He taught | them to beAnd ther-|to went[e] | both she | and he
Agagne | his wille.
("York" Plays, vi. § 2.)
(The final e's are beginning to be neglected, and the whole is probably in strict iambics here, though vacillation between four- and five-foot lines is not absolutely impossible. But there is trisyllabic substitution elsewhere, though not very much. It may be remembered that there is little of it in Burns's own examples of this metre. Closer still to his is the following):
Eve. Sethyn[35] it | was so | me knyth | it sore, Bot syth|en that wo|man witte|lles ware, Mans mais|t[i]rie | should have | been more Agayns | the gilte.
Adam. Nay at | my speech|e would thou ne|ver spare That has | us spilte.
(Ibid. § 24.)
(b)
My tru|est trea|sure so trai|torly ta|ken,
So bit|terly bound|en with by|tand band|es,
How soon | of thy ser|vants wast thou | forsa|ken
And loathe|ly for my | life hurled | with hand|es
(Horstmann's Hampole, i. 72.)
(Probably, when first written, the ultimate e's of the even lines were sounded; but even this is not certain, and the superiority of the shortening would soon have struck the ear.)
(c) More elaborate stanza from the Drama:
Myght|ful God | veray, || Ma|ker of all | that is
Thre per|sons without|en nay, || oone God | in end|les blis,
Thou maid|è both night | and day, || beest, fowle | and fish,
All crea|tures that | lif may || wrought | thou at | thy wish,
As thou | wel myght:
The sun, | the moyn|è, ve|rament
Thou maid|è: [and] | the fir|mament,
The star|rès al|so full | fervent
To shyn|e thou maid|e ful bright.
("Townley" Plays, iii. p. 23, E.E.T.S.)
X. Early Middle English Period
Appearance of the Decasyllable.
The idea that the new metres in English were invariably direct copies of those already existing in French (or Latin) seems to be decisively negatived by the fact that the decasyllabic line—the staple, not indeed in couplet but in long batches or tirades, of the earlier French chansons de geste—makes a rare appearance in English verse before the late fourteenth century. But it does appear, thereby, on the other hand, negativing the notion that Chaucer "introduced" it, and suggesting that it was, in part at least, a genuine experiment—not in imitation, but in really independent development, of the possibilities of English metre. Here are scanned examples of different periods.
(a) Uncertain in intention, but assuming distinct couplet cadence:
Cristes | milde | moder | seynte | marie,
Mines | liues | leome | mi leou|e lefdi,
To the | ich buwe | and mi|ne kneon | ich beie,
And al | min heor|te blod | to the | ich offrie.
(Orison of Our Lady (c. 1200).)
(b) Expansion of octosyllable in single line:
And nu|tes amig|deles | thoron|ne numen.
(Genesis and Exodus, 3840 (c. 1250).)
(c) In couplet:
And swore | by Je|su that | made moon | and star
Agenst | the Sara|cens he | should learn | to war.
(Richard Cœur de Lion, 2435–36 (before 1325?).)
(d) Overflow of octosyllable into decasyllable; probably, in the first place, from the equivalenced lines lending themselves to another run:
The bugh|es er | the ar|mes with | the handes,
And the | legges, | with the | fete | that standes.
(In Hampole's Prick of Conscience, 680, 681 (before 1350), with scores of others.)
XI. Later Middle English Period
The Alliterative Revival—Pure.
The examples of this revival (see Book II.) cannot, of course, in their nature, be strictly scanned. But it is important to bring out the change of rhythm as compared with the older examples (v. sup. p. 37).
(To prevent confusion with positive metrical scansion, I have made the scanning bars dotted, and have doubled the foot-division line for the middle pause in the first extract.)
Hit bifel ¦ in that fo¦rest there fast ¦ by-side,
Ther woned ¦ a wel old cherl |¦| that was ¦ a couherde.
(William of Palerne.)
(Notice that the nisus towards anapæstic cadence overruns the break both in the metre and, as at "-glent," "stor," "-port" below, in the half line.)
Wende, wor¦thelych wyght ¦ vus won¦ez to seche,
Dryf ouer ¦ this dymme wa¦ter if thou ¦ druye findez,
Bryng bod¦worde to bot ¦ blysse ¦ to vus alle.
(Cleanness.)
Thenne ho gef ¦ hym god-day ¦ and wyth a¦glent laghed,
And as ho stod ¦ ho stonyed hym ¦ with ful ¦ stor wordes,
"Now he that spedes ¦ uche spech ¦ this dis¦port yelde,
Bot that ye ¦ be Gaw¦ayn hit gotz ¦ in mynde."
(Gawain and the Green Knight.)
XII. Later Middle English Period
The Alliterative Revival—Mixed.
