A Short History of English Versification from the Earliest Times to the Present Day

,,Leuedi", quod | Jósèp, wat bi | wille | be?"

205 Josep", | quod pe | quénèl, „nou pou | art welcome, Nou in mine | bóurè ich be haue inome.

Ich be wole | téllèn one | tídinge,

|nas he | no þing | glad,

bad.

§ 134. Interchange of various Kinds of Verse.

We must, therefore, adhere to the proposition: The arbitrary mixture of septenaries and alexandrines, assumed by Schipper, does not occur. The alexandrine was at the time quite unknown in English. All the verses of these poems are to be scanned as septenaries. The caesura and the end of the line can be masculine or feminine.

In two poems of the period there is a real mixture of verses; this is not an arbitrary mixture, however, but certain parts of the poem are separated from other parts by having a different metre.

A lutel soth sermoun (Old Engl. Misc. pp. 186 to 191) begins with eight septenaries riming in pairs (printed as short lines 1-16)

Hérkneþ álle góde mén and stýlle sítteþ adún.
And ích ou wile téllèn a lútel sób sermún etc.

Then follow eight short rimed couplets (17-24)

He made him into hélle fálle

And after hím his children álle etc.

and from v. 25 come long lines again rimed in pairs:

Alle bakbytares heo wendep to helle

Robbares and reuares and be monquelle etc.

The change in metre is even clearer in the Bestiary (Old Eng. Misc. pp. 1-25). Just as in the Latin source, the Physiologus of Thebaldus (Old Engl. Misc. pp. 201-209), hexameters and other metres are used, the English poet uses different metres for the various sections of his work. He uses:

1. the alliterative long-line with and without rime (Lagamon's verse), e.g. 384 ff.

A wilde der is dat is ful of fele wiles,
fox is hire to name for hire queđsipe;
husebondes hire haten for hire harm dedes:

de coc and te capun ge fecched ofte in de tun,

and te gandre and te

haled it to hire hole;

gos bi de necke and bi de nos,
fordi man hire hatied,

hatien and hulen bode men and fules etc.

2. the short rimed couplet, e.g. 444 ff.

de deuel is tus de fox ilik

mid iuele breides and wid swik;

and man al so de foxes name

arn wurdi to hauen same;

for wo so seied ođer god

and denked iuel on his mod,

fox he is and fend iwis,

de boc ne leged nogt of dis etc.

regular rimed septenaries (common metre § 229) 88 ff.:

Al is man so is tis ern,

wulde ge nu listen,

Old in hise sinnes dern,

or he bicumed cristen,

And tus he newed him đis man,

danne he nimed to kirke,

or he it bidenken can,

hise egen weren mirke.

Forsaket dore Satanas

and ilk sinful dede,

taked him to Jhesu Crist,

for he sal ben his mede etc.

§ 135. Stanza Formation.

When in two septenaries (long lines) not only the verse-endings but also the caesurae are connected by rime, as in the above extract from Bestiary 88 ff., then a stanza of four lines with crossed rime is formed. The verses have four and three beats respectively (a,b,a,b). This is the ballad metre or common metre.

In the Poema Morale, Samaritan Woman, Passion, Josephslied, King Horn and other poems every rimed couplet is generally a unity in contents and syntax, so that these poems, too, may be divided into fourline stanzas: aabb, or aabb. A stanza of this kind lacked a clear ending and easily became confused by much copying.

Some lyrical poems, printed by Morris in the Old English Miscellany have stanzas of 6, 8, 10

or 12 verses. But since it is doubtful, whether these poems belong to the first period of ME., it will be best to postpone the discussion of stanzaformation (§ 161 ff.).

§ 136. Rime: a) Masculine Rime.

By rime we mean that two or more words have the same final stressed vowels and the same consonants or unstressed syllables, which follow them. a) If the final stressed vowel is in the final syllable of the word, the verse-ending and rime are called masculine, e.g. ME. be: me lyf: wyf

- lond: hond

day: wey

mist: nigt etc.

In NE. the rime is also masculine when a word ends in a silent e, e.g. NE. done: sun-life: wife, and when inflexional e is silent: find: signed.

§ 137. b) Feminine Rime.

b) If an unstressed syllable follows the final stressed syllable, the verse-ending and rime are feminine, e.g. ME. dye: chivalrye

seye: tweye fable: able

honoureth:

lengthe: strengthe etc. kinges: thinges hondes: londes confounded: wounded

laboureth sadel: cradel etc.

NOTE. In Chaucer no word, ending with an unstressed e, can rime with a word which does not contain such an e, whilst other poets of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are less careful and use rimes such as: all: falle it: sitte sone etc. (§ 143).

day: seye

I: dye

stoon: mone

ydoon:

In NE. feminine rime is rarer than in ME. because the unstressed e of final syllables is generally silent. Feminine rime occurs in NE. only when the vowel of the unstressed final syllable is really pronounced, e.g. fable: table, fishes: wishes, saying: playing etc.

§ 138. c) Gliding Rime.

c) If two unstressed syllables follow the last stressed syllable, the verse-ending and rime are called gliding (three-syllable rime), e.g. ME. yborene: ycorene heuene: seuene fereden: nereden etc.

morowe: sorowe

Gliding rime is relatively rare in ME., since of two unstressed e, one early became silent; louede became loued, makede became maked or made, cryede became cryed or cryde.

In NE. we find gliding rime in comic and satirical poems, e.g. Byron's Beppo and Don Juan; but here only words of romance origin can be used, e.g. magnanimity: sublimity nunnery: gunnery etc., with three unstressed syllables: eligible: intelligible.

§ 139. Broken Rime.

When an independent, but unstressed, word follows the last stressed syllable of the verse, broken rime results. This is common in ME., especially in Chaucer. Generally only one of the two rimes is broken, e.g. Chaucer deedis (deeds):

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