Chapter 9

The four-accent theory is that of Lachmann, represented chiefly in more recent scholarship by ten Brink and Kaluza. Lachmanntook, as the typical Germanic line, such a verse as this from theHildebrandlied,—"Garutun se iro guðhama: gurtun sih iro suert ana;"but admitted that the Anglo-Saxon line was a departure from the type in the direction of fewer accents. Ten Brink, however, found the full number of accents in the typical Anglo-Saxon line. "It is based upon a measure which belonged to the antiquity of all Germanic races, namely, the line with eight emphatic syllables, divided into equal parts by the cesura." (English Literature, trans. Kennedy, vol. i. pp. 21, 22.) The principal representative of the two-accent theory is Sievers, whose conclusions have been pretty generally accepted by English and American scholars. He admits that very many, perhaps most, Anglo-Saxon lines can be read with eight accents, but shows that there is still a large proportion (some eleven hundred inBeowulf) which cannot be so read without wrenching the natural reading. On this subject, see Westphal'sAllgemeine Metrik, Sievers'sAltgermanische Metrik, Kaluza'sDer Altenglische Vers, and the articles by Sievers, Luick, and ten Brink in Paul'sGrundriss der Germanische Philologie.

"Garutun se iro guðhama: gurtun sih iro suert ana;"

but admitted that the Anglo-Saxon line was a departure from the type in the direction of fewer accents. Ten Brink, however, found the full number of accents in the typical Anglo-Saxon line. "It is based upon a measure which belonged to the antiquity of all Germanic races, namely, the line with eight emphatic syllables, divided into equal parts by the cesura." (English Literature, trans. Kennedy, vol. i. pp. 21, 22.) The principal representative of the two-accent theory is Sievers, whose conclusions have been pretty generally accepted by English and American scholars. He admits that very many, perhaps most, Anglo-Saxon lines can be read with eight accents, but shows that there is still a large proportion (some eleven hundred inBeowulf) which cannot be so read without wrenching the natural reading. On this subject, see Westphal'sAllgemeine Metrik, Sievers'sAltgermanische Metrik, Kaluza'sDer Altenglische Vers, and the articles by Sievers, Luick, and ten Brink in Paul'sGrundriss der Germanische Philologie.

Aside from the two-part structure of the long line, the number of accents, and the alliteration, Anglo-Saxon verse is marked by the usual coincidence of the principal accents with long syllables. The unaccented parts of the line vary in both the number and length of the syllables. In general, each half-line is divided into two feet, or measures; and, according to the structure of these feet, the ordinary half-lines of Anglo-Saxon verse have been reduced by Sievers to five fundamental types.

Type A is represented by such a half-line as "stiðum wordum."

Type B inverts the rhythm of A, as in the half-line "nē winterscūr."

Type C is characterized by the juxtaposition of the two accents, as in the half-line "and forð gangan."

Type D commonly has only the accented syllable in the first foot, while the second foot is characterized by a sort of dactylic rhythm, as in the half-lines "sǣlīðende" and "flet innanweard."

Type E inverts the rhythm of D, as in the half-line "gylp-wordum spræc."[16]

In all the types many variations are found. The beginning of the line may show anacrusis, and two short syllables may take the place of a long syllable; while an indeterminate number of light syllables may often be introduced before or after the principal accents.

Hafað ūs ālȳfedlucis auctor,þæt wē mōtun hērmeruerigōddǣdum begietangaudia in celo,þǣr wē mōtunmaxima regnasēcan and gesittansedibus altis,lifgan in lisselucis et pacis,āgan eardingaalmæ letitæ,brūcan blǣddagablandem et mitemgesēon sigora Frēansine fine,and him lof singanlaude perenneēadge mid englumAlleluia.

(From the Anglo-SaxonPhœnix. ab. 700A.D.)

These closing lines of the poem furnish an important opportunity to compare the Latin half-lines with those in Anglo-Saxon. Each half seems to be influenced by the metrical nature of the other; the Anglo-Saxon being a little more regular in the number of syllables than usual, the Latin less regular. Since, to the ear of the writer, the two halves of each verse were doubtless fairly equivalent, metrically, and since each of the Latin half-lines appears to have two accents, these combination verses have been thought to be an argument for the "two-accent" theory ofAnglo-Saxon verse. On the other hand, the advocates of the four-accent theory would read the Latin half-lines with four stresses each, on the ground that nearly every syllable was stressed in the chanting of such religious verse (lú-cís aúc-tór, etc.).

See also the specimens on pp.13and14, above.

Alle beon he bliþe Þat to my song lyþe:A song ihc schal ȝou singe Of Mury þe kinge.King he was bi weste So longe so hit laste.Godhild het his quen, Fairer ne miȝte non ben.He hadde a sone þat het Horn, Fairer ne miȝte non beo born,Ne no rein upon birine, Ne sunne upon bischine.

(King Horn, ll. 1-12. ab. 1200-1250.)

The metre ofKing Hornis very irregular, and has proved somewhat puzzling to scholars. It seems to be the direct result of the primitive "long line" broken into two halves by internal rime. The number of accents varies greatly: we may have verses which are easily read with two, such as—

"Into schupes bordeAt the furst worde."

Yet these it is evident might also be read with three accents, as in the following couplet also:

"The se bigan to flowe,And Horn child to rowe."

According as one reads the Anglo-Saxon verse with two or four accents to the half-line, he will regard the typical half-line ofKing Hornas made up of two or four accents. If the fundamental number was two, the additional accented syllables were doubtless introduced under the influence of the French eight-syllable couplet. It is not difficult to see how the more regular (Latin or French) and the less regular (native) measures might have been confused, and soon have coalesced in popular use. TenBrink, reading theKing Hornlines with four accents, speaks of them as "formed entirely on the Teutonic principle, with two accents upon the sonorous close of the verse, so that it appears to be an organic continuation of the chief form in Layamon and in Ælfred'sProverbs. This circumstance makes the poem exceptional among the early English romances." He also speaks of "an unmistakably strophic construction in the text as we have it." (English Literature, Kennedy translation, vol. i. p. 227.)

Anon out of þe north est þe noys bigynes:When boþe breþes con blowe upon blo watteres,Roȝ rakkes per ros with rudnyng anunder,Þe see souȝed ful sore, gret selly to here,Þe wyndes on þe wonne water so wrastel togeder,Þat þe wawes ful wode waltered so hiȝeAnd efte busched to þe abyme, þat breed fysches,Durst nowhere for roȝ arest at þe bothem.When þe breth and þe brok and þe bote metten,Hit watz a ioyles gyn, þat Ionas watz inne;For hit reled on roun upon þe roȝe yþes.

(Patience, ll. 137-147. ab. 1375.)

Til þe knyȝt com hym-self, kachande his blonk,Syȝ hym byde at þe bay, his burneȝ bysyde,He lyȝtes luflych adoun, leveȝ his corsour,Braydeȝ out a bryȝt bront, & bigly forth strydeȝ,Foundeȝ fast þurȝ the forþ, þer þe felle byde,Þe wylde watȝ war of þe wyȝe with weppen in honde.Hef hyȝly þe here, so hetterly he fnast,Þat fele ferde for þe frekeȝ, lest felle hym þe worreÞe swyn setteȝ hym out on þe segge even,Þat þe burne & þe bor were boþe upon hepeȝ,In þe wyȝt-est of þe water, þe worre had þat oþer;For þe mon merkkeȝ hym wel, as þay mette fyrst,Set sadly þe scharp in þe slot even,Hit hym up to þe hult, þat þe hert schyndered,& he ȝarrande hym ȝelde, & ȝedoun þe water, ful tyt;A hundreth houndeȝ hym hent,Þat bremely con hym bite,Burneȝ him broȝt to bent,& doggeȝ to dethe endite.

(Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, strophe xviii. ab. 1375.)

These two specimens, both doubtless the work of the same author (to whom are also attributed thePearlandCleanness), represent the patriotic revival of the alliterative long line by contemporaries of Chaucer in the latter half of the fourteenth century. InSir Gawaynethe rimeless long line is gathered into strophes, each of which concludes with four riming lines. (See above, p.109.)

For analysis of this revived alliterative verse, see a valuable article by Dr. Luick,Die Englische Stabreimzeile im 14n, 15n, und 16n Jahrhundert, inAnglia, vol. xi. pp. 392 and 553. Luick analyzes not only the poems of the "Pearl poet," but also theTroy Book, theAlexander Fragments,William of Palerne,Joseph of Arimathea,Morte Arthure, and minor poems. He finds theTroy Bookthe most regular alliterative poem of Middle English, but in all of the group a general tendency to preserve not only the early laws of alliteration but also the "five types" of Sievers's Anglo-Saxon metrics. Dr. Luick attributes the final decline of the old measure in large degree to the falling away of the final syllables in-e, etc.; without these numerous feminine endings the primitive "long line" was impossible. This he regards as regrettable, since the old alliterative verse, "growing up on native soil with the language itself," represented the natural accent-relations of the Germanic languages, especially the recognition of two principal degrees of accent; whereas the modern rimed verse requires the reduction of this to a uniform "tick-tack" of alternating stress and non-stress.

He put on his back a good plate-jack,And on his head a cap of steel,With sword and buckler by his side;O gin he did not become them weel!

(Ballad of Bewick and Grahame. InGummere'sEnglish Ballads, p. 176.)

The regular stanza of the old ballads was of this four-stress type, with extra light syllables admitted anywhere yet not in great numbers. More commonly, however, the fourth stress was lost from the second and fourth lines. (See p.264, below.)

I thanke hym full thraly, and sir, I saie hym the same,But what marvelous materes dyd this myron ther mell?For all the lordis langage his lipps, sir, wer lame,For any spirringes in that space no speche walde he spell.

(York Mystery Plays: The Trial before Pilate. Ed.L. T. Smith, p. 322.)

As Gammer Gurton, with manye a wyde styche,Sat pesynge and patching of Hodg her mans briche,By chance or misfortune, as shee her geare tost,In Hodge lether bryches her needle shee lost.

(Gammer Gurton's Needle, Prologue. 1566.)

In these specimens we have the later descendant of the long line as used in the early drama of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,—the "tumbling verse," regular in rhythm and rime, but indifferent to the number of syllables.[17]Sometimes, where most regular, as in lines 2-4 of the second specimen, the measure approximates closely to regular four-stress anapestic.

The time was once, and may againe retorne,(For ought may happen that hath bene beforne),When shepheards had none inheritaunce,Ne of land, nor fee in sufferaunce,But what might arise of the bare sheepe,(Were it more or lesse) which they did keepe.Well ywis was it with shepheards thoe:Nought having, nought feared they to forgoe;For Pan himselfe was their inheritaunce,And little them served for their mayntenaunce.The shepheards God so wel them guided,That of nought they were unprovided;Butter enough, honye, milke, and whay,And their flockes' fleeces them to araye.

(Spenser:The Shepherd's Calendar, May.1579.)

Spenser's use of the tumbling verse in theShepherd's Calendarwas a part of his imitation of older forms for the sake of an uncultivated, bucolic effect. In his hands the irregular measure showed a tendency to reduce itself to regular ten-syllable lines, like the first two of the present specimen, which, by themselves, might easily be read as decasyllabic iambics. On this, see further under Five-Stress Verse. Spenser was perhaps the last cultivated poet to use the irregular measure, until we come to modern imitators of the early popular poetry. The following specimen is of this class.

It was up in the morn we rose betimesFrom the hall-floor hard by the row of limes.It was but John the Red and I,And we were the brethren of Gregory;And Gregory the Wright was oneOf the valiant men beneath the sun,And what he bade us that we did,For ne'er he kept his counsel hid.So out we went, and the clattering latchWoke up the swallows under the thatch.It was dark in the porch, but our scythes we felt,And thrust the whetstone under the belt.Through the cold garden boughs we wentWhere the tumbling roses shed their scent.Then out a-gates and away we strodeO'er the dewy straws on the dusty road,And there was the mead by the town-reeve's closeWhere the hedge was sweet with the wilding rose.

(William Morris:The Folk-Mote by the River.InPoems by the Way. 1896.)

The more regular four-stress verse, in rimed couplets showing a tendency to be octosyllabic, we have seen to be generally attributed to the influence of the French octosyllabics, which were in common use in late mediæval French poetry, such as that of Wace and Chrestien de Troyes.

According to Stengel (in Gröber'sGrundriss der Romanischen Philologie), this octosyllabic French verse goes back to a lost vulgar Latin verse; this view is opposed by Dr. C. M. Lewis, in hisForeign Sources of Modern English Versification(Yale Studies in English, 1898), who finds its origin in the tetrameter of the Latin hymns. Dr. Lewis also attributes to this Latin verse more direct influence on English verse than is commonly assumed. Thus he finds in it, rather than in the French octosyllabics, the model of the verse of thePater Noster, quoted below. The argument is briefly this: the Latin verse was both accentual and syllabic; the French verse was syllabic but not accentual; that of thePater Nosteris accentual but not syllabic; hence it is more nearly like the Latin than the French. A stanza of the Latin tetrameter, cited by Dr. Lewis from the hymnAurora lucis rutilat, is as follows:"Tristes erat apostolide nece sui Domini,quem pœna mortis crudeliservi damnarunt impii."Compare these lines from theBrutof Wace:"Adunt apela Cordeillequi esteit sa plus joes ne fille;pur ce que il l'aveit plus chiereque Ragaü ne la premierequida que el e cuneüstque plus chier des al tres l'eüst.Cordeil le out bien escutéet bien out en sun cuer notécument ses deus sorurs parloënt,cument lur pere losengoënt."The last four verses of this passage are cited by Schipper as illustrating the regular iambic character of the French octosyllabics; but Dr. Lewis regards the measure as purely syllabic, with no regard for alternation of accents, and instances the earlier lines of the passage as being quite as nearly anapestic as iambic. (See Schipper, vol. i. p. 107, and Lewis's monograph, as cited above, pp. 73 ff. See also Crow:Zur Geschichte des Kurzen Reimpaares in Mittel Englisch.) Dr. Lewis's conclusion is: "We may therefore sum up the whole history of our octosyllabic verse in this way: we borrowed its number of accents from the Latin, but owing to the vitality of our own native traditions we at first borrowed nothing further; the syllabic character of the verse (so far as it has been imported at all), came in only gradually, against stubborn resistance; and it came not directly from the Latin, but indirectly, through the French" (pp.97,98). Some of these statements are open to question; but however we may interpret the French verse of Wace and his contemporaries, it is obvious that in English the influence of the Latin and the French poetry would very naturally be fused, with no necessarily clear conception of definite verse-structure. Whether under French or Latin influence, however, the new tendency was for the more accurate counting of syllables. We may see some suggestion of this in the verses of St. Godric, quoted on p.126, above, although they are not regularly iambic. The poem on the "Eleven Pains of Hell" (in theOld English Miscellany) shows the French influence clearly marked by the language of its opening verses:"Ici comencent les unze peynesDe enfern, les queus seynt pool v[ist]."

"Tristes erat apostolide nece sui Domini,quem pœna mortis crudeliservi damnarunt impii."

Compare these lines from theBrutof Wace:

"Adunt apela Cordeillequi esteit sa plus joes ne fille;pur ce que il l'aveit plus chiereque Ragaü ne la premierequida que el e cuneüstque plus chier des al tres l'eüst.Cordeil le out bien escutéet bien out en sun cuer notécument ses deus sorurs parloënt,cument lur pere losengoënt."

The last four verses of this passage are cited by Schipper as illustrating the regular iambic character of the French octosyllabics; but Dr. Lewis regards the measure as purely syllabic, with no regard for alternation of accents, and instances the earlier lines of the passage as being quite as nearly anapestic as iambic. (See Schipper, vol. i. p. 107, and Lewis's monograph, as cited above, pp. 73 ff. See also Crow:Zur Geschichte des Kurzen Reimpaares in Mittel Englisch.) Dr. Lewis's conclusion is: "We may therefore sum up the whole history of our octosyllabic verse in this way: we borrowed its number of accents from the Latin, but owing to the vitality of our own native traditions we at first borrowed nothing further; the syllabic character of the verse (so far as it has been imported at all), came in only gradually, against stubborn resistance; and it came not directly from the Latin, but indirectly, through the French" (pp.97,98). Some of these statements are open to question; but however we may interpret the French verse of Wace and his contemporaries, it is obvious that in English the influence of the Latin and the French poetry would very naturally be fused, with no necessarily clear conception of definite verse-structure. Whether under French or Latin influence, however, the new tendency was for the more accurate counting of syllables. We may see some suggestion of this in the verses of St. Godric, quoted on p.126, above, although they are not regularly iambic. The poem on the "Eleven Pains of Hell" (in theOld English Miscellany) shows the French influence clearly marked by the language of its opening verses:

"Ici comencent les unze peynesDe enfern, les queus seynt pool v[ist]."

Ure feder þet in heovene is,Þet is al soþ ful iwis!Weo moten to theor weordes iseon,Þet to live and to saule gode beon,Þet weo beon swa his sunes iborene,Þet he beo feder and we him icorene,Þet we don alle his ibedenAnd his wille for to reden.

(The Pater Noster, ab. 1175. In Morris'sOld English Homilies, p. 55.)

This poem is sometimes said to show the first appearance of the octosyllabic couplet in English. It suggests the struggle between native indifference to syllable-counting and imitation of the greater regularity of its models. As Dr. Morris says of the next specimen: "The essence of the system of versification which the poet has adopted is, briefly, that every line shall have four accented syllables in it, the unaccented syllables being left in some measure, as it were, to take care of themselves." But this does not altogether do justice to the new regularity. Schipper says that of the first 100 lines of the poem 20 are perfectly regular. (See his notes in vol. i. p. 109.) In the following specimens we may trace the gradual growth of skill and accuracy.

ðo herde Abraham stevene fro gode,newe tiding and selkuð bode:'tac ðin sune Ysaac in hondand far wið him to siðhinges lond.and ðor ða salt him offren me,on an hil, ðor ic sal taunen ðe.

(Genesis and Exodus, ll. 1285-1290. ab. 1250-1300.)

"Abid! abid!" the ule seide."Thu gest al to mid swikelede;All thine wordes thu bi-leist,That hit thincth soth al that thu seist;Alle thine wordes both i-sliked,An so bi-semed and bi-liked,That alle tho that hi avoth,Hi weneth that thu segge soth."

(The Owl and the Nightingale, ll. 835-842. Thirteenth century.)

Quhen þis wes said, þai went þare way,and till þe toun soyn cumin ar thaisa prevely bot noys making,þat nane persavit þair cummyng.þai scalit throu þe toune in hyand brak up dures sturdelyand slew all, þat þai mycht ourtak;and þai, þat na defens mycht mak,fall pitwisly couth rair and cry,and þai slew þame dispitwisly.

(Barbour:Bruce, v. 89-98. ab. 1375.)

Ȝyf þou ever þurghe folyeDydyst ouȝt do nygromauncye.Or to the devyl dedyst sacryfyseþurghe wychcraftys asyse,Or any man ȝaf þe medeFor to reyse þe devyl yn dede,For to telle, or for to wrey,þynge þat was don awey;ȝyf þou have do any of þys,þou hast synnede and do a mys,And þou art wurþy to be shentþurghe þys yche commaundement.[18]

(Robert Manningof Brunne:Handlyng Synne, ll. 339-350. ab. 1300.)

Herknet to me, gode men,Wives, maydnes, and alle men,Of a tale þat ich you wile telle,Wo so it wile here, and þer-to duelle.Þe tale is of Havelok i-maked;Wil he was litel he yede ful naked:Havelok was a ful god gome,He was ful god in everi trome,He was þe wicteste man at nede,Þat þurte riden on ani stede.Þat ye mowen nou y-here,And þe tale ye mowen y-lere.At the beginning of ure tale,Fil me a cuppe of ful god ale;And y wile drinken her y spelle,Þat Crist us shilde alle fro helle!

(Lay of Havelok the Dane.ll. 1-16. ab. 1300.)

For lays and romances, both French and English, the four-stress couplet was an easy and favorite form. Compare the remarks of ten Brink: "We see how the short couplet, which is the standing form of the court-romance, was not only transmitted to it from the legendary, didactic, and historical poems, but was also suggested to it by those songs to which it was indebted for its own subject-matter. Other tokens indicate that a short strophe composed of eight-syllabled lines, with single or alternating rhymes, was a favorite form for many subjects in thisjongleurpoetry.... The simple form of the short couplet offered to the romance-poet no scope to compete in metrical technique withthe skilled court-lyrists. He could prove his art only within a limited portion of this field: in the treatment of theenjambementand particularly of rhyme. The poet strove not only to form pure rhymes, but often to carry them forward with more syllables than were essential, and he was fond of all sorts of grammatical devices in rhyme." (English Literature, Kennedy trans., vol. i. pp. 174, 175.)

The world stant ever upon debate,So may be siker none estate;Now here, now there, now to, now fro,Now up, now down, the world goth so,And ever hath done and ever shal;Wherof I finde in specialA tale writen in the bible,Which must nedes be credible,And that as in conclusionSaith, that upon divisionStant, why no worldes thing may laste,Til it be drive to the laste,And fro the firste regne of allUnto this day how so befallOf that the regnes be mevable,The man him self hath be coupable,Whiche of his propre governaunceFortuneth al the worldes chaunce.

(John Gower: Prologue toConfessio Amantis. Ed.Pauli, vol. i. pp. 22, 23. ab. 1390.)

O god of science and of light,Apollo, through thy grete might,This litel laste bok thou gye!Nat that I wilne, for maistrye,Here art poetical be shewed;But, for the rym is light and lewed,Yit make hit sumwhat agreable,Though som vers faile in a sillable;And that I do no diligenceTo shewe craft, but o sentence.And if, divyne vertu, thouWilt helpe me to shewe nowThat in myn hede y-marked is—Lo, that is for to menen this,The Hous of Fame to descryve—Thou shalt see me go, as blyve,Unto the nexte laure I see,And kisse hit, for hit is thy tree.

(Chaucer:House of Fame, ll. 1091-1108. ab. 1385.)

It was Gower and Chaucer, in the fourteenth century, who brought the use of the eight-syllable couplet to the point of accuracy and perfection. Gower made it the vehicle of the interminable narrative of theConfessio Amantis, using it with regularity but with great monotony. Chaucer transformed it into a much more flexible form (with freedom of cesura,enjambement, and inversions), using it in about 3500 lines of his poetry (excluding the translation of theRoman de la Rose), but early leaving it for the decasyllabic verse. In modern English poetry this short couplet has rarely been used for continuous narrative of a serious character, except by Byron and Wordsworth.

But let my due feet never failTo walk the studious cloister's pale,And love the high embowed roof,With antique pillars massy proof,And storied windows richly dight,Casting a dim religious light.There let the pealing organ blow,To the full-voiced choir below,In service high, and anthems clear,As may with sweetness, through mine ear,Dissolve me into ecstasies,And bring all heaven before my eyes.

(Milton:Il Penseroso, ll. 155-166. 1634.)

A sect whose chief devotion liesIn odd, perverse antipathies,In falling out with that or thisAnd finding something still amiss;More peevish, cross, and spleneticThan dog distract or monkey sick:That with more care keep holydayThe wrong, than others the right way;Compound for sins they are inclined toBy damning those they have no mind to....Rather than fail they will defyThat which they love most tenderly;Quarrel with mince-pies, and disparageTheir best and dearest friend plum-porridge,Fat pig and goose itself oppose,And blaspheme custard through the nose.

(Samuel Butler:Hudibras, Part I. 1663.)

Butler made the octosyllabic couplet so entirely his own, for the purposes of his jogging satiric verse, that ever since it has frequently been called "Hudibrastic." The ingenuity of his rimes added not a little to its effectiveness. In theSpectator(No. 249) Addison said that burlesque poetry runs best "in doggrel like that ofHudibras, ... when a hero is to be pulleddown and degraded;" otherwise in the heroic measure. He speaks also of "the generality" of Butler's readers as being "wonderfully pleased with the double rhymes."

How deep yon azure dyes the sky,Where orbs of gold unnumber'd lie,While through their ranks in silver prideThe nether crescent seems to glide!The slumbering breeze forgets to breathe,The lake is smooth and clear beneath,Where once again the spangled showDescends to meet our eyes below.The grounds which on the right aspire,In dimness from the view retire:The left presents a place of graves,Whose wall the silent water laves.That steeple guides thy doubtful sightAmong the livid gleams of night.There pass, with melancholy state,By all the solemn heaps of fate,And think, as softly-sad you treadAbove the venerable dead,'Time was, like thee they life possest,And time shalt be, that thou shalt rest.'

(Thomas Parnell:A Night-Piece on Death, ab. 1715.)

Mr. Gosse speaks of Parnell's employment of the octosyllabic couplet in this poem as "wonderfully subtle and harmonious." (Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 137.)

A Hare who, in a civil way,Complied with everything, like Gay,Was known by all the bestial trainWho haunt the wood, or graze the plain.Her care was never to offend,And every creature was her friend.As forth she went at early dawn,To taste the dew-besprinkled lawn,Behind she hears the hunter's cries,And from the deep-mouthed thunder flies:She starts, she stops, she pants for breath;She hears the near advance of death;She doubles, to mislead the hound,And measures back her mazy round:Till, fainting in the public way,Half dead with fear she gasping lay.

(John Gay:The Hare and Many Friends, inFables. 1727.)

Gay's use of the short couplet in hisFablessometimes shows it at its best for narrative purposes.

My female friends, whose tender heartsHave better learned to act their parts,Receive the news in doleful dumps:'The Dean is dead: (Pray what is trumps?)Then, Lord have mercy on his soul!(Ladies, I'll venture for the vole.)Six Deans, they say, must bear the pall:(I wish I knew what king to call).Madam, your husband will attendThe funeral of so good a friend?No, madam, 'tis a shocking sight:And he's engaged to-morrow night:My Lady Club will take it ill,If he should fail her at quadrille.He loved the Dean—(I lead a heart)But dearest friends, they say, must part.His time was come: he ran his race;We hope he's in a better place.'

(Swift:On the Death of Dr. Swift.1731.)

Swift made use of the octosyllabic couplet in nearly all his verse, and with no little vigor and originality. Mr. Gosse remarks: "His lines fall like well-directed blows of the flail, and he gives the octosyllabic measure, which he is accustomed to choose on account of the Hudibrastic opportunities it offers, a character which is entirely his own." (Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 153.)

Ye forms divine, ye laureat band,That near her inmost altar stand!Now soothe her to her blissful trainBlithe concord's social form to gain;Concord, whose myrtle wand can steepEven anger's bloodshot eyes in sleep;Before whose breathing bosom's balmRage drops his steel, and storms grow calm;Her let our sires and matrons hoarWelcome to Britain's ravaged shore;Our youths, enamored of the fair,Play with the tangles of her hair,Till, in one loud applauding sound,The nations shout to her around,—O how supremely thou art blest,Thou, lady, thou shalt rule the West!

(Collins:Ode to Liberty.1746.)

When chapman billies leave the street,And drouthy neibors, neibors meet;As market days are wearing late,And folk begin to tak the gate,While we sit bousing at the nappy,An' getting fou and unco happy,We think na on the lang Scots miles,The mosses, waters, slaps and stiles,That lie between us and our hame,Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,Gathering her brows like gathering storm,Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

(Burns:Tam O'Shanter, ll. 1-12. 1790.)

They chain'd us each to a column stone,And we were three—yet, each alone;We could not move a single pace,We could not see each other's face,But with that pale and livid lightThat made us strangers in our sight:And thus together—yet apart,Fetter'd in hand, but joined in heart,'Twas still some solace, in the dearthOf the pure elements of earth,To hearken to each other's speech,And each turn comforter to each,With some new hope, or legend old,Or song heroically bold.

(Byron:The Prisoner of Chillon, iii. 1816.)

A mortal song we sing, by dowerEncouraged of celestial power;Power which the viewless Spirit shedBy whom we first were visited;Whose voice we heard, whose hand and wingsSwept like a breeze the conscious strings,When, left in solitude, erewhileWe stood before this ruined Pile,And, quitting unsubstantial dreams,Sang in this Presence kindred themes.

(Wordsworth:White Doe of Rylstone, canto vii. ll. 282-291. 1815.)

Ill fared it then with Roderick Dhu,That on the field his targe he threw,Whose brazen studs and tough bull-hideHad death so often dash'd aside;For, train'd abroad his arms to wield,Fitz-James's blade was sword and shield....Three times in closing strife they stood,And thrice the Saxon blade drank blood;No stinted draught, no scanty tide,The gushing flood the tartans dyed.Fierce Roderick felt the fatal drain,And shower'd his blows like wintry rain;And, as firm rock, or castle-roof,Against the winter shower is proof,The foe, invulnerable still,Foil'd his wild rage by steady skill;Till, at advantage ta'en, his brandForced Roderick's weapon from his hand,And backward borne upon the lea,Brought the proud Chieftain to his knee.

(Scott:The Lady of the Lake, canto v. st. xv. 1810.)

How this their joy fulfilled might moveThe world around I know not well;But yet this idle dream doth tellThat no more silent was the place,That new joy lit up every face,That joyous lovers kissed and clung,E'en as these twain, that songs were sungFrom mouth to mouth in rose-bowers,Where hand in hand and crowned with flowers,Folk praised the Lover and BelovedThat such long years, such pain had proved;But soft, they say, their joyance wasWhen midst them soon the twain did pass,Hand locked in hand, heart kissing heart,No more this side of death to part—No more, no more—full soft I sayTheir greetings were that happy day,As though in pensive semblance clad;For fear their faces over-gladThis certain thing should seem to hide,That love can ne'er be satisfied.

(William Morris:The Earthly Paradise;The Land East of the Sun. 1870.)

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