,transcriber's ,notes ,any changes made to the text have been listed in notes at the end of the book4 ,the author makes extensive use of diacritics such as macron1 breve and grave accent to indicate stress1 length etc4 ,in the original1 these symbols often float over the text to show that they apply to the syllable1 but in this e-book are marked on the first vowel of the syllable only4 ,bold typeface is represented by by surrounding hash symbols2 italic by underscores2 small caps by ,,all ,,caps and strikethrough by tilde characters4 ,the caret symbol 77 precedes superscript characters4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,by ,,the ,,same ,,author ,a ,,history ,,of ,,english ,,prosody ,,from ,,the ,,twelfth ,,century ,,to ,,the ,,present ,,day4 #c vols4 #hvo4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,,from ,,the ,,origins ,,to ,,spenser4 #abs4 #f;d4 net4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,,from ,,shakespeare ,,to ,,crabbe4 #ahs4 net4 ,vol4 ,,iii4 ,,from ,,blake ,,to ,,swinburne4 #ahs4 net4 ,a ,,history ,,of ,,english ,,prose ,,rhythm4 #hvo4 #ahs4 net4 ,a ,,history ,,of ,,elizabethan ,,literature4 ,crown #hvo4 #hs4 #f;d4 ,a ,,history ,,of ,,nineteenth ,,century ,,literature4 ,crown #hvo4 #hs4 #f;d4 ,a ,,short ,,history ,,of ,,english ,,literature4 ,crown #hvo4 #ajs4 ,also in ,five ,parts4 ,crown #hvo4 #bs4 #f;d4 each4 ,,life ,,of ,,dryden4 ,library ,edition4 ,crown #hvo4 #cs4 net4 ,pocket ,edition4 ,fcap4 #hvo4 #bs4 net4 ,,london3 ,,macmillan ,,and ,,co41 ,,ltd4 ,,historical ,,manual ,,of ,,english ,,prosody ,illustration ,,macmillan ,,and ,,co41 ,,limited ,,london ,,bombay ,,calcutta ,,madras ,,melbourne ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company ,,new ,,york ,,boston ,,chicago ,,dallas ,,san ,,francisco ,,the ,,macmillan ,,co4 ,,of ,,canada1 ,,ltd4 ,,toronto ,,historical ,,manual ,,of ,,english ,,prosody ,,by ,,george ,,saintsbury ,m4,a4 ,,and ,,hon4 ,d4,,litt4 ,,oxon4 ,,hon4 ,,ll4,d4 ,,aberd42 ,,hon4 ,d4,,litt4 ,,durh42 ,,fellow ,,of ,,the ,,british ,,academy ,,hon4 ,,fellow ,,of ,,merton ,,college1 ,,oxford2 ,,late ,,professor ,,of ,,rhetoric ,,and ,,english ,,literature ,,in ,,the ,,university ,,of ,,edinburgh ,,macmillan ,,and ,,co41 ,,limited ,,st4 ,,martin',s ,,street1 ,,london #aiai ,,copyright ,first ,edition #aiaj ,reprinted #aiad1 #aiai ,,preface ,the reception of the first two volumes of a larger work 7since completed7 on ,english ,prosody suggested1 to the author and to the publishers1 that there might be room for a more compressed dealing with the subject1 possessing more introductory character1 and attempting the functions of a manual as well as those of a history4 ,it did not1 however1 seem that the matter could be satisfactorily treated in extremely brief form1 as a primer or elementary school-book4 ,the subject is one not very well suited for elementary instruction2 and in endeavouring to shape it for that use there is a particular danger of too positive and peremptory statement in reference to matters of the most contentious kind4 ,catechetical instruction has to be categorical2 if you set hypotheses1 or alternative systems1 before young scholars1 they are apt either to distrust the whole thing or to become hopelessly muddled4 ,and the opposite danger--of unhesitating adoption of positive statements on doubtful points--must have been found to be only too real by any one who has had to do with education4 ,schoolboys cannot be too early1 or too plentifully1 or too variously supplied with good examples of verse2 but they should be thoroughly familiar with the practice before they come to the principles4 ,to the ,senior ,forms of the higher ,secondary ,schools1 on the other hand1 and to students in those ,universities which admit ,english literature as a subject1 this function of it is quite suitable and well adapted1 and it is for their use that this volume is planned 7as well as for that of the general reader who may hardly feel inclined to tackle three large octavos74 ,an effort will be made to include everything that is vital to a clear understanding of the subject2 while opportunity will1 it is hoped1 be found for insertion of some information1 both of a historical and of a practical kind1 which did not seem so germane to the larger ,history4 ,it has been a main object with me in preparing this book1 while reducing prosodic theory to the necessary minimum1 but keeping that1 to load every rift with prosodic fact2 and ,i could almost recommend the student to devote himself to the ,contents and the ,index1 illustrated by the ,glossary1 all of which have been made exceptionally full1 before attacking the text4 ,the work1 like the larger one of which it is not so much an abstract as a parallel with a different purpose1 cannot hope to content those who think that prosody should be1 like mathematics or music1 a science1 immutable1 peremptory1 abstract in the other sense4 ,it will not content those who think--in pursuance or independently of such an opinion--that it should discard appreciation of the actual poetry1 on which1 from my point of view1 it is solely based4 ,it will1 from another point1 leave dissatisfied those who decline the attempt to reduce this poetry to some general but elastic laws1 and who concentrate themselves on the immediate musical or rhetorical values 7as they seem to them7 of individual poems1 or passages1 or even 7as is not uncommon7 lines4 ,nor will it provide1 what some seem to desire1 a tabular analysis of every verse-form in the language1 for reasons explained in the proper place 7v4 inf4 p4 #ccf note74 ,but1 from past experience1 it seems that it may find some public ready for it2 and it is perhaps not wholly fatuous to hope that it may help to create a larger4#a ,,george ,,saintsbury4 ,,edinburgh1 ,,all ,,souls' ,,day1 #aiaj4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,note to ,second ,edition4 ,christmas #aiac4--,the opportunity of this second edition#b has been taken to read the text carefully1 and to correct a certain number of errors of pen and press1 connected more especially with division of feet and quantification of syllables4 ,how difficult it is to avoid errors here1 nobody who has not tried the matter on an extensive scale can well conceive4 ,few more substantial alterations have been found necessary2 but ,i may mention here an addition to the evidence of distinct1 if clumsy1 anapstic metre in the mid4-sixteenth century1 which ,i had not noticed when writing this book1 or my larger one4 ,it is a translation of the #adith ,psalm1 contributed to the ,old ,version 7#aefa-b7 by ,john ,pulleyne1 ,student of ,christchurch1 ,archdeacon of ,colchester1 and ,prebendary of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,it may be found in the ,parker ,society's ,select ,poems1 and begins3 ,sing unto the ,lord with hearty accord ,a new joyful song2 ,his praises resound1 in every ground ,his saints all among4 #b ,and of a third4--,,bath1 ,sept4 #aiai4 ,,contents ,,book ,i ,,introductory ,,and ,,dogmatic ,,chapter ,i ,,page ,,introductory #c ,,chapter ,,ii ,,systems ,,of ,,english ,,prosody--,,the ,,accentual ,,or ,,stress ,classical prosody uniform in theory--,english not so--,accent and stress--,english prosody as adjusted to them--,its difficulties--and insufficiencies--,examples of its application--,its various sects and supporters #f ,,chapter ,,iii ,,systems ,,of ,,english ,,prosody--,,the ,,syllabic ,history of the syllabic theory--,its results--,note3 ,cautions #ad ,,chapter ,,iv ,,systems ,,of ,,english ,,prosody--,,the ,,foot ,general if not always consistent use of the term foot--,particular objections to its systematic use--,quantity in ,english--,the common syllable--,intermediate rules of arrangement--,some interim rules of feet 7expanded in note7--,the different systems applied to a single verse of ,tennyson's--and their application examined--,application further to his ,hollyhock song--,such application possible always and everywhere #ai ,,chapter ,v ,,rules ,,of ,,the ,,foot ,,system ,a4 ,feet4--,feet composed of long and short syllables--,not all combinations actual--,differences from classical feet--,the three usual kinds3 iamb1 trochee1 anapst--,the spondee--,the dactyl--,the pyrrhic--,the tribrach--,others4 ,b4 ,constitution of ,feet4--,quality or quantity in feet--,not necessarily time--nor vowel quantity--,accumulated consonants--or rhetorical stress--or place in verse will quantify--,commonness of monosyllables4 ,c4 ,equivalence and ,substitution4--,substitution of equivalent feet--,its two laws--,confusion of base must be avoided--7,of which the ear must judge7--,certain substitutions are not eligible4 ,d4 ,pause4--,variation of pause --,practically at discretion--,blank verse specially dependent on pause4 ,e4 ,line-,combination4--,simple or complex--,rhymes necessary to couplet--,few instances of successful unrhymed stanza--,unevenness of line in length--,stanzas to be judged by the ear--,origin of commonest line-combinations4 ,f4 ,rhyme4--,rhyme natural in ,english--,it must be full --and not identical--,general rule as to it--,alliteration--,single1 etc41 rhyme--,fullness of sound--,internal rhyme permissible--but sometimes dangerous4 ,g4 ,miscellaneous--,vowel-music--,fingering --,confusion of rhythms intolerable #cj ,,chapter ,,vi ,,continuous ,,illustrations ,,of ,,english ,,scansion ,,according ,,to ,,the ,,foot ,,system ,i4 ,old ,english ,period3 ,scansion only dimly visible--,,ii4 ,late ,old ,english with nisus towards ,metre3 ,grave ,poem--,,iii4 ,transition ,period3 ,metre struggling to assert itself in a new way--,,iv4 ,early ,middle ,english ,period3 ,attempt at merely ,syllabic ,uniformity with ,unbroken ,iambic ,run and no ,rhyme--,v4 ,early ,middle ,english ,period3 ,conflict or ,indecision between ,accentual ,rhythm and ,metrical ,scheme--,,vi4 ,early ,middle ,english ,period3 ,the ,appearance and ,development of the ,fourteener--,,vii4 ,early ,middle ,english ,period3 ,the ,plain and ,equivalenced ,octosyllable--,,viii4 ,early ,middle ,english ,period3 ,the ,romance-,six or ,rime ,coue--,,ix4 ,early ,middle ,english ,period3 ,miscellaneous ,stanzas--,x4 ,early ,middle ,english ,period3 ,appearance of the ,decasyllable--,,xi4 ,later ,middle ,english ,period3 ,the ,alliterative ,revival 7,pure7--,,xii4 ,later ,middle ,english ,period3 ,the ,alliterative ,revival 7,mixed7--,,xiii4 ,later ,middle ,english ,period3 ,potentially ,metrical ,lines in ,langland 7see ,book ,,ii47--,,xiv4 ,later ,middle ,english ,period3 ,scansions from ,chaucer--,,xv4 ,later ,middle ,english ,period3 ,variations from ,strict ,iambic ,norm in ,gower--,,xvi4 ,transition ,period3 ,examples of ,break-down in ,literary ,verse--,,xvii4 ,transition ,period3 ,examples of ,true ,prosody in ,ballad1 ,carols1 etc4--,,xviii4 ,transition ,period3 ,examples of ,skeltonic and other ,doggerel--,,xix4 ,transition ,period3 ,examples from the ,scottish ,poets--,,xx4 ,early ,elizabethan ,period3 ,examples of ,reformed ,metre from ,wyatt1 ,surrey1 and other ,poets before ,spenser--,,xxi4 ,spenser at ,different ,periods--,,xxii4 ,examples of the ,development of ,blank ,verse--,,xxiii4 ,examples of ,elizabethan ,lyric--,,xxiv4 ,early ,continuous ,anapsts--,,xxv4 ,the ,enjambed ,heroic ,couplet 7#aehj-affj7--,,xxvi4 ,the ,stopped ,heroic ,couplet 7#aehj-affj7--,,xxvii4 ,various ,forms of ,octosyllable-,heptasyllable 7late ,sixteenth and ,seventeenth ,century7--,,xxviii4 ,common1 ,long1 and ,in ,memoriam ,measure 7,seventeenth ,century7--,,xxix4 ,improved ,anapstic ,measures 7,dryden1 ,anon41 ,prior7--,,xxx4 ,pindarics 7,seventeenth ,century7--,,xxxi4 ,the ,heroic ,couplet from ,dryden to ,crabbe--,,xxxii4 ,eighteenth-,century ,blank ,verse--,,xxxiii4 ,the ,regularised ,pindaric ,ode--,,xxxiv4 ,lighter ,eighteenth-,century ,lyric--,,xxxv4 ,the ,revival of ,equivalence 7,chatterton and ,blake7--,,xxxvi4 ,rhymeless ,attempts 7,collins to ,shelley7--,,xxxvii4 ,the ,revived ,ballad 7,percy to ,coleridge7--,,xxxviii4 ,specimens of ,christabel2 ,note on the ,application of the ,christabel ,system to ,nineteenth-,century ,lyric generally--,,xxxix4 ,nineteenth-,century ,couplet 7,leigh ,hunt to ,mr4 ,swinburne7--,,xl4 ,nineteenth-,century ,blank ,verse 7,wordsworth to ,mr4 ,swinburne7--,,xli4 ,the ,non-,equivalenced ,octosyllable of ,keats and ,morris--,,xlii4 ,the ,continuous ,alexandrine 7,drayton and ,browning7--,,xliii4 ,the ,dying ,swan of ,tennyson scanned entirely through to show the ,application of the ,system--,,xliv4 ,the ,stages of the ,metre of ,dolores and the ,dedication of ,poems and ,ballads--,,xlv4 ,long ,metres of ,tennyson1 ,browning1 ,morris1 and ,swinburne--,,xlvi4 ,the ,later ,sonnet--,,xlvii4 ,the ,various ,attempts at ,hexameters in ,english--,,xlviii4 ,minor ,imitations of ,classical ,metres--,,xlix4 ,imitations of ,artificial ,french ,forms--,l4 ,later ,rhymelessness--,,li4 ,some ,unusual ,metres and ,disputed ,scansions #cg ,,book ,,ii ,,historical ,,sketch ,,of ,,english ,,prosody ,,chapter ,i ,,from ,,the ,,origins ,,to ,,chaucer--,,the ,,constitution ,,of ,,english ,,verse ,relations of ,old to ,middle and ,new ,english--generally--and in prosody--,anglo-,saxon prosody itself--,prosody of the ,transition to ,middle ,english--,contrast in ,layamon--,examinations of it3 ,insufficient--,sufficient--,other documents ,the ,ormulum--,the ,moral ,ode and the ,orison of ,our ,lady--,the ,proverbs of ,alfred and ,hendyng--,the ,bestiary--,minor poems--,the ,owl and the ,nightingale and ,genesis and ,exodus--,summary of results to the mid-thirteenth century--,the later thirteenth century and the fourteenth--,robert of ,gloucester--,the ,romances--,lyrics--,the alliterative revival--,the later fourteenth century--,langland--,gower--,chaucer--,h is perfecting of ,m4,e4 verse--,details of his prosody #acc ,,chapter ,,ii ,,from ,,chaucer ,,to ,,spenser--,,disorganisation ,,and ,,reconstruction ,causes of decay in ,southern ,english prosody--,lydgate1 ,occleve1 etc4--,the ,scottish poets--,ballad1 etc4--,dissatisfaction and reform--,wyatt and ,surrey--,their followers--,spenser--,the ,shepherd's ,calendar--,the ,faerie ,queene #afa ,,chapter ,,iii ,,from ,,shakespeare ,,to ,,milton--,,the ,,close ,,of ,,the ,,formative ,,period ,blank verse--,before ,shakespeare--,in him--and after him in drama--,its degeneration--,milton's reform of it--,comus--,paradise ,lost--,analysis of its versification1 with application of different systems--,stanza1 etc41 in ,shakespeare--in ,milton--and others--,the heroic couplet--,enjambed--and stopped--,lyric #agc ,,chapter ,,iv ,,halt ,,and ,,retrospect--,,continuation ,,on ,,heroic ,,verse ,,and ,,its ,,companions ,,from ,,dryden ,,to ,,crabbe ,recapitulation--,dryden's couplet--and ,pope's--,their predominance--,eighteenth-century octosyllable and anapst--,blank verse--and lyric--,merit of eighteenth-century regularity #aij ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,romantic ,,revival--,,its ,,precursors ,,and ,,first ,,great ,,stage ,gray and ,collins--,chatterton1 ,burns1 and ,blake--,other influences of change--,wordsworth1 ,southey1 and ,scott--,coleridge--,moore--,byron--,she lley3 his longer poems--,his lyrics--,keats #aih ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,last ,,stage--,,tennyson ,,to ,,swinburne ,from ,keats to ,tennyson--,tennyson himself--,special example of his manipulation of the quatrain--,browning--,mrs4 ,browning--,matthew ,arnold--,later poets3 ,the ,rossettis--,w4 ,morris--,mr4 ,swinburne--,others #bjg ,,chapter ,,vii ,,recapitulation ,,or ,,summary ,,view ,,of ,,stages ,,of ,,english ,,prosody ,i4 ,old ,english ,period--,,ii4 ,before or very soon after #abjj3 ,earliest ,middle ,english ,period--,,iii4 ,middle and ,later ,thirteenth ,century3 ,second ,early ,middle ,english ,period--,,iv4 ,earlier ,fourteenth ,century3 ,central ,period of ,middle ,english--,v4 ,later ,fourteenth ,century3 ,crowning ,period of ,middle ,english--,,vi4 ,fifteenth and ,early ,sixteenth ,centuries3 ,the ,decadence of ,middle ,english ,prosody--,,vii4 ,mid-,sixteenth ,century3 ,the ,recovery of ,rhythm--,,viii4 ,late ,sixteenth ,century3 ,the ,perfecting of ,metre and of ,poetical ,diction--,,ix4 ,early ,seventeenth ,century3 ,the further ,development of ,lyric1 ,stanza1 and ,blank ,verse2 ,insurgence and ,division of the ,couplet--,x4 ,mid-,seventeenth ,century3 ,milton--,,xi4 ,the ,later ,seventeenth ,century3 ,dryden--,,xii4 ,the ,eighteenth ,century--,,xiii4 ,the ,early ,nineteenth ,century and the ,romantic ,revival--,,xiv4 ,the ,later ,nineteenth ,century #bbj ,,book ,,iii ,,historical ,,survey ,,of ,,views ,,on ,,prosody ,,chapter ,i ,,before #agjj ,dearth of early prosodic studies--,gascoigne--,his remark on feet-- ,spenser and ,harvey--,stanyhurst--,webbe--,king ,james ,,vi4-- ,pattenham 787--,campion and ,daniel--,ben ,jonson1 ,drayton1 ,beaumont--,joshua ,poole and ,j4 ,d4--,milton--,dryden-- ,woodford--,comparative barrenness of the whole #bcc ,,chapter ,,ii ,,from ,,bysshe ,,to ,,guest ,bysshe's ,art of ,poetry--,its importance--,minor prosodists of the mid-eighteenth century--,dr4 ,johnson--,shenstone--,sheridan-- ,john ,mason--,mitford--,joshua ,steele--,historical and ,romantic prosody--,gray--,taylor and ,sayers--,southey3 his importance --,wordsworth--,coleridge--,christabel1 its theory and its practice--,prosodists from #ahjj to #ahej--;,guest #bdb ,,chapter ,,iii ,,later ,,nineteenth-,,century ,,prosodists ,discussions on the ,evangeline hexameter--,mid-century prosodists --,those about #ahgj--;and since--,summary #bef ,,book ,,iv ,,auxiliary ,,apparatus ,,chapter ,i ,,glossary ,accent--,acephalous--,acrostic--,alexan drine--,alcaic--,alliteration --,amphibrach--,amphimacer--,note on ,musical and ,rhetorical ,arrangements of ,verse--,anacrusis--,anapst--,anti-,bacc hic or ,anti-,bacchius--,antispast--,antistroph e--,appoggiatura-- ,arsis and its opposite1 ,thesis--,assonance--,atonic--,bacchic or ,bacchius--,ballad 7rarely ,ballet7--,ballade--,ballad ,metre or ,common ,measure--,bar and ,beat--,blank ,verse--,bob and ,wheel--,burden--,burns ,metre--,cadence--,csura--,carol-- ,catalexis--,catch--,chant-,royal--,chor iamb--,coda--,common --,common ,measure 7,c4,m47--,consonance--,couplet-- ,cretic--,dactyl--,di-iamb--,dimeter--,d ispondee--,distich-- ,ditrochee--,dochmiac--,doggerel--,duple --,elision-- ,end-stopped--,enjambment--,envoi--,epan aphora--,epanorthosis --,epitrite--,epode--,equivalence--,eye- ,rhyme--,feminine ,rhyme 7,feminine ,ending7--,fingering--,foot2 ,table of ,feet --,fourteener--,galliambic--,gemell or ,geminel--,head-,rhyme --,hendecasyllable--,heptameter--,heroic --,hexameter-- ,hiatus--,iambic--,inverted ,stress--,ionic2 ,note on ,ionic a minore as applicable to the ,epilogue of ,browning's ,asolando--,leonine ,verse--,line--,long and ,short--,long ,measure 7,l4,m47-- ,lydgatian ,line--,masculine ,rhyme--,metre--,molossus-- ,monometer--,monopressure--,octave--,oct ometer--,ode--,ottava ,rima--,pon--,pause--,pentameter--,pinda ric--,position--,poulter's ,measure--,proceleusmatic--,pyrrhic--,qu antity--,quartet or ,quatrain--,quintet--,redundance--,refra in--,rhyme --,rhyme-,royal--,rhythm--,riding ,rhyme--,rime ,coue or ,tailed ,rhyme--,romance-,six--,rondeau1 ,rondel--,sapphic-- ,section--,septenar--,septet--,sestet1 also ,sixain--,sestine1 ,sestina--,short ,measure 7,s4,m47--,single-moulded--,skeltonic --,slur--,sonnet--,spenserian--,spondee- -,stanza or ,stave--,stress--,stress-,unit--,strophe --,substitution--,synalpha-- ,syncope--,synizesis--,syzygy--,tailed ,sonnet--,tercet--,terza ,rima--,tetrameter--,thesis--,time--,tri brach--,triolet-- ,triple--,triplet--,trochee--,truncation --,tumbling ,verse--,turn of ,words--,verse--,verse ,paragraph--,vowel-,music-- ,weak ,ending--,wrenched ,accent #bfe ,,chapter ,,ii ,,reasoned ,,list ,,of ,,poets ,,with ,,special ,,regard ,,to ,,their ,,prosodic ,,quality ,,and ,,influence ,arnold1 ,matthew 7#ahbb-ahhh7--;,barham1 ,richard ,h4 7,thomas ,ingoldsby7 7#aghh-ahde7--;,beaumont1 ,sir ,john 7#aehc-afbc7--;,blake1 ,william 7#ageg-ahbg7--;,bowles1 ,william ,lisle 7#agfb-ahej7--;,browne1 ,william 7#aeia-afdc7--;,browning1 ,elizabeth ,barrett 7#ahjf-ahfa7--;,browning1 ,robert 7#ahab-ahhi7--;,burns1 ,robert 7#agei-agif7--;,byron1 ,george ,gordon1 ,lord 7#aghh-ahbd7--;,campbell1 ,thomas 7#aggg-ahdd7--;,campion1 ,thomas 78-#afai7--;,canning1 ,george 7#aggj-ahbg7--;,chamberlayne1 ,william 7#afai-afhi7--;,chatterton1 ,thomas 7#ageb-aggj7--;,chaucer1 ,geoffrey 7#acdj8-adjj7--;,cleveland1 ,john 7#afac-afeh7--;,coleridge1 ,samuel ,taylor 7#aggb-ahcd7--;,collins1 ,william 7#agba-agei7--;,congreve1 ,william 7#afgj-agbi7--;,cowley1 ,abraham 7#afah-affg7--;,cowper1 ,william 7#agca-ahjj7--;,donne1 ,john 7#aegc-afca7--;,drayton1 ,michael 7#aefc-afca7--;,dryden1 ,john 7#afcj-agjj7--;,dixon1 ,richard ,watson 7#ahcc-aijj7--;,dunbar1 ,william 7#adej8-aeac8 or -#aecj87--;,dyer1 ,john 7#agjj8-ageh87--;,fairfax1 ,edward 7d4 #afce7--;,fitzgerald1 ,edward 7#ahji-ahhc7--;,fletcher1 ,giles 7#aehh-afbc71 and ,phineas 7#aehb-afej7--;,fletcher1 ,john 7#aegi-afbe7--;,frere1 ,john ,hookham 7#agfi-ahdf7--;,gascoigne1 ,george 7#aebe8-aegg7--;,glover1 ,richard 7#agab-aghe7--;,godric1 ,saint 78-#aagj7--;,gower1 ,john 7#acbe8-adjh7--;,hampole1 ,richard ,rolle of 7#abij8-acdg7--;,hawes1 ,stephen 7d4 #aebc87--;,herrick1 ,robert 7#aeia-afgd7--;,hunt1 ,j4 ,h4 ,leigh 7#aghd--ahei7---;,jonson1 ,benjamin 7#aegc8-afcg7--,keats1 ,john 7#agie-ahba7--,kingsley1 ,charles 7#ahai-ahge7--,landor1 ,walter ,savage 7#agge-ahfd7--,langland1 ,william 7fourteenth century7--,layamon 7late twelfth and early thirteenth century7--,lewis1 ,matthew ,gregory 7#agge-ahah7--,locker 7latterly ,locker-,lampson71 ,frederick 7#ahba-ahie7--,longfellow1 ,henry ,wadsworth 7#ahjg-ahhb7--,lydgate1 ,john 7#acgj-adej87--,macaulay1 ,thomas ,babington 7#ahjj-ahei7--,maginn1 ,william 7#agic-ahdb7--,marlowe1 ,christopher 7#affd-afic7--,milton1 ,john 7#afjh-afgd7--,moore1 ,thomas 7#aggi-aheb7--,morris1 ,william 7#ahcd-ahif7--,orm--,o',shaughnessy1 ,arthur ,w4 ,e4 7#ahdd-ahha7--,peele1 ,george 7#aeeh8-aeig87--,percy1 ,thomas 7#agbi-ahaa7--,poe1 ,edgar 7#ahji-ahdi7--,pope1 ,alexander 7#afhh-agdd7--,praed1 ,winthrop ,mackworth 7#ahjb-ahci7--,prior1 ,matthew 7#affd-agba7--,robert of ,gloucester 7fl4 c4 #abhj7--,rossetti1 ,christina ,georgina 7#ahcj-ahid7 and ,dante ,gabriel 7#ahbh-ahhb7--,sackville1 ,thomas 7#aecf-afjh7--,sandys1 ,george 7#aegh-afdd7--,sayers1 ,frank 7#agfc-ahag7--,scott1 ,sir ,walter 7#agga-ahcb7--,shakespeare1 ,william 7#aefd-afaf7--,shelley1 ,percy ,bysshe 7#agib-ahbb7--,shenstone1 ,william 7#agad-agfc7--,sidney1 ,sir ,philip 7#aeed-aehf7--,southey1 ,robert 7#aggd-ahdc7--,spenser1 ,edmund 7#aeeb8-aeii7--,surrey1 ,earl of 7#aeag-aedg7--,swinburne1 ,algernon ,charles 7#ahcg-aiji7--,tennyson1 ,alfred 7#ahji-ahib7--,thomson1 ,james 7#agjj-agdh7--,tusser1 ,thomas 7#aebd8-aehj7--,waller1 ,edmund 7#afjf-afhg7--,watts1 ,isaac 7#afgd-agda7--,whitman1 ,walter 7#ahai-ahib7--,wordsworth1 ,william 7#aggj-ahej7--,wyatt1 ,sir ,thomas 7#aejc8-aedb7 #bih ,,chapter ,,iii ,,origins ,,of ,,lines ,,and ,,stanzas ,a4 ,lines4--,i4 ,alliterative--,,ii4 ,short ,lines--,,iii4 ,octosyllable--,,iv4 ,decasyllabic--,v4 ,alexandrine--,,vi4 ,fourteener--,,vii4 ,doggerel--,,viii4 ,long ,lines4 ,b4 ,stanzas1 etc4--,i4 ,ballad ,verse--,,ii4 ,romance-,six or ,rime ,coue--,,iii4 ,octosyllabic and ,decasyllabic ,couplet--,,iv4 ,quatrain--,v4 ,in ,memoriam ,metre--,,vi4 ,rhyme-,royal--,,vii4 ,octave--,,viii4 ,spenserian--,,ix4 ,burns ,metre--,x4 ,other ,stanzas #caf ,,chapter ,,iv ,,bibliography ,abbot1 ,e4 ,a4--,alden1 ,r4 ,m4--,blake1 ,j4 ,w4--,brewer1 ,r4 ,f4--,bridges1 ,r4 ,s4--,bysshe1 ,edward--,calverley1 ,c4 ,s4--,campion1 ,thomas--,cayley1 ,c4 ,b4--,coleridge1 ,s4 ,t4--,conway1 ,gilbert--,crowe1 ,william--,daniel1 ,samuel--,dryden1 ,john--,gascoigne1 ,george--,goldsmith1 ,oliver--,guest1 ,edwin--,hodgson1 ,shadworth--,hood1 ,t4 7the younger7--,jenkin1 ,fleeming--,johnson1 ,samuel--,ker1 ,w4 ,p4--,king ,james the ,first 7,sixth of ,scotland7--,lewis1 ,c4 ,m4--,liddell1 ,mark ,h4--,mason1 ,john--,masson1 ,david--,mayor1 ,j4 ,b4--,mitford1 ,william--,omond1 ,t4,s4--,patmore1 ,coventry--,poe1 ,e4 ,a4--,puttenham1 ,george8--,ruskin1 ,john--,schipper1 ,j4--,shenstone1 ,william--,skeat1 ,w4 ,w4--,southey1 ,robert--,spedding1 ,james--,spenser1 ,edmund--,steele1 ,joshua--,stone1 ,w4 ,j4--,symonds1 ,j4 ,a4--,thelwall1 ,john--,verrier1 ,m4--,wadham1 ,e4--,webbe1 ,william #ccg ,,index #cda ,,book ,i ,,introductory ,,and ,,dogmatic ,,chapter ,i ,,introductory ,prosody1 or the study of the constitution of verse1 was1 not so long ago1 made familiar1 in so far as it concerned ,latin1 to all persons educated above the very lowest degree1 by the presence of a tractate on the subject as a conclusion to the ,latin ,grammar4 ,the same persons were further obliged to a more than theoretical knowledge of it1 in so far as it concerned that language1 by the once universal1 now 7as some think7 most unwisely disused habit of composing ,latin verses4 ,the great majority of ,english poets1 from at least the sixteenth century1 if not earlier1 until far into the nineteenth1 had actually composed such verses2 and even more had learnt the rules of them1 long before attempting in ,english the work which has given them their fame4 ,it is sometimes held that this fact--which as a fact is undeniable--has had an undue influence on the way in which ,english prosody has been regarded2 that it must have exercised an enormous influence on the way in which ,english poetry has been produced may be denied1 but hardly by any one who really considers the fact itself1 and who is capable of drawing an inference4 ,it was1 however1 a very considerable time before any attempt was regularly made to construct a similar scientific or artistic analysis for ,english verse itself4 ,although efforts were made early to adjust that verse to the complete forms of ,latin--and of ,greek1 which is in some respects prosodically nearer than ,latin to ,english1-- although such attempts have been constantly repeated and are being continued now1--it has always been impossible for any intelligent person to make them without finding curious1 sometimes rather indefinite1 but extremely palpable differences and difficulties in the way4 ,the differences especially have sometimes been exaggerated and more often mistaken1 and it is partly owing to this fact that1 up to the present moment1 no authoritative body of doctrine on the subject of ,english prosody can be said to exist4 ,it is believed by the present writer that such a body of doctrine ought to be and can be framed--with the constant proviso and warning that it will be doctrine subject1 not to the practically invariable uniformity of ,science1 but to the wide variations of ,art1--not to the absolute compulsion of the universal1 but to the comparative freedom of the individual and particular4 ,the inquiries and considerations upon which this doctrine is based will be found1 at full1 in the larger work referred to in the ,preface4 ,in the first ,book1 here1 will be set forth the leading systems or principles which have actually underlain1 and do underlie1 the conflicting views and the discordant terminology of the subject1 and this will be followed by perhaps the most valuable part1 if any be valuable1 of the whole--a series of selected passages1 scanned and commented1 from the very beginning to the very end of ,english poetry4 ,in the second1 a survey will be given of that actual history of the actual poetry which ought to be1 but has very seldom been1 the basis of every discussion on prosody4 ,in the third a brief conspectus will be supplied of the actual opinions which have been held on this subject by those who have handled it in ,english4 ,the fourth will give1 in the first place1 a ,glossary of ,terms1 which appears to be very much needed2 in the second1 a list of poets who have specially influenced the course of prosody1 with reasoned remarks on their connection with it2 in the third1 a selected list of important metres with their origins and affiliations2 any further matter which may seem necessary following1 with a short ,bibliography to conclude4 ,the object of the whole is not merely to inculcate what seems to the author to be the best if not the only adequate general system of ,english prosody1 but to provide the student with ample materials for forming his own judgment on this difficult1 long debated1 often mistaken1 but always1 if duly handled1 profitable and delectable matter4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,systems ,,of ,,english ,,prosody--,,the ,,accentual ,,or ,,stress ,sidenote3 ,classical prosody uniform in theory4 ,the great difficulty attending the study of ,english prosody1 and the cause of the fact that no book hitherto published can be said to possess actual authority on the subject1 arises from the other fact that no general agreement exists1 or ever has existed1 on the root-principles of the matter4#c ,classical writers on metre1 of whom we possess a tolerable stock1 differed with each other on many minor points of opinion1 and from each other in the ways in which they attacked the subject4 ,but they were practically agreed that quantity 7i4e4 the difference of technical time in pronunciation of syllables7 and feet--that is to say1 certain regular mathematical combinations of long and short quantity--constituted metre4 ,they had indeed accent--the later ,greeks certainly and the ,latins probably--which was independent of1 and perhaps sometimes opposed to1 quantity2 but except in what we call the ante-classical times of ,latin and the post-classical times of both ,latin and ,greek1 it had nothing to do with metrical arrangement4 ,they had different values of long and short2 but these did not affect metre1 nor did the fact that in both languages1 but especially in ,greek1 a certain number of syllables were allowed to be common--that is to say1 capable of taking the place of long or short alike4 ,the central system of prosodic arrangement 7till the flooding of the later ,empire with barbarians of various nationality and as various intonation and modes of speech broke it down altogether7 remained the same4 ,longs and shorts in the various combinations and permutations possible1 up to three syllables most commonly1 up to four in fewer cases1 and possibly up to five in still fewer1 made up lines which experiment discovered to be harmonious1 and practice adopted as such4 ,these lines were sometimes used continuously 7with or without certain internal variations of feet1 considered equivalent to each other71 as in modern blank verse2 sometimes arranged in batches corresponding more or less to each other1 as in modern couplet or stanza poetry4 ,sidenote3 ,english not so4 ,on the other hand1 though ,english prosodists may sometimes agree on details1 translated into their different terminologies1 the systems which lie at the root of these terminologies are almost irreconcilably different4 ,even the reduction of these systems to three types may excite protest1 though it is believed that it can be made out without begging the question in favour of any one4 ,sidenote3 ,accent and stress4 ,the discord begins as early as possible2 for there are some who would maintain that accentual systems and stress systems ought not to be identified1 or even associated4 ,it is quite true that the words are technically used#d with less or more extensive and intensive meaning2 but definitions of each are almost always driven to adopt the other1 and in prosodic systems they are practically inseparable4 ,the soundest distinction perhaps is that accent refers to the habitual stress laid on a syllable in ordinary pronunciation2 stress to a syllable specially accented for this or that reason1 logical1 rhetorical1 or prosodic purely4 ,sidenote3 ,english prosody as adjusted to them4 ,according to this system 7or systems7 ,english poetry consists of syllables--accented or unaccented1 stressed or unstressed--arranged on principles which1 whatever they may be in themselves1 have no analogy to those of classical feet4 ,according to the more reckless and thorough-going accentualists--the view is expressed1 with all but its utmost crudity1 in ,coleridge's celebrated ,preface to ,christabel#e--;all you have got to do is to look to the accents4 ,cruder advocates still have said that accents take the place of feet 7which is something like saying that points take the place of swords71 or that unaccented syllables are left to take care of themselves4 ,it has also been contended that the number and the position of accents or stresses give a complete and sufficient scheme of the metre4 ,and in some late forms of stress-prosody the regularity1 actual or comparative1 which used to be contended for by accentualists themselves1 is entirely given up2 lines in continuous and apparently identical arrangement may have two1 three1 four1 five1 or even more stresses4 ,while yet others have gone farther still and deliberately proposed reading of verse as a prose paragraph1 the natural stresses of which will give the rhythm at which the author aimed4#f ,some again would deny the existence of any normal form of staple lines like the heroic1 distributing them in bars of beats which may vary almost indefinitely4 ,on the other hand1 there are some accentualists who hardly differ1 in more than terminology1 from the upholders of a foot-and-quantity system4 ,they think that there is no or little time-quantity in ,english2 that an ,english long syllable is really an accented one only1 and an ,english short syllable an unaccented4 ,they would not neglect the unaccented syllables2 but would keep them in batches similar to1 if not actually homonymous with1 feet4 ,in fact the difference with them becomes1 if not one of mere terminology1 one chiefly on the previous question of the final constitution and causation of long and short syllables4 ,of these1 and of a larger number who consciously or unconsciously approach nearer to1 though they do not actually enter1 the go-as-you-please prosody of the extreme stressmen1 the majority of ,english prosodists has nearly always consisted4 ,gascoigne1 our first writer on the subject1 belonged to them1 calling accent itself emphasis1 and applying the term accent only to the written or typographical symbols of it2 while he laid great stress on its observance in verse4 ,with those who adopt this system1 and its terminology1 the substitution of a trochee for an iamb in the heroic line is inversion of accent1 the raising or lowering of the usual pronounced value of a syllable1 wrenching of accent1 and so on4 ,and the principal argument which they advance in favour of their system against the foot-and-quantity scheme is the very large prevalence of common syllables in ,english--an undoubted fact2 though the inference does not seem to follow4 ,sidenote3 ,its difficulties ,the mere use of the word unaccented for short and accented for long does no particular harm1 though it seems to some clumsy1 irrational1 and not always strictly correct even from its own point of view1 while it produces unnecessary difficulty in the case of feet1 or sections1 with no accent in them--things which most certainly exist in ,english poetry4 ,but the moment that advance is made upon this mere question of words and names1 far more serious mischief arises4 ,there can be no doubt that the insistence on strict accent1 alternately placed1 led directly to the monotonous and snip-snap verse of the eighteenth century4 ,in some cases it leads1 logically and necessarily1 to denial of such feet as those just mentioned--a denial which flies straight in the face of fact4 ,although it does not necessarily involve1 it most frequently leads also to1 the forbidding1 ignoring1 or shuffling off of trisyllabic feet1 which are the chief glory and the chief charm of ,english poetry1 as substituted for dissyllabic4 ,and1 further still1 it leads to the most extraordinary confusion of rhythms--accentualists very commonly1 if not always1 maintaining that1 inasmuch as there are the same number of accented syllables1 it does not matter whether you scan ,whn th ,brtsh wrrr quen iambically or ,whn th ,brtsh wrrr quen trochaically1 n th hxmtr rss th funtin's slvry clmn dactylically or n th hxmtr rss th funtin's slvry clmn anapstically4 ,further still1 and almost worst of all1 it leads to the enormities of fancy stress above referred to1 committed by people who decline to regard as long syllables not accented in ordinary pronunciation4 ,sidenote3 and insufficiencies4 ,but its greatest crime is its hopeless inadequacy1 poverty1 and beggarly elementariness4 ,at best the accentual prosodist1 unless he is a quantitative one in disguise1 confines himself to the mere skeleton of the lines1 and neglects their delicately formed and softly coloured flesh and members4 ,to leave unaccented syllables as it were to take care of themselves is to make prosody mere singsong or patter4 ,finally1 it may be observed that1 in all accentual or stress prosodies which are not utterly loose and desultory1 there is a tendency to multiply exceptions1 provisos1 minor classifications to suit particular cases1 and the like1 so that ,english prosody assumes the aspect1 not of a combination of general order and individual freedom1 but of a tangle of by-laws and partial regulations4 ,unnecessary when it is not mischievous1 mischievous when it is strictly and logically carried out1 the accentual system derives its only support from the fact above mentioned 7the large number of common syllables to be found in ,english71 from the actual existence of it in ,old ,english before the language and the poetry had been modified by ,romance admixture1 and from an unscientific application of the true proposition that the classical and the ,english prosodies are in some respects radically different4 ,sidenote3 ,examples of its application4 ,it will1 however1 of course be proper to give examples of the manner in which accentual 7or stress7 scansion is worked by its own partisans and exponents4 ,their common formula for the ,english heroic line in its normal aspect is #exa3#g ,what ft was thught1 but n'er so wll exprst4 ,if they meet with a trisyllabic foot1 as in ,and many an amorous1 many a humorous lay1 they either admit two unaccented syllables between the accents1 or suggest slur or synalpha or elision 7man-yan71 this last especially taking place with the definite article the 7th'74 ,but this last process need not be insisted on by accentualists1 though it must by the next class we shall come to4 ,it is common1 if not universal1 for accentual prosodists to hold that two accents must not come together1 so that they are troubled by that double line of ,milton's where the ending and beginning run-- ,bth stod ,bth trned1 ,they admit occasional inversion of accent 7trochaic substitution7--especially at the opening of a verse1--as in the line which ,milton begins with ,mker2 but1 when they hold fast to their principles1 dislike it much in other cases1 as1 for instance1 in flls to the grund4 ,and they complain when the accent which they think necessary falls1 as they call it1 on one of two weak syllables1 as in ,and when4 ,this older and simpler school1 however1 represented by ,johnson1 has been largely supplemented by another1 whose members use the term stress or ictus in preference to accent1 and to a greater or less extent give up the attempt to establish normality of line at all4 ,sidenote3 ,its various sects and supporters4 ,some of them#h admit lines of four1 three1 or even two stresses1 as1 for instance-- ,his mnisters of vngeance and pursit4 ,others#i break it up into bars or sections which need not contain the same or any fixed number of beats or stresses1 while some again#aj seem to regard the stresses of a whole passage as supplying1 like those of a prose paragraph1 a sufficient rhythmical skeleton the flesh of which--the unaccented or unstressed part--is allowed to huddle itself on and shuffle itself along as it pleases4 ,this school has received large recent accessions2 but even now the greater number of accentualists do little more than eschew the terms of quantity1 and substitute for them those of accent1 more or less consistently4 ,many of them even use the classical names and divisions of feet2 and with these there need not1 according to strict necessity1 be any quarrel1 since their error1 if it be one1 only affects the constitution of prosodic material before it is verse at all1 and not the actual prosodic arrangement of verse as such4 ,,footnotes3 #c ,or1 it may be added1 on its terminology2 whence it results that there is no subject on which it is so difficult to write without being constantly misunderstood4 ,it is perhaps not surprising that some people almost deny the existence of ,english prosody itself1 and decline at any rate to take it seriously2 while others talk about it in ways which half justify the sceptics4 #d ,it is inevitable1 in dealing with this subject1 that technicalities1 historical and literary references1 etc41 should be plentifully employed4 ,to explain them always in the text would mean endless and disgusting delay and repetition2 to give notes of cross-reference in every case would bristle the lower part of the page unnecessarily and hideously4 ,not merely the ,contents and ,index1 but the various ,glossaries and ,lists in the ,fourth ,book have been expressly arranged to supply explanation and assistance in the least troublesome and most compendious manner4 ,but special references will be given when they seem absolutely necessary4 #e ,see on this in ,book ,,iii4 #f ,see the article in ,glossary on ,musical and ,rhetorical ,arrangements of ,verse1 and ,rule #da1 infra1 p4 #ce4 #g ,this formula seems due to ,latham1 the compiler of a well-known work on ,language4 ,the foot-division mark has been sometimes adopted 7by ,guest7 and defended 7by ,professor ,skeat1 who1 however1 does not personally employ it7 as a substitute for the accent mark4 ,for arguments against this which seem to the present writer strong1 see ,h4 ,e4 ,p4 i4 #h1 and iii4 #bgf1 #edd-ede4 #h ,of whom the most important by far is ,mr4 ,bridges1 though he has never1 ,i think1 reduced the number to two1 or increased it above five4 ,others1 however1 have admitted eight6 #i ,e4g4 ,mr4 ,thomson1 ,sir ,w4 ,m',cormick1 ,m4 ,verrier4 #aj ,e4g4 ,mr4 ,j4 ,a4 ,symonds1 ,mr4 ,hewlett4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,systems ,,of ,,english ,,prosody--,,the ,,syllabic ,sidenote3 ,history of the syllabic theory4 ,a strictly syllabic system of prosody has hardly at any time been a sufficient key1 even in appearance1 to ,english verse4 ,but it has preserved a curious insistence of pretension1 and the study of it is of great and informing prosodic interest4 ,it is1 of course1 ,french in origin--,french prosody1 except in eccentric instances1 has been from the first1 and is to the present day1 strictly syllabic4 ,it is innocuous in so far as in the words octosyllable1 decasyllable1 fourteener1 and the like1 the irreducible syllabic minimum 7save by licence of certain metres7 is conveniently indicated4 ,in so early an example as ,orm 7v4 inf47 we find it carried out exactly and literally4 ,but the inherited spirit of ,old ,english1 surviving and resisting all changes and reinforcements of vocabulary1 accent1 and everything else1 will have none of it4 ,in the fifteener#aa itself2 in its sequel and preserver1 ballad measure2 in octosyllabic couplet--not merely in the loose form of ,genesis and ,exodus1 but to some extent even in the strict one of ,the ,owl and the ,nightingale2 in almost all mixed modes1 when once they have broken free from direct copying of ,french or ,provenal1 it is cast to the winds4 ,it can only be introduced into ,chaucer1 as far as his heroic couplet is concerned1 by perpetual violations of probability1 document1 and rhythm4 ,even in ,gower1 the principal representative of it1 and one who probably did aim at it1 there are some certain1 and many probable1 lapses from strict observance4 ,but in the linguistic and phonetic changes of the fifteenth century1 with the consequent decadence of original literary poetry1 the principle of syllabic liberty degenerates into intolerable licence1 and the doggerel which resulted1 after triumphing or at least existing for some generations1 provoked considerable reaction in practice and a still more considerable mistake in principle4 ,wyatt1 ,surrey1 and their successors in the middle of the century and the first half of ,elizabeth's reign1 are pretty strict syllabically2 and it was from their practice1 doubtless1 that ,gascoigne--one of the last of the group1 but our first ,english preceptist in prosody--conceived the idea that ,english has but one foot1 of two syllables4 ,spenser's practice in the ,shepherd's ,kalendar is not wholly in accordance with this2 but even he came near to observing it later1 and the early blank-verse writers were painfully scrupulous in this respect4 ,but it was inevitable that blank verse1 and especially dramatic blank verse1 should break through these restraints2 and in the hands of ,shakespeare it soon showed that the greatest ,english verse simply paid no attention at all to syllabic limitations2 while lyric1 though rather slower1 was not so very slow to indulge itself to some extent1 as it was tempted by triple-timed music4 ,the excesses1 however1 of the decayed blank verse of the ,first ,caroline period joined with those of the enjambed couplet1 though these were not strictly syllabic1 to throw liberty into discredit2 and the growth and popularity of the strict closed couplet encouraged a fresh delusion--that ,english prosody ought to be syllabic4 ,dryden himself to some extent countenanced this1 though he indemnified himself by the free use of the ,alexandrine1 or even of the fourteener1 in decasyllabics4 ,the example of ,milton was for some time not imitated1 and has even to this day been misunderstood4 ,about the time of ,dryden's own death1 in the temporary decadence of the poetic spirit1 syllabic prosody made a bold bid for absolute rule4 ,in the year #agjb ,edward ,bysshe1 publishing#ab the first detailed and positive manual of ,english prosody1 laid it down1 without qualification or apology1 that the structure of our verses1 whether blank or rhyming1 consists in a certain number of syllables2 not in feet composed of long or short syllables1 as the verses of the ,greeks and ,romans4 ,and although all ,bysshe's details1 which1 as will be seen below1 were rigidly arranged on these principles--so that he made no distinction between verse of triple time 7though he grudgingly and almost tacitly admitted it7 and verse of double1 as such1--were not adopted by others1 his doctrine was always 7save in a very few instances to be duly noticed later7 implicitly1 and often explicitly1 the doctrine of the eighteenth century4 ,nor has this ever lost a certain measure of support2 while it is very curious that the few foreign students of ,english prosody who have arisen in late years are usually inclined to it4 ,one difficulty in it1 however1 could never escape its most peremptory devotees2 and a shift for meeting it must have been devised at the same time as the doctrine4 ,it was all very well to lay down that ,english verse must consist of a certain number of syllables2 but it could escape no one who had ever read a volume or even a few pages of ,english poetry1 that it did consist of a very uncertain number of them4 ,the problem was1 therefore1 how to get rid of the surplus where it existed4 ,it was met by recourse to that very classical prosody which was in other respects being denied1 and by the adoption of ruthless elision or crushing out of the supposed superfluities4 ,this involved not merely elision proper--the vanishing or metrical ignoring of a vowel at the end of a word before a vowel 7or an h7 at the beginning of another1 th7'_/e7 ,almighty1 t7'_/o7 admire4 ,application of a similar process to the interior of words like vi7'_/o7let1 di7'_/a7mond1 was inculcated1 and in fact insisted on2 and even where consonants preceded and followed a vowel of the easily slurrable kind1 as in watery1 the suppression of the e and sometimes even of other vowels--del7'_/i7cate--was prescribed4 ,sidenote3 ,its results4 ,there may possibly be two opinions 7though it seems strange that there should be7 on the sthetic results of this proceeding4 ,to the present writer they seem utterly hideous2 while the admission of the full syllables seems melodious and satisfying4 ,it may also be pointed out that there is a very tell-tale character about the fact that not a few prosodists who defend elision in principle defend it only as a metrical fiction1 and even lay down positively that the elided syllables are always to be pronounced4#ac ,but it is far less matter of opinion--if it is even matter of opinion at all--first1 that this process of mangling and monotonising ,english poetry is unnecessary2 and1 secondly1 that it is inconsistent with the historic development of the language and the literature4 ,that it is unnecessary will1 it is hoped1 be demonstrated in the next of these ,introductory ,chapters2 and that it is unhistorical the whole body of the historical survey to follow will show4 ,and another objection of great importance can be made good at once and here4 ,the rigid observance of the syllabic system produces1 and cannot but produce1 an intolerable monotony--a monotony which has made the favourite verse of the eighteenth century positively 7if perhaps excessively and unreasonably7 loathsome to succeeding generations4 ,it would be condemned by this1 if it had no other fault2 while it has1 as a matter of fact1 hardly a virtue4 ,it was tried once for all by ,orm1 and failed once for all1 in the beginning of modern ,english1 and it has never been tried in practice or maintained in theory since without validating inferior poetry and discouraging good4#ad ,,footnotes3 #aa ,for the almost necessary precedence1 owing to the inflexional e1 of the fourteener by this1 and for expansion and explanation of other historic facts mentioned in this chapter1 see ,scanned ,conspectus and ,books ,,ii4 and ,,iii4 #ab ,see ,bibliography and ,book ,,iii4 #ac ,this1 it may be pointed out1 is in flat contradiction to the older doctrine of1 for instance1 ,dryden1 that no vowel can be cut out before another in scansion which is not so in pronunciation4 #ad ,examples here can hardly be needed4 ,at any rate1 one 7,shenstone's1 v4 inf41 own7 may suffice3 ,the loose wall tottering o'er the trembling shade1 ,sidenote3 ,cautions4 ,here syllabic prosody would pronounce1 and in strictness spell1 tott'ring4--,this is perhaps as good a place as any to make some remarks on the connection of syllables with ,english prosody4 ,in that prosody there are no extrametrical syllables1 except at the end of lines1 and 7much more doubtfully7 at the csura1 which is a sort of end4 ,every syllable that occurs elsewhere must be part of1 or constitute1 a foot2 and it is for this reason that the ,rules following begin with feet1 not syllables4 ,it is practically impossible1 in many1 if not in most cases1 to tell the prosodic value of an ,english syllable1 or an ,english word1 till you see it in actual verse4--,again1 although there are1 of course1 innumerable instances where a foot coincides with a word1 the composition of the foot out of syllables belonging to different words1 as in ,the thunder of the trumpets of the night1 or ,to settle the succession of the state1 is usually more effective4--,and1 lastly1 although there have1 at different times1 been strange prejudices against the use of monosyllables and of polysyllables1 these prejudices are1 in both cases1 wholly unreasonable4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,systems ,,of ,,english ,,prosody--,,the ,,foot ,sidenote3 ,general if not always consistent use of the term foot4 ,although the accentual and the syllabic systems--sometimes separate1 but oftener combined--have1 on the whole1 dominated ,english preceptist prosody almost from the time when it first began to be formally studied1 there has1 until very recently1 been a constant tendency to blend with these1 if not the full acceptance1 at any rate a certain borrowing1 of the terminology of a third system--the foot-and-quantity one1 so well known in the classical prosodies4 ,not before ,bysshe 7c4 #agjj7 do you find any positive denial of feet4 ,gascoigne 7c4 #aegj7 talks of them2 ,milton speaks of committing short and long2 ,dr4 ,johnson1 though using a strict accent-and-syllable scheme1 admits 7whether with absolute accuracy or not does not matter7 that our heroic verse is derived from the iambic4 ,and in more modern times1 from ,mitford downwards1 arguments against the applicability of the terms in ,english have not unfrequently been found consistent with an occasional1 if not a regular1 employment of them4 ,in fact1 nothing but a curious suspicion1 as of something cabalistical in them1 can prevent their use1 or the use of some much more clumsy and inconvenient equivalents--bars1 beats1 sections1 what not2#ae for that use is based on the most unalterable of all things1 except the laws of thought1 the laws of mathematics4 ,everybody1 whatsoever his prosodic sect1 admits that verse consists of alternations of two values--some would say of more than two1 but that only complicates the application of an unchanged argument4 ,now the possible combinations of two different things1 in successive numerical units of two1 three1 four1 etc41 are not arbitrary1 but naturally fixed2 and the names of feet--iambic1 trochaic1 dactylic1 etc4--are merely tickets for these combinations4 ,sidenote3 ,particular objections to its systematic use4 ,the reasons of the objection have been various1 and are perhaps not always fully stated1 or even fully appreciated1 by those who advance them4 ,it is most common perhaps now 7though it was not so formerly7 to find the objection itself lodged thus--that the so-called ,english iambs1 anapsts1 etc41 are different things from the feet so called in ,greek or ,latin4 ,this is sufficiently met by the reply that they are naturally so1 the languages being different1 and that all that is necessary is that the ,english foot should stand to ,english prosody as the ,latin or ,greek foot does to ,latin or ,greek1 that is to say1 as the necessary and constituent middle stage between the syllable and the line4 ,but a less vague and1 in appearance at least1 more solid objection is that the ,latin and the ,greek foot were constituted out of definite quantities attaching to definite syllables1 and that there is no syllabic quantity in ,english1 though there may be vowel quantity4 ,and this objection is generally1 if not always1 based on or backed by a further one1 that quantity depends directly on time of pronunciation2 while this again is supported1 still further back1 by elaborate discussions of accent and quantity1#af by denials that accent can constitute quantity1 and by learned expatiations in quest of proof that ,greeks and ,romans scanned their verses as they did not pronounce them--that there was a sort of amicable pitched battle1 always going on1 between quantity and accent4 ,sidenote3 ,quantity in ,english4 ,now it can be easily shown that1 even if these contentions as to classical verse be accepted 7and some of them are very doubtful71 they supply no sort of bar to the application of the foot system1 with such quantity as it requires1 to ,english4 ,it is quite true that the proportion of syllables of absolutely fixed quantity--that is fixed capacity of filling up what corresponds to the long or short places of a classical verse--is1 in ,english1 very small4 ,there are some which the ear discovers by the awkwardness of the sound when they are forced into a short place4 ,so also there are some which--by the coincidence of vowel quality1 position1 and absence of accent--it is practically impossible to put into a long place1 such as the second syllable of ,deity4 ,nor are what are called long vowel sounds--the sounds of rte1 fte1 bat1 urope1 men1 wkward1 etc4--always sufficient to make a syllable inflexibly long2 though they may be sometimes4 ,again1 the extremest shortness of vowel sound1 as in and or if1 will not prevent such syllables from being indubitably long in certain values and collocations4 ,sidenote3 ,the common syllable4 ,in other words1 that peculiarity of being common--that is to say1 of being capable of holding either position--which was far from unknown in the classical languages1 is very much more prevalent in ,english4 ,it would be quite false to say that every syllable in ,english is common2 but it is scarcely at all false to say that almost every ,english monosyllable is1 and an extremely large proportion of others4 ,the methods and movements by which this commonness is turned into length or shortness for the purposes of the poet are obvious enough1 and in practice undeniable2 though the processes of professional phonetics sometimes tend to obscure or even to deny them4 ,every well-educated and well-bred ,englishman1 who has been accustomed to read poetry and utter speech carefully1 knows that when he emphasises a syllable like and1 if1 the1 etc41 it becomes what the ,germans would call versfhig--capable of performing its metrical duty--in the long position2 that when he does not1 it is not so capable4 ,every one knows in practice1 though it may be denied in theory1 that similar lengthening#ag follows the doubling of a consonant after a short vowel1 or the placing of a group of consonants of different kinds after it--the vowel-sound running1 as it were1 under the penthouse of consonants till it emerges4 ,extreme loudness and sharpness would have the same effect in conversation1 but1 unless very obviously suggested by sense1 would escape notice in silent reading4 ,not very seldom1 the mere art of the poet will get weight enough on a short syllable to fit it for its place as long1 or conjure away from a long one length enough to enable it to act as short4 ,at any rate1 it is with these two values1 and with syllables endowed with them by custom1 incidental effect1 place1 sense1 the poet's sleight of hand1 or otherwise1 that the ,english poet deals2 and has dealt1 ever since a period impossible to nail down with exactness to year or decade1 but beginning1 perhaps1 early in the twelfth century and perfecting itself in the thirteenth and later4 ,and impartial examination of the whole facts from that period shows that he deals with them on a system1 in early times no doubt almost or quite unconsciously adopted1 but perfectly recognisable4 ,in still earlier or ,old ,english verse this system is not discernible at all2 in the earliest period of ,middle ,english it is discernible1 struggling to get itself into shape4 ,later1 with advances and relapses1 it perfects itself absolutely4 ,its principles are as follows3-- ,sidenote3 ,intermediate rules of arrangement4 ,every ,english verse consists of a certain number of feet1 made up of long and short syllables1 each of which is of equal consequence in the general composition of the line4 ,the correspondence of the foot arrangements between different lines constitutes the link between them1 and determines their general character4 ,sidenote3 ,some interim rules of feet 7expanded in note74 ,but this correspondence need not be limited to repetition of feet composed of a fixed and identical number of syllables in the same order2 on the contrary1 the best verse admits of large substitution of feet of different syllabic length1 provided--7#a7 that these are equal or nearly equal in prosodic value to those for which they are substituted2 7#b7 that the substituted feet go rhythmically well with those next to which they are placed4#ah ,a fuller list of observed rules for ,english verse generally will be found in the next chapter1 but between the two a set of remarks1 specially on the foot1 may be extracted from the larger ,history1 vol4 i4 pp4 #hb-hd4 ,every ,english verse which has disengaged itself from the versicle#a is composed1 and all verses that are disengaging themselves therefrom show a nisus towards being composed1 of feet of one1 two1 or three syllables4 ,the foot of one syllable is always long1 strong1 stressed1 accented1 what-not4#ai ,the foot of two syllables usually consists of one long and one short syllable1 and though it is not essential that either should come first1 the short precedes rather more commonly4 ,the foot of three syllables never has more than one long syllable in it1 and that syllable1 save in the most exceptional rhythms1 is always the first or the third4 ,in modern poetry1 by no means usually1 but not seldom1 it has no long syllable at all4 ,the foot of one syllable is practically not found except a1 ,in the first place of a line4 b1 ,in the last place of it4 c1 ,at a strong csura or break1 it being almost invariably necessary that the voice should rest on it long enough to supply the missing companion to make up the equivalent of a time and a half at least4 d1 ,in very exceptional cases where the same trick of the voice is used apart from strict csura4 ,the foot of two syllables and that of three may1 subject to the rules below1 be found anywhere4 ,but3 ,these feet of two and three syllables may be very freely substituted for each other4 ,there is a certain metrical and rhythmical norm of the line which must not be confused by too frequent substitutions4 ,in no case1 or in hardly any case1#bj must such combinations be put together so that a juxtaposition of more than three short syllables results4 ,but1 for the purpose of this present book1 illustration and example are of much more value than abstract exposition2 and to them we shall now turn4 ,here1 for instance1 is a line from ,tennyson's ,brook3 ,twinkled the innumerable ear and tail4 ,sidenote3 ,the different systems applied to a single verse of ,tennyson's1 ,now the system which regards syllabic precision first of all1 with a minor glance at accent1 but rejects feet1 surveys this line and pronounces it passable with the elision ,twinkled th' innumerable ear and tail1 but rather shakes its head at the absence of accent1 or the slight and weak accent1 in innumerable1 and the inversion of accent in twnkled4 ,the system which looks at accent first of all pronounces that there are only four proper accents stresses here3 ,twnkled the innmerable ar and til4 ,both these systems1 moreover--the syllabic1 as far as it recognises accent2 the accentual1 of necessity1--regard twinkled as the admittance 7pardonable1 censurable1 or quite condemnable1 according to individual theory7 of wrenched accent1 inverted stress1 or something of the kind--as a thing abnormal and licentious4 ,the foot system simply scans it-- ,twnkld th nnmrbl ar nd til2 regarding twinkled as a trochee substituted in full right for an iamb1 and the innu- as an anapst in like case2 mer as raised1 by a liberty not out of accordance with the actual derivation1 to a sufficiently long quantity for its position1 and the other two feet as pure iambs4 ,sidenote3 and their application examined4 ,now let us examine these three views4 ,in the first place1 the bare syllabic view 7which1 it is fair to say1 is almost obsolete1 save among foreigners1 though in consistency it ought to find defenders at home7 takes no account of any special quality in the line at all4 ,it is turned out to sample2 the knife is applied at th' to fit specification2 and there you are4 ,it differs only from ,southey's favourite heroic ejaculation ,aballiboozabanganorribo6 in being less pure4 ,the syllabic-plus-accentual view passes it2 but with certain reservations4 ,twinkled is an aberration1 a licence perhaps 7in some views certainly71 a more or even less venial sin1 while -ble with a in a stressed or accented place is a case for more head-shaking still4 ,the line is saved2 yet so as by fire4 ,so is it under the looser stress-accentual system1 but by a fire more devouring still4 ,according to this latter1 all rhythmical similarity with its companion five-stress lines is lost on the one hand1 and on the other a jumble1 with difficulty readable and absolutely heterogeneous1 is created in the line itself4 ,your first rhythmical mouthful is twink-1 then you gabble over led the inn- till you rest on this last2 then you repeat the process 7as soon as you have breath enough7 with -merable ear1 and finally you reach and tail4 ,but you never find your fifth stress1 and instead of continuous blank verse you make the context a sort of clumsy ,pindaric4#ba ,even if this last description be regarded as exaggerated1 it will remain a sober fact that1 in all these handlings1 either the beauty of the line is obscured altogether1 or it is smuggled off as a licence1 or it is converted into something individual1 separated from its neighbours1 and possessing no kinship to them4 ,yet the line1 though not a wonder and a wild desire1 is a good one2 and 7therein differing from their eighteenth-century ancestors7 the syllabists and accentualists would mostly nowadays allow this1 though their principles have to submit it to privilegia and allowances to make it out4 ,the foot arrangement makes no difficulty1 needs no privilegium1 and necessarily applies none4 ,the line is at once recognised by the ear as a good line and correspondent to its neighbours1 which1 as a body1 and also at once when a few have been read1 informed that ear that they were five-foot lines of iambic basis4 ,therefore it will lend itself to foot-arrangement on that norm4 ,the five feet may be iambs1 trochees1 anapsts1 spondees1 tribrachs1 and perhaps 7this is a question of ear7 dactyls and pyrrhics4 ,these may be substituted for each other as the ear shall dictate1 provided that the general iambic base is not overthrown or unduly obscured4 ,further1 these feet are composed of long and short syllables1 the length and shortness of which is determined to some extent by ordinary pronunciation1 but subject to various modifying influences of position and juxtaposition4 ,under those laws to which all its companions are equally and inevitably subject1 mutatis mutandis1 it makes itself out as above3 ,twnkld th nnmrbl ar nd til-- trochee1 anapst1 iamb1 iamb1 iamb4 ,the justification of in ble has already been partly given2 it may be added that in the actual pronunciation of the word by good speakers there is a secondary accent 7as they call it7 on the syllable4 ,here there is no straining1 no private bill legislation1 no separating of the line from its fellows1 only a reasonable ,reign of ,law with reasonable easements4 ,sidenote3 ,application further to his ,hollyhock song4 ,let us now take a more complicated instance1 also from ,tennyson4 ,in that poet's first volume there was a ,song which1 unlike most of its fellows1 remained practically unaltered amid the great changes which he introduced later4 ,it has1 ,i believe1 always been a special favourite with those who have been most in sympathy with his poetry4 ,but1 nearly twenty years after its first appearance1 it was described by no ill-qualified judge 7an admirer of ,tennyson on the whole7 in the words given in the note3#bb and ,i believe it had been similarly objected to earlier4 ,now what were the lines that excited this cry of agonised indignation8 ,they are as follows3-- ,a spirit haunts the year's last hours ,dwelling amid these yellowing bowers3 ,to himself he talks2 ,for at eventide1 listening earnestly1 ,at his work you may hear him sob and sigh ,in the walks2 ,earthward he boweth the heavy stalks ,of the mouldering flowers3 ,heavily hangs the broad sunflower ,over its grave in the earth so chilly2 ,heavily hangs the hollyhock1 ,heavily hangs the tiger-lily4 ,now it is not very difficult to perceive the defects of this extremely beautiful thing in the eyes of a syllabic-accentualist1 as this critic 7whether knowing it or not7 probably was4 ,the syllabists have always1 by a perhaps natural though perhaps also irrational extension of their arithmetical prepossession1 disliked lines of irregular length on the page4 ,bysshe would have barred stanzas2 a very few years before ,tennyson's book1 ,crowe1 then ,public ,orator at ,oxford1 had protested against the exquisite line-adjustments of the seventeenth century4 ,to the pure accentualists the thing might seem an unholy jumble1 accented irregularly1 irregularly arranged in number1 seemingly observing different rhythms in different parts4 ,now see how it looks under the foot system3 ,a spirit haunts the year's last hours ,dwelling amid these yellowing bowers3 ,to himself he talks2 ,for at eventide1 listening earnestly1 ,at his work you may hear him sob and sigh ,in the walks2 ,earthward he boweth the heavy stalks ,of the mouldering flowers3 ,heavily hangs the broad sunflower ,over its grave in the earth so chilly2 ,heavily hangs the hollyhock1 ,heavily hangs the tiger-lily-- the feet being sometimes1 at the beginning of the lines1 monosyllabic1 and of course of one long syllable only 7arth-1 ,ha-1 -72 sometimes dissyllabic1 iambic mainly1 but occasionally at least semi-spondaic-- sprt hunts th yar's lst hurs2 often trisyllabic1 and then always anapstic-- ,fr t vntde lstnng arnstl4 ,even so early in the present book this should need little comment2 but it may be the better for some4 ,it is an instance of substitution carried out boldly1 but unerringly2 so that1 iamb and anapst being the coin of interchange and equivalence1 the rhythm is now iambic1 now anapstic chiefly1 the two being not muddled1 but fluctuant--a prosodic part-song4 ,and the foot system brings this out straightforwardly and on its general principles1 with no beggings or assumptions whatever for the particular instance4 ,moreover1 the structure of the piece may be paralleled freely from the songs in ,shakespeare's plays4#bc ,sidenote3 ,such application possible always and everywhere4 ,it is indeed sometimes said that such methods of scansion as these may apply very well to nineteenth-century poets1 but that they are out of place in regard to older ones4 ,this is demonstrably false4 ,the method applies alike1 and in like measure obviates all difficulties1 in examples of the thirteenth1 fourteenth1 fifteenth1 sixteenth1 seventeenth1 and eighteenth centuries4 ,it is as applicable to the early and mostly anonymous romancers and song-writers as to ,tennyson1 it accommodates ,shakespeare as well as ,browning4 ,to ,milton as to ,shelley1 to ,dryden and ,pope as to the most celebrated of our modern experimenters1 say to ,miss ,christina ,rossetti or ,mr4 ,swinburne1 it fits like a glove4 ,the rules in the next chapter1 and the subjoined examples fully scanned in ,chapter ,,vi41 will show its application as a beginning2 the whole contents of this volume must give the fuller illustration and confirmation4#bd ,,footnotes3 #ae ,the most recent1 perhaps1 and the most unfortunate competitor is stress-unit--for there are most certainly feet 7i4e4 constitutive divisions of lines7 which include no stress at all4 #af ,a full account of these would occupy a book bigger than the larger ,history4 ,among the latest and most curious attempts on the subject is one to mark off certain metrical rhythms as accentual1 certain others as quantitative4 ,this 7which partly results from the superfluous anxiety to discover and isolate the sources of length and shortness7 makes something very like a chimera or a hotch-potch of ,english verse4 #ag ,in metrical quantity1 not in vowel sound4 #ah ,of ,anglo-,saxon and very early ,middle ,english poetry4 ,see ,scanned ,conspectus and ,book ,,ii4 #ai ,except1 to speak paradoxically1 when it is nothing at all4 ,the pause-foot or half-foot1 the equivalent of silence1 is by no means an impossible or unknown thing in ,english poetry1 as1 for instance1 in ,lady ,macbeth's line1 ,i4 v4 #da-- ,under my battlements4 ,come1 you spirits1 where sprts1 though not actually impossible1 would spoil the line in one way1 and come1 as a monosyllabic foot1 in another4 #bj ,the exceptions1 and probably the only ones1 are to be found1 if anywhere1 in some modern blank verse1 where two tribrachs1 or a tribrach and an iamb or anapst1 succeed each other4 #ba ,it is difficult to see how this effect can be avoided by those who think that accents or stresses1 governing prosody1 vary in ,milton from eight to three4 #bb ,having already called it an odious piece of pedantry1 the critic 7,blackwood's ,magazine1 ,april #ahdi7 adds3 ,what metre1 ,greek or ,roman1 ,russian or ,chinese1 it was intended to imitate we have no care to inquire3 the man was writing ,english and had no justifiable pretence for torturing our ears with verse like this4 #bc ,such as ,under the ,greenwood ,tree4 #bd ,for cautions and additions1 as well as explanations1 see ,glossary1 especially under ,foot1 ,stress-unit1 ,quantity1 etc4 ,,chapter ,v ,,rules ,,of ,,the ,,foot ,,system ,a4 ,,feet 7,these ,rules are not imperative or compulsory precepts1 but observed inductions from the practice of ,english poets4 ,he that can break them with success1 let him47 ,sidenote3 ,feet composed of long and short syllables4 #a4 ,english poetry1 from the first constitution of literary ,middle ,english to the present day1 can best be scanned by a system of feet1 or groups of syllables in two different values1 which may be called for convenience long 77 and short 774 ,sidenote3 ,not all combinations actual4 #b4 ,the nature of these groups of syllables is determined by the usual mathematical laws of permutation2 but some of them appear more frequently than others in ,english poetry1 and some hardly occur at all4 ,sidenote3 ,differences from classical feet4 #c4 ,although1 in the symbols of their constitution1 these feet resemble those of the classical prosodies1 it does not follow that they are identical with them1 except mathematically1#be the nature of the languages being different2 and1 in particular1 their powers of combining in metre are far from being identical1 so that combinations of feet which are successful in ,greek and ,latin need by no means be successful in ,english4 ,success is indeed almost limited to instances where the metrical constituents are restricted to iambs 771 anapsts 771 and trochees 771 with the spondee 77 as an occasional ingredient4 ,sidenote3 ,the three usual kinds--iamb1 trochee1 anapst4 #d4 ,the iamb 771 the trochee 771 and the anapst 77 are by far the commonest ,english feet2 in fact1 the great bulk of ,english poetry is composed of them4 ,sidenote3 ,the spondee4 #e4 ,the spondee 77 is not so unusual as has sometimes been thought2 but owing to the commonness of most syllables1 especially in thesis1 it may often be passed as an iamb1 and sometimes as a trochee4 ,sidenote3 ,the dactyl4 #f4 ,the dactyl 7 71 on the other hand1 though observable enough in separate ,english words1 does not seem to compound happily in ,english1 its use being almost limited to that of a substitute for the trochee4 ,used in continuity1 either singly or with other feet1 it has a tendency1 especially in lines of some length1 to rearrange itself into anapsts with anacrusis4 ,in very short lines1 however1 this tilt has not always time to develop itself4 ,sidenote3 ,the pyrrhic4 #g4 ,the pyrrhic 77 may occur in ,english1 but is rarely wanted 7see note above on spondee74 ,sidenote3 ,the tribrach4 #h4 ,the tribrach 771 however1 has become not unusual4 ,sidenote3 ,others4 #i4 ,other combinations 7for names see ,glossary7 than these are certainly rare1 and are perhaps never wanted in ,english verse1 though they are plentiful in prose4 7,see ,rule #da and ,glossary47 ,b4 ,,constitution ,,of ,,feet ,sidenote3 ,quality or quantity in feet4 #aj4 ,the quality1 or contrast of quality1 called quantity1 which fits ,english syllables for their places as long or short in a foot1 is not uniform or constant4 ,sidenote3 ,not necessarily time1 #aa4 ,it does not necessarily depend on the amount of time taken to pronounce the syllable2 though there is probably a tendency to lengthen or shorten this time according to the prosodic length or shortness required4 ,sidenote3 nor vowel quantity4 #ab4 ,it does not wholly depend on the usual quantity#bf of the vowel sound in the syllable2 for long-sounding vowels are not very seldom shortened1 and short-sounding ones are constantly made long4 ,sidenote3 ,accumulated consonants1 #ac4 ,an accumulation of consonants after the vowel will lengthen it prosodically1 but need not necessarily do so4 ,sidenote3 or rhetorical stress1 #ad4 ,strong rhetorical stress will almost always lengthen if required4 ,sidenote3 or place in verse will quantify4 #ae4 ,the place in verse1 if cunningly managed by the poet1 will lengthen or shorten4 ,sidenote3 ,commonness of monosyllables4 #af4 ,all monosyllables are common1 the articles being1 however1 least susceptible of lengthening1 and the indefinite perhaps hardly at all4 ,c4 ,,equivalence ,,and ,,substitution ,sidenote3 ,substitution of equivalent feet4 #ag4 ,the most important law of ,english prosody is that which permits and directs the interchange of certain of these feet with others1 or1 in technical language1 the substitution of equivalent feet4 ,sidenote3 ,its two laws4 #ah4 ,this process of substitution is governed by two laws3 one in a manner a priori1 the other the result of experience only4 ,sidenote3 ,confusion of base must be avoided4 #ai4 ,substitution must not take place in a batch of lines1 or even 7with rare exceptions7 in a single line1 to such an extent that the base of the metre can be mistaken4 ,sidenote3 7,of which the ear must judge47 #bj4 ,even short of this result of confusion the ear must decide whether the substitution is allowable4 ,sidenote3 ,certain substitutions are not eligible4 #ba4 ,as a result of experience we find that the feet most suitable--if not alone suitable--as substitutes for the iamb--the commonest foot-staple--are the trochee1 the anapst1 and the tribrach2 that the dactyl substitutes well1 if not too freely used1 for the trochee4#bg ,these equivalences are reciprocal4 ,d4 ,,pause ,sidenote3 ,variation of pause4 #bb4 ,next to equivalence1 the most important and valuable engine in the constitution of ,english verses is the variation of the middle or internal pause4 ,sidenote3 ,practically at discretion4 #bc4 ,except in very long lines--which always tend to pause themselves either at the middle or at two places more or less equidistant--there is no reason why the pause of an ,english line should not be at any syllable from the first to the penultimate1 and none why it should or should not occur at the end of a line1 couplet1 or even stanza--though in the last-named case rather special reasons are required for its omission4 ,not every line need necessarily have any pause at all4 ,sidenote3 ,blank verse specially dependent on pause4 #bd4 ,the effect of blank verse depends more upon pause-variation than upon anything else2 and by this variation1 accompanied by stop or overrun 7enjambment7 at the end of the line1 verse-paragraphs are constituted1 which can contain verse-clauses or sentences1 in like manner brought into existence by pauses4 ,e4 ,,line-,,combination ,sidenote3 ,simple or complex4 #be4 ,lines1 composed as above of feet1 can be used in ,english either continuously on the same or equivalent patterns1 or in batches of two or more4 ,sidenote3 ,rhymes necessary to couplet4 #bf4 ,the batches of two almost necessarily require rhyme to indicate and isolate them1 especially if the individual lines are of the same length4 ,other batches stanzas might1 as far as any a priori objection goes1 consist of unrhymed lines1 symmetrically correspondent1 or irregular ,pindaric4 ,sidenote3 ,few instances of successful unrhymed stanza4 #bg4 ,it is1 however1 found in practice1 despite the examples of ,campion1 ,collins1 and one or two others1 that rhymeless batching or stanza-making is very seldom successful4#bh ,sidenote3 ,unevenness of line in length4 #bh4 ,there is neither a priori objection nor a posteriori inconvenience to be urged against the construction of stanzas or batches in lines of very uneven length4 ,sidenote3 ,stanzas to be judged by the ear4 #bi4 ,every stanza-scheme must undergo1 and is finally to be judged by1 the test of the ear1 and that only4 ,sidenote3 ,origin of commonest line-combinations4 #cj4 ,the commonest and oldest line-combinations--octosyllabic couplet1 common or ballad measure1 long and short measure1 etc4--in some cases demonstrably1 in all probably1 result from the breaking up of the old long line 7fifteener or fourteener71 which itself came from the metricalising of the ,o4,e4 double stave4 ,f4 ,,rhyme ,sidenote3 ,rhyme natural in ,english4 #ca4 ,it is natural to ,english poetry--i4e4 ,middle and ,modern ,english1 or ,english poetry proper--to rhyme2 and1 except in the case of blank verse1 no unrhymed measure for the last seven centuries has ever produced large quantities of uniformly satisfactory quality4 ,sidenote3 ,it must be full1 #cb4 ,rhyme in ,english must be full1 i4e4 consonantal 7on the vowel and following consonant or consonants71 not merely assonantal 7on the vowel only74 ,assonance by itself is insufficient4 ,sidenote3 and not identical4 #cc4 ,it should not1 according to modern usage1 be identical--that is to say1 the rhyming syllables should not consist of exactly the same vowels and consonants4 ,but exceptions to this may be found in good poets1 especially when the words are not the same4 ,sidenote3 ,general rule as to it4 #cd4 ,good rhyme has necessarily varied1 at different times1 with pronunciation2 but a certain rough rule may be seen prevailing not uncommonly1 that vowels in rhyme may take the value which they have in words other than those actually employed4#bi ,sidenote3 ,alliteration4 #ce4 ,what is sometimes called head-rhyme 7i4e4 alliteration7 has now no place in ,english as rhyme at all1 nor does it constitute either metre or stanza2 but it is a permissible1 and often a very considerable1 ornament to verse4 ,sidenote3 ,single1 etc41 rhyme4 #cf4 ,rhyme is either single 7on the last syllable only71 double 7on the two last71 or triple 7on the three last74 ,beyond three the effect would be burlesque1 and this is hard to keep out of triple rhyme1 and even sometimes seems to menace the double4 ,sidenote3 ,fullness of sound4 #cg4 ,in serious poetry the fuller in sound the single rhyme is the better4 ,sidenote3 ,internal rhyme permissible1 #ch4 ,rhyme is usually at the end of the line2 but it may be internal2 that is to say1 syllables at one or even more than one place within the line may rhyme to the syllable at the end or to each other1 and syllables within one line may rhyme to those at corresponding places within another4 ,sidenote3 but sometimes dangerous4 #ci4 ,but this has a dangerous tendency to break the lines up4 ,g4 ,,miscellaneous ,sidenote3 ,vowel-music4 #dj4 ,the effect of ,english poetry at all times1 but especially for the last hundred years1 has been largely dependent on ,vowel-music4 ,this is by no means limited to the practice of what used to be called making the sound suit the sense1 though the two sometimes coincide4 ,vowel-music1 not without occasional assistance from consonants1 establishes a sort of accompaniment to the intelligible poetry--a prosodic setting4 ,sidenote3 ,fingering4 #da4 ,in the management of this1 as of rhyme1 pause1 enjambment1 and even the selection and juxtaposition of feet themselves1 the poet often1 if not as a rule in the best examples1 uses particular sleights of fingering and execution parallel to those of the musical composer and performer4 ,the results of this may appear to constitute verse-sections different from the feet4 ,but these1 however1 never supersede feet1 and are always resolvable into them2 nor do they ever supply criteria for anything except the individual line or passage4 ,they stand to prosody proper very much as delivery or elocution does to rhetoric4 ,the conveniences of this fingering1 or poetic elocution1 as well as sense and other things1 may sometimes bring about alternative scansions1 but all these connect themselves with and are obedient to the general foot system4#cj ,sidenote3 ,confusion of rhythms intolerable4 #db4 ,despite this possibility of alternative scansion1 and the other and commoner possibility of substitution of individual feet1 iambic and trochaic1 dactylic and anapstic1 metre or rhythm remain entirely distinct4 ,any system which regards these as merely different names for the same thing is self-condemned as disregarding the evidence1 or rather verdict1 of the ear4 ,,footnotes3 #be ,see above1 ,rule #b4 ,it should be hardly necessary to remark that the explanations and exemplifications of these rules are to be furnished by the whole book1 and that the ,glossary in particular should be in constant use4 #bf ,e4g4 fte or fst as opposed to ft2 met to dter2 rte to ft2 men to tter2 dpe to bt4 #bg ,the combination of dactyl and trochee in ,english1 however1 will not produce the same effect as the combination of dactyl and spondee in ,latin or ,greek4 #bh ,rules #bf and #bg do not apply to unmetrical verse1 such as the old alliterative couplet-line1 or the rhythmed prose-verse of ,ossian1 ,blake1 and ,whitman4 #bi ,thus ,dryden rhymes traveller to star1 giving the er the value it has in clerk4 #cj ,for elucidation and example see below1 in ,glossary1 as above noted1 p4 #h4 ,the sections referred to are not those of ,guest4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,continuous ,,illustrations ,,of ,,english ,,scansion ,,according ,,to ,,the ,,foot ,,system ,i4 ,,old ,,english ,,period ,scansion only dimly visible4 ,no better examples can be taken for this than two already used by ,dr4 ,sievers--the close of the ,phnix with its illuminative ,latin admixture1 and a bit of ,beowulf 7#bje ff477dotted foot division added in first case73 ,hfa us alfed lucis auctor t we mtun hr meru eri dddum beitan gaudia in coelo ,pr we mtun maxima regna4 ,hfde se oda ,gata toda cmpan ecrene ara e ne cnste findan mhte fftener sm sndwudu shte sc wsade lucrftig mn lndemrcu4 ,in these the general trochaic run and the corresponding tendency to dactylic substitution1 which are so evident in the ,latin1 as it were muffle themselves in the ,english2 and the contrast1 so strikingly brought out in the mixed passage1 is not really less evident in the pure ,anglo-,saxon one4 ,the muffling is the result1 partly of the imperfect substitution1 or rather the actual presence of syllables not digested into the metre2 partly of the overbearing middle pause1 which1 suggesting another in each section1 chops the whole up into disconnected grunts or spasmodic phrases4 ,,ii4 ,,late ,,old ,,english ,,with ,,nisus ,,towards ,,metre 7,grave ,poem4 ,guest's text1 spelling1 and accentuation2 the usual marks for the latter being substituted for his dividing bars1 and foot division added in dots47 ,th wes bld gebld er th ibren wre1 ,th wes mlde imynt er th of mder cme1 c hit ns no idht n theo depnes imten1 ,ns gyt ilced hu lng hit the wre4 ,here an immense advance is made4 ,the rhythm is still trochaic1 though it is by no means certain that it does not show symptoms of iambicisation4 ,it is far more well marked2 and one of the means of the marking is that the ditch in the middle--the formal pause1--though no doubt technically and even rhetorically existing1 is overrun by the suggested feet as long as the trochee is kept4 ,but if this pause holds its place it suggests iambic scansion-- ,the wes bold gebyld2 and something like the whole future of ,english poetry lies in the suggestion4 ,do not omit to notice the metrical assistance given by the epanaphora1 or repetition of the same word and phrases in the same place1 and by the imperfect and irregular assonances emphasising the divisions4 ,,iii4 ,,transition ,,period ,metre struggling to assert itself in a ,new ,way4 ,part of the verses of ,st4 ,godric4 ,sainte ,marie ,virgine ,moder ,jesu ,cristes ,nazarene ,onfang schild help thin ,godric1 ,onfang bring he gelich mit the in ,godes ric4 ,a distinct effort at iambic stanza1 such as that of the great ,ambrosian hymn1 ,veni ,redemptor gentium4 ,it is not surprising if the experimenter stumbles1 if the old trochaic rhythm is sometimes in his head1 and if1 in the last verse1 he either overruns or divides and makes a quintet4 ,the struggle towards feet--and new feet--is there1 and rhyme1 if imperfect1 is there also4 ,,iv4 ,,early ,,middle ,,english ,,period ,attempt at merely ,syllabic ,uniformity with ,unbroken ,iambic ,run and no ,rhyme4 ,orm4 ,and nu icc wille shwenn yuw summ-del withth ,godess hellpe ,off thatt ,judisskenn follkess lac thatt ,drihhtin wass full cweme4 ,the moral of this 7whether it be written as above in eights and sevens or continuously as fifteeners7 is unmistakable1 as stated before3 the writer1 for all his scrupulous indication of short vowels1 seems to care no more than if he were a modern ,frenchman for syllabic quantity1 or even for accent4 ,he will have his fifteen syllables1 his pause at the eighth1 and his sing-song run of seven dissyllabic batches and a feminine ending4 ,but1 will he nill he1 he impresses--with whatever sing-song effect and whatever merciless iteration--the iambic beat throughout his whole enormous work4 ,v4 ,,early ,,middle ,,english ,,period ,conflict or ,indecision between ,accentual ,rhythm and ,metrical ,scheme4 ,layamon4 #a4 a answrede ,vortiger-- of lc an vuele he wes wr4 #b4 ,nulle ich heom belauen bi mine quike live4 #c4 ,for ,hengest is hider icumen1 ,he is mi fader and ich his sune4 #d4 ,and ich habbe to leof-monne his dohter ,rowenne4 ,these four couplets 7continuous in the original7 exhibit perfectly the process which was going on4 7#b7 is a rather shapeless example of the old scarcely metrical ,anglo-,saxon line with a roughly trochaic rhythm2 and 7#d7 is not very different4 ,but 7#c7 is a not quite successful1 though recognisable1 attempt at a rhymed 7it is actually assonanced7 iambic dimeter or octosyllabic couplet4 ,and 7#a7 is this couplet complete at all points in rhythm1 metre1 and rhyme--capable1 in fact1 of being exactly quantified and rendered exactly into modern ,english1 all but the dropped final e3 ,thn nswrd ,vrtger f lk n vl h ws wre4 ,,vi4 ,,early ,,middle ,,english ,,period ,the ,appearance and ,development of the ,fourteener4 ,the exact origin#ca of the fourteener1 septenar 7as the ,germans call it71 long ,alexandrine 7as it was very improperly termed in ,england for a time71 seven-foot or seven-accent line--to give its various designations--is a matter of conjecture4 ,the fifteener of ,orm with the redundant syllable lopped off2 a variation with iambic or rising stress rhythm substituted for trochaic or falling1 and a syllable added in the popular ,latin metre of ,meum est propositum in taberna mori2 with other things2 most probably of all1 a shortened metrification of the old long line1 to represent the frequent inequality of its halves better than the octosyllabic couplet--have been suggested4 ,it holds1 however1 such an important place in ,english prosody from the early thirteenth to the late sixteenth century1 and its resolution into the ballad couplet or common measure is of so much greater importance still1 that it can hardly have too much attention4 ,the extraordinarily prosaic and stumping cadence of the ,ormulum perhaps obscures the connection1 especially as this rigid syllabisation makes trisyllabic feet impossible4 ,but the true rhythm appears1 though still with a redundant syllable1 in the famous ,moral ,ode1 the older versions of which are dated before ,orm4 ,the oldest1 as it is supposed to be1 of these shows the form in full existence-- ,ich em nu alder thene ich wes a wintre and a lare4 ,but the youngest-- ,ich am elder than ich wes a winter and eke on lore-- gives a priceless improvement2 for even if nu has dropped out1 the resulting monosyllabic foot is quite rhythmical1 the trisyllabic -ter and eke is unmistakable1 and the life and spirit that it gives to the verse equally so4 ,in the course of the thirteenth century the form develops immensely4 ,as a continuous one1 it furnishes the staple of the ,chronicle and ,saints' ,lives1 attributed--the former certainly and the latter probably in at least some cases--to ,robert of ,gloucester4 ,as thus in ,lear's complaint3 ,mid yoxing and mid gret wop as began ys mone ,alas6 alas6 e lu or wate that fylest me os one3 at us clene me bryngst adoun wyder schal ,i be broht8 ,for more sorwe yt do me when it cometh in my thoht4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,leve doter ,cordeille1 to soe ou seidest me at as muche as ych hadde y was wor pei y ne leved the4 ,but before long it shows1 though it may be still written on1 an evident tendency to break up into ballad measure1 as in the 7also thirteenth-century7 ,judas poem3 ,hit wes upon a scere-,thursday ,that ure ,laverd aros1 ,ful milde were the wordes ,he spec to ,judas3 ,judas1 thou most to ,jursalem ,oure mete for to bugge1 ,thritti platen of selver ,thou bere upo thi rugge4 ,,vii4 ,,early ,,middle ,,english ,,period ,the ,plain and ,equivalenced ,octosyllable4 ,we have seen how1 in ,layamon1 the regular rhymed octosyllabic couplet or iambic dimeter 7four-stress line1 etc47 shows itself1 either as a deliberate alternative to the old long line1 or as a half-unconscious result of the endeavour to adjust it to the new metrical tendencies of the language4 ,and we saw1 also1 that its examples in ,layamon himself vary from absolute normality to different stages of licence or incompleteness4 ,before long1 however1 we find two varieties establishing themselves1 with more or less distinct and definite contrast4 ,the first1 which seems to keep ,french or ,latin examples more or less strictly before it1 is exemplified in ,the ,owl and the ,nightingale1 and scans as follows3 ,wi nultu singe an other theode1 ,war hit is muchele more neode8 ,thu neaver ne singst in ,irlonde1 ,ne thu ne cumest nogt in ,scotlonde3 ,hwi nultu fare to ,noreweie8#cb ,and singen men of ,galeweie8 ,thar beoth men that lutel kunne ,of songe that is bineothe the sunne4 ,here1 it will be observed1 there is practically no licence except a few doubtful e's1 and that of omitting one syllable and making the line acephalous iambic or catalectic trochaic4 ,this form was followed largely1 and1 from ,chaucer and ,gower onwards1 by most poets1 except ,spenser1 till the time of ,chatterton1 ,blake1 and ,coleridge in ,christabel4 ,side by side with it1 however1 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 ,exodus1 as well as in other miscellaneous poems and in the romances4 ,here are specimens from ,genesis and ,exodus1 #bcfg-bcgf3 ,josep gaf ilc here twinne srud1 ,beniamin most he made prud2 ,fif weden best bar ,beniamin ,thre hundred plates of silver fin1 ,also fele othere thor-til1 ,he bad ben in is faderes wil1 ,and x asses with semes fest2 ,of all ,egyptes welthe best ,gaf he is brethere1 with herte blithe1 ,and bad hem ra pen hem hom ward swithe4 ,and from ,richard ,cur de ,lion1 #cbfa-cbfh3 ,nay quod ,kyng ,richard1 be ,god my lord1 ,ne schal ,i nevyr with him acord6 ,ne hadde nevyr ben lost ,acres toun ,ne hadde ben through hys tresoun4 ,yiff he yilde again my faderys tresour ,and ,jerusalem with gret honour1 ,thenne my wrathe ,i hym forgive ,and nevyr ellys whyl that ,i live4 ,here1 it will be observed1 the foot of three syllables--generally1 if not always1 an anapst--and even1 it would seem1 that of one sometimes1 are freely substituted for that of two1 adding immensely to the variety1 spirit1 and freedom of the line4 ,the first ne hadde is perhaps run together4 ,,viii4 ,,early ,,middle ,,english ,,period ,the ,romance-,six or ,rime ,coue4 ,at an uncertain period in the thirteenth century this makes its appearance--no doubt directly imitated from the ,french1 but probably also in part a derivative of the application of metrical tendency to the aboriginal line-couplet4 ,its ,french name#cc is not1 to our eyes1 appropriate --one would rather call it waisted or waisted-and-tailed rhyme2 and as it is very largely 7in fact1 with the plain couplet predominantly7 used in the ,english romances1 romance-six as opposed to ballad-four seems a good name for it4 ,it sometimes1 however1 extends to three1 four1 or even six sets of two eights and a six1 and is found both plain and equivalenced1 as thus3 ,the briddes singe1 it is no nay1 ,the sparhauk and the papejay1 that joye it was to here4 ,the thrustelcok made eek his lay1 ,the wode dowve upon the spray ,she sang ful loude and clere4 7,chaucer1 ,sir ,thopas47 ,as soone as the emperoure yildyd the gast1 ,a prowde garson came in haste1 ,sir ,synagote hight he-- ,and broght an hundred helmes bright ,of hardy men that cowde wel fight ,of felde wolde never oon flee4 7,le ,bone ,florence of ,rome1 #ggh-ghc47 ,the plain form1 as ,chaucer1 of malice prepense1 showed in the above1 is particularly liable to sing-song effect4 ,,ix4 ,,early ,,middle ,,english ,,period ,miscellaneous ,stanzas4 7a7 ,a very considerable number of these were introduced1 sometimes no doubt by direct imitation of ,french or 7as in the case of the ,burns-metre1#cd7 ,provenal originals1 sometimes by the ingenuity of the individual poet1 working on the plastic material of the blended language1 according to the new metrical foot-system4 ,they all scan easily by this1 as may be seen in a stanza of ,tristrem1 one of the ,harleian ,lyrics1 and a ,burns stanza from the ,york ,plays2 while anapstic substitution1 amounting to something like triple time as a whole1 appears in the ,hampolian extract4 ,the king had a douhter dere1 ,that maiden ,ysonde hight1 ,that gle was lef to here ,and romaunce to rede aright4 ,sir ,tramtris hir gan lere1 ,tho1 with al his might1 ,what alle points were ,to se the sothe in sight1 ,to say1 ,in ,yrlond nas no knight1 ,with ,ysonde durst play4 7,sir ,tristrem1 #abee-fc47 7,three-foot iambic with single-foot bob4 ,all final e's sounded or elided4 ,one monosyllabic1 and two or three trisyllabic1 substitutions47 ,bytuene ,mershe ant ,averil when spray biginneth to springe1 ,the lutel foul hath hire wyl on hyre lud to synge2 ,ich libbe in love-longinge ,for sem lokest of alle thynge1 ,he may me blisse bringe1 icham in hire baundoun4 ,an hendy hap ichabbe y-hent1 ,ichot from hevene it is me sent1 ,from alle wymmen mi love is lent ant lyht on ,alysoun4 7,alison1 ,harleian ,,ms4 p4 #bg1 ed4 ,wright47 7,from the other stanzas it appears that the middle quatrain should consist of three eights and a six1 and that something has dropped--supplied now by carets4 ,otherwise the scheme is clear47 ,fro thaym is loste bothe game and glee4 ,he badde that they schuld maisters be ,over alle kenne thing1 outy-taen a tree ,he taught them to be ,and ther-to wente both she and he ,agagne his wille4 7,york ,plays1 vi4 #b47 7,the final e's are beginning to be neglected1 and the whole is probably in strict iambics here1 though vacillation between four- and five-foot lines is not absolutely impossible4 ,but there is trisyllabic substitution elsewhere1 though not very much4 ,it may be remembered that there is little of it in ,burns's own examples of this metre4 ,closer still to his is the following73 ,eve4 ,sethyn#ce it was so me knyth it sore1 ,bot sythen that woman wittelles ware1 ,mans maistirie should have been more ,agayns the gilte4 ,adam4 ,nay at my speeche would thou never spare ,that has us spilte4 7,ibid4 #bd47 7b7 ,my truest treasure so traitorly taken1 ,so bitterly bounden with bytand bandes1 ,how soon of thy servants wast thou forsaken ,and loathely for my life hurled with handes 7,horstmann's ,hampole1 i4 #gb47 7,probably1 when first written1 the ultimate e's of the even lines were sounded2 but even this is not certain1 and the superiority of the shortening would soon have struck the ear47 7c7 ,more elaborate stanza from the ,drama3 ,myghtful ,god veray1 ,maker of all that is ,thre persons withouten nay1 oone ,god in endles blis1 ,thou maid both night and day1 beest1 fowle and fish1 ,all creatures that lif may wrought thou at thy wish1 ,as thou wel myght3 ,the sun1 the moyn1 verament ,thou maid3 and the firmament1 ,the starrs also full fervent ,to shyne thou maide ful bright4 7,townley ,plays1 iii4 p4 #bc1 ,e4,e4,t4,s47 ,x4 ,,early ,,middle ,,english ,,period ,appearance of the ,decasyllable4 ,the idea that the new metres in ,english were invariably direct copies of those already existing in ,french 7or ,latin7 seems to be decisively negatived by the fact that the decasyllabic line--the staple1 not indeed in couplet but in long batches or tirades1 of the earlier ,french chansons de geste--makes a rare appearance in ,english verse before the late fourteenth century4 ,but it does appear1 thereby1 on the other hand1 negativing the notion that ,chaucer introduced it1 and suggesting that it was1 in part at least1 a genuine experiment--not in imitation1 but in really independent development1 of the possibilities of ,english metre4 ,here are scanned examples of different periods4 7a7 ,uncertain in intention1 but assuming distinct couplet cadence3 ,cristes milde moder seynte marie1 ,mines liues leome mi leoue lefdi1 ,to the ich buwe and mine kneon ich beie1 ,and al min heorte blod to the ich offrie4 7,orison of ,our ,lady 7c4 #abjj747 7b7 ,expansion of octosyllable in single line3 ,and nutes amigdeles thoronne numen4 7,genesis and ,exodus1 #chdj 7c4 #abej747 7c7 ,in couplet3 ,and swore by ,jesu that made moon and star ,agenst the ,saracens he should learn to war4 7,richard ,cur de ,lion1 #bdce-cf 7before #acbe8747 7d7 ,overflow of octosyllable into decasyllable2 probably1 in the first place1 from the equivalenced lines lending themselves to another run3 ,the bughes er the armes with the handes1 ,and the legges1 with the fete that standes4 7,in ,hampole's ,prick of ,conscience1 #fhj1 #fha 7before #acej71 with scores of others47 ,,xi4 ,,later ,,middle ,,english ,,period ,the ,alliterative ,revival--,pure4 ,the examples of this revival 7see ,book ,,ii47 cannot1 of course1 in their nature1 be strictly scanned4 ,but it is important to bring out the change of rhythm as compared with the older examples 7v4 sup4 p4 #cg74 7,to prevent confusion with positive metrical scansion1 ,i have made the scanning bars dotted1 and have doubled the foot-division line for the middle pause in the first extract47 ,hit bifel in that forest there fast by-side1 ,ther woned a wel old cherl that was a couherde4 7,william of ,palerne47 7,notice that the nisus towards anapstic cadence overruns the break both in the metre and1 as at -glent1 stor1 -port below1 in the half line47 ,wende1 worthelych wyght vus wonez to seche1 ,dryf ouer this dymme water if thou druye findez1 ,bryng bodworde to bot blysse to vus alle4 7,cleanness47 ,thenne ho gef hym god-day and wyth aglent laghed1 ,and as ho stod ho stonyed hym with ful stor wordes1 ,now he that spedes uche spech this disport yelde1 ,bot that ye be ,gawayn hit gotz in mynde4 7,gawain and the ,green ,knight47 ,,xii4 ,,later ,,middle ,,english ,,period ,the ,alliterative ,revival--,mixed4 ,the metrical additions1 on the other hand 7see ,book ,,ii471 and those poems which1 while employing alliteration1 subject it to metrical schemes1 scan perfectly1 as3 ,quen thay hade played in halle1 ,as longe as her wylle hom last1 ,to chambre he con hym calle ,and to the chemne thay past4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,a' mon how may thou slepe1 ,this morning es so clere8 ,he watz in drouping depe ,bot thenne he con hir here4 7,wheels of ,gawain and the ,green ,knight47 ,fro spot my spyryt ther sprang in space1 ,my body on balke ther bod in sweven1 ,my goste is gon in ,godes grace1 ,in aventure ther mervayles meven4 7,the ,pearl1 ii47 ,mone makeles of mighte1 ,here comes ane errant knighte1 ,do him resone and righte ,for thi manhead4 7,wheel of ,the ,awnyrs of ,arthur1 xxvii47 ,,xiii4 ,,later ,,middle ,,english ,,period ,potentially ,metrical ,lines in ,langland 7see ,book ,,ii74 ,decasyllables3 ,for ,james the gentel bond it in his book4 7,a4 i4 #aei47 ,thus ,i live loveless like a luther dogge4 7,a4 v4 #ig47 ,alexandrines3 ,and served ,treuthe sothlyche somdel to paye4 7,c4 viii4 #ahi47 ,adam and ,abraham and ,ysay the prophete4 7,b4 xvi4 #ha47 ,fourteeners3 ,but if he worche well there-with as ,dowel him techeth4 7,b4 viii4 #ef47 ,of any science under sonne the seven arts and alle4 7,b4 xi4 #aff47 ,a large number might be added where the pronunciation which was shortly to come in necessarily makes such lines1 though they may not have been intended as such2 for instance-- ,take we her words at worth1 for her witness be true2 7,b4 xii4 #abe47 and even octosyllables will appear-- ,ne no say robe in riche pelure2 7,a4 iii4 #bgg47 partly explaining to us the chaos of lines in fifteenth-century poetry4 ,,xiv4 ,,later ,,middle ,,english ,,period ,scansions from ,chaucer4 ,octosyllable3 ,hit was of ,venus redely1 ,this temple2 for in portreyture1 ,i saw anoon right hir figure ,naked fletynge in a see4 ,and also on hir heed1 parde1 ,hir rose garlond white and reed1 ,and hir comb to kembe hir heed1 ,hir dowves1 and daun ,cupido1 ,hir blinde sone1 and ,vulcano1 ,that in his face was ful broun4 7,house of ,fame1 i4 #acj-aci47 7,two acephalous lines1 initial monosyllabic feet1 or trochaic admixtures2 some unimportant elisions before vowels and h2 middle pause not kept in lines #a1 #d1 #f1 and #aj47 ,rhyme-royal3 ,and down from thenns faste he gan avise ,this litel spot of erthe that with the see ,embracd is1 and fully gan despise ,this wrecched world1 and held al vanite1 ,to respect of the pleyne felicite ,that is in hevene above4 ,and at the laste ,ther he was slayn his loking down he caste4 7,troilus and ,criseyde1 v4 #ahad-bj47 7,metre quite regular1 but pause much varied--practically none in line #e4 ,elisions as above1 but e's not valued1 or elided1 in erthe1 pleyne4 ,final couplet hendecasyllabic1 as indeed most are47 7a7 ,riding rhyme or heroic couplet3 ,whan that ,aprille with his shoures soote ,the droghte of ,march hath perced to the roote1 ,and bathed every veyne in swich licour ,of which vertu engendred is the fleur2 ,whan ,zephirus eek with his swete breeth ,inspired hath in every holt and heeth ,the tendre croppes1 and the yonge sonne ,hath in the ,ram his halfe cours y-ronne1 ,and smale foweles maken melodye1 ,that slepen al the nyght with open eye1-- ,so priketh hem ,nature in hir corages1-- ,thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages1 ,and palmeres for to seken straunge strondes1 ,to ferne halwes1 kowthe in sondry londes2 ,and specially1 from every shires ende ,of ,engelond1 to ,caunterbury they wende1 ,the hooly blisful martir for to seke ,that hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke4 7,opening paragraph of ,canterbury ,tales47 7,very regular2 but possible trisyllabic feet wherever every occurs1 and a certain one in ,caunterbury4 ,pause almost indifferently at #dth and #eth syllables4 ,french-,latin accent in ,natre4 ,many hendecasyllables or redundances2 but all made by the e in one form or another47 7b7 ,acephalous or nine-syllable lines3 ,twenty bokes clad in blak or reed4 7,prol4 #bgd47 7c7 ,alexandrines3 ,westward1 right swich another in the opposite4 7,k4 ,t4 #ajcf47 ,so sorwefully eek that ,i wende verraily4 7,sq4 ,t4 #ehe47 ,,xv4 ,,later ,,middle ,,english ,,period ,variations from ,strict ,iambic ,norm in ,gower4 7a7 ,trochaic substitution3 ndr the grene thei begrave4 7,conf4 ,am4 i4 #bcdh47 7b7 ,anapstic substitution3 ,sometime in chambre sometime in halle4 7iv4 #acca47 ,of ,jelousie1 but what it is 7v4 #ddg47 7if the dissyllabic ie is insisted on74 ,and thus ful ofte aboute the hals4 7v4 #bead47 ,it was fantosme but yet he heard4 7v4 #ejaa47 7,it will be observed that in these four instances1 all acknowledged by ,professor ,macaulay1 the final e is required to make the trisyllabic foot1 though the first instance differs slightly from the others4 ,i should myself add a large number where ,mr4 ,macaulay sees only slur1 but in which occur words like ever 7i4 #c71 many a 7i4 #caf1 #cag71 or syllables like eth1 which must be valued in one case at least here-- ,to breaketh and renneth al aboute1 7,prol4 #eje47 where ,mr4 ,macaulay reads tobrekth1 and where the copyists very likely made it so47 7c7 ,acephalous lines3 ,very rare if the e be always allowed4 ,perhaps non-existent4 ,,xvi4 ,,transition ,,period ,examples of ,break-down in ,literary ,verse4 7a7 ,lydgate's decasyllabic couplet3 ,ther he lay to the lark song ,with nots herd high up in the ayr4 ,the glad morowe rody and right fayr1 ,phebus also casting up his bemes ,the highe hylles gilt with his stremes4 7,story of ,thebes1 #abej sqq47 7#c1 tolerable2 #b1 ditto1 with hiatus at csura2 #a1 last foot missing2 #d1 acephalous2 #e1 syllable missing at csura47 7b7 ,his rhyme-royal3 ,this is to sein --douteth never a dele-- ,that ye shall have ful possession ,of him that ye cherrish now so wel1 ,in honest maner1 withoute offencioun1 ,because ,i knowe your entencion ,is truli set in parti and in al ,to loue him best and most in special4 7,temple of ,glass1 st4 #af47 7,two examples 7#b and #c7 of the so-called ,lydgatian missing syllable at csura47 7c7 ,a typical minor1 ,john ,metham1 in ,amoryus and ,cleopes1 stanza #a3 ,the charms of love and eke the peyn of ,amoryus the knyght ,for ,cleopes sake and eke how bothe in fere ,lovyd and aftyr deyed1 my purpos ys to indight4 ,and now1 ,o goddess1 ,i thee beseche off kunning that have syche might1 ,help me to adorne ther charms in syche maner ,so that qwere this matere doth yt require ,bothe ther lovys ,i may compleyne to loverys desire4 7,a fourteener1 a decasyllable1 an ,alexandrine1 a sixteener1 and three decasyllables1 the last very shaky either as that or as an ,alexandrine6 ,in fact1 sheer doggerel of the unintended kind47 ,,xvii4 ,,transition ,,period ,examples of ,true ,prosody in ,ballad1 ,carols1 etc4 7a7 ,chevy ,chase3 ,the ,percy out of ,northumberland1 ,and a vow to ,god made he1 ,that he would hunt in the mountains ,of ,cheviot within days three1 ,in the maugre of doughty ,douglas ,and all that ever with him be4 7,it must be observed that this modern spelling exactly represents the old prosodically4 ,the reader will then see that there are no liberties1 on the equivalent system1 except the crasis of -viot and ever4 ,the former1 insignificant in any case1 is still more so here1 for the actual ,northumbrian pronunciation is or was ,chevot2 while if ever changes places with that1 there is not even any crasis needed4 ,for a piece so rough in phrase1 and copied by a person so evidently illiterate1 the exactness is astonishing47 7b7 ,e4,i4,o43 ,to doom we draw the sooth to schaw ,in life that us was lent1 ,ne latin1 ne law1 may help ane haw1#cf ,but rathely us repent4 ,the cross1 the crown1 the spear bees bown1 ,that ,jesu rugged and rent1 ,the nails rude1 shall thee conclude ,with their own argument4 ,with ,e and ,o take keep thereto1 ,as ,christ himself us kenned ,we come and go to weal or woe1 ,that dreadful doom shall end4 7,spelling modernised as before1 but not a word altered47 ,,xviii4 ,,transition ,,period ,examples of ,skeltonic and other ,doggerel4 7a7 ,skelton3 ,i4 ,mirry ,margaret ,as midsomer flower1 ,gentyll as faucoun ,or hauke of the tower-- ,with solace and gladness1 ,much mirth and no madness1 ,all good and no badness3-- ,so joyously1 ,so maidenly1 ,so womanly4 ,her demenyng ,in every thyng ,far far passyng ,that ,i can indite ,or suffyce to write4 7,crown of ,laurel47 ,,ii4 ,but to make up my tale1 ,she brueth noppy ale1 ,and makethe thereof sale1 ,to travellers1 to tinkers1 ,to sweaters1 to swinkers1 ,and all good ale-drinkers ,that will nothing spare ,but drynke till they stare ,and bring themselves bare1 ,with now away the mare1 ,and let us slay ,care1 ,as wise as an hare4 7,elinor ,rumming47 7b7 ,examples from ,heywood and other interludes4 7#a7 ,continuous long doggerel3 ,i cannot tell you3 one knave disdains another1 ,wherefore take ye the tone and ,i shall take the other4 ,we shall bestow them there as is most convenient ,for such a couple4 ,i trow they shall repent ,that ever they met in this church here4 7#b7 ,singles3 7,shortened six47 ,this wyse him deprave1 7,octosyllable47 ,and give the absolution4 7,irregular decasyllable47 ,the aboundant grace of the powr divyne 7,alexandrine47 ,preserve this audience and leave them to inclyne4 7,irregular fourteener47 ,then hold down thine head like a pretty man and take my blessing4 7,in all these examples the doggerel is probably intended2 that is to say1 the writers are not aiming at a regularity which they cannot reach1 but cheerfully or despairingly renouncing it47 ,,xix4 ,,transition ,,period ,examples from the ,scottish ,poets4 7a7 ,barbour 7regular octosyllables73 ,the kyng toward the vod is gane1 ,wery1 for-swat and vill of vayn2 ,intill the wod soyn enterit he1 ,and held doun toward a val1 ,quhar throu the vod a vattir ran4 ,thiddir in gret hy went he than1 ,and begouth to rest hym thair1 ,and said he mycht no forthirmair4 7,one acephalous line47 7b7 ,wyntoun 7octosyllables somewhat freer73 ,thir sevyn kyngis regnand were ,a hunder fully and forty year1 ,and fra thir kyngis thus can cess ,in ,rome thai chesit twa consuls4 7,,iv4 ii4 #aeg-afj47 7c7 ,blind ,harry 7regular decasyllables on ,french model73 ,than ,wallace socht quhar his wncle suld be2 ,in a dyrk cawe he was setdulfull1 ,quhar watter stud1 and he in yrnyss strang4 ,wallace full sone the brassis wp he dang2 ,off that myrk holl brocht him with strenth and lyst1 ,bot noyis he hard1 off nothing ellis he wyst4 ,so blyth befor in warld he had nocht beyn1 ,as thair with sycht1 quhen he had ,wallace seyn4 7d7 ,james ,i4 7rhyme-royal73 ,for wakit and for-walowit1 thus musing1 ,wery forlain ,i listenyt soddynlye1 ,and sone ,i herd the bell to matyns ryng1 ,and up ,i rase1 no longer wald ,i lye3 ,bot soon1 how trowe ye8 ,suich a fantasye ,fell me to mynd that ay me thoght the bell ,said to me1 ,tell on1 man1 what the befell4 7e7 ,henryson 7ballad measure2 slight anapstic substitution73 ,makyne1 the night is soft and dry1 ,the weddir is warm and fair1 ,and the gren wuid richt neir us by ,to walk out on all quhair3 ,thair ma na jangloor us espy1 ,that is to lufe contrair1 ,thairin1 ,makyne1 bath ye and ,i ,unseen we ma repair4 ,those who deny the valued e in gren1 as not ,scots1 may refuse the second instance of trisyllabic feet1 but the first will remain4 7f7 ,dunbar 7alliterative73 ,i saw thre gay ladeis sit in ane grein arbeir1 ,all grathit into garlandis of fresche gudelie flouris2 ,so glitterit as the gold wer thair glorius gilt tressis1 ,quhill all the gressis did gleme of the glaid hewis2 ,kemmit was thair cleir hair1 and curiouslie sched ,attour thair schulderis doun schyre1 schyning full bricht4 ,dunbar 7dimeter iambic quatrains with refrain1 and much anapstic substitution73 ,come nevir yet ,may so fresche and grene1 ,bot ,januar come als wud and kene-- ,wes nevir sic drowth bot anis come raine1 ,all erdly joy returnis in pane4 7g7 ,alexander ,scott 7stanzas73 ,it cumis yow luvaris to be laill1 ,of body1 hairt and mynd al haill1 ,and though ye with year ladyis daill-- ,ressoun2 ,bot and your faith and lawty faill-- ,tressoun6 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,be land or se1 ,quhaur evir ,i be1 ,as ye fynd me1 ,so tak me2 ,and gif ,i le1 ,and from yow fle1 ,ay quhill ,i de ,forsaik me6 7h7 ,montgomerie 7,cherry and ,slae stanza73 ,about ane bank quhair birdis on bewis ,ten thousand tymis thair notis renewis ,ilke houre into the day1 ,the merle and maueis micht be sene1 ,the ,progne and the ,phelomene1 ,quhilk caussit me to stay4 ,i lay and leynit me to ane bus ,to heir the birdis beir2 ,thair mirth was sa melodious ,throw nature of the yeir2 ,sum singing1 some springing ,with wingis into the sky1 ,so trimlie1 and nimlie1 ,thir birdis they flew me by4 ,,xx4 ,,early ,,elizabethan ,,period ,examples of ,reformed ,metre from ,wyatt1 ,surrey1 and other ,poets before ,spenser4 7a7 ,wyatt 7sonnet7 ,the longe love that in my thought ,i harbr ,and in my heart doth keep his residence1 ,into my face presseth with bold pretence1 ,and there campth displaying his bannr3 ,she that me learns to love and to suffr1 ,and wills that my trust and lustes negligence ,be reined by reason1 shame1 and reverence1 ,with his hardness taks displeasre1 ,wherewith love to the hartes forest he fleth1 ,leaving his enterprise with pain and cry1 ,and there him hideth and not ppearth4 ,what may ,i do8 when my master feareth1 ,but in the field with him to live and die1 ,for good is th life ending faithfully4 7,i formerly scanned line #i3 ,wherewith love to the hart's forest he fleth4 ,but forst is so frequent and makes such a much better rhythm that perhaps it should be preferred4 ,it will1 however1 emphasise still further the poet's curious uncertainty about the -eth rhymes--whether he shall arrange them on that syllable only1 or take in the penultimate4 ,besides this point1 the student should specially notice the pains taken to get1 not merely the feet1 but the syllables right at the cost sometimes of pretty strongly wrenched accent4 ,on all this see ,book ,,ii4 ,the final 's are rather a curiosity than important3 long may have been sounded1 luste and harte 7so printed in ,tottel7 improbably47 7b7 ,wyatt 7lyric stanza73 ,forget not yet the tried intent ,of such a truth as ,i have meant1 ,my great travil1 so gladly spent1 ,forget not yet6 ,forget not yet when first began ,the weary life ye know1 since whan ,the suit1 the service1 none tell can-- ,forget not yet6 7,it will be observed that this rondeau-like motion1 with its short lines and frequent repetition1 is brought off better than the sonnet1 though the ,french accent sticks in travil47 7c7 ,surrey 7sonnet73 ,i never saw my lady lay apart ,her cornet black1 in cold nor yet in heat1 ,sith first she knew my grief was grown so great2 ,which other fancies driveth from my heart1 ,that to myself ,i do the thought reserve1 ,the which unwares did wound my woeful breast4 ,but on her face mine eyes mought never rest ,yet1 since she knew ,i did her love1 and serve ,her golden tresses clad alway with black1 ,her smiling looks that hides thus evermore ,and that restrains which ,i desire so sore4 ,so doth this cornet govern me1 alack6 ,in summer sun1 in winter's breath1 a frost ,whereby the lights of her fair looks ,i lost4 7,observe how much more surely and lightly the younger poet treads in the uncertain pioneer footsteps of the elder47 7d7 ,surrey 7poulter's measure73 ,good ladies1 ye that have your pleasures in exile1 ,step in your foot1 come take a place and mourn with me a while2 ,and such as by1 their lords do set but little price1 ,let them sit still1 it skills them not what chance come on the dice4 ,but ye whom love hath bound by order of desire ,to love your lords1 whose good deserts none other would require1 ,come ye yet once again and set your foot by mine1 ,whose woful plight and sorrows great no tongue can even define4 7,very little to be said for it1 except as a school of regular rhythm4 ,broken up into short measure 7#f1 #f1 #h1 #f7 it has been not ineffective in hymns47 7e7 ,gascoigne 7lyric stanza73 ,sing lullaby1 as women do1 ,wherewith they bring their babes to rest1 ,and lullaby can ,i sing too1 ,as womanly as can the best4 ,with lullaby they still the child2 ,and if ,i be not much beguiled1 ,full many wanton babes have ,i ,which must be stilled with lullaby4 7f7 ,turberville 7lyric stanza73 ,as ,i in this have done your will1 ,and mind to do1 ,so ,i request you to fulfil ,my fancy too1 ,a green and loving heart to have1 ,and this is all that ,i do crave4 7,observe in both of these the absolute syllabic regularity1 and observance of foot-rhythm47 ,,xxi4 ,,spenser#cg ,,at ,,different ,,periods 7a7 ,shep4 ,kal4 7strict stanza73 ,thou barren ground1 whom winter's wrath has wasted1 ,art made a mirror to behold my plight3 ,whilome thy fresh spring flower'd1 and after hasted ,thy summer proud1 with daffodillies dight2 ,and now is come thy winter's stormy state1 ,thy mantle marr'd wherein thou maskedst late4 7,regular iambs throughout4 ,one double rhyme47 7b7 ,shep4 ,kal4 7equivalenced octosyllable--,christabel or ,genesis and ,exodus metre73 ,his harmful hatcht h hnt in hand1 7,alas6 that it so ready shuld stnd67 ,and to the field alone he speedeth1 7,aye little help to harm there needeth67 ,anger nould let him speak t th tre1 ,enauntr hs rge mought cooled bee2 ,but to th rot bnt his sturdy stroke1 ,and made mny wunds in the waste oak4 ,the axe's edge did oft turne again1 ,as half unwillng t ct the grain4 ,seemed the senseless iron did fear1 ,or to wrong holy eld dd frbar-- ,for it had been an ancient tree1 ,sacred with many mstery1 ,and often crossd with the priests cruise ,and often hallowed with holy water dews4 7,observe that this last is the only distinct1 if not the only possible1 decasyllabic couplet1 while it can become an ,alexandrine by valuing hallowd 2 and that priests is the only attempt at valued ,chaucerian e47 7c7 ,shep4 ,kal4 7equivalenced stanza73 ,bring hithr th pnk and purple columbine1 ,with gillyflowers2 ,bring coronations and sops in wine1 ,worn of prmurs3 ,strow me the ground with daffadown dillies1#ch ,and cowslips and kingcups and loved lillis3 ,the pretty paunce1 ,and the chevisaunce1 ,shall match with the fair flow'r delice4 ,it may be just desirable to remind the student that a final -ion is commonly dissyllabic in the sixteenth and earlier seventeenth centuries4 ,worn of paramours is possible4 7d7 ,spenserian stanza 7occasional1 but mostly slight1 equivalence4 ,pause in ll4 #a-h at discretion2 in #i usually at middle1 but1 as in the following1 not always73 ,so passeth1 in the passing of a day ,of mortal life1 the leaf1 the bud1 the flower2 ,no more doth flourish after first decay ,that erst was sought to deck both bed and bower ,of many ldy nd mny pramour6 ,gather1 therefore1 the rose while yet is prime1 ,for soon comes age that will her pride deflower3 ,gather the rose of love whilst yet is time1 ,whilst loving thou mayst lovd be with equal crime4 7e7 ,mother ,hubberd's ,tale 7antithetic and stopped heroic couplet73 ,full little knowest thou that hast not tried1 ,what hell it is1 in suing long to bide3 ,to lose good days that might be better spent2 ,to waste long nights in pensive discontent2 ,to speed to-day1 to be put back to-morrow2 ,to feed on hope1 to pine with fear and sorrow2 ,to have thy ,prince's grace1 yet want her ,peer's2 ,to have thy asking1 yet wait many years2 ,to fret thy soul with crosses and with cares2 ,to eat thy heart through comfortless despairs2 ,to fawn1 to crouch1 to wait1 to ride1 to run1 ,to spend1 to give1 to want1 to be undone4 7f7 ,epithalamion 7elaborate quasi-,pindaric stanza concerted in different line length1 but almost strictly iambic2 the1 etc41 before a vowel being probably elided73 ,open the temple gates unto my ,love1 ,open them wide that she may enter in1 ,and all the posts adorn as doth behove1 ,and all the pillars deck with garlands trim1 ,for to receive this ,saint with honour due1 ,that cometh in to you4 ,with trembling steps1 and humble reverence1 ,she cometh in1 before th' ,almighty's view3 ,of her1 ye virgins1 learn obedience1 ,when so ye come1 into those holy places1 ,to humble your proud faces3 ,bring her up to th' ,high ,altar1 that she may ,the sacred ceremonies there partake ,the which do endless matrimony make2 ,and let the roaring organs loudly play ,the praises of the ,lord in lively notes1 ,the whiles with hollow throats ,the choristers the joyous anthem sing1 ,that all the woods may answer1 and their echo ring6 ,,xxii4 ,,examples ,,of ,,the ,,development ,,of ,,blank ,,verse 7a7 ,surrey 7translation of ,aeneid73 ,it was the night2 the sound and quiet sleep ,had through the earth the weary bodies caught1 ,the woods1 the raging seas1 were fallen to rest1 ,when that the stars had half their course declined4 ,the fields whist3 beasts and fowls of divers hue1 ,and what so that in the broad lakes remained1 ,or yet among the bushy thicks of briar1 ,laid down to sleep by silence of the night1 ',gan swage their cares1 mindless of travails past4 ,not so the spirit of this ,phenician4 ,unhappy she that on no sleep could chance1 ,nor yet night's rest enter in eye or breast4 ,her cares redouble3 love doth rise and rage again1 ,and overflows with swelling storms of wrath4 7,the interest of the new mode here is manifold4 ,the lines are almost wholly single-moulded1 the author's anxiety to keep himself right without rhyme necessitating this4 ,the csura at the fourth syllable is almost always kept1 according to the tradition of the ,french line4 ,once 7in the penultimate line7 he has to overflow2 but into an ,alexandrine1 not into the next line4 ,whether by intention or not--sprite being possible--he once discovers the enormous advantage of the trisyllabic foot4#ci ,once he makes with rest and breast the oversight of a ,leonine rhyme4 ,but1 on the whole1 the success is remarkable for a beginning2 and there are indications of what has to be done to secure the end47 7b7 ,first dramatic attempts--,gorboduc onwards3 ,sidenote3 ,sackville and ,norton4 ,your wonted true regard of faithful hearts ,makes me1 ,o king1 the bolder to resume1 ,to speak what ,i conceive within my breast3 ,although the same do not agree at all ,with that which other here my lords have said1 ,nor which yourself have seemd best to like4 7,gorboduc47 ,sidenote3 ,hughes and others4 ,what6 shall ,i stand whiles ,arthur sheds my blood8 ,and must ,i yield my neck unto the axe8 ,whom fates constrain let him forego his bliss4 ,but he that needless yields unto his bane ,when he may shun1 does well deserve to lose ,the good he cannot use4 ,who would sustain ,a baser life that may maintain the best8 7,misfortunes of ,arthur47 ,sidenote3 ,peele4 ,were evry shp ten thousand on the seas1 ,manned with the strength of all the eastern kings1 ,conveying all the monarchs of the world1 ,t nvde the island where her ,highness reigns-- ',twere all in vain3 for heavns nd dstinies ,attend and wait upon her ,majesty6 7,battle of ,alcazar47 ,sidenote3 ,greene4 ,why thinks ,king ,henry's son that ,margrt's lve ,hangs in th ncrtain balance of proud time8 ,that death shall make a discord of our thoughts8 ,no6 stab the earl3 and ere the morning sun ,shall vaunt him thrice over the lofty east1 ,mrgrt will meet her ,lacy in the heavens6 7,f4 ,bacon and ,f4 ,bungay47 ,sidenote3 ,marlowe4 ,black is the beauty of the brightest day6 ,the golden ball of ,heaven's eternal fire1 ,that danced with glory on the silver waves1 ,now wants the glory that inflamed his beams3 ,and all for faintness and for foul disgrace1 ,he binds his temples with a frowning cloud1 ,ready to darken earth with endless night4 7,tamburlaine47 7,an extreme stiffness and single-mouldedness in the lines2 modified in ,peele and ,greene by trisyllabic feet1 perhaps not intended as such 7heav'n was pretty certainly regarded and generally spelt as a monosyllable1 and the pronunciations ev'ry and ,margret are old2 while t'invade and th'uncertain would be likely71 but virtually so1 and inviting1 especially in ,margaret1 the full and beautiful value4 ,the ,gorboduc form1 as is natural1 is much the least accomplished4 ,it is indeed what1 by an almost incomprehensible inversion of sense and nature1 some people call blank verse according to the rules--ten syllables only1 five almost strictly iambic feet 7accent on the even places72 pause near the middle2 stop1 metrical1 if not grammatical1 at every end--in fact1 the roughest and most rudimentary form possible47 7c7 ,early non-dramatic blanks 7,gascoigne73 ,and on their backs they bear both land and fee1 ,castles and towers1 revenues and receipts1 ,lordships and manors1 fines1--yea farms--and all4 ,what should these be8 7speak you1 my lovely lord87 ,they be not men3 for why1 they have no beards4 ,they be no boys1 which wear such sidelong gowns4 ,they be no gods1 for all their gallant gloss4 ,they be no devils1 ,i trow1 which seem so saintish4 ,what be they8 women8 masking in men's weeds ,with dutchkin doublets and with jerkins jagged8 ,with ,spanish spangs1 and ruffs set out of ,france1 ,with high copt hats and feathers flaunt-a-flaunt8 ,they be1 so sure1 even woe to men indeed4 7,it will be noticed that the single-moulded character is even more noticeable here than in drama1 and is emphasised by the epanaphora4 ,there is one redundance--saintish 7jagged is probably jagg'd71 and1 as we know that the author thought the iamb the only ,english foot1 we must not read rvnue1 but1 with tow'rs1 revnue--which indeed was1 by precisians1 regarded as the correct pronunciation not so very long ago47 7d7 ,perfected single-mould3 ,sidenote3 ,peele4 ,come1 gentle ,zephyr1 trick'd with those perfmes ,that erst in ,eden sweeten'd ,adam's love1 ,and stroke my bosom with thy silken fan3 ,this shade1 sun-proof1 is yet no proof for thee2 ,thy body1 smoother than this waveless spring1 ,and purer than the substance of the same1 ,can creep through that his lances cannot pierce3 ,thou1 and thy sister1 soft and sacred ,air1 ,goddess of life1 and governess of health1 ,keep every fountain fresh and arbour sweet2 ,no brazen gate her passage can repulse1 ,nor bushy thicket bar thy subtle breath3 ,then deck thee with thy loose delight some robes1 ,and on thy wings bring delicate perfumes1 ,to play the wanton with us through the leaves4 7,david and ,bethsabe47 ,sidenote3 ,marlowe4 ,if all the pens that ever poets held ,had fed the feeling of their masters' thoughts1 ,and every sweetness that inspir'd their hearts1 ,their minds1 and muses1 on admird themes2 ,if all the heavenly quintessence they 'still ,from their immortal flowers of poesy1 ,wherein as in a mirror we perceive ,the highest reaches of a human wit2 ,if these had made one poem's period1 ,and all combined in beauty's worthiness1 ,yet should there hover in their restless heads ,one thought1 one grace1 one wonder at the least1 ,which into words no virtue can digest4 7,tamburlaine47 7,these passages1 despite their extreme poetical beauty1 are still prosodically immature4 ,even when1 as in the last1 there are lines with no technical stop at the end1 as at held and heads1 the grammatical incompleteness does not interfere with the rounding off of the prosodic period or sub-period4 ,marlowe 7v4 inf47 could enjamb couplet beautifully1 but not blank verse4 ,note also that the lines are strictly decasyllabic1 the only hints at trisyllabic feet being in words like ,heaven1 then regularly a monosyllable1 every1 and flowers47 7e7 ,shakespeare4 7#a7 ,early single-moulded3 ,upon his bloody finger he doth wear ,a precious ring1 that lightens all the hole1 ,which1 like the taper in some monument1 ,doth shine upon the dead man's earthy cheeks1 ,and shows the ragged entrails of the pit4 7,titus ,andronicus47 7,same remarks applying as to the last citation47 7#b7 ,beginning of perfected stage3 ,why art thou yet so fair8 shall ,i believe ,that unsubstantial death is amorous1 ,and that the lean abhorrd monster keeps ,thee here in dark to be his paramour8 ,for fear of that1 ,i still will stay with thee3 ,and never from this palace of dim night ,depart again3 here1 here will ,i remain ,with worms that are thy chamber-maids2 ,o1 here ,will ,i set up my everlasting rest4 ,and shake the yoke of inauspicious stars ,from this world-wearied flesh4 7,romeo and ,juliet47 7,no trisyllabic feet yet1 and no redundance3 but1 by shift of pause and completer juncture of lines1 the paragraph effect solidly founded47 7#c7 ,further process in the same direction3 ,nay1 but this dotage of our general's ,o'erflows the measure3 those his goodly eyes1 ,that o'er the files and musters of the war ,have glowed like plated ,mars1 now bend1 now turn1 ,the office and devotion of their view ,upon a tawny front3 his captain's heart1 ,which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst ,the buckles on his breast1 reneagues all temper1 ,and is become the bellows and the fan ,to cool a gipsy's lust4 7,antony and ,cleopatra47 7,here the double division marks indicate stronger1 and the single lighter1 pauses--not1 as usually in the latter case1 feet4 ,the variation of the pause for paragraph effect is here consummate2 but the verse1 as its conditions require1 is of the severer type47 7#d7 ,perfection in passion3 ,blow winds1 and crack your cheeks6 rage6 blow6 ,you cataracts and hurricanoes1 spout ,till you have drench'd our steeples1 drown'd the cocks6 ,you sulphurous and thought-executing fires1 ,vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts1 ,singe my white head6 ,and thou1 all-shaking thunder1 ,smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world6 ,crack nature's moulds1 all germens spill at once1 ,that make ingrateful man6 7,king ,lear47 7,every extension taken4 ,monosyllabic feet either at the first blow and winds1 or the last1 and rage1 perhaps at both 7an ,alexandrine74 ,trisyllabic at -phrus nd1 rrs t1 and ty '4 ,redundance at -ing thunder4 ,pause fully played upon as above3 enjambment at spout2 parenthetic enjambment at fires47 7#e7 ,perfection in quiet3 ,our revels now are ended4 ,these our actors1 ,as ,i foretold you1 were all spirits1 and ,are melted into air1 into thin air3 ,and1 like the baseless fabric of this vision1 ,the cloud-capped towers1 the gorgeous palaces1 ,the solemn temples1 the great globe itself1 ,yea1 all which it inherit1 shall dissolve ,and1 like this insubstantial pageant faded1 ,leave not a rack behind4 ,we are such stuff ,as dreams are made of1 and our little life ,is rounded with a sleep4 7,the ,tempest47 7,not much trisyllabic--the dreaminess not requiring it4 ,a good deal of redundance1 and enjambment pushed nearly to the furthest by taking place at and4#dj7 7f7 ,redundance encroaching4 ,beaumont and ,fletcher3 ,oh thou conqueror1 ,thou glory of the world once1 now the pity3 ,thou awe of nations1 wherefore didst thou fail us8 ,what poor fate followed thee1 and plucked thee on ,to trust thy sacred life to an ,egyptian8 ,the life and light of ,rome to a blind stranger1 ,that honourable war ne'er taught a nobleness ,nor worthy circumstance show'd what a man was8 ,that never heard thy name sung but in banquets ,and loose lascivious pleasures8 to a boy ,that had no faith to comprehend thy greatness1 ,no study of thy life to know thy goodness8444 ,egyptians1 dare you think your high pyramides ,built to out-dure the sun1 as you suppose1 ,where your unworthy kings lie rak'd in ashes1 ,are monuments fit for him6 ,no1 brood of ,nilus1 ,nothing can cover his high fame but heaven2 ,no pyramid set off his memories1 ,but the eternal substance of his greatness1 ,to which ,i leave him4 7,the ,false ,one47 7,here it will be seen there are two actual ,alexandrines 7three if we allow the full value to conqueror7 and twelve redundant lines to four non-redundant6 ,the fire of the poetry fuses this1 but cannot always be counted on1 as in the next47 7#b7 ,if ,i had swelled the soldier1 or intended ,an act in person leaning to dishonour1 ,as you would fain have forced me1 witness ,heaven1 ,where clearest understanding of all truth is 7,for men are spiteful men1 and know no piety74 ,when ,olin came1 grim ,olin1 when his marches1 etc41 etc41 etc4 7,the ,loyal ,subject47 7,which1 with its repetition of stumbling amphibrachic ends1 is rather hideous47 7g7 ,spread of the infection1 and complete decay of blank verse from various causes4 7#a7 ,shirley3 ,i dare1 ,with conscience or my pure intent1 try what ,rudeness you find upon my lip1 'tis chaste ,as the desires that breathe upon my language4 ,i began1 ,felisarda1 to affect thee ,by seeing thee at prayers2 thy virtue winged ,love's arrows first1 and 'twere a sacrilege ,to choose thee now for sin1 that hast a power ,to make this place a temple by thy innocence4 ,i know thy poverty1 and came not to ,bribe it against thy chastity2 if thou ,vouchsafe thy fair and honest love1 it shall ,adorn my fortunes which shall stoop to serve it ,in spite of friends or destiny4 7,the ,brothers47 7,actual scansion quite correct1 and therefore not marked throughout4 ,redundance not excessive 7innocence may be taken as such1 and not as making an ,alexandrine1 if liked72 hardly any1 and no misused1 trisyllabic feet4 ,but enjambment at what1 to1 thou1 and shall badly managed47 7#b7 ,suckling3 ,softly1 as death itself comes on ,when it doth steal away the sick man's breath1 ,and standers-by perceive it not1 ,have ,i trod the way unto their lodgings4 ,how wisely do those powers ,that give us happiness order it6 7,aglaura47 7,a hopeless jumble4 ,the #ast1 as a fragment1 and #bnd lines are all right1 and the #fth could be completed properly4 ,but #c1 #d1 and #e--though #c and #e could come in with other companions--upset any kind of continuous arrangement1 and #d would hardly be good anywhere47 7#c7 ,davenant3 ,rhodolinda doth become her title ,and her birth4 ,since deprived of popular ,homage1 she hath been queen over her great self4 ,in this captivity ne'er passionate ,but when she hears me name the king1 and then ,her passions not of anger taste but love3 ,love of her conqueror2 he that in fierce ,battle 7when the cannon's sulphurous breath ,clouded the day7 her noble father slew4 7,albovine47 7,more hopeless still1 and left unscanned for the student's edification47 7h7 ,the ,miltonic ,restoration4 ,early dramatic experiment4 ,comus is evidently written under three different influences1 which may be said to be in the main those of ,marlowe1 ,shakespeare1 and ,fletcher4 ,the poet often uses ,fletcher's heavy trisyllabic endings-- ,bore a bright golden flower1 but not n ths sil2 and has not infrequent ,alexandrines1 the most certain of which is-- ,as to make this relation4 ,care and utmost shifts4 ,but he makes the verse more and more free and original1 as in the following extracts3 ,yea1 there where very desolation dwells1 ,by grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades1 ,she may pass on with unblenched majesty1 ,be it not done in pride or in presumption4 ,some say no evil thing that walks by night1 ,in fog or fire1 by lake or moorish fen1 ,blue meagre hag1 or stubborn unlaid ghost1 ,that breaks his magic chains at curfew time1 ,no goblin or swart faery of the mine1 ,hath hurtful power o'er true virginity4 ,do ye believe me yet1 or shall ,i call ,antiquity from the old schools of ,greece ,to testify the arms of chastity8 ,hence had the huntress ,dian her dread bow1 ,fair silver-shafted queen for ever chaste1 ,wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness ,and spotted mountain-pard1 but set at nought ,the frivlus blt of ,cupid2 gods and men ,feared her stern frown1 and she was queen ' th wods4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,methought it was the sound ,of riot and ill-managed merriment1 ,such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe ,stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds1 ,when1 for their teeming flocks and granges full1 ,in wanton dance they praise the bounteous ,pan1 ,and thank the gods amiss4 7,the full comments given on previous passages make it unnecessary to annotate this much4 ,the last passage has the full paragraph combination4#da7 ,,xxiii4 ,,examples ,,of ,,elizabethan ,,lyric 7a7 ,prae-,spenserian3 ,not light of love1 lady1 ,though fancy do prick thee1 ,let constancy possess thy heart3 ,well worthy of blamyng ,they be and defaming1 ,from plighted troth which back do start4 ,dear dame6 ,then fickleness banish ,and folly extinguish1 ,be skilful in guiding1 ,and stay thee from sliding1 ,and stay thee1 ,and stay thee6 7,gorgeous ,gallery of ,gallant ,inventions 7#aegh747 7,anapstic substitution 7if not definite anapstic base7 arising doubtless rather from tune than from deliberate prosodic purpose2 but quite prosodically correct1 and sure to propagate itself47 7b7 ,post-,spenserian3 ,my bonny lass1 thine eye1 ,so sly ,hath made me sorrow so-- ,thy crimson cheeks1 my dear1 ,so clear1 ,have so much wrought my woe1 7,phnix ,nest 7#aeic747 7,pure iambics2 effect produced by short bob rhymes47 7c7 ,ben ,jonson 7strict common measure73 ,drnk t me only with thine eyes ,and ,i will pledge with mine2 ,or leave a kiss but in the cup ,and ,i'll not look for wine4 ,the thirst that from the soul doth rise ,doth ask a drink divine2 ,but might ,i of ,jve's nctar sip1 ,i would not change for thine4 7,as mostly with ,ben1 strict iambics1 save for the opening trochee1 and something like a spondee in ,jove's nec-4 ,the wonderful effect which he1 or ,donne1 or the ,spirit of the ,age1 taught to the next two generations is produced entirely by careful choice and fingering of the words and rhymes47 7d7 ,ben ,jonson 7anapstic measure73 ,see the chariot at hand here of ,love6 ,wherein my ,lady rideth4 ,each that draws is a swan or a dove1 ,and well the car ,love guideth4 ,as she goes1 all hearts do duty ,unto her beauty2 ,and enamoured do wish1 so they might ,but enjoy such a sight1 ,that they still were to run by her side ,thorough ponds1 thorough seas1 whither she would ride4 7,through1 as often1 is probably to be valued thorough1 and chariot was generally chawyot or charret4 ,it will be observed that although this is fine it is slightly laboured4 ,the age was hardly at ease with the anapst as yet47 7e7 ,campion 7selections73 ,english ,fllw1 fllw1 anacreontic4 ,though with mischief ,armed like whirlwind ,how she flies still4 ,english ,constant to none1 but ever false to me1 7#a7 elegiac4 ,traitor still to love through thy false ,classical desires1 ,not hope of pity now1 nor vain redress1 ,turns my grief to tears and renewed laments4 ,english ,rose-cheeked ,laura1 come2 iambic4 ,sing thou smoothly with thy beauty's ,silent music1 either other ,sweetly gracing4 ,fllw th fir sn1 nhppy shdw6 ,thugh thu b blck s nght1 ,and she made all of light1 ,yet follow thy fair sun1 unhappy shadow6 7#b7 ,natural ,break now1 my heart1 and die6 ,o no1 she may relent-- ,let my despair prevail6 ,o stay1 hope is not spent4 ,should she now fix one smile on thee1 where were despair8 ,the loss is but easy which smiles can repair2 ,a stranger would please thee1 if she were as fair4 ,the student should require little assistance here1 odd as some of the rhythms may seem4 ,but ,rose-cheeked ,laura ought to be trochaically scanned1 and will then be naturally ,english4 ,nothing can make the ,english elegiac harmonious4 ,note that line #c of ,break now may be anapstic like #d and #e3 ,shuld sh nw fx ne smle1 etc4#db ,,xxiv4 ,,early ,,continuous ,,anap,,sts 7a7 ,tusser 7#ast ed4 #aeeg2 complete1 #aegc73 ,now leeks are in season for pottage full good1 ,and spareth the milch cow and purgeth the blood3 ,these having with peason for pottage in ,lent1 ,thou sparest both oatmeal and bread to be spent4 7,perfectly good1 though not very euphonious47 7b7 ,gifford1 ,h4 7#aehj73 ,if ,i should write rashly what comes in my train ,it might be such matter as likes you not best1 ,and rather ,i would great sorrow sustain ,than not to fulfil your lawful request4 7c7 ,mary ,ambree 7c4 #aehd73 ,when captains courageous whom death could not daunt ,did march to the siege of the city of ,gaunt1 ,they mustered their soldiers by two and by three1 ,and the foremost in battle was ,mary ,ambree4 7,percy patched the bracketed words 7his copy being evidently corrupt7 in lines #a and #b4 ,but #c and #d are exactly as in the folio2 and their anapstic base is quite clear4 ,at the same time1 it is worth remarking that these early lines are apt1 frequently though not regularly1 to buttress their start on a dissyllabic foot47 ,,xxv4 ,,the ,,enjambed ,,heroic ,,couplet 7#aehj-affj7 7a7 ,spenser4 ,the very opening of ,mother ,hubberd's ,tale 7#aeia71 quoted above 7p4 #fb7 in its stopped aspect1 shows the way to enjambment3 ,it was the month in which the righteous ,maid1 ,that for disdain of sinful world's upbraid1 ,fled back to heaven4 ,and we have1 further1 an instance as shocking to regular prosodists as anything in the seventeenth century3 ,whilome1 said she1 before the world was civil1 ,the ,fox and th' ,ape1 disliking of their evil ,and hard estate4 7b7 ,marlowe--as remarkable in ,hero and ,leander for this as for single-moulding in blank verse3 ,where the ground ,was strewed with pearl1 and in low coral groves ,sweet-singing mermaids sported with their loves ,on heaps of heavy gold4 7c7 ,drayton began with fairly separated couplets2 but indulged in overrunning later1 as in ,david and ,goliath3 ,grim visage war more sternly doth awake ,than it was wont and furusly ,her lightning sword4 7d7 ,browne3 ,it chanced one morn1 clad in a robe of grey1 ,and blushing oft1 as rising to betray1 ,enticed this lovely maiden from her bed 7,so when the roses have discoverd ,their taintless beauties1 flies the early bee ,about the winding alleys merrily7 ,into the wood1 and 'twas her usual sport1 ,sitting where most harmonious birds resort1 ,to imitate their warbling in ,aprl1 ,wrought by the hand of ,pan1 which she did fill ,half full of water4 7,the actual verse-sentence does not end for another half-dozen lines2 but the scansion is so perfectly regular that it seems unnecessary to mark it4 ,aprl is quite ,spenserian1 and has both ,latin and ,french justification47 7e7 ,the later seventeenth-century enjambers3 ,chalkhill4 ,the rebels1 as you heard1 being driven hence1 ,despairing e'er to expiate their offence ,by a too late submission1 fled to sea ,in such poor barks as they could get1 where they ,roamed up and down1 which way the winds did please1 ,without a chart or compass3 the rough seas ,enraged with such a load of wickedness1 ,grew big with billows1 great was their distress2 ,yet was their courage greater2 desperate men ,grow valianter with suffering3 in their ken ,was a small island1 thitherward they steer ,their weather-beaten barks1 each plies his gear2 ,some row1 some pump1 some trim the ragged sails1 ,all were employed and industry prevails4 7,thealma and ,clearchus1 #bbjc-bbaf47 ,marmion4 ,when you are landed1 and a little past ,the ,stygian ferry1 you your eyes shall cast ,and spy some busy at their wheel1 and these ,are three old women1 called the ,destinies4 7,cupid and ,psyche1 iii4 #bei-bfb47 ,chamberlayne4 ,but ere the weak ,euriolus 7for he ,this hapless stranger was7 again could be ,by strength supported1 base ,amarus1 who ,could think no more than priceless thanks was due ,for all his dangerous pains1 more beastly rude ,than untamed ,indians1 basely did exclude ,that noble guest3 which being with sorrow seen ,by ,ammida1 whose prayers and tears had been ,his helpless advocates1 she gives in charge ,to her ,ismander--till that time enlarge ,her than restrained desires1 he entertain ,her desolate and wandering friend4 ,nor vain ,were these commands1 his entertainment being ,such as observant love thought best agreeing ,to her desires4 7,pharonnida1 ,,iv4 iii4 #bdc-bef47 7,the same remark applies here as to ,browne4 ,some of these poets are indeed great apostrophators1 such things as t' for to1 b' for by1 and 's for his being common4 ,but these uglinesses are generally resorted to in order to attain or keep the strict decasyllabic4 ,chalkhill 7an actual ,elizabethan1 if he was anything7 is less shy of at least apparent trisyllabics1 as in bng drven1 expte thir4 ,the double rhyme of sea to they and seas to please is worth noticing2 v4 sup4 ,rule #cd1 p4 #cd47 ,,xxvi4 ,,the ,,stopped ,,heroic ,,couplet 7#aehj-affj7 7a7 ,spenser 7,mother ,hubberd's ,tale71 v4 sup4 p4 #fb4 7b7 ,drayton 7,heroical ,epistles1 ,suffolk to ,margaret73 ,we all do breathe upon this earthly ball1 ,likewise one ,heav'n encompasseth us all2 ,no banishment can be to us assigned ,who doth retain a true resolved mind2 ,man in himself a little world doth bear1 ,his soul the monarch ever ruling there2 ,wherever then his body doth remain ,he is a king that in himself doth reign4 7,here all the characteristics of the eighteenth-century couplet may be found--the central csura or split1 the balance of the two halves1 the completion of sense in the couplet and almost in the line47 7c7 ,fairfax 7end couplets73 ,if fictious light ,i mix with ,truth ,divine ,and fill these lines with other praise than ,thine4 7i4 #b47 ,we further seek what their offences be3 ,guiltless ,i quit2 guilty ,i set them free4 7ii4 #e47 ,thro' love the hazard of fierce war to prove1 ,famous for arms1 but famous more for love4 7iii4 #dj47 ,in fashions wayward1 and in love unkind1 ,for ,cupid deigns not wound a currish mind4 7iv4 #df47 7,observe here the tendency1 not merely to balance1 but to positive antithesis1 in the halves47 7d7 ,beaumont1 ,sir ,john3 ,the relish of the ,muse consists in rhyme3 ,one verse must meet another like a chime4 ,our ,saxon shortness hath peculiar grace ,in choice of words fit for the ending-place1 ,which leave impression in the mind as well ,as closing sounds of some delightful bell4 7e7 ,sandys4 ,compare the openings of ,job ,i4 and ,,ii43 ,in ,hus1 a land which near the sun's uprise ,and northern confines of ,saba lies1 ,a great example of perfection reigned1 ,his name was ,job1 his soul with guilt unstained4 99 99 99 99 99 ,again when all the radiant sons of light ,before ,his throne appeared1 ,whose only sight ,beatitude infused2 the ,inveterate ,foe1 ,in fogs ascending from the depth below1 ,profaned their blest assembly4 7f7 ,waller3 ,with the sweet sound of this harmonious lay ,about the keel delighted dolphins play2 ,too sure a sign of sea's ensuing rage ,which must anon this royal troop engage2 ,to whom soft sleep seems more secure and sweet ,within the town commanded by our fleet4 7g7 ,cowley 7,davideis73 ,lo6 with pure hands thy heavenly fire to take1 ,my well-chang'd muse ,i a pure vestal make4 ,from ,earth's vain joys and ,love's soft witchcraft free1 ,i consecrate my ,magdalene to thee4 ,lo1 this great work1 a temple to thy praise ,on polish'd pillars of strong verse ,i raise-- ,a temple where if thou vouchsafe to dwell ,it ,solomon's and ,herod's shall excel4 7,it should be observed on these that in ,beaumont1 ,sandys ,i41 ,waller1 and ,cowley the separation of the couplets is strictly maintained2 in ,sandys ,,ii4 not4 ,in fact1 this passage1 but for the rhymes1 has almost the run of ,miltonic blank verse4 ,waller once approaches an initial trochee or inversion of accent in ,with the4 ,here ,cowley is pretty regular4 ,but not far off may be found such a line as-- ,themselves at first against themselves they excite2 where he must either have intended they-ex- to be elided or have meant an anapstic ending of the kind so common in the dramatists his contemporaries4 ,and he constantly uses 7explicitly defending it7 the ,alexandrine1 as in-- ,like some fair pine o'erlooking all th' ignobler wood1 or-- ,which runs1 and1 as it runs1 for ever shall run on2 while he often employs trochees or spondees4 ,he does not use the triplet in the ,davideis1 but does elsewhere1 and1 after ,virgil1 he sometimes indulges in half-lines47 ,,xxvii4 ,,various ,,forms ,,of ,,octosyllable-,,heptasyllable 7,,late ,,sixteenth ,,and ,,seventeenth ,,century7 7a7 ,shakespeare 7doubtfully873 7#a7 ,king ,pandion he is dead1 ,all thy friends are lapped in lead4 7#b7 ,let the bird of loudest lay ,on the sole ,arabian tree4 7,these distichs from the ,passionate ,pilgrim will illustrate the two different forms which the heptasyllable--really an octosyllable acephalous or catalectic--can take4 ,the catalectic form 7#a7 becomes trochaic2 the acephalous 7#b71 iambic4 ,they can be interchanged1 and either can group with the full iambic dimeter2 but1 individually1 it would spoil 7#a7 to scan it as iambic1 7#b7 to scan it as trochaic4 ,yet on accentual scansion there is no difference2 and some advocates of recent fancy stress-systems maintain that the rhythms are identical67 7b7 ,shakespeare 7almost certainly73 ,the cat with eyne of burning coal ,now couches 'fore the mouse's hole1 ,and crickets sing at the oven's mouth ,as the blither from their drouth4 7,in this famous and eminently ,shakespearian passage from ,pericles1 the last line1 a heptasyllable1 goes perfectly with the rest1 or octosyllables1 either as acephalous or as catalectic1 either as an iambic fellow or a trochaic substitute47 7c7 ,shakespeare 7certainly73 ,and we fairies1 that do run ,by the trple ,hecate's team1 ,from the presence of the sun ,following darkness like a dream1 ,now are frolic3 not a mouse ,shall disturb this hallowed house3 ,i am sent with broom before1 ,to sweep the dust behind the door4 7,from ,a ,midsummer ,night's ,dream4 ,same as last1 except that the full octosyllable is only reached at the end1 and perhaps in line #d4 ,hecate1 as often1 is dissyllabic47 7d7 ,browne1 ,w43 ,be ever fresh6 ,let no man dare ,to spoil thy fish1 make lock or wear1 ,but on thy margent still let dwell1 ,those flowers which have the sweetest smell1 ,and let the dust upon thy strand ,become1 like ,tagus1 golden sand4 ,let as much good betide to thee ,as thou hast favour showed to me4 7,pure octosyllables4 ,there is a catalectic line now and then elsewhere1 but it is an evident exception47 7e7 ,wither3 ,for in her a grace there shines1 ,that o'er-daring thoughts confines1 ,making worthless men despair ,to be loved of one so fair4 ,yea1 the ,destinies agree1 ,some good judgments blind should be1 ,and not gain the power of knowing ,those rare beauties in her growing4 7,pure heptasyllables1 taking either cadence1 and1 when extended1 owing the extension mainly1 if not wholly1 to the double rhyme4 ,the first line gives the alternative scansion2 but ,wither's run is1 on the whole1 trochaic1 as ,browne's is iambic47 ,,xxviii4 ,,common1 ,,long1 ,,and ,,in ,,memoriam ,,measure 7,,seventeenth ,,century7 7a7 ,see above1 ,,xxiii41 for ,drink to me only4 7b7 ,donne7871 ,ayton7871 ,anon47871 7,c4,m473 ,thou sent'st me late a heart was crowned1 ,i took it to be thine2 ,but when ,i saw it had a wound1 ,i knew that heart was mine4 ,a bounty of a strange conceit6 ,to send mine own to me1 ,and send it in a worse estate ,than when it came to thee4 7,a capital example of the possibility of rhetorical addition to the strict foot-system1 as in line #b1 ,i took it to be thine4#dc ,for concayt and estate cf4 sup4 ,,xxv4 sub fin47 7c7 ,herrick 7,c4,m473 ,bid me to live and ,i will live ,thy ,protestant to be2 ,or bid me love1 and ,i will give ,a loving heart to thee4 7,strongly flavoured1 and greatly improved1 by trochaic substitution in first foot47 7d7 ,marvell 7,l4,m473 ,my love is of a birth as rare ,as 'tis for object1 strange and high-- ,it was begotten of ,despair ,upon ,impossibility4 7e7 ,lord ,herbert of ,cherbury 7,in ,memoriam metre73 ,for whose affection once is shown1 ,no longer can the world beguile2 ,who sees his penance all the while ,he holds a torch to make her known4 7,great regularity of feet2 but already the circular motion which ,tennyson was to perfect47 ,,xxix4 ,,improved ,,anap,,stic ,,measures 7,,dryden1 ,,anon41 ,,prior7 7a7 ,dryden 7#afia873 ,while ,pan and fair ,syrinx are fled from our shore1 ,the ,graces are banished1 and ,love is no more3 ,the soft god of pleasure that warmed our desires ,has broken his bow1 and extinguished his fires1 ,and vows that himself and his mother will mourn1 ,till ,pan and fair ,syrinx in triumph return4 7,these early anapsts1 as noted1 are very apt to begin with dissyllabic feet4 ,but it was no rule3 in this same piece1 ,the ,beautiful ,lady of the ,may1 occurs the line3 ,all the nymphs were in white and the shepherd in green4 7b7 ,anon4 in ,pills to ,purge ,melancholy 7#agai1 but contents often much older73 ,let us drink and be merry1 sing1 dance1 and rejoice1 ,with claret and sherry1 theorbo and voice4 ,the changeable world to our joys is unjust1 ,all treasure's uncertain1 then down with your dust6 ,on frolics dispose your pounds1 shillings1 and pence1 ,for we shall be nothing a hundred years hence4 7c7 ,prior 7#afif73 ,while with labour assiduous due pleasure ,i mix1 ,and in one day atone for the business of six1 ,in a little ,dutch chaise on a ,saturday night1 ,on my left hand my ,horace1 a nymph on my right4 7,observe here in assiduous and business the liberty of combining adjacent vowels 7-uous7 and following familiar pronunciation 7bizness7 which this light verse especially authorises4 ,,xxx4 ,,pindarics 7,,seventeenth ,,century7 ,dryden 7complete stanza from ,anne ,killigrew ode73 ,,vi ,brn t the spacious empire of the ,nine1 ,one would have thought she should have been content ,to manage well that mighty government2 ,but what can young ambitious souls confine8 ,to the next realm she stretched her sway1 ,for ,painture near adjoining lay1 ,a plenteous province1 and alluring prey4 ,a chamber of dependencies was framed1 7,as conquerors will never want pretence1 ,when armed1 to justify the offence17 ,and the whole fief1 in right of poetry1 she claimed4 ,the country open lay without defence2 ,for poets frequent inroads there had made1 ,and perfectly could represent ,the shape1 the face1 with every lineament1 ,and all the large domains which the ,dumb ,sister swayed2 ,all bowed beneath her government1 ,received in triumph wheresoe'er she went4 ,her pencil drew whate'er her soul designed1 ,and oft the happy draught surpassed the image in her mind4 ,the sylvan scenes of herds and flocks1 ,and fruitful plains and barren rocks1 ,of shallow brooks that flowed so clear1 ,the bottom did the top appear2 ,of deeper too and ampler floods1 ,which1 as in mirrors1 showed the woods2 ,of lofty trees1 with sacred shades1 ,and prspectives of pleasant glades1 ,where nymphs of brightest form appear1 ,and shaggy satyrs standing near1 ,which them at once admire and fear4 ,the ruins1 too1 of some majestic piece1 ,boasting the power of ancient ,rome or ,greece1 ,whose statues1 friezes1 columns1 broken lie1 ,and1 though defaced1 the wonder of the eye2 ,what nature1 art1 bold fiction1 e'er durst frame1 ,her forming hand gave feature to the name4 ,so strange a concourse ne'er was seen before1 ,but when the peopled ark the whole creation bore4 7#hh-ia1 heroics2 #ib1 #ic1 octosyllables2 #id-if1 heroics2 #ig1 octosyllable2 #ih1 ,alexandrine2 #ii1 #ajj1 heroic2 #aja1 octosyllable2 #ajb1 heroic2 #ajc1 ,alexandrine2 #ajd1 octosyllable2 #aje1 #ajf1 heroics2 #ajg1 fourteener2 #ajh-aah1 continuous octosyllables2 #aai-abe1 continuous heroics capped and finished off by #abf1 ,alexandrine4 ,in #ig1 probably th' offence47 ,,xxxi4 ,,the ,,heroic ,,couplet ,,from ,,dryden ,,to ,,crabbe 7a7 ,dryden 7early non-dramatic73 ,our setting sun1 from his declining seat1 ,shot beams of kindness on you1 not of heat2 ,and1 when his love was bounded in a few ,that were unhappy1 that they might be true1 ,made you the favourite of his last sad times1 ,that is1 a sufferer in his subjects' crimes4 ,thus1 those first favours you received1 were sent1 ,like heaven's rewards1 in earthly punishment3 ,yet fortune1 conscious of your destiny1 ,e'en then took care to lay you softly by1 ,and wrapped your fate among her precious things1 ,kept fresh to be unfolded with your king's4 7,note recurrent you and your employed like pauses to vary verse4 ,otherwise strictly regular47 7b7 ,dryden 7heroic-dramatic type at best73 ,fair though you are ,as summer mornings1 and your eyes more bright ,than stars that twinkle in a winter's night2 ,though you have eloquence to warm and move ,cold age and praying hermits into love2 ,though ,almahide with scorn rewards my care1-- ,yet1 than to change1 'tis nobler to despair4 ,my love's my soul2 and that from fate is free2 ',tis that unchanged and deathless part of me4 7,conquest of ,granada ,,ii41 ,,iii4 iii47 7,observe how the alternation of central pause1 strongly 77 and weakly 77 or hardly at all 7no mark7 emphasised1 knits and shades the verse2 and how1 in the first line1 there is positive enjambment4 ,yet there is still no trisyllabic substitution4 ,this type is continued and perfected in the great satires and didactic pieces for argument and attack1 and in the ,fables for narrative4 ,it admits1 to relieve monotony1 the ,alexandrine 7,hind and ,panther1 i4 #bc1 #bd77-- ,their corpse to perish1 but their kind to last1 ,so much the deathless plant the dying fruit surpassed2 the triplet 7ibid4 a little further7-- ,can ,i believe eternal ,god could lie ,disguised in mortal mould and infancy1 ,that the great ,maker of the world could die8 both combined 7,palamon and ,arcite1 ii4 #efj-efb7-- ,there saw ,i how the secret felon wrought1 ,and treason labouring in the traitor's thought1 ,and midwife time the ripened plot to murder brought2 and sometimes the fourteener 7,medal1 #id7-- ,thou leapst o'er all eternal truths in thy ,pindaric way4 7c7 ,passages from ,garth1 7#a71 and ,pope1 7#b7 and 7#c71 to illustrate the mechanical character of the eighteenth-century couplet1 the ease with which it can be shifted from decasyllabic to octosyllabic1 and its peculiar construction of ridge-backed antithetic pause3 7#a7 ,with breathing fire his pitchy nostrils blow1 ,as from his sides he shakes the fleecy snow4 ,around this hoary prince from wat'ry beds ,his subject islands raise their verdant heads4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,eternal spring with smiling verdure here ,warms the mild air and crowns the youthful year4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,the vine undressed her swelling clusters bears1 ,the labouring hind the mellow olive cheers4 7,the ,dispensary47 7,read1 omitting the interlined epithets1 and you get perfectly fluent octosyllables47 7#b7 ,first in these fields1 ,i try the sylvan strains1 ,nor blush to sport on ,windsor's blissful plains4 ,fair ,thames1 flow gently from thy sacred spring1 ,while on thy banks ,sicilian ,muses sing2 ,let vernal airs thro' trembling osiers play ,and ,albion's cliffs resound the rural lay4 7,windsor ,forest47 ,now this1 in the same way1 by the omission of some of the italicised gradus epithets1 becomes-- ,first in these fields ,i try the strains1 ,nor blush to sport on ,windsor's plains4 ,fair ,thames1 flow gently from thy spring1 ,while on thy banks the ,muses sing2 ,let vernal airs through osiers play ,and ,albion's cliffs resound the lay4 7#c7 ,not with more glories in th' ethereal plain ,the sun first rises o'er the purpled main1 ,than issuing forth the rival of his beams ,launch'd on the bosom of the silver ,thames4 ,fair nymphs and well-drest youths around her shone1 ,but ev'ry eye was fix'd on her alone4 ,on her white breast a sparkling cross she wore1 ,which ,jews might kiss and ,infidels adore4 ,her livelylooks a sprightly mind disclose1 ,quick as her eyes and as unfixed as those4 ,favours to none to all she smiles extends1 ,oft she rejects but never once offends4 ,bright as the sun her eyes the gazers strike1 ,and like the sun they shine on all alike4 ,yet graceful ease and sweetness void of pride ,might hide her faults if ,belles had faults to hide4 ,if to her share some female errors fall1 ,look in her face and you'll forget them all4 7,the ,rape of the ,lock47 ,of course ,pope1#dd in the close of the ,dunciad and elsewhere1 has passages of the utmost dignity2 and the antithetic arrangement is good for satire4 ,but perhaps the finest passages of this class of couplet--certainly the finest with the ,dunciad close--are the following1 from 7d7 ,johnson 7,vanity of ,human ,wishes--end73 ,where then shall ,hope and ,fear their objects find8 ,must dull suspense corrupt the stagnant mind8 ,must helpless man1 in ignorance sedate1 ,roll darkling down the torrent of his fate8 ,must no dislike alarm1 no wishes rise1 ,no cries invoke the mercies of the skies8 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,yet1 when the sense of sacred presence fires ,and strong devotion to the skies aspires1 ,pour forth thy favours for a healthful mind1 ,obedient passions1 and a will resigned2 ,for love which scarce collective man can fill2 ,for patience sovereign o'er transmuted ill2 ,for faith that1 panting for a happier seat1 ,counts death kind nature's signal of retreat4 ,these goods for man the laws of ,heaven ordain1 ,these goods ,he grants who grants the power to gain2 ,with these celestial ,wisdom calms the mind1 ,and makes the happiness she does not find4 and 7e7 ,crabbe 7,delay brings ,danger--end73 ,early he rose1 and looked with many a sigh ,on the red light that filled the eastern sky2 ,oft had he stood before1 alert and gay1 ,to hail the glories of the new-born day3 ,but now dejected1 languid1 listless1 low1 ,he saw the wind upon the water blow1 ,and the cold stream curled onward as the gale ,from the pine hill blew harshly down the dale2 ,on the right side the youth a wood surveyed1 ,with all its dark intensity of shade2 ,where the rough wind alone was heard to move1 ,in this1 the pause of nature and of love1 ,when now the young are reared1 and when the old1 ,lost to the tie1 grow negligent and cold-- ,far to the left he saw the huts of men1 ,half hid in mist1 that hung upon the fen2 ,before him swallows gathering for the sea1 ,took their short flights and twittered on the lea2 ,and near the bean-sheaf stood1 the harvest done1 ,and slowly blackened in the sickly sun2 ,all these were sad in nature1 or they took ,sadness from him1 the likeness of his look ,and of his mind--he pondered for a while1 ,then met his ,fanny with a borrowed smile4 7,observe1 besides the other points mentioned1 that trisyllabic feet practically never occur in ,garth1 ,pope1 and ,johnson--wat'ry for watery1 and words like ether7ea7l1 celest7ia7l1 happ7ie7r1 being intended to take the benefit of elision1 though1 as a matter of fact1 they give that of extension4 ,only ,crabbe1 in gathering1 may perhaps not have meant gath'ring47 ,,xxxii4 ,,eighteenth-,,century ,,blank ,,verse 7a7 ,thomson3 ,first the flaming red ,sprung vivid forth2 the tawny orange next2 ,and next delicious yellow2 by whose side ,fell the kind beams of all-refreshing green4 ,then the pure blue that swells autumnal skies1 ,etherial played1 and then of sadder hue ,emerged the deepened indigo 7as when ,the heavy-skirted evening droops with frost71 ,while the last gleamings of refracted light ,died in the fainting violet away4 7,this1 from the poem on ,newton1 is ,thomson at his very best in blank verse1 or nearly so4 ,he was1 however1 too apt to emphasise his phrases into full stops1 producing what ,johnson justly called broken style1 as thus3 ,on he walks ,graceful1 and crows defiance4 ,in the pond ,the finely-chequered duck1 before her train1 ,rows garrulous4 ,the stately sailing swan1 etc47 ,the trick was pushed to a pitch of absurdity by 7b7 ,glover3 ,mindful of their charge1 ,the chiefs depart4 ,leonidas provides ,his various armour4 ,agis close attends1 ,his best assistant4 ,first a breastplate arms ,the spacious chest2 and is somewhat noteworthy in ,young and others4 ,the reason probably was a sort of nervous fear lest1 in the absence of rhyme1 the versification should not be sufficiently marked4 ,but at length the proper flow was recovered by 7c7 ,cowper3 ,tme mde thee what thou wast1 kng f the woods1 ,and time hath made thee what thou art--a cave ,for owls to roost in4 ,once thy spreading boughs ,o'erhung the champaign2 and the numrus flcks ,that grazed it stood beneath that ample cope ,uncrowded1 yet safe-sheltered from the storm4 ,no flock frequents thee now4 ,thou hast outlived ,thy popularity1 and art become 7,unless verse rescue thee awhile7 a thing ,forgotten1 as the foliage of thy youth4 7,yardley ,oak47 7,the spondee ,tme mde and trochee kng f are certainly intentional1 whether consciously as such or not4 ,the anapst -mrus flcks may not have been meant1 for ,cowper had not cleared his mind up about elision1 but is one in fact47 ,,xxxiii4 ,,the ,,regularised ,,pindaric ,,ode ,analysis of ,gray's ,bard 7the second and third divisions coincide to the minutest degree73 ,i4 i4 #a4 ,ruin seize thee1 ruthless ,king6 #b4 ,confusion on thy banners wait2 #c4 ,tho' fanned by ,conquest's crimson wing #d4 ,they mock the air with idle state4 #e4 ,helm1 nor hauberk's twisted mail1 #f4 ,nor e'en thy virtues1 ,tyrant1 shall avail #g4 ,to save thy secret soul from nightly fears1 #h4 ,from ,cambria's curse1 from ,cambria's tears6 #i4 --,such were the sounds that o'er the crested pride #aj4 ,of the first ,edward scatter'd wild dismay1 #aa4 ,as down the steep of ,snowdon's shaggy side #ab4 ,he wound with toilsome march his long array3-- #ac4 ,stout ,glo'ster stood aghast in speechless trance2 #ad4 ,to arms6 cried ,mortimer1 and couch'd his quivering lance4 ,i4 i4 7,strophe7 #a4 ,troch4 dim4 cat4 4 #b4 ,iamb4 dim4 acat4 4 #c4 ditto #d4 ditto #e as #a4 #f and #g4 ,heroics nearly pure1 4 #h as #b to #d4 #i to #ac4 ,heroics #ad4 ,alexandrine 4 ,quiv'ring1 probably4 ,i4 ii4 #a4 ,on a rock1 whose haughty brow #b4 ,frowns o'er old ,conway's foaming flood1 #c4 ,robed in the sable garb of woe #d4 ,with haggard eyes the ,poet stood #e4 7,loose his beard and hoary hair #f4 ,stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air71 #g4 ,and with a master's hand and prophet's fire #h4 ,struck the deep sorrows of his lyre3 #i4 ,hark1 how each giant-oak and desert-cave #aj4 ,sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath6 #aa4 ,o'er thee1 oh ,king6 their hundred arms they wave1 #ab4 ,revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe2 #ac4 ,vocal no more1 since ,cambria's fatal day1 #ad4 ,to high-born ,hoel's harp1 or soft ,llewellyn's lay4 ,i4 ii4 7,antistrophe7 ,identical4 ,i4 iii4 #a4 ,cold is ,cadwallo's tongue1 #b4 ,that hush'd the stormy main3 #c4 ,brave ,urien sleeps upon his craggy bed3 #d4 ,mountains1 ye mourn in vain #e4 ,modred1 whose magic song #f4 ,made hugh ,plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head4 #g4 ,on dreary ,arvon's shore they lie #h4 ,smear'd with gore and ghastly pale3 #i4 ,far1 far aloof the affrighted ravens sail2 #aj4 ,the famish'd eagle screams1 and passes by4 #aa4 ,dear lost companions of my tuneful art1 #ab4 ,dear as the light that visits these sad eyes1 #ac4 ,dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart1 #ad4 ,ye died amidst your dying country's cries-- #ae4 ,no more ,i weep2 ,they do not sleep2 #af4 ,on yonder cliffs1 a griesly band1 #ag4 ,i see them sit2 ,they linger yet1 #ah4 ,avengers of their native land3 #ai4 ,with me in dreadful harmony they join1 #bj4 ,and weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line4 ,i4 iii4 7,epode7 #a4 ,iamb4 dim4 brachycat4 4 #b4 #c4 ,heroic4 #d1 #e1 as #a1 #b1 with trochee substituted in first place4 #f as #c4 #g4 ,iamb4 dim4 acat4 #h4 ,troch4 dim4 cat4 #i to #ad4 ,heroics3 the last #d in quatrain4 #ae to #ah4 ,iamb4 dims4 arranged in stanza quatrain2 internal rhymes only in lines #ae and #ag4 #ai4 ,heroic4 #bj4 ,alexandrine4 ,rhyme scheme of ,strophe ,rhyme scheme of and ,antistrophe4 ,epode4 a a b b a c b b c a c c d d d e e e f d e f f g g f g g o#de h o#de h i i ,,xxxiv4 ,,lighter ,,eighteenth-,,century ,,lyric 7a7 ,gay3 ,the schoolboy's desire is a play-day1 ,the schoolmaster's joy is to flog1 ,the milkmaid's delight is on ,may-day1 ,but mine is on sweet ,molly ,mog4 7,remarkable for the improvement1 by the redundant syllable in the odd lines1 on the plain anapstic three-foot quatrain used later by ,shenstone and ,cowper1 as well as for its leading up to the more obvious successes of ,praed and ,mr4 ,swinburne2 v4 inf4 ,,xliv47 7b7 ,gray3 ',twas on a lofty vase's side ,where ,china's gayest art had dyed ,the azure flowers that blow-- ,demurest of the tabby kind1 ,the pensive ,selima reclined1 ,gazed on the lake below4 7,eleventh-century poets employed the old romance-six1 or rime coue1 almost more largely than any other metre for general lyrical purposes47 7c7 7,d4 ,lewis873 ,and when with envy ,time1 transported1 ,shall think to rob us of our joys1 ,you'll in your girls again be courted1 ,and ,i'll go wooing in my boys4 7,another instance of the refreshing and alterative effect of redundance--in this case on the old long measure4 ,but even in its stricter form the century managed ,l4,m4 better than ,c4,m41 which1 till ,blake1 was almost always sing-song47 ,,xxxv4 ,,the ,,revival ,,of ,,equivalence 7,,chatterton ,,and ,,blake7 ,percy's ,reliques1 however1 taught it something better2 though ,percy's own imitations and those of others were often as described above4 ,yet soon we find in 7a7 ,chatterton1 such adaptations of ballad metre as-- ,i ken ,syr ,roger from afar ,trippynge over the lea1 ,ich ask whie the loverd's son ,is moe than mee8 and such equivalenced octosyllabic couplet and stanza as-- ,sr ,btler thn hvng cnqur'd hs twyne1 ,rde cnqerr ff th turnyng plyne1 ,rcivng grlnd frm lc's hnd1 ,th first ldye n th lnde4 ,but the real ,columbus here was 7b7 ,blake1 who from #aghj onwards wrote such things as-- ,th wld wnds wep nd th nght s -cld2 ,cme hthr1 ,slep1 nd my grefs nfld4 ,bt l6 th mrnng peps vr th astrn steps1 nd th rstlng bds f dwn ,th arth d scrn4 ,l6 t th vult f pvd haven1 ,wth srrw frught1 ,my ntes re drven4 ,thy strke th ar f nght1 ,mke wep th yes f dy2 ,thy mke mad th raring winds1 nd wth tmpsts ply4 ,lke fend7 in clud1 ,wth hwlng we ftr nght d crwd nd wth nght wll g2 trn my bck t th ast1 ,frm whnce cmfrts hve ncrased1 ,fr lght dth size my brin ,wth frntc pin4 7,this cannot be studied too carefully1 and is almost a typical example of sound prosody1 orderly without monotony and free without licence4 ,every substitution is justified1 both on the general principles expounded throughout this book1 and to the ear in each individual case47 ,,xxxvi4 ,,rhymeless ,,attempts 7,,collins ,,to ,,shelley7 7a7 ,collins 7,ode to ,evening73 ,if aught of oaten stop or pastoral song ,may hope1 ,o pensive ,eve1 to soothe thine ear ,like thy own solemn springs1 ,thy springs and dying gales4 7,perfectly regular heroics and sixes2 pastoral most probably intended to be past'ral47 7b7 ,sayers 7,choruses of ,moina73 ,i4 ,hail to her whom ,frea loves1 ,moina hail6 ,when first thine infant eyes beheld ,the beam of day1 ,frea from ,valhalla's groves ,mark'd thy birth in silent joy2 ,frea1 sweetly smiling saw ,the swift-wing'd messenger of love ,bearing in her rosy hand ,the gold-tipt horn of gods4 7,this--which is fairly but not wholly free from the fault noted in ,,ii4--is ordinary iambic and trochaic mixture47 ,,ii4 ,dark1 dark is ,moina's bed1 ,on earth's hard lap she lies4 ,where is the beauteous form ,that heroes loved8 ,where is the beaming eye1 ,the ruddy cheek8 ,cold1 cold is ,moina's bed1 ,and shall no lay of death ,with pleasing murmur soothe ,her parted soul8 ,shall no tear wet the grave ,where ,moina lies8 ,the bards shall raise the lay of death1 ,the bards shall soothe her parted soul1 ,and drop the tear of grief ,on ,moina's grave4 7,it will be observed that each of the couplets enclosed in square brackets is simply a blank-verse line1 arbitrarily split4 ,this is probably the result of the effort at rhymeless stanza4 ,observe the unbroken iambic rhythm--another danger47 7c7 ,southey 7,thalaba73 ,how beautiful is ,night6 ,a dewy freshness fills the silent air2 ,no mist obscures1 nor cloud nor speck nor stain ,braks th serene of heaven3 ,in full-orbed glory yonder moon divine ,rlls thrugh the dark blue depths4 ,beneath her steady ray ,the desert-circle spreads1 ,lke th rund cean1 girdled with the sky4 ,how beautiful is ,night6 7,iambic lines of various lengths with trochaic and spondaic but no other substitution 7there are anapsts elsewhere74 ,the couplet-six1 or split ,alexandrine1 is intentional1 but ,southey expressly avoids split heroics47 7d7 ,shelley 7,queen ,mab73 ,how wonderful is ,death1 ,death and his brother ,sleep6 ,one1 pale as yonder waning moon ,with lips of lurid blue2 ,the other1 rosy as the morn ,when throned on ocean's wave ,it blushes o'er the world3 ,yet both so passing wonderful6 ,,xxxvii4 ,,the ,,revived ,,ballad 7,,percy ,,to ,,coleridge7 7a7 ,percy's imitation of equivalence and extension of scheme 7,sir ,cawline73 ,then she held forth her lily-white hand ,towards that knight so free2 ,he gave to it one gentil kiss1 ,his heart was brought from bale to bliss1 ,the tears sterte from his ee4 7,not bad2 might have been improved by ,and the tears47 7b7 ,goldsmith 7regularised sing-song73 ,turn ,angelina1 ever dear1 ,my charmer1 turn to see ,thy own1 thy long-lost ,edwin here ,restored to love and thee6 7c7 ,southey 7quite sound in principle1 and not bad in effect2 but a little more poetic powder wanted73 ,they laid her where these four roads meet ,here in this very place-- ,the earth upon her corpse was pressed1 ,this post was driven into her breast1 ,and a stone is on her face4 7d7 ,coleridge 7the real thing in simpler and more complex form73 ,it is an ancient mariner1 ,and he stoppeth one of three-- ,by thy long grey beard and glittering eye1 ,now wherefore stop'st thou me8 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,her lips were red1 her looks were free1 ,her locks were yellow as gold2 ,her skin was as white as leprosy-- ,the nightmare ,life-in-,death was she1 ,who thicks man's blood with cold4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,we listened and looked sideways up6 ,fear at my heart1 as at a cup1 ,my life-blood seemed to sip6 ,the stars were dim and thick the night1 ,the steersman's face by his lamp gleamed white2 ,from the sails the dew did drip-- ,till clomb above the eastern bar ,the hornd moon1 with one bright star ,within the nether tip4 7,the presence and absence of anapstic substitution here1 with its effect in each case1 should be carefully studied47 ,,xxxviii ,specimens of ,christabel1 with note on the application of the system to later lyric4 7,some have said that in ,christabel the consideration of feet is dropped altogether1 and others1 that it cannot be analysed1 or can only be so by the rough process of counting accents4 ,let us go and do it47 ',ts th mddl f nght by th cstl clck1 nd th wls hve wkned th crwing cck1 ,t--wht--t who6 nd hrk1 gin6 th crwng cck1 ,hw drwsl t crw4 7,a five-lined ballad stanza1 freely but regularly equivalenced with anapsts4 ,line #c may be four monosyllabic feet1 or an iambic monometer--two feet1--according to the value put on the first note of the owl's cry47 ,the rest of the piece is not in ballad stanza1 but in octosyllabic couplet1 again more or less freely but regularly equivalenced1 and allowing itself occasional licences of rhyme-order1 line-length1 etc4 ,thus the succeeding lines are in two batches1 where the substitution--anapstic1 trochaic1 spondaic or monosyllabic--increases1 dwindles1 disappears and reappears ad libitum3 ,sr ,llne1 th ,brn rch1 ,hth tothlss mstff1 whch ,frm hr knnl bnath th rck ,mkth nswr t th clck1 ,fur fr th qurtrs nd twlve fr th hur2 vr nd ye1 by shne nd shwer1 ,sxten shrt hwls nt vr lud2 ,sme sy1 sh ses my ldy's shrud4 s th nght chlly nd drk8 ,th nght s chlly1 bt nt drk4 ,th thn gry clud s sprad n hgh1 t cvrs bt nt hdes th sk4 ,th mon s bhnd1 nd t th fll2 nd yt sh loks bth smll nd dll4 ,th nght s chll1 th clud s gry3 ',ts mnth bfre th mnth f ,my1 nd th sprng cmes slwly p ths wy4 ,the whole of the rest follows suit1 with occasional variations 7not1 save in one case perhaps1 irregularities71 as1 for instance-- nd in silence prayeth she4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,from the lovely lady's cheek1 where a triple scansion might appear possible3 7#a7 monosyllabic beginnings indicated by 2 7#b7 three-foot lines with anapstic opening 772 and 7#c7 the trochaic variation common in seventeenth-century poets 774 ,a famous third line-- ,bautfl xcedngl1 decides in favour of 7#a71 for 7#b7 and 7#c7 would exceedingly spoil its beauty4 ,there is sometimes almost complete anapstic substitution-- ,sve th bss f th sheld f ,sr ,llne tll1 ,whch hng n mrky ld nche n th wll2 which is still further developed in the spell of ,geraldine-- n th tuch f ths bsm thre wrkth spll4 7,this1 in couplet1 is a little dangerous47 ,note on the ,application of the ,christabel ,system to ,nineteenth-,century ,lyric generally4 ,it is most remarkable1 but suggestive to a further extent of the fact that ,coleridge did not entirely comprehend what he was doing1 that ,christabel1 especially its opening stanza1 supplies a complete key to the later nineteenth-century lyrical scansion which 7v4 sup4 p4 #bg7 he and others failed to understand in ,tennyson4 ,that opening stanza1 placed side by side with the ,hollyhock ,song 7see above again71 will completely interpret it to any one who has eye and ear enough to mutate the mutanda4 ,and when the connection and the interpretation have once been seized1 there is nothing1 from ,shelley's apparently impulsive and instinctive harmonies to the most complicated experiments of ,browning and ,swinburne1 which will not yield to the master keys of equivalent substitution and varying of line-length1 subject to the general law of rhythmical uniformity1 or at least symphonised change4 ,it has been said1 for instance1 by the latest and most painful ,french student of ,english prosody1 ,m4 ,verrier1 that in ,shelley's ,cloud traditional metric renounces the attempt to divide it into feet4 ,here is the division1 made without its being necessary to think twice--hardly to think once--about a single article of it3 ,i bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers1 ,from the seas and the streams2 ,i bear light shade for the leaves when laid ,in their noonday dreams4 ,from my wings are shaken the dews that waken ,the sweet buds every one1 ,when rocked to rest on their mother's breast1 ,as she dances about the sun4 ,i wield the flail of the lashing hail1 ,and whiten the green plains under1 ,and then again ,i dissolve it in rain1 ,and laugh as ,i pass in thunder4 7,base anapstic1 and normal length dimeter2 but shortened to three and two feet1 thus--#dbdbdcdcdcdc4 ,the two last three-foot lines catalectic dimeter1 or1 to put the same thing in another way1 the first threes plain1 the last redundanced4 ,substitution of iamb or spondee for anapst perfectly regular1 and 7to keep the anapstic base specially marked against the iambic7 not very much indulged in4 ,showers and flowers as well as probably shaken and waken used in their shortened or practically monosyllabic value4 ,nothing in the least incalculable1 eccentric1 or even difficult1 on the foot system47 ,,xxxix4 ,,nineteenth-,,century ,,couplet 7,,leigh ,,hunt ,,to ,,mr4 ,,swinburne7 7,the examples given will be found to be all more or less of the enjambed variety4 ,not only has the other been much less practised1 owing to reaction from the over-fondness of the eighteenth century for it1 but that century1 including the period of throwing back to ,dryden1#df practically found out all its considerable but limited possibilities47 7a7 ,leigh ,hunt 7,story of ,rimini73 ll th sweet range-wood1 flowerbed1 grassy plot ,francesca loved1 but most of all this spot4 ,whenever she walk'd forth1 wherever went ,about the grounds1 to this at last she bent3 ,here she had brought a lute nd few books4 ,here would she lie for hours1 ftn with looks ,more sorrowful by far1 yet sweeter too2 ,sometimes with firmer comfort1 where she drew ,from sense of injry's slf and truth sustained1 ,sometimes with rarest indignation gained1 ,from meek1 self-pitying mixtures of extremes1 ,of hope1 and soft despair1 and childlke drams1 ,and all that promising calm smile we see ,in ,nature's face when we look patiently4 7,various substitutions marked1 as also in the following47 7b7 ,keats 7,endymion73 ,at this1 from every side they hurried in1 ,rubbing their sleepy eyes with lazy wrists1 ,and doubling over head their little fists ,in backward yawns4 ,but all were soon alive3 ,for as delicious wine doth1 sparkling1 dive ,in nectar'd clouds and curls through water fair1 ,so from the arbour roof down swell'd an air drous and enlivening2 making all ,to laugh1 and play1 and sing1 and loudly call ,for their sweet queen3 when lo6 the wreathed green ,disparted1 and far upward could be seen ,blue heaven1 and a silver car1 air-borne1 ,whose silent wheels1 fresh wet from clouds of morn1 ,spun off a drizzling dew1--which falling chill ,on soft ,adonis' shoulders1 made him still ,nestle and turn uneasily about4 7,as in the seventeenth-century patterns1 not much equivalence3--the paragraph effect1 produced by enjambment and varied pause1 being chiefly relied on to prevent monotony4 ,later1 in ,lamia1 ,keats tried1 after study of ,dryden1 a less fluent pattern1 with stop as well as enjambment1 ,alexandrine1 and triplet47 7c7 ,browning 7,sordello73 ,as1 shall ,i say1 some ,ethiop1 past pursuit ,of all enslavers1 dips a shackled foot1 ,burnt to the blood1 into the drowsy black ,enormous watercourse which guides him back ,to his own tribe again1 where he is king2 ,and laughs because he guesses1 numbering ,the yellower poison-wattles on the pouch ,of the first lizard wrested from its couch ,under the slime 7whose skin1 the while1 he strips ,to cure his nostril with1 and festered lips1 ,and eyeballs bloodshot through the desert-blast71 ,that he has reached its boundary1 at last ,may breathe2--thinks o'er enchantments of the ,south ,sovereign to plague his enemies1 their mouth1 ,eyes1 nails1 and hair2 but1 these enchantments tried ,in fancy1 puts them soberly aside ,for truth1 projects a cool return with friends1 ,the likelihood of winning more amends ,ere long2 thinks that1 takes comfort silently1 ,then1 from the river's brink1 his wrongs and he1 ,hugging revenge close to their hearts1 are soon ,off-striding for the ,mountains of the ,moon4 7,practically a long blank-verse paragraph with the addition of rhyme1 which sometimes almost escapes notice47 7d7 ,m4 ,arnold 7,tristram and ,iseult73 ,the young surviving ,iseult1 one bright day1 ,had wander'd forth4 ,her children were at play ,in a green circular hollow in the heath ,which borders the sea-shore--a country path ,creeps over it from the till'd fields behind4 ,the hollow's grassy banks are soft-inclined1 ,and to one standing on them1 far and near ,the lone unbroken view spreads bright and clear ,over the waste4 ,this cirque of open ground ,is light and green2 the heather1 which ll rund ,creeps thickly1 grows not here2 but the pale grass ,is strewn with rocks1 and many a shiver'd mass ,of vein'd white-gleaming quartz1 and here and there ,dttd with holly-trees and juniper4 7,an admirable following of ,keats's model2 the rhymes not too much kept out of view1 and suggestions of trochaic and spondaic as well as trisyllabic substitution deftly used4 ,for some strange reason he never returned to it1 but left it for ,william ,morris to develop1 completely and most effectively1 in ,jason and ,the ,earthly ,paradise47 7e7 ,tennyson very seldom tried the couplet1 but when he did1 as in ,the ,vision of ,sin1 he achieved it magnificently3 ,i had a vision when the night was late3 ,a youth came riding toward a palace gate4 ,he rode a horse with wings1 that would have flown ,but that his heavy rider kept him down4 ,and from the palace came a child of sin1 ,and took him by the curls and led him in1 ,where sat a company with heated eyes1 ,expecting when a fountain should arise3 ,a sleepy light upon their brows and lips-- ,as when the sun1 a crescent of eclipse1 ,dreams over lake and lawn1 and isles and capes-- ,suffused them1 sitting1 lying1 languid shapes1 ,by heaps of gourds1 and skins of wine1 and piles of grapes4 7,observe how fine this couplet is1 and how personal4 ,we have seen how ,keats studied ,dryden3 this is as if ,dryden had studied ,keats47 7f7 ,mr4 ,swinburne 7,tristram of ,lyonesse73 ,love1 that is first and last of all things made1 ,the light that has the living world for shade1 ,the spirit that for temporal veil has on ,the souls of all men1 woven in unison1 ,one fiery raiment with all lives inwrought ,and lights of sunny and starry deed and thought4 7,in this splendid metre the characteristics of stopped and enjambed couplet are to a great extent combined4 ,considerable anapstic substitution to gain speed47 ,,xl4 ,,nineteenth-,,century ,,blank ,,verse 7,,wordsworth ,,to ,,mr4 ,,swinburne7 7a7 ,wordsworth 7,yew ,trees73 ,beneath whose sable roof ,of boughs1 as if for festal purpose1 decked ,with unrejoicing berries--ghostly shapes ,may meet at noontide2 ,fear and trembling ,hope1 ,slnce and ,foresight1 ,death the ,skeleton ,and ,time the ,shadow2--there to celebrate1 ,as in a natural temple scattered o'er ,with altars undisturbed of mossy stone1 ,united worship2 or in mute repose ,to lie1 and listen to the mountain flood ,murmuring from ,glaramara's inmost caves4 7,the student should notice the difference1 slight but distinctly perceptible1 from the ,miltonic model47 7b7 ,shelley 7,alastor73 ,soft mossy lawns ,beneath these canopies extend their swells1 ,fragrant with perfumed herbs1 and eyed with blooms ,minute yet beautiful4 ,one darkest glen ,sends from its woods of musk-rose1 twined with jasmine1 ,a soul-dissolving odour1 to invite ,to some more lovely mystery4 ,through the dell1 ,silence and ,twilight here1 twin-sisters1 keep ,their noonday watch1 and sail among the shades1 ,like vaporous shapes half seen2 beyond1 a well1 ,dark1 gleaming1 and of most translucent wave1 ,images all the woven boughs above1 ,and each depending leaf1 and every speck ,of azure sky1 darting between their chasms1 7,there are actually seven lines more before the paragraph comes at once to a line-end and a full stop in punctuation4 ,note also the ,thomsonian mid-stops2 the ,wordsworthian atmosphere 7cf4 citation above72 the actual or suggested trisyllables2 the actual redundance in jasmine1 and the suggested one in chasm47 7c7 ,browning--early 7,pauline73 ,sun-treader6--life and light be thine for ever6 ,thou art gone from us2 years go by1 and spring ,gladdens1 and the young earth is beautiful1 ,yet thy songs come not1 other bards arise1 ,but none like thee3 they stand1 thy majesties1 ,like mighty works which tell some spirit there ,hath sat regardless of neglect and scorn1 ,till1 its long task completed1 it hath risen ,and left us1 never to return1 and all ,rush in to peer and praise when all in vain4 ,the air seems bright with thy past presence yet1 ,but thou art still for me as thou hast been ,when ,i have stood with thee as on a throne ,with all thy dim creations gathered round ,like mountains1 and ,i felt of mould like them1 ,and with them creatures of my own were mixed1 ,like things half-lived1 catching and giving life4 7,wordsworthian-,shelleyan1 but with a greater touch of dramatic soliloquy in it4 ,redundance1 but no trisyllabics47 7d7 ,browning--later 7,mr4 ,sludge1 ,the ,medium73 ,over the way ,holds ,captain ,sparks his court3 is it better there8 ,have you not hunting-stories1 scalping-scenes1 ,and ,mexican ,war exploits to swallow plump ,if you'd be free o' the stove-side1 rocking-chair1 ,and trio of affable daughters8 ,doubt succumbs6 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,yet screwed him into henceforth gulling you ,to the top o' your bent1--all out of one half-lie6 7,this unhesitating trisyllabic substitution sometimes reaches the very dangerous adjustment of trochee-anapst1 as in-- ,gilty fr th whm's ske6 ,gilty h smehow thinks4 ,the ,ring and the ,book47 7e7 ,tennyson--early 7,lover's ,tale73 ,glams f the water-circles as they broke1 ,flckred like doubtful smiles about her lips1 ,qivred a flying glory in her hair1 ,lapt lke a passing thought across her eyes4 ,and mine1 with one that will not pass till earth ,and heaven pass too1 dwell on my heaven--a face ,most starry fair1 but kindled from within ,as 'twere with dawn4 7,substitution trochaic only1 except for heaven--always ambiguous in value47 7f7 ,tennyson--standard middle 7,ulysses73 ,there lies the port2 the vessel puffs her sail3 ,there gloom the dark broad seas4 ,my mariners1 ,souls that have toil'd1 and wrought1 and thought with me-- ,that ever with a frolic welcome took ,the thunder and the sunshine1 and opposed ,free hearts1 free foreheads--you and ,i are old2 ,old age hath yet his honour and his toil2 ,death closes all3 but something ere the end1 ,some work of noble note1 may yet be done1 ,not unbecoming men that strove with ,gods4 ,the lights begin to twinkle from the rocks3 ,the long day wanes3 the slow moon climbs3 the deep ,moans round with many voices4 ,come1 my friends1 ',tis not too late to seek a newer world4 ,push off1 and sitting well in order smite ,the sounding furrows2 for my purpose holds ,to sail beyond the sunset1 and the baths ,of all the western stars1 until ,i die4 ,it may be that the gulfs will wash us down3 ,it may be we shall touch the ,happy ,isles1 ,and see the great ,achilles1 whom we knew4 ,tho' much is taken1 much abides2 and tho' ,we are not now that strength which in old days ,moved earth and heaven2 that which we are1 we are2 ,one equal temper of heroic hearts1 ,made weak by time and fate1 but strong in will ,to strive1 to seek1 to find1 and not to yield4 7,verse-paragraph completely achieved by variation of pause and different weighting of line1 with1 again1 little or no trisyllabic substitution47 ,tennyson--later 7,the ,holy ,grail73 ,there rose a hill that none but man could climb1 ,scarr'd with a hundred wintry watercourses-- ,storm at the top1 and when we gain'd it1 storm ,round us and death2 for every moment glanced ,his silver arms and gloom'd3 so quick and thick ,the lightnings here and there to left and right ,struck1 till the dry old trunks about us1 dead1 ,yea1 rotten with a hundred years of death1 ,sprang into fire3 and at the base we found ,on either hand1 as far as eye could see1 ,a great black swamp and of an evil smell1 ,part black1 part whiten'd with the bones of men1 ,not to be crost1 save that some ancient king ,had built a way1 where1 link'd with many a bridge1 ,a thousand piers ran into the great ,sea4 ,and ,galahad fled along them bridge by bridge1 ,and every bridge as quickly as he crost ,sprang into fire and vanish'd1 tho' ,i yearn'd ,to follow2 and thrice above him all the heavens ,open'd and blazed with thunder such as seem'd ,shoutings of all the sons of ,god3 and first ,at once ,i saw him far on the great ,sea1 ,in silver-shining armour starry-clear2 ,and o'er his head the ,holy ,vessel hung ,clothed in white samite or a luminous cloud4 ,and with exceeding swiftness ran the boat1 ,if boat it were--,i saw not whence it came4 ,and when the heavens open'd and blazed again ,roaring1 ,i saw him like a silver star-- ,and had he set the sail1 or had the boat ,become a living creature clad with wings8 ,and o'er his head the ,holy ,vessel hung ,redder than any rose1 a joy to me1 ,for now ,i knew the veil had been withdrawn4 ,then in a moment when they blazed again ,opening1 ,i saw the least of little stars ,down on the waste1 and straight beyond the star ,i saw the spiritual city and all her spires ,and gateways in a glory like one pearl-- ,no larger1 tho' the goal of all the saints-- ,strike from the sea2 and from the star there shot ,a rose-red sparkle to the city1 and there ,dwelt1 and ,i knew it was the ,holy ,grail1 ,which never eyes on earth again shall see4 7,paragraph still more ambitious and elaborate1 with much trisyllabic substitution and some redundance47 ,,xli4 ,,the ,,non-,,equivalenced ,,octosyllable ,,of ,,keats ,,and ,,morris 7a7 ,keats 7,eve of ,st4 ,mark73 ,upon a ,sabbath day it fell2 ,twice holy was the ,sabbath-bell1 ,that called the folk to evening-prayer2 ,the city streets were clean and fair ,from wholesome drench of ,april rains2 ,and on the western window-panes ,the chilly sunset faintly told ,of unmatured green valleys cold1 ,of the green thorny bloomless hedge1 ,of rivers new with spring-tide sedge1 ,of primroses by sheltered rills1 ,and daisies on the aguish hills4 ,twice holy was the ,sabbath-bell3 ,the silent streets were crowded well ,with staid and pious companies1 ,warm from their fire-side orat'ries1 ,and moving1 with demurest air1 ,to even-song and vesper prayer4 ,each archd porch1 and entry low1 ,was filled with patient folk and slow1 ,with whispers hush1 and shuffling feet1 ,while played the organ loud and sweet4 7b7 ,morris 7,the ,ring given to ,venus73 ,by then his eyes were opened wide4 ,already up the grey hillside ,the backs of two were turned to him3 ,one1 like a young man tall and slim1 ,whose heels with rosy wings were dight2 ,one like a woman clad in white1 ,with glittering wings of many a hue1 ,still changing1 and whose shape none knew4 ,in aftertime would ,laurence say ,that though the moonshine1 cold and grey1 ,flooded the lonely earth that night1 ,these creatures in the moon's despite ,were coloured clear1 as though the sun ,shone through the earth to light each one-- ,and terrible was that to see4 7,here the effect is entirely achieved by dividing the couplets1 with full stops or strong pauses at the end of the first line1 and running the sense of the second into the first of the next2 by considerable variations of internal pause1 and by placing emphatic or brightly coloured words at different spots4 ,equivalence is practically limited to such things as glittering1 aguish1 many a1 etc41 where it is at minimum strength47 ,,xlii4 ,,the ,,continuous ,,alexandrine 7,,drayton ,,and ,,browning7 7a7 ,drayton 7,polyolbion73 ,whenas the pliant ,muse1 with fair and even flight1 ,betwixt her silver wings is wafted to the ,wight1-- ,that ,isle1 which jutting out into the sea so far1 ,her offspring traineth up in exercise of war2 ,those pirates to put back1 that oft purloin her trade1 ,or ,spaniards or the ,french attempting to invade4 ,of all the southern isles she holds the highest place1 ,and evermore hath been the great'st in ,britain's grace4 ,not one of all her nymphs her sovereign fav'reth thus1 ,embracd in the arms of old ,oceanus4 ,for none of her account so near her bosom stand1 ',twixt ,penwith's furthest point and ,goodwin's queachy sand4 7b7 ,browning 7,fifine at the ,fair73 ,o trip and skip1 ,elvire6 ,link arm in arm with me6 ,like husband and like wife1 together let us see ,the tumbling troop arrayed1 the strollers on their stage1 ,drawn up and under arms1 and ready to engage4 7,printing of lines disjoined to show the extra stress which ,browning lays on the middle pause1 and which1 though not universal1 is general throughout the poem4 ,the case is rather the other way with ,drayton4 ,he observes the pause1 which is indeed the law of the line2 but he does not seem to avail himself of it much as a prosodic or rhetorical instrument47 ,,xliii ,the ,dying ,swan of ,tennyson1 scanned entirely through to show the application of the system4 7,it brings out a scheme of dimeters wholly iambic at the lowest rate of substitution1 wholly anapstic at the highest1 mixed between4 ,a few instances occur of the other usual and regular licences--trochaic and spondaic substitution1 monosyllabic feet 7or catalexis7 and one or two of brachycatalexis1 three feet instead of four4 ,and it is to be specially noted that the poet uses these1 not at random1 but so as to swell and raise his rhythm1 proportionately and progressively1 from the slow motion and scanty syllabising of the opening scene-stanza to the flood of eddying song at the close4 ,this process is entirely unaccounted for on the bare four-stress system47 ,i4 ,th plin ws grssy1 wld nd bre1 ,wde1 wld1 nd pn t th ir4 ,whch hd bilt p vrywhre n nder-rof f dlefl gry4 ,wth n nnr vice th rvr rn1 dwn t flatd dng swn1 nd ludly dd lmnt4 t ws th mddl f th dy4 vr th wary wnd wnt n1 nd tok th red-tps s t wnt4 ,,ii4 ,sme ble paks n th dstnce rse1 nd whte ginst th cld-whte sk1 ,shne ut thir crwnng snws4 ne wllw vr th rvr wpt1 nd shok th wve s th wnd dd sgh2 bve n th wnd ws th swllow1 ,chsng tslf t ts wn wld wll1 nd fr thr' th mrsh gren nd stll ,th tngld wtr-curss slpt1 ,sht vr wth prpl nd gren1 nd yllow4 ,,iii4 ,th wld swn's dath-hymn tok th sul f tht wste plce wth jy ,hddn n srrw3 t frst t th ar ,th wrbl ws lw1 nd fll nd clar2 nd flatng but th ndr-sk1 ,prvilng n waknss1 th crnch stle ,smetmes fr1 nd smetmes nar2 ,bt nn hr wfl jblnt vice1 ,wth msc strnge nd mnfld1 ,flw'd frth n crl fre nd bld2 s whn mhty popl rjice ,wth shwms1 nd wth cmbls1 nd hrps f gld1 nd th tmlt f thir cclim s rll'd ,thr' th pn gtes f th cty fr1 ,t th shphrd wh wtchth th vnng str4 nd th crepng msss nd clmbrng weds1 nd th wllw-brnchs har nd dnk1 nd th wvy swll f th sughng reds1 nd th wve-wrn hrns f th chng bnk1 nd th slvry mrsh-flwers tht thrng ,th dslte creks nd pols mng1 ,wre flodd vr wth ddyng sng4 ,this piece1 with the ,hollyhock 7v4 sup4 p4 #bg71 ,blake's ,mad ,song 7 ,,xxxv471 ,shelley's ,cloud 7note1 p4 #ajj71 and the ,christabel selections 7 ,,xxxviii471 will almost completely exemplify substitution in lyric4 ,but the germ is far older--in ,shakespeare1 in ,e4,i4,o41 and even in pieces earlier still4 ,,xliv4 ,,the ,,stages ,,of ,,the ,,metre ,,of ,,dolores ,,and ,,the ,,dedication ,,of ,,poems ,,and ,,ballads ,this remarkable measure illustrates1 with especial appositeness1 the natural history of metrical evolution1 and so may be dealt with more fully as a specimen4 ,there can be little doubt that its original1 or the earliest form to which it can be traced1 is the split ,alexandrine or three-foot iambic1 which appears in the ,french of ,philippe de ,thaun1 and in several ,english poems1 such as the ,bestiary1 translated from ,philippe's-- ,after him he filleth1 ,drageth dust with his stert1 and as even ,king ,horn4 ,but this gives far too little room in ,english2 and the rhymes1 when rhyme is introduced1 come too quick4 ,substitution of trisyllabic feet remedies both faults2 while the actual six1 with interchanged rhyme1 gives beautiful work1 though the lines are still rather short3 ,with longyng y am lad1 ,on molde ,i waxe mad1 a maide marreth me2 ,y grede1 y grone1 un-glad1 ,for selden y am sad that semly for te se2 ,levedi1 thou rewe me1 ,to routhe thou havest me rad2 ,be bote of that y bad1 ,my lyf is long on the4 7,wright's ,specimens of ,lyric ,poetry1 ,no4 vii47 ,this shortness kept it back1 more especially when the fear of mainly trisyllabic measures came in after the fifteenth-century anarchy4 ,but as soon as that fear disappeared1 and the anapst forced itself into general use1 logic1 assisted by tune1 suggested a cutting down of the popular dimeter or four-foot anapstic line to three4 ,this1 for a long time1 maintained itself in strict literature without much variety of structure1 as1 at different times1 is shown by ,shenstone in the well-known-- ,since ,phyllis vouchsafed me a look1 ,i never once dreamt of my vine2 ,may ,i lose both my pipe and my crook1 ,if ,i know of a kid that is mine2 and by ,cowper in the still better known ,alexander ,selkirk lines-- ,i am monarch of all ,i survey1 ,my right there is none to dispute3 ,from the centre all round to the sea ,i am lord of the fowl and the brute2 and in ,catherina-- ,she came-- she is gone-- we have met1 ,and meet perhaps never again3 ,the sun of that moment is set ,and seems to have risen in vain4 ,now1 though these lines are pretty1 they are exposed to the charge of being pretty sing-song1 and monotonous jingle4 ,but this had1 long before ,cowper1 been to a great extent remedied1 though for comic purposes only or mainly1 in such things as ,gay's ,molly ,mog1 quoted above1 and ,chesterfield-,pulteney's ,had ,i ,hanover1 ,bremen1 and ,verden1 ,and likewise the ,duchy of ,zell1 ,i would part with them all for a farthing1 ,to have my dear ,molly ,lepell6 7,pronounce ,verden with the proper ,english value of er1 and give farthing its then correct form of farden1 and the rhyme will be spotless47 ,what it was that made ,byron take this up for a serious purpose in the lines to ,haidee 7before ,don ,juan7 is not1 ,i believe1 known3 ,i enter thy garden of roses1 ,beloved and fair ,haidee1 ,each morning where ,flora reposes1 ,for surely ,i see her in thee4 ,the gain here1 from the redundant syllable and double rhyme in the odd lines1 and from a rather more frequent use of dissyllabic feet to prevent monotony1 is immense4 ,praed adopted the measure1 and improved it still further1 in his admirable ,letter of ,advice3 ,remember the thrilling romances ,we read on the bank in the glen2 ,remember the suitors our fancies ,would picture for both of us then4 ,they wore the red cross on their shoulder1 ,they had vanquished and pardoned their foe-- ,sweet friend1 are you wiser or colder8 ,my own ,araminta1 say ,no6 ,and then ,mr4 ,swinburne had the probably final inspiration of shortening the last line to two feet 7or an anapstic monometer71 with an astonishing result of added and finished music3 ,though the many lights dwindle to one light1 ,there is help if the heaven has one1 ,though the skies be discrowned of the sunlight1 ,and the earth dispossessed of the sun1 ,they have moonlight and sleep for repayment ,when1 refreshed as a bride and set free1 ,with stars and sea-winds in her raiment1 ,night sinks on the sea4 ,,xlv4 ,,long ,,metres ,,of ,,tennyson1 ,,browning1 ,,morris1 ,,and ,,swinburne 7a7 ,tennyson 7,the ,lotos-,eaters73 ,for they lie beside their nectar1 and the bolts are hurl'd ,fr blw thm n th vllys1 nd th cluds re lghtly curl'd ,round their golden houses1 girdled with the gleaming world1 ,where they smile in secret1 looking over wasted lands1 ,blight and famine1 plague and earthquake1 roaring deeps and fiery sands1 ,clanging fights1 and flaming towns1 and sinking ships1 and praying hands4 7,trochaic six- and seven-foot lines1 always hypercatalectic1 or1 in stricter language1 trochaic trimeters hypercatalectic and tetrameters catalectic47 ,at the close the poet avails himself of the iambic alternative which is so effective1 and has a pure fourteener3 rst y1 brthr mrnrs1 w wll nt wndr mre4 7,there is no trisyllabic substitution47 7b7 ,tennyson 7,maud73 ,cld nd clar-ct fce1 why cme yu s crelly mek1 ,brakng slmbr n whch ll splenfl flly ws drwn'd1 ,ple wth th gldn bam f n yelsh dad n th chek1 ,passionless1 pale1 cold face1 star-sweet on a gloom profound2 ,womanlike1 taking revenge too deep for a transient wrong ,done but in thought to your beauty1 and ever as pale as before ,growing and fading and growing upon me without a sound1 ,luminous1 gemlike1 ghostlike1 deathlike1 half the night long ,growing and fading and growing1 till ,i could bear it no more1 ,bt rse1 and all by myself in my own dark garden ground1 ,listening now to the tide in its broad-flung shipwrecking roar1 ,now to the scream of a madden'd beach dragg'd down by the wave1 ,walk'd in a wintry wind by a ghastly glimmer1 and found ,th shning daffodil dead1 and ,orion low in his grave4 7,a rather deceptive metre2 for which reason foot-division has been postponed above47 ,it may look at first sight like a trochaic run1 but this will be found not to fit4 ,then hexameters of the ,evangeline type1 with a syllable cut off at the end1 suggest themselves2 but it will be seen that some openings make this very bad4 ,it is really a six-foot anapst with the usual allowance of iambic substitution and of monosyllabic 7anacrustic7 beginning1 as thus3 ,cold and clear-cut face1 why come you so cruelly meek1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,but arose1 and all by myself in my own dark garden ground1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,the shining daffodil dead1 and ,orion low in his grave4 7c7 ,tennyson 7,voyage of ,maeldune73 ,and we came to the ,isle of ,flowers3 their breath met us out on the seas1 ,for the ,spring and the middle ,summer sat each on the lap of the breeze2 ,and the red passion-flower to the cliffs1 and the dark-blue clematis1 clung1 ,and starr'd with a myriad blossom the long convolvulus hung4 7,same metre1 but almost purely anapstic2 the central pause frequently strong47 7d7 ,tennyson 7,kapiolani7 ,when from the terrors of ,nature a people have fashioned and worship a spirit of ,evil4 7,apparently intended for a dactylic octometer4 ,like all these things in ,english1 it probably goes better as anapstic with anacrusis and hypercatalexis4 ,see dotted scansion47 7e7 ,browning 7,abt ,vogler73 ,would that the structure brave1 the manifold music ,i build1 ,bidding my organ obey1 calling its keys to their work1 ,claiming each slave of the sound at a touch1 as when ,solomon willed ,armies of angels that soar1 legions of demons that lurk4 ,man1 brute1 reptile1 fly1 alien of end and of aim1 ,adverse each from the other1 heaven-high hell-deep removed1 ,should rush into sight at once as he named the ineffable name1 ,and pile him a palace straight1 to pleasure the princess he loved4 7,note the alliteration47 ,at first1 as you read this1 you can1 if your ears are accustomed to classical metres1 have no doubt about the scheme4 ,it is simply the regular elegiac couplet accentually rendered in ,english1 with the abscission of the last syllable of the hexameter--a catalectic hexameter and a pentameter acatalectic4 ,for the first four lines of the first octave there is no doubt at all4 ,but when you get on to the second half you are pulled up4 ,in the fifth and sixth lines the pentameter seems to have got to the first place1 and the seventh is no more a hexameter than the eighth is its proper companion4 ,for a moment you may fancy that this was intended--that the poet meant octaves of two different parts4 ,but when you look at the other stanzas you will find that this is by no means the case4 ,truncated elegiac cadence appears1 reappears1 disappears in the most bewildering fashion1 till you recognise--sooner or later according to your prosodic experience--that it was only simulated cadence after all1 a sort of leaf-insect rhythm1 and that the whole thing 7as marked by the dotted scansion lines7 is in six-foot anapsts equivalenced daringly1 but quite legitimately1 with monosyllabic and dissyllabic feet4 7f7 ,w4 ,morris 7,the ,wind73 ,ah6 no1 no1 it is nothing1 surely nothing1 at all1 ,only the wild-going wind round by the garden wall1 ,for the dawn just now is breaking1 the wind beginning to fall4 ,wind1 wind1 thou art sad1 art thou kind8 ,wind1 wind1 unhappy6 thou art blind1 ,yet still thou wanderest the lily-seed to find4 7,first three lines six-foot 7trimeter7 anapsts with full substitution4 ,refrain a graded wheel of four1 four or five1 and six iambic feet47 7g7 ,morris 7,love is ,enough73 ,such words shall my ghost see the chronicler writing ,in the days that shall be--ah6--what would'st more1 my fosterling8 ,knowest thou not how words fail us awaking1 ,that we seemed to hear plain amid sleep and its sweetness4 7,intentionally irregular accentual lines1 but with an anapstic or amphibrachic under-hum4 ,there is a good deal of alliteration elsewhere1 and some here47 7h7 ,morris 7,sigurd metre1 but the actual example from ,the ,house of the ,wolfings73 ,thou sayest it1 ,i am outcast3 for a ,god that lacketh mirth ,hath no more place in ,god-home and never a place on earth4 ,a man grieves1 and he gladdens1 or he dies and his grief is gone2 ,but what of the grief of the ,gods8 and the sorrow never undone8 ,yea1 verily1 ,i am the outcast4 ,when first in thine arms ,i lay1 ,on the blossoms of the woodland my godhead passed away2 ,thenceforth unto thee ,i was looking for the light and the glory of life1 ,and the ,gods' doors shut behind me till the day of the uttermost strife4 ,and now thou hast taken my soul1 thou wilt cast it into the night1 ,and cover thine head with the darkness and cover thine eyes from the light4 ,thou would'st go to the empty country where never a seed is sown1 ,and never a deed is fashioned and the place where each is alone2 ,but ,i thy thrall shall follow1 ,i shall come where thou seem'st to lie1 ,i shall sit on the howe that hides thee1 and thou so dear and nigh6 ,a few bones white in their war-gear1 that have no help or thought1 ,shall be ,thiodolf the ,mighty1 so nigh1 so dear--and nought6 7,a splendid construction from older and newer examples4 ,strongly stressed1 strictly middle-paused1 but perfectly regular anapstic sixes1 with substitution and a hypercatalectic syllable or half foot at the pause47 7i7 ,mr4 ,swinburne 7,hesperia and ,evening on the ,broads74 ,the first line of ,hesperia is practically a ,kingsleyan hexameter 7v4 inf47 of the very best kind-- ,out of the golden remote wild west where the sea without shore is2 while the second-- ,full of the sunset and sad if at all with the fulness of joy1 is a pentameter of similar mould1 with the centre gap cunningly filled in by the two short stitches if at1 capable1 as you see below in ,thee ,i beheld as bird borne in with the wind from the west1 of being duly equivalenced with one long stitch1 like borne4 ,yet the second line is capable also of being scanned exactly as the first--anacrusis and five anapests--but without the final redundance or hypercatalexis2 and in other long lines you will find that the principle of equivalence is preserved throughout--that two shorts1 as in s wind blows in from the autumn that blows from the region of stories1 defeat the hexametrical movement1 and pull off the mask at the beginning1 though it returns at the end4 ,the metre is really anapstic throughout4 ,and in ,evening on the ,broads the poet has carried this further still1 providing in some cases regular apparent elegiacs3 ,over the shadowless waters adrift as a pinnace in peril1 ,hangs as in heavy suspense charged with irresolute light4 7j7 ,mr4 ,swinburne 7,choriambics73 ,lve1 wht iled the t lave lfe tht ws mde lvely w thught wth lve8-- 7k7 ,mr4 ,swinburne 7other long anapstic and trochaic measures73 ,if again from the night or the twilight of ages ,aristophanes had arisen4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,that the sea was not lovelier than here was the land1 nor the night than the day1 nor the day than the night4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,night is utmost noon1 forlorn and strong1 with heart athirst and fasting4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,till the darkling desire of delight shall be far1 as a fawn that is free from the fangs that pursue her4 7,these are respectively seven-foot anapsts with redundance 7anapstic tetrameter catalectic72 ditto eight-foot 7tetrameter acatalectic72 trochaic tetrameter acatalectic2 and anapstic tetrameter hypercatalectic 7eight feet and a half747 ,,xlvi4 ,,the ,,later ,,sonnet 7,to illustrate the strict octave and sextet pattern with final rhymes adjusted on the ,italian pattern47 ,dante ,rossetti3 ,under the arch of ,life1 where love and death1 ,trrr and mystry1 gard her shrine1 ,i saw ,beauty enthroned2 and though her gaze struck awe1 ,i drew it in as simply as my breath4 ,hers are the eyes which1 over and beneath ,the sky and sea1 bend o'er thee--which can draw ,by sea1 or sky1 or woman1 to one law ,th lltted burden of her palm and wreath4 ,this is that ,lady ,beauty1 in whose praise ,thy voice and hand shake still--long known to thee ,by flying hair and fluttrng hm --the beat ,fllwng her daily of thy heart and feet4 ,how passontel and irretrievably ,in what fond flight1 how many ways and days6 ,,xlvii4 ,,the ,,various ,,attempts ,,at ,,hexameters ,,in ,,english 7a7 ,earlier 7,elizabethan73 ,all travellers do gladly report great praise of ,ulysses1 ,for that he knew many men's mannrs and saw many cities4 7,watson1 ap4 ,asch4 ,schoolmaster1 p4 #gc1 ed4 ,arber47 ,but th ,queene in meane while carks quandare deepe anguisht1 ,her wound fed by ,venus1 with firebayt smoldred is hooked3 ,thee wights doughtye manhood1 leagd with gentilytye nobil1 ,his woords fitlye placed1 with his heunly phisnomye pleasing1 ,march throgh her hert mastring1 all in her breste deepelye she printeth4 7,stanyhurst1 n4 iv4 #a-e1 ed4 ,arber1 p4 #id47 ,what might ,i call this tree8 ,a ,laurell8 ,o bonny ,laurell4 ,needes to thy bowes will ,i bow this knee and vayle my bonetto4 7,harvey in letter to ,spenser1 ,eliz4 ,crit4 ,essays1 ed4 ,gregory ,smith1 i4 #ajf47 ,see yee the blindefoldd pretie god1 that feathered archer ,of lovrs miseries which maketh his bloodie game4 7,spenser in letter to ,harvey1 ibid4 i4 #ii47 7,all these tried to accommodate--though sometimes rather roughly--,english pronunciation to such of the rules of ,latin quantity1 by nature and position1 as could be applied4 ,some of them even tried to make general rules for ,english quantity4 ,but the wiser1 from ,ascham to ,campion1 admitted that dactylic rhythm was difficult1 if not impossible1 to keep up in our language47 7b7 ,later ,georgian and ,victorian4 7#a7 ,coleridge 7,specimen c4 #agii873 ,in the hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column2 ,in the pentameter aye falling in melody back4 7,a very fair attempt1 but already showing the natural tendency of the lines1 when poetically rhythmed1 to anapstic--the dotted--scansion47 7#b7 ,southey 7,vision of ,judgment73 ',twas at that sober hour when the light of day is receding ,and from surrounding things the hues wherewith day has adorned them ,fade like the hopes of youth1 till the beauty of each has departed4 7,anapstic run avoided with some skill1 save now and then2 but at the cost of weak beginnings1 frequent1 and admitted1 substitution of trochaic for spondaic effect1 and1 above all1 as in line #a1 an ugly rocking-horse division into three batches of two feet each instead of the proper #b-a_/b #c-a_/b or #c-a_/b #b-a_/b47 7#c7 ,longfellow 7,evangeline73 ,long within had been spread the snow-white cloth on the table2 ,there stood the wheaten loaf1 and the honey fragrant with wild flowers2 ,there stood the tankard of ale and the cheese fresh brought from the dairy2 ,and at the head of the board the great arm-chair of the farmer4 ,thus did ,evangeline wait at her father's door as the sunset ,threw the long shadows of trees o'er the broad ambrosial meadows4 ,ah6 on her spirit within a deeper shadow had fallen4 7,a popular1 tunable sort of rhythm1 obtained by a very large proportion of dactyls--often really giving 7and always when really good7 the anapstic effect1--unhesitating adoption of trochees and even pyrrhics for spondees1 and not seldom the ,southeyan split at feet #b and #d4 ,an essentially rickety measure47 7#d7 ,clough--earlier 7in the ,bothie of ,tober-na-,vuolich--,evangeline type1 but with more spondees and spondaic endings73 ,i was quite right last night1 it is too son1 to sudden4 7#e7 ,later he attempted ,english quantitative things of this kind3 ,t th plte grteful2 more luscious were not in ,eden2 and ,unto the sweet fluting1 girls1 of a swarthy shphrd4 ,this deliberate neglect of pronunciation 7plte for plte1 shphrd for shphrd7 has1 in the last half-century or so1 developed itself into a still more deliberate crusade against pronunciation2 it being supposed that a conflict of accent and quantity has something attractive about it4 ,thus the late ,mr4 ,stone wrote as a hexameter3 ,is my weary trvil#dg endd8 ,much further is n store4 7#f7 ,on the other hand1 ,kingsley's ,andromeda--the best poem of some length intended for ,english hexameters--is clearly1 though not consciously1 anapstic1 as thus3 ,over the mountain aloft ran a rush and a roll and a roaring ,downward the breeze came malignant and leapt with a howl to the water1 ,roaring in cranny and crag till the pillars and clefts of the basalt ,rang like a god-swept lyre4 ,and ,mr4 ,swinburne did the same thing 7see above7 consciously4 ,,xlviii4 ,,minor ,,imitations ,,of ,,classical ,,metres 7a7 ,sapphics 7,watts73 ,when the fierce ,north-wind with his airy forces ,bears up the ,baltic to a foaming fury1 ,and the red lightning with a storm of hail comes ,rushing amain down4 ,this illustrates--as do the pieces which it1 beyond all doubt1 patterned1 though in succession rather than directly 7,cowper's ,hatred and ,vengeance1 ,southey's ,cold was the ,night ,wind1 and ,canning's triumphant parody of this latter1 the ,needy ,knifegrinder7--the unyokeableness of classical metres--when not merely iambic1 trochaic1 or anapstic--to ,english rhythm4 ,the proper run of the ,sapphic line is-- tumti-tumtum-tumtity-tumti-tum -ti -tum2 but this constantly in ,english1 though not so much in the first line as elsewhere1 changes itself into -tum tumtity-tum tumtiti-titumty4 -ti ,mr4 ,swinburne has got it right1 but only as a tour de force1 and1 as in line #b1 not always quite certainly4 ,saw the white implacable ,aphrodite1 ,saw the hair unbound and the feet unsandalled ,shine as fire of sunset on western waters1 ,saw the reluctant4 ,but ,southey and ,canning always suggest the wrong3 ,sh hd n hme1 th wrld ws ll bfre hr1 and ,stry1 sr8 ,blss yu6 hve nne t tll yu2 7b7 ,alcaics 7,tennyson73 ,o mighty-mouthed inventor of harmonies1 ,o skilled to sing of ,time or ,eternity1 ,god-gifted organ-voice of ,england1 ,milton1 a name to resound for ages4 7,correct1 but not natural47 7c7 ,hendecasyllabics 7,coleridge73 ,hear1 my beloved1 an old ,milesian story6-- ,high1 and embosom'd in congregated laurels1 ,glimmer'd a temple upon a breezy headland2 ,in the dim distance1 amid the skiey billows1 ,rose a fair island2 the god of flocks had blest it4 7,these very pretty lines exhibit a most curious instance of the unconscious force of the prosodic genius of a language4 ,coleridge was a good classical scholar1 and quite enough of a mathematician to know the difference between #aa and #ab4 ,yet every one of these hendecasyllabics will be found to be a dodecasyllabic2 the poet having substituted 7as in ,english prosody is quite allowable7 an initial dactyl for the dissyllabic foot of the original metre4 ,once more this shows the ,english impatience of classical form47 7d7 ,hendecasyllabics 7,tennyson73 ,o you chorus of indolent reviewers1 ,irresponsible1 indolent reviewers1 ,look1 ,i come to the test1 a tiny poem ,all composed in a metre of ,catullus4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,hard1 hard1 hard is it1 only not to tumble1 ,so fantastical is the dainty metre4 ,a triumph1 but a criticism as well1 as its own ending shows3 ,as some rare little rose1 a piece of inmost ,horticultural art-- or versicultural rather4 7e7 ,galliambics4 ,these have been tried splendidly by ,tennyson in ,boadicea1 interestingly by ,mr4 ,george ,meredith in ,phaethon1 unsuccessfully by the late ,mr4 ,grant ,allen in his version of the ,atys of ,catullus4 ,but the metre is not quite plain sailing even in ,greek and ,latin1 and it is therefore better to leave it alone here and return to it in ,glossary4 ,,xlix4 ,,imitations ,,of ,,artificial ,,french ,,forms 7a7 ,triolet3 ,rose kissed me to-day4 ,will she kiss me to-morrow8 ,let it be as it may1 ,rose kissed me to-day4 ,but the pleasure gives way ,to a savour of sorrow2-- ,rose kissed me to-day1-- ,will she kiss me to-morrow8 7b7 ,rondeau3 ,with pipe and flute the rustic ,pan ,of old made music sweet for man2 ,and wonder hushed the warbling bird1 ,and closer drew the calm-eyed herd1-- ,the rolling river slowlier ran4 ,ah6 would1--ah6 would1 a little span1 ,some air of ,arcady could fan ,this age of ours1 too seldom stirred ,with pipe and flute6 ,but now for gold we plot and plan2 ,and from ,beersheba unto ,dan1 ,apollo's self might pass unheard1 ,or find the night-jar's note preferred2-- ,not so it fared1 when time began1 ,with pipe and flute6 7,the number of lines in a rondeau is not immutable1 nor is it in a rondel1 where the principle is the return of whole lines as in the triolet1 but1 since the poem is longer1 giving room for more not repeated matter47 7c7 ,ballade3 ,ship1 to the roadstead rolled1 ,what dost thou8--,o1 once more ,regain the port4 ,behold6 ,thy sides are bare of oar1 ,thy tall mast wounded sore ,of ,africus1 and see1 ,what shall thy spars restore8-- ,tempt not the tyrant sea6 ,what cable now will hold ,when all drag out from shore8 ,what god canst thou1 too bold1 ,in time of need implore8 ,look6 for thy sails flap o'er1 ,thy stiff shrouds part and flee1 ,fast--fast thy seams outpour1-- ,tempt not the tyrant sea6 ,what though thy ribs of old ,the pines of ,pontus bore6 ,not now to stern of gold ,men trust1 or painted prore6 ,thou1 or thou count'st it store ,a toy of winds to be1 ,shun thou the ,cyclads' roar1-- ,tempt not the tyrant sea6 ,,envoy4 ,ship of the ,state1 before ,a care1 and now to me ,a hope in my heart's core1-- ,tempt not the tyrant sea6 7,all these examples are ,mr4 ,austin ,dobson's1 and inserted here by his kind permission4 ,it will be observed that the lines follow general ,english prosodic rules4 ,it is only the stanza that is borrowed47 ,l4 ,,later ,,rhymelessness 7a7 ,m4 ,arnold 7,the ,strayed ,reveller4 ,words printed exactly as original1 except the added and2 the also added brackets show the unconscious decasyllabism73 ,ever new magic6 ,hast thou then lured hither1 ,wonderful ,goddess1 by thy art1 ,the young1 languid-eyed ,ampelus1 ,iacchus' darling-- 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,they see the ,indian ,drifting1 knife in hand1 ,his frail boat moor'd to ,a floating isle thick-matted ,with large-leaved and low-creeping melon-leaves1 x ,and the dark cucumber4 ,he reaps1 and stows them1 ,drifting--drifting2--round him1 ,round his green harvest-plot1 ,flow the cool lake-waves1 y ,the mountains ring them4 7,here the first piece is three pure decasyllables1 with redundance1 cut into five4 ,the second requires only the addition of the italicised and to make it a complete blank-verse passage with two shortened lines or half-lines1 x and y1 of the kind common in ,shakespeare4 ,the poem is crammed with shorter stanza-pieces of the same kind47 7b7 ,mr4 ,henley 7,speed4 ,printed as original and as prose73 ,roads where the stalwart ,soldier of ,csar ,put by his bread ,and his garlic1 and girding ,his conquering sword ,to his unconquered thigh1 ,lay down in his armour1 ,and went to his ,gods ,by the way that he'd made4 ,roads where the stalwart soldier of ,csar put by his bread and his garlic1 and girding his conquering sword to his unconquered thigh1 lay down in his armour1 and went to his ,gods by the way he had made4 7,the decasyllable is not quite avoided even here1 as in the bracketed phrase4 ,but the main point is that the thing reads perfectly well as prose1 with no obvious suggestion of metre at all47 ,,li4 ,,some ,,unusual ,,metres ,,and ,,disputed ,,scansions ,some measures of recent poets have been objected1 or at least proposed1 as offering difficulties in respect of the system of this book4 ,it has therefore seemed well to scan them here4 7a7 ,frederic ,myers 7,st4 ,paul73 ,ys1 wthout cheer of sister or of daughter-- ,ys1 wthout stay of father or of son-- ,lne n the land and homeless on the water ,pss in patience till the work be done4 7,there is nothing very peculiar or at all original in this1 though it was probably now first used continuously for a poem of some length4 ,it is only decasyllabic quatrain with uniform redundance in the first and third lines1 and a strong inclination to trochaic opening1 which in its turn suggests a primary dactyl and trochees to follow1 as an alternative 7see dotted scansion74 ,examples of it anterior to ,myers may be found--commented on in the larger ,history 7vol4 iii4 #dha7--;in ,zophiel1 very likely known to ,myers1 as he was much connected by family friendship with the ,lake ,school2 in the famous poem ,from the lone sheiling on the misty island1 the authorship of which has been so much contested2 and in ,emily ,bronte's ,remembrance 7see again vol4 iii4 of ,hist4 ,pros4 p4 #cgh71 of which he cannot possibly have been ignorant4#dh ,his own share in the matter would seem to have been limited to the persevering adoption of it in an unvaried form4 ,whether this be an advantage or not is a question of taste3 the prosodic description of the metre is clear and in no way recondite47 7b7 ,ernest ,dowson 7,cynara7 ,non sum qualis eram1 etc43 ,last night1 ah6 yester night betwixt her lips and mine ,there fell thy shadow1 ,cynara6 thy breath was shed ,upon my soul between the kisses and the wine1 ,and ,i was desolate1 and sick of an old passion2 ,yea1 ,i was desolate and bowed my head4 ,i have been faithful to thee1 ,cynara1 in my fashion4 7,sextet of ,alexandrines with decasyllable 7or brachycatalexis7 in the #eth line1 and with hypercatalexis1 redundance1 or double rhyme in the #dth and #fth4 ,an original collocation1 so far as ,i know1 but nothing new or strange in principle4 ,the actual poem is a rather beautiful one2 but how much is contributed to the beauty by the special metre is another question4 ,at any rate1 once more1 it has no difficulties for foot-scansion47 7c7 ,the universally known passage in ,macbeth-- ,to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow1 with the following lines1 has also been proposed as a crux4 ,but this must have been a not very brilliant joke2 and it would be an insult to the student to scan the passage4 ,it is one of the finest specimens of ,shakespearian equivalence and fingered blank verse1 but offers no more difficulties1 on the system of this book1 than any couplet of ,pope or any verse of the ,old ,hundredth4 ,on the other hand1 many passages of ,shakespeare may not illegitimately puzzle the student if he does not realise that1 although 7it is believed7 every line which is not corrupt can be scanned on our system1 every line is by no means an exact five-foot4 ,in accordance with the best ,english practice1 older and newer1 ,shakespeare does not scruple to extend his lines to ,alexandrines1 and even to fourteeners1 while the exigencies of drama entitle him to use lines of less than five full feet4 ,but all these--the fragments as well as the extended lines--obey the general law of iambic arrangement with substitution in individual feet4 ,thus in ,lady ,macbeth's invocation of the ,spirits of ,evil 7,i4 v4 #di7-- ,and take my milk for gall1 you murdering ministers1 is a regular ,alexandrine4 ,her husband's hallucination-- ,i see thee yet1 in form as palpable ,as this which now ,i draw1 stops in the second line at the third foot4 ,different lines of the ghost's great speech in ,hamlet 7,i4 v4 #db-ia7 show the ,alexandrine-- ,o1 horrible6 ,o1 horrible6 most horrible6 and a fragment of two feet and a half-- ,all my smooth body4 ,if studied in this way1 even the scenes where short speeches of the conversational kind form the staple will be found to piece themselves together perfectly well in continuous scansion4 ,,footnotes3 #ca ,more will be found on this and the origin of other metres in ,bk4 ,,iv4 #cb ,or possibly ,hwi nultu fare to ,noreweie1 which is more likely as to far 7farn71 and looks forward to the fashion in which we now say ,norway1 but ,galloway4 ,the remark will extend to not a few other scansions4 #cc ,for origin and explanation see ,glossary4 #cd ,see again ,bk4 ,,iv4 for fuller information on this4 #ce ,the ,,ms4 has the contraction ,sn4 #cf ,as in hips and haws4 #cg ,from ,spenser onward the spelling is modern4 #ch ,spenser here takes 7as he sometimes continued to do even in ,f4 ,q47 the liberty of shifting the rhyming syllable4 ,there is no doubt that this is not a good liberty4 ,but in struggling out of the fifteenth-century slough ,wyatt was constantly driven to it1 and it was not till the seventeenth that poets recognised the fact that the easement was more of a disfigurement than it was worth4 #ci ,fallen is pretty certainly fall'n4 #dj ,for more on ,shakespeare's blank verse see the close of this chapter and the next ,book4 #da ,for ,paradise ,lost1 ,paradise ,regained1 and ,samson ,agonistes1 v4 inf4 ,book ,,ii4 #db ,for scanned examples of ,shakespeare's complete prosodic grasp in lyric1 v4 inf4 pp4 #ahb-c4 #dc ,see ,glossary1 ,musical and ,rhetorical ,arrangements4 #dd ,for more on the differences of his couplet and ,dryden's1 see next ,book4 #de ,unrhymed termination as far as end-syllable goes4 #df ,see next ,book4 #dg ,i regret that in my larger ,history 7iii4 #dcj-dca7 ,i did not notice the misprint of travel2 metrically1 however1 it makes no real difference4 #dh ,in fact1 there are even much older examples1 as in ,cleveland's ,mark ,antony and some things of ,dryden's1 on one of their possible scansions1 see ,hist4 ,pros4 ,,iii4 chap4 iii4 ,,book ,,ii ,,historical ,,sketch ,,of ,,english ,,prosody ,,chapter ,i ,,from ,,the ,,origins ,,to ,,chaucer--,,the ,,constitution ,,of ,,english ,,verse#di ,sidenote3 ,relations of ,old to ,middle and ,new ,english ,the main fact1 at once central and fundamental--a pivot whereon the whole structure at once rests and turns1--which it is necessary to understand in order to understand ,english prosody1 is connected with--is indeed one side or case of--the other fact of the history of ,english language and ,english literature4 ,so far as is known to the present writer1 no other language and no other literature stand in precisely the same condition1 as regards the relation of their technically ,old1 ,middle1 and ,new or ,modern forms4 ,the relation of what is called ,old ,french to ,modern is not that of ,old ,english to ,modern1 but rather that of ,middle1 if not a closer one still4 ,and though ,high and ,low ,german have had their various stages separated for philological purposes1 the ,continental ,teutonic dialects have never undergone anything like the process of modification by ,romance influence1 older and younger1 popular and literary1 which turned ,anglo-,saxon into ,english between the eleventh and the thirteenth centuries4 ,sidenote3 generally1 ,this process was one not so much--if indeed it was one at all--of conscious borrowing3 it was one not so much of deliberate imitation 7though there was much of that in a way7 as one of actual physical impregnation1 fertilising1 blending1 which resulted in a true and permanent cross or hybrid perpetual1 possessing and exercising the faculties of self-development and self-propagation4 ,sidenote3 and in prosody4 ,in perhaps no way were these faculties more strikingly and remarkably exercised and illustrated than in regard to prosody2 and it must1 unluckily1 be added that in no instance has their exercise been more frequently and more fatally misconstrued4 ,the present writer begins a fresh attempt to set forth what really happened with the following encouragement--in the way of a reviewer's sentence on his earlier and larger effort--before his eyes3 ,mr4 ,s4's contention is that ,a4,s4 prosody died out1 and that ,english prosody is entirely drawn from the ,latin1 with the aid of ,french and ,provenal4 ,now the contention of the ,history of ,english ,prosody is as directly and deliberately bent against this doctrine as against ,dr4 ,guest's theory1 that the principles of ,anglo-,saxon prosody have governed ,english throughout its course4 ,these falsehoods of extremes appear to have more lives than a cat1 if not as many heads as a hydra2 and their main principle of vitality no doubt is that it is possible to put them in plump plain-looking phraseology which the ,beaver can well understand4 ,what did actually happen was far less simple2 but the attempt to explain it must once more be made4 ,sidenote3 ,anglo-,saxon prosody itself4 ,as to what ,anglo-,saxon prosody itself was1 although1 as in all these matters1 there are minor dissidences among the authorities1 the main arrangement is sun-clear4 ,there is practically only one line2 though 7and the fact is of inestimable importance1 and when once really understood will carry the understander through to the very present day7 the syllabic lengths of that line may differ largely even in normal cases1 and to an at first sight almost irrational degree in what are called the extended varieties4 ,this normal line in its most normal condition--neither cut short nor drawn out--consists usually of about nine or ten syllables4 ,these are not arranged so as to produce a definite foot-rhythm1 though there is a general suggestion of the trochee4 ,and attempts 7not to be spoken of with anything but encouragement and wishes for their success1 if with some doubt as to its attainment7 have been made to assign1 in all cases1 definite division into associations of syllables which might be called feet4 ,other features are unmistakable and incontestable4 ,there is always a sharp middle division--so strong that the lines may be1 and often are1 printed as halves4 ,there are always more or fewer 7most frequently two in the first half and one in the second7 alliterated syllables 7one consonant or any vowel74 ,and these syllables1 with occasionally another or so1 are usually accented1 but divided from each other by a certain or uncertain number of unaccented ones4 ,the proportion and arrangement of these fall into the controverted things2 and the extension of the normal line is a point only of indirect importance1 though of very great importance indirectly1 here4 ,the attempts which have been made to trace ballad metre1 nursery-rhyme metre1 etc41 to ,a4,s4 originals are also outside our limits4 ,to the present writer they appear to be hopelessly vitiated by two absolutely certain facts3 7#a7 that we do not know how ,anglo-,saxon was pronounced2 7#b7 that its pronunciation1 whatever it was1 must have been radically affected by the changes which made it into ,middle ,english4 ,but four cardinal points remain1 of such importance that they cannot be too attentively studied or too constantly remembered4 ,they are these3 that the oldest ,english prosody rested on 7#a7 a system of hard and fast middle pause2 7#b7 alliteration1 distributed over the whole line2 7#c7 accented and unaccented syllables1 the former usually knit to the alliteration in some kind of sub-combination2 but 7#d7 that the laws of this combination1 and the principle on which the sub-combinations could be substituted1 omitted1 or multiplied1 were of the freest description4 ,it is said1 and it can well be believed1 that they forbade some things4 ,it is certain that they permitted very many1 combining the freest substitution in the same line1 of the kind observable in the ,latin and ,greek hexameter or trimeter1 with an apparent variety of lengths1 in different lines1 hardly inferior to that of a ,greek chorus or ode4 ,sidenote3 ,prosody of the ,transition to to ,middle ,english ,this prosody governed ,english verse from a time certainly anterior to the existence of any ,english nationality to about #ajjj ,a4,d41 the great bulk of the production resulting under it being considerably older than the last-named date4 ,at or about that date1 certainly before the ,conquest1 it began to be subjected to devitalising and disintegrating influences1 not necessary to be discussed in detail here4 ,the important fact is that from c4 #ajjj to c4 #abjj the existing amount of ,old ,english verse is very small indeed2 and that1 even in the few existing probably dated examples1 singular changes begin to exhibit themselves4 ,in the ,rhyming ,poem 7before #ajjj87 the introduction of the element indicated in the title completely revolutionises the system4#ej ,in the ,grave ,poem 7c4 #aajj87 a new element of rhythm appears1 the tendency being1 here and henceforth1 to substitute iambic1 varied by anapestic1 cadence for the general trochaic run1 and to associate two lines or four halves in a kind of quatrain4#ea ,in the remarkable fragments of ,st4 ,godric 7#aaej87 rhyme1 which does not appear in the ,grave ,poem1 assists the rhythmical tendency of this latter to make a new music2#eb and the well-known ,canute ,song#ec chimes in4 ,while if the ,paternoster be really of the twelfth century1 as some have said1 there are in it iambic dimeter couplets#ed of a kind which never1 by any chance1 suggests itself in the whole corpus of ,anglo-,saxon poetry proper4 ,this couplet is neither more nor less than a pair of iambic dimeters or four-accent '-beat' lines in rising stress1 shortened occasionally to seven syllables instead of eight1 probably from the first also admitting extension1 not by addition of feet1 but by substitution of them4 ,sidenote3 ,contrast in ,layamon4 ,two couplets1 or two batches of short 7half7 lines1 from ,layamon will show the difference at once and unmistakably to any one who possesses an ear3 ,eorles ther comen riche and wel idone4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,th nswrd ,vrtgr f lchn vl h ws wr4 ,the first distich1 it will be observed1 is a loose and broken-down one on the schemes of perfect ,o4,e4 verse4 ,there is hardly any real alliteration1 and the accented syllables are clumsily placed and valued4 ,but the thing does retain1 and that pretty sufficiently1 the strong centre pause1 and the folding-back swing of the two halves1 like those of a flail or a pair of lemon-squeezers1 which are the real characteristics of ,o4,e4 or ,a4,s4 verse4 ,it is not itself riche versification2 it is not wel idone2 but you cannot mistake it for anything but what it is4 ,with the other you have got into a new world4 ,there is alliteration here2 but it has nothing on earth to do with the construction and run of the verse4 ,there is what you may call accent if you insist upon it2 but it is quite differently and much more regularly arranged1 constituting1 moreover1 a rhythm perfectly distinct to the ear4 ,there are two halves2 but the second half is not so much a completion as a repetition4 ,and instead of the strong middle break--a break and nothing else--the halves are tipped with rhyme--a division which1 if they were printed straight on1 you would not notice till you got to the end of the second1 and which requires very little 7hardly any7 stop of the voice1 while the breach of the old couplet insists on this4 ,sidenote3 ,examinations of it--,insufficient4 ,now the question legitimately suggests itself1 ,why is this strange contrast present8--a contrast which1 it should be added1 is not only present but omnipresent in this great poem of #cj1jjj 7half7 lines in all forms1 from something quite near the old ,a4,s4 line1 through things farther from it1 to imperfect forms of the new couplet and so to perfect ones4 ,one answer is as follows3 ,this couplet was already established in ,french literature--in fact in the very ,french literature 7,wace7 which formed part of ,layamon's originals4 ,moreover1 it exists also in ,latin--the ,latin of the hymns with which the priest ,layamon must have been perfectly familiar4 ,when1 therefore1 it appears1 he is simply imitating it with more or less success4 ,now the facts of this answer1 as far as they go1 are indisputable4 ,the octosyllabic couplet1 though not so old as the decasyllabic line in ,o4,f41 is very old1 and by ,layamon's time had been written very largely indeed4 ,octosyllabic lines1 both of iambic and trochaic cadence1 form the very staple of the ,latin hymns2 and both in ,latin 7earlier far7 and in ,french1 after a period of assonance1 rhyme had thoroughly established itself4 ,so far1 so good2 but it is to be hoped that intelligent minds will perceive an occurring difficulty4 ,if this selection of metre is an elaborate attempt to imitate ,french or ,latin1 or both1 why are its results so extraordinarily sporadic8 ,one could understand the presence of many imperfect lines and couplets2 it might even be surprising that in a first attempt there should be such good ones as that above quoted4 ,but how could the man1 in an actual majority of cases1 produce stuff like the other distich quoted1 and many more unrhythmical still1 which are not even attempts at the iambic couplet--which have no connection whatever with it8 ,sidenote3 ,sufficient4 ,no2 an explanation at once more subtle and more natural is wanted2 for it is a great mistake to think that the subtler is necessarily the less natural4 ,does not this immense mass of apparently confused experiment suggest that the language itself has passed into a new rhythmical atmosphere8--that two different metrical systems1 one dropping and dying off ever fainter to the ear1 the other becoming clearer and clearer to it1 were sounding in ,layamon's brain8 ,sometimes he writes under one influence2 sometimes under the other2 more frequently under confused echoes of both4 ,such a set of causes would produce exactly such a set of results4 ,nor is it of the slightest relevance1 as an objection1 to say that the total number of new ,romance words in ,layamon is very small--a couple of hundred perhaps in both forms of the poem taken together4 ,you do not necessarily require one ,romance word to fashion the most complicated metres of ,tennyson and ,mr4 ,swinburne4 ,the point is1 ,what was the general rhythm1 and what were the means of obtaining it1 which sounded most gratefully in ,english ears at the opening of the thirteenth century and onwards8 ,the facts1 if they1 as they too seldom have been1 are carefully arranged and impartially considered1 answer this further question as clearly as any reasonable person can desire4 ,we possess a relatively considerable number of poems composed probably between #abjj and #abej4 ,the most important of these are1 besides ,layamon's ,brut itself1 the ,ormulum1 the ,poema ,morale or ,moral ,ode1 the ,orison of ,our ,lady1 a ,bestiary1 the ,proverbs of ,alfred and of ,hendyng1 the ,love-,rune and other minor pieces1 the ,middle ,english ,genesis and ,exodus1 and ,the ,owl and the ,nightingale4 ,sidenote3 ,other documents4 ,hardly two of these are in the same metre1 at least in the same form of the same metre1 and none of them exhibits exactly the same curious blend of old and new as that which appears in the ,brut4 ,but1 for that very reason1 they enforce the same general lesson--for they do enforce it--in the most striking and conclusive way possible4 ,that lesson is1 as we saw1 that the new language of ,english was seeking in every possible way for a new prosody of ,english1 and was finding it under several and special forms of experiment1 but in the same general spirit4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,ormulum4 ,orm--evidently1 from his punctilio about spelling1#ee a man curious and particular about details--adopts the ,french principle of absolute syllabic uniformity2 though he does not accept any of the actually existing ,french metres1 and rejects--possibly to save trouble1 possibly as thinking them unsuitable to his sacred subject--both assonance and rhyme4 ,he writes--in the strictest and most humdrum iambic cadence1 as of the least-inspired ,french or ,latin poetry--fifteeners or combinations of eights and sevens4 ,of the old long-lined stave he has kept no positive quality but its centre pause1 and hardly any important negative one save its rhymelessness4 ,of the new metre1 he has aimed at--he has certainly reached--nothing but its foot-division and consequent rhythm4 ,but he has got these in the most pronounced1 if hardly in the most attractive1 form4 ,except for the odd syllable1 we are here already in full presence of the jog-trot ballad and hymn common measure of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries4 ,nay1 this odd syllable itself is of great interest1 for it reappears in the sung breath or grunt--a3 ,your sad one tires in a mile-a1 etc4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,moral ,ode and the ,orison of ,our ,lady4 ,opinions may differ slightly on the question whether this fifteener is actually the same as the fourteener which later became so common1 and which directly engendered the common measure itself2 or whether the two were independent attempts to metricise the old long line4 ,it is of course clear that1 as final e's dropped off1 fifteen would become fourteen in any case4 ,but in two of the poems mentioned above1 the ,moral ,ode and the ,orison of ,our ,lady1 although the first-named has many fifteeners1 and the last is highly irregular1 the set towards iambic seven-foot rhythm is well marked4 ,and there are two still more interesting things about these two poems4 ,we have several versions of the ,poema ,morale which have been arranged--not on prosodic grounds--in order of chronological sequence4 ,and it is in the highest degree noteworthy that the latest of these forms1 like the later version of ,layamon1 exhibits remarkable touches of prosodic melioration4 ,it is still more important that among the irregular and experimental varieties of the ,orison actual iambic decasyllables1 and1 what is more1 something like the decasyllabic couplet1 make their appearance nearly two centuries before ,chaucer4#ef ,sidenote3 ,the ,proverbs of ,alfred and ,hendyng4 ,these remarkable lessons in comparison are repeated1 with the usual and invaluable confirmation of variety1 in the curious documents called respectively the ,proverbs ,alfred and the ,proverbs of ,hendyng4 ,the relation1 in point of matter1 of the latter to the former1 and of the former itself to a possible ,a4,s4 collection made by the king1 or under his auspices1 need not concern us4 ,it is enough that our existing ,proverbs of ,alfred are ,m4,e4 in language and early thirteenth century in date2 while those of ,hendyng are perhaps half a century younger4 ,these latter are slightly more modern in language2 but this is accompanied by1 and no doubt not a little directly connected with1 still greater modernisation of form4 ,the earlier rehandler 7or some of the rehandlers1 for the work is pretty certainly not of one only7 evidently stuck as near as he could to his original--words and all4 ,but he was1 or they were1 in ,layamon's state--only more so4 ,rhyme appears fitfully2 regular iambic and trochaic rhythm more fitfully2 alliteration most fitfully of all4 ,the various sections are stanza-bundles of short lines or half lines1 which1 taken singly and printed straight on1 might tempt no very hasty1 ill-informed1 or unintelligent reader to regard them as sheer prose1 with an irregular sing-song and jingle here and there4 ,on the other hand1 the ,proverbs of ,hendyng are unmistakable ,english verse1 the stanza called in ,french rime coue1 from the ,latin versus caudatus 7afterwards common and famous as the six-line stanza in which a very large proportion1 if not the majority1 of our romances are written74 ,it is a combination of eight- and six-syllabled lines arranged #h1 #h1 #f1 #h1 #h1 #f1 and rhymed aabccb2 the rhythm being regularly iambic1 and the whole differing in no respect from similar verse of the nineteenth century1 and in only one respect from such as ,gray's ,cat ode in the eighteenth4 ,and that one is priceless1 for it is the appearance of substitution--the great ,english characteristic which separates our verse from its ,french patterns--if patterns they were--which the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries unwisely gave up1 for which ,shenstone pleaded1#eg and which ,chatterton1 and ,blake1 and ,southey1 and ,coleridge restored4 ,monosyllabic and trisyllabic feet1 as shown in the examples1#eh are freely employed2 and the result is that a double advantage is secured4 ,the actual shapelessness of one direct parent1 the broken-down ,a4,s4 versicle1 is effectually cured3 there is no possibility of mistaking this composition for prose4 ,the possible monotony and sing-song of the other--the regular syllabic ,french model1 long afterwards parodied and exposed immortally in ,chaucer's ,sir ,thopas--is avoided likewise4 ,there is a little assonance1 but for the most part quite regular and satisfactory rhyme4 ,there is effective correspondent rhythm1 resulting from feet clearly marked1 but1 as has been said1 boldly handled in the ,english1 not the ,french or ,low ,latin manner4 ,the stanza is well kept1 though the substitution prevents its being a mere mechanic reproduction4 ,in short1 there is freedom1 and there is order4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,bestiary4 ,not less worthy of study is the ,bestiary4#ei ,here the direct origins are fortunately known and are of the utmost importance4 ,the ultimate one is the ,latin of ,thetbaldus in ,leonine hexameters--that is to say1 hexameters with1 in this case not very complete or regular1 but still unmistakable1 rhyme at the csura and the end4 ,this gives something of a ready-made correspondence to the old ,a4,s4 line with its middle break1 and1 at the same time1 suggests rhyming halves4 ,but there was also at hand a ,french bestiary by ,philippe de ,thaun1 where the writer1 taking the other already established hexameter-trimeter of his own literature1 the ,alexandrine1 breaks it into regular six-syllabled couplets4 ,the ,englishman1 whoever he was1 endeavours to follow this arrangement1 and perhaps something more4 ,he has got the six-syllable line and couplet in his ear2 he has got even a sort of notion of stanza in addition1 and he now and then hears rhyme4 ,but he is a very rough verse-smith1 in the ,proverbs of ,alfred stage or near it1 and he is perpetually hitting and missing cadences and constructions which were not to be perfected for long1 but half developed--queer creatures rearing themselves from the earth like those in the old woodcuts of the ,creation4 ,he has more variety than ,layamon1 and sometimes more music than the ,alfred man2 but with them he provides the great museum of examples of ,english verse in the first stage of making4 ,sidenote3 ,minor poems4 ,every now and then1 too1 he provides us with something that is not rough at all1 as in the passage appended1#fj which is perfect modern ,english rhythm and goes to a well-known carol tune4 ,and of this more perfect craftsmanship1 in forms precise enough to bring out the qualities and capacities of the new prosody1 the minor and miscellaneous poems of the thirteenth century supply ample and varied instances4 ,there is ,romance-six1 probably earlier than the ,proverbs of ,hendyng2 fourteener metre1 more polished than that of the ,moral ,ode2 and1 best of all1 the beginning1 in the ,love-,rune1#fa of the great alternately rhymed octosyllabic quatrain1 the long measure 7common1 or the split fourteener1 was to be a little later7 of a myriad hymns and secular pieces since4 ,this long measure is in some ways more advanced than almost anything of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries1 displaying equivalence1 admitting internal rhyme#fb--prophesying1 through ,chatterton and ,blake1 the ,great ,instauration of ,coleridge1 ,southey1 and ,scott4 ,but we must complete this group by what are perhaps its most important1 though not its earliest members1 the two great examples of the octosyllabic line itself in its simplest couplet form4 ,it may almost be said that ,genesis and ,exodus 7the ,m4,e4 not the ,a4,s4 paraphrase7 and ,the ,owl and the ,nightingale are sufficient between them to teach all the main secrets of ,english prosody4 ,they are certainly sufficient to show what it is and what it is not4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,owl and the ,nightingale and ,genesis and ,exodus4 ,we have seen how this couplet emerges in the ,brut of ,layamon1 and how it there presents itself as a transient and embarrassed alternative to mostly broken-down and shapeless pairs of something like the old half-line4 ,in the two poems just mentioned it is not transient1 but abides2 nor is it in the least embarrassed4 ,it has quite shaken off its dilapidated companions1 and abides in its own house4 ,but that house is a house of two wings or two fronts4 ,the one which the author of ,the ,owl and the ,nightingale prefers approximates in its verse-building to the ,french system of architecture1 and is1 if not rigidly uniform in syllabic arrangement 7and especially patient as the metre always has been since of limitation to seven with a consequent hint of trochaic rhythm71 yet almost rigidly iambic or trochaic in run4 ,the other1 of which ,genesis and ,exodus is the main occupant1 admits1 with the utmost freedom1 that principle of trisyllabic 7if not also monosyllabic7 equivalence into which the old liberty of ,anglo-,saxon had transformed itself under the sufficient but not tyrannical pressure of the new foot prosody4 ,and it presents an almost perfect specimen of the metre which ,spenser 7whether intentionally or not7 employed in parts of the ,shepherd's ,calendar1 and which ,coleridge1 more than #ejj years later1 believed himself to have invented1 and explained in a very insufficient manner4 ,sidenote3 ,summary of results to the mid-thirteenth century4 ,it is upon the understanding which the student attains and upon the interpretation which he makes or accepts of the group of pieces from the ,brut to ,genesis and ,exodus1 which have just been discussed1 that this student's whole conception of ,english prosody will depend4 ,unfortunately1 he will not find such authorities as have delivered themselves on the subject by any means unanimous2 more unfortunately still1 it must be said here1 he will find most of them inadequate1 and not a few positively wrong4 ,in another part of this book some account of the more usual theories is given4 ,it is enough to say here1 that neither the system which regards this verse as consisting of a certain number of stressed syllables and a certain or uncertain number of unstressed1 nor that which would regard some of it as following old ,english1 some new ,french models1 appears to fit the actual facts or explain their actual consequences4 ,to assign the equivalenced varieties to a northern1 the unequivalenced to a southern origin1 may or may not be in accordance with historical and geographical fact1 but is prosodically irrelevant4 ,to be content with discovering actual or possible particular foreign models for each metre may not be useless 7something on the subject will again be found elsewhere in this volume71 but will be inadequate1 and may be misleading1 if the general phenomena are not examined or if their lesson is not learnt4 ,it should not be hard to learn for any one who will patiently consider the facts narrated in this chapter1 the dates 7as far as they are known or guessed71 and the scanned examples given in the text1 the notes1 and the general survey4 ,it will be strange if he does not perceive that there is here something much more than a mere regularising of accentual verse with the addition of rhyme1 something much more than a mere imitation of ,french and ,latin models1 like the frequent attempts at ,english hexameters1 or those at ,english ballades and rondeaux which were revived some thirty years ago2 above all1 something not in the least adequately described by the phrases adopting the ,french principles of prosody1 following the rhythm of the foreigner1 and so forth4 ,if1 as he should1#fc he possesses some knowledge of ,latin verse1 classical and medival1 some of ,french1 a little 7the more the better7 of ,old ,english1 and as much as possible of ,modern2 if he will allow this knowledge to settle and clarify his observation of this ,middle ,english verse of the latest twelfth and the first half of the thirteenth century1 without allowing arbitrary theories of any kind to interfere1 it seems almost impossible that he can fail to see what was going on4 ,the prosody of ,english was changing from accent and alliteration to feet and rhyme2 but it was not following ,french1 or the general run of medival ,latin1 in adopting syllabic uniformity as a rule2 and it was1 in a large number1 if not the majority of instances1 allowing the substitution of equivalent feet 7especially anapsts for iambs7 exactly as some1 but not all1 classical metre had allowed it4 ,another point with which the student cannot familiarise himself too early1 and one which he will find rarely or never insisted on in works dealing with ,english prosody1 is that this apparent irregularity of foot arrangement brings out the existence1 the importance1 and1 so to speak1 the personality of the feet themselves1 in a way impossible of achievement when a uniform number of syllables is insisted on in a line1 and when accent1 stress1 or whatever the emphasising agent be called or considered1 is restricted wholly or as much as possible to exactly corresponding places in that line4 ,this monotony may sometimes seem to soothe1 but in reality only deadens the susceptibility of the ear1 and that ear comes to recognise only1 if not only to demand1 such coarser stimulus as that given by strong and more or less uniform centre-pause1 as the sharp snap or clang of the concluding rhyme1 and as rhetorical1 not strictly poetical1 emphasis placed on special points1 especially by the aid of antithesis4 ,on the other hand1 the slight effort necessary to recognise the unity of the equivalent feet1 under their diversity of substitution1 demands and begets an active sensitiveness1 which very soon yields positive1 keen1 and varied delight4 ,no modern poetry can vie with ,english in the possession and provision of this1 and those who neglect it deprive themselves of one of the greatest privileges of an ,englishman4 ,but it is1 of course1 not contended that perfection in so difficult and exquisite an accomplishment was1 or could have been1 attained at once4 ,the prosody1 like the language1 had to make itself1 to grow1 and1 even more than the language1 it had not merely to grow like a vegetable1 but to make itself by animated1 if often unconscious1 efforts4 ,had things been otherwise it would have been far less interesting4 ,as it is1 there is not one of the imperfect efforts which have been briefly reviewed here that is not a document in the case1 a step in the progress1 a fresh attempt of the bird to chip the shell and get clear of the fragments4 ,sidenote3 ,the later thirteenth century and the fourteenth4 ,these documents1 speaking approximately1 have brought us to1 and perhaps a little beyond1 the middle of the thirteenth century4 ,philologists and palographers do not give us much as dating from the latter part of that century1 or at least from the third quarter of it4 ,but towards the close1 and onwards to the supposed birth date of ,chaucer 7#acdj71 we have an ever-increasing mass of interesting material continuing the demonstration just given4 ,at an uncertain period 7not impossibly close to that birth itself7 we find also a new phenomenon of a general kind and of first-rate importance2 and in the last half or1 say1 the last third of the century we come1 not only to ,chaucer himself1 but to two other poets1 lesser than himself as masters of form1 but by no means small in that respect1 and contrasted with him in it after a really marvellous fashion4 ,sidenote3 ,robert of ,gloucester4 ,we can give less individual attention to the first-named group of documents2 but as a matter of fact they require less1 and sub-group themselves4 ,at the close of the thirteenth century we have a body of verse1 the whole of it sometimes ascribed by guess-work1 part of it ascribed with certainty1 and yet more not without probability1 to ,robert of ,gloucester4 ,this work1 consisting of a ,chronicle and of many ,saints' ,lives1 is entirely written in fourteener 7or1 when there is a final e1 fifteener7 couplets of the same general stamp as those which we have seen in the ,moral ,poem1 but differentiated from those of the ,ormulum by the admission of equivalence4 ,they are1 however1 much more advanced than even the latest version of the ,poema ,morale2 and the writer1 or writers1 can make them into a capital narrative vehicle1 distinctly indicating1 if not freely expressing1 the further resolution into the ballad metre of eight and six4 ,but this craving for narrative in verse did not confine itself to a single vehicle2 indeed1 in probably a very great majority of instances1 it preferred another1 or two others1 with which we are also acquainted1 and further varieties still which we have not yet seen1 but which show1 unmistakably1 the advance in prosodic aptitude4 ,the great body of narrative verse1 known as the ,romances1 begins to date from the end of the thirteenth century--a few1 such as ,havelok and ,horn1 are certainly earlier than the fourteenth2 by the end of the first third1 if not of the first quarter1 of this latter1 a very large number were as certainly in existence4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,romances4 ,now probably the whole of these ,romances were more or less directly imitated from ,french originals1 nearly all of which we actually possess2 but it is extremely remarkable that they by no means always followed the metre of those originals1 and that when they did they took considerable liberties with it4 ,that metre was almost invariably ,alexandrine or decasyllabic1 in long batches not couplets1 or octosyllabic in couplet4 ,of the two probably oldest of ours1 ,havelok and ,horn1 the first does attempt this octosyllabic couplet1 but treats it in a very rough and independent fashion1 something in the ,genesis and ,exodus line1 while ,king ,horn seems to favour something like what we observe in part of the ,english ,bestiary and the whole of the ,french one--a split ,alexandrine or six-syllabled couplet4 ,very soon the rime coue or ,romance-six 7which had not been a staple romance-metre in ,french7 appears1 and occasionally more elaborate stanzas still1 such as the complicated arrangement of ,sir ,tristrem4 ,those writers who prefer couplet improve upon ,horn and ,havelok1 but they follow ,genesis and ,exodus much more than ,the ,owl and the ,nightingale4 ,indeed1 some of them develop this couplet in a manner possessing almost infinite future4 ,they not merely follow the writer of ,genesis and ,exodus in substituting trisyllabic1 if not also monosyllabic1 feet for dissyllabic to the number of four1 but some of them develop hints1 which may be found in that composition1 by extending the actual foot-length of the line to five1 and sometimes repeating this in an actual heroic pair4 ,whether this was in some1 or even at first in all1 cases accidental1 does not really matter4 ,the decasyllable or five-foot line was already existent in great masses of ,french poetry1 though not in single couplets2 it was natural that1 occasionally1 more room should be wanted than the octosyllable provides2 and there is the undoubted fact that1 in more than one other ,european language1 ten1 or according to the structure of the particular tongue1 eleven syllables were suggesting themselves as the most convenient size4 ,the fourteener was so long as to invite breaking up quite early2 the ,alexandrine has never naturalised itself for continuous use in ,english2 and the octosyllable1 though its early appearance1 the wealth of models for it1 and its ease1 fostered and sustained it1 had the already mentioned drawback of lack of content4 ,it was certain that1 in a language which was showing itself so fortunately free from hide-bound qualities1 the decasyllable would establish itself4 ,it has been usual to say that1 in couplet at any rate1 ,chaucer took it from the ,french4 ,as a matter of actual practice he may have done so2 but in the order of nature and thought it was not in the least necessary for him to do it4 ,indeed1 it would be almost literally true#fd to say that ,english had decasyllabic couplet before ,french--that it was an ,english invention4 ,sidenote3 ,lyrics4 ,for the time1 however1 the octosyllable was the staple for narrative1 varied to no mean extent by the stanzas already described2 while these stanzas1 often of the most elaborate and complicated descriptions1 were adopted from ,french 7and perhaps ,provenal7 or extemporised by the taste and fancy of the writers4 ,one famous collection#fe indicates the school of which our poets were scholars by alternating ,french poems with ,english4 ,but this very collection shows amply that these same writers refused to undergo the syllabic constraints of ,french1 and held to what were to be always the real1 if frequently the unrecognised and sometimes the denied1 principles of the ,new ,english in verse--that is to say1 the constitution of the line by feet1 not syllables--and the consequent possibility of obtaining equivalent lines by the substitution of feet1 varying in syllabic constituence1 but interchangeable in metrical value4 ,some examples of all these things will be found in the ,scanned ,conspectus2 the student should search the books named in the notes for more1 which he will find in the fullest abundance4 ,what is important is that by this study he may and should discover the real and too commonly misunderstood relation of ,chaucer to precedent ,english verse4 ,there is1 however1 another fact of the fourteenth century which it is not less important for him to recognise1 and which also has been too often misunderstood1 or at least not put in its proper place4 ,this is the revival of alliterative-accentual verse4 ,sidenote3 ,the alliterative revival4 ,as there are few things1 in treating prosody1 of greater weight than to keep carefully before the student the difference between controversial and uncontroversial points1 it should be said at once that revival is not quite one of the latter4 ,there have been some who have taken it for granted that the alliterative-accentual form never ceased out of the land4 ,it may be so2 there is even a sort of antecedent plausibility about the notion4 ,but the important historical fact is that no such verse apparently exists of a probable date between about #abej 7the later form of ,layamon itself1 much further encroached upon by metre and rhyme7 and about #acej4 ,somewhere about this latter time it does reappear2 and before very long has its chief pure representative in ,langland1 at the same time as metre has its chief pure representative in ,chaucer4 ,but this reappearance is conditioned and qualified by a very remarkable fact4 ,there is1 as has just been said1 pure alliterative verse4 ,it is not1 indeed1 an exact representation of the old ,a4,s4 line4 ,it is somewhat longer than the shorter forms of that line1 and very much shorter than the extended variety4 ,in some cases1 especially in the later examples1 the alliteration is richer1 extending to four1 five1 or even six syllables4 ,most noteworthy of all is the substitution1 in the general rhythmical run1 of anapstic-iambic for trochaic basis--a fact the importance of which1 in the general history of the morphology of ,english poetry and of the change from ,a4,s4 to ,m4,e41 cannot be exaggerated4 ,but it is also worthy of the most careful remark that1 in a relatively large number of instances1 the alliterative-accentual system is apparently unable to rely upon itself4 ,it is tempted or driven to borrow metre1 or rhyme1 or both4 ,of the two best pieces in the alliterative division1 outside ,piers ,plowman1 ,gawain and the ,green ,knight combines1 with an unrhymed body or tirade1 a rhymed bob and wheel in every stanza2 while ,the ,pearl1 though alliterated almost to the highest possible strength1 is strictly metrical and strictly rhymed throughout4 ,others form their stanzas of lines roughly rhythmed but fairly well rhymed4 ,sidenote3 ,the later fourteenth century4 ,by the last quarter of the fourteenth century1 therefore1 there were in ,england two contrasted and in a way rival1 but1 as has been said1 overlapping1 systems of versification3 one a sort of atavistic revival1 the other the result of a process--two centuries old to a certainty1 and probably nearer four--of blending the characteristics of ,low ,latin and ,french prosody with those of ,old ,english4 ,in the three chief poets of the later fourteenth century 7,chaucer1 ,gower1 and ,langland7 we have three object lessons as to the results of this process1 which could not have been improved if the course of events had been exclusively devoted to the task of making these results1 and the process itself1 clear to the student4 ,they had best be taken in reverse order4 ,sidenote3 ,langland4 ,langland represents1 in the greatest perfection that can reasonably be expected1 the attempt to preserve1 or revert to1 verse arranged without rhyme1 without metre in the strict sense1 and depending for its separation from prose upon alliteration1 accent1 and strong middle pause4 ,in spite of himself1 and in consequence of the state of the language1 actually metrical lines--decasyllables1 ,alexandrines1 and fourteeners--do appear2 but1 as a rule1 he avoids them either with singular skill or with remarkable luck1 and on the whole achieves a consistent medium1 not so much dominated as permeated by a sort of anapstic underhum of rhythm1 but otherwise maintaining its independence4 ,being possessed of great literary and even distinctly poetical genius1 he makes it a by no means unsuitable vehicle for his tangle of apocalyptic dreams1 and no ill one for the occasional passages of a more mundane description which he interlards4 ,but it is deficient in beauty1 if not in vigour2 it is clearly unsuited for many of the subjects of poetry2 and to any one acquainted with metre and rhyme it constantly suggests the question and complaint1 ,why are we to be deprived of these already-won beauties and conveniences1 and cut off with this rough makeshift8 ,sidenote3 ,gower4 ,as ,langland represents the purely accentual division or phase of ,english prosody at this time1 so does ,gower represent the almost purely syllabic4 ,he uses1 with insignificant exceptions1#ff the old octosyllabic couplet2 but he comes closer than any other ,english writer of the ,middle ,english period to the strict ,french model4 ,he does not1 like his forerunners1 and like even ,chaucer1 allow himself the seven-syllable line as a variation2 and though he does1 by the admission of those who are opposed to the system of this book1 occasionally admit an extrametrical syllable1 and1 according to that system1 much oftener a trisyllabic foot1 this interferes little with the general uniformity of his verse-run4 ,almost the only variations that he relies upon are frequent initial trochees an occasional balanced arrangement of the halves of the line-- ,the cloth was laid1 the board was set-- contrasted with less strongly marked pauses1 and especially a device whereby a full stop comes at the first line of two couplets separated by another1 so that a sort of ,in ,memoriam quatrain effect1 with first and last lines blank1 is obtained1 as thus3 ,hew down this tree and let it fall1 ,the leavs let defoul in haste1 ,and do the fruit destroy and waste1 ,and let offshredden every branch4 ,to this the present writer would add distinct trisyllabic feet where others see slur1 as in-- ,the weather was merry and fair enough4 ,the result1 especially with syncopation of these trisyllables1 is what some call pre-eminent smoothness of metre1 others dominant monotony4 ,the metre had proved itself of old well suited for actual narrative1 and1 as ,gower can tell a story1 when he has a good one to tell1 the effect1 as in the passages about ,nebuchadnezzar1 ,medea1 ,ceyx and ,alcyone1 ,rosiphel1 the ,trump of ,death1 and other persons and things1 is quite excellent4 ,but in the didactic and conversational parts it is often terribly tedious and lamentably limp4 ,sidenote3 ,chaucer4 ,thus ,langland1 from yet another point of view1 represents the rejection of the new ,english prosody altogether or as far as possible1 and ,gower1 the timid imitation of ,french4 ,chaucer1 on the other hand1 despite his undoubted attention to ,french and ,italian models1 is in the direct line which we have been tracing1 and represents1 if not completely1 yet to a very large extent1 at once the development and the perfecting of the processes which we have described4 ,it has indeed been urged by some that ,chaucer probably knew nothing1 or very little1 of ,english poetry before his own day4 ,but while1 on the one hand1 this is quite unproven1 and not a little improbable1 those who urge it do not seem to see that1 even if it were so1 it is comparatively irrelevant4 ,it is not in the least necessary to suppose that ,chaucer must have borrowed the ,vernon ,,ms4 or another like it1 carried it home to the rooms above ,aldgate1 stirred the fire and taken a drink as ,henryson did later with his own ,troilus1 and then1 after discussing to himself principles of versification1 have decided that this was to be followed1 that to be avoided1 that again to be perfected and carried further4 ,the main and undoubted facts remain that ,chaucer was an ,englishman of #acdj787-adjj2 that he was the greatest ,englishman of letters of his time2 that he spoke and wrote the ,english language1 and that thus1 by what he would himself have called the law of kind1 he entered into the inheritance of all that had been done in this ,english matter by ,englishmen for generations beforehand4 ,as a matter of fact1 there is plenty of evidence destructive of the contention referred to4 ,he had read the ,romances1 or he could not have written ,sir ,thopas2 he knew the alliterative poems1 or he could not have made the famous reference to rum ram ruf in the ,prologue to the ,parson's ,tale1 which ,gascoigne caught up4 ,it is odd if he had not heard 7even if he had not read7 the plays that folk like his own ,absolon played upon a scaffold high4 ,but1 as has been said1 it does not matter4 ,sidenote3 ,his perfecting of ,m4,e4 verse4 ,for his work is there1 and it is incontestably--whatever its author had read or not read--the logical and biological continuation and perfecting of all that had gone before from ,godric and the ,paternoster4 ,he begins with the fluent octosyllable and the melodious and usefully stringent rhyme-royal1 as well as other more or less elaborate stanzas4 ,he communicates to the couplet#fg a greater combination of order and variety than it had ever known in ,english2 he makes of the stanza1#fh in the case of rhyme-royal1 the most perfect formal arrangement of verse that ,english had yet seen4 ,later he takes up1#fi very probably because he had written so many separate examples of it in rhyme-royal itself at the close of each stanza1 the decasyllabic couplet1 and makes of that something greater still--a metrical instrument or vehicle escaping at once the scanty content and slightly insignificant bearing of the octosyllable1 the elaborateness and rather melancholy quality of rhyme-royal4 ,in doing this it is inevitable that1 as ,spenser did in parallel case afterwards1 he should lean rather towards precision than towards great laxity and luxuriance of form2 for things needed order4 ,but he sets the example of that variation of pause in rhyme-royal which was fortunately taken as a rule1 and which preserved for ,english one of the very greatest means of metrical achievement4 ,in the octosyllable he reproduced knowingly1 and with definite apology1 that failing of a syllable which gives acephalous or trochaic alternation1 and which all the greatest masters of the metre1 except 7following ,gower7 ,william ,morris1 have imitated4 ,and he broke up the lines very largely by conversation-fragments1 by putting full stops at the end of the first line of a couplet1 and by making a whole paragraph end at the same place4 ,sidenote3 ,details of his prosody4 ,but next to his provision of a perfectly finished stanza--in other words1 of a complete1 and pro tanto final1 prosodic result--in rhyme-royal1 the most important thing done by ,chaucer in this department was the arranging and setting on foot of the decasyllabic couplet1 which he began well in the ,legend of ,good ,women1 but carried on much better in the ,canterbury ,tales4 ,not half of his actual achievement here1 and a very much smaller part of his promise and stimulus for the future1 can be perceived by those who limit him to the decasyllable as such by devices of elision and syncope2 still less by those who would have his varieties of line exactly to represent variations of the ,french decasyllable4 ,the former proceeding is inadequate and defacing2 the latter practically impossible1 except as a bare and barren matter of arithmetic4 ,you cannot imitate the prosodic effect of one language in another1 even though you take the exact number of syllables and 7as far as you can7 divide the words1 arrange the accents1 etc41 with the most slavish copying4 ,the result will laugh at you prosodically2 and while it is very unlikely to give you anything similar1 it is nearly certain to give you something quite different4#gj ,when ,chaucer's verse in heroic or riding rhyme is examined1 simply on its own merits and without regard to arbitrary theories of pronunciation1 but with all necessary remembrance of the value of the final e1 etc41 it is seen to follow1 in every respect1 the general principles which we have seen evolving themselves in all ,english poetry hitherto1 subject only to the general reforming or regimenting tendency which has been noticed4 ,the normal line is beyond all question five-foot iambic1 or decasyllabic with short and long syllable alternately4 ,but there are a few instances#ga of so-called acephalous lines where the first syllable seems to have been missed--where1 at any rate1 there are only nine to account for1 and where you consequently have to choose between a monosyllabic foot in the first place or trochaic cadence throughout4 ,there is little doubt in the mind of the present writer that if these lines 7which1 after all1 are very few7 were deliberately written and meant to be kept1 the reason of their existence was a false analogy with the octosyllable1 where1 as we have said1 such acephalous lines1 trochaic and heptasyllabic1 do occur1 and where they produce not only no ill1 but a positively good effect4 ,unluckily the cutting down does not produce a good effect in the larger couplet2 and if trochaic rhythm is permitted--in other words1 if the missing syllable is shifted from the beginning to the end--it produces a very bad one4 ,but they are1 as has been said1 in very small proportion1 though there are too many of them to be simply mended out of existence4 ,proceeding1 we find1 in a far larger number of instances1 not a defect but an excess of syllables4 ,as far as these syllables are found at the end of the line 7in great measure caused by the final e7 there is no difficulty and no dispute about them4 ,they are allowed by everybody2 and they come under that general law of almost 7not quite7 all prosodies which makes the final place of a line one of liberty4 ,but it is different with those which come within the line1 and with apparent extensions beyond the eleventh syllable4 ,many1 perhaps most1 prosodists would shut their eyes to the latter1 regarding them as mere extra-redundances1 and explain away those which occur within the line by elision before a vowel1 by syncope or crasis or the like 7see ,glossary7 when they come before a consonant4 ,to the present writer these devices and shifts appear unnecessary1 discordant1 the reverse of natural1 and alike the consequence and the cause of prosodic error4 ,with regard to hiatus 7i4e4 the actual contact of vowels7 it has to be fully admitted that there is a strong tendency in ,,mss4 to sink one of them and to write not merely tharray for the array1 but even in thalyghte for in thee alyghte4 ,the habit continued for a long time1 and we find even in ,wyatt and ,surrey tembrace for to embrace and so forth4 ,but it is important to observe first that this habit is not constant1 as we should expect it to be if it represented a definite and reasoned wish always to reduce two such syllables to one2 and further1 that it will not affect the other cases of syllables1 such as the last of ,heaven 7which1 however1 pretty certainly was monosyllabic at this time and later71 ever the -eth of the third person singular and plural1 y in many a1 i- in scores of words1 and the like4 ,to the present writer1 once more1 it is certain1 and even indisputable1 that whether ,chaucer deliberately used trisyllabic feet or not1 there are trisyllabic feet by nature and poetic right in ,chaucer1 for any one who chooses them4 ,and he is of opinion1 though not so strongly1 that ,chaucer allowed himself an occasional ,alexandrine or twelve-syllabled line1#gb just as preceding writers had allowed themselves occasional ten-syllabled lines in octosyllabics4 ,what is once more certain1 and almost indisputable1 is that his lines can be so scanned with euphonious effect1 and that similar phenomena manifest themselves all the way up to his time4 ,of his rhymes nothing necessarily need be said here4 ,he often avails himself for rhyme1 as well as for rhythm1 of the choice between ,teutonic and ,romance accent--the former always seeking the beginning of the word1 the latter generally the end4 ,this was hardly even a licence at his period4 ,one much-vexed point it is1 however1 impossible to omit1 though far more1 in every sense1 has been made of it than it is worth4 ,it occurred many years ago to a distinguished scholar1 the late ,mr4 ,bradshaw of ,cambridge1 to make a test out of the rhyme of y and ye1 which1 he thought 7despite a famous example in ,sir ,thopas#gc71 never occurs in the work unquestionably ,chaucer's4 ,to the present writer the occurrence of the rhyme in ,sir ,thopas closes the question1 and he would have much to say against the establishment of the test1 even if ,sir ,thopas were acknowledged as not ,chaucerian4 ,but from the strict point of view of this book the whole thing is really irrelevant4 ,it does not matter to us who wrote certain pieces of ,english poetry1 but what the characteristics of those and other pieces of ,english poetry are4 ,the student of prosody may and should note that in some pieces of this period the rhyme of y and ye certainly does occur1 that in others it apparently does not2 but beyond this he need not1 and1 as a student of prosody1 should not1 go4 ,,footnotes3 #di ,running illustrations of the following chapters will be found in the preceding ,scanned ,conspectus1 but additional ones will be supplied in notes when necessary4 ,it may not be superfluous to call the student's special attention to this chapter4 ,all correct appreciation of ,english prosody depends upon the facts contained in it2 and while the ignoring or mistaking of these facts is fatal1 it has unfortunately been too common4 #ej ,werig winneth3 widsith onginneth ,sar ne sinneth3 sorgum cinnith ,bld his blumith3 blisse linnath ,listum linneth3 lastum ne linneth4 #ea ,v4 sup4 ,scanned ,survey ,,ii4 #eb ,v4 sup4 ,scanned ,survey ,,iii4 #ec ,merie sungen the muneches binnen ,ely ,tha ,cnut ching rew therby4 ,roweth cnihtes neer the land ,and here we thes muneches sang4 #ed ,vre feder thet in heouene is1 ,that is al soothful iwis4 ,wee moten to theos weordes iseon ,thet to liue and to saule gode beon4 ,thet weo beon swa his sunes iborene ,thet he beo feder and we him icorene ,thet we don alle his ibeden ,and his wille for to reden4 #ee ,in doubling the consonant after a short vowel-sound4 #ef ,examples of all this will be found in the ,scanned ,survey and in the ,glossaries and ,form-lists of ,book ,,iv4 #eg ,for more on all this see ,scanned ,conspectus and next ,book4 #eh ,thus queth ,alured4 ,wis childe is fader blisse4 ,if hit so bi-tideth that thu bern ibidest1 the hwile hit is lutel ler him mon-thewes than hit is wexynde2 hit schal wende thar to4 the betere hit schal iwurthe euer buuen eorthe1 ac if thu him lest welde werende on worlde lude and stille his owene wille4 ,mon that wol of wysdam heren1 ,at wyse ,hendyng he may lernen1 ,that wes ,marcolues sone2 ,gode thonkes and monie thewes ,forte teche fele shrewes2 ,for that wes ever is wone4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,wis mon halt is wordes ynne1 ,for he nul no gle begynne ,er he have tempted is pype4 ,sot is sot1 and that is sene1 ,for he wol speke wordes grene ,er then hue buen rype1 ,sottes bolt is sone shote1 ,quoth ,hendyng4 #ei ,latin4 ,nam leo stans fortis super alta cacumina montis1 ,qualicunque via vallis descendit ad ima1 ,si venatorem per notum sentit odorem1 ,cauda cuncta linit quae pes vestigia figit4 ,french4 ,uncore dit ,escripture ,leuns ad tele nature1 ,quant l'om le vait chazant1 ,de sa cue en fuiant ,desfait sa trace en terre1 ,que hom ne l' sace querre2 ,ceo est grant signefiance1 ,aiez en remembrance4 ,english4 ,the leun stant on hille1 ,and he man hunten here1 ,other thurg his nese smel ,smake that he negge1 ,bi wile weie so he wile ,to dele nither wenden1 ,alle hise fet-steppes ,after him he filleth1 ,drageth dust with his stert ,ther he dun steppeth1 ,other dust other deu1 ,that he ne cunne is finden1 ,driueth dun to his den ,thar he him bergen wille4 #fj ,all is man so is this erne eagle1 ,would ye now listen1 ,old in his sinnes derne dark1 ,or he becometh ,christen4 ,the spelling is designedly modernised1 but very slightly4 #fa ,maid here thou mightst behold ,this worlds love is but o res a race1 ,and is beset so fele-vold manifoldly1 ,fickle and frackle frail and wok and les weak and false4 #fb ,under mould they lieth plural cold ,and falloweth groweth yellow as doth meadow grass4 #fc ,it is sometimes asked by persons who should know better1 ,what has ,english prosody to do with these mostly un-,english things8 ,the answer is simple--that these un-,english things went largely1 and essentially1 to the making of ,english prosody4 #fd ,the poem commonly reputed as the oldest in ,french1 ,st4 ,eulalia1 is in something very like it1 but was not followed up4 #fe ,,ms4 ,harl4 #bbec4 ,published by ,thomas ,wright for the ,percy ,society 7,london1 #ahdg7 as ,specimens of ,lyric ,poetry4 #ff ,the rhyme-royal decasyllables of the ,supplication1 or ,letter to ,venus and ,cupid1 at the close of the ,confessio1 and of the poem ,in ,praise of ,peace4 #fg ,in the disputed ,romance of the ,rose1 and the undisputed ,death of ,blanche1 and the somewhat later ,house of ,fame4 #fh ,the ,parliament of ,fowls1 ,troilus and ,criseyde1 etc4 #fi ,first in the ,legend of ,good ,women and then in the ,canterbury ,tales4 #gj ,these words are written1 not merely on general principles1 but from long and extensive knowledge of ,french fourteenth-century poetry4 #ga ,such as the well-known ,twenty boks clad in black or red of the ,oxford clerk4 #gb ,westward right swich1 another in the opposite4 7,knight's ,tale1 #ajcf47 ,and said1 ,o deere housbonde1 benedicitee6 7,wife of ,bath's ,tale1 #bca47 ,doth so his cerimonies and obeisaunces1 ,and kepeth in semblant all his observaunces4 7,squire's ,tale1 #eae1 #eaf47 #gc ,sir ,guy1 which cannot have an e1 and chivalrye1 which must have one4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,from ,,chaucer ,,to ,,spenser--,,disorganisation ,,and ,,reconstruction ,sidenote3 ,causes of decay in ,southern ,english prosody4 ,it might be supposed1 especially in face of the unquestionable reputation which ,chaucer had attained before his death--and which he maintained undisturbed1 and hardly approached1 for the entire period until ,spenser's birth1--that his prosodic work1 once done1 would have been done once for all2 that in points of form1 though individual inferiority of poetic gift might show itself1 there could be no great technical falling off4 ,to think this1 however1 would be to ignore--as1 in fact1 men too usually do ignore1 and have ignored--the necessary and intricate connection between language and prosody4 ,chaucer had raised the state of ,english versification to the highest point possible in his time2 in fact1 there are reasons for saying that he had screwed it up beyond the level possible to ordinary men4 ,to mention nothing else1 the exactness1 and at the same time the rhythmical variety of his verse1 depend on two special points--the valuing of the final e and the optional but carefully selected shift from ,french to ,english accentuation4#gd ,we know that1 even in the mouths and on the pens of his own contemporaries1 the e was breaking down1 and that it went more and more during the fifteenth century2 and we know likewise1 though less certainly1 that though1 even at the close of the period with which we are dealing1 ,french accentuation was still permissible to poets1 an ,english standard was gradually establishing itself1 violation of which was disapproved4#ge ,moreover1 the fact remains undeniable that the poetic quality of the followers of ,chaucer1 in ,southern ,english of the literary kind1 was low to a point unprecedented1 and never yet again reached since4 ,the progress of prosody between ,chaucer and ,spenser divides itself1 sharply but unequally in point of time1 between a longer space 7about a century and a quarter7 from ,chaucer to poets like ,hawes1 ,skelton1 and ,barclay2 a shorter 7of about half a century or less7 from ,wyatt to ,spenser4 ,in the first division a subdivision--of matter1 not time--has to be made between the literary poets in ,southern ,english1 the ,scottish ,chaucerians from ,james the ,first to ,douglas or ,lyndsay 7if not even to ,montgomerie1 who died later than ,spenser himself71 and the ballad1 carol1 and other folk-song writers of the fifteenth century4 ,sidenote3 ,lydgate1 ,occleve1 etc4 ,the history of the first division is the history of the breakdown just referred to4 ,except in the so-called ,chauceriana--pieces such as ,the ,cuckoo and the ,nightingale1 ,the ,flower and the ,leaf1 ,the ,court of ,love1 etc41 once attributed to ,chaucer himself1 but cast out on various kinds of evidence ranging from practically conclusive to very doubtful--and sometimes even in such poets as ,lydgate and ,occleve1 who for no very small portion of their lives were ,chaucer's own contemporaries1 downwards1 seem to be struck with metrical palsy or metrical blindness4 ,examples1 given in the ,scanned ,conspectus above1 will show the way in which they confuse different metres1 vary the lengths of their lines not by intentional substitution but by sheer muddlement1 violate rhythm and cadence--turn1 in fact1 the perfect harmony of their master into a cacophony which is not even prosaic4 ,sometimes1 especially in ,occleve1 by rigid counting of syllables1 they escape worse blunders1 though they seldom make real music4 ,generally1 even this resource fails them1 and there is no worse chaos than in ,hawes1 one of the latest and not one of the least of them2 while ,skelton1 perhaps the acutest intelligence of all1 takes refuge in frank1 not clumsy1 and intentional doggerel4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,scottish poets4 ,to this spectacle of disorganisation and decay the ,scottish followers of ,chaucer 7who1 generally with acknowledgment as eager and hearty as that of their ,english comrades1 take him for their master7 present what may at first sight seem an astonishing and almost unintelligible contrast4 ,with final e's allowed for 7or in case of necessity touched in71 the ,kingis ,quair1 traditionally ascribed1 and never with solid reason denied1 to ,james the ,first1 is a piece of rhyme-royal as soundly constructed1 and as well fitted and polished1 as if it were ,chaucer's own4 ,henryson1 in his following of ,chaucer's ,troilus1 and in his other poems1 never breaks down in metre1 but handles every form that he touches with equal precision and charm4 ,even more may be said of ,dunbar1 whose lyrics possess the peculiar grace only given by metrical accomplishment1 who can manage alliterative metre more smoothly than ,langland and with not less vigour1 and who1 if he wrote the ,friars of ,berwick1 is1 next to ,chaucer himself1 the greatest master of the early 7,middle ,english7 heroic couplet4 ,of the verse-chroniclers1 ,wyntoun1 though not very poetical1 uses octosyllabic couplet1 with not infrequent equivalence1 effectively enough1 and ,blind ,harry writes very strict decasyllabic couplet with csura at the fourth syllable1 after the ,french model4 ,the earlier sixteenth-century writers1 ,douglas and ,lyndsay1 if not perhaps quite impeccable1 appear so beside ,hawes and his fellows2 while the two latest strictly ,scots poets1 ,scott and ,montgomerie1 manage most complicated measures--reminding us of early ,french and ,provenal1 or of those of the ,english fourteenth century in lyric and drama--with unerring accuracy and finished grace4 ,of this strange contrast the simple fact of writing in a different dialect1 requiring more care in imitation1 may supply some explanation2 the other fact1 that this dialect was rather a literary convention than a vernacular speech1 some more2 and the higher quality of individual genius1 more still2 but a margin of surprise remains4 ,sidenote3 ,ballad1 etc4 ,it is difficult to say whether that margin is reduced or widened by the fact that a contrast1 almost as striking1 is found between the ,english literary poetry of the period and the folk-song1 sacred and profane4 ,it is probable that the bulk of our older ballads date from the earliest fifteenth century or the very close of the fourteenth4 ,the latter would seem to be true of the ,robin ,hood ballads2 the former is pretty certainly true of ,chevy ,chase4 ,we have also from the fifteenth century a large body of carols1 or sacred poems for singing4 ,now in these1 though they naturally vary much in poetic merit and in prosodic accomplishment1 it is remarkable that this latter scarcely ever falls to the level of the worst literary poetry1 and never falls in exactly the same way4 ,the ballad-writers invariably1 and the carol- and hymn-writers very commonly1 preserve the ,english licence of equivalence in the fullest fashion2 and this seems to relieve their motion of the staggering and fatal cramp which rests on their superiors in formal literary rank4 ,they sing naturally3 they do not aim at1 and break down in1 a falsetto4 ,although it would be impossible to have anything in a worse condition1 as far as copying goes1 than our oldest version of ,chevy ,chase1 its natural ballad motion carries it safe through all the corruptions and defacements2 the sacred song of ,e4,i4,o4 is admirable metre2 the ,carol of the ,virgin1 ,i sing of a maiden1 is matchless in quiet metrical movement2 and the famous ,nut-brown ,maid1 which is certainly not later than this century1 deserves the same praise in more rapid melody4 ,these compositions1 however1 though they did a precious office in preserving the true principles of ,english prosody1 could not exercise immediate influence2 and the disorganising of literary versification was no doubt partly cause and partly consequence of the continuance of the alliterative revolt which did not die till after ,flodden--indeed1 not till after ,musselburgh 7,pinkie74 ,but1 indirectly1 this revolt encouraged fresh developments of ,english metre itself4 ,the old fourteener had taken new and lively form in such pieces as ,gamelyn#gf 7late fourteenth century7 and ,beryn 7middle fifteenth71 and through it and other things--the musical adaptations of songs and hymns and the like--there was arising1 in dramatic literature especially1 a disorderly1 imperfect1 but very important notion of wholly triple-timed or anapstic metre4 ,in fact1 it is not excessive to regard the ,english fifteenth century as a period when all elements of prosody were thrown into a sort of cauldron1 sack1 sieve1 or lucky-bag1 in which1 as according to the different metaphors suiting these objects1 they were to be boiled down1 shaken together1 sifted out1 and taken as fortune would have it1 to supply the stock of a new venture in more orderly and polished verse-manufacture when actual speech had settled itself once more4 ,sidenote3 ,dissatisfaction and reform4 ,at what period1 in what manner1 and by what persons exactly1 conscious discontent with this confusion and dilapidation was made manifest1 is not known4 ,that it was felt consciously about the middle of the sixteenth century we do know positively from a passage in the ,mirror for ,magistrates2 and later still we find the precepts of ,gascoigne virtually1 if not always expressly1 directed against it4 ,but1 as has been hinted1 even ,skeltonic evinces an earlier attempt to escape from it in practice as far back as the first quarter of the century2 while1 at an uncertain time for first efforts1 during the second1 and then ever increasingly during the third1 till the death of ,gascoigne himself1 poetical practice proclaims the fact1 even more emphatically than any preceptist rules of criticism could do4 ,indeed1 there has hardly ever been any mistake1 and it is difficult to think that by persons possessed of ears and eyes any could be made1 about the surprising revolution manifest in the verse of ,sir ,thomas ,wyatt1 and of his younger disciple1 ,henry ,howard1 known by his courtesy title as the ,earl of ,surrey4 ,instead of the weltering and staggering discords of the poets from ,lydgate onward1 we come back to verse almost as clear1 regular1 and harmonious as ,chaucer's1 though with a much more modern pronunciation and accent1 to which it occasionally seems to have some difficulty in reconciling itself4 ,the final e has in most cases disappeared1 though it is probably there in a few cases1 and in a few others has settled itself into y4#gg ,the inordinate variety of syllables in the line1 not explicable by any trisyllabic foot1 is reformed4 ,indeed1 the need of the reform is so strongly felt that the poets run into the opposite error--salutary for the time--of excessive syllabic uniformity4 ,sidenote3 ,wyatt and ,surrey4 ,there can be no question that ,wyatt1 and1 through or after him1 ,surrey1 were enormously helped1 if not originally stimulated to reform1 by the existence of new1 exact1 and attractive foreign models derived1 at any rate originally1 from a new language4 ,french had hitherto been almost the only source of such models1 and it had lost its virtue--not least perhaps because ballades and other formal devices1 though excellent in themselves1 had been practised all through the period of disorganisation4 ,italian supplied1 in the sonnet1 terza rima1 and blank verse1 fresh models1 in the attempt to imitate which precision of syllabic and rhythmical arrangement almost inevitably enjoined itself4 ,to write either sonnet or terza in shuffling doggerel would destroy the particular form2 to write blank verse in such a way 7as was actually shown a hundred years afterward by the later ,elizabethan dramatists7 is to lose all form2 so that the instinct of preservation kept the new experimenters right4 ,precisely why they adopted another form which is not ,italian at all--the poulter's measure of alternate ,alexandrine and fourteener--is not so easy to decide2 but it may very reasonably be taken to be an attempt to regularise two of the shapes to which the doggerel of the time and its predecessor most nearly approximated4 ,it is not a very good form 7though when it splits up into short measure it has some merits71 and even in the hands of two such poets as ,wyatt and ,surrey it is terribly sing-song4 ,but this very sing-song carried regularity with it4 ,of the imported measures terza has never suited ,english very well1 though numerous attempts have been made at it by poets sometimes of supreme quality4 ,on the other hand1 the sonnet--not the commonest ,italian form at first1 but that also later--has made itself thoroughly at home2 and blank verse--not much more of a success in ,italian itself than terza in ,english--has1 in ,english1 grown to be one of the greatest metres in the world's prosodic history4 ,it should be at once seen that these processes of reform involved an almost inevitable--a certainly very natural--drawing-in of the horns of verse1 which was positively beneficial in practice1 but which led to rather disastrous mistakes in theory4 ,on the one hand1 so far as ,italian admits of foot-distribution1 it is distributable only into dissyllabic feet in the metres affected4#gh ,on the other1 the utter disorganisation of ,english verse which had prevailed might well seem to have been caused by the neglect to observe accurate division into such feet--a division which1 in our language1 will always chiefly favour the iamb1 or foot with the first syllable short and the second long4 ,accordingly we find that in ,wyatt and ,surrey themselves2 in their companions when 7long after the death of the first1 and nearly a decade after that of the second7 their work came to be published in ,tottel's ,miscellany2 in the huge rubbish-heap of the ,mirror for ,magistrates with its one pearl of price in ,sackville's contributions2 and in the poets of the third quarter of the sixteenth century--,george ,turberville and ,gascoigne himself--this iambic rhythm is omnipresent1 though the line-length and other combinations may be largely variable4 ,there is1 it is true1 one remarkable exception in the ,georgic poet ,tusser1 who uses frequent and accurate anapst2 but the nature of his subject1 the homeliness of his diction1 and the character of his intended readers1 may have been thought to put him out of strictly poetical consideration4 ,when ,gascoigne--merely as narrating and regretting a fact1 not announcing1 as some have erroneously thought1 a principle--stated the limitation1 his fact was for the most part a fact1 and had been so for more than a generation4 ,sidenote3 ,their followers4 ,it would1 however1 be a gross mistake in criticism1 as well as a piece of unpardonable ingratitude1 to find fault with these poets for their prosodic limitation4 ,it was their business to limit and be limited--to substitute1 at whatever cost of temporary restriction of freedom1 order for the abominable disorder of the preceding century1 rhythm for its limping or staggering movement1 harmonious and well-concerted metrical arrangement for its hubbub of halting verse or scarcely more than even half-doggerelised prose4 ,and they did this4 ,when1 as in the cases of ,wyatt1 ,surrey1 and ,sackville1 they were men of real and genuine poetic gift they did much more2 though the two first were still hampered by the uncertainty of pronunciation4 ,from this ,sackville is comparatively free2 though the deliberate archaism in him no doubt assists this freedom1 and may have suggested something similar to ,spenser4 ,even ,turberville and ,gascoigne1 though their strictly poetic powers are less1 manage to produce1 by no means seldom1 sweet and harmonious measures4 ,and all do the inestimable work of drilling1 regimenting1 and preparing the raw and demoralised state of ,english prosody so that it may be ready to the hands of a real master and commander4 ,sidenote3 ,spenser4 ,such a master and commander duly presented himself in ,spenser4 ,naturally enough--and even commendably enough on the principle of proving all things and holding fast that which is good--he spent a little time on classical versing2 only to give it up so completely that 7as is not the case with his friend ,sidney7 no single example of it1 or of any approach to it1 occurs in his actual poetical works4 ,he must have spent much more on experiments in ,english verse proper1 before the ever-famous and admirable ,shepherd's ,calendar appeared in the winter of #aegi-hj4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,shepherd's ,calendar4 ,for poetical excellence1 combined with prosodic regularity1 there had been nothing like this since ,chaucer2 for poetical excellence combined with prosodic variety it may be questioned whether ,chaucer himself--his whole work being set against this novice's essay--can show anything equal4 ,spenser had not yet ventured to publish 7though it is more than probable that he had sketched it out#gi7 his immortal stanza1 and he did not issue till later any exact and complete followings of ,chaucer's riding rhyme4 ,but he uses 7the exact order is for special reasons not followed7 a very fine six-line stanza 7decasyllables rhymed ababcc72 slightly altered ,romance-six with fresh substitution and redundance in the short lines2 various stanzas much cuttit and broken 7i4e4 of very varied line-length and rhyme-order72 the ,chaucerian octave2 common ballad measure2 and another metre1 much discussed and not universally agreed upon1 but1 on the more probable interpretation of it1 one of the most interesting in the whole history of ,english poetry4 ,this arrangement1 which is found in the ,february1 ,may1 and ,september pieces1 but most characteristically in the part of ,february devoted to the tale of ,the ,oak and the ,brere 7,briar71 has been thought by some to be evidence that ,spenser misunderstood ,chaucer's riding rhyme owing to the disuse of the final valued e and other changes1 these pieces presenting the result of the misconception4 ,unfortunately for this notion1 the pieces themselves contain large numbers of consecutive decasyllabics perfectly well filled and rhythmed2 while ,spenser later wrote another piece1 ,mother ,hubberd's ,tale1 which is in impeccable riding rhyme from first to last4 ,he is also1 not merely in his later work1 but in the other nine-twelfths of the ,calendar itself1 an equally impeccable master of every rhythm and metre that he tries1 so that it is practically inconceivable that he should here have been stumbling blindfold1 or wandering aimlessly1 between perfect decasyllabic couplets1 perfect octosyllabic couplets1 and doggerel anapstic lines inconsistent with both4 ,on the other hand1 there had been in ,english1 as we have seen1 from ,genesis and ,exodus downwards1 a variety of octosyllabic couplet which had admitted anapstic equivalence freely1 which reappeared in the ,romances1 and which1 though not favoured by ,chaucer or ,gower or their immediate followers1 had persevered in various places down to ,spenser's own time4 ,it seems to the present writer1 as it did to ,gray a hundred and fifty years ago1 and has to many others since ,christabel1 though ,coleridge himself strangely did not notice it1 that ,spenser here followed his elders1 and anticipated ,coleridge himself1 in choosing equivalenced octosyllable to vary his non-equivalenced decasyllable4 ,and on this theory we have in ,genesis and ,exodus1 the ,shepherd's ,calendar1 and ,christabel1 the three main piers of a great bridge which unites the earliest and the latest ages of ,english prosody1 and which carries that prosody's most vital and differential principle4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,faerie ,queene4 ,the result1 however1 of ,spenser's experiments was that1 for his chief poem the ,faerie ,queene1 he chose none of the metres in which he had thus experimented1 nor any which had been previously employed by poets1 ,english or other1 but invented 7the possible stages of the invention being given elsewhere7 the magnificent ,spenserian stanza of eight decasyllables and an ,alexandrine4 ,with this he got more room than in either rhyme-royal or the octave--an unsurpassed medium for the individual descriptive effects in which he delighted1 and yet one which could combine itself 7for the purpose of larger description or of narrative7 into most attractive sequence4 ,he did not1 however1 confine himself to this in his later poems1 but showed himself a master1 not merely of the octave in both its forms and of the couplet1 but also of two extensive verse combinations more elaborate than the ,spenserian itself1 but less original1 and both really suggested1 as the ,spenserian was not1 by ,italian4 ,the first was the sonnet1 which1 after the successors of ,wyatt and ,surrey had been apparently afraid to venture on it1 had been taken up by ,sidney and ,watson probably about the same time that he was himself at work upon his ,calendar1 and in which he did very beautiful things4 ,the other was the still more extensive and complicated arrangement1 suggested no doubt by the ,italian canzone1 which he employed in the ,epithalamion and ,prothalamion--stanzas of unequal line-length and intertwisted rhyme-order which sometimes extend to a score of lines or thereabouts4 ,spenser did not1 after the ,shepherd's ,calendar1 attempt the lighter kind of lyric1 nor anything in trisyllabic measures2 while he seems distinctly to eschew trisyllabic substitution in others1 though it appears sometimes4 ,but this was1 in fact1 a condition of his completing1 and informing with full poetic spirit1 the prosodic reform of the second and third quarters of the century4 ,he left ,english poetry once more provided--and indeed had furnished it long before his too early death--with a perfect form of verse1 and with a nearly perfect form of poetic diction4 ,this diction1 which was almost as much his own work as his stanza1 was at the time1 and has been since1 much misunderstood4 ,ben ,jonson called it no language--an insidious proposition which1 under the truth that it is no language that was at the time1 had been before1 or has since been the living speech of any person or group1 conveys the falsehood that it is therefore unfit for poetry4 ,it is probable that ,chaucer's was1 though slightly mixed1 much nearer the actual language of his own time1 and for that very reason it grew obsolete1 and1 until it was studied from the antiquarian point of view1 carried the verse with it4 ,spenser's blend of actuality1 archaism1 dialect1 borrowings from ,french and ,italian1 and the like1 provided a literary medium which1 though parts of it too have become antiquated1 has as a whole provided patterns for all subsequent poets4 ,the most disputable of his devices1 though it has a certain quaint charm of its own1 is what is called his eye-rhyme--a system of altering the spelling of some words so that they may not only sound alike on the voice but look alike on the page4 ,,footnotes3 #gd ,these are certain and incontestable4 ,the present writer would add the sprinkling of trisyllabic feet1 ,alexandrines1 etc4--even more difficult for clumsy followers to imitate successfully4 #ge ,as by ,gascoigne 7v4 inf474 #gf ,litheth and lesteneth and herkeneth aright1 ,and ye schulle here a talking of a doughty knight2 ,sire ,johan of ,boundys was his righte name1 ,he cowde of norture enough and mochil of game4 ,thre sones the knight hadde that with his body he wan2 ,the eldest was a moche shrewe and sone he bigan4 ,his bretheren loved wel here fader and of him were agast1 ,the eldest deserved his father's curse and had it at the last4 ,the goode knight his fader livede so yore1 ,that deth was comen him to and handled him full sore4 ,the goode knight cared sore syk ther he lay1 ,how his children scholde liven after his day4 ,he hadde ben wyde-wher but no housband he was1 ,al the lond that he hadde it was verrey purchas4 ,fayn he wolde it were dressed among hem alle1 ,that ech of hem hadde his part as it might falle4 7,gamelyn1 #a-af47 7,here l4 #h1 with the almost certain crasis of theldest1 is a pure iambic fourteener4 ,elsewhere there are monosyllabic beginnings1 contractions of whole or half feet1 and great apparent irregularity1 but at the same time nearer and nearer approach to the anapstic dimeter1 which was to become so popular47 #gg ,i4e4 forms like hugy 7,sackville71 bleaky 7,dryden71 and paly 7,coleridge74 ,these forms somehow identified themselves with the artificial poetic diction of the eighteenth century1 and have1 since the early part of the nineteenth1 been rather eschewed by poets4 #gh ,or1 rather1 as any one may see from different editions of ,dante1 the trisyllables which do occur are almost always capable of being slurred up4 #gi ,the scheme of the ,faerie ,queene was sent to ,harvey soon afterwards4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,from ,,shakespeare ,,to ,,milton--,,the ,,close ,,of ,,the ,,formative ,,period ,the high and 7it is believed7 thoroughly well-deserved praise bestowed upon ,spenser at the close of the last chapter must not lead the student to suppose that ,spenser worked alone1 that he was the sole restorer and perfecter of ,english prosody at this time1 or even that his work included all that was necessary or desirable4 ,that work1 as has been pointed out1 tended towards the complete restoration of regular and at the same time thoroughly musical and spirited verse1 but it kept--except in the early experiments of the ,shepherd's ,calendar--to the regular side1 avoiding much trisyllabic substitution as well as triple time generally1 and eschewing1 likewise1 strictly lyrical movements save of the stateliest kind1 very much broken and cuttit#hj verse1 and the like4 ,as regards pure triple or anapstic measures1 no great advance was made until nearly the close of this present period1 though a few isolated attempts can be quoted4 ,but the principle of trisyllabic substitution was secured1 once for all1 by the development of blank verse1 and the variation of lyric was fully maintained by the practice of a hundred poets1 from the contributors1 sometimes quite obscure1 to the ,miscellanies which came later than ,tottel1 through ,sidney and others of the first great ,elizabethan division1 through ,drayton and many more of the second1 down to the famous group of ,caroline1 ,cavalier1 or metaphysical poets who were contemporary with ,milton4 ,sidenote3 ,blank verse4 ,and first of blank verse4 ,sidenote3 ,before ,shakespeare4 ,the earliest examples of this great metre in ,surrey were1 naturally enough1 very exact in syllabic length and somewhat monotonous in arrangement and effect4 ,deprived of the warning bell of rhyme1 and having nothing but the structure of the verse itself to rely upon1 the poet was almost inevitably tempted to make very sure of that structure by moulding it singly1 and ensuring a distinct stop at the close4 ,this rather aggravates than relieves itself in the satiric blank verse of ,gascoigne 7,the ,steel ,glass7 and the dramatic blank verse of ,sackville and ,norton 7,gorboduc72 while when the immediate predecessors of ,shakespeare1 called the ,university ,wits 7,marlowe1 ,peele1 ,greene1 and the rest71 took up the vehicle for general theatrical practice1 they never completely got clear of the same fashion--which ,shakespeare himself adopted in his earliest attempts4 ,admiration1 just in itself1 for ,marlowe has made some try to discover in him1 and perhaps also in ,peele 7where there is really a little more of it71 the trisyllabic substitution1 the variation of pause1 and the overrunning of sense and rhythm from line to line1 which are necessary to break up this single-mouldedness4 ,but1 except as to a very few passages where actual passion melts the ice1 they deceive themselves4 ,in the couplet 7v4 inf47 ,marlowe did arrive at enjambment2 in blank verse1 hardly ever4 ,the beauty of such verse as his in the more majestic1 as ,peele's in the sweeter kind1 can hardly be exaggerated1 but neither has yet got complete command of all means of achieving beauty4 ,the three chief means which they1 on the whole1 missed1 and over which ,shakespeare 7profiting by their advance as far as they made it7 gradually gained the mastery1 have been indicated as the overrunning of the line1 the variation of the pause1 and1 above all1 the employment of trisyllabic feet4 ,we can see ,shakespeare step by step attaining these1 as well as the more doubtful and dangerous redundant syllable1 which in his last stage he rather abused1 and which ,beaumont and ,fletcher and later dramatists were to abuse still more4 ,all these means1 but especially the three first 7for redundance is compatible with single-mouldedness71 break up the single-moulded line1 and substitute for it 7except in cases where it is specially wanted7 the verse-clauses and verse-paragraphs1 which it is the glory of ,shakespeare to have perfected4 ,sidenote3 ,in him1 ,in his certainly earliest plays--,the ,comedy of ,errors1 ,titus ,andronicus1 ,the ,two ,gentlemen of ,verona1 ,love's ,labour's ,lost to some extent--single-mouldedness still appears strongly4 ,but there are exceptions even in them2 and these exceptions gradually pervade1 mellow1 and diversify the prosodic composition1 till it attains the perfect accomplishment of ,as ,you ,like ,it and ,hamlet4 ,yet a fifth peculiarity and innovation--the lengthening and shortening of lines--though it may have originally been a mere easement or liberty1 and is often much abused by other dramatists1 becomes in ,shakespeare's hands a fresh instrument of concerted music--the frequent regular ,alexandrines relieving the decasyllable by direct contrast1 and fragments being generally 7v4 sup47 so arranged as to give genuine fractions of the normal scansion itself4 ,sidenote3 and after him in drama4 ,practically all the secrets and all the accomplishments shown--perhaps all the accomplishments possible--at this period are to be found in ,shakespeare4 ,the differences of the other dramatists are rather rhetorical than strictly prosodic2 and the efforts sometimes made to construct special prosodies for them are mostly lost labour4 ,beaumont and ,fletcher 7who seem1 from uncertain but pretty strong evidence1 to have actually collaborated with ,shakespeare in the ,two ,noble ,kinsmen7 develop his latest mood--that where1 as in ,cymbeline1 ,the ,winter's ,tale1 and ,the ,tempest1 there is much redundance4#ha ,they carried it much further than he did1 and undoubtedly too far2 though the great poetical power which both possessed saved them4 ,on the other hand1 ,ben ,jonson1 all whose tastes were classical 7i4e4 in favour of restriction and order71 adopted a rather hard and limited1 though rhetorically fine1 fashion of blank verse4 ,on the others it would be unprofitable to enlarge much here4 ,massinger is perhaps interesting as working with the most obviously literary eye on his predecessors--a tendency which is continued in ,shirley4 ,but in the latter there is some1 if not much1 of a special degeneration which by ,shirley's own later days had nearly destroyed dramatic blank verse itself1 and which was only arrested by the substitution for it of the heroic couplet1 as used in the plays called by the same name4 ,sidenote3 ,its degeneration4 ,this degeneration1 which is most evident in ,davenant and ,suckling1 but which appears to some1 though not to a great extent1 in ,shirley1 and in most others of the play-writers up to the closing of the theatres1 should be carefully compared with the initial stage of the measure in ,english4 ,then1 as we saw1 the absence of the guiding and preserving influence of rhyme made writers especially and excessively careful of exact syllabisation1 of punctilious though monotonous rhythm1 and of meticulous separation of one line from another4 ,so also we have seen that1 in the second or great period1 the restrictions were loosened--that ,shakespeare1 preserving perfect metrical harmony1 substituted an ordered licence for them all4 ,but even he perhaps a little latterly1 and his followers ,beaumont and ,fletcher much more1 exceeded in the redundant syllable4 ,the third generation1 though including1 as in the three cases specially mentioned above1 men of no small poetic talent1 made the common1 the apparently inevitable1 but the disastrous mistake of considering beauty not merely as directly connected with apparent irregularity1 but as to be secured by irregularity itself4 ,much of their blank verse is extremely blank1 but not verse at all2 nor yet prose1 but an awkward hybrid4 ,not a little is prose pure and simple4 ,it is scarcely surprising that1 after the ,restoration1 the metre should have been regarded as too mean even for a copy of verses1 and discarded1 for more than a few years1 in drama itself4 ,except the broken-down rhyme-royal of the fifteenth century 7to which it bears a striking resemblance without the excuse there available7 there is no more really disgraceful department of ,english poetry4 ,sidenote3 ,milton's reform of it4 ,at the very time1 however1 when this disorganisation of dramatic blank verse was at its worst1 and when it had as yet only been used on the rarest occasions for any other purpose1 its great restorer began1 though he did not for a long time continue1 the process of restoration4 ,sidenote3 ,comus4 ,milton's ,comus 7#afcd7 exhibits him as a student1 and consequently an imitator1 of all the three preceding schools1 excepting the contemporary degradation1 which was impossible to such a born master of harmony4 ,he has now caught1 and often directly reproduces1 the single-moulded line of ,marlowe2 and1 on the other hand1 he is almost equally inclined to the excessively redundanced endings of ,beaumont and ,fletcher1 even to the extent of frequently making the last foot an anapst4#hb ,yet he not seldom closely approaches ,shakespeare himself in the varied modulation1 without excessive laxity1 of his lines1 and in the weaving of them1 through overlapping1 presence1 absence and shifting of pause1 and the like1 into a verse paragraph4 ,he inserts ,alexandrines1 but does not use verse-fragments much4 ,and he begins a process--of which he was to be the greatest master--of adding to the colour1 and enhancing the form1 of lines by striking and important words1 especially proper names4 ,but fine as the blank verse of ,comus is1 it is1 when we compare it with the lyrical close of the piece itself1 evidently in the experimental stage4 ,and it does not show the complete and assured command which is visible in the octosyllables and mixed lyrics4 ,sidenote3 ,paradise ,lost4 ,when1 later1 he once more employed blank verse 7and this time blank verse only7 in ,paradise ,lost1#hc there was nothing of experiment left in it4 ,the system1 in whatever way it may be interpreted1 is quite obviously one which the poet has completely mastered1 and which he is using without the slightest doubt or difficulty4 ,it has given the pattern for all narrative1 in fact for all non-dramatic1 blank verse since2 it established1 though not quite at once1 the measure as one of the great staples for this general use2 and though there have been times at which it was not generally popular1 and persons by whom it was heartily disliked1 there has been a sort of general consensus1 sometimes grudging1 but oftener enthusiastic1 that it is one of the greatest achievements of ,english poetry4 ,it is therefore inevitable that the partisans of the various systems of that poetry on its formal side1 of which accounts were given in the beginning of this ,manual1 should all try to vindicate it for their own views4 ,attempts are still made 7though chiefly by foreigners who naturally cannot bring the necessary ear7 to reduce ,paradise ,lost to a strict decasyllabic arrangement1 no extra syllables being allowed at all4 ,this1 of course1 is merely hideous1 and involves numerous crass absurdities1 such as the reduction of1 so oft to soft4#hd ,sidenote3 ,analysis of its versification1 with application of different systems4 ,the accentualists1 as such1 are not driven to equal straits unless they choose2 indeed1 though accentual prosody can never give an adequate account of ,milton's verse1 there is no reason why it should not give a partially correct one4 ,if any one says that ,milton employs a verse of five accents--these usually occurring at the even places of a normal line1 but not infrequently varied in position1 sometimes separated by more than one unaccented syllable1 but usually by one only--he will give1 in his own language and with his own limitations1 a correct1 though scanty and jejune1 account of the thing4 ,he will1 however1 in most cases be found going on1 and entering upon very disputable matter4 ,he will notice licences1 and will1 in some cases1 be inclined to deplore1 or even denounce1 the variation of accent just noted4 ,he will also1 in most cases1 be found declining to accept the unaccented syllables as they stand--indeed he has no machinery ready for doing so without making them a disorderly crowd1--and will endeavour to dispose of them by some process of elision1 inventing extremely ingenious1 but mostly arbitrary and sometimes self-confessedly inadequate1 specifications of the employment of this4 ,if he is of the class of accentualists who prefer the term stress and its applications1 he will probably go much further still1 and allow1 or insist upon1 the widest variation in the number of stresses1 lines of five being indeed the average1 but four1 three1 and1 in some extreme cases1 even two1 being allowed4#he ,further intricate subdivisions will be found between believers in these theories who1 while ruling out syllables from scansion by an elaborate system of metrical fictions1 maintain that they are not to be dropped in pronunciation1 and others who1 as most people did unhesitatingly in the eighteenth century1 as many did in the earlier nineteenth1 and as a few boldly and consistently do still1 drop the pronunciation altogether1 spelling and pronouncing1 as well as scanning1 am'rous1 om'nous1 pop'lar1 del'cate1 and the like4 ,the foot system1 on the other hand1 as it always does1 accepts ,milton's verse exactly as it stands1 takes no kind of liberty with it1 and merely strives to discover its characteristics4 ,this system finds 7with the exception of a very few daring experiments1 no one of which can be called wrong in principle1 though there may be different opinions about the success of some of them in practice7 nothing different from the general laws of ,english verse1 as observed at all its best periods1 and as visible1 if only in the breach of them1 at all1 best and worst4 ,milton's normal line is a five-foot iambic3 ,but for these iambics he will substitute trochees or anapsts1 sometimes perhaps tribrachs1 very freely2 and his use of the trochee for this purpose is more lavish and more audacious than that of any other ,english poet1 so much so that he will allow two to follow each other at the opening of the line1 and frequently adopts a choriambic ending by placing one at the fourth foot4 ,on the other hand1 he seldom has the final anapst which we found in ,comus1 or perhaps the ,alexandrine1 though sometimes there are fractional lines4 ,by dint of these variations--of which the trisyllabic 7generally anapstic7 foot is the most frequent1 the most successful1 and1 despite objections1 the most certain--he attains great variety in his line1 which he increases and utilises1 for one great purpose1 by the same devices of pause1 diction1 etc41 formerly noticed in ,comus1 but in a more accomplished manner and to a higher degree4 ,the purpose is this1 that by these1 by equally elaborate and extraordinarily successful variation of the pause1 by devices of diction1 and by the use of brilliantly coloured and heavily weighted proper names and of others1 he may construct a verse-paragraph similar to that which ,shakespeare had already accomplished1 but without the special characteristics of spoken verse4 ,he altered his methods a little--though perhaps not so much as has been sometimes thought--in ,paradise ,regained1 and still more in ,samson ,agonistes1 where1 however1 the renewed dramatic intention has to be considered4 ,and1 on the whole1 especially when taken in combination with his master ,shakespeare1 he established not merely the freedom and order of blank verse itself1 but the whole principle of equivalent substitution in ,english prosody4 ,sidenote3 ,stanza1 etc41 in ,shakespeare1 ,but it was not in blank verse only that ,shakespeare and ,milton played1 in prosody1 almost more than the part which they played in poetry generally4 ,in their other work it is quite as true of them that1 from it1 all the principles of ,english versification could be derived by intelligent study4 ,shakespeare's early long poems1 ,venus and ,adonis and the ,rape of ,lucrece--the one in the six-line stanza1 the other in rhyme-royal--rank as the greatest stanza-verse of the last decade of the sixteenth century except ,spenser's2 while his ,sonnets are1 not merely for their poetic spirit1 the greatest in the ,english form1 exhibiting remarkable individuality in the arrangement of the three quatrains1 and an unmatched power of bringing the last couplet to bear suddenly1 with the utmost prosodic as well as poetic effect4 ,the largely shortened octosyllabic couplets1 scattered about his plays and among the smaller 7some of them technically doubtful7 poems1 show equal mastery of that form1 and have indeed inspired ,fletcher1 ,wither1 ,milton1 and all practitioners of it since4 ,but the songs in the plays are1 next to his blank verse1 his greatest prosodic triumph4 ,he has got in them all the contemporary variety and much more than the usual contemporary freedom1 so that such pieces as those in ,the ,tempest1#hf in ,much ,ado ,about ,nothing1 and in ,as ,you ,like ,it#hg might1 had they been attended to and understood1 have saved the early critics of ,tennyson and some other nineteenth-century poets from blunders about the irregularity1 discord1 un-,english character1 etc41 of their versification4 t sprtes1 th brthn bear4 ,hrk1 hrk6 ,bw-ww4 ,th wtch-dgs brk3 ,bw-ww4 ,p_/ 7,alternate trochaic and iambic rhythm capable of being made all iambic by starting with monosyllabic feet3 ,cme ,curt- ,fot etc4 ,monosyllabic equivalence in ,hark1 hark6 to ,the watch-dogs bark47 ,sidenote3 in ,milton1 ,except in this last respect 7for he does not much indulge in triple-timed measures71 ,milton's examples are as striking1 while they are more numerous4 ,in grave stanza of purely iambic cadence but varied line-length1 the ode on the ,nativity is unsurpassed in our poetry4 ,the octosyllabic couplets 7with catalexis7 of the ,arcades1 ,l',allegro1 and ,il ,penseroso1 and the already-mentioned latter part of ,comus1 stand at the head of their class4 ,lycidas1 which is written in lines mainly decasyllabic1 though sometimes of different length1 arranged 7except in the last stanza7 on no identical principle1 is a practically unique combination of rhyme and blank verse--the ends being sometimes left unrhymed1 but generally rhymed1 though on an apparently irregular system which never violates harmony1 but makes--first each paragraph and then the whole poem--a piece of concerted music1 a definite prosodic symphony or sonata4 ,and lastly1 the choruses of ,samson ,agonistes1 when he had returned to rhyme1 apply this system on more extensive principles#hh still1 occasionally attempting quite new measures1#hi and getting the utmost possible result out of large variation of line-length in the same or in mixed cadences4 ,some of the experiments are less successful than others1 and1 on the whole1 ,samson displays a harder style of verse than the earlier poems2 but it is equally important as exhibiting the true principles of ,english prosody4 ,indeed1 when ,milton had published it1 he may be said to have closed the formative period of our versification1 not in the sense that he had not left infinite things to be done1 but that he had1 after ,chaucer1 ,spenser1 and ,shakespeare1 almost completely indicated the principles of doing them4 ,sidenote3 and others4 ,but these principles had been illustrated by others during the lifetime of the two1#ij after fashions which even the most summary account of ,english prosody cannot leave unnoticed2 and these fashions1 with some general phenomena of this double lifetime1 not always specially noticeable in ,shakespeare and ,milton themselves1 must be indicated4 ,the performances of these two primates--the one in the ,english1 the other in the ,italian form of the sonnet--make it unnecessary to say more of that form1 though it was very largely practised in the last decade of the sixteenth century1 and beyond all doubt helped much to discipline verse generally4 ,and the same is true of the octosyllabic couplet1 which1 however1 was very beautifully practised by the ,jacobean poets ,browne1 ,wither1 and others4 ,but more must be said of the stanza1 of the decasyllabic couplet1 the fortunes of which in this time were most momentous 7and which1 as it happens1 was only occasionally practised by ,shakespeare1#ia scarcely at all by ,milton#ib71 and of the various forms1 so far as their multiplicity does not forbid1 of lyric4 ,the novelty1 splendour1 and apparent difficulty of the ,spenserian seem to have imposed on contemporaries to such an extent as to prevent them from copying it in typical form at all2 while many years passed before it was attempted in slightly altered forms4#ic ,the favourite stanza in the later years of ,elizabeth was the octave1 chiefly in the ,italian form1 which was very largely written by ,drayton1 by ,daniel1 and many others1 including ,edward ,fairfax in his very influential translation of ,tasso4 ,rhyme-royal fell especially out of favour1 though ,milton used it in his early days1 and ,sir ,francis ,kynaston wrote a long poem in it as late as #afdh4 ,the decasyllabic quatrain1 alternately rhymed1 was used by ,davies and others4 ,yet not merely ,ben ,jonson 7v4 inf47 but ,drayton himself expressed weariness of the stanza generally1 and this undoubtedly grew1 though it continued to be used4 ,the new favourite was the decasyllabic couplet4 ,sidenote3 ,the heroic couplet4 ,it has been said that this couplet1 despite its splendid success1 and the abundance of varied model for it in ,chaucer1 was not much used 7and never used well save perhaps in ,the ,friars of ,berwick7 by his successors4 ,it acquired1 however1 without any clearly traceable cause1 a considerable hold on the early drama2 and1 when it was ejected from this1 it revenged itself by turning the stanza out to a large extent in non-dramatic verse4 ,drayton1 in the passage referred to1 speaks of the attraction of the gemell1 i4e4 the twinned line1 and practised it not a little4 ,jonson1 we are told1 thought couplets 7made in a fashion the specification of which is unfortunately not clear7 the bravest sort of verses4 ,he did not1 however1 write them very largely2 but ,drayton did4 ,and while ,marlowe set a magnificent example in ,hero and ,leander1 and others employed the measure independently1 the same sort of influence in its favour1 which was noticed formerly as exercised in ,chaucer's case by the final couplets of rhyme-royal1 was beyond all question now exercised afresh by those of the fashionable ottava4 ,in fact1 the already-mentioned ,tasso of ,edward ,fairfax 7#afjj7 is one of the recognised originals of a particular form--the stopped or self-ended couplet4 ,this the octave1 like the ,english sonnet1 which doubtless had influence too1 especially encourages4 ,drayton and others wrote as ,chaucer1 we saw1 had written1 almost indifferently in both kinds1 at least so that neither has marked and dominant character4 ,but ,marlowe1 in striking contrast to his blank-verse practice1 decidedly preferred1 and practised exquisitely1 the opposite or enjambed variety4 ,sidenote3 ,enjambed ,by degrees1 however1 there grew up in the seventeenth century what has been perhaps not incorrectly described as a battle of the couplets--certain poets definitely employing one form1 others the other2 while in at least one case#id the preference is distinctly and combatively avowed4 ,as a sect1 clearly marked1 the enjambers or disciples of ,marlowe are the older4 ,their most distinguished representatives are1 in the earlier part or first quarter of the century1 ,william ,browne1 ,george ,wither--who in the piece called ,alresford ,pool produced one of the most beautiful separate examples of the kind1--a rather mysterious person named ,john ,chalkhill1 to whom ,izaak ,walton was godfather and usher2 in the second and at the beginning of the third1 the dramatist ,shakerley ,marmion and ,william ,chamberlayne4 ,the latter's poem of ,pharonnida#ie is the longest example of the style1 and in flashes and short passages the most poetical of all2 but it also exhibits the defects of that style most flagrantly4 ,these defects come from the fact that the poet--allowed to neglect his rhyme as a warning bell of termination of something1 and to use it as a mere accompaniment--allows his clauses and sentences to run into a sometimes quite bewildering prolixity1 and very frequently neglects even that modified restriction of the line itself to some distinct form and outline which both good blank verse and this form of couplet equally require4 ,the result1 assisted by the ugly fancy of the time for apostrophated elisions1 sometimes comes near to the contemporary degradation of blank verse itself which has been mentioned4 ,sidenote3 and stopped4 ,there can be no reasonable doubt that these excesses and defects stimulated attention to the stopped form of the couplet2 and as little that this attention was1 though not unmixedly1 decidedly beneficial to ,english verse4 ,it was becoming1 and had soon become1 desirable1 not merely that such things as this excessive enjambment in couplet and as the degeneration of blank verse should be corrected1 but that the valuable and indeed inestimable assertion of the right to trisyllabic substitution which blank verse had once more brought out1 and which was prompting the use once more of purely or mainly trisyllabic measures1 should be met1 and for a time at any rate restrained1 by the counter-assertion of the necessity of rhythmical smoothness and regularity4 ,the language--though there is no reason to believe that the general pronunciation of ,shakespeare's time was so different from ours as some have thought--was still going through changes of accent and the like2 and1 as yet1 general notions on prosody were rare1 for the most part very ignorant of the actual history of ,english poetry1 and as a rule badly expressed4 ,in these circumstances it is not surprising that the form--even the music--of the stopped and as nearly as possible normal decasyllabic couplet should appeal to many4 ,the accepted growth of it is marked traditionally by the names of ,fairfax1 ,sandys1 and1 above all1 ,waller1 from whom ,dryden 7not to be noticed in detail till the next chapter7 derived his pattern4 ,but the clearest notion both of the principles and of the attraction of the form is to be obtained from the lines of ,sir ,john ,beaumont1 quoted and discussed elsewhere4 ,for the present1 however1 the stopped couplet--even as such1 and in comparison with its rival--was struggling not so much for mastery as for recognition1 and ,ben ,jonson's idea of its being 7if he really thought so7 the bravest of all was nowhere near general acceptance4 ,in particular1 the production of lyric between ,spenser's time and the ,restoration--if not even considerably later--was immense in quantity1 almost unique in variety1 and never surpassed in poetical merit1 though until late in the period it mostly1 except in ,shakespeare and a few others1 confined itself to dissyllabic feet4#if ,sidenote3 ,lyric4 ,the poetical miscellanies of the later ,elizabethan time1 and the lyrical work of ,sidney1 ,drayton1 ,jonson1 ,campion1 and many others1 brought out the song capacity of ,english as it had never been brought out before2 and in the later portion of the period the poets specially known as ,caroline--that is to say1 of the period of ,charles the ,first1 with a smaller but remarkable contingent from the earlier days of his son--,herrick1 ,carew1 ,crashaw1 ,vaughan1 ,stanley1 ,king1 and almost dozens of others down to ,rochester1 ,sedley1 and ,afra ,behn--tried almost infinite varieties of line-length and line-adjustment with delightful results4 ,and it is specially to be noticed that this lyric never broke down as couplet and blank verse were doing--that it always retained the tradition of metrical harmony which ,wyatt and ,surrey had reintroduced into ,english literary poetry1 and which ,spenser had perfected4 ,,footnotes3 #hj ,a phrase of ,king ,james 7,,vi4 of ,scotland and ,i4 of ,england72 v4 inf4 ,bks4 ,,iii4 and ,,iv4 #ha ,that1 reversing the order1 ,shakespeare borrowed this from them1 is a recent notion1 extremely difficult to reconcile with external evidence1 and going in the very teeth of internal4 #hb ,not1 of course1 that this is not sometimes most successful1 as in ,tennyson's ,and flashing round and round and whirled in an arch1 but that it is dangerous1 and if often used would be intolerable4 #hc ,published in #affg1 and so more than thirty years after ,comus4 ,but perhaps begun at least fifteen years earlier4 #hd ,to give a thoroughly satisfactory discussion of ,milton's prosody would need space quite out of proportion here4 ,the writer has done what he could1 in this direction1 in the long chapter devoted to the subject in his larger ,history4 ,but some examples1 illustrations1 and parallel scannings under different systems may be added to the text of this ,manual4 ,and first in regard to printing3 7a7 ,in the printed ,paradise ,lost the line ,above th' ,aonian mount1 while it pursues appears with the apostrophe2 but below-- ,delight thee more1 and ,siloa's brook that flowed-- has no attempt to indicate elision by printing4 7b7 ,and chiefly thou1 ,o ,spirit1 that dost prefer-- if this is to be made strictly dissyllabic1 we must pronounce spir't1 though not so printed2 but1 a little lower-- ,innumerable force of spirits armed absolutely requires the full value4 7c7 ,sing1 ,heav'nly ,muse1 that1 on the secret top favours the idea that ,milton1 as most ,elizabethans certainly did1 thought ,heaven a monosyllable4 ,but compare line #big-- ,on ,heaven's azure2 and the torrid clime4 7d7 ,note1 too1 words like ominous1 popular1 delicate1 printed without attempt to apostrophate1 though the middle syllabic makes a trisyllabic foot4 ,again1 consider the comparative euphony of the following lines3 7e7 ,of glory bscred s whn th ,sn nw rsn1 or ,of gloryobscred1 etc4 7f7 ,the form attempting4 ,wherefre d ssme1 or ,th frm ttmptng4 ,whrefre d' ssme1 or ,the form attempt ,wherefore do ,i assume1 7ing74 with the -ing sunk or swallowed somehow extrametrically4 7g7 ,th nml sprts tht frm pre blod rse1 or ,th'nml spr'ts tht frm pre blod rse4 7h7 ,bcuse thu hst hrkned t th vice f thy wfe1 or ,because thou'st harkened to th' vice f thy wife4 #he ,with possible extension to eight1 and 7for aught ,i can see on the system7 to ten4 #hf ,cme nt thse yllw snds1 nd thn tke hnds3 ,curtsed whn yu hve nd kiss'd ,th wld wves whst1 ,fot t fatly hre nd thre2 nd1 swe #hg ndr th grenwod tre ,wh lves t le wth m1 nd tne hs mrry nte nt th swet brd's thrat1 ,cme hthr1 cme hthr1 cme hther3 ,hre shll h se ,n nm ,bt wntr nd rugh wather4 7ndr th gren- and ,hre shll h se would scan equally well in themselves1 but line #e1 ,come hither1 gives the anapstic hint and key4 ,n nm is possible47 #hh ,oct41 ,iamb41 ,this1 this is he2 softly awhile2 and ,troch4 ,let us not break in upon him4 ,dec4 ,o change beyond report1 thought1 or belief6 ,alex4 ,see how he lies at random1 carelessly diffused1 ,hexasyl4 ,with languished head unpropt1 ,hexasyl4 hyperc4 ,as one with hope abandoned1 ,hexasyl4 hyperc4 ,and by himself given over1 ,oct4 ,in slavish habit1 ill-fitted weeds ,tetrasyl4 ,o'er-worn and soiled4 ,alex4 ,or do my eyes misrepresent8 ,can this be he8 ,oct4 cat4 ,that heroic1 that renowned1 ,dec4 ,irresistible ,samson whom1 unarmed1 ,alex4 ,no strength of man or fiercest wild beast could withstand2 ,alex4 ,who tore the lion as the lion tears the kid2 ,dec4 ,ran on embattled armies clad in iron1 ,hexasyl4 ,and1 weaponless himself1 ,alex4 ,made arms ridiculous1 useless the forgery ,dec4 ,of brazen shield and spear1 the hammered cuirass1 ,dec4 ,chalybean-tempered steel and frock of mail ,hexasyl4 ,adamantean proof3 ,hardly anything here needs remark1 except the use made of the old catalectic octosyllable beloved from ,comus days1 with its trochaic cadence1 and that of half-,alexandrines or hexasyllables4 ,there is only one monometer1 towards the centre or waist of the scheme 7,o'er-worn and soiled74 #hi h1 hw cmely t s1 nd hw rvvng1 ,t th sprts f jst mn lng pprssd1 ,whn ,gd nt th hnds f thir pprssr ,pts nvncbl mght4 7,catullian hendecasyllable87 #ij ,milton was eight years old when ,shakespeare died1 and their combined lives1 #aefd-afgd1 more than cover the whole major ,elizabethan period1 #aeeg-affj1 except part of its incipient stage1 #aeeg-aehj4 #ia ,as a variation to blank verse4 #ib ,some quite boyish things1 a beautiful passage of the ,arcades1 and a few couplets in ,comus are the exceptions4 #ic ,by the two ,fletchers1 ,giles reducing it to an octave ababbccc and ,phineas to a septet ababccc4 #id ,that of ,sir ,john ,beaumont 7v4 sup4 p4 #gh et inf4 ,book ,,iii474 #ie ,this1 like ,marmion's ,cupid and ,psyche1 ,chalkhill's ,thealma and ,clearchus1 and other pieces exemplifying the form1 is a verse-romance1 a kind for which that form has special1 though dangerous1 adaptation4 #if ,the continuous anapst appears1 after ,tusser1 in ,elizabethan poetry chiefly in popular ballad2 and it is only about #afde that literary poets1 like ,waller and ,cleveland1 take it up4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,halt ,,and ,,retrospect--,,continuation ,,on ,,heroic ,,verse ,,and ,,its ,,companions ,,from ,,dryden ,,to ,,crabbe ,sidenote3 ,recapitulation4 ,it is desirable1 if not absolutely necessary1 at this point 7circa #affj1 which1 though not in strict number of years or centuries1 is in fact the central stage of ,english prosody7 to halt and recapitulate what had been done since the formation of ,middle ,english by the influence of ,latin and ,french upon ,old4 ,the conditions of the blend having necessitated a new prosody1 that prosody was1 as was natural1 slowly elaborated2 but the lines which it was to take1 in consequence of the imposition of strict form upon a vigorous and strongly characterised but rather shapeless material1 appeared almost at once4 ,metre replaced the unmetrical rhythm of ,anglo-,saxon2 but this metre had to take forms greatly more elastic than the strict syllabic arrangement of ,french1 and differently constituted from the also mainly syllabic arrangement of ,lower ,latin4 ,and so1 in the verse of the thirteenth and earlier fourteenth century1 a foot-system1 with allowance of equivalent substitution1 makes its appearance--roughly1 but more and more clearly4 ,nor is this at all affected by the alliterative revival of the last-mentioned period1 which partly makes terms with metre and rhyme1 partly pursues its own way--to reach its highest point with ,langland1 and to die away soon after the close of the fifteenth century4 ,at the very same time with ,langland himself1 the pure metrical system is brought to its highest perfection by ,chaucer4 ,but this perfection depends on a state of the language which is precarious and not at all permanent1 and in the fifteenth century ,english metre1 as far as the ,southern and main division of the language is concerned1 falls1 to a great extent1 into anarchy4 ,from this anarchy it is rescued1 no doubt1 as a general determining influence by the settling once more of pronunciation1 but directly and particularly by the efforts of ,wyatt1 ,surrey1 and their minor successors from #aebe to #aege4 ,then ,spenser comes1 and performs almost more than the work of ,chaucer1 inasmuch as his material is more trustworthy and has fewer seeds of decay in it4 ,he1 like his predecessors1 recoiling from the frightful disorder of the preceding century1 inclines1 save in his earliest work1 to a rather strict form of verse1 mostly dissyllabic4 ,but the mere exigencies of the stage1 the nature of blank verse itself when once established1 and the genius of ,shakespeare1 restore there the liberty of trisyllabic substitution1 and the influence of music helps to bring in trisyllabic measures--triple time--as such4 ,in ,shakespeare first the whole freedom1 as well as nearly the whole order1 of ,english prosody discovers itself4 ,but this freedom is pushed by others to licence1 and blank verse becomes practically as ruinous a heap as the rhyme-royal of the fifteenth century1 with one form of decasyllabic couplet keeping it company1 if not quite in actual cacophony1 at any rate in disorderly slackness4 ,then ,milton restores blank verse to almost all the freedom and more than the order of ,shakespeare1 infusing also into all the other metres that he touches this same combination2 so that in these two practically everything is reached4 ,but poetic fervour dies down2 blank verse becomes for a time unpopular2 the age calls for the more prosaic subject-kinds of verse--satire1 didactics1 etc42 prevailing standards of prosody are strictly regulated to an accomplished but decidedly limited smoothness4 ,the results of this1 with a few exceptions reserved1 we are to see in the present chapter4 ,sidenote3 ,dryden's couplet ,it was fortunate that the poet under whom this ,reign of ,order was introduced1 was one who had in himself a certain irrepressible vigour and verve1 which would not tolerate mere monotony4 ,john ,dryden wrote most of his most famous poems in the couplet1 and in a stopped form of it2 but he did not confine himself thereto1 using also the heroic quatrain 7which he made an exceedingly fine measure72 ,pindarics 7of which the same may be said72 occasional1 though few1 octosyllabics2 and lyrical measures of the most varied kind1 both dissyllabic and trisyllabic1 which sometimes do not fall far short of all but the very best work of the preceding generation4 ,his couplet itself1 moreover1 was not quite rigidly stopped2 and even if it had been1 was so largely varied by the licences of triplet1 ,alexandrine1 and sometimes these two combined1 that the purely or mainly mechanical effect with which his successor ,pope is charged1 and which is undoubtedly to be observed in that successor's imitators1 does not impress itself4 ,even had these devices 7which may be said themselves to have something mechanical about them7 not been present1 the extraordinary nerve and full-bloodedness of ,dryden's verse would have been almost if not quite sufficient to remove the reproach4 ,the antithetic yet never snip-snap explosion of his distichs2 the way in which they fling themselves against the object2 the momentum given to them by striking words strikingly placed1 ingenious manipulation of pause1 unexpected and exciting turns of phrase--are unprecedented4 ,his prosody may be called a somewhat rhetorical prosody1 but it is the very highest of its own kind4 ,it exercised strong and good influence over the whole classical period with which we are dealing in this chapter2 a little after the middle of the eighteenth century it effected a diversion from the too monotonous limitation of ,pope2 and in the very hey-day of the ,romantic movement it taught new devices1 and revealed new sources of prosodic beauty1 to ,keats4 ,great1 however1 as are the merits of this couplet verse of ,dryden's1 and incomparably well as it is adapted for argument1 satire1 exposition1 and other things somewhat extra-poetical in themselves1 there is something artificial in its limitations4 ,and it is a matter of experience1 that when you make artificial rules for a game1 this artificiality always tends to make itself more artificial4 ,moreover1 it is not only fair1 but important1 to allow that ,dryden's licences of triplet and ,alexandrine 7in the latter case sometimes extended even to a fourteener7 require ability and judgment1 equal to his own1 to prevent mismanagement of them4 ,in clumsy hands something almost as amorphous as the broken-down blank verse and the unduly enjambed couplet of the preceding generation might easily come of them4 ,it is therefore not surprising that1 the attention of the average poet being more and more concentrated on this couplet1 attempts should be made to reduce the liberties1 and perfect the correctness1 as much as possible4 ,sidenote3 and ,pope's4 ,they are visible even in such writers as ,garth1 between ,dryden and ,pope2 they are still more visible in ,pope himself1 when1 some decade after ,dryden's death1 he began to publish verse4 ,he does not1 especially at first1 entirely discontinue triplet and ,alexandrine1 but he uses them more and more sparingly1 and indeed sneers at the latter4 ,he draws the pause more invariably to the centre1 and sets up a more distinct division between the halves of his line4 ,while separating his couplets more closely1 he lightens the vowel-effects of his rhymes1 so that there shall be no temptation to linger at couplet-ends4 ,and though he is traditionally said to have had a special fancy for a couplet of his which contains an almost indestructible trisyllabic foot1#ig such feet1 as a rule1 are quite smoothed out of his verse4 ,sidenote3 ,their predominance4 ,the unmatched regularity1 harmony 7as far as it went71 and accomplishment of ,pope's couplet1 and his great superiority to all other poets in these respects during the second1 third1 and fourth decades of the eighteenth century1 assisted the general taste1 which has been mentioned1 in raising his form of couplet to the highest place in popular estimation1 as well as--sometimes expressly1 sometimes by a sort of silent taking for granted--in formal discussions of poetry4 ,savage to some extent1 ,churchill still more1 and after him ,cowper1 reverted1 as has been said1 to a standard nearer ,dryden's4 ,but ,johnson1 ,goldsmith1 and others1 with the whole mob of inferior writers1 followed ,pope2 as did also ,crabbe1 who maintained the practice of the form till the very time of the appearance of ,tennyson4 ,the defects1 or at least the limitations1 of it were indeed sometimes seen1 and were commented on1 in striking though not fully informed fashion1 by poets like ,shenstone in the first half of the century1 and ,cowper again in the second4 ,but it constituted1 none the less1 the orthodox mode of the whole time1 and longer2 and when1 nearly at the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century1 ,keats's critics found fault with his ignorance or mismanagement of the structure of the ,english heroic line and couplet1 what they meant was1 whether they knew it or not1 that he managed that line and that couplet differently from ,pope4 ,sidenote3 ,eighteenth-century octosyllable and anapst4 ,although1 however1 the stopped couplet thus gradually established in the latter part of the seventeenth century1 and exercised during the whole of the eighteenth1 a sort of tyranny1 not every poet nor every metre bowed his or its head to this4 ,even in the first half of the eighteenth1 poets like ,collins and ,gray practically shook it off1 the first using it only in his early and immature work1 the second hardly at all4 ,they will therefore be reserved for the next chapter4 ,others1 though using it1 also practised metres different from it1 and some of these were of a character peculiarly suited to counteract any bad influence that it might have4 ,among these the most important and the earliest--for both of them passed a considerable portion of their lives in the seventeenth century itself--were ,prior and ,swift1 both of whom1 but especially ,prior1 were proficients in the ,hudibrastic octosyllable and in the new continuous anapstic4 ,the octosyllable1 with its easy ambling pace1 its fluent overlapping1 and its often prolonged and fanciful rhymes1 corrected the somewhat stiff snip-snap of the larger couplet2 while the anapst peremptorily brought back trisyllabic rhythm1 with all its marvellous refreshments and advantages1 and1 if only for convenience1 suggested substitution of feet4#ih ,the great literary authority and popularity of these two poets1 and the intrinsic charm of ,prior1 established1 for metres that they used1 a safe position throughout the period of decasyllabic domination4 ,even ,bysshe put lines of eight and seven syllables almost on a level with those of ten or eleven2 and though he sneered at anapsts1 and introduced them by a singular roundaboutness of expression1#ii did not absolutely bar them in fact4 ,sidenote3 ,blank verse ,blank verse--than which1 in its perfection1 there is no more powerful guard and corrective as regards the possible errors of the stopped couplet--was not put in operation1 except by ,milton at the very beginning of the period1 so early as these4 ,in fact1 as has been said1 it was the degradation of blank verse1 almost as much as anything else which encouraged the growth of this form of rhyme4 ,nor was the all-powerful influence of ,milton himself at once felt1 except by a very few persons2#ajj while1 when it began to be felt1 it was not fully understood4 ,attempts1 however1 were by degrees made in it2#aja and1 some sixty years after the appearance of ,paradise ,lost1 the beginning of ,thomson's ,seasons brought to bear a new1 popular1 and powerful agency4 ,although ,thomson may have been under the elision and apostrophation delusions of his time1 he did not attempt to avoid what his younger contemporary1 ,shenstone1 called virtual trisyllabic feet4 ,one of his best lines1 for instance-- ,the yellow wall-flwr1 stined with iron-brown1 contains such a foot naturally1 though you may slur and apostrophate it into flow'r2 and there are endless others1 ready to suggest themselves to a nice ear1 whenever you come across such words as pastoral and impetuous in-- ,shines o'er the rest the pastrl quen1 and rays 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,impetus rshes o'er the sounding void4 ,but an even more valuable effect of blank-verse practice was the inevitable reappearance of the verse-paragraph1 with its necessary constituents the verse-sentences and verse-clauses1 which need not--and1 if a good effect is to be produced1 must not--be made of successive batches of complete lines1 still less of batches of equal size4 ,in forging the verse-paragraph1 variation of pause1 overrunning of sense as regards line-ends1 strong breaks in the actual lines 7a thing almost abused by ,thomson himself1 and quite so by his followers1 but in itself a caustic to one of the evils of couplet verse71 are necessary implements and materials4 ,accordingly the staunchest devotees of the couplet1 such as ,johnson1 always dislike blank verse2 and when1 later1 a poet like ,cowper takes it up1 his action is similarly connected with dislike to the mechanic warbling of the ,popian style4 ,in his hands1 especially in the late and splendid example of ,yardley ,oak1 almost the full ,miltonic variety is recovered4 ,but always1 and throughout its practice during the eighteenth century1 it acts as a foil1 a relief and a refuge to and from the limitations and restrictions of the couplet itself4 ,sidenote3 and lyric4 ,lastly1 a similar enfranchising influence was exercised by lyric2 but to a comparatively limited extent4 ,the genius of the latest seventeenth century and of almost the whole eighteenth1 except in a few poets 7mostly to be kept as exceptions1 with ,gray and ,collins1 who were of them1 to the next chapter71 was by no means lyrical4 ,the healthiest influence of it was supplied by anapstic forms1 especially in light verse4 ,pindarics were at first much used1 but were too often of a most prosaic character4 ,romance-six was affected to an almost surprising degree1 but for the most part in a rather ,sir ,thopas-like form1 exact and sing-song4 ,this was also the fault of most of the common measure or ballad-quatrain1 such as the well-known examples of ,percy and ,goldsmith2 though the ,reliques of the former gave better models 7somewhat tampered with by the editor7 forty years before #ahjj2 and the miscellaneous collections of ,durfey and ,philips had to some extent done so nearly as much earlier still4 ,the ,evangelical revival1 by infusing more passion and reality into hymns1 had a good effect2 and when we come to ,cowper1 this influenced his profane as well as his sacred poetry4 ,nor should we omit to mention--as a really powerful counter-agent to the couplet1 with its monotonous regularity1 unqualified rhyme1 and so on--the irregularly rhythmed prose of ,macpherson's ,ossian1 which appeared about the same time as the ,reliques1 and attracted much attention4 ,sidenote3 ,merit of eighteenth-century regularity4 ,by all these things1 and by the special influence of the poets to be mentioned in the early part of the next chapter1 useful testimony was continuously given1 to the effect that1 after all1 the decasyllabic couplet1 especially in the prevailing form1 was not the only metre1 nor even the only important metre1 in ,english4 ,but its predominance continued1 and its characteristics1 as has been said1 to some extent infected or inoculated its rivals4 ,inoculated rather than infected1 for1 once more let it be repeated1 this predominance undoubtedly beat into the ,english tongue1 ear1 and mind a sense of the importance of real and regular rhythm--a sense which1 for another hundred years and more1 has prevented1 in the freest expatiation of released prosody1 any kind of return to the disorder of the whole fifteenth century1 and in some respects1 at any rate1 of the mid-seventeenth4 ,,footnotes3 #ig ,lo6 where ,motis sleeps1 and hardly flows ,the freezng ,tn is through a waste of snows4 ,the ,dunciad1 iii4 #hg1 #hh4 #ih ,in the actual case1 of course1 dissyllabic feet for trisyllabic2 but this could not but suggest the converse process in dissyllabic verse4 ,and the octosyllable was not used for light verse only2 ,dyer in ,grongar ,hill 7#agbf7 revived the ,miltonic form of ,l',allegro1 etc41 with an effect all the more certainly excellent1 that it was demurred to by the mistaken critics of the time4 #ii ,v4 inf4 pp4 #bdb-e4 #ajj ,among whom ,lord ,roscommon deserves honourable mention4 #aja ,as by ,watts the hymn-writer1 ,john ,philips1 and ,gay4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,romantic ,,revival--,,its ,,precursors ,,and ,,first ,,great ,,stage ,sidenote3 ,gray and ,collins4 ,we must now take up1 somewhat more minutely1 the phenomena mentioned in the last chapter as showing revolt against1 and recovery from1 the partly beneficial but excessive tyranny of the stopped decasyllabic couplet4 ,these may be considered1 still briefly but more particularly1 under two heads3 the first concerning chiefly the influence of individual poets--,collins1 ,gray1 ,chatterton1 ,burns1 ,blake2 the second1 agencies various in kind and source4 ,neither ,collins nor ,gray can be said to have directly attacked the task--though ,gray at least was1 as we see from his ,metrum1 not ignorant of the facts--of re-leavening and re-illustrating prosody by an infusion of trisyllabic substitution4 ,with rarest exceptions1 they still cling to the iamb as a base-foot4 ,but they rearrange its line-groups in a fashion as alien as possible from that of the couplet4 ,collins even discards rhyme altogether in the quatrains of ,evening1 and in his famous ,passions varies his construction as much as possible within the general limits4 ,gray follows1 but improves upon1 ,dryden in the rhymed decasyllabic quatrain2 adapts1 with an effect somewhat stiff1 but often very beautiful1 the ,greek system of strophe1 antistrophe1 and epode in the ,progress of ,poetry and ,the ,bard2 employs ,romance-six with singular felicity in both serious and serio-comic verse2 and1 though retaining a strongly artificial poetic diction1 informs this with new touches and spirit from sources as a rule quite closed to his contemporaries and predecessors--,norse and ,welsh as well as ,greek4 ,both these poets1 in short1 disregard1 to a large extent1 equality of line-length1 and employ mixed rhymes4 ,now equality of line-length and strictly consecutive rhymes were almost as dear to the chief lovers of the couplet as its unvarying syllabic arrangement and its regular accent4 ,sidenote3 ,chatterton1 ,burns1 and ,blake4 ,gray1 it has been said1 knew substitution1 but did not use it2 the ill-fated genius of ,chatterton not only knew it1 but used it4 ,it is present1 and very effective1 in ,burns2 but it was not the chief means of good of which ,burns availed himself in regard to prosody4 ,his dialect1 with its relief from the conventional lingo of eighteenth-century poetry1 did much2 but the forms which he used1 and especially the famous ,burns metre1 did more4 ,it would be almost impossible to devise a greater contrast to the couplet2 or--since 7which is at least worth noting7 the six lines of this stanza contain exactly as many syllables 7forty7 as two ordinary couplets--to arrange these same numbers in ways more rhythmically different4 ,but the first eighteenth-century poet thoroughly to understand and exemplify the powers of equivalence is ,burns's slightly older contemporary1 ,william ,blake1 whose ,poetical ,sketches appeared as early as #aghj1 while his ,songs of ,innocence and ,experience1 and his remaining poems1 display a knowledge of the secrets of this equivalence1 and a command over them1 which had not been shown since ,shakespeare4 ,sidenote3 ,other influences of change4 ,blake1 however1 expressed rather than exercised influence1 for his poems remained long almost unknown2 and it may be doubtful whether even the others brought about many conscious prosodic changes4 ,the gradual recovery of knowledge of older ,english literature1 and especially of the ballads1 had in all probability much more direct power4 ,durfey's ,pills to ,purge ,melancholy1 ,philips's ,collection of ,old ,ballads1 and ,percy's ,reliques--with constantly increasing editions of the ,elizabethan dramatists and other writers1 even such as ,skelton and ,occleve--could not but awaken men's minds to the fact that 7as ,gascoigne had put it in a matter closely connected if not absolutely identical7 we had used in times past other kinds of metres than the stopped couplet4 ,and towards the end of the century revolt of various kinds appeared--copious though usually very tame ballad2 multiplied blank verse of the usual kind2 and 7in imitation partly of some older ,english models and of ,collins1 partly of the ,german7 rhymeless verse of different sorts1 the chief early practitioner of which was ,frank ,sayers of ,norwich1 a physician and man of letters who was more influential on others than important in himself4 ,bowles 7after ,warton1 whose ,history of ,poetry worked in the same direction7 reintroduced the sonnet4 ,william ,taylor1 another member of the ,norwich group1 revived 7again after the ,german7 ,english hexameters2 and though ,hayley1 ,darwin1 and others continued the eighteenth-century couplet unchanged1 the spirit of the youth of the period was clearly tending in a different direction4 ,sidenote3 ,wordsworth1 ,southey1 and ,scott4 ,of the four great champions of reaction who were born about #aggj1 ,wordsworth1 though he illustrates the change generally1 and never1 in his principal work1 uses the stopped couplet1 is not very noticeable prosodically4#ajb ,the three others are1 in different ways1 of the first importance4 ,southey1 as early as #agif1 not merely practised1 but1 which is much more1 practised deliberately1 and definitely defended in a letter to an objecting friend1 the use of three syllables for two4 ,moreover 7not confining himself to the ballad metre1 which he had employed and which he was specially justifying71 he alleged the practice of ,milton1 frankly stigmatising as asses the editors who had endeavoured to disguise this practice as elision4 ,scott--assisted perhaps to some extent by hearing a recitation or reading of ,coleridge's unpublished ,christabel1 but undoubtedly also following#ajc the example of the innumerable ballad- and romance-writers with whom he was almost better acquainted than any other man in ,britain--produced first ballad-pieces1 and then1 in and after ,the ,lay of the ,last ,minstrel1 continuous narrative poems of great length1 for the most part couched in equivalenced octosyllables1 but often much varied in rhyme-arrangement and diversified by shorter and longer lines4 ,and there is no doubt that the enormous popularity of these poems of his did more than anything else to familiarise the public ear with metres and cadences as different as possible from the couplet4 ,sidenote3 ,coleridge4 ,but the influence of ,coleridge1 independent of that indirectly applied through ,scott1 was the most important of all4 ,it was indeed not 7as it should have been7 exhibited1 at once and in bulk1 by the simultaneous publication of ,the ,ancient ,mariner and ,christabel1 the latter of which1 though1 at least in great part1 written at the same time as the former1 was separated from it in publication by nearly twenty years4 ,the ,ancient ,mariner itself is in ballad metre1 but ballad metre treated in the freest possible fashion1 not only with equivalence used at pleasure in individual lines1 but with the four lines of the strict quatrain extended to five1 or any number up to nine--thereby increasing and varying the stanza-effect in the widest possible manner1 though never expanding it into positive paragraphs4 ,more important still1 because more apparently novel1 though it had been in fact preluded both by ,chatterton and ,blake1 and had been recognised by ,gray in the work of ,spenser1 was the use1 in ,christabel1 of continuous octosyllabic couplets1 only sometimes1 and rarely1 broken into stanza1 but constantly equivalenced and frequently varied by shorter lines4 ,of these1 ,coleridge himself gave in his preface a curiously inadequate account1 regarding them--or at least giving them out--as constructed on the principle of counting only the accents4 ,they1 however1 in fact follow the strictest foot-division1 and have been the pattern of all similar verses1 with equivalent substitution1 since4 ,sidenote3 ,moore4 ,moore1 who comes in point of date between this group and the second great trio of ,byron1 ,shelley1 and ,keats1 is very important prosodically4 ,since the earlier seventeenth century at latest1 music1 though it had had much and rather deleterious influence on theories of ,english prosody1 had had little on its practice1 a few light things excepted4 ,but ,moore was an accomplished musician both in theory and practice1 in composition and in execution2 he belonged to a race distinguished for song-gift2 and the great majority of his almost innumerable lyrics were directly composed for old airs or adapted to new4 ,the consequence was1 almost inevitably1 that they present a variety of cadence and rhythm which had hardly ever before been seen4 ,occasionally this variety oversteps the bounds of pure prosody1 allowing1 as in the well-known ,eveleen's ,bower1#ajd a syllable which1 corresponding to an appoggiatura in music1 requires1 in strict scansion1 to be slurred or else to be considered extra-metrical1 as in the ,song to a ,portuguese ,air1#aje and others1 further licences4 ,he was himself aware of this1 and it did little harm2 while the tunefulness of his trisyllabic measures1 and the great range of broken and cuttit line-arrangements which his work presented1 were both of the first importance in promoting variety and freedom of metrical arrangement4 ,sidenote3 ,byron4 ,his expertness in the two arts1 however1 and his constant combination of them1 as well as perhaps his inferiority 7though this is only relative7 in strictly poetical power1 somewhat reduce ,moore's importance as compared with that of ,byron1 ,shelley1 and ,keats4 ,the first-named was the least of the three in prosody1 as in poetry2 but his prosodic merits have1 as a rule1 been far undervalued1 even by his adorers as a poet4 ,he affected1 and perhaps really to some extent felt1 much greater admiration for the eighteenth-century poets1 and for those who mainly or partly followed them in his own time1 than for the innovators of the ,romantic school2 and he himself wrote the stock couplet with correctness and vigour4 ,but he chose for his principal serious poem1 ,childe ,harold1 the ,spenserian1 which regular classical critics had always disliked2 and1 though he never achieved its proper character1 did finely in it sometimes1 and undoubtedly restored its popularity4 ,again1 he chose for his greatest serio-comic pieces1 ,beppo and ,don ,juan1 the ottava2 while his minor tales were in ,scott-,christabel octosyllables4 ,in lyric1 too1 he showed varied power1 and once turned#ajf what had been a burlesque before in its exact1 and a very sing-song metre in its restricted1 form into a thing of remarkable prosodic beauty1 to be made more beautiful still by ,praed and ,mr4 ,swinburne4 ,his most consummate prosodic achievement is undoubtedly the above-mentioned octave of ,don ,juan1 which can hardly be surpassed1 either in suitability to its subject1 or in the way in which the particular characteristics of the metre itself are brought out4 ,sidenote3 ,shelley3 his longer poems4 ,but the greatest poets are naturally1 and almost inevitably1 the greatest prosodists2 and this was well seen in the case of the two whom we have yet to mention1 ,shelley and ,keats1 who also present a valuable and interesting contrast in this as in other ways4 ,it is probable that in all cases ,shelley began with direct though not studious imitation4 ,his early and almost worthless poems were based on ,monk ,lewis and others of that type2 his first striking thing1 the opening of ,queen ,mab1 is a sort of variation on that of ,southey's ,thalaba2 and his first great poem1 ,alastor1 had ,wordsworth evidently before it2 while ,laon and ,cythna 7,the ,revolt of ,islam7 would probably not have been in ,spenserians if ,childe ,harold had not adopted them1 nor perhaps ,the ,witch of ,atlas in octaves but for ,beppo4 ,yet1 as soon as he has attained poetic gift1 he goes off from his models entirely1 and1 without much apparent care for preconceived forms1 achieves the most marvellous beauty in whatever he touches4 ,in ,prometheus ,unbound especially1 the blank-verse dialogue1 and the abundant lyrical choruses and interludes1 not only exhibit wholly astonishing variety and individual excellence1 but adapt themselves to each other1 as nowhere else in drama4 ,the ,spenserians of ,adonais1 taking some liberties1 attain1 at their best1 absolute perfection2 of the octosyllabic couplets1 shortened or not in several minor poems1 almost as much may be said2 and the octaves of ,the ,witch of ,atlas 7with the very best of ,keats's ,isabella7 are the greatest examples of that metre in ,english for serious use4 ,he even tries the often failed-in terza rima1 and does beautiful things in it1 though perhaps not such beautiful examples of it4 ,sidenote3 ,his lyrics4 ,but it is in his lyrics that ,shelley's prosodic1 like his poetic1 power shows highest4 ,those in ,prometheus ,unbound have been spoken of2 but the numerous and glorious short and separate pieces defy enumeration or specification here4 ,the two popular favourites1 ,the ,cloud and ,the ,skylark1 would each serve as a text for an exemplary lecture on ,english prosody1 and a dozen others1 with dozens more added to them1 would do the same4 ,none is ever really irregular3 to say1 as has been said of ,the ,cloud1 that it defies ordinary scansion1 is simply to say that the speaker does not understand either the poem or ordinary scansion1 or both 7see above1 ,book ,i4 p4 #ajj74 ,but almost all exhibit1 in endless variety of relief and colour1 the great laws of equivalence and substitution1 and the enormous advantage of varied and even complicated metre1 rhyme1 line-length1 and stanza-arrangement4 ,shelley never seems to have studied metre much1 and1 as has been said1 his first pattern is the merest starting-point for him4 ,but he touches none that he does not adorn2 none that he does not make matter of delight2 and none1 likewise1 in which he does not supply a text for infinite technical instruction as well4 ,sidenote3 ,keats4 ,the case of ,keats is curiously different4 ,he too--as indeed practically everybody does--begins with imitation1 but it is imitation of a different kind4 ,chapman1 ,spenser1 the sonneteers1 the ,jacobean poets probably1 ,leigh ,hunt certainly1 supply him not merely with hints and send-offs1 but with carefully studied models4 ,he hits1 in consequence1 first in his ,juvenilia and then in ,endymion1 upon a very much enjambed form of decasyllabic couplet--a form opposed to all the traditions of ,pope1 and deemed horrible by the orthodox critics of the day4 ,but he sees for himself the defect of this1 and applies himself earnestly to the study of ,dryden and ,milton as tonics and astringents4 ,the results are the fine1 less fluent1 still slightly overrun1 but tripleted and ,alexandrined heroics of ,lamia1 and the splendid blank verse of ,hyperion4 ,but he has not confined himself to these1 or to their lessons2 and he has never confined himself to the mere lessons of any poet or of any period4 ,he produces in turn the touching octaves of ,isabella2 the magnificent ,spenserians of ,the ,eve of ,st4 ,agnes2 the ,sonnets1 most of them among the finest examples of the form in ,english2 the varied stanza-measures of the ,odes2 the unique ballad adaptation#ajg of ,la ,belle ,dame sans ,merci2 and lastly1 two forms of octosyllabic couplet--the mainly catalectic or seven-syllabled form of some earlier poems1 and the complete one of ,the ,eve of ,st4 ,mark1 which overleaps all other examples back to ,gower1 picks out the finest qualities of ,gower's own form1 and rearranges them in an example unfinished in itself1 but serving as a guide1 in the production of a great body of finished and admirable work1 to the late ,mr4 ,william ,morris4 ,in no poet is the lesson--which it was the business of this generation to exemplify1 and should be of this chapter to expound--of ordered variety1 in foot1 in line1 in stanza1 more triumphantly shown4 ,,footnotes3 #ajb ,his greatest prosodic achievement is also his greatest achievement in poetry1 the ,immortality ,ode4 ,but1 though he varies line-length admirably1 the prevailing rhythm is merely iambic2 and when1 in stanza #d1 he tries to vary it1 the effect is very unfortunate4 #ajc ,scott was a debtor for something as well to ,monk ,lewis4 ,see ,list of ,poets1 ,book ,,iv4 #ajd nd wpt bhnd th cluds 'er th midn's shme4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,tht stin pn th snw f fir vlen's fame4 #aje ,where three lines like the following occur3 ,shuld thse fnd hpes 'er frske the1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,whch nw s swetly thy hart mply1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 n ur thrshld wlcme stll fund4 and are quite irreconcilable4 #ajf ,in the ,haidee song4 ,v4 sup4 ,scanned ,conspectus1 ,,xliv4 #ajg ,with long measure1 but with the last line cut down to a monometer3 what can ail thee1 knight-at-arms1 ,alone and palely loitering8 ,the sedge has withered from the lake1 ,and no birds sing4 ,this last line being sometimes exquisitely equivalenced in the first foot3 nd hr yes wre wld4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 n th cld hill side4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,last ,,stage--,,tennyson ,,to ,,swinburne ,sidenote3 ,from ,keats to ,tennyson4 ,the lesson of the last chapter1 if properly learnt1 will have shown the substitution of a more really correct1 because wider and freer1 view of ,english prosody than that which had produced the narrow and blinkered pseudo-correctness of the eighteenth century1 and the way in which this extension was1 whether consciously or unconsciously1 utilised by the great poets of #agih-ahcj4 ,consciously1 however1 this lesson was not learnt by all of these poets themselves2 yet it spread1 and rapidly became the general1 if not yet the acknowledged1 principle of ,english poetry4 ,it is observable in most and in all the best of what have been called the ,intermediates--the poets who were born between #agij and #ahaj1 such as ,beddoes and ,darley1#ajh ,macaulay and ,praed4 ,but in ,tennyson at once and in ,browning--the one born just before1 the other just after1 the end of the first decade of the nineteenth century--it manifests itself in the most unmistakable degree2 so much so1 indeed1 as to have actually puzzled1 if not shocked1 ,coleridge himself1 the greatest restorer of its mainspring4 ,tennyson's first volumes are open to many just criticisms4 ,but if the student will turn to the scanned examples of the ,hollyhock ,song and the ,dying ,swan given previously1 he will see that the young poet1 so far from having begun to write without knowing very well what metre is1 had begun with an almost absolutely perfect knowledge of it1 whatever his shortcomings in other matters might be4#aji ,sidenote3 ,tennyson himself4 ,the variety of metres in which this accomplishment was shown was extraordinary1 and was no doubt felt by contemporaries to be bewildering4 ,even from the poets of the first ,romantic school they had been principally 7though of course not entirely7 accustomed to lines of the same length1 couched in more or less uniform metre throughout4 ,the pieces which composed the two volumes of #ahcj and #ahcb1 even before they were revised and augmented in #ahdb1 contained a greater variety of metres than had been seen in the same bulk of work of any single ,english poet from ,chaucer to ,keats4 ,there was blank verse1 if not at first quite of the absolute perfection which it reached ten years later1 of a new and remarkable pattern1 adjusting the ,miltonic paragraph to a much more fluent movement1 and quite discarding the ,thomsonian stiffness4 ,there were ,spenserians 7in the opening of the ,lotos-,eaters7 of the very best kind4 ,there was a little very fine decasyllabic couplet4 ,but the great majority of the poems were lyrics1 couched in a dazzling variety of metres4 ,it was not only that the poet expanded the apparent but not real irregularity of ,shakespeare into examples such as the two noted above4 ,it was not merely that1 as in the ,lotos-,eaters itself and ,the ,vision of ,sin1#aaj he arranged different metres in the same piece on the principles of an elaborate musical symphony4 ,the way in which he handled metres previously known must have startled--indeed we know that it did startle--the precisians still more4 ,sidenote3 ,special example of his manipulation of the quatrain4 ,a good instance of this is the threefold rehandling of the old decasyllabic quatrain1 familiar to everybody from ,dryden's ,annus ,mirabilis and ,gray's ,elegy4 ,this quatrain itself1 as a consequence of its gravity1 is rather apt to be monotonous4 ,simple shortening of the even verses gives rather better outline1 but not much less--in fact even greater--monotony4 ,in three different poems ,tennyson handles it in three different ways4 ,the ,poet#aaa is couched in #aj1 #f1 #aj1 #d1 giving a succinct and rather sententious metre1 which suits admirably for the sharply cut cumulative phrases of that fine piece4 ,but1 by this shortening1 ten syllables1 the equivalent of a whole line1 were lost2 and this gave too little room for description1 and especially for the series of pictures1 in scene- or figure-painting1 which form so large a part of the other two poems and communicate to them such extraordinary charm4 ,so1 in the ,palace of ,art1 ,tennyson eked the stanza1 extending the second line to eights and the fifth to sixes4#aab ,this1 besides actually giving a little more room1 admits more varied fingering1 together with an effect of outline1 which is wonderfully attractive--a taper1 but with a swell in it4 ,in the ,dream of ,fair ,women--more narrative and with larger aims--he wanted more space still1 and a form that would link itself better4 ,he gets this by keeping three decasyllables with a final six4#aac ,this is an exceedingly cunning as well as beautiful device1 for1 on the one hand1 the large majority of decasyllables1 batched in threes1 assists the narrative effect1 which is always hard to achieve with stanzas of very irregular outline2 and1 on the other1 the short final line serves at once as finial to the individual stanza1 and hinge to join it to the next4 ,many examples could be given1 and may be found in the larger ,history1 but these will suffice1 with the addition that ,tennyson continued his experimentation to the very last1 as in the remarkable metre of ,kapiolani1 and that his handling of blank verse1 like ,shakespeare1 became almost perilous in its freedom1 by the temptation that it offered to others to traverse the bounds1 though he himself never actually did so4 ,sidenote3 ,browning4 ,browning1 who was to illustrate the prosodic lesson of the century with1 if possible1 an even greater variety1 did not exactly begin in that direction2 though his prosodic practice was almost equally independent after the very first4 ,that very first--,pauline--showed a distinct effort to imitate the blank verse of ,shelley2 and this was continued1 though with more idiosyncrasy1 in the dramatically arranged1 but not really dramatic1 ,paracelsus1 which had1 however1 one or two beautiful lyrics of a kind also to some extent ,shelleyan4 ,the blank verse in these two is not much equivalenced1 nor even very much enjambed1 but it runs with a peculiar breathlessness from verse to verse1 even if each be fairly complete in itself4 ,and this breathlessness continues--being1 indeed1 the main source of the much-talked-of obscurity of the piece--in ,sordello4 ,here the couplet used is utterly opposed to that of the eighteenth century2 but1 once more1 it is by no means the enjambed variety of the seventeenth4 ,it is almost a kind to itself1 progressing in immense involved paragraphs 7often largely parenthetic7 after a fashion which almost drowns the rhyme1 even if there be definite stops at the end of the verses4 ,fortunately1 after this1 in ,bells and ,pomegranates1 he devoted a large part of his attention to lyric1 in which he produced examples exquisite in quality and inexhaustible in variety4#aad ,his octosyllables in ,christmas ,eve and ,easter ,day are daringly equivalenced1 and rhymed still more daringly1 but very effective2 and much later1 in ,fifine at the ,fair1 he almost succeeded in making the continuous ,alexandrine a real success4 ,but the bulk of his immense work in later days was written in blank verse1 as strongly equivalenced as his octosyllables4 ,browning was never an incorrect prosodist2 even his rhymes1 though frequently extravagant1 are almost always defensible2 and it is a vulgar error to think him even rough in verse1 though he was so in diction4 ,but he1 once more1 pushed the lesson of variety to its extreme in one way4 ,sidenote3 ,mrs4 ,browning4 ,his wife1 both before and after she became his wife1 gave a third important example of this attention to lyric1 and this determination to give it the most multitudinous and original forms4 ,she had one unfortunate1 and indeed disgusting1 prosodic defect--a toleration of1 if not a positive preference for1 really atrocious rhymes4 ,but her ear for metre was quite differently tuned1 and often exquisite2 though 7as was not the case with her husband7 her bad rhymes1 and1 as was the case with him1 though in a different way1 her extravagant diction1 sometimes created a false idea of metrical carelessness4 ,sidenote3 ,matthew ,arnold4 ,but1 in a way1 the most remarkable witness to the general tendency of the period was to be found in ,mr4 ,matthew ,arnold1 who disapproved of ,tennyson1 and must 7though personal friendship seems to have prevented him from saying so7 have disapproved of the ,brownings still more4 ,for all ,mr4 ,arnold's classical tastes1 in different senses of that word1 he became romantic in his variety of lyric forms1 in his handling of them1 in his dealing with the couplet1 and in the adoption of elaborate stanza forms for his longer poems4 ,only his blank verse is of somewhat classical pattern1 and of this he did not write very much4 ,sidenote3 ,later poets--,the ,rosettis4 ,in the poets who specially represent the last half of the nineteenth century 7with1 in one case and the chief of all1 an actual extension over nearly the whole of the first decade of the twentieth7--and who consisted mainly of the school often1 though not very accurately1 called ,pre-,raphaelite--these tendencies are exhibited to a still greater extent1 and in some cases1 beyond all doubt1 consciously followed and elaborated4 ,in ,dante and ,christina ,rossetti1 brother and sister--more remarkable for genius perhaps than any brother and sister in history1 literary or other1--but especially in the brother1 the ,italian and ,english elements blended4 ,dante showed1 though in great variety1 more of the ,italian tendency to slow and stately music2 ,christina1 more of the ,english to light and rapid movement as well4 ,but both thoroughly mastered the secrets of equivalence1 as well as those of largely broken and variegated line-length and stanza-arrangement4 ,the sonnets of both are the finest1 on what is called the ,italian model1 in our language1 and ,christina's command1 both of simple song metres and of regular short verse--almost ,skeltonic in apparent character1 but far apart from doggerel--is specially noticeable4 ,she is indeed one of the most daring of experimenters in metrical licence1 but1 even more than ,browning's1 her verse1 with all its audacity1 never transgresses the laws of prosodic music4#aae ,earlier to appear than ,rossetti1 except in little-read periodicals1 but a younger man1 was ,william ,morris1 whose place in the history of ,english prosody is a very important one4 ,in his first book1 ,the ,defence of ,guenevere1 he tried1 with remarkable success1 a very large number of lyrical metres1 sometimes exhibiting great originality of substitution4 ,he passed from this to a still more remarkable revival of the enjambed decasyllabic couplet in ,the ,life and ,death of ,jason and part of ,the ,earthly ,paradise1 following not so much ,keats as the best of the early seventeenth-century examples4 ,with this1 in ,the ,earthly ,paradise itself1 he combined octosyllabic couplet of almost more exceptional quality still--very little equivalenced1 but varied by pause and fingering in a manner which only ,gower in his very finest passage1 and ,keats in the fragment of the ,eve of ,st4 ,mark1 had achieved4 ,he also wrote excellent rhyme-royal4 ,in ,love is ,enough1 besides many more beautiful lyrical devices1 he endeavoured a sort of alliterative semi-metrical rhythm of fifteenth-century kind1 which has not pleased every one2 but in ,sigurd the ,volsung1 while still hovering about the same period1 he pitched upon one of the numerous arrangements of the fourteener and perfected it into a thoroughly great metre4#abd ,sidenote3 ,mr4 ,swinburne4 ,although not an artist in quite so many kinds of verse as ,morris1 and confining himself as a rule to strict metre1 ,algernon ,charles ,swinburne was1 however1 by far the greatest metrist of this group and time1 and one of the greatest in the history of ,english poetry4 ,in his copious critical work he did not bestow much explicit attention on matters prosodic2 but when he did1 made important remarks1 and once gave one of the most important to be found definitely expressed by any ,english poet4 ,this was to the effect1 that ,english would always lend itself readily and successfully to any combinations of iamb1 trochee1 or anapst1 never to those of dactyl and spondee4 ,he himself produced magnificent verse which looks like dactylic hexameter or elegiac1 but is really 7and was meant by him for7 anapstic work with anacrusis and catalexis4 ,he wrote beautiful choriambics and more beautiful ,sapphics4 ,but these1 at least the last two1 were merely experiments and tours de force4 ,he also experimented in the artificial ,french forms 7v4 inf474 ,but his principal work was straightforward composition in the direct lines of the ,english poetical inheritance1 utilising to the utmost all the liberties of equivalence and substitution on the principles of ,tennyson1 but never abusing them1 and informing particular metres with a spirit that made them entirely his own4 ,his blank verse1 though sometimes exceedingly fine1 was also sometimes a little too voluble2 and of his couplets much the same may be said in both ways4 ,but in lyric--giving that word the widest possible extension--he is unsurpassed as to variety and individuality of practice1 while1 in two striking cases1 he made improvements of the most remarkable kind on previous improvements made by others4#abe ,the first of these was the fresh adaptation 7after ,fitz,gerald1 but with an important difference7 of the decasyllabic quatrain in ,laus ,veneris4 ,the translator of ,omar ,khayym had1 with great effect1 made the first1 second1 and fourth lines rhyme together1 leaving the third entirely blank4 ,mr4 ,swinburne made the third line of each of his pairs of quatrains rhyme as well1 a completion of the music which has a very fine effect4 ,and a still greater achievement was the shortening of the last line of the ,praed ,metre1 which makes one of the most beautiful arrangements to be found in ,english4 ,but it is perhaps only in these two that even guidance of any definite kind can be assigned4 ,for the most part the prosodic effect is produced by original extension of the general laws1 and by entirely individual fingering of particular metres4 ,nothing in the whole range of ,english poetry is more remarkable than the handling1 in this way1 of the ordinary ,long ,measure with alternate redundance in ,at a ,month's ,end2#abf and the examples of other varied metres1 also given below1 will complete the exposition1 as far as it can be done in anything but a monograph of great extent4 ,sidenote3 ,others4 ,many poets1 in the later years of the nineteenth century1 have been remarkable for prosodic accomplishment2 but1 except in the outside department of experiment in quantitative and classical metres1 they have rarely touched principle4 ,arthur ,e4 ,o',shaughnessy#abg and ,james ,thomson the ,second showed extraordinary proficiency1 the first in the more rapid1 the second in the statelier variation of metre4 ,canon ,dixon1 who was sometimes extremely happy in lyric1#abh wrote1 in ,mano1 the one long ,english poem in terza rima1 but without removing the objections which seem to hold1 in our language1 against the arrangement that is so magnificent in the ,divina ,commedia4 ,in the late 'seventies a fancy came in1 and remained for some time1 of reviving the artificial ,french 7and to some extent ,english7 metres of the fifteenth and earlier centuries--ballades1 rondeaux1 triolets1 etc4 ,mr4 ,george ,meredith1 when he employed verse and not prose1 used a considerable number of odd measures unusually rhythmed1 as well as others perfectly adjusted to the demands of the ear4 ,mr4 ,henley and others carried on the rhymeless revival from ,mr4 ,arnold1 and yet others1 such as the late ,mr4 ,john ,davidson1 while using rhyme reviled it4 ,a few attempts have recently been made at stress-metres--rebellious to any uniform system of scansion1 even with full liberty of substitution1 and1 in fact1 irregularly rhythmed prose4 ,but nothing really good and unquestionably poetic has been produced which will not obey the principles set forth in this treatise1 and everything really good has furnished fresh illustrations of them4#abi ,,footnotes3 #ajh ,especially in these two1 as here3 ,half ,alex4 ,winds f th ,wst1 arise6 ,alex4 ,hespern blmst irs1 ,o waft back those sweet sighs ,dec4 couplet4 ,to her that breathes them from her own pure skies1 ,dew-dropping1 mixt with ,dawn's engoldened dyes ,half ,alex4 ,o'er my unhappy eyes6 ,fourteener4 ,from primrose bed and willow bank where your moss cradle lies4 ,alex4 ,o6 from your rushy bowers to waft back her sweet sighs-- ,half ,alex4 ,winds of the ,west1 arise6 7,,darley47 ,if thou wilt ease thine heart ,of love and all its smart1 ,then sleep1 dear1 sleep2 ,and not a sorrow ,hang any tear on your eyelashes2 ,lie still and deep1 ,sad soul1 until the sea-wave washes ,the rim ' th sn t-mrrow ,in eastern sky4 7,,beddoes47 ,the redundant syllables are specially marked off here1 to bring out their contrast with the acatalectic lines4 #aji ,macaulay's prosody is mostly plain sailing2 but in ,the ,last ,buccaneer he has 7perhaps following ,moore7 attempted a rather unusual rhythm4 ,see ,hist4 ,pros4 iii4 #ace-acg4 ,for ,praed v4 sup4 p4 #aad4 #aaj ,this did not appear till #ahdb4 #aaa ,the poet in a golden clime was born1 ,with golden stars above2 ,dower'd with the hate of hate1 the scorn of scorn1 ,the love of love4 #aab ,i built my soul a lordly pleasure-house1 ,wherein at ease for aye to dwell4 ,i said1 ,o ,soul1 make merry and carouse1 ,dear soul1 for all is well4 #aac ,i read1 before my eyelids dropt their shade1 ,the ,legend of ,good ,women1 long ago ,sung by the morning star of song1 who made ,his music heard below4 #aad ,a few examples may be given3-- 7#a7 ,oh heart6 oh6 blood that freezes1 blood that burns6 ,earth's returns ,for whole centuries of folly1 noise1 and sin6 ,shut them in ,with their triumphs and their glories1 and the rest2 ,love is best4 7,love1 among the ,ruins47 7,regular trochees alternately trimeter and monometer1 but both catalectic4 ,one monosyllabic substitution47 7#b7 ,what hand and brain went ever paired8 ,what heart alike conceived and dared8 ,what act proved all its thought had been8 ,what will but felt the fleshly screen8 ,we ride and ,i see her bosom heave4 ,there's many a crown for who can reach4 ,ten lines1 a statesman's life in each6 ,the flag stuck on a heap of bones1 ,a soldier's doing6 what atones8 ,they scratch his name on the ,abbey stones4 ,my riding is better1 by their leave4 7,the ,last ,ride ,together47 7,iambic dimeter stanza2 three or four trisyllabic substitutions47 7#c7 ,oh1 what a dawn of day6 ,how the ,march sun feels like ,may6 ,all is blue again ,after last night's rain1 ,and the ,south dries the hawthorn spray4 ,only1 my ,love's away6 ,i'd as lief that the blue were grey4 7,iambic-anapstic with monosyllabic feet admitted into partnership47 7#d7 ,is all our fire of shipwreck wood1 ,oak and pine8 ,oh1 for the ills half-understood1 ,the dim dead woe ,long ago ,befallen this bitter coast of ,france6 ,well1 poor sailors took their chance ,i take mine4 7,iambic-trochaic2 or1 if monosyllabic initial feet be granted in some lines1 all iambic1 and perhaps better so47 #aae 7a7 ,morning and evening ,maids heard the goblins cry3 ,come buy our orchard fruits1 ,come buy1 come buy3 ,apples and quinces1 ,lemons and oranges1 ,plump unpecked cherries1 ,melons and raspberries4 #aaf 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 7,where1 as almost always1 the dactylic lines can be made anapstic with anacrusis1 ,melons and raspberries1 etc47 7b7 ,she clipped a precious golden lock1 ,she dropped a tear more rare than pearl1 ,then sucked their fruit globes fair or red4 ,sweeter than honey from the rock1 ,stronger than man-rejoicing wine1 ,clearer than water flowed that juice4 #aag 7c7 ,but ever in the noonlight ,she pined and pined away2 ,sought them by night and day1 ,found them no more1 but dwindled and grew grey2 ,then fell with the first snow1 ,while to this day no grass will grow ,where she lies low3 ,i planted daisies there a year ago ,that never blow4 #aah 7d7 ,laughed every goblin ,when they spied her peeping3 ,came towards her hobbling1 ,flying1 running1 leaping1 ,puffing and blowing4 #aai 7#b7 ,where sunless rivers weep ,their waves into the deep1 ,she sleeps a charmd sleep3 ,awake her not4 ,led by a single star1 ,she came from very far1 ,to seek1 where shadows are1 ,her pleasant lot4 #abj 7#c7 ,come to me in the silence of the night2 ,come in the speaking silence of a dream2 ,come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright ,as sunlight on a stream2 ,come back in tears1 ,o memory1 hope1 love1 of finished years4 #aba 7#d7 ,one by one slowly1 ,ah how sad and slow6 ,wailing and praying ,the spirits rise and go3 ,clear stainless spirits1 ,white1 as white as snow2 ,pale spirits1 wailing ,for an overthrow4 #abb 7#e7 ,oh6 whence do you come1 my dear friend1 to me8 ,with your golden hair all fallen below your knee1 ,and your face as white as snowdrops on the lea1 ,and your voice as hollow as the hollow sea8 #abc 7,this last extract is a most audacious1 but quite justifiable1 fingering of the ordinary five-foot iambic line1 with substitutions and adaptations which give it now anapstic1 now trochaic undertone4 ,the first exhibits1 in a batch of five from ,goblin ,market1 the same audacity and the same success in varying line-length as well as constitution2 7#b71 7#c71 and 7#d71 with more of what is commonly called regularity1 show the same various address47 #aaf ,iamb and trochee followed by dactyl and trochee4 #aag ,pure iambic dimeter with a trochee or two4 #aah ,iambic1 with length varied from two to five feet4 #aai ,dactyl and trochee1 or mere trochee4 #abj ,iambic4 #aba ,iambic1 with some trochaic beginnings4 #abb ,dactylic-trochaic and iambic alternately4 #abc ,really irregular4 ,norm dimeter anapstic-- but largely varied in rhythm and length4 ,best scanned as above1 with strong pause1 making five feet4 #abd ,for examples of ,morris's prosody see ,scanned ,conspectus4 #abe ,examples of lyric3 7#a7 ,you have chosen and clung to the chance they sent you1 ,life sweet as perfume1 and pure as prayer2 ,but will it not one day in heaven repent you8 ,will they solace you wholly1 the days that were8 ,will you lift up your eyes between sadness and bliss8 ,meet mine and see where the great love is1 ,and tremble and turn and be changed8 ,content you1 ,the gate is strait2 ,i shall not be there4 7,anapstic dimeter with iambic substitution and redundance4 ,a most perfect combination47 7#b7 ,if love were what the rose is ,and ,i were like the leaf1 ,our lives would grow together ,in sad or singing weather1 ,blown fields or flowerful closes1 ,green pleasure or grey grief3 ,if love were what the rose is ,and ,i were like the leaf4 7,pure iambics4 ,dimeter catalectic and brachycatalectic by turns47 7#c7 ,when the game began between them for a jest1 ,he played king and she played queen to match the best4 ,laughter soft as tears1 and tears that turned to laughter1 ,these were things she sought for years and sorrowed after4 7,trochaic trimeter catalectic2 quite pure throughout47 #abf ,as a star feels the sun and falters1 ,touched to death by diviner eyes-- ,as on the old gods' untended altars ,the old fire of withered worship dies4 7,long measure2 but completely transfigured by the redundance and double rhyme in the odd places1 and the trochaic and anapstic substitution47 #abg ,we are the music-makers1 ,and we are the dreamers of dreams1 ,wandering by lone sea-breakers1 ,and sitting by desolate streams3 ,world-losers and world-forsakers1 ,on whom the pale moon gleams2 ,for we are the movers and shakers ,of the world for ever1 it seems4 7,anapsts used with singular skill47 ,the stars are dimly seen among the shadows of the bay1 ,and lights that win are seen in strife with lights that die away4 ,the wave is very still--the rudder loosens in our hand2 ,the zephyr will not fill our sail1 and waft us to the land2 ,o precious is the pause between the winds that come and go1 ,and sweet the silence of the shores between the ebb and flow4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,say1 shall we sing of day or night1 fair land or mighty ocean1 ,of any rapturous delight or any dear emotion1 ,of any joy that is on earth1 or hope that is above1 ,the holy country of our birth1 or any song of love8 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,our heart in all our life is like the hand of one who steers ,a bark upon an ocean rife with dangers and with fears3 ,the joys1 the hopes1 like waves or wings1 bear up this life of ours-- ,short as a song of all these things that make up all its hours4 7,the old fourteener--but made almost new by the great variation of pause1 by occasional redundance1 and by the grouping of the lines47 #abh ,if ever thou didst creep ,from out the world of sleep1 ,when the sun slips and the moon dips1 ,if ever thou wast born2 ,or upon the starving lips ,of the gray uncoloured morn4 7,especial effect produced by the anapsts and monosyllabic feet of line #c47 ,thou goest more and more ,to the silent things3 thy hair is hoar1 ,emptier thy weary face3 like to the shore ,far-ruined1 and the desolate billow white ,that recedes and leaves it waif-wrinkled1 gap-rocked1 weak4 ,the shore and the billow white ,groan--they cry and rest not3 they would speak ,and call the eternal ,night ,to cease them for ever1 bidding new things issue ,from her cold tissue3 ,night that is ever young1 nor knows decay1 ,though older by eternity than they4 7,very fine modern ,pindaric1 with extremely well-managed substitution47 #abi ,for some supposed exceptions v4 sup4 last section of ,scanned ,conspectus1 pp4 #abh-acj4 ,one of the most interesting things in the study of prosody is the tracing of the history of lyric forms4 ,examples have been given above1 and more will be found below2 but completeness is here again impossible4 ,again1 also1 the principles1 properly followed out1 will carry the student safely through all such investigations1 as1 for instance1 that into the connection of ,mr4 ,swinburne's ,anima ,anceps with ,curran's ,deserter1 and the entire pedigree of both4 ,perhaps it may be well to add that1 where a choriambic effect occurs 7 71 choice is often1 if not always1 open between scansion as trochee and iamb or as monosyllabic foot and anapst4 ,this has been already indicated expressly in some examples4 ,see1 especially1 pp4 #ahc1 #ahd1 #bab4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,recapitulation ,,or ,,summary ,,view ,,of ,,stages ,,of ,,english ,,prosody ,i4 ,,old ,,english ,,period ,prosody rhythmical1 not metrical2 determined exclusively by alliteration and accent4 ,combinations of accented and unaccented syllables perhaps classifiable1 but seldom1 if ever1 reducible to any combination corresponding to the flow of later ,middle and ,modern ,english verse1 though the principle 7of syllabic irregularity in corresponding lines7 survives as the most important basis of that verse itself4 ,rhyme1 except in the piece specially entitled ,rhyming ,poem and other very late examples1 practically non-existent2 the instances collected from other places being very few and quite possibly accidental4 ,,ii4 ,,before ,,or ,,very ,,soon ,,after #abjj ,earliest ,middle ,english ,period4 ,no pure and unmixed alliterative-accentual verse of the old kind1 but a choice between pure syllabic metre of iambic type 7,ormulum71 less regular but clearly metrical 7i4e4 foot-measured7 verse1 iambic or trochaic 7,paternoster1 ,moral ,ode1 etc471 and singular mixtures of the alliterative kind 7badly done71 and the metrical kind 7sometimes done rather better7 7,layamon1 ,proverbs of ,alfred74 ,,iii4 ,,middle ,,and ,,later ,,thirteenth ,,century ,second ,early ,middle ,english ,period4 ,the metrifying process going on1 with stronger emphasising of the metrical character and almost complete discarding of the alliterative 7,king ,horn1 late in the century1 has sometimes been claimed as an exception1 but without good reason74 ,definite forms emerge3 the two great kinds of octosyllabic couplet--more strictly syllabic 7,owl and ,nightingale71 or less so 7,genesis and ,exodus72 the fifteener-fourteener or seven-foot iambic 7,robert of ,gloucester72 the rime coue or ,romance-six 7,proverbs of ,hendyng74 ,of pure alliterative verse there is no trace whatever4 ,,iv4 ,,earlier ,,fourteenth ,,century ,central ,period of ,middle ,english4 ,the metrical development attains complete predominance in the ,romances 7chiefly octosyllabic couplet or ,romance-six71 and in lyrics such as those of the ,harleian ,,ms4 #bbec4 ,in both there is considerable equivalence1 or substitution of trisyllabic 7and perhaps also monosyllabic7 for dissyllabic feet4 ,the fourteener begins to break itself down into the ballad measure of eight and six1 with or without full alternate rhyme4 ,decasyllabic couplet appears 7as it had done even earlier7 sporadically4 ,but at an uncertain time--probably about the second third of the century--alliteration again makes its appearance1 sometimes alone 7,william of ,palerne71 sometimes in company with some rhyme-arrangement 7,sir ,gawain and the ,green ,knight72 and the two methods continue side by side 7though with the alliteration always in the minority and seldom quite pure7 for the best part of two hundred years1 till well within the sixteenth century itself4 ,v4 ,,later ,,fourteenth ,,century ,crowning ,period of ,middle ,english4 ,the tendencies already indicated1 and shown after #acej by ,laurence ,minot1 the writers in the ,vernon ,,ms41 and others1 culminate in three remarkable poets--,langland1 ,gower1 and ,chaucer4 ,the first1 who is probably the oldest 7though the most plausible theory of his work puts it in stages from the sixth or seventh to the last decade of the century71 eschews rhyme altogether1 and 7as far as he can1 but not entirely7 declines metrical form--preferring a modernised ,old ,english line1 strongly middle-paused1 and regularly1 but not lavishly1 alliterated4 ,gower1 with a little rhyme-royal1 employs elsewhere1 throughout his voluminous ,english work1 octosyllabic couplet1 nearer to the ,french or strictly syllabic norm than that of any other ,middle ,english writer1 though with some tell-tale approaches to variety4 ,chaucer1 between the two1 represents the true development of ,english prosody proper4 ,he practises1 from the 7disputed7 ,romaunt of the ,rose1 to the 7certain7 ,house of ,fame1 the octosyllabic couplet2 varies it remarkably and consciously2 and gets from it effects excellent in their way1 but never1 apparently1 quite satisfactory to himself4 ,he adopts or imitates from the ,french1 besides minor forms1 the great rhyme-royal or ,troilus stanza4 ,he has1 in his prose1 curious shadows before of blank verse4 ,but his greatest metrical achievement is the taking up--whether wholly from ,french or with some consciousness of earlier sporadic attempts in ,english is disputed1 but certainly in the perhaps unconscious line of those attempts--the decasyllabic or heroic couplet1 which is first the sole vehicle of his ,legend of ,good ,women1 and secondly the main vehicle of ,the ,canterbury ,tales4 ,,vi4 ,,fifteenth ,,and ,,early ,,sixteenth ,,centuries ,the ,decadence of ,middle ,english ,prosody4 ,the prosodic accomplishment of ,chaucer1 while representing all that ,middle ,english was capable of attaining1 represented more than it was capable of maintaining4 ,his followers in ,middle ,scots1 employing not the actual vernacular1 but a made literary language1 carried out his lessons for some time with great success4 ,but those in ,southern ,english appear to have--except in more or less pure folk-poems--succumbed partly to influences of change in pronunciation 7which are very imperfectly understood1 though the disuse of the final valued e is the certain and central fact71 partly to a loss of understanding 7which is still more obscure in its nature and causes7 of the metres themselves4 ,from ,lydgate to ,hawes1 rhyme-royal most of all1 decasyllabic couplet 7not so often tried7 hardly less1 and octosyllabic to a somewhat minor degree1 exhibit the most painful irregularity1 clumsiness1 and prosaic effect1 there being sometimes no regular rhythm1 and nothing at all but the rhyme to give a poetical character to the composition4 ,the doggerel of ,skelton is a pretty obvious attempt to escape from this4 ,only ballad1 carol1 and the like seem to escape the curse4 ,,vii4 ,,mid-,,sixteenth ,,century ,the ,recovery of ,rhythm4 ,in the second quarter of the sixteenth century attention seems to have been drawn to the staggering state of prosody2 by the end of that quarter1 or a very little later1 we know from positive evidence that it was theoretically felt4 ,but much earlier ,sir ,thomas ,wyatt1 and1 in his tracks1 ,henry ,howard1 ,lord ,surrey1 expressed the fact practically by their imitations of ,italian forms4 ,both tried the sonnet2 ,wyatt attempted1 with little success1 terza rima2 and ,surrey1 with more1 tried blank verse4 ,the regular quantification or accentuation necessary for the reproduction of these forms evidently gave them 7and ,wyatt more particularly and naturally1 as the pioneer7 a great deal of trouble2 but they managed it--if not universally or perfectly--somehow2 and they kept the practice up in lyric measures less strictly imitated4 ,they also popularised--if they did not introduce--a new combination-variation of the old long lines into the so-called poulter's measure or couplet of twelve-fourteen syllables1 easily breaking down into six1 six1 eight1 six4 ,their example was followed by many poets between #aeej and #aehj1 iambic regularity establishing itself rather at the expense of poetic variety1 but with an immense gain to the ear4 ,a very important1 though not in itself very poetical1 development was also made in the regular anapstics of ,tusser2 and the drama1 taking up at last ,surrey's blank verse1 in the meantime experimented with all sorts of forms1 regular and doggerel4 ,,viii4 ,,late ,,sixteenth ,,century ,the ,perfecting of ,metre and of ,poetical ,diction4 ,this invaluable if not always very stimulating period of drill and discipline 7in which ,wyatt and ,surrey themselves1 with ,sackville later1 are the chief and almost the only poets who transcend experiment7 passes1 a little before #aehj1 into one of complete poetic and proportionately complete prosodic accomplishment1 with ,spenser and his companions and followers for non-dramatic poetry1 with ,peele and ,marlowe preluding ,shakespeare in dramatic blank verse4 ,the greatest pioneer1 one who not only explores but attains1 is ,spenser2 and he1 after presenting in the ,shepherd's ,calendar the most remarkable record of experiment in the history of ,english poetic form1 proceeds to the perfect structure and exquisite diction of the ,faerie ,queene4 ,he1 however1 hardly touches blank verse1 and1 after the ,calendar1 eschews the lighter lyric4 ,but both these are taken up by others2 and while lyric attains all but the highest possible stage of that diversity in harmony which is especially required by it1 the possibilities of blank verse are more than suggested in ,shakespeare's predecessors1 and are1 in the dramatic range1 exhausted by ,shakespeare himself4 ,outside the drama1 however1 and blank verse1 the abiding fear of doggerel keeps back the due development of regularised substitution3 verse is mostly iambic4 ,but here also ,shakespeare pierces the heart of the mystery1 and the songs in his plays are as prosodically complete as his blank verse itself4 ,there is much practice in sonnet1 and1 towards the end of the century1 riding rhyme or heroic couplet1 which had fallen into some disuse1 is revived1 chiefly for satiric or semi-satiric purposes 7as by ,spenser in ,mother ,hubberd's ,tale1 by ,hall1 ,donne1 and ,marston in their definite satires1 etc41 and for history by ,drayton74 ,,ix4 ,,early ,,seventeenth ,,century ,the further ,development of ,lyric1 ,stanza1 and ,blank ,verse4 ,insurgence and ,division of the ,couplet4 ,between the latest years of the sixteenth and the earliest of the seventeenth century there is naturally little difference1 but the total transformation is rather rapid4 ,blank verse no sooner attains its absolute perfection in ,shakespeare than it begins to show signs of overripeness1 in the great tendency to redundance which even he shares in his latest plays1 and which distinguishes ,beaumont and ,fletcher4 ,stanza does not1 after the similar consummateness of ,spenser1 show a similar formal decline2 but there arises a distaste for it4 ,only lyric perseveres in practically full flourishing2 and even exhibits a certain further quintessence of beauty1 though some loss of strength4 ,meanwhile1 the decasyllabic couplet revives in a complicated fashion4 ,it does not yet make much recovery of drama1 but is very largely practised by ,drayton1 is declared 7at least on ,drummond's authority7 to be the bravest sort of verse by ,jonson1 and made1 towards the end of ,james the ,first's reign1 the subject of a formal critical-poetical encomium by ,sir ,john ,beaumont4 ,but it is a house divided against itself1 and it is not till the stopped form 7in which the rhymes sharply punctuate the sense7 conquers the enjambed 7which in this sub-period is the favourite7 that it attains complete popular favour4 ,x4 ,,mid-,,seventeenth ,,century ,milton4 ,the period1 or sub-period1 which may be called mid-seventeenth century1 on one side continues the developments described in the last section1 and on another begins those which will be described in the next4 ,but it contains almost the whole work of ,milton1 who belongs in one sense to both1 in another to neither4 ,if he had written no blank verse1 he would still be of the first rank as a practical prosodist1 in virtue of his stanza-forms1 such as that in the ,hymn on the ,nativity2 of his remarkably varied octosyllabic couplet in ,l',allegro1 ,il ,penseroso1 ,arcades1 and ,comus2 of the almost unique strophes1 with irregular rhyme1 in ,lycidas2 of the ,sonnets1 adjusted not to the ,elizabethan-,english1 but to the commoner ,italian forms2 and of the peculiar choric arrangements of ,samson ,agonistes4 ,but it is undoubtedly as the introducer of blank verse for general poetic practice1 and as the modulator of that verse in the directions previously described1 that he stands as one of the very greatest masters of ,english prosody4 ,for1 on the one hand1 he rescues blanks from the chaos into which1 by the laches of the dramatists1 they were falling2 and1 on the other1 he establishes for ever 7though it may sometimes be mistaken by individuals and periods7 the principle of foot-equivalence and substitution in the individual line1 with that of combination of several lines into a verse-paragraph4 ,,xi4 ,,the ,,later ,,seventeenth ,,century ,dryden4 ,for the moment1 however1 the work of ,milton produces no effect1 and though ,dryden1 his younger contemporary1 uses1 with great effect1 a large variety of metres1 his main importance1 in the general history of prosody1 consists in the establishment of the stopped heroic couplet as at once the most popular and the most dignified of ,english metres4 ,but he does not at once make it into the strictly decasyllabic1 strictly middle-paused kind which dominates the following century4 ,on the initiation 7partly at least7 of ,cowley1 he varies it with the ,alexandrine1 which he sometimes includes in a triplet1 while the same extension to three similarly rhymed lines1 in decasyllable only1 is still more frequent4 ,if he does not exactly introduce1 he popularises and for a time maintains1 the same couplet in drama1 but uses it most successfully in satiric and didactic verse1 of extraordinary weight and vigour1 while entirely destitute of monotony4 ,he himself and his minor but more lyrical contemporaries1 ,rochester1 ,sedley1 ,afra ,behn1 etc41 continue the older ,caroline tradition of song in varied measures1 but it dies out4 ,on the other hand1 his practice 7suggested1 doubtless1 by ,davenant's ,gondibert7 of the decasyllabic quatrain1 and the majestic if not fully ,pindaric strophes of his ,odes1 supply models which serve to vary the unbroken prevalence of the couplet1 and are followed by ,gray and others1 during the succeeding century1 with exceptionally fine results4 ,,xii4 ,,the ,,eighteenth ,,century ,the summary of the history of eighteenth-century prosody has been foreshadowed in the above lines4 ,addison1 ,garth1 and others follow ,dryden2 and ,pope further corrects him in a couplet which becomes polished to the extreme1 but1 when handled without almost supreme genius1 is distinctly monotonous4 ,and this couplet1 with almost complete and definite acceptance by theorists and little overt protest on the part of practitioners1 assumes the position of premier metre in ,english for long poems1 continuing to hold it throughout the hundred years4 ,lyric1 too1 confines itself to relatively few forms1 chiefly iambic--the common and long measure1 the ,romance-six1 the decasyllabic quatrain1 the regular or irregular ,pindaric ode4 ,there are1 however1 certain privileged exceptions to the uniformity4 ,two poets not in their first youth at the beginning of the century--,prior and ,swift--secure a position for the light octosyllable and for anapstic measures2 ,gray and ,collins raise the ode2 ,thomson--preceded by one or two minor poets1 and followed by a considerable number1 some of whom are not so minor--takes up the manner of ,milton1 that is to say1 blank verse4 ,even in the first half of the century ,shenstone timidly pleads for trisyllabic substitution1 while in the second half ,chatterton and ,blake boldly practise it2 and that study of old 7and especially ballad7 ,english verse1 of which ,percy's ,reliques is the central example1 slowly but surely leads the way to a restoration of its principles4 ,,xiii4 ,,the ,,early ,,nineteenth ,,century ,,and ,,the ,,romantic ,,revival ,in no department of poetic practice does the great ,romantic revival1 after forerunnings in ,chatterton and ,blake1 show itself1 in the latest years of the eighteenth century1 and the earliest of the nineteenth1 more perceptibly than in that of prosody4 ,only one of its masters--,wordsworth--slights this revival in theory1 while he is not of the first mark in practice4 ,but ,coleridge1 in ,the ,ancient ,mariner and ,christabel1 restores and perfects equivalence on a doubtful principle1 but with consummate practical effect4 ,southey1 less effective practically1 is both sounder and more original in theory2 ,scott takes up ,coleridge's example in all his verse-romances1 and completely vindicates the freedom of lyric2 ,byron1 affecting admiration of the couplet1 achieves his own best work in ,coleridge-,scott octosyllables1 in ,spenserians1 in octaves1 and in lyric2 ,shelley pushes the various and unfettered lyrical movement to its almost inconceivable farthest2 and ,keats revives 7after ,leigh ,hunt7 the enjambed couplet in decasyllable1 recovers an octosyllabic form unknown since ,gower and only partially utilised by him1 writes exquisite ,spenserians and beautiful octaves1 comes perhaps nearest ,milton in blank verse and nearest ,dryden in the other kind of couplet1 and achieves forms of ode1 classical and ,romantic1 of astonishing flexibility and charm4 ,by and in these1 and in many minors from ,moore downwards1 the freedom of prosody1 and the great instrument of that freedom1 the equivalenced foot1 are championed and practised with almost all the variety possible4 ,,xiv4 ,,the ,,later ,,nineteenth ,,century ,the process of varying and extending the forms of prosody1 by the special instrument above noticed and others1 and under the direction of a general effort to give those forms a wider visual and audible appeal to the mind's senses1 continues in the two later groups or stages--of which the chief representatives are1 in the first case1 ,tennyson and ,browning2 in the second1 ,mr4 ,swinburne1 the ,rossettis1 and ,william ,morris--with constant recovery or fresh invention of prosodic effect4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is on the continuity of this history that the student should keep his eye4 ,looked at partially1 it may seem to lack this continuity2 looked at as a whole1 it will be seen to exhibit exactly the alternate or successive predominance of different tendencies and developments in which all healthy life-history consists4 ,no partial and inconsecutive explanations as to widely differing pronunciation of vowels at different times1 none of quantity having the preference at one time and accent at another1 or of certain feet inclining to these things respectively1 are necessary1 or should be entertained4 ,the birth1 progress1 and perfecting of the foot under the guidance of equivalent substitution1 now vividly present1 now apparently in abeyance1 but always potentially existing--this is the mystery of this wonderful history1 the open secret of ,english prosodic life4 ,,book ,,iii ,,historical ,,survey ,,of ,,views ,,on ,,prosody ,,chapter ,i ,,before #agjj ,sidenote3 ,dearth of early prosodic studies4 ,in hardly any language are studious investigations into the form of verse likely to be early1 and in a language with such a history as ,english they could not possibly be so4 ,we have indeed1 from the early fourteenth century1 some remarks of ,robert of ,brunne on kinds of verse--cowee 7,romance-six71 baston1#acj enterlace 7pretty obvious71 etc41 but with no explanation or discussion2 and ,chaucer himself 7who1 in this respect as in others1 is slavishly followed by ,lydgate#aca7 makes apologies for roughness and inexperience4#acb ,in ,gower 7,conf4 ,am4 iv4 #bdad7 there is a reference1 but after ,chaucer and not yet quite satisfactorily explained1 to the difference between rhyme and cadence1 while in the ,scottish chronicler ,wyntoun there is another reference#acc to cadence4 ,again1 in ,chaucer we have the ,parson's famous disclaimer of indulgence in rum ram ruf1 because the speaker is a ,southern man4 ,but not one of these things makes the slightest pretence to be even a prosodic discussion1 let alone a prosodic treatise2 and it is not till towards the end of the third quarter of the sixteenth century--when a whole generation had already followed ,wyatt in endeavouring to effect1 in practice1 the reform of the prosodic breakdown from ,lydgate to ,hawes1 if not even to ,barclay--that the first ,english prosodic treatise appears in the shape of ,gascoigne's ,notes of ,instruction 7#aegb-ge74 ,they had been a little anticipated in time by remarks of ,ascham's1 and perhaps of others1 on a new fashion of classical versing1 on which more presently2 but this1 though essentially prosodic in character1 had not yet formed the subject of a regular treatise1 and its exponents implicitly or expressly declined all meddling with beggarly rhyme1 i4e4 with the form of ,english poetry proper4 ,sidenote3 ,gascoigne4 ,gascoigne's little book#acd is very short1 very practical1 very sensible1 and--except in one unlucky remark1 which 7or rather the misunderstanding of it7 has done harm to the present day--in the main1 perfectly sound4 ,he dwells on the importance of accent and of the observation of it2 and he was quite right1 for even ,wyatt had been very loose in this respect1 and the desire to get out of the doggerel of the fifteenth century#ace had led novices in precision to strain the accent1 in order that they might keep the quantity4 ,but he insists also--and with more than a century of awful examples to justify him if he had cared to use them--on keeping metre--on not wandering from lines of one length or character to those of another as the rhyme-royalists of the preceding century constantly do4 ,he gives rules for the pause1 leaving rhyme-royal itself free in that respect4 ,he mentions especially1 besides rhyme-royal1 riding rhyme 7,chaucerian couplet71 poulter's measure 7the alternate ,alexandrine and fourteener71 and octosyllables4 ,he deprecates poetic commonplaces 7cherry lips and the like71 and gives some positive rules for pronunciation 7,heav'n is to be always monosyllabic74 ,sidenote3 ,his remark on feet4 ,the excepted unlucky point is his remark that commonly nowadays in ,english rhymes we use no other than a foot of two syllables1 whereof the first is depressed and made short1 and the second elevated or made long4 ,he says that we have used in times past other kinds of metres1 giving as example the anapstic line-- ,no wight in this world that wealth can attain2#acf laments the restriction to iambs1 and shows a remarkable appreciation of ,chaucer's liberty that the ,latinists do use1 i4e4 equivalent substitution1 though he may not have quite correctly understood this4 ,the desire for order and regularity in all this is very noticeable1 and perfectly intelligible to any one who has appreciated 7see last ,book7 the hopeless breakdown1 due to the neglect of these qualities1 in ,english prosody between #adjj and #aecj4 ,gascoigne's statement about the iamb is1 moreover1 true of the majority of his own contemporaries1 though it overlooks such a writer as ,tusser4 ,but it would be a grievous mistake 7and unfortunately it has often been committed7 to accept this not quite accurate declaration of ephemeral fact--accompanied as it is1 more especially1 by another expression of regret for that fact--as a rule and principle governing ,elizabethan and ,english poetry4 ,gascoigne's little treatise was followed at no great intervals1 but after his own death1 by more elaborate dealings with the subject--some of them exclusively or mainly devoted to the new craze for classical metres1 others treating the subject at large and merely referring to the versing attempts4 ,the order of these compositions1 with a very brief sketch of their contents1 may now be given4 ,sidenote3 ,spenser and ,harvey4 ,in the winter of #aegi-hj1 the date of the appearance of the ,shepherd's ,calendar1 ,spenser and his pragmatical friend ,gabriel ,harvey exchanged certain letters 7which we have7 dealing with the versing attempt that ,spenser himself makes4 ,an experiment in quantified trimeter refers to rules on the subject made by a ,cambridge man named ,drant1 but does not 7unfortunately7 give them1 and asks for ,harvey's own4 ,harvey blows rather hot and cold on the matter1 approving the system1 but criticising the details4 ,sidenote3 ,stanyhurst4 ,next1 in #aehb1 came the ,preface to ,richard ,stanyhurst's translation of the ,aeneid1 a book famous for the strange language in which it is written1 but1 as far as its ,preface is concerned1 a very sober and scientific attempt to do an impossible thing4 ,stanyhurst endeavours to arrange a set of rules for determining the quantity of every syllable in ,english1 not necessarily according to its ,latin or other derivation1 but on principles germane to the language itself4 ,he does not and cannot succeed2 but his attempt is interesting1 and rather less contrary to facts than some recent attempts of the same kind4 ,sidenote3 ,webbe4 ,he was followed1 in #aehf1 by ,william ,webbe1 whose ,discourse of ,english ,poetry is notable for the enthusiasm displayed by the author towards ,spenser 7the ,shepherd's ,calendar had appeared some years previously72 for his curiously combined enthusiasm as regards the classical metres which ,spenser had tried and dropped2 for the first published sketch of the history of ,english poetry 7erroneous1 but interesting72 and for a certain number of desultory remarks on prosodic subjects1 mostly brought round to the classical fancy1 though showing the interest which these questions were exciting4 ,but between ,stanyhurst and ,webbe one book of the kind had appeared1 and another had been perhaps composed1 though not printed1 in the same year--#aehd4 ,sidenote3 ,king ,james ,,vi4 ,the first was ,king ,james the ,sixth of ,scotland's ,rewlis and ,cautelis for the making of verse in his native dialect4 ,obligation has been traced in it to ,gascoigne and to the great ,french poet ,ronsard4 ,it is very clear and precise1 but of no wide interest1 being simply an analysis of recent actual ,scots verse with some peculiarities of terminology4 ,it is our first methodical book of prosody1 and some of its titles1 such as cuttit and broken verse for the metres of very irregular line-length which were growing so fashionable1 and which were to excite the displeasure of the eighteenth century1 are distinctly useful4 ,not so perhaps another--tumbling verse--which is of uncertain application to alliterative-anapstic or to mere doggerel rhythm--which has complicated the question of cadence 7v4 sup471 7of this it has been1 perhaps correctly1 thought to have been intended as an ,english translation71 and which was adopted rather arbitrarily by ,guest 7v4 inf474 ,sidenote3 ,puttenham 787 ,the other book1 written in or before #aehd1 though not published till #aehi1 was the most elaborate treatment of ,english prosody yet attempted1 and continued to be so until ,mitford's treatise 7v4 inf47 nearly two hundred years later4 ,the ,art of ,english ,poesy1 as it not too arrogantly called itself1 has no certain author1 but has been by turns attributed to two brothers1 ,george and ,richard ,puttenham4 ,it is1 in the original1 a treatise of some #beg well-filled pages4 ,about half of these is indeed occupied by an immense list of the fancifully devised ,figures of ,speech which the ,greek rhetoricians had excogitated1 and which apply 7in so far as they have any real application at all7 not more to poetry than to prose4 ,but the ,first ,book contains an elaborate discussion or defence of poetry generally1 ending with a sketch of ,english poets1 probably1 if not certainly1 written earlier than ,webbe's4 ,and the ,second is a very full and formal handling of the formal part of poetry1 the discussion being carried so far as to include those artificial figures in squares1 lozenges1 altars1 wings1 etc41 which more than one age fancied1 but which1 in ,english1 hardly survived the satire of ,addison4 ,puttenham1 however1 takes great pains to point out the exact form of different regular stanzas2 arranges line-lengths2 dwells on rhyme1 pause1 accent1 and other matters of importance2 considers the classical versing 7though he does not like it72 and1 in short1 treats the whole subject1 as far as his lights and opportunities permit1 in a really business-like manner4 ,it was somewhat unfortunate that he came a little too soon1 neither the ,faerie ,queene nor probably any of the greatest plays of the ,university ,wits having appeared at the time he wrote--nothing1 in short1 of the best time and kind but the ,shepherd's ,calendar4 ,sidenote3 ,campion and ,daniel4 ,the later years of the sixteenth century were less fruitful in regular prosodic discussion1 though the old wrangle about versing#acg continued at intervals between ,harvey and ,nash1 and some scattered observations on prosody exist1 by ,drayton and others4 ,but in the earliest years of the seventeenth the first-named dispute1 after hanging about for more than half a century since ,ascham's day1 was laid to rest1 for the time and 7except in scattered touches7 for nearly two centuries afterwards1 by the poet ,thomas ,campion's tractate on certain new forms of verse 7not hexameters7 devised by himself1 and the reply of another poet1 ,samuel ,daniel1 in his ,defence of ,rhyme4 ,campion1 an exquisite master of natural rhymed verse1 did not wholly fail with his artificial creations of ,english elegiacs1 ,english anacreontics1 etc4--metres based mainly on iambs and trochees1 though with some trisyllabic feet grudgingly allowed4 ,he not merely does not support the dactylic hexameter1 but pronounces against it2 and his main objection seems to lie against rhyme4 ,he also1 like ,stanyhurst1 attempts a scheme of ,english quantity1 though he admits the abundance of common syllables with us4 ,daniel in his answer confined himself to generalities1 but with the most triumphant effect--basing his defence of rhyme on ,custom and ,nature2 alleging the omnipotence of delight which is unquestionably given by and received from rhyme2 and asking why1 when in polity1 religion1 etc41 we notoriously and profoundly differ from the ,greeks and ,latins1 we are to imitate them in verse8 ,he points out1 again with absolute truth1 that ,campion's own versification is mostly or wholly nothing but old forms stripped of rhyme1 and urges the hopelessness of adjusting1 even on the reformer's own system1 ,english quantity to classical4 ,with this the thing became1 and was long wisely allowed to be1 res judicata4 ,sidenote3 ,ben ,jonson1 ,drayton1 ,beaumont4 ,in a sense this little book1 or rather pamphlet1 may be said to conclude the first batch or period of prosodic study in ,english4 ,for the whole of the seventeenth century after it1 though one of the most important practically in the entire history1 sees very little theoretical discussion4 ,ben ,jonson had1 we are told1 written a treatise against both ,campion and ,daniel1 especially the last1 praising couplets to be the bravest sort of verses1 especially when they are broken like hexameters1 and against cross-rhymes and stanzas4 ,but we have not his own authority for this1 which is only reported by ,drummond1 and the exact interpretation to be put upon broken like hexameters is absolutely uncertain4 ,the surfeit of stanza#ach is1 however1 an obvious fact1 and is borne witness to by ,drayton1 in the remarks above referred to1 and by others--things culminating in the verse precepts of ,sir ,john ,beaumont 7v4 sup47 recommending the stopped distich in a form which is almost eighteenth century4 ,had ,jonson finished his ,english ,grammar and given the prosodic section which he promised1 we should know more4 ,sidenote3 ,joshua ,poole and ,j4 ,d4 ,as it is1 there is nothing of importance before the ,restoration except the ,english ,parnassus of ,joshua ,poole1 published posthumously1 with a remarkable ,preface signed ,j4 ,d41 which in point of time might be--but which there is not the slightest reason except date and initials to suppose to be--,dryden's4 ,this ,introduction is partly historical and not ignorant1 while the author shows good sense and taste by objecting to wrenched rhymes 7nture and endre71 to the habit of apostrophation or cutting out syllables supposed to be extra-metrical1 and substituting apostrophes1#aci which was infesting the printing of the day1 and was1 to the great corroboration of prosodic heresies1 not got rid of for a century and a half4 ,he dislikes1 too1 the heavily overlapped verses then prevalent4 ,sidenote3 ,milton4 ,milton1 inferior to no ,english poet in his practical importance as a master of prosody1 and perhaps superior to all except ,shakespeare1 has nothing about it in the preceptist way1 except his rather petulant outbreak against rhyme#adj in the advertisement to ,paradise ,lost 7an outbreak largely neutralised by his own practice1 not only earlier1 but later71 and the reference to committing short and long in ,sonnet ,,xiii4#ada ,sidenote3 ,dryden4 ,and ,dryden almost repeats the tantalising conditions of ,jonson's attitude to the subject4 ,he tells us that he actually had in preparation a treatise on it2 but nothing more has ever been heard of this1 and1 large as is the amount of his work in literary criticism1 his references to this part of it are few and are mostly vague4 ,he does indeed tell us that no vowel can be cut off before another when we cannot sink the pronunciation of it1 and if this observation be extended to elision generally it is important4 ,sidenote3 ,woodford4 ,but1 on the whole1 the most significant passages on prosody of the later seventeenth century are the work of a more obscure writer1 ,samuel ,woodford1 in his ,prefaces to ,paraphrases of the ,psalms 7#affg7 and the ,canticles 7#afgh74 ,here criticising1 as no one else did1 ,milton from the prosodic point of view soon after date1 he recognises and defends trisyllabic feet1 but is disinclined to blank verse1 regarding 7and actually arranging7 it as rhythmed prose4 ,the references of ,lord ,roscommon and one or two others in verse1 as well as of critics of shadowy notoriety like ,rymer and ,dennis in prose1 are mostly trivial4 ,sidenote3 ,comparative barrenness of the whole4 ,in this first division of ,english prosodists there is observable a want of thoroughness--at first sight perhaps strange1 but easily explicable--which makes most of their work little more than a curiosity4 ,the only book which attempts to grapple somewhat methodically with the whole subject--that attributed to ,puttenham--labours under two fatal disadvantages4 ,the first is that the writer has a most imperfect knowledge1 or rather an almost unmixed ignorance1 of what has come before him2 and the second is that he naturally cannot know what will come after him1 while what actually did come immediately after him happens to be one of the greatest bodies1 in bulk and merit and variety1 of ,english poetry4 ,the two most gifted persons who think of treating it1 ,jonson and ,dryden1 do not actually do so2 and it may be more than doubted whether1 had they done so1 ignorance of the past would not still have stood in their way4 ,it is true that ,dryden's obiter dictum1 that you must not elide what you must pronounce1 is a sort of ark of salvation which carries all the elements of a sound prosody in it4 ,but it is not certain that the writer quite saw its full bearing1 and that bearing was certainly not seen by others4 ,on the other hand1 ,gascoigne's innocent but unlucky remark about the single two-syllabled foot expresses an opinion which1 though wholly erroneous1 undoubtedly did prevail very widely throughout the whole period4 ,the evidence of its falsity was indeed constantly accumulating in blank verse during the first half of the seventeenth century1 in definite trisyllabic metres during the second4 ,but this evidence was ignored or disobligingly received2 and when1 at the very beginning of the eighteenth1 ,bysshe once more attempted formulation of prosodic orthodoxy1 he arranged a code which1 as long as it was observed1 half maimed the sinews and half throttled the song of ,english poetry4 ,,footnotes3 #acj ,perhaps general for a stanza4 ,certainly used in one case for a six-lined one of four longer lines and two shorter4 #aca ,in his ,troy ,book he says that1 as tho at that time he set aside truth of metre1 had no guide in that art1 and took no heed of short and long4 #acb ,house of ,fame1 ,book ,,iii41 where he disclaims intention to shew art poetical1 speaks of his rhyme as light and lewed unlearned1 admits that some verses may fail in a syllable1 and precedes 7possibly patterning7 ,gower in distinguishing rhyme and cadence4 #acc ,he says that the substitution of ,procurator for ,emperor had mair grievd the cadence ,than had relievd the sentence meaning4 #acd ,for editions1 etc41 of this and other books named and discussed in this survey1 see ,bibliography4 #ace ,the passage referred to above 7p4 #aff7 as illustrating this1 in the ,mirror for ,magistrates 7ed4 ,haslewood1 ii4 #cid1 and see ,hist4 ,pros4 ii4 #ahh71 is anterior to ,gascoigne4 #acf ,observe that this might be scanned ,no wight in this world that wealth can attain4 ,but then it would not be another kind of metre4 ,the remark is not without bearing on the suggested possibility of ,spenser's ,february being mistaken heroic4 #acg ,at this time the technical phrase for classical-quantitative versification without rhyme4 #ach ,which1 let it be remembered1 had dominated ,english poetry1 in rhyme-royal1 for nearly two centuries from ,chaucer to ,sackville1 and then in the ,spenserian1 the octave1 and others1 for three-quarters of a century more4 ,these surfeits always recur1 though the octosyllabic couplet has suffered least from them4 #aci ,wat'ry1 prosp'rous1 and even vi'let4 #adj ,as the invention of a barbarous age to set off wretched matter and lame metre1 a barbarous and modern bondage1 contrasting with apt numbers1 fit quantity of syllables1 and the sense variously drawn out from one verse to another4 #ada ,this phrase1 which has been treated as enigmatic1 is quite clear in the context1 addressed to ,lawes the musician as one ,whose tuneful and well-measured song ,first taught our ,english music how to span ,words with just note and accent1 not to scan ,with ,midas' ears1 committing short and long4 ,that is to say1 ,lawes was not guilty1 as most composers notoriously are1 of laying musical stress on a syllable that could not prosodically bear it4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,from ,,bysshe ,,to ,,guest ,sidenote3 ,bysshe's ,art of ,poetry4 ,in #agjb1 just after the beginning of the new century1 there appeared a book which1 though it received little directly critical notice1 and was spoken of with disapproval by some who did notice it1 was repeatedly reprinted1 and which expressed1 beyond all reasonable doubt1 ideas prevalent largely for a century or more before it1 and almost universally for a century or more after it4 ,this was the ,art of ,poetry of ,edward ,bysshe4 ,the bulk of it is composed of dictionaries of rhyme1 etc4 ,but a brief ,introduction puts with equal conciseness and clearness the following views on ,english prosody4 ,the structure of our verses1 whether blank or in rhyme1 consists in a certain number of syllables2 not in feet composed of long and short syllables4 ,he works this out carefully--explaining that verses of double rhyme will always want one more syllable than verses of single2 decasyllables becoming hendecasyllables1 verses of eight syllables turning to nine1 verses of seven to eight4 ,this must also be observed in blank verse4 ,then of the several sorts of verses4 ,our poetry1 he thinks1 admits1 for the most part1 of but three verses--those of ten1 eight1 or seven syllables4 ,those of four1 six1 nine1 eleven1 twelve1 and fourteen are generally employed in masques and operas and in the stanzas of lyric and ,pindaric odes4 ,we have few entire poems composed in them2 though twelve and fourteen may be inserted in other measures and even carry a peculiar grace with them4 ,in decasyllabic verse two things are to be considered--the seat of the accent and the pause4 ,the pause ought to be at the fourth1 fifth1 or sixth syllable4 ,the strongest accent must be on the second1 fourth1 and sixth4 ,but he says nothing about accent in the last four places2 indeed he is less explicit about the second half of the line throughout4 ,and he says less about accent generally than about pause1 though he is sure that wrong placing of it is as great a fault in ,english as a false quantity was in the classical languages4 ,to make a good decasyllable you must be careful that the accent is neither on the third nor on the fifth--a curious crab-like way of approaching the subject1 but bringing out in strong relief the main principle of all this legislation1 ,thou shalt not4 ,the verse of seven syllables1 however1 is most beautiful when the strongest accent is on the third4 ,more curious still is his way of approaching trisyllabic metres4 ,as such1 he will not so much as speak of them4 ,verses of nine and eleven syllables1 it seems1 are of two sorts4 ,those accented on the last save one are merely the redundant eights and tens already spoken of4 ,the other class is those that are accented on the last syllable1 which are employed only in compositions for music1 and in the lowest sort of burlesque poetry1 the disagreeableness of their measure having wholly excluded them from grave and serious subjects4 ,these are neither more nor less than anapstic three- and four-foot verses2 though for some extraordinary reason ,bysshe does not even mention the full twelve-syllable form under any head whatever4 ,i suppose the lowness and disagreeableness of the thing was too much for him1 and as he had disallowed feet he had1 at any rate1 some logical excuse in making nothing of them4 ,he admits triplets in heroic1 and repeats his admission of ,alexandrines and fourteeners4 ,the verses of four or six syllables have nothing worth observing1 though he condescends to give some from ,dryden4 ,under the head of ,rules conducing to the beauty of our versification1 and with the exordium1 ,our poetry being very much polished and refined since the days of ,chaucer1 ,spenser1 and other ancient poets1 we find that you must avoid hiatus2 always cut off the e of the before a vowel2 never allow such collocations as thy iambics or into a book2 never value such syllables as amazd and lovd1 but always contract them2 avoid alliteration2 never split adjective from substantive1 or preposition from verb1 at the end of a line4 ,beauteous is but two syllables1 victorious but three4 ,you must not make riot one syllable as ,milton does4#adb ,you may contract vi'let and di'mond1 and if you do1 should write them so4 ,temp'rance1 diff'rent1 etc41 are all right2 and you may use fab'lous and mar'ner4 ,but ,bysshe acknowledges that this is not so frequent4 ,and he rejects or doubts some of the more violent and most hideous apostrophations1 such as1 b' for by1 but has no doubt about t'amaze1 ,i'm1 they've1 and most others4 ,rhyme is not very fully dealt with1 but for the most part correctly enough--so far as ,bysshe's principles go4 ,stanzas of intermixed rhyme 7like rhyme-royal1 the octave1 and the ,spenserian7 are now wholly laid aside1 for long poems at least4 ,shakespeare invented blank verse to escape the tiresome constraint of rhyme4 ,acrostics and anagrams deserve not to be mentioned4 ,sidenote3 ,its importance4 ,if any one has read this account carefully he will perceive at once what ,bysshe's ideals and standards are4 ,they put the strict decasyllabic couplet1 with no substitution1 no overrunning of lines1 a fixed middle pause1 and as nearly as possible an unvaried iambic cadence1 into the principal place--if not quite the sole place of honour--in ,english poetry4 ,they frown upon stanzas1 upon varied metres of any kind1 and even upon unvaried anapestic or triple measures4 ,strict syllabic scansion1 with a consideration of accent1 is the only process allowed2 and even ,dryden1 just dead1 and still regarded as the greatest of ,english poets1 is directly though gently reproached for too great variety and laxity1 as well as indirectly blamed for using low and disagreeable forms4 ,the author seems to have been a very obscure person1 of whom little or nothing is known2 but any one who really knows ,english poetry will see that he practically expresses the mind that dominated it during almost the whole of the eighteenth century4 ,sidenote3 ,minor prosodists of the mid-eighteenth century4 ,either from ,bysshe's starting the question2 or from the same general influence which made him start it2 or from the supposed tendency1 not to be too hastily accepted1 of a lull in creative poetry to be followed by an access of criticism--there is1 from this time onward1 no lack of prosodic work4 ,john ,brightland1 in an ,english ,grammar 7#agaa71 opposed ,bysshe on the subject of accent2 and he was also spoken of disparagingly by ,charles ,gildon1 who produced two books1 ,the ,complete ,art of ,poetry 7#agah7 and the ,laws of ,poetry 7#agba74 ,gildon was a pert and rather superficial writer who deservedly came under the lash of ,pope2 and1 though neither quite ignorant nor quite stupid1 he initiated a course of error which has never yet been stopped1 by confusing prosody with music and arranging it by musical signs4 ,between ,bysshe and his two critics ,dr4 ,watts had1 in the preface to his ,horae ,lyricae1 given some prosodic remarks indicating discontent with the monotony of the couplet1 an appreciation 7not unmixed with criticism7 of ,milton1 and other good things4 ,but1 before long1 the question whether ,accent or ,quantity governs ,english verse--often complicated with the attempt to interpret this latter by musical notation--absorbed an altogether disproportionate amount of attention4 ,the works of ,pemberton 7#agch71 ,mainwaring1 ,foster1 ,harris1 ,lord ,kames1 ,webb1 and ,say 7#agdd7 must be consulted by exhaustive students of the subject1 and will be found duly commented upon in the larger ,history by the present writer4 ,but they hardly need detailed notice here1 any more than the later lucubrations of ,lord ,monboddo1 ,tucker1 ,nares1 ,fogg1 and others4 ,their general tendency--which was indeed1 as has been said1 the general tendency of the century1 correctly harbingered by ,bysshe--was to concentrate attention on the heroic line1 and indeed to regard it as strictly iambic1 trisyllabic feet being wholly rejected1 and even trochaic substitution either rejected likewise1 as by ,pemberton1 or regarded as a more or less questionable licence4 ,but the subject was also handled by persons of more literary importance1 and in some cases1 though not in all1 of more insight and more knowledge4 ,sidenote3 ,dr4 ,johnson4 ,the most remarkable exponent of the general prosodic ideas of the century is undoubtedly ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson1 who1 though he wrote no special prosodic treatise1 dealt with the subject in his ,dictionary1 in the ,rambler 7especially in connection with ,milton71 and in his ,lives of the ,poets4 ,except that ,johnson does admit feet--or at least their names--his doctrine in the ,dictionary hardly differs from ,bysshe's as to the syllabic norm of lines1 the strict regularity of accent constituting harmony1 and the duty of compounding superfluous syllables by elision1 synalpha1 etc4 ,he applies these doctrines in the ,lives1 and still more in his papers on ,milton1 ,spenser1 etc41 in the ,rambler4 ,the spondees in ,milton's lines-- ,bth stod1 ,bth trned1 and the trochees in his ,uncropped flls t the ground1 and in ,cowley's ,and the soft wings of peace cvr him round1 are condemned as inharmonious4 ,he objects to ,milton's elisions--that is to say1 the devices necessary on his own system to avoid trisyllabic feet--and so to these feet themselves4 ,he thinks the ,spenserian stanza1 ,lycidas1 and the end of ,comus bad1 because the lines and rhymes are not regularly arranged4 ,in short1 he is an unhesitating--and almost the greatest--believer in the sheer1 alternately accented1 middle-paused1 syllabically limited decasyllable2 though1 with perhaps inevitable inconsistency1 he does admit that1 without variation of accent1 the series of sounds would be not only very difficult but tiresome and disgusting1 while maintaining at the same time stoutly that this variation always injures the harmony of the line considered by itself4 ,sidenote3 ,shenstone4 ,the inconveniences of this rigid system were not1 however1 entirely unnoticed4 ,at an uncertain time1 but probably between #agdj and his death1 the poet ,william ,shenstone urged1 in a posthumously published ,essay1 the beauty of what he called virtual dactyls--that is to say1 words like watery and tottering1--distinctly arguing that it seems absurd to print them otherwise than at full length--the otherwise being the established practice1 based upon definite theory1 of the century4 ,sidenote3 ,sheridan4 ,johnson's friend the elocutionist ,sheridan1 in his ,art of ,reading 7#agge71 calls it absurd 7as it certainly is7 to regard echoing as metrically ech'ing4 ,and1 later1 the poet ,cowper1 though using ambiguous and irresolute terminology on the subject1 admits the divine harmony of ,milton's elisions--by which1 he explains in the most self-contradictory way1 the line is lengthened4 ,sidenote3 ,john ,mason4 ,while much earlier1 at the very middle of the century1 ,john ,mason1 a little-known dissenting minister1 who was1 like ,sheridan1 a teacher of elocution1 quoting and scanning the lines-- ,and many an amorous1 many a humorous lay1 ,which many a bard had chanted many a day1 observes that this1 though it increases the number of syllables1 sweetens the flow of the verse1 gives a sweetness that is not ordinarily found in the common iambic verse4 ,it would be impossible to state more correctly or more definitely the case for the equivalent substitutional trisyllabic foot in ,english4 ,but1 as we shall see1 it was to be nearly two generations before considerable poets boldly adopted 7even then not always distinctly championing7 the idea1 and an entire century1 if not more1 before the principle was thoroughly accepted and understood4 ,sidenote3 ,mitford4 ,two deliberate prosodists1 in two books published within a twelvemonth of each other1 are memorable as 7if not exactly starting7 formulating1 in a more elaborate way than had ever been done before1 the one a mischievous and false1 the other the only true method of dealing with prosody4 ,joshua ,steele1 in his ,prosodia ,rationalis 7#agge71 is not always wrong2 and ,william ,mitford is not by any means invariably right--in fact1 he partly shares ,steele's error4 ,but his ,harmony of ,english ,verse 7#aggd7 is even then to a great extent1 and in its second edition1 thirty years later1 much more1 occupied with a careful historical inquiry as to the actual successive forms of his subject from the earliest period4 ,at first he had not even ,tyrwhitt's invaluable ,chaucer--which appeared in the year after ,steele's book--to guide him3 later he availed himself of the great accessions to the study of ,middle and ,elizabethan ,english which the intervening generation had seen4 ,and so1 though he believed too much in accent1 and relied too much on the dangerous assistance of music1 he frequently came right4 ,he has no doubt 7as it is astonishing that an historical student should have any doubt7 about trisyllabic feet2 he likes what he calls aberration of accent1 i4e4 trochaic substitution2 and he shows the possession of a fineness and cultivation of ear not as yet noticeable in any ,english prosodist1 by observing the presence of anapstic rhythm in the revived alliterative verse of ,langland4 ,except the inadequate and perfunctory1 as well as of necessity merely inchoate1 sketches of ,webbe and ,puttenham1 this was the first attempt really to take ,english poetry into consideration when studying ,english prosody2 and it had its reward4 ,sidenote3 ,joshua ,steele4 ,on the other hand1 ,steele1 who has been followed by many other prosodists of the same school1 entirely neglected the historical contents of his subject1 approaching it absolutely a priori1 deciding that it is essentially a matter of music1 and basing his scansions on purely musical principles4 ,this led him to begin with an anacrusis in every case1 and so to invert the whole rhythm of the line4 ,he has been praised for his views on time in the abstract1 and may deserve the praise2 while he was certainly right in regarding pause as an important metrical constituent4 ,but whatever merit there may be in his principles from an abstract point of view1 his concrete practice is simply atrocious1 and proves him to have had absolutely no ear for ,english verse whatever4 ,he makes six feet or cadences with proper rests1 at least1 and sometimes more1 in every heroic line1 so that he would scan one famous line thus-- ,o happiness1 our being's end and aim1 and he arranges the opening lines of ,paradise ,lost for scansion thus-- ,of man's first disobedience and the fruit of that for- bidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all our woe1 ,sing1 ,heavenly ,muse4 ,it must be perfectly evident to any one who will read these examples1 even to himself1 but still more aloud1 not merely that they entirely destroy the actual cadence and rhythm of the actual verses1 but that they provide a new doggerel which is absolutely inharmonious1 unrhythmical1 and contrary to every principle and quality of ,english poetry4 ,it would doubtless be possible to accommodate them with a tune2 in fact1 any one who has ever looked at a set song will see how they correspond to it4 ,but then any one who has ever looked at a set song must1 in a majority of cases1 have been convinced at once that musical arrangement has nothing to do with prosodic4 ,sidenote3 ,historical and ,romantic prosody4 ,it was inevitable that the ,romantic movement--one of the principal causes and features of which was a demand for variety1 while another was its disposition to return to older modes--should be largely concerned with prosody2 but1 with some notable exceptions1 this concernment did not take the form of actual prosodic deliverances or discussions4 ,sidenote3 ,gray ,gray1 one of the chief precursors of the movement1 had projected a regular history of ,english poetry1 and has left invaluable notes under the general head of ,metrum--notes in which he goes back1 deliberately and directly1 to ,middle ,english1 discovers therein the origin and nature of the metre of ,spenser's ,february1 etc41 and has very good remarks about others4 ,but it was not till the stir of the revolutionary period that much more was done1 and even then more was done than said4 ,sidenote3 ,taylor and ,sayers4 ,the ,german explorations of ,william ,taylor of ,norwich induced ,english writers to follow the ,german attempt at accentual hexameters2 and another of the ,norwich group1 ,frank ,sayers1 not merely wrote1 but expounded and defended in prose1 rhymeless metres of a choric character2 both being--in part1 if not mainly--revolts from the mechanical heroic couplet4 ,sidenote3 ,southey4 ,his importance4 ,before the end of the century1 long before ,coleridge published the explanatory note on ,christabel metre1 and not improbably before he had even thought of that note1 ,southey had not only used trisyllabic equivalence in his ,ballads1 but had formally and independently defended it as such in a letter to his friend ,wynn4#adc ,sidenote3 ,wordsworth4 ,wordsworth says very little about metrical detail in his famous ,preface to the second edition of the ,lyrical ,ballads and its successors--appearing to think1 and indeed in one place asserting1 that harmony of numbers comes of itself to a person who has other poetical qualifications4 ,sidenote3 ,coleridge4 ,his two just-mentioned friends1 however1 lodged1 at a slightly later period1 two of the most important preceptist documents of ,english prosody1 though they were documents differing very widely in the extent and character of their importance4 ,these were ,coleridge's note on the metre of ,christabel1 and ,southey's ,preface to the ,vision of ,judgment4 ,the latter is too long to give1 and is written from a mistaken point of view2 but it1 and the much-ridiculed poem which it accompanied1 undoubtedly restarted the practice of attempting to write ,english hexameters1 which has been continued1 with some intervals and some episodes1 but at times most busily1 ever since4 ,the former must be given at length1 and some comment made on it3-- ,sidenote3 ,christabel1 its theory and its practice4 ,the metre of the ,christabel is not1 properly speaking1 irregular1 though it may seem so from its being founded on a new principle1 namely1 that of counting1 in each line1 the accents1 not the syllables4 ,though the latter may vary from seven to twelve1 yet in each line the accents will be found to be only four4 ,nevertheless this occasional variation in number of syllables is not introduced wantonly1 or for the mere ends of convenience1 but in correspondence with some transition in the nature of the imagery or passion4 ,what ,christabel metre really was has been expounded earlier1 and its author's account of it is not a little surprising4 ,when he called its principle new he must have forgotten--not exactly the ,middle ,english writers1 whom he very likely did not know1 nor perhaps ,gray1 though the latter's remarks on ,spenser's ,february were actually published before ,christabel1 but--,spenser himself and ,chatterton 7both of whom he certainly knew1 if not ,blake also71 as well as the very ballad-writers whom he had himself imitated in the ,ancient ,mariner4 ,his mention of accents and not feet argues an erroneous and inadequate theory which leaves much of the beauty of his own work unexplained2 while it can be shown from the text itself that the variation of syllables1 though metrically beautiful1 often does not correspond at all with any special point of sense1 passion1 imagery1 or anything else4 ,but his practice more than cured any wound which his theory may have inflicted4 ,sidenote3 ,prosodists from #ahjj to #ahej4 ,in comparison with ,southey's and ,coleridge's remarks1 and still more with the practice of the latter in ,christabel and the ,ancient ,mariner1 the preceptist prosody of the extreme end of the eighteenth century1 and the first third of the nineteenth becomes1 except for exhaustive students of the subject1 a mere curiosity1 and not a very interesting one4 ,prosodic remarks1 mostly erroneous or inadequate1 found their way into popular handbooks1 such as ,walker's ,dictionary 7almost wholly wrong7 and ,lindley ,murray's ,grammar 7partially right74 ,the musical theories of ,steele were taken up by others1 such as ,odell1 ,roe1 and1 above all1 the republican lecturer ,thelwall1 who1 escaping the consequences of his earlier extravagances1 became a teacher of elocution4 ,the new ,reviews gave opportunity for occasional critical remarks on the subject--the most notable of which was the ,quarterly review1 by ,croker1 of ,keats's ,endymion1--usually embodying the cramped and ignorant doctrinairism of the preceding century4 ,southey's hexameters started a large amount of writing on that subject4 ,in #ahaf ,john ,carey1 compiler of the best-known ,latin ,gradus and author of many cribs and school editions1 repeated most of the errors of ,bysshe1 but did grudgingly allow trisyllabic feet2 and in #ahbg ,william ,crowe1 a minor poet and ,public ,orator at ,oxford1 wrote a treatise of ,english ,versification--good in method1 but bad in principle--condemning the adjustment of very short to longer lines1 etc4 ,nothing of this period comes in importance near to that second edition of ,mitford 7#ahjd1 with most of the historical matter added7 which has been noticed4 ,sidenote3 ,guest4 ,but in #ahch--;after the appearance of ,tennyson and ,browning1 but when no public attention had been paid to them--appeared the most elaborate1 ambitious1 and1 partly at least1 valuable work that had yet been written on the subject--the ,history of ,english ,rhythms1 by ,edwin ,guest1 then ,fellow1 afterwards ,master1 of ,gonville and ,caius ,college1 ,cambridge4 ,guest took nearly two years between the publication of the first and second volumes of his book1 and admittedly changed his opinions on some points1 but his main theories are unmistakable4 ,he goes entirely by accent1 denying metrical quantity in ,english altogether1 and imposing curious arbitrary rules 7such as that two adjoining syllables cannot be accented without a pause7 on accent itself4 ,but he possessed an immense and truly admirable knowledge of ,english verse--,old1 ,middle1 and ,modern--up to his time2 and he lavished this1 in a manner useful1 indeed invaluable1 to the present day1 on the support of general theories which1 unfortunately1 are quite unsound4 ,for ,guest seems to have conducted his work under the influences of three different obsessions1 no one of which he ever worked out thoroughly in all its bearings1 which do not necessarily imply each other1 and two of which are even rather contradictory4 ,the first#adf was the belief that our verse is wholly dependent upon accent1 and that the principles of accentual rhythm1 whatever they are1 govern it exclusively4 ,the second#adg was that the laws of ,english versification generally are somehow not only dependent on those of ,old ,english versification1 but identical with them1 and always to be adjusted to them4 ,the third#adh was that1 somewhere about the early thirteenth century1 and increasingly till the end of the fourteenth1 there took place a succession of alien invasions which never resulted in a coalescence or blending1 but merely in the presence of two hostile elements2 and that while the perfect ,english versifier will cling to the older and only genuine one1 he must1 if he does not so cling1 give it up altogether1 and have nothing to do with anything but the rhythm of the foreigner4 ,now what has been already and will be later given in this book seems to show that these propositions are in fact false4 ,in the first place1 though accent plays a large part in ,english prosody1 that prosody is as far as possible from being purely or exclusively accentual4 ,in the second1 the oldest ,english poetry and its younger varieties are so utterly different that the same laws cannot1 except per accidens1 apply to them4 ,in the third1 instead of two jarring elements1 we find before us1 from the thirteenth century1 at least1 onwards1 a more and more distinct and harmonious blend of language1 resulting1 of necessity1 in a more and more distinct and harmonious blend of prosody4 ,but there is also a fourth principle1 which he adds to1 rather than deduces from1 the other three3-- ,that the collocation of accented and unaccented syllables forms sections1#adi which in turn form1 and into which can be reduced1 all ,english verse4 ,on these principles he went through the whole body of ,english verse from ,caedmon to ,coleridge1 arranging it with infinite trouble on the sectional system1 and classifying the verses as those of four accents1 those of five1 and so on1 with suitable distinctions for stanzas1 etc4 ,unfortunately--to mention only the crowning and fatal fault which makes mention of all others in such a book as this unnecessary--he finds himself in perpetual conflict with the practice of the greatest ,english poets in their most beautiful passages4 ,shakespeare and ,milton go contrary to every principle of accentual rhythm1 and use devices which they have no right to use4 ,coleridge and ,burns employ sections which have very little to recommend them4 ,spenser's verse is wanting in good taste1 and ,byron's versification has never been properly censured4 ,it may seem incredible that a writer of learning and acuteness should not have seen the absurdity of his position when he tells beautiful poetry--sometimes admitted by himself as such--that it has no business to be beautiful because it does not suit his rules4 ,but the fact disposes of him1 and of the rules themselves1 without its being necessary--though it would be easy--to prove their want of intrinsic justification4 ,,footnotes3 #adb ,of course ,milton does not4 #adc ,the passage is of importance and must be given3-- ,and now 444 ,i proceed to the indictment of my ears4 ,if the charge had come from ,dapple it would not have surprised me4 ,one may fancy him possessed of more than ordinary susceptibility of ear2 but for the irritability of yours1 ,i cannot so satisfactorily account4 ,i could heap authority on authority for using two very short syllables in blank verse instead of one--they take up only the time of one4#add ',spirit' in particular is repeatedly placed as a monosyllable in ,milton2 and some of his ass-editors have attempted to print it as one1 not feeling that the rapid pronunciation of the two syllables does not lengthen the verse more than the dilated sound of one4 ,the other line you quote is still less objectionable1 because the old ballad style requires ruggedness1 if this line were rugged2 and secondly1 because the line itself rattles over the tongue as smoothly as a curricle upon down-turf3 hve mde cndls f nfnt's ft4 ,this kind of cadence is repeatedly used in the ,old ,woman and in the ',parody4'#ade ,the quantification1 it should be observed1 is original4 #add ,italics added4 #ade ,letters of ,robert ,southey1 ed4 ,warter 7,london1 #ahef71 i4 #fi4 #adf ,the evidence of this obsession is concentrated in ,book ,i4 chap4 iv4 pp4 #gd-aja2 but diffused over the entire treatise4 #adg ,this seems to have presented itself to him throughout as a matter of course1 not requiring demonstration and hardly likely to be contested2 it is perhaps most categorically affirmed at ,book ,,ii4 chap4 iii4 p4 #ahd4 #adh ,this also is pervading4 ,it gathers itself up most in the context just cited1 and at pp4 #cja and #djj-djb1 the two last among the most surprising instances of complete misunderstanding of history by a real historical scholar4 #adi ,perhaps it should be said that a section is a bundle of accented and unaccented syllables extending in possible bulk from three syllables with two accents 7,guest's minimum7 to eleven syllables with three accents4 ,of a pair of these1 similar or dissimilar1 a verse consists4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,later ,,nineteenth-,,century ,,prosodists ,sidenote3 ,discussions on the ,evangeline hexameter4 ,the amount of prosodic writing during the last seventy years has been very large4 ,in the earliest and latest parts of the period it was principally devoted to the subject of ,english hexameters--in the first1 in regard to the accentual attempts of ,longfellow1 to which ,evangeline gave immense popularity2 in the last1 to the counter-attempts at quantitative versification1 in which the feet are constructed1 not with reference to accent or to the way in which the words are ordinarily pronounced1 but to independent and even opposed temporal value derived from the special sound attached to the vowel 7dol1 long2 fddle1 short1 etc471 or1 on semi-classical principles1 to what is called position4 ,to analyse the individual views of critics on these two bodies of questions would be here impossible1 and reference must be made to the larger ,history1 to ,mr4 ,omond's treatises1 or to the original works1 the most important of which will be found duly entered in the ,bibliography4 ,but we may summarise results under three heads4 ,i4 ,the accentual or ,evangeline hexameter has1 as has been said1 been at times far from unpopular2 but it has always dissatisfied nicer ears by a certain inappropriateness which has been differently appraised1 but which is evidently pointed at by the apology of its first extensive practitioner1 ,southey1 that he could not get spondees enough1 and had to be content with trochees4 ,this inappropriateness has since been characterised by an unsurpassed expert in theory and practice--,mr4 ,swinburne--in the blunt assertion that to ,english all dactylic and spondaic forms of verse are unnatural and abhorrent4 ,,ii4 ,on the other hand1 the so-called quantitative verse is repulsive to the same ears 7unless1 like ,tennyson's experiments1 it is accommodated to ordinary pronunciation7 by the very fact that it sets that pronunciation expressly at defiance1 and makes sheer jargon of the language4 ,,iii4 ,considering these facts1 some 7among whom the present writer is included7 regard an apparent ,english hexameter1 such as that of ,kingsley's ,andromeda1 and1 still more1 that of certain verses of ,mr4 ,swinburne himself1 as an admirable and glorious metre1 but as not dactylic at all--scanning it as a five-foot anapstic with anacrusis 7odd syllable at the beginning7 and hypercatalexis 7ditto at the end74#aej ,sidenote3 ,mid-century prosodists4 ,of more general prosodic inquiry some selection-summary must be given4 ,guest's original work does not seem to have produced much effect1 save on specially scholarly writers interested in the subject1 like ,archbishop ,trench2 though the reprint of it1 forty years later1 had1 as we shall see1 a great deal of influence4 ,except on the hexameter matter1 there was little done between #ahdj and close upon #ahgj4 ,it was1 however1 unfortunate that1 at the very opening of this time1 ,latham's ,english ,language embodied some very inadequate remarks on prosody1 including the symbol xa for an iamb1 which has too much permeated ,english text-books since4 ,the works of ,archdeacon ,evans and ,e4,s4 ,dallas1 both published in #aheb1 are important only to very thorough-going students4 ,the latter was acute1 but fanciful and inclined to jargon4 ,the former1 regarding stress as the only basis of modern versification1 indulged in a curious undervaluation of ,english poetry generally3 we must forget all about classical poetry to be satisfied with blank verse2 ,english lyric has been under an evil genius1 and always a blank2 and ,shakespeare and ,milton gained exceedingly by translation into ,greek and ,latin4 ,any intelligent reader can judge of such a tree by such fruits4 ,of really earlier date than these 7for their author died in #ahdf7 were ,sidney ,walker's remarks on ,shakespeare's ,versification1 posthumously published in #ahed1 which contain some useful metrical observations4#aea ,dallas's book produced at least two important reviews1 each of which extended itself into a more important prosodic tractate4 ,the first of these was by the late ,professor ,masson1 who afterwards rearranged his prosodic ideas in a minute and very scholarly study of ,milton's versification1 appearing in his larger edition of the poet4 ,professor ,masson perhaps admitted some unnecessary feet1 such as the amphibrach1 but his views are on the whole extremely sound4 ,the other essay was by ,coventry ,patmore--a poet1 a man of distinct originality in many ways1 and a really learned student of preceding prosodists--in fact1 by far the most learned up to his time4 ,this essay is full of suggestive and ingenious notions1 but exceedingly crotchety1 and1 for persons not thoroughly grounded in the subject1 unsafe4 ,it has the merit of recognising the division of verse into what it calls1 by a rather ponderous term1 isochronous intervals 7that is to say1 feet equivalent in time71 and of recognising1 likewise1 the important metrical as well as rhetorical part played by pause4 ,but it exaggerates this part in an impossible fashion1 making a full pause-foot at the end of every heroic line2 and its attention to accent is also excessive and1 in fact1 inconsistent4 ,sidenote3 ,those about #ahgj1 ,on the whole1 however1 it was not1 as has been said1 till the very eve of #ahgj1 when the ,pr-,raphaelite school had made its appearance1 that any considerable amount of prosodic writing came4 ,then1 and in the very same year1 #ahfi1 there was a remarkable outburst1 including ,a ,complete ,practical ,guide to the ,whole ,subject of ,english ,versification 7by ,e4 ,wadham71 which represents a modified ,bysshian system--believing in elision2 thinking trisyllabic feet bad1 though they may exist1 especially at the csura2 discountenancing both blank and anapstic verse2 and applying to the whole subject a new terminology which has not been generally accepted4 ,then came also a ,manual of ,english ,prosody by ,r4 ,f4 ,brewer 7reissued many years afterwards as ,orthometry71 which contains a very large amount of information on the details of the matter1 but little appreciation of its more important aspects4 ,much briefer1 but1 despite some errors1 sounder on the whole1 and giving no bad introduction to the subject1 was the ,rules of ,rhyme of ,tom ,hood1 son of the poet4 ,greater influence than that of any of these has been exercised by the prosodic part of ,dr4 ,abbott's ,shakespearian ,grammar1 published in this year1 and of his ,english ,lessons for ,english ,people1 issued 7and partly written by ,j4 ,r4 ,seeley7 two years later4 ,unfortunately1 not a few of the principles of these books are either demonstrably unsound or very doubtful1 the worst of all being the insistence on extra-metrical syllables1 or1 in other words1 the confession that ,english prosody cannot account for ,english poetry4 #ahfi also saw the beginning of a very important work1 ,mr4 ,a4 ,j4 ,ellis's ,early ,english ,pronunciation1 which has had a great effect on some views of prosody1 and contains a very elaborate scheme of syllabic values for quality and degree of force1 weight1 etc4 ,in #ahgd ,mr4 ,john ,addington ,symonds1 a critic1 prose-writer1 and even poet of no mean rank1 published an essay1 which he afterwards expanded into a tractate1 on ,blank ,verse1 denying that any preconceived metrical scheme will explain this1 and arguing that each line must be treated separately according to its own sense4 ,more minute than any book since ,guest's1 and written with definite purpose to teach poets their business1 was ,mr4 ,gilbert ,conway's ,treatise of ,versification 7#ahgh71 which reverts to eighteenth-century theories1 not merely of the scansion but of the pronunciation of words like ominous and delicate2 thinks ,milton capricious and inconsistent2 and proceeds entirely on the principle that the base and backbone of ,english prosody is accent4 ,two years later ,mr4 ,ruskin issued his ,elements of ,english ,prosody1 employing musical notation1 but using the names of feet very strangely applied4 ,and a year later ,mr4 ,shadworth ,hodgson published a paper on ,english ,verse1 perhaps not uninfluenced by ,guest1 and advocating 7as several writers about his time began to do7 stress systems of scansion1 the stress being allotted according to various considerations of sense and otherwise4 ,another stress-man--still more influenced1 though partly in the way of correction1 by ,guest--was the late ,professor ,fleeming ,jenkin1 who in #ahhc wrote in the ,saturday ,review some papers1 republished after his death1 and advocating sections1 of which there may be as many as four in a normal heroic line1 though this may1 on the other hand1 have as many as seven or even eight beats on strong syllables4 ,much sounder than any of these--indeed1 on practical matters almost irreproachable--was ,professor ,j4 ,b4 ,mayor's ,chapters on ,english ,metre 7#ahhf71 on which he founded later a ,handbook of the subject 7#aijc74 ,sidenote3 and since4 ,in the last twenty or thirty years there has been an increasing number of books on prosody1 the names of the most important of which will be found in the ,bibliography4 ,the most important of all is perhaps ,mr4 ,robert ,bridges' ,prosody of ,milton1 increased in subsequent editions to something like a manual of ,stress ,prosody1 and containing material also for estimating the recent attempts1 by ,mr4 ,bridges himself and by the late ,mr4 ,w4 ,j4 ,stone1 to revive the writing of ,english hexameters on a quantitative1 not an accentual1 basis4 ,there have also been many attempts 7of which perhaps the most remarkable is a treatise on monopressures1 taken up and applied by ,professor ,skeat7 which would reduce prosody to a branch of medical physics or physiology1 by basing it on the mechanical action of the glottis or larynx4 ,and strong and repeated efforts have also been made to bring the subject entirely under the supervision of music--using musical notation1 musical terms such as bar1 and the like4 ,the most widely influential of these was the work of the ,american poet and critic ,sidney ,lanier2 the most recent1 that of ,mr4 ,william ,thomson of ,glasgow4 ,on the other hand1 the writings of ,mr4 ,omond1 though some doubt may be entertained as to details1 have the merits of absolute soundness on the general principles of the subject1 and may be studied with ever-increasing advantage4 ,sidenote3 ,summary4 ,these principles--general1 and in relation to the methods of treatment more especially dealt with in the last paragraph or two--may be briefly summarised before this sketch of our prosodist history is closed4 ,systems of stress prosody are unsatisfactory1 because the unstressed syllables of the line1 and their connection or grouping with the stressed ones1 are of quite as much importance to total effect as stresses themselves1 and because attention to stress seems to beget the notion that regularity of time and time-interval is of no importance4#aeb ,physiological-mechanical systems are altogether insufficient1 even if not wrong1 because they only refer to the raw material of prosody2 because1 in their nature1 they must be applicable to verse and prose alike1 and to all kinds of verse2 with the additional disadvantage that1 as actually explained by their advocates1 they usually make verse-arrangements of the most inharmonious and unpoetical character4#aec ,this latter objection applies with even greater force to the musical theorists1 whose explanations of verse invariably confuse rhythm or overturn it altogether1 while their whole system ignores the fact1 that music and prosody are quite different things--that they may perhaps be accommodated in particular cases1 but that this accommodation is by no means frequent4 ,in some cases1 chiefly those of foreigners who have undertaken the study of ,english verse1 return has been attempted to the rigid syllabic methods of ,bysshe and his followers4 ,but it is usually admitted by these persons that the method does not suit nineteenth-century poetry1 and they are open therefore to the fatal charge of having to suppress part1 and a most important part1 of the historical life of the subject4 ,on the other hand1 the system of corresponding foot-division1 with equivalence and substitution allowed1 which has been followed in this book1 is open to none of these objections4 ,it neither neglects nor suppresses any part of the line in any case1 but accounts fully for all parts4 ,it applies to poetry only1 and1 to a large extent at least1 explains the difference between good poetry and bad4 ,it adjusts itself to the entire history of ,english verse1 since the ,english language took the turn which made it ,english in the full sense4 ,it requires no metrical fictions1 no suppression of syllables1 no allowance of extra-metrical ones1 no alteration in pronouncing1 no conflict of accent and quantity4 ,no period or kind of ,english poetry is pronounced by it to be wrong1 though it may allow that certain periods have exercised their rights and privileges more fully than others4 ,in short1 it takes the poetry as it is1 and has been for seven hundred years at least2 bars nothing2 carves1 cuts1 and corrects nothing2 begs no questions2 involves no make-believes2 but accepts the facts1 and makes out of them what1 and what only1 the facts will bear4 ,,footnotes3 #aej ,for examples of all these see ,scanned ,conspectus4 #aea ,especially one which the student should apply for himself1 that ,shakespeare's incomplete lines are mostly regular fractions of complete ones1 scanning correctly on the same system 7v4 sup4 p4 #acj74 #aeb ,thus ,mr4 ,bridges1 though he himself does not neglect the unstressed1 and even makes combination of the two kinds which are actually feet1 would allow sometimes four and sometimes only three stresses in a heroic line4 ,later stress 7or stress-cum-music7 prosodists have even proposed to recognise two bars only in such a line4 #aec ,thus it has been proposed to scan a line of ,goldsmith3 ,the sheltered cot1 the cultivated farm4 ,,book ,,iv ,,auxiliary ,,apparatus ,,chapter ,i ,,glossary 7,the miniature glossary which ,i prefixed to my larger ,history having been found useful1 and indeed some complaints having been made that it was not fuller1 ,i have determined to go to the other extreme here1 with a special view to those readers who may be approaching the subject for the first time4 ,excepting words like trisyllabic1 etc41 which can hardly be thought to require explanation1 an attempt has been made to include almost every technical1 and especially every disputed1 term47 ,,accent4--,this term1 which is perhaps the principal centre of dispute in matters prosodic and which1 even outside strict prosody1 is not a little controversial1 may be defined1 as uncontroversially as possibly in the words of a highly respectable book of reference1#aed ,a superior force of voice1 or of articulative effort1 upon some particular syllable4 ,it is prosodically used as equivalent 7with some slight differences7 to stress1 and is regarded by a large--perhaps the most numerous--school as constituting the foundation-stone of ,english prosody4 ,the inconveniences and insufficiencies of this view will be found constantly indicated throughout this book4 ,on the question1 almost more debated1 what constitutes1 and in different languages and times has constituted1 accent itself--whether it is loudness1 duration1 pitch1 or what not of sound--no pronouncement has been or will be attempted in this volume4 ,,acephalous4--,a term applied to a line in which the first syllable1 according to its ordinary norm or form1 is wanting1 as in ,chaucer's ,twenty boks clad in blak or reed4 ,,acrostic4--,an arrangement1 not perhaps strictly prosodic1 by which the initial syllables of the lines of a poem make words or names of themselves1 as in ,sir ,john ,davies's ,astra1 where these initials in every piece make ,elizabetha ,regina4 ,the process is now chiefly confined to light verse2 but there is nothing to be said against it1 unless the sense is strained or perverted to get the letters4 ,,alcaic4--,a ,greek lyrical measure1 used by and named after the famous lyrical poet ,alcus1 but most familiar in the slightly altered ,latin form of ,horace4 ,like all these forms1 it is only a curiosity in ,english1 and1 even as such1 has shared the endless and hopeless controversies as to accentual and quantitative metre4 ,no one1 however1 is ever likely to get nearer to the real thing than ,tennyson in ,me rather all that bowery loneliness1 ,the brooks of ,eden mazily murmuring1 ,and bloom profuse1 and cedar arches1 ,charm as a wanderer out in ,ocean4 ,the strict ,horatian form 7the last syllables being1 as usual1 common7 is3 4 ,,alexandrine4--,a line of twelve syllables or six iambic feet4 ,this measure 7traditionally said to have taken its name from the ,old ,french poem on ,alexander7 became the favourite metre for the chansons de geste or long narrative poems in that language1 and then practically the staple of ,french verse to the present day4 ,but though it is early traced--as a whole or as two halves--in ,english1 it never established itself as a continuous metre with us4 ,only two pieces of importance1 ,drayton's ,polyolbion and ,browning's ,fifine at the ,fair1 so employ it4 ,on the other hand1 it is constantly found scattered about early ,english verse2 appears--questionably according to some1 unquestionably according to the present writer--in ,chaucer2 was an ingredient in the poulter's measure 7v4 inf471 so popular with the poets of the second and third quarters of the sixteenth century2 was used by ,sidney continuously in sonnet2 forms1 as a concluding line1 the distinguishing feature of the great ,spenserian stanza2 is very frequent in ,shakespeare and the other ,elizabethan dramatists2 and was adopted by ,dryden 7though latterly1 and then not quite always1 rejected by ,pope7 as a relief and variation to the heroic couplet4 ,it also supplies a frequent ingredient in ,pindaric verse and in various lyrical stanzas4 ,for its perfection it almost requires a central csura at the sixth syllable4 ,in ,dryden 7probably from insufficient information71 in ,warton 7less excusably71 and in some more modern writers 7without any excuse at all71 long ,alexandrine1 or sometimes even ,alexandrine by itself1 is used to designate the fourteener1 seven-beat1 or seven-foot iambic line4 ,this ignores the derivation1 contravenes the established use of ,french1 the special home of the metre1 and introduces an unnecessary and disastrous confusion4 ,,alliteration4--,the repetition of the same letter at the beginning or 7less frequently7 in the body of different words in more or less close juxtaposition to each other4 ,this1 which appears slightly1 but very slightly1 in classical poetry1 has always been a great feature of ,english4 ,during the ,anglo-,saxon period universally1 and during a later period 7after an interval which almost certainly existed1 but the length of which is uncertain7 partially1 it formed1 till the sixteenth century1 a substantive and structural part of ,english prosody4 ,later1 it became merely an ornament1 and at times1 especially in the eighteenth century1 has been disapproved4 ,but it forms part of the very vitals of the language1 and has never been more triumphantly used than in the late nineteenth century by ,mr4 ,swinburne4 ,,amphibrach4--,a foot of three syllables--short1 long1 short 7 7--literally short on each side4 ,according to some1 this foot is not uncommon in ,english poetry1 as1 for instance1 in ,byron's ,th blck bnds cme vr ,th lps nd thir snw1 as well as individually for a foot of substitution4 ,others1 including the present writer1 think that these cases can always1 or almost always1 be better arranged as anapsts-- ,th blck bnds cme ver ,th lps nd thir snw1 and that the amphibrach is unnecessary1 or1 at any rate1 very very rare in ,english4 ,,amphimacer 7long on both sides74--,long1 short1 long 7 7--an exactly opposite arrangement to the amphibrach1 also1 and more commonly1 called ,cretic4 ,it is more than doubtful whether this arrangement1 as an actual foot1 ever occurs in ,english verse or is suitable to ,english rhythm2 but the name 7preferably ,cretic7 is sometimes useful to designate a combination of syllables belonging to more feet than one1 and possessing a certain connection1 as expressing either the quantity of a single word or that of a rhetorical division#aee of a line4 ,,anacrusis4--,a syllable or half-foot prefixed to a verse1 and serving as a sort of take-off or push-off for it4 ,this1 frequent in ,greek1 is by no means rare in ,english1 though there are numerous disputes as to its application4 ,it has sometimes been proposed to call it with us catch2 and1 whatever it be called1 it comes into great prominence in connection with the question whether the general rhythm of ,english verse is iambic or trochaic1 while it is almost the hinge of the whole matter on the other question whether the ,english hexameter is really dactylic or anapstic4 ,,anap,,st4--,a trisyllabic foot consisting of two shorts and a long 7 74 ,almost as soon as ,english poetry proper makes its appearance1 this measure or cadence appears too2 for a time chiefly as an equivalent to the iamb4 ,in the revived alliterative metre it to a great extent ousts the trochee1 and to one almost as great dominates the doggerel of the fifteenth century4 ,as a continuous metre the early examples of it are well marked1 though not very numerous2 but in the sixteenth century it seems 7no doubt with the help of music7 to have caught the popular ear1 and from the late seventeenth has been thoroughly established in literature4 ,it is perhaps the chief enlivening and inspiriting force in ,english poetry1 and1 while powerful for serious purposes1 is almost indispensable for comic4 ,,anti-,,bacchic ,,or ,,anti-,,bacchius4--,a trisyllabic foot opposite to the ,bacchic as a definite foot--a short followed by two long 7 74 ,of very doubtful occurrence anywhere in ,english verse2 though the same remark applies to it as to the amphibrach1 the amphimacer1 other trisyllabic feet1 and all tetrasyllabic1 in regard to secondary or rhetorical use4 ,,antispast 7pulling against74--,a four-syllabled foot--short1 long1 long1 short 7 7--opposed to the choriambic4 ,like all four-syllabled feet1 it is not wanted in ,english poetry1 being always resolvable into its constituents1 the iamb and trochee4 ,but the combined effect may sometimes be represented by it--with this caveat1 as in other cases4 ,,antistrophe4--,see ,,strophe4 ,,appoggiatura4--,a musical term which has no business whatever in prosody1 but which has been used by some 7e4g4 ,thelwall7 to evade the allowance of equivalence1 and the substitution of trisyllabic for dissyllabic feet4 ,its definition in music is a short auxiliary or grace-note forming no essential part of the harmony4 ,the nearest actual approach to it in ,english verse would appear to be the extra syllables found 7by licence very rare until recently7 in such lines as ,scott's in the ,eve of ,st4 ,john1 ,moore's in ,eveleen's ,bower and elsewhere1 and ,macaulay's in ,the ,last ,buccaneer--e4g43 ,and ,i'll chain the bloodhound and the warder shall not sound4 #aef ,,arsis and its opposite1 ,,thesis1 are two terms much used in prosody1 though unfortunately with meanings themselves attached in diametrical opposition to the same word4 ,the words literally mean lifting up and putting down respectively4 ,at first1 among the ,greeks themselves1 the metaphor seems to have been taken from the raising and putting down of the foot or hand2 so that arsis would make a light or short1 and thesis a heavy or long syllable4 ,by the ,latins1 and by the great majority of modern prosodists in reference even to ,greek1 the metaphor is transferred to the raising or dropping of the voice1 so that arsis lengthens and thesis shortens4 ,this1 which1 whether the older or not1 seems to be the better use1 is followed here4 ,,assonance4--,an imperfect form of rhyme which counts only the vowel sound of the chief rhyming syllable4 ,this principle was the original one of rhyme in ,french1 and has always held a considerable place in ,spanish4 ,but in ,english it has never established itself in competent literary poetry2 though it is frequent in the lower kind of folk-song1 and though attempts to naturalise it--in forms even further degraded--were made by ,mrs4 ,browning1 and have been suggested since4 ,as an instrument of vowel-music1 very delicately and judiciously used at other parts of the line than the end1 it has its possibilities1 but must always be an offensive substitute in rhyming verse1 and an almost equally offensive intruder in blank4 ,,atonic 7without accent74--,when employed in prosody1 is applied to those languages which1 though they may use accentual symbols1 have nothing in the pronunciation that can be made the base of an actual scansion--the chief example being ,french4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,bacchic or ,,bacchius4--,a three-syllable foot--long1 long1 short 7 7--the opposite of anti-,bacchic and subject to the same observations4 ,,ballad 7rarely ,ballet74--,a word common to most ,european languages1 but used very loosely1 and to be carefully distinguished from ,ballade 7see following item74 ,its original connection is with singing and dancing 7,italian ballare71 and it came1 centuries ago1 to be used for any short poem of a lyrical character4 ,it has1 however1 a special application to short pieces of a narrative kind2 and ,the ,ballads has1 as a phrase of ,english literary history1 frequent reference to the body of such compositions of which the pieces about ,robin ,hood are early examples4 ,it is most commonly1 though not universally1 written in the ballad metre described below4 ,,ballade1 on the other hand1 is a term arbitrarily restricted to a measure originally and mostly ,french1 but frequently written in ,english during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries1 and revived in the nineteenth4 ,it consists usually of three stanzas and a coda or envoi1 written on the same recurrent rhymes1 with a refrain at the end of each4 7,see example above1 p4 #abf47 ,,ballad ,,metre or ,,common ,,measure4--,the most usual quatrain in ,english poetry1 consisting1 in its simplest form1 of alternate octosyllables and hexasyllables2 the even lines always rhyming1 and the odd ones very commonly4 ,in the best examples1 old and new 7but less frequently in the late sixteenth1 early seventeenth1 and almost whole eighteenth century71 the lines are largely1 equivalenced1 and it is not unusual for the stanza to be extended to five or more4 ,the most perfect example of ballad metre is ,coleridge's ,ancient ,mariner4 ,,bar and ,,beat4--,two musical terms used by stress-prosodists and others who refuse the foot-system4 ,bar is strictly the division between groups of beats1 loosely the groups themselves4 ,beat is the unit of time or measure4 ,on a sound and germane system of prosody neither is needed4 ,,blank ,,verse1 on the analogy of blank cartridge1 etc41 might be held to designate any kind of verse not tipped1 loaded1 or filled up with rhyme4 ,as a matter of fact1 however1 and for sound historical reasons1 it is not usually applied to the more modern unrhymed experiments1 from ,collins's ,evening onwards1 but is confined to continuous decasyllabics4 ,this measure 7which1 mutatis mutandis1 had already been used by the ,italians and ,spaniards in the early sixteenth century1 and of which curious foreshadowings are found in ,chaucer's prose ,tale of ,melibee and elsewhere7 was first attempted in ,english by the ,earl of ,surrey in his version of the neid4 ,for a time it was very little imitated1 but in the latter half of the century it gradually ousted all other competitors for dramatic use4 ,it was still out of favour for non-dramatic purposes until ,milton's great experiments in the later seventeenth2 while about the same period it was for a time itself laid aside in drama4 ,but it soon recovered its place there1 and has never lost it2 while during the eighteenth century it became more and more fashionable for poems proper1 and has rather extended than contracted its business since4 ,,bob ,,and ,,wheel4--,an arrangement 7see pp4 #dh1 #di7 by which a stanza hitherto usually alliterated1 but not rhymed1 finishes with one much shorter line of usually two syllables1 and then a batch1 usually four1 of lines not quite so short1 but still shorter than the staple1 and rhymed among themselves4 ,,burden4--,the same as ,,refrain 7q4v474 ,,burns ,,metre4--,an apparently artificial but extremely effective arrangement of six lines1 #h1 #h1 #h1 #d1 #h1 #d1 rhymed aaabab1 which derives its common name from the mastery shown1 in and of it1 by the ,scottish poet4 ,it is1 however1 far older than his time1 having been traced to ,provenal originals in the eleventh century1 and it is very common in the ,english miracle plays of the late fourteenth and fifteenth1 and not unknown in the metrical romances1 as in ,octovian ,imperator4 ,disused in ,southern ,english by the time of the ,renaissance1 it seems to have kept its hold in ,northern1 and ,burns received it either immediately from ,fergusson or perhaps from ,allan ,ramsay4 7,see also below1 in list of ,form-origins47 99 99 99 99 99 ,,cadence4--,in general1 a term applied to the combined rhythm of a line or batch of lines4 ,in one or two early passages of ,wyntoun1 ,gower1 and others1 it seems to be employed in some special sense as opposed to1 or separated from1 rhyme1 and has been conjectured to signify alliterative rhythm4 ,but this is very uncertain1 rather improbable1 and in the ,gower case impossible4 7,see p4 #bcc47 ,c,,sura 7cutting74--,a term applied1 in classical prosody1 to the regular provision of a word-ending at a certain place in the line1 usually coinciding with a half-foot4 ,the commonest csuras in ,greek and ,latin are penthemimeral 7fifth half71 or in the middle of the third foot1 and hepthemimeral 7seventh half71 at the middle of the fourth4 ,at one time1 in the earlier writers on ,english prosody 7e4g4 ,dryden71 there grew up a strange habit of using the term csura to express elision or hiatus--to neither of which has it the least proper reference4 ,correctly used1 it is1 in ,english1 equivalent to pause 7q4v471 but restricted to the principal pause in a line4 ,,carol4--,a term1 like ballad1 of rather loose application1 but generally confined to religious lyrics of a definite song-kind4 ,the original ,o4,f4 karole referred to a rather elaborate dance with singing1 and from this there has been a certain tendency to associate the carol with much broken and indented measures in prosody4 ,,catalexis 7leaving off74--,a term of great importance1 inasmuch as there is no other single one which can replace it2 but a little vague and elastic in use4 ,strictly speaking1 a catalectic line is one which comes short1 by a half-foot or syllable1 of the full normal measure2 a brachycatalectic 7short leaving off71 one which is a whole foot minus2 and a hypercatalectic 7leaving over71 one which has a half foot 7or perhaps a whole one in rare cases7 too much4 ,the terms catalexis and catalectic are sometimes used loosely to cover all these varieties of deficiency and redundance in their several developments4 ,acatalectic means a fully and exactly measured line1 without either excess or defect4 ,,catch4--,see ,,anacrusis4 ,the sense of catch as referring to a song in parts1 with much substitution and repetition1 is musical1 not prosodic4 ,,chant-,,royal4--,a larger and more elaborate ballade3 five stanzas of eleven verses each and an envoi of from five to eight4 ,,choriamb4--,a four-syllabled foot consisting of a trochee 7or choree7 followed by an iamb 7 74 ,although the remarks made on other four-syllabled feet apply here1 as far as the ultimate analysis of ,english verse is concerned1 the great frequency of juxtaposed trochees and iambs in ,english1 and the natural way in which they seem to cohere1 make choriambic cadence or rhythm suggest itself more frequently than any other of the compound feet4 ,mr4 ,swinburne wrote intentional and continuous choriambics of great beauty4 ,,coda 7tail74--,a musical term used in prosody by analogy1 and signifying a final stanza or batch of verses1 often couched in a form differing from the rest of the poem1 such1 for instance1 as the final octave of ,lycidas4 ,,common4--,the quantity or quality in a syllable which makes it susceptible of occupying either the position of a long one or that of a short4 ,this gift1 well recognised and frequent enough in ,greek and ,latin prosody--especially in regard to ,greek proper names1--is still more widely spread in ,english4 ,almost all monosyllables1 other than nouns1 are common2 and in a very large number of others the syllable can be raised or lowered to long or short by considerations of arsis1 thesis1 stress1 emphasis1 position1 etc4 ,,common ,,measure 7for shortness1 especially in reference to hymns1 ,c4,m474--,the same as ballad metre1 but usually restricted to eights and sixes without substitution4 7,see also below1 ,chapter ,,iv47 ,,consonance4--,in strictness merely agreement of sound2 but sometimes used to designate full rhyme by vowel and consonant1 as opposed to assonance1 i4e4 rhyme by vowel only4 ,,couplet4--,in proper ,english use this refers to a pair of verses only2 and it probably should be1 though it is not always1 limited to cases where the members of the pair are exactly similar1 as in the heroic couplet1 the octosyllabic couplet4 ,the original ,french word is much more elastic1 and is applied to the long mono-rhymed tirades of ,old ,french poems1 to stanzas of more verses than two1 and even to whole lyrics1 usually of a light description4 7,see also ,,distich47 ,,cretic4--,see ,,amphimacer4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,dactyl4--,a trisyllabic foot--long1 short1 short 7 74 ,this foot1 thanks to the great position of the dactylic hexameter in ,greek and ,latin1 disputes1 in those prosodies1 the place of principal staple with the iambic2 and1 from the mid-sixteenth century onwards1 almost constant endeavours have been made at imitating that metre in ,english1 and consequently at working the dactyl in our language4 ,it was1 however1 early discovered1 even by favourers of classical versing1 that there is something awkward about the ,english dactyl4 ,and in fact1 though we have a very large number of words which are fair dactyls regarded separately1 they are no sooner set in a verse than they seem to slip or waggle into other measures1 and especially the anapst4 ,when1 by some chance or by some sleight of the poet1 they are found1 they are usually either continuous1 or in connection with1 and substituted for1 the trochee4 ,to the classical combination of dactyl and spondee ,english is obstinately rebellious4 ,,di-,,iamb4--,a double iamb--short1 long1 short1 long 7 74 ,not wanted in ,english2 and not even expressing1 as some of the four-syllable feet do1 a quasi-real compound effect4 ,,dimeter4--,a combination of two couples of the same foot1 iambic1 trochaic1 or anapstic4 ,thus the ordinary octosyllable is an iambic dimeter1 and the familiar swinging four-foot anapst1 a dimeter anapstic4 ,in ancient prosody1 -meter was never used in this kind of combination1 with reference to single-feet metres1 unless these feet were in places specifically different4 ,thus hexameter means a line of six single feet1 of which1 though the first four may vary1 the fifth must normally be a dactyl and the sixth a spondee2 pentameter1 a line of five feet1 dactyls or spondees1 but rigidly distributed in two halves of two and a half feet each4 ,of late years1 in modern ,english prosody-writing1 though fortunately not universally1 a most objectionable habit has grown up of calling the heroic line a pentameter1 the octosyllabic iambic a tetrameter4 ,this is grossly unscholarly1 and should never be imitated1 for the proper meaning of the terms would be ten feet in the one case1 eight in the other4 ,,dispondee4--,double spondee 7 74 ,even more than the di-iamb1 and much more than the ditrochee1 this combination is not wanted in ,english4 ,,distich4--,a synonym for couplet1 but of wider range1 as there is no reason why the verses should be metrically similar4 ,there is1 however1 in the practical use of the word1 an understanding that there shall be a certain completeness and self-containedness of sense4 ,,ditrochee4--,a double trochee--long1 short1 long1 short 7 74--,the remarks on the di-iamb apply here1 but not quite so strongly4 ,there are a few exceptional cases in ,milton1 as in the famous nvrsl reproach1 where the ditrochaic effect1 whether beautiful or not1 is too noticeable not to deserve specific definition4 ,,dochmiac4--,a foot of five syllables1 admitting1 with the possible permutations of long and short in the five places1 a large number of variations4 ,this foot1 not strictly necessary even in ,greek prosody1 is quite unknown in ,english1 and1 if used1 would simply split itself up into batches of two and three4 ,but it probably has a real existence in the systematisation of ,english prose rhythm4 ,,doggerel4--,a word 7the derivation of which can be only1 though easily1 guessed7 as old as ,chaucer2 always used with depreciating intent1 but with a certain difference1 not to say looseness1 of exact connotation4 ,doggerel is often applied to slipshod or sing-song verse2 sometimes to verse burlesque or feeble in sense and phrase4 ,but it is better restricted to verse metrically incompetent by false rhythm and quantification1 or by insufficient or superfluous provision of syllables and the like4 ,,duple4--,a term used by some prosodists in combination with time and in contradistinction to triple1 to express a characteristic of verse which is nearest to music1 and which perhaps is musical rather than really prosodic4 ,controversies are sometimes carried on in regard to the question whether trisyllabic feet 7such as anapsts1 dactyls1 and tribrachs7 are1 when substituted for dissyllabic1 in duple or in triple time2 but this question appears to the present writer irrelevant and extraneous4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,elision4--,the obliteration of a syllable1 for metrical reasons1 when a vowel at the end of a word comes before one at the beginning of another4 ,this strict classical meaning of the term is extended ordinarily1 in the ,english use of it1 to the omission of a syllable within a word1 or the fusion of two in any of the various ways indicated by the classical terms crasis 7mixture71 thlipsis 7crushing71 syncope 7cutting short71 synalpha 7smearing together71 synizesis 7setting together71 synecphonesis 7combined utterance71 and others4 ,perhaps the most useful phraseology in ,english indicates elision for actual vanishing of a vowel 7when it is usually represented by an apostrophe71 and slur for running of two into one4 ,these two processes are of extreme importance1 for upon the view taken of them turns the view to be held of ,shakespeare's and ,milton's blank verse1 and of a large number of other measures4 ,,end-,,stopped4--,a term largely applied1 especially in ,shakespearian discussion1 to the peculiar self-contained verse which is noticeable in the early stage of blank-verse writing1 and which ,shakespeare was one of the first to break through4 ,in the text of the present volume this form is called single-moulded1 its characteristics not appearing to be confined to the end4 ,,enjambment4--,an ,englishing1 on simple analogy1 of the ,french technical term1 enjambement1 for the overlapping1 in sense and utterance1 of one verse on another1 or of one couplet on another4 ,enjambment of the couplet appears in ,chaucer and other writers early2 was overdone and abused in the first half of the seventeenth century2 was rejected by the later seventeenth and still more by the eighteenth1 but restored to favour by the ,romantic movement4 ,,envoi4--,the coda of a ballade1 etc41 with the especial purpose of addressing the poem to its subject4 ,,epanaphora 7referring or repetition74--,the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive lines4 ,this1 originally a rhetorical figure1 becomes1 especially with some of the ,elizabethans and with ,tennyson1 a not unimportant prosodic device2 and1 in the hands of the latter1 assists powerfully in the construction of the verse-paragraph4 ,,epanorthosis 7setting up again1 with a sense also of correction74--,also a rhetorical figure1 and meaning the repetition of some word1 not necessarily at the beginning of clause or line4 ,this also can be made of considerable prosodic effect2 for repetition1 especially if including some slight change1 is necessarily associated with emphasis1 and this emphasis colours and weights the line variously4 ,,epitrite4--,a four-syllabled foot consisting of three long syllables and one short 7 74 ,the shifting of this latter from place to place makes four different kinds of epitrite4 ,like its congeners1 it is not needed in ,english poetry1 though spondaic substitution 7in the trochaic tetrameter1 etc47 may sometimes simulate it2 and the fact that few ,english words have clusters of definitely long syllables makes it rare even in prose4 ,,epode4--,the third and last member of the typical choric arrangement in a regular ode4 ,see ,,strophe4 ,,equivalence means1 prosodically1 the quality or faculty which fits one combination of syllables for substitution in the place of another to perform the part of foot1 as the dactyl and spondee do to each other in the classical hexameter1 and as various feet do to the iamb in the ,greek iambic trimeter and other metres4 ,it is1 with its correlative1 ,substitution itself1 the most important principle in ,english prosody2 it emerges almost at once1 and1 though at times frowned upon in theory1 never loses its hold upon practice4 ,,eye-,,rhyme4--,a practice 7most largely resorted to by ,spenser1 but to some extent by others7 of adjusting the spellings of the final syllables of words so as to make the rhyme clear to the eye as well as to the ear4 ,it is sometimes forced1 and perhaps never ought to be necessary2 but it is so associated with the beauties of the ,faerie ,queene as to become almost a beauty in itself1 though hardly to be recommended for imitation4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,feminine ,,rhyme--,,feminine ,,ending4--,terms applied to the use of words at the end of a line with the final 7now mute7 e4 ,feminine rhyme is sometimes extended to double rhyme in general1 but this is not strictly correct4 ,,fingering4--,a term used in this book for the single and peculiar turn and colour given to metre by the individual poet4 ,,foot4--,the admitted constituent of all classical prosody1 and1 according to one system 7that adopted preferentially in this book71 of ,english likewise1 though with variations necessitated by the language4 ,foot 71 pes7 is that upon which the verse runs or marches4 ,a ,greek foot is made of ,greek long and short syllables2 an ,english foot of ,english4 ,the possible combinations of these have ,greek names which are convenient1 and the fact that the conditions of length and shortness are different in the two languages need cause no misunderstanding whatever4 ,but a comparatively small number are actually found in ,english poetry4 ,all1 however1 are separately described in this ,glossary1 and for convenience' sake a tabular view of them is given on the next page4 ,it should1 moreover1 perhaps be added that1 at most periods of ,english poetry1 monosyllabic feet1 such as hardly exist in classical prosody1 are undoubtedly present4 ,these can be regarded1 if any one pleases1 as made up to dissyllabic value by the addition of a pause or interval4 ,nor is there any valid objection to the admission of a pause foot entirely composed of silence4 ,these two kinds of feet1 however1 are comparatively rare1 and require no specific names4 ,,table ,,of ,,feet ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------- ,feet of ,two ,syllables4 ,of ,three4 ,of ,four4 ,of ,five4 ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------- ,iamb1 ,amphibrach1 ,antispast1 ,dochmiac4 ,pyrrhic1 ,anapst1 ,choriamb1 7,see ,spondee1 ,anti-,bacchic1 ,di-iamb1 under ,trochee1 ,bacchic1 ,dispondee1 head47 ,cretic1 ,ditrochee1 7,the trochee ,dactyl1 7running foot7 ,molossus1 ,epitrite was sometimes ,tribrach1 7four forms also called choree1 7,the ,cretic was also ,ionic3 1 or called amphimacer1 a majore1 its arrangement a minore1 7dancing being just the ,pon foot71 this opposite to the 7four form appears in amphibrach47 forms7 choriambic47 ,proceleusmatic1 ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------- ,,fourteener4--,a line of seven iambic feet which emerges as almost the first equivalent of the old long ,a4,s4 line in ,english1 as early as the ,moral ,ode1 etc4 ,at first it is oftenest a fifteener1 from the presence of the final e2 but this drops off4 ,very largely used by ,robert of ,gloucester and others in the late thirteenth century2 varied in ,gamelyn2 much mixed up with the doggerel of the fifteenth2 frequent in the sixteenth1 both alone and as poulter's measure2 and splendidly used by ,chapman in his translation of the ,iliad4 ,sometimes employed to vary heroic couplet by ,dryden4 ,a favourite metre ever since the beginning of the nineteenth century4 ,splits into ballad-measure4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,galliambic4--,a classical metre of which the most famous1 and only substantive1 example is the magnificent ,atys of ,catullus1 but which has been imitated in two fine ,english poems1 ,tennyson's great ,boadicea and ,mr4 ,george ,meredith's ,phaethon4 ,both of these have given a rather trochaic-dactylic swing to the metre1 which is probably unavoidable in ,english4 ,the late ,mr4 ,grant ,allen endeavoured to make out1 and attempted in his translation of the ,atys1 an iambic basis with anapstic and tribrachic substitution1 but unsuccessfully4 ,ionic a minore 7v4 inf47 is the ancient suggestion2 and1 with an accentual liberty not unsuitable to its half-barbaric associations1 it fits ,catullus pretty well4 ,but ,ionics1 as has been said1 do not suit ,english 7v4 inf4 p4 #bhe1 note74 ,,gemell or ,,geminel 7twin74--,terms applied by ,drayton to the heroic couplet4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,head-,,rhyme4--,a name sometimes applied--it may be thought unjustifiably1 and beyond all question in a way likely to mislead--to alliteration4 ,see ,,rhyme4 ,,hendecasyllable4--,an eleven-syllabled line4 ,there is a classical metre specially so called1 executed with particular success by ,catullus1 and imitated by ,tennyson in the piece describing it3 ,so fantastical is the dainty metre4 ,but the term is not infrequently used of the staple ,italian line1 of ,english heroic or decasyllabic lines with redundance1 etc4 ,,heptameter4--,it is rather doubtful whether the word is wanted in ,english1 for if applied to the fourteener it would 7see ,,metre and ,,dimeter7 be a complete misnomer2 and not less so1 according to correct analogy1 if applied to the seven-foot anapst1 where it would properly designate fourteen feet or forty-two possible syllables--a length which not even ,mr4 ,swinburne has attempted4 ,he himself1 however1 by oversight1 used it of this line1 which is properly a tetrameter brachycatalectic4 ,,heroic4--,a word applied1 with only indirect propriety1 to the decasyllabic or five-foot couplet1 and with hardly any propriety at all to the single line of the same construction2 but occasionally convenient in each case4 ,the origin of the employment is the use of this line and couplet in the heroic poem and heroic play of the seventeenth century4 ,it has therefore the same sort of justification as ,alexandrine4 ,there was also an earlier habit1 as in ,dante's ,de ,vulg4 ,eloq41 of calling it 7in its ,italian or hendecasyllabic form7 the noblest or most dignified line2 and this connects itself with the ,greek practice of calling the hexameter--the ,epic-verse--heroic4 ,,hexameter4--,the great staple metre of ,greek and ,latin epic1 in which the line consists of six feet1 dactyls or spondees at choice for the first four1 but normally always a dactyl in the fifth and always a spondee in the sixth--the latter foot being by special licence sometimes allowed in the fifth also 7in which case the line is called spondaic71 but never a dactyl in the sixth4 ,to this metre1 and to the attempts to imitate it in ,english1 the term should be strictly confined1 and never applied to the ,alexandrine or iambic trimeter4 ,,hiatus4--,the juxtaposition of vowels either in the same word1 or1 more especially1 at the end of one word and the beginning of the next4 ,at different times1 and in different languages1 this has been regarded as a beauty and as a defect2 but in ,english it entirely depends upon circumstances whether it is one1 or the other1 or neither4 ,for a considerable period--roughly from #afej to #aghj1 if not #ahjj--;it was supposed--without a shadow of reason--that ,english poets ought to elide one of such concurrents and indicate it only by apostrophe1 so that not merely did the enormous become th' enormous1 and to affect t' affect1 but violet was crushed into vi'let1 and diamond into di'mond4 ,but this has been almost entirely abandoned1 though there are still metrical fictions on the subject4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,iambic4--,a foot of two syllables--short1 long 77--the commonest in almost all prosodies1#aeg and 7though this is sometimes denied7 the staple foot of ,english4 ,,inverted ,,stress4--,a term used by accentual or stress prosodists to designate the substitution of a trochee for an iamb4 ,unnecessary1 if not erroneous1 from the point of view of this book4 ,,ionic4--,a foot of four syllables1 consisting of a spondee 7 7 and a pyrrhic 7 74 ,with the spondee first it is called ,ionic a majore2 with the pyrrhic first1 a minore4 ,neither movement is common in ,english verse1 and1 if it were1 it would hardly require any joint name4 ,but when the music is uppermost1 as in ,vilikins and his ,dinah1 it suggests itself1 with the alternative of the third pon3 ,nw s ,dnh ws -wlkng n th grdn s gy4#aeh 99 99 99 99 99 ,,leonine ,,verse4--,a term not strictly applicable to ,english1 but sometimes found in prosody-books4 ,it means the peculiar medival ,latin hexameter with middle and end rhymed1 as in ,post cnam stabis3 seu passus mille meabis4 ,browning comes nearest to it in such lines as ,on my specked hide1 not you the pride4 ,,line4--,the larger integer of verse1 as the foot is the smaller1 and the stanza or paragraph the largest4 ,it is usually indicated1 in printing or writing1 by independent beginning and ending on the page--whence the name1--but this is accidental and arranged for convenience of the eye4 ,as a rule1 however1 it should not be encroached upon lightly1 and1 even when enjambment is practised1 the individual line should have a thinkable self-sufficiency4 ,nor should two lines be separated when they clamour for union1 as in the case of some modern rhymeless experimenters 7,mr4 ,arnold1 ,mr4 ,henley1 etc47 and in some of the early ,elizabethans 7,grimoald1 ,googe1 and others74 ,,long and ,,short are words which1 until comparatively recently1 have been taken as the bases of all prosodic analysis4 ,they represent two values which1 though no doubt by no means always identical in themselves1 are invariably1 unmistakably1 and at once1 distinguished by the ear2 and the combining of which1 in ordinary mathematical permutation1 constitutes the feet1 or lowest integers1 of metrical rhythm4 ,this nomenclature--which presents no initial difficulties1 is sufficient for all practical purposes1 and commends itself at once to any unprejudiced intelligence--seems first to have excited question and suspicion towards the end of the seventeenth century4 ,it is disagreeable to both accentual and syllabic prosodists 7see chapters devoted to these71 and it appears to disturb some who would not class themselves with either4 ,it is indeed quite possible to work either system with long and short1 applied uncontentiously to the natural values of rhythmed speech in ,english poetry4 ,but a punctilio arises as to the definition of the words4 ,does length1 some people ask1 really mean 'duration of time' in pronouncing8 ,this question1 and others1 seem to the present writer unnecessary4 ,we need not decide what makes the difference between long and short2 it is sufficient that this difference unmistakably exists1 and is felt at once4 ,whether it is due to accent1 length of pronunciation1 sharpness1 loudness1 strength1 or anything else1 is a question in no way directly affecting verse4 ,the important things are1 once more1 that it exists2 that verse cannot exist without it2 that it is partly1 and in ,english rather largely1 created by the poet1 but that this creation is conditioned by certain conventions of the language1 of which accent is one1 but only one4 ,,long ,,measure 7,l4,m474--,the octosyllabic quatrain1 alternately rhymed4 ,,lydgatian ,,line4--,an arrangement of extraordinary hideousness1 which occurs rather frequently in ,lydgate2 and which has been assigned by the merciful to incompetence or carelessness2 by other critics1 who defend it1 to what must have been deliberate bad taste4 ,it is a line of nine syllables only1 the missing one being not1 as in the ,chaucerian acephala1 at the first1 but occurring somewhere in the middle1 and at the csura4 ,an uglier metrical entity probably nowhere exists than such a line as ,if any word in thee be missaid4#afj 99 99 99 99 99 ,,masculine ,,rhyme4--,a rhyme where the rhyming syllable is single1 and ends in a consonant1 without any mute e following4 ,less correctly1 a monosyllabic rhyme4 ,,metre4--,in the wide sense1 collections of rhythm which correspond1 both within the collection1 and1 if there be such1 with one or more other collections adjoining4 ,in the narrow1 collections dominated by a single foot-rhythm1 as iambic metre1 anapstic metre1 etc4 ,,molossus4--,a foot of three long syllables 7 74 ,practically impossible in ,english verse1 being too bulky for a rhythm-integer with us1 but admissible as a musical arrangement4 ,,monometer4--,a line consisting of one foot only1 or one pair of feet4 ,see ,,dimeter4 ,,monopressure4--,a term invented to express a theory that the divisions of metre are associated with1 and determined by1 some physical throat-conditions4 ,unnecessary and unworkable4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,octave4--,a stanza of eight lines4 ,,octometer4--,a term properly applied to eight-foot dactylic metre1 such as ,tennyson's ,kapiolani2 improperly to ,mr4 ,swinburne's eight-foot anapsts4 ,,ode4--,a name used in ,english with great laxity1 and not perhaps to be tied down too much without loss4 ,the word itself1 in ,greek1 means simply a song4 ,but the choric odes of the ,greek dramatists1 and the non-dramatic odes of ,pindar1 being couched in a peculiar form--irregular at first sight1 but exactly correspondent when examined1--have created a certain tendency to restrict the term ode1 sometimes with the epithet regular1 to things similar in ,english 7see1 in list of poets1 ,cowley1 ,congreve1 ,gray74 ,on the other hand1 the ,latins--especially ,horace1 whose influence has been even wider--extend the term to pieces in short1 obviously regular stanzas identically repeated1 and the majority of ,english odes are of this kind4 ,,ottava ,,rima4--,a special form of octave derived from the ,italians1 and composed of eight decasyllabic lines rhymed abababcc4 ,there are other decasyllabic octaves1 such as that used by ,chaucer in the ,monk's ,tale1 and by ,spenser after him1 with or without that adoption of the ,alexandrine which turns it into the ,spenserian4 99 99 99 99 99 ,p,,on4--,a foot of four syllables--one long and three short--arranged in varying order4 ,the commonest ,english foot in rhythmical prose1 but unnecessary in ,english verse4 ,,pause4--,a break in the line as metrically read or heard1 which is almost always coincident with the end of a word1 and which very frequently1 but not always or so often as in the former case1 coincides with a stop in punctuation4 ,it is not necessary that every line should have a pause2 and the place of the pause1 when it exists1 is practically ad libitum in most1 if not all lines1 while there may be more pauses than one4 ,the attempt to curtail liberty in these three respects has been the cause of some of the worst mistakes about ,english prosody1 especially when it takes the form of prescribing that the pause should always be as near the middle as possible4 ,variety of pause is1 in fact1 next to variety of feet1 the great secret of success in our verse2 and it is owing to this that ,shakespeare and ,milton more especially stand so high4 ,on the other hand1 this variety requires the most careful adjustment2 and if such adjustment is neglected1 the lines will be uglier than continuously middle-paused ones1 though not so monotonous4 ,,pentameter4--,see ,,dimeter4 ,as properly used1 a line of five feet--dactyls or spondees--divided into two batches of two and a half each4 ,as improperly used1 a five-foot iambic line in ,english4 ,,pindaric4--,strictly the regular ode 7see ,,strophe7 of ,greek poetry2 but extended by1 and still more in imitation of1 ,cowley to any lyrical composition in irregularly rhymed stanzas of different line-lengths4 ,according to ,dryden1 the ,alexandrine line1 frequent in ,cowley's odes1 was so-called1 but1 he most properly adds1 improperly4 ,,position4--,in the classical prosodies a short or common vowel before two consonants 7but not every two7 was said to be long by position2 and efforts have been made to determine ,english quantity in the same way4 ,no rule of the kind can be laid down2 doubled or grouped consonants after a vowel usually shortening the pronunciation1 and sometimes lengthening the value4 ,,poulter',s ,,measure4--,a term used by ,gascoigne1 and said to be derived from the practice of poulterers in giving twelve to the dozen in one case and thirteen or fourteen in another4 ,it is applied to the combination of ,alexandrine and fourteener which was such a favourite with the earlier ,tudor poets1 and which broke up into the ,short ,measure of the hymn-books4 ,,proceleusmatic4--,a double pyrrhic1 or foot of four short syllables 7 74 ,not needed1 if not also impossible1 in ,english4 ,,pyrrhic4--,foot of two short syllables 7 74 ,very doubtfully found in ,english2 but not impossible4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,quantity4--,that which fits a syllable for its place as long or short in a verse4 ,,quartet or ,,quatrain4--,a group of four lines usually1 indeed with the rarest exceptions1 united in themselves1 and separated from others1 by rhyme4 ,,quintet4--,a similar group of five lines4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,redundance4--,an extra syllable at the end of the line1 not strictly part of its last foot4 ,,refrain4--,a line recurring identically1 or with very slight alteration1 at the end of every stanza of a poem4 ,probably one of the oldest of all poetic features--certainly one of the oldest in ,english4 ,the same as burden4 ,refrains or burdens are not uncommonly meaningless collections of musical-sounding words4 ,,rhyme4--,the arrangement of two word-endings--identical in vowel and following consonant or consonants1 but not having the same consonant before the vowel--at the conclusion of two or more lines1 or sometimes within the lines themselves4 ,,rhyme-,,royal4--,the stanza of seven decasyllabic lines1 rhymed ababbcc1 which occurs in ,chaucer's ,troilus1 and which traditionally derives its name from its use in ,the ,king's ,quair1 though its extreme popularity for a long period is perhaps the real reason4 ,,rhythm4--,an orderly arrangement1 but not necessarily a correspondent succession1 of sounds4 ,,riding ,,rhyme4--,an old name for the decasyllabic couplet1 obviously derived from its appearance in ,chaucer's ,tales of ,pilgrims riding to ,canterbury4 ,,rime ,,cou,e or ,,tailed ,,rhyme4--,translations in ,french and ,english of the ,latin versus caudatus1 and not very happy from the ,english point of view1 though justified by origin 7see ,origin-,list74 ,the verse to which they refer is the sixain of two eights1 a six1 two more eights1 and another six4 ,two tails are not common in ,english fauna2 and one might prefer to call the verse waisted and tailed4 ,it is1 however1 in the old ,romances 7where it is common1 and from its commonness in which it is better called the ,romance-six7 often found in multiples of three other than six2 and it is at the batch of three that the title looks--the couplet of eights constituting the body1 and the odd six the tail4 ,,romance-,,six4--,see ,,rime ,,cou,e4 ,,rondeau--,,rondel4--,french 7and ,english7 forms in which lines are repeated at regular intervals4 7,see pp4 #abe-f47 99 99 99 99 99 ,,sapphic4--,a classical metre consisting of three longer lines and one shorter 7called an ,adonic7 arranged in the following scheme3-- ,it has been frequently tried in ,english1 both as burlesque and seriously4 ,for the former use 7as in ,canning's immortal ,needy ,knife-,grinder7 it is1 like most classical metres1 well suited1 though the true ,greek and even ,latin rhythm is generally 7v4 sup4 p4 #abd7 violated4 ,in serious verse ,mr4 ,swinburne has produced exquisite and others 7as ,watts and ,cowper7 respectable examples2 but even the best is a tour de force only4 ,,section4--,a term not useless in its general sense as denoting verse divisions larger than a foot2 but now prejudicially preoccupied by ,guest 7v4 sup4 p4 #bed1 note7 and others4 ,,septenar4--,a word applied 7very undesirably7 by most ,german and a few ,english writers to the fourteener or seven-foot iambic4 ,,septet4--,a verse or stanza of seven lines4 ,,sestet1 also ,,sixain4--,a verse or stanza of six lines4 ,,sestine1 ,,sestina4--,a very elaborate measure invented by the ,provenal poet ,arnaut ,daniel1 imitated by ,dante and other ,italians1 tried inexactly by ,spenser1 and sometimes recently attempted in ,english4 ,,short ,,measure 7,s4,m474--,the split-up poulter's measure or quartet of #f1 #f1 #h1 #f4 ,,single-,,moulded4--,the term used in this book to describe the early blank-verse line1 which appears to be constructed complete in itself1 without any expectation of1 or preparation for1 continuance4 ,see ,,end-,,stopped4 ,,skeltonic4---,the peculiar kind of 7generally short7 line used by ,skelton4 ,its commonest form is an anapstic monometer 7i4e4 two feet71 often much further cut down by dissyllabic and monosyllabic substitution or by catalexis1 but sometimes extended4 ,it is always rhymed2 sometimes on the same rhyme for several lines together4 ,though usually called doggerel1 it does not quite deserve that name as defined above4 ,see also note p4 #big4 ,,slur4--,see ,,elision4 ,,sonnet4--,a word sometimes1 in former days1 loosely applied to any short poem1 especially of an amatory nature2 often nowadays almost as improperly limited to a special ,italian form of the true sonnet4 ,this latter is a poem of fourteen lines1 of the same length generally and 7except by exception7 decasyllables 7originally1 of course1 hendecasyllables7 arranged in varying rhyme-schemes4 ,its exact origin is unknown2 but it is first found in ,italian-,sicilian poets of the thirteenth century1 and it became enormously popular in ,italy very soon4 ,it did not spread northward for a considerable time1 the first ,french sonnets occurring not very early in the sixteenth century2 the first ,english1 not till near its middle4 ,a great sonnet outburst took place at the end of that century with us2 but the form fell into disuse in the seventeenth1 though championed by ,milton2 and it was not till the extreme end of the eighteenth century that it became1 and has since remained1 something of a staple4 ,partly the absence of the ,italian plethora of similar endings1 and partly something else1 made the earliest ,english practitioners select an arrangement with final rhymed couplet1 the twelve remaining lines being usually arranged in rhymed1 but not rhyme-linked1 quatrains3 and this form1 immortalised by ,shakespeare1 is probably the best suited to ,english4 ,it is1 at any rate1 absolutely genuine and orthodox there4 ,but ,milton1 ,wordsworth1 and especially ,dante and ,christina ,rossetti1 have given examples of the sonnets which1 divided mostly into octave and sestet1 have this latter arranged in intertwisted rhymes4 ,this form is susceptible of great beauty1 but has no prerogative1 still less any primogeniture1 in our poetry4 ,,spenserian4--,see ,origin-,list4 ,,spondee4--,a foot of two long syllables 7 74 ,its presence in ,english has been denied1 but most strangely2 its condition is1 in fact1 exactly opposite to that of the dactyl4 ,in single and separate words its representatives are chiefly compounds like moonshine1 humdrum1 etc4 ,but1 as formed out of different words1 it is frequent4 ,,stanza or ,,stave4--,a collection of lines arranged in an ordered batch and generally on some definite rhyme-scheme4 ,also designated by one of the loose senses of verse4 ,,stress4--,generally1 though not universally1 used as synonymous with accent1 but somewhat differently applied1 accent being regarded as something more or less permanent in the word1 stress something added specially in the verse4 ,by extension of this1 numerous arbitrary and fanciful systems of prosody have been recently devised4 ,,stress-,,unit4--,a recent instance1 and one of the worst1 of the new terms invented to avoid the use of foot4 ,for1 almost more than any other1 it ignores the importance of non-stressed syllables4 ,,strophe4--,the stanza-unit of ,greek odic or choric arrangement4 ,the system is triple--strophe1 antistrophe1 and epode--and will be found fully illustrated and scanned from ,gray 7v4 sup4 pp4 #hi-ia74 ,,substitution4--,see ,,equivalence4 ,,synal,,pha4 ,,syncope4 --,see ,,elision4 ,,synizesis4 ,,syzygy4--,a term of classical prosody which has a perfectly strict meaning--the yoking of two feet into a metrical batch 7see ,,dimeter74 ,it has1 in some recent cases1 been rather unfortunately extended to other forms of combining syllables1 sounds1 etc4 ,as thus used it is not needed1 and is likely to cause confusion4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,tailed ,,sonnet4--,an ,italian lengthening of the sonnet to eighteen or twenty lines1 sometimes practised in ,english1 the best known example being ,milton's2 but not very admirable in our language1 and not at all necessary4 ,even in ,italian the use is largely burlesque4 ,,tercet4--,a group of three lines like ,,triplet1 but specially limited to that used in ,,terza ,,rima4 ,,terza ,,rima4--,a verse-arrangement by which1 in a group of three lines1 the first and third rhyme together1 while the middle is left to rhyme with the first and third of the next batch4 ,this arrangement1 very effective in ,italian1 and undoubtedly one of the chief elements of the magnificence of ,dante's prosody1 has never been really successful in ,english4 ,some of the best examples are ,shelley's2 the earliest1 after some fragments in ,chaucer1 are ,wyatt's2 the largest continuous employment is in ,canon ,dixon's ,mano4 ,,tetrameter4--,a term improperly applied to the octosyllable2 properly to divers long lines of eight iambs1 anapsts1 or trochees4 ,,thesis4--,see ,,arsis4 ,,time4--,a word of fear in prosody1 as it is almost always a voice prophesying war4 ,used merely in the sense of rhythm1 it is quite innocuous2 and construed generally1 as when ,southey says that two short syllables take up only the time of one1 there need be no harm in it4 ,but when absolute duration is insisted on1 and people discuss whether this can be given by that or the other means1 great and unnecessary mischief is likely to be done4 ,,tribrach4--,a foot of three short syllables 7 74 ,very frequent in later ,english1 perhaps less so in earlier4 ,,triolet4--,a short ,french form of the rondeau1 in the most common variety of which the first of eight lines is repeated in the fourth and seventh1 the second being also repeated in the eighth1 so that there are only five lines of independent sense4 7,see example1 p4 #abe47 ,,triple4--,see ,,duple4 ,,triplet4--,a group of three lines2 most commonly used of three which rhyme together4 ,see ,,tercet4 ,,trochee4--,a foot of two syllables--long1 short 7 74 ,the complement-contrast of the iamb2 an invaluable variant upon it2 the best introducer 7by admitting it as a substitute7 of the dactyl in ,english2 and very effective by itself when properly managed4 ,,truncation4--,the lopping off of a syllable at beginning or end of line4 ,this in the latter case equals what is here called ,,catalexis 7q4v471 and in the former is often better accounted for by a monosyllabic foot4 ,but there are cases1 as in ,chaucer's acephalous lines1 where it is not inapplicable4 ,,tumbling ,,verse4--,a phrase of ,king ,james the ,sixth 7,first7 in his prosodic treatise1 which has caused1 or at least been connected with1 difficulties 7see ,,cadence74 ,he seems to have meant by it nothing more than the loose half-doggerel anapsts which were so common in the first two-thirds of the sixteenth century4 ,,turn ,,of ,,words4--,a phrase specially used in the seventeenth century for the repetition1 identically or with little change1 of the same words at the end of a line and the beginning of the next4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,verse4--,a word used with unfortunate1 though perhaps unavoidable1 ambiguity4 ,it is employed first 7and best7 of writing in general as opposed to prose2 secondly1 of a single line of poetry2 thirdly1 of a batch of lines2 while there is even a fourth use1 now obsolete1 but common in the ,elizabethans1 by which it applied to classical unrhymed metres in ,english4 ,this last1 one may hope1 will never be revived4 ,of the others1 the first and third are indispensable and can cause no real confusion4 ,but1 though a fairly strong case can be made out for verse in the sense of line1 the inconvenience and confusion of this use should be held to prohibit it4 ,,verse ,,paragraph4--,a very important development of blank verse1 ensuring to it almost all the advantages of stanza in some ways1 and more than all in others4 ,first reached by ,shakespeare in drama1 and by ,milton in non-dramatic verse1 it consists in so knitting a batch of blank-verse lines together by variation of pause1 alternate use of stop and enjambment1 and close connection of sense1 that neither eye nor voice is disposed to make serious halt till the close of the paragraph is reached4 ,thus an effect of concerted music is produced through the whole of it4 ,no one has ever been a great master of blank verse without being a master of this device2 but perhaps the most special and elaborate command of it has been ,tennyson's4 ,,vowel-,,music4--,in a certain sense vowel-music may be said to be1 and always to have been1 a main1 if not the main1 source of the pleasure given to the ear by poetry4 ,nor1 it may also be said1 can any accomplished poet ever have been indifferent to it4 ,deliberate attention to it1 however1 has varied much at different times of ,english poetry1 and was perhaps at its lowest in the eighteenth1 at its highest in the nineteenth1 century4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,weak ,,ending4--,a technical term used by not a few prosodists1 but not adopted in this book1 for redundance4 ,as a matter of fact a line is often much stronger for the extra syllable4 ,,wrenched ,,accent4--,a term applied1 by accentual prosodists1 sometimes to signify removal of accent on a word from the usual place2 sometimes to the presence of an unaccented syllable where they expect an accented1 or the reverse4 ,in the first sense it is unobjectionable2 in the second1 always unnecessary1 and often suggestive of misdescription of the results of ordinary substitution4#afa ,,footnotes3 #aed ,webster's ,dictionary4 #aee ,,note ,,on ,,musical ,,and ,,rhetorical ,,arrangements ,,of ,,verse ,it has been said above 7,book ,i4 ,chap4 ,v4 ,rule #da1 p4 #ce7 that certain additional arrangements of verse may be made for musical or rhetorical purposes4 ,this no doubt requires explanation and example1 the latter especially4 ,it shall now have them4 ,tennyson's ,the watcher on the column to the end1 and ,mr4 ,swinburne's ,the thunder of the trumpets of the night1 are both regular and unexceptionable heroics1 five-foot iambics1 decasyllabic lines1 etc4 ,but in reading them the voice will not improbably be tempted 7and need not resist the temptation7 to arrange them as ,the watcher on the column to the end and ,the thunder of the trumpets of the night respectively1 while in the case of the latter line other dispositions are possible4 ,in blank-verse paragraphs especially1 the poet is likely to suggest a great deal of such scansion4 ,no doubt there are in this arrangement four-syllable divisions and three-syllable ones like amphibrachs1 etc42 but that does not matter1 because the line has already passed the regular prosodic tests4 ,and no doubt the sections1 or whatever they are to be called1 are not strictly substitutable2 but then on this scheme1 which is not positively prosodic and applies to the individual line only1 they need not be4 ,so1 too1 there is no harm in dividing ,hood's famous piece1 for musical purposes1 into ditrochees3 ,i remember ,i remember1 ,how my little lovers came1 or even in making what are practically eight feet out of ,all people that on earth do dwell1 in order to get an impressive musical effect4 ,here also the lines have passed the prosodic preliminary or matriculation2 as in the one case trochaic tetrameters catalectic split in half2 in the other1 as ordinary long measure4 ,now it is this necessary preliminary which the plain- and fancy-stress prosodists neglect2 putting their stress divisions not on the top1 but in the place of it4 ,and the probable result would be1 if the proceeding were widely followed--as1 indeed1 it has been already to some small extent1--the creation of a new chaos like that of fifteenth-century ,south-,english verse generally1 or of blank verse and heroic couplet in the mid-seventeenth4 #aef ,see the larger ,history for fuller discussion of this4 ,such lines will often scan trochaically 7or in some other way7 so as to take in the outside syllable2 but the question then arises whether such scansion will suit the context4 #aeg ,professor ,hardie reminds me of ,quintilian's assertion 7,inst4 ,orat4 ,,ix4 iv4 #acf7 that even in ,latin1 iambs omnibus pedibus insurgunt4 #aeh ,,note ,,on ,,ionic ,a ,,minore ,,as ,,applicable ,,to ,,the ,,epilogue ,,of ,,browning',s ,,asolando ,it has been proposed to scan the beautiful last words of ,robert ,browning-- ,at the midnight1 in the silence of the sleep-time1 ,when you set your fancies free-- ,will they pass to where1 by death1 fools think1 imprisoned ,low he lies who once so loved you1 whom you loved so1 --,pity me8 as an example of ,english ,ionic a minore2#aei not 7as it is taken by the present writer7 as trochaic-- t th mdnght n th slnce f th slep-tme2 not t th midnght n th slnce f th slep-tme4 ,perhaps those who propose this have been a little bribed by conscious or unconscious desire to prevent accenting in and of2 but no more need be said on this point4 ,the trochees1 or their sufficient equivalents1 will run very well without any violent ,,inn or ,,ovv4 ,but when the piece is examined by ear of body and ear of mind 7for the mind's ear is as important as the mind's eye7 it will be found that ,ionic scansion is unsatisfactory4 ,it is perhaps not utterly fatal to the first line 7though it gives an unpleasantly rocking-horsy movement71 and perhaps still less to the second1 where the catalexis itself saves this effect to some extent4 ,but the junction and severance of sense which it suggests in the third-- ,wll thy pss t whre1 by dath1 fols thnk1 mprsned1 is very ugly4 ,and this same junction or severance becomes impossible in the short lines concluding the stanzas4 ,to suit the ,ionic measure these must run-- ,pty m ,bng--wh8 ,slep t wke ,thre s hre1 a set of jumpy anapsts which upsets the whole pathos and dignity of the composition when compared with ,pty m2 ,slep t wke2 and ,thre s hre2 while it makes ,bng--wh8 into a mere burlesque1 and flies in the face of ,browning's specially indicated pause4 #aei 4 ,third pon 7 7 has also been suggested1 but the same counter-arguments apply to it4 #afj ,it would become tolerable as a four-foot anapst1 and perhaps partly suggested such a line2 also as an octosyllable with substitution4 #afa ,note 7,second ,edition7 on ,skeltonic1 v4 sup4 p4 #bic4--;,attempts have been made to trace it to the very short lines used by ,martial d',auvergne 7c4 #adbj-aejh7 and1 perhaps1 other ,french poets4 ,but1 as in some similar cases1 these attempts ignore radical differences1 such as the presence of the anapst in ,english and its absence from ,french1 and others still4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,reasoned ,,list ,,of ,,poets ,,with ,,special ,,regard ,,to ,,their ,,prosodic ,,quality ,,and ,,influence ,,arnold1 ,,matthew 7#ahbb-ahhh74--,made various attempts 7outside of his classical drama ,merope7 at rhymeless metres in ,english4 ,countenanced the ,english hexameter4 ,also made1 but abandoned1 experiments in the enjambed couplet1 which anticipated ,william ,morris4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,barham1 ,,richard ,h4 7,thomas ,ingoldsby7 7#aghh-ahde74--,showed the greatest proficiency in light1 loose metres of the anapstic division1 and exercised much influence by them1 owing to the wide and long-sustained popularity of the ,ingoldsby ,legends 7#ahdj1 but earlier in magazines74 ,,beaumont1 ,,sir ,,john 7#aehc-afbc74--,one of the earliest 7before #afbe7 practitioners1 and perhaps the very earliest champion in verse itself1 of the stopped couplet exactly arranged4 ,,blake1 ,,william 7#ageg-ahbg74--;,although ,blake's immediate and direct influence must have been small1 there is hardly any poet who exhibits the tendency of his time in metre more variously and vehemently4 ,in his unhesitating and brilliantly successful use of substitution in octosyllabic couplet1 ballad measure1 and lyrical adjustments of various kinds1 as well as in media varying from actual verse to the rhythmed prose of his ,prophetic books1 ,blake struck definitely away from the monotonous and select metres of the eighteenth century1 and anticipated the liberty1 multiplicity1 and variety of the nineteenth4 ,and he differed1 almost equally1 from all but one or two of his older contemporaries1 and from most of his younger for many years1 in the colour and fingering of his verse4 ,,bowles1 ,,william ,,lisle 7#agfb-ahej74--;,a generally mediocre poet1 who1 however1 deserves a place of honour here for the sonnets which he published in #aghi1 and which had an immense influence on ,coleridge1 ,southey1 and others of his juniors1 not merely in restoring that great form to popularity1 but by inculcating description and study of nature in connection with the thoughts and passions of men4 ,,browne1 ,,william 7#aeia-afdc74--;,a ,jacobean poet of the loosely named ,spenserian school--effective in various metres1 but a special and early exponent of the enjambed couplet4 ,,browning1 ,,elizabeth ,,barrett 7#ahjf-ahfa74--,remarkable here for her adoption of the nineteenth-century principle of the widest possible metrical experiment and variety4 ,in actual metre effective1 though sometimes a little slipshod4 ,in rhyme a portent and a warning4 ,perhaps the worst rhymester in the ,english language--perpetrating1 and attempting to defend on a mistaken view of assonance1 cacophonies so hideous that they need not sully this page4 ,,browning1 ,,robert 7#ahab-ahhi74--,often described as a loose and rugged metrist1 and a licentious1 if not criminal1 rhymester4 ,nothing of the sort4 ,extraordinarily bold in both capacities1 and sometimes1 perhaps1 as usually happens in these cases1 a little too bold2 but in metre practically never1 in rhyme very seldom 7and then only for purposes of designed contrast1 like the farce in tragedy71 overstepping actual bounds4 ,a great master of broken metres1 internal rhyme1 heavily equivalenced lines1 and all the tours de force of ,english prosody4 ,,burns1 ,,robert 7#agei-agif74--,of the very greatest importance in historical prosody1 because of the shock which his fresh dialect administered to the conventional poetic diction of the eighteenth century1 and his unusual and broken measures 7especially the famous ,burns-metre7 to its notions of metric4 ,an admirable performer on the strings that he tried2 a master of musical fingering of verse2 and to some extent a pioneer of the revival of substitution4 ,,byron1 ,,george ,,gordon1 ,,lord 7#aghh-ahbd74--,usually much undervalued as a prosodist1 even by those who admire him as a poet4 ,really of great importance in this respect1 owing to the variety1 and in some cases the novelty1 of his accomplishment1 and to its immense popularity4 ,his ,spenserians in ,childe ,harold not of the highest class1 but the light octaves of ,beppo and ,don ,juan the very best examples of the metre in ,english4 ,some fine but rhetorical blank verse1 and a great deal of fluent octosyllabic couplet imitated from ,scott4 ,but his lyrics of most importance1 combining popular appeal with great variety1 and sometimes positive novelty1 of adjustment and cadence4 ,diction is his weakest point4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,campbell1 ,,thomas 7#aggg-ahdd74--,not prosodically remarkable in his longer poems1 but very much so in some of his shorter1 especially ,the ,battle of the ,baltic1 where the bold shortening of the last line1 effective in itself1 has proved suggestive to others of even better things1 such as the half-humorous1 half-plaintive measure of ,holmes's ,the ,last ,leaf and ,locker's ,grandmamma4 ,,campion1 ,,thomas 78-#afai74--;,equally remarkable for the sweetness and variety of his rhymed lyrics in various ordinary measures1 and as the advocate and practitioner of a system of rhymeless verse1 different from the usual hexametrical attempts of his contemporaries1 but still adjusted to classical patterns4 ,,canning1 ,,george 7#aggj-ahbg74--;,influential1 in the general breaking-up of the conventional metres and diction of the eighteenth century1 by his parodies of ,darwin and his light lyrical pieces in the ,anti-,jacobin4 ,,chamberlayne1 ,,william 7#afai-afhi74--,remarkable as1 in ,pharonnida1 one of the chief exponents of the beauties1 but still more of the dangers1 of the enjambed heroic couplet2 in his ,england's ,jubile as a rather early1 and by no means unaccomplished1 practitioner of the rival form4 ,to be carefully distinguished from his contemporary1 ,robert ,chamberlain 7fl4 c4 #afdj71 a very poor poetaster who wrote a few ,english hexameters4 ,,chatterton1 ,,thomas 7#ageb-aggj74--,of some interest here because his manufactured diction was a protest against the conventional language of eighteenth-century poetry4 ,of more1 because he ventured upon equivalence in octosyllabic couplet1 and wrote ballad and other lyrical stanzas1 entirely different in form and cadence from those of most of his contemporaries1 and less artificial even than those of ,collins and ,gray4 ,,chaucer1 ,,geoffrey 7#acdj8-adjj74--,the reducer of the first stage of ,english prosody to complete form and order2 the greatest master of prosodic harmony in our language before the later sixteenth century1 and one of the greatest 7with value for capacity in language7 of all time2 the introducer of the decasyllabic couplet--if not absolutely1 yet systematically and on a large scale--and of the seven-lined rhyme-royal stanza2 and1 finally1 a poet whose command of the utmost prosodic possibilities of ,english1 at the time of his writing1 almost necessitated a temporary prosodic disorder1 when those who followed attempted to imitate him with a changed pronunciation1 orthography1 and word-store4 ,,cleveland1 ,,john 7#afac-afeh74--,of no great importance as a poet1 but holding a certain position as a comparatively early experimenter with apparently anapstic measures in his ,mark ,antony and other pieces4 ,,coleridge1 ,,samuel ,,taylor 7#aggb-ahcd74--;,in the ,ancient ,mariner and ,christabel1 the great instaurator of equivalence and substitution2 a master of many other kinds of metre2 and an experimenter in classical versing4 ,,collins1 ,,william 7#agba-agei7--;,famous in prosody for his attempt at odes less definitely regular than ,gray's1 but a vast improvement on the loose ,pindaric which had preceded2 and for a remarkable attempt at rhymeless verse in that ,to ,evening4 ,in diction retained a good deal of artificiality4 ,,congreve1 ,,william 7#afgj-agbi74--,regularised ,cowley's loose ,pindaric4 ,,cowley1 ,,abraham 7#afah-affg74--,the most popular poet of the mid-seventeenth century2 important to prosody for a wide1 various1 and easy1 though never quite consummate command of lyric1 as well as for a vigorous and effective couplet 7with occasional ,alexandrines7 of a kind midway between that of the early seventeenth century and ,dryden's2 but chiefly for his introduction of the so-called ,pindaric4 ,,cowper1 ,,william 7#agca-ahjj74--,one of the first to protest1 definitely and by name1 against the mechanic art of ,pope's couplet4 ,he himself returned to ,dryden for that metre2 but practised very largely in blank verse1 and wrote lyrics with great sweetness1 a fairly varied command of metre1 and1 in ,boadicea1 ,the ,castaway1 and some of his hymns1 no small intensity of tone and cry4 ,his chief shortcoming1 a preference of elision to substitution4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,donne1 ,,john 7#aegc-afca74--;,famous for the beauty of his lyrical poetry1 the metaphysical strangeness of his sentiment and diction throughout1 and the roughness of his couplets4 ,this last made ,jonson1 who thought him the first poet in the world for some things1 declare that he nevertheless deserved hanging for not keeping accent1 and has induced others to suppose a 7probably imaginary7 revolt against ,spenserian smoothness1 and an attempt at a new prosody4 ,,drayton1 ,,michael 7#aefc-afca74--;,a very important poet prosodically1 representing the later ,elizabethan school as it passes into the ,jacobean1 and even the ,caroline4 ,expresses and exemplifies the demand for the couplet 7which he calls gemell or geminel71 but is an adept in stanzas4 ,in the ,polyolbion produced the only long ,english poem in continuous ,alexandrines before ,browning's ,fifine at the ,fair 7which is very much shorter74 ,a very considerable sonneteer1 and the deviser of varied and beautiful lyrical stanzas in short rhythms1 the most famous being the ,ballad of ,agincourt4 ,,dryden1 ,,john 7#afcj-agjj74--,the establisher and master of the stopped heroic couplet with variations of triplets and ,alexandrines2 the last great writer of dramatic blank verse1 after he had given up the couplet for that use2 master also of any other metre--the stopped heroic quatrain1 lyrics of various form1 etc4--that he chose to try4 ,a deliberate student of prosody1 on which he had intended to leave a treatise1 but did not4 ,,dixon1 ,,richard ,,watson 7#ahcc-aijj74--,the only ,english poet who has attempted1 and 7as far perhaps as the thing is possible7 successfully carried out1 a long poem 7,mano7 in terza rima4 ,possessed also of great lyrical gift in various metres1 especially in irregular or ,pindaric arrangements4 ,,dunbar1 ,,william 7#adej8-aeac8 or -#aecj874--,the most accomplished and various master of metre in ,middle ,scots1 including both alliterative and strictly metrical forms4 ,if he wrote ,the ,friars of ,berwick1 the chief master of decasyllabic couplet between ,chaucer and ,spenser4 ,,dyer1 ,,john 7#agjj8-ageh874--;,derives his prosodic importance from ,grongar ,hill1 a poem in octosyllabic couplet1 studied1 with independence1 from ,milton1 and helping to keep alive in that couplet the variety of iambic and trochaic cadence derived from catalexis1 or alternation of eight- and seven-syllabled lines4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,fairfax1 ,,edward 7d4 #afce74--,very influential in the formation of the stopped antithetic couplet by his use of it at the close of the octaves of his translation of ,tasso4 ,,fitzgerald1 ,,edward 7#ahji-ahhc74--,like ,fairfax1 famous for the prosodic feature of his translation of the ,rubiyt of ,omar ,khayym4 ,this is written in decasyllabic quatrains1 the first1 second1 and fourth lines rhymed together1 the third left blank4 ,,fletcher1 ,,giles 7#aehh-afbc71 and ,,phineas 7#aehb-afej74--;,both attempted alterations of the ,spenserian by leaving out first one and then two lines4 ,phineas also a great experimenter in other directions4 ,,fletcher1 ,,john 7#aegi-afbe74--,the dramatist4 ,prosodically noticeable for his extreme leaning to redundance in dramatic blank verse4 ,a master of lyric also4 ,,frere1 ,,john ,,hookham 7#agfi-ahdf74--,reintroduced the octave for comic purposes in the ,monks and the ,giants 7#ahag71 and taught it to ,byron4 ,showed himself a master of varied metre in his translations of ,aristophanes4 ,also dabbled in ,english hexameters1 holding that extra-metrical syllables were permissible there4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,gascoigne1 ,,george 7#aebe8-aegg74--,not unremarkable as a prosodist1 from having tried various lyrical measures with distinct success1 and as having given the first considerable piece of non-dramatic blank verse 7,the ,steel ,glass7 after ,surrey4 ,but chiefly to be mentioned for his remarkable ,notes of ,instruction on ,english verse1 the first treatise on ,english prosody and a very shrewd one1 despite some slips due to the time4 ,,glover1 ,,richard 7#agab-aghe74--;,a very dull poet1 but noteworthy for two points connected with prosody--his exaggeration of the ,thomsonian heavy stop in the middle of blank-verse lines1 and the unrhymed choruses of his ,medea4 ,,godric1 ,,saint 78-#aagj74--,the first named and known author of definitely ,english 7that is ,middle ,english7 lyric1 if not of definitely ,english 7that is ,middle ,english7 verse altogether4 ,,gower1 ,,john 7#acbe8-adjh74--,the most productive1 and perhaps the best1 older master of the fluent octosyllable1 rarely though sometimes varied in syllabic length1 and approximating most directly to the ,french model4 ,,hampole1 ,,richard ,,rolle ,,of1 most commonly called by the place-name 7#abij8-acdg74--,noteworthy for the occasional occurrence of complete decasyllabic couplets in the octosyllables of the ,prick of ,conscience4 ,possibly the author of poems in varied lyrical measures1 some of great accomplishment4 ,,hawes1 ,,stephen 7d4 #aebc874--,notable for the contrast between the occasional poetry of his ,pastime of ,pleasure and its sometimes extraordinarily bad rhyme-royal--which latter is shown without any relief in his other long poem1 the ,example of ,virtue4 ,the chief late example of fifteenth-century degradation in this respect4 ,,herrick1 ,,robert 7#aeia-afgd74--,the best known 7though not in his own or immediately succeeding times7 of the ,caroline poets4 ,a great master of variegated metre1 and a still greater one of sweet and various grace in diction4 ,,hunt1 ,j4 ,h4 ,,leigh 7#aghd-ahei74--;,chiefly remarkable prosodically for his revival of the enjambed decasyllabic couplet2 but a wide student1 and a catholic appreciator and practitioner1 of ,english metre generally4 ,probably influenced ,keats much at first4 ,,jonson1 ,,benjamin1 always called ,,ben 7#aegc8-afcg74--;,a great practical prosodist1 and apparently 7like his successor1 and in some respects analogue1 ,dryden7 only by accident not a teacher of the study4 ,has left a few remarks1 as it is1 eulogising1 but in rather equivocal terms1 the decasyllabic couplet1 objecting to ,donne's not keeping of accent1 to ,spenser's metre for what exact reason we know not1 and to the ,english hexameter apparently4 ,his practice much plainer sailing4 ,a fine though rather hard master of blank verse2 excellent at the couplet itself2 but in lyric1 as far as form goes1 near perfection in the simpler and more classical adjustments1 as well as in pure ballad measure4 ,,keats1 ,,john 7#agie-ahba74--,one of the chief examples1 among the greater ,english poets1 of sedulous and successful study of prosody2 in this contrasting remarkably with his contemporary1 and in some sort analogue1 ,shelley4 ,began by much reading of ,spenser and of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century poets1 in following whose enjambed couplet he was also1 to some extent1 a disciple of ,leigh ,hunt4 ,exemplified the dangers as well as the beauties of this in ,endymion1 and corrected it by stanza-practice in ,isabella1 the ,eve of ,st4 ,agnes1 and his great ,odes1 as well as by a study of ,dryden which produced the stricter but more splendid couplet of ,lamia4 ,strongly ,miltonic1 but with much originality also1 in the blank verse of ,hyperion2 and a great master of the freer sonnet1 which he had studied in the ,elizabethans4 ,modified the ballad measure in ,la ,belle ,dame sans ,merci with astonishing effect1 and in the ,eve of ,st4 ,mark recovered 7perhaps from ,gower7 a handling of the octosyllable which remained undeveloped till ,mr4 ,william ,morris took it up4 ,,kingsley1 ,,charles 7#ahai-ahge74--;,a poet very notable1 in proportion to the quantity of his work1 for variety and freshness of metrical command in lyric4 ,but chiefly so for the verse of ,andromeda1 which1 aiming at accentual dactylic hexameter1 converts itself into a five-foot anapstic line with anacrusis and hypercatalexis1 and in so doing entirely shakes off the ungainly and slovenly shamble of the ,evangeline type4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,landor1 ,,walter ,,savage 7#agge-ahfd74--;,a great master of form in all metres1 but1 in his longer poems and more regular measures1 a little formal in the less favourable sense4 ,in his smaller lyrics 7epigrammatic in the ,greek rather than the modern use7 hardly second to ,ben ,jonson1 whom he resembles not a little4 ,his phrase of singular majesty and grace4 ,,langland1 ,,william 7fourteenth century74--,the probable name of the pretty certainly single author of the remarkable alliterative poem called ,the ,vision of ,piers ,plowman4 ,develops the alliterative metre itself in a masterly fashion through the successive versions of his poem1 but also exhibits most notably the tendency of the line to fall into definitely metrical shapes--decasyllabic1 ,alexandrine1 and fourteener1--with not infrequent anapstic correspondences4 ,,layamon 7late twelfth and early thirteenth century74--,exhibits in the ,brut1 after a fashion hardly to be paralleled elsewhere1 the passing of one metrical system into another4 ,may have intended to write unrhymed alliteratives1 but constantly passes into complete rhymed octosyllabic couplet1 and generally provides something between the two4 ,a later version1 made most probably1 if not certainly1 after his death1 accentuates the transfer4 ,,lewis1 ,,matthew ,,gregory 7#agge-ahah74--;,a very minor poet1 and hardly a major man of letters in any other way than that of prosody4 ,here1 however1 in consequence partly of an early visit to ,germany1 he acquired love for1 and command of1 the anapstic measures1 which he taught to greater poets than himself from ,scott downwards1 and which had not a little to do with the progress of the ,romantic ,revival4 ,,locker 7latterly ,,locker-,,lampson7 ,,frederick 7#ahba-ahie74--;,an author of verse of society who brought out the serio-comic power of much variegated and indented metre with remarkable skill4 ,,longfellow1 ,,henry ,,wadsworth 7#ahjg-ahhb74--;,an extremely competent ,american practitioner of almost every metre that he tried1 except perhaps the unrhymed terza rima1 which is difficult and may be impossible in ,english4 ,established the popularity of the loose accentual hexameter in ,evangeline1 and did surprisingly well with unvaried trochaic dimeter in ,hiawatha4 ,his lyrical metres not of the first distinction1 but always musical and craftsmanlike4 ,,lydgate1 ,,john 7#acgj-adej874--,the most industrious and productive of the followers of ,chaucer1 writing indifferently rhyme-royal1 riding rhyme1 and octosyllabic couplet1 but especially the first and last1 as well as ballades and probably other lyrical work4 ,lydgate seems to have made an effort to accommodate the breaking-down pronunciation of the time--especially as regarded final e's--to these measures2 but as a rule he had very little success4 ,one of his varieties of decasyllabic is elsewhere stigmatised4 ,he is least abroad in the octosyllable1 but not very effective even there4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,macaulay1 ,,thomas ,,babington 7#ahjj-ahei74--;,best known prosodically by his spirited and well beaten-out ballad measure in the ,lays of ,ancient ,rome4 ,sometimes1 as in ,the ,last ,buccaneer1 tried less commonplace movements with strange success4 ,,maginn1 ,,william 7#agic-ahdb74--;,deserves to be mentioned with ,barham as a chief initiator of the earlier middle nineteenth century in the ringing and swinging comic measures which have done so much to supple ,english verse1 and to accustom the general ear to its possibilities4 ,,marlowe1 ,,christopher 7#affd-afic74--,the greatest master1 among pr-,shakespearian writers1 of the blank-verse line for splendour and might1 as ,peele was for sweetness and brilliant colour4 ,seldom1 though sometimes1 got beyond the single-moulded form2 but availed himself to the very utmost of the majesty to which that form rather specially lends itself4 ,very great also in couplet 7which he freely enjambed7 and in miscellaneous measure when he tried it4 ,,milton1 ,,john 7#afjh-afgd74--,the last of the four chief masters of ,english prosody4 ,began by various experiments in metre1 both in and out of lyric stanza--reaching1 in the ,nativity hymn1 almost the maximum of majesty in concerted measures4 ,in ,l',allegro1 ,il ,penseroso1 and the ,arcades passed to a variety of the octosyllabic couplet1 which had been much practised by ,shakespeare and others1 but developed its variety and grace yet further1 though he did not attempt the full ,spenserian or ,christabel variation4 ,in ,comus continued this1 partly1 with lyrical extensions1 but wrote the major part in blank verse--not irreminiscent of the single-moulded form1 but largely studied off ,shakespeare and ,fletcher1 and with his own peculiar turns already given to it4 ,in ,lycidas employed irregularly rhymed paragraphs of mostly decasyllabic lines4 ,wrote some score of fine sonnets1 adjusted more closely to the usual ,italian models than those of most of his predecessors4 ,after an interval1 produced1 in ,paradise ,lost1 the first long poem in blank verse1 and the greatest non-dramatic example of the measure ever seen--admitting the fullest variation and substitution of foot and syllable1 and constructing verse-paragraphs of almost stanzaic effect by varied pause and contrasted stoppage and overrunning4 ,repeated this1 with perhaps some slight modifications1 in ,paradise ,regained4 ,finally1 in ,samson ,agonistes1 employed blank-verse dialogue with choric interludes rhymed elaborately--though in an afterthought note to ,paradise ,lost he had denounced rhyme--and arranged on metrical schemes sometimes unexampled in ,english4 ,,moore1 ,,thomas 7#aggi-aheb74--;,a very voluminous poet in the most various metres1 and a competent master of all4 ,but especially noticeable as a trained and practising musician1 who wrote a very large proportion of his lyrics directly to music1 and composed or adapted settings for many of them4 ,the double process has resulted in great variety and sweetness1 but occasionally also in laxity which1 from the prosodic point of view1 is somewhat excessive4 ,,morris1 ,,william 7#ahcd-ahif74--,one of the best and most variously gifted of recent prosodists4 ,in his early work1 ,the ,defence of ,guenevere1 achieved a great number of metres1 on the most varied schemes1 with surprising effect2 in his longer productions1 ,jason and ,the ,earthly ,paradise1 handled enjambed couplets1 octosyllabic and decasyllabic1 with an extraordinary compound of freedom and precision4 ,in ,love is ,enough tried alliterative and irregular rhythm with unequal but sometimes beautiful results2 and in ,sigurd the ,volsung fingered the old fourteener into a sweeping narrative verse of splendid quality and no small range4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,orm4--,a monk of the twelfth to the thirteenth century1 who composed a long versification of the ,calendar ,gospels in unrhymed1 strictly syllabic1 fifteen-syllabled verse1 lending itself to regular division in eights and sevens4 ,a very important evidence as to the experimenting tendency of the time and to the strivings for a new ,english prosody4 ,o',,shaughnessy1 ,,arthur ,w4 ,e4 7#ahdd-ahha74--;,a lyrist of great originality1 and with a fingering peculiar to himself1 though most nearly resembling that of ,edgar ,poe4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,peele1 ,,george 7#aeeh8-aeig874--,remarkable for softening the early decasyllabon as ,marlowe sublimed it4 ,,percy1 ,,thomas 7#agbi-ahaa74--;,as an original verse-maker1 of very small value1 and as a meddler with older verse to patch and piece it1 somewhat mischievous2 but as the editor of the ,reliques1 to be hallowed and canonised for that his deed1 in every history of ,english prosody and poetry4 ,,poe1 ,,edgar 7#ahji-ahdi74--,the greatest master of original prosodic effect that the ,united ,states have produced1 and an instinctively and generally right 7though1 in detail1 hasty1 ill-informed1 and crude7 essayist on points of prosodic doctrine4 ,produced little1 and that little not always equal2 but at his best an unsurpassable master of music in verse and phrase4 ,,pope1 ,,alexander 7#afhh-agdd74--,practically devoted himself to one metre1 and one form of it--the stopped heroic couplet1--subjected as much as possible to a rigid absence of licence2 dropping 7though he sometimes used them7 the triplets and ,alexandrines1 which even ,dryden had admitted2 adhering to an almost mathematically centrical pause2 employing1 by preference1 short1 sharp rhymes with little echo in them2 and but very rarely1 though with at least one odd exception1 allowing even the possibility of a trisyllabic foot4 ,an extraordinary artist on this practically single string1 but gave himself few chances on others4 ,,praed1 ,,winthrop ,,mackworth 7#ahjb-ahci7--;,an early nineteenth-century ,prior4 ,not incapable of serious verse1 and hardly surpassed in laughter4 ,his greatest triumph1 the adaptation of the three-foot anapst1 alternately hypercatalectic and acatalectic or exact1 which had been a ballad-burlesque metre as early as ,gay1 had been partly ensouled by ,byron in one piece1 but was made his own by ,praed1 and handed down by him to ,mr4 ,swinburne to be yet further sublimated4 ,,prior1 ,,matthew 7#affd-agba74--,of special prosodic importance for his exercises in anapstic metres and in octosyllabic couplet1 both of which forms he practically established in the security of popular favour1 when the stopped heroic couplet was threatening monopoly4 ,his phrase equally suitable to the vers de socit of which he was our first great master4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,robert ,,of ,,gloucester 7fl4 c4 #abhj74--,nomen clarum in prosody1 as being apparently the first copious and individual producer of the great fourteener metre1 which1 with the octosyllabic couplet1 is the source1 or at least the oldest1 of all modern ,english forms4 ,,rossetti1 ,,christina ,,georgina 7#ahcj-ahid7 and ,,dante ,,gabriel 7#ahbh-ahhb74--;,a brother and sister who rank extraordinarily high in our flock4 ,of mainly ,italian blood1 though thoroughly ,anglicised1 and indeed partly ,english by blood itself1 they produced the greatest ,english sonnets on the commoner ,italian model1 and displayed almost infinite capacity in other metres4 ,miss ,rossetti had the greater tendency to metrical experiment1 and perhaps the more strictly lyrical gift of the song kind2 her brother1 the severer command of sculpturesque but richly coloured form in poetry4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,sackville1 ,,thomas 7#aecf-afjh74--,one of the last and best practitioners of the old rhyme-royal of ,chaucer1 and one of the first experimenters in dramatic blank verse4 ,,sandys1 ,,george 7#aegh-afdd74--;,has traditional place after ,fairfax and with ,waller 7,sir ,john ,beaumont1 who ought to rank perhaps before these1 being generally omitted7 as a practitioner of stopped heroic couplet4 ,also used ,in ,memoriam quatrain4 ,,sayers1 ,,frank 7#agfc-ahag74--;,an apostle1 both in practice and preaching1 of the unrhymed verse--noteworthy at the close of the eighteenth century--which gives him his place in the story4 ,,scott1 ,,sir ,,walter 7#agga-ahcb74--,the facts of his prosodic influence and performance hardly deniable1 but its nature and value often strangely misrepresented4 ,was probably influenced by ,lewis in adopting 7from the ,german7 anapstic measures2 and certainly and most avowedly influenced by ,coleridge 7whose ,christabel he heard read or recited long before publication7 in adopting equivalenced octosyllabic couplet and ballad metres in narrative verse4 ,but probably derived as much from the old ballads and romances themselves1 which he knew as no one else then did1 and as few have known them since4 ,applied the method largely in his verse-romances1 but was also a master of varied forms of lyric1 no mean proficient in the ,spenserian and in fragments1 at least1 of blank verse4 ,,shakespeare1 ,,william 7#aefd-afaf74--,the catholicos or universal master1 as of ,english poetry so of ,english prosody4 ,in the blank verse of his plays1 and in the songs interspersed in them1 as well as in his immature narrative poems and more mature sonnets1 every principle of ,english versification can be found exemplified1 less deliberately machined1 it may be1 than in ,milton or ,tennyson1 but in absolutely genuine and often not earlier-found form4 ,,shelley1 ,,percy ,,bysshe 7#agib-ahbb74--,the great modern example of prosodic inspiration1 as ,keats1 ,tennyson1 and ,mr4 ,swinburne are of prosodic study4 ,shelley's early verse is as unimportant in this way as in others2 but from ,queen ,mab to some extent1 from ,alastor unquestionably1 onwards1 he displayed totally different quality1 and every metre that he touched 7even if possibly suggested to some extent by others7 bears the marks of his own personality4 ,,shenstone1 ,,william 7#agad-agfc74--,not quite unimportant as poet1 in breaking away from the couplet2 but of much more weight for the few prosodic remarks in his ,essays1 in which he directly pleads for trisyllabic 7as he awkwardly calls them dactylic7 feet1 for long-echoing rhymes1 and for other things adverse to the mechanic tune by heart of the popular prosody4 ,,sidney1 ,,sir ,,philip 7#aeed-aehf74--;,a great experimenter in ,elizabethan classical forms2 but much more happy as an accomplished and very influential master of the sonnet1 and a lyric poet of great sweetness and variety4 ,,southey1 ,,robert 7#aggd-ahdc74--;,a very deft and learned practitioner of many kinds of verse1 his tendency to experiment leading him into rhymelessness 7,thalaba7 and hexameters 7,the ,vision of ,judgment72 but quite sound on general principles1 and the first of his school and time to champion the use of trisyllabic feet in principle1 and to appeal to old practice in their favour4 ,,spenser1 ,,edmund 7#aeeb8-aeii74--,the second founder of ,english prosody in his whole work2 the restorer of regular form not destitute of music2 the preserver of equivalence in octosyllabic couplet2 and the inventor of the great ,spenserian stanza1 the greatest in every sense of all assemblages of lines1 possessing individual beauty and capable of indefinite repetition4 ,,surrey1 ,,earl ,,of1 the courtesy title of ,,henry ,,howard 7#aeag-aedg74--,our second ,english sonneteer1 our second author of reformed literary lyric after the fifteenth-century break-down1 and our first clearly intentional writer of blank verse4 ,,swinburne1 ,,algernon ,,charles 7#ahcg-aiji74--,of all ,english poets the one who has applied the widest scholarship and study1 assisted by great original prosodic gift1 to the varying and accomplishing of ,english metre4 ,impeccable in all kinds2 in lyric nearly supreme4 ,to some extent early1 and1 still more1 later1 experimented in very long lines1 never unharmonious1 but sometimes rather compounds than genuine integers4 ,achieved many triumphs with special metres1 especially by the shortening of the last line of the ,praed-stanza into the form of ,dolores1 which greatly raises its passion and power4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,tennyson1 ,,alfred 7#ahji-ahib74--;,a poet who very nearly1 if not quite1 deserves the position accorded here to ,chaucer1 ,spenser1 ,shakespeare1 and ,milton4 ,coming sufficiently late after the great ,romantic poets of the earlier school to generalise their results1 he started with an apparent freedom 7perfectly orderly1 in fact7 which puzzled even ,coleridge4 ,very soon1 too1 he produced a practically new form of blank verse1 in which the qualities of the ,miltonic and ,shakespearian kinds were blended1 and a fresh metrical touch given4 ,all poets since--sometimes while denying or belittling him--have felt his prosodic influence2 and it is still1 even after ,mr4 ,swinburne's fifty years of extended practice of it1 the pattern of modern ,english prosody4 ,,thomson1 ,,james 7#agjj-agdh74--,the first really important practitioner of blank verse after ,milton1 and a real1 though rather mannerised1 master of it4 ,displayed an equally real1 and more surprising1 though much more unequal1 command of the ,spenserian in ,the ,castle of ,indolence4 ,,tusser1 ,,thomas 7#aebd8-aehj74--;,a very minor poet--in fact1 little more than a doggerelist2 but important because1 at the very time when men like ,gascoigne were doubting whether ,english had any foot but the iambic1 he produced lolloping but perfectly metrical continuous anapsts1 and mixed measures of various kinds4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,waller1 ,,edmund 7#afjf-afhg74--;,a good mixed prosodist of the ,caroline period1 whose chief traditional importance is in connection with the popularising of the stopped couplet4 ,his actual precedence in this is rather doubtful2 but his influence was early acknowledged1 and therefore is an indisputable fact4 ,he was also early as a literary user of anapstic measures1 and tried various experiments4 ,,watts1 ,,isaac 7#afgd-agda74--;,by no means unnoteworthy as a prosodist4 ,followed ,milton in blank verse1 early popularised triple-time measures by his religious pieces1 evidently felt the monotony of the couplet1 and even attempted ,english ,sapphics4 ,,whitman1 ,,walt,,er 7#ahai-ahib74--;,an ,american poet who has pushed farther than any one before him1 and with more success than any one after him1 the substitution1 for regular metre1 of irregular rhythmed prose1 arranged in versicles something like those of the ,english ,bible1 but with a much wider range of length and rhythm1 the latter going from sheer prose cadence into definite verse4 ,,wordsworth1 ,,william 7#aggj-ahej74--,less important as a prosodist than as a poet2 but prosodically remarkable both for his blank verse1 for his sonnets1 and for the ,pindaric of his greatest ,ode4 ,,wyatt1 ,,sir ,,thomas 7#aejc8-aedb74--,our first ,english sonneteer and our first reformer1 into regular literary verse1 of lyric after the fifteenth-century disorder4 ,an experimenter with terza1 and in other ways prosodically eminent4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,origins ,,of ,,lines ,,and ,,stanzas 7,it has seemed desirable to give some account 7to an extent which would in most cases be disproportionate for the ,glossary7 of the ascertained1 probable1 or supposed origin of the principal lines and line-combinations in ,english poetry4 ,the arrangement is logical rather than alphabetical4 ,slight repetition1 on some points1 of matter previously given is unavoidable47 ,a4 ,,lines ,i4 ,,alliterative4--,enough has probably been said above of the old alliterative line and its generic character2 while the later variations1 which came upon it after its revival1 have also been noticed and exemplified4 ,its origin is quite unknown2 but the presence of closely allied forms1 in the different ,scandinavian and ,teutonic languages1 assures1 beyond doubt1 a natural rise from some speech-rhythm or tune-rhythm proper to the race and tongue4 ,it is also probable that the remarkable difference of lengths--short1 normal1 and extended--which is observable in ,o4,e4 poetry is of the highest antiquity4 ,it has at any rate persevered to the present day in the metrical successors of this line2 and there is probably no other poetry which has--at a majority of its periods1 if not throughout--indulged in such variety of line-length as ,english4 ,nor1 perhaps1 is there any which contains1 even in its oldest and roughest forms1 a metrical or quasi-metrical arrangement more close to the naturally increased1 but not denaturalised1 emphasis of impassioned utterance1 more thoroughly born from the primeval oak and rock4 ,,ii4 ,,short ,,lines4--,despite the tendency to variation of lines above noted1 ,a4,s4 poetry did not favour very short ones2 and its faithful disciple and champion1 ,guest1 accordingly condemns them in modern ,english poetry4 ,this is quite wrong4 ,in the bobs and other examples in ,middle ,english we find the line shortened almost1 if not actually1 to the monosyllable1 and this liberty has persisted through all the best periods of ,english verse since1 though frequently frowned upon by pedantry4 ,its origin is1 beyond all reasonable doubt1 to be traced to ,french and ,provenal influence1 especially to that of the short refrain2 but it is so congenial to the general tendency noted above that very little suggestion must have been needed4 ,it must1 however1 be said that very short lines1 in combination with long ones1 almost necessitate rhyme to punctuate and illumine the divisions of symphonic effect2 and1 consequently1 it was not till rhyme came in that they could be safely and successfully used4 ,but when this was mastered there was no further difficulty4 ,in all the best periods of ,english lyric writing--in that of ,alison and its fellows1 in the carols of the fifteenth century1 in late ,elizabethan and ,caroline lyric1 and in nineteenth-century poetry--the admixture of very short lines has been a main secret of lyrical success2 and in most cases it has probably been hardly at all a matter of deliberate imitation1 but due to an instinctive sense of the beauty and convenience of the adjustment4 ,,iii4 ,,octosyllable4--,the historical origin of the octosyllabic 7or1 as the accentual people call it1 the four-beat or four-stress line7 is one of the most typical in the whole range of prosody1 though the lesson of the type may be differently interpreted4 ,taking it altogether1 there is perhaps no metre in which so large a body of modern1 including medival1 poetry has been composed4 ,but1 although it is simply dimeter iambic1 acatalectic or catalectic as the case may be1 it is quite vain to try to discover frequent and continuous patterns of origin for it in strictly classical prosody4#afb ,odd lines1 rarely exact1 in choric odes prove nothing1 and the really tempting of ,pindar is an uncompleted fragment which might have gone off into any varieties of ,pindaric4 ,there are a few fragments of ,alcman-- ' 1 and of the genuine ,anacreon-- ' 1 in the metre1 while the spurious verse of the ,anacreontea1 a catalectic form with trisyllabic equivalence1 seems to have been actually practised by the real poet4 ,alternately used1 it is1 of course1 frequent in the epodes of ,horace1 in ,martial1 etc4 ,but the fact remains that1 as has been said1 it is not a classical metre to any but a very small extent1 though those who attach no value to anything but the beats may find it in bulk in the anapstic dimeter of ,greek and ,latin choruses4 ,it is in the ,latin hymns--that is to say1 in ,latin after it had undergone a distinct foreign admixture--that the metre first appears firmly and distinctly established4 ,in the fourth century1 ,st4 ,ambrose without rhyme1 and ,hilary with it1 employ the iambic dimeter1 and it soon becomes almost the staple1 though ,prudentius1 contemporary with both of them and more of a regular poet1 while he does use it1 seems to prefer other metres4 ,by the time1 however1 when the modern prosodies began to take form1 it was thoroughly well settled2 and every ,christian nation in ,europe knew examples of it by heart4 ,it still1 however1 remains a problem exactly why this particular metre should1 as a matter of direct literary imitation1 have commended itself so widely to the northern nations4 ,they had nearly or quite as many examples in the same class of the trochaic dimeter ,gaude1 plaude1 ,magdalena and they paid no attention to this1 though their southern neighbours did4 ,they had1 from the time of ,pope ,damasus#afc downwards1 and in almost all the hymn-writers1 mixed dactylic metres to choose from2 but for a staple they went to this4 ,it seems impossible that there should not have been some additional and natural reasons for the adoption--reasons which1 if they had not actually brought it about without any literary patterns at all1 directed poets to those patterns irresistibly4 ,nor1 as it seems to the present writer1 is it at all difficult to discover1 as far at least as ,english is concerned1 what these reasons were4 ,the discovery might be made out of one's own head2 but here as elsewhere ,layamon is a most important assistant and safeguard4 ,a mere glance at any edition of alliterative verse1 printed in half lines1 will show that it has a rough resemblance on the page to octosyllabics1 though the outline is more irregular4 ,a moderately careful study of ,layamon shows1 as has been indicated1 that1 in writing this verse with new influences at work upon him1 he substitutes octosyllabic couplet for it constantly4 ,and the history in the same way shows that this occasional substitution became a habitual one with others4 ,not that there is any mystical virtue in four feet1 despite their frequency in the actual creation3 but that1 as an equivalent of the old half line1 the choice lies practically between three and four4 ,now a three-foot line1 though actually tried as in the ,bestiary and in parts of ,horn1 is1 as a general norm1 too short1 is ineffective and jingly1 brings the rhyme too quick1 and hampers the exhibition of the sense by a too staccato and piecemeal presentment4 ,the abundant adoption of the octosyllable in ,french no doubt assisted the spread in ,english4 ,but it is not unimportant to observe that ,english translators and adapters of ,french octosyllabic poems by no means always preserve the metre1 and that ,english octosyllables often represent ,french poems which are differently metred in the original4 ,,iv4 ,,decasyllable4--,a connected literary origin for this great line--the ancient staple of ,french poetry1 the modern staple of ,english1 and 7in still greater modernity7 of ,german to some extent1 as well as 7with the extension of one syllable necessitated by the prevailing rhythm of the language7 of ,italian throughout its history--has always been found extraordinarily difficult to assign4 ,that some have even been driven to the line which furnishes the opening couplet of the ,alcaic ,quam si clientum longa negotia1 or ,vides ut alta stet nive candidum1 an invariably hendecasyllabic line of the most opposite rhythm1 constitution1 and division1 will show the straits which must have oppressed them4 ,the fact is that there is nothing1 either in ,greek or ,latin prosody1 in the least resembling it or suggestive of it4 ,to connect it with these prosodies at all reasonably1 it would be necessary to content ourselves with the supposition1 not illogical or impossible1 but not very explanatory1 that somebody found the iambic dimeter too short1 and the iambic trimeter too long1 and split the difference4 ,in another way1 and abandoning the attempt to find parents or sponsors in antiquity for this remarkable foundling1 a not wholly dissimilar conjecture becomes really illuminative--that the line of ten syllables 7or eleven with weak ending7 proved itself the most useful in the modern languages4 ,as a matter of fact it appears in the very earliest ,french poem we possess--the tenth- or perhaps even ninth-century ,hymn of ,st4 ,eulalia3 ,bel auret corps1 bellezour anima1 and in the 7at youngest7 tenth-century ,provenal ,boethius3 ,no credet ,deu lo nostre creator4 ,if it still seem pusillanimous to be content with such an explanation1 one can share one's pusillanimity with ,dante1 who contents himself with saying that the line of eleven syllables seems the stateliest and most excellent1 as well by reason of the length of time it occupies as of the extent of subject1 construction and language of which it is capable4 ,and in ,english1 with which we are specially1 if not indeed wholly1 concerned1 history brings us the reinforcement of showing that the decasyllable literally forced itself1 in practice1 upon the ,english poet4 ,this all-important fact has been constantly obscured by the habit of saying that ,chaucer invented the heroic couplet in ,english--that he1 at any rate1 borrowed it first from the ,french4 ,whether he did so as a personal fact we cannot say1 for he is not here to tell us4 ,that he need not have done so there is ample and irrefragable evidence4 ,in the process of providing substitutes for the old unmetrical line1 it is not only obvious that the decasyllable--which1 from a period certainly anterior to the rise of ,middle ,english1 had been the staple metre1 in long assonanced tirades or batches1 of the ,french ,chansons de geste--must have suggested itself4 ,it is still more certain that it did4 ,it is found in an unpolished and haphazard condition1 but unmistakable1 in the ,orison of our ,lady 7early thirteenth century72 it occurs in ,genesis and ,exodus1 varying the octosyllable itself1 in the middle of that age2 it is scattered about the ,romances1 in the same company1 at what must have been early fourteenth century at latest2 it occurs constantly in ,hampole's ,prick of ,conscience at the middle of this century2 and there are solid blocks of it in the ,vernon ,,ms41 which was written 7i4e4 copied from earlier work71 at latest1 before ,chaucer is likely to have started the ,legend of ,good ,women or the ,canterbury ,tales4 ,that his practice settled and established it--though for long the octosyllable still outbid it in couplet1 and it was written chiefly in the stanza form of rhyme-royal--is true4 ,but by degrees the qualities which ,dante had alleged made it prevail1 and prepared it as the line-length for blank verse as well as for the heroic couplet1 and for the bulk of narrative stanza-writing4 ,no doubt ,chaucer was assisted by the practice of ,machault and other ,french poets4 ,but there should be still less doubt that1 without that practice1 he might1 and probably would1 have taken it up4 ,for the first real master of versification--whether he were ,chaucer1 or 7in unhappy default of him7 somebody else1 who must have turned up sooner or later--could not but have seen1 for his own language1 what ,dante saw for his4 ,v4 ,,alexandrine4--,the ,alexandrine or verse of twelve syllables1 iambically divided1 does not resemble its relation1 the octosyllable1 in having a doubtful classical ancestry2 or its other relation1 the decasyllable1 in having none4 ,it is1 from a certain point of view1 the exact representative of the great iambic trimeter which was the staple metre of ,greek tragedy1 and was largely used in ,greek and ,roman verse4 ,the identity of the two was recognised in ,english as early as the ,mirror for ,magistrates1 and indeed could escape no one who had the knowledge and used it in the most obvious way4 ,at the same time it is necessary frankly to say that this resemblance--at least1 as giving the key to origin--is1 in all probability1 wholly delusive4 ,there are twelve syllables in each line1 and there are iambics in both4 ,but to any one who has acquired--as it is the purpose of this book to help its readers to acquire or develop--a prosodic sense1 like the much-talked-of historic sense1 it will seem to be a matter of no small weight1 that while the csura 7central pause7 of the ancient trimeter is penthemimeral 7at the fifth syllable71 or hepthemimeral 7at the seventh71 that of the modern ,alexandrine is1 save by rare1 and not often justified1 license1 invariably at the sixth or middle--a thing which actually alters the whole rhythmical constitution and effect of the line4#afd ,nor1 is the name to be neglected4 ,despite the strenuous effort of modern times to upset traditional notions1 it remains a not seriously disputed fact that the name ,alexandrine comes from the ,french ,roman d',alexandre1 not earlier than the late twelfth century1 and itself following upon at least one decasyllabic ,alexandreid4 ,the metre1 however1 suited ,french1 and1 as it had done on this particular subject1 ousted the decasyllable in the ,chansons de geste generally2 while1 with some intervals and revolts1 it has remained the dress-clothes of ,french poetry ever since1 and even imposed itself as such upon ,german for a considerable time4 ,in ,english1 however1 though1 by accident and in special and partial use1 it has occupied a remarkable place1 it has never been anything like a staple4 ,one of the most singular statements in ,guest's ,english ,rhythms is that the verse of six accents 7as he calls it7 was formerly the one most commonly used in our language4 ,the present writer is entirely unable to identify this formerly3 and the examples which ,guest produces1 of single and occasional occurrence in ,o4,e4 and early ,m4,e41 seem to him for the most part to have nothing to do with the form4 ,but it was inevitable that on the one hand the large use of the metre in ,french1 and on the other its nearness as a metrical adjustment to the old long line or stave1 should make it appear sometimes4 ,the six-syllable lines of the ,bestiary and ,horn are attempts to reproduce it in halves1 and ,robert of ,brunne reproduces it as a whole4#afe ,it appears not seldom in the great metrical miscellany of the ,vernon ,,ms41 and many of ,langland's accentual-alliterative lines reduce themselves to1 or close to it2 while it very often makes a fugitive and unkempt appearance in fifteenth-century doggerel4 ,not a few of the poems of the ,mirror for ,magistrates are composed in it1 and as an alternative to the fourteener 7this was possibly what ,guest was thinking of7 it figures in the poulter's measure of the early and middle sixteenth century4 ,sidney used it for the sonnet4 ,but it was not till ,drayton's ,polyolbion that it obtained the position of continuous metre for a long poem3 and this has never been repeated since1 except in ,browning's ,fifine at the ,fair4 ,so1 the most important appearances by far of the ,alexandrine in ,english are not continuous2 but as employed to vary and complete other lines4 ,there are two of these in especial3 the first among the greatest metrical devices in ,english1 the other 7though variously judged and not very widely employed7 a great improvement4 ,the first is the addition1 to an eight-line arrangement in decasyllables1 of a ninth in ,alexandrine which constitutes the ,spenserian stanza and will be spoken of below4 ,the other is the employment of the ,alexandrine as a variation of decasyllable in couplet1 in triplet and singly1 which is1 according to some1 including the present writer1 visible in the riding-rhyme of ,chaucer2 which is often present in the blank verse of ,shakespeare2 not absent from that of ,milton in his earlier attempts2 employed in decasyllabic couplet by ,cowley1 and 7with far greater success7 by ,dryden2 gradually abandoned and unfavourably spoken of by ,pope2 but revived with magnificent effect by ,keats in ,lamia4 ,,vi4 ,,fourteener4--,on this1 as indeed on most of these heads1 it will be well to compare the continuous survey of scanned examples and the remarks there4 ,this line 7or its practical equivalent under the final e system1 the fifteener7 is probably the oldest attempt to get a single metrical equivalent for the old divided stave4 ,its own equivalents exist1 of course1 both in ,greek and ,latin1 but it is rather doubtful whether these had much or anything to do with its genesis4 ,a more probable source1 if any source of the kind is wanted1 has been suggested in the peculiar ,latin thirteener so popular in the ,middle ,ages1 and best known by the lines attributed to ,mapes-- ,meum est propositum in taberna mori4 ,with a catch syllable at each half#aff you get the full accentual iambic fifteener1 and the fourteener follows4 ,perhaps1 though it is difficult to recognise the fourteener-rhythm attributed by ,guest and others to ,cdmon and later ,a4,s4 writers1 it is not necessary to look for any foreign sources as other than auxiliary to the development of the metre in ,english4 ,so soon as a definite iambic mould1 with or without trochaic and anapstic substitution1 began to be impressed on the language1 the amount of stuff usual in a full line would naturally fall into fourteener shape4 ,it did so1 we know1 as early as the ,moral ,ode at least2 and barely a century later1 it showed its popularity by the abundant use of ,robert of ,gloucester and the ,saints' ,lives writers4 ,nor1 although the inevitable and fortunate break-up into ballad eight-and-six encroached on its rights to a large extent1 and the alliterative revival still more1 did it lose its attraction1 as ,gamelyn and other things show1 till it got half drowned in the doggerel welter of the fifteenth century4 ,from this the earlier ,elizabethans fished it out1 cleaned and mended it for practice both independently and as part of the poulter's measure1 while the finest example existing was given by ,chapman's ,iliad in the early seventeenth century4 ,more recently1 except in the ,sigurd variety1 it has been seldom used for long poems1 but has served as the vehicle of many of the finest short pieces in the poetry of the nineteenth century4 ,,vii4 ,,doggerel4--,in the sense 7see ,glossary7 in which this ambiguous word applies to line1 it is very important to acquire some notion of its meaning1 but rather difficult to put that notion except very hypothetically4 ,it is1 in this use1 conveniently applied to an enormous mass of verse--sometimes hardly deserving that name1 but principally produced in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries--which refuses1 except occasionally1 to adjust itself to any standard1 even liberally equivalenced1 of iambic octosyllable1 decasyllable1 ,alexandrine1 and fourteener1 or of the trochaic and anapstic metres corresponding to some of these1 though it comes nearest to the anapstic division4 ,the pure accentualist may dismiss it as lines of so many irregular beats1 and trouble himself no farther4 ,but that1 on the principles of this book1 will not do4 ,an exceedingly interesting parallel between it 7as well as one of its regularised forms1 the anapstic dimeter7 and the ,spanish long line1 or ,arte ,mayor1 has been drawn by ,professor ,ker4 7,see ,bibliography47 ,but1 without either taking or opposing his view1 there is no doubt of the existence of this mare magnum of imperfect versification4 ,it seems to have been fed by various streams4 ,in the first place1 as we see from the ,gamelyn metre1 and from some nursery songs 7which1 though they cannot be older than formed ,middle ,english1 may be nearly as old71 like ,the ,queen was in the ,parlour1 the fourteener had a tendency to break itself into roughly balanced halves of sometimes different rhythm4 ,the ,alexandrine1 never quite at home in ,english1 would naturally bulge and straddle in the same way4 ,on the regular and continuous anapstic swing nobody had yet hit for long1 though it probably arose in part from this very chaos4 ,but perhaps the most abundant source of all was the attempt to write ,chaucerian decasyllables with a constantly altering pronunciation1 and the break-down in it4 ,examples of various forms of doggerel1 with their corresponding metres1 are given below4#afg ,,viii4 ,,long ,,lines4--,beyond the fourteener or fifteener ,english verse has1 until quite modern times1 rarely gone4 ,there are sixteeners to be found in fourteenth-century verse1 in the disorderly welter of the fifteenth1 and 7no doubt deliberately used7 in the experiments of the ,mirror for ,magistrates2 but neither they1 nor any longer still1 commended themselves much to any ,english poet before ,mr4 ,swinburne4 ,his experiments are famous1 and some examples of them are given elsewhere4 ,their spirit and sweep has made not a few readers look on them with favour2 but it may be questioned whether any lines beyond seven feet--and whether even six- and seven-foot lines when trisyllabic feet are allowed--do not tend to break themselves up in ,english4 ,in ,mr4 ,swinburne's own case certainly1 and perhaps in some others1 the seven-foot anapstic line of ,aristophanes gave the suggestion1 while the abundant practice in so-called ,english hexameters may also have had not a little to do with it4 ,b4 ,,stanzas1 ,,etc4 ,i4 ,,ballad ,,verse4--,a good deal has been said incidentally about this at several points in the preceding text2 but summary1 and a little repetition1 will not be out of place here4 ,there has been an idea with some that it is a shortened form of the ,romance-six 7see next article7 or rime coue2 but this does not seem to the present writer nearly so probable as the supposition of a break-up of the certainly earlier fourteener couplet1 which gives it at once4#afh ,it is1 however1 not improbable that the crystallising of this was assisted by the hesitation1 also noticed in text1 between octosyllabic and hexasyllabic couplet4 ,the indecision and vacillation1 noticeable in such a piece as ,horn1 between the four- and three-foot line1 would easily settle to alternation more or less regular1 and then1 with the assistance of the broken fourteener1 into quite regular use4 ,we do not1 however1 find decided examples much before ,judas and the ,gospel of ,nicodemus in the late thirteenth century2 it is not common in the early mysteries1 though there are approaches to it2 and it seems first to have secured the popular ear in the much-discussed compositions which give it its name1 and which1 in ,english1 are very doubtfully to be traced before the late fourteenth century4 ,these1 however1 estated it once for all2 though for a long time it was treated with the usual medival freedom--wisely restored by ,coleridge in the ,ancient ,mariner--and the exact number of four lines1 #h1 #f1 #h1 #f1 was not adhered to4 ,the further fixed variations1 familiar from ,psalm- and ,hymn-books1 of ,l4,m4 7long measure7 or octosyllabic quatrain2 ,c4,m4 7common measure71 the actual #h and #f2 and ,s4,m4 7short measure7 #f1 #f1 #h1 #f1 date only from ,elizabethan times1 the last being a breaking-up of the then favourite poulter's measure or alternate ,alexandrine and fourteener4 ,,ii4 ,,romance-,,six or ,,rime ,,cou,e4--,as in the case of the ballad-four1 much has been said about this earlier4 ,in considering its origin it is particularly desirable to distinguish between the possible source of the principle and the probable derivation of the actual form4 ,the term coue 7caudatus71 which1 as has been pointed out1 does not apply very obviously or appropriately to our actual romance-stanza1 appears to refer originally to the peculiar jingly infusion of rhyme into ,latin hexameters which has been traced back at least to the twelfth century1 and the most famous example of which is the original of ,jerusalem the ,golden1 the ,de ,contemptu ,mundi of ,bernard of ,morlaix-- ,hora novissima1 tempora pessima sunt1 vigilemus-- ,ecce minaciter imminet arbiter ille supremus1 where the rhyme in the tail appears clearly enough4 ,it is also not inappropriate to the form in which ,robert of ,brunne writes his verse of the kind1 as in ,guest's example3 ,when ye have the prize of your enemies1 none shall ye save3 ,smite with sword in hand2 all ,northumberland with right shall ye have4 ,sometimes1 however1 he also batches the two first divisions3 ,for ,edward's good deed a wicked bount4 ,the ,balliol did him meed ,but it came generally to be written in short lines straight on after the form now familiar4 ,how or why it became so favourite a measure for romance is not1 ,i believe1 known4 ,direct ,french influence could certainly have had little to do here2 for though the six-line measure appears in ,marot 7early sixteenth century71 it is not common earlier1 and ,i am not even aware of any perfect example#afi of it1 in the abundant variety of ,french and ,provenal lyric during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries2 while it is quite unknown to the longer ,french romances4 ,but it is nearly as easy to remember--or to extemporise in default of memory--as the couplet itself4 ,and it looks as if it were less monotonous2 though--as those who drew down on it the lash of ,sir ,thopas1 and ,sir ,thopas itself1 show--nothing can be more monotonous in actuality4 ,its extensions and variations1 and its migration from long narrative to short lyrical use1 have been noticed already4 ,these may have been to some extent influenced by the great popularity of ,marot's ,psalms1 though the metre had long been naturalised4 ,,iii4 ,,octosyllabic and ,,decasyllabic ,,couplet4--,of the two great couplet metres in ,english1 the octosyllabic requires little notice1 because it is almost indissolubly connected with the octosyllabic line4 ,as soon as rhyme appears1 the old iambic dimeter1 four-accent line1 or whatever you like to call it1 must fall into this shape1 and does4 ,there remains indeed the problem why we have no period1 in ,french1 of octosyllabic tirade or batch-writing as we have 7see immediately below7 of decasyllabic4#agj ,but it is certain that the octosyllabic couplet established itself very early in ,french1 and that at the important nick of time1 when ,english prosody was being formed late in the twelfth century1 this couplet came to ,layamon and others as a great influence in determining the shape which alteration of the old long line or halved stave should take in their hands4 ,decasyllabic couplet1 on the other hand1 has a much more tardy and uncertain history2 though1 again1 much that has to be said about it has been said in reference to the single line4 ,as soon as that line makes its appearance1 in the ,saint ,eulalia hymn1 it does indeed make its appearance in couplet1 rhymed or assonanced4#aga ,but the attraction of the longer batches in identical rhyme or assonance seems1 however surprisingly1#agb to get the better2 and this is the form that it takes in the ,provenal ,boethius and the ,french ,saint ,alexis4 ,in fact1 as has been hinted above1 our own scattered decasyllabic couplet rather precedes the ,french1 though ,guillaume de ,machault has the credit1 rightly or wrongly1 of teaching it to ,chaucer4 ,after ,chaucer1 at any rate1 there needed nobody to teach it to ,englishmen2 although it underwent various vicissitudes1 which are duly traced elsewhere4 ,,iv4 ,,quatrain4--,at a very early period1 indeed as soon as they appear1 ,latin accentual rhythms have a tendency to batch themselves in four2 as had1 earlier still1 ,greek and ,latin stanzas1 ,sapphic1 ,alcaic1 and what not4 ,the development of alternate rhyme in the octosyllabic quatrain or 7v4 sup47 ballad metre was certain to lead to a similar arrangement of decasyllables2 and when rhyme-royal became popular the first four lines were so arranged1 and might easily be broken off for separate use1 as there is little doubt that the final couplet was4 ,fours of various arrangement are also abundant in lyric and in drama from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century4 ,but the greatest impulse was probably given to the alternate decasyllabic form by its adoption for the bulk of the ,english sonnet2 and from this to separate use1 which became common in the later ,elizabethan poetry1 there is but a very short step4 ,the metre has always been a popular one since1 and1 in the hands of ,dryden and ,gray especially1 is very effective4 ,but a certain grave monotony about it has constantly invited modifications1 of which the greatest and most successful1 without altering the line-length1 are those of ,fitz,gerald in ,omar ,khayym#agc and ,mr4 ,swinburne in ,laus ,veneris2#agd with altered line-lengths1 those of ,tennyson in ,the ,poet1#age ,the ,palace of ,art1 and ,a ,dream of ,fair ,women4 ,it was also tried in the seventeenth century as what may be called by anticipation long ,in ,memoriam measure--that is to say1 with the rhymes arranged abba4 ,v4 ,,in ,,memoriam ,,metre itself may have been suggested quite casually in the endless rhyme-welter of medival experiment4 ,for instance1 it occurs in lines #c to #f of ,chaucer's nine-line stanza#agf in the ,complaint of ,mars1 and the last eight of his ten-line in the ,complaint to his ,lady1#agg with decasyllabic lines1 of course4 ,it occurs also1 with six-syllable lines1 in the last halves of the octaves of ,no4 ,,xix4 of the ,york ,plays4#agh ,sidney has it as a sport or chance4 ,but the first person to use it regularly and with octosyllables was ,ben ,jonson1#agi who was followed by ,lord ,herbert of ,cherbury and ,george ,sandys4 ,yet it was not widely taken up1 though few measures could better have suited the metaphysical poets2 and after that generation it remained unused till ,tennyson1 and by unwitting coincidence ,rossetti1 hit upon it just before the middle of the nineteenth century4 ,rossetti has also a very effective extension of it to seven lines abbacca4#ahj ,,vi4 ,,rhyme-,,royal4--,however much doubt there may be about the directly imitative origin of things like couplets1 or even quatrains 7which might1 and almost certainly would1 suggest themselves without pattern71 the case is different with such a thing as the permutation of rhyme in a fixed order of sevens ababbcc4 ,it may1 therefore1 be very likely that ,chaucer took this from ,guillaume de ,machault1 a slightly older ,french poet 7#abhd8-acgg71 with whom he was certainly acquainted4 ,if so1 it is unlikely that ,machault invented it1 though he may have done so2 for there is almost every possible cross-arrangement of rhymes in the enormous wealth of ,french and ,provenal lyric from the eleventh to the fourteenth century4 ,but it was certainly not a frequent metre before4 ,on the other hand1 ,chaucer's ,troilus made it the most fashionable metre in ,english throughout the fifteenth century for long narrative poems1 and it was splendidly written by ,sackville in the mid-sixteenth1 but thereafter succumbed to the octave4 ,the last considerable example of it1 in the larger ,elizabethan period1 was the ,leoline and ,sydanis of ,sir ,francis ,kynaston1 a great admirer of ,chaucer1 who actually also translated part of ,troilus into ,latin rhyme-royal4 ,but it was revived in the worthiest fashion by the late ,mr4 ,william ,morris4 ,,vii4 ,,octave4--,there are two principal eight-line stanzas of decasyllables used in ,english4 ,the oldest form1 employed by ,chaucer1 appears to have been derived from the ,french1 as it is certainly used by ,deschamps1 and may have been by ,machault4 ,here the rhymes are arranged ababbcbc4 ,by addition of an ,alexandrine this arithmetically makes the ,spenserian 7v4 inf474 ,the other--later1 but much more largely used--is derived from the ,italian ottava rima1 the rhyme order of which is abababcc4 ,this is the kind employed by ,fairfax 7with great results1 though rather in the direction of its final couplet than as a whole7 in his translation of ,tasso 7#afjj71 and 7with a comic bent also directly imitated from ,italian7 by ,frere in ,the ,monks and the ,giants1 and 7after him7 by ,byron in ,beppo and ,don ,juan4 ,the greatest modern serious employment of it is in ,shelley's ,witch of ,atlas4 ,,viii4 ,,spenserian4--,the ,spenserian stanza of nine lines--eight decasyllables and an ,alexandrine1 rhymed ababbcbcc--is entirely the invention of ,edmund ,spenser4 ,it is false to say that it was taken from the ,italians2 for there is no such stanza in ,italian1 and the octave-decasyllabic part of it is rhymed differently from the ,italian octave4 ,it is irrelevant to say that it is the ,chaucerian octave with an ,alexandrine added2 for it is exactly in the addition of the ,alexandrine that the whole essence and the whole beauty of the stanza consist4 ,it is still more irrelevant1 though true1 to assert that there had been a few attempts 7as by ,more7 to add an ,alexandrine to other stanzas or to lengthen out their last line into one2 for it is of this stanza that we are talking1 and not of something else4 ,therefore it is sufficient to say once more that the ,spenserian stanza is the invention of ,edmund ,spenser1 and one of the greatest inventions known in prosody4 ,,ix4 ,,burns ,,metre4--,this arrangement is found first in the verse of the ,provenal prince1 ,william ,,ix4 ,count of ,poitiers 7poems about #ajij74 ,pus oezem de novelh florir ,pratz e vergiers reverderir ,rius e fontanas esclarrir ,auras e vens ,beu deu quas des lo joy jourir ,dou es jauzens4 ,he has it also in a seven-line form1 with four instead of three eights to start with2 while the shorter variety is repeated in ,northern ,france1 as in the beautiful song of ,bele ,aeliz4 ,it appears in one ,english romance1 ,octovian ,imperator1 and largely in the ,miracle plays2 but later seems to have been preserved only in ,scotland1 where ,burns gave it once more world-wide vogue4 ,x4 ,,other ,,stanzas4--,of the numerous other forms of what some improperly call irregular verse--what ,king ,james the ,sixth 7,first7 showed himself much more of a ,solomon in calling broken and cuttit1 and adding1 quhairof new formes are daylie inventit according to the ,potes ,pleasour--it is impossible to give an exhaustive account1 or even to supply a mere list with examples of the formes4#aha ,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 ,provenal poetry2 that these were freely imitated and improved upon4 ,in the present writer's larger ,history the passages dealing with the contents of ,,ms4 ,harl4 #bbec1 with the ,vernon ,,ms41 and with the ,miracle plays will be found to contain specifications of almost every form1 and examples of not a few4 ,this liberty continued in the lyrics of the ,elizabethan period in the larger sense1 being especially manifested in the later ,elizabethan miscellanies of the time proper1 and in the ,caroline poets2 but was discontinued in practice1 and frowned upon in principle1 during the eighteenth century4 ,it was revived in the nineteenth by the great poets of the first ,romantic period to some extent1 but to a much greater degree by some of their intermediate successors1 like ,beddoes and ,darley2 while1 from ,tennyson and ,browning onward1 it has been the delight of almost every poet worthy of the name to add to the variety4 ,,footnotes3 #afb ,the longest passage that my memory 7assisted in this case by the kindness of my friend and colleague ,professor ,hardie7 supplies is in ,aristophanes1 ,eq4 #iaa-idj4 ,and it is not insignificant that this not only becomes 7and seems actually to be started by7 a burlesque repetition-- 4 4 4 1 but can only be made out by constantly breaking words1 as in - 4 #afc ,stirpe decens1 elegans specie1 ,sed magis actibus atque fide1 ,terrea prospera nil reputans ,jussa ,dei sibi corde ligans4 ,this1 which is still fourth century1 is important as showing couplet rhyme4 ,hilary had rhymed in fours4 #afd ,it may be added that while the ancient trimeter is very largely patient of substitution1 the ,french ,alexandrine positively refuses any1 and the ,english is1 for an ,english line1 distinctly intolerant of it4 #afe ,and somewhat of that tree1 they bond until his hands4 #aff ,as thus3 ,et meum est propositum hac in taberna mori4 #afg 7a7 ,from ,heywood3-- 7#a7 ,octosyllabic principally3 ,and ,i to every soul again ,did give a beck them to retain1 ,and axd them this question than1 ,if that the soul of such a womn ,did late among them there appear8 7,four ,p's47 ,but in close proximity such lines as ,but ,lord6 how low the ,souls made curtesy1 and ',christ1 help1' quoth a soul that lay for his fees1 make their appearance4 7#b7 ,hawesian or ,barclayan decasyllables staggering into ,alexandrine or anapstic doggerel3 ,how can he have pain by imagination1 ,that lacketh all kinds of consideration8 ,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 thing1 ,nor devise in thing past1 present1 or coming8 7,wit and ,folly47 7,for other passages from ,heywood see ,scanned ,conspectus1 ,,xviii47 7b7 ,longer examples3-- 7#a7 ,with ,alexandrine norm3 ,therefore see that all shine as bright as ,saint ,george1 ,or as doth a key newly come from the smith's forge4 7,ralph ,roister ,doister47 7#b7 ,with fourteener ditto3 ,d4 ,i know not what a devil thou meanest1 thou bringest me mere in doubt4 ,h4 ,knowest not on what tom-tailor's man sits broaching through a clout8 7,gammer ,gurton's ,needle47 ,it is curious how closely this unreverend metre sometimes comes to the heroic model of ,sigurd4 7#c7 ,with decasyllabic ditto3 ,housed to say that as servants are obedient1 ,to their bodily masters being in subjection1 ,even so evil men that are not content ,are subject and slave to their lust and affection1 where1 once more1 the norm may be shifted to the anapst4 #afh 7,substitution of individual feet in each case immaterial47 #afi ,the nearest is probably ,no4 #bh in ,bartsch1 ,romanzen und ,pastourellen1 ,volez vos que je vos chante1 with its famous verse about the nightingale and the mermaid4 ,but there is a perpetual tendency to cut the eights to sevens and the sixes to fives1 as thus3 ,li rosignox est mon pere ,qui chante sur la ramee ,el plus haut boscage4 ,la seraine ele est ma mere ,qui chante en la mer salee ,el plus haut rivage4 #agj ,there are examples1 as in the ,vie de ,saint ,lger and in ,alberic of ,besanon's fragmentary poem on ,alexander1 but few of them1 and the couplet soon conquers4 #aga ,buona pulcella fut ,eulalia1 rhyme4 ,bel auret corps1 bellezour anima4 ,voldrent la veintre li deo inimi assonance4 ,voldrent la faire diaule servir4 #agb ,not to the present writer1 nor1 he thinks1 to any one who is really familiar with the ,chansons de geste4 #agc ,a book of verses underneath the bough1 ,a jug of wine1 a loaf of bread--and thou ,beside me singing in the wilderness-- ,oh6 wilderness were ,paradise enow6 #agd ,i seal myself upon thee with my might1 ,abiding always out of all men's sight1 ,until ,god loosen over sea and land ,the thunder of the trumpets of the night-- ,the only difference of these is that ,fitz,gerald1 following1 ,i believe1 his ,persian original1 left the third lines quite blank1 while ,mr4 ,swinburne rhymed these in adjacent stanzas4 #age ,for examples see above1 ,book ,,ii4 ,chap4 ,,vi4 pp4 #bji1 #baj4 #agf ,to whom shal ,i then pleyne of my distresse8 ,who may me helpe8 ,who may my harm redresse8 ,shall ,i compleyne unto my lady fre8 ,nay1 certes6 for she hath such hevynesse1 ,for fere1 and eek for wo1 that1 as ,i gesse1 ,in litil tyme it wol her bane be4 ,but were she sauf1 it were no fors of me6 ,alas6 that ever lovers mote endure1 ,for love1 so many a perilous aventure6 7ll4 #aia-aii47 #agg ,my dere herte and best beloved fo1 ,why liketh yow to do me al this wo1 ,what have ,i doon that greveth yow1 or sayd1 ,but for ,i serve and love yow and no mo8 ,and whilst ,i lyve ,i wol ever do so2 ,and therefor1 swete1 ne beth nat yvel apayd4 ,for so good and so fair as that ye be ,hit were right grete wonder but ye hadde ,of alle servantes1 bothe of goode and badde2 ,and leest worthy of alle hem1 ,i am he4 ,not dissimilar suggestions may be found in ,dunbar's ,golden ,targe4 #agh ,we heard how they you hight1 ,if they might find that child1 ,for to have told you right1 ,but certes they are beguiled4 ,swilk tales are not to trow1 ,full well wot ilka wight1 ,thou shall never more have might ,ne maistery unto you4 #agi ,who1 as an offering at your shrine1 ,have sung this hymn and here entreat ,one spark of your diviner heat ,to light upon a love of mine4 #ahj ,consider the sea's listless chime1 ,time's self it is1 made audible3 ,the murmur of the earth's own shell-- ,secret continuance sublime ,is the sea's end2 our sight may pass ,no furlong further4 ,since time was ,this sound hath told the lapse of time4 7,the ,sea ,limits47 #aha ,for instance1 ,coleridge has shown1 in the ,ancient ,mariner1 that the ballad or common measure of four lines1 #h1 #f1 #h1 #f1 abab1 can be extended to any number of lines up to nine 7v4 sup4 p4 #ig71 with the number and order of each rhyme-end varied to suit1 and yet without overrunning1 or loosening the general grip and character of the stanza4 ,now the smallest knowledge of mathematics will show the enormous number of combinations--five-1 six-1 seven-1 eight-1 and nine-lined1 with the a and b rhymes variously grouped--that would require tabulation even up to this limit4 ,and it would argue utter insensibility to the qualities and capacities of ,english poetry to deny that1 on the morrow of this classification1 a poet might arise who would give the same solid effect to ten or more lines with still more endlessly varied rhyme-permutation4 ,instead1 therefore1 of attempting a hopeless and even mischievous task 7for these classifications always generate the idea that whatsoever is outside of them is bad71 it has seemed better to lay down1 and to illustrate largely and variously1 the principles on which all such legitimate combinations have been formed hitherto1 but on which they may legitimately be formed anew ad infinitum4 ,and this1 it is hoped1 has been done sufficiently here4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,bibliography 7,the following list contains almost everything with which any student1 who is not making the subject one of exhaustive and practically original research1 need make himself acquainted2 while it will carry him pretty far even in that direction4 ,further information will be found in the works of ,mr4 ,t4 ,s4 ,omond1 ,english ,metrists 7,tunbridge ,wells1 #aijc71 and ,english ,metrists of the ,eighteenth and ,nineteenth ,centuries 7,oxford and ,london1 #aijg71 as well as in the present writer's larger ,history of ,english ,prosody4 ,several of the works hereinafter catalogued will be found collected in ,professor ,gregory ,smith's ,elizabethan ,critical ,essays 7#b vols41 ,oxford1 #aijd71 and extracts from not a very few of them in the present writer's ,loci ,critici 7,boston1 ,u4,s4,a41 and ,london1 #aijc747 ,,abbott1 ,e4 ,a4 ,shakesperian ,grammar 7,london1 #ahfi71 and 7with ,j4 ,r4 ,seeley7 ,english ,lessons for ,english ,people 7,london1 #ahga74 ,reissued frequently4 ,,alden1 ,r4 ,m4 ,english ,verse 7,new ,york1 #aijd71 and ,introduction to ,poetry 7,new ,york1 #aiji74 ,,blake1 ,j4 ,w4 ,accent and ,rhythm explained by the ,law of ,monopressures 7,edinburgh1 #ahhh74 ,,brewer1 ,r4 ,f4 ,manual of ,english ,poetry 7,london1 #ahfi74 ,reissued and enlarged later as ,orthometry 7,london1 #ahic74 ,,bridges1 ,r4 ,s4 ,milton's ,prosody 7,oxford1 #ahhi74 ,frequently reissued1 especially in #aija1 with important additions on stress-prosody4 ,,bysshe1 ,,edward4 ,the ,art of ,english ,poetry 7,london1 #agjb74 ,frequently reprinted throughout the eighteenth century1 the best edition being that of #agjh4 ,,calverley1 ,c4 ,s4 ,on ,metrical ,translation1 originally in a magazine4 ,reprinted in ,works 7,london1 #aija74 ,,campion1 ,,thomas4 ,observations in the ,art of ,english ,poetry 7,london1 #afjb74 ,reprinted in ,gregory ,smith's ,elizabethan ,essays1 in ,bullen's ,works of ,campion 7,london1 #ahhi71 and in the ,oxford edition of these ,works 7#aiaj74 ,,cayley1 ,c4 ,b4 ,remarks and ,experiments on ,english ,hexameters 7,transactions of ,philological ,society1 ,berlin1 #ahfa71 and ,preface to translation of schylus's ,prometheus ,bound 7,london1 #ahfg74 ,,coleridge1 ,s4 ,t4 ,preface to ,christabel4 ,almost any edition of ,poems4 ,,conway1 ,,gilbert4 ,a ,treatise of ,versification 7,london1 #ahgh74 ,,crowe1 ,,william4 ,a ,treatise on ,english ,versification 7,oxford1 #ahbg74 ,,daniel1 ,,samuel4 ,a ,defence of ,rhyme 7,london1 #afjc8-afjg74 ,in ,gregory ,smith1 and in all reprints of ,daniel's ,works1 as well as among the ,poems in ,chalmers's ,poets4 ,,dryden1 ,,john4 ,no single concentrated treatment1 but interesting glances1 some of which will be found in ,loci ,critici 7v4 sup471 and all of which can be easily traced in ,professor ,ker's edition of the ,critical ,essays 7#b vols41 ,oxford1 #aijj74 ,,gascoigne1 ,,george4 ,certain ,notes of ,instruction in ,english ,verse 7,london1 #aege74 ,reprinted in ,gregory ,smith1 in ,arber's ,english reprints 7,london1 #ahfh71 etc4 ,,goldsmith1 ,,oliver4 ,essay on ,versification 7,british ,magazine1 ,london1 #agfc74 ,reprinted in all editions of his ,works as ,miscellaneous ,essays1 ,no4 #ah4 ,,guest1 ,,edwin4 ,history of ,english ,rhythms 7#b vols41 ,london1 #ahch74 ,reprinted and edited in one vol4 by ,professor ,skeat 7,london1 #ahhb74 ,,hodgson1 ,,shadworth4 ,english ,verse in ,outcast ,essays1 etc4 7,london1 #ahha74 ,,hood1 ,t4 7the younger74 ,the ,rules of ,rhyme 7,london1 #ahfi74 ,,jenkin1 ,,fleeming4 ,papers on ,metre in ,saturday ,review for #ahhc4 ,reprinted in ,memoir and ,remains 7,edinburgh1 #ahhg74 ,,johnson1 ,,samuel4 ,papers chiefly in ,the ,rambler 7,london1 #agej74 ,to be found partly in ,loci ,critici1 and completely in all editions of the ,rambler itself4 ,a few remarks on prosody are in the ,grammar accompanying the ,dictionary1 and many scattered over the ,lives of the ,poets4 ,,ker1 ,w4 ,p4--,analogies between ,english and ,spanish ,verse 7,philological ,society's ,transactions1 ,london1 #ahii74 ,,king ,,james ,,the ,,first 7,,sixth ,,of ,,scotland74 ,rewlis and ,cautelis4 ,full title longer4 7,edinburgh1 #aeie47 ,reprinted by ,arber 7,london1 #ahfi71 and in ,gregory ,smith4 ,,lewis1 ,c4 ,m4 ,the ,principles of ,english ,verse 7,new ,york and ,london1 #aijf74 ,,liddell1 ,,mark ,h4 ,introduction to the ,scientific ,study of ,english ,poetry 7,new ,york1 #aijb74 ,,mason1 ,,john4 ,an ,essay on the ,power of ,numbers and the ,principle of ,harmony in ,poetical ,compositions 7,london1 #agdi74 ,,masson1 ,,david4 ,essay on ,milton's ,versification in edition of ,milton's ,works 7,london1 #ahij71 vol4 iii4 pp4 #ajg sq4 ,,mayor1 ,j4 ,b4 ,chapters on ,english ,metre 7,cambridge1 #ahhf74 ,a ,handbook of ,english ,metre 7,cambridge1 #aijd74 ,,mitford1 ,,william4 ,essay on the ,harmony of ,language 7,london1 #aggd74 ,reissued1 with large alterations and additions1 as ,an ,enquiry into the ,principles of ,harmony in ,language 7,london1 #ahjd74 ,,omond1 ,t4 ,s4 ,a ,study of ,metre 7,london1 #aijc74 ,,patmore1 ,,coventry4 ,english ,metrical ,criticism1 originally in ,north ,british ,review for #ahge4 ,reprinted with ,amelia 7,london1 #ahgh71 and since in various places of his ,poems and ,works4 ,,poe1 ,e4 ,a4 ,the ,rationale of ,verse1 originally a magazine essay1 #ahdh4 ,in the various editions of his ,works 7ed4 ,ingram1 #d vols42 ,edinburgh1 #ahge1 vol4 iii4 pp4 #bai-bfe74 ,,puttenham1 ,,george8 ,the ,art of ,english ,poesie 7,london1 #aeha74 ,reprinted by ,arber 7,birmingham1 #ahfi71 and in ,gregory ,smith4 ,,ruskin1 ,,john4 ,elements of ,english ,prosody 7,orpington1 #ahhj74 ,,schipper1 ,j4 ,englische ,metrik 7#c vols41 ,bonn1 #ahhb-hi74 ,history of ,english ,versification 7,oxford1 #aiaj74 ,,shenstone1 ,,william4 ,essays in ,works 7#c vols41 ,london1 #agfd-fi74 ,the chief of the few1 but very important1 prosodic remarks will be found in ,loci ,critici4 ,,skeat1 ,w4 ,w4 ,section on ,chaucer's ,prosody in ,works of ,chaucer1 vol4 vi4 7,oxford1 #ahid74 ,rehandled in paper on the ,scansion of ,english ,poetry 7,philological ,society's ,transactions for #ahie-ih74 ,,southey1 ,,robert4 ,preface of ,vision of ,judgment 7,london1 #ahbj74 ,a few important remarks 7see text7 in ,letters and ,correspondence4 ,,spedding1 ,,james4 ,review in ,fraser's ,magazine1 #ahfa4 ,reprinted in ,reviews and ,discussions 7,london1 #ahgi74 ,,spenser1 ,,edmund4 ,correspondence with ,gabriel ,harvey4 ,in full editions of ,works1 or in ,gregory ,smith4 ,,steele1 ,,joshua4 ,prosodia ,rationalis 7,london1 #aggi74 ,,stone1 ,w4 ,j4 ,on the ,use of ,classical ,metres in ,english 7,oxford1 #ahih74 ,reprinted1 without specimens1 together with ,mr4 ,bridges' ,prosody of ,milton 7,oxford1 #aija74 ,,symonds1 ,j4 ,a4 ,blank ,verse 7,london1 #ahie74 ,,thelwall1 ,,john4 ,illustrations of ,english ,rhythmus 7,london1 #ahab74 ,,verrier1 ,m4 ,essai sur la mtrique anglaise 7#c vols41 ,paris1 #aiji74 ,,wadham1 ,e4 ,english ,versification 7,london1 #ahfi74 ,,webbe1 ,,william4 ,a ,discourse of ,english ,poetry 7,london1 #aehf74 ,reprinted by ,arber 7,london1 #ahgj7 and in ,gregory ,smith4 ,,index ,gloss4 indicates that the word will be found explained at its alphabetical place in the ,glossary4 ,abbott1 ,dr41 #bei1 #ccg ,abnormal lines in ,shakespeare1 #acj ,accent and accentual system1 ,bk4 ,i4 ,ch4 ,,ii4 and passim 7,gloss47 ,acephalous1 #ea1 #aeg 7,gloss47 ,acrostic 7,gloss47 ,adjective1 forms in -y1 #aff note ,adonais1 #bjd ,agincourt1 ,ballad of1 #cjc ,alastor1 #bjd1 #cab ,alberic of ,besanon1 #ccj note ,alcaics1 #abd 7,gloss47 ,alcman1 #cah ,alden1 ,mr4 ,r4 ,m41 #ccg ,alexandrine1 #ae1 #di1 #ea1 #ec1 #ee1 #fa1 #fe-ga1 #gi1 #hd1 #he1 #ij1 #ia1 #ajb1 #aji1 #abi1 #acj1 #aei1 #aga1 #agg1 #aib1 #aic1 #bje1 #bab1 #bbg1 #bij 7,gloss4 and ,origin-,list7 ,alexis1 ,st41 #cca ,alison1 #de ,allen1 ,mr4 ,grant1 #abe1 #bha ,alliteration1 #cd ,alliterative verse1 #cg-dj1 #dh-ej1 #acd-aci1 #aea-aec1 #aee 7,gloss471 #caf1 #cag ,alresford ,pool1 #ahg ,ambrose1 ,st41 #ch1 #cah ,amoryus and ,cleopes1 #ec ,amphibrach 7,gloss47 ,amphimacer 7,gloss47 ,anacreon1 #cah ,anacrusis 7,gloss47 ,anapst1 #ca and passim 7,gloss47 ,ancient ,mariner1 ,the1 #bgb1 #cja1 #cbi1 #ccf note ,andromeda1 #abc1 #beg1 #cjf ,anglo-,saxon 7or ,old ,english7 prosody1 #cg1 #ch1 #acd-acg ,anima ,anceps1 #bai note ,annus ,mirabilis1 #bji ,anti-bacchic 7,gloss47 ,anti-,jacobin1 ,the1 #cjj ,antispast 7,gloss47 ,antistrophe1 #ij 7,gloss47 ,appoggiatura 7,gloss47 ,arcades1 #ahe1 #cjh ,aristophanes1 #cjd1 #cah note1 #cbh ,arnold1 ,m4 7#ahbb-ahhh71 #ajb1 #abg1 #bab1 #bac1 #bhf1 #bih ,arsis 7,gloss47 ,arte ,mayor1 #cbf ,artificial ,french forms1 #abe-abg ,ascham1 ,r4 7#aeae-aefh71 #abj1 #aba1 #bcd ,asolando1 #bhe note ,assonance1 #cd 7,gloss47 ,astra1 #bff ,at a ,month's ,end1 #bag ,atonic 7,gloss47 ,atys1 ,the1 #abe1 #bha ,awntyrs of ,arthur1 ,the1 #di ,ayton1 ,sir ,r4 7#aegj-afch71 #ha ,bacchic 7,gloss47 ,ballad 7#afdg7 7,gloss47 ,ballad-measure1 #ec1 #ef1 #ha1 #if1 #ig 7,gloss4 and ,origin-,list7 ,ballade1 #abf 7,gloss47 ,bar 7,gloss47 ,barbour1 ,john 7#acaf-acie71 #ee ,bard1 ,the1 scanned1 #hi-ia ,barham1 ,r4 ,h4 7#aghh-ahdd71 #bih1 #cjh ,bartsch1 #ccj ,baston1 #bcc ,battle of ,alcazar1 ,the1 #fd ,battle of the ,baltic1 ,the1 #cjj ,beat 7,gloss47 ,beaumont 7#aehd-afaf7 and 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7#aeia-afdc71 #ge1 #hj1 #ahg1 #bii ,browning1 ,e4 ,b4 7#ahjf-ahfa71 #bi1 #bab1 #bga1 #bii ,browning1 ,r4 7#ahab-ahhi71 #ajj1 #ajb1 #aje1 #aji1 #aag1 #baj-bab1 #bhe note1 #bii1 #cbd1 #ccf ,brunne1 ,robert of 7fl4 #abhh-acch71 #bcc ,burden 7,gloss47 ,burns1 ,r4 7#agei-agif71 and ,burns-metre1 #dd-df1 #aii1 #bgc1 #bii 7,gloss4 and ,origin-,list7 ,byron1 ,lord 7#aghh-ahbd71 #aad1 #bjc1 #bfh1 #cjj1 #caa1 #ccd ,bysshe1 ,e4 7fl4 #agjb-agab71 #af1 #ai1 #bg1 #aie1 #bdb-bde1 #ccg ,cadence1 #bcc 7,gloss47 ,csura 7,gloss47 ,calverley1 ,c4 ,s4 7#ahca-ahhd71 #cch ,campbell1 ,t4 7#aggg-ahdd71 #cjj ,campion1 ,thomas 7d4 #afai71 #cc1 #gc1 #aba1 #bch1 #cjj1 #cch ,canning1 ,g4 7#aggj-ahbg71 #abc1 #abd1 #bib1 #cjj ,canterbury ,tales1 ,the1 #ea ,canute ,song1 ,the1 #acf ,carey1 ,john 7#agef-ahbf71 #beb ,carol1 #afd 7,gloss47 ,caroline verse1 #ahi ,castaway1 ,the1 #cjb ,castle of ,indolence1 ,the1 #cae ,catalexis 7,gloss47 ,catullus1 #abe1 #bha1 #bhc ,cayley1 ,c4 ,b41 #cch ,chalkhill1 ,j4 7fl4 c4 #afjj871 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,syllables1 their position in ,english prosody1 ,bk4 ,i4 ,chap4 ,,iii4 and passim ,symonds1 ,j4 ,a1 7#ahdj-ahic71 #ab note1 #bei1 #cdj ,synalpha 7,gloss47 ,syncope 7,gloss47 ,synizesis 7,gloss47 ,syzygy 7,gloss47 ,tailed sonnet 7,gloss47 ,tamburlaine1 #fd ,tasso 7,fairfax's71 #ahe1 #cjc1 #ccd ,taylor1 ,w4 7#agfe-ahcf71 #bjj1 #bej ,temple of ,glass1 ,the1 #eb ,tennyson1 ,lord 7#ahji-ahib71 #bd-bi1 #hb1 #ii1 #ajc1 #ajf-ajh1 #aaj-aab1 #aae-aaf1 #abd1 #abe1 #bjh-baj1 #beg1 #bff1 #bfh note1 #bgi1 #bhc1 #bhh1 #big1 #cad1 #ccb1 #ccc1 #ccf ,tercet 7,gloss47 ,terza rima1 #afg1 #cjg1 #cad 7,gloss47 ,tetrameter 7,gloss47 ,thalaba1 #if1 #ig1 #cac ,thaun1 ,ph4 de1 #aab1 #adc ,thealma and ,clearchus1 #gf1 #ahg ,thelwall1 ,john 7#agfd-ahcd71 #beb1 #bgj1 #cdj ,thesis 7,gloss47 ,thetbaldus1 #adc ,thomson1 ,james 7,i47 7#agjj-agdh71 #hh1 #aie1 #aif ,thomson1 ,james 7,,ii47 7#ahcd-ahhb71 #bag1 #bah ,thomson1 ,mr4 ,william1 #ab note1 #bfa ,time 7,gloss47 ,tottel's ,miscellany1 #afh ,townley ,plays1 #df ,trench1 ,archbishop 7#ahjg-ahhf71 #beg ,tribrach1 #ca and passim 7,gloss47 ,triolet1 #abe 7,gloss47 ,triple 7,gloss47 ,triplet 7,gloss47 ,trochee1 #ca and passim 7,gloss47 ,troilus and ,criseyde1 #ej1 #bij1 #ccd ,truncation 7,gloss47 ,tumbling verse1 #bcg 7,gloss47 ,turberville1 ,g4 7#aedh8-afaj871 #fj1 #afh ,turn of words 7,gloss47 ,tusser1 ,t4 7#aebd8-aehj71 #gd1 #afh1 #bcd1 #cad ,tyrwhitt1 #bdh ,under the ,greenwood ,tree1 #bh note1 #ahc note ,veni ,redemptor gentium1 #ch ,vernon1 ,,ms41 #aee1 #cbb1 #cbc ,verrier4 ,m41 #ab note1 #ajj1 #cdj ,verse 7,gloss47 ,versus caudatus1 #bia ,vie de ,st4 ,leger1 #ccj note ,vilikins and his ,dinah1 #bhe ,vision of ,judgment1 ,the1 #aba1 #bea1 #cac ,vision of ,sin1 ,the1 #bji ,vowel-music1 #ce 7,gloss47 ,voyage of ,maeldune1 ,the1 #aaf ,wace1 #ach ,wadham1 ,mr4 ,e41 #beh1 #cdj ,walker1 ,john 7of the ,dictionary7 7#agcb-ahjg71 #beb ,walker1 ,w4 ,sidney 7#agie-ahdf71 #beh ,waller1 ,edm4 7#afjf-afhg71 #gh1 #caa1 #cad ,warton1 ,t4 7#agbh-agij71 #bjj1 #bfg ,watson1 ,t41 ,bishop 7#aeac-aehd71 #abj ,watson1 ,t41 sonneteer 7#aeeg8-aeib71 #aga ,watts1 ,dr4 7#afgd-agdh71 #abc1 #bde1 #bib1 #cad ,weak ending 7,gloss47 ,webb1 ,d4 7#agai-agih71 #bde ,webbe1 ,w4 7fl4 c4 #aehf71 #bcf1 #cdj ,wheel1 #dh1 #di 7,gloss47 ,whitman1 ,walt1 #cc note1 #cad ,william of ,palerne1 #dh1 #bba ,william of ,poitiers1 #cce ,witch of ,atlas1 ,the1 #bjd1 #cce ,wither1 ,george 7#aehh-affg71 #ha1 #ahg ,woodford1 ,dr4 ,s4 7#afcf-agjj71 #bdj ,wordsworth1 ,w4 7#aggj-ahej71 #ajd1 #bjj1 #bej1 #bea1 #cad ,wrenched accent 7,gloss47 ,wyatt1 ,sir ,t4 7#aejc8-aedb71 #ae1 #eg1 #eh1 #fa note1 #aei1 #aff1 #bbc1 #bie1 #cad ,wynn1 ,southey's letter to1 #bej ,wyntoun 7#aeth century71 #ee1 #bcc1 #bgd ,yardley ,oak1 #aif ,york ,plays1 #de ,young1 ,e4 7#afhc-agfe71 #hi ,zophiel1 #abi ,,the ,,end ,printed by ,r4 ,r4 ,,clark1 ,,limited1 ,edinburgh4 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's ,notes ,in a few cases where sidenotes refer to new topics introduced within a long paragraph1 an additional paragraph break has been added4 ,all footnotes have been renumbered #a 444 #aha4 ,because of the number and the length of some footnotes1 all are presented at the end of the chapter or section to which they refer4 ,on page #hf in the example 7#c7 from the ,rape of the ,lock the first part of each line is angled up the page1 and second part of each line is angled down4 ,where changes have been made to the text 7to correct more typographical errors7 these are listed as follows3 p4 #bi1 footnote #bd3 added missing opening quotation mark 7,quantity7 p4 #ch3 added missing closing parenthesis around paragraph 7,grave ,poem4444 added in dots47 p4 #ed3 added period to subtitle 7,examples of ,skeltonic and other ,doggerel47 p4 #eg3 added period to subtitle 7 444 ,poets before ,spenser47 p4 #eh3 the foot markers in the last line of the ,wyatt sonnet have been repositioned1 such that the original ,for good is th life ending faithfully4 reads ,for good is th life ending faithfully4 p4 #ei3 final foot symbol in line #c of the example in paragraph 7d7 was moved from the end of the line to the expected position preceding the dice1 as in 444 what chance come on the dice4 p4 #fc added missing foot symbol breaking the word ,unhappy to line #aa of the example in paragraph 7a7 ,unhappy she that on no sleep could chance1 p4 #ff3 the final foot symbol in line #d of the ,marlowe sonnet moved from ,their minds1 and muses1 on admird themes2 to the expected position ,their minds1 and muses1 on admird themes2 p4 #fg3 the final foot symbol in line #h of the example in paragraph 7#b7 was moved from ,with worms that are thy chamber-maids2 ,o1 here to ,with worms that are thy chamber-maids2 ,o1 here p4 #fh3 note that the diacritic over the o' combines breve and macron1 whereas a macron alone may be expected in the context 7,trisyllabic at 444 ty '47 p4 #ga3 added the missing final foot symbol from the line ,wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness p4 #gd example 7#b73 note that no foot symbol is given where expected at the sentence break in ,let my despair prevail6 ,o stay1 hope is not spent4 p4 #gg example 7c7 first line3 changed fictions to fictious1 in ,if fictious light ,i mix with ,truth ,divine p4 #aje1 example 7d73 changed final punctuation 7unclear period7 to comma ,if you'd be free o' the stove-side1 rocking-chair1 p4 #aah3 added missing close parenthesis at end of paragraph 7,intentionally irregular 444 and some here47 p4 #agh1 footnote #hd1 example 7b73 changed closing single quotation mark to double quotation mark 7 444 we must pronounce spir't17 p4 #bbe3 added missing close parenthesis 7as by ,spenser 444 and for history by ,drayton74 p4 #cce3 changed ,emund to ,edmund 7the invention of ,edmund ,spenser7