Chapter IX

LINES OF EIGHT FEET, FOUR FEET, TWO FEET,
AND ONE FOOT

§ =125.=. Among the metres introduced into Middle English poetry in imitation of foreign models, perhaps the oldest is the four-foot verse, rhyming in couplets. This metre may be regarded as having originally arisen by halving the eight-foot line, although only an isolated example of this, dating from about the middle of the thirteenth century, quoted above (p. 127), is known in Middle English poetry. This, however, serves with special clearness to illustrate the resolution, by means of inserted rhyme, of the eight-foot long-line couplet into four-foot lines rhyming alternately (cf. § 78).

In the manuscript the verses, though rhyming in long lines, are written as short lines, with intermittent rhyme _a b c b d b e b_, just as the example of Modern English eight-foot iambic verse, quoted before (p. 127), is found printed with this arrangement, as is indeed generally the case with most long-line forms of that type. This metre calls for no other remarks on its rhythmical structure than will have to be made with regard to the four-foot verse.

§ =126.= The four-foot line, rhyming in couplets, first appears in a paraphrase of the _Pater Noster_ of the end of the twelfth century,[142] doubtless in imitation of the Old French _vers octosyllabe_ made known in England by Anglo-Norman poets, such as Gaimar, Wace, Benoit, &c.

This French metre consists of eight syllables when the ending is monosyllabic, and nine when it is disyllabic.

The lines are always connected in couplets by rhyme, but masculine and feminine rhymes need not alternate with one another.

It is exactly the same with the Middle English four-foot line, except that the rising iambic rhythm comes out more clearly in it, and that, instead of the Romanic principle of counting the syllables, that of the equality of beats is perceptible, so that the equality of the number of syllables in the verses is not so strictly observed. Hence, all the deviations before mentioned from the strict formal structure of even-beat verses occur even in this early poem, and quite regularly constructed couplets are indeed but rare in it. Examples of this type are the following:

_Ah, láverd gód, her úre béne,
Of úre súnne máke us cléne,
Þet hé us ȝéue alswá he méi,
Þet ús bihóueð úlche déi._ ll. 167-170.

The first ten lines of the poem give a sufficient idea of the structure of the verse, and its characteristics:

_Ure féder þét in héouene ís,
Þet ís all sóþ fúl iwís!
Weo móten tó þeos wéordes iséon,
Þet to líue and to sáule góde béon,
Þet wéo beon swá his súnes ibórene,
Þet hé beo féder and wé him icórene,
Þet wé don álle hís ibéden
Ánd his wílle fór to réden.
Lóke weo ús wið hím misdón
Þurh béelzebúbes swíkedóm._

Here we find almost all the rhythmical licences to be found in even-beat metres. Thus we have suppression of the anacrusis in line 8 and again in two consecutive lines, such as 15, 16:

_Gíf we léornið gódes láre,
Þénne of-þúnceð hít him sáre;_

and very often in the course of the poem, e.g. ll. 22, 29, 30, 37, &c., so that it acquires a loose, iambic-trochaic cadence; further, the absence of an unaccented syllable in the middle of the line (line 2); inversion of accent in line 9, and again in line 81, _Láverd he ís of álle scáfte_; two unaccented syllables at the beginning and in the interior of the verse in 4; light slurrings ll. 1, 3, 5; only ll. 7 and 10 are regularly constructed throughout. The same proportion of regular to irregular verses runs through the whole poem, in which, besides the licences mentioned, that of level stress is also often to be met with, especially in rhymes like _w+u+rþ+í+ng: héovenkíng_ 99-100; _h+a+t+í+ng: king_ 193-4, 219-20; _fóndúnge: swínkúnge_ 242-3.

§ =127.= The treatment of the caesura in this metre also deserves, special mention, for this, as has already been stated, is one of the chief points in which the four-foot even-beat metre differs from the four-stress metre, as represented either by the old alliterative long line or by the later non-alliterating line. For there must be a caesura in every four-beat verse, and it must always be found in one definite place, viz. after the second beat next to any unaccented syllable or syllables that follow the beat, the line being thus divided into two rhythmically fairly equal halves. On the other hand, for the four-foot verse, not only in this, its earliest appearance, but in the rest of Middle and Modern English literature, the caesura is not obligatory, and when it does occur it may, theoretically speaking, stand in any place in the line, although it most frequently appears after the second foot, particularly in the oldest period.

The caesura may (§ 80) be of three kinds:

(1) Monosyllabic or masculine caesura:

_Ne képeð he nóht | þet wé beon súne._ 18.

(2) Disyllabic or feminine caesura, two kinds of which are to be distinguished, viz.

(_a_) Lyric caesura, within a foot:

_And ȝéfe us míhte | þúrh his héld._ 240.

(_b_) Epic caesura caused by a supernumerary unaccented
syllable before the pause:

_Ure gúltes, láverd, | bon ús forȝéven._ 173.

These three kinds of caesura, the last of which, it is true, we meet here only sporadically, may thus in four-foot verse also occur _after_, as well as _in_ the other feet. Thus we find in the very first line, a lyrical caesura after the first foot:

_Ure féder | þét in héouene ís._

This, however, seldom happens in the oldest examples, in which caesuras sharply dividing the line are rare, enjambement being only seldom admitted. Examples of verses without caesuras are to be found, among others, in the following: _Þúrh béelzebúbes swíkedóm_ 10, _Intó þe þósternésse héllen_ 104. As a rule, in the four-foot verse as well as in French octosyllabics, a pause does not occur until the end, on account of the shortness of this metre, which generally only suffices for one rhythmic section, while in four-beat verse a regular division into two rhythmic sections, and consequently the constant occurrence of a caesura, is rendered possible by the greater number of unaccented syllables.

The end of the line may, in any order, have either a masculine rhyme, as in ll. 1-4, 9, 10, or a feminine rhyme, as in ll. 7 and 8. There occur besides, but seldom, trisyllabic rhymes, such as those in ll. 5-6, or _súnegen: múnegen_ 141-2.

§ =128.= This metre continued to be very popular in Middle and Modern English poetry, and is still extensively used. As a rule its structure constantly remained the same; nevertheless we may, in both periods, distinguish between two well-marked ways of treating it. It was, for instance, at the end of the thirteenth and in the first half of the fourteenth century, very freely handled in the North of England in the _Surtees Psalter_, further by Robert Mannyng in his _Handlyng Sinne_, and by Richard Rolle de Hampole in his _Pricke of Conscience_. Their treatment of this verse is characterized, for instance, by the remarkably frequent occurrence of two and even three unaccented syllables at the beginning and in the middle of the line, e.g.:

_In þi rightwísenésses biþénke I sál
Þine sághes nóght forgéte withál._
Psalm cxviii, v. 16.

_And rékened þe cústome hóuses echóne,
At whých þey had góde and at whýche nóne._
Mannyng, Handlyng Sinne, ll. 5585-6.

Other rhythmical licences, such as the omission of unaccented syllables in the middle of a verse, and inversion of accent, are frequent in these compositions. Level stress, on the other hand, for the most part is found only in rhyme, as _sh+e+nsh+é+pe_: _kepe_ Hampole 380-1; _come_: _b+o+ghs+ó+me_ ib. 394-5.

The other extreme of strict regularity in the number of syllables is exhibited in another group of North English and Scottish compositions of the fourteenth century, such as the _Metrical Homilies_, the _Cursor Mundi_, Barbour's _Bruce_, Wyntoun's _Chronykyl_. The metrical licences most frequent here are level stress, suppression of the anacrusis, and the omission of unaccented syllables in the middle of the line, in the _Metrical Homilies_. The rhythm is, however, as a rule, strictly iambic, and the number of syllables eight or nine, according as the rhymes are masculine or feminine.

§ =129.= The contemporaneous literary productions of the Midlands and South written in this metre generally observe a mean between the free and the strict versification of the two northern groups.

These are inter alia _The Story of Genesis and Exodus_, _The Owl and Nightingale_, _The Lay of Havelok_, _Sir Orfeo_, _King Alisander_, several compositions of Chaucer's,[143] as, for instance, _The Book of the Duchesse_, _The House of Fame_, Gower's _Confessio Amantis_, and others. The last work, as well as _The Owl and Nightingale_, is written in almost perfectly regular iambic verses, in which the syllables are strictly counted. The other compositions more frequently admit the familiar rhythmical licences and have a freer movement, but none to the same extent as the _Pater Noster_. In artistic perfection this metre presents itself to us in Chaucer, who was particularly skilful in employing and varying the enjambement. A short specimen from his _House of Fame_ (ll. 151-74) will illustrate this:

_Fírst sawgh I thé destrúccióun
Of Tróy, thórgh the Gréke Synóun,
Wíth his fálse fórswerýnge,
And his chére and hís lesýnge
Máde the hórs broght into Tróye,
Thorgh whích Tróyens lost ál her joýe.
And áfter thís was gráve, allás,
How Ílyóun assáyled wás
And wónne, and kýnge Pr+iá+m ysláyne
And Políte his sóne, certáyne,
Dispítouslý of dáun Pirr+ú+s,
And néxt that sáwgh I hów V+e+n+ú+s,
Whan thát she sáwgh the cástel brénde,
Dóune fro the hévene gán descénde,
And bád hir sóne Enéas flée;
And hów he fléd, and hów that hé
Escáped wás from ál the prés,
And tóoke his fáder, Ánch+i+sés,
And báre hym ón hys bákke awáy,
Crýinge 'Allás and wélawáy!'
The whíche Anchíses ín hys hónde
Báre the góddes óf the lónde,
Thílke thát unbrénde wére.
And Í saugh néxt in ál hys fére_, &c.

§ =130.= Four-foot verses often occur also in Middle English in connexion with other metrical forms, especially with three-foot verses, e.g. in the Septenary, which is resolved by the rhyme into two short lines, and in the tail-rhyme stanza, or _rime couée_ (cf. §§ 78, 79).

In these combinations the structure of the metre remains essentially the same, only there are in many poems more frequent instances of suppression of the anacrusis, so that the metre assumes a variable cadence, partly trochaic, partly iambic. At the end of the Middle English period the four-foot verse was, along with other metrical forms, employed by preference in the earlier dramatic productions, and was skilfully used by Heywood, among others, in his interlude, _The Four P.'s_.[144]

§ =131.= In he Modern English period this metre has also found great favour, and we may, as in the case of other metres, distinguish between a strict and a freer variety of it. The strict form was, and is, mostly represented in lyric poetry, in verses rhyming in couplets or in cross rhyme. The rhythm is generally in this case (since the separation between iambic and trochaic verse-forms became definitely established) strictly iambic, generally with monosyllabic rhymes.

A greater interest attaches to the freer variety of the metre, which is to be regarded as a direct continuation of the Middle English four-foot verse, inasmuch as it was practised by the poets of the first Modern English period in imitation of earlier models, and has been further cultivated by their successors down to the most recent times. The characteristic feature in this treatment of the four-foot verse is the frequent suppression of the anacrusis, by which it comes to resemble the four-beat verse, along with which it is often used. But whilst the latter generally has an iambic-anapaestic or trochaic-dactylic structure, and is constantly divided by the caesura into two halves, the Modern English four-foot verse of the freer type has, as a rule, an alternately iambic and trochaic rhythm, with a rare occurrence of caesuras. Shakespeare and other dramatists often employ this metre for lyrical passages in their dramas. Of longer poems in the earlier period Milton's _L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_ are conspicuous examples.

The following passage from _L'Allegro_ (ll. 11-16) may serve as a specimen:

_But cóme thou Góddess fáir and frée,
In héaven yclépt Euphrósyné,
Ánd by mén héart-easing Mírth,
Whom lóvely Vénus, át a bírth,
Wíth two síster Gráces móre,
To ívy-crównëd Bácchus bóre_, &c.

The structure of the verse is essentially iambic, though the iambic metre frequently, by suppression of the initial theses, as in the thirteenth and fifteenth lines of this passage, falls into a trochaic cadence. Pure trochaic verses, i.e. those that begin with an accented syllable and end with an unaccented one, occur in these two poems, in couplets, only once, _L'Allegro_ (ll. 69-70):

_Stráight mine éye hath cáught new pléasures,
Whíles the lándscape róund it méasures._

With masculine endings such couplets are frequent, e.g. _Il Penseroso_, 67-8:

_Tó behóld the wándering móon,
Ríding néar the híghest nóon;_

further, ll. 75-6, 81-2, 141-2, &c.

As a rule, pure iambic lines rhyme together, or an iambic with a line that has a trochaic cadence, as, for instance, in the above specimen, _L'Allegro_, 13-14 and 15-16.

Besides initial truncation there also occur here the other metrical licences observed in iambic rhythm.

§ =132.= Many sections of the narrative poems of Coleridge, Scott, and Byron, e.g. the latter's _Siege of Corinth_, are written in this form, with which, in especially animated passages, four-beat verses often alternate. Cf., for instance, the following passage, xvi, from the last-named poem:

_Stíll by the shóre Alp mútely músed,
And wóo'd the fréshness níght diffúsed.
There shrínks no ébb in that tídeless séa,
Which chángeless rólls etérnallý;
So that wíldest of wáves, in their ángriest móod,
Scarce bréak on the bóunds of the lánd for a róod;
And the pówerless móon behólds them flów
Héedless if she cóme or gó:
Cálm or hígh, in máin or báy,
Ón their cóurse she háth no swáy._

Lines 5-7 can be at once recognized as four-stress verses by the iambic-anapaestic rhythm, as well as by the strongly-marked caesura, which, in the four-foot verses 4, and especially 8 and 10, is entirely or almost entirely absent (cf. pp. 98-9); and both metrical forms, the calmer four-foot verse and the more animated four-stress metre, are in harmonious agreement with the tone of this passage.

Four-foot lines, forming component parts of metrically heterogeneous types of stanzas, such, for instance, as the tail-rhyme stave, are generally more regularly constructed than in the Middle English period.

§ =133.= Among the metrical forms which took their rise from the four-foot line, the most noteworthy are the two-foot and the one-foot verse, the former the result of halving the four-foot verse, the latter of dividing the two-foot verse, as a rule, by means of the rhyme. These verse-forms only seldom occur in the Middle English period, as a rule in anisometrical stanzas in connexion with verses of greater length. Thus, in the poem in Wright's _Specimens of Lyric Poetry_, p. 38, composed in the entwined tail-rhyme stanza, the short lines have two accents: _wiþóute stríf: y wýte, a wýf_ 10-12; _in tóune tréwe: while ý may gléwe_ 4-6. The eighteen-lined enlarged tail-rhyme stave of the ballad, _The Nut-brown Maid_ (Percy's _Reliques_, iii. 6), also consists of two- and three-foot lines; in this case the two-foot lines may be conceived as the result of halving the first hemistich of the septenary line.

In Modern English two-foot lines are also rare and are chiefly found in anisometrical stanzas. They do occur, however, here and there in isometrical poems, either written in couplets or in stanzas of lines rhyming alternately; as, for instance, in Drayton, _An Amouret Anacreontic_:

_Most góod, most fáir,
Or thíngs as ráre
To cáll you's lóst;
For áll the cóst
Wórds can bestów,
Só póorly shów
Upón your práise
That áll the wáys
Sénse hath, come shórt_, &c.

The commonest rhythmical licences are inversion of accent and initial truncation. In stanzas verses of this sort occur, for the most part it seems, with the rhyme-order _a b c b_, for instance in Burns, _The Cats like Kitchen_, and Moore, _When Love is Kind_, so that these verses might be regarded as four-foot lines rhyming in couplets.

§ =134.= One-foot lines, both with single and with double ending, likewise occur in Middle English only as component parts of anisometrical stanzas, as a rule as _bob_-verses in what are called _bob-wheel_ staves; as, for instance, in a poem in Wright's _Songs and Carols_ (Percy Society, 1847), the line _With áye_ rhyming with the three-foot line _Aye, áye, I dár well sáy_; in the _Towneley Mysteries_, the verse _Alás_ rhyming with _A góod máster he wás_; in an _Easter Carol_ (Morris, _An Old Engl. Miscellany_, pp. 197-9), the line _So strónge_ rhyming with _Jóye hím wit sónge_, or _In lónde_ and _of hónde_ rhyming with _Al with jóye þat is fúnde_.

Metrical licences can naturally only seldom occur in such short lines.

One-foot iambic lines occur also in the Modern English period almost exclusively in anisometrical stanzas. A little poem entitled _Upon his Departure hence_, in Herrick's _Hesperides_, may be quoted as a curiosity, as it is written in continuous one-foot lines of this kind, rhyming in triplets:

_Thus Í_, _As óne_ _I'm máde_ _I' the gráve,_ _Where téll_
_Passe bý_, _Unknówn_, _A sháde_ _There háve,_ _I dwéll._
_And díe_, _And góne_, _And láid_ _My cáve:_ _Farewéll._

One-foot lines with feminine ending are employed by Moore as the middle member of the stanza in the poem _Joys of Youth, how fleeting_.