The original impulse toward this classical or pseudo-classical verse was a product of the Renaissance, when all forms of art not based on Greek and Latin models were suspected. Rime, not being found in the poetry of the classical languages, was treated as a product of the dark ages,--the invention of "Goths and Huns." See Roger Ascham's _Schoolmaster_ (1570) for the most characteristic representative of this phase of thought in England. The new forms of verse were, naturally enough, first tried in Italy. Schipper traces the beginning of the movement to Alberti (1404-1484). A century later Trissino wrote his _Sophonisbe_ and _Italia Liberata_ in unrimed verse, in professed imitation of Homer, and was looked upon as the inventor of _versi sciolti_, that is, verses "freed" from rime (compare the remarks of Milton in the prefatory note to _Paradise Lost_). In 1539 Claudio Tolomei wrote _Versi e Regole della Poesia Nuova_, a systematic attempt to introduce the classical versification. He also wrote hexameters and sapphics. In France there were similar efforts in the sixteenth century. Mousset translated Homer into hexameters in 1530, and A. de Baïf, a member of the "Pleiade" (1532-1589), devised some French hexameters which he called _vers baïfins_. The English experiments were worked out independently, and yet under the same neo-classical influences. On this subject, see Schipper, vol. ii. pp. 2-12, 439-464. A.--LYRICAL MEASURES Reason, tell me thy mind, if here be reason In this strange violence, to make resistance Where sweet graces erect the stately banner Of Virtue's regiment, shining in harness Of Fortune's diadems, by Beauty mustered: Say, then, Reason, I say, what is thy counsel? (SIR PHILIP SIDNEY: _Phaleuciakes_, from the _Arcadia_, ab. 1580.) This is the measure commonly called "Phalæcian." Compare Tennyson's imitation of it, in his Hendecasyllabics quoted below. O sweet woods, the delight of solitariness! O how much I do like your solitariness! Where man's mind hath a freed consideration Of goodness to receive lovely direction. Where senses do behold the order of heavenly host, And wise thoughts do behold what the Creator is. (SIR PHILIP SIDNEY: _Asclepiadics_, from the _Arcadia_. ab. 1580.) This is the measure now called "Lesser Asclepiadean." My Muse, what ails this ardor To blaze my only secrets? Alas, it is no glory To sing my own decay'd state. Alas, it is no comfort To speak without an answer; Alas, it is no wisdom To show the wound without cure. (SIR PHILIP SIDNEY: _Anacreontics_, from the _Arcadia_. ab. 1580.)