A History of English VersificationSchipper, J. (Jakob)
History
A History of English Versification
Schipper, J. (Jakob)
English language -- Versification; English poetry -- History and criticism
Verses with trisyllabic second thesis are extremely rare and
doubtful.[76] It should be noticed that, in this second type too, the
thesis seldom consists of a second part of a compound, as _hine fýrwìt
brǽc_ Beow. 232, the exceptions are proper names, as _nū ic Bḗowùlf þéc_
Beow. 947, _ne wearð Héremò̄d swā́_ Beow. 1710.
Type B, according to Sievers, occurs 1014 times in Beowulf,
of which 293 are in the first hemistich and 721 in the second.
§ =27. The Type C= has three sub-types: (i) C 1, the normal type
× –́ | –́ ×, without resolution, as _oft Scýld Scḗfing_ Beow. 4,
_gebū̀n hǽfdon_ 117. Here too the first thesis may consist of two,
three, four, or five syllables, _þæt hīe ǣ́ghwýlcne_ An. 26,
_þone gód sénde_ Beow. 13, _ofer hrónrā́de_ Beow. 10, _ǣr hē
onwég hwúrfe_ Beow. 264, _mid þǣre wǽlfýlle_ Beow. 125, _þe ic
him tṓ sḗce_ El. 319 _þāra þe mid Bḗowúlfe_ Beow. 1052,
_oð þæt hine sémnínga_ An. 821, _þāra þe hē him míd hǽfde_
Beow. 1625, _swylce hīe ofer sǣ́e cṓmon_, An. 247. (ii) C 2
is the normal type C with resolution of the first arsis, and is of
such frequent occurrence that it may be looked on as a special type,
_on hérefélda_ An. 10, _forscrífen hǽfde_ Beow. 106, _in wórold
wṓcun_ Beow. 60; a less common form is that with resolution of the
first and second arsis, _tō brímes fároðe_ Beow. 28, _swā féla
fýrena_ Beow. 164; sometimes with resolution of the second arsis only,
_tō sǣ́es fároðe_ An. 236 and 1660, _for frḗan égesan_ An.
457, but not in Beowulf. The first thesis may have two, three, or four
syllables, _þā wið góde wúnnon_ Beow. 113, _ofer lágustrǣ́te_;
with two resolutions, _ic þæs wíne Déniga_ Beow. 350, _hū sē
mága frémede_ An. 639, _þæt him his wínemā́gas_ Beow. 65, _ne hīe
hūru wínedríhten_ Beow. 863. (iii) C 3 is type C with short second
arsis, × –́ | ⏑́ ×, and is pretty common, _in gḗardágum_ Beow.
1, _of fḗorwégum_ Beow. 37; the first thesis may have from two
to five syllables, _þæt wæs gṓd cýning_ Beow. 11, _þæt hīe in
bḗorséle_ Beow. 482, _sē þe hine dḗað nímeð_ Beow. 441, _ne
meaht þū þæs sī́ðfǽtes_ An. 211, _þonne hē on þæt sínc
stárað_ Beow. 1486. Resolution seems to be avoided, though it occurs
here and there, _of hlíðes nósan_ Beow. 1892, _on þǣm méðelstéde_
Beow. 1083. Thesis with secondary accent is not found. The number of
hemistichs of type C in Beowulf is, according to Sievers, 564.
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