A History of English VersificationSchipper, J. (Jakob)
History
A History of English Versification
Schipper, J. (Jakob)
English language -- Versification; English poetry -- History and criticism
_You máy surpríse them éasily; | they wéar no pístols._
Loyal Subj. I. ii. 314.
It deserves particular notice that in such feminine endings or epic
caesuras, where the superfluous thesis consists of one monosyllabic
word, this very often has something of a subordinate accent:
_And lét sóme létters | tó that énd be féign'd tòo._
Mad Lov. III. 268.
_That spírits háve no séxes, | I belíeve nòt._
ib. 272.
_You múst look wondrous sád tòo.-- | I néed not lóok sò._
ib. V. iii. 105.
The following passage from _The Maid's Tragedy_[165] shows the character
of Fletcher's rhythms:
Mel. _Fórce my swoll'n héart no fúrther; | Í would sáve thee.
Your gréat maintáiners áre not hére, | they dáre not:
'Wóuld they were áll, and árm'd! | I wóuld speak lóud;
Here's óne should thúnder tó them! | will you téll me?
Thou hást no hópe to 'scápe; | Hé that dares móst,
And dámns awáy his sóul | to dó thee sérvice,
Wíll sóoner fetch méat | fróm a húngry líon,
Than cóme to réscue thée; | thou'st déath abóut thee.
Who hás undóne thine hónour, | póison'd thy vírtue,
Ánd, of a lóvely róse, | léft thee a cánker?_
Evadne. _Lét me consíder._ |
Mel. _Dó, whose chíld thou wért,
Whose hónour thóu hast múrder'd, | whose gráve open'd
And só pull'd ón the góds, | thát in their jústice
They múst restóre him | flésh agáin, | and lífe,
And ráise his drý bònes | tó revénge his scándal._
§ =175.= There are no plays extant written by =Beaumont= alone; plays,
however, from Fletcher's pen alone do exist, and we can thus gain a
clear insight into the distinctive features of his rhythm and style, and
are so enabled to determine with some prospect of certainty the share
which Beaumont had in the plays due to their joint-authorship. This has
been attempted with some success by Fleay, and especially by Boyle.[166]
The characteristics of Beaumont's style and versification may be summed
up as follows:
He often uses prose and verse, rhymed and unrhymed verses in the same
speech; feminine endings occur rarely, but there are many run-on lines;
occasionally we find 'light' and 'weak' endings; double theses at the
beginning and in the interior of the line are met with only very seldom.
His verse, therefore, is widely different from Fletcher's; cf. the
following passage from _The Maid's Tragedy_ (II. i, pp. 24-5):
Evadne. _I thánk thee, Dúla; | 'wóuld, thou cóuld'st instíl
Sóme of thy mírth | intó Aspátiá!
Nóthing but sád thòughts | ín her bréast do dwéll:
Methínks, a méan betwíxt you | wóuld do wéll._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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