A History of English VersificationSchipper, J. (Jakob)
History
A History of English Versification
Schipper, J. (Jakob)
English language -- Versification; English poetry -- History and criticism
_My comáundemént that kéeps trulý, | and áfter ít will dó._
Towneley Myst. p. 182.
_There was néver nóthing | móre me páin'd._ Wyatt, p. 57.
_I beséech your Gráces | bóth to párdon mé._
Shakesp. Rich. III, I. i. 84.
_By thy lóng grey béard and glíttering éye._
Coleridge, Anc. Mar. l. 3.
This metrical licence may occur also immediately after the caesura,
e.g.:
_Wel láte he léteþ úfel wéorc | þe hit né may dón na máre._
Moral Ode, 128.
_And thríes hádde sche bén | at Ierúsalém._ Chauc. Prol. 463.
_My wíll confírm | with the spírit of stéadfastnéss._
Wyatt, p. 220.
_But thén we'll trý | what these dástard Frénchmen dáre._
Shakesp. 1 Hen. VI, I. iv. 111.
It most frequently occurs, however, in the interior of the rhythmical
sections, and there it is found in any of the feet, except the last, as
will be seen by the following examples:
_Intó þis ðhísternesse hér benéðen._ Gen. and Exod. 66.
_For þér we hit míhte fínden éft | and hábben búten énde._
Moral Ode, 52.
_In Wéssex was thán a kíng, | his náme wás Sir Íne._
Rob. Mannyng, Chron. p. 2, l. 1.
_Of Éngelónd | to Cáunterbúry they wénde._ Chauc., Prol. 16.
_So fervent hót, | thy díssolute lífe._ Surrey, p. 68.
_And Windsor, alás! | doth cháse me fróm her síght._ ib. p. 14.
_Succéeding his fáther Bólingbróke, | did réign._
Shakesp. 1 Hen. VI, II. v. 83.
§ =90.= Unaccented extra syllables are found also before a caesura or at
the end of the line. In the former case they constitute what is known as
_epic caesura_, in the latter they form feminine or double endings (if
there is only one extra syllable) or tumbling endings (if there are two
extra syllables). In both cases this irregularity is softened or
excused, so to say, by the pause, except where the accented or masculine
ending of the hemistich is required by the very nature of the metre,
viz. in the first acatalectic half of the Septenary line. It does,
however, not unfrequently occur in some Early Middle English poems
written in Septenary metre, e.g. in the _Moral Ode_ and several others,
but this may be only owing to want of skill or carelessness on the part
of the authors of these poems. The following example taken from the
_Moral Ode_ may serve to illustrate this:
_Nis nán wítnesse éal se múchel, | se mánnes ágen héorte._ 114.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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