I LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA! Class I A HANDBOOK OF MODERN ENGLISH METRE EonDon: C J. CLAY AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE. ©laggofo: 50, WELLINGTON STREET. fUipjtg: F. A. BROCKHAUS. #eto Harfc: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Bomtmg anti Calrutta: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. [All Rights reserved.} A HANDBOOK OF MODERN ENGLISH METRE by . JOSEPH B. MAYOR Hon. Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge Hon. Litt.D. of Dublin or THE UNIVERSITY OF Cambridge at the University Press 1903 p*^l, Camfmtige : PRINTED BY J. AND C. F. CLAY, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 9ok M473 PREFACE. IN calling my book "A Handbook of Modern English Metre," I wish to denote that it does not profess to treat, otherwise than incidentally, of metre before the time of Henry VIII. My chief object in the first eight chapters is to give a methodical and uncontroversial statement of the principles, which are alike the foundation and the outcome of my former work on English Metre, the second edition of which was published in 190 1. In the later chapters I have gone on to treat of metre from the aesthetic side, and have ventured to put forward some suggestions as to the connexion between sound and sense in poetry. The theory of metre here propounded, which assumes the foot as the unit of verse, is, in its main features, no new invention of my own : it has been held and acted upon by the great majority of English metrists previous to Dr Guest, whose learned but impracticable work appeared in 1838. Since then there has been a kind of epidemic of metrical theories, mostly ignoring or contradicting one another. No doubt the elaboration of these theories has been of value and interest to their authors, and may have served in some cases to call 1.4I3-- VI PREFACE attention to points which had been neglected by earlier theorists ; but I think it cannot be denied that the conflict of experts has a tendency to produce confusion and uncertainty, or even entire scepticism, among the reading public. It is for this public I desire to provide, if possible, a clear and simple guide to metre, not hampered by the rigid rules of Pope and Johnson, but elastic enough to embrace the careless measures of the old ballads or drama, as well as the latest experiments of the twentieth century. Some may perhaps think that I have allowed too much space to the examination of these exceptional metres, which after all form a very small fraction of the great body of English poetry ; but I was desirous to prove to myself and others that the system which I have followed was able to give a scientific explanation of anything which deserved to be called metrical, as well as to unmask at once any false pre- tenders to that title. I venture to indulge the hope that my book may be found convenient as a handbook for those who have not had a training in metre through the practice of Greek and Latin versification, and that it may be a useful substitute for the latter in schools of the more modern type. With this view I have added Exercises at the end of the chapters, to show how the study of metre may be made a means of training and testing the mental powers. These exercises are of course merely specimens, which may be multiplied to any extent by the teacher. One reason why I have thought it advisable to bring out such a book at the present time is because I think it must be felt by all educated men that the present is a very critical time in the history of education. There has been for many years a growing dissatisfaction with PREFACE VU the results obtained in our old classical schools. Parents justly demand a training which will fit their boys for the work of life. " What," they ask, " is the good of giving up ten years or so to the study of Greek and Latin, if in the end the great majority of the scholars are incapable of translating at sight even an easy passage from either language? if their schooling does not train them in habits of accurate thought, or foster intellectual and literary curiosity, but rather tends to stunt originality, and keep them schoolboys still, caring more for amuse- ment than for the serious performance of the duties of their business or profession ? " Unfortunately such criticism often starts from a much lower level than this. It is apt to forget that it is to our Public Schools that some of the best qualities of Englishmen, such as public spirit, power to get on with others, common sense, truth- fulness, straightforwardness, unflinching determination, patience, fairness, considerateness, a high sense of duty and of honour, are in great measure due ; and it is based upon the narrowest possible view of what man's work in life is, and how he is to be prepared for it. Hence the mass of our parents and parents' advisers are only too ready to listen to the clap-trap of charlatans, ignoring the fact that the only solid foundation for the science of education is the knowledge of man's nature and of his surroundings, supplemented by the record of his past experience. Perhaps the most serious defect in modern utilitarian schemes of education is the neglect of the imagination, a faculty no less needed for the attainment of truth and the advancement of science, for the acquirement of a wide outlook and an intelligent forecasting of the future in practical matters, than it is for the true enjoyment of all higher forms of beauty. A vin PREFACE materialistic utilitarianism may help to earn a living : it is of little avail for the cultivation of feeling or intellect or character, for the right employment of leisure, and the moral and social elevation of humanity. It is as a help to the training of the imagination that the study of poetry, even from the earliest years, is of such transcendent importance : and it is as a step to this that I venture to urge the claims of prosody in our secondary schools. I remember well the delight with which I listened to my father's reading of Paradise Lost to us children, long before I was able to understand the argument of the poem. It was enough that the sound sank into my ears : from that time to this, Milton has never ceased to be to me the type of all that is noblest in poetry and metre. Perhaps it may be well to give here a caution against a possible misunderstanding of the classical terminology (applicable, strictly and originally, only to quantitative verse) which has been for many centuries applied by analogy to modern accentual verse by the metrists of all nations. English accent has not the same fixity as Latin quantity. In the latter the difference, as a rule, • is absolute ; a syllable is either short or long : in the former the difference is relative ; the stress may be almost indefinitely varied. Hence modern stress is more subjective, more under the control of the poet or the reader, than ancient quantity. Especially is this the case in trisyllabic verse, where the strong rhythm at times overrides the syllabic accent, as in Browning's Not a word | to each othjer; we kept | the great pace Neck by neck, | stride by stride, | never changing our place. For the same reason the same foot may be differently interpreted by different readers, one making it a spondee, PREFACE ix another a trochee : and so, what one reads as an iamb, another may read as a pyrrhic. The notation which I have borrowed from Mr A. J. Ellis to distinguish degrees of stress (o, i, 2, written under the syllable) makes it possible to interpose an intermediate foot between a trochee and spondee. Thus, in the following lines Among I daughters | of men | the fair|est found 2 o There are | more things | in heaven | and earth, | Horatio 2 1 'daughters' is an undoubted trochee, with strong stress on the first syllable, no stress on the last; but 'more things' has a stress on both syllables, though a greater stress on the first, as I read it ; and it is a matter of indifference whether we call it trochee or spondee. Even a complete line, if considered by itself alone, may leave the reader in doubt as to whether he should pronounce it iambic or trochaic, anapaestic or dactylic : nay, at times it may be necessary to examine carefully the rest of the poem, before we can decide what is the predominant metre which gives its character to the whole. In conclusion I have to return my sincerest thanks to the friends who have been kind enough to look through my proofs, especially to Mr W. J. Courthope, Mr J. R. Mozley, and Sir George Young, to whom I am indebted for many useful criticisms and suggestions. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAP. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. Index Accent, Rhythm, Foot, Metre Classification of recognized Metrical Irregularities as shown in the Five- foot Iambic Verse The other Iambic Metres Trochaic Metres . Anapaestic Metres Dactylic Metres . Mixed and Doubtful Metres English Adaptations of Classical Metres What determines the poet's choice of Metre ? Characteristics of trisyllabic Metre Aesthetic use of Metrical Variation, arising from Feminine Rhythm, En- jambement, Position of Pauses, Inter- change of Feet, Special Quality of Vowels and Consonants, Alliteration and Onomatopoeia .... Rhyme, Stanza, Refrain, Sonnet, Ode PAGES 1—6 7—25 26—35 36—43 44—57 58-64 65-78 79—84 85-93 94—123 124 — 156 157—160 ENGLISH METRE. CHAPTER I. ACCENT, RHYTHM, FOOT, METRE. English verse is distinguished from English prose by the regular recurrence of the stress or accent 1 . Every word of two syllables has a stress, either on the first syllable as ' pity,' ' rtflling,' ' rebel ' (the noun), or on the second as 'resoilnd,' ' foretell,' 'rebel' (the verb). In a 1 I use these words as synonyms, preferring the first, because it is free from any confusion with the French or Greek accent. It is however convenient to employ such terms as ' accented,' ' unac- cented,' 'accentuation.' I mark the stress either by the accent above the syllable, acute for stronger, grave for weaker stress, or by the use of the symbols o, i , 2 written under the syllable, o denoting the absence of stress, 1 denoting a weaker and 2 a stronger stress. It is not, of course, meant by this that there are just three distinctly marked degrees of stress, and no more. In the mouth of a good reader stress varies indefinitely. But even such a rough classification as 'no stress, weak stress, strong stress' is of great value in describing the rhythmical effect of a line. The symbols - and **, which are properly used to denote long and short syllables, are also not un- frequently used to denote accented and unaccented syllables, irre- spective of the length of the syllable, as ' midnight' ; though in it the accented syllable has a short vowel and the unaccented a long vowel. 2 MODERN ENGLISH METRE half-formed compound, usually marked by a hyphen, where the component parts are not yet fully blended into one, it is possible for a disyllable to have two accents, as arch-fiend^ outspread. A word of three syllables may have the stress on the middle syllable, as 'en6rmous,' 'approaching,' or on the first, as 'terrible,' 'misery,' or (rarely) on the last, as 'colonnade,' 'maca- ro6n ' ; or it may have two stresses, on the first and last syllable of equal or nearly equal force, as 'indistinct,' ' recollect ' ; or the stronger stress may be on the first, the weaker on the last, as 'c6ncentrate,' 'duelling.' A word of four syllables has two stresses, either on the first and third as 'demonstration,' ' undermining,' or on the second and fourth as 'auth6rity,' 'resp6nsible,' where the latter stress is weaker than the former, or even on the first and fourth, as ' ciimulative,' or such foreign names as 'Trincomalee,' 'Allahabad.' A word of five syllables may have a strong stress on the second and a weaker on the fourth, as 'inexorable'; or it may have a weak stress on the first, strong on the third, and weak on the fifth, as 'indeterminate'; or strong on the first and fourth, as ' authorization.' And so for longer words : we may have a word of six syllables with strong stress on the fourth, weaker on the first and sixth, as 'irreconcilable,' and a word of seven syllables, such as 'impenetrability,' with two strong stresses, on the second and fifth, and a weak stress, on the first and last \ 1 The English tendency is to throw back the stress as far as possible, as we may often hear in the word 'laboratory' a stress on the first syllable, while the other syllables are huddled together as though the word were spelt 'labratry.' For this reason, and also to distinguish the pronunciation from that of the word 'lavatory,' it seems better to lay the principal stress on the second syllable, ACCENT, RHYTHM, FOOT, METRE 3 It will be seen that where a single word has more than one stress, this usually falls on alternate syllables; but sometimes the stresses are separated by two syllables, as the first and the second stress in 'irreconcilable.' There is much more room for variety when we take into account combinations of words, especially of mono- syllables; some of which, such as the articles, personal pronouns and prepositions, are often merely appendages of verbs or nouns, and in inflected languages, such as Latin, may frequently be expressed merely by a change in the inflexion, e.g. dotni 'at home,' rex 'the king,' regis 'of the king,' dormit 'he sleeps.' Such words only re- ceive the stress when they become emphatic from the context; and as they are extremely common, they often give rise to a sequence of three or more unstressed syllables, as in Bacon's sentence : ' It is worthy the ob- serving, that there is no passion in the mind of man s6 weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death.' The most frequent cause of the accentuation of such naturally unaccented syllables is the desire to emphasize a dis- tinction or antithesis, as 'That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold.' Emphasis may even change the stress in a polysyllable : thus ' unkind,' usually ac- cented on the last syllable, changes the accent to the first in such a context as 'Good and bad, kind and unkind.' The above quotations afford examples of two stresses in succession, 'no passion,' 'th£m drunk,' 'me b61d.' Bacon's sentence also exemplifies the irregular accentu- 4 laboratory.' A similar change of accentuation has taken place in the word 'capitalist,' which used to be pronounced with a stress on the first syllable, but is now, I think, more commonly accented on the second. 4 MODERN ENGLISH METRE ation of prose in contrast with the regular accentuation of verse, seen in such lines as The stag | at eve | had drunk | his fill, Where danced | the moon | on M6|nan's rill, which naturally divide into four couplets, or pairs of syllables, each having the stress on the last syllable, and being usually followed by a slight pause. These couplets are the basis of the verse, and were called 'feet 1 by the ancients because they support the verse, which seems to move upon them, as an animal on its feet. Regular movement of this kind is called rhythm, which may either ascend from an unaccented to an accented syllable (rising rhythm), or descend from an accented to an unaccented syllable (falling rhythm). A disyllabic foot, where the rhythm ascends, is called an iamb 1 , as in the example just given. Where the rhythm descends, it is called a trochee, as in Art thou | weary, | art thou | languid. Verses differ, not only in rhythm, but in the number of feet. The combination of these two factors constitutes the metre of the line. Thus ' The stag at eve had drunk his fill' contains four iambs,. and the metre is described as four-foot iambic. ' Art thou weary, art thou languid ' contains four trochees, and the metre is described as four- foot trochaic. Where the accents are separated from one another by two syllables, we have trisyllabic rhythm, which may be either ascending, as in 'Tis the voice | of the slug|gard, I heard | him complain, 1 The technical names of metres and feet were originally em- ployed by the ancient Greeks to denote their quantitative verse, but are now ordinarily applied by analogy to our English accentual ^erse. ACCENT, RHYTHM, FOOT, METRE 5 or descending, as in Take her up | tenderly. The former is composed of four anapaests, and the metre is described as four-foot anapaestic, the latter con- tains two dactyls, and the metre is described as two-foot dactylic. By far the largest amount, if not the whole, of English poetry falls into one or other of these four great classes, iambic, trochaic, anapaestic, dactylic. Exercises on Chapter I. Divide the lines which follow, putting a bar at the end of each foot ; and name the metre of each line. If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind. Pope. And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade. Cowi'KR. But yet, though thick the shafts as snow, Though charging knights like whirlwinds go, Though bill-men ply the deadly blow, Unbroken was the ring. The stubborn spear-men still made good Their dark impenetrable wood. Scott. / y v 4 Clear and bright it should be ever, Flowing like a crystal river. Tennyson. Oh, it was pitiful ! ' Near a whole city full. Hood. Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them. Tennyson./ / / ' In the touch of this bos^m there worketh a spell, Which is lord of thy utterance, Cnristabel. Coleridge. 6 MODERN ENGLISH METRE Arrange the following in metrical lines and name the metre. 1 But,' sayest thou — and I marvel, I repeat, to find thee tripping on a mere word — 'what thou writest, paintest, stays: that does not die : Sappho survives, because we sing her songs, and Aeschylus, because we read his plays. ' Say rather that my fate is deadlier still, in this, that every day my sense of joy grows more acute, my soul (intensified by power and insight) more enlarged, more keen ; while every day my hairs fall more and more, the horror quickening still from year to year, the consummation coming past escape, when, all my works, wherein I prove my worth, being present still to mock me in men's mouths, I, I, the feeling, thinking, acting man, shall sleep in my urn. It is so horrible, I dare at times imagine to my need some future state revealed to us by Zeus, unlimited in capability for joy, as this is in desire for joy, to seek which the joy-hunger forces us : that stung by straitness of our life — made strait on purpose to make sweet the life at large — freed by the throbbing impulse we call death, we burst there as the worm into the fly, who, while a worm still, wants his wings. But, no ! Zeus has not yet revealed it ; and, alas, he must have done so, were it possible. Browning. It is not growing like a tree in bulk, doth make man better be ; or standing long an oak three hundred year, to fall a log at last, dry bald and sere. A lily of a day is fairer far in May; although it fall and die that night, it was the plant and flower of light. In small proportions we just beauties see: and in short measures life may perfect be. B. Jonson. CHAPTER II. CLASSIFICATION OF RECOGNIZED METRICAL IRREGULARITIES, AS SHOWN IN THE FIVE-FOOT IAMBIC VERSE. In the last chapter we dealt with the classification of English metres, of which we found that there were four principal types : in this chapter I propose to consider variations of type, i.e. the various ways in which the strict law of metre admits of relaxation ; and I shall do this with special reference to that which is by far the most important of all English metres, the five-foot iambic, or heroic metre. The strict law of the metre is seen most clearly in such a line as Milton's And swims | or sinks j or wades | or creeps | or flies {Paradise Lost, II. 950) where the feet are all regular iambs, where the close of the foot coincides with the close of a word, and where the flow of the rhythm is not obscured or interrupted by a stop. It is this law or type, which is felt by the poet to be the permanent factor in all the varying developments of which the line is capable ; law and impulse thus 8 MODERN ENGLISH METRE combining to produce in the reader the pleasurable sense of an ordered freedom in the rhythmical movement. As Dr Johnson says in his life of Dryden, 'the essence of verse is regularity, and its ornament is variety.' Contrast with Milton's line this from Tennyson With ro|sy slen|der fin|g£fs back|ward drew where the only place in which the close of the foot coin- cides with the end of the word is the last foot, the line being, as it might seem, made up of four trochees inter- posed between two monosyllables; yet the feet are perfectly regular, except that they are obscured by the natural pauses in reading. A still more marked effect is produced when the pause is long enough to be denoted by a stop, other than that at the end of the line. The commonest of these internal stops is that which divides the line into two, more or less equal, parts, coming after the 4th, 5th, or 6th syllable, i.e. at the end of the 2nd or 3rd or in the middle of the 3rd foot. A stop at the end of the foot interrupts the flow of the rhythm, but does not clash with it. Take the following as examples : Just hint [ a fault, | and hes|itate | dislike. Thy trag|ic muse | gives smiles, | thy com|ic, sleep. No wit I to flat|ter, left j of all I his store; No fool I to laugh | at, which j he val|ued more. Pope. Less frequent in Pope, but not much less so in Tennyson, are the stops in the middle of the 2nd or the 4th foot. The last line of the latter's Lucretius gives an example of both : Thy du|ty? What | is du|ty? Fare | thee well. So Milton : What in me is dark Illu|mine, what | is low | raise and | support. METRICAL IRREGULARITIES 9 We come then to the stops after the ist and 4th foot, and those in the middle of the ist and 5th. Examples of these are^ Say first, | of God | above | or man | below, What can | we rea|son, but | from what | we know? Pope. In Si Ion al!so not | unsung, | where stood Her tem|ple on | th' offensive mount|ain, built By that | uxorjious king, | whose heart, | though large, Beguiled | by fair | idol{atress|es fell. Milton. Loud, as I from numjbers with|out num|ber, sweet, As from | blest voi|ces ut|tering joy. Milton. The most essential pause in the line is that at the end, which prevents one verse from running over into another, and so keeps the metre intact ; but this is often omitted for the sake of variety, or to give the impression of ease and negligence, as in dramatic poetry, or for other reasons which will appear later on. Examples will be found in Paradise Lost 11. 347 foil. : The happy seat Of some new race, called Man, about this time To be created like to us, though less In power and excellence, but favoured more Of Him who rules above. This unstopped line is much more frequent in Shake- speare's later plays than in the earlier ones. Compare I know not: but I am sure 'tis safer to 1 -Avoid what's grown, than question how 'tis born. * * » • Be pilot to me, and thy places shall -Still neighbour mine: my ships are ready, and -My people did expect my hence departure. Winter's Tale. 1 This is an example of the 'weak ending,' which may be conveniently marked by the sign - at the beginning of the follow- ing line. 10 MODERN ENGLISH METRE Another important variation of the strict line is caused by modification of the stress, either by means of inversion, changing the iamb into a trochee ; or by loss of stress, giving an unaccented foot, which may be conveniently denoted by the classical term 'pyrrhic,' properly used of a foot containing two short syllables ; or by addition of stress, giving a doubly accented foot, for which we may borrow the classical term ' spondee,' properly used of a foot containing two long syllables. Inversion of stress is found most frequently in the first foot, as Why did | I write? | What sin, | to me | unknown, Dipped me | in ink ? | My parents' or | my own ? Pope. But also in the 2nd foot, as in Hamlet 1 There are | more things | in heaven | and earth, j Horatio, 2 1 Than are | dreamt of | in your j philosophy. 2 o Among I daughters | of men | the fair|est found. Milton P. R. 11. 154. This sequence (iamb followed by trochee in the 2nd place) is not uncommon in Milton and some later writers. Compare Of man's | first dis|obe|dience and | the fruit. P. L. I. 1. O 2 2 10 2 A mind | not to | be changed | by place | or time. P. L.i. 253. 01 20 The full I blaze of | thy beams, | and through | a cloud. 01 20 P. L. in. 378. His own I works and | their works | at once | to view. 01 10 1 1 P. L. in. 59. With fierce | gusts and | precip|ita|tive force. Shelley. 01 20 1 The figures below the line indicate the degree of stress which I should myself give in reading the line. METRICAL IRREGULARITIES II The trochee is also found in the other feet, as again in Hamlet : Nay, anlswer me: | stand and | unfold | yourself. 2 The ri|vals of | my watch: | bid them | make haste. Such inversion is rarest in the last foot, as Our fears | do make | us traijtors. You | know not. X o Macb. IV. 2. 4. I break | upon | your rest, | I must | speak with Count Cenci. x ° Shelley. Down the | low tur'ret stairs | palpijtating. Tennyson. X O 2 10 With whom | Alcmejna played, | but nought | witting. I o W. Morris. See further examples from Surrey in my Chapters on Metre \ p. 159. Milton is perhaps at times too daring in his use of trochaic inversion, as in the line Burnt af]ter them | to the | bottomless pit. P. L. vi. 866. 210 000 20 He has also followed the Italian fashion 1 of the double trochee with no great success, in such lines as Shoots injvisijble vir|tue e'en | to the deep. P. Z. in. 587. 2 020 In the I visions j of God. | It was | a hill. P. L. XI. 377. 10 2 Universal 2 | reproach | far worse | to bear. P. L. vi. 34. 1020 On the other hand, Spenser has one magnificent example in the Alexandrine : As the I God of | my life. ] Why hath | he me | abhorred ? 10 2001 20 OXOI 1 See R. W. Evans, Versification, p. 84, quoted in my Chapters on Metre, p. 76. 2 To read this line properly it is necessary to dwell on the 1st syllable and to place a double stress on the 3rd. 12 MODERN ENGLISH METRE So Shelley : Light it | into | the win|ter of | the tomb. Epipsychidion. 1 OIO Harmojnizing | silence | without | a sound. lb. 2 10 10 And Tennyson : Strove to | buffet \ to land | in vain. | A tree. 2 O 2 Palpijtated, ! her hand | shook, and | we heard. 2 10 2 O In Enoch Arden there is a line consisting of five trochees, as I read it : Take your | own time, | Annie, | take your | own time. IO 21 10 10 21 I go on now to the substitution of the stressless and the two-stressed foot (pyrrhic and spondee) for the iamb. These may be naturally taken together, as they are often found together, the loss of stress in one foot being compensated by added stress in the neighbouring foot, as in Pope : The treacherous col|ours the | fair art | betray. II In words | as fash|ions the | same rule | will hold. O O II Against j the po|ets their | own arms | they turned. II Is the | great chain | that draws | all to | agree. 2 2 2 And of course in the more adventurous poets, as Marlowe : See where | Christ's blood | streams in | the fir|mament. 2 2 2 O And Shakespeare : Together with | all forms, | moods, shapes, | of grief, ii ii Myself | could else | out-frown | false fortune's frown. METRICAL IRREGULARITIES 1 3 To stand | against | the deep | dread-bolt|ed thun(der 3 3 In the | most terr|ible | and nim|ble stroke 10 13 Of quick, | cross light|ning. 3 3 He hath, | my Lord, | wrung from | me my | slow leave. 3 I II I do I not set | my life | at a | pin's fee. 1 X Milton has three and even four spondees in one line : Rocks, caves, | lakes, fens, | bogs, dens, | and shades | of death. 3 3 33 330103 P. L. II. 621. Say, muse, | their names | then known, | who first j who last. II II3I3I P. L. 1. 376. And so Shelley (Epipsychidion) : Stains the | dead, blank, | cold air | with a | warm shade. 103 3 33001 I The next mode of varying the line is found in the number of syllables. In the normal heroic there are ten syllables, two for each foot, but these may under certain circumstances be either diminished or increased in number. We will consider first the addition of syllables by the substitution of a trisyllabic for a disyllabic foot. We may observe h'ere three degrees of distinctness. The extra syllable may be entirely elided, or it may be slurred, or it may be distinctly pronounced. Where it is dis- tinctly pronounced, the effect may be to expand the iamb into an anapaest, as in the 1st foot of the following lines : To inspect | a mite, | not comjprehend | the heaven. Pope. 001 11 No ingrate|ful food : | and food | alike | those pure. P. Z. v. 407. 001 11 Knowing who | I am, | as I | know who | thou art. P. R. I. 355. O O I 3 I 3 To revenge | my town | unto | such ruin wrought. Surrey. 1 I O I I 14 MODERN ENGLISH METRE What a haste | looks through j his eyes ! | so should | he look. OOII I 2011 Macbeth. The observed | of all j observers, quite | quite down. Hamlet. OOI II Of a fall|en pal|ace. Moth|er, let | not aught. Shelley, Prom. O I To the em|peror | his cap|ital cit|y Prague. Coleridge. OOIOO OOI He is gone, | she thought, | he is hap|py, he | is sing(ing. 001 OOI. Enoch Arden. On a sud|den, in j the midst | of men | and day. Princess. 001 o o Of the oldjer sort | and mur[mured that | their May. lb. OOI 00 Do I speak | ambig|uously? | The glo|ry, I say, OOI OOI OOI And the beau|ty, I say, | and splen|dour, still | say I. O O I O O I Browning, R. and B. It is equally common in the other feet, as in : Her dedicate cheek. | It seemed | she was | a queen. King Lear. OOI 10 Draw; seem | to defend | yourself; | now quit | you well. lb. I I O O I II Like to | a vagabond flag | upon | the stream. Ant. and Chop. O O I Given | to captiv|ity me | and my ut|most hopes. Othello IV. 2. 51. 10 001002 o 01 Needs must | the serpjent now | his capjital bruise 10 001 Expect. P. L. xii. 383. Other faults Heaped to | the pop|ular sum | will so \ incense 10 OOI God, as I to leave | them. P. L. xn. 338. 2 o Of worth, I of hon|our, glo|ry and pop|ular praise. P. R. II. 227. 00 100 1 Thy poljitic max|ims or | that cumbersome OOIOO I I Luggage j of war. P. R. ill. 400. METRICAL IRREGULARITIES 1*5 The freezjing Tan|ais through | a waste | of snows. Pope. X That beau|tiful shape. | Does the | dark gate | of death. I I O O I 10 II Shelley. Is pen|etra|ted with | the in|solent light. lb. 02010 O 0200 I The el|oquent blood | told an | ineff|able tale. lb. 0200 I I O O 2 O O I The sound | of man|y a heavily galjloping hoof. Tennyson. I O O I 00 Thou art old|er and cold|er of spir|it and blood | than I. O 0100 XOOIOO I 01 Swinburne, Mar. Fal. in. i. The substitution of an anapaest for an iamb is occasionally found in Chaucer 1 and is common in the German five-foot iambic 8 . Anapaestic rhythm was familiar to the Elizabethan poets, not merely from its use by older writers, such as the author of Piers Ploughman, but from the later 1 tumbling verse ' as used by Skelton and Udall, compare Roister Doister I. i. 59: I can I when 1 will | make him mer|ry and glad, 001 o too I I can I when me lust | make him sorjry and sad. 001 o o 100 X And in Shakespeare's earliest play, Lovers Labour's Lost, iv. 1 : This let Jter's mistook: | it import|eth me here. 010 01 00x00 1 It is writ I to Jaquenet|ta. We'll read | it, I swear. 001 00 10 O I 00 I Also 11. 1. 232 : Why, all I his beha|viours did make | their retire 1 Compare Schipper, Eng. Metr. 1. p. 464 f. 2 See Zarncke quoted in my Chapters on Metre pp. ^99 and 301. \6 MODERN ENGLISH METRE To the court | of his eye | peeping thorough desire; OO I OOI 00 10 01 ***** His tongue, | all impa|tient to speak j and not see, OOI 00 I OOI Did stumjble with haste | in his eye|sight to be. OO I OOI OOI Or the effect of the extra syllable may be to sub- stitute a dactyl for an iamb, thus combining inversion of stress with increase of syllables, as in Shadowing | more beauity in | their airiy brows. Marlowe. 10 I I o o Victory | and tri]umph to | the Son | of God. P. R. I. 173. 100 00 Ominous | conjecture on | the whole | success. P. L. 11. 123. 100 00 Melody | on branch | and mel|ody in | mid air. Tennyson. 100 OOIII With im|petuous | recoil | and jar|ring sound l . P. L. 11. 880. 1 0200 Of wave I ruining | on wave | and blast | on blast. Shelley. 200 Of pearl | and thrones | radiant | with chrys|olite. lb. 200 Evil I from good, | misery | from hap|piness. lb. 100 There may also be a trisyllabic foot without any stress, corresponding to the classical foot of three short syllables, known as a tribrach, as in Of man's | first dis!obe|dience and | the fruit. Milton. 00 o Down the j long av|enues of | a bound|less wood. Tennyson ; 00 o unless we prefer to join the extra syllable to the following foot, so as to make it an anapaest. Entire elision is found sometimes in a single word, as 'scape for 'escape,' sprite for 'spirit,' ne'er for 'never'; 1 It is of course possible to read this line as beginning with an anapaest and pyrrhic, but the dactyl seems to me to give a more expressive rhythm. METRICAL IRREGULARITIES 17 sometimes in the merging of two words into one, as '/was, thoitrt^ Pre. The mark of elision is very care- lessly used in the printed editions of Shakespeare and Milton. Thus in the folio Shakespeare we read in Macbeth 11. 3. 92 Th' expedition of my violent love where the metre requires 'the expedition'; and in Pickering's Milton (Comus 596) we read Self-fed and self-consum'd : if this fail where the metre requires ' consumed.' Slurring or glide covers the whole scale between entire elision and distinct pronunciation. Here too the printed mark of elision is often very misleading. Thus in Milton we read T'adore | the conqueror | who now | beholds. P. L. 1. 323. Yet to I their gen'|ral's voice | they soon | obeyed. /. 337. Lie thus | aston ished on | th' obliv ious pool. /. 266. Yet the actual omission of the vowel in all such passages is not only unnecessary, but it is positively hurtful to the metre. In the first line there is no reason why we should not treat r to adore ' as an anapaest, and so in the second and third lines. The principle of slurring is, in some respects, carried further by Milton than by any other of our poets : compare The~one windling, the~oth er straight | and left | between 1 . P. R. in. 256. Anguish | and doubt | and fear | and sor|row and pain. P. L. 1. 558. 1 This may have been imitated from Shakespeare's The~one sweet ly flat.ters, the~oth|er fear eth harm. Rape of Lucr. 172. M. 2 1 8 MODERN ENGLISH METRE Of rain {bows and | starry eyes. | The wafers thus. P. L. vn. 446. So he I with dif ficul;ty~and lajbour hard. P. L. If. 102 1. Though all | our glojry extinct | and happy state 1 . P. L.\. 141. He is far, however, from the license of the old ballads and of some modern poets, of which we shall see examples further on. The additions we have been considering so far have all been within the foot ; but addition may also be made of a short unaccented syllable outside the foot at the end of the line, giving what is called a feminine ending, as in Pope's What can | ennoble sots | or slaves | or cow(ards? Alas, J not all | the blood | of all | the How(ards. And he | who now | to sense | now nonjsense lean(ing Means not, | but blunders round | about | a mean(ing. The extra syllable is less often a monosyllable, as in Angels j and min listers | of grace | defend (us. Still more rarely an emphatic monosyllable, as in Fletcher's lines quoted by Darley in his edition of that poet (Introduction xli.) : Looks not I Evadne | beaujteous with | these rites (now} Maid's Trag. v. 2. The seas | and un|frequent|ed desjerts where | the snow (divells. A powjerful prince | should be conjstant to | his poxver (still. This superfluous syllable is much more common in blank than in rhyming verse. By Shakespeare it is used 1 This slurring of the final y before a following vowel is almost confined to Milton, who in this, as in other points of metre, was much influenced by the practice of the Italian poets. The effect may be loosely described as a change of the vowel y into a semi-vowel prefixed to the following word, as starryeyes, and so w in sorr'tvand. METRICAL IRREGULARITIES 19 more frequently in his later than in his earlier dramas : thus, while in Love's Labour's Lost it occurs only once in 64 lines, and in Romeo and Juliet only once in 18 lines, it is found once in five lines in Hamlet, and once in 3 J lines in Cymbeline 1 . Nor is it only one syllable which may be thus appended to the line. We find two light unaccented syllables in Marlowe, as Faustus, I these books, | thy wit | and our | expedience. Yet not I your words | only | but mine | own fan(tasy; in Shakespeare, as My lord, | I came | to see | your fajther's fu(neral; in Coleridge Unless I he took | compas|sion on | this wretch(edness ; in Shelley But I I was bold|er, for | I chid | 01ym(pio; in Tennyson But love I and na|ture, these | are two | more ter(rible 2 . The addition of the extra syllable at the end of the iambic line may be brought under the following general law : An unaccented syllable, preceding the initial accent, or following the final accent of the normal line, is treated by 1 It is still more common in Fletcher, as seen in parts of Henry VIII. which are generally attributed to him. See also the remarks in Darley's Introduction to Fletcher, p. xxxviii. 2 See Chapters pp. 199, 212. Fletcher goes beyond all other poets in this license. Compare the lines quoted in Darley's Introduction Have ye | to swear | that ye | will see | it executed. No sir, I I dare | not leave | her to | that solitariness. Here, no doubt, the syllables are slurred, so that what is audible is scarcely more than soffriness. 20 MODERN ENGLISH METRE the poets as non-essential to the rhythm, and may be added or omitted zuithout necessarily changing the metre. We shall see other examples of this in dealing with anacrusis at the beginning of trochaic or dactylic lines, with initial truncation of iambic and anapaestic lines, and with final truncation of trochaic and dactylic lines. Feminine rhythm is not confined to English poetry. It is found in the old French and Italian metres from which the English heroic was borrowed 1 : and in these the superfluous syllable is allowed also in the middle of the line. This is known as the feminine caesura. It is a question among writers on prosody whether the same liberty is allowed in English metre. There can be no doubt that a superfluous syllable is frequently found before the middle pause, as in Milton's That cru|el serp(ent | . On me | exerjcise most. P. L. x. 927. 02 10 Tongue-dough|ty gi(ant, j how dost | thou prove | me these? 22 20 Samson, 1181. The point at issue is, whether this syllable should be reckoned in the foot, or outside of it; for it is quite possible to scan as follows : Tongue-dough I ty giant, how | dost thou prove | me these? with an anapaest in the fourth place. Or some might prefer to explain the metre by introducing a foot con- taining three syllables with the stress on the central syllable, as 'enormous.' The Greek term amphibrach, properly denoting a long syllable preceded and followed by a short syllable, has been used by some writers to denote such a foot. The assumption of such a foot 1 See Zarncke's Essay on the Five-foot Iambic line quoted in my Chapters on Metre, pp. 296 foil. ed. 2. METRICAL IRREGULARITIES 21 makes possible an alternative explanation of many of the lines in which we have found an anapaest : thus we might divide Tennyson's The sound | of many | a heavi ly gallopjing foot, o 10 100 10 so as to give three amphibrachs instead of three ana- paests, and Shelley's The elojquent blood | told an | ineffajble tale, OIOO I 2 0100 I making two amphibrachs instead of two anapaests ; but the latter gives, I think, a far more energetic rhythm 1 . And the supposition of the amphibrach fails in the case of initial anapaest, such as To betray | the head y hus bands, rob | the eas|y. B. Jonson. O O I We may bold|ly spend | upon | the hope | of what oo i Is to I come in. Henry IV. Part I. I v. i. In election for | the Roman emlpery 2 . T. Andr. I. i. 20; 0010 o and also where an initial trochee precedes an anapaest in the 2nd foot, as Tweaks me | by the nose, | gives me j the lie | i' the throat. 2 0001 t O 0200 I Hamlet. To return to the middle pause : one chief reason for maintaining Shakespeare's use of the extra syllable before a pause in the middle of the line, i.e. at the end of the 2nd or 3rd foot, is that he frequently employs broken lines of this type, in which it is impossible to explain the superfluous syllable by supposing it to form part of a following anapaest. Thus in Lear 1. 4. 203, Goneril's speech ends with the broken line Will call I discreet | proceeding. 1 See below on pp. 51 foil. 2 See above, pp. 13 foil. 22 MODERN ENGLISH METRE and shortly afterwards we have the broken line That do|tage gives (it. without continuation in either case. It seems therefore probable that we should give the same explanation, where the line is continued by the next speaker, as in Lear i. 4. 252: Than the | sea-mons(ter. Pray, Sir, | be pa|tient. We proceed now to consider the diminution in the normal number of syllables. This may take place by the loss of the first unaccented syllable in the line, what is called initial truncation, a license to be explained on the same principle as the feminine ending spoken of above. Examples from Chaucer are given by Prof. Skeat and T "" Morris : Til I wel ny | the day | bigan | to spring(e. Noxv I it schylneth now | it reynjeth fast. It is not uncommon in Marlowe, as ifarjbarous | and blood |y Tam|burlane. There are a few, not unquestioned, examples in Shakespeare, as Stay, I the king | hath thrown | his ward|er down. Rich. II. 1.3. Bootless home | and weath|er-beat|en back. Hen. IV: Part I. But it is far more common in the shorter iambic and the anapaestic metres to be examined hereafter. I shall therefore postpone to a later chapter the treatment of truncation, whether initial, final, or internal. In some cases the apparent absence of a syllable is due to a change in pronunciation, as we find the termina- tion -ion made disyllabic in old writers ; compare the METRICAL IRREGULARITIES 23 line above quoted from Lear, where 'patient' is tri- syllabic : Than the | sea-mons(ter. Pray, sir, | be patient and Spenser : Whose yieldjed pride | and proud | submis|sion, Still dread ling death | when she | had mark Jed long, Her heart | gan melt | in great | compasjsion, And driz /.ling tears | did shed | from pure | affecltion. Or the rolling of an r may supply the place of a syllable, as in Marlowe : Because | I think | scorn | to be |. accused. For similar instances compare my Chapters on Metre, pp. 36, 44, 165, 172. At other times a pause takes the place of a syllable (internal truncation), as in Hamlet Forward | not permanent. | Sweet | not last(ing on which see Chapters on Metre, p. 204 f. and below, pp. 2>2, 34. Exercises on Chapter II. 1 Scan the following lines, i.e. divide the metrical feet, and mark the stress ; add notes, pointing out any varia- tion from the strict type, either in the accentuation or in the number of syllables, and naming the irregular feet : Dry DEN, Character of Shaftesbury. A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pigmy body to decay, And o'er-informed the tenement of clay. Dryden, Character of Villiers. A man so various that he seemed to be, Not one, but all mankind's epitome: 1 The more difficult rhythms are postponed to a later chapter. 24 MODERN ENGLISH METRE Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was everything by turns and nothing long; But, in the course of one revolving moon, Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon; Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking, Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking. Pope, Character of Addison. Peace to all such ! but were there one whose fires True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires; Blest with each talent and each art to please, And born to write, converse, and live with ease ; Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like a Turk, no brother near the throne, View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes, And hate for arts that caused himself to rise; Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike; Alike reserved to blame, or to commend, A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend ; ******** Who but must laugh, if such a man there be? Who would not weep, if Atticus were he? Cowper, The Palace of Ice. In such a palace Poetry might place The armoury of Winter, where his troops, The gloomy clouds, find weapons, arrowy sleet, Skin-piercing volley, blossom-bruising hail, And snow that often blinds the traveller's course, And wraps him in an unexpected tomb. Silently as a dream the fabric rose. The Christian 's Enjoyment of Nature. His are the mountains, and the valleys his, And all the resplendent rivers. His to enjoy With a propriety which none can feel, But who, with filial confidence inspired, Can lift to heaven an unpresumptuous eye, And smiling say — 'My Father made them all.' METRICAL IRREGULARITIES 2$ Coleridge, Wallenstein. The way of ancient ordinance, though it winds, Is yet no devious way. Straightforward goes The lightning's path, and straight the fearful path Of the cannon-ball. Direct it flies and rapid, Shattering that it may reach, and shattering what it reaches. My son, the road the human being travels, That on which blessing comes and goes, doth follow The river's course, the valley's playful windings, Curves round the cornfield and the hills of vines, Honouring the holy bounds of property. Wordsworth, Lines on Tinterti Abbey. I have learnt To look on nature, not as in the hour Of thoughtless youth ; but hearing oft en-times The still, sad music of humanity, Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power To chasten and subdue. And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man ; A motion and a spirit that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things. CHAPTER III. ON THE OTHER IAMBIC METRES 1 . Proceeding upwards from the five-foot iambic we come to the six-foot iambic or Alexandrine, which is a common French metre, but is rarely found in English, 1 The signs + and - may be conveniently used to denote the addition or omission of unaccented syllables whether at the begin- ning or end of the verse. Thus the feminine heroic Cromwell, | I charge | thee fling | away | ambi(tion, which shows an extra syllable after the last bar, would be classed as iamb. 5 + . The truncated trochaic Come not | here A may be marked with a caret after the last accent, and classed as troch. 2 - . A hypermetrical syllable at the beginning of the verse may be marked with a curved line following, as in the line from Lilian She), looking | through and | through me, which would be classed as troch. + 3 ; while that from the Deserted House would receive both marks, So) frequent | on its | hinge bejfore A , and be classed as troch. + 4 - . Conversely an iambic verse, which suffers truncation at the beginning and has a feminine ending, would be thus written A Sub|tle-thought|ed, myr|iad mind(ed, and described as iamb. - 4 + . In the trisyllabic metres, where there is often a loss of two OTHER IAMBIC METRES 27 except interspersed in the heroic line, the only long poems known to me in this metre being Drayton's Polyolbion and Browning's Fifine at the Fair. It has usually a break after the sixth syllable, as in Drayton's J \. On which \ the mirth ful quire || , with their | clear o pen throats, Unto I theijoyiful morn || so strain | their warbling notes 10 1^ 1 That hills | and val|leys ring || , and ejven the echioing air O O IOO I Seems all | composed | of sounds || about | them ev|ery where. But this rule is frequently broken in Spenser, Milton, and later poets, as But pined j away | in an guish and | self-willed | annoy. F. Q. 1.6. 17. No strength | of man | or fiercest wild | beast could | destroy. Samson, 127. The Alexandrine occurs regularly as the ninth and last line in the Spenserian stanza, of which the pre- unaccented syllables, it might seem that we ought to double the mark ; thus the verses A A Few I and short | were the prayers | we said, And we spoke | not a word | of sor(row would be described as anap. — 4 and 3 + . Dawn on our | darkness and | lend us thine | aid A A would be described as dact. 4 = . But the substitution of iamb for anapaest, and trochee for dactyl, is so constant, that it is unnecessary to mark their occurrence. I shall therefore reserve these symbols, in trisyllabic verse, for cases in which the foot is represented by a monosyllable. Verses with hypermetrical syllables may be conveniently divided into prat- hypermetrical and post-hypermetrical, according as the extra syllable comes at the beginning or end ; but as the latter are generally known as feminine lines, I shall use hypermetrical in a special sense, of a verse which has the extra syllable at the beginning. 28 MODERN ENGLISH METRE ceding eight lines are five-foot iambic, as in the Faery Queen : The joy|ous birds | shrouded | in cheerful shade I o Their notes | unto | the voice | attempered sweet: I o The angel|ical | soft tremb[ling voijces made 1 II To the instruments | divine | responjdence meet; 1 The sil|ver-sound|ing injstruments | did meet With the | base murjmur of J the waiter's fall ; O I I o o The wa|ter's fall | with difference | discreet, Now soft | now loud, | unto | the winds | did call, II II I o The gentle war|bling wind || low answereth | to all. i i It is also often used by Dryden and Pope to close a paragraph, sometimes as a third rhyming line : compare Pope, A needjless Al|exan|drine ends j the song, And like | a woundjed snake || drags its | slow length | along. 2 ' O I I Not so, | when swift | Camiljla scours | the plain, i i Flies o'er | the unbendjing corn j| and skims | along | the main 1 I 1 and Dryden, The day \ was named, | the next | that should j be fair ; All to | the genjeral rendezvous | repair ; 10 O O I They try | their fluttering wings, || and trust | themselves | in air. I The hounds | at nearjer distance hoarsejly bayed, The huntier close | pursued | the vis|ionajry maid ; She rent | the heaven | with loud | laments, | implo-ring aid. The Alexandrine is seldom used by Shakespeare : where it is used, it is sometimes meant to have a stilted OTHER IAMBIC METRES 29 and bombastic effect, and sometimes marks a maxim or quotation : the latter in Merry Wives 1. 2 Love, like | a shad ow, flies, || when substance love | pursues and in Merchant of Venice Who choosjeth me | shall gain || what many men | desire the former in Nathaniel's verses {Love's Labour's Lost) If love j make me | forsworn !| how shall | I swear | to love ? # * * * * Thy eye | Jove's light ning bears, || thy voice j his dread ful thun(der Which, not | to an ger bent, || is mu|sic and | sweet fire and Pistol in Henry LF., Part II., Act 11. 4 Untwine | the sisters three ! || come, Altropos, | I say. The seven-foot iambic is the metre of Chapman's Homer : Achil les' baneful wrath | resound, | O god dess, that | imposed o o Infinite sorlrows on | the Greeks, | and man y brave | souls loosed IOOO XI From breasts | herojic, sent | them far | to that | invis ible cave 00 1 That no | light com forts, and | their limbs | to dogs | and vultures I I o o gave. — » There is usually a pause after the end of the 4th foot ; and if the line is there cut in two, it becomes the 1 common metre ' of the hymn-book, as God moves | in a | myste rious way His won'ders to | perform. This seven-foot is sometimes alternated with the six- foot, as in Surrey's Faithful Lwer : For those | that care | do know, | and tastjed have | of troub(le, W r hen pass ed is | their wo ful pain, j each joy | shall seem | them doub(le. 30 MODERN ENGLISH METRE Iambic lines containing more than seven feet are extremely rare. We will therefore return to the heroic line from which we started, and proceed downwards to the Four-foot Iambic, of which we may take Raleigh's answer to Marlowe as an example, If all | the world | and love | were young, And truth { in evjery shep'herd's tongue, These pretjty pleasures might j me move To live | with thee | and be | thy love. This metre is very common in Scott, Byron, Coleridge and Shelley. The ordinary modes of varying the rhythm, by change of pause and accentuation and by the use of trisyllabic feet, are employed by Scott in such lines as O Caljedojnia, stern | and wild, 00 I Meet nurse j for a | poetjic child, 1 I o o Land of | brown heath | and shagjgy wood, 2 1 I Land of | the mountjain and | the flood. 2 I The earl | was a wrath jful man | to see. I When shrivelling, like | a parchjed scroll, I The flajming heavens | togethjer roll, And loudjer yet | and yet | more dread, Swells the | high trump | that wakes | the dead. 2 1 I Other writers make frequent use of initial truncation 1 , giving the effect of trochaic metre, as Marlowe, in the 4th of the following lines : Come live | with me | and be | my love, And we | will all j the pleasures prove That valjleys, groves, | and hills | and fields A Woods I or stee|py mountains yields. 1 See above, p. 22. OTHER IAMBIC METRES 31 And Shakespeare in A From | the east | to west era In., Over hill, | over dale, I O O I Thoro' bush, | thoro ' % briar, O O T 0*1 Over park, | over pale, I 1 Thoro' flood, | thoro' fire, I O O I I do | wander | every | where A , 10 I O 10 I Swifter | than the | moones | sphere A 10 10 10 I where Coleridge remarks on ' the delightful effect of the sweet transition to the trochaic metre' in the fifth line 1 . 1 The Quarto and Folio here have the cacophonous 'moon's,' for which Steevens suggested (i) the old-English 'moones,' which is supported by 'whales' in L. L. L., To show | his teeth | as white | as wha|les bone, and also in Spenser's F. Q. in. i. 15, and ' nightes ' in Buckhurst's Induction, 9, With night|es starres, | thick pow|dred everywhere, and in .Surrey's sonnet, quoted by R. Morris {Hist. Eng. Gr. § 103), The night |es car | the stars | about | doth bring. See other examples in Schipper, II. 78 f. Steevens' second suggestion was 'moony,' for which he quotes ' moony sphere ' from Sidney's Arcadia. In itself \ moones sphere ' seems better to express the motion of the material sphere, which was supposed to carry the moon with it in its revolution : but if 'moony sphere ' was used by Sidney, it may possibly have become a familiar phrase. Several of the Shakespearian editors prefer to keep the reading 'moon's,' justifying it by such lines as that from the witches' incantation in Macbeth : Toad, that under cold stone Days and nights has thirty-one Sweltered venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i' the charmed pot; MIXED AND DOUBTFUL METRES 67 This change of type is of course more common in longer poems, to express a change of sentiment, as in Maud, the prevailing metre of which is anapaestic, A voice I by the cejdar tree In the meadjow unider the Hall ! She is singling an air | that is known j to me, A passjionate bal|lad gall|ant and gay, A marjtial song | like a trumpjet's call ; A Singling alone | in the morn | of life, In the hap|py morn|ing of life | and of May but this is changed in section 1 7 into trochaic, Go not, j happy | day A , From the | shining | fields A , Go not, I happy | day A , Till the I maiden | yields A and in section 18 into iambic, 4. O, art I thou sighing | for Lebanon 6. In the | long breeze | that streams | to thy | delicjious East, 3. Sighing I for Lebjanon, Dark cejdar? 5. Is that I enchant Jed moan | only | the swell Of the I long waves , that roll | in yonder bay? So the Vision of Sin begins with an iambic section, I had I a visiion when | the night j was late: A youth I came Hiding toward | a paljace gate, but the diphthong in cold ( = co-oold) is not the same as the simple 00 in moon, and the rhythm which may be appropriate for the expres- sion of the witches' malignity is not necessarily appropriate for the innocent playfulness of the fairies. Nor indeed am I altogether satisfied that ' cold ' is right even in Macbeth, though no doubt there is something very effective in the repetition of the long vowel in the monosyllables toad, cold, stone. Still, if Shakespeare wrote 'coldest stone,' it is the commonest of corruptions for the second si to be omitted. 5—2 68 MODERN ENGLISH METRE which changes in the 2nd section into trochaic with frequent dactylic substitution, Then me[thought I | heard a | mellow | sound A , Gathering | up from | all the | lower | ground A , 100 Narrowing | into | where they | sat assembled 100 Low vo|luptuous i music | winding | trembled. . . 100 Then they | started | from their | places, Moved with | violence, I changed in j hue A , 10 o Caught each | other with | wild gri] maces, 100 Half invisible | to the | view A , 100 Wheeling | with prejcipitate | paces. 10 o The 3rd section returns to five-foot iambic, and the 4th is in truncated four-foot trochaic, Wrinkled | ostler, | grim and | thin A ! Here is | custom | come your | way A ; Take my | brute and | lead him | in A , Stuff his I ribs with | mouldy | hay A . So the Choric Song of the Lotos- Eaters is for the most part iambic of varying length, but the 4th section begins with the trochaic Hateful I is the | dark blue | sky A Vaulted | o'er the | dark blue | sea A and the 8th section introduces the truncated seven- and eight-foot trochaics, We have | had e|nough of [ action | and of | motion | we A , Rolled to I starboard, \ rolled to | larboard, | when the | surge was [ seething | free A , Where the | wallowing | monster j spouted | his foam-|fountains | in the | sea A . The Ode on Wellington is a wonderful blending of anapaest, iamb, and trochee. Of the first we have a MIXED AND DOUBTFUL METRES 69 sample in the opening lines, which are also marked by internal truncation, A Burjy the Great | A Duke With an empire's lam;enta(tion, Let us bur y the Great | A Duke To the noise | of the mounting | of a mightjy na(tion and in the 5 th section, A Let I the hell | be tolled : And a revjerent peo!ple behold The towjering car, | the sajble steeds : A Bright | let it be | with its blajzoned deeds, A Dark | in its fu[neral fold. A Let I the bell | be tolled : And a deep er knell | in the heart | be knolled, And the sound | of the sorjrowing anjthem rolled Through the dome | of the goljden cross, And the volljeying can non thunjder his loss. Iambic rhythm is found in the 3rd and other sections, varying from two feet to five feet, Lead out | the page|ant: sad | and slow, As fits I an u|nivers|al woe, Let the ! long, long | processjion go, And let | the sorr owing crowd | about | it grow, And let | the mourn|ful marjtial in u sic blow; The last | great Englishman | is low. A peojple's voice, The proof | and echjo of | all hujman fame, A peojple's voice, | when they | rejoice At civjic revjel and pomp | and game, Attest I their great | commanjder's claim. Trochaic metre is found in the 6th section, varied by initial and internal anacrusis : tr. 6 — Who is | he that | cometh || like an | honoured | guest A With) banner | and with | music, || with) soldier | and with | priest A , With a J nation j weeping |j and) breaking | on my | rest A ? 70 MODERN ENGLISH METRE tr. 4 — This is | he that | far a|way A A)gainst the | myriads | of As|saye A Clashed with his ) fiery | few and | won A ; And) under |neath an [other | sun A Warring | on a | later | day A Round af |frighted | Lisbon | drew A The) treble | works, the j vast de|signs A . Shelley has a mixture of trochaic and iambic in the Skylark : frock. 3. Like a | high-born | maiden 3. In a I palace | tower, 3. Soothing I her love-|laden 3. Soul in I secret | hour iamb. 6. With mu|sic sweet | as love | which overflows | her bower unless we prefer to describe this as trochaic with anacrusis, as in the following : We) look be|fore and | after And) pine for | what is | not A : Our sin|cerest | laughter With some | pain is | fraught A . There appears to be no objection to mixture of metres in long poems made up of parts or sections, which may vary much in tone ; nor again in short poems, if one metre runs easily into another, as is the case with short iambic and trochaic metres. But I feel a little doubt about such a poem as Lamb's Old Familiar Faces, the general metre of which is five-foot trochaic with dactylic substitution, as in Like an injgrate I | left my | friend abruptly. IOOIOIO I 010 I will give the scansion of the 2nd verse and then examine some doubtful lines : I have been | laughing, | I have | been ca|rousing, MIXED AND DOUBTFUL METRES yi Drinking late, | sitting late [ with my | bosom | cronies; I O O IOO XO 10 10 All, all are | gone, the | old fa miliar | faces. t^ * I O I C In the last verse the ist line should probably be| m u. J scanned as follows : \~\ ^ How some | they have | died, and | some they've | left me. IO 10 9 I O 10 The 2nd line appears to have an extra syllable at the beginning, and a dactyl in 4th foot : And) some are | taken | from me; | all are dejparted. I O 10 I o 20010 It is a question whether the 2nd line of the ist verse should be taken as six-foot trochaic or five-foot with a double anacrusis, In my | days of | childhood, | in my | joyful | school-days. Now consider these two lines : Ghost-like I | paced round the | haunts of my | childhood. Friend of my | bosom, thou | more than a | brother. It seems to me that these can only be divided as I have done, and described as four-foot dactylic. They are not bad lines in themselves, but they seem to me out of harmony with the neighbouring lines, without the justification of any change of sentiment. Another example of a doubtful metre is 754* Revenge^ which I was at first inclined to regard as a mixture of anapaestic and trochaic, as follows; anap. 6. At Flojres in | the Azores || Sir Richjard Gren-j ville lay, 7. And a pinjnace like | a fluttered bird || came flyjing from far | away: 6. ' Spanish ships | of war | at sea, || we have sightjed fiflty three.' 72 MODERN ENGLISH METRE troch. + 3 repeated. Then) s ware Lord | Thomas | Howard, || "Fore) God I | am no | coward, troch. 4 — repeated. But I | cannot | meet them | here A , || for my | ships are | out of | gear A And the | half my | men are | sick A . li I must | fly, but | follow | quick A . We are | six ships j of the | line A ,11 can we J fight with | fifty | three A?' The trochaic quality might seem to be preserved through the 2nd and 3rd sections, as troch. 4 — repeated. But Sir j Richard | bore in | hand A || all his | sick men | from the | land A , Very | careful jly and | slow A , troch. 4. Men of | Bide|ford in | Devon. The sections which follow are predominantly ana- paestic, as in 5, Sir Rich|ard spoke | and he laughed, | and we roared | a hurrah, | and so. Section 11 has two-foot, three-foot, and four-foot lines: We have fought | such a fight | for a day | and a night As may nev|er be fought | again. We have won | great glo|ry, my men! And a day | less or more At sea I or ashore, We die j — does it matt|er when? But the 1 2th section, beginning with anapaest, seems to pass again into trochaic : And the gun|ner said | 'Ay, Ay,' || but the | sea|men made | reply, troch. 4 — 'We have | children, | we have | wives A , And the | Lord hath | spared our | lives A ; 8 — We will I make the | Spaniard j promise, | if we I yield, to | let us | go A : We shall | live to | fight a|gain A || and to | strike an|other | blow A .' MIXED AND DOUBTFUL METRES 73 The 1 4th section is again strongly anapaestic : And they stared | at the dead | that had been | so val|iant and true, And had hold|en the power | and glojry of Spain | so cheap. On further consideration, however, I think it better to explain the whole poem as anapaestic of varying quality, sometimes aggressive, as in the line And they stared | at the dead | that had been | so valiant and true, sometimes of a more subdued tone, as in the lines which are classified above as trochaic, e.g. Then sware | Lord Thom|as How|ard, 'Fore God | I am I no co\v(ard, But I can [not meet | them here, | for my ships | are out | of gear And the half | my men | are sick. | I must fly, | but foljlow quick. But Sir Richjard bore | in hand | all his sick | men from | the land, Very care|fully | and slow, Men of Bidjeford | in Dev(on. We will make | the Spaniard prom(ise, | if we yield, | to let | us go. Campbell's Ode on Nelson is iambic with free ana- paestic substitution. The stanza is made up of nine three-foot lines, with the exception of the 5th and 9th lines, which need further consideration. Take the following stanza : Now joy I old Eng land raise For the ti dings of | thy might o 1 By the fest|al cities' blaze, 001 While the wine;-cup shines | in light ; 74 MODERN ENGLISH METRE 5 And yet [ amidst | that joy | and uproar 1 Let us think | of them | that sleep 1 Full man|y a fathjom deep O O I By thy wild | and stormjy steep, 1 9 A El|sinore. Here the 5th line has four feet, ending with an anapaest, as in the second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh stanzas, It was ten | of A|pril morn | by the chime. Hearts of oak | our captjains cried | when each gun. So peace | instead | of death | let us bring. As death j withdrew | his shades | from the day. Soft sigh I the winds | of heaven | o'er their grave. Again, the 9th might be called an accentual cretic, that is, a trisyllabic foot with stress on the first and last, and none on the middle syllable. So we have in the fourth and sixth stanzas Light the gloom. Died away. But if we look at the other verses we find sometimes an anapaest in the 9th line, as 'For a time,' 'Of the sun,' 'To our king,' and a cretic ending the 5th, as in the first and fourth stanzas, And her arms | along | the deep | proudly shone. 001 I O I Their shots | along | the deep | slowly boom. 10 1 There can be no doubt as to the very fine effect of such cretics as 'Elsinore' and 'slowly boom.' But it is more difficult to find the key of this variation. Did Campbell mean 'Elsinore' and 'slowly boom' to stand for two foot iambic with initial truncation ? But this would have been to break what seems the law, that the last line should MIXED AND DOUBTFUL METRES 75 consist of one foot, and the 5 th of four. As regards this latter, we might perhaps be inclined to crush the four light syllables ' along the deep ' into one foot ; but then must we not do the same with the syllables 'of April morn' in the 2nd stanza, which would reduce that line to three feet ? In any case it would give a rhythm very unlike As death | withdrew | his shades | from the day. On the whole I think it is better to treat the cretic as a single foot, replacing the anapaest, as the spondee often replaces an iamb. We are not to neglect the stress on the 1 st syllable but to make it weaker than that on the last. The lightness of the preceding syllables favours the cretic, just as a preceding pyrrhic favours a spondee. The metre of the following odes from Mr Gilbert Murray's translation of the Hippolytus and the Bacchae does not explain itself at first sight. There is no doubt as to the rhythmical movement of the first line, which divides naturally into three quartets, with stresses 0010, something like the first three feet of the Horatian Miserarum est | neque amori | dare ludum | neque dulci. In the 2nd and 4th lines the final short syllable is wanting in the 2nd and 3rd division ; in the 3rd line, one of the initial unstressed syllables of the second division is wanting. In other lines the 1st and 3rd divisions are pure anapaests, the 2nd division keeping its final unstressed syllable, which we may now, I think, identify as a feminine ending: thus Yea, beyond | that Pill(ar | of the End. 76 MODERN ENGLISH METRE The metre then may be described as three-foot ana- paestic with internal feminine ending, Could I take (me | to some cav(ern, | for mine hi(ding, 001 001 001 In the hill(tops, | where the Sun j scarce hath trod ; 001 001 O OI Or a cloud (make | the home (of | mine abi(ding, 001 01 001 As a bird (a|mong the bird-|droves of God ! 001 O 01 O 01 Could I wing (me | to my rest (a|mid the roar 001 001 001 Of the deep (A|driat(ic, | or the shore, 001 OI 00 1 Where the wa(ter | of Erid(a|nus is clear, | O 01 001 001 And Pha(e|thon's sad sis(ters, | by his grave, 1 001 001 Weep in(to | the riv(er, | and each tear | II 1 1 A Gleams (a | drop of amb(er | in the wave. 2 1 1 To the strand (of | the Daughters | of the Sun (set, 001 01 001 The Ap(ple-jtree, the sing(ing | and the gold, 01 001 001 Where the mar(i|ner must stay (him | from his on(set, OOIOOI 001 And the red (wave | is tran(quil, j as of old; 0.01 01 001 Yea, beyond | that Pill(ar | of the End x 001 01 001 That Atjlas guard(eth, | would I wend ; O I I O I Where a voice (of | living wa(ters | never ceas(eth 01 OOI 001 In God's (qui|et gard(en | by the sea, 1 1 OOI And Earth (the | ancient life(-giv|er increas(eth O I 102,001 Joy among | the mead(ows, | like a tree. 001 01 OOI Hippolytus, p. 39. The initial anapaest is represented by iamb in 11. 6, by spondee in 1. 9, by long syllable in 1. 10. MIXED AND DOUBTFUL METRES yj The chorus in the Bacchae, p. 85, is of the same metre : But the timb(rel, | the timb(rel | was another's, And away (to 1 | Mother Rhe(a'| it must wend; And to our | holy sing(ing | from the Moth(er's 001 001 The mad | Satyrs carr(ied | it, to blend In the dancling and | the cheer Of our third | and perjfect year; And it serves (Di|ony(sus | in the end ! Meredith's poems given above on pp. 60 and 61, and Darley's song on p. 61 n., may also be reckoned among doubtful metres. Exercises on Chapter VII. Holy water will I pour Into every spicy flower Of the laurel shrubs that hedge it around. In your eye there is death, There is frost irf your breath. The Poet's Mind. Clearly the blue river chimes in its flowing Under my eye; Warmly and broadly the south winds are blowing Over the sky. One after another the white clouds are fleeting; Every heart this May morning in joyance is beating Full merrily ; Yet all things must die. The stream will cease to flow; The wind will cease to blow ***** For all things must die, All things must die. All Things will Die. Pray, reader, have you eaten ortolans Ever in Italy? Recall how cooks there cook them, for my plan's To — lyre with spit ally. 1 Is this a misprint for 'from'? 78 MODERN ENGLISH METRE They pluck the birds — some dozen luscious lumps, Or more or fewer — Then roast them, heads by heads and rumps by rumps, Stuck on a skewer. Browning. Wild wild wind, wilt thou never cease thy sighing? Dark dark night, wilt thou never wear away? Cold cold church in thy death sleep lying, Thy Lent is past, thy Passion here, but not thine Easter-day. KlNGSLEY. When Britain first at Heaven's command Arose from out the azure main, This was the charter of her land, And guardian angels sang the strain: Rule, Britannia ! Britannia rules the waves ! Britons never shall be slaves. Thomson. In the hour of my distress, When temptations me oppress, And when I my sins confess, Sweet Spirit, comfort me. Herrick Come away, come away, death, And in sad cypress let me be laid; Fly away, fly away, breath : I am slain by a fair, cruel maid. My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, O prepare it ! My part of death, no one so true Did share it. Shakespeare. Whither, O splendid ship, thy white sails crowding. Leaning across the bosom of the urgent West, That fearest not sea rising, nor sky clouding, Whither away, fair rover, and what thy quest? Ah ! soon when winter has all our vales opprest, When skies are cold and misty, and hail is hurling, Wilt thou glide 1 on the blue Pacific, or rest In a summer haven asleep, thy white sails furling. R. Bridges. 1 The accents are in the original. CHAPTER VIII. ENGLISH ADAPTATIONS OF CLASSICAL METRES. It may be well to add a few words here in reference to English adaptations of classical metres, especially the Hexameter and Pentameter, for a full account of which I must refer to Chapters on English Metre, ed. 2, pp. 260 — 293. Suffice it to say here that the great outburst of these metres in the last century originated in the imitation of the German hexameters of Voss and Goethe by Southey, Coleridge, and Longfellow, and was carried to its highest point by Clough and Kingsley. The main points in which the English hexameter differs from the classical (of which the scheme is with the very rare substitution of a spondee for the 5th dactyl) are (1) the substitution of accent for quantity, (2) the admission of accentual trochee, and even pyrrhic or iamb, instead of accentual spondee or dactyl. The principle of caesura 1 (i.e. that the line shall be divided by a pause in the middle of one or more feet) holds good 1 Here marked by a short bar. 80 MODERN ENGLISH METRE in the English, as in the classical hexameter. Take the following as specimens : Nowhere ejquali'ty | reigns | in | all the | world of cre|ation. Star is not | equal to | star | nor | blossom the | same as j blossom : Herb is not | equal to | herb | any | more than | planet to | planet. There is a | glory of | daisies, | a | glory a|gain of carlnations ; Were the car|nation | wise | in j gay parterre by j greenhouse, Should it de|cline to acjcept | the | nurture the | gardener | gives it, Should it re|fuse to ex|pand | to sun and j genial | summer, Simply bejcause the field-Jdaisy | that | grows in the | grass be|side it Cannot, for j some cause or | other, | dejvelope and | be a car|nation? Would not the J daisy it|self | petition its | scrupulous [ neighbour? Up, grow, | bloom and for|get me, | be | beautiful | even to | proud- ness E'en for the | sake of my|self | and | other poor | daisies | like me. ClouG-h, The Bothie. Tibur is | beautiful | too, | and the | orchard | slopes and the | Anio, Falling, | falling, | yet | to the | ancient | lyrical | cadence; Tibur and | Anio's | tide, | and | cool from Lujcretilis | ever, With the Dijgentian | stream | and | with the Banldusian | fountain, Folded in | Sabine rejcesses | the | valley and | villa of | Horace. Amours de Voyage. The classical pentameter consists of two sections, each containing two dactyls followed by a long syllable. In the first section spondees, and in English, trochees are allowed as substitutes for dactyls. It is regularly used as the 2nd line of the Elegiac couplet, in which the 1 st line is a hexameter, as In the hexjameter | rises the | fountain's j silvery | column, In the pen|tameter | aye |] falling in | melody j back. The truncated hexameter is used by Lord Bowen in his translation of Virgil, Death's dark | gates stand | open, a|like through the | day and the I night A ; But to re|trace thy | steps and e|merge to the | sunlight a|bove A , This is the | toil and the | trouble. ADAPTATIONS OF CLASSICAL METRES 8 1 Browning makes excellent use of the truncated hexameter in his very irregular elegiac poem Abt Vogler, beginning Would that the | structure | brave, the I manifold | music I | build A , Bidding my | organ o|bey, || calling his | keys to their | work, Claiming each | slave of the | sound, at a | touch, as when | Solo- mon j willed A Armies of | angels which | soar, || legions of | demons which | lurk. In later verses the long syllable which closes the first section of the pentameter is often changed to a trochee, while the second dactyl of the second section also becomes a trochee : and even the dactylic rhythm itself is not unfrequently changed to anapaestic, thus Therefore to | whom turn | I but to | Thee, the injeffable J Name A ? Builder and ] maker | Thou qf\\ houses not j made with hands ! What, have | fear of | change from | Thee who art | ever the | same A ? Doubt that thy j power can \fill the || heart, that thy j power exjpands ? anap. There shall nevjer be one | lost good. | What was | shall O O30OIII 1 O live | as before, 2 O O I The e|vil is null, | is nought, || is sijlence implyjing a sound. OIOOI O I 010 0100 I A What | was good | shall be good, | with, for ejvil, so much | I. 12 OOI O OIOOI good more; i i On the earth | the brojken arcs, || in the heaven \ a perjfect 00 2 0201 OO 2 O 2 11 round. i Tennyson has been very successful in imitating other classical metres such as the hendecasyllabics, of which the scheme is -^r — ^v> — v^ — \s — — , 82 MODERN ENGLISH METRE or 5-foot trochaic with dactylic substitution in 2nd foot. O you I chorus of | indoljent re|viewers, Irrejsponsible | indoljent re|viewers, Look, I | come to the | test, a | tiny | poem All comjposed in a | metre | of Ca|tullus. Only in the following line the amphibrach '-tant maga-' seems to me a very unsatisfactory substitute for the dactyl; but perhaps the heading 'In Quantity' at the top of the page is intended to warn us that accents will be disregarded. O blaltant magajzines, reigard me | rather... As some | rare little | rose, a | piece of | inmost Horticultural | art, or | half co|quette-like Maiden,. | not to be j greeted | unbe|nignly. The Alcaic four-line stanza, of which the scheme is - - ^ I -^vy I - ^ ^ I twice repeated, and then — \j \y — wv j — \y \ — — J is represented by O migh|ty mouthed | infventor of | harmonies, O skilled | to sing | of | time or ejternity, God-giftjed or|gan-voice | of Eng(land, Milton, a | name to re|sound for | ages where the 1st and 2nd lines might be described, in the terminology we have employed, as consisting of two iambs separated by a monosyllable from two dactyls ; of which the notation would be iamb 2 +, dact. 2. The 3rd line might be described as iamb 4 +, and the last line as dact. 2, troch. 2. These two lines closely resemble the latter half of the stanza used in the poem addressed to F. D. Maurice, where the first two lines are four- foot iambic, For groves | of pine | on eijther hand To break | the blasts | of winjter stand; And fur|ther on | the hoa|ry Chan(nel Tumbles a | billow on | chalk and | sand A ADAPTATIONS OF CLASSICAL METRES 83 the only difference being that the final trochee is truncated. There is a burlesque parody of the Horatian Sapphic metre in the Afiti-Jacobin, Needy knife-grinder! whither are you going? Rough is the road, your wheel is out of order, Bleak blows the blast, your hat has got a hole in't, So have your breeches. Tell me, knife-grinder, how you came to grind knives? Did some rich man tyrannically use you? Was it the Squire or Parson of the Parish ? Or the Attorney? This metre has on the ear the effect of a five-foot trochaic, in which a dactyl is substituted for the first trochee. The fourth line is composed of a dactyl and trochee. The scheme of the Horatian Sapphic line is Jam satis terris nivis atque dirae, that is, trochee, spondee, dactyl, trochee, trochee. Swinburne 1 has been daring enough to try an imitation of the greater Asclepiad used by Horace (Carm. 1. 18): Nullam I Vare sacra | vite prius | severis | arborem of which the scheme is — , — ^ ^ -, - ^ ^ -, - ^ v^, - ^ v^, that is, spondee, choriambus 2 , choriambus, dactyl, dactyl. But Swinburne divides his last two feet differently, making a third choriambus followed by an iamb. Love, what | ailed thee to leave | life that was made | lovely we x I I OOI ZOO I IOO thought I with love? I O I What sweet | visions of sleep | lured thee away | down from the X I I O O I I OOI I 00 light I above? I ox 1 Quoted in Gummere's Handbook of Poetics, p. 232. 2 This word denotes trochee followed by iamb. 6—2 84 MODERN ENGLISH METRE Exercise on Chapter VIII. Wearily stretches the sand to the surge and the surge to the cloudland ; Wearily onward I ride, watching the water alone. Not, as of old, like Homeric Achilles, Kvdec yaluv, Joyous knight-errant of God, thirsting for labour and strife. ******** Fruit-bearing autumn is gone, let the sad quiet winter hang o'er me. What were the spring to a soul laden with sorrow and shame? Blossoms would fret me with beauty : my heart has no time to bepraise them. Grey rock, bough, surge, cloud, waken no yearning within. Sing not, thou sky-lark above ! even angels pass hushed by the weeper. Scream on, ye sea-fowl ! my heart echoes your desolate cry. Kingsley. Hail, holy fountain, limpid and eternal, Green as the emerald, infinite, abundant, Sweet, unpolluted, cold and clear as crystal, Father Nemausus. Baring Gould. CHAPTER IX. WHAT DETERMINES THE POET'S CHOICE OF METRE? AESTHETIC QUALITY OF PARTICULAR METRES. We have seen that the metre and general character of the verse are determined by the nature and number of the feet of which it is made up, and that the nature of the foot depends upon the number of syllables and the position of the stress. Further we have seen that the normal line may be varied by the interposition of stops and pauses, by the substitution of one sort of foot for another, by the omission or addition of unaccented syllables at the beginning or end of the line, and in other ways. I proceed now to consider what is the reason for these variations. Are they merely accidental, the result of carelessness or want of skill on the part of the poet? This is probably the case to some extent with regard to the tumbling metre or ballad metre, as in 1 The Perjcy out | of Northumberland, And a vow | to God | made he, That he | would hunt | in the mountains Of Cheviot within | days three 1 As there is no uniformity in the printed spelling I have used the modern form, except where the metre required the old form. $6 MODERN ENGLISH METRE In the maujgre of | doughte | Douglas And all | that ever with \ him be. The fatt|est harts | in all | Cheviot He said | he would kill | and carr|j them away: By my faith, | said the doughte Dougjlas again, I will let J that hunt ling if | that I may. ******** I wot | you bin | great lordies twa, I am | a poor squire | of land ; / will never \ see my cap|tain fight | on a field, And stand | myselfe | and look on, But while | I may | my weapjon wield, / will not fail | both heart | and hand. It will be noticed that the accentuation is uncertain here. In one line it is on the last syllable, in another on the first of 'doughte' and 'Douglas'; and the italicized feet contain more than the proper number of syllables. In the 3rd and 6th lines of the last stanza these may be reduced by elision 'I'll ne'er,' 'I'll not fail ' ; in the others we must either suppose that an amphibrach is used, or have recourse to slurring. The lines are also irregular in length, varying between three and four feet. But though in ballad poetry the stress is often simply arbitrary, it is impossible to suppose that there is any- thing capricious or accidental in the w r ork of skilled artists such as Milton or Tennyson. We may like or dislike the effect produced, but there can be no doubt that the poet had a reason for what he was doing. Even in less conscious poets, such as Shelley, though the means may not have been deliberately selected, yet there was a more or less conscious striving after the result 1 . 1 Compare Coleridge's Preface to Christabel: 'The occasional variation in number of syllables is not introduced wantonly, or for the mere ends of convenience, but in correspondence with some transition in the nature of the imagery or passion.' QUALITY OF PARTICULAR METRES 87 In previous chapters I have endeavoured to give an objective statement of the facts of Modern English metre : here it will be my aim to give reasons for the facts, to point out, that is, the relation between the feeling of the poet and the rhythmical means employed by him to communicate that feeling to his hearers or readers. To express the same idea metaphorically : so far, I have been busy with the outward form or body of metre ; I seek now to penetrate to its spirit. Can we give any reason, then, why a poet should select one metre rather than another for the poem which is still , seething in his brain ? The Greeks, we know, chose the ( hexameter or six-foot dactylic for heroic narrative, lyrical ; verse for the expression of pure emotion, and the six-foot 1 iambic for dramatic representation. In English, five-foot iambic is the regular vehicle both for narrative, dramatic, and didactic poetry, the other metres (speaking generally and loosely) being reserved for the expression of emotion. Can we find any principle which determines the choice of the particular metre employed by the poet ? An American metrist draws the following dis- tinction between disyllabic and trisyllabic metre : the former, he says, 'is the medium of the poetry of re- flection,' the latter ' of the poetry of motion V And again (p. 63), 'There is, in the accelerated vibration of the triple beat, a rush, a vigour, a sense of onward move- ment, very distinct and dynamic'; and (p. 76), 'Poets have instinctively selected three-beat rhythm as the vehicle of their most fervid thought. Wherever rapid or passionate action is to be expressed, it will be found a most effective medium. The Good News is carried from Ghent to Aix upon it ; Pheidippides runs in it ; the 1 Dabney, Musical Basis of Vase, p. 66. 88 MODERN ENGLISH METRE Light Brigade charges in it ; the Sea Fairies dance to it ; the pace of Arethusa's melodious flight is tuned to it; and upon its numbers a thousand imperishable love lyrics breathe out their impassioned music' And once again (p. 64), 'Should we feel the breathless impact of this poem (the Light Brigade) if it were cast in heroic blank verse, or in the (four-foot iambic) metre of the White Doe of Rylstonet It is in the rhythmic rush, quite as much as in the words, that the impression is conveyed to the imagination.' I think there is much truth in this. It is quite borne out by Clough's splendid hexameters, Breathed a brief | moment and | hurried ex|ultingly | on with his I rider, Far over | hillock and | runnel and | bramble, ajway in the | champaign, Snorting de| fiance and | force, the | white foam | flecking his | flanks, the , Rein hanging | loose to his | neck and | head pro|jecting bejfore him. 1 Oh, if they | knew and considered, unjhappy ones, | Oh, could they I see, could But for a | moment dis[cern how the | blood of true | gallantry | kindles, How the old j knightly religion, the | chivalry | semi-quixjotic Stirs in the | veins of a | man at | seeing some | delicate | woman Serving him, j toiling for | him and the | world ' and it agrees with Dr Abbott's remark that 'the ana- paestic measure is used to express wild uproar' in Dryden's somewhat primitive lines : The prin|ces applaud | with a fujrious joy And the king | seized a flam) beau with zeal | to destroy. But we cannot, I think, deny that trisyllabic metre (especially with the variations admitted by modern poets) is capable of expressing the tenderest pathos, QUALITY OF PARTICULAR METRES 89 as well as fervid thought or passionate action, when we read Take her up tenderly, Lift her with care, Fashioned so slenderly, Young and so fair or A Break, | A break, | A break At the foot I of thy crags, | O sea ; But the tender grace | of a day | that is dead Will nevjer come back | to me. Again, Dr Abbott speaks of trisyllabic lines preceding or following the trochaic metre as suggestive of merriment, as in There I | couch when | owls do | cry A ; On the I bat's back | I do | fly A After J summer | merrily A . Merrily | merrily | shall I live [ now A Under the | blossom that | hangs on the | bough A where the movement of the last two lines seems to quicken to a dance. In the other passage which he quotes, taken from the Monastery \ the commencing trisyllabic 1 lines seem to me to express only a forced and ironic merriment, passing through the ominous movement of the third line, into the awful stillness of the fourth, and the ghastly laughter of the closing anapaests. A Merrily swim | we, the moon | shines bright, A Downward we drift | through shad;ow and light, A Un,der yon rock | the ed|dies sleep, A Calm I and si,lent, dark | and deep. The Kel py has risen | from the fathomless pool, He has lighted his can ; dle of death | and of dool ; A Look, I father, look, | and you'll laugh | to see, How he gapes j and glares | with his eyes | on thee. 1 I should prefer to call them anapaestic, as they end with a stress, and the closing lines are undoubtedly such. 90 MODERN ENGLISH METRE Byron's choice of trisyllabic metre for his Sennacherib is easily explained by the rapidity and suddenness of the incidents described : The Assyrian came down | like the wolf | on the fold, and then For the an|gel of death | spread his wings | on the blast, And breathed | in the face j of the foe | as he passed, And the eyes | of the sleep|ers waxed deadjly and chill, And their hearts | but once heaved, j and for ev|er grew still. There is a sweet gentle pathos in some of Cowper's anapaests, as in : The pop|lars are felled; | farewell | to the shade And the whis|pering sound | of the cool | colonnade ; The winds | play no long|er and sing | in the leaves, Nor Ouse | on his bos|om their imjage receives. But I cannot say that I feel this in regard to the verses on Alexander Selkirk : I am monarch of all I survey ; My right there is none to dispute ; From the centre all round to the sea I am lord of the fowl and the brute. It may be my own fault, but I do not find this either musical or pathetic 1 . 1 The lines which I like best in the poem But the sound of the church-going bell These valleys and rocks never heard, Never sighed at the sound of a knell, Nor smiled when a sabbath appeared are omitted in the Golden Treasury, probably from Wordsworth's prosaic objection to the propriety of the phrase 'church-going bell,' as though ' church-going ' were a participle, implying that the bells themselves go/), gutturals (£, hard c and g) t liquids (/, #*, n, r), and the spirants, semi-vowels and sibilants (/, //i, y, 7t>, s, sk, z, z/i, soft g), all affecting us in different ways. The effort to produce a particular sound is greater the earlier the check is applied to the breath, greatest at the throat (gutturals), becoming gradually easier with the dentals, and the labials, and easiest of all with liquids and spirants. Hence the liquids, with the exception of a strongly rolled r, the spirants, and the semi-vowels have the smoothest effect, and the gutturals the harshest, labials and dentals being intermediate. Sharp mutes are clearer and shorter than the flat. Then there is the rough breathing (//) which needs more of an effort than the simple vowel. There are also combinations of con- sonants mostly produced by the addition of liquids, or the prefixing of s to other consonants. Of vowels ah is 1 See for a fuller account Schipper, Engl. Metrik, II. pp. 69 foil. 102 MODERN ENGLISH METRE the broadest and strongest, ee the thinnest : the most important difference among vowels for metrical purposes is caused by their greater or less prolongation. In general the music of a verse depends on the importance of its vowel and liquid sounds ; its strength on the im- portance of dentals, labials and gutturals. This may be illustrated by the following lines 1 : J/yriads of rivu/ets hurrying through the /awn, The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innu///erab/e bees. Princess. — Farewell, ha\>oy fields, Where joy for ever dwells. Hail, hoxtoxs, hail, In/erna/ world, and thou, /rq/bundest Hell, Receive thy new possessor. P. L. I. — Wildly he 7e;andered on, Z>ay after day, a weary waste of hours. Shelley. It must be remembered however that alliteration may be carried to a ridiculous extreme, as in the 'very tragical mirth ' of the Play in Midsummer Night's Dream Whereat with eep scars \ of thun\der had | intrenched, and care 2 2 0200 *5at on i his faded cheek ; but under brows I o Of ee. A Clear | and cool, | A clear | and cool, By /augh|ing sha/|/ow and /easing pool ; A Cool | and clear, | A cool \ and clear, By shi\ning shin\gle and foamjing weir; • A Un\der the crag | where the oujze/ sings, And the ijvied wall \ where the church|-be// rings ; A Un\dex\leo\ | for the zm\dev\led ; A Play | by me, bathe | in me, wothjer and child. A Z>an£ | and foul, | A dank \ and fou/, By the smo\ky town | in its murk\y cowl ; A Fou/ | and dank, | A fou/ \ and dank, By wharf | and jewjer and sl'\\my banY ; A Dark\er and dark\er the furth|er I go, A i?a|ser and 3a|ser the rich|er I grow ; A Who | dare jport | with the jin-kefi/ed? A Shrink | from me, turn | from me, /«oth|er and child. AESTHETIC USE OF METRICAL VARIATION I 1 9 A Strong | and /tee, | A strong | and free, Theyfoodjgates are oipen away | to the sea; A Free | and strong, j A free | and strong, A C/eans|ing my streams. | as I hur|ry a/ong To the go/Wen sands | and the /ea/iing £ar, And the /ain/|/ess ride | that awai/s | me afar, As I /ose I myself \ in the infinite wain, Zike a sou/ | that has sinned | and is />ar\doned again. A Unldefi/ed | for the un|«/efi/ed ; A /Vay I by me, bathe | in me, wothjer and child. KlNGSLEY. In this perfect lyric, notice the emphasis given to the three ' motives,' * Clear and cool,' * Dank and foul," 'Strong and free,' by repetition and double truncation. Then observe the fresh transparency of the mountain stream marked by the long vowels and beautiful allitera- tion in c and / and /, by the ' shining shingle and foaming weir'; and contrast the growing degradation of the second stage, richer and darker and baser, in the dank and foul surroundings of the smoky, murky town with its sewers and slimy banks ; and finally the redemption wrought out in the third verse, where the victorious anapaests burst the limits of the eight-line stanza, and the 'golden sands and the leaping bar' replace the 'laughing shallow and leaping pool ' of the first stage of innocence. Another fine example of truncation is Tennyson's poem beginning A Break, A break, A break, At the foot I of thy crags, | O sea where the recurrent monosyllable gives a perfect imitation of the slow monotonous iteration of the wave breaking on the rocks. The above quotations have been selected for the most part with a view to exemplify the advantages of irregularity ; to show how the various licenses mentioned 120 MODERN ENGLISH METRE have been used by the poets to enhance the beauty and expressiveness of their poems. It is possible however for liberty to run into anarchy and antinomianism in metre, as in politics or religion ; and in extreme cases, as not unfrequently in Walt Whitman, poetry and metre altogether disappear. Without going to such lengths, it seems to me that either from carelessness or love of novelty or a wish to be realistic, even great poets have at times fallen into unnecessary or even inexcusable harsh- ness or slovenliness. Many of the examples that follow are very expressive ; but it may be doubted whether ex- pressiveness is not bought at too high a cost of the dignity and beauty of verse in Tennyson's Harold, v. 2 : We should have a hand To grasp the world with, and a foot to stamp (it -Flat. Praise the Saints. It is over. No more blood and Browning's Ring and the Book, iv. 36 : One calls | the square | round, t' oth|er the | round square I I O I I IOOI X VI. 1319 That I I liked, that | was the | best thing, | she said. 202 2 00 11 01 1643 I heard | charge, and | bore question, and | told tale 01 I O IIOO II Noted I down in | the book I there, | turn and see 10 10 If by j one jot | or titjtle I va|ry now. I O I I 001 1338 The sun | now like | an im|mense egg | of fire. 1 100 1 1 383 Heads that | wag, eyes | that twink|le modified mirth. I O I I 1 134 — Understands how law might take -Service like mine, of brain and heart and hand, In good I part. Bet|ter late | than nev|er: law, 1 1 You understand | of a sud|den, gospel too 00 1 Has a I claim here. AESTHETIC USE OF METRICAL VARIATION 121 I. 1097 — Made a Cross Fit to I die looking on | and pray|ing with, i o a i Just as I well as | if i|vory | or gold. I O I o 1. 749 I can detach from me, commission forth Half of my soul ; which in its pilgrimage O'er old unxcandered 7#aste ways of the world, May chance upon some fragment of a whole, Rag of |y?esh, scrap | of bone | in idi inftammari Priamo v\ z>itam tv'xtari \ov\% aram sanguine \wxpari. Virgil and Horace suppply specimens of leonine, i.e. of internal and final rhymes, the former in the witch's incantation (Eel. viii. 80), Limus ut hie durescit, et haec ut cera Xxquescit; the latter in his first Ode Hunc si mobilium turba Qmritium * # * # Ilium si prof>rio condidit Worreo Quicquid de Libym verritur zrets. So Ovid, Heroid. viii. 27, Vir, precor, uxoH, frater succurre sorori. In the A. P. 99 we find a specimen of final rhyme — Non satis est pulchra* esse poemata, dulcia sunto, Et quocumque volent animum auditoris agunto. We have a curious specimen of rhyming verse in Hadrian's Address to the Departing Soul, Animula vagula blandula Hospes comesque corporis, Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallidula, rigida, nudula? Rhyme is however only sporadic till the fourth 1 Herenn. iv. 18. 2 Tusc. III. 45. 126 MODERN ENGLISH METRE century, when we find, though rarely, such hymns as that of Pope Damasus on S. Agatha, Martyris ecce dies Agat/iae Virginis emicat eximuz^, Christus earn sibi qua social Et diadema duplex decora/. But the real power of the rhyming hymn did not show itself till much later, as in the truncated eight-foot trochaic of the following Pseudo-Augustinian hymn 1 : Ad perennis vitae fontem || mens sitivit arida A , Claustra carnis praesto frangi || clausa quaerit anima A , Gliscit, ambit, eluctatur || exul frui patria A . Dum pressuris et aerumnis || se gemit obnoxiam A , Quam amisit, dum deliquit, || contemplatur gloriam A ; Praesens malum auget boni || perditi memoriam A . In Mediaeval Latin verse hiatus is universally allow- able, and rhyme and accent take the place of quantity 2 . We find a seven-foot trochaic with internal trunca- tion employed for secular purposes in the famous drinking- song ascribed to Walter Mapes in the 12 th century. Mihi 3 est proposition A II in taberna mori, Vmu-m sit appositum A II morientis ori, Et 3 dicant cum venerint A II Angelorum chori, Deus sit propitiiis A II hiuc potatori. The introduction of rhyme into vernacular poetry was thus a natural consequence of the influence of the Latin Church and the Latin language. Where that 1 Really due to Damiani in the eleventh century. 2 Compare Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, Dingeldein, Der Reim bei den Griechen u. R'omern ; Manitius, Gesch. d. christlich-latein- ischen Poesie, and Milman's Latin Christianity, Bk xiv. ch. 4. 3 So printed in Milman's History. In the Camden Society ed. of Mapes (Confessio Goliae, 11. 45 — 48) the reading is ' meum ' and 'ut.' The latter seems to give more point than ' et ' to the pre- ceding line, as connecting it with the reception of the Viaticum. RHYME, STANZA, REFRAIN \2f influence was strongest, as in France, rhyme quickly established itself: where the Latin influence was com- paratively weak, as in England, rhyme showed itself later 1 , and met with a much more prolonged resistance from the opposing principle of alliteration, which was the distinctive mark of the northern metres. After the Norman conquest the regular rhyming metre of the French gained the upper hand over the irregular alliterative metre of the English. Even the poems least affected by French influence discard allitera- tion and adopt the iambic rhythm, though without rhyme, as the Ormu/um, c. 1 200 ; or slide from rhyme to alliteration and back again, as the contemporary poem of Layamon ; or combine the two, as Minot c. 1350 2 . It was not till the latter half of the 14th century that the regular rhyming iambic achieved its final triumph under Chaucer, who himself testifies to the difficulty he found in subduing the refractory English language to the strict laws of accent and rhyme prescribed by the French makers. Compare the passages quoted by Courthope (1. p. 327) But Chaucer (though he can but lewedly On metres and on riming craftily), Hath sayd hem in swiche English as he can. Canterbury Tales. But, for the rime is light and lewde, Yet make it somewhat agreeable, Though some verse fayle in a sillable, And that I do no diligence To shewe crafte but sentence. Address to Apollo in the House of Fame. 1 The earliest example of rhyme in Anglo-Saxon poetry is ascribed to the end of the 10th century. 2 See Courthope, Hist, of English Poetry, Vol. I. ch. 4 'On the Stages of Anglo-Norman Poetry,' especially pp. 123 — 128. 128 MODERN ENGLISH METRE In the Prologue to the 'Parson's Tale' quoted by Courthope (i. p. 255) Chaucer seems to complain of both the alliterative and the rhyming metres. But trusteth well, I am a Southren man, I cannot geste — rum, ram, ruf— by lettre, Ne, God wot, rym holde I but litel bettre. There was however a revival of the Old Anglo-Saxon metre only a few years before the appearance of the Canterbury Tales, when Langland brought out his very popular Vision of Piers Plowman, of which we may take the beginning as a specimen. In a somer seson || when soft was the xonne, I skove me in .r^roudes || as la sAepe were, the law of the verse being that it consists of two sections, 'each containing two or more accented initial syllables. Of these four syllables the two in the first section, and, as a rule, the first of the two in the second section, are alliterated.' By the beginning of the 15th century the victory of rhyme, frequently combined with alliteration, was com- plete. It was not till about the middle of the 16th century that Surrey gave the first specimen of English blank verse in his translation of the Aeneid. Sackville, in the tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex brought out in 1 56 1, was the first dramatist to make use of the freedom claimed by Surrey, and was followed by all the great Elizabethan dramatists. Thus Marlowe in the Prologue to Tamerlaine From jigging veins of rhyming mother- wits And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay, We'll lead you to the stately seats of war, Where you shall hear the Scythian Tamberlaine Threatening the world with high astounding terms. 129 Some years earlier Roger Ascham had declaimed against 'our rude beggarly ryming, brought first into Italie by Gothes and Hunnes when all good verses and all good learning were destroyed by them \ So Ben Jonson in his ' Fit of Rhyme against Rhyme ' ( Underwoods 48) Greek was free from rhyme's infection, Happy Greek, by this protection, Was not spoiled. Whilst the Latin, queen of tongues, Is not yet freed from rhyme's wrongs, But rests foiled. So too Milton, in the Preface prefixed to the second edition of Paradise Lost in 1669, where he speaks of 11 Rime being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works particularly, but the invention of a barbarous age, to set "Off wretched matter and lame meeter....Not without cause therefore, some both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected Rime both in longer and shorter works, as have also, long since, our best English tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight ; which consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoyded by the learned Ancients both in poetry and all good oratory. This neglect then of Rime... is to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to the Heroic Poem from the troublesome and modern bondage of Riming." Rhyme however was not without its champions from an early period in the 17th century 2 , and in spite of 1 See Chapters on Metre, pp. 260 f. ed. 2. 2 E.g. Daniel in answer to Campion. 130 MODERN ENGLISH METRE Milton and Paradise Lost, it was with the rhyming poets that the victory lay until late in the 18th century. Mr Gosse has pointed out, in his Lectures on the development of English poetry from Shakespeare to Pope, the epoch-making influence of Waller 1 , of whom Dryden wrote 'The excellence and dignity of rhyme were never fully known till Mr Waller taught it : he first... showed us how to conclude the sense most com- monly in distichs, which, in the verse of those before him, runs on for so many lines together, that the reader is out of breath to overtake it.' Waller wished to expel blank verse even from the drama, and actually rewrote the last part of Fletcher's Maid's Tragedy in rhyme, in order to prove the superiority of the latter. The reaction in favour of rhyme was reinforced by French influence on the royalist exiles during the Commonwealth j and shortly after the Restoration Dryden gave an example of dramatic rhyme in his Rival Ladies, and defended the practice in the Preface to his tragedy of the Indian Emperor published in 1667, and in the Essay on 1 Mr Courthope thinks this much exaggerated. ' Not only do we find Popian couplets in Chaucer, but from Drayton onward, through Drummond, Sir John Beaumont (d. 1627), and Sandys, the way had been gradually prepared for Dryden.' This judgment is confirmed by Beaumont's verses on the True Form of English Poetry, quoted in the forthcoming 3rd volume of the Hist, of Eng. Poetry, p. 197 : In every language now in Europe spoke By nations which the Roman empire broke The relish of the Muse consists in rhyme ; One verse must meet another like a chime. Our Saxon shortness hath peculiar grace In choice of words fit for the ending place ; Which leave impression on the mind as well As closing sounds of some delightful bell. RHYME, STANZA, REFRAIN 131 Dramatic Poetry published about the same time. In the prologue to Aurengzebe (1676) however, he admits that he has doubts as to the advantages of rhyme in dramatic poetry, and To confess a truth, though out of time, Grows weary of his long-loved mistress Rhyme. Passion's too fierce to be in fetters bound. In All for Love (1678) he returned to unrhymed verse for the drama; but still held to rhyme for all other forms of poetry, and was followed herein by Pope and the writers of his school, till Thomson in his Seasons (about 1730), Young in his Night Thoughts (1761), and Cowper in the Task (1785), re-asserted the claims of blank verse for didactic poetry. I return now to the consideration of the nature and laws of rhyme. Besides the ordinary monosyllabic rhyme of which we have spoken, English verse admits disyllabic and trisyllabic rhymes', where the initial consonants differ and the last syllable or syllables of the two words are identical, as Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, Most musical, most melancholy Milton. To know the change, and feel it, When there is none to heal it Keats. and Take her up tenderly, Lift her with care, Fashioned so slenderly, Young, and so fair. Hood. 1 Sir J. Harington in the preface to his translation of Orlando Furioso, published in 1591, mentions that he had been attacked for his use of disyllabic and trisyllabic rhyme (such as 'signify — dignify, ' ' hide away — bide away '), and shelters himself under the example of Sir Philip Sidney. 132 MODERN ENGLISH METRE Both these kinds of rhyme are more frequent in comic passages, particularly when the rhyme is made up of more than one word ; compare Whose honesty they all durst swear for ; Though not a man of them knew wherefore. When Gospel-Trumpeter, surrottnded With long-eared rout, to battle sounded, And pulpit, drum ecclesia^V, Was beat with fist instead of a stick ; Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling, And out he rode a colonelling. Hudibras. Her favourite science was the mathewa/zVa/, Her noblest virtue was her magnanimity, Her wit (she sometimes tried at wit) was Attic all, Her serious sayings darkened to sublimity: In short, in all things she was fairly what I call A prodigy — her morning dress was dimity, Her evening silk or, in the summer, muslin, And other stuffs with which I won't stay puzzling. Byron. Rhymes may be either strict, where there is identity, or loose, where there is only approximation of the final vowel-sound and succeeding consonants. Sometimes an apparent looseness is caused by change of pronunciation. Thus in Pope's lines Where thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey, Did'st sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea. Rape of the Lock. The rhyme witnesses to the French pronunciation of 'tea.' So the old pronunciation of 'Rome' appears in the lines From the same foes at last both felt their doom, And the same age saw learning fall and Rome. Essay on Criticism. It is sad to have to think that Denham and Pope and their contemporaries pronounced 'join' as 'jine,' RHYME, STANZA, REFRAIN 133 but such rhymes as the following seem to leave little doubt on the subject : Waller was smooth, but Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full resounding line, The long majestic march, and energy divine. Thus he the Church at once protects and spoils: But princes' swords are sharper than their styles. The commonest irregularity in rhyme is perhaps where a short vowel is made to answer to a long vowel, as in Shelley's Recollection 'There — woodpecker'; in the Euganean Hills 'feet — yet,' 'lie — agony,' 'hail — majestical,' 'supplies — melodies'; in Pope's Essay on Criticism 'esteem — them,' 'glass — place,' 'light — wit'; and more generally, where differing values of the same vowel are made to rhyme, as in Wordsworth's Fountain 'none — gone,' Pope's Criticism 'satires — dedicators,' Campbell's River of Life ' wan — man ' ; Wordsworth's Yarrow 'come — home,' his Ode 'groves — loves,' 'song — tongue'; Shelley's Euganean Hills 'now — glow,' 'cove — love.' differing vowel-sounds are also often made to rhyme, especially in disyllables, as in Burns 'fondly — kindly,' 'dearly — Mary,' in Wordsworth's Ode 'weather- hither,' 'nature — creature,' in Shelley 'heaven — striven,' 'black — beck,' 'death — path'; in Hymns 'merit — spirit,' 'mourn — return,' 'eve — live,' 'adore Thee — glory,' 'before Thee — glory,' 'created — seated,' 'rare — myrrh,' 'cure — power,' 'hosts — trusts,' 'ear — care.' One is grieved to find the fashionable vulgarity of the omission of the final g in the present participle countenanced by Words- worth and Shelley in two of their finest poems O evil day ! if I were sullen While Earth herself is adorning This sweet May -morning; 134 MODERN ENGLISH METRE And the children are culling Fresh flowers — Ode. * # * * As an eagle pursuing A dove to its ruin Down the streams of the cloudy wind. Arethusa. I mentioned above that 'perfect rhyme,' where the rhyming syllable or syllables are repeated without any variation, was forbidden by the rule of English metre ; but the rule is not always obeyed : thus we find ' passion — compassion ' rhyming in the hymn : In this Thy bitter Passion Good Shepherd, think of me With thy most sweet compassion and similarly ' Almighty — Mighty ' in Heber's ' Holy, Holy, Holy.' There is, however, higher authority for this irregularity, which dates back as far as Chaucer. Such rhymes as the following are frequently found in his writings : 'defence — offence,' 'disport — port,' 'hold — behold,' 'way — away,' 'kind — unkind,' 'accord — record,' 'darkness — brightness,' 'bless — humbless,' 'visage — usage': also in Spenser, as 'servaunt — vaunt,' 'attend — contend,' 'supply — multiply,' ' lavishness — heaviness — bitterness,' 'lay — delay/ 'stand — understand': and so Shelley, in Stanzas written near Naples, has 'motion — emotion.' The actual repetition of words identical in sound and spelling is admitted by the same poets, provided that the meaning is different, as in Spenser's The angelical soft trembling voices made To the instruments divine respondence meet; The silver-sounding instruments did meet With the base murmur of the water's fall. So Chaucer makes ' rede ' = ' red ' rhyme with ' rede ' = 'read.' RHYME, STANZA, REFRAIN I 35 This provision however is not always insisted on. In the Epithalamion Spenser makes Bid her awake therefore and soon her dight rhyme with And whilst she doth her dight. And in F.-Q. vi. 12. 23 we find the rhymes In which he many massacres had left # * * * Who now no place besides unsought had left, where the word is the same in meaning as well as in sound. So Shelley in Rosalind repeats the words 'way' and 'solitude' as rhymes 1 . Of course the rule against 'perfect rhyme' does not apply in the case of Refrain, where repetition is intention- ally employed for the sake of emphasis. By the term 'Refrain' or 'Burden' is meant the repe- tition of a sound or name or word or sentence, for the purpose of dwelling on some leading idea or sentiment, and thus concentrating the general motive of the poem in one short expression. Probably the simplest and earliest use of such repetition was to enable the audience to take their part in the song or hymn. Thus the Jews employed the Amen and Hallelujah, and the refrain in the 136th psalm 'His mercy endureth for ever.' The Doxology, the Kyrie Eleison and the responses of the Litanies answered the same purpose among the Christians. In like manner we have the grand refrain of the Chorus in the Agamemnon alkwov alkwov ci7re, to 8* cv vik. 4.4.4.4. iamb. 5 + -5-5-5 + -5-5-5-5- 5 . 6 I aabbcddcedeeff. I 3-5-5-5-3-5-4-5-5-5-5-5-5 I abacabdde ceff. . In the argument to the last Ode Coleridge changes the use of the technical terms, calling the 1st antistrophe by the name of the 2nd strophe, and using the terms 1st and 2nd antistrophe instead of 2nd strophe and antistrophe. IV. 12 V. 28 VI. 18 VII. 14 VIII '4 IX. 13 152 MODERN ENGLISH METRE Final Exercises. I. Scan the following lines of Webster and Milton, noting any irregularities : Bos. Do you not weep? Other sins only speak ; murder shrieks out : The element of water moistens the earth, But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens. Ferd. Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young. Bos. I think not so ; her infelicity Seemed to have years too many. Ferd. She and I were twins ; And should I die this instant I had lived Her time to a minute. Duchess of Mdlfi. O poor Antonio, though nothing be so needful To thy estate as pity, yet I find Nothing so dangerous. I must look to my footing : . In such slippery ice- pavements men had need To be frost-nailed well, they may break their necks else ; The precedent's here afore me. How this man Bears up in blood, seems fearless ! Why, 'tis well ; Security some men call the suburbs of hell, Only a dead wall between. Duchess of Malfi. Besides, how vile, contemptible, ridiculous ; What act more execrably unclean, profane? — An impious crew Of men conspiring to uphold their state By worse than hostile deeds, violating the ends For which our country is a name so dear; Not therefore to be obeyed. But zeal moved thee ; To please thy Gods thou didst it. Gods unable To acquit themselves and prosecute their foes But by ungodly deeds, the contradiction Of their own deity, Gods cannot be. Chor. As signal now in low dejected state As erst in highest, behold him where he lies. Man. O miserable change ! is this the man That invincible Samson, far renowned? Samson. RHYME, STANZA, REFRAIN I 53 Only the importune Tempter still remained, And with these words his temptation pursued. The rest commit to me, I shall let pass No advantage, and his strength as oft assay. * * » * Then to the desert takes with these his flight, Where still from shade to shade the Son of God After forty days fasting had remained. P. R. Illustrate from the passages given below Coleridge's assertion that 'in chastity of diction and the harmony of blank verse, Cowper leaves Thomson immeasurably below him.' Through the hushed air the whitening shower descends, At first thin-wavering, till at last the flakes Fall broad and wide and fast, dimming the day With a continual flow. The cherished fields Put on their winter robe of purest white : 'Tis brightness all, save where the new snow melte Along the mazy current. Low the woods Bow their hoar head ; and ere the languid sun Faint from the west emits his evening ray, Earth's universal face, deep hid and chill, Is one wide dazzling waste, that buries wide The works of man. * * * * — The fowls of heaven, Tamed by the cruel season, crowd around The winnowing store, and claim the little boon Which Providence assigns them. One alone, The red-breast, sacred to the household gods, Wisely regardful of the embroiling sky, In joyless fields and thorny thickets leaves His shivering mates and pays to trusted man His annual visit. Half-afraid, he first Against the window beats ; then brisk alights On the warm hearth ; then hopping o'er the floor, Eyes all the smiling family askance, And pecks and starts, and wonders where he is ; Till more familiar grown, the table crumbs Attract his slender feet. Thomson. 154 MODERN ENGLISH METRE The night was winter in his roughest mood : The morning sharp and clear. But now at noon Upon the southern side of the slant hills, And where the woods fence oft" the northern blast, The season smiles, resigning all its rage, And has the warmth of May. The vault is blue Without a cloud, and white without a speck The dazzling splendour of the scene below. * * * * No noise is here, or none that hinders thought. The redbreast warbles still, but is content With slender notes, and more than half suppressed : Pleased with his solitude, and flitting light From spray to spray, where'er he rests he shakes From many a twig the pendant drops of ice, That tinkle in the withered leaves below. Stillness, accompanied with sounds so soft, Charms more than silence. Meditation here May think down hours to moments. Here the heart May give a useful lesson to the head, And Learning wiser grow without his books. Cowper. Point out the metrical faults where the following heroic lines are incorrectly printed, and make suggestions as to the true reading : Jael, who with hospitable guile. With the love juice as I bid thee do. So by former lecture and advice. Chillon ! thy prison is a holy place, Thy sad floor an altar, for 'twas trod Until his very footsteps have left a trace Worn, as thy cold pavement were a sod, By Bonnivard ! may none those marks efface ! They appeal from tyranny to God. RHYME, STANZA, REFRAIN 155 Final Exercises. II. Scan the following, pointing out any peculiarities of metre or rhyme : This is a spray the Bird clung to, Making it blossom with pleasure. Ere the hiyh tree-top she sprung to, Fit for her nest and her treasure. O, what a hope beyond measure Was the poor spray's, which the Hying feet hung to — So to be singled out, built in, and sung to ! Where shall we find her, how shall we sing to her, Fold our hands round her knees and cling? O that man's heart were as fire and could spring to her, Fire, or the strength of the streams that spring ! For the stars and the winds 'are unto her As raiment, as songs of the harp-player ; For the risen stars and the fallen cling to her, And the southwest-wind and the west-wind sing. Swinburne, Atalanta. When by Zeus relenting the mandate was revoked, Sentencing to exile the bright Sun-God, Mindful were the ploughmen of who the steer had yoked, Who : and what a track showed the upturned sod ! Mindful were the shepherds, as now the noon severe Bent a burning eye-brow to brown eve-tide, How the rustic flute drew the silver to the sphere, Sister of his own till her rays fell wide. God ! of whom music And song and blood are pure, The day is never darkened That had thee here obscure. G. Merkdith. There's a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield And the ricks stand gray to the sun, Singing: — ' Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover And your English summer's done.' You have heard the beat of the off-shore wind And the thresh of the deep-sea rain ; You have heard the song — how long ! how long ! Pull out on the trail again ! 156 MODERN ENGLISH METRE Ha' done with the Tents of Shem, dear lass, We've seen the seasons through, And it's time to turn on the old trail, our own trail, the out trail, Pull out, pull out, on the Long Trail— the trail that is always new. Rudyard Kipling. Final Exercises. III. Turn into blank verse the Prayer of Darius from Plutarch : " Gods of my family and kingdom, if it be possible, I beseech you to restore the declining affairs of Persia, that I may leave them in as flourishing a condition as I found them, and have it in my power to make a grateful return to Alexander for the kindness which in my adversity he has shown to those who are dearest to me. But if indeed the fatal time be come, if our ruin be a debt that must be paid to the divine jealousy and the vicissitudes of things, then I beseech you grant that no other man but Alexander may sit upon the throne of Cyrus." Paraphrase in the manner of Pope's Essay on Man the following passage from La Rochefoucauld on self- love : Nous sommes si preoccupes en ndtre faveur que souvent ce que nous prenons pour des vertus ne "sont que des vices qui leur ressem- blent, et que l'amour-propre nous deguise. Par exemple : qu'est-ce qui fait appeler la prodigalite, liberalite ; l'avarice, economie ; la cruaute, grandeur d'ame ; l'ambition, emulation ; et ainsi des autres vices habilles en vertus, si non, de la part des autres, la flatterie ; et de la notre un aveugle amour-propre ? A paraphrase of the 137th Psalm ('By the waters of Babylon ') in rhyming stanzas. The new Shakespeare-Bacon monster described after the manner of Dryden. A sonnet on the subject of General Gordon. A poem on the death of the Prince Imperial. INDEX. accent (stress), how distributed among the syllables of a single word ; denoted by symbols, i ; English tendency to throw back the accent, 2 ; regular recurrence of, constitutes Eng- lish verse, 1 ; illustrated from . Bacon and Scott, 2; may be changed by emphasis, 2 ; rising and falling, 4; see inversion, omission, doubling Aeschylus, refrain in, 135 aesthetic quality of metres, 87- 93 ; use of metrical variation, 94-123 alcaics, 82 alexandrine, II, 26-29 alliteration in l^atin, 124, 125; in old English verse, 127, 128; in modern English, 101-104, 106-119 amphibrach, or anapaest, 20, 21, 5*> 52 anacrusis, 20, 36, 38, 39 ; inter- nal, 72 anapaest, 5; for iamb, 13-15 anapaestic metres, 44-57; rhyme- less, 53 ; with double rhymes, 54, 55 ; substitution, iamb for anapaest, 44 f., cretic for ana- paest, 74, 75, monosyllable for anapaest, 44 f. anti-jacobin burlesques, 83, 99 Arnold, M., quoted, 40, 53, 57, 61, 91 Ascham, Roger, on rhyme, 129 asclepiad imitated by Swinburne, 83 assonance, 96, 138 ballads, roughness of the old, 85, 86 Baring-Gould, 33, 38, 84 Beaumont, Sir J., 130 blank verse introduced by Surrey, 128, see rhyme Bo wen, Lord, 80 Bridges, R., quoted, 78 Browning quoted, 6, 14, 27, 51, 64, 81, 142, 145 Burns, 32, 137 Byron, 30, 56, 132, 142 caesura, feminine, 20-22 ; in hexameter, 79, 80 Campbell, 73 f. (Ode to Nelson), 140, 144 Campion quoted, 138 Catullus, 135 Chapman, 29 Chaucer, 15; quoted, 22; on rhyme and metre, 127 ; his irregular rhymes, 134 Cicero on Ennius, 125 classical metres, 79-84 Clough, 80, 81, 139, 144 Coleridge, 30, 44, 79; quoted, 5, 14, 19, 25, 46, 52, 66, 80, 153; uses internal rhyme, 1 39 ; odes, 151 consonants classified, 96 Courthope, Hist, of Eng. Poetry, 127, 130 Cowper quoted, 5, 24, 46, 117, 118, 154 cretic for anapaest, 74, 75 Dabney quoted, 87, 88, 92 i 5 8 INDEX dactyl, 5; for iamb, 16; for trochee, 36 f. , 70, 7 1 dactylic metres, 44, 45, 49, 58- 62 ; substitution, trochee for dactyl, 57 f., monosyllable for dactyl, 58 f. Darley, 18, 19, 61 Denham quoted, 133 doubling of stress, see spondee Drayton, 27, 33, 63 Dryden quoted, 23, 28, 56 ; on rhyme, 130, 131 elegiacs, 80; irregular 81 Eliot, G., 138 elision, 16, 17 emendation, exercises on, 154 f. emphasis, how it affects stress, 3 ending, weak, 9; see feminine enjambement in Shakespeare, 9, 98; in Shelley, 99; line ending in the middle of a word, 99 ; aesthetic use of, 100 Ennius, rhyme in, 125 exercises on ch. I, to deter- mine the metres, 5 ; on II, to point out irregularities in heroic verse, 23; III, to scan other specimens of iambic verse, 34; IV, to scan specimens of tro- chaic, 42; V, to scan speci- mens of anapaestic, 56; VI, to scan specimens of dactylic, 63 ; VII, on mixed and doubt- ful metres, 78 ; VIII, on classical metres, 84 ; X, to point out the connexion of sound and sense in certain select passages, 122; XI, Final Exercises, 152-157 feminine ending, 1 8 ; use by Fletcher and Shakespeare, 18, 19; in Hamlet, 94-98; with two or more extra syllables, 19 ; within the line, 20, 76, 77; in anapaestic verse, 44- 46, 48, 50, 52-55 Fitzgerald, 144 Fletcher quoted, 18, 19; his Maid's Tragedy rewritten by Waller, 130 foot, meaning of the term, 4 Gosse {Lectures), 130 Gray, r 4 i, 149, i 5 o; elegy no, in Greene, 43 Griffin, G., 64 Hadrian, his use of rhyme, 125 hendecasyllables, 81, 82 Herbert, G., 37 Herrick, 34, 79 hexameter, 79, 80 ; truncated of Bowen and Browning, 80, 81 Hood quoted, 5, 59, 131, H3 Horace, rhyme in, 125 Hudibras, 132 hyper-metrical syllables, law of, 19 iamb, 4 ; for trochee, 37, 39 ; for anapaest, 44, 46 f. iambic metres, five-foot iambic, 7-25 ; six-foot, see Alexan- drine; seven-foot, 29; four- foot, 30-32; three-foot, 33; two-foot, 32; one-foot, 33; substitution, trochee for iamb, 10, 11, pyrrhic for iamb, 12, spondee for iamb, 12, 13, anapaest for iamb, 13-15, dactyl or tribrach for iamb, 16, long syllable for iamb, see truncation; sequence, iamb — trochee, 10; double tro- chee, n, 12 imitation of sense by sound, see onomatopoeia inversion of stress, trochee for ' iamb, 10-12 ; iamb for trochee, 37-39 Jonson, Ben, quoted, 6, 45, 99; his Pindaric ode, 150 INDEX 159 Keats, 131 Keble, 33 Kingsley, 79; quoted, 43, 58, 84, 118, 119 Kipling, Rudyard, 4a, 43, 156 ' laboratory,' pronunciation of, 2 n. Lamb, C. (Old Familiar Faces), 70, 71 Latin, rhyme and alliteration, 125, 126; accentual verse, 126 Lucretius, alliteration in, 125 Mapes' drinking song, 126 Marlowe quoted, 12, 16, 19, 22, 23, 30, 128 Meredith, G., 60, 61, 155 metre determined by rhythm and by the number of the feet, 4; mixed, 65-78 ; changed, in Maud, 67; Vision of Sin, 68 ; Lotos- Faters, 68; Wellington, 69; Revenge, 71-7^; Shelley, 70 ; Lamb, 70, 71; classical, 79-84 ; development of, from 1066 to 1561, 127 f. ; doubt- ful, 48, 50-53, 62, 70-77 ; aesthetic qualities of different metres, 87-93 Milton quoted, 7-1 1, 13, 14, 16-18, 20, 27, 31, 32, 35, l<\ 42, 65, 99, 122, 123, 129, 131; (metrical analysis), 100-110 monosyllabic foot, 45, 49, 119; see truncation 4 moon's ' or ' moones' in M.N.D., 66 Moore, T., 34 Morris, W., quoted, 1 r Murray, G., difficult metres, 75 -77 notation, in., 9 n., 26 n. ode, regular and irregular, 148; of Collins, 148; Wordsworth, 148 f . ; Gray, 149 f. ; Ben Jonson, 150; Campbell, 73- 75, 1 40; Dryden, 150 f . ; Coleridge, 151 omission of stress, see pyrrhic and tribrach onomatopoeia, 102-119; exces- sive, 120, 121 Ovid uses rhyme, 125 pause, in the middle or at the end of a foot, 8 ; final or in- ternal in the line, 8, 9 ; aesthetic use of, 100, 118 pentameter, see elegiacs Percy's Reliqiies, 45 Piers Plowman, 128 Pope, quotations from, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 24, 28, "7. l$*i 133 prose, how distinguished from verse, r pyrrhic for iamb, 12 Raleigh, 30 refrain, history of, 135; varieties of, 136 rhyme, monosyllabic, 124; 'per- fect' illegitimate in English, but practised by some poets, 134 f. ; Latin rhyming verse, ancient, 124, 125; mediaeval, 125 f . ; ousted alliteration, 127 ; depreciated by Mar- lowe, Ascham, B. Jonson, Milton, 128, 129 ; became fashionable again in the 17th and 1 8th centuries, 130 ; di- syllabic and polysyllabic, 131, 132; loose, 132 f . ; witnesses to change of pronunciation, 132; Shelley's negligent, 135, 137 f. ; leonine or internal, 138 f.; rhyming couplet, 141, 142; triplet, 142 f.; quartette, 143 f. ; multiplex rhyme, 144, 145 rhythm, rising and falling, 4 sapphics, 83 6o INDEX Scott quoted, 4, 5, 30, 34, 45, 46, 49, 58, 59, 65, 89, 139 Shakespeare, change of metre, 66 ; uses old English genitive, 99 ; unstopped lines, 9, 98 ; inversion of stress, 10, 11 ; spondee, 12, 13; anapaest, 13-15, 21 j marks' of elision, 17; feminine ending, 19, 94 -97 ; feminine caesura, 20-22 ; truncation initial and internal, 22, 23; Alexandrine, 29; quoted, 42, 45, 66, 78, 122, 136 Shelley quoted, 10-16, 19, 21, 3°> 3i> 3 2 > 35> 37-39' 4°"> *33» r 34>.i37, 138, 140. 143 slurring distinguished from eli- sion, 17; in Milton, 17; in Fletcher, 19 ; in Scott, 49 ; in ballads, 86; in Meredith, 61 sonnet, Petrarchian, 145 ; of Milton, 146; of Shakespeare, 146 f . ; of Wordsworth, 147 sound, qualities of, 96 Southey, 52, 53, 63 Spenser, 11, 27, 28, 33, 56, . 66 n„ 134, 135 spondee for iamb, 12, 13 stanza, 141 f. Steevens, 66 n. Suckling, 43 Surrey, 11, 13, 29, 66 n. Swinburne quoted, 15, 41, 44, 53-55, 83, 121, 140, 144, 155 syllable defective, see truncation ; superfluous at the beginning of the line, see anacrusis; at the end, see feminine ending ; within the line, see slurring, feminine caesura, anacrusis in- ternal Tennyson, 5, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 40-43, 47-51, 56, 59, 60, 62 (Boadicea), 63, 67 (Mattd), 68 ( Vision of Sin), 69 ( Welling- ton), 71 f. (Revenge), 77, 82, 123, 136, 142 Terza Rima, 142 Thomson quoted, 153 f. tribrach for iamb, 16 trochaic metres, 36-43 ; substi- tution of iamb for trochee, 39; of dactyl for trochee, 39 -42 ; see anacrusis, truncation trochee for iamb, 10-12 ; for dactyl, 58; for spondee, 79 truncation, 20; initial in five- foot iambic, 22; in four-foot, 30, 31 ; three-foot, 32 ; in anapaestic, 44, 46-50, 53, 55; internal, 23, 32, 33, 34, 42, 45, 49, 50; final m tro- chaic metres, 34-42 ; in dac- tylic, 58-62 Tusser, 45 type, variations of, 7, 8 f. unstopped lines, 9; see enjambe- ment variation, metrical, how pro- duced, 85, 100 f. verbal stress, 1-3 verse, how distinguished from prose, 1 Virgil, rhyme in, 125 vowels, long, their metrical effect, 102, [03, no, in, 119 ; see sound Waller, champion of correct rhyming verse, 130 Webster, 152 Wordsworth, 25 ; ode, 134, 141, 148, 149; sonnet, 147; loose rhymes, 133 Young, Sir G., quoted, 57, 143 CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY J. AND C. F. CLAY, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. THE PITT PRESS SERIES. COMPLETE LIST. GREEK. Author Work Editor Price Aeschylus Prometheus Vinctus Rack ham «/6 Aristophanes A ves — Plutus — Ranae Green 3/6 each n Vespae Graves . 3/6 »» Nubes »» *l* Demosthenes Olynthiacs Glover 2/6 Euripides Heracleidae Beck & Headlam 3/6 n Hercules Furens Gray & Hutchinson 2/- »i Hippolytus Hadley t/- tt Iphigeneiain Aulis Headlam 7/6 it Medea ,, 2/6 »» Hecuba Hadley 2/6 Helena Pearson Iii the Press >i Alcestis Hadley 2/6 >i Orestes Wedd 4/6 Herodotus Book v Shuck burgh 3/- t „ VI, VIII, IX M 4/- each _ ,, VIM 1—90, IX i — 89 ,, 2/6 each Homer Odyssey ix, x Edwards 2/6 each it XXI »» *h »» XI Nairn 2/- Iliad vi, xxii, xxiii, xxiv Edwards i\- each ?J Iliad ix, x Lawson 2/6 Luc j an Somnium, Charon, etc. Heitland 3/6 ii Menippus and Timon Mackie 3/6 Plato Apologia Socratis Adam H 6 * t> Crito N 2/6 >» Euthyphro »» 2/6 ii Protagoras J. & A. M. Adam 4/6 Plutarch Demosthenes Ilolden 4/6 M Gracchi M 6/- •i Nicias l» 5/- M Sulla t» 6/- Timoleon »» 6/- Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus Jebb 4/- Thucydides Book III Spratt 5/- Book VI ,, Irt (he Press 11 Book vii Holden sl- THE PITT PRESS SERIES. GREEK continued. Author f?*4 Editor Price Xenophon Agesilaus Hailstone 2/6 >> Anabasis Vol. I. Text Pretor 3/- >> Vol. II. Notes ii 4/6 ,, I, n »» 4/- It „ I, III, IV, V >» 2/- each l» „ II, VI, VII »> 2/6 each >> Hellenics I, II Edwards 3/6 »> Cyropaedeia 1 Shuckburgh 2/6 »> II ,, 2l- II „ III, IV, V Holden 5/- »» „ VI, VII, VIII >> 5/- »» Memorabilia I Edwards 2/6 »» II LATIN. >» 2I6 Bede Eccl. History in, iv Lumby 7/6 Caesar De Bello Gallico Com. i, in, vi, vin Peskett 1/6 each »» „ ii— in, and vi i M 2/- each »» » i-ni >> 3/- »* „ IV-V ,, 1/6 »» De Bello Civili. Com. I Peskett 3/- »> ,, ,, Com. Ill )» 2/6 Cicero Actio Prima in C. Verrem Cowie 1/6 j> De Amicitia Reid 3/6 5> De Senectute j > 3/6 J» De Officiis. Bk in Holden »/- »» Pro Lege Man ilia Nicol 1/6 »» Div. in Q. Caec. et Actio Prima in C. Verrem Heitland & Cowie 3/- >» Ep. ad Atticum. Lib II Pretor 3/- >» Orations against Catiline Nicol 2/6 >> Philippica Secunda Peskett 3/6 »l Pro Archia Poeta Reid i\~ >» „ Balbo »» 1/6 »t „ Milone 11 2/6 »» „ Murena Heitland 3/- »> „ Plancio Holden 4/6 »> „ Sulla Reid 3/6 »» Somnium Scipionis Pear man 2/. Corneliua Nepos Four parts Shuckburgh 1/6 each Horace Epistles. Bk I >» 2/6 »» Odes and Epodes Gow 5/- »» Odes. Books 1, in if- each ii „ Books ii, iv ; Epodes ,, 1 16 each >j Satires. Book i j> 2/- Juvenal Satires Duff 5/- THE PITT PRESS SERIES. LATIN continued. Author Work Editor Prict Livy Book I Edwards In the Press it ,, 11 Conway 2/6 •• „ IV, VI, IX, XXVII Stephenson ij6 each H n V Whibley Dimsdale 2/6 „ XXI, XXII a/6 each Lucan Pharsalia. Bk I Heitland & Ilaskins i/6 » » De Bello Civili. Bk vn Postgate »/- Lucretius Book in Duff */- i/6 u Ovid » v Fasti. Book vi >> Sidgwick ,, Metamorphoses, Bk I Dowdall i/6 ,, „ Bk vm Summers i/6 Phaedrus Fables Flather i/6 Plautus Epidicus Gray 3/- .« Stichus Fennell 2/6 >» Trinummus Gray 3/6 Quintus Curtlua Alexander in India Heitland & Raven SaUust Catiline Summers 2/- ,, Jugurtha »> 2/6 Tacitus Agricola and Germania Stephenson 3/- Hist. Bk i Davies 2/6 Terence Hautontimorumenos Gray 3/- Vergil Aeneid I to xn Sidgwick i/6 each »l Bucolics M i/6 • I Georgics I, II, and in, iv II 2/- each »» Complete Works, Vol. i, Text ,, 3/6 • » „ „ Vol. II, Notes „ 4/6 FRENCH. The Volumes marked * contain Vocabulary. About Le Roi des Montagnes Ropes »/• Biart Quand j'etais petit, Pts 1, n L'Art Poetique Boielle 2/- each Boileau Nichol Smith Corneille La Suite du Menteur Masson «/- ,, Polyeucte Braunholtz 2/- De Bonnechose Lazare Hoche Colbeck 2/- n Bertrand du Guesclin Leathes »/" • ? , Part II M 1/6 Delavlgne Louis XI Eve 2/- )> Les Enfants d'Edouard »i 2/- De Lamartiue Jeanne d'Arc La Canne de Jonc Clapin & R< jpes 1/6 DeVigny Eve 1/6 * Dumas La Fortune de D'Artagnan Ropes «/- •Enault Le Chien du Capitaine 3 Verrall a/- THE PITT PRESS SERIES. FRENCH continued. AutJior Work Erckmann-Chatrian La Guerre Waterloo Gautier Guizot Mme de Stael *Malot * Merim^e Micbelet Moliere Perrault Piron Ponsard Racine Saintine Sandeau Editor Price Clapin 3/- Ropes 3/- Le Blocus „ 3/- Madame TheVese „ 3/- Histoire d'un Conscrit „ 3/- Voyage en Italie (Selections) Payen Payne In the Press Discours sur l'Histoire de la Revolution d'Angleterre Le Directoire Dix Annees d'Exil Remi et ses Amis Remi en Angleterre Colomba Louis XI & Charles the Bold Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme L'Ecole des Femmes Les Precieuses ridicules „ ( A bridged Edition) Le Misanthrope L'Avare Fairy Tales La Metromanie Charlotte Corday Les Plaid eurs ,, {Abridged Edition) Athalie Picciola Mdlle de la Seigliere Eve Masson & Prothero Verrall »> Ropes Clapin Saintsbury Braunholtz Rippmann Masson Ropes Braunholtz Eve Ropes Scribe & Legouve Bataille de Dames Scribe Sedaine Souvestre Spencer Thierry Villemain Voltaire Xavier de Maistre Bull Colbeck Bull Eve Ropes 2/6 2/- 1/- */- *h 2/6 1/6 2/6 */- »/- 2/6 2/6 1/6 2/- «/• »/- 1/- 2/. «/- «/- *h 9h 2/- «/- »/- 1/6 3/- Le Verre d'Eau Le Philosophe sans le savoir Un Philosophe sous les Toits Le Serf & Le Chevrier de Lorraine LeSerf A Primer of French Verse Lettres sur l'histoire de France (xm — xxiv) Masson & Prothero Recits des Temps Merovin- giens, I — in Masson & Ropes Lascaris ou les Grecs du xv" Siecle Masson Histoire du Siecle de Louis XIV, in three parts Masson & Prothero 2/6 each La Jeune Siberienne. Lei Lepreux delaCited'Aostej Masson 2/6 3/- 2/- 1/6 THE PITT PRESS SERIES. GERMAN. The Volumes marked * contain Vocabulary. Author V#*l Editor Price •Andersen Eight Fairy Tales Rippmann «/6 Benedlx Dr Wespe Breul 3/- Freytag Der Staat Friedrichs des Grossen Wagner w- ♦» Die Journalisten Eve a/6 Goethe Knabenjahre (1749 — 1761) Wagner & Cartmell */■ »» Hermann und Dorothea fi •• 3/6 Iphigenie Breul 3/6 * Grimm Selected Tales Rippmann 3/- Gutzkow Zopf und Schwert Wolstenholme 3/6 Hacklander Der geheime Agent E. L. Milner Barry 3/- Hauff Das Bild des Kaisers Breul 3/- N Das Wirthshaus im Spessart Schlottmann & Cartmell 3/- M Die Karavane Schlottmann 3/- • »» Der Sheik von Alessandria Rippmann 2/6 Immermann Der Oberhof Wagner 3/- Klee Die deutschen Heldensagen Wolstenholme 3/- Kohlrausch Das Jahr 181 3 M »/- Lessing Minna von Barnhelm Wolstenholme 3/- Lessing & Gellert Selected Fables Breul 3/- Mendelssohn Selected Letters Sime 3/- Raumer Der erste Kreuzzug Wagner + Riehl Culturgeschichtliche Novellen Wolstenholme 3/' Die Ganerben & Die Ge- rechtigkeit Gottes •f M: Schiller Wilhelm Tell Breul */6 H ,, {Abridged Edition) •1 ./6 i» Geschichte des dreissigjah- rigen Kriegs Book in. »> 3/- »» Maria Stuart M 3/6 »» Wallenstein I. (Lager and Piccolomini N 3/6 „ Wallenstein II. (Tod) >> 3/6 Sybel Prinz Eugen von Savoyen Quiggin a/6 Uhland Ernst, Herzog von Schwaben Wolstenholme Wagner 3/6 Ballads on German History 9h German Dactylic Poetry N Zh THE PITT PRESS SERIES. ENGLISH. AutJior Work Editor Price Bacon History of the Reign of King Henry VII Lumby 3/- »» Essays West 3/6 & »> New Atlantis G. C. M. Smith 1/6 Cowley Essays Lumby 4/' Defoe Robinson Crusoe, Part I Masterman ."*/• Earle Microcosmography West 3/- &4/- Gray Poems Tovey 4/- &5/« Kingsley The Heroes E. A. Gardnei »/- Lamb Tales from Shakespeare Flather i/6 Macaulay Lord Clive Innes i/6 M Warren Hastings H i/6 William Pitt and Earl of Chatham 2/6 M Lays and other Poems Flather i/6 Mayor A Sketch of Ancient Philosophy from Thales to Cicero 3/6 More History of King Richard III Lumby 3/6 ,, Utopia »» 3/6 Milton Arcades and Comus Ode on the Nativity, L'Alle-) Verity 3/- 2/6 gro, 11 Penseroso & Lycidas) >» „ Samson Agonistes ,, 2/6 >» Sonnets „ i/6 >> Paradise Lost, six parts M 2/ - each Pope Essay on Criticism West */- Scott Marmion Masterman 2/6 »» Lady of the Lake >» 2/6 Lay of the last Minstrel Flather */- >> Legend of Montrose Simpson 2/6 Lord of the Isles Flather 2/- >> Old Mortality Nicklin 2/6 Shakespeare A Midsummer-Night's Dream Verity i/6 Twelfth Night ,, i/6 Julius Caesar ii i/6 The Tempest • » x/6 King Lear ,, ./6 Merchant of Venice » j i/6 King Richard II ri i/6 As You Like It *» i/6 King Henry V »> i/6 Macbeth >> i/6 Hamlet „ In the Press Shakespeare & Fletcher Two Noble Kinsmen Skeat 3/6 Sidney An Apologie for Poetrie Shuckburgh 3/- Walla< :e Outlines of the Philosophy of Aristotle 4/6 A utJior West Carlos Mill Bartholomew THE PITT PRESS SERIES. ENGLISH continued. Work Editor Elements of English Grammar English Grammar for Beginners Key to English Grammars Short History of British India Elementary Commercial Geography Atlas of Commercial Geography Price a/6 '/- % Robinson Jackson Church Catechism Explained The Prayer Book Explained. Parti Part II th »/6 In the Press Ball Euclid Hobson&Jessop Loney Smith, C. Hale, Q. MATHEMATICS. Elementary Algebra 4/6 Books 1 — vi, xi, xil Taylor 5/- Books 1— vi „ 4 /- Books I — iv „ 3/- Also separately Books I, & 11; III, & iv; v, & VI ; XI, & xn 1/6 each Solutions to Exercises in Taylor's Euclid W. W. Taylor 10/6 And separately Solutions to Bks 1 — iv „ 6/- Solutions to Books vi. xi „ 6/- Elementary Plane Trigonometry 4/6 Elements of Statics and Dynamics 7/6 Part 1. Elements of Statics 4/6 „ 11. Elements of Dynamics 3/6 Elements of Hydrostatics 4/6 Solutions to Examples, Hydrostatics 5/- Solutions of Examples, Statics and Dynamics 7/6 Mechanics and Hydrostatics 4/6 Arithmetic for Schools, with or without answers 3/6 Part 1. Chapters 1 — vm. Elementary, with or without answers 2/- Part II. Chapters IX— XX, with or without answers 2/- Key to Smith's Arithmetic 7/6 London: C. J. CLAY and SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE. GLASGOW : 50, Wellington Street. W$t (Kamfcritrge iSftle for Spools anir ffiolieges* General Editors: J. J. S. PEROWNE, D.D., Formerly Bishop op Worcester, A. F. KIRKPATRICK, D.D., Regius Professor op Hebrew. Extra Foap. 8vo. cloth, with Maps when required. New Volumes. I and n Chronicles. Rev. W. E. Barnes, D.D. 2s. 6d. net. Psalms. Books II and III. Prof. Kirkpatrick, D.D. 2s.net. Psalms. Books IV and V. Prof. Kirkpatrick, D.D. 2s. net. Song of Solomon. Rev. Andrew Harper, B.D. 1*. 6d. net . Book of Isaiah. Chaps. I.-XXXTX. Rev. J. Skinner, D.D. 2s. 6d. net. Chaps. XL LXVL Rev. J. Skinner, D.D. 2s. &d. net. Book of Daniel. Rev. S. R. Driver, D.D. 2s. Qd. net. Epistles to Timothy & Titus. Rev. A. E. Humphreys, M.A. 2s. net. €i)t Smaller Camftntrge astble for £>ri)G0te* Now Ready. With Maps. Price Is. each volume. Book of Joshua. Rev. J. S. Black, LL.D. Book of Judges. Rev. J. S. Black, LL.D. First Book of Samuel. Prof. Kirkpatrick, D.D. Second Book of Samuel. Prof. Kirkpatrick, D.D. First Book of Kings. Prof. Lumby, D.D. Second Book of Kings. Prof. Lumby, D.D. Ezra & Nehemiah. The Rt. Rev. H. E. Ryle, D.D. Gospel according to St Matthew. Rev. A. Garb, M.A. Gospel according to St Mark. Rev. G. F. Maclear, D.D. Gospel according to St Luke. Very Rev. F. W. Farbar, D.D. Gospel according to St John. Rev. A. Flummer, D.D. Acts of the Apostles. Prof. Lumby, D.D. €f)t Cambridge -*.- gsQS3'&3 19W62NW REcrn LP -jUL-3 0Hvl TfJaWMr REC'D LP 3'fi4 -3 pw 22 1 981 BC.CIR. M2? 1 * LD 21A-50m-4,'59 (A1724sl0)476B General Library University of California Berkeley jj/