Part 1 — CHAPTER IV THE ALLITERATIVE LINE IN ITS CONSERVATIVE FORM DURING THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES

A. The alliterative verse without rhyme.

§ 52. The progressive or free form of the alliterative line came to an end as early as the middle of the thirteenth century, when it broke up into short rhyming couplets. The stricter form was for nearly three centuries longer a very popular metre in English poetry, especially in the North-Western and Northern districts of England and in the adjacent lowlands of Scotland. The first traces, however, of its existence after the Norman Conquest are to be found in the South of England, where some poetical homilies and lives of saints were written at the end of the twelfth and in the beginning of the thirteenth century which are of the same character, both as to their subjects and to their metre, as the poetical paraphrases and homilies written by Ælfric. These poems are Hali Meidenhad (a poetical homily), the legends of St. Marharete, St. Juliana, and St. Katherine. These poems have been edited for the Early English Text Society, Nos. 18, 13, 51, 80; the first three by Cockayne as prose-texts, the last by Dr. Einenkel, who printed it in short couplets regarded by him as having the same four-beat rhythm (Otfrid’s metre) which he and his teacher, Prof. Trautmann, suppose to exist in Layamon and King Horn.[107] The Homilies have no rhymes.

The form of these homilies and legends occasionally exhibits real alliterative lines, but for the most part is nothing but rhythmical prose, altogether too irregular to call for an investigation here. Some remarks on passages written in a form more or less resembling alliterative verse may be found in our Englische Metrik, vol. i, § 94.

It is quite out of the question to suppose these Southern works, with their very irregular use of alliteration and metre, to have had any influence on the metrical form of the very numerous alliterative poems written in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in the Midland and Northern districts of England. It is, however, not at all likely that alliterative poetry should have sprung up there without any medium of tradition, and that it should have returned to the strict forms of the Old English models. Nor can we assume that it was handed down by means of oral tradition only on the part of the minstrels from Old English times down to the fourteenth century. The channel of tradition of the genuine alliterative line must be sought for in documents which for the most part have been lost.

A few small remnants, however, have been preserved, viz. a charm in a MS. of the twelfth century (cf. Zupitza, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum, xxxi. 49), a short poem, entitled ‘Ten Abuses’, belonging to the same period (E. E. T. S. 49, p. 184), a prophecy of five lines contained in the chronicle of Benedict of Peterborough (Rerum Britannicarum Scriptores, 49, ii. 139), finally a prophecy ascribed to Thomas of Erceldoune (E.E. T. S., vol. 61, xviii, Thom. of Erc., ed. by A. Brandl, p. 26). But these pieces, treated by Prof. Luick in Paul’s Grundriss, ed. 2, II. ii, p. 160, are either too short or are too uncertain in text to admit of our making definite conclusions from them.

But from the middle of the fourteenth century onward we have a large number of poems composed in regular alliterative verse, e.g. King Alisaunder (Als.) and William of Palerne (W.), both in E. E. T. S., Extra-Ser. No. 1; Joseph of Arimathie (J.A.), E. E.T. S. 44; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Gr.), E.E. T. S. 4; Piers Plowman (P. P.), by W. Langland, E. E. T. S., Nos. 17, 28, 30, 38, 54; Pierce the Plowman’s Crede (P. P. Cr.), E. E. T. S. 30; Richard the Redeles (R. R.), E. E. T. S. 54; The Crowned King (Cr. K.), ibid.; The Destruction of Troy, E. E.T. S. 39, 56; Morte Arthure, E. E. T. S. 8; Cleanness and Patience, E. E. T. S. 1; The Chevalere Assigne, E. E.T. S., Extra-Ser. 6; and others of the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries: see Prof. W. W. Skeat’s list in ‘Bishop Percy’s Folio MS.’, London, 1867 (ed. Furnivall and Hales), vol. iii, p. xi, and many recent publications of the Early English Text Society.

On the structure of this metre the opinions of scholars differ a good deal less than on that of the progressive or free form of the alliterative line. Yet there are a few adherents of the four-beat theory who apply it to the alliterative line of this epoch, amongst others Rosenthal (‘Die alliterierende englische Langzeile im 14. Jahrhundert,’ Anglia, i. 414 ff.). The two-beat theory, on the other hand, has been upheld also for this form of the alliterative line by Prof. W. W. Skeat, Essay on Alliterative Poetry, Percy Folio MS. 1867 (ed. Furnivall and Hales), by the present writer in Englische Metrik, i, pp. 195–212, and by Prof. Luick, Anglia, xi, pp. 392–443 and 553–618, and subsequently in Paul’s Grundriss, ed. 2, II. ii, pp. 161–3.

§ 53. The use and treatment of the words in the verse is on the whole the same as in the Old English period. The chief divergence is, that in this period of the language the difference between long and short syllables was lost, in consequence of the lengthening of short vowels in open syllables which had taken place in the interval, and that consequently the substitution of a short accented syllable and an unaccented one for a long accented syllable (the so-called resolution) was no longer admissible. Otherwise syllables with a primary accent, syllables with a secondary accent, and unaccented syllables are treated just as in the Old English poetry. Accented syllables are as a rule placed in the arsis, as are also second parts of compounds. Other syllables with secondary accent (derivative and inflectional syllables) are only in exceptional cases placed in the arsis of a verse.

It is of special interest, however, to notice that words of Romanic origin which in the course of time had been introduced into the language are in many cases accented according to Germanic usage. Words of which the last syllable was accented in French have in their Middle-English form the chief accent thrown on a preceding, frequently on the first, syllable, and in consequence of this the originally fully accented syllable in trisyllabic words receives the secondary accent and is treated in the rhythm of the verse in the same way as syllables with a secondary accent in English words. The laws, too, which in Old English affect the subordination and position of the parts of speech in their relationship to the rhythm of the verse and to the alliteration, remain, generally speaking, in force. It is remarkable that ‘if an attributive adjective is joined to a substantive, and a verb to a prepositional adverb, the first part of these groups of words still has the chief accent’ (Luick). The relationship, on the other hand, of verse and sentence is changed. While in Old English poetry run-on-lines were very popular and new sentences therefore frequently began in the middle of a line, after the caesura, we find that in Middle English, as a rule, the end of the sentence coincides with the end of the line. Hence every line forms a unity by itself, and the chief pause falls at the end, not, as was frequently the case in Old English times, after the caesura.

§ 54. Alliteration. On the whole, the same laws regarding the position of the alliterative sounds are still in force as before; it is indeed remarkable that they are sometimes even more strictly observed. In the Destruction of Troy, e.g. triple alliteration according to the formula a a a x is employed throughout.

Prol. 27–8.

Alongside of this order of alliteration we find in most of the other poems the other schemes of alliteration popular in Old English times, e.g. a x a x, x a a x, a b a b, a b b a:

In þe fórmest yére, | that he fírst réigned. Als. 40.

Þénne gonne I méeten | a mérvelous svévene.P. P. Prol. 11.

I had mínde on my slépe | by méting of swéuen.Als. 969.

And fónd as þe méssageres | hade múnged befóre.W. 4847.

Irregularities, however, in the position of the alliteration are frequently met with, e.g. parallel alliteration: a a, b b:

What þis móuntein beméneþ | and þis dérke dále. P. P. i. 1;

or the chief alliterative sound (the ‘head-stave’) may be placed in the last accented syllable (a a x a):

‘Now be Críst,’ quod the kíng, | ‘ȝif I míhte chácche. ib. ii. 167;

or it may be wanting entirely, especially in William of Palerne:

Sche kólled it ful kíndly | and áskes is náme. W. 69;

and there are even found a certain number of verses without any alliteration at all in Joseph of Arimathie:

Whan Jóseph hérde þer-of, | he bád hem not demáyȝen. J. A. 31.

In such cases it may sometimes be noticed that a line which has no internal alliteration is linked by alliteration with a preceding or with a following line, in the same way as was to be observed already in the last century of the Old English period (cf. p. 50):

Morte Arth. 70–1.

Again an excess of alliteration is found, which happens in different ways, either by admitting four alliterative sounds in one line (a a a a) as was sometimes done even in Old English:

In a sómer séson | when sófte was þe sónne. P. P. Prol. 1;

or by retaining the same alliterative sound in several consecutive lines, e.g. :

ib. iii. 109–11;

or, finally, by allowing the somewhat more strongly accented syllables of the theses to participate in the alliteration:

and was a bíg bold bárn | and bréme of his áge. W. 18.

By the increasing use of this kind of alliteration it ultimately degenerated so much that the real nature of it was completely forgotten. This is evident from the general advice which King James VI gives in his Revlis and Cavtelis to be observit and eschewit in Scottis Poesie (Arber’s Reprint, p. 63):

Let all your verse be Literall, sa far as may be, quhatsumeuer kynde they be of, but speciallie Tumbling verse [evidently the alliterative line] for flyting. Be Literall I meane, that the maist pairt of your lyne sall rynne vpon a letter, as this tumbling lyne rynnis vpon F.

Fetching fade for to feid it fast furth of the Farie.[108]

He then gives a description of this kind of verse which makes it evident that he looked upon ‘tumbling verse’ as a rhythm of two beats in each hemistich or four beats in the full line, for he says:

Ȝe man observe that thir Tumbling verse flowis not on that fassoun as vtheris dois. For all vtheris keipis the reule quhilk I gave before, to wit the first fute short the secound lang and sa furth. Quhair as thir hes twa short and are lang throuch all the lyne quhen they keip ordour, albeit the maist pairt of thame be out of ordour and keipis na kynde nor reule of Flowing and for that cause are callit Tumbling verse.

King James VI was a contemporary of the last poets who wrote in alliterative lines in the North and therefore undoubtedly had heard such poems read by reciters who had kept up the true tradition of their scansion. We have here then the very best proof we can desire not only of the four-beat rhythm of the line, but also of the fact that unaccented words, although they may alliterate intentionally, as they do often in poems of the fifteenth century, or unintentionally, as earlier, do not get a full accent in consequence of the alliteration, as some scholars have thought, but remain unaccented.[109] As to the quality of the alliteration the same laws on the whole still prevail as in Old English poetry, but are less strictly observed. Thus frequently voiced and unvoiced sounds alliterate together, and the aspiration is neglected; f alliterates with v, v with w, w with wh, s with sh or with combinations of s and other consonants, g with k, h with ch:

hértes and híndes | and óþer bestes mánye. W. 389.

of fálsnesse and fásting | and vóuwes ibróken. P. P. Prol. 68.

bat he wíst wíterly | it was the vóis of a childe. W. 40.

to acórde wiþ þe kíng | and gráunte his wílle. ib. 3657.

I sáyle now in þe sée | as schíp boute mást. ib. 567.

such chástite withouten chárite | worþ cláymed in hélle! P. P. i. 168.

On the other hand, sometimes (as e.g. in the Alisaunder fragments) greater strictness may be noticed in regard to alliteration of vowels, as only the same vowels[110] are allowed to alliterate:

wiþ þé érldam of Énuye | éuer forto láste.P. P. ii. 63.

Later on, in the fifteenth century, vocalic alliteration in general falls into disuse more and more.

§ 55. Comparison of Middle English and Old English alliterative verse. With regard to the rhythmic structure of the verse the Middle English alliterative line is not very different from the corresponding Old English metre. Two beats in each hemistich are, of course, the rule, and it has been shown by Dr. K. Luick, in a very valuable paper on the English alliterative line in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries,[111] that all the different types which Prof. Sievers has discovered for the two sections of the Old English alliterative line occur here again, but with certain modifications.

The modifications which the five chief types have undergone originated in the tendency to simplify their many varieties exactly in the same way as the Old English inflexional forms of the language were simplified and generalized in the Middle English period.

Only three of the five old types, viz. those with an even number of members (A, B, C), are preserved in the second section of the verse, and those not in their original forms. They show further a certain tendency to assimilate to each other.

In types B and C the variations with disyllabic anacrusis occurred most frequently, as was also the case in type A, and verses of this kind now become predominant. Furthermore, in the Old English alliterative line, endings consisting of an accented and an unaccented syllable (feminine endings) prevailed; and type B was the only one of the symmetrical types ending with an accented syllable. In Middle English the use of feminine endings goes so far that the original type B has disappeared altogether and given place to a new type with an unaccented last syllable corresponding to the form ××–́×–́×.

Prof. Luick very properly calls this type BC, holding that it originated from the variations ××–́×⏑́͜× and ××⏑́͜×–́× of the old types B and C in consequence of the lengthening of the originally short accented syllable. Verse-ends with two unaccented syllables, which might have arisen in the same way from –́× = ⏑́͜××, did not become popular; and verse-ends with one unaccented syllable predominated. Lastly, an important feature of the later verse-technique deserves notice, that a monosyllabic anacrusis (an initial unaccented syllable) is generally allowed in types where it was not permitted in the Old English alliterative line. The consequence of these changes is that the rhythm of the verse which was in Old English a descending rhythm, becomes in Middle English ascending, and is brought into line with the rhythm of the contemporary even-beat metres.

This is the state of development presented by the Middle English alliterative line in one of the earliest poems of this group, viz. in the fragments of King Alisaunder, the versification of which, as a rule, is very correct.

Here the three types only which we have mentioned occur in the second hemistich.

Type A is most common, corresponding to the formula (×)–́××–́×:

lórdes and óoþer 1, déedes of ármes 5, kíd in his tíme 11, térme of his lífe 16,

or with anacrusis:

or stérne was hólden 10, and sóne beráfter 25.

More than two unaccented syllables may occur after the first accented syllable. These two peculiarities seldom occur together in one and the same second hemistich (though frequently in the first hemistich); but there are some examples:

is túrned too him álse 165, and príkeden abóute 382, hee fáred òn in háste 79;

in this last example with a secondary accent on the word òn as also in the verse: þe méssengères þei cámme 1126.

Type C, (×)××–́–́×:

was þe mán hóten 13, þat his kíth ásketh 65, as a kíng shólde 17, withoute míscháunce 1179.

Type BC, (×)××–́×–́×:

or it týme wére 30, in his fáders life 46, of þis méry tále 45, þat þei no cómme þáre 507.

The same types occur in the first hemistich; but type C disappears almost entirely, and in the other two the last syllable not unfrequently is accented, especially if a considerable number of unaccented syllables occur in the middle of the hemistich; such verses may be looked upon as remnants of types B and E:

þo was cróuned kíng 28, hee made a uéry uów 281, and wédded þat wíght 225, þe bérn couth þerbý 632, &c.

Type D also seems to occur sometimes:

móuth méete þertò 184, what déath drý[e] thou shàlt 1067.

Besides these types the first hemistich has, as in Old English times, some forms of its own. The succession of syllables –́××–́× (type A) is extended either by several unaccented syllables before the first accented one (polysyllabic anacrusis) or by the insertion of a secondary accent between the two main accented syllables, or after the second accented syllable, with a considerable number of medial unaccented syllables.

(a) That ever stéede bestróde 10,

Hee brought his ménne to þe bórowe 259.

(b) And chéued fòrthe with þe chílde 78,

Þe cómpanìe was cárefull 359.

(c) α. Glísiande as góldwìre 180,

Þei craked þe cournales 295.

β. Hue lóued so lécherìe 35,

And Phílip þe férse kìng 276.

γ. Stónes stírred þei þò 293,

Þe fólke too fáre with hìm 158.

The examples under (a) show the tendency noticeable already in the first hemistich of the Old English alliterative line to admit anacrusis. The examples under (b) and (c) may be looked upon as extended forms of types E and D.

§ 56. Several poems of somewhat later date deviate more frequently from these types than the Alisaunder fragments, chiefly in the following points:

The end of the hemistich sometimes consists of an accented syllable instead of an unaccented one; the thesis is sometimes monosyllabic instead of polysyllabic, especially in A, or the anacrusis may be polysyllabic instead of monosyllabic. Secondary accents are introduced more frequently into the second hemistich also, but by poets whose technique is careful they are admitted only between the two accented syllables. Owing to these licences, and to the introduction of polysyllabic theses, the rhythm of the verse sometimes becomes very heavy.

Belonging to this group are William of Palerne, Joseph of Arimathie, both belonging to the middle of the fourteenth century, the three editions of William Langland’s Vision concerning Piers Plowman, of somewhat later date, and a few minor poems. The Romance of the Chevelere Assigne, written in the East Midland district, at the end of the fourteenth century, and the works of the Gawain-poet, viz. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Cleanness, Patience, and the Legend of St. Erkenwald (Horstmann, Altengl. Legenden, 1881, p. 265), form the transition to another group of poems belonging to the North of England, but differing somewhat from the preceding with regard to their metre.

The most important amongst these is Langland’s great work, but it is at the same time most unequal in respect to its versification. In many passages, especially in the beginning of the several Passus, as they are called, the flow of the verses is very regular; in other passages the theses are frequently of such great length, and the arsis stands out so indistinctly, that the rhythm of the verse can only be made out with difficulty. Some examples taken from the B-text (c. 1377) may serve to illustrate this:

Extended second hemistich (Type A):

To bóres and to bróckes | þat bréketh adòwn myne hégges. vi. 31.

And so I trówe tréwly | by þat men télleth of chárite. xv. 158.

Ac ȝut in mány mo máneres | mén offènden þe hóligòste. xvii. 280.

Extended first hemistich (Type A):

Léue him nòuȝt, for he is lécherous | and líkerous of tónge. vi. 268.

Láboreres þat haue no lánde | to lýue on but her hándes. ib. 309.

‘Now, by þe péril of my soúle!’ quod Pieres, | ‘I shal apéyre ȝou álle!’

vi. 173.

Such verses obviously contain only two beats in each hemistich, although at the same time some of the syllables forming the thesis may have a somewhat stronger accent than others. For as a rule such extended verses are succeeded by a normal line, clearly bringing out again the general four-beat rhythm, as is the case with the line (A + A) following immediately upon the last-mentioned example:

And hóuped after húnger | þat hérd hym atte fírste. vi. 174.

Type A is in Piers Plowman the usual one, but the types C and BC frequently occur. In the following examples we have type C in the second hemistich:

And hadden léue to lye | al here lýf áfter. Prol. 49.

I seigh sómme that séiden | þei had ysóuȝt séyntes. ib. 50;

in the first hemistich it occurs rarely:

Ac on a Máy mórnynge | on Máluerne húlles. ib. 5.

Type B C is frequently to be met with in both hemistichs; e.g. in the first:

In a sómer séson, | whan sóft was the sónne. ib. 1.

And as I láy and léned | and lóked in þe wáteres. ib. 9;

in the second:

Bídders and béggeres | fast abóute ȝéde. ib. 40.

Wénten to Wálsyngham, | and here wénches áfter. ib. 54.

Masculine endings, however (originating from the dropping of the final -e in the last words of the types A and C, as e.g. in and drédful of síght Prol. 16, cristened þe kýnge xv. 437, as þe kýng híght iii. 9), occur very rarely here. They are, on the other hand, characteristic forms in another group of alliterative poems.

§ 57. These belong to the North of England and the adjacent parts of the Midlands.

In these districts the final e had by this time become silent, or was in the course of becoming so. Thus many verses of West-Midland poems were shortened in the North by omitting the final -e, and then these forms were imitated there. Hence the middle of the line was much less modified than the end of it.

Types A, C, B C, therefore, occur not only in the ordinary forms with unaccented syllables at the end, but also, although more rarely, with accented ones, viz. corresponding to the schemes:

A₁, (×)–́××–́, C₁, (×)××–́–́, BC₁, (×)××–́×–́.

These forms of the hemistich first occur in the Destruction of Troy, a poem written in a West-Midland dialect very like to the Northern dialect, and in the North-English poems, Morte Arthure and The Wars of Alexander (E. E. T. S., Extra-Ser. 47). Examples of these types (taken from the first-mentioned poem) are: of type A₁ in the second hemistich, for lérning of ús 32, þat ónest were áy 48; with a polysyllabic thesis, and lympit of the sóthe 36; with a secondary accent,with cléne mèn of wít 790; without anacrusis,[112] lémond as góld 459, bléssid were Í 473; in the first hemistich, with disyllabic anacrusis, þat ben drépit with déth 9, þat with the Grékys was grét 40; without anacrusis, Býg y-noghe vnto béd 397, Trýed men þat were táken 258, &c.; examples for C₁ (only occurring in the second hemistich), þat he fóre with 44, into your lond hóme 611, ye have sáid well 1122, þat ho bórne wás 1388, of my córs hás 1865; examples for B C₁, in the second hemistich (of rare occurrence), when it destróyet wás 28, and to sórow bróght 1497, þere þe cítie wás 1534.

The same modification of types took place later in other parts of the Midlands, as appears from two works of the early sixteenth century, Scottish Field and Death and Life (Bishop Percy’s Folio MS., edited by Furnivall and Hales, i. 199 and iii. 49). The last North-English or rather Scottish poem, on the other hand, written in alliterative lines without rhyme, Dunbar’s well-known Satire, The twa mariit wemen and the wedo, has, apart from the normal types occurring in the North-English poems, many variants, chiefly in the first hemistich, which are characterized by lengthy unaccented parts both at the beginning of the line, before the second arsis, and after it; frequently too syllables forming the thesis have a secondary accent and even take part in the alliteration, as e.g. in the following examples:

Ȝaip and ȝíng, in the ȝók | ane ȝéir for to dráw. 79.

Is bàir of blís and báilfull, | and greit bárrat wírkis. 51.

Sometimes the second hemistich participates in this cumulation of alliterating words, which not unfrequently extends over several, even as many as six or seven consecutive lines:

He gráythit me in gáy silk | and gúdlie arráyis,

In gównis of ingránit clayth | and greit góldin chénȝeis. 365–6.

This explains how King James VI came to formulate the metrical rule mentioned above (p. 89) from the misuse of alliteration by the last poets who used the alliterative line, or the alliterative rhyming line to be discussed in the next paragraph, which shares the same peculiarity.

B. The alliterative line combined with rhyme

§ 58. In spite of the great popularity which the regular alliterative line enjoyed down to the beginning of the Modern English period, numerous and important rivals had arisen in the meantime, viz. the many even-beat rhymed kinds of verse formed on foreign models; and these soon began to influence the alliterative line. The first mark of this influence was that end-rhyme and strophic formation was forced upon many alliterative poems. In a further stage the alliterative line was compelled to accommodate its free rhythm of four accents bit by bit to that of the even-beat metres, especially to the closely-related four-foot iambic line, and thus to transform itself into a more or less regular iambic-anapaestic metre. The alliterative line, on the other hand, exercised a counter influence on the newer forms of verse, inasmuch as alliteration, which was formerly peculiar to native versification, took possession in course of time to a considerable extent of the even-beat metres, especially of the four-foot iambic verse. But by this reciprocal influence of the two forms of verse the blending of the four-beat alliterative line with that of four equal measures and the ultimate predominance of the even-beat metres was brought about more easily and naturally.

Alliterative-rhymed lines, the connexion of which into stanzas or staves will be treated of in the second part of this work under the heading of the ‘Bob-wheel-stanza’, were used during the Middle English period alike in lyric, epic, and dramatic poetry.

§ 59. Lyrical stanzas. The earliest stanzas written in alliterative rhyming lines were lyrical.

We must distinguish between isometric and anisometric stanza forms. In the former the whole stanza consists of four-beat alliterative lines, commonly rhyming according to a very simple scheme (either a a a a or a b a b). In the latter four-beat long lines as a rule are combined with isolated lines of one measure only and with several of two measures to form the stanza. The two-beat verses frequently have a somewhat lengthened structure (to be discussed further on sections on the epic stanzas), in consequence of which many of them having theses with secondary accents can be read either as even-beat verses of three measures or as three-beat verses on the model of those in King Horn. The four-beat alliterative lines, on the other hand, are mostly of more regular structure, the distances between the first and second arsis not being so unequal and the theses as a rule being disyllabic. The anacrusis too in these verses admits of a somewhat free treatment. The difference, however, between the first and second hemistich is less conspicuous than it was in those forms of the Middle English alliterative line before mentioned. Alliteration, on the other hand, is abundantly used.

The main rhythmic character of the verse is again indicated here by the frequent occurrence of the types A and A₁. The types B C, B C₁, C, C₁, however, likewise occur pretty often, and the two last types present serious obstacles to the assumption that the lines of these poems were ever recited with an even beat. But how exactly these poems were recited or to what sort of musical accompaniment can hardly be definitely decided in the absence of external evidence.

The first verses of a West-Midland poem of the end of the thirteenth century (Wright’s Political Songs, p. 149) may serve as a specimen:

The second hemistichs in ll. 2 and 4 belong to type C. In other poems also, with lines of more regular rhythm (chiefly type A), this type may be met with now and then, e.g. in a poem published in Wright’s Specimens of Lyric Poetry, p. 25, especially in the second hemistich, e.g. haueþ þis mái mére, line 9, and þe gýlófre, line 40, þat þe bór béde, line 44.

It is not difficult to distinguish such rhymed four-beat alliterative lines from those of four measures which have fairly regular alliteration, for the long line of the native metre always has a somewhat looser fabric, not the even-beat rhythmic cadence peculiar to the iambic verse of four measures, and, secondly, it always has a caesura after the first hemistich, whereas the even-beat verse of four measures may either lack distinct caesura or the caesura may occur in other places in the verse as well as after the second arsis. This will be evident by comparing the following four-beat verses of the last stanza of a poem in Wright’s Spec. of Lyr. Poetry, p. 31:

with the following first four-beat alliterative lines of another poem (ibid. p. 25):

In similar lines are written several other poems, as Mon in þe mone (ibid. p. 110); Of ribaudz y ryme (Wright’s Pol. Songs, p. 237); and five songs by Laurence Minot (nos. ii, v, ix, x, xi), written in the middle of the fourteenth century.

§ 60. In other poems the four-beat long lines used in the main part of the stanza are followed by shorter lines forming the cauda, which in part are of a variable rhythmic cadence either of three beats (or three measures) or of two beats, as e.g. in the well-known poem in Percy’s Reliques, ii, p. 1.[113] The first stanza may be quoted here:

In the following stanzas of this poem the four-beat rhythm, although rarely marked by regular alliteration, is (in the main part or ‘frons’) still more distinctly recognizable, in spite of several rhythmically incorrect lines.

Second hemistichs of the type C₁ are not infrequent, e.g. opon swývýng 9, sire Édwárd 46, o þy lýárd 47. Lines 5 and 7 are of a two-beat rhythm, l. 8 probably as well (cf. our scansion).

There is a decided similarity in regard to structure and versification between this stanza and that of a poem in Wright’s Pol. Songs, p. 153, although the long lines are divided in the middle by interlaced rhyme. This may be illustrated by its second stanza:

There is no line here corresponding to l. 5 of the preceding poem. Otherwise, however, the cauda of this poem is of a similar structure to that of the preceding one, at least in this and possibly in the following stanzas, whereas the last line of the first stanza has a two-beat rhythm, and in the others the last lines probably are to be scanned with three beats. The second line of the cauda of the first stanza of this poem belongs to type C. Another poem (Wright’s Polit. Songs, p. 155; Böddeker, P.L. no. iv) shows a very artificial form of stanza, either corresponding to the formula a a₄ b₂ c c₄ b₂ d d₄ b₂ e e₄ b₂ f f g g g f₂ (if we look upon the verses as four-beat and two-beat lines, which the poet probably intended), or corresponding to the formula a a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃ d d₄ b₃ e e₄ b₃ f f g g g f₂ (if we look upon the frons as consisting of ordinary tail-rhyme-stanza lines of four and three even-beat measures).

The four- and two-beat cadence of the verses comes out still more clearly in the stanzas of another poem (Wright’s Pol. Songs, p. 187; Ritson, Anc. Songs, i. 51; Böddeker, P.L. no. v), the rhymes of which follow the scheme a a a₄ b₂ c c c₄ b₂ (extended tail-rhyme-stanzas). Some of its long lines, it is true, admit of being read as even-beat verses of three measures, e.g. and béo huere chéuentéyn 20, and móni anóþer swéyn 24, but the true scansion in all probability is and béo huere chéuenteȳ̀n (or chèuentéyn): ant móni anòþer swéyn, in conformity with the scansion of the following lines to cóme to parís: þourh þe flóur de lís 52–6, or wiþ éorl and wiþ knýht: with húem forte fýht 124–8.

As a first step to the epic forms of stanza to be considered in the next paragraph a poem of the early fourteenth century (Wright’s Pol. Songs, p. 212; Ritson, Anc. Songs, p. 28; Böddeker, P.L. no. vi) may be quoted:

The fifth line has one arsis only (as appears more clearly from that in the second stanza: wiþ Lóue), thus corresponding to the above-mentioned poems (pp. 99, 100); the other lines of the cauda have two stresses.

Prof. Luick[114] looks upon the long lines of this poem and of several others (e.g. Wright’s Pol. Songs, pp. 69 and 187) as doubled native verses of the progressive or Layamon form, but rhyming only as long lines. This can hardly be, as the rhythmic structure of these verses does not differ from that of the other poems quoted above, which belong, according to Prof. Luick himself, to the class of the normal, lyric rhyming-alliterative lines.

§ 61. Narrative verse. Alliterative-rhyming verses occur in their purest form in narrative poetry, especially in a number of poems composed during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in stanzas of thirteen lines, and republished recently in a collective edition by the Scottish Text Society in vol. 27 under the title Scottish Alliterative Poems (ed. by F.J. Amours, Edinburgh, 1892). The poems contained in this collection are Golagras and Gawane (also in Anglia, ii. 395), The Book of the Howlat by Holland, Rauf Coilȝear (also in E. E. T. S., Extr.-Ser. vol. xxxix), The Awntyrs off Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne, The Pistill of Susan (also in Anglia, i. 93). Douglas’s Prologue to the Eighth Book of his translation of the Aeneid (although written in the beginning of the sixteenth century) likewise belongs to this group, as do also the poems of John Audelay, composed in Shropshire in the fifteenth century (Percy Soc. xiv, p. 10 ff.), and a poem Of Sayne John the Euaungelist (E. E. T. S. 26, p. 87) written in stanzas of fourteen lines in the North of England. The stanzas of all these poems—generally speaking—consist of two unequal parts, the frons written in alliterative lines, rhyming according to the formula a b a b a b a b, and the cauda which contains five or six lines, the first of which may either be a long line as in the frons, or, as in The Pistill of Susan, a short one-beat one, with four two-beat sectional verses following. Only in the last-mentioned poem does the cauda consist of six two-beat sectional verses.

The rhythm of this alliterative-rhyming metre may first be illustrated by the opening lines of Golagras and Gawane:

I.

II.

Lines like the four last quoted illustrate the normal structure of the rhyming-alliterative verse, especially the relationship of rhyme and alliteration to each other in monosyllabic and disyllabic words. It will be seen that the rhyming syllable, as a rule the root-syllable, or at least the accented syllable of the word, at the same time carries the fourth accent of the line, and in consequence the fourth alliterative sound. In all other respects the rhymed-alliterative verse is structurally similar to that without rhyme, and it is therefore evident that rhyme exercises no decisive influence on the rhythm of the verse. In this comparatively pure form—if we do not take into account the secondary accents occurring in the first hemistichs of the stanza in the later poem—are written the great majority of the lines in the earliest of poems mentioned above, viz. The Awntyrs off Arthure.

§ 62. The relation, however, between rhyme and alliteration and consequently the relation of the rhythmic accentuation of the words to their natural accentuation is less clear in the first stanza quoted above. The following verses rhyming together may serve to elucidate this:

Gol. 389, 391.

Susan, 101–2;

or the verses Gol. 648, 650, 654:

In the first couplet the last syllable of the word gráciùs, although bearing only a secondary accent and forming the last thesis of the verse, rhymes with the last syllable of the word chéuailrús, which likewise in ordinary speech has a secondary accent, but here is the bearer of the fourth metrical accent of the verse. In the second couplet the syllable lyng of the word wéderlỳng, which has a secondary accent and forms part of the thesis, rhymes with the word hyng which has the rhythmical accent. In the last group of verses the last syllable of the words paramour, honour having secondary accents rhymes with the word hour, the bearer of the last rhythmical accent. Similar rhymes occur even in Modern English poetry, e.g. in the works of Thomas Moore: Váin were its mélodỳ, Róse, without thée or Whát would the Róse bè Únsung by thée?[115]

It also frequently happens that all the rhyming syllables, which have a secondary accent and occur in the thesis of a verse, belong to trisyllabic words, while the accented syllables in the arsis, whether alliterating or not, do not take part in the rhyme, e.g.:

Similar unaccented rhymes are also met with in disyllabic words:

Other rhymes of the same kind are sémbland: léuand, conséntand : endúrand, Gol. 428 ff., &c.

In all such cases the natural accentuation of the words is not interfered with by the rhythm of the verse.

The kind of irregular rhyme most frequently occurring, however, is that which is formed by the unaccented syllable of a disyllabic word (the first syllable of which alliterates and bears the last arsis of the verse) rhyming with a monosyllabic word which likewise bears the fourth rhythmical accent of another alliterative line (or the second of a short line forming part of the cauda) and takes part in the alliteration as well, as e.g. in the rhymes Túskane: sane: Brítane: gane and súmmovne: rénovne: crovne of the above-mentioned stanza of the poem Golagras and Gawane.

It is not likely that a complete shifting of accent in favour of the rhyming syllable ever took place, as the first syllables of the words usually take part in the alliteration, and therefore have a strongly marked accent. Sometimes, it is true, in the poems of this epoch, unaccented syllables do participate in the alliteration, and in the case of the words Tuskane, Britane, summovne, renovne their Romance origin would explain the accent on the last syllable; but these words, both as to their position and as to their treatment in the line, are exactly on a par with the Germanic rhyme-words in ll. 870–2:

In both cases we thus have ‘accented-unaccented rhymes’ (cf. Chapter I in Book II), which probably were uttered in oral recitation with a certain level stress. This is probable for several reasons. First it is to be borne in mind that Germanic words in even-beat rhythms of earlier and contemporary poems were used in the same way, e.g.:

Quhen thái of Lórne has séne the kíng

Set ín hymsélff sa grét helpíng. Barbour, Bruce, iii. 147–8.

And bád thame wénd intó Scotlánd

And sét a sége with stálward hánd. ib. iv. 79–80.

Only in these cases the rhythmical accent supersedes the word accent which has to accommodate itself to the former, while in the uneven-beat rhythm of the four-beat alliterative line the word-accent still predominates. In the even-beat lines, therefore, the rhythmical accent rests on the last syllable of a disyllabic rhyme-word, but in the alliterative lines it rests on the penultimate. In the case of words of Romance origin, however, which during this period of the language could be used either with Germanic or with Romanic accentuation, the displacement of the word-accent by the rhythmic accent in non-alliterative words may in these cases have been somewhat more extensive; cf. e.g. rhymes like rage: curáge: suáge Gol. 826–8; day : gay: journáy ib. 787–9; assáill: mettáill: battáil R. Coilȝear, 826–8, &c. (but ȝone bérne in the báttale Gol. 806).

As a rule, however, for these too the same level-stress accentuation must be assumed as for the rhyme-words of the first stanza of Golagras quoted above (p. 102)

§ 63. This is all the more probable because, in these alliterative-rhyming poems, there are many sectional verses corresponding to the old types C and C₁, these answering best the combined requirements of alliteration and of end-rhyme, for which frequently one and the same Germanic or Romanic word had to suffice in the second hemistich, as e.g. in the following sectional verses rhyming together:—What is þi góod réde: for his kníȝthéde: (by crósse and by créde) Awnt. of Arth. 93–7; (and bláke to þe bóne): as a wómáne ib. 105–7; enclósed with a crowne: of the trésóne ib. 287–91; of ane fáir wéll: téirfull to téll: with ane cástéll : kéne and crúèll, or, as Prof. Luick scans, kéne and cruéll (but l. 92 crúel and kéne) Gol. 40–6; at the mýddáy: (wént thai thar wáy) Howl. 665–7. &c.

Also in the even-beat metres the influence of this type is still perceptible; cf. rhymes like

which are of frequent occurrence.

For the rest both in these alliterative-rhyming poems and in the poems with alliteration only the types A and A₁, B C and B C₁ are frequent. These alliterative-rhyming lines have this feature in common with the pure alliterative lines, that the first hemistich differs materially from the second in having often an anacrusis of several syllables (initial theses) and somewhat lengthened theses in the middle of the line, and in permitting such theses with only a secondary accent to take part in the alliteration. All this tends to give a somewhat heavy rhythmic cadence to the whole line.

§ 64. The same difference is perceptible, as Prof. Luick was the first to show (Anglia, xii, pp. 438 ff.), in the single two-beat lines of the cauda, the three first (ll. 10–12 of the whole stanza) having the looser structure of the extended first hemistichs of the long lines, while the last two-beat line (line 13 of the whole stanza) has the normal structure (commonly type A, A₁, as e.g. Birnand thrétty and thré Gol. 247; Of góld that wes cléir ib. 1) of second sections of the long line, as is evident from the first stanza of Golagras and Gawane quoted above (p. 102). In this concluding line, however, other types of verse peculiar to the second hemistich of long lines may also be met with, as e.g. C, C₁, BC, BC₁, e.g.: For thi mánhéde Awnt. of Arth. 350; Withoutin dístánce Gol. 1362; As I am tréw kníght Gol. 169; Couth na léid sáy ib. 920; In ony ríche réime ib. 1258, Quhen he wes líghtit dóun ib. 130.

In other poems the group of short lines rhyming according to the scheme a a a b and forming part of the cauda is preceded neither by a long alliterative line nor by a one-beat half section of it (as in Susan), but by a complete two-beat sectional verse, which then, in the same way as the last verse rhyming with it, corresponds in its structure to that of the second hemistich of the long line; as e.g. in The Tournament of Tottenham (Ritson’s Ancient Songs, i. 85–94), rhyming on the scheme A A A A b c c c b (the capitals signifying the long lines), and in The Ballad of Kynd Kittok, possibly by W. Dunbar (Laing, ii. 35, 36; Small, i. 52, 53; Schipper, 70).

In Sayne John the Euaungelist the ‘cauda’ has the structure of a complete tail-rhyme-stanza, the order of rhymes of the whole stanza being A B A B A B A B c c d c c d

§ 65. In connexion with this it is particularly interesting to note that such two-beat sections of the alliterative line are also used by themselves for whole poems written in tail-rhyme-stanzas (as was first shown by Prof. Luick, Anglia, xii, pp. 440 ff.); cf. e.g. the translation of the Disticha Catonis (E.E.T.S. 68), the two first stanzas of which may be quoted here:

In the same stanza The Feest (Hazlitt, Remains, iii. 93) is written.

Still more frequently such lines were used for extended tail-rhyme-stanzas rhyming on the scheme a a a b c c c b d d d b e e e b, as e.g. in a poem, The Enemies of Mankind, of the beginning of the fourteenth century, published by Kölbing (Engl. Studien, ix. 440 ff.).

The first stanza runs as follows:

Here, again, the difference between the lines on the pattern of the first hemistich of the long line, which form the body of the stanza (a a a, b b b, c c c, d d d), and those on the pattern of the second hemistich used as tail-rhyme lines (b, b, b, b) is plainly recognizable.

The same is the case in other poems written in this form of stanza, as e.g. in the Metrical Romances, Sir Perceval, Sir Degrevant (Halliwell, Thornton Romances, Camden Society, 1844, pp. 1, 177) and others; cf. Luick, Anglia, xii, pp. 440ff., and Paul’s Grundriss, ii a, p. 1016. But in these later works, one of the latest of which probably is the poem The Droichis Part of the Play, possibly by Dunbar (Laing, ii. 37; Small, ii. 314; Schipper, 190), the two-beat lines are frequently intermingled and blended with even-beat lines, which from the beginning of the fifth stanza onward completely take the place of the two-beat lines in the last-mentioned poem. Likewise in the ‘Bob-wheel-staves’, i.e. stanzas of the structure of those sixteenth-century stanzas quoted above (§§ 60, 61), the cauda, as is expressly stated by King James VI in his Revlis and Cavtelis, is written in even-beat lines of four and three measures, though the main part of the stanza (the frons) is composed in four-beat rhyming-alliterative lines (cf. Luick, Anglia, xii, P. 444)

§ 66. In the contemporary Dramatic Poetry this mixture of four-beat (or two-beat) alliterative lines with lines of even measures is still more frequent, and may be used either strophically or otherwise.

In the first place, we must note that in the earlier collections of Mystery Plays (Towneley Mysteries, York Plays, and Ludus Coventriae) the rhyming alliterative long line, popular, as we have seen, in lyric and in narrative poetry, is also used in the same or cognate forms of stanzas.

But the form of verse in these Mysteries, owing to the loss of regular alliteration, cannot with propriety be described as the four-beat alliterative long line, but only as the four-beat long line. In many instances, however, the remnants of alliteration decidedly point to the four-beat character of this rhythm, as e.g. in the following stanza of the Towneley Mysteries (p. 140):

In this form of stanza the different groups of lines or even single lines are frequently, as e.g. in the so-called Processus Noe (the Play of the Flood), very skilfully divided between several persons taking part in the dialogue. The interlaced rhyme in the long lines connects it with the stanza form of the lyric poem quoted above (p. 100), and the form of the ‘cauda’ relates it to that of the lyric poem quoted (p. 101), and in this respect is identical with that of The Pistill of Susan.

The rhythmic treatment of the verses is, both with regard to the relation between rhyme and the remnants of alliteration and to the use of the Middle English types of verse, on the whole the same as was described in §§ 62–4 treating of this form of verse in narrative poetry. The types A and A₁, B C and B C₁, are chiefly met with; now and then, however, type C₁ also occurs in the second hemistich, as e.g. in the verses that wold vówch sáyf 172, of the tént máyne 487, wille com agáne sóne 488, of the Play of the Flood mentioned above.

But in the ‘cauda’ the difference explained in § 65 between first and second short lines forming the close of a stanza is often very regularly observed.

In other places of the Towneley Mysteries similar stanzas are written in lines which have almost an alexandrine rhythm (cf. Metrik, i. 229), while, on the other hand, in the Coventry Mysteries we not unfrequently meet with stanzas of the same form written in lines which, in consequence of their concise structure, approach even-beat lines of four measures, or directly pass into this metre. The intermixture of different kinds of line is even carried here to such a length that to a frons of four-beat lines is joined a cauda of even-beat lines of four or three measures corresponding to King James VI’s rule quoted above (p. 108) for such stanzas; and on the other hand to a frons of even-beat lines of four measures is joined a cauda of two-beat short lines.

§ 67. The distinctly four-beat line, however, still forms the staple of the different kinds of verse occurring in these poems, and was also used in them for simple forms of stanza. In the further development of dramatic poetry it remained much in use. Skelton’s Moral Play Magnificence, and most of the Moralities and Interludes contained in Dodsley’s Old Plays (ed. Hazlitt), vols. i-iv, are written chiefly in this popular metre. As a rule it rhymes here in couplets, and under the influence of the even-beat measures used in the same dramatic pieces it gradually assumes a pretty regular iambic-anapaestic or trochaic-dactylic rhythm. This applies for the most part to the humorous and popular parts; allegorical and historical personages are made to converse in even-beat verses.

Verses of an ascending (iambic-anapaestic) rhythm were especially favoured, as might be expected from the fact that the Middle English alliterative line in the preceding centuries usually begins with one or two unaccented syllables before the first accented one.

Of the different types used in the Middle English alliterative line type C (C1), which does not harmonize well with the even-beat tendency of the rhythm, and which is only very seldom if at all to be met with even in the Coventry Plays, becomes very rare and tends to disappear altogether, type A (A1) and (although these are much less frequent) type B C (B C1) alone remaining in use.

§ 68. Of the more easily accessible pieces of Bishop John Bale (1495–1563) his Comedye Concernynge Thre Lawes, edited by A. Schröer (Anglia, v, pp. 137 ff., also separately, Halle, Niemeyer, 1882) is written in two-beat short lines and four-beat long lines, and his King Johan (c. 1548) (edited by Collier, Camden Society, 1838) entirely in this latter metre. The latter play has a peculiar interest of its own, containing as it does lines which, as in two Old English poems (cf. pp. 123, 124), consist either half or entirely of Latin words. Now, as the accentuation of the Latin lines or half-lines admits of no uncertainty, the four-beat scansion of the English verses of this play and of the long lines in The Three Lawes is put beyond doubt, though Schröer considers the latter as eight-beat long lines on the basis of the four-beat theory of the short line.

Some specimens may serve to illustrate the nature of these ‘macaronic’ verses, e.g.:

A péna et cúlpa | I desíre to be clére. p. 33.

In nómine pátris, | of all that éver I hárd.p. 28.

Iudicáte pupíllo, | deféndite víduam.p. 6.

Other verses of the same kind occur, pp. 5, 6, 53, 62, 78, 92.

But apart from this irrefutable proof of the four-beat scansion of the long line, the rhythmic congruity of it with the rhyming alliterative lines discussed in § 67 can easily be demonstrated by the reoccurrence of the same types, although a difference between the first and the second hemistich no longer seems to exist.

Type A, of course, is the most frequent, and occurs in many sub-types, which are distinguished chiefly by monosyllabic, disyllabic, or polysyllabic anacruses, disyllabic or polysyllabic theses between the first and second arsis, and monosyllabic, disyllabic, or trisyllabic theses after the latter. The most usual form of this type corresponds to the scheme (×)×–́××–́×, while the form –́××–́× is rarer. Type A₁ likewise admits of polysyllabic anacruses and theses, corresponding mostly to the formula (×)×–́××–́, less frequently to –́××–́. Type B C (×)××–́×–́× is rare, type B C₁ (×)××–́×–́, on the other hand, very common; type C (×)××–́–́× still occurs now and then, but type C₁ (×)××–́–́ has become exceedingly scarce.

§ 69. Statistical investigations as to the frequency of occurrence, and especially on the grouping of these different types are still wanting, and would contribute greatly toward the more exact knowledge of the development of the iambic-anapaestic and the trochaic-dactylic metre out of the four-beat verse. Of course in such an investigation the use of anacrusis in the types A and A₁ should not be neglected. According to the presence or absence of anacrusis in the two hemistichs four different kinds of line may be distinguished:

1. Lines with anacrusis in both hemistichs. These are the most numerous of all, and are chiefly represented by the combinations of types A(A₁) + A(A₁), A(A₁) + B C₁(B C):

A + A: For by méasure, i wárne you, | we thýnke to be gýdyd. Skelt. Magn. 186.

A + A₁: For mýschefe wyl máyster vs, | yf méasure vs forsáke. ib. 156.

A₁ + B C: Full gréat I do abhór | this your wícked sáying. Lusty Juventus, Dodsl. ii. 72.

A₁ + B C₁: You may sáy you were síck, | and your héad did áche, That you lústed not this níght | any súpper máke. Jack Juggler, ib. ii. 119.

A₁ + A₁: And you nóthing regárd | what of mé may betíde? Jacob and Esau, ib. ii. 216.

A₁ + B C₁: Our láwes are all óne, | though you do thré apére. Bale, Laws, line 63.

A + A₁: Whome dáyly the déuyll | to great sýnne doth allúre. ib. 747.

A₁ + B C₁: By hým haue I góte | thys fowle dyséase of bódye,

A₁ + A: And, ás ye se hére, | am now thrówne in a léprye. ib. 749–50.

A₁ + B C: Regárde not the pópe, | not yet hys whórysh kýngedom. ib. 770.

A₁ + A₁: Such lúbbers, as háth | dysgysed héads in their hóodes. Bale, Johan, p. 2.

A + A: Peccávi mea cúlpa: | I submýt me to yowr hólynes. ib. p. 62.

A + A: With áll the ófsprynge, | of Ántichristes generácyon. ib. p. 102.

A + B C₁: Maister Ráufe Royster Dóyster | is but déad and gón. Roister Doister, I. i. 43.

C + A: And as thré téachers, | to hým we yow dyréct. Bale, Laws, l. 67.

C + B C₁: Of their fírst frédome, | to their most hýgh decáye. ib. 82.

A₁ + C₁: Such an óther is nót | in the whóle sóuth. ib. 1066.

2. Lines with anacrusis in the first section and without it in the second. These are almost exclusively represented by the combination A(A₁) + A(A₁); rarely by B C₁(B C) + A(A₁):

A + A₁: For wélthe without méasure | sódenly wyll slýde. Skelton, Magn. 194.

A + A₁: Howe sódenly wórldly | wélth dothe dekáy,

A + A₁: How wýsdom thórowe wántonnesse | ványisshyth awáy. ib. 2579–80.

A + A₁: Behóld, I práy you, | sée where they áre. Four Elements, Dodsl. i. 10.

B C + A₁: I am your éldest són, | Ésau by my náme. Jacob and Esau, ib. ii. 249.

3. Lines without anacrusis in the first section and with anacrusis in the second; likewise chiefly represented by the types A (A1) + A (A1), rarely by A (A₁) + B C (B C₁):

A + A₁: Méasure contínwyth | prospérite and wélthe. Skelton, Magn. 142.

A₁ + A: Méasure and Í | will néuer be devýdyd. ib. 188.

A + A₁: Síghing and sóbbing | they wéep and they wáil. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, Prol.

A + A : Ésau is gíven | to lóose and lewd líving. Jacob and Esau, Dodsl. ii. 196.

A₁ + A₁: Líving in this wórld | from the wést to the éast. Roister Doister, III. iii. 28.

A + A₁: Chárge and enfórce hym | in the wáyes of vs to go. Bale, Laws, line 102.

A + A: Quáerite judícium, | subveníte opprésso. Bale, Johan, p. 6.

A + B C: Fór by conféssion | the holy fáther knóweth. ib. p. 11.

A + B C1: Dó they so in déde? | Well, they shall not dó so lónge. ib. p. 97.

4. Lines without anacrusis in either section, so that they are wholly dactylic in rhythm, only represented by A (A₁) + A₁ (A):

A + A: Sáncte Francísse | óra pro nóbis! Bale, Johan, p. 25.

A + A: Péace, for with my spéctables | vádam et vidébo. ib. p. 30.

A + A: Sýr, without ány | lónger délyaunce. Skelton, Magn. 239.

A + A₁: Wín her or lóse her, | trý you the tráp. Appius and Virginia, Dodsl. iv. 132.

A + A₁: Líkewise for a cómmonwealth | óccupied is hé. Four Elements, ib. i. 9.

A + A₁: Whát, you sáucy | málapert knáve. Jack Juggler, ib. ii. 145.

The numerical preponderance of types A + A₁ is at once perceptible, and usually these two types of hemistichs are combined in this order to form a long line.

The result is that in the course of time whole passages made up of lines of the same rhythmical structure (A + A₁) are common in the dramatic poetry of this period, as e.g. in the Prologue to Gammer Gurton’s Needle:

Possibly this preference of the type A₁ in the second half line may go back to the influence of the difference between the rhythmical structure of the first and the second hemistich of the alliterative line in early Middle English poetry.

§ 70. This view derives additional probability from the manner in which lines rhythmically identical with the alliterative hemistich are combined into certain forms of stanza which are used in the above-mentioned dramatic poems, especially in Bale’s Three Lawes.

For in this play those halves of tail-rhyme stanzas, which form the ‘wheels’ of the alliterative-rhyming stanzas previously described (§§ 61 and 66) as used in narrative poetry and in the mysteries, are completed so as to form entire tail-rhyme stanzas (of six or eight lines) similar to those mentioned in § 65. This will be evident from the following examples:

The difference in rhythm which we have previously pointed out between the lines of the body of the stanza (corresponding to first halves of the alliterative line) and those of the tail (corresponding to second halves) may again be observed in most of the stanzas of this play, although not in all of them.

In other passages the sequence of rhymes is less regular; e.g. in ll. 190–209, which rhyme according to the formulas a a a b c c b, d d b e e b, e e e f g g f

§ 71. Lastly, we must mention another kind of verse or stave originating in the resolution of the four-beat alliterative line into two sections, and their combination so as to form irregular tail-rhyme stanzas, viz. the so-called Skeltonic verse. This kind of verse, however, was not invented (as is erroneously stated in several Histories of English Literature) by Skelton, but existed before him, as is evident from the preceding remarks. The name came to be given to the metre from the fact that Skelton, poet laureate of King Henry VII, was fond of this metre, and used it for several popular poems.

In Skelton’s metre the strict form of the alliterative four-beat line has arrived at the same stage of development which the freer form had reached about three hundred years earlier in Layamon’s Brut, and afterwards in King Horn. That is to say, in Skelton’s metre the long line is broken up by sectional rhyme into two short ones. The first specimens of this verse which occur in the Towneley Mysteries, in the Chester Plays, and in some of the Moralities, e.g. in The World and the Child (Dodsl. i), resemble Layamon’s verse in so far as long lines (without sectional rhymes) and short rhyming half-lines occur in one and the same passage. On the other hand, they differ from it and approach nearer to the strophic form of the alliterative line (as occurring in the Miracle Plays) in that the short lines do not rhyme in couplets, but in a different and varied order of rhyme, mostly a b a b; cf. the following passage (l. c., p. 247):

In Skelton’s Magnificence the short lines rhyme in couplets like those of King Horn, in a passage taken from p. 257 (part of which may be quoted here):

In other poems Skelton uses short lines of two beats, but rhyming in a varied order under the influence, it would seem, of the strophic system of the virelay, which rhymes in the order a a a b b b b c c c c d. But the succession of rhymes is more irregular in the Skeltonic metre, as e. g. in the passage:

Colin Cloute (i. 311).

In other cases short bob-lines of one beat only interchange with two-beat rhythms, as e.g. in Skelton’s poem Caudatos Anglos (i. 193):

The mingling of Latin and English lines, as in this passage, is one of the characteristic features of the Skeltonic verse.

In some passages, as e.g. in the humorous poems Phyllyp Sparowe and Elinour Rummyng, the three-beat rhythm seems to prevail. In such cases it probably developed out of the two-beat rhythm in the same way as in King Horn.

Phyllyp Sparowe (i. 69).

Skelton’s verse was chiefly used by poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for satirical and burlesque poetry. One of its chief cultivators was John Taylor, the Water-poet. A list of Skeltonic poems is given in Dyce’s edition of Skelton’s poems, i. introduction, pp. cxxviii-cxxix.

C. Revival of the old four-beat alliterative verse in the Modern English period.

§ 72. If after what precedes any doubt were possible as to the scansion of the verses quoted on p. 113 from the Prologue to the Early Modern English comedy of Gammer Gurton’s Needle, this doubt would be removed at once by the following couplet and by the accents put over the second line of it by the sixteenth-century metrician, George Gascoigne[116]:

For the rhythm of these lines is perfectly identical with that of the lines of the above-mentioned prologue, and also with that of the alliterative line quoted ten years later (A. D. 1585), and called tumbling-verse by King James VI in his Revlis and Cavtelis, viz.:

This is the very same rhythm in which a good many songs and ballads of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are written, as e.g. the well-known ballad of King John and the Abbot of Canterbury, which begins with the following stanzas[117]:

This four-beat rhythm, which (as is proved by the definition King James VI gives of it) is the direct descendant of the old alliterative line, has continued in use in modern English poetry to the present day.

It occurs in the poem The recured Lover, by Sir Thomas Wyatt, one of the earliest Modern English poets, where it is intermixed sometimes with four-feet rhythms, as was the case also in several Early English poems. The general rhythm, however, is clearly of an iambic-anapaestic nature. Fifteen years after the death of Wyatt Thomas Tusser wrote part of his didactic poem A hundred good points of Husbandry in the same metre. In Tusser’s hands the metre is very regular, the first foot generally being an iambus and the following feet anapaests:

The four beats of the rhythm and the regular occurrence of the caesura are as marked characteristics of these verses as of the earlier specimens of the metre.

Spenser has written several eclogues of his Shepheard’s Calendar in this metre (February, May, September), and Shakespeare uses it in some lyric pieces of his King Henry IV, Part II, but also for dialogues, as e.g. Err. III. i. 11–84. In more modern times Matthew Prior (1664–1715) wrote a ballad Down Hall to the tune, as he says, of King John and the Abbot of Canterbury, which clearly shows that he meant to imitate the ancient popular four-beat rhythm, which he did with perfect success. In other poems he used it for stanzas rhyming in the order a b a b. Swift has used the same metre, and it became very popular in Scottish poetry through Allan Ramsay and Robert Burns, one of whose most famous poems is written in it, viz.:

Sir Walter Scott used it frequently for drinking-songs, and Thomas Moore wrote his Letters of the Fudge Family in it.

By Coleridge and Byron this metre was used in the same way as by Wyatt, viz. intermixed with regular four-foot verse according to the subject, the four-beat iambic-anapaestic rhythm for livelier passages, the pure iambic for passages of narration and reflecti—. Byron’s Prisoner of Chillon and his Siege of Corinth are good specimens of this kind of metre.[118] On the other hand the regular four-foot rhythm, as will be shown below, if it is of a looser structure, develops into a kind of verse similar to the iambic-anapaestic rhythm—an additional reason for their existing side by side often in one poem.

A few variations of this metre remain to be mentioned, which occur as early as Tusser. The first variety arises from interlaced rhyme, by which the two four-beat verses are broken up into four two-beat verses rhyming in the order a b a b.

On the model of these stanzas others were afterwards formed by Tusser consisting of three-beat verses of the same rhythm. The same verse was used for eight-line stanzas rhyming a b a b c d c d by Nicholas Rowe, Shenstone, Cowper, and in later times by Thackeray in one of his burlesque poems (Malony’s Lament in Ballads, the Rose and the Ring, &c., p. 225). For examples of these variations see the sections treating of the iambic-anapaestic verses of three and two measures.

§ 73. In modern times a few attempts have been made to revive the old four-beat alliterative line without rhyme, but also without a regular use of alliteration. These attempts, however, have never become popular.

The following passage from William Morris’s dramatic poem Love is enough may give an idea of the structure of this kind of verse:

The rhythm, together with the irregular use of alliteration, places these four-beat alliterative lines on the same level with those of the dramatic poems of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The same kind of versification is found in Longfellow’s translation of the late Old English poem on The Grave, and in James M. Garnett’s translations of Beowulf and Cynewulf’s Elene. On the other hand, George Stephens, in his translation of the Old English poem on The Phoenix, published 1844, not only adheres strictly to the laws of alliteration, but confines himself to Germanic words, sometimes even using inflexional forms peculiar to Middle English.

§ 74. We shall conclude this survey of the development of the four-beat alliterative line by giving a series of examples in reversed chronological order, beginning with writers of the present day and ending with the earliest remains of Old English poetry, in order to illustrate the identity in rhythmic structure of this metre in all periods of its history.

Nineteenth Century, End:

For níne days the kíng | hath slépt not an hóur

And táketh no héed | of soft wórds or beseéching.

W. Morris.

Nineteenth Century, Beginning:

So that wíldest of wáves, | in their ángriest móod,

Scarce bréak on the boúnds | of the lánd for a róod.

Byron, Siege of Corinth, 382–4.

Eighteenth Century, End:

My héart’s in the Híghlands, | my héart is not hére;

My héart’s in the Híghlands, | a-chásing the déer. Burns.

Eighteenth Century, Middle:

A cóbbler there wás, | and he líved in a stáll.[119]

Eighteenth Century, Beginning (1715):

I síng not old Jáson | who trável’d thro’ Gréece

To kíss the fair máids | and posséss the rich fléece.

Prior, Down-Hall, to the tune of King John and the Abbot.

Seventeenth Century, Beginning (or Sixteenth Century, End):

An áncient stóry | I’le téll you anón

Of a nótable prínce, | that was cálled king Jóhn.

King John and the Abbot of Canterbury.

Sixteenth Century, End (1585):

Fetching fúde for to féid it | fast fúrth of the Fárie.[120]

Montgomery.

Sixteenth Century (1575):

No wíght in this wórld | that wéalth can attáyne

Unlésse hè bèléve | thàt áll ìs bùt váyne.[121]

G. Gascoigne.

Sixteenth Century (before 1575):

As Gámmer Gúrton, | with mánye a wyde stýche,

Sat pésynge and pátching | of Hódg her mans brýche.

Gammer Gurton’s Needle.

Sixteenth Century, Middle (about 1548):

Such lúbbers as háth | dysgysed héads in their hóods.

Bale (died 1563), King Johan, p. 2.

Thýnke you a Róman | with the Rómans cannot lýe?

ibid. p. 84.

For as Chríste ded say to Péter, | Cáro et sánguis

Non revelávit tíbi | sed Páter meus celéstis.

ibid. pp. 92–3.

A péna et cúlpa | I desýre to be clére,

And thén all the dévylles | of héll I wold not fére.

ibid. p. 33.

Judicáte pupíllo, | deféndite víduam:

Defénde the wýdowe, | whan she ís in dystrésse.

ibid. p. 6.

Sáncte Domínice, | óra pro nóbis.

Sáncte pyld mónache, | I be-shrów vóbis.

Sáncte Francísse, | óra pro nóbis.

ibid. p. 25.

Sixteenth Century, Beginning:

Apón the mídsummer évin, | mírriest of níchtis.

Dunbar, Twa Mariit Wemen, 1.

Fifteenth Century, Second Half:

In the chéiftyme of Chárlis, | that chósin chíftane.

Rauf Coilȝear, 1.

Fifteenth Century, ? First Half:

In the týme of Árthour, | as tréw men me táld.

Golagras and Gawane, 1.

Fourteenth Century, End:

Moste mýghty Máhowne | méng you with mýrthe,

Both of búrgh and of tówne, | by féllys and by fýrthe.

Towneley Mysteries, p. 140.

Oute, alás, I am góne! | oute apón the, mans wónder!

ibid. p. 30.

Fourteenth Century, Second Half:

In a sómer séson, | whan sóft was the sónne.

Piers Plowman, Prol. 1.

Þen com a vóis to Jóseph | and séide him þise wórdes.

Joseph of Arimathie, 21 (about 1350).

Fourteenth Century, Beginning:

Ich herde mén vpo móld | máke much món.

Wright’s Pol. Songs.

Lýstneþ Lórdynges, | a newe sóng ichulle bigýnne.

ibid. p. 187.

Thirteenth Century, Middle:

Álle bèon he blíþe | þat tò my sóng líþe:

A sóng ihc schàl you sínge | of Múrry þe kínge.

King Horn, 1–4.

Thirteenth Century, Beginning:

And swá heo gùnnen wénden | fórð tò þan kínge.

Layamon, 13811–12.

Vmbe fíftene ȝér | þat fólc is isómned.

ibid. 13855–6.

Twelfth Century:

þat þe chíriche hàbbe grýþ | and þe chéorl bèo in frýþ

his sédes to sówen, | his médes to mówen.

Proverbs of Alfred, 91–4.

búte if he béo | in bóke iléred.

ibid. 65–6.

Eleventh Century, End:

þat he nám be wíhte | and mid mýcelan únrìhte.

Chron. an. 1087.

Eleventh Century, First Half:

súme hi man bénde, | súme hi man blénde.

Chron. an. 1037.

ne wearð dreṓrlìcre dǣ́d | gedṓn on þisan éarde.

ibid.

Eleventh Century, Beginning:

se of ǽðelre wǽs | vírginis pártū

clǣ́ne acénned, | Chrístus in órbem.

Oratio Poetica, ed. Lumby.

hwæt! ic ā́na sǽt | ínnan béarwe,

mid hélme beþéaht, | hólte tō-míddes,

þǣr þā wǽterbúrnan | swḗgdon and úrnon,

on míddan gehǽge, | éal swā ic sécge.

Be Dōmes Dæge.

þæt Sámson se stránge | swā ofslḗan míhte

ā́n þūsend mánna | mid þæs ássan cínbā́ne.

Ælfric, Judges, 282–3.

Tenth Century, End:

ǣ́fre embe stúnde | he séalde sume wúnde,

þā hwī́le þe hē wǣ́pna | wéaldan mṓste.

Byrhtnoth, 271–2.

Ninth Century:

wýrmum bewúnden, | wítum gebúnden,

héarde gehǣ́fted | in hélle brýne. Judith, 115–16.

Eighth Century:

hā́m and hḗahsètle | héofena rī́ces. Genesis, 33.

wúldre biwúnden | in þǣre wlítigan býrig.

háfað ūs ālȳ́fed | lū̀cis áuctor

þæt wē mṓtun hḗr | méruḗrī[122]

gṓddǣdum begíetan | gáudia in cǣ́lō. Phoenix, 666–9.

onfḗngon fúlwihte | and fréoðowǣ́re

wúldres wédde | wī́tum āspḗdde. Andreas, 1632–3.

þǣr wæs bórda gebréc | and béorna geþréc

héard hándgeswìng | and hérga gríng,

sýððan hēo éarhfære | ǣ́rest mḗtton. Elene, 114–16.

búgon Þā tō bénce | blǣ́d-ā́gènde

fýlle gefǣ́gon. | fǽgene geþǣ́gon

médofull mánig | mā́gas þā́ra. Beowulf, 1013–15.

Seventh Century:

nu scýlun hérgan | héfænrīcæs uárd,

métudæs mǽcti | end his mṓdgidanc. Cædmon’s Hymn

§ 75. The evidence contained in this chapter, with regard to the continuous survival, in its essential rhythmical features, of the Old English native verse down to modern times, may be briefly summed up as follows:—

1. In the oldest remains of English poetry (Beowulf, Elene, Andreas, Judith, Phoenix, &c.) we already find lines with combined alliteration and rhyme intermixed with, and rhythmically equivalent to, the purely alliterative lines, exactly as we do in late Old English and early Middle English poems such as Byrhtnoth, Be Dōmes Dæge, Oratio Poetica, Chronicle an. 1036, Proverbs of Alfred, and Layamon’s Brut.

2. In some of these poems, viz. the Phoenix and the Oratio Poetica, Latin two-beat hemistichs are combined with English hemistichs of similar rhythm to form regular long lines, just as is done in Bale’s play of Kinge Johan (sixteenth century).

3. The lines of this play agree in the general principle, and frequently in the details of their rhythmical structure, with alliterative-rhyming long lines which occur in lyric and epic poems of the same period, and which two contemporary metrists, Gascoigne and King James VI, recognized (independently of each other) as lines of four accents.

4. The rhythm of these sixteenth-century lines is indistinguishable from that of a four-accent metre which is popular in English and German poetry down to the present day.

These facts appear to leave no room for doubt that the Germanic metre has had a continuous history in English poetry from the earliest times down to the present, and that the long line, in Old and Middle English as in Modern English, had four accents (two in each hemistich). The proof acquires additional force from the fact, established by recent investigations, that the most important of the metrical types of the Old English hemistich are found again in Middle and Modern English poetry.