Transcriber's Notes There are a number of typographical features that cannot be reproduced in this text. For details of how these features are rendered here, please consult the Notes at the end of the text. Some characters, particular those with compound diacritical marks, may not be supported, and may appear incorrectly. An HTML version of this text is also available at Project Gutenberg and will more accurately represent those features. This may provide the reader with a less strenuous reading experience. A HISTORY OF ENGLISH VERSIFICATION BY JAKOB SCHIPPER, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH PHILOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA MEMBER OF THE KAISERLICHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN, VIENNA HON. D.LITT. OXON.; HON. LITT.D. CANTAB. HON. LL.D. EDINBURGH AND ABERDEEN HONORARY MEMBER OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1910 HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK TORONTO AND MELBOURNE PREFACE It is now more than twenty years since a reviewer of the author's _Englische Metrik_, in three volumes, expressed the opinion that 'an English translation of it would do a service to English philology'. At that time, however, it seemed doubtful whether such a voluminous work, which probably would have interested only a comparatively small circle of English scholars, would have found a market. Even in Germany, although the work was favourably reviewed, and although at the time when it appeared great interest was felt in metrical research, the sale was comparatively slow. Much livelier, on the other hand, was the demand for an abridged edition of it which appeared under the title _Grundriss der englischen Metrik_ (Wien, 1895). It was therefore found possible, several years after its publication, to make arrangements with the Delegates of the Clarendon Press for an English edition of this smaller book. Unfortunately, however, the printing of the manuscript, which was submitted to the supervision of the late Professor York Powell, was delayed, first by the illness and the untimely death of that eminent scholar, and afterwards by other circumstances which it is not necessary to mention here. On the whole the English text of the present volume is a close rendering of the German book, except in the first few chapters, which have been somewhat more fully worked out. It may also be mentioned that one or two modern English poets who seemed to be unduly neglected in the German book have received a larger share of attention in the English edition. Some errors of the original work have, of course, also been corrected here.