("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):

(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:

("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:

(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.)

(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.)

(Cleanness.)

(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:

(A. i. 159.)

(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—

(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:

(c) Alexandrines:

(K. T. 1036.)

(Sq. T. 585.)

XV. Later Middle English Period
Variations from Strict Iambic Norm in Gower.

(a) Trochaic substitution:

(Conf. Am. i. 2348.)

(b) Anapæstic substitution:

(iv. 1331.)

(v. 447.)

(if the dissyllabic "ie" is insisted on).

(v. 2514.)

(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—

(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 sixteener, 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:

I.

(Crown of Laurel.)

II.

(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

(Alexandrine.)
Preserve | this aud|ience | and leave | them to | inclyne.

(Irregular fourteener.)
Then hold | down thine | head like | a pret|ty man | and take | my blessing.

(In all these examples the doggerel is probably intended; that is to say, the writers are not aiming at a regularity which they cannot reach, but cheerfully or despairingly renouncing it.)

XIX. Transition Period
Examples from the Scottish Poets.

(a) Barbour (regular octosyllables):

(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):

Dunbar (dimeter iambic quatrains with refrain, and much anapæstic substitution):

(g) Alexander Scott (stanzas):

(h) Montgomerie (Cherry and Slae stanza):

XX. Early Elizabethan Period
Examples of Reformed Metre from Wyatt, Surrey, and other Poets before Spenser.

(a) Wyatt (sonnet)

(I formerly scanned line 9:

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, "luste" and "harte" (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"):

(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):