English Verse Part 38

Another form of the measure is ill.u.s.trated by some verses quoted by Schipper:

"Fortunae rota volvitur, descendo minoratus, Alter in altum tollitur, nimis exaltatus."

In English, naturally enough, the measure always tended to be iambic. In both Latin and English there was considerable freedom as to the number of light syllables. It will be noticed that in the specimens just quoted from the Latin there is rime not only between the ends of the verses but between the syllables just preceding the cesura. Where this was the case there was a tendency toward the breaking up of the verse into a quatrain of verses in four and three stresses, riming _abab_; such septenaries, indeed, were written at pleasure either in couplets or quatrains. We shall see the same phenomena in the English forms of the measure. But the seven-stress rhythm is not easily lost or mistaken, in whatever form it appears, and has a certain charm which at one time appealed very widely to metrical taste.

The earliest appearance of the septenary in English is in the _Poema Morale_, dated about 1170 by Zupitza, by others somewhat later. For a specimen of this, see p. 127, above. Here there is only end-rime, and the individuality of the long line is well preserved. There is some freedom, however, as to the number of light syllables, and some variation between the iambic and trochaic rhythm.

Blessed beo thu, lavedi, ful of hovene blisse, Swete flur of parais, moder of miltenisse; Thu praye Jhesu Crist thi sone that he me i-wisse, Thare a londe al swo ihc beo, that he me ne i-misse.

(_Hymn to the Virgin_, in Matzner's _Altenglische Sprachproben_, vol. i.

p. 54.)

Matzner prints this poem in short lines of four and three stresses, the cesura making such a division natural enough. The next specimen is also frequently printed with the same division.

iss boc iss nemmnedd Orrmulum, forr i att Orrm itt wrohhte, annd itt iss wrohht off quarigan, off G.o.ddspellbokess fowwre, off quarigan Amminadab, off Cristess G.o.ddspellbokess; forr Crist ma?? urh Amminadab rihht full wel ben bitacnedd; forr Crist toc dae o rodetre all wi hiss fulle wille; annd forri att Amminadab o latin spaeche iss nemmnedd o latin boc spontaneus annd onn ennglisshe spaeche att weppmann, att summ dede do wi all hiss fulle wille, fori ma?? Crist full wel ben urrh Amminadab bitacnedd.

(_The Ormulum_, ll. 1-9. ab. 1200.)

In this specimen we have the septenary without rime, a rare form. Orm's septenaries are also the most regular of the Middle English period, preserving an almost painful accuracy throughout the 20,000 extant lines of the poem. In general the measure appears in this period in combination with alexandrines and other measures, and with much irregularity. Like the alexandrine, it was sometimes confused with the long four-stress line. In the well-known poem called "A Little Soth Sermun" the first line is an unquestionable septenary ("Herkneth alle G.o.de men and stylle sitteth a-dun"), but presently we find verse of six stresses, and even short four-stress couplets.

Torne we a?en in tour sawes, and speke we atte frome of erld Olyver and his felawes, at Sarazyns habbe ynome.

e Sarazyns pryka faste away, as harde as ay may hye, and lede wi hymen at riche pray, e flour of chyvalrye.

(_Sir Fyrumbras_, ll. 1104-1107. In Zupitza'S _Alt- und Mittelenglisches ubungsbuch_, p. 107. ab. 1380.)

In this specimen--from a popular romance--we have the use of cesural rime as well as end-rime, just as in the Latin specimens cited above.

I tell of things done long ago, Of many things in few: And chiefly of this clime of ours The accidents pursue.

Thou high director of the same, a.s.sist mine artless pen, To write the gests of Britons stout, And acts of English men.

(WILLIAM WARNER: _Albion's England_, ll. 1-8. 1586.)

Here we have the measure in its "resolved" or divided form, printed as short four-stress and three-stress lines, although with rime only at the seventh stress. Compare the "common metre" of modern hymns:

"Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease, While others fought to win the prize And sailed through b.l.o.o.d.y seas?"

As when about the silver moon, when air is free from wind, And stars s.h.i.+ne clear, to whose sweet beams, high prospects, and the brows Of all steep hills and pinnacles, thrust up themselves for shows, And even the lowly valleys joy to glitter in their sight, When the unmeasured firmament bursts to disclose her light, And all the signs in heaven are seen, that glad the shepherd's heart; So many fires disclosed their beams, made by the Trojan part, Before the face of Ilion, and her bright turrets show'd.

A thousand courts of guard kept fires, and every guard allow'd Fifty stout men, by whom their horse eat oats and hard white corn, And all did wishfully expect the silver-throned morn.

(CHAPMAN: _Iliad_, book VIII. 1610.)

Chapman's translation of _Iliad_ is the longest modern English poem in septenaries. Professor Newman, however (whose translation gave rise to Matthew Arnold's lectures _On Translating Homer_), used the same measure unrimed and with feminine endings; thus,--

"He spake, and yelling, held afront the single-hoofed horses."

Arnold objected to Chapman's measure that "it has a jogging rapidity rather than a flowing rapidity, and a movement familiar rather than n.o.bly easy."

Rejoice, oh, English hearts, rejoice! rejoice, oh, lovers dear!

Rejoice, oh, city, town and country! rejoice, eke every s.h.i.+re!

For now the fragrant flowers do spring and sprout in seemly sort, The little birds do sit and sing, the lambs do make fine sport; And now the birchen-tree doth bud, that makes the schoolboy cry; The morris rings, while hobby-horse doth foot it feateously; The lords and ladies now abroad, for their disport and play, Do kiss sometimes upon the gra.s.s, and sometimes in the hay.

(BEAUMONT: _The Knight of the Burning Pestle_, IV. v. ab. 1610.)

Here the septenary is introduced in the May-day song of Ralph, the London apprentice, doubtless because of its popularity for such unliterary verse.

In somer, when the shawes be sheyne, And leves be large and long, Hit is full mery in feyre foreste To here the foulys song.

(_Ballad of Robin Hood and the Monk_, in Gummere's _English Ballads_, p.

77.)

It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three.

"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?" ...

... He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear G.o.d who loveth us, He made and loveth all.

(COLERIDGE: _The Ancient Mariner_, ll. 1-4, 614-617. 1798.)

These specimens show the ballad stanza, which is made of a sort of septenary resolved into short lines of four and three accents. It is often a.s.sumed that the measure was derived from the Latin septenary; but owing to the difficulty of supposing that a foreign metre should have been adopted for the most popular of all forms of poetry, some scholars prefer to think that the ballad stanza of this form is the same as that in which all lines have four accents (see specimen on p. 157, above), the last accent of the second and fourth lines having dropped off by natural processes. On the ballad stanzas in general, see Gummere's _English Ballads_, Appendix II. p. 303. Compare with the present specimens the metre of Cowper's _John Gilpin_.

That cross he now was fastening there, as the surest power and best For supplying all deficiencies, all wants of the rude nest In which, from burning heat, or tempest driving far and wide, The innocent boy, else shelterless, his lonely head must hide.

(WORDSWORTH: _The Norman Boy_. 1842.)

This is a rare instance of the use of the long septenary in nineteenth-century poetry. Certainly in Wordsworth's verses the metrical effect cannot be called happy; the measure is made especially clumsy by the introduction of hypermetrical light syllables. In the succeeding specimen the same measure is used with feminine ending.

O poets, from a maniac's tongue was poured the deathless singing!

O Christians, at your cross of hope a hopeless hand was clinging!

O men, this man in brotherhood your weary paths beguiling, Groaned inly while he taught you peace, and died while ye were smiling!

(ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING: _Cowper's Grave_. 1833.)

C.--THE "POULTER'S MEASURE."

In the Elizabethan age the alexandrine and the septenary were each used chiefly in conjunction with the other, in alternation of six-stress and seven-stress verses. The name commonly applied to the combination is taken from Gascoigne's _Notes of Instruction_ (1575), where he says: "The commonest sort of verse which we use now adayes (viz. the long verse of twelve and fourtene sillables) I know not certainly howe to name it, unlesse I should say that it doth consist of Poulters measure, which giveth xii. for one dozen and xiiii. for another." (Arber's Reprint, p. 39.) It strikes the reader with surprise to find the measure thus spoken of as "the commonest sort of verse," but a glance at any of the early Elizabethan anthologies will show the justness of Gascoigne's words. Yet the measure, while exceedingly popular, seems to have been instinctively avoided by the best poets (after the days of Surrey and Sidney); hence it is unfamiliar to modern readers.

The use of alexandrines and septenaries together, we have seen, was common even in the Middle English period, but not in regular alternation. The Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester (about 1300) mingles both measures, but with alexandrines predominating. In some of the early Mystery Plays they are found in alternation; for example, where Jacob, in one of the Towneley plays, is relating his hunger to Esau:

"Meat or drink, save my life, or bread, I reck not what: If there be nothing else, some man give me a cat."

See also the specimen from _The Marriage of Wit and Science_, p. 256, above.

Schipper says that he does not know who first brought the two measures together in alternate use for lyrical poetry. Guest says that the Poulter's Measure came into fas.h.i.+on soon after 1500 (_History of English Rhythms_), but gives no examples so early. The history of the measure should be further investigated.

After the Elizabethan period the Poulter's Measure practically disappears from English poetry. A curious suggestion of it may be found in a little poem of Leigh Hunt's (_Wealth and Womanhood_), cited by Schipper, who calls the verse "Poulter's Measure in trochaics":

"Have you seen an heiress in her jewels mounted, Till her wealth and she seemed one, and she might be counted?"