The Project Gutenberg eBook of Transcriber's Notes, by The Same Author.

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:

[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 Eulalia, } rhyme.
Bel auret corps, bellezour anima. }
Voldrent la veintre li deo inimi } assonance.
Voldrent la faire diaule servir. }

[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).

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).

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.

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).

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.

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.

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).

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.]

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER IV BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

CHAPTER IV
BIBLIOGRAPHY