Chapter X

THE SEPTENARY, THE ALEXANDRINE, AND THE
THREE-FOOT LINE

§ =135. The Septenary= is a favourite Middle English metre, going back to a Mediaeval Latin model. It cannot, however, be definitely determined whether this is to be found in the (accentual) catalectic iambic tetrameter, an example of which is preserved, among other instances, in the _Planctus Bonaventurae_ (1221-74) printed by Mone in his _Latin Hymns of the Middle Ages_, which begins as follows:

_O crux, frutex salvificus, | vivo fonte rigatus,
Quem flos exornat fulgidus, | fructus fecundat gratus_,

or possibly in another Latin metre which was a far greater favourite with the Anglo-Norman Latin poets. This is the (accentual) brachycatalectic trochaic tetrameter, which frequently occurs, among other instances, in the poems ascribed to Walter Map, e.g. in the still popular verses:

_Mihi est propositum | in taberna mori,
Vinum sit appositum | morientis ori._

The result of an attempt to adopt this metre in Middle English might, on account of the preference of the language for iambic rhythm, very naturally be to transform it into the iambic catalectic tetrameter by the frequent addition of an unaccented opening syllable at the beginning of each half-line. Probably the latter verse-form was the model, as may be seen from Leigh Hunt's Modern English translation of the Latin drinking-song just quoted.[145]

Moreover, many mediaeval Latin verses also have a wavering rhythm resulting in a form at times characterized by level stress, e.g.

_Fortunae rota volvitur; | descendo minoratus,
Alter in altum tollitur | nimis exaltatus.
Rex sedet in vertice, | caveat ruinam,
Nam sub axe legimus | 'Hecubam' reginam._
Carmina Burana, lxxvii.

§ =136.= These verses correspond pretty exactly, in their metrical structure, to the opening lines of the _Moral Ode_, which, as far as is known, is the earliest Middle English poem in septenary lines, and dates from the twelfth century:

_Íc am élder þánne ic wés, | a wíntre and éc a lóre;
ic éaldi móre þánne ic déde: | mi wít oȝhte tó bi móre.
Wel lónge ic hábbe chíld ibíen | on wórde ánd on déde;
þéȝh ic bí on wíntren éald, | to ȝíung ic ám on réde._

The other common licences of even-beat metre which affect the rhythm of the line, the metrical value of syllables, and the word-accent, also occur in the _Moral Ode_. Suppression of the anacrusis is very often met with; it occurs, for instance, in the first hemistich, in lines 1 and 4 above; in the second hemistich, _ér ic hít iwíste_ l. 17, in both, _þó þet hábbeð wél idón | éfter híre míhte_, l. 175; so that a pure iambic couplet seldom occurs, although the iambic rhythm is, on the whole, predominant. The omission of unaccented syllables in the middle of the line is also often found (although many verses of this kind probably require emendation), as _Ne léve nó mán to múchel_ 24; also in the second hemistich, as _and wól éche dede_ 88. Transpositions of the accent are quite usual at the beginning of the first as well as of the second hemistich: _Elde me ís bestólen ón_ 17; _síððen ic spéke cúðe_ 9. Level stress is also not absent: _For bétere is án elmésse bifóre_ 28. We often meet with elision, apocope, syncope, slurring of syllables, and the use of a disyllabic thesis both at the beginning of the line and in other positions: _þo þet wél ne dóeþ þe wíle he múȝe_ 19; _nís hit búte gámen and glíe_ 188. A noteworthy indication of want of skill in the handling of the Septenary in this first attempt is the frequent occurrence of a superfluous syllable at the close of the first hemistich, which should only admit of an acatalectic ending, e.g.: _Hé scal cúme on úuele stéde | búte him Gód beo mílde_ 26; _Eíðer to lútel ánd to múchel | scal þúnchen éft hem báthe_ 62, &c. The end of the second hemistich, on the other hand, in accordance with the structure of the metre, is in this poem always catalectic.

§ =137.= The irregularity of the structure of the Septenary rhyming line of the _Moral Ode_ stands in marked contrast with the regularity of the rhymeless Septenary verse of the _Ormulum_. The first hemistich here is always acatalectic, the second catalectic, and the whole line has never more nor less than fifteen syllables.

Hence the only metrical licences that occur here are elision, syncope, and apocope of the unaccented _e_ of some inflexional endings, and the very frequent admission of level stress in disyllabic and polysyllabic words, which are to be found in all places in the line:

_Icc þátt tiss Énnglissh háfe sétt | +E+nnglísshe ménn to láre,
Icc wáss þær þǽr I crísstnedd wáss | +O+rrmín bi náme némmnedd,
Annd ícc +O+rrmín full ínnwarrdlíȝ | wiþþ múð annd éc wiþþ
hérrte._
Dedic. 322-7.

In all such cases, in the versification of Orm, whose practice is to count the syllables, there can only be a question of level stress, not of inversion of accent. _Ennglisshe_ at the beginning of the second hemistich of the above line, 322, is no more an example of inversion of rhythm than in the hemistich _Icc háfe wénnd inntill +E+nnglíssh_ l. 13.

§ =138.= After the _Moral Ode_ and the _Ormulum_ the Septenary often occurs in combination with other metres, especially the Alexandrine, of which we shall speak later on.

In some works of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Septenary was, however, employed in a fairly unmixed form, as, for instance, in the _Lives of Saints_, ed. Furnivall, 1862, the _Fragment of Popular Science_, ed. Wright in _Popular Treatises on Science_, London, 1841, and several others.

The most important deviation from the Septenary of Orm and of the _Moral Ode_ is the frequent occurrence of long lines with a masculine instead of the usual feminine ending. Both forms are to be found in the opening lines of the _Fragment of Popular Science_:

_The ríȝte pút of hélle ís | amídde the úrþe wiþínne,
Oure Lóverd þát al mákede iwís, | quéinte ís of gýnne,
Héuene and úrþe ymákede iwís, | and síþþe alle þíng þat ís,
Úrpe is a lútel húrfte | aȝén héuene iwís._

It may fairly be assumed that the structure of the Alexandrine (which, according to French models, might have either a masculine or a feminine ending) may have greatly furthered the intrusion of monosyllabic feet into the Septenary verse, although the gradual decay of the final inflexions may likewise have contributed to this end. For the rest, all the rhythmic licences of the Septenary occurring in the _Moral Ode_ are also to be met with here; as, for instance, the suppression of the anacrusis in the first hemistich of l. 4 of the passage quoted, and in the second of l. 2, and the omission of the unaccented syllable in the second hemistich of the fourth line, the inversion of accent and disyllabic thesis in the first hemistich of the third line, and other licences, such as the anapaestic beginning of the line, &c., in other places in these poems (cf. _Metrik_, i, p. 246).

§ =139.= In lyrical poems of this time and in later popular ballad poetry the Septenary is employed in another manner, namely, in four-lined stanzas of four- and three-foot verse, rhyming crosswise, each of which must be looked on as consisting of pairs of Septenaries with middle rhyme inserted (interlaced rhyme), as is clearly shown by the Latin models of these metrical forms quoted above (p. 192). Latin and English lines are thus found connected, so as to form a stanza, in a poem of the fifteenth century:

_Fréeres, fréeres, wó ȝe bé!
Mínistrí malórum,
For mány a mánnes sóule bringe ȝé
Ad póenas ínfernórum._ Political Poems, ii. 249.

In many lyrical poems of the older period some stanzas rhyme in long lines, others rhyme in short lines, which shows the gradual genesis of the short-lined metre, rhyming throughout. Thus, in the poem in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. P._, p. 90, the opening verses of the first stanza rhyme in long lines:

_My déþ y lóue, my lýf ich háte, | fór a léuedy shéne,
Héo is bríht so daíes líht, | þat ís on mé wel séne_,

whereas those of the second rhyme in short lines:

_Sórewe and sýke and dréri mód | býndeþ mé so fáste,
Þát y wéne to wálke wód, | ȝef hít me léngore láste._

Instances of this kind are frequent; but the four lines of the single stanzas are never completely rhymed throughout as short-lines, as, for instance, is the case in the opening parts or 'frontes' of the stanzas of the poems in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. P._, pp. 27 and 83, the lines of which are far more regularly constructed. The rhymes are in these compositions still generally disyllabic.

The metrical structure of the old ballads _The Battle of Otterborn_ and _Chevy Chase_ is similar to that of the poem just quoted. In those ballads some original long lines are provided with middle rhyme, others not, so that the stanzas partly rhyme according to the formula _a b c b_, partly according to the formula _a b a b_. The versification is, moreover, very uneven, and the endings are, as a rule, if not without exception, masculine:

_Sir Hárry Pérssy cam to the wálles,
The Skóttish óste for to sé;
And sáyd, and thou hast brént Northómberlónd,
Full sóre it réwyth mé._

The ballads of the end of the Middle English period are generally composed in far more regular lines or stanzas. The feminine endings of the Septenary are, however, as a rule replaced by masculine endings, whether the lines rhyme crosswise or only in the three-foot verses. Cf. the ballad, _The Lady's Fall_ (Ritson, ii. 110), which, however, was probably composed as late as the Modern English period:

_Mark wéll my héavy dóleful tále,
You lóyal lóvers áll,
And héedfullý béar in your bréast
A gállant lády's fáll._

§ =140.= In Modern English the Septenary has been extensively used, both in long and in short rhyming lines. One special variety of it, consisting of stanzas of four lines, alternately of eight and six syllables (always with masculine ending), is designated in hymn-books by the name of Common Metre.

In the long-lined form this metre occurs at the beginning of this period in poems of some length, as, for instance, in William Warner's _Albion's England_, and in Chapman's translation of the _Iliad_. Here, too, the ending of the line is almost without exception masculine, and the rhythm, on the whole, pretty regular, although this regularity, especially in Chapman, is, in accordance with the contemporary practice, only attained by alternate full pronunciation and slurring of the same syllables (Romanic _-ion_, _-ious_, &c., and Germanic _-ed_, &c.) and by inversion of accent. The caesura is always masculine at the end of the first hemistich, but masculine or feminine minor caesuras are often met with after the second or in the third foot, sometimes also after the first or in the second:

_Occásioned thús: | Chrýses the príest || cáme to the fléet to
búy._ i. 11.

_To plágue the ármy, | ánd to déath || by tróops the sóldiers
wént._ ib. 10.

Secondary caesuras also occur, though less frequently, in other places in the line, particularly in the second hemistich:

_But íf thou wílt be sáfe begóne. || This sáid, | the séa-beat
shóre._ ib. 32.

_All mén in óne aróse and sáid: || Atrídes, | nów I sée._
ib. 54.

These last examples suffice to show the rich variety of the caesura, which may be referred perhaps to the influence of blank verse, in the management of which Chapman displays great skill, and to the frequent use which he makes of the enjambement. Rhyme-breaking also sometimes occurs in his verse. Occasionally three consecutive lines rhyme together, as in W. Warner, whose versification is otherwise extremely regular, similar to that of lyrical poetry. In this branch of poetry the Septenary, with the simple rhyme-order _a b c b_ and especially with the more artistic form _a b a b_, has continued to be very popular from the time of Wyatt down to the present day. The three-foot line has naturally in most instances a masculine ending, but lines also occasionally occur with feminine rhyme. In many poems the feminine rhyme is, moreover, regularly employed in this metre; as, for instance, in Burns's _To John Taylor_ (p. 158):

_With Pégasús upón a dáy,
Apóllo wéary flýing,
Through frósty hílls the jóurney láy,
On fóot the wáy was plýing._

In ballad poetry, on the other hand, the Septenary metre tends to assume a somewhat freer construction, similar to, though not so capricious as that in the old ballads edited by Percy. A well-known example is offered by Coleridge's _Rime of the Ancient Mariner_:

_It ís an áncient Márinér, | And he stoppeth óne of thrée:
'By thy lóng grey béard and glíttering éye, | Now whérefore
stópp'st thou mé?'_

Two unaccented opening syllables and two unaccented syllables in the middle of the line are, in particular, often met with.

§ =141. The Septenary in combination with other metres.= After its occurrence in the _Moral Ode_ and the _Ormulum_ the Septenary, as we have seen, appears at first very seldom by itself, but generally in connexion with other metres, especially the old long line in its freer development, the four-foot metre (though more rarely), and, particularly, the Alexandrine.

The Middle English Alexandrine was constructed on the model of the Old French Alexandrine--except for the use of Teutonic licences in even-beat rhythm--and it thus possessed four different types, which the following examples from _On god Ureison of ure Lefdi_[146] may serve to illustrate. We give the corresponding Old French metrical types from the _Roman d'Alixandre_ (Bartsch, _Chrestomathie de l'ancien français_, p. 175).

_a._ Masculine caesura with masculine line-ending:

_En icele forest, | dont voz m'oëz conter._ 24.

_Nim nu ȝéme to mé, | so me bést a béo ðe béo._ 129.

_b._ Feminine (epic) caesura with masculine line-ending:

_nesune male choze | ne puet laianz entrer._ 25.

_vor þín is þé wurchípe, | ȝif ich wrécche wel iþéo._ 130.

_c._ Masculine caesura with feminine line-ending:

_Moult fut biaus li vregiers | et gente la praële._ 1.

_Þine blísse ne méi | nówiht únderstónden._ 31.

_d_. Feminine (epic) caesura with feminine line-ending:

_Moult souëf i flairoient | radise et canele._ 2.

_Vor ál is gódes ríche | an únder þíne hónden._ 32.

Alexandrines of this sort, particularly of the last type, are found in a group of poems of the close of the twelfth, or beginning of the thirteenth century, intermingled with Septenaries, and also, though more seldom, combined with four-beat alliterative rhyming long lines and with four-foot verses. Such poems are _On god Ureison of ure Lefdi_ (quoted above), _A lutel soth sermon_ (_Old English Miscellany_, ed. R. Morris, pp. 186 ff.), and _A Bestiary_ (ib. pp. 1-25).

The following lines from _A lutel soth sermon_ may serve to illustrate this mixture:

_Hérknied àlle góde mèn, | and stílle sìtteþ adún,
And ích ou wùle téllen | a lútel sòþ sermún.
Wél we wìten álle, | þag ìch eou nóȝt ne télle,
Hu ádam ùre vórme fàder | adún vel ìnto hélle.
Schómeliche hè vorlés | þe blísse þàt he hédde;
To ȝívernèsse and prúde | nóne nèode he nédde.
He nòm þen áppel òf the tré | þat hìm forbóde wás:
So reúþful dède idón | néuer nòn nás.
He máde him ìnto hélle fàlle, | and éfter hìm his chíldren àlle;
Þér he wàs fort ùre dríhte | hìne bóhte mìd his míhte.
He hìne alésede mìd his blóde, | þàt he schédde upòn the róde,
To déþe he ȝèf him fòr us álle, | þó we wèren so strònge
at-fálle.
Álle bácbìteres | wéndet to hélle,
Róbberes and réueres, | and þe mónquélle,
Léchurs and hórlinges | þíder sculen wénde,
And þér heo sculen wúnien | évere buten énde._

Here we have Septenaries (ll. 1, 4, 7) and Alexandrines (ll. 2, 3, 5, 6, 8) intermixed in ll. 1-8, eight-foot long lines resolved by means of _sectional rhyme_ into four-foot lines in ll. 9-12, and four-beat rhyming alliterative long lines of the freer type in ll. 13-16. The easy intermixture of metres may be explained by the fact that in all these different long-lined metrical forms four _principal stresses_ are prominent amid the rest, as we have indicated by accents (´).

§ =142.= In the _Bestiary_ this mixture of metrical forms has assumed still greater proportions, inasmuch as alongside of the long-lined rhyming Septenaries and alliterative long lines there are found also Layamon's short-lined rhyming verses and Septenary lines resolved into short verses by middle rhyme.

The following passages may more closely illustrate the metrical construction of this poem; in the first place, ll. 384-97:

_A wìlde dér is, þàt is =f=úl | of =f=éle wíles,
=F=óx is hère tó-nàme, | for hìre quéðscípe;
Húsebondes hìre =h=áten, | for hère =h=árm-dédes:
þe =c=óc and tè =c=apún | ge fècheð ófte ìn ðe tún,
And te =g=ándre ànd te =g=ós, | bì ðe =n=écke and bì ðe =n=óz,
=H=áleð is tò hire =h=óle; | forðí man hìre =h=átieð,
=H=átien and =h=úlen | bòðe mén and fúles._

Here we have unmistakable long lines of the freer type.

In other passages the alliterative long lines pass into Septenaries, as, for instance, ll. 273-98:

_ðe =m=íre =m=úneð us | =m=éte to tílen,
=l=óng =l=ívenoðe, | ðis =l=ítle wíle
ðe we on ðis =w=érld =w=únen: | for ðanne we óf =w=énden,
ðánne is ure =w=ínter: | we sulen =h=únger =h=áuen
and =h=árde súres, | buten we ben wár =h=ére.
Do wé forðí so dóð ðis dér, | ðánne wé be dérue
Ón ðat dái ðat dóm sal bén, | ðát ít ne us hárde réwe_:
* * * * *
_þe córn ðat gé to cáue béreð, | áll ge it bít otwínne,
ðe láge us léreð to dón gód, | ánd forbédeþ us sínne_, &c.

In a third instance (ll. 628-35) Septenary and four-foot lines run into one another:

_Hú he résteð him ðis dér,
ðánne he wálkeð wíde,
hérkne wú it télleð hér,
for hé is ál unríde.
A tré he sékeð to fúligewís
ðát is stróng and stédefast ís,
and léneð hím tr+o+stl+í+ke ðerbí,
ðánne he ís of wálke w+e+r+í+._

In many passages in the poem one or other of these different types of verse occurs unmixed with others. Thus we have short couplets in the section 444-5; in ll. 1-39 alliterative rhymeless verse, occasionally of marked archaic construction, concluding with a hemistich (39) which rhymes with the preceding hemistich so as to form a transition to the following section (ll. 40-52), which again consists of four-foot and Septenary verses. These are followed by a section (ll. 53-87) in which four-foot and three-foot lines (that is to say, Alexandrines) rhyming in couplets are blended; and this is succeeded by a further section (ll. 88-119) mostly consisting of Septenaries resolved by the rhyme into short lines. (Cf. _Metrik_, i, §§ 79-84.)

Hence we may say that the poet, in accordance with his Latin model (likewise composed in various metres), has purposely made use of these different metrical forms, and that the assertion made by Trautmann and others,[147] that the Septenary of the _Ormulum_ and the _Moral Ode_, which is contemporary with Layamon, represents the final result of the development of Layamon's verse (the freer alliterative long line), must be erroneous.

§ =143.= In _On god Ureison of ure Lefdi_, on the other hand, the alliterative long lines play only an insignificant part, a part which is confined to an occasional use of a two-beat rhythm in the hemistichs and the frequent introduction of alliteration. Septenaries and Alexandrines here interchange _ad libitum_.

The following short passage (ll. 23-34) will suffice to illustrate these combinations of metres:

_Nís no wúmmen ibóren | þét þe béo ilíche,
Ne nón þer nís þin éfning | wiðínne héoueríche.
Héih is þi kínestól | onúppe chérubíne,
Biuóren ðíne léoue súne | wiðínnen séraphíne.
Múrie dréameð éngles | biuóren þín onséne,
Pléieð and swéieð | and síngeð bitwéonen.
Swúðe wél ham líkeð | biuóren þe to béonne,
Vor heo néuer né beoð séad | þi uéir to iséonne.
Þíne blísse ne méi | nówiht únderstónden,
Vor ál is gódes ríche | anúnder þíne hónden.
Álle þíne uréondes | þu mákest ríche kínges;
Þú ham ȝíuest kínescrúd, | béies and góldrínges._

Lines 26 and 34, perhaps also 25 and 30, are Septenaries, l. 28 is the only line of the poem which contains two beats in both hemistichs (hemistichs of this sort are further found in the first hemistich of ll. 3, 12, 44, 72, 77, and in the second of ll. 30, 45, 46, 52, and 70); the remaining lines of this passage are most naturally scanned as Alexandrines.

§ =144.= Now, this unsystematic combination of Alexandrines and Septenaries is a metre which was especially in vogue in the Middle English period. In this metrical form two religious poems, _The Passion of our Lord_ and _The Woman of Samaria_ (Morris, _Old English Miscellany_), were composed so early as the beginning of the thirteenth century. From the first we quote ll. 21-4:

_Léuedi þu bére þat béste chíld, | þat éuer wés ibóre;
Of þe he mákede his móder, | vor hé þe hédde ycóre.
Ádam ánd his ófsprung | ál hit wére furlóre,
Ýf þi súne nére, | ibléssed þu béo þervóre._

Many lines of these poems may be scanned in both ways; in the third line of the preceding extract, for instance, we may either take the second syllable of the word _ofsprung_, in the manner of the usual even-beat rhythm, to form a thesis (in this case hypermetrical, yielding an epic caesura), or we may regard it as forming, according to ancient Germanic usage, a fourth arsis of the hemistich, which would then belong to a Septenary. At any rate, this scansion would, in this case, be quite admissible, as indeed the other licences of even-beat rhythm all occur here.

It is in this metre that the South English Legends of Saints (_Ms. Harleian_ 2277) and other poems in the same MS., as the _Fragment on Popular Science_ (fourteenth century), are written. The same holds good for Robert of Gloucester's Rhyming Chronicle (cf. _Metrik_, i, §§ 113, 114). Mätzner (in his _Altengl. Sprachproben_, p. 155), and Ten Brink (_Literaturgeschichte_, i, pp. 334, 345) concur in this opinion, while Trautmann (in _Anglia_, v, Anz., pp. 123-5), on a theory of metrical accentuation which we hold to be untenable, pronounces the verses to be Septenaries.

The following passage (Mätzner, _Altengl. Sprachproben_, i, p. 155) may serve to illustrate the versification of Robert of Gloucester:

_Áftur kýng Báthulf | Léir ys sóne was kýng,
And régned síxti ȝér | wél þoru álle þýng.
Up þe wáter of Sóure | a cíty óf gret fáme
He éndede, and clépede yt Léicestre, | áftur is ówne náme.
Þre dóȝtren þis kýng hádde, | þe éldeste Górnorílle,
Þe mýdmost hátte Régan, | þe ȝóngost Córdeílle.
Þe fáder hem lóuede álle ynóȝ, | ác þe ȝóngost mést:
For héo was bést an fáirest, | and to háutenésse drow lést.
Þó þe kýng to élde cóm, | álle þré he bróȝte
Hys dóȝtren tofóre hým, | to wýte of hére þóuȝte._

§ =145.= At the end of the thirteenth century the Septenary and Alexandrine were, however, relegated to a subordinate position by the new fashionable five-foot iambic verse. But we soon meet them again in popular works of another kind, viz. in the Miracle Plays, especially in some plays of the _Towneley Collection_, like the _Conspiratio et Capcio_ (p. 182), and actually employed quite in the arbitrary sequence hitherto observed, Alexandrine sometimes rhyming with Alexandrine, Septenary with Septenary, but, more frequently, Alexandrine with Septenary. A passage from the Towneley Mysteries may make this clear:

_Now háve ye hárt what Í have sáyde, | I gó and cóm agáyn,
Therfór looke yé be páyde | and álso glád and fáyn,
For tó my fáder I wéynd, | for móre then Í is hé,
I lét you wýtt, as fáythfulle fréynd, | or thát it dóne bé.
That yé may trów when ít is dóne, | for cértes, I máy noght nów
Many thýnges so sóyn | at thís tyme spéak with yóu._

This metre is also employed in many Moral Plays with a similar liberty in the succession of the two metrical forms.

But we may often observe in these works, as, for instance, in Redford's _Marriage of Wit and Science_ (Dodsley, ii, p. 325 sq.), that Alexandrines and Septenaries are used interchangeably, though not according to any fixed plan, so that sometimes the Septenary and sometimes the Alexandrine precedes in the couplet, as, for instance, in the last four lines of the following passage (Dodsley, ii, p. 386):

_O lét me bréathe a whíle, | and hóld thy héavy hánd,
My gríevous fáults with sháme | enóugh I únderstánd.
Take rúth and píty ón my pláint, | or élse I ám forlórn;
Let nót the wórld contínue thús | in láughing mé to scórn.
Mádam, if Í be hé, | to whóm you ónce were bént,
With whóm to spénd your tíme | sometíme you wére content:
If ány hópe be léft, | if ány récompénse
Be áble tó recóver thís | forpássed négligénce,
O, hélp me nów poor wrétch | in thís most héavy plíght,
And fúrnish mé yet ónce agáin | with Tédiousnéss to fíght._

§ =146.= In other passages in this drama, e.g. in the speech of _Wit_, p. 359, this combination (Alexandrine with Septenary following) occurs in a sequence of some length. It existed, however, before Redford's time, as a favourite form of stave, in lyrical as well as in narrative poetry, and was well known to the first Tudor English prosodists under the name of _The Poulter's Measure_.[148]

The opening lines of Surrey's _Complaint of a dying Lover_ (p. 24) present an example of its cadence:

_In wínter's just retúrn, | when Bóreas gán his réign,
And évery trée unclóthed fást, | as Náture táught them pláin:
In místy mórning dárk, | as shéep are thén in hóld,
I híed me fást, it sát me ón, | my shéep for tó unfóld._

Brooke's narrative poem _Romeus and Juliet_, utilized by Shakespeare for his drama of the same name, is in this metre. Probably the strict iambic cadence and the fixed position of the caesura caused this metre to appear especially adapted for cultured poetry, at a time when rising and falling rhythms were first sharply distinguished. It was, however, not long popular, though isolated examples are found in modern poets, as, for instance, Cowper and Watts. Thackeray uses it for comic poems, for which it appears especially suitable, sometimes using the two kinds of verse promiscuously, as Dean Swift had done before him, and sometimes employing the Alexandrine and Septenary in regular alternation.

§ =147. The Alexandrine= runs more smoothly than the Septenary. The Middle English Alexandrine is a six-foot iambic line with a caesura after the third foot. This caesura, like the end of the line, may be either masculine or feminine.

This metre was probably employed for the first time in Robert Mannyng's translation of Peter Langtoft's rhythmical Chronicle, partly composed in French Alexandrines. The four metrical types of the model mentioned above (p. 198) naturally also make their appearance here.

_a. Méssengérs he sent | þórghout Ínglónd_
_b. Untó the Ínglis kýnges | þat hád it ín þer hónd._
p. 2, ll. 3-4.
_c. Áfter Éthelbért | com Élfríth his bróther,_
_d. Þát was Égbrihtes sónne, | and ȝít þer wás an óþer;_
p. 21, ll. 7-8.

The Germanic licences incidental to even-beat rhythm are strikingly perceptible throughout.

In the first line we have to note in both hemistichs suppression of the anacrusis, in the second either the omission of an unaccented syllable or lengthening of a word (_Ing(e)lond_). The second line has a regular structure: in the third the suppression of the anacrusis is to be noted and the absence of an unaccented syllable in the second hemistich. The last line has the regular number of syllables, but double inversion of accent in the first hemistich. A disyllabic thesis at the beginning or in the middle of the line also frequently occurs.

_To purvéie þám a skúlking, | on the Énglish éft to ríde_;
p. 3, l. 8.

_Bot soiórned þám a whíle | in rést a Bángóre_;
p. 3, l. 16.

_In Wéstsex was þán a kýng, | his náme wás Sir Íne_;
p. 2, l. 1.

There is less freedom of structure in the Alexandrine as used in the lyrical poems of this period, in which, however, the verse is generally resolved by middle rhyme into short lines, as may be seen from the examples in § 150.

§ =148.= The structure of the Alexandrine is, on the other hand, extremely irregular in the late Middle English Mysteries and the Early English Moral Plays, where, so far as we have observed, it is not employed in any piece as the exclusive metre, but mostly occurs either as the first member of the above-mentioned _Poulter's Measure_, and occasionally in uninterrupted sequence in speeches of considerable length. We cannot therefore always say with certainty whether we have in many passages of _Jacob and Esau_ (Dodsley's _Old Plays_, ed. Hazlitt, vol. ii, pp. 185 ff.) to deal with four-beat lines or with unpolished Alexandrines (cf. Act II, Sc. i). In other pieces, on the other hand, the Alexandrine, where it appears in passages of some length, is pretty regularly constructed, as, for instance, in Redford's _Marriage of Wit and Science_ (Dodsley, ii, pp. 325 ff.), e.g. in Act II. Sc. ii (pp. 340-1):

_How mány séek, that cóme | too shórt of théir desíre:
How mány dó attémpt, | that daíly dó retíre.
How mány róve abóut | the márk on évery síde:
How mány think to hít, | when théy are much too wíde:
How mány rún too fár, | how mány light too lów:
How féw to góod efféct | their trávail dó bestów!_ &c.

The caesura and close of the line are in this passage, which comprises eighteen lines, monosyllabic throughout.

§ =149.= In Modern English the Alexandrine is also found in a long-lined rhyming form, as, for instance, in the sixteenth century in certain poems by Sidney, but notably in Drayton's _Polyolbion_.

The Modern English Alexandrine is particularly distinguished from the Middle English variety by the fact that the four types of the Middle English Alexandrine are reduced to one, the caesura being regularly masculine and the close of the line nearly always so; further by the very scanty employment of the Teutonic rhythmical licences; cf. the opening lines of the _Polyolbion_ (_Poets_, iii. pp. 239 ff.):

_Of Álbion's glórious ísle | the wónders whílst I wríte,
The súndry várying sóils, | the pléasures ínfiníte,
Where héat kills nót the cóld, | nor cóld expéls the héat,
The cálms too míldly smáll, | nor wínds too róughly gréat_, &c.

Minor caesuras seldom occur, and generally in the second hemistich, as, e.g., minor lyric caesuras after the first foot:

_Wise génius, | bý thy hélp || that só I máy descrý._
240 a;

or masculine caesura after the second foot:

_Ye sácred bárds | that to || your hárps' melódious stríngs._
ib.

Enjambement is only sporadically met with; breaking of the rhyme still more seldom.

Less significance is to be attached to the fact that Brysket, in a poem on Sidney's death, entitled _The Mourning Muse of Thestylis_ (printed with Spenser's works, Globe edition, p. 563), makes Alexandrines rhyme together, not in couplets, but in an arbitrary order; further, that Surrey and Blennerhasset occasionally composed in similarly constructed rhymeless Alexandrines (cf. _Metrik_, ii, p. 83).

Of greater importance is the structure of the Alexandrine when used as the concluding line of the Spenserian stanza and of its imitations.

It is here noteworthy that the lyric caesura, unusual in Middle English, often occurs in Spenser after the first hemistich:

_That súch a cúrsed créature || líves so lóng a spáce._
F. Q. I. i. 31;

as well as in connexion with minor caesuras:

_Upón his fóe, | a Drágon, || hórriblé and stéarne._
ib. I. i. 3.

The closing line of the Spenserian stanza is similarly handled by other poets, such as Thomson, Scott, Wordsworth, while poets like Pope, Byron, Shelley, and others admit only masculine caesuras after the third foot. By itself the Alexandrine has not often been employed in Modern English.

Connected in couplets it occurs in the nineteenth century in Wordsworth's verse, e.g. in _The Pet Lamb_ (ii. 149), and is in this use as well as in the Spenserian stanza treated by this poet with greater freedom than by others, two opening and medial disyllabic theses as well as suppression of anacrusis, being frequently admitted, while on the other hand the caesura and close of the verse are always monosyllabic.

§ =150. The three-foot line= has its origin theoretically, and as a rule also actually, in a halving of the Alexandrine, and this is effected less frequently by the use of leonine than by cross rhyme.

Two Alexandrine long lines are, for instance, frequently resolved in this metrical type into four three-foot short lines with crossed rhymes, as, e.g., in Robert Mannyng's _Chronicle_, from p. 69 of Hearne's edition onwards.

From our previous description of the four types of the Middle English Alexandrine, determined by the caesura and the close of the verse, it is clear that the short verses resulting from them may rhyme either with masculine or feminine endings, as, e.g., on p. 78, ll. 1, 2:

_Wílliam the Cónqueróur_ _Óut of his fírst erróur_
_Chángis his wícked wíll;_ _repéntis óf his ílle_.

In accordance with the general character of the metre the verses in this Chronicle are, even when rhyming as short lines, printed as long lines, especially as this order of rhymes is not consistently observed in all places in which they occur.

In lyrical poetry this metre is naturally chiefly found arranged in short lines, as in the following examples:

Wright's Spec. of L. P., 97: Minot, ed. Hall, 17:
_Máyden móder mílde,_ _Tówrenay, ȝów has tíght_
_oiéz cel óreysóun;_ _To tímber tréy and téne_
_from sháme þóu me shílde, A bóre, with brénis bríght_
_e dé ly málfelóun._ _Es bróght opón ȝowre gréne_.

With another order of rhymes these verses are also met with in tail-rhyme stanzas of different kinds, as, for instance, in Wright's _Spec. of L. P._, p. 41:

_Of a món mátheu þóhte,_ _In márewe mén he sóhte,_
_þo hé þe wýnȝord wróhte;_ _at únder mó he bróhte,_
_and wrót hit ón ys bóc,_ _and nóm, ant nón forsóc_.

As a rule, the verses in such lyrical compositions intended to be sung are more regularly constructed than in those of narrative poetry, where the usual Germanic metrical licences occur more frequently.

In Modern English the three-foot verse has remained a favourite, chiefly in lyrical poetry, and occurs there as well with monosyllabic as with disyllabic rhymes, which may either follow one another or be crossed, e.g.:

Surrey, p. 128: Surrey, p. 39:
_Me líst no móre to síng_ _Though Í regárded nót_
_Of lóve, nor óf such thing,_ _The prómise máde by mé;_
_How sóre that ít me wríng;_ _Or pássed nót to spót_
_For whát I súng or spáke,_ _My fáith and hónestý:_
_Mén did my sóngs mistáke._ _Yét were my fáncy stránge_, &c.

We seldom find three-foot verses with disyllabic rhymes throughout. There is, on the other hand, in lyrical poetry a predilection for stanzas in which disyllabic rhymes alternate with monosyllabic, as, for instance, in Sheffield, _On the Loss of an only Son_:

_Our mórning's gáy and shíning,
The dáys our jóys decláre;
At évening nó repíning,
And níght's all vóid of cáre.
A fónd transpórted móther
Was óften héard to crý,
Oh, whére is súch anóther
So bléss'd by Héaven as Í?_ &c.

Rhythmical licences, such as suppression of the anacrusis, seldom occur in such short lines. The species of licence that is most frequent appears to be inversion of accent.