CHAPTER XIIITROCHAIC METRES

Having Gód, her cónscience, | ánd these bárs agaínst me.R. III,I.ii. 235.Succéeding his fáther Bólingbróke, | did réign.1 H. VI,II.v. 83.But thén we’ll trý | what these dástard Frénchmen dáre.1 H. VI,I.iii. 111.Thén is he móre behólding | to yóu than Í.R. III,III.i. 107.Pút in their hánds | thy brúising írons of wráth.R. III,V.iii. 110.My survéyor is fálse; | the ó’ergreat cárdinál.H. VIII,I.i. 222.Disyllabic or polysyllabic line-endings are likewise of frequent occurrence:I dáre avóuch it, sír, what, fífty fóllowers?Lear,II.iv. 240.To yóur own cónscience, sír, befóre Políxenes.Wint.III.ii. 47.Slurring and other modifications of words to make them fit into the rhythm are very numerous and of great variety in Shakespeare; we have referred to them before, §§108–11; here only some examples may be repeated, as (a)bove, (be)cause, (ar)rested,th’ other,th’ earth,whe(th)er,ha(v)ing,e(v)il,eas(i)ly,barb(a)rous,inn(o)cent,acquitforacquitted,dejectfordejected, &c.On the other hand, many lengthenings also occur, aswrest(e)lerA. Y. L.II.ii, 13;pilg(e)rimAll’s Well,III.v. 43, &c. (Cf. §§87,112.)In some monosyllabic words, asfear,dear,hear,wear,tear,year, it is not always necessary to assume with Abbott (§§ 480–6) a disyllabic pronunciation, e.g.déàr,yéàr. On the contrary, in many cases it is more probable that the emphasis laid on the monosyllable takes the place of the missing thesis, e.g.:The kíng would spéak with Córnwall: | the déar fáther.Lear,II.iv. 102.Déar my lórd, | íf you in yóur own próof.Ado,IV.i. 46.Hor.Whére my lórd? |Haml.In my mínd’s éye, Horátio.Ham.I.ii. 185.The two last examples also show the absence of the first thesis, which often occurs in Shakespeare; frequently, as in these cases, it is compensated by an extra stress laid on the first accented syllable (cf. §84); e.g.:Stáy! | the kíng has thrówn | his wárder dówn.Rich. II,I.iii. 118.Upón your Gráce’s part; | bláck and féarful.All’s Well,III.i. 4.For the same reason a thesis is sometimes wanting in the interior of a line:Of góodly thóusands. | Bút, for áll thís.Macb.IV.iii. 44;or for phonetic reasons (cf. §86):A thírd thínks, | withóut expénse at áll.1 Hen. VI,I.i. 76.With respect to the word-stress and the metrical value of syllables there are in Shakespeare many archaic peculiarities. Some of those we have already dealt with; for the rest the reader must consult the works in which they are specially discussed.§171.Of great interest are the other metres that occur in combination with blank verse in Shakespeare’s plays.Alexandrines are frequently met with, especially where one line is divided between two speakers:Macb.I’ll cóme to yóu anón. |Murd.We áre resólved, my lórd.Macb.III.i. 139.Macb.Hów does your pátient, dóctor? |Doct.Nót so síck, my lórd.ib.V.iii. 37;but also in many other cases:Hów dares thy hársh rude tóngue | sound thís unpléasing néws?R. II,III.iv. 74.And thése does shé applý | for wárnings, ánd porténts.Caes.II.ii. 80.Frequently, however, such apparent Alexandrines can easily be read as regular five-foot lines, for which they were certainly intended by the poet, by means of the ordinary metrical licences, as slurring, double theses, epic caesuras, or feminine endings[162]; e.g.:I had thóught, my lórd, | to have léarn’d his héalth of yóu.R. II,II.iii. 24.I prómise you, | Í am afráid | to héar you téll it.R. III,I.iv. 65.O’erbéars your ófficers; | the rábble cáll him lórd.Haml.IV.v. 102.Among the blank verse lines in Shakespeare’s plays there are sometimes interspersed examples of the native four-beat long line. This occurs, apart from lyrical passages, most frequently in the early plays, e.g. inLove’s Labour’s Lostand inThe Comedy of Errors,III.i. 11–84, from which the following specimen is taken:Ant. E.I thínk thou art an áss. |Dro. E.Marry, só it doth appéarBy the wróngs I súffer | and the blóws I béar.I should kíck, being kíck’d; | and, béing at that páss,You would kéep from my héels | and bewáre of an áss.Ant. E.You’re sád, Signior Bálthasar: | pray Gód our chéerMay ánswer my good wíll | and your good wélcome hére.Occasionally these verses exhibit a somewhat more extended structure, so that they might pass for Alexandrines; mostly, however, a line of this type is connected by rhyme with an unmistakable four-beat line; cf.If thóu hadst been, Drómio, | to dáy in my pláce,Thou wouldst have changed thy fáce for a náme, | or thy námefor an áss.Com. of Err.III.i. 47.For this reason the second line also is to be scanned somehow or other in conformity with the general four-beat rhythm of the passage; possibly we should assume an initial thesis of five syllables. In lyrical passages four-beat lines are often combined also with four-foot iambic verse of the freer type (cf. § 132); e.g. in the following passage fromMidsummer Night’s Dream,II.i. 2–7:Over híll, over dále, | thorough búsh, thorough bríer,Over párk, over pále, | thorough flóod, thorough fíre,I do wánder évery whére,Swífter thán the móon’s sphére;Ánd I sérve the fáiry quéen,To déw her órbs upón the gréen,&c.The two first lines belong to the first, the following to the latter species. Sometimes the rhythm of such rhymed four-foot verses is purely trochaic, e.g. in the witches’ song in Macbeth,IV, sc. i.There are also unrhymed iambic lines of four feet, which usually have a caesura in the middle; e.g.:The mátch is máde, | and áll is dóne.Shrew,IV.iv. 46.Befóre the kíngs | and quéens of France.Hen. VI,I.vi. 27.Not unfrequently, however, such verses only apparently have four feet, one missing foot or part of it being supplied by a pause (cf.Metrik, ii, § 164):He’s tá’en⏑–́(Shout). || And hark! | they shóut for jóy.Caes.V.iii. 32.Mal.As thóu didst léave it.–́||Serg.Dóubtful it stóod.Macb.I.ii. 7.Thínk on lord Hástings.–́|| Despáir and díe!Rich. III,V.iii. 134.Isolated two- and three-foot lines occur mostly at the beginning or at the end of a speech, or in pathetic passages of monologues; this usually causes a somewhat longer pause, such as is suitable to the state of feeling of the speaker.Short exclamations asWhy,Fie,Alack,Farewellare often to be regarded as extra-metrical.Prose also is often used for common speeches not requiring poetic diction.[163].§172.One passage from an early play of Shakespeare, and another, chosen from one of his last plays, will sufficiently exhibit the metrical differences between these periods of his work. (For other specimens cf.Metrik, ii, §166.)Capulet.But Móntagúe | is bóund as wéll as Í,In pénaltý alíke; | and ’tis not hárd, I thínk,For mén so óld as wé | to kéep the péace.Paris.Of hónouráble réckoning | áre you bóth;And píty ’tís | you líved at ódds so lóng.But nów, my lórd, | what sáy you tó my súit?Capulet.But sáying ó’er | what Í have sáid befóre:My child is yét | a stránger ín the wórld;She hás not séen | the chánge of fóurteen yéars:Let twó more súmmers | wíther ín their príde,Ére we may thínk her rípe | to bé a bríde.Paris.Yóunger than shé | are happy móthers máde.Capulet.And tóo soon márr’d | are thóse so éarly máde.The éarth hath swállow’d | áll my hópes but shé,Shé is the hópeful lády | óf mý éarth:But wóo her, géntle Páris, | gét her héart,My wíll to hér consént | is bút a párt;&c.Romeo and Juliet,I.ii. 1–19.Miranda.Íf by your árt, | my déarest fáther, you hávePút the wild wáters |ín this róar, | alláy them.The ský, it séems, | would póur down stínking pítch,Bút that the séa, | móunting to the wélkin’s chéek,Dáshes the fíre óut. | Ó, I have súfferedWith thóse thát I saw súffer: | a bráve véssel,Who hád, no dóubt, | some nóble créature ín her,Dash’d áll to píeces. | Ó, the crý did knóckAgáinst my véry héart. | Poor sóuls, they pérish’d.Had Í been ány gód of pówer, | I wóuldHave súnk the séa | withín the éarth, | or éreIt shóuld the góod ship | só have swállow’d | ándThe fráughting sóuls withín her. |Prospero.Bé collécted:No móre amázement: | téll your píteous héartThere’s nó harm dóne. |Miranda.O wóe the dáy!Prospero.No hárm!Í have done nóthing | bút in cáre of thée,Of thée, my déar one, | thée, my dáughter, | whóArt ígnoránt of whát thou árt, | nought knówingOf whénce I ám, | nór that I ám more bétterThan Próspero, | máster óf a fúll poor céll,And thý no gréater fáther. |Miranda.Móre to knówDid néver méddle wíth my thóughts. |&c.Tempest,I.ii. 1–22§173.The further development of blank verse can be dealt with here only very briefly.For the dramatic blank verse of Shakespeare’s contemporaries and immediate successors seeMetrik, vol. ii, §§ 167–78, and the works there enumerated. The reader may also be referred to various special treatises[164]of later date, which supply detailed evidence in the main confirming the correctness of the author’s former observations.In this place we mention only the characteristic peculiarities of the most important poets of that group.Ben Jonson’s blank verseis not so melodious as that of Shakespeare.There is often a conflict between the logical and the rhythmical stress, as e.g.:Be éver cáll’d | the fóuntayne óf selfe-lóve.Cynthia’s Rev.I.ii.Theses of two and even more syllables likewise occur in many verses, e.g.:Sir Péter Túb was his fáther, | a saltpétre mán.Tale of a Tub,I.22;frequently also feminine or even disyllabic unaccented endings are used:The dífference ’twíxt | the cóvetous ánd the pródigal.Staple of News,I.iii. 39.These licences often give to his verse an uneven and rugged rhythm.There are only slight differences from Shakespeare’s usage with regard to the caesura, inversion of accent, &c. Run-on lines, as well as rhyme and the use of prose, are common in his plays; some of his comedies are almost entirely written in prose.§174.InFletcher, on the contrary, run-on lines, rhymed verses, and prose are exceedingly rare.Feminine and gliding endings, however (sometimes of three, and even of four supernumerary syllables), are often used; in some plays even more often than masculine ones. (For specimens cf. §91.)Feminine endings, combined with disyllabic or polysyllabic first thesis, are common; now and then we find epic caesuras or other theses in the interior of the line:They are too hígh a méat that wáy, | they rún to jelly.Loyal Subj.I.i. 371.A cóach and four hórses | cánnot dráw me fróm it.ib.III.ii. 361.Thís was hard fórtune; | but íf alíve and táken.Hum. Lieut,I.i. 7.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 fromThe 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’dAnd só pull’d ón the góds, | thát in their jústiceThey múst restóre him | flésh agáin, | and lífe,And ráise his drý bònes | tó revénge his scándal.§175.There are no plays extant written byBeaumontalone; 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 byBoyle.[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 fromThe Maid’s Tragedy(II.i, pp. 24–5):Evadne.I thánk thee, Dúla; | ’wóuld, thou cóuld’st instílSóme of thy mírth | intó Aspátiá!Nóthing but sád thòughts | ín her bréast do dwéll:Methínks, a méan betwíxt you | wóuld do wéll.Dula.Shé is in lóve: | Háng me, if Í were só,But Í could rún my cóuntry. | Í love, tóo,To dó those thíngs | that péople ín love dó.Asp.It wére a tímeless smíle | should próve my chéek:It wére a fítter hóur | for mé to láugh,When át the áltar | thé relígious príestWere pácifýing | thé offénded pówersWith sácrifíce, than nów. | Thís should have béenMy níght; and áll your hánds | have béen emplóy’dIn gíving mé | a spótless ófferíngTo yóung Amíntor’s béd, | as wé are nówFor yóu. | Párdon, Evádne; ’wóuld, my wórthWere gréat as yóurs, | ór that the kíng, or hé,Or bóth thought só! | Perháps, he fóund me wórthless:But, tíll he díd so, | ín these éars of míne,These crédulous éars, | he póur’d the swéetest wórdsThat árt or lóve could fráme. | Íf he were fálse,Párdon it Héaven! | ánd if Í did wántVírtue, | you sáfely máy | forgíve that tóo;For Í have lóst | nóne that I hád from yóu.§176.Fewer peculiarities appear in the verse ofMassinger, who (according to Fleay and Boyle) wrote many plays in partnership with Beaumont and Fletcher; for this reason his verse has been examined by those scholars in connexion with that of Beaumont and Fletcher. Like Fletcher, Massinger uses a great many feminine endings; but he has many run-on lines as well as ‘light’ and ‘weak’ endings. In contradistinction to Beaumont’s practice, he seldom uses prose and rhyme, but he has a great many double endings. His verse is very melodious, similar on the whole to that of Shakespeare’s middle period.The following passage may serve as an example:Tib.It ís the dúchess’ bírthday, | ónce a yéarSolémnized wíth all pómp | and céremóny;In whích the dúke is nót his ówn, | but hérs:Nay, évery dáy, indéed, | he ís her créature,For néver mán so dóated;— | bút to téllThe ténth part óf his fóndness | to a stránger,Would árgue mé of fíction. |Steph.Shé’s, indéed,A lády óf most éxquisite fórm. |Tib.She knóws it,And hów to príze it. |Steph.I néver héard her taintedIn ány póint of hónour. |Tib.Ón my lífe,She’s cónstant tó his béd, | and wéll desérvesHis lárgest fávours. | Bút, when béauty isStámp’d on great wómen, | gréat in bírth and fórtune,And blówn by flátterers | gréater thán it ís,’Tis séldom únaccómpaníed | with príde;Nor ís she thát way frée: | presúming ónThe dúke’s afféction, | ánd her ówn desért,She béars hersélf | with súch a májestý,Lóoking with scórn on áll | as thíngs benéath her,That Sfórza’s móther, | thát would lóse no pártOf whát was ónce her ówn, | nor hís fair síster,A lády tóo | acquáinted wíth her wórth,Will bróok it wéll; | and hówsoé’er their háteIs smóther’d fór a tíme, | ’tis móre than féar’dIt wíll at léngth break óut. |Steph.Hé in whose pówer it ís,Turn áll to the bést. |Tib.Come, lét us tó the cóurt;We thére shall sée all bráverý and cóst,That árt can bóast of. |Steph.I’ll béar you cómpaný.Massinger, Duke of Milan,I.i. end.The versification of the other dramatists of this time cannot be discussed in this place. It must suffice to say that the more defined and artistic blank verse, introduced by Marlowe and Shakespeare, was cultivated by Beaumont, Massinger, Chapman, Dekker, Ford, &c.; a less artistic verse, on the other hand, so irregular as sometimes to approximate to prose, is found in Ben Jonson and Fletcher, and to a less degree in Middleton, Marston, and Shirley. (Cf.Metrik, ii. §§ 171–8.)§177. The blank verse of Milton, who was the first since Surrey to use it for epic poetry, is of greater importance than that of the minor dramatists, and is itself of particular interest. Milton’s verse, it is true, cannot be said to be always very melodious. On the contrary, it sometimes can be brought into conformity with the regular scheme of the five-foot verse only by level stress and by assigning full value to syllables that in ordinary pronunciation are slurred or elided (see §83).Generally, however, Milton’s blank verse has a stately rhythmical structure all its own, due to his masterly employment of the whole range of metrical artifices. In the first place, he frequently employs inversion of accent, both at the beginning of a line and after a caesura; sometimes together with double thesis in the interior of the line, as e.g.:Báck to the gátes of Héaven; | the súlphurous háil.Par. Lost,I.171.Quite peculiar, however, to Milton’s blank verse is the extensive use he makes of run-on lines, and in connexion with the great variety in his treatment of the caesura.Milton has more than 50 per cent. run-on lines; sometimes we have from three to six lines in succession that are not stopt.As to the caesura, we mostly have masculine and lyric caesura (more seldom epic caesuras) after the second or third foot; besides, we have frequent double caesuras (generally caused by run-on lines), about 12 percent.[167]Finally, as the third peculiarity of Milton’s epic blank verse, the almost exclusive use of masculine endings deserves mention. The number of feminine endings in the various books ofParadise Lostand ofParadise Regainedis only from 1 to 5 per cent.; inSamson Agonistes, on the other hand, we have about 16 per cent., nearly as many as in the plays of Shakespeare’s secondperiod.[168]The following example (Paradise Lost,V.1–25) may illustrate Milton’s blank verse:Now Mórn, | her rósy stéps | in the éastern clímeAdváncing, | sówed the éarth with órient péarl,When Ádam wáked, so cústomed; | fór his sléepWas áery líght, | from púre digéstion bréd,And témperate vápours blánd, | which the ónly sóundOf léaves and fúming rílls, | Auróra’s fán,Líghtly dispérsed, | ánd the shrill mátin sóngOf bírds on évery bóugh. | So múch the móreHis wónder wás | to fínd unwákened Éve,With trésses díscompósed, | and glówing chéek,As thróugh unquíet rést. | Hé, on his sídeLéaning half ráised, | with lóoks of córdial lóveHung óver hér enámoured, | ánd behéldBéauty | which, whéther wáking | ór asléep,Shot fórth pecúliar gráces; | thén, with vóiceMíld as when Zéphyrús | on Flóra bréathes,Her hánd soft tóuching, | whíspered thús:— | ‘Awáke,My fáirest, mý espóused, | my látest fóund,Heaven’s lást best gíft, | my éver-néw delíght!Awáke! | the mórning shínes, | ánd the fresh fíeldCálls us; | we lóse the príme | to márk how spríngOur ténded plánts, | how blóws the cítron gróve,What dróps the mýrrh, | and whát the bálmy réed,How Náture páints her cólours, | hów the béeSíts on the blóom | extrácting líquid swéet.’§178. The dramatic blank verse of the Restorationis strongly influenced by the heroic verse of the same period, and is on this account very different from the blank verse of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.For this period the blank verse of Dryden is most interesting; he uses it with great skill, but also with great restriction of its former licences.Even the number of the inversions of accent decreases considerably and is only about 12 per cent. We find scarcely any examples of double thesis, slurring of syllables, missing theses in the beginning or in the interior of the line, &c.The caesura, which is the chief means by which variety is imparted to the metre, is generally masculine or lyric, and as a rule occurs after the second or third foot; occasionally we have double caesuras. Epic caesuras are rare, if they occur at all. Feminine endings are frequent, their proportion being about 25 to 28 per cent. Light and weak endings are rarely to be found amongst the masculine endings, nor are run-on lines (about 20 per cent.) frequently used by Dryden.Most of the characteristic features of his blank verse will be found exemplified in the following extract:Emperor.Márry’d! | I’ll nót belíeve it; || ’tís impósture;Impróbable | they shóu’d presúme t’attémpt,Impóssible | they shóu’d efféct their wísh.Benducar.Have pátience tíll I cléar it. |Emperor.Í have nóne:Go bíd our móving Pláins of Sánd | lie stíll,And stír not, | whén the stórmy Sóuth blows hígh:From tóp to bóttom | thóu hast tóss’d my Sóul,And nów ’tis ín the mádness | of the Whírl.Requír’st a súdden stóp? | unsáy thy lýe,That máy in týme do sómewhat. |Benducar.Í have dóne.For, sínce it pléases yóu | it shóu’d be fórg’d’Tis fít it shóu’d: | Fár be it fróm your Sláve,To ráise distúrbance | ín your Sácred Bréast.Emperor.Sebástian ís my Sláve | as wéll as thóu;Nor dúrst offénd my Lóve, | but thát Presúmption ...Benducar.Most súre he óught not. |Emperor.Thén all méans were wánting;No Príest, no Céremónies | óf their Séct:Or, gránt we thése defécts | cou’d bé supplý’d,Hów cou’d our Próphet dó | an áct so báse,Só to resúme his Gífts, | and cúrse my Cónquests,By máking mé unháppy! | Nó, the SláveThat tóld thee só absúrd a stóry, | lý’d.Dryden, Sebastian, III.The blank verse of Lee, Otway, N. Rowe, and Addison[169]is of similar structure.§179.Blank verse was treated even more strictly byThomsoninThe Seasons. Thomson followed Dryden with regard to his treatment of the caesura and the inversion of accent, but made no use at all of feminine endings. Cf. the following passage fromSummer:From bríghtening fíelds of éther | fáir disclós’d,Chíld of the sún, | refúlgent Súmmer cómes,In pride of yóuth, | and félt through náture’s dépth:He cómes atténded | bý the súltry hóurs,And éver-fánning bréezes, | ón his wáy;Whíle, from his árdent lóok, | the túrning SpríngAvérts her blúshful fáce; | and éarth, and skíesAll smíling, | to his hót domínion léaves.Hénce let me háste | intó the míd-wood sháde,Where scárce a sún-beam | wánders through the glóom;And ón the dárk-green gráss, | besíde the brínkOf háunted stréam, | that bý the róots of óakRólls o’er the rócky chánnel,| líe at lárge,And síng the glóries | óf the círcling yéar.The blank verse of Young (Night Thoughts), Cowper (The Task), and other less important poets of the eighteenth century is of a similar uniform structure; cf.Metrik, ii, §193§180.In theblank verse of the nineteenth centurywe find both tendencies, the strict and the free treatment of this verse-form; according to their predominant employment in epic and dramatic poetry respectively, we may call them the epic and the dramatic form of the verse. They may be chiefly distinguished by the peculiarities to be observed in the blankverse of Milton and Thomson on the one hand, and of Dryden on the other; i.e. by the admission or exclusion of feminine endings.The strict form of the epic blank verse, with masculine endings, is preferred in the narrative or reflective poems of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, Shelley, Keats, W.S. Landor, Longfellow, D. G. Rossetti, Mrs. Browning, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, Tennyson, Swinburne, and EdwinArnold.[170]The free form is represented, mainly, in the dramatic verse of the same and other poets, being used by Coleridge (in his translation ofThe Piccolomini), Wordsworth, Southey, Lamb, Byron, Shelley, W.S. Landor, Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, andothers.[171]CHAPTER XIIITROCHAIC METRES§181.Trochaic metres, which, generally speaking, are less common in English poetry than iambics, were not used at all till the Modern English Period. The old metrical writers (Gascoigne, James VI, W. Webbe) only know rising metres.Puttenham (1589) is the first metrician who quotes four-foot trochaic lines; similar verses also occur during the same period in Shakespeare’sLove’s Labour’s Lost,A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and other plays.Whether they were introduced directly on foreign models, or originated indirectly from the influence of the study of the ancients by means of a regular omission of the first thesis of the iambic metres, we do not know. It is likewise uncertain who was the first to use strict trochaic verses deliberately in English, or in what chronological order the various trochaic metres formed in analogy with the iambic ones entered into English poetry.The longest trochaic lines, to which we first turn our attention, seem to be of comparatively late date.Theeight-foot trochaic line, more exactly definable as the acatalectic trochaic tetrameter (cf. §77), is the longest trochaic metre we find in English poetry. As a specimen of this metre the first stanza of a short poem by Thackeray written in this form has been quoted already on page127. As a rule, however, this acatalectic feminine line is mingled with catalectic verses with masculine endings, as e.g. in the following burlesque by Thackeray,Damages Two Hundred Pounds:Só, God bléss the Spécial Júry! | príde and jóy of Énglish gróund,Ánd the háppy lánd of Éngland, | whére true jústice dóes abóund!Brítish júrymén and húsbands, | lét us háil this vérdict próper:Íf a Brítish wífe offénds you, | Brítons, yóu’ve a ríght to whóp her.While the catalectic iambic tetrameter is a line of seven feet (the last arsis being omitted), the catalectic trochaic tetrameter loses only the last thesis, but keeps the preceding arsis; and on this account it remains a metre of eight feet.Rhyming couplets of this kind of verse, when broken up into short lines, give rise to stanzas with the formulasa~b c~b4, d~e~f~e~4, or, if inserted rhymes are used, we have the forma~b a~b4(alternating masculine and feminine endings), ora~b~a~b~4(if there are feminine endings only). In both these cases the eight-foot rhythm is distinctly preserved to the ear. But this is no longer the case in another trochaic metre of eight feet, where the theses of both the fourth and the eighth foot are wanting, as may be noticed in Swinburne,A Midsummer Holiday, p. 132:Scárce two húndred yéars are góne, | ánd the wórld is pást awáyÁs a nóise of bráwling wínd, | ás a flásh of bréaking fóam,Thát behéld the sínger bórn | whó raised úp the déad of Róme;Ánd a míghtier nów than hé | bíds him tóo rise úp to-dáy;still less when such lines are broken up by inserted rhyme in stanzas of the forma b a b4. In cases, too, where the eight-foot trochaic verse is broken up by leonine rhyme, the rhythm has a decided four-foot cadence on account of the rapid recurrence of the rhyme.§182.Theseven-foot trochaic lineis theoretically either a brachycatalectic tetrameter with a feminine or a hypercatalectic trimeter with a masculine ending. An example of the first kind we had on p.128. A more correct specimen is the following line from the same poem:Hásten, Lórd, who árt my Hélper; | lét thine áid be spéedy.The verses quoted on p.128are incorrect in so far as the caesura occurs at an unusual place, viz. in the middle of the fourth foot, instead of after it, as in the example just quoted.They show, however, the origin of a pretty frequently occurring anisorhythmical stanza, which is derived from this metre by means of the use of inserted rhyme; lines 1 and 3 having a trochaic, lines 2 and 4, on the other hand, an iambicrhythm; cf. e.g. the following stanza from a poem by Suckling (Poets, iii. 741):Sáy, but díd you lóve so lóng?In trúth I néeds must bláme you:Pássion did your júdgement wróng,Or wánt of réason sháme you.When there are masculine rhymes throughout, the stanza is felt distinctly as consisting of alternate lines of four and three feet (a4b3a4b3).The seven-foot rhythm, however, remains, if the three-foot half-lines only have masculine endings, and the four-foot half-lines remain feminine; as is the case in Swinburne’s poemClear the Way(Mids. Hol., p. 143):Cléar the wáy, my lórds and láckeys, | yóu have hád your dáy.Hére you háve your ánswer, Éngland’s | yéa against your náy;Lóng enóugh your hóuse has héld you: | up, and cléar the wáy!This, of course, is likewise the case, if the verses are broken up into stanzas by inserted rhyme (a4b3a4b3).More frequently than this correct seven-foot verse, with either a feminine or masculine ending, we find the incorrect type, consisting of a catalectic and a brachycatalectic dimeter, according to the model of the well-known Low Latin verse:Mihi est propositum | in taberna mori,which is often confounded with the former (cf. §135). The following first stanza of a poem by Suckling (Poets, iii. 471) is written in exact imitation of this metre:Óut upón it, Í have lóved | thrée whole dáys tógether;Ánd am líke to lóve three móre, | íf it próve fair wéather.Although only the long lines rhyme, the stanza is commonly printed in short lines (a4b3~ c4b3~). Still more frequently we find short-lined stanzas of the kind (a4b3~ a4b3~) as well as the other sub-species with masculine rhymes only:a4b3a4b3.§183.Thesix-foot trochaic lineoccurs chiefly in Modern English, and appears both in acatalectic (feminine)and catalectic (masculine) form; e.g. in SwinburneThe Last Oracle(Poems and Ballads, ii. 1):Dáy by dáy thy shádow | shínes in héaven behólden,Éven the sún, the shíning | shádow óf thy fáce:Kíng, the wáys of héaven | befóre thy féet grow gólden;Gód, the sóul of éarth | is kíndled wíth thy gráce.Strictly the caesura ought to occur after the third foot, as it does in the first line; generally, however, it is within the third foot, and so this metre as well as the stanza formed by insertion of rhyme acquires an anisorhythmical character, as e.g. in the following quatrain by Moore:Áll that’s bríght must fáde,—The bríghtest stíll the fléetest;Áll that’s swéet was mádeBut to be lóst when swéetest.When masculine rhymes are used throughout, the six-foot rhythm is preserved in anisorhythmical stanzas of this kind just as well as when lines like the first of those in the example quoted above,Day by day, &c., are broken up by inserted rhymes (a ~ b ~ a ~ b3~); or again when they have masculine endings in the second half-lines (a ~ b a ~ b3). If the first half is masculine, however, and the second feminine (or if both have masculine endings on account of a pause caused by the missing thesis), the verses have a three-foot character, e.g. in Moore:Whíle I tóuch the stríng,Wréathe my bróws with láurel,Fór the tále I síngHás for ónce a móral.§184.Thefive-foot trochaic linealso occurs both in acatalectic (feminine) and catalectic (masculine) form, and each of them is found in stanzas rhyming alternately, as e.g. in Mrs. Hemans’sO ye voices(vii. 57):Ó ye vóices róund | my ówn hearth sínging!Ás the wínds of Máy | to mémory swéet,Míght I yét retúrn, | a wórn heart brínging,Wóuld those vérnal tónes | the wánderer gréet?Such verses, of course, can be used also in stanzas with either masculine or feminine endings only.As in the five-foot iambic verse, the caesura generally occurs either after the second or third foot (in which case it is feminine), or usually within the second or third foot (masculine caesura).In a few cases this metre is also used without rhyme; e.g. in Robert Browning’sOne Word More(v. 313–21); feminine endings are used here throughout; run-on lines occasionally occur, and the caesura shows still greater variety in consequence. A specimen is given inMetrik, ii, § 217§185.Thefour-foot trochaic line(discussed above in its relationship to the eight- and seven-foot verse) is the most frequent of all trochaic metres. It likewise occurs either with alternate feminine and masculine rhymes or with rhymes of one kind only. We find it both in stanzas and in continuous verse. The latter form, with feminine rhymes only, we have in Shakespeare’sTempest,IV.i. 106–9:Hónour, ríches, márriage-bléssing,Lóng contínuance, ánd incréasing,Hóurly jóys be stíll upón you!Júno síngs her bléssings ón you,&c.With masculine endings only it is found inLove’s Labour’s Lost,IV.iii. 101:Ón a dáy—aláck the dáy!—Lóve, whose mónth is éver Máy,Spíed a blóssom pássing fáirPláying ín the wánton áir.As in the five-foot verse, here also the caesura if used at all may fall at different places; mostly its place is after or within the second foot.Generally speaking this metre is used in continuous verse in such a way that masculine and feminine couplets are intermixed without regular order;[172]when it is used in stanzas the forms previously mentioned in §181are usually adopted.This metre is used also, in an unrhymed form and with feminine endings throughout, in Longfellow’sSong of Hiawatha, in which there are noticeably more run-on lines than in rhymed four-foot trochaics.§186.Thethree-foot trochaic line, both with feminineand with masculine endings, has been discussed in previous sections (§§182–3) so far as it is derived from seven- and six-foot verse. It may also be derived from the six-foot metre through the breaking up of the line by means of leonine rhyme, as in the following rhyming couplets:Áge, I dó abhór thee,Yóuth, I dó adóre thee;Yóuth ís fúll of spórt,Áge’s bréath is shórt.Passionate Pilgrim, No. 12.§187. Two-foot trochaic linesgenerally occur among longer lines of anisometrical stanzas; but we also find them now and then without longer lines in stanzas and poems. Feminine verses of this kind, which may be regarded as four-foot lines broken up by leonine rhyme, we have in Dodsley (Poets, xi. 112):Lóve comméncing,Jóys dispénsing;Béauty smíling,Wít beguíling;and masculine ones in a short poem, possibly by Pope,To Quinbus Flestrin, the Man-Mountain(p. 481):Ín a máze,Lóst, I gáze,Cán our éyesRéach thy síze?Máy my láysSwéll with práise,&c.§188. One-foot trochaic linesseem only to occur among longer verses in regular stanzas, as e.g. in a stanza of Addison’s operaRosamund(I.ii. 38):Túrning,Búrning,Chánging,Ránging.We even find sometimes a line consisting of a single (of course accented) syllable in Swinburne, as e.g. in his poemin trochaic verse,A Dead Friend(A Century of Roundels, pp. 12–19):Góne, O géntle héart and trúe,Friénd of hópes forgóne,Hópes and hópeful dáys with yóu,Góne?It is common to all these trochaic metres that their structure, especially that of the longer ones, is (except for the varying caesura) very regular, and that they have only very few rhythmical licences, chiefly slight slurring.CHAPTER XIVIAMBIC-ANAPAESTIC AND TROCHAIC-DACTYLIC METRES§189.Theiambic-anapaestic rhythmhas been touched on before in connexion with the four-stressed verse (cf. §72) which was developed from the alliterative long line, and which at the end of the Middle English and in the beginning of the Modern English period, under the growing influence of the even-beat metres, had assumed more or less regular iambic-anapaestic character.When during the same period a definitive separation of the rising and falling rhythms took place, the even-measured rhythm of this four-stressed modern metre became more conspicuous and was made up frequently, although not always, of a regular series of iambic-anapaestic measures. It was thus differentiated still more distinctly from the uneven-beat Old and Middle English long line, the character of which mainly rested on the four well-marked beats only. It deserves notice further that it was not until the Modern English period that the rest of the iambic-anapaestic and trochaic-dactylic metres (the eight-, seven-, six-, five-, four-, three-, and two-foot verses) were imitated from the then common corresponding iambic rhythms.In the sixteenth century Puttenham quotes four-foot dactylics, and in his time the dactylic hexameter had already been imitated in English. But most of the other trisyllabic rising and falling metres, except the Septenary, occur first in English poetry at the end of the eighteenth and during the course of the nineteenth century.It must also be noted that in many cases, especially in the eight-, four-, and two-foot verses of this kind (i.e. in those metres that are connected with the old four-stressed verse), the rising and falling rhythms are not strictly separated, but frequently intermingle and even supplement one another.I. Iambic-anapaestic Metres.§190. Eight-foot iambic-anapaestic versesrhyming in long lines are very rare, but appear in the following four-lined stanza of four-foot verses by Burns,The Chevalier’s Lament(p. 343):The smáll birds rejóice in the gréen leaves retúrning,The múrmuring stréamlet winds cléar thro’ the vále;The háwthorn trees blów in the déws of the mórning,And wíld scatter’d cówslips bedéck the green dále.In this metre each of the two periods begins with an iambic measure and then passes into anapaests, the feminine ending of the first (or third) line and the iambic beginning of the second (or fourth) forming together an anapaest.In a poem by Swinburne (Poems, ii. 144) four-foot anapaestic and dactylic lines alternate so as to form anapaestic periods:For a dáy and a níght Love sáng to us, pláyed with us,Fólded us róund from the dárk and the líght,&c.For other less correct specimens of such combinations of verse cf.Metrik, ii, §225.§191. The seven-foot iambic-anapaestic versewould seem to be of rare occurrence except in the most recent period; in long lines and masculine rhymes it has been used by Swinburne, as e.g. inThe Death of Richard Wagner;[173]we quote the middle stanza:As a vísion of héaven from the hóllows of ócean, | that nóne but a gód might sée,Rose óut of the sílence of thíngs unknówn | of a présence, a fórm, a míght,And we héard as a próphet that héars God’s méssage | agáinst him, and máy not flée.The occurrence of an iambus or a spondee at the end and sometimes in the middle of the verse is remarkable, as well as the arbitrary treatment of the caesura, which does not, as in the iambic Septenary verse, always come after the fourth foot (as in the second line), but sometimes in other places; in the first and third lines, for instance, there is a feminine caesura in the fifth foot.More often this Septenary metre occurs in short lines (and therefore with fixed masculine caesura). In this form it appears as early as the seventeenth century in a poem by the Earl of Dorset,To Chloris:Ah! Chlóris, ’tis tíme to disárm your bright éyes,And lay bý those térrible glánces;We líve in an áge that’s more cívil and wíse,Than to fóllow the rúles of románces.Poets, vii. 513.Another specimen of the same rhythm, very artistically handled (cf.Metrik, i, § 226) is Charles Wolfe’s well-known poemThe Burial of Sir John Moore. The same metre also occurs with masculine rhymes.§192.Thesix-foot iambic-anapaestic versesometimes occurs in Modern English poets, as Tennyson,The Grandmother,Maud, &c., Robert Browning,Abt Vogler, Mrs. Browning,Confessions, Swinburne,Hymn to Proserpine, &c.We quote the following verses from Tennyson’sMaudto illustrate this metre, which, however, in consequence of the fluctuating proportion of iambic and anapaestic measures occurring in it is handled very differently by different poets (cf.Metrik, ii, § 227):Did he flíng himself dówn? who knóws? | for a vást speculátion had fáil’d,And éver he mútter’d and mádden’d, | and éver wánn’d with despáir,And óut he wálk’d when the wínd | like a bróken wórldling wáil’d,And the flýing góld of the rúin’d wóodlands | dróve thro’ the áir.The caesura is sometimes masculine after the third foot (as in lines 1 and 3), sometimes feminine in the fourth (line 2) or the fifth (line 4); so that its position is quite indeterminate. The rhymes are mostly masculine, but feminine rhymes are also met with, as e.g. in Mrs. Browning’sConfessions. Swinburne’s verses are printed in long lines, it is true, but they are broken into short lines by inserted masculine and feminine rhymes.§193.Thefive-foot iambic-anapaestic verselikewise does not occur till recent times, and is chiefly used by the poets just mentioned. Rhymed in couplets it occurs in Mrs. Browning’sThe Daughters of Pandarus, Version II (vol. iv, p. 200):So the stórms bore the dáughters of Pándarus | óut into thráll—The góds slew their párents; | the órphans were léft in the háll.And there cáme, to féed their young líves, Aphrodíte divíne,With the íncense, the swéet-tasting hóney, the swéet-smelling wíne.The rhythm is here almost entirely anapaestic; the caesura occurs in the most diverse places and may be either masculine or feminine. The ending of the line is masculine throughout, as well as in Robert Browning’sSaul(iii. 146–96), but with many run-on lines.In Swinburne’sA Word from the Psalmist(A Mids. Holiday, p. 176) we have another treatment of this metre. As a rule the line begins with an anapaest, and continues in pure iambic rhythm:But a lóuder | thán the Chúrch’s écho | thúndersIn the éars of mén | who máy not chóose but héar;And the héart in hím | that héars it léaps and wónders,With triúmphant hópe | astónished, ór with féar.In other examples it has an iambic or spondaic rhythm at the beginning and end, with an anapaestic part in the middle, as inThe Seaboard(ib., p. 3) by the same poet:The séa is at ébb, | and the sóund of her útmost wórd,Is sóft as the léast wave’s lápse | in a stíll small réach.From báy into báy, | on quést of a góal deférred,From héadland éver to héadland | and bréach to bréach,Where éarth gives éar | to the méssage that áll days préach.InA Century of Roundels, p. 1, &c., Swinburne uses this metre, which also occurs in Tennyson’sMaud, with feminine and masculine endings alternately.§194.Thefour-foot iambic-anapaestic verseis essentially identical with the four-stressed verse treated of above (§72), except that it has assumed a still more regular, even-beat rhythm in modern times; generally it begins with an iambus and anapaests follow, as in the stanza quoted from Burns (§190). Occasionally this metre has an almost entirely anapaestic structure; as e.g. in Moore,In the Morning of Life:In the mórning of lífe, | when its cáres are unknówn,And its pléasures in áll | their new lústre begín,When we líve in a bríght-beaming | wórld of our ówn,And the líght that surróunds us | is áll from withín.In other examples the rhythm is chiefly iambic, intermingled with occasional anapaests; as e.g. in Moore’sYou Remember Ellen:You remémber Éllen, | our hámlet’s prídeHow méekly she bléssed | her húmble lót,When the stránger Wílliam, | had máde her his bríde,And lóve was the líght | of her lówly cót.

Having Gód, her cónscience, | ánd these bárs agaínst me.

R. III,I.ii. 235.

Succéeding his fáther Bólingbróke, | did réign.

1 H. VI,II.v. 83.

But thén we’ll trý | what these dástard Frénchmen dáre.

1 H. VI,I.iii. 111.

Thén is he móre behólding | to yóu than Í.

R. III,III.i. 107.

Pút in their hánds | thy brúising írons of wráth.

R. III,V.iii. 110.

My survéyor is fálse; | the ó’ergreat cárdinál.

H. VIII,I.i. 222.

Disyllabic or polysyllabic line-endings are likewise of frequent occurrence:

I dáre avóuch it, sír, what, fífty fóllowers?Lear,II.iv. 240.To yóur own cónscience, sír, befóre Políxenes.Wint.III.ii. 47.

I dáre avóuch it, sír, what, fífty fóllowers?Lear,II.iv. 240.

To yóur own cónscience, sír, befóre Políxenes.Wint.III.ii. 47.

Slurring and other modifications of words to make them fit into the rhythm are very numerous and of great variety in Shakespeare; we have referred to them before, §§108–11; here only some examples may be repeated, as (a)bove, (be)cause, (ar)rested,th’ other,th’ earth,whe(th)er,ha(v)ing,e(v)il,eas(i)ly,barb(a)rous,inn(o)cent,acquitforacquitted,dejectfordejected, &c.

On the other hand, many lengthenings also occur, aswrest(e)lerA. Y. L.II.ii, 13;pilg(e)rimAll’s Well,III.v. 43, &c. (Cf. §§87,112.)

In some monosyllabic words, asfear,dear,hear,wear,tear,year, it is not always necessary to assume with Abbott (§§ 480–6) a disyllabic pronunciation, e.g.déàr,yéàr. On the contrary, in many cases it is more probable that the emphasis laid on the monosyllable takes the place of the missing thesis, e.g.:

The kíng would spéak with Córnwall: | the déar fáther.Lear,II.iv. 102.Déar my lórd, | íf you in yóur own próof.Ado,IV.i. 46.Hor.Whére my lórd? |Haml.In my mínd’s éye, Horátio.Ham.I.ii. 185.

The kíng would spéak with Córnwall: | the déar fáther.

Lear,II.iv. 102.

Déar my lórd, | íf you in yóur own próof.

Ado,IV.i. 46.

Hor.Whére my lórd? |Haml.In my mínd’s éye, Horátio.

Ham.I.ii. 185.

The two last examples also show the absence of the first thesis, which often occurs in Shakespeare; frequently, as in these cases, it is compensated by an extra stress laid on the first accented syllable (cf. §84); e.g.:

Stáy! | the kíng has thrówn | his wárder dówn.Rich. II,I.iii. 118.Upón your Gráce’s part; | bláck and féarful.All’s Well,III.i. 4.

Stáy! | the kíng has thrówn | his wárder dówn.

Rich. II,I.iii. 118.

Upón your Gráce’s part; | bláck and féarful.

All’s Well,III.i. 4.

For the same reason a thesis is sometimes wanting in the interior of a line:

Of góodly thóusands. | Bút, for áll thís.Macb.IV.iii. 44;

or for phonetic reasons (cf. §86):

A thírd thínks, | withóut expénse at áll.1 Hen. VI,I.i. 76.

With respect to the word-stress and the metrical value of syllables there are in Shakespeare many archaic peculiarities. Some of those we have already dealt with; for the rest the reader must consult the works in which they are specially discussed.

§171.Of great interest are the other metres that occur in combination with blank verse in Shakespeare’s plays.

Alexandrines are frequently met with, especially where one line is divided between two speakers:

Macb.I’ll cóme to yóu anón. |Murd.We áre resólved, my lórd.Macb.III.i. 139.Macb.Hów does your pátient, dóctor? |Doct.Nót so síck, my lórd.ib.V.iii. 37;

Macb.I’ll cóme to yóu anón. |Murd.We áre resólved, my lórd.

Macb.III.i. 139.

Macb.Hów does your pátient, dóctor? |Doct.Nót so síck, my lórd.

ib.V.iii. 37;

but also in many other cases:

Hów dares thy hársh rude tóngue | sound thís unpléasing néws?R. II,III.iv. 74.And thése does shé applý | for wárnings, ánd porténts.Caes.II.ii. 80.

Hów dares thy hársh rude tóngue | sound thís unpléasing néws?

R. II,III.iv. 74.

And thése does shé applý | for wárnings, ánd porténts.

Caes.II.ii. 80.

Frequently, however, such apparent Alexandrines can easily be read as regular five-foot lines, for which they were certainly intended by the poet, by means of the ordinary metrical licences, as slurring, double theses, epic caesuras, or feminine endings[162]; e.g.:

I had thóught, my lórd, | to have léarn’d his héalth of yóu.R. II,II.iii. 24.I prómise you, | Í am afráid | to héar you téll it.R. III,I.iv. 65.O’erbéars your ófficers; | the rábble cáll him lórd.Haml.IV.v. 102.

I had thóught, my lórd, | to have léarn’d his héalth of yóu.

R. II,II.iii. 24.

I prómise you, | Í am afráid | to héar you téll it.

R. III,I.iv. 65.

O’erbéars your ófficers; | the rábble cáll him lórd.

Haml.IV.v. 102.

Among the blank verse lines in Shakespeare’s plays there are sometimes interspersed examples of the native four-beat long line. This occurs, apart from lyrical passages, most frequently in the early plays, e.g. inLove’s Labour’s Lostand inThe Comedy of Errors,III.i. 11–84, from which the following specimen is taken:

Ant. E.I thínk thou art an áss. |Dro. E.Marry, só it doth appéarBy the wróngs I súffer | and the blóws I béar.I should kíck, being kíck’d; | and, béing at that páss,You would kéep from my héels | and bewáre of an áss.Ant. E.You’re sád, Signior Bálthasar: | pray Gód our chéerMay ánswer my good wíll | and your good wélcome hére.

Ant. E.I thínk thou art an áss. |

Dro. E.Marry, só it doth appéar

By the wróngs I súffer | and the blóws I béar.

I should kíck, being kíck’d; | and, béing at that páss,

You would kéep from my héels | and bewáre of an áss.

Ant. E.You’re sád, Signior Bálthasar: | pray Gód our chéer

May ánswer my good wíll | and your good wélcome hére.

Occasionally these verses exhibit a somewhat more extended structure, so that they might pass for Alexandrines; mostly, however, a line of this type is connected by rhyme with an unmistakable four-beat line; cf.

If thóu hadst been, Drómio, | to dáy in my pláce,Thou wouldst have changed thy fáce for a náme, | or thy námefor an áss.Com. of Err.III.i. 47.

If thóu hadst been, Drómio, | to dáy in my pláce,

Thou wouldst have changed thy fáce for a náme, | or thy náme

for an áss.

Com. of Err.III.i. 47.

For this reason the second line also is to be scanned somehow or other in conformity with the general four-beat rhythm of the passage; possibly we should assume an initial thesis of five syllables. In lyrical passages four-beat lines are often combined also with four-foot iambic verse of the freer type (cf. § 132); e.g. in the following passage fromMidsummer Night’s Dream,II.i. 2–7:

Over híll, over dále, | thorough búsh, thorough bríer,Over párk, over pále, | thorough flóod, thorough fíre,I do wánder évery whére,Swífter thán the móon’s sphére;Ánd I sérve the fáiry quéen,To déw her órbs upón the gréen,&c.

Over híll, over dále, | thorough búsh, thorough bríer,

Over párk, over pále, | thorough flóod, thorough fíre,

I do wánder évery whére,

Swífter thán the móon’s sphére;

Ánd I sérve the fáiry quéen,

To déw her órbs upón the gréen,&c.

The two first lines belong to the first, the following to the latter species. Sometimes the rhythm of such rhymed four-foot verses is purely trochaic, e.g. in the witches’ song in Macbeth,IV, sc. i.

There are also unrhymed iambic lines of four feet, which usually have a caesura in the middle; e.g.:

The mátch is máde, | and áll is dóne.Shrew,IV.iv. 46.Befóre the kíngs | and quéens of France.Hen. VI,I.vi. 27.

The mátch is máde, | and áll is dóne.Shrew,IV.iv. 46.

Befóre the kíngs | and quéens of France.Hen. VI,I.vi. 27.

Not unfrequently, however, such verses only apparently have four feet, one missing foot or part of it being supplied by a pause (cf.Metrik, ii, § 164):

He’s tá’en⏑–́(Shout). || And hark! | they shóut for jóy.Caes.V.iii. 32.Mal.As thóu didst léave it.–́||Serg.Dóubtful it stóod.Macb.I.ii. 7.Thínk on lord Hástings.–́|| Despáir and díe!Rich. III,V.iii. 134.

He’s tá’en⏑–́(Shout). || And hark! | they shóut for jóy.

Caes.V.iii. 32.

Mal.As thóu didst léave it.–́||Serg.Dóubtful it stóod.

Macb.I.ii. 7.

Thínk on lord Hástings.–́|| Despáir and díe!

Rich. III,V.iii. 134.

Isolated two- and three-foot lines occur mostly at the beginning or at the end of a speech, or in pathetic passages of monologues; this usually causes a somewhat longer pause, such as is suitable to the state of feeling of the speaker.

Short exclamations asWhy,Fie,Alack,Farewellare often to be regarded as extra-metrical.

Prose also is often used for common speeches not requiring poetic diction.[163].

§172.One passage from an early play of Shakespeare, and another, chosen from one of his last plays, will sufficiently exhibit the metrical differences between these periods of his work. (For other specimens cf.Metrik, ii, §166.)

Capulet.But Móntagúe | is bóund as wéll as Í,In pénaltý alíke; | and ’tis not hárd, I thínk,For mén so óld as wé | to kéep the péace.

Paris.Of hónouráble réckoning | áre you bóth;And píty ’tís | you líved at ódds so lóng.But nów, my lórd, | what sáy you tó my súit?

Paris.Yóunger than shé | are happy móthers máde.

Romeo and Juliet,I.ii. 1–19.

Prospero.Bé collécted:No móre amázement: | téll your píteous héartThere’s nó harm dóne. |

Miranda.O wóe the dáy!

Miranda.Móre to knówDid néver méddle wíth my thóughts. |&c.

Tempest,I.ii. 1–22

§173.The further development of blank verse can be dealt with here only very briefly.

For the dramatic blank verse of Shakespeare’s contemporaries and immediate successors seeMetrik, vol. ii, §§ 167–78, and the works there enumerated. The reader may also be referred to various special treatises[164]of later date, which supply detailed evidence in the main confirming the correctness of the author’s former observations.

In this place we mention only the characteristic peculiarities of the most important poets of that group.

Ben Jonson’s blank verseis not so melodious as that of Shakespeare.

There is often a conflict between the logical and the rhythmical stress, as e.g.:

Be éver cáll’d | the fóuntayne óf selfe-lóve.Cynthia’s Rev.I.ii.

Theses of two and even more syllables likewise occur in many verses, e.g.:

Sir Péter Túb was his fáther, | a saltpétre mán.

Tale of a Tub,I.22;

frequently also feminine or even disyllabic unaccented endings are used:

The dífference ’twíxt | the cóvetous ánd the pródigal.

Staple of News,I.iii. 39.

These licences often give to his verse an uneven and rugged rhythm.

There are only slight differences from Shakespeare’s usage with regard to the caesura, inversion of accent, &c. Run-on lines, as well as rhyme and the use of prose, are common in his plays; some of his comedies are almost entirely written in prose.

§174.InFletcher, on the contrary, run-on lines, rhymed verses, and prose are exceedingly rare.

Feminine and gliding endings, however (sometimes of three, and even of four supernumerary syllables), are often used; in some plays even more often than masculine ones. (For specimens cf. §91.)

Feminine endings, combined with disyllabic or polysyllabic first thesis, are common; now and then we find epic caesuras or other theses in the interior of the line:

They are too hígh a méat that wáy, | they rún to jelly.Loyal Subj.I.i. 371.A cóach and four hórses | cánnot dráw me fróm it.ib.III.ii. 361.Thís was hard fórtune; | but íf alíve and táken.Hum. Lieut,I.i. 7.You máy surpríse them éasily; | they wéar no pístols.Loyal Subj.I.ii. 314.

They are too hígh a méat that wáy, | they rún to jelly.

Loyal Subj.I.i. 371.

A cóach and four hórses | cánnot dráw me fróm it.

ib.III.ii. 361.

Thís was hard fórtune; | but íf alíve and táken.

Hum. Lieut,I.i. 7.

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.

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 fromThe 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’dAnd só pull’d ón the góds, | thát in their jústiceThey múst restóre him | flésh agáin, | and lífe,And ráise his drý bònes | tó revénge his scándal.

Evadne.Lét me consíder.

§175.There are no plays extant written byBeaumontalone; 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 byBoyle.[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 fromThe Maid’s Tragedy(II.i, pp. 24–5):

Dula.Shé is in lóve: | Háng me, if Í were só,But Í could rún my cóuntry. | Í love, tóo,To dó those thíngs | that péople ín love dó.

§176.Fewer peculiarities appear in the verse ofMassinger, who (according to Fleay and Boyle) wrote many plays in partnership with Beaumont and Fletcher; for this reason his verse has been examined by those scholars in connexion with that of Beaumont and Fletcher. Like Fletcher, Massinger uses a great many feminine endings; but he has many run-on lines as well as ‘light’ and ‘weak’ endings. In contradistinction to Beaumont’s practice, he seldom uses prose and rhyme, but he has a great many double endings. His verse is very melodious, similar on the whole to that of Shakespeare’s middle period.

The following passage may serve as an example:

Tib.It ís the dúchess’ bírthday, | ónce a yéarSolémnized wíth all pómp | and céremóny;In whích the dúke is nót his ówn, | but hérs:Nay, évery dáy, indéed, | he ís her créature,For néver mán so dóated;— | bút to téllThe ténth part óf his fóndness | to a stránger,Would árgue mé of fíction. |Steph.Shé’s, indéed,A lády óf most éxquisite fórm. |Tib.She knóws it,And hów to príze it. |Steph.I néver héard her taintedIn ány póint of hónour. |Tib.Ón my lífe,She’s cónstant tó his béd, | and wéll desérvesHis lárgest fávours. | Bút, when béauty isStámp’d on great wómen, | gréat in bírth and fórtune,And blówn by flátterers | gréater thán it ís,’Tis séldom únaccómpaníed | with príde;Nor ís she thát way frée: | presúming ónThe dúke’s afféction, | ánd her ówn desért,She béars hersélf | with súch a májestý,Lóoking with scórn on áll | as thíngs benéath her,That Sfórza’s móther, | thát would lóse no pártOf whát was ónce her ówn, | nor hís fair síster,A lády tóo | acquáinted wíth her wórth,Will bróok it wéll; | and hówsoé’er their háteIs smóther’d fór a tíme, | ’tis móre than féar’dIt wíll at léngth break óut. |Steph.Hé in whose pówer it ís,Turn áll to the bést. |Tib.Come, lét us tó the cóurt;We thére shall sée all bráverý and cóst,That árt can bóast of. |Steph.I’ll béar you cómpaný.Massinger, Duke of Milan,I.i. end.The versification of the other dramatists of this time cannot be discussed in this place. It must suffice to say that the more defined and artistic blank verse, introduced by Marlowe and Shakespeare, was cultivated by Beaumont, Massinger, Chapman, Dekker, Ford, &c.; a less artistic verse, on the other hand, so irregular as sometimes to approximate to prose, is found in Ben Jonson and Fletcher, and to a less degree in Middleton, Marston, and Shirley. (Cf.Metrik, ii. §§ 171–8.)§177. The blank verse of Milton, who was the first since Surrey to use it for epic poetry, is of greater importance than that of the minor dramatists, and is itself of particular interest. Milton’s verse, it is true, cannot be said to be always very melodious. On the contrary, it sometimes can be brought into conformity with the regular scheme of the five-foot verse only by level stress and by assigning full value to syllables that in ordinary pronunciation are slurred or elided (see §83).Generally, however, Milton’s blank verse has a stately rhythmical structure all its own, due to his masterly employment of the whole range of metrical artifices. In the first place, he frequently employs inversion of accent, both at the beginning of a line and after a caesura; sometimes together with double thesis in the interior of the line, as e.g.:Báck to the gátes of Héaven; | the súlphurous háil.Par. Lost,I.171.Quite peculiar, however, to Milton’s blank verse is the extensive use he makes of run-on lines, and in connexion with the great variety in his treatment of the caesura.Milton has more than 50 per cent. run-on lines; sometimes we have from three to six lines in succession that are not stopt.As to the caesura, we mostly have masculine and lyric caesura (more seldom epic caesuras) after the second or third foot; besides, we have frequent double caesuras (generally caused by run-on lines), about 12 percent.[167]Finally, as the third peculiarity of Milton’s epic blank verse, the almost exclusive use of masculine endings deserves mention. The number of feminine endings in the various books ofParadise Lostand ofParadise Regainedis only from 1 to 5 per cent.; inSamson Agonistes, on the other hand, we have about 16 per cent., nearly as many as in the plays of Shakespeare’s secondperiod.[168]The following example (Paradise Lost,V.1–25) may illustrate Milton’s blank verse:Now Mórn, | her rósy stéps | in the éastern clímeAdváncing, | sówed the éarth with órient péarl,When Ádam wáked, so cústomed; | fór his sléepWas áery líght, | from púre digéstion bréd,And témperate vápours blánd, | which the ónly sóundOf léaves and fúming rílls, | Auróra’s fán,Líghtly dispérsed, | ánd the shrill mátin sóngOf bírds on évery bóugh. | So múch the móreHis wónder wás | to fínd unwákened Éve,With trésses díscompósed, | and glówing chéek,As thróugh unquíet rést. | Hé, on his sídeLéaning half ráised, | with lóoks of córdial lóveHung óver hér enámoured, | ánd behéldBéauty | which, whéther wáking | ór asléep,Shot fórth pecúliar gráces; | thén, with vóiceMíld as when Zéphyrús | on Flóra bréathes,Her hánd soft tóuching, | whíspered thús:— | ‘Awáke,My fáirest, mý espóused, | my látest fóund,Heaven’s lást best gíft, | my éver-néw delíght!Awáke! | the mórning shínes, | ánd the fresh fíeldCálls us; | we lóse the príme | to márk how spríngOur ténded plánts, | how blóws the cítron gróve,What dróps the mýrrh, | and whát the bálmy réed,How Náture páints her cólours, | hów the béeSíts on the blóom | extrácting líquid swéet.’§178. The dramatic blank verse of the Restorationis strongly influenced by the heroic verse of the same period, and is on this account very different from the blank verse of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.For this period the blank verse of Dryden is most interesting; he uses it with great skill, but also with great restriction of its former licences.Even the number of the inversions of accent decreases considerably and is only about 12 per cent. We find scarcely any examples of double thesis, slurring of syllables, missing theses in the beginning or in the interior of the line, &c.The caesura, which is the chief means by which variety is imparted to the metre, is generally masculine or lyric, and as a rule occurs after the second or third foot; occasionally we have double caesuras. Epic caesuras are rare, if they occur at all. Feminine endings are frequent, their proportion being about 25 to 28 per cent. Light and weak endings are rarely to be found amongst the masculine endings, nor are run-on lines (about 20 per cent.) frequently used by Dryden.Most of the characteristic features of his blank verse will be found exemplified in the following extract:Emperor.Márry’d! | I’ll nót belíeve it; || ’tís impósture;Impróbable | they shóu’d presúme t’attémpt,Impóssible | they shóu’d efféct their wísh.Benducar.Have pátience tíll I cléar it. |Emperor.Í have nóne:Go bíd our móving Pláins of Sánd | lie stíll,And stír not, | whén the stórmy Sóuth blows hígh:From tóp to bóttom | thóu hast tóss’d my Sóul,And nów ’tis ín the mádness | of the Whírl.Requír’st a súdden stóp? | unsáy thy lýe,That máy in týme do sómewhat. |Benducar.Í have dóne.For, sínce it pléases yóu | it shóu’d be fórg’d’Tis fít it shóu’d: | Fár be it fróm your Sláve,To ráise distúrbance | ín your Sácred Bréast.Emperor.Sebástian ís my Sláve | as wéll as thóu;Nor dúrst offénd my Lóve, | but thát Presúmption ...Benducar.Most súre he óught not. |Emperor.Thén all méans were wánting;No Príest, no Céremónies | óf their Séct:Or, gránt we thése defécts | cou’d bé supplý’d,Hów cou’d our Próphet dó | an áct so báse,Só to resúme his Gífts, | and cúrse my Cónquests,By máking mé unháppy! | Nó, the SláveThat tóld thee só absúrd a stóry, | lý’d.Dryden, Sebastian, III.The blank verse of Lee, Otway, N. Rowe, and Addison[169]is of similar structure.§179.Blank verse was treated even more strictly byThomsoninThe Seasons. Thomson followed Dryden with regard to his treatment of the caesura and the inversion of accent, but made no use at all of feminine endings. Cf. the following passage fromSummer:From bríghtening fíelds of éther | fáir disclós’d,Chíld of the sún, | refúlgent Súmmer cómes,In pride of yóuth, | and félt through náture’s dépth:He cómes atténded | bý the súltry hóurs,And éver-fánning bréezes, | ón his wáy;Whíle, from his árdent lóok, | the túrning SpríngAvérts her blúshful fáce; | and éarth, and skíesAll smíling, | to his hót domínion léaves.Hénce let me háste | intó the míd-wood sháde,Where scárce a sún-beam | wánders through the glóom;And ón the dárk-green gráss, | besíde the brínkOf háunted stréam, | that bý the róots of óakRólls o’er the rócky chánnel,| líe at lárge,And síng the glóries | óf the círcling yéar.The blank verse of Young (Night Thoughts), Cowper (The Task), and other less important poets of the eighteenth century is of a similar uniform structure; cf.Metrik, ii, §193§180.In theblank verse of the nineteenth centurywe find both tendencies, the strict and the free treatment of this verse-form; according to their predominant employment in epic and dramatic poetry respectively, we may call them the epic and the dramatic form of the verse. They may be chiefly distinguished by the peculiarities to be observed in the blankverse of Milton and Thomson on the one hand, and of Dryden on the other; i.e. by the admission or exclusion of feminine endings.The strict form of the epic blank verse, with masculine endings, is preferred in the narrative or reflective poems of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, Shelley, Keats, W.S. Landor, Longfellow, D. G. Rossetti, Mrs. Browning, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, Tennyson, Swinburne, and EdwinArnold.[170]The free form is represented, mainly, in the dramatic verse of the same and other poets, being used by Coleridge (in his translation ofThe Piccolomini), Wordsworth, Southey, Lamb, Byron, Shelley, W.S. Landor, Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, andothers.[171]CHAPTER XIIITROCHAIC METRES§181.Trochaic metres, which, generally speaking, are less common in English poetry than iambics, were not used at all till the Modern English Period. The old metrical writers (Gascoigne, James VI, W. Webbe) only know rising metres.Puttenham (1589) is the first metrician who quotes four-foot trochaic lines; similar verses also occur during the same period in Shakespeare’sLove’s Labour’s Lost,A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and other plays.Whether they were introduced directly on foreign models, or originated indirectly from the influence of the study of the ancients by means of a regular omission of the first thesis of the iambic metres, we do not know. It is likewise uncertain who was the first to use strict trochaic verses deliberately in English, or in what chronological order the various trochaic metres formed in analogy with the iambic ones entered into English poetry.The longest trochaic lines, to which we first turn our attention, seem to be of comparatively late date.Theeight-foot trochaic line, more exactly definable as the acatalectic trochaic tetrameter (cf. §77), is the longest trochaic metre we find in English poetry. As a specimen of this metre the first stanza of a short poem by Thackeray written in this form has been quoted already on page127. As a rule, however, this acatalectic feminine line is mingled with catalectic verses with masculine endings, as e.g. in the following burlesque by Thackeray,Damages Two Hundred Pounds:Só, God bléss the Spécial Júry! | príde and jóy of Énglish gróund,Ánd the háppy lánd of Éngland, | whére true jústice dóes abóund!Brítish júrymén and húsbands, | lét us háil this vérdict próper:Íf a Brítish wífe offénds you, | Brítons, yóu’ve a ríght to whóp her.While the catalectic iambic tetrameter is a line of seven feet (the last arsis being omitted), the catalectic trochaic tetrameter loses only the last thesis, but keeps the preceding arsis; and on this account it remains a metre of eight feet.Rhyming couplets of this kind of verse, when broken up into short lines, give rise to stanzas with the formulasa~b c~b4, d~e~f~e~4, or, if inserted rhymes are used, we have the forma~b a~b4(alternating masculine and feminine endings), ora~b~a~b~4(if there are feminine endings only). In both these cases the eight-foot rhythm is distinctly preserved to the ear. But this is no longer the case in another trochaic metre of eight feet, where the theses of both the fourth and the eighth foot are wanting, as may be noticed in Swinburne,A Midsummer Holiday, p. 132:Scárce two húndred yéars are góne, | ánd the wórld is pást awáyÁs a nóise of bráwling wínd, | ás a flásh of bréaking fóam,Thát behéld the sínger bórn | whó raised úp the déad of Róme;Ánd a míghtier nów than hé | bíds him tóo rise úp to-dáy;still less when such lines are broken up by inserted rhyme in stanzas of the forma b a b4. In cases, too, where the eight-foot trochaic verse is broken up by leonine rhyme, the rhythm has a decided four-foot cadence on account of the rapid recurrence of the rhyme.§182.Theseven-foot trochaic lineis theoretically either a brachycatalectic tetrameter with a feminine or a hypercatalectic trimeter with a masculine ending. An example of the first kind we had on p.128. A more correct specimen is the following line from the same poem:Hásten, Lórd, who árt my Hélper; | lét thine áid be spéedy.The verses quoted on p.128are incorrect in so far as the caesura occurs at an unusual place, viz. in the middle of the fourth foot, instead of after it, as in the example just quoted.They show, however, the origin of a pretty frequently occurring anisorhythmical stanza, which is derived from this metre by means of the use of inserted rhyme; lines 1 and 3 having a trochaic, lines 2 and 4, on the other hand, an iambicrhythm; cf. e.g. the following stanza from a poem by Suckling (Poets, iii. 741):Sáy, but díd you lóve so lóng?In trúth I néeds must bláme you:Pássion did your júdgement wróng,Or wánt of réason sháme you.When there are masculine rhymes throughout, the stanza is felt distinctly as consisting of alternate lines of four and three feet (a4b3a4b3).The seven-foot rhythm, however, remains, if the three-foot half-lines only have masculine endings, and the four-foot half-lines remain feminine; as is the case in Swinburne’s poemClear the Way(Mids. Hol., p. 143):Cléar the wáy, my lórds and láckeys, | yóu have hád your dáy.Hére you háve your ánswer, Éngland’s | yéa against your náy;Lóng enóugh your hóuse has héld you: | up, and cléar the wáy!This, of course, is likewise the case, if the verses are broken up into stanzas by inserted rhyme (a4b3a4b3).More frequently than this correct seven-foot verse, with either a feminine or masculine ending, we find the incorrect type, consisting of a catalectic and a brachycatalectic dimeter, according to the model of the well-known Low Latin verse:Mihi est propositum | in taberna mori,which is often confounded with the former (cf. §135). The following first stanza of a poem by Suckling (Poets, iii. 471) is written in exact imitation of this metre:Óut upón it, Í have lóved | thrée whole dáys tógether;Ánd am líke to lóve three móre, | íf it próve fair wéather.Although only the long lines rhyme, the stanza is commonly printed in short lines (a4b3~ c4b3~). Still more frequently we find short-lined stanzas of the kind (a4b3~ a4b3~) as well as the other sub-species with masculine rhymes only:a4b3a4b3.§183.Thesix-foot trochaic lineoccurs chiefly in Modern English, and appears both in acatalectic (feminine)and catalectic (masculine) form; e.g. in SwinburneThe Last Oracle(Poems and Ballads, ii. 1):Dáy by dáy thy shádow | shínes in héaven behólden,Éven the sún, the shíning | shádow óf thy fáce:Kíng, the wáys of héaven | befóre thy féet grow gólden;Gód, the sóul of éarth | is kíndled wíth thy gráce.Strictly the caesura ought to occur after the third foot, as it does in the first line; generally, however, it is within the third foot, and so this metre as well as the stanza formed by insertion of rhyme acquires an anisorhythmical character, as e.g. in the following quatrain by Moore:Áll that’s bríght must fáde,—The bríghtest stíll the fléetest;Áll that’s swéet was mádeBut to be lóst when swéetest.When masculine rhymes are used throughout, the six-foot rhythm is preserved in anisorhythmical stanzas of this kind just as well as when lines like the first of those in the example quoted above,Day by day, &c., are broken up by inserted rhymes (a ~ b ~ a ~ b3~); or again when they have masculine endings in the second half-lines (a ~ b a ~ b3). If the first half is masculine, however, and the second feminine (or if both have masculine endings on account of a pause caused by the missing thesis), the verses have a three-foot character, e.g. in Moore:Whíle I tóuch the stríng,Wréathe my bróws with láurel,Fór the tále I síngHás for ónce a móral.§184.Thefive-foot trochaic linealso occurs both in acatalectic (feminine) and catalectic (masculine) form, and each of them is found in stanzas rhyming alternately, as e.g. in Mrs. Hemans’sO ye voices(vii. 57):Ó ye vóices róund | my ówn hearth sínging!Ás the wínds of Máy | to mémory swéet,Míght I yét retúrn, | a wórn heart brínging,Wóuld those vérnal tónes | the wánderer gréet?Such verses, of course, can be used also in stanzas with either masculine or feminine endings only.As in the five-foot iambic verse, the caesura generally occurs either after the second or third foot (in which case it is feminine), or usually within the second or third foot (masculine caesura).In a few cases this metre is also used without rhyme; e.g. in Robert Browning’sOne Word More(v. 313–21); feminine endings are used here throughout; run-on lines occasionally occur, and the caesura shows still greater variety in consequence. A specimen is given inMetrik, ii, § 217§185.Thefour-foot trochaic line(discussed above in its relationship to the eight- and seven-foot verse) is the most frequent of all trochaic metres. It likewise occurs either with alternate feminine and masculine rhymes or with rhymes of one kind only. We find it both in stanzas and in continuous verse. The latter form, with feminine rhymes only, we have in Shakespeare’sTempest,IV.i. 106–9:Hónour, ríches, márriage-bléssing,Lóng contínuance, ánd incréasing,Hóurly jóys be stíll upón you!Júno síngs her bléssings ón you,&c.With masculine endings only it is found inLove’s Labour’s Lost,IV.iii. 101:Ón a dáy—aláck the dáy!—Lóve, whose mónth is éver Máy,Spíed a blóssom pássing fáirPláying ín the wánton áir.As in the five-foot verse, here also the caesura if used at all may fall at different places; mostly its place is after or within the second foot.Generally speaking this metre is used in continuous verse in such a way that masculine and feminine couplets are intermixed without regular order;[172]when it is used in stanzas the forms previously mentioned in §181are usually adopted.This metre is used also, in an unrhymed form and with feminine endings throughout, in Longfellow’sSong of Hiawatha, in which there are noticeably more run-on lines than in rhymed four-foot trochaics.§186.Thethree-foot trochaic line, both with feminineand with masculine endings, has been discussed in previous sections (§§182–3) so far as it is derived from seven- and six-foot verse. It may also be derived from the six-foot metre through the breaking up of the line by means of leonine rhyme, as in the following rhyming couplets:Áge, I dó abhór thee,Yóuth, I dó adóre thee;Yóuth ís fúll of spórt,Áge’s bréath is shórt.Passionate Pilgrim, No. 12.§187. Two-foot trochaic linesgenerally occur among longer lines of anisometrical stanzas; but we also find them now and then without longer lines in stanzas and poems. Feminine verses of this kind, which may be regarded as four-foot lines broken up by leonine rhyme, we have in Dodsley (Poets, xi. 112):Lóve comméncing,Jóys dispénsing;Béauty smíling,Wít beguíling;and masculine ones in a short poem, possibly by Pope,To Quinbus Flestrin, the Man-Mountain(p. 481):Ín a máze,Lóst, I gáze,Cán our éyesRéach thy síze?Máy my láysSwéll with práise,&c.§188. One-foot trochaic linesseem only to occur among longer verses in regular stanzas, as e.g. in a stanza of Addison’s operaRosamund(I.ii. 38):Túrning,Búrning,Chánging,Ránging.We even find sometimes a line consisting of a single (of course accented) syllable in Swinburne, as e.g. in his poemin trochaic verse,A Dead Friend(A Century of Roundels, pp. 12–19):Góne, O géntle héart and trúe,Friénd of hópes forgóne,Hópes and hópeful dáys with yóu,Góne?It is common to all these trochaic metres that their structure, especially that of the longer ones, is (except for the varying caesura) very regular, and that they have only very few rhythmical licences, chiefly slight slurring.CHAPTER XIVIAMBIC-ANAPAESTIC AND TROCHAIC-DACTYLIC METRES§189.Theiambic-anapaestic rhythmhas been touched on before in connexion with the four-stressed verse (cf. §72) which was developed from the alliterative long line, and which at the end of the Middle English and in the beginning of the Modern English period, under the growing influence of the even-beat metres, had assumed more or less regular iambic-anapaestic character.When during the same period a definitive separation of the rising and falling rhythms took place, the even-measured rhythm of this four-stressed modern metre became more conspicuous and was made up frequently, although not always, of a regular series of iambic-anapaestic measures. It was thus differentiated still more distinctly from the uneven-beat Old and Middle English long line, the character of which mainly rested on the four well-marked beats only. It deserves notice further that it was not until the Modern English period that the rest of the iambic-anapaestic and trochaic-dactylic metres (the eight-, seven-, six-, five-, four-, three-, and two-foot verses) were imitated from the then common corresponding iambic rhythms.In the sixteenth century Puttenham quotes four-foot dactylics, and in his time the dactylic hexameter had already been imitated in English. But most of the other trisyllabic rising and falling metres, except the Septenary, occur first in English poetry at the end of the eighteenth and during the course of the nineteenth century.It must also be noted that in many cases, especially in the eight-, four-, and two-foot verses of this kind (i.e. in those metres that are connected with the old four-stressed verse), the rising and falling rhythms are not strictly separated, but frequently intermingle and even supplement one another.I. Iambic-anapaestic Metres.§190. Eight-foot iambic-anapaestic versesrhyming in long lines are very rare, but appear in the following four-lined stanza of four-foot verses by Burns,The Chevalier’s Lament(p. 343):The smáll birds rejóice in the gréen leaves retúrning,The múrmuring stréamlet winds cléar thro’ the vále;The háwthorn trees blów in the déws of the mórning,And wíld scatter’d cówslips bedéck the green dále.In this metre each of the two periods begins with an iambic measure and then passes into anapaests, the feminine ending of the first (or third) line and the iambic beginning of the second (or fourth) forming together an anapaest.In a poem by Swinburne (Poems, ii. 144) four-foot anapaestic and dactylic lines alternate so as to form anapaestic periods:For a dáy and a níght Love sáng to us, pláyed with us,Fólded us róund from the dárk and the líght,&c.For other less correct specimens of such combinations of verse cf.Metrik, ii, §225.§191. The seven-foot iambic-anapaestic versewould seem to be of rare occurrence except in the most recent period; in long lines and masculine rhymes it has been used by Swinburne, as e.g. inThe Death of Richard Wagner;[173]we quote the middle stanza:As a vísion of héaven from the hóllows of ócean, | that nóne but a gód might sée,Rose óut of the sílence of thíngs unknówn | of a présence, a fórm, a míght,And we héard as a próphet that héars God’s méssage | agáinst him, and máy not flée.The occurrence of an iambus or a spondee at the end and sometimes in the middle of the verse is remarkable, as well as the arbitrary treatment of the caesura, which does not, as in the iambic Septenary verse, always come after the fourth foot (as in the second line), but sometimes in other places; in the first and third lines, for instance, there is a feminine caesura in the fifth foot.More often this Septenary metre occurs in short lines (and therefore with fixed masculine caesura). In this form it appears as early as the seventeenth century in a poem by the Earl of Dorset,To Chloris:Ah! Chlóris, ’tis tíme to disárm your bright éyes,And lay bý those térrible glánces;We líve in an áge that’s more cívil and wíse,Than to fóllow the rúles of románces.Poets, vii. 513.Another specimen of the same rhythm, very artistically handled (cf.Metrik, i, § 226) is Charles Wolfe’s well-known poemThe Burial of Sir John Moore. The same metre also occurs with masculine rhymes.§192.Thesix-foot iambic-anapaestic versesometimes occurs in Modern English poets, as Tennyson,The Grandmother,Maud, &c., Robert Browning,Abt Vogler, Mrs. Browning,Confessions, Swinburne,Hymn to Proserpine, &c.We quote the following verses from Tennyson’sMaudto illustrate this metre, which, however, in consequence of the fluctuating proportion of iambic and anapaestic measures occurring in it is handled very differently by different poets (cf.Metrik, ii, § 227):Did he flíng himself dówn? who knóws? | for a vást speculátion had fáil’d,And éver he mútter’d and mádden’d, | and éver wánn’d with despáir,And óut he wálk’d when the wínd | like a bróken wórldling wáil’d,And the flýing góld of the rúin’d wóodlands | dróve thro’ the áir.The caesura is sometimes masculine after the third foot (as in lines 1 and 3), sometimes feminine in the fourth (line 2) or the fifth (line 4); so that its position is quite indeterminate. The rhymes are mostly masculine, but feminine rhymes are also met with, as e.g. in Mrs. Browning’sConfessions. Swinburne’s verses are printed in long lines, it is true, but they are broken into short lines by inserted masculine and feminine rhymes.§193.Thefive-foot iambic-anapaestic verselikewise does not occur till recent times, and is chiefly used by the poets just mentioned. Rhymed in couplets it occurs in Mrs. Browning’sThe Daughters of Pandarus, Version II (vol. iv, p. 200):So the stórms bore the dáughters of Pándarus | óut into thráll—The góds slew their párents; | the órphans were léft in the háll.And there cáme, to féed their young líves, Aphrodíte divíne,With the íncense, the swéet-tasting hóney, the swéet-smelling wíne.The rhythm is here almost entirely anapaestic; the caesura occurs in the most diverse places and may be either masculine or feminine. The ending of the line is masculine throughout, as well as in Robert Browning’sSaul(iii. 146–96), but with many run-on lines.In Swinburne’sA Word from the Psalmist(A Mids. Holiday, p. 176) we have another treatment of this metre. As a rule the line begins with an anapaest, and continues in pure iambic rhythm:But a lóuder | thán the Chúrch’s écho | thúndersIn the éars of mén | who máy not chóose but héar;And the héart in hím | that héars it léaps and wónders,With triúmphant hópe | astónished, ór with féar.In other examples it has an iambic or spondaic rhythm at the beginning and end, with an anapaestic part in the middle, as inThe Seaboard(ib., p. 3) by the same poet:The séa is at ébb, | and the sóund of her útmost wórd,Is sóft as the léast wave’s lápse | in a stíll small réach.From báy into báy, | on quést of a góal deférred,From héadland éver to héadland | and bréach to bréach,Where éarth gives éar | to the méssage that áll days préach.InA Century of Roundels, p. 1, &c., Swinburne uses this metre, which also occurs in Tennyson’sMaud, with feminine and masculine endings alternately.§194.Thefour-foot iambic-anapaestic verseis essentially identical with the four-stressed verse treated of above (§72), except that it has assumed a still more regular, even-beat rhythm in modern times; generally it begins with an iambus and anapaests follow, as in the stanza quoted from Burns (§190). Occasionally this metre has an almost entirely anapaestic structure; as e.g. in Moore,In the Morning of Life:In the mórning of lífe, | when its cáres are unknówn,And its pléasures in áll | their new lústre begín,When we líve in a bríght-beaming | wórld of our ówn,And the líght that surróunds us | is áll from withín.In other examples the rhythm is chiefly iambic, intermingled with occasional anapaests; as e.g. in Moore’sYou Remember Ellen:You remémber Éllen, | our hámlet’s prídeHow méekly she bléssed | her húmble lót,When the stránger Wílliam, | had máde her his bríde,And lóve was the líght | of her lówly cót.

Massinger, Duke of Milan,I.i. end.

The versification of the other dramatists of this time cannot be discussed in this place. It must suffice to say that the more defined and artistic blank verse, introduced by Marlowe and Shakespeare, was cultivated by Beaumont, Massinger, Chapman, Dekker, Ford, &c.; a less artistic verse, on the other hand, so irregular as sometimes to approximate to prose, is found in Ben Jonson and Fletcher, and to a less degree in Middleton, Marston, and Shirley. (Cf.Metrik, ii. §§ 171–8.)

§177. The blank verse of Milton, who was the first since Surrey to use it for epic poetry, is of greater importance than that of the minor dramatists, and is itself of particular interest. Milton’s verse, it is true, cannot be said to be always very melodious. On the contrary, it sometimes can be brought into conformity with the regular scheme of the five-foot verse only by level stress and by assigning full value to syllables that in ordinary pronunciation are slurred or elided (see §83).

Generally, however, Milton’s blank verse has a stately rhythmical structure all its own, due to his masterly employment of the whole range of metrical artifices. In the first place, he frequently employs inversion of accent, both at the beginning of a line and after a caesura; sometimes together with double thesis in the interior of the line, as e.g.:

Báck to the gátes of Héaven; | the súlphurous háil.

Par. Lost,I.171.

Quite peculiar, however, to Milton’s blank verse is the extensive use he makes of run-on lines, and in connexion with the great variety in his treatment of the caesura.

Milton has more than 50 per cent. run-on lines; sometimes we have from three to six lines in succession that are not stopt.

As to the caesura, we mostly have masculine and lyric caesura (more seldom epic caesuras) after the second or third foot; besides, we have frequent double caesuras (generally caused by run-on lines), about 12 percent.[167]

Finally, as the third peculiarity of Milton’s epic blank verse, the almost exclusive use of masculine endings deserves mention. The number of feminine endings in the various books ofParadise Lostand ofParadise Regainedis only from 1 to 5 per cent.; inSamson Agonistes, on the other hand, we have about 16 per cent., nearly as many as in the plays of Shakespeare’s secondperiod.[168]

The following example (Paradise Lost,V.1–25) may illustrate Milton’s blank verse:

Now Mórn, | her rósy stéps | in the éastern clíme

Adváncing, | sówed the éarth with órient péarl,

When Ádam wáked, so cústomed; | fór his sléep

Was áery líght, | from púre digéstion bréd,

And témperate vápours blánd, | which the ónly sóund

Of léaves and fúming rílls, | Auróra’s fán,

Líghtly dispérsed, | ánd the shrill mátin sóng

Of bírds on évery bóugh. | So múch the móre

His wónder wás | to fínd unwákened Éve,

With trésses díscompósed, | and glówing chéek,

As thróugh unquíet rést. | Hé, on his síde

Léaning half ráised, | with lóoks of córdial lóve

Hung óver hér enámoured, | ánd behéld

Béauty | which, whéther wáking | ór asléep,

Shot fórth pecúliar gráces; | thén, with vóice

Míld as when Zéphyrús | on Flóra bréathes,

Her hánd soft tóuching, | whíspered thús:— | ‘Awáke,

My fáirest, mý espóused, | my látest fóund,

Heaven’s lást best gíft, | my éver-néw delíght!

Awáke! | the mórning shínes, | ánd the fresh fíeld

Cálls us; | we lóse the príme | to márk how spríng

Our ténded plánts, | how blóws the cítron gróve,

What dróps the mýrrh, | and whát the bálmy réed,

How Náture páints her cólours, | hów the bée

Síts on the blóom | extrácting líquid swéet.’

§178. The dramatic blank verse of the Restorationis strongly influenced by the heroic verse of the same period, and is on this account very different from the blank verse of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

For this period the blank verse of Dryden is most interesting; he uses it with great skill, but also with great restriction of its former licences.

Even the number of the inversions of accent decreases considerably and is only about 12 per cent. We find scarcely any examples of double thesis, slurring of syllables, missing theses in the beginning or in the interior of the line, &c.

The caesura, which is the chief means by which variety is imparted to the metre, is generally masculine or lyric, and as a rule occurs after the second or third foot; occasionally we have double caesuras. Epic caesuras are rare, if they occur at all. Feminine endings are frequent, their proportion being about 25 to 28 per cent. Light and weak endings are rarely to be found amongst the masculine endings, nor are run-on lines (about 20 per cent.) frequently used by Dryden.

Most of the characteristic features of his blank verse will be found exemplified in the following extract:

Emperor.Márry’d! | I’ll nót belíeve it; || ’tís impósture;Impróbable | they shóu’d presúme t’attémpt,Impóssible | they shóu’d efféct their wísh.Benducar.Have pátience tíll I cléar it. |Emperor.Í have nóne:Go bíd our móving Pláins of Sánd | lie stíll,And stír not, | whén the stórmy Sóuth blows hígh:From tóp to bóttom | thóu hast tóss’d my Sóul,And nów ’tis ín the mádness | of the Whírl.Requír’st a súdden stóp? | unsáy thy lýe,That máy in týme do sómewhat. |Benducar.Í have dóne.For, sínce it pléases yóu | it shóu’d be fórg’d’Tis fít it shóu’d: | Fár be it fróm your Sláve,To ráise distúrbance | ín your Sácred Bréast.Emperor.Sebástian ís my Sláve | as wéll as thóu;Nor dúrst offénd my Lóve, | but thát Presúmption ...Benducar.Most súre he óught not. |Emperor.Thén all méans were wánting;No Príest, no Céremónies | óf their Séct:Or, gránt we thése defécts | cou’d bé supplý’d,Hów cou’d our Próphet dó | an áct so báse,Só to resúme his Gífts, | and cúrse my Cónquests,By máking mé unháppy! | Nó, the SláveThat tóld thee só absúrd a stóry, | lý’d.

Emperor.Márry’d! | I’ll nót belíeve it; || ’tís impósture;Impróbable | they shóu’d presúme t’attémpt,Impóssible | they shóu’d efféct their wísh.

Benducar.Have pátience tíll I cléar it. |

Emperor.Í have nóne:Go bíd our móving Pláins of Sánd | lie stíll,And stír not, | whén the stórmy Sóuth blows hígh:From tóp to bóttom | thóu hast tóss’d my Sóul,And nów ’tis ín the mádness | of the Whírl.Requír’st a súdden stóp? | unsáy thy lýe,That máy in týme do sómewhat. |

Benducar.Í have dóne.For, sínce it pléases yóu | it shóu’d be fórg’d’Tis fít it shóu’d: | Fár be it fróm your Sláve,To ráise distúrbance | ín your Sácred Bréast.

Emperor.Sebástian ís my Sláve | as wéll as thóu;Nor dúrst offénd my Lóve, | but thát Presúmption ...

Benducar.Most súre he óught not. |

Dryden, Sebastian, III.

The blank verse of Lee, Otway, N. Rowe, and Addison[169]is of similar structure.

§179.Blank verse was treated even more strictly byThomsoninThe Seasons. Thomson followed Dryden with regard to his treatment of the caesura and the inversion of accent, but made no use at all of feminine endings. Cf. the following passage fromSummer:

From bríghtening fíelds of éther | fáir disclós’d,

Chíld of the sún, | refúlgent Súmmer cómes,

In pride of yóuth, | and félt through náture’s dépth:

He cómes atténded | bý the súltry hóurs,

And éver-fánning bréezes, | ón his wáy;

Whíle, from his árdent lóok, | the túrning Spríng

Avérts her blúshful fáce; | and éarth, and skíes

All smíling, | to his hót domínion léaves.

Hénce let me háste | intó the míd-wood sháde,

Where scárce a sún-beam | wánders through the glóom;

And ón the dárk-green gráss, | besíde the brínk

Of háunted stréam, | that bý the róots of óak

Rólls o’er the rócky chánnel,| líe at lárge,

And síng the glóries | óf the círcling yéar.

The blank verse of Young (Night Thoughts), Cowper (The Task), and other less important poets of the eighteenth century is of a similar uniform structure; cf.Metrik, ii, §193

§180.In theblank verse of the nineteenth centurywe find both tendencies, the strict and the free treatment of this verse-form; according to their predominant employment in epic and dramatic poetry respectively, we may call them the epic and the dramatic form of the verse. They may be chiefly distinguished by the peculiarities to be observed in the blankverse of Milton and Thomson on the one hand, and of Dryden on the other; i.e. by the admission or exclusion of feminine endings.

The strict form of the epic blank verse, with masculine endings, is preferred in the narrative or reflective poems of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, Shelley, Keats, W.S. Landor, Longfellow, D. G. Rossetti, Mrs. Browning, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, Tennyson, Swinburne, and EdwinArnold.[170]

The free form is represented, mainly, in the dramatic verse of the same and other poets, being used by Coleridge (in his translation ofThe Piccolomini), Wordsworth, Southey, Lamb, Byron, Shelley, W.S. Landor, Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, andothers.[171]

§181.Trochaic metres, which, generally speaking, are less common in English poetry than iambics, were not used at all till the Modern English Period. The old metrical writers (Gascoigne, James VI, W. Webbe) only know rising metres.

Puttenham (1589) is the first metrician who quotes four-foot trochaic lines; similar verses also occur during the same period in Shakespeare’sLove’s Labour’s Lost,A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and other plays.

Whether they were introduced directly on foreign models, or originated indirectly from the influence of the study of the ancients by means of a regular omission of the first thesis of the iambic metres, we do not know. It is likewise uncertain who was the first to use strict trochaic verses deliberately in English, or in what chronological order the various trochaic metres formed in analogy with the iambic ones entered into English poetry.

The longest trochaic lines, to which we first turn our attention, seem to be of comparatively late date.

Theeight-foot trochaic line, more exactly definable as the acatalectic trochaic tetrameter (cf. §77), is the longest trochaic metre we find in English poetry. As a specimen of this metre the first stanza of a short poem by Thackeray written in this form has been quoted already on page127. As a rule, however, this acatalectic feminine line is mingled with catalectic verses with masculine endings, as e.g. in the following burlesque by Thackeray,Damages Two Hundred Pounds:

Só, God bléss the Spécial Júry! | príde and jóy of Énglish gróund,Ánd the háppy lánd of Éngland, | whére true jústice dóes abóund!Brítish júrymén and húsbands, | lét us háil this vérdict próper:Íf a Brítish wífe offénds you, | Brítons, yóu’ve a ríght to whóp her.

Só, God bléss the Spécial Júry! | príde and jóy of Énglish gróund,

Ánd the háppy lánd of Éngland, | whére true jústice dóes abóund!

Brítish júrymén and húsbands, | lét us háil this vérdict próper:

Íf a Brítish wífe offénds you, | Brítons, yóu’ve a ríght to whóp her.

While the catalectic iambic tetrameter is a line of seven feet (the last arsis being omitted), the catalectic trochaic tetrameter loses only the last thesis, but keeps the preceding arsis; and on this account it remains a metre of eight feet.

Rhyming couplets of this kind of verse, when broken up into short lines, give rise to stanzas with the formulasa~b c~b4, d~e~f~e~4, or, if inserted rhymes are used, we have the forma~b a~b4(alternating masculine and feminine endings), ora~b~a~b~4(if there are feminine endings only). In both these cases the eight-foot rhythm is distinctly preserved to the ear. But this is no longer the case in another trochaic metre of eight feet, where the theses of both the fourth and the eighth foot are wanting, as may be noticed in Swinburne,A Midsummer Holiday, p. 132:

Scárce two húndred yéars are góne, | ánd the wórld is pást awáyÁs a nóise of bráwling wínd, | ás a flásh of bréaking fóam,Thát behéld the sínger bórn | whó raised úp the déad of Róme;Ánd a míghtier nów than hé | bíds him tóo rise úp to-dáy;

Scárce two húndred yéars are góne, | ánd the wórld is pást awáy

Ás a nóise of bráwling wínd, | ás a flásh of bréaking fóam,

Thát behéld the sínger bórn | whó raised úp the déad of Róme;

Ánd a míghtier nów than hé | bíds him tóo rise úp to-dáy;

still less when such lines are broken up by inserted rhyme in stanzas of the forma b a b4. In cases, too, where the eight-foot trochaic verse is broken up by leonine rhyme, the rhythm has a decided four-foot cadence on account of the rapid recurrence of the rhyme.

§182.Theseven-foot trochaic lineis theoretically either a brachycatalectic tetrameter with a feminine or a hypercatalectic trimeter with a masculine ending. An example of the first kind we had on p.128. A more correct specimen is the following line from the same poem:

Hásten, Lórd, who árt my Hélper; | lét thine áid be spéedy.

The verses quoted on p.128are incorrect in so far as the caesura occurs at an unusual place, viz. in the middle of the fourth foot, instead of after it, as in the example just quoted.

They show, however, the origin of a pretty frequently occurring anisorhythmical stanza, which is derived from this metre by means of the use of inserted rhyme; lines 1 and 3 having a trochaic, lines 2 and 4, on the other hand, an iambicrhythm; cf. e.g. the following stanza from a poem by Suckling (Poets, iii. 741):

Sáy, but díd you lóve so lóng?In trúth I néeds must bláme you:Pássion did your júdgement wróng,Or wánt of réason sháme you.

Sáy, but díd you lóve so lóng?

In trúth I néeds must bláme you:

Pássion did your júdgement wróng,

Or wánt of réason sháme you.

When there are masculine rhymes throughout, the stanza is felt distinctly as consisting of alternate lines of four and three feet (a4b3a4b3).

The seven-foot rhythm, however, remains, if the three-foot half-lines only have masculine endings, and the four-foot half-lines remain feminine; as is the case in Swinburne’s poemClear the Way(Mids. Hol., p. 143):

Cléar the wáy, my lórds and láckeys, | yóu have hád your dáy.Hére you háve your ánswer, Éngland’s | yéa against your náy;Lóng enóugh your hóuse has héld you: | up, and cléar the wáy!

Cléar the wáy, my lórds and láckeys, | yóu have hád your dáy.

Hére you háve your ánswer, Éngland’s | yéa against your náy;

Lóng enóugh your hóuse has héld you: | up, and cléar the wáy!

This, of course, is likewise the case, if the verses are broken up into stanzas by inserted rhyme (a4b3a4b3).

More frequently than this correct seven-foot verse, with either a feminine or masculine ending, we find the incorrect type, consisting of a catalectic and a brachycatalectic dimeter, according to the model of the well-known Low Latin verse:

Mihi est propositum | in taberna mori,

which is often confounded with the former (cf. §135). The following first stanza of a poem by Suckling (Poets, iii. 471) is written in exact imitation of this metre:

Óut upón it, Í have lóved | thrée whole dáys tógether;Ánd am líke to lóve three móre, | íf it próve fair wéather.

Óut upón it, Í have lóved | thrée whole dáys tógether;

Ánd am líke to lóve three móre, | íf it próve fair wéather.

Although only the long lines rhyme, the stanza is commonly printed in short lines (a4b3~ c4b3~). Still more frequently we find short-lined stanzas of the kind (a4b3~ a4b3~) as well as the other sub-species with masculine rhymes only:a4b3a4b3.

§183.Thesix-foot trochaic lineoccurs chiefly in Modern English, and appears both in acatalectic (feminine)and catalectic (masculine) form; e.g. in SwinburneThe Last Oracle(Poems and Ballads, ii. 1):

Dáy by dáy thy shádow | shínes in héaven behólden,Éven the sún, the shíning | shádow óf thy fáce:Kíng, the wáys of héaven | befóre thy féet grow gólden;Gód, the sóul of éarth | is kíndled wíth thy gráce.

Dáy by dáy thy shádow | shínes in héaven behólden,

Éven the sún, the shíning | shádow óf thy fáce:

Kíng, the wáys of héaven | befóre thy féet grow gólden;

Gód, the sóul of éarth | is kíndled wíth thy gráce.

Strictly the caesura ought to occur after the third foot, as it does in the first line; generally, however, it is within the third foot, and so this metre as well as the stanza formed by insertion of rhyme acquires an anisorhythmical character, as e.g. in the following quatrain by Moore:

Áll that’s bríght must fáde,—The bríghtest stíll the fléetest;Áll that’s swéet was mádeBut to be lóst when swéetest.

Áll that’s bríght must fáde,—

The bríghtest stíll the fléetest;

Áll that’s swéet was máde

But to be lóst when swéetest.

When masculine rhymes are used throughout, the six-foot rhythm is preserved in anisorhythmical stanzas of this kind just as well as when lines like the first of those in the example quoted above,Day by day, &c., are broken up by inserted rhymes (a ~ b ~ a ~ b3~); or again when they have masculine endings in the second half-lines (a ~ b a ~ b3). If the first half is masculine, however, and the second feminine (or if both have masculine endings on account of a pause caused by the missing thesis), the verses have a three-foot character, e.g. in Moore:

Whíle I tóuch the stríng,Wréathe my bróws with láurel,Fór the tále I síngHás for ónce a móral.

Whíle I tóuch the stríng,

Wréathe my bróws with láurel,

Fór the tále I síng

Hás for ónce a móral.

§184.Thefive-foot trochaic linealso occurs both in acatalectic (feminine) and catalectic (masculine) form, and each of them is found in stanzas rhyming alternately, as e.g. in Mrs. Hemans’sO ye voices(vii. 57):

Ó ye vóices róund | my ówn hearth sínging!Ás the wínds of Máy | to mémory swéet,Míght I yét retúrn, | a wórn heart brínging,Wóuld those vérnal tónes | the wánderer gréet?

Ó ye vóices róund | my ówn hearth sínging!

Ás the wínds of Máy | to mémory swéet,

Míght I yét retúrn, | a wórn heart brínging,

Wóuld those vérnal tónes | the wánderer gréet?

Such verses, of course, can be used also in stanzas with either masculine or feminine endings only.

As in the five-foot iambic verse, the caesura generally occurs either after the second or third foot (in which case it is feminine), or usually within the second or third foot (masculine caesura).

In a few cases this metre is also used without rhyme; e.g. in Robert Browning’sOne Word More(v. 313–21); feminine endings are used here throughout; run-on lines occasionally occur, and the caesura shows still greater variety in consequence. A specimen is given inMetrik, ii, § 217

§185.Thefour-foot trochaic line(discussed above in its relationship to the eight- and seven-foot verse) is the most frequent of all trochaic metres. It likewise occurs either with alternate feminine and masculine rhymes or with rhymes of one kind only. We find it both in stanzas and in continuous verse. The latter form, with feminine rhymes only, we have in Shakespeare’sTempest,IV.i. 106–9:

Hónour, ríches, márriage-bléssing,Lóng contínuance, ánd incréasing,Hóurly jóys be stíll upón you!Júno síngs her bléssings ón you,&c.

Hónour, ríches, márriage-bléssing,

Lóng contínuance, ánd incréasing,

Hóurly jóys be stíll upón you!

Júno síngs her bléssings ón you,&c.

With masculine endings only it is found inLove’s Labour’s Lost,IV.iii. 101:

Ón a dáy—aláck the dáy!—Lóve, whose mónth is éver Máy,Spíed a blóssom pássing fáirPláying ín the wánton áir.

Ón a dáy—aláck the dáy!—

Lóve, whose mónth is éver Máy,

Spíed a blóssom pássing fáir

Pláying ín the wánton áir.

As in the five-foot verse, here also the caesura if used at all may fall at different places; mostly its place is after or within the second foot.

Generally speaking this metre is used in continuous verse in such a way that masculine and feminine couplets are intermixed without regular order;[172]when it is used in stanzas the forms previously mentioned in §181are usually adopted.

This metre is used also, in an unrhymed form and with feminine endings throughout, in Longfellow’sSong of Hiawatha, in which there are noticeably more run-on lines than in rhymed four-foot trochaics.

§186.Thethree-foot trochaic line, both with feminineand with masculine endings, has been discussed in previous sections (§§182–3) so far as it is derived from seven- and six-foot verse. It may also be derived from the six-foot metre through the breaking up of the line by means of leonine rhyme, as in the following rhyming couplets:

Áge, I dó abhór thee,Yóuth, I dó adóre thee;Yóuth ís fúll of spórt,Áge’s bréath is shórt.Passionate Pilgrim, No. 12.

Áge, I dó abhór thee,

Yóuth, I dó adóre thee;

Yóuth ís fúll of spórt,

Áge’s bréath is shórt.Passionate Pilgrim, No. 12.

§187. Two-foot trochaic linesgenerally occur among longer lines of anisometrical stanzas; but we also find them now and then without longer lines in stanzas and poems. Feminine verses of this kind, which may be regarded as four-foot lines broken up by leonine rhyme, we have in Dodsley (Poets, xi. 112):

Lóve comméncing,Jóys dispénsing;Béauty smíling,Wít beguíling;

Lóve comméncing,

Jóys dispénsing;

Béauty smíling,

Wít beguíling;

and masculine ones in a short poem, possibly by Pope,To Quinbus Flestrin, the Man-Mountain(p. 481):

Ín a máze,Lóst, I gáze,Cán our éyesRéach thy síze?Máy my láysSwéll with práise,&c.

Ín a máze,

Lóst, I gáze,

Cán our éyes

Réach thy síze?

Máy my láys

Swéll with práise,&c.

§188. One-foot trochaic linesseem only to occur among longer verses in regular stanzas, as e.g. in a stanza of Addison’s operaRosamund(I.ii. 38):

Túrning,Búrning,Chánging,Ránging.

Túrning,

Búrning,

Chánging,

Ránging.

We even find sometimes a line consisting of a single (of course accented) syllable in Swinburne, as e.g. in his poemin trochaic verse,A Dead Friend(A Century of Roundels, pp. 12–19):

Góne, O géntle héart and trúe,Friénd of hópes forgóne,Hópes and hópeful dáys with yóu,Góne?

Góne, O géntle héart and trúe,

Friénd of hópes forgóne,

Hópes and hópeful dáys with yóu,

Góne?

It is common to all these trochaic metres that their structure, especially that of the longer ones, is (except for the varying caesura) very regular, and that they have only very few rhythmical licences, chiefly slight slurring.

§189.Theiambic-anapaestic rhythmhas been touched on before in connexion with the four-stressed verse (cf. §72) which was developed from the alliterative long line, and which at the end of the Middle English and in the beginning of the Modern English period, under the growing influence of the even-beat metres, had assumed more or less regular iambic-anapaestic character.

When during the same period a definitive separation of the rising and falling rhythms took place, the even-measured rhythm of this four-stressed modern metre became more conspicuous and was made up frequently, although not always, of a regular series of iambic-anapaestic measures. It was thus differentiated still more distinctly from the uneven-beat Old and Middle English long line, the character of which mainly rested on the four well-marked beats only. It deserves notice further that it was not until the Modern English period that the rest of the iambic-anapaestic and trochaic-dactylic metres (the eight-, seven-, six-, five-, four-, three-, and two-foot verses) were imitated from the then common corresponding iambic rhythms.

In the sixteenth century Puttenham quotes four-foot dactylics, and in his time the dactylic hexameter had already been imitated in English. But most of the other trisyllabic rising and falling metres, except the Septenary, occur first in English poetry at the end of the eighteenth and during the course of the nineteenth century.

It must also be noted that in many cases, especially in the eight-, four-, and two-foot verses of this kind (i.e. in those metres that are connected with the old four-stressed verse), the rising and falling rhythms are not strictly separated, but frequently intermingle and even supplement one another.

§190. Eight-foot iambic-anapaestic versesrhyming in long lines are very rare, but appear in the following four-lined stanza of four-foot verses by Burns,The Chevalier’s Lament(p. 343):

The smáll birds rejóice in the gréen leaves retúrning,The múrmuring stréamlet winds cléar thro’ the vále;The háwthorn trees blów in the déws of the mórning,And wíld scatter’d cówslips bedéck the green dále.

The smáll birds rejóice in the gréen leaves retúrning,

The múrmuring stréamlet winds cléar thro’ the vále;

The háwthorn trees blów in the déws of the mórning,

And wíld scatter’d cówslips bedéck the green dále.

In this metre each of the two periods begins with an iambic measure and then passes into anapaests, the feminine ending of the first (or third) line and the iambic beginning of the second (or fourth) forming together an anapaest.

In a poem by Swinburne (Poems, ii. 144) four-foot anapaestic and dactylic lines alternate so as to form anapaestic periods:

For a dáy and a níght Love sáng to us, pláyed with us,Fólded us róund from the dárk and the líght,&c.

For a dáy and a níght Love sáng to us, pláyed with us,

Fólded us róund from the dárk and the líght,&c.

For other less correct specimens of such combinations of verse cf.Metrik, ii, §225.

§191. The seven-foot iambic-anapaestic versewould seem to be of rare occurrence except in the most recent period; in long lines and masculine rhymes it has been used by Swinburne, as e.g. inThe Death of Richard Wagner;[173]we quote the middle stanza:

As a vísion of héaven from the hóllows of ócean, | that nóne but a gód might sée,Rose óut of the sílence of thíngs unknówn | of a présence, a fórm, a míght,And we héard as a próphet that héars God’s méssage | agáinst him, and máy not flée.

As a vísion of héaven from the hóllows of ócean, | that nóne but a gód might sée,

Rose óut of the sílence of thíngs unknówn | of a présence, a fórm, a míght,

And we héard as a próphet that héars God’s méssage | agáinst him, and máy not flée.

The occurrence of an iambus or a spondee at the end and sometimes in the middle of the verse is remarkable, as well as the arbitrary treatment of the caesura, which does not, as in the iambic Septenary verse, always come after the fourth foot (as in the second line), but sometimes in other places; in the first and third lines, for instance, there is a feminine caesura in the fifth foot.

More often this Septenary metre occurs in short lines (and therefore with fixed masculine caesura). In this form it appears as early as the seventeenth century in a poem by the Earl of Dorset,To Chloris:

Ah! Chlóris, ’tis tíme to disárm your bright éyes,And lay bý those térrible glánces;We líve in an áge that’s more cívil and wíse,Than to fóllow the rúles of románces.

Ah! Chlóris, ’tis tíme to disárm your bright éyes,

And lay bý those térrible glánces;

We líve in an áge that’s more cívil and wíse,

Than to fóllow the rúles of románces.

Poets, vii. 513.

Another specimen of the same rhythm, very artistically handled (cf.Metrik, i, § 226) is Charles Wolfe’s well-known poemThe Burial of Sir John Moore. The same metre also occurs with masculine rhymes.

§192.Thesix-foot iambic-anapaestic versesometimes occurs in Modern English poets, as Tennyson,The Grandmother,Maud, &c., Robert Browning,Abt Vogler, Mrs. Browning,Confessions, Swinburne,Hymn to Proserpine, &c.

We quote the following verses from Tennyson’sMaudto illustrate this metre, which, however, in consequence of the fluctuating proportion of iambic and anapaestic measures occurring in it is handled very differently by different poets (cf.Metrik, ii, § 227):

Did he flíng himself dówn? who knóws? | for a vást speculátion had fáil’d,And éver he mútter’d and mádden’d, | and éver wánn’d with despáir,And óut he wálk’d when the wínd | like a bróken wórldling wáil’d,And the flýing góld of the rúin’d wóodlands | dróve thro’ the áir.

Did he flíng himself dówn? who knóws? | for a vást speculátion had fáil’d,

And éver he mútter’d and mádden’d, | and éver wánn’d with despáir,

And óut he wálk’d when the wínd | like a bróken wórldling wáil’d,

And the flýing góld of the rúin’d wóodlands | dróve thro’ the áir.

The caesura is sometimes masculine after the third foot (as in lines 1 and 3), sometimes feminine in the fourth (line 2) or the fifth (line 4); so that its position is quite indeterminate. The rhymes are mostly masculine, but feminine rhymes are also met with, as e.g. in Mrs. Browning’sConfessions. Swinburne’s verses are printed in long lines, it is true, but they are broken into short lines by inserted masculine and feminine rhymes.

§193.Thefive-foot iambic-anapaestic verselikewise does not occur till recent times, and is chiefly used by the poets just mentioned. Rhymed in couplets it occurs in Mrs. Browning’sThe Daughters of Pandarus, Version II (vol. iv, p. 200):

So the stórms bore the dáughters of Pándarus | óut into thráll—The góds slew their párents; | the órphans were léft in the háll.And there cáme, to féed their young líves, Aphrodíte divíne,With the íncense, the swéet-tasting hóney, the swéet-smelling wíne.

So the stórms bore the dáughters of Pándarus | óut into thráll—

The góds slew their párents; | the órphans were léft in the háll.

And there cáme, to féed their young líves, Aphrodíte divíne,

With the íncense, the swéet-tasting hóney, the swéet-smelling wíne.

The rhythm is here almost entirely anapaestic; the caesura occurs in the most diverse places and may be either masculine or feminine. The ending of the line is masculine throughout, as well as in Robert Browning’sSaul(iii. 146–96), but with many run-on lines.

In Swinburne’sA Word from the Psalmist(A Mids. Holiday, p. 176) we have another treatment of this metre. As a rule the line begins with an anapaest, and continues in pure iambic rhythm:

But a lóuder | thán the Chúrch’s écho | thúnders

In the éars of mén | who máy not chóose but héar;

And the héart in hím | that héars it léaps and wónders,

With triúmphant hópe | astónished, ór with féar.

In other examples it has an iambic or spondaic rhythm at the beginning and end, with an anapaestic part in the middle, as inThe Seaboard(ib., p. 3) by the same poet:

The séa is at ébb, | and the sóund of her útmost wórd,Is sóft as the léast wave’s lápse | in a stíll small réach.From báy into báy, | on quést of a góal deférred,From héadland éver to héadland | and bréach to bréach,Where éarth gives éar | to the méssage that áll days préach.

The séa is at ébb, | and the sóund of her útmost wórd,

Is sóft as the léast wave’s lápse | in a stíll small réach.

From báy into báy, | on quést of a góal deférred,

From héadland éver to héadland | and bréach to bréach,

Where éarth gives éar | to the méssage that áll days préach.

InA Century of Roundels, p. 1, &c., Swinburne uses this metre, which also occurs in Tennyson’sMaud, with feminine and masculine endings alternately.

§194.Thefour-foot iambic-anapaestic verseis essentially identical with the four-stressed verse treated of above (§72), except that it has assumed a still more regular, even-beat rhythm in modern times; generally it begins with an iambus and anapaests follow, as in the stanza quoted from Burns (§190). Occasionally this metre has an almost entirely anapaestic structure; as e.g. in Moore,In the Morning of Life:

In the mórning of lífe, | when its cáres are unknówn,And its pléasures in áll | their new lústre begín,When we líve in a bríght-beaming | wórld of our ówn,And the líght that surróunds us | is áll from withín.

In the mórning of lífe, | when its cáres are unknówn,

And its pléasures in áll | their new lústre begín,

When we líve in a bríght-beaming | wórld of our ówn,

And the líght that surróunds us | is áll from withín.

In other examples the rhythm is chiefly iambic, intermingled with occasional anapaests; as e.g. in Moore’sYou Remember Ellen:

You remémber Éllen, | our hámlet’s prídeHow méekly she bléssed | her húmble lót,When the stránger Wílliam, | had máde her his bríde,And lóve was the líght | of her lówly cót.

You remémber Éllen, | our hámlet’s prídeHow méekly she bléssed | her húmble lót,

You remémber Éllen, | our hámlet’s príde

When the stránger Wílliam, | had máde her his bríde,

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