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Table of Contents
The metrical additions, on the other hand (see Book II.), and those poems which, while employing alliteration, subject it to metrical schemes, scan perfectly, as:
Quen thay | hade play|ed in halle,
As long|e as her wyll|e hom last,
To cham|bre he con | hym calle
And to | the chem|ne thay past.
… . …
"A' mon | how may | thou slepe,
This mor|ning es | so clere?"
He watz | in droup|ing depe
Bot thenne | he con | hir here.
("Wheels" of Gawain and the Green Knight.)
Fro spot | my spyryt | ther sprang | in space,
My bo|dy on balk|e ther bod | in sweven,
My gost|e is gon | in God|es grace,
In a|ventur|e ther mer|vayles meven.
(The Pearl, ii.)
Mone | makeles | of mighte,
Here co|mes ane er|rant knighte,
Do him | reson|e and righte
For thi | manhead.
("Wheel" of The Awnyrs of Arthur, xxvii.)
XIII. Later Middle English Period
Potentially Metrical Lines in Langland (see Book II).
Decasyllables:
For Ja|mes the gen|tel bond | it in | his book.
(A. i. 159.)
Thus I | live lov|eless lik|e a lu|ther dogge.
(A. v. 97.)
Alexandrines:
And ser|ved Treu|the soth|lyche | somdel | to paye.
(C. viii. 189.)
Adam | and A|braham | and Y|say the | prophete.
(B. xvi. 81.)
Fourteeners:
But if | he wor|che well | there-with | as Do|wel him | techeth.
(B. viii. 56.)
Of a|ny sci|ence un|der son|ne the se|ven arts | and alle.
(B. xi. 166.)
A large number might be added where the pronunciation which was shortly to come in necessarily makes such lines, though they may not have been intended as such; for instance—
Take we | her words | at worth, | for her | witness | be true;
(B. xii. 125.)
and even octosyllables will appear—
Ne no say robe in rich[e] pelure;
(A. iii. 277.)
partly explaining to us the chaos of lines in fifteenth-century poetry.
XIV. Later Middle English Period
Scansions from Chaucer.
Octosyllable:
Hit was | of Ve|nus re|dely,
This tem|ple; for | in por|treyture,
I saw | anoon | right hir | figure
Na|ked fle|tynge in | a see. And al|so on hir heed, | parde, Hir ro|se gar|lond white | and reed, And | hir comb | to kemb|e hir heed, Hir dow|ves, and | daun Cu|pido, Hir blin|de son|e, and Vul|cano, That in | his fa|ce was | ful broun.
(House of Fame, i. 130–139.)
(Two "acephalous" lines, initial monosyllabic feet, or trochaic admixtures; some unimportant elisions before vowels and h; middle pause not kept in lines 1, 4, 6, and 10.)
Rhyme-royal:
And down | from then|nès faste | he gan | avise This li|tel spot | of erthe | that with | the see Embra|cèd is, | and ful|ly gan | despise This wrec|ched world, | and held | al vanite, To re|spect of | the pleyne | feli|cite That is | in heven|e above. And at | the laste Ther he | was slayn | his lo|king down | he caste.
(Troilus and Criseyde, v. 1814–20.)
(Metre quite regular, but pause much varied—practically none in line 5. Elisions as above, but e's not valued, or elided, in erthe, pleyne. Final couplet hendecasyllabic, as indeed most are.)
(a) Riding rhyme or heroic couplet:
Whan that April|le with | his shou|res soote
The droght|e of March | hath per|ced to | the roote,
And bath|ed ev|ery veyn|e in swich | licour
Of which | vertu | engen|dred is |the fleur;
Whan Ze|phirus | eek with | his swe|te breeth Inspi|red hath | in ev|ery holt | and heeth The ten|dre crop|pes, and | the yon|ge sonne Hath in | the Ram | his half|e cours | y-ronne, And smal|e fowel|es ma|ken me|lodye, That sle|pen al | the nyght | with o|pen eye— So pri|keth hem | Nature | in hir | corages— Thanne long|en folk | to goon | on pil|grimages, And pal|meres for | to se|ken straun|ge strondes, To fer|ne hal|wes, kowth|e in son|dry londes; And spec|ially, | from ev|ery shi|res ende Of En|gelond, | to Caun|terbury | they wende, The hoo|ly blis|ful mar|tir for | to seke That hem | hath hol|pen whan | that they | were seeke.
(Opening paragraph of Canterbury Tales.)
(Very regular; but possible trisyllabic feet wherever "every" occurs, and a certain one in "Caunt|erbury|." Pause almost indifferently at 4th and 5th syllables. French-Latin accent in "Natùre." Many hendecasyllables or redundances; but all made by the e in one form or another.)
(b)
