Chapter VI (1)

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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._

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_:

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--

But the youngest--

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:

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:

And from _Richard Cœur de Lion_, 3261-3268:

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:

(Chaucer, _Sir Thopas_.)

(_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.

(_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.)

(_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.)

("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):

_Adam._ Nay at | my speech|e would thou ne|ver spare
That has | us spilte.

(_Ibid._ § 24.)

(_b_)

(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_:

(_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:

(_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:

(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:

("Wheels" of _Gawain and the Green Knight_.)

(_The Pearl_, ii.)

("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:

(C. viii. 189.)

(B. xvi. 81.)

Fourteeners:

(B. viii. 56.)

(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--

(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:

(_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:

(_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:

(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:

(_K. T._ 1036.)

(_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:

(_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:

(_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:

(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_:

(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.":

(Spelling modernised as before, but not a word altered.)

XVIII. TRANSITION PERIOD

_Examples of Skeltonic and other Doggerel._

(_a_) Skelton:

(_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:

(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

(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):

(_One_ "acephalous" line.)

(_b_) Wyntoun (octosyllables somewhat freer):

(IV. ii. 157-160.)

(_c_) Blind Harry (regular decasyllables on French model):

(_d_) James I. (rhyme-royal):

(_e_) Henryson (ballad measure; slight anapæstic substitution):

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):

(_g_) Alexander Scott (stanzas):

(_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)

(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):

(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):

(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):

(_f_) Turberville (lyric stanza):

(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):

(Regular iambs throughout. One double rhyme.)

(_b_) _Shep. Kal._ (equivalenced octosyllable--_Christabel_ or _Genesis and Exodus_ metre):

(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):

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):

(_e_) _Mother Hubberd's Tale_ (antithetic and stopped heroic couplet):

(_f_) _Epithalamion_ (elaborate quasi-Pindaric stanza concerted in different line length, but almost strictly iambic; "the," etc., before a vowel being probably elided):

XXII. EXAMPLES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF BLANK VERSE

(_a_) _Surrey_ (translation of _Aeneid_):

(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._]

(_Gorboduc._)

[Sidenote: _Hughes and others._]

(_Misfortunes of Arthur._)

[Sidenote: _Peele._]

(_Battle of Alcazar._)

[Sidenote: _Greene._]

(_F. Bacon and F. Bungay._)

[Sidenote: _Marlowe._]

(_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):

(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._]

(_David and Bethsabe._)

[Sidenote: _Marlowe._]

(_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:

(_Titus Andronicus._)

(Same remarks applying as to the last citation.)

(2) Beginning of perfected stage:

(_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:

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Historical Manual of English ProsodyChapter VI (1)

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