And his ancestors of old time have yearded theire longe, Before William Conquerour this Cuntry did inhabitt. Jesus Bring them t' to Blisse, that Brought us forth of BALE, That hath Hearkned me Heare or Heard my TALE." The village of Bagily or Baguleigh is in Cheshire, and had belonged to the ancient family of Legh for two centuries before the battle of Flodden. Indeed that the author was of that country appears from other passages in the body of the poem, particularly from the pains he takes to wipe off a stain from the Cheshiremen, who it seems ran away in that battle, and from his encomiums on the Stanleys Earls of Derby, who usually headed that county. He laments the death of James Stanley bishop of Ely, as what had recently happened when this poem was written; which serves to ascertain its date, for that prelate died March 22, 1514-5. Thus have we traced the Alliterative Measure so low as the sixteenth century. It is remarkable that all such poets as used this kind of metre, retained along with it many peculiar Saxon idioms, particularly such as were appropriated to poetry: this deserves the attention of those who are desirous to recover the laws of the ancient Saxon Poesy, usually given up as inexplicable: I am of opinion that they will find what they seek in the metre of Pierce Plowman. About the beginning of the sixteenth century this kind of versification began to change its form: the author of " Scottish Field," we see, concludes his poem with a couplet in rhyme: this was an innovation that did but prepare the way for the general admission of that more modish ornament: till at length the old uncouth verse of the ancient writers would no longer go down without it. Yet when Rhyme began to be superadded, all the niceties of Alliteration were at first retained along with it; and the song of "Little John Nobody" exhibits this union very clearly. By degrees the correspondence of final sounds engrossing the whole attention of the poet, and fully satisfying the reader, the internal embellishment of Alliteration was no longer studied, and thus was this kind of metre at length swallowed up and lost in our common Burlesque Alexandrine, or Anapestic verse §, now never used but in ballads Yearded, i. e. buried, earthed, earded. It is common to pronounce" Earth," in some parts of England" Yearth," particularly in the North.-Pitscottie, speaking of James III. slain at Bannockbourn, says, "Nae man wot whar they yearded him." us,' MS. In the second line above, the MS. has 'bidding." And in that of Robert of Gloucester. See the next note. Consisting of four Anapests() in which the accent rests upon every third syllable. This kind of verse, which I also call the Burlesque Alexandrine to distinguish it from the other Alexandrines of eleven and fourteen syllables, the parents of our lyric measure: See examples, pp. 151, 152, &c.) was early applied by Robert of Gloucester to serious subjects. That writer's metre, like this of Langland's, is formed on the Saxon models (each verse of his containing a Saxon distich ;) only instead of the internal alliterations adopted by Langland, he rather chose final rhymes, as the French poets have done since. Take a specimen. "The Saxons tho in their power, tho thii were so rive. Seve kingdoms made in Engelonde, and sutlie but vive: The king of Northomberlond, and of Eastangle also, Of Kent, and of Westsex, and of the March, therto." Robert of Guoucester wrote in the western dialect, and his and pieces of light humour, as in the following song of "Conscience," and in that well-known doggrel, "A cobler there was, and he lived in a stall." But although this kind of measure hath with us been thus degraded, it still retains among the French its ancient dignity; their grand heroic verse of twelve syllables is the same genuine offspring of tho old alliterative metre of the ancient Gothic and Francic poets, stript like our Anapestic of its alliteration, and ornamented with rhyme. But with this difference, that whereas this kind of verse hath been applied by us only to light and trivial subjects, to which by its quick and lively measure it seemed best adapted, our poets have let it remain in a more lax unconfined state t, as a greater degree of severity and strictness would have been inconsistent with the light and airy subjects to which they have applied it. On the other hand, the French having retained this verse as the vehicle of their epic and tragic flights, in order to give it a stateliness and dignity were obliged to confine it to more exact laws of Scansion; they have therefore limited it to the number of twelve syllables; and by making the Cæsura or Pause as full and distinct as possible, and by other severe restrictions, have given it all the solemnity of which it was capable. The harmony of both however depends so much on the same flow of cadence and disposal of the pause, that they appear plainly to be of the same original; and every French beroic verse evidently consists of the ancient Distich of their Francic ancestors: which, by the way, will account to us why this verse of the French so naturally resolves itself into two complete hemistichs. And indeed by making the cæsura or pause always to rest on the last syllable of a word, and by making a kind of pause in the sense, the French poets do in effect reduce their hemistichs to two distinct and independent verses: and some of their old poets have gone so far as to make the two hemistichs rhyme to each other . After all, the old alliterative and anapestic metre of the English poets being chiefly used in a barbarous language differs exceedingly from that of other contemporary writers, who resided in the metropolis, or in the midland counties. Had the heptarchy continued, our English language would probably have been as much distinguished for its different dialects as the Greek; or at least as that of the several independent states of Italy. * Or of thirteen syllables, in what they call a feminine verse. It is remarkable that the French alone have retained this old Gothic metre for their serious poems; while the English, Spaniards, &c. have adopted the Italic verse of ten syllables, although the Spaniards, as well as we,-anciently used a short-lined metre. I believe the success with which Petrarch, and perhaps one or two others, first used the heroic verse of ten syllables in Italian Poesy, recommended it to the Spanish writers; as it also did to our Chaucer, who first attempted it in English; and to his successors Lord Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyat. &c.; who afterwards improved it and brought it to perfection. To Lerd Surrey we also owe the first introdnction of blank verse in his versions of the second and fourth books of the Eneid, 1557, 4to. + Thus our poets use this verse indifferently with twelve, eleven, and even ten syllables. For though regularly it consists of four anapests () or twelve syllables, yet they frequently retrench a syllable from the first or third anapest; and sometimes from both; as in these instances from Prior and from the following song of Conscience: Who has eer been at Paris must needs know the Greve, The fatal retreat of th' unfortunate brave. He stept to him straight, and did him require. ↑ See instances in L'Hist. de la Poesie Françoise par Massien, &c. In the same book are also specimens of alliterative French verses. age, and in a rude unpolished language, abounds with verses defective in length, proportion, and harmony; and therefore cannot enter into a comparison with the correct versification of the best modern French writers; but making allowances for these defects, that sort of metre runs with a cadence so exactly resembling the French heroic Alexandrine, that 1 believe no peculiarities of their versification can be produced, which cannot be exactly matched in the alliterative metre. I shall give by way of example a few lines from the modern French poets accommodated with parallels from the ancient poem of "Life and Death;" in these 1 shall denote the Casura or Pause by a perpendicular line and the Cadence by the marks of the Latin quantity. un enfant de l'ăudăce, that I deal with my hands. Le succes fut toujours | l'illusion le suit, that dresseth her to smite. Jet le fantome fuit". To conclude; the metre of Pierce Plowman's Visions has no kind of affinity with what is commonly called Blank Verse; yet has it a sort of harmony of its own, proceeding not so much from its alliteration, as from the artful disposal of its cadence, and the contrivance of its pause; so that when the ear is a little accustomed to it, it is by no means unpleasing; but claims all the merit of the French heroic numbers, only far less polished; being sweetened, instead of their final rhymes, with the internal recurrence of similar sounds, This Essay will receive illustration from another specimen in Warton's "History of English Poetry," Vol, I, p. 309, being the fragment of a MS poem on the subject of "Alexander the Great," in the Bodleian Library, which he supposes to be the same with Number 44, in the Ashmol. MSS. containing twentyseven pasus, and beginning thus: Whener folk fastid [feasted, qu.] and fed, Some farand thing, &c. It is well observed by Mr. Tyrwhitt, on Chaucer's sneer at this old alliterative metre: (Vol. iii, p. 305,) viz. I am a Sotherne [i. e. Southern] man, I cannot geste, rom, ram, raf, by my letter. That the fondness for this species of versification, &c. was retained longest in the northern provinces : and that the author of " Pierce Plowman's Visions" is in the best MSS. called " William," without any surname. (See vol. iv. p. 74.) ADDITIONS TO THE ESSAY ON THE ALLITERATIVE METRE. Since the foregoing Essay was first printed, the Editor hath met with some additional examples of the old alliterative metre. The first is in MS.* which begins thus : • Catalina, A. 3 + Boileau Sat. Boil. Sat. 11. In a small 4to MS. containing 38 leaves in private hands. Crist Crowned Kyng, that on Cros didest, With thi Halwes in Heven Heried mote thu be, The author from this proemium takes occasion to give an account of a dream that happened to himself; which he introduces with the following cir cumstances: Ones y me Ordayned, as y have Ofte doon, even, Six, others Seven myle, out of Suthampton, Than Lift up my Lyddes, and Loked in the sky, est: Blyve y Busked me down, and to Bed went, He then describes his dream : [wordes, With that a Clerk Kneled adowne and Carped these Liege Lord; yif it you Like to Listen a while, Som Sawes of Salomon y shall you shewe sone. The writer then gives a solemn lecture to kings on the art of governing. From the demand of subsidies "to susteyne his werres," I am inclined to believe this poem composed in the reign of King Henry V. as the MS. appears from a subsequent entry to have been written before the 9th of Henry VI. The whole poem contains but 146 lines. The alliterative metre was no less popular among the old Scottish poets, than with their brethren on this side the Tweed. In Maitland's Collection of ancient Scottish Poems, MS. in the Pepysian library, is a very long poem in this species of versification, thus inscribed: HEIR begins the Tretis of the Twa Marriit Wemen, and the Wedo, compylit be Maister William Dunbar¶. The author pretends to over- hear three gossips sitting in an arbour, and revealing all their secret methods of alluring and governing the other sex; it is a severe and humorous satire on bad women, and nothing inferior to "Chaucer's Prologue to his Wife of Bath's Tale." As Dunbar lived till about the middle of the sixteenth century, this poem was probably composed after "Scottish Field" (described above in p. 158,) which is the latest specimen I have met with written in England. This poem contains about five hundred lines. But the current use of the Alliterative Metre in Scotland, appears more particularly from those popular vulgar prophecies, which are still printed for the use of the lower people in Scotland, under the names of "Thomas the Rymer," "Marvellous Merling," &c. This collection seems to have been put together after the accession of James I. to the crown of England, and most of the pieces in it are in the metre of "Pierce Plowman's Visions." The first of them begins thus: "Merling sayes in his book, who will Read Right, Although his Sayings be uncouth, they Shall be true In the seventh chapter, read Whoso Will, [found, One thousand and more after Christ's birth, &c." And the "Prophesie of Beid: " "Betwixt the chief of Summer and the Sad winter ; "Upon Lowdon Law alone as I Lay, And spiritual pastours are vexed away, &c." It will be observed in the foregoing specimens, that the alliteration is extremely neglected, except in the third and fourth instances; although all the rest are written in imitation of the cadence used in this kind of metre. It may perhaps appear from an attentive perusal, that the poems ascribed to Burlington and Waldhave are more ancient than the others: indeed the first and fifth appear evidently to have been new modelled, if not intirely composed about the beginning of the last century, and are probably the latest attempts ever made in this species of verse. In this and the foregoing Essay are mentioned all the specimens I have met with of the Alliterative Metre without rhyme: but instances occur sometimes in old manuscripts, of poems written both with final rhymes in the internal cadence and alliterations of the Metre of Pierce Plowman. The following song, intitled, " The Complaint of Conscience," is printed from the Editor's folio manuscript: some corruptions in the old copy are here corrected; but with notice to the reader wherever it was judged necessary, by inclosing the corrections between inverted commas.' As I walked of late by an' wood side, This made me muse, and much to' desire My name, quoth he, is the cause of my care, 5 10 Then straightway he turned him, and prayd 'me' sit downe, And I will, saithe he, declare my whole greefe; 16 My name is called "Conscience:"-whereatt he did frowne, He pined to repeat it, and grinded his teethe, Though now, silly wretche, I'm denyed all releef,' Yet' while I was young, and tender of yeeres, 20 I was entertained with kinges, and with peeres. There was none in the court that lived in such fame, For with the kings councell I' sate in commission; Dukes, earles, and barrons esteem'd of my name; And how that I liv'd there needs no repetition: 25 I was ever holden in honest condition, For howsoever the lawes went in Westminster-hall, When sentence was given, for me they wold call. No incomes at all the landlords wold take, But one pore peny, that was their fine; And that they acknowledged to be for my sake. The poore wold doe nothing without councell mine : I ruled the world with the right line: For nothing was passed betweene foe and friend, But Conscience was called to bee at the' end. 35 |