Amelia, Tamerton church-tower, etc.,

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 55 But alliteration has served, and, in Icelandic verse, still serves, a far more important and systematic purpose. One of the most scientifically perfect metres ever in- vented, if, indeed, it be not perfect beyond all others, when considered with reference to the language for which it was destined, is the great Gothic alliterating metre, the only metre of which we can affirm that it has been the main vehicle of the whole poetry of any one language, much less of a group of languages. The general law of this metre is, that it shall consist of a series of verses, each of which is divided, by a powerful cæsura, into two sections, or hemistichs.

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In the first hemistich, the two accented syllables alliterate, and this alliteration is continued on to one, and that one most usually, though not, as Rask would have it, regularly, the first of the accented syllables in the second. This law, which seems to have been regarded by Mitford, Percy, Rask, Guest, Hegel, and others, as an arbitrary one, is most admirably adapted to fulfil the conditions of a truly accentual metre, that is to say, of a metre which, totally abandoning the element of natural syllabic quantity, takes the isochronous bar for the metrical integer, and uses the same kind of liberty as is claimed by the musical composer, in filling up that space.

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 57 And was ware of a woman Worthlyith clothed, Purfiled with pelure, The finest upon erthe; Crowned with a crowne, The king hath no better.”

The artistical effect which results from its observance cannot a be expected to strike so immediately, but we venture to say that no good ear, when once accustomed to it, can fail to perceive in this law a fountain of pure and beauti- ful metrical character,* or at least to absolve it from the charge of any essential quaintness or oddity, though an appearance of such character inevitably attaches itself at first to what is so far from our daily notions.

His verses, how- ever, would frequently have been the better for adhering more closely than they do to the alliterative law of the original metre.

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58 PREFATORY STUDY ON meaning of this law, the cause of its just effect, seems, as I have hinted, to have been overlooked by critics.

It is to be observed, first, that, according to the rule of this measure, the hemistich or versicle of two accents may contain from three to seven, or even more syllables ; secondly, that this metre, like all others, depends for its existence on having the metrical accents in easily recognisable positions, a doubt- ful place for the accent being ruinous to any metre; thirdly, that, in a language consisting, as the Anglo- Saxon does, chiefly of monosyllables, the place of the accent in a series of several syllables must often be doubtful, unless it occurs pretty regularly on every second or every third syllable, as in iambic and anapæstic verse, or unless the immediate recognition of its place be assisted by some artifice.

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 59 the Anglo-Saxon, it is most essential that there should be no doubt about, namely, the emphatic syllable which pre- ccdes, and that which follows the strongly marked cæsura by which the versicles are separated. The metrical dot which, in ancient MSS. commonly marks the main cæsura in Anglo-Saxon and other Old English asynartete verse, is unessential in this place, if the alliteration be properly adhered to. The dot was most likely used at first only to distinguish verses,* and its further employ- ment to mark the cæsura seems likely to have arisen from the las observance, by some poets, of the alliterative law, which, in Anglo-Saxon verse, is sometimes neg- lected to a degree for which we can only account by the supposition that this unartistic use of the cæsural dot reacted upon the practice of the poets, and increased the * " Anglo-Saxon poetry,” says Mr.

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This, however, it could only do in very small part; it quite fails to supply the needful assistance to the accentuation in such a metre, although it marks the place of a pause. In fact, the law of alliteration is the only conceivable intrinsic mode of immediately indicating the right metrical accentuation where the language consists mainly of mono- syllables and the verse admits of a varying number of unemphatic syllables, before, between, and after the accented ones. The weak point of Rask's approximate statement of the laws of Anglo-Saxon versification has been pointed out by Mr.

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 61 > five, or more syllables, it is impossible to read them all without accentuation; but the more forcible answer is, 1 that the very notion of a “complement,” as stated by Rask, is contrary to the nature of metre.

Guest understands it, may be of indefinite length, to the utter destruction of all metrical continuity. The true account of all those cases in which more than two, or at most three, syllables precede the alliterating syllable in the second hemistich is, that, when they are not erroneous transcriptions, they are metrical laxities, from which we have no reason to suppose that Anglo-Saxon poets were singularly exempt. The view which I have taken of the metrical motive

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62 PREFATORY STUDY ON a of alliteration in Anglo-Saxon verse, as a means of emphasising to the hearer, and of immediately cer- tifying to the reader, the places of the principal accents, is further confirmed by the fact, that, whereas, when the Anglo-Saxon poets used rhyme, they lavished it with an abundance which showed that it had no metrical value in their eyes, and was introduced for the mere pleasure of the jingle, and to such an extent, that every word in a famous poem quoted by Cony beare rhymes with some other, it was just the reverse with the alliteration, which is almost invariably limited to three syllables. Now, had it not been for the existence of the metrical motive which I have indicated, the liking for jingle which led to the composition of such rhymes would have also led to a similar profusion of alliteration; but this limitation of the alliteration to the places of the most important accents was strictly observed, and immoderate alliteration only manifested itself in English verse, when the alliterative metre had given place to metres regulated by rhyme, after which

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 63 change, rhyme assumed metrical strictness and mode- ration, and alliteration, when used at all, was confined by no rule, but was sometimes carried through every word in a verse, without any regard to the accentual quality of the syllables.* It seems to have afforded matter of surprise to some, that the Anglo-Saxon poets, though fully understanding the metrical use of final rhyme, should have employed it metrically only when writing in Latin A little con- sideration, however, will suffice to show that final rhyme is not only not necessary, but that it is contrary to the nature of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse, of which the greatest commendation is the vast variety allowed for the position of the accents—a variety not possible where the accents are not artificially indicated. It is obvious, that * Welsh poetry, from the earliest times, has made an abun- dant use of alliteration, the rules for its employment having even been fixed at congresses of the bards ; but, as far as I can judge from examination of the verse without a knowledge of the lan- guage, the alliteration in Welsh poetry is not metrical, but “ ornamental.”

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Before taking leave of this part of my subject, something must be said concerning the question of the cadence of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. tion, at first sight, appears to be one of more difficulty than it really is. The actual metrical delivery of any long passage of Anglo-Saxon verse might puzzle the best Anglo-Saxon scholar, owing to the impossibility of settling, in every case, the right pronunciation of words, and to the fact that the laws of alliteration, as stated by This ques-

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 65 Rask, though they must have afforded most sufficing assistance to those for whom Anglo-Saxon was a living language, are by no means so invariably observed as to afford infallible guidance to us.

Guest maintains that, in our ancient poetry, the common and triple cadences were inextricably mixed, and that “it is not till a period comparatively modern, that the common and triple measures disentangle them- selves from the heap, and form, as it were, the two limits of our English rhythm." Now, in support of Mitford's view :- First: There is a strong natural probability that the verse of a language like the Anglo- Saxon, which, when spoken, would fall into “common” or " iambic” time, on account of the great prepon- derance of monosyllables, and the consequently usual alterpation of one accented and one unaccented syllable, 7 F

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 67 preceding lines, and read the last as if it formed one of a series of seven-syllable trochaics, and its movement and character are totally changed.

Thirdly and lastly: Much, if not all, the supposed difficulty in the way of regarding Anglo-Saxon verse as altogether in triple time, disappears when we remember that it was originally meant to be sung to the harp, and that its rhythmical movement might very well be obscure, confused, and apparently mixed,” until developed by highly emphatic delivery, and musical accompaniment. The metrical function of rhyme, like that of allitera- tion, has never yet been fully recognised.

Campion, in his “ Observations on the Art of English F 2

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68 PREFATORY STUDY ON Poesy,” violently attacked “the vulgar and unartificiall custome of riming," and supported his destructive with a constructive attempt, giving specimens of several modes of rhymeless English metre, his example of heroic verse being remarkable for its studied, and almost Miltonic science, as compared with the like attempts of Surrey and Grimoald.

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 69 operation, or before the world will feel where the pulse, life, and energy lies, which now we're sure where to find in our rymes, whose knoune frame hath those due stayes for the mind, those incounters of touch as make the motion certaine, though the varietie be infinite.

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70 PREFATORY STUDY ON well carried, as neither the Greeks nor the Latins ever attained unto.” 4 The transcendent genius of Milton succeeded in esta- blishing one kind of rhymeless narrative metre, in the face of the obstacles justly alleged by Daniel; and the ever- increasing familiarity of that metre to English ears, has given rise, in our days, to renewed doubts of the legitimacy of rhyme, and to renewed occasion for insisting on its claim. Rhyme is so far from being extra-metrical and merely “ ornamental,” as most persons imagine it to be, that it is the quality to which nearly all our metres owe their very existence. The octo-syllabic couplet and quatrain, two of the most important measures we have, are measures only by virtue of the indication, supplied by rhyme, of the limits of the verse; for they have no catalectic pause, without which“ blank verse” in English is impossible. All staves, as Daniel remarks, are created by rhyme.

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 71 beautiful lines, beginning “Rose-cheek'd Laura, come;" Collins, in his “Ode to Evening;” Mr.

Sir Philip Sydney and George Puttenham agree with Daniel in regarding rhyme as the highest metrical power we have. Mr. Guest, in modern days, does rhyme the justice to say, that “it marks and defines the accent, and thereby strengthens and supports the rhythm.

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The material or external element of syllabic quantity, is thus dissolved and lost in the spirituality which produces quantity instead of obeying it; and this loss, he maintains, is not compensated by the law of accentual division which remains. A new power, working ab extra, is required; and this is found in rhyme, of which the very grossness, as compared with syllabic quantity, is a great advantage, inasmuch as the greater spirituality of modern thought and feeling, demand a more forcible material contrast.

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 73 remarkably shown in its sir plest operation; for, in stanzas of elaborate construction, its powers, though always metrical and decisive, are too intricately in- volved, and too much connected, in their working, with other metrical principles, to be traced and described in this brief summary.

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 75 emphasis contrasting too strongly with the very weak accentual construction of the line, which, as it is ordi- narily treated, has no sectional—i.e., “dipodal”—division.

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 77 same number of syllables ; it is the mere filling up of the trimeter ; and that Spenser intended it so is proved by the innumerable instances in which he has made middle pause impossible.

Of these, none has taken so strong a hold upon the English ear as the ballad metre of fourteen syllables, with the stress on the eighth, or, what is the same thing, the stave of “eight and six.”

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 79 “ Thus, rolling in her burning breast, she strait to Acolia hied, Into the countrie of cloudy skies, where blustering windes abide.

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80 PREFATORY STUDY ON effects, but Phaer is the only writer I know of who has turned it into a metrical element in this way. The poet who may be courageous enough to repeat, in our day, Phaer's experiment (the success of which, in his time, is proved by its never having been remarked), must fortify himself against the charge of being “rough,' musical,” and so forth, with the assurance, that, wherever there is true adherence to law and proportion, there is also beauty, though want of custom may often un- make his law seem license to his readers. A con- siderable step has been taken towards the recognition of this element, as a regular part of English metre, in the omission, from the pages of our poets, of the comma indicative of an elision which does not really exist. This little digression may be concluded with Foster's remark, made at a time when the mark of elision was always used, that “the anapæst is common in every place (of English iambic verse), and it would appear much oftener, with propriety and grace, if abbreviations were more avoided."

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 81 »* in- “ This tynkerly verse, which we call rhyme,' cludes, then, all the forms of the tetrameter, the major accents of which could not be expressed to an English ear by any other means, except alliteration, which is a sort of rhyme.

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But, notwithstanding the practibility of various kinds of unrhymed verse, there is only one which has established itself with us as a standard measure; and that is, of all recognised English metres, the most difficult to write well in, because it, of all others, affords the greatest facilities to mediocrity.

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 83 which ten syllables are susceptible.

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ENGLISH METRICAL LAW. 85 will sound very paradoxical to some, when I assert that the most inflexibly rigid, and as they are commonly thought, difficult metres, are the easiest for a novice to write decently in.

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a And of delight, the guerdon of His laws, She spake, in learned mood; And I, of Him loved reverently, as Cause, Her sweetly, as Occasion of all good.

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108 TAMERTON CHURCH-TOWER; We clomb the hill where Lanson's Keep Fronts Dartmoor’s distant ridge ; Thence trotted South; walk'd down the steep That slants to Gresson Bridge; And paused awhile, where Tamar waits, In many a shining coil, And teeming Devon separates From Cornwall's sorry soil. 2 Our English skies contain'd, that Spring, > A Caribbean sun; The singing birds forgot to sing, The rivulets to run.

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Yea, does from her own law, to hint it, err, As 'twere a trust too huge for her.