly changed -his opinions on some points, but his main theories are unmistakable. -He goes entirely by accent, denying metrical quantity in English -altogether, and imposing curious arbitrary rules (such as that two -adjoining syllables cannot be accented without a pause) on accent -itself. But he possessed an immense and truly admirable knowledge of -English verse--Old, Middle, and Modern--up to his time; and he lavished -this, in a manner useful, indeed invaluable, to the present day, on the -support of general theories which, unfortunately, are quite unsound. - -For Guest seems to have conducted his work under the influences -of three different obsessions, no one of which he ever worked out -thoroughly in all its bearings, which do not necessarily imply each -other, and two of which are even rather contradictory. - -The first[146] was the belief that our verse is wholly dependent upon -accent, and that "the principles of accentual rhythm," whatever they -are, govern it exclusively. - -The second[147] was that the laws of English versification generally -are somehow not only dependent on those of _Old_ English versification, -but identical with them, and always to be adjusted to them. - -The third[148] was that, somewhere about the early thirteenth century, -and increasingly till the end of the fourteenth, there took place a -succession of alien invasions which never resulted in a coalescence or -blending, but merely in the presence of two hostile elements; and that -while the perfect English versifier will cling to the older and only -genuine one, he must, if he does not so cling, give it up altogether, -and have nothing to do with anything but "the rhythm of the foreigner." - -Now what has been already and will be later given in this book seems to -show that these propositions are in fact false. - -In the first place, though accent plays a large part in English -prosody, that prosody is as far as possible from being purely or -exclusively accentual. - -In the second, the oldest English poetry and its younger varieties are -so utterly different that the same laws cannot, except _per accidens_, -apply to them. - -In the third, instead of two jarring elements, we find before us, from -the thirteenth century, at least, onwards, a more and more distinct and -harmonious blend of language, resulting, of necessity, in a more and -more distinct and harmonious blend of prosody. - -But there is also a _fourth_ principle, which he adds to, rather than -deduces from, the other three:-- - -That the collocation of accented and unaccented syllables forms -_sections_,[149] which in turn form, and into which can be reduced, all -English verse. - -On these principles he went through the whole body of English verse -from Caedmon to Coleridge, arranging it with infinite trouble on the -"sectional" system, and classifying the verses as those of "four -accents," those of "five," and so on, with suitable distinctions -for stanzas, etc. Unfortunately--to mention only the crowning and -fatal fault which makes mention of all others in such a book as this -unnecessary--he finds himself in perpetual conflict with the practice -of the greatest English poets in their most beautiful passages. -Shakespeare and Milton go "contrary to every principle of accentual -rhythm," and use devices which "they have no right" to use. Coleridge -and Burns employ sections which "have very little to recommend them." -Spenser's verse is "wanting in good taste," and Byron's versification -"has never been properly censured." It may seem incredible that a -writer of learning and acuteness should not have seen the absurdity -of his position when he tells beautiful poetry--sometimes admitted by -himself as such--that it has no business to be beautiful because it -does not suit his rules. But the fact disposes of him, and of the rules -themselves, without its being necessary--though it would be easy--to -prove their want of intrinsic justification. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[142] Of course Milton does _not_. - -[143] The passage is of importance and must be given:-- - -"And now ... I proceed to the indictment of my ears. If the charge had -come from Dapple it would not have surprised me. One may fancy him -possessed of more than ordinary susceptibility of ear; but for the -irritability of yours, I cannot so satisfactorily account. I could -heap authority on authority for using two very short syllables in -blank verse instead of one--_they take up only the time of one_.[144] -'Spirit' in particular is repeatedly placed as a monosyllable in -Milton; and some of his ass-editors have attempted to print it as one, -not feeling that the rapid pronunciation of the two syllables does not -lengthen the verse more than the dilated sound of one. The other line -you quote is still less objectionable, because the old ballad style -requires ruggedness, _if this line were rugged_; and secondly, because -the line itself rattles over the tongue as smoothly as a curricle upon -down-turf: - - Ī hăve măde cāndlĕs ŏf īnfănt's făt. - -This kind of cadence is repeatedly used in the _Old Woman_ and in the -'Parody.'"[145] - -The quantification, it should be observed, is original. - -[144] Italics added. - -[145] _Letters of Robert Southey_, ed. Warter (London, 1856), i. 69. - -[146] The evidence of this obsession is concentrated in Book I. chap. -iv. pp. 74-101; but diffused over the entire treatise. - -[147] This seems to have presented itself to him throughout as a -matter of course, not requiring demonstration and hardly likely to be -contested; it is perhaps most categorically affirmed at Book II. chap. -iii. p. 184. - -[148] This also is pervading. It "gathers itself up" most in the -context just cited, and at pp. 301 and 400-402, the two last among the -most surprising instances of complete misunderstanding of history by a -real historical scholar. - -[149] Perhaps it should be said that a "section" is a bundle of -"accented" and "unaccented" syllables extending in possible bulk from -_three_ syllables with _two_ accents (Guest's minimum) to _eleven_ -syllables with _three_ accents. Of a pair of these, similar or -dissimilar, a verse consists. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -LATER NINETEENTH-CENTURY PROSODISTS - - -[Sidenote: Discussions on the _Evangeline_ hexameter.] - -The amount of prosodic writing during the last seventy years has -been very large. In the earliest and latest parts of the period it -was principally devoted to the subject of English hexameters--in -the first, in regard to the accentual attempts of Longfellow, to -which _Evangeline_ gave immense popularity; in the last, to the -counter-attempts at "quantitative" versification, in which the feet -are constructed, not with reference to accent or to the way in which -the words are ordinarily pronounced, but to independent and even -opposed temporal value derived from the special sound attached to the -vowel ("īdol," long; "fĭddle," short, etc.), or, on semi-classical -principles, to what is called "position." To analyse the individual -views of critics on these two bodies of questions would be here -impossible, and reference must be made to the larger _History_, to -Mr. Omond's treatises, or to the original works, the most important -of which will be found duly entered in the Bibliography. But we may -summarise results under three heads. - -I. The "accentual" or _Evangeline_ hexameter has, as has been said, -been at times far from unpopular; but it has always dissatisfied nicer -ears by a certain _inappropriateness_ which has been differently -appraised, but which is evidently pointed at by the apology of its -first extensive practitioner, Southey, that he could not get spondees -enough, and had to be content with trochees. This inappropriateness -has since been characterised by an unsurpassed expert in theory and -practice--Mr. Swinburne--in the blunt assertion that to English "all -dactylic and spondaic forms of verse are unnatural and abhorrent." - -II. On the other hand, the so-called quantitative verse is repulsive to -the same ears (unless, like Tennyson's experiments, it is accommodated -to ordinary pronunciation) by the very fact that it sets that -pronunciation expressly at defiance, and makes sheer jargon of the -language. - -III. Considering these facts, some (among whom the present writer -is included) regard an apparent English hexameter, such as that of -Kingsley's _Andromeda_, and, still more, that of certain verses of -Mr. Swinburne himself, as an admirable and glorious metre, but as not -dactylic at all--scanning it as a five-foot anapæstic with anacrusis -(odd syllable at the beginning) and hypercatalexis (ditto at the -end).[150] - -[Sidenote: Mid-century prosodists.] - -Of more general prosodic inquiry some selection-summary must be given. -Guest's original work does not seem to have produced much effect, -save on specially scholarly writers interested in the subject, like -Archbishop Trench; though the reprint of it, forty years later, had, -as we shall see, a great deal of influence. Except on the hexameter -matter, there was little done between 1840 and close upon 1870. It -was, however, unfortunate that, at the very opening of this time, -Latham's _English Language_ embodied some very inadequate remarks on -prosody, including the symbol _xa_ for an iamb, which has too much -permeated English text-books since. The works of Archdeacon Evans -and E.S. Dallas, both published in 1852, are important only to very -thorough-going students. The latter was acute, but fanciful and -inclined to jargon. The former, regarding stress as the only basis -of modern versification, indulged in a curious undervaluation of -English poetry generally: we must "forget all about classical poetry -to be satisfied with blank verse"; English lyric has been "under an -evil genius, and always a blank"; and Shakespeare and Milton "gained -exceedingly" by translation into Greek and Latin. Any intelligent -reader can judge of such a tree by such fruits. - -Of really earlier date than these (for their author died in 1846) -were Sidney Walker's remarks on _Shakespeare's Versification_, -posthumously published in 1854, which contain some useful metrical -observations.[151] Dallas's book produced at least two important -reviews, each of which extended itself into a more important prosodic -tractate. The first of these was by the late Professor Masson, who -afterwards rearranged his prosodic ideas in a minute and very scholarly -study of Milton's versification, appearing in his larger edition of the -poet. Professor Masson perhaps admitted some unnecessary feet, such -as the amphibrach, but his views are on the whole extremely sound. -The other essay was by Coventry Patmore--a poet, a man of distinct -originality in many ways, and a really learned student of preceding -prosodists--in fact, by far the most learned up to his time. This essay -is full of suggestive and ingenious notions, but exceedingly crotchety, -and, for persons not thoroughly grounded in the subject, unsafe. It -has the merit of recognising the division of verse into what it calls, -by a rather ponderous term, "isochronous intervals" (that is to say, -feet equivalent in time), and of recognising, likewise, the important -metrical as well as rhetorical part played by pause. But it exaggerates -this part in an impossible fashion, making a full pause-foot at the end -of every heroic line; and its attention to "accent" is also excessive -and, in fact, inconsistent. - -[Sidenote: Those about 1870,] - -On the whole, however, it was not, as has been said, till the very eve -of 1870, when the Præ-Raphaelite school had made its appearance, that -any considerable amount of prosodic writing came. Then, and in the very -same year, 1869, there was a remarkable outburst, including _A Complete -Practical Guide to the Whole Subject of English Versification_ (by -E. Wadham), which represents a modified Bysshian system--believing -in elision; thinking trisyllabic feet bad, though they may exist, -especially at the cæsura; discountenancing both blank and anapæstic -verse; and applying to the whole subject a new terminology which -has not been generally accepted. Then came also a _Manual of -English Prosody_ by R. F. Brewer (reissued many years afterwards as -_Orthometry_), which contains a very large amount of information on the -details of the matter, but little appreciation of its more important -aspects. Much briefer, but, despite some errors, sounder on the whole, -and giving no bad introduction to the subject, was the _Rules of -Rhyme_ of Tom Hood, son of the poet. Greater influence than that of -any of these has been exercised by the prosodic part of Dr. Abbott's -_Shakespearian Grammar_, published in this year, and of his _English -Lessons for English People_, issued (and partly written by J. R. -Seeley) two years later. Unfortunately, not a few of the principles of -these books are either demonstrably unsound or very doubtful, the worst -of all being the insistence on "extra-metrical" syllables, or, in other -words, the confession that English prosody cannot account for English -poetry. 1869 also saw the beginning of a very important work, Mr. A. J. -Ellis's _Early English Pronunciation_, which has had a great effect on -some views of prosody, and contains a very elaborate scheme of syllabic -values for quality and degree of force, weight, etc. - -In 1874 Mr. John Addington Symonds, a critic, prose-writer, and even -poet of no mean rank, published an essay, which he afterwards expanded -into a tractate, on _Blank Verse_, denying that _any_ preconceived -metrical scheme will explain this, and arguing that each line must be -treated separately according to its own sense. More minute than any -book since Guest's, and written with definite purpose to teach poets -their business, was Mr. Gilbert Conway's _Treatise of Versification_ -(1878), which reverts to eighteenth-century theories, not merely -of the scansion but of the pronunciation of words like "om_i_nous" -and " del_i_cate"; thinks Milton "capricious" and "inconsistent"; -and proceeds entirely on the principle that the base and backbone -of English prosody is accent. Two years later Mr. Ruskin issued -his _Elements of English Prosody_, employing musical notation, but -using the names of feet very strangely applied. And a year later Mr. -Shadworth Hodgson published a paper on "English Verse," perhaps not -uninfluenced by Guest, and advocating (as several writers about his -time began to do) "stress" systems of scansion, the stress being -allotted according to various considerations of sense and otherwise. -Another stress-man--still more influenced, though partly in the way -of correction, by Guest--was the late Professor Fleeming Jenkin, who -in 1883 wrote in the _Saturday Review_ some papers, republished after -his death, and advocating "sections," of which there may be as many -as four in a normal heroic line, though this may, on the other hand, -have as many as seven or even eight "beats" on strong syllables. -Much sounder than any of these--indeed, on practical matters almost -irreproachable--was Professor J. B. Mayor's _Chapters on English Metre_ -(1886), on which he founded later a _Handbook_ of the subject (1903). - -[Sidenote: and since.] - -In the last twenty or thirty years there has been an increasing number -of books on prosody, the names of the most important of which will be -found in the Bibliography. The most important of all is perhaps Mr. -Robert Bridges' _Prosody of Milton_, increased in subsequent editions -to something like a manual of Stress Prosody, and containing material -also for estimating the recent attempts, by Mr. Bridges himself and by -the late Mr. W. J. Stone, to revive the writing of English hexameters -on a quantitative, not an accentual, basis. There have also been -many attempts (of which perhaps the most remarkable is a treatise on -monopressures, taken up and applied by Professor Skeat) which would -reduce prosody to a branch of medical physics or physiology, by basing -it on the mechanical action of the glottis or larynx. And strong and -repeated efforts have also been made to bring the subject entirely -under the supervision of music--using musical notation, musical terms -such as "bar," and the like. The most widely influential of these -was the work of the American poet and critic Sidney Lanier; the most -recent, that of Mr. William Thomson of Glasgow. On the other hand, -the writings of Mr. Omond, though some doubt may be entertained as -to details, have the merits of absolute soundness on the general -principles of the subject, and may be studied with ever-increasing -advantage. - -[Sidenote: Summary.] - -These principles--general, and in relation to the methods of treatment -more especially dealt with in the last paragraph or two--may be -briefly summarised before this sketch of our prosodist history is -closed. Systems of stress prosody are unsatisfactory, because the -unstressed syllables of the line, and their connection or grouping -with the stressed ones, are of quite as much importance to total -effect as stresses themselves, and because attention to stress seems -to beget the notion that regularity of time and time-interval is of no -importance.[152] - -Physiological-mechanical systems are altogether insufficient, even if -not wrong, because they only refer to the raw material of prosody; -because, in their nature, they must be applicable to verse and prose -alike, and to all kinds of verse; with the additional disadvantage -that, as actually explained by their advocates, they usually -make verse-arrangements of the most inharmonious and unpoetical -character.[153] - -This latter objection applies with even greater force to the musical -theorists, whose explanations of verse invariably confuse rhythm or -overturn it altogether, while their whole system ignores the fact, that -music and prosody are quite different things--that they may perhaps be -accommodated in particular cases, but that this accommodation is by no -means frequent. - -In some cases, chiefly those of foreigners who have undertaken the -study of English verse, return has been attempted to the rigid syllabic -methods of Bysshe and his followers. But it is usually admitted by -these persons that the method does not suit nineteenth-century poetry, -and they are open therefore to the fatal charge of having to suppress -part, and a most important part, of the historical life of the subject. - -On the other hand, the system of corresponding foot-division, with -equivalence and substitution allowed, which has been followed in this -book, is open to none of these objections. It neither neglects nor -suppresses any part of the line in any case, but accounts fully for -all parts. It applies to poetry only, and, to a large extent at least, -explains the difference between good poetry and bad. It adjusts itself -to the entire history of English verse, since the English language -took the turn which made it English in the full sense. It requires -no metrical fictions, no suppression of syllables, no allowance of -extra-metrical ones, no alteration in pronouncing, no conflict of -accent and quantity. No period or kind of English poetry is pronounced -by it to be wrong, though it may allow that certain periods have -exercised their rights and privileges more fully than others. In short, -it takes the poetry as it is, and has been for seven hundred years -at least; bars nothing; carves, cuts, and corrects nothing; begs no -questions; involves no make-believes; but accepts the facts, and makes -out of them what, and what only, the facts will bear. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[150] For examples of all these see Scanned Conspectus. - -[151] Especially one which the student should apply for himself, that -Shakespeare's incomplete lines are mostly regular fractions of complete -ones, scanning correctly on the same system (_v. sup._ p. 130). - -[152] Thus Mr. Bridges, though he himself does _not_ neglect the -unstressed, and even makes combination of the two kinds which are -actually feet, would allow sometimes _four_ and sometimes only _three_ -stresses in a heroic line. Later stress (or "stress-_cum_-music") -prosodists have even proposed to recognise _two_ "bars" only in such a -line. - -[153] Thus it has been proposed to scan a line of Goldsmith: - - The sheltered | cot, | the culti|vated | farm. - - - - -BOOK IV - -AUXILIARY APPARATUS - - - - -CHAPTER I - -GLOSSARY - - -(The miniature glossary which I prefixed to my larger _History_ having -been found useful, and indeed some complaints having been made that it -was not fuller, I have determined to go to the other extreme here, with -a special view to those readers who may be approaching the subject for -the first time. Excepting words like "trisyllabic," etc., which can -hardly be thought to require explanation, an attempt has been made to -include almost every technical, and especially every disputed, term.) - -ACCENT.--This term, which is perhaps the principal centre of dispute -in matters prosodic and which, even outside strict prosody, is not -a little controversial, may be defined, as uncontroversially as -possibly in the words of a highly respectable book of reference,[154] -"A superior force of voice, or of articulative effort, upon some -particular syllable." It is prosodically used as equivalent (with some -slight differences) to "stress," and is regarded by a large--perhaps -the most numerous--school as constituting the foundation-stone of -English prosody. The inconveniences and insufficiencies of this view -will be found constantly indicated throughout this book. On the -question, almost more debated, what constitutes, and in different -languages and times has constituted, accent itself--whether it is -loudness, duration, "pitch," or what not of sound--no pronouncement has -been or will be attempted in this volume. - -ACEPHALOUS.--A term applied to a line in which the first syllable, -according to its ordinary norm or form, is wanting, as in Chaucer's - - ʌ Twen|ty bo|kès clad | in blak | or reed. - -ACROSTIC.--An arrangement, not perhaps strictly prosodic, by which -the initial syllables of the lines of a poem make words or names of -themselves, as in Sir John Davies's _Astræa_, where these initials -in every piece make "Elizabetha Regina." The process is now chiefly -confined to light verse; but there is nothing to be said against it, -unless the sense is strained or perverted to get the letters. - -ALCAIC.--A Greek lyrical measure, used by and named after the famous -lyrical poet Alcæus, but most familiar in the slightly altered -Latin form of Horace. Like all these forms, it is only a curiosity -in English, and, even as such, has shared the endless and hopeless -controversies as to accentual and quantitative metre. No one, however, -is ever likely to get nearer to the real thing than Tennyson in - - Me rather all that bowery loneliness, - The brooks of Eden mazily murmuring, - And bloom profuse, and cedar arches, - Charm as a wanderer out in Ocean. - -The strict Horatian form (the last syllables being, as usual, common) -is: - - ̄ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆ - ̄ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆ - ̄ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ - ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆. - -ALEXANDRINE.--A line of twelve syllables or six iambic feet. This -measure (traditionally said to have taken its name from the Old French -poem on Alexander) became the favourite metre for the _chansons de -geste_ or long narrative poems in that language, and then practically -the staple of French verse to the present day. But though it is early -traced--as a whole or as two halves--in English, it never established -itself as a continuous metre with us. Only two pieces of importance, -Drayton's _Polyolbion_ and Browning's _Fifine at the Fair_, so employ -it. On the other hand, it is constantly found scattered about early -English verse; appears--questionably according to some, unquestionably -according to the present writer--in Chaucer; was an ingredient in the -"poulter's measure" (_v. inf._), so popular with the poets of the -second and third quarters of the sixteenth century; was used by Sidney -continuously in sonnet; forms, as a concluding line, the distinguishing -feature of the great Spenserian stanza; is very frequent in Shakespeare -and the other Elizabethan dramatists; and was adopted by Dryden (though -latterly, and then not quite always, rejected by Pope) as a relief and -variation to the heroic couplet. It also supplies a frequent ingredient -in Pindaric verse and in various lyrical stanzas. For its perfection it -almost requires a central cæsura at the sixth syllable. - -In Dryden (probably from insufficient information), in Warton (less -excusably), and in some more modern writers (without any excuse at -all), "long Alexandrine," or sometimes even Alexandrine by itself, is -used to designate the fourteener, "seven-beat," or seven-foot iambic -line. This ignores the derivation, contravenes the established use of -French, the special home of the metre, and introduces an unnecessary -and disastrous confusion. - -ALLITERATION.--The repetition of the same letter at the beginning -or (less frequently) in the body of different words in more or less -close juxtaposition to each other. This, which appears slightly, but -very slightly, in classical poetry, has always been a great feature -of English. During the Anglo-Saxon period universally, and during a -later period (after an interval which almost certainly existed, but the -length of which is uncertain) partially, it formed, till the sixteenth -century, a substantive and structural part of English prosody. -Later, it became merely an ornament, and at times, especially in the -eighteenth century, has been disapproved. But it forms part of the very -vitals of the language, and has never been more triumphantly used than -in the late nineteenth century by Mr. Swinburne. - -AMPHIBRACH.--A foot of three syllables--short, long, short (̆ ̄ -̆)--literally "short on each side." According to some, this foot is not -uncommon in English poetry, as, for instance, in Byron's - - Thĕ blāck bănds | căme ōvĕr - Thĕ Ālps ănd | thĕir snōw, - -as well as individually for a foot of substitution. Others, including -the present writer, think that these cases can always, or almost -always, be better arranged as anapæsts-- - - Thĕ blāck | bănds căme ō|ver - Thĕ Ālps | ănd thĕir snōw, - -and that the amphibrach is unnecessary, or, at any rate, very very rare -in English. - -AMPHIMACER ("long on both sides").--Long, short, long (̄ ̆ ̄)--an -exactly opposite arrangement to the amphibrach, also, and more -commonly, called _Cretic_. It is more than doubtful whether this -arrangement, _as an actual foot_, ever occurs in English verse or -is suitable to English rhythm; but the name (preferably Cretic) is -sometimes useful to designate a combination of syllables belonging -to more feet than one, and possessing a certain connection, as -expressing either the quantity of a single word or that of a rhetorical -division[155] of a line. - -ANACRUSIS.--A syllable or half-foot prefixed to a verse, and serving -as a sort of "take-off" or "push-off" for it. This, frequent in Greek, -is by no means rare in English, though there are numerous disputes as -to its application. It has sometimes been proposed to call it with us -"catch"; and, whatever it be called, it comes into great prominence -in connection with the question whether the general rhythm of English -verse is iambic or trochaic, while it is almost the hinge of the whole -matter on the other question whether the English hexameter is really -dactylic or anapæstic. - -ANAPÆST.--A trisyllabic foot consisting of two shorts and a long (̆ ̆ -̄). Almost as soon as English poetry proper makes its appearance, this -measure or cadence appears too; for a time chiefly as an equivalent to -the iamb. In the revived alliterative metre it to a great extent ousts -the trochee, and to one almost as great dominates the doggerel of the -fifteenth century. As a continuous metre the early examples of it are -well marked, though not very numerous; but in the sixteenth century -it seems (no doubt with the help of music) to have caught the popular -ear, and from the late seventeenth has been thoroughly established in -literature. It is perhaps the chief enlivening and inspiriting force -in English poetry, and, while powerful for serious purposes, is almost -indispensable for comic. - -ANTI-BACCHIC OR ANTI-BACCHIUS.--A trisyllabic foot opposite to the -Bacchic as a definite foot--a short followed by two long (̆ ̄ ̄). Of -very doubtful occurrence anywhere in English verse; though the same -remark applies to it as to the amphibrach, the amphimacer, other -trisyllabic feet, and all tetrasyllabic, in regard to secondary or -rhetorical use. - -ANTISPAST ("pulling against").--A four-syllabled foot--short, -long, long, short (̆ ̄ ̄ ̆)--opposed to the choriambic. Like all -four-syllabled feet, it is not wanted in English poetry, being always -resolvable into its constituents, the iamb and trochee. But the -combined effect may sometimes be represented by it--with this _caveat_, -as in other cases. - -ANTISTROPHE.--See STROPHE. - -APPOGGIATURA.--A musical term which has no business whatever in -prosody, but which has been used by some (_e.g._ Thelwall) to evade -the allowance of equivalence, and the substitution of trisyllabic -for dissyllabic feet. Its definition in music is "a short auxiliary -or grace-note forming no essential part of the harmony." The nearest -actual approach to it in English verse would appear to be the extra -syllables found (by licence very rare until recently) in such lines as -Scott's in the "Eve of St. John," Moore's in "Eveleen's Bower" and -elsewhere, and Macaulay's in "The Last Buccaneer"--_e.g._: - - And I'll chain | the bloodhound | and the ward_er_ | shall not sound. - [156] - -ARSIS and its opposite, THESIS, are two terms much used in prosody, -though unfortunately with meanings themselves attached in diametrical -opposition to the same word. The words literally mean "lifting up" and -"putting down" respectively. At first, among the Greeks themselves, the -metaphor seems to have been taken from the raising and putting down -of the _foot_ or _hand_; so that "arsis" would make a light or short, -and "thesis" a heavy or long syllable. By the Latins, and by the great -majority of modern prosodists in reference even to Greek, the metaphor -is transferred to the raising or dropping of the _voice_, so that -"arsis" lengthens and "thesis" shortens. This, which, whether the older -or not, seems to be the better use, is followed here. - -ASSONANCE.--An imperfect form of rhyme which counts only the vowel -sound of the chief rhyming syllable. This principle was the original -one of rhyme in French, and has always held a considerable place -in Spanish. But in English it has never established itself in -competent literary poetry; though it is frequent in the lower kind of -folk-song, and though attempts to naturalise it--in forms even further -degraded--were made by Mrs. Browning, and have been suggested since. -As an instrument of vowel-music, very delicately and judiciously used -at other parts of the line than the end, it has its possibilities, but -must always be an offensive substitute in rhyming verse, and an almost -equally offensive intruder in blank. - -ATONIC ("without accent").--When employed in prosody, is applied to -those languages which, though they may use accentual symbols, have -nothing in the pronunciation that can be made the base of an actual -scansion--the chief example being French. - - * * * * * - -BACCHIC or BACCHIUS.--A three-syllable foot--long, long, short (̄ ̄ -̆)--the opposite of anti-Bacchic and subject to the same observations. - -BALLAD (rarely Ball_et_).--A word common to most European languages, -but used very loosely, and to be carefully distinguished from _Ballade_ -(see following item). Its original connection is with singing and -dancing (Italian _ballare_), and it came, centuries ago, to be used -for any short poem of a lyrical character. It has, however, a special -application to short pieces of a narrative kind; and "The Ballads" has, -as a phrase of English literary history, frequent reference to the body -of such compositions of which the pieces about Robin Hood are early -examples. It is most commonly, though not universally, written in the -"ballad metre" described below. - -BALLADE, on the other hand, is a term arbitrarily restricted to a -measure originally and mostly French, but frequently written in English -during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, and revived -in the nineteenth. It consists usually of three stanzas and a _coda_ or -_envoi_, written on the same recurrent rhymes, with a refrain at the -end of each. (See example above, p. 126.) - -BALLAD METRE or COMMON MEASURE.--The most usual quatrain in English -poetry, consisting, in its simplest form, of alternate octosyllables -and hexasyllables; the even lines always rhyming, and the odd ones -very commonly. In the best examples, old and new (but less frequently -in the late sixteenth, early seventeenth, and almost whole eighteenth -century), the lines are largely, equivalenced, and it is not unusual -for the stanza to be extended to five or more. The most perfect example -of ballad metre is Coleridge's _Ancient Mariner_. - -BAR and BEAT.--Two musical terms used by stress-prosodists and others -who refuse the foot-system. "Bar" is strictly the division between -groups of "beats," loosely the groups themselves. "Beat" is the unit -of time or measure. On a sound and germane system of prosody neither is -needed. - -BLANK VERSE, on the analogy of blank cartridge, etc., might be held -to designate any kind of verse not tipped, loaded, or filled up with -rhyme. As a matter of fact, however, and for sound historical reasons, -it is not usually applied to the more modern unrhymed experiments, -from Collins's "Evening" onwards, but is confined to continuous -decasyllabics. This measure (which, _mutatis mutandis_, had already -been used by the Italians and Spaniards in the early sixteenth century, -and of which curious foreshadowings are found in Chaucer's prose _Tale -of Melibee_ and elsewhere) was first attempted in English by the Earl -of Surrey in his version of the _Æneid_. For a time it was very little -imitated, but in the latter half of the century it gradually ousted -all other competitors for dramatic use. It was still out of favour for -non-dramatic purposes until Milton's great experiments in the later -seventeenth; while about the same period it was for a time itself laid -aside in drama. But it soon recovered its place there, and has never -lost it; while during the eighteenth century it became more and more -fashionable for poems proper, and has rather extended than contracted -its business since. - -BOB AND WHEEL.--An arrangement (see pp. 48, 49) by which a stanza -hitherto usually alliterated, but not rhymed, finishes with one much -shorter line of usually two syllables, and then a batch, usually four, -of lines not quite so short, but still shorter than the staple, and -rhymed among themselves. - -BURDEN.--The same as REFRAIN (_q.v._). - -BURNS METRE.--An apparently artificial but extremely effective -arrangement of six lines, 8, 8, 8, 4, 8, 4, rhymed _aaabab_, which -derives its common name from the mastery shown, in and of it, by the -Scottish poet. It is, however, far older than his time, having been -traced to Provençal originals in the eleventh century, and it is -very common in the English miracle plays of the late fourteenth and -fifteenth, and not unknown in the metrical romances, as in _Octovian -Imperator_. Disused in Southern English by the time of the Renaissance, -it seems to have kept its hold in Northern, and Burns received it -either immediately from Fergusson or perhaps from Allan Ramsay. (See -also below, in list of Form-origins.) - - * * * * * - -CADENCE.--In general, a term applied to the combined rhythm of a line -or batch of lines. In one or two early passages of Wyntoun, Gower, and -others, it seems to be employed in some special sense as opposed to, or -separated from, rhyme, and has been conjectured to signify alliterative -rhythm. But this is very uncertain, rather improbable, and in the Gower -case impossible. (See p. 233.) - -CÆSURA ("cutting").--A term applied, in classical prosody, to the -regular provision of a word-ending at a certain place in the line, -usually coinciding with a half-foot. The commonest cæsuras in Greek -and Latin are penthemimeral ("fifth half"), or in the middle of the -third foot, and hepthemimeral ("seventh half"), at the middle of the -fourth. At one time, in the earlier writers on English prosody (_e.g._ -Dryden), there grew up a strange habit of using the term "cæsura" to -express elision or hiatus--to neither of which has it the least proper -reference. Correctly used, it is, in English, equivalent to "pause" -(_q.v._), but restricted to the _principal_ pause in a line. - -CAROL.--A term, like "ballad," of rather loose application, but -generally confined to religious lyrics of a definite song-kind. The -original O.F. _karole_ referred to a rather elaborate _dance_ with -singing, and from this there has been a certain tendency to associate -the carol with much broken and indented measures in prosody. - -CATALEXIS ("leaving off").--A term of great importance, inasmuch as -there is no other single one which can replace it; but a little vague -and elastic in use. Strictly speaking, a _catalectic_ line is one -which comes short, by a half-foot or syllable, of the full normal -measure; a _brachycatalectic_ ("short leaving off"), one which is -a whole foot _minus_; and a _hypercatalectic_ ("leaving over"), one -which has a half foot (or perhaps a whole one in rare cases) too much. -The terms "catalexis" and "catalectic" are sometimes used loosely to -cover all these varieties of deficiency and redundance in their several -developments. _Acatalectic_ means a fully and exactly measured line, -without either excess or defect. - -CATCH.--See ANACRUSIS. The sense of "catch" as referring to a song in -parts, with much substitution and repetition, is musical, not prosodic. - -CHANT-ROYAL.--A larger and more elaborate _ballade_: five stanzas of -eleven verses each and an _envoi_ of from five to eight. - -CHORIAMB.--A four-syllabled foot consisting of a trochee (or "choree") -followed by an iamb (̄ ̆ ̆ ̄). Although the remarks made on other -four-syllabled feet apply here, as far as the ultimate analysis of -English verse is concerned, the great frequency of juxtaposed trochees -and iambs in English, and the natural way in which they seem to cohere, -make choriambic cadence or rhythm suggest itself more frequently than -any other of the compound feet. Mr. Swinburne wrote intentional and -continuous choriambics of great beauty. - -CODA ("tail").--A musical term used in prosody by analogy, and -signifying a final stanza or batch of verses, often couched in a form -differing from the rest of the poem, such, for instance, as the final -octave of _Lycidas_. - -COMMON.--The quantity or quality in a syllable which makes it -susceptible of occupying either the position of a "long" one or that of -a "short." This gift, well recognised and frequent enough in Greek and -Latin prosody--especially in regard to Greek proper names,--is still -more widely spread in English. Almost all monosyllables, other than -nouns, are common; and in a very large number of others the syllable -can be raised or lowered to long or short by considerations of arsis, -thesis, stress, emphasis, position, etc. - -COMMON MEASURE (for shortness, especially in reference to hymns, -"C.M.").--The same as ballad metre, but usually restricted to eights -and sixes without substitution. (See also below, Chapter IV.) - -CONSONANCE.--In strictness merely "agreement of sound"; but sometimes -used to designate _full_ rhyme by vowel _and_ consonant, as opposed to -"assonance," _i.e._ rhyme by vowel only. - -COUPLET.--In proper English use this refers to a pair of verses only; -and it probably should be, though it is not always, limited to cases -where the members of the pair are exactly similar, as in the heroic -couplet, the octosyllabic couplet. The original French word is much -more elastic, and is applied to the long mono-rhymed _tirades_ of Old -French poems, to stanzas of more verses than two, and even to whole -lyrics, usually of a light description. (See also DISTICH.) - -CRETIC.--See AMPHIMACER. - - * * * * * - -DACTYL.--A trisyllabic foot--long, short, short (̄ ̆ ̆). This foot, -thanks to the great position of the dactylic hexameter in Greek and -Latin, disputes, in those prosodies, the place of principal staple -with the iambic; and, from the mid-sixteenth century onwards, almost -constant endeavours have been made at imitating that metre in English, -and consequently at working the dactyl in our language. It was, -however, early discovered, even by favourers of classical "versing," -that there is something awkward about the English dactyl. And in -fact, though we have a very large number of words which are fair -dactyls regarded separately, they are no sooner set in a verse than -they seem to slip or waggle into other measures, and especially the -anapæst. When, by some chance or by some sleight of the poet, they are -found, they are usually either continuous, or in connection with, and -substituted for, the trochee. To the classical combination of dactyl -and spondee English is obstinately rebellious. - -DI-IAMB.--A double iamb--short, long, short, long (̆ ̄ ̆ ̄). -Not wanted in English; and not even expressing, as some of the -four-syllable feet do, a quasi-real compound effect. - -DIMETER.--A combination of two couples of the same foot, iambic, -trochaic, or anapæstic. Thus the ordinary octosyllable is an iambic -dimeter, and the familiar swinging four-foot anapæst, a dimeter -anapæstic. In ancient prosody, "-meter" was never used in this kind -of combination, with reference to _single-feet_ metres, unless these -feet were in places specifically different. Thus "hexameter" means -a line of six single feet, of which, though the first four may -vary, the fifth must normally be a dactyl and the sixth a spondee; -"pentameter," a line of five feet, dactyls or spondees, but rigidly -distributed in two halves of two and a half feet each. Of late years, -in modern English prosody-writing, though fortunately not universally, -a most objectionable habit has grown up of calling the heroic line a -"pentameter," the octosyllabic iambic a "tetrameter." This is grossly -unscholarly, and should never be imitated, for the proper meaning of -the terms would be _ten_ feet in the one case, _eight_ in the other. - -DISPONDEE.--Double spondee (̄ ̄ ̄ ̄). Even more than the di-iamb, and -much more than the ditrochee, this combination is not wanted in English. - -DISTICH.--A synonym for "couplet," but of wider range, as there is no -reason why the verses should be metrically similar. There is, however, -in the practical use of the word, an understanding that there shall be -a certain completeness and self-containedness of _sense_. - -DITROCHEE.--A double trochee--long, short, long, short (̄ ̆ ̄ ̆).--The -remarks on the di-iamb apply here, but not quite so strongly. There -are a few exceptional cases in Milton, as in the famous "Ūnĭvērsăl -reproach," where the ditrochaic effect, whether beautiful or not, is -too noticeable not to deserve specific definition. - -DOCHMIAC.--A foot of five syllables, admitting, with the possible -permutations of long and short in the five places, a large number of -variations. This foot, not strictly necessary even in Greek prosody, is -quite unknown in English, and, if used, would simply split itself up -into batches of two and three. But it probably has a real existence in -the systematisation of English _prose_ rhythm. - -DOGGEREL.--A word (the derivation of which can be only, though -easily, guessed) as old as Chaucer; always used with depreciating -intent, but with a certain difference, not to say looseness, of exact -connotation. Doggerel is often applied to slipshod or sing-song verse; -sometimes to verse burlesque or feeble in sense and phrase. But it -is better restricted to verse metrically incompetent by false rhythm -and quantification, or by insufficient or superfluous provision of -syllables and the like. - -DUPLE.--A term used by some prosodists in combination with "time" -and in contradistinction to "triple," to express a characteristic of -verse which is nearest to music, and which perhaps is musical rather -than really prosodic. Controversies are sometimes carried on in regard -to the question whether trisyllabic feet (such as anapæsts, dactyls, -and tribrachs) are, when substituted for dissyllabic, in "duple" or -in "triple" time; but this question appears to the present writer -irrelevant and extraneous. - - * * * * * - -ELISION.--The obliteration of a syllable, for metrical reasons, -when a vowel at the end of a word comes before one at the beginning -of another. This strict classical meaning of the term is extended -ordinarily, in the English use of it, to the omission of a syllable -within a word, or the fusion of two in any of the various ways -indicated by the classical terms _crasis_ ("mixture"), _thlipsis_ -("crushing"), _syncope_ ("cutting short"), _synalœpha_ ("smearing -together"), _synizesis_ ("setting together"), _synecphonesis_ -("combined utterance"), and others. Perhaps the most useful phraseology -in English indicates "elision" for actual _vanishing_ of a vowel (when -it is usually represented by an apostrophe), and "slur" for running of -two into one. These two processes are of extreme importance, for upon -the view taken of them turns the view to be held of Shakespeare's and -Milton's blank verse, and of a large number of other measures. - -END-STOPPED.--A term largely applied, especially in Shakespearian -discussion, to the peculiar self-contained verse which is noticeable in -the early stage of blank-verse writing, and which Shakespeare was one -of the first to break through. In the text of the present volume this -form is called "single-moulded," its characteristics not appearing to -be confined to the end. - -ENJAMBMENT.--An Englishing, on simple analogy, of the French technical -term, _enjambement_, for the overlapping, in sense and utterance, of -one verse on another, or of one couplet on another. Enjambment of the -couplet appears in Chaucer and other writers early; was overdone and -abused in the first half of the seventeenth century; was rejected by -the later seventeenth and still more by the eighteenth, but restored to -favour by the Romantic movement. - -ENVOI.--The _coda_ of a _ballade_, etc., with the especial purpose of -_addressing_ the poem to its subject. - -EPANAPHORA ("referring" or "repetition").--The repetition of the same -word or group of words at the beginning of successive lines. This, -originally a rhetorical figure, becomes, especially with some of the -Elizabethans and with Tennyson, a not unimportant prosodic device; and, -in the hands of the latter, assists powerfully in the construction of -the verse-paragraph. - -EPANORTHOSIS ("setting up again," with a sense also of -"correction").--Also a rhetorical figure, and meaning the repetition -of some word, _not_ necessarily at the beginning of clause or line. -This also can be made of considerable prosodic effect; for repetition, -especially if including some slight change, is necessarily associated -with emphasis, and this emphasis colours and weights the line variously. - -EPITRITE.--A four-syllabled foot consisting of three long syllables -and one short (̄ ̄ ̄ ̆). The shifting of this latter from place to -place makes four different kinds of epitrite. Like its congeners, it -is not needed in English poetry, though spondaic substitution (in the -trochaic tetrameter, etc.) may sometimes simulate it; and the fact that -few English words have clusters of definitely long syllables makes it -rare even in prose. - -EPODE.--The third and last member of the typical choric arrangement in -a regular ode. See STROPHE. - -EQUIVALENCE means, prosodically, the quality or faculty which fits one -combination of syllables for substitution in the place of another to -perform the part of foot, as the dactyl and spondee do to each other -in the classical hexameter, and as various feet do to the iamb in the -Greek iambic trimeter and other metres. It is, with its correlative, -Substitution itself, the most important principle in English prosody; -it emerges almost at once, and, though at times frowned upon in theory, -never loses its hold upon practice. - -EYE-RHYME.--A practice (most largely resorted to by Spenser, but -to some extent by others) of adjusting the spellings of the final -syllables of words so as to make the rhyme clear to the eye as well -as to the ear. It is sometimes forced, and perhaps never ought to be -necessary; but it is so associated with the beauties of the _Faerie -Queene_ as to become almost a beauty in itself, though hardly to be -recommended for imitation. - - * * * * * - -FEMININE RHYME--FEMININE ENDING.--Terms applied to the use of words at -the end of a line with the final (now mute) _e_. "Feminine" rhyme is -sometimes extended to double rhyme in general, but this is not strictly -correct. - -"FINGERING."--A term used in this book for the single and peculiar turn -and colour given to metre by the individual poet. - -FOOT.--The admitted constituent of all classical prosody, and, -according to one system (that adopted preferentially in this book), -of English likewise, though with variations necessitated by the -language. "Foot" (πους, _pes_) is "that upon which the verse runs or -marches." A Greek foot is made of Greek "long" and "short" syllables; -an English foot of English. The possible combinations of these have -Greek names which are convenient, and the fact that the conditions -of "length" and "shortness" are different in the two languages need -cause no misunderstanding whatever. But a comparatively small number -are actually found in English poetry. All, however, are separately -described in this Glossary, and for convenience' sake a tabular view of -them is given on the next page. - -It should, moreover, perhaps be added that, at most periods of English -poetry, monosyllabic feet, such as hardly exist in classical prosody, -are undoubtedly present. These can be regarded, if any one pleases, as -made up to dissyllabic value by the addition of a pause or interval. -Nor is there any valid objection to the admission of a "pause foot" -entirely composed of silence. These two kinds of feet, however, are -comparatively rare, and require no specific names. - - -TABLE OF FEET - - ----------------+---------------------+---------------------+---------- - Feet of Two | | | - Syllables. | Of Three. | Of Four. | Of Five. - ----------------+---------------------+---------------------+---------- - Iamb, ̆̄ | Amphibrach, ̆̄̆ | Antispast, ̆̄̄̆ | Dochmiac. - Pyrrhic, ̆̆ | Anapæst, ̆̆̄ | Choriamb, ̄̆̆̄ | (See - Spondee, ̄̄ | Anti-Bacchic, ̆̄̄ | Di-iamb, ̆̄̆̄ | under - Trochee, ̄̆ | Bacchic, ̄̄̆ | Dispondee, ̄̄̄̆ | head.) - | Cretic, ̄̆̄ | Ditrochee, ̄̆̄̆ | - (The trochee | Dactyl, ̄̆̆ | { ̆̄̄̄ | - ("running foot")| Molossus, ̄̄̄ | Epitrite { ̄̆̄̄ | - was sometimes | Tribrach, ̆̆̆ | (four forms { ̄̄̆̄ | - also called | | { ̄̄̄̆ | - "choree," | (The Cretic was also| Ionic: | - χορειος, or | called amphi_macer_,| _a majore_, ̄̄̆̆ | - χοριος | its arrangement | _a minore_, ̆̆̄̄ | - ("dancing | being just the | Pæon { ̄̆̆̆ | - foot"), this | opposite to the | (four { ̆̄̆̆ | - form appears in | amphi_brach_.) | forms) { ̆̆̄̆ | - "_chori_ambic.")| | { ̆̆̆̄ | - | | Proceleusmatic, ̆̆̆̆| - ----------------+---------------------+---------------------+---------- - -FOURTEENER.--A line of seven iambic feet which emerges as almost the -first equivalent of the old long A.S. line in English, as early as -the _Moral Ode_, etc. At first it is oftenest a "_fif_teener," from -the presence of the final _e_; but this drops off. Very largely used -by Robert of Gloucester and others in the late thirteenth century; -varied in _Gamelyn_; much mixed up with the doggerel of the fifteenth; -frequent in the sixteenth, both alone and as "poulter's" measure; and -splendidly used by Chapman in his translation of the _Iliad_. Sometimes -employed to vary heroic couplet by Dryden. A favourite metre ever since -the beginning of the nineteenth century. Splits into "ballad-measure." - - * * * * * - -GALLIAMBIC.--A classical metre of which the most famous, and only -substantive, example is the magnificent _Atys_ of Catullus, but -which has been imitated in two fine English poems, Tennyson's great -_Boadicea_ and Mr. George Meredith's _Phaethon_. Both of these have -given a rather trochaic-dactylic swing to the metre, which is probably -unavoidable in English. The late Mr. Grant Allen endeavoured to -make out, and attempted in his translation of the _Atys_, an iambic -basis with anapæstic and tribrachic substitution, but unsuccessfully. -Ionic _a minore_ (_v. inf._) is the ancient suggestion; and, with an -accentual liberty not unsuitable to its half-barbaric associations, it -fits Catullus pretty well. But Ionics, as has been said, do not suit -English (_v. inf._ p. 285, _note_). - -GEMELL or GEMINEL ("twin").--Terms applied by Drayton to the heroic -couplet. - - * * * * * - -HEAD-RHYME.--A name sometimes applied--it may be thought unjustifiably, -and beyond all question in a way likely to mislead--to alliteration. -See RHYME. - -HENDECASYLLABLE.--An eleven-syllabled line. There is a classical metre -specially so called, executed with particular success by Catullus, and -imitated by Tennyson in the piece describing it: - - So fantastical is the dainty metre. - -But the term is not infrequently used of the staple Italian line, of -English heroic or decasyllabic lines with redundance, etc. - -HEPTAMETER.--It is rather doubtful whether the word is wanted in -English, for if applied to the fourteener it would (see METRE and -DIMETER) be a complete misnomer; and not less so, according to correct -analogy, if applied to the seven-foot anapæst, where it would properly -designate fourteen feet or forty-two possible syllables--a length -which not even Mr. Swinburne has attempted. He himself, however, -by oversight, used it of this line, which is properly a tetrameter -brachycatalectic. - -HEROIC.--A word applied, with only indirect propriety, to the -decasyllabic or five-foot couplet, and with hardly any propriety at -all to the single line of the same construction; but occasionally -convenient in each case. The origin of the employment is the use of -this line and couplet in the "heroic" poem and "heroic" play of the -seventeenth century. It has therefore the same sort of justification -as "Alexandrine." There was also an earlier habit, as in Dante's _De -Vulg. Eloq._, of calling it (in its Italian or hendecasyllabic form) -the "noblest" or most dignified line; and this connects itself with the -Greek practice of calling the hexameter--the _Epic_-verse--"heroic." - -HEXAMETER.--The great staple metre of Greek and Latin epic, in which -the line consists of six feet, dactyls or spondees at choice for the -first four, but normally always a dactyl in the fifth and always -a spondee in the sixth--the latter foot being by special licence -sometimes allowed in the fifth also (in which case the line is called -spondaic), but never a dactyl in the sixth. To this metre, and to -the attempts to imitate it in English, the term should be strictly -confined, and never applied to the Alexandrine or iambic trimeter. - -HIATUS.--The juxtaposition of vowels either in the same word, or, more -especially, at the end of one word and the beginning of the next. At -different times, and in different languages, this has been regarded -as a beauty and as a defect; but in English it entirely depends upon -circumstances whether it is one, or the other, or neither. For a -considerable period--roughly from 1650 to 1780, if not 1800--it was -supposed--without a shadow of reason--that English poets ought to elide -one of such concurrents and indicate it only by apostrophe, so that not -merely did "the enormous" become "th' enormous," and "to affect" "t' -affect," but "violet" was crushed into "vi'let," and "diamond" into -"di'mond." But this has been almost entirely abandoned, though there -are still "metrical fictions" on the subject. - - * * * * * - -IAMBIC.--A foot of two syllables--short, long (̆̄])--the commonest in -almost all prosodies,[157] and (though this is sometimes denied) the -staple foot of English. - -INVERTED STRESS.--A term used by accentual or stress prosodists to -designate the substitution of a trochee for an iamb. Unnecessary, if -not erroneous, from the point of view of this book. - -IONIC.--A foot of four syllables, consisting of a spondee (̄ ̄) and a -pyrrhic (̆ ̆). With the spondee first it is called "Ionic _a majore_"; -with the pyrrhic first, _a minore_. Neither movement is common in -English verse, and, if it were, it would hardly require any joint name. -But when the music is uppermost, as in "Vilikins and his Dinah," it -suggests itself, with the alternative of the third pæon: - - Nŏw ăs Dīnā̆h | wăs ă-wālkī̆ng | ĭn thĕ gārdē̆n | sō gāy.[158] - - * * * * * - -LEONINE VERSE.--A term not strictly applicable to English, but -sometimes found in prosody-books. It means the peculiar mediæval Latin -hexameter with middle and end rhymed, as in - - Post cœnam _stabis_: seu passus mille me_abis_. - -Browning comes nearest to it in such lines as - - On my specked _hide_, not you the _pride_. - -LINE.--The larger integer of verse, as the foot is the smaller, and the -stanza or paragraph the largest. It is usually indicated, in printing -or writing, by independent beginning and ending on the page--whence -the name,--but this is accidental and arranged for convenience of the -eye. As a rule, however, it should not be encroached upon lightly, -and, even when enjambment is practised, the individual line should -have a thinkable self-sufficiency. Nor should two lines be separated -when they clamour for union, as in the case of some modern rhymeless -experimenters (Mr. Arnold, Mr. Henley, etc.) and in some of the early -Elizabethans (Grimoald, Googe, and others). - -LONG and SHORT are words which, until comparatively recently, have been -taken as the bases of all prosodic analysis. They represent two values -which, though no doubt by no means always identical in themselves, -are invariably, unmistakably, and at once, distinguished by the ear; -and the combining of which, in ordinary mathematical permutation, -constitutes the feet, or lowest integers, of metrical rhythm. This -nomenclature--which presents no initial difficulties, is sufficient for -all practical purposes, and commends itself at once to any unprejudiced -intelligence--seems first to have excited question and suspicion -towards the end of the seventeenth century. It is disagreeable to -both accentual and syllabic prosodists (see chapters devoted to -these), and it appears to disturb some who would not class themselves -with either. It is indeed quite possible to work either system with -"long" and "short," applied uncontentiously to the natural values of -rhythmed speech in English poetry. But a punctilio arises as to the -definition of the words. "Does length," some people ask, "really mean -'duration of time' in pronouncing?" This question, and others, seem -to the present writer unnecessary. We need not decide what _makes_ -the difference between "long" and "short"; it is sufficient that this -difference unmistakably _exists_, and is felt at once. Whether it is -due to accent, length of pronunciation, sharpness, loudness, strength, -or anything else, is a question in no way directly affecting verse. The -important things are, once more, that _it exists_; that verse cannot -exist without it; that it is partly, and in English rather largely, -created by the poet, but that this creation is conditioned by certain -conventions of the language, of which accent is one, but only one. - -LONG MEASURE ("L.M.").--The octosyllabic quatrain, alternately rhymed. - -LYDGATIAN LINE.--An arrangement of extraordinary hideousness, which -occurs rather frequently in Lydgate; and which has been assigned by -the merciful to incompetence or carelessness; by other critics, who -defend it, to what must have been deliberate bad taste. It is a line -of nine syllables only, the missing one being not, as in the Chaucerian -_acephala_, at the first, but occurring somewhere in the middle, and at -the cæsura. An uglier metrical entity probably nowhere exists than such -a line as - - If an|y word | in thee | ʌ be | missaid.[160] - - * * * * * - -MASCULINE RHYME.--A rhyme where the rhyming syllable is single, and -ends in a consonant, without any mute _e_ following. Less correctly, a -monosyllabic rhyme. - -METRE.--In the wide sense, collections of rhythm which correspond, both -within the collection, and, if there be such, with one or more other -collections adjoining. In the narrow, collections dominated by a single -foot-rhythm, as "iambic metre," "anapæstic metre," etc. - -MOLOSSUS.--A foot of three long syllables (̄ ̄ ̄). Practically -impossible in English _verse_, being too bulky for a rhythm-integer -with us, but admissible as a musical arrangement. - -MONOMETER.--A line consisting of one foot only, or one pair of feet. -See DIMETER. - -MONOPRESSURE.--A term invented to express a theory that the divisions -of metre are associated with, and determined by, some physical -throat-conditions. Unnecessary and unworkable. - - * * * * * - -OCTAVE.--A stanza of eight lines. - -OCTOMETER.--A term properly applied to eight-foot dactylic metre, such -as Tennyson's _Kapiolani_; improperly to Mr. Swinburne's eight-foot -anapæsts. - -ODE.--A name used in English with great laxity, and not perhaps -to be tied down too much without loss. The word itself, in Greek, -means simply a song. But the choric odes of the Greek dramatists, -and the non-dramatic odes of Pindar, being couched in a peculiar -form--irregular at first sight, but exactly correspondent when -examined,--have created a certain tendency to restrict the term ode, -sometimes with the epithet "regular," to things similar in English -(see, in list of poets, Cowley, Congreve, Gray). On the other hand, the -Latins--especially Horace, whose influence has been even wider--extend -the term to pieces in short, obviously regular stanzas identically -repeated, and the majority of English odes are of this kind. - -OTTAVA RIMA.--A special form of octave derived from the Italians, and -composed of eight decasyllabic lines rhymed _abababcc_. There are other -decasyllabic octaves, such as that used by Chaucer in the _Monk's -Tale_, and by Spenser after him, with or without that adoption of the -Alexandrine which turns it into the Spenserian. - - * * * * * - -PÆON.--A foot of four syllables--one long and three short--arranged -in varying order. The commonest English foot in rhythmical prose, but -unnecessary in English verse. - -PAUSE.--A break in the line as metrically read or heard, which is -almost always coincident with the end of a word, and which very -frequently, but not always or so often as in the former case, coincides -with a stop in punctuation. It is not necessary that every line -should have a pause; and the place of the pause, when it exists, is -practically _ad libitum_ in most, if not all lines, while there may be -more pauses than one. The attempt to curtail liberty in these three -respects has been the cause of some of the worst mistakes about English -prosody, especially when it takes the form of prescribing that the -pause should always be as near the middle as possible. Variety of pause -is, in fact, next to variety of feet, the great secret of success in -our verse; and it is owing to this that Shakespeare and Milton more -especially stand so high. On the other hand, this variety requires the -most careful adjustment; and if such adjustment is neglected, the lines -will be uglier than continuously middle-paused ones, though not so -monotonous. - -PENTAMETER.--See DIMETER. As properly used, a line of five -feet--dactyls or spondees--divided into two batches of two and a half -each. As improperly used, a five-foot iambic line in English. - -PINDARIC.--Strictly the regular ode (see STROPHE) of Greek poetry; but -extended by, and still more in imitation of, Cowley to any lyrical -composition in irregularly rhymed stanzas of different line-lengths. -According to Dryden, the Alexandrine line, frequent in Cowley's odes, -was so-called, "but," he most properly adds, "improperly." - -POSITION.--In the classical prosodies a short or common vowel before -two consonants (but not every two) was said to be long "by position"; -and efforts have been made to determine English quantity in the -same way. No rule of the kind can be laid down; doubled or grouped -consonants after a vowel usually shortening the pronunciation, and -sometimes lengthening the value. - -POULTER'S MEASURE.--A term used by Gascoigne, and said to be derived -from the practice of poulter[er]s in giving twelve to the dozen in -one case and thirteen or fourteen in another. It is applied to the -combination of Alexandrine and fourteener which was such a favourite -with the earlier Tudor poets, and which broke up into the "Short -Measure" of the hymn-books. - -PROCELEUSMATIC.--A double pyrrhic, or foot of four short syllables (̆ ̆ -̆ ̆). Not needed, if not also impossible, in English. - -PYRRHIC.--Foot of two short syllables (̆ ̆). Very doubtfully found in -English; but not impossible. - - * * * * * - -QUANTITY.--That which fits a syllable for its place as "long" or -"short" in a verse. - -QUARTET or QUATRAIN.--A group of four lines usually, indeed with the -rarest exceptions, united in themselves, and separated from others, by -rhyme. - -QUINTET.--A similar group of five lines. - - * * * * * - -REDUNDANCE.--An extra syllable at the end of the line, not strictly -part of its last foot. - -REFRAIN.--A line recurring identically, or with very slight alteration, -at the end of every stanza of a poem. Probably one of the oldest of -all poetic features--certainly one of the oldest in English. The -same as "burden." Refrains or burdens are not uncommonly meaningless -collections of musical-sounding words. - -RHYME.--The arrangement of two word-endings--identical in vowel and -following consonant or consonants, but not having the same consonant -_before_ the vowel--at the conclusion of two or more lines, or -sometimes within the lines themselves. - -RHYME-ROYAL.--The stanza of seven decasyllabic lines, rhymed _ababbcc_, -which occurs in Chaucer's _Troilus_, and which traditionally derives -its name from its use in _The King's Quair_, though its extreme -popularity for a long period is perhaps the real reason. - -RHYTHM.--An orderly arrangement, but not necessarily a correspondent -succession, of sounds. - -RIDING RHYME.--An old name for the decasyllabic couplet, obviously -derived from its appearance in Chaucer's Tales of Pilgrims "riding" to -Canterbury. - -RIME COUÉE or TAILED RHYME.--Translations in French and English of the -Latin _versus caudatus_, and not very happy from the English point -of view, though justified by origin (see Origin-List). The verse to -which they refer is the sixain of two eights, a six, two more eights, -and another six. Two tails are not common in English _fauna_; and one -might prefer to call the verse "waisted and tailed." It is, however, -in the old Romances (where it is common, and from its commonness in -which it is better called the "Romance-six") often found in multiples -of three other than six; and it is at the batch of three that the title -looks--the couplet of eights constituting the body, and the odd six the -tail. - -ROMANCE-SIX.--See RIME COUÉE. - -RONDEAU--RONDEL.--French (and English) forms in which lines are -repeated at regular intervals. (See pp. 125-6.) - - * * * * * - -SAPPHIC.--A classical metre consisting of three longer lines and one -shorter (called an Adonic) arranged in the following scheme:-- - - ̄ ̆ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆̄ - ̄ ̆ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆̄ - ̄ ̆ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆̄ - ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆̄ - -It has been frequently tried in English, both as burlesque and -seriously. For the former use (as in Canning's immortal "Needy -Knife-Grinder") it is, like most classical metres, well suited, though -the true Greek and even Latin rhythm is generally (_v. sup._ p. 124) -violated. In serious verse Mr. Swinburne has produced exquisite and -others (as Watts and Cowper) respectable examples; but even the best is -a _tour de force_ only. - -SECTION.--A term not useless in its general sense as denoting verse -divisions larger than a foot; but now prejudicially preoccupied by -Guest (_v. sup._ p. 254, _note_) and others. - -SEPTENAR.--A word applied (very undesirably) by most German and a few -English writers to the fourteener or seven-foot iambic. - -SEPTET.--A verse or stanza of seven lines. - -SESTET, also SIXAIN.--A verse or stanza of six lines. - -SESTINE, SESTINA.--A very elaborate measure invented by the Provençal -poet Arnaut Daniel, imitated by Dante and other Italians, tried -inexactly by Spenser, and sometimes recently attempted in English. - -SHORT MEASURE ("S.M.").--The split-up poulter's measure or quartet of -6, 6, 8, 6. - -SINGLE-MOULDED.--The term used in this book to describe the early -blank-verse line, which appears to be constructed complete in itself, -without any expectation of, or preparation for, continuance. See -END-STOPPED. - -SKELTONIC.---The peculiar kind of (generally short) line used by -Skelton. Its commonest form is an anapæstic monometer (_i.e._ two -feet), often much further cut down by dissyllabic and monosyllabic -substitution or by catalexis, but sometimes extended. It is always -rhymed; sometimes on the same rhyme for several lines together. Though -usually called "doggerel," it does not quite deserve that name as -defined above. See also note p. 297. - -SLUR.--See ELISION. - -SONNET.--A word sometimes, in former days, loosely applied to any -short poem, especially of an amatory nature; often nowadays almost -as improperly limited to a special Italian form of the true sonnet. -This latter is a poem of fourteen lines, of the same length generally -and (except by exception) decasyllables (originally, of course, -_hen_decasyllables) arranged in varying rhyme-schemes. Its exact origin -is unknown; but it is first found in Italian-Sicilian poets of the -thirteenth century, and it became enormously popular in Italy very -soon. It did not spread northward for a considerable time, the first -French sonnets occurring not very early in the sixteenth century; -the first English, not till near its middle. A great sonnet outburst -took place at the end of that century with us; but the form fell into -disuse in the seventeenth, though championed by Milton; and it was not -till the extreme end of the eighteenth century that it became, and -has since remained, something of a staple. Partly the absence of the -Italian plethora of similar endings, and partly something else, made -the earliest English practitioners select an arrangement with final -rhymed couplet, the twelve remaining lines being usually arranged in -rhymed, but not rhyme-linked, quatrains: and this form, immortalised -by Shakespeare, is probably the best suited to English. It is, at any -rate, absolutely genuine and orthodox there. But Milton, Wordsworth, -and especially Dante and Christina Rossetti, have given examples of the -sonnets which, divided mostly into octave and sestet, have this latter -arranged in intertwisted rhymes. This form is susceptible of great -beauty, but has no prerogative, still less any primogeniture, in our -poetry. - -SPENSERIAN.--See Origin-List. - -SPONDEE.--A foot of two long syllables (̄ ̄). Its presence in English -has been denied, but most strangely; its condition is, in fact, exactly -opposite to that of the dactyl. In single and separate words its -representatives are chiefly compounds like "moonshine," "humdrum," etc. -But, as formed out of different words, it is frequent. - -STANZA or STAVE.--A collection of lines arranged in an ordered batch -and generally on some definite rhyme-scheme. Also designated by one of -the loose senses of "verse." - -STRESS.--Generally, though not universally, used as synonymous with -accent, but somewhat differently applied, "accent" being regarded as -something more or less permanent in the word, "stress" something added -specially in the verse. By extension of this, numerous arbitrary and -fanciful systems of prosody have been recently devised. - -STRESS-UNIT.--A recent instance, and one of the worst, of the new terms -invented to avoid the use of "foot." For, almost more than any other, -it ignores the importance of non-stressed syllables. - -STROPHE.--The stanza-unit of Greek odic or choric arrangement. The -system is triple--strophe, antistrophe, and epode--and will be found -fully illustrated and scanned from Gray (_v. sup._ pp. 89-91). - -SUBSTITUTION.--See EQUIVALENCE. - -SYNALŒPHA.} SYNCOPE. }--See ELISION. SYNIZESIS. } - -SYZYGY.--A term of classical prosody which has a perfectly strict -meaning--the yoking of two feet into a metrical batch (see DIMETER). -It has, in some recent cases, been rather unfortunately extended to -other forms of combining syllables, sounds, etc. As thus used it is not -needed, and is likely to cause confusion. - - * * * * * - -TAILED SONNET.--An Italian lengthening of the sonnet to eighteen or -twenty lines, sometimes practised in English, the best known example -being Milton's; but not very admirable in our language, and not at all -necessary. Even in Italian the use is largely burlesque. - -TERCET.--A group of three lines like TRIPLET, but specially limited to -that used in TERZA RIMA. - -TERZA RIMA.--A verse-arrangement by which, in a group of three lines, -the first and third rhyme together, while the middle is left to rhyme -with the first and third of the next batch. This arrangement, very -effective in Italian, and undoubtedly one of the chief elements of -the magnificence of Dante's prosody, has never been really successful -in English. Some of the best examples are Shelley's; the earliest, -after some fragments in Chaucer, are Wyatt's; the largest continuous -employment is in Canon Dixon's _Mano_. - -TETRAMETER.--A term improperly applied to the octosyllable; properly to -divers long lines of eight iambs, anapæsts, or trochees. - -THESIS.--See ARSIS. - -TIME.--A "word of fear" in prosody, as it is almost always a "voice -prophesying war." Used merely in the sense of "rhythm," it is quite -innocuous; and construed generally, as when Southey says that "two -short syllables take up only the time of one," there need be no harm -in it. But when absolute "duration" is insisted on, and people discuss -whether this can be given by that or the other means, great and -unnecessary mischief is likely to be done. - -TRIBRACH.--A foot of three short syllables (̆ ̆ ̆). Very frequent in -later English, perhaps less so in earlier. - -TRIOLET.--A short French form of the rondeau, in the most common -variety of which the first of eight lines is repeated in the fourth and -seventh, the second being also repeated in the eighth, so that there -are only _five_ lines of independent sense. (See example, p. 125.) - -TRIPLE.--See DUPLE. - -TRIPLET.--A group of three lines; most commonly used of three which -rhyme together. See TERCET. - -TROCHEE.--A foot of two syllables--long, short (̄ ̆). The -complement-contrast of the iamb; an invaluable variant upon it; the -best introducer (by admitting it as a substitute) of the dactyl in -English; and very effective by itself when properly managed. - -TRUNCATION.--The lopping off of a syllable at beginning or end of line. -This in the latter case equals what is here called CATALEXIS (_q.v._), -and in the former is often better accounted for by a monosyllabic foot. -But there are cases, as in Chaucer's "acephalous" lines, where it is -not inapplicable. - -TUMBLING VERSE.--A phrase of King James the Sixth (First) in his -prosodic treatise, which has caused, or at least been connected with, -difficulties (see CADENCE). He seems to have meant by it nothing more -than the loose half-doggerel anapæsts which were so common in the first -two-thirds of the sixteenth century. - -TURN OF WORDS.--A phrase specially used in the seventeenth century for -the repetition, identically or with little change, of the same words at -the end of a line and the beginning of the next. - - * * * * * - -VERSE.--A word used with unfortunate, though perhaps unavoidable, -ambiguity. It is employed first (and best) of writing in general as -opposed to prose; secondly, of a single line of poetry; thirdly, of a -batch of lines; while there is even a fourth use, now obsolete, but -common in the Elizabethans, by which it applied to classical unrhymed -metres in English. This last, one may hope, will never be revived. Of -the others, the first and third are indispensable and can cause no real -confusion. But, though a fairly strong case can be made out for "verse" -in the sense of "line," the inconvenience and confusion of this use -should be held to prohibit it. - -VERSE PARAGRAPH.--A very important development of blank verse, ensuring -to it almost all the advantages of stanza in some ways, and more -than all in others. First reached by Shakespeare in drama, and by -Milton in non-dramatic verse, it consists in so knitting a batch of -blank-verse lines together by variation of pause, alternate use of stop -and enjambment, and close connection of sense, that neither eye nor -voice is disposed to make serious halt till the close of the paragraph -is reached. Thus an effect of concerted music is produced through -the whole of it. No one has ever been a great master of blank verse -without being a master of this device; but perhaps the most special and -elaborate command of it has been Tennyson's. - -VOWEL-MUSIC.--In a certain sense vowel-music may be said to be, -and always to have been, a main, if not the main, source of the -pleasure given to the ear by poetry. Nor, it may also be said, can -any accomplished poet ever have been indifferent to it. Deliberate -attention to it, however, has varied much at different times of English -poetry, and was perhaps at its lowest in the eighteenth, at its highest -in the nineteenth, century. - - * * * * * - -WEAK ENDING.--A technical term used by not a few prosodists, but not -adopted in this book, for redundance. As a matter of fact a line is -often much stronger for the extra syllable. - -WRENCHED ACCENT.--A term applied, by accentual prosodists, sometimes to -signify removal of accent on a word from the usual place; sometimes to -the presence of an unaccented syllable where they expect an accented, -or the reverse. In the first sense it is unobjectionable; in the -second, always unnecessary, and often suggestive of misdescription of -the results of ordinary substitution.[161] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[154] Webster's _Dictionary_. - -[155] NOTE ON MUSICAL AND RHETORICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF VERSE - -It has been said above (Book I. Chap. V. Rule 41, p. 35) that certain -additional arrangements of verse may be made for musical or rhetorical -purposes. This no doubt requires explanation and example, the latter -especially. It shall now have them. - -Tennyson's - - The watch|er on | the col|umn to | the end, - -and Mr. Swinburne's - - The thun|der of | the trum|pets of | the night, - -are both regular and unexceptionable "heroics," "five-foot iambics," -"decasyllabic lines," etc. But in reading them the voice will not -improbably be tempted (and need not resist the temptation) to arrange -them as - - The watcher | on the column | to the end - -and - - The thunder | of the trumpets | of the night - -respectively, while in the case of the latter line other dispositions -are possible. In blank-verse paragraphs especially, the poet is likely -to suggest a great deal of such scansion. No doubt there are in this -arrangement four-syllable divisions and three-syllable ones like -amphibrachs, etc.; but that does not matter, because the line has -already passed the regular prosodic tests. And no doubt the sections, -or whatever they are to be called, are not strictly substitutable; but -then on this scheme, which is not positively prosodic and applies to -the individual line only, they need not be. So, too, there is no harm -in dividing Hood's famous piece, for musical purposes, into ditrochees: - - I remember | I remember, - How my little | lovers came, - -or even in making what are practically eight feet out of - - All ¦ peo¦ple ¦ that ¦ on ¦ earth ¦ do ¦ dwell, - -in order to get an impressive musical effect. Here also the lines -have passed the prosodic preliminary or matriculation; as in the one -case trochaic tetrameters catalectic split in half; in the other, as -ordinary "long measure." - -Now it is this necessary preliminary which the plain- and fancy-stress -prosodists neglect; putting their stress divisions not on the top, but -in the place of it. And the probable result would be, if the proceeding -were widely followed--as, indeed, it has been already to some small -extent,--the creation of a new chaos like that of fifteenth-century -South-English verse generally, or of blank verse and heroic couplet in -the mid-seventeenth. - -[156] See the larger _History_ for fuller discussion of this. Such -lines will often scan trochaically (or in some other way) so as to take -in the outside syllable; but the question then arises _whether such -scansion will suit the context_. - -[157] Professor Hardie reminds me of Quintilian's assertion (_Inst. -Orat._ IX. iv. 136) that even in Latin, iambs "omnibus pedibus -insurgunt." - -[158] NOTE ON IONIC _A MINORE_ AS APPLICABLE TO THE EPILOGUE OF -BROWNING'S _ASOLANDO_ - -It has been proposed to scan the beautiful last words of Robert -Browning-- - - At the midnight, in the silence of the sleep-time, - When you set your fancies free-- - Will they pass to where, by death, fools think, imprisoned - Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved so, - --Pity me? - -as an example of English Ionic _a minore_;[159] not (as it is taken by -the present writer) as trochaic-- - - Ăt thĕ mīdnĭght | ĭn thĕ sīlĕnce | ŏf thĕ slēep-tī̆me; - -not - - Āt thĕ | midnī̆ght | īn thĕ | sīlĕnce | ōf thĕ | slēep-tī̆me. - -Perhaps those who propose this have been a little bribed by conscious -or unconscious desire to prevent "accenting" _in_ and _of_; but no -more need be said on this point. The trochees, or their sufficient -equivalents, will run very well without any violent INN or OVV. But -when the piece is examined by ear of body and ear of mind (for the -mind's ear is as important as the mind's eye) it will be found that -Ionic scansion is unsatisfactory. It is perhaps not utterly fatal -to the first line (though it gives an unpleasantly "rocking-horsy" -movement), and perhaps still less to the second, where the catalexis -itself saves this effect to some extent. But the junction and severance -of sense which it suggests in the third-- - - Wĭll thĕy pāss tō | whĕre, by̆ dēath, fōols | thĭnk, ĭmprīsōned, - -is very ugly. And this same junction or severance becomes impossible in -the short lines concluding the stanzas. To suit the Ionic measure these -must run-- - - Pĭty̆ mē - - Bĕĭng--whō? - - Slĕep tŏ wāke - - Thĕre ăs hēre, - -a set of jumpy anapæsts which upsets the whole pathos and dignity of -the composition when compared with "Pīty̆ | mē"; "Slēep tŏ | wāke"; and -"Thēre ăs | hēre"; while it makes - - Bēĭng|--whō? - -into a mere burlesque, and flies in the face of Browning's specially -indicated pause. - -[159] ̆ ̆ ̄ ̄. Third pæon (̆ ̆ ̄ ̆) has also been suggested, but the -same counter-arguments apply to it. - -[160] It would become tolerable as a four-foot anapæst, and perhaps -partly suggested such a line; also as an octosyllable with substitution. - -[161] _Note (Second Edition) on "Skeltonic," v. sup._ p. 293.--Attempts -have been made to trace it to the very short lines used by Martial -d'Auvergne (_c._ 1420-1508) and, perhaps, other French poets. But, as -in some similar cases, these attempts ignore radical differences, such -as the presence of the anapæst in English and its absence from French, -and others still. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -REASONED LIST OF POETS WITH SPECIAL REGARD TO THEIR PROSODIC QUALITY -AND INFLUENCE - - -ARNOLD, MATTHEW (1822-1888).--Made various attempts (outside of his -classical drama _Merope_) at rhymeless metres in English. Countenanced -the English hexameter. Also made, but abandoned, experiments in the -enjambed couplet, which anticipated William Morris. - - * * * * * - -BARHAM, RICHARD H. ("Thomas Ingoldsby") (1788-1845).--Showed the -greatest proficiency in light, loose metres of the anapæstic -division, and exercised much influence by them, owing to the wide and -long-sustained popularity of the _Ingoldsby Legends_ (1840, but earlier -in magazines). - -BEAUMONT, SIR JOHN (1583-1623).--One of the earliest (before 1625) -practitioners, and perhaps the very earliest champion in verse itself, -of the stopped couplet exactly arranged. - -BLAKE, WILLIAM (1757-1827).--Although Blake's immediate and direct -influence must have been small, there is hardly any poet who exhibits -the tendency of his time in metre more variously and vehemently. In -his unhesitating and brilliantly successful use of substitution in -octosyllabic couplet, ballad measure, and lyrical adjustments of -various kinds, as well as in _media_ varying from actual verse to the -rhythmed prose of his "Prophetic" books, Blake struck definitely away -from the monotonous and select metres of the eighteenth century, and -anticipated the liberty, multiplicity, and variety of the nineteenth. -And he differed, almost equally, from all but one or two of his older -contemporaries, and from most of his younger for many years, in the -colour and "fingering" of his verse. - -BOWLES, WILLIAM LISLE (1762-1850).--A generally mediocre poet, who, -however, deserves a place of honour here for the sonnets which he -published in 1789, and which had an immense influence on Coleridge, -Southey, and others of his juniors, not merely in restoring that great -form to popularity, but by inculcating description and study of nature -in connection with the thoughts and passions of men. - -BROWNE, WILLIAM (1591-1643).--A Jacobean poet of the loosely named -Spenserian school--effective in various metres, but a special and early -exponent of the enjambed couplet. - -BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT (1806-1861).--Remarkable here for her -adoption of the nineteenth-century principle of the widest possible -metrical experiment and variety. In actual _metre_ effective, though -sometimes a little slipshod. In rhyme a portent and a warning. Perhaps -the worst rhymester in the English language--perpetrating, and -attempting to defend on a mistaken view of assonance, cacophonies so -hideous that they need not sully this page. - -BROWNING, ROBERT (1812-1889).--Often described as a loose and rugged -metrist, and a licentious, if not criminal, rhymester. Nothing of the -sort. Extraordinarily bold in both capacities, and sometimes, perhaps, -as usually happens in these cases, a little too bold; but in metre -practically never, in rhyme very seldom (and then only for purposes -of designed contrast, like the farce in tragedy), overstepping actual -bounds. A great master of broken metres, internal rhyme, heavily -equivalenced lines, and all the _tours de force_ of English prosody. - -BURNS, ROBERT (1759-1796).--Of the very greatest importance in -historical prosody, because of the shock which his fresh dialect -administered to the conventional poetic diction of the eighteenth -century, and his unusual and broken measures (especially the famous -Burns-metre) to its notions of metric. An admirable performer on the -strings that he tried; a master of musical "fingering" of verse; and to -some extent a pioneer of the revival of substitution. - -BYRON, GEORGE GORDON, LORD (1788-1824).--Usually much undervalued as -a prosodist, even by those who admire him as a poet. Really of great -importance in this respect, owing to the variety, and in some cases -the novelty, of his accomplishment, and to its immense popularity. His -Spenserians in _Childe Harold_ not of the highest class, but the light -octaves of _Beppo_ and _Don Juan_ the very best examples of the metre -in English. Some fine but rhetorical blank verse, and a great deal of -fluent octosyllabic couplet imitated from Scott. But his lyrics of most -importance, combining popular appeal with great variety, and sometimes -positive novelty, of adjustment and cadence. Diction is his weakest -point. - - * * * * * - -CAMPBELL, THOMAS (1777-1844).--Not prosodically remarkable in his -longer poems, but very much so in some of his shorter, especially "The -Battle of the Baltic," where the bold shortening of the last line, -effective in itself, has proved suggestive to others of even better -things, such as the half-humorous, half-plaintive measure of Holmes's -"The Last Leaf" and Locker's "Grandmamma." - -CAMPION, THOMAS (?-1619).--Equally remarkable for the sweetness and -variety of his rhymed lyrics in various ordinary measures, and as the -advocate and practitioner of a system of rhymeless verse, different -from the usual hexametrical attempts of his contemporaries, but still -adjusted to classical patterns. - -CANNING, GEORGE (1770-1827).--Influential, in the general breaking-up -of the conventional metres and diction of the eighteenth century, -by his parodies of Darwin and his light lyrical pieces in the -_Anti-Jacobin_. - -CHAMBERLAYNE, WILLIAM (1619-1689).--Remarkable as, in _Pharonnida_, one -of the chief exponents of the beauties, but still more of the dangers, -of the enjambed heroic couplet; in his _England's Jubile_ as a rather -early, and by no means unaccomplished, practitioner of the rival form. -To be carefully distinguished from his contemporary, Robert Chamberlain -(_fl. c._ 1640), a very poor poetaster who wrote a few English -hexameters. - -CHATTERTON, THOMAS (1752-1770).--Of some interest here because his -manufactured diction was a protest against the conventional language -of eighteenth-century poetry. Of more, because he ventured upon -equivalence in octosyllabic couplet, and wrote ballad and other lyrical -stanzas, entirely different in form and cadence from those of most of -his contemporaries, and less artificial even than those of Collins and -Gray. - -CHAUCER, GEOFFREY (1340?-1400).--The reducer of the first stage of -English prosody to complete form and order; the greatest master of -prosodic harmony in our language before the later sixteenth century, -and one of the greatest (with value for capacity in language) of all -time; the introducer of the decasyllabic couplet--if not absolutely, -yet systematically and on a large scale--and of the seven-lined -"rhyme-royal" stanza; and, finally, a poet whose command of the utmost -prosodic possibilities of English, at the time of his writing, almost -necessitated a temporary prosodic disorder, when those who followed -attempted to imitate him with a changed pronunciation, orthography, and -word-store. - -CLEVELAND, JOHN (1613-1658).--Of no great importance as a poet, but -holding a certain position as a comparatively early experimenter with -apparently anapæstic measures in his "Mark Antony" and other pieces. - -COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR (1772-1834).--In the _Ancient Mariner_ and -_Christabel_, the great instaurator of equivalence and substitution; a -master of many other kinds of metre; and an experimenter in classical -versing. - -COLLINS, WILLIAM (1721-1759)--Famous in prosody for his attempt at -odes less definitely "regular" than Gray's, but a vast improvement on -the loose Pindaric which had preceded; and for a remarkable attempt at -rhymeless verse in that "To Evening." In diction retained a good deal -of artificiality. - -CONGREVE, WILLIAM (1670-1729).--Regularised Cowley's loose Pindaric. - -COWLEY, ABRAHAM (1618-1667).--The most popular poet of the -mid-seventeenth century; important to prosody for a wide, various, and -easy, though never quite consummate command of lyric, as well as for a -vigorous and effective couplet (with occasional Alexandrines) of a kind -midway between that of the early seventeenth century and Dryden's; but -chiefly for his introduction of the so-called Pindaric. - -COWPER, WILLIAM (1731-1800).--One of the first to protest, definitely -and by name, against the "mechanic art" of Pope's couplet. He himself -returned to Dryden for that metre; but practised very largely in blank -verse, and wrote lyrics with great sweetness, a fairly varied command -of metre, and, in "Boadicea," "The Castaway," and some of his hymns, no -small intensity of tone and cry. His chief shortcoming, a preference of -elision to substitution. - - * * * * * - -DONNE, JOHN (1573-1631).--Famous for the beauty of his lyrical poetry, -the "metaphysical" strangeness of his sentiment and diction throughout, -and the roughness of his couplets. This last made Jonson, who thought -him "the first poet in the world for some things," declare that he -nevertheless "deserved hanging for not keeping accent," and has induced -others to suppose a (probably imaginary) revolt against Spenserian -smoothness, and an attempt at a new prosody. - -DRAYTON, MICHAEL (1563-1631).--A very important poet prosodically, -representing the later Elizabethan school as it passes into the -Jacobean, and even the Caroline. Expresses and exemplifies the demand -for the couplet (which he calls "gemell" or "geminel"), but is an adept -in stanzas. In the _Polyolbion_ produced the only long English poem in -continuous Alexandrines before Browning's _Fifine at the Fair_ (which -is very much shorter). A very considerable sonneteer, and the deviser -of varied and beautiful lyrical stanzas in short rhythms, the most -famous being the "Ballad of Agincourt." - -DRYDEN, JOHN (1630-1700).--The establisher and master of the stopped -heroic couplet with variations of triplets and Alexandrines; the -last great writer of dramatic blank verse, after he had given up the -couplet for that use; master also of any other metre--the stopped -heroic quatrain, lyrics of various form, etc.--that he chose to try. -A deliberate student of prosody, on which he had intended to leave a -treatise, but did not. - -DIXON, RICHARD WATSON (1833-1900).--The only English poet who has -attempted, and (as far perhaps as the thing is possible) successfully -carried out, a long poem (_Mano_) in _terza rima_. Possessed also -of great lyrical gift in various metres, especially in irregular or -Pindaric arrangements. - -DUNBAR, WILLIAM (1450?-1513? or -1530?).--The most accomplished and -various master of metre in Middle Scots, including both alliterative -and strictly metrical forms. If he wrote "The Friars of Berwick," the -chief master of decasyllabic couplet between Chaucer and Spenser. - -DYER, JOHN (1700?-1758?).--Derives his prosodic importance from -_Grongar Hill_, a poem in octosyllabic couplet, studied, with -independence, from Milton, and helping to keep alive in that couplet -the variety of iambic and trochaic cadence derived from catalexis, or -alternation of eight- and seven-syllabled lines. - - * * * * * - -FAIRFAX, EDWARD (d. 1635).--Very influential in the formation of the -stopped antithetic couplet by his use of it at the close of the octaves -of his translation of Tasso. - -FITZGERALD, EDWARD (1809-1883).--Like Fairfax, famous for the prosodic -feature of his translation of the _Rubáiyát_ of Omar Khayyám. This is -written in decasyllabic quatrains, the first, second, and fourth lines -rhymed together, the third left blank. - -FLETCHER, GILES (1588-1623), and PHINEAS (1582-1650).--Both attempted -alterations of the Spenserian by leaving out first one and then two -lines. Phineas also a great experimenter in other directions. - -FLETCHER, JOHN (1579-1625).--The dramatist. Prosodically noticeable for -his extreme leaning to redundance in dramatic blank verse. A master of -lyric also. - -FRERE, JOHN HOOKHAM (1769-1846).--Reintroduced the octave for comic -purposes in the _Monks and the Giants_ (1817), and taught it to -Byron. Showed himself a master of varied metre in his translations -of Aristophanes. Also dabbled in English hexameters, holding that -extra-metrical syllables were permissible there. - - * * * * * - -GASCOIGNE, GEORGE (1525?-1577).--Not unremarkable as a prosodist, from -having tried various lyrical measures with distinct success, and as -having given the first considerable piece of non-dramatic blank verse -("The Steel Glass") after Surrey. But chiefly to be mentioned for his -remarkable _Notes of Instruction_ on English verse, the first treatise -on English prosody and a very shrewd one, despite some slips due to the -time. - -GLOVER, RICHARD (1712-1785).--A very dull poet, but noteworthy for two -points connected with prosody--his exaggeration of the Thomsonian heavy -stop in the middle of blank-verse lines, and the unrhymed choruses of -his _Medea_. - -GODRIC, SAINT (?-1170).--The first named and known author of definitely -English (that is Middle English) lyric, if not of definitely English -(that is Middle English) verse altogether. - -GOWER, JOHN (1325?-1408).--The most productive, and perhaps the best, -older master of the fluent octosyllable, rarely though sometimes varied -in syllabic length, and approximating most directly to the French model. - -HAMPOLE, RICHARD ROLLE OF, most commonly called by the place-name -(1290?-1347).--Noteworthy for the occasional occurrence of complete -decasyllabic couplets in the octosyllables of the _Prick of -Conscience_. Possibly the author of poems in varied lyrical measures, -some of great accomplishment. - -HAWES, STEPHEN (d. 1523?).--Notable for the contrast between the -occasional poetry of his _Pastime of Pleasure_ and its sometimes -extraordinarily bad rhyme-royal--which latter is shown without any -relief in his other long poem, the _Example of Virtue_. The chief late -example of fifteenth-century degradation in this respect. - -HERRICK, ROBERT (1591-1674).--The best known (though not in his own or -immediately succeeding times) of the "Caroline" poets. A great master -of variegated metre, and a still greater one of sweet and various grace -in diction. - -HUNT, J. H. LEIGH (1784-1859).--Chiefly remarkable prosodically for his -revival of the enjambed decasyllabic couplet; but a wide student, and -a catholic appreciator and practitioner, of English metre generally. -Probably influenced Keats much at first. - -JONSON, BENJAMIN, always called BEN (1573?-1637).--A great practical -prosodist, and apparently (like his successor, and in some respects -analogue, Dryden) only by accident not a teacher of the study. Has left -a few remarks, as it is, eulogising, but in rather equivocal terms, the -decasyllabic couplet, objecting to Donne's "not keeping of accent," to -Spenser's metre for what exact reason we know not, and to the English -hexameter apparently. His practice much plainer sailing. A fine though -rather hard master of blank verse; excellent at the couplet itself; but -in lyric, as far as form goes, near perfection in the simpler and more -classical adjustments, as well as in pure ballad measure. - -KEATS, JOHN (1795-1821).--One of the chief examples, among the -greater English poets, of sedulous and successful study of prosody; -in this contrasting remarkably with his contemporary, and in some -sort analogue, Shelley. Began by much reading of Spenser and of late -sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century poets, in following whose -enjambed couplet he was also, to some extent, a disciple of Leigh -Hunt. Exemplified the dangers as well as the beauties of this in -_Endymion_, and corrected it by stanza-practice in _Isabella_, the _Eve -of St. Agnes_, and his great Odes, as well as by a study of Dryden -which produced the stricter but more splendid couplet of _Lamia_. -Strongly Miltonic, but with much originality also, in the blank verse -of _Hyperion_; and a great master of the freer sonnet, which he had -studied in the Elizabethans. Modified the ballad measure in _La Belle -Dame sans Merci_ with astonishing effect, and in the _Eve of St. Mark_ -recovered (perhaps from Gower) a handling of the octosyllable which -remained undeveloped till Mr. William Morris took it up. - -KINGSLEY, CHARLES (1819-1875).--A poet very notable, in proportion -to the quantity of his work, for variety and freshness of metrical -command in lyric. But chiefly so for the verse of _Andromeda_, -which, aiming at accentual dactylic hexameter, converts itself into -a five-foot anapæstic line with anacrusis and hypercatalexis, and in -so doing entirely shakes off the ungainly and slovenly shamble of the -_Evangeline_ type. - - * * * * * - -LANDOR, WALTER SAVAGE (1775-1864).--A great master of form in all -metres, but, in his longer poems and more regular measures, a -little formal in the less favourable sense. In his smaller lyrics -(epigrammatic in the Greek rather than the modern use) hardly second -to Ben Jonson, whom he resembles not a little. His phrase of singular -majesty and grace. - -LANGLAND, WILLIAM (fourteenth century).--The probable name of the -pretty certainly single author of the remarkable alliterative poem -called _The Vision of Piers Plowman_. Develops the alliterative metre -itself in a masterly fashion through the successive versions of his -poem, but also exhibits most notably the tendency of the line to -fall into definitely metrical shapes--decasyllabic, Alexandrine, and -fourteener,--with not infrequent anapæstic correspondences. - -LAYAMON (late twelfth and early thirteenth century).--Exhibits in -the _Brut_, after a fashion hardly to be paralleled elsewhere, the -passing of one metrical system into another. May have intended to write -unrhymed alliteratives, but constantly passes into complete rhymed -octosyllabic couplet, and generally provides something between the two. -A later version, made most probably, if not certainly, after his death, -accentuates the transfer. - -LEWIS, MATTHEW GREGORY (1775-1818).--A very minor poet, and hardly -a major man of letters in any other way than that of prosody. Here, -however, in consequence partly of an early visit to Germany, he -acquired love for, and command of, the anapæstic measures, which he -taught to greater poets than himself from Scott downwards, and which -had not a little to do with the progress of the Romantic Revival. - -LOCKER (latterly LOCKER-LAMPSON) FREDERICK (1821-1895).--An author -of "verse of society" who brought out the serio-comic power of much -variegated and indented metre with remarkable skill. - -LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH (1807-1882).--An extremely competent -American practitioner of almost every metre that he tried, except -perhaps the unrhymed _terza rima_, which is difficult and may be -impossible in English. Established the popularity of the loose -accentual hexameter in _Evangeline_, and did surprisingly well with -unvaried trochaic dimeter in _Hiawatha_. His lyrical metres not of the -first distinction, but always musical and craftsmanlike. - -LYDGATE, JOHN (1370-1450?).--The most industrious and productive of -the followers of Chaucer, writing indifferently rhyme-royal, "riding -rhyme," and octosyllabic couplet, but especially the first and last, as -well as _ballades_ and probably other lyrical work. Lydgate seems to -have made an effort to accommodate the breaking-down pronunciation of -the time--especially as regarded final _e_'s--to these measures; but as -a rule he had very little success. One of his varieties of decasyllabic -is elsewhere stigmatised. He is least abroad in the octosyllable, but -not very effective even there. - - * * * * * - -MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON (1800-1859).--Best known prosodically by his -spirited and well beaten-out ballad measure in the _Lays of Ancient -Rome_. Sometimes, as in "The Last Buccaneer," tried less commonplace -movements with strange success. - -MAGINN, WILLIAM (1793-1842).--Deserves to be mentioned with Barham as a -chief initiator of the earlier middle nineteenth century in the ringing -and swinging comic measures which have done so much to supple English -verse, and to accustom the general ear to its possibilities. - -MARLOWE, CHRISTOPHER (1664-1693).--The greatest master, among -præ-Shakespearian writers, of the blank-verse line for splendour and -might, as Peele was for sweetness and brilliant colour. Seldom, though -sometimes, got beyond the "single-moulded" form; but availed himself -to the very utmost of the majesty to which that form rather specially -lends itself. Very great also in couplet (which he freely "enjambed") -and in miscellaneous measure when he tried it. - -MILTON, JOHN (1608-1674).--The last of the four chief masters of -English prosody. Began by various experiments in metre, both in -and out of lyric stanza--reaching, in the "Nativity" hymn, almost -the maximum of majesty in concerted measures. In _L'Allegro_, _Il -Penseroso_, and the _Arcades_ passed to a variety of the octosyllabic -couplet, which had been much practised by Shakespeare and others, -but developed its variety and grace yet further, though he did not -attempt the full Spenserian or _Christabel_ variation. In _Comus_ -continued this, partly, with lyrical extensions, but wrote the major -part in blank verse--not irreminiscent of the single-moulded form, -but largely studied off Shakespeare and Fletcher, and with his own -peculiar turns already given to it. In _Lycidas_ employed irregularly -rhymed paragraphs of mostly decasyllabic lines. Wrote some score of -fine sonnets, adjusted more closely to the usual Italian models than -those of most of his predecessors. After an interval, produced, in -_Paradise Lost_, the first long poem in blank verse, and the greatest -non-dramatic example of the measure ever seen--admitting the fullest -variation and substitution of foot and syllable, and constructing -verse-paragraphs of almost stanzaic effect by varied pause and -contrasted stoppage and overrunning. Repeated this, with perhaps some -slight modifications, in _Paradise Regained_. Finally, in _Samson -Agonistes_, employed blank-verse dialogue with choric interludes rhymed -elaborately--though in an afterthought note to _Paradise Lost_ he had -denounced rhyme--and arranged on metrical schemes sometimes unexampled -in English. - -MOORE, THOMAS (1779-1852).--A very voluminous poet in the most various -metres, and a competent master of all. But especially noticeable as -a trained and practising musician, who wrote a very large proportion -of his lyrics directly to music, and composed or adapted settings for -many of them. The double process has resulted in great variety and -sweetness, but occasionally also in laxity which, from the prosodic -point of view, is somewhat excessive. - -MORRIS, WILLIAM (1834-1896).--One of the best and most variously gifted -of recent prosodists. In his early work, _The Defence of Guenevere_, -achieved a great number of metres, on the most varied schemes, with -surprising effect; in his longer productions, _Jason_ and _The Earthly -Paradise_, handled enjambed couplets, octosyllabic and decasyllabic, -with an extraordinary compound of freedom and precision. In _Love -is Enough_ tried alliterative and irregular rhythm with unequal but -sometimes beautiful results; and in _Sigurd the Volsung_ fingered the -old fourteener into a sweeping narrative verse of splendid quality and -no small range. - - * * * * * - -ORM.--A monk of the twelfth to the thirteenth century, who composed -a long versification of the Calendar Gospels in unrhymed, strictly -syllabic, fifteen-syllabled verse, lending itself to regular division -in eights and sevens. A very important evidence as to the experimenting -tendency of the time and to the strivings for a new English prosody. - -O'SHAUGHNESSY, ARTHUR W. E. (1844-1881).--A lyrist of great -originality, and with a fingering peculiar to himself, though most -nearly resembling that of Edgar Poe. - - * * * * * - -PEELE, GEORGE (1558?-1597?).--Remarkable for softening the early -"decasyllabon" as Marlowe sublimed it. - -PERCY, THOMAS (1729-1811).--As an original verse-maker, of very -small value, and as a meddler with older verse to patch and piece -it, somewhat mischievous; but as the editor of the _Reliques_, to be -hallowed and canonised for that his deed, in every history of English -prosody and poetry. - -POE, EDGAR (1809-1849).--The greatest master of original prosodic -effect that the United States have produced, and an instinctively and -generally right (though, in detail, hasty, ill-informed, and crude) -essayist on points of prosodic doctrine. Produced little, and that -little not always equal; but at his best an unsurpassable master of -music in verse and phrase. - -POPE, ALEXANDER (1688-1744).--Practically devoted himself to one -metre, and one form of it--the stopped heroic couplet,--subjected as -much as possible to a rigid absence of licence; dropping (though he -sometimes used them) the triplets and Alexandrines, which even Dryden -had admitted; adhering to an almost mathematically centrical pause; -employing, by preference, short, sharp rhymes with little echo in them; -and but very rarely, though with at least one odd exception, allowing -even the possibility of a trisyllabic foot. An extraordinary artist on -this practically single string, but gave himself few chances on others. - -PRAED, WINTHROP MACKWORTH (1802-1839)--An early nineteenth-century -Prior. Not incapable of serious verse, and hardly surpassed in -laughter. His greatest triumph, the adaptation of the three-foot -anapæst, alternately hypercatalectic and acatalectic or exact, which -had been a ballad-burlesque metre as early as Gay, had been partly -ensouled by Byron in one piece, but was made his own by Praed, and -handed down by him to Mr. Swinburne to be yet further sublimated. - -PRIOR, MATTHEW (1664-1721).--Of special prosodic importance for his -exercises in anapæstic metres and in octosyllabic couplet, both of -which forms he practically established in the security of popular -favour, when the stopped heroic couplet was threatening monopoly. His -phrase equally suitable to the _vers de société_ of which he was our -first great master. - - * * * * * - -ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER (_fl. c._ 1280).--_Nomen clarum_ in prosody, as -being apparently the first copious and individual producer of the great -fourteener metre, which, with the octosyllabic couplet, is the source, -or at least the oldest, of all modern English forms. - -ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA GEORGINA (1830-1894) and DANTE GABRIEL -(1828-1882).--A brother and sister who rank extraordinarily high in -our flock. Of mainly Italian blood, though thoroughly Anglicised, and -indeed partly English by blood itself, they produced the greatest -English sonnets on the commoner Italian model, and displayed almost -infinite capacity in other metres. Miss Rossetti had the greater -tendency to metrical experiment, and perhaps the more strictly -lyrical gift of the song kind; her brother, the severer command of -sculpturesque but richly coloured form in poetry. - - * * * * * - -SACKVILLE, THOMAS (1536-1608).--One of the last and best practitioners -of the old rhyme-royal of Chaucer, and one of the first experimenters -in dramatic blank verse. - -SANDYS, GEORGE (1578-1644).--Has traditional place after Fairfax and -with Waller (Sir John Beaumont, who ought to rank perhaps before these, -being generally omitted) as a practitioner of stopped heroic couplet. -Also used _In Memoriam_ quatrain. - -SAYERS, FRANK (1763-1817).--An apostle, both in practice and preaching, -of the unrhymed verse--noteworthy at the close of the eighteenth -century--which gives him his place in the story. - -SCOTT, SIR WALTER (1771-1832).--The facts of his prosodic influence and -performance hardly deniable, but its nature and value often strangely -misrepresented. Was probably influenced by Lewis in adopting (from the -German) anapæstic measures; and certainly and most avowedly influenced -by Coleridge (whose _Christabel_ he heard read or recited long before -publication) in adopting equivalenced octosyllabic couplet and ballad -metres in narrative verse. But probably derived as much from the old -ballads and romances themselves, which he knew as no one else then did, -and as few have known them since. Applied the method largely in his -verse-romances, but was also a master of varied forms of lyric, no mean -proficient in the Spenserian and in fragments, at least, of blank verse. - -SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM (1564-1616).--The _catholicos_ or universal -master, as of English poetry so of English prosody. In the blank verse -of his plays, and in the songs interspersed in them, as well as in -his immature narrative poems and more mature sonnets, every principle -of English versification can be found exemplified, less deliberately -"machined," it may be, than in Milton or Tennyson, but in absolutely -genuine and often not earlier-found form. - -SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE (1792-1822).--The great modern example of -prosodic inspiration, as Keats, Tennyson, and Mr. Swinburne are of -prosodic study. Shelley's early verse is as unimportant in this way -as in others; but from _Queen Mab_ to some extent, from _Alastor_ -unquestionably, onwards, he displayed totally different quality, and -every metre that he touched (even if possibly suggested to some extent -by others) bears the marks of his own personality. - -SHENSTONE, WILLIAM (1714-1763).--Not quite unimportant as poet, in -breaking away from the couplet; but of much more weight for the -few prosodic remarks in his _Essays_, in which he directly pleads -for trisyllabic (as he awkwardly calls them "dactylic") feet, for -long-echoing rhymes, and for other things adverse to the "mechanic tune -by heart" of the popular prosody. - -SIDNEY, SIR PHILIP (1554-1586).--A great experimenter in Elizabethan -classical forms; but much more happy as an accomplished and very -influential master of the sonnet, and a lyric poet of great sweetness -and variety. - -SOUTHEY, ROBERT (1774-1843).--A very deft and learned practitioner -of many kinds of verse, his tendency to experiment leading him into -rhymelessness (_Thalaba_) and hexameters (_The Vision of Judgment_); -but quite sound on general principles, and the first of his school -and time to champion the use of trisyllabic feet in principle, and to -appeal to old practice in their favour. - -SPENSER, EDMUND (1552?-1599).--The second founder of English prosody in -his whole work; the restorer of regular form not destitute of music; -the preserver of equivalence in octosyllabic couplet; and the inventor -of the great Spenserian stanza, the greatest in every sense of all -assemblages of lines, possessing individual beauty and capable of -indefinite repetition. - -SURREY, EARL OF, the courtesy title of HENRY HOWARD (1517-1547).--Our -second English sonneteer, our second author of reformed literary -lyric after the fifteenth-century break-down, and our first clearly -intentional writer of blank verse. - -SWINBURNE, ALGERNON CHARLES (1837-1909).--Of all English poets the -one who has applied the widest scholarship and study, assisted by -great original prosodic gift, to the varying and accomplishing of -English metre. Impeccable in all kinds; in lyric nearly supreme. To -some extent early, and, still more, later, experimented in very long -lines, never unharmonious, but sometimes rather compounds than genuine -integers. Achieved many triumphs with special metres, especially by -the shortening of the last line of the Praed-stanza into the form of -"Dolores," which greatly raises its passion and power. - - * * * * * - -TENNYSON, ALFRED (1809-1892).--A poet who very nearly, if not quite, -deserves the position accorded here to Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, -and Milton. Coming sufficiently late after the great Romantic poets -of the earlier school to generalise their results, he started with -an apparent freedom (perfectly orderly, in fact) which puzzled even -Coleridge. Very soon, too, he produced a practically new form of -blank verse, in which the qualities of the Miltonic and Shakespearian -kinds were blended, and a fresh metrical touch given. All poets -since--sometimes while denying or belittling him--have felt his -prosodic influence; and it is still, even after Mr. Swinburne's fifty -years of extended practice of it, the pattern of modern English prosody. - -THOMSON, JAMES (1700-1748).--The first really important practitioner -of blank verse after Milton, and a real, though rather _mannerised_, -master of it. Displayed an equally real, and more surprising, though -much more unequal, command of the Spenserian in _The Castle of -Indolence_. - -TUSSER, THOMAS (1524?-1580).--A very minor poet--in fact, little more -than a doggerelist; but important because, at the very time when -men like Gascoigne were doubting whether English had any foot but -the iambic, he produced lolloping but perfectly metrical continuous -anapæsts, and mixed measures of various kinds. - - * * * * * - -WALLER, EDMUND (1606-1687).--A good mixed prosodist of the Caroline -period, whose chief traditional importance is in connection with the -popularising of the stopped couplet. His actual precedence in this -is rather doubtful; but his influence was early acknowledged, and -therefore is an indisputable fact. He was also early as a literary user -of anapæstic measures, and tried various experiments. - -WATTS, ISAAC (1674-1741).--By no means unnoteworthy as a prosodist. -Followed Milton in blank verse, early popularised triple-time measures -by his religious pieces, evidently felt the monotony of the couplet, -and even attempted English Sapphics. - -WHITMAN, WALT[ER] (1819-1892).--An American poet who has pushed farther -than any one before him, and with more success than any one after him, -the substitution, for regular metre, of irregular rhythmed prose, -arranged in versicles something like those of the English Bible, but -with a much wider range of length and rhythm, the latter going from -sheer prose cadence into definite verse. - -WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM (1770-1850).--Less important as a prosodist than as -a poet; but prosodically remarkable both for his blank verse, for his -sonnets, and for the "Pindaric" of his greatest Ode. - -WYATT, SIR THOMAS (1503?-1542).--Our first English sonneteer and -our first reformer, into regular literary verse, of lyric after the -fifteenth-century disorder. An experimenter with _terza_, and in other -ways prosodically eminent. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -ORIGINS OF LINES AND STANZAS - - -(It has seemed desirable to give some account (to an extent which -would in most cases be disproportionate for the Glossary) of the -ascertained, probable, or supposed origin of the principal lines -and line-combinations in English poetry. The arrangement is logical -rather than alphabetical. Slight repetition, on some points, of matter -previously given is unavoidable.) - - -A. LINES - -I. ALLITERATIVE.--Enough has probably been said above of the old -alliterative line and its generic character; while the later -variations, which came upon it after its revival, have also been -noticed and exemplified. Its origin is quite unknown; but the -presence of closely allied forms, in the different Scandinavian and -Teutonic languages, assures, beyond doubt, a natural rise from some -speech-rhythm or tune-rhythm proper to the race and tongue. It is also -probable that the remarkable difference of lengths--short, normal, -and extended--which is observable in O.E. poetry is of the highest -antiquity. It has at any rate persevered to the present day in the -metrical successors of this line; and there is probably no other poetry -which has--at a majority of its periods, if not throughout--indulged -in such variety of line-length as English. Nor, perhaps, is there any -which contains, even in its oldest and roughest forms, a metrical or -quasi-metrical arrangement more close to the naturally increased, but -not denaturalised, emphasis of impassioned utterance, more thoroughly -born from the primeval oak and rock. - -II. "SHORT" LINES.--Despite the tendency to variation of lines above -noted, A.S. poetry did not favour _very_ short ones; and its faithful -disciple and champion, Guest, accordingly condemns them in modern -English poetry. This is quite wrong. In the "bobs" and other examples -in Middle English we find the line shortened almost, if not actually, -to the monosyllable, and this liberty has persisted through all the -best periods of English verse since, though frequently frowned upon -by pedantry. Its origin is, beyond all reasonable doubt, to be traced -to French and Provençal influence, especially to that of the short -refrain; but it is so congenial to the general tendency noted above -that very little suggestion must have been needed. It must, however, -be said that very short lines, in combination with long ones, almost -necessitate rhyme to punctuate and illumine the divisions of symphonic -effect; and, consequently, it was not till rhyme came in that they -could be safely and successfully used. But when this was mastered -there was no further difficulty. In all the best periods of English -lyric writing--in that of _Alison_ and its fellows, in the carols of -the fifteenth century, in late Elizabethan and Caroline lyric, and in -nineteenth-century poetry--the admixture of very short lines has been -a main secret of lyrical success; and in most cases it has probably -been hardly at all a matter of deliberate imitation, but due to an -instinctive sense of the beauty and convenience of the adjustment. - -III. OCTOSYLLABLE.--The historical origin of the octosyllabic (or, as -the accentual people call it, the four-beat or four-stress line) is one -of the most typical in the whole range of prosody, though the lesson of -the type may be differently interpreted. Taking it altogether, there -is perhaps no metre in which so large a body of modern, including -mediæval, poetry has been composed. But, although it is simply dimeter -iambic, acatalectic or catalectic as the case may be, it is quite vain -to try to discover frequent and continuous patterns of origin for it -in strictly classical prosody.[162] Odd lines, rarely exact, in choric -odes prove nothing, and the really tempting - - Αμμων Ολυμπου δεσποτα - -of Pindar is an uncompleted fragment which might have gone off into any -varieties of Pindaric. There are a few fragments of Alcman-- - - Ὡρας δ' εσηκε τρεις, θερος - -and of the genuine Anacreon-- - - Μηδ' ὡστε κυμα ποντιον, - -in the metre, while the spurious verse of the "Anacreontea," a -catalectic form with trisyllabic equivalence, seems to have been -actually practised by the real poet. _Alternately_ used, it is, of -course, frequent in the epodes of Horace, in Martial, etc. But the fact -remains that, as has been said, it is not a classical metre to any but -a very small extent, though those who attach no value to anything but -the "beats" may find it in bulk in the _anapæstic_ dimeter of Greek -and Latin choruses. It is in the Latin hymns--that is to say, in Latin -after it had undergone a distinct foreign admixture--that the metre -first appears firmly and distinctly established. In the fourth century, -St. Ambrose without rhyme, and Hilary with it, employ the iambic -dimeter, and it soon becomes almost the staple, though Prudentius, -contemporary with both of them and more of a regular poet, while he -does use it, seems to prefer other metres. By the time, however, -when the modern prosodies began to take form, it was thoroughly well -settled; and every Christian nation in Europe knew examples of it by -heart. - -It still, however, remains a problem exactly why this particular metre -should, as a matter of direct literary imitation, have commended itself -so widely to the northern nations. They had nearly or quite as many -examples in the same class of the _trochaic_ dimeter - - Gaude, plaude, Magdalena - -and they paid no attention to this, though their southern neighbours -did. They had, from the time of Pope Damasus[163] downwards, and in -almost all the hymn-writers, mixed dactylic metres to choose from; -but for a staple they went to this. It seems impossible that there -should not have been some additional and natural reasons for the -adoption--reasons which, if they had not actually brought it about -without any literary patterns at all, directed poets to those patterns -irresistibly. Nor, as it seems to the present writer, is it at all -difficult to discover, as far at least as English is concerned, what -these reasons were. - -The discovery might be made "out of one's own head"; but here as -elsewhere Layamon is a most important assistant and safeguard. A mere -glance at any edition of alliterative verse, printed in half lines, -will show that it has a rough resemblance on the page to octosyllabics, -though the outline is more irregular. A moderately careful study of -Layamon shows, as has been indicated, that, in writing this verse with -new influences at work upon him, he substitutes octosyllabic couplet -for it constantly. And the history in the same way shows that this -occasional substitution became a habitual one with others. Not that -there is any mystical virtue in four feet, despite their frequency in -the actual creation: but that, as an equivalent of the old half line, -the choice lies practically between three and four. Now a three-foot -line, though actually tried as in the _Bestiary_ and in parts of -_Horn_, is, as a general norm, too short, is ineffective and jingly, -brings the rhyme too quick, and hampers the exhibition of the sense by -a too staccato and piecemeal presentment. The abundant adoption of the -octosyllable in French no doubt assisted the spread in English. But it -is not unimportant to observe that English translators and adapters -of French octosyllabic poems by no means always preserve the metre, -and that English octosyllables often represent French poems which are -differently metred in the original. - -IV. DECASYLLABLE.--A connected literary origin for this great line--the -ancient staple of French poetry, the modern staple of English, and (in -still greater modernity) of German to some extent, as well as (with -the extension of one syllable necessitated by the prevailing rhythm of -the language) of Italian throughout its history--has always been found -extraordinarily difficult to assign. That some have even been driven to -the line which furnishes the opening couplet of the Alcaic - - Quam si clientum longa negotia, - -or - - Vides ut alta stet nive candidum, - -an invariably _hen_decasyllabic line of the most opposite rhythm, -constitution, and division, will show the straits which must have -oppressed them. The fact is that there is nothing, either in Greek -or Latin prosody, in the least resembling it or suggestive of it. -To connect it with these prosodies at all reasonably, it would be -necessary to content ourselves with the supposition, not illogical or -impossible, but not very explanatory, that somebody found the iambic -dimeter too short, and the iambic trimeter too long, and split the -difference. - -In another way, and abandoning the attempt to find parents or sponsors -in antiquity for this remarkable foundling, a not wholly dissimilar -conjecture becomes really illuminative--that the line of ten syllables -(or eleven with "weak ending") proved itself the most useful in the -modern languages. As a matter of fact it appears in the very earliest -French poem we possess--the tenth- or perhaps even ninth-century _Hymn -of St. Eulalia_: - - Bel auret corps, bellezour anima, - -and in the (at youngest) tenth-century Provençal _Boethius_: - - No credet Deu lo nostre creator. - -If it still seem pusillanimous to be content with such an explanation, -one can share one's pusillanimity with Dante, who contents himself with -saying that the line of eleven syllables "seems the stateliest and -most excellent, as well by reason of the length of time it occupies -as of the extent of subject, construction and language of which it is -capable." And in English, with which we are specially, if not indeed -wholly, concerned, history brings us the reinforcement of showing that -the decasyllable literally forced itself, in practice, upon the English -poet. - -This all-important fact has been constantly obscured by the habit of -saying that Chaucer "invented" the heroic couplet in English--that -he, at any rate, borrowed it first from the French. Whether he did so -as a personal fact we cannot say, for he is not here to tell us. That -he need not have done so there is ample and irrefragable evidence. -In the process of providing substitutes for the old unmetrical line, -it is not only obvious that the decasyllable--which, from a period -certainly anterior to the rise of Middle English, had been the staple -metre, in long assonanced _tirades_ or batches, of the French _Chansons -de geste_--must have suggested itself. It is still more certain that -it did. It is found in an unpolished and haphazard condition, but -unmistakable, in the _Orison of our Lady_ (early thirteenth century); -it occurs in _Genesis and Exodus_, varying the octosyllable itself, -in the middle of that age; it is scattered about the Romances, in -the same company, at what must have been early fourteenth century at -latest; it occurs constantly in Hampole's _Prick of Conscience_ at the -middle of this century; and there are solid blocks of it in the Vernon -MS., which was written (_i.e._ copied from earlier work), at latest, -before Chaucer is likely to have started the _Legend of Good Women_ -or the _Canterbury Tales_. That his practice settled and established -it--though for long the octosyllable still outbid it in couplet, and -it was written chiefly in the stanza form of "rhyme-royal"--is true. -But by degrees the qualities which Dante had alleged made it prevail, -and prepared it as _the_ line-length for blank verse as well as for -the heroic couplet, and for the bulk of narrative stanza-writing. -No doubt Chaucer was assisted by the practice of Machault and other -French poets. But there should be still less doubt that, without that -practice, he might, and probably would, have taken it up. For the -first real master of versification--whether he were Chaucer, or (in -unhappy default of him) somebody else, who must have turned up sooner -or later--could not but have seen, for his own language, what Dante saw -for his. - -V. ALEXANDRINE.--The Alexandrine or verse of twelve syllables, -iambically divided, does not resemble its relation, the octosyllable, -in having a doubtful classical ancestry; or its other relation, the -decasyllable, in having none. It is, from a certain point of view, the -exact representative of the great iambic trimeter which was the staple -metre of Greek tragedy, and was largely used in Greek and Roman verse. -The identity of the two was recognised in English as early as the -_Mirror for Magistrates_, and indeed could escape no one who had the -knowledge and used it in the most obvious way. - -At the same time it is necessary frankly to say that this -resemblance--at least, as giving the key to origin--is, in all -probability, wholly delusive. There are twelve syllables in each line, -and there are iambics in both. But to any one who has acquired--as -it is the purpose of this book to help its readers to acquire or -develop--a "prosodic" sense, like the much-talked-of historic sense, -it will seem to be a matter of no small weight, that while the cæsura -(central pause) of the ancient trimeter is penthemimeral (at the -fifth syllable), or hepthemimeral (at the seventh), that of the modern -"Alexandrine" is, save by rare, and not often justified, license, -invariably at the sixth or middle--a thing which actually alters the -whole rhythmical constitution and effect of the line.[164] Nor, is the -_name_ to be neglected. Despite the strenuous effort of modern times -to upset traditional notions, it remains a not seriously disputed fact -that the name "Alexandrine" comes from the French _Roman d'Alexandre_, -not earlier than the late twelfth century, and itself following upon -at least one _decasyllabic_ Alexandreid. The metre, however, suited -French, and, as it had done on this particular subject, ousted the -decasyllable in the _Chansons de geste_ generally; while, with some -intervals and revolts, it has remained the "dress-clothes" of French -poetry ever since, and even imposed itself as such upon German for a -considerable time. - -In English, however, though, by accident and in special and partial -use, it has occupied a remarkable place, it has never been anything -like a staple. One of the most singular statements in Guest's _English -Rhythms_ is that the "verse of six accents" (as he calls it) was -"formerly the one most commonly used in our language." The present -writer is entirely unable to identify this "formerly": and the examples -which Guest produces, of single and occasional occurrence in O.E. and -early M.E., seem to him for the most part to have nothing to do with -the form. But it was inevitable that on the one hand the large use -of the metre in French, and on the other its nearness as a metrical -adjustment to the old long line or stave, should make it appear -sometimes. The six-syllable lines of the _Bestiary_ and _Horn_ are -attempts to reproduce it in halves, and Robert of Brunne reproduces it -as a whole.[165] It appears not seldom in the great metrical miscellany -of the Vernon MS., and many of Langland's accentual-alliterative -lines reduce themselves to, or close to it; while it very often makes -a fugitive and unkempt appearance in fifteenth-century doggerel. Not a -few of the poems of the _Mirror for Magistrates_ are composed in it, -and as an alternative to the fourteener (this was possibly what Guest -was thinking of) it figures in the "poulter's measure" of the early and -middle sixteenth century. Sidney used it for the sonnet. But it was not -till Drayton's _Polyolbion_ that it obtained the position of continuous -metre for a long poem: and this has never been repeated since, except -in Browning's _Fifine at the Fair_. - -So, the most important appearances by far of the Alexandrine in English -are _not_ continuous; but as employed to vary and complete other lines. -There are two of these in especial: the first among the greatest -metrical devices in English, the other (though variously judged and -not very widely employed) a great improvement. The first is the -addition, to an eight-line arrangement in decasyllables, of a ninth in -Alexandrine which constitutes the Spenserian stanza and will be spoken -of below. The other is the employment of the Alexandrine as a variation -of decasyllable in couplet, in triplet and singly, which is, according -to some, including the present writer, visible in the "riding-rhyme" -of Chaucer; which is often present in the blank verse of Shakespeare; -not absent from that of Milton in his earlier attempts; employed in -decasyllabic couplet by Cowley, and (with far greater success) by -Dryden; gradually abandoned and unfavourably spoken of by Pope; but -revived with magnificent effect by Keats in _Lamia_. - -VI. FOURTEENER.--On this, as indeed on most of these heads, it will -be well to compare the continuous survey of scanned examples and -the remarks there. This line (or its practical equivalent under the -final _e_ system, the _fif_teener) is probably the oldest attempt to -get a single metrical equivalent for the old divided stave. Its own -equivalents exist, of course, both in Greek and Latin, but it is rather -doubtful whether these had much or anything to do with its genesis. A -more probable source, if any source of the kind is wanted, has been -suggested in the peculiar Latin _thir_teener so popular in the Middle -Ages, and best known by the lines attributed to Mapes-- - - Meum est propositum in taberna mori. - -With a "catch" syllable at each half[166] you get the full accentual -iambic _fif_teener, and the _four_teener follows. - -Perhaps, though it is difficult to recognise the fourteener-rhythm -attributed by Guest and others to Cædmon and later A.S. writers, it is -not necessary to look for any foreign sources as other than auxiliary -to the development of the metre in English. So soon as a definite -iambic mould, with or without trochaic and anapæstic substitution, -began to be impressed on the language, the amount of stuff usual in a -full line would naturally fall into fourteener shape. It did so, we -know, as early as the _Moral Ode_ at least; and barely a century later, -it showed its popularity by the abundant use of Robert of Gloucester -and the _Saints' Lives_ writers. Nor, although the inevitable and -fortunate break-up into ballad eight-and-six encroached on its rights -to a large extent, and the alliterative revival still more, did it lose -its attraction, as _Gamelyn_ and other things show, till it got half -drowned in the doggerel welter of the fifteenth century. From this the -earlier Elizabethans fished it out, cleaned and mended it for practice -both independently and as part of the "poulter's measure," while the -finest example existing was given by Chapman's _Iliad_ in the early -seventeenth century. More recently, except in the _Sigurd_ variety, it -has been seldom used for long poems, but has served as the vehicle of -many of the finest short pieces in the poetry of the nineteenth century. - -VII. DOGGEREL.--In the sense (see Glossary) in which this ambiguous -word applies to _line_, it is very important to acquire some notion -of its meaning, but rather difficult to put that notion except very -hypothetically. It is, in this use, conveniently applied to an enormous -mass of verse--sometimes hardly deserving that name, but principally -produced in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries--which refuses, -except occasionally, to adjust itself to any standard, even liberally -equivalenced, of iambic octosyllable, decasyllable, Alexandrine, and -fourteener, or of the trochaic and anapæstic metres corresponding to -some of these, though it comes nearest to the anapæstic division. The -pure accentualist may dismiss it as lines of so many irregular beats, -and trouble himself no farther. But that, on the principles of this -book, will not do. An exceedingly interesting parallel between it -(as well as one of its regularised forms, the anapæstic dimeter) and -the Spanish long line, or "Arte Mayor," has been drawn by Professor -Ker. (See Bibliography.) But, without either taking or opposing his -view, there is no doubt of the existence of this _mare magnum_ of -imperfect versification. It seems to have been fed by various streams. -In the first place, as we see from the _Gamelyn_ metre, and from some -nursery songs (which, though they cannot be older than formed Middle -English, may be nearly as old), like "The Queen was in the Parlour," -the fourteener had a tendency to break itself into roughly balanced -halves of sometimes different rhythm. The Alexandrine, never quite -at home in English, would naturally bulge and straddle in the same -way. On the regular and continuous anapæstic swing nobody had yet -hit for long, though it probably arose in part from this very chaos. -But perhaps the most abundant source of all was the attempt to write -Chaucerian decasyllables with a constantly altering pronunciation, and -the break-down in it. Examples of various forms of doggerel, with their -corresponding metres, are given below.[167] - -VIII. "LONG" LINES.--Beyond the fourteener or fifteener English verse -has, until quite modern times, rarely gone. There are _six_teeners -to be found in fourteenth-century verse, in the disorderly welter of -the fifteenth, and (no doubt deliberately used) in the experiments of -the _Mirror for Magistrates_; but neither they, nor any longer still, -commended themselves much to any English poet before Mr. Swinburne. -His experiments are famous, and some examples of them are given -elsewhere. Their spirit and sweep has made not a few readers look on -them with favour; but it may be questioned whether any lines beyond -seven feet--and whether even six- and seven-foot lines when trisyllabic -feet are allowed--do not tend to break themselves up in English. In -Mr. Swinburne's own case certainly, and perhaps in some others, the -seven-foot anapæstic line of Aristophanes gave the suggestion, while -the abundant practice in so-called English hexameters may also have had -not a little to do with it. - - -B. STANZAS, ETC. - -I. BALLAD VERSE.--A good deal has been said incidentally about this -at several points in the preceding text; but summary, and a little -repetition, will not be out of place here. There has been an idea with -some that it is a shortened form of the Romance-six (see next article) -or _rime couée_; but this does not seem to the present writer nearly -so probable as the supposition of a break-up of the certainly earlier -fourteener couplet, which gives it at once.[168] It is, however, -not improbable that the crystallising of this was assisted by the -hesitation, also noticed in text, between octosyllabic and hexasyllabic -couplet. The indecision and vacillation, noticeable in such a piece as -_Horn_, between the four- and three-foot line, would easily settle to -alternation more or less regular, and then, with the assistance of the -broken fourteener, into quite regular use. We do not, however, find -decided examples much before "Judas" and the _Gospel of Nicodemus_ in -the late thirteenth century; it is not common in the early mysteries, -though there are approaches to it; and it seems first to have secured -the popular ear in the much-discussed compositions which give it its -name, and which, in English, are very doubtfully to be traced before -the late fourteenth century. These, however, "estated" it once for -all; though for a long time it was treated with the usual mediæval -freedom--wisely restored by Coleridge in the _Ancient Mariner_--and the -exact number of four lines, 8, 6, 8, 6, was not adhered to. The further -fixed variations, familiar from Psalm- and Hymn-books, of "L.M." -(long measure) or octosyllabic quatrain; "C.M." (common measure), the -actual 8 and 6; and "S.M." (short measure) 6, 6, 8, 6, date only from -Elizabethan times, the last being a breaking-up of the then favourite -"poulter's measure" or alternate Alexandrine and fourteener. - -II. ROMANCE-SIX or RIME COUÉE.--As in the case of the ballad-four, -much has been said about this earlier. In considering its origin it is -particularly desirable to distinguish between the possible source of -the principle and the probable derivation of the actual form. The term -_couée_ (_caudatus_), which, as has been pointed out, does not apply -very obviously or appropriately to our actual romance-stanza, appears -to refer originally to the peculiar jingly infusion of rhyme into Latin -hexameters which has been traced back at least to the twelfth century, -and the most famous example of which is the original of "Jerusalem the -Golden," the _De Contemptu Mundi_ of Bernard of Morlaix-- - - Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus-- - Ecce minaciter imminet arbiter ille supremus, - -where the rhyme "in the tail" appears clearly enough. It is also not -inappropriate to the form in which Robert of Brunne writes his verse of -the kind, as in Guest's example: - - When ye have the prize of your enemies, none shall ye save: - Smite with sword in hand; all Northumberland with right shall ye have. - -Sometimes, however, he also batches the two first divisions: - - For Edward's good deed } - } a wicked bountỳ. - The Balliol did him meed } - -But it came generally to be written in short lines straight on after -the form now familiar. How or why it became so favourite a measure -for romance is not, I believe, known. Direct French influence could -certainly have had little to do here; for though the six-line measure -appears in Marot (early sixteenth century), it is not common earlier, -and I am not even aware of any perfect example[169] of it, in the -abundant variety of French and Provençal lyric during the twelfth and -thirteenth centuries; while it is quite unknown to the longer French -romances. But it is nearly as easy to remember--or to extemporise in -default of memory--as the couplet itself. And it looks as if it were -less monotonous; though--as those who drew down on it the lash of _Sir -Thopas_, and _Sir Thopas_ itself, show--nothing can be more monotonous -in actuality. Its extensions and variations, and its migration from -long narrative to short lyrical use, have been noticed already. _These_ -may have been to some extent influenced by the great popularity of -Marot's _Psalms_, though the metre had long been naturalised. - -III. OCTOSYLLABIC and DECASYLLABIC COUPLET.--Of the two great couplet -metres in English, the octosyllabic requires little notice, because -it is almost indissolubly connected with the octosyllabic _line_. As -soon as rhyme appears, the old iambic dimeter, four-accent line, or -whatever you like to call it, _must_ fall into this shape, and does. -There remains indeed the problem why we have no period, in French, of -octosyllabic _tirade_ or batch-writing as we have (see immediately -below) of decasyllabic.[170] But it is certain that the octosyllabic -couplet established itself very early in French, and that at the -important nick of time, when English prosody was being formed late in -the twelfth century, this couplet came to Layamon and others as a great -influence in determining the shape which alteration of the old long -line or halved stave should take in their hands. - -Decasyllabic couplet, on the other hand, has a much more tardy and -uncertain history; though, again, much that has to be said about it has -been said in reference to the single line. As soon as that line makes -its appearance, in the "Saint Eulalia" hymn, it does indeed make its -appearance in couplet, rhymed or assonanced.[171] But the attraction -of the longer batches in identical rhyme or assonance seems, however -surprisingly,[172] to get the better; and this is the form that it -takes in the Provençal _Boethius_ and the French _Saint Alexis_. In -fact, as has been hinted above, our own scattered decasyllabic couplet -rather precedes the French, though Guillaume de Machault has the -credit, rightly or wrongly, of teaching it to Chaucer. After Chaucer, -at any rate, there needed nobody to teach it to Englishmen; although it -underwent various vicissitudes, which are duly traced elsewhere. - -IV. QUATRAIN.--At a very early period, indeed as soon as they appear, -Latin accentual rhythms have a tendency to batch themselves in four; as -had, earlier still, Greek and Latin stanzas, Sapphic, Alcaic, and what -not. The development of alternate rhyme in the octosyllabic quatrain or -(_v. sup._) ballad metre was certain to lead to a similar arrangement -of _deca_syllables; and when rhyme-royal became popular the first four -lines were so arranged, and might easily be broken off for separate -use, as there is little doubt that the final couplet was. "Fours" of -various arrangement are also abundant in lyric and in drama from the -thirteenth to the fifteenth century. But the greatest impulse was -probably given to the alternate decasyllabic form by its adoption for -the bulk of the English sonnet; and from this to separate use, which -became common in the later Elizabethan poetry, there is but a very -short step. The metre has always been a popular one since, and, in the -hands of Dryden and Gray especially, is very effective. But a certain -grave monotony about it has constantly invited modifications, of which -the greatest and most successful, without altering the line-length, -are those of FitzGerald in _Omar Khayyám_[173] and Mr. Swinburne in -_Laus Veneris_;[174] with altered line-lengths, those of Tennyson in -"The Poet,"[175] "The Palace of Art," and "A Dream of Fair Women." It -was also tried in the seventeenth century as what may be called by -anticipation "long _In Memoriam_ measure"--that is to say, with the -rhymes arranged _abba_. - -V. IN MEMORIAM METRE itself may have been suggested quite casually -in the endless rhyme-welter of mediæval experiment. For instance, -it occurs in lines 3 to 6 of Chaucer's nine-line stanza[176] in the -_Complaint of Mars_, and the last eight of his ten-line in the -_Complaint to his Lady_,[177] with decasyllabic lines, of course. -It occurs also, with six-syllable lines, in the last halves of the -octaves of No. XIX. of the _York Plays_.[178] Sidney has it as a -"sport" or chance. But the first person to use it regularly and with -octosyllables was Ben Jonson,[179] who was followed by Lord Herbert of -Cherbury and George Sandys. Yet it was not widely taken up, though few -measures could better have suited the "metaphysical" poets; and after -that generation it remained unused till Tennyson, and by unwitting -coincidence Rossetti, hit upon it just before the middle of the -nineteenth century. Rossetti has also a very effective extension of it -to seven lines _abbacca_.[180] - -VI. RHYME-ROYAL.--However much doubt there may be about the directly -imitative origin of things like couplets, or even quatrains (which -might, and almost certainly would, suggest themselves without pattern), -the case is different with such a thing as the permutation of rhyme in -a fixed order of sevens _ababbcc_. It may, therefore, be very likely -that Chaucer took this from Guillaume de Machault, a slightly older -French poet (1284?-1377), with whom he was certainly acquainted. If so, -it is unlikely that Machault invented it, though he may have done so; -for there is almost every possible cross-arrangement of rhymes in the -enormous wealth of French and Provençal lyric from the eleventh to the -fourteenth century. But it was certainly not a frequent metre before. -On the other hand, Chaucer's _Troilus_ made it the most fashionable -metre in English throughout the fifteenth century for long narrative -poems, and it was splendidly written by Sackville in the mid-sixteenth, -but thereafter succumbed to the octave. The last considerable example -of it, in the larger Elizabethan period, was the _Leoline and Sydanis_ -of Sir Francis Kynaston, a great admirer of Chaucer, who actually also -translated part of _Troilus_ into Latin rhyme-royal. But it was revived -in the worthiest fashion by the late Mr. William Morris. - -VII. OCTAVE.--There are two principal eight-line stanzas of -decasyllables used in English. The oldest form, employed by Chaucer, -appears to have been derived from the French, as it is certainly used -by Deschamps, and may have been by Machault. Here the rhymes are -arranged _ababbcbc_. By addition of an Alexandrine this arithmetically -makes the Spenserian (_v. inf._). The other--later, but much more -largely used--is derived from the Italian _ottava rima_, the rhyme -order of which is _abababcc_. This is the kind employed by Fairfax -(with great results, though rather in the direction of its final -couplet than as a whole) in his translation of Tasso (1600), and (with -a comic bent also directly imitated from Italian) by Frere in _The -Monks and the Giants_, and (after him) by Byron in _Beppo_ and _Don -Juan_. The greatest modern serious employment of it is in Shelley's -_Witch of Atlas_. - -VIII. SPENSERIAN.--The Spenserian stanza of nine lines--eight -decasyllables and an Alexandrine, rhymed _ababbcbcc_--is entirely the -invention of Edmund Spenser. It is false to say that it was "taken -from the Italians"; for there is no such stanza in Italian, and the -octave-decasyllabic part of it is rhymed differently from the Italian -octave. It is irrelevant to say that it is the Chaucerian octave -with an Alexandrine added; for it is exactly in the addition of the -Alexandrine that the whole essence and the whole beauty of the stanza -consist. It is still more irrelevant, though true, to assert that there -had been a few attempts (as by More) to add an Alexandrine to other -stanzas or to lengthen out their last line into one; for it is of -_this_ stanza that we are talking, and not of something else. Therefore -it is sufficient to say once more that the Spenserian stanza is the -invention of Edmund Spenser, and one of the greatest inventions known -in prosody. - -IX. BURNS METRE.--This arrangement is found first in the verse of the -Provençal prince, William IX. Count of Poitiers (poems about 1090). - - Pus oezem de novelh florir - Pratz e vergiers reverderir - Rius e fontanas esclarrir - Auras e vens - Beu deu quas des lo joy jourir - Dou es jauzens. - -He has it also in a seven-line form, with four instead of three eights -to start with; while the shorter variety is repeated in Northern -France, as in the beautiful song of "Bele Aeliz." It appears in one -English romance, _Octovian Imperator_, and largely in the Miracle -plays; but later seems to have been preserved only in Scotland, where -Burns gave it once more world-wide vogue. - -X. OTHER STANZAS.--Of the numerous other forms of what some improperly -call "irregular verse"--what King James the Sixth (First) showed -himself much more of a Solomon in calling "broken and cuttit," and -adding, "quhairof new formes are daylie inventit according to the -Poëtes Pleasour"--it is impossible to give an exhaustive account, or -even to supply a mere list with examples of the "formes."[181] It is -sufficient to say that when the new English prosody was in making -there were already extensive patterns of such verse in French and -Provençal poetry; that these were freely imitated and improved upon. -In the present writer's larger _History_ the passages dealing with the -contents of MS. Harl. 2253, with the Vernon MS., and with the Miracle -plays will be found to contain specifications of almost every form, -and examples of not a few. This liberty continued in the lyrics of the -Elizabethan period in the larger sense, being especially manifested -in the later Elizabethan miscellanies of the time proper, and in the -Caroline poets; but was discontinued in practice, and frowned upon -in principle, during the eighteenth century. It was revived in the -nineteenth by the great poets of the first Romantic period to some -extent, but to a much greater degree by some of their "intermediate" -successors, like Beddoes and Darley; while, from Tennyson and Browning -onward, it has been the delight of almost every poet worthy of the name -to add to the variety. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[162] The longest passage that my memory (assisted in this case by -the kindness of my friend and colleague Professor Hardie) supplies is -in Aristophanes, _Eq._ 911-940. And it is not insignificant that this -not only becomes (and seems actually to be started by) a burlesque -repetition-- - - Α. εμου μεν ουν. - Κ. εμου μεν ουν, - -but can only be made out by constantly breaking words, as in - - εις ἡν αναλων ουκ εφε- - ξεις ουδε ναυπηγουμενος. - -[163] - - Stirpe decens, elegans specie, - Sed magis actibus atque fide, - Terrea prospera nil reputans - Jussa Dei sibi corde ligans. - -This, which is still fourth century, is important as showing _couplet_ -rhyme. Hilary had rhymed in _fours_. - -[164] It may be added that while the ancient trimeter is very largely -patient of substitution, the French Alexandrine positively refuses any, -and the English is, for an English line, distinctly intolerant of it. - -[165] - - And somewhat of that tree, they bond until his hands. - -[166] As thus: - - [_Et_] me|um est | propo|situm | [_hac_] in | taber|na mori. - -[167] (_a_) From Heywood:-- - -(1) Octosyllabic principally: - - And I to every soul again - Did give a beck them to retain, - And axèd them this question than, - If that the soul of such a womàn - Did late among them there appear? - - (_Four P's._) - -But in close proximity such lines as - - But Lord! how low the Souls made curtesy, - -and - - 'Christ, help,' quoth a soul that lay for his fees, - -make their appearance. - -(2) Hawesian or Barclayan decasyllables staggering into Alexandrine or -anapæstic doggerel: - - How can he have pain by imagination, - That lacketh all kinds of consideration? - And in all senses is so insufficient - That nought can he think in ought that may be meant - By any means to devise any self thing, - Nor devise in thing past, present, or coming? - - (_Wit and Folly._) - -(For other passages from Heywood see Scanned Conspectus, § XVIII.) - -(_b_) Longer examples:-- - -(1) With Alexandrine norm: - - Therefore see that all shine as bright as Saint George, - Or as doth a key newly come from the smith's forge. - - (_Ralph Roister Doister._) - -(2) With fourteener ditto: - - _D._ I know not what a devil thou meanest, thou bringest me mere in - doubt. - _H._ Knowest not on what tom-tailor's man sits broaching through a - clout? - - (_Gammer Gurton's Needle._) - -It is curious how closely this unreverend metre sometimes comes to the -heroic model of _Sigurd_. - -(3) With decasyllabic ditto: - - Housed to say that as servants are obedient, - To their bodily masters being in subjection, - Even so evil men that are not content - Are subject and slave to their lust and affection, - -where, once more, the norm may be shifted to the anapæst. - -[168] - - ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄||̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ - ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄||̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ - - = ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ - ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ - ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ - ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ - -(Substitution of individual feet in each case immaterial.) - -[169] The nearest is probably No. 28 in Bartsch, _Romanzen und -Pastourellen_, "Volez vos que je vos chante," with its famous verse -about the nightingale and the mermaid. But there is a perpetual -tendency to cut the eights to sevens and the sixes to fives, as thus: - - Li rosignox est mon pere - Qui chante sur la ramee - El plus haut boscage. - La seraine ele est ma mere - Qui chante en la mer salee - El plus haut rivage. - -[170] There are examples, as in the _Vie de Saint Léger_ and in Alberic -of Besançon's fragmentary poem on Alexander, but few of them, and the -couplet soon conquers. - -[171] - - Buona pulcella fut Eulali_a_, } _rhyme._ - Bel auret corps, bellezour anim_a_. } - Voldrent la veintre li deo inim_i_ } _assonance._ - Voldrent la faire diaule serv_ir_. } - -[172] Not to the present writer, nor, he thinks, to any one who is -really familiar with the _Chansons de geste_. - -[173] - - A book of verses underneath the bough, - A jug of wine, a loaf of bread--and thou - Beside me singing in the wilderness-- - Oh! wilderness were Paradise enow! - -[174] - - I seal myself upon thee with my might, - Abiding always out of all men's sight, - Until God loosen over sea and land - The thunder of the trumpets of the night-- - -The only difference of these is that FitzGerald, following, I believe, -his Persian original, left the third lines quite blank, while Mr. -Swinburne rhymed these in adjacent stanzas. - -[175] For examples see above, Book II. Chap. VI. pp. 209, 210. - -[176] - - To whom shal I then pleyne of my distresse? - Who may me helpe? Who may my harm redresse? - _Shall I compleyne unto my lady fre? } - Nay, certes! for she hath such hevynesse, } - For fere, and eek for wo, that, as I gesse,} - In litil tyme it wol her bane be._ } - But were she sauf, it were no fors of me! - Alas! that ever lovers mote endure, - For love, | so ma|ny a pe|rilous a|venture! - - (ll. 191-199.) - -[177] - - My dere herte and best beloved fo, - Why liketh yow to do me al this wo, - _What have I doon that greveth yow, or sayd, - But for I serve and love yow and no mo? - And whilst I lyve I wol ever do so; - And therefor, swete, ne beth nat yvel apayd. - For so good and so fair as [that] ye be } - Hit were right grete wonder but ye hadde } - Of alle servantes, bothe of goode and badde;} - And leest worthy of alle hem, I am he._ } - -Not dissimilar suggestions may be found in Dunbar's _Golden Targe_. - -[178] - - We heard how they you hight, - If they might find that child, - For to have told you right, - But certes they are beguiled. - {_Swilk tales are not to trow, - { Full well wot ilka wight, - { Thou shall never more have might - {Ne maistery unto you._ - -[179] - - Who, as an offering at your shrine, - Have sung this hymn and here entreat - One spark of your diviner heat - To light upon a love of mine. - -[180] - - Consider the sea's listless chime, - Time's self it is, made audible: - The murmur of the earth's own shell-- - Secret continuance sublime - Is the sea's end; our sight may pass - No furlong further. Since time was - This sound hath told the lapse of time. - - (_The Sea Limits._) - -[181] For instance, Coleridge has shown, in the _Ancient Mariner_, that -the ballad or common measure of four lines, 8, 6, 8, 6, _abab_, can be -extended to any number of lines up to _nine_ (_v. sup._ p. 97), with -the number and order of each rhyme-end varied to suit, and yet without -overrunning, or loosening the general grip and character of the stanza. -Now the smallest knowledge of mathematics will show the enormous number -of combinations--five-, six-, seven-, eight-, and nine-lined, with the -_a_ and _b_ rhymes variously grouped--that would require tabulation -even up to this limit. And it would argue utter insensibility to the -qualities and capacities of English poetry to deny that, on the morrow -of this classification, a poet might arise who would give the same -solid effect to _ten_ or more lines with still more endlessly varied -rhyme-permutation. Instead, therefore, of attempting a hopeless and -even mischievous task (for these classifications always generate the -idea that whatsoever is outside of them is bad), it has seemed better -to lay down, and to illustrate largely and variously, the principles on -which all such legitimate combinations have been formed hitherto, but -on which they may legitimately be formed anew _ad infinitum_. And this, -it is hoped, has been done sufficiently here. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - - -(The following list contains almost everything with which any student, -who is not making the subject one of exhaustive and practically -original research, need make himself acquainted; while it will carry -him pretty far even in that direction. Further information will be -found in the works of Mr. T. S. Omond, _English Metrists_ (Tunbridge -Wells, 1903), and _English Metrists of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth -Centuries_ (Oxford and London, 1907), as well as in the present -writer's larger _History of English Prosody_. Several of the works -hereinafter catalogued will be found collected in Professor Gregory -Smith's _Elizabethan Critical Essays_ (2 vols., Oxford, 1904), and -extracts from not a very few of them in the present writer's _Loci -Critici_ (Boston, U.S.A., and London, 1903).) - -ABBOTT, E. A. _Shakesperian Grammar_ (London, 1869), and (with J. R. -Seeley) _English Lessons for English People_ (London, 1871). Reissued -frequently. - -ALDEN, R. M. _English Verse_ (New York, 1904), and _Introduction to -Poetry_ (New York, 1909). - -[BLAKE, J. W.] _Accent and Rhythm explained by the Law of -Monopressures_ (Edinburgh, 1888). - -BREWER, R. F. _Manual of English Poetry_ (London, 1869). Reissued and -enlarged later as _Orthometry_ (London, 1893). - -BRIDGES, R. S. _Milton's Prosody_ (Oxford, 1889). Frequently reissued, -especially in 1901, with important additions on stress-prosody. - -BYSSHE, EDWARD. _The Art of English Poetry_ (London, 1702). Frequently -reprinted throughout the eighteenth century, the best edition being -that of 1708. - -CALVERLEY, C. S. _On Metrical Translation_, originally in a magazine. -Reprinted in _Works_ (London, 1901). - -CAMPION, THOMAS. _Observations in the Art of English Poetry_ (London, -1602). Reprinted in Gregory Smith's _Elizabethan Essays_, in Bullen's -_Works_ of Campion (London, 1889), and in the Oxford edition of these -_Works_ (1910). - -CAYLEY, C. B. _Remarks and Experiments on English Hexameters_ -(_Transactions of Philological Society_, Berlin, 1861), and Preface to -translation of Æschylus's _Prometheus Bound_ (London, 1867). - -COLERIDGE, S. T. Preface to _Christabel_. Almost any edition of _Poems_. - -CONWAY, GILBERT. _A Treatise of Versification_ (London, 1878). - -CROWE, WILLIAM. _A Treatise on English Versification_ (Oxford, 1827). - -DANIEL, SAMUEL. _A Defence of Rhyme_ (London, 1603?-1607). In Gregory -Smith, and in all reprints of Daniel's _Works_, as well as among the -_Poems_ in Chalmers's _Poets_. - -DRYDEN, JOHN. No single concentrated treatment, but interesting -glances, some of which will be found in _Loci Critici_ (_v. sup._), and -all of which can be easily traced in Professor Ker's edition of the -_Critical Essays_ (2 vols., Oxford, 1900). - -GASCOIGNE, GEORGE. _Certain Notes of Instruction in English Verse_ -(London, 1575). Reprinted in Gregory Smith, in Arber's English reprints -(London, 1868), etc. - -GOLDSMITH, OLIVER. _Essay on Versification_ (_British Magazine_, -London, 1763). Reprinted in all editions of his _Works_ as -"Miscellaneous Essays, No. 18." - -GUEST, EDWIN. _History of English Rhythms_ (2 vols., London, 1838). -Reprinted and edited in one vol. by Professor Skeat (London, 1882). - -HODGSON, SHADWORTH. "English Verse" in _Outcast Essays_, etc. (London, -1881). - -HOOD, T. (the younger). _The Rules of Rhyme_ (London, 1869). - -JENKIN, FLEEMING. Papers on Metre in _Saturday Review_ for 1883. -Reprinted in _Memoir and Remains_ (Edinburgh, 1887). - -JOHNSON, SAMUEL. Papers chiefly in _The Rambler_ (London, 1750). To -be found partly in _Loci Critici_, and completely in all editions of -the _Rambler_ itself. A few remarks on prosody are in the "Grammar" -accompanying the _Dictionary_, and many scattered over the _Lives of -the Poets_. - -KER, W. P.--_Analogies between English and Spanish Verse_ -(_Philological Society's Transactions_, London, 1899). - -KING JAMES THE FIRST (SIXTH OF SCOTLAND). _Rewlis and Cautelis_. [Full -title longer.] (Edinburgh, 1595.) Reprinted by Arber (London, 1869), -and in Gregory Smith. - -LEWIS, C. M. _The Principles of English Verse_ (New York and London, -1906). - -LIDDELL, MARK H. _Introduction to the Scientific Study of English -Poetry_ (New York, 1902). - -MASON, JOHN. _An Essay on the Power of Numbers and the Principle of -Harmony in Poetical Compositions_ (London, 1749). - -MASSON, DAVID. Essay on Milton's Versification in edition of _Milton's -Works_ (London, 1890), vol. iii. pp. 107 _sq._ - -MAYOR, J. B. _Chapters on English Metre_ (Cambridge, 1886). _A Handbook -of English Metre_ (Cambridge, 1904). - -MITFORD, WILLIAM. _Essay on the Harmony of Language_ (London, 1774). -Reissued, with large alterations and additions, as _An Enquiry into the -Principles of Harmony in Language_ (London, 1804). - -OMOND, T. S. _A Study of Metre_ (London, 1903). - -PATMORE, COVENTRY. "English Metrical Criticism," originally in _North -British Review_ for 1875. Reprinted with _Amelia_ (London, 1878), and -since in various places of his _Poems_ and _Works_. - -POE, E. A. _The Rationale of Verse_, originally a magazine essay, 1848. -In the various editions of his _Works_ (ed. Ingram, 4 vols.; Edinburgh, -1875, vol. iii. pp. 219-265). - -[PUTTENHAM, GEORGE?] _The Art of English Poesie_ (London, 1581). -Reprinted by Arber (Birmingham, 1869), and in Gregory Smith. - -RUSKIN, JOHN. _Elements of English Prosody_ (Orpington, 1880). - -SCHIPPER, J. _Englische Metrik_ (3 vols., Bonn, 1882-89). _History of -English Versification_ (Oxford, 1910). - -SHENSTONE, WILLIAM. _Essays_ in _Works_ (3 vols., London, 1764-69). The -chief of the few, but very important, prosodic remarks will be found in -_Loci Critici_. - -SKEAT, W. W. Section on Chaucer's Prosody in _Works of Chaucer_, vol. -vi. (Oxford, 1894). Rehandled in paper on the _Scansion of English -Poetry_ (_Philological Society's Transactions for 1895-98_). - -SOUTHEY, ROBERT. Preface of _Vision of Judgment_ (London, 1820). A few -important remarks (see text) in _Letters_ and _Correspondence_. - -SPEDDING, JAMES. Review in _Fraser's Magazine_, 1861. Reprinted in -_Reviews and Discussions_ (London, 1879). - -SPENSER, EDMUND. Correspondence with Gabriel Harvey. In full editions -of _Works_, or in Gregory Smith. - -STEELE, JOSHUA. _Prosodia Rationalis_ (London, 1779). - -STONE, W. J. _On the Use of Classical Metres in English_ (Oxford, -1898). Reprinted, without specimens, together with Mr. Bridges' -_Prosody of Milton_ (Oxford, 1901). - -SYMONDS, J. A. _Blank Verse_ (London, 1895). - -THELWALL, JOHN. _Illustrations of English Rhythmus_ (London, 1812). - -VERRIER, M. _Essai sur la métrique anglaise_ (3 vols., Paris, 1909). - -WADHAM, E. _English Versification_ (London, 1869). - -WEBBE, WILLIAM. _A Discourse of English Poetry_ (London, 1586). -Reprinted by Arber (London, 1870) and in Gregory Smith. - - - - -INDEX - -["Gloss." indicates that the word will be found explained at its -alphabetical place in the Glossary.] - - - Abbott, Dr., 259, 337 - - Abnormal lines in Shakespeare, 130 - - Accent and accentual system, Bk. I. Ch. II. and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - Acephalous, 51, 157 (Gloss.) - - Acrostic (Gloss.) - - Adjective, forms in -_y_, 166 _note_ - - _Adonais_, 204 - - _Agincourt, Ballad of_, 303 - - _Alastor_, 204, 312 - - Alberic of Besançon, 330 _note_ - - Alcaics, 124 (Gloss.) - - Alcman, 318 - - Alden, Mr. R. M., 337 - - Alexandrine, 15, 49, 51, 53, 55, 61, 65-71, 79, 84, 85, 90, 91, 102, 109, - 129, 130, 159, 171, 177, 192, 193, 205, 212, 227, - 290 (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - _Alexis, St._, 331 - - _Alison_, 45 - - Allen, Mr. Grant, 125, 281 - - Alliteration, 34 - - Alliterative verse, 37-40, 48-50, 134-139, 151-153, 155 (Gloss.), - 316, 317 - - _Alresford Pool_, 187 - - Ambrose, St., 38, 318 - - _Amoryus and Cleopes_, 53 - - Amphibrach (Gloss.) - - Amphimacer (Gloss.) - - Anacreon, 318 - - Anacrusis (Gloss.) - - Anapæst, 31 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - _Ancient Mariner, The_, 272, 301, 329, 336 _note_ - - _Andromeda_, 123, 257, 306 - - Anglo-Saxon (or Old English) prosody, 37, 38, 134-137 - - _Anima Anceps_, 219 _note_ - - _Annus Mirabilis_, 209 - - Anti-bacchic (Gloss.) - - _Anti-Jacobin, The_, 300 - - Antispast (Gloss.) - - Antistrophe, 90 (Gloss.) - - "Appoggiatura" (Gloss.) - - _Arcades_, 185, 308 - - Aristophanes, 304, 318 _note_, 328 - - Arnold, M. (1822-1888), 102, 127, 212, 213, 286, 298 - - Arsis (Gloss.) - - "Arte Mayor," 326 - - Artificial French forms, 125-127 - - Ascham, R. (1515-1568), 120, 121, 234 - - _Asolando_, 285 _note_ - - Assonance, 34 (Gloss.) - - _Astræa_, 266 - - "At a Month's End," 217 - - Atonic (Gloss.) - - _Atys, The_, 125, 281 - - _Awntyrs of Arthur, The_, 49 - - Ayton, Sir R. (1570-1638), 81 - - - Bacchic (Gloss.) - - Ballad (1647) (Gloss.) - - Ballad-measure, 53, 56, 81, 96, 97 (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - Ballade, 126 (Gloss.) - - Bar (Gloss.) - - Barbour, John (1316-1395), 55 - - _Bard, The_, scanned, 89-91 - - Barham, R. H. (1788-1844), 298, 308 - - Bartsch, 330 - - "Baston," 233 - - _Battle of Alcazar, The_, 64 - - "Battle of the Baltic, The," 300 - - Beat (Gloss.) - - Beaumont (1584-1616) and Fletcher (1579-1625), 68, 175, 176 - - Beaumont, Sir John (1583-1627), 78, 187, 188, 239, 298, 311 - - Beddoes, T. L. (1803-1849), 206, 336 - - Behn, Afra (1640-1689), 189 - - _Bele Aeliz_, 335 - - _Bells and Pomegranates_, 211 - - _Beowulf_, 37 - - _Beppo_, 203, 300 - - Bernard of Morlaix, 329 - - _Beryn_, 165 - - _Bestiary, The_, 112, 143, 320, 323 - - _Blackwood's Magazine_, 21 - - Blake, W. (1757-1827), 33, 42, 93, 94, 112, 143, 145, 199, 298 - - Blank verse, 63-72, 88, 89, 104-108, 174 _sq._ (Gloss.) - - Blind Harry (fifteenth century), 56, 163 - - "Boadicea" (Cowper's), 10, 302 - - "Boadicea" (Tennyson's), 125, 281 - - Bob and Wheel (Gloss.) - - _Boethius_ (the Provençal), 321, 331 - - _Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich, The_, 122 - - Bowles, W. L. (1762-1850), 200, 299 - - Bradshaw, Mr., 159 - - Brewer, R. F., 259, 337 - - Bridges, Mr., 12 _note_, 260, 261 _note_, 337 - - Brightland, J., 245 - - "Broken and cuttit" verse, 169, 173, 202, 237 - - Bronte, Emily (1818-1848), 129 - - Browne, W. (1591-1643), 75, 80, 187, 299 - - Browning, E. B. (1806-1861), 29, 212, 271, 299 - - Browning, R. (1812-1889), 100, 102, 105, 109, 117, 210-212, 285 _note_, - 299, 324, 336 - - Brunne, Robert of (_fl._ 1288-1338), 233 - - Burden (Gloss.) - - Burns, R. (1759-1796), and Burns-metre, 44-46, 199, 273, - 299 (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - Byron, Lord (1788-1824), 114, 203, 268, 300, 311, 334 - - Bysshe, E. (_fl._ 1702-1712), 16, 19, 27, 195, 242-245, 337 - - - Cadence, 233 (Gloss.) - - Cæsura (Gloss.) - - Calverley, C. S. (1831-1884), 338 - - Campbell, T. (1777-1844), 300 - - Campion, Thomas (_d._ 1619), 33, 73, 121, 238, 300, 338 - - Canning, G. (1770-1827), 123, 124, 292, 300 - - _Canterbury Tales, The_, 51 - - "Canute Song, The," 136 - - Carey, John (1756-1826), 252 - - Carol, 164 (Gloss.) - - Caroline verse, 189 - - "Castaway, The," 302 - - _Castle of Indolence, The_, 315 - - Catalexis (Gloss.) - - Catullus, 125, 281, 283 - - Cayley, C. B., 338 - - Chalkhill, J. (_fl. c._ 1600?), 76, 187 - - Chamberlain, R. (_fl._ 1640-1660), 301 - - Chamberlayne, W. (1619-1689), 76, 187, 301 - - _Chansons de geste_, 266, 312, 323 - - Chant-royal (Gloss.) - - Chapman, G. (1559?-1634), 281, 325 - - Chatterton, Thomas (1752-1770), 42, 93, 143, 145, 199, 301 - - Chaucer, G. (1340?-1400), 14, 42, 43, 47, 50, 51, 148, 155-163, 172, 186, - 190, 191, 222, 233, 266, 267, 273, 278, 289, 291, 295, 296, 301, 307, - 321-325, 332, 334 - - _Chauceriana_, 162 - - _Cherry and the Slae, The_, 57 - - Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of (1694-1773), 114 - - _Chevy Chase_, 53, 104 - - _Childe Harold_, 203, 300 - - Choriamb, 119 (Gloss.) - - _Christabel_, 8, 42, 60, 95-100, 112, 170, 201, 251, 252, 301, 308, 312 - - _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_, 211 - - Churchill, Ch. (1731-1764), 194 - - _Cleanness_, 48 - - Cleveland, J. (1613-1658), 129 _note_, 301 - - _Cloud_, Shelley's, scanned, 100, 112, 204 - - Clough, A. H. (1819-1861), 122 - - _Coda_ (Gloss.) - - Coleridge, S. T. (1772-1834), 8, 42, 95-100, 112, 121, 124, 143, 145, - 166 _note_, 201, 208, 251, 252, 272, 299, 301, 312, 329, 336 _note_, - 338 - - Collins, W. (1721-1759), 33, 94-100, 194, 196-199, 273, 301 - - "Come unto these yellow sands," 182 _note_ - - "Common," 7 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - Common measure, 81 _sq._ (Gloss.) - - _Complaints_, Chaucer's, 332, 333 - - _Comus_, 177, 308 - - _Confessio Amantis_, 51 - - Congreve, W. (1670-1729), 302 - - Conway, G., 259, 338 - - Couplet (Gloss.) - - "Cowee," 233 - - Cowley, A. (1618-1667), 78, 302, 324 - - Cowper, W. (1731-1800), 89, 94, 113, 125, 194, 196, 197, 292, 304 - - Crabbe, G. (1754-1832), 87, 88, 194 - - Cretic (Gloss.) - - Crowe, W. (1745-1829), 27, 246, 252, 290, 338 - - _Crown of Laurel_, 54 - - _Cupid and Psyche_, 187 _note_ - - "Cuttit and broken" verse, 169, 173, 202, 237 - - _Cynara_, 129 - - - Dactyl, 31, 33, and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - Dallas, E.S. (1828-1879), 257 - - Damasus, Pope, 319 - - Daniel, S. (1562-1619), 185, 238, 338 - - Dante, 167 _note_, 284, 292, 295, 321, 322 - - Darley, G. (1795-1840), 206, 336 - - Darwin, E. (1731-1802), 200 - - Davenant, Sir John (1606-1668), 70, 176 - - David, A., 292 - - Davidson, Mr. John (1857-1909), 219 - - Davies, Sir John (1569-1626), 266 - - Decasyllable, 46 _sq._ and _passim_ (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - _De Contemptu Mundi_, 329 - - _Defence of Guenevere, The_, 215, 309 - - Dennis, John (1657-1734), 241 - - Deschamps, Eust., 334 - - "Deserter," Curran's, 219 _note_ - - Di-iamb (Gloss.) - - Dimeter (Gloss.) - - Dispondee (Gloss.) - - Distich (Gloss.) - - Ditrochee (Gloss.) - - Dixon, R. W. (1853-1900), 218, 219, 295, 303 - - Dobson, Mr. Austin, 125-127 - - Dochmiac (Gloss.) - - Doggerel, 54, 55, 163 (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - "Dolores" metre, 112-115 - - _Don Juan_, 203, 300 - - Donne, John (1573-1631), 73, 81, 302, 305 - - Douglas, G., 163 - - Dowson, E., 129 - - Drant, T. (d. 1578?), 236 - - Drayton, M. (1563-1631), 75, 77, 109, 185, 187, 225, 283, 302, 303, 324 - - "Dream of Fair Women, The," 209 - - Dryden, John (1631-1700), 15, 17 _note_, 29, 34 _note_, 82-85, 101-103, - 129 _note_, 192, 193, 240, 241, 267, 274, 281, 290, 302, 303, 305, - 310, 324, 332, 338 - - Dunbar, W. (1465?-1530?), 56, 163, 303 - - Duple (Gloss.) - - Durfey, T. (1653-1723), 197, 199 - - Dyer, John (1700?-1758), 195 _note_, 303 - - _Dying Swan_ (Tennyson's) scanned, 110-112 - - - _Earthly Paradise, The_, 215, 309 - - "E.I.O.," 54, 164 - - Elegiacs, English, 73, 122 - - _Elegy_, Gray's, 209 - - _Elinor Rumming_, 54 - - Elision (Gloss.) - - Ellis, A. J. (1814-1890), 259 - - End-stopped (Gloss.) - - _Endymion_, 205, 306 - - _England's Jubile_, 301 - - Enjambment (Gloss.) - - "Enterlace," 233 - - Envoi (Gloss.) - - Epanaphora (Gloss.) - - Epanorthosis (Gloss.) - - _Epithalamion_ (Spenser's), 62 - - Epitrite (Gloss.) - - Epode (Gloss.) - - Equivalence, 32 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - _Eulalia, Hymn of St._, 151 _note_, 321, 331 - - _Evangeline_, 116, 122, 256, 306, 307 - - Evans, Archdeacon (1789-1866), 257 - - _Eve of St. Agnes, The_, 205, 306 - - "Eve of St. John," 270 - - _Eve of St. Mark, The_, 206, 306 - - "Eveleen's Bower," 202, 270 - - "Evening, Ode to" (Collins'), 302 - - "Evening on the Broads," 119 - - _Example of Virtue, The_, 305 - - Extrametrical syllables, 18 _note_ - - Eye-rhyme, 172 (Gloss.) - - - _Faerie Queene, The_, 171, 280 - - Fairfax, E. (d. 1635), 77, 185, 187, 303, 311, 334 - - "Feet" ("foot"), 6 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - Feminine endings (Gloss.) - - _Fifine at the Fair_, 212, 267, 303 - - "Fifteener," 39, 40 (Gloss.) - - "Fingering," 35 (Gloss.) - - Fitzgerald, E. (1809-1883). 217, 303, 332 - - Fletcher, Giles (1588?-1623), 304 - - Fletcher, John, _see_ Beaumont and F., 304 - - Fletcher, Phineas (1582-1650), 304 - - Foot, _see_ Feet - - "Fourteener," 34, 40, 41, 49, 53, 55, 84, 85, 115, 140, 149, 153, 165, - 167, 193, 215 (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - French prosody, its connections, agreements, and differences with - English, 14 - - Frere, J. H. (1769-1846), 304, 334 - - _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, 64 - - _Friars of Berwick, The_, 186, 303 - - - Galliambics, 125 (Gloss.) - - _Gamelyn_, 165, 281, 325, 326 - - Garth, S. (1661-1719), 85, 193 - - Gascoigne, G. (1525?-1577), 9, 15, 19, 59, 65, 155, 166, 168, 174, 199, - 234, 235, 241, 290, 304, 314, 338 - - _Gawain and the Green Knight_, 48, 152, 221 - - Gay, J. (1685-1732), 92, 114, 310 - - Gemell or Geminel, 302 (Gloss.) - - _Genesis and Exodus_, 14, 43, 47, 60, 145, 170, 221, 321 - - Gifford, H. (_fl._ 1580), 74 - - Gildon, C. (1665-1724), 245 - - Glover, R. (1712-1785), 88, 304 - - _Goblin Market_, 215, _note_ - - Godric, St. (12th cent.), 38, 136, 304 - - Goldsmith, O. (1728-1774), 96, 194, 338 - - _Gorboduc_, 63, 174 - - _Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions_, 72 - - _Gospel of Nicodemus_, 328 - - Gower, John (1325?-1408), 14, 42, 51, 153, 154, 156, 206, 222, 233, 274, - 304 - - "Grandmamma" (Locker's), 300 - - "Grave Poem," the, 38, 136 - - Gray, T. (1718-1771), 89-92, 142, 194, 196-199, 249, 250, 294, 301, 302, - 332 - - Greek prosody, its resemblance and relations to English, 1, 6, 7, 20, - 32 _note_, 281 - - Greene, Robert (1560?-1592), 64 - - _Grongar Hill_, 195 _note_, 303 - - Guest, Dr. (1800-1880), 11 _note_, 38, 135, 237, 253-255, 292, 323, 324, - 325, 329, 338 - - - "Haidee, Lines to," 114 - - _Hamlet_, 130 - - Hampole, Richard Rolle of, (1290?-1349), 46, 47, 304, 305, 321 - - Hardie, Prof., 284 _note_, 318 _note_ - - Harvey, Gabriel (1545?-1630), 121, 236 - - _Havelok_, 149 - - Hawes, S. (d. 1523?), 163, 223, 305 - - Hayley, W. (1745-1820), 300 - - Head-rhyme (Gloss.) - - Hendecasyllables, 124, 125 (Gloss.) - - Henley, Mr. W. E. (1849-1903), 128, 219, 286 - - Henryson, R. (1430?-1506?), 56, 155, 163 - - Heptameter (Gloss.) - - Herbert of Cherbury, Lord (1583-1648), 82, 333 - - _Hero and Leander_, 186 - - "Heroic" couplet, etc. (Gloss.) - - Herrick, R. (1591-1674), 81, 305 - - "Hesperia," 118 - - Hewlett, Mr., 12 _note_ - - Hexameters, 120-123 (Gloss.) - - Heywood, John (1497?-1580?), 54, 326, 327 _note_ - - Hiatus (Gloss.) - - _Hiawatha_, 307 - - Hilary, 318 - - Hodgson, Mr. S., 260, 338 - - "Hollyhock" song (Tennyson's), 27, 99, 112 - - Holmes, O. W., 300 - - Hood, Tom, the elder (1799-1845), 269 _note_ - - Hood, Tom, the younger (1835-1874), 259, 338 - - Horace, 266, 289, 318 - - _Horn_ (_King_), 149, 221, 320, 323, 328 - - _House of Fame, The_, 50 - - Hughes, Thomas (fl. 1587), 64 - - Hunt, H. J. Leigh (1784-1859), 101, 305, 306 - - _Hyperion_, 205, 306 - - - Iambic, 19, 31, and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - "Immortality" Ode (Wordsworth's), 200 _note_ - - _Ingoldsby Legends, The_, 298 - - _In Memoriam_ metre, 81 _sq._, 312 (Origin-List) - - Inverted stress (Gloss.) - - Ionic (Gloss.) - - _Isabella_, 204, 205, 306 - - - "J. D.", 239 - - James I. of Scotland (1394-1437), 56, 163, 172 _note_ - - James VI. of Scotland (I. of England), (1566-1625), 236, 257, 296, 335, - 338 - - _Jason, The Life and Death of_, 309 - - Jenkin, Prof. F. (1833-1885), 260, 338 - - "Jerusalem the Golden," 329 - - Johnson, Dr. (1709-1784), 12, 19, 87, 88, 194, 196, 246, 338 - - Jonson, Ben (1573?-1637), 72, 176, 187, 239, 241, 302, 305, 307, 333 - - _Judas_ poem, 41, 328 - - - _Kapiolani_, 116, 201, 288 - - Keats, John (1795-1821), 101, 102, 108, 192, 205-6, 305, 306, 324 - - Ker, Prof., 326, 338, 339 - - _King Horn_, 112 - - _Kingis Quair, The_, 163, 290 - - Kingsley, Ch. (1819-1875), 118, 123, 257, 306 - - Kynaston, Sir Francis (1587-1642), 186, 334 - - - _La Belle Dame sans Merci_, 206, 306 - - _L'Allegro_, 308 - - _Lamia_, 102, 306 - - Landor, W. S. (1775-1864), 306 - - Langland, W. (1330?-1400?), 49, 152, 153, 190, 222, 307, 323 - - Lanier, S., 261 - - _Laon and Cythna_, 204 - - "Last Buccaneer, The" (Macaulay's), 271, 308 - - "Last Leaf, The" (Holmes's), 300 - - "Last Ride Together, The," 211 - - Latham, R. G. (1812-1888), 11 _note_, 257 - - Latin prosody, its connection, agreements, and differences with English, - 1, 6, 7, 20, 32 _note_ - - _Laus Veneris_, 217, 332 - - Lawes, H. (1596-1662), 240 _note_ - - Layamon (_fl. c._ 1200), 39-42, 137-139, 307, 319 - - _Lay of the Last Minstrel, The_, 201 - - _Lays of Ancient Rome_, 308 - - _Le Bone Florence of Rome_, 44 - - _Leger, Vie de St._, 330 _note_ - - _Leoline and Sydanis_, 334 - - Leonine verse, 143 (Gloss.) - - "Letter of Advice" (Praed's), 114 - - Lewis, C. M., 339 - - Lewis, D. (1683-1760), 92 - - Lewis, M. G. (1775-1818), 200 _note_, 203, 307, 312 - - Liddell, Prof. Mark H., 339 - - _Life and Death of Jason, The_, 215 - - Line and Line-Combination, 33 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - Locker, F. (1821-1895), 300, 307 - - "Long," Bk. I. Chap. II. and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - "Long" lines, 115, 116 (Origin-List) - - "Long Measure," 81 _sq._ and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - Longfellow, H. W. (1807-1882), 122, 256, 307 - - "Lotos-Eaters, The," 209 - - "Love among the Ruins," 211 - - _Love is Enough_, 118, 215-309 - - _Love-Rune_, 144 - - _Lycidas_, 183, 275, 309 - - Lydgate, John (1370?-1451?), 52, 53, 162, 223, 233, 287, 307 - - Lydgatian line, 52, 53 (Gloss.) - - Lyndsay, Sir D. (1490-1555), 163 - - - Macaulay, Lord (1800-1859), 207, 208 _note_, 271 - - Macaulay, Prof. G. C., 52 - - _Macbeth_, 23 _note_, 129, 130 - - Machault, G. de, 331, 334 - - M'Cormick, Dr., 12 _note_ - - Maginn, W. (1793-1842), 308 - - _Mano_, 218, 294, 303 - - Mapes, W. (_fl. c._ 1200), 325 - - "Mark Antony" (Cleveland's), 301 - - Marlowe, C. (1564-1593), 64, 66, 75, 174, 187, 308 - - Marmion, S. (1603-1639), 76, 187 - - Marot, C., 330 - - Martial, 318 - - Marvell, A. (1621-1678), 82 - - _Mary Ambree_, 74 - - Masculine rhyme (Gloss.) - - Mason, J. (1706-1763), 247, 339 - - Masson, Prof., 258, 339 - - _Maud_, 115 - - Mayor, Prof. J. B., 260, 339 - - _Medea_ (Glover's), 304 - - Meredith, Mr. George (1829-1909), 125, 219, 281 - - _Merope_, 298 - - Metham, John (15th century), 53 - - Metre, 6 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - _Metrum_ (Gray's), 198, 250 - - Milton, John (1608-1674), 11, 12, 15, 25 _note_, 70, 71, 177-185, 191, - 195, 240, 246, 260, 273, 277, 279, 289, 293, 294, 296, 308, 309, 324 - - _Mirror for Magistrates_, 166, 234 _note_, 322, 324 - - _Misfortunes of Arthur_, 64 - - Mitford, W. (1744-1827), 19, 248, 339 - - "Molly Mog," 92, 114 - - Molossus (Gloss.) - - _Monks and the Giants, The_, 304 - - _Monk's Tale_, 289 - - Monometer (Gloss.) - - Monopressure (Gloss.) - - Monosyllabic foot, 23, 281; illustrations, _passim_ - - Montgomerie, Alex. (1556?-1610?), 57, 163 - - Moore, T. (1779-1852), 202, 270, 309 - - _Moral Ode_, 41, 141, 220, 281, 325 - - Morris, W. (1834-1896), 103, 108, 117, 118, 156, 206, 214, 215, 298, 306, - 309, 334 - - _Mother Hubberd's Tale_, 62, 75 - - Murray, Lindley (1745-1826), 252 - - Musical and rhetorical arrangements of verse, 8 _note_, 35 (Rule 41) - (Gloss.) - - Myers, F. (1843-1901), 128, 129 - - - Nash, T. (1567-1601), 238 - - "Nativity" hymn (Milton's), 308 - - "Needy Knife-Grinder, The," 123, 292 - - Norton, Thomas (1532-1584), 63 - - _Notes of Instruction_ (Gascoigne's), 234, 235, 305 - - "Nut-brown Maid, The," 164 - - - Occleve, 162, 199 - - Octave, 185, 186, 203-205 (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - Octometer (Gloss.) - - Octosyllable, 40 and _passim_ (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - _Octovian Imperator_, 335 - - Old English prosody, _see_ Anglo-Saxon - - _Omar Khayyám_, 217, 303, 332 - - Omond, Mr. T. S., 256, 261, 337, 339 - - _Orison of Our Lady_, 140, 141, 321 - - Orm and the _Ormulum_, 14, 17, 38, 140, 220, 310 - - O'Shaughnessy, A. E. (1844-1881), 217, 310 - - _Ossian_, 33 _note_, 199 - - _Ottava rima_ (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - _Owl and the Nightingale, The_, 14, 42, 145, 221 - - - Pæon (Gloss.) - - "Palace of Art, The," 209 - - _Paracelsus_, 210 - - _Paradise Lost_ and _Paradise Regained_, 178-181, 309 - - _Pastime of Pleasure, The_, 305 - - "Paternoster," the M.E., 136, 220 - - Patmore, Coventry (1823-1896), 258, 339 - - _Pauline_, 210 - - Pause, 33 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - Pause-foot, 23 _note_, 281 - - _Pearl, The_, 49, 152 - - Peele, George (1558?-1597?), 64, 65, 174, 300, 310 - - Pemberton, H. (1694-1771), 245, 246 - - Pentameter (Gloss.) - - Percy, Bp. (1729-1811), 75, 97, 197, 199, 310 - - _Phaethon_ (Mr. Meredith's), 281 - - _Pharonnida_, 187, 301 - - Philips, A. (1675?-1749), 199 - - _Phœnix, The_, 37 - - _Phœnix Nest, The_, 72 - - _Piers Plowman, The Vision of_, 49, 152, 153, 307 - - _Pills to Purge Melancholy_, 82 - - Pindar, 318 - - "Pindaric," 25 (Gloss.) - - Poe, Edgar A. (1809-1840), 310, 340 - - "Poet, The" (Tennyson's), 209, 303 - - _Polyolbion_, 160, 266 - - Poole, Joshua (_fl. c._ 1640), 239 - - Pope, Alex. (1688-1744), 29, 85-87, 192-194 - - "Position" (Gloss.) - - "Poulter's measure," 59, 167, 267 (Gloss.) - - Praed, W. M. (1802-1839), 92, 114, 310 - - _Prick of Conscience_, 47, 305, 321 - - Prior, M. (1664-1721), 82, 194, 310 - - Proceleusmatic (Gloss.) - - Prologue to _Canterbury Tales_, 50, 51 - - _Prometheus Unbound_, 204 - - Provençal, 273 - - _Proverbs of Alfred_, 141, 220 - - _Proverbs of Hendyng_, 142, 221 - - Prudentius, 318 - - Pulteney, W. (1684-1764), 114 - - Puttenham, G. or R. (both _fl. c._ 1560-1590), 237, 241, 340 - - Pyrrhic, 31 (Gloss.) - - - Quantity, 20 _sq._ and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - _Quarterly Review, The_, 252 - - Quartet, Quatrain (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - _Queen Mab_, 203, 312 - - "Queen was in the Parlour, The," 326 - - Quintet (Gloss.) - - Quintilian, 284 _note_ - - - Redundance (Gloss.) - - Refrain (Gloss.) - - _Reliques_ (Percy's), 197, 199, 310 - - _Revolt of Islam, The_, 204 - - Rhyme, 33-34 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - Rhyme-royal, 50, 56, 185, 215 (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - "Rhyming Poem," 136 - - Rhythm (Gloss. and _passim_) - - _Richard Cœur de Lion_, 43, 47 - - "Riding Rhyme," 157 (Gloss.) - - _Rime couée_, 43, 150 _sq._ (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - Robert of Gloucester (13th century), 41, 149, 281, 311, 325 - - Robert Manning (or of Brunne, _q.v._), 329 - - Romance (Gloss.) - - "Romance-six," 43 and _passim_ (Gloss. and Origin-List) - - Romances, the, 149 - - Rondeau, Rondel, 125 (Gloss.) - - Roscommon, W. Dillon, Earl of (1633?-1685), 241 - - "Rose-cheeked Laura," 73, 74 - - Rossetti, Christina (1830-1894), 29, 213, 293, 311 - - Rossetti, D. G. (1828-1882), 120, 213, 293, 311, 333 - - Ruskin, Mr. (1819-1900), 260, 340 - - Rymer, T. (1641-1713), 241 - - - Sackville, Thomas, Earl of Dorset (1536-1608), 166 _note_, 311, 334 - - _St. Alexis_, 331 - - _St. Eulalia_, 151 _note_, 321, 331 - - _St. Leger_, 330 _note_ - - _St. Paul_, 128 - - _Samson Agonistes_, 184, 309 - - Sandys, George (1578-1644), 78, 79, 311, 338 - - Sapphics, 124 (Gloss.) - - _Saturday Review, The_, 260 - - Savage, R. (?-1743), 194 - - Sayers, F. (1763-1817), 94, 95, 200, 250, 312 - - Schipper, Dr., 340 - - Scott, Alex. (1528?-1584?), 57, 163 - - Scott, Sir Walter (1771-1832), 145, 200, 201, 300, 307, 312 - - _Seasons, The_, 195, 196 - - "Section," Guest's and others', 254 _note_ (Gloss.) - - Sedley, Sir Charles (1639-1701), 189 - - Seeley, J. R., 259 - - Septenar, 40 (Gloss.) - - Septet (Gloss.) - - Sestet (Gloss.) - - Sestine (Gloss.) - - Shakespeare, W. (1564-1616), 15, 28, 29, 66-68, 79, 80, 129, 130, 174, - 175, 181-183, 191, 224, 225, 279, 289, 293, 296, 308, 312, 324 - - Shelley, P. B. (1792-1822), 29, 96, 104, 203-205, 295, 306, 312, 335 - - Shenstone, W. (1714-1763), 18 _note_, 92, 113, 142, 194, 247, 313, 340 - - _Shepherd's Kalendar, The_, 15, 60, 145, 169-171 - - Sheridan, T. (1719-1788), 247 - - Shirley, James (1596-1666), 69, 176 - - "Short," 6 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - "Short" lines, 317 - - "Short measure," 167 (Gloss.) - - Sidney, Sir P. (1554-1586), 169, 171, 267, 313, 324 - - Sievers, Dr., 37 - - _Sigurd the Volsung_ and _Sigurd_ metre, 118, 215, 309, 325 - - Single-moulded (Gloss.) - - _Sir Thopas_, 143, 155, 160, 330 - - _Sir Tristrem_, 45 - - Skeat, Prof., 11 _note_, 260, 340 - - Skelton, John (1460?-1529), 54, 163, 223, 292 - - Skeltonic, 54 (Gloss.) - - "Skylark" (Shelley's), 204 - - Slur (Gloss.) - - Smith, Prof. Gregory, 337 - - "Song to a Portuguese Air," 309, 325 - - Sonnet, 167, 171, and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - _Sordello_, 210 - - Southey, R. (1744-1843), 25, 95, 96, 121, 122, 123, 124, 143, 145, 200, - 250, 299, 313, 340 - - Spanish poetry, 271, 273 - - Spedding, James (1808-1881), 340 - - Spenser, E., and Spenserian, 15, 42, 60-62, 75, 121, 145, 156, 169-172, 194, 224, 225, 236, 292, 305, 306, 308, 313, 324, 340 (Origin-List) - - Spondee, 30 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - Stanyhurst, R. (1547-1618), 236 - - Stanza or Stave (Gloss.) - - _Steel Glass, The_, 65, 174, 305 - - Steele, Joshua (1700-1791), 248, 249, 340 - - Stone, Mr. W. J. 123, 200, 236, 340 - - _Story of Thebes, The_, 52 - - Stress, Bk. I. Chap. II. and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - "Stress-unit," 19 (Gloss.) - - Strophe (Gloss.) - - "Substitution," 32 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - Suckling, Sir John (1605-1642), 70 - - Surrey, Earl of (1517?-1547), 15, 59, 63, 159, 166, 223, 273, 313 - - Swift, Jon. (1667-1745), 194 - - Swinburne, A. C. (1836-1909), 29, 92, 100, 103, 114, 115, 118-120, 123, 124, 215-217, 257, 267, 268 _note_, 275, 283, 288, 292, 311, 313, 314, 327-332 - - Syllables, their position in English prosody, Bk. I. Chap. III. and _passim_ - - Symonds, J. A, (1840-1893), 12 _note_, 259, 340 - - Synalœpha (Gloss.) - - Syncope (Gloss.) - - Synizesis (Gloss.) - - Syzygy (Gloss.) - - - Tailed sonnet (Gloss.) - - _Tamburlaine_, 64 - - Tasso (Fairfax's), 185, 303, 334 - - Taylor, W. (1765-1836), 200, 250 - - _Temple of Glass, The_, 52 - - Tennyson, Lord (1809-1892), 24-29, 82, 99, 103, 106-108, 110-112, 115-116, 124, 125, 208-210, 257, 266, 268 _note_, 279, 283, 288, 297, 314, 332, 333, 336 - - Tercet (Gloss.) - - _Terza rima_, 167, 307, 314 (Gloss.) - - Tetrameter (Gloss.) - - _Thalaba_, 96, 97, 313 - - Thaun, Ph. de, 112, 143 - - _Thealma and Clearchus_, 76, 187 - - Thelwall, John (1764-1834), 252, 270, 340 - - Thesis (Gloss.) - - Thetbaldus, 143 - - Thomson, James (I.) (1700-1748), 88, 195, 196 - - Thomson, James (II.) (1834-1882), 217, 218 - - Thomson, Mr. William, 12 _note_, 261 - - "Time" (Gloss.) - - _Tottel's Miscellany_, 168 - - "Townley" Plays, 46 - - Trench, Archbishop (1807-1886), 257 - - Tribrach, 31 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - Triolet, 125 (Gloss.) - - Triple (Gloss.) - - Triplet (Gloss.) - - Trochee, 31 and _passim_ (Gloss.) - - _Troilus and Criseyde_, 50, 290, 334 - - Truncation (Gloss.) - - Tumbling verse, 237 (Gloss.) - - Turberville, G. (1548?-1610?), 60, 168 - - Turn of words (Gloss.) - - Tusser, T. (1524?-1580), 74, 168, 234, 314 - - Tyrwhitt, 248 - - - "Under the Greenwood Tree," 28 _note_, 183 _note_ - - - _Veni Redemptor gentium_, 38 - - Vernon, MS., 155, 322, 323 - - Verrier. M., 12 _note_, 100, 340 - - Verse (Gloss.) - - _Versus caudatus_, 291 - - _Vie de St. Leger_, 330 _note_ - - "Vilikins and his Dinah," 285 - - _Vision of Judgment, The_, 121, 251, 313 - - "Vision of Sin, The," 209 - - Vowel-music, 35 (Gloss.) - - _Voyage of Maeldune, The_, 116 - - - Wace, 138 - - Wadham, Mr. E., 258, 340 - - Walker, John (of the Dictionary) (1732-1807), 252 - - Walker, W. Sidney (1795-1846), 258 - - Waller, Edm. (1606-1687), 78, 311, 314 - - Warton, T. (1728-1790), 200, 267 - - Watson, T., Bishop (1513-1584), 120 - - Watson, T., sonneteer (1557?-1592), 171 - - Watts, Dr. (1674-1748), 123, 245, 292, 314 - - Weak ending (Gloss.) - - Webb, D. (1719-1798), 245 - - Webbe, W. (_fl. c._ 1586), 236, 340 - - "Wheel," 48, 49 (Gloss.) - - Whitman, Walt, 33 _note_, 314 - - _William of Palerne_, 48, 221 - - William of Poitiers, 335 - - _Witch of Atlas, The_, 204, 335 - - Wither, George (1588-1667), 81, 187 - - Woodford, Dr. S. (1636-1700), 240 - - Wordsworth, W. (1770-1850), 104, 200, 250, 251, 314 - - Wrenched accent (Gloss.) - - Wyatt, Sir T. (1503?-1542), 15, 57, 58, 61 _note_, 159, 166, 223, 295, 314 - - Wynn, Southey's letter to, 250 - - Wyntoun (15th century), 55, 233, 274 - - - "Yardley Oak," 196 - - "York" Plays, 45 - - Young, E. (1683-1765), 89 - - - _Zophiel_, 129 - - THE END - - - _Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh._ - - * * * * * - - -Transcriber's Notes - -In a few cases where sidenotes refer to new topics introduced within a -long paragraph, an additional paragraph break has been added. - -All footnotes have been renumbered [1] ... [181]. Because of the number -and the length of some footnotes, all are presented at the end of the -chapter or section to which they refer. - -On page 86 in the example (3) from the Rape of the Lock the first part -of each line is angled up the page, and second part of each line is -angled down. - -Where changes have been made to the text (to correct more typographical -errors) these are listed as follows: - -p. 29, footnote [24]: added missing opening quotation mark ("Quantity") - -p. 38: added missing closing parenthesis around paragraph (_"Grave" -Poem.... added in dots._) - -p. 54: added period to subtitle (Examples of Skeltonic and other -Doggerel.) - -p. 57: added period to subtitle ( ... Poets before Spenser.) - -p. 58: the foot markers in the last line of the Wyatt sonnet have been -repositioned, such that the original - - For good | is thè | life | end|ing faithfully. - -reads - - For good | is thè | life end|ing faith|fully. - -p. 59: final foot symbol in line 3 of the example in paragraph (d) was -moved from the end of the line to the expected position preceding "the -dice", as in - - ... what chance | come on | the dice. - -p. 63 added missing foot symbol breaking the word "Unhap|py" to line 11 -of the example in paragraph (a) - - Unhap|py she | that on | no sleep | could chance, - -p. 66: the final foot symbol in line 4 of the Marlowe sonnet moved from - - Their minds, | and mu|ses, on | admirèd | themes; - -to the expected position - - Their minds, | and mu|ses, on | admir|èd themes; - -p. 67: the final foot symbol in line 8 of the example in paragraph (2) -was moved from - - With worms | that are | thy cham|ber-maids; O, | here - -to - - With worms | that are | thy cham|ber-maids; | O, here - -p. 68: note that the diacritic over the "o'" combines breve and macron, -whereas a macron alone may be expected in the context (Trisyllabic at -... "ĭty̆ ō̆'.") - -p. 71: added the missing final foot symbol from the line - - Wherewith | she tamed | the brind|ed li|oness - -p. 74 example (2): note that no foot symbol is given where expected at -the sentence break in - - Let my | despair | prevail! O stay, | hope is | not spent. - -p. 77 example (c) first line: changed "fictions" to "fictious", in - - If fictious light I mix with Truth Divine - -p. 105, example (d): changed final punctuation (unclear period) to comma - - If you'd be free | o' the stove-|side, rocking-chair, - -p. 118: added missing close parenthesis at end of paragraph -(Intentionally irregular ... and some here.) - -p. 178, footnote [84], example (b): changed closing single quotation -mark to double quotation mark ( ... we must pronounce "spir't,") ` - -p. 225: added missing close parenthesis (as by Spenser ... and for -"history" by Drayton). - -p. 335: changed "Emund" to "Edmund" (the invention of Edmund Spenser) - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Historical Manual of English Prosody, by -George Saintsbury - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH PROSODY *** - -***** This file should be named 56187-0.txt or 56187-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/1/8/56187/ - -Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Simon Gardner and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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