A History of English VersificationSchipper, J. (Jakob)
History
A History of English Versification
Schipper, J. (Jakob)
English language -- Versification; English poetry -- History and criticism
For the rest both in these alliterative-rhyming poems and in the poems
with alliteration only the types A and A1, B C and B C1 are frequent.
These alliterative-rhyming lines have this feature in common with the
pure alliterative lines, that the first hemistich differs materially
from the second in having often an anacrusis of several syllables
(initial theses) and somewhat lengthened theses in the middle of the
line, and in permitting such theses with only a secondary accent to take
part in the alliteration. All this tends to give a somewhat heavy
rhythmic cadence to the whole line.
§ =64.= The same difference is perceptible, as Prof. Luick was the first
to show (_Anglia_, xii, pp. 438 ff.), in the single two-beat lines of
the _cauda_, the three first (ll. 10-12 of the whole stanza) having the
looser structure of the extended first hemistichs of the long lines,
while the last two-beat line (line 13 of the whole stanza) has the
normal structure (commonly type A, A1, as e.g. _Birnand =th=rétty
and =th=ré_ Gol. 247; _Of góld that wes cléir_ ib. 1) of second sections
of the long line, as is evident from the first stanza of _Golagras and
Gawane_ quoted above (p. 102). In this concluding line, however, other
types of verse peculiar to the second hemistich of long lines may also
be met with, as e.g. C, C1, BC, BC1, e.g.: _For thi mánhéde_ Awnt. of
Arth. 350; _Withoutin dístánce_ Gol. 1362; _As I am tréw kníght_ Gol.
169; _Couth na léid sáy_ ib. 920; _In ony ríche réime_ ib. 1258, _Quhen
he wes líghtit dóun_ ib. 130.
In other poems the group of short lines rhyming according to the scheme
_a a a b_ and forming part of the _cauda_ is preceded neither by a long
alliterative line nor by a one-beat half section of it (as in _Susan_),
but by a complete two-beat sectional verse, which then, in the same way
as the last verse rhyming with it, corresponds in its structure to that
of the second hemistich of the long line; as e.g. in _The Tournament of
Tottenham_ (Ritson's _Ancient Songs_, i. 85-94), rhyming on the scheme
_A A A A b c c c b_ (the capitals signifying the long lines), and in
_The Ballad of Kynd Kittok_, possibly by W. Dunbar (Laing, ii. 35, 36;
Small, i. 52, 53; Schipper, 70).
In _Sayne John the Euaungelist_ the 'cauda' has the structure of a
complete tail-rhyme-stanza, the order of rhymes of the whole stanza
being _A B A B A B A B c c d c c d_.
§ =65.= In connexion with this it is particularly interesting to note
that such two-beat sections of the alliterative line are also used by
themselves for whole poems written in tail-rhyme-stanzas (as was first
shown by Prof. Luick, _Anglia_, xii, pp. 440 ff.); cf. e.g. the
translation of the _Disticha Catonis_ (E.E.T.S. 68), the two first
stanzas of which may be quoted here:
_If þóu be made wíttenèsse,
For to =s=áy þat =s=óþ ìs,
=S=áue þine honóur,
Als míkil, as þou may fra bláme,
Lame þi fréndis sháme,
And sáue fra dishonóur._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account