order of Saint Benedict at Paris, and a monk of Saint Victor's at Marseilles, who lived about the year 1135; and, though not the inventor, was a celebrated composer in this kind of verse 33. The rules of prosody were at first so pedantically observed, that they produced a monotonous uniformity: but they were gradually neglected, and verses were at last distinguished chiefly by the number of syllables, and the accent, or emphasis; the accented and unaccented syllables being substituted in the different feet for long and short syllables. The hexameter measure was generally employed, except in hymns of the church, in which, after the example of Prudentius, principally dimeter iambics, and trochaics, were used. Eberhardus, a learned man of Bethune, in the beginning of the thirteenth century wrote a very long poem in hexameters and pentameters, not in rhyme, entitled The Labyrinth, or the Miseries of Schoolmasters, in which he treats of their various duties. The third section is on versification; and, after giving the rules for other kinds of verse, he proceeds thus to rhyming Latin poetry: Sunt inventoris de nomine dicta Leonis 33 Pasquier, Recherch. de la France, Lib. VII. ii. p. 596. iii. p. 600. He then gives many specimens in different metres from four syllables upwards, beginning with Fac, Maria, Maris stella, Dei cella, Me vitare, Et calcare Mundi cœnum, Malo plenum 34. Rhyme being once introduced into Latin poetry was refined upon by successive poets with infinite variety. It was either, Ist, completed in one line, or, IIdly, extended into more, so as to form stanzas. I. 1. The line was divided into two parts, and the middle, at the pause, rhymed with the end. As in the epitaph upon Roger, duke of Sicily, in 1101 Linquens terrenas-migravit dux ad amœnas Pentameters of the same form occur Permutant mores-homines cum dantur honores; 34 Eberhardus Bethuniæ oriundus vixit anno 1212. Scripsit Labyrinthus, sive Carmen de Miseriis rectorum scholarum. Leyser. p. 795.845. These were called versus cristati 35. The same rhyme was sometimes extended through many lines; as in the convivial verses: Funde vinum, funde-tanquam sint fluminis undæ, 2. The line was again divided into three parts, which all rhymed, and the verses were called Trilices; as, O Valachi-vestri stomachi-sunt amphora Bacchi. II. They formed stanzas, in which the rhymes extended beyond one line. 1. The first and most usual of this kind, and the proper Leonine, was the couplet, in which two verses rhymed only at the end, and the second was sometimes a pentameter. The rhymes were usually completed in two lines: sometimes in four lines; and there are instances in which the same was continued for a great number of lines. 2. Or each line was divided, as before, into two parts, which formed several varieties, and might be considered as four short verses. The middles and the ends rhymed alternately. 35 Eberhardus in Leyser. p. 832. 36 Moreau. Si tibi grata seges-est morum, gratus haberis : Criminibus mersos-toto conamine vites, A vitiis tersos-cordis amore cites 37. Or the first and fourth parts rhymed, and the second and third: Est domini donum-puri devotio cordis. Contemptus sordis-initiale bonum 38. Or all four parts rhymed; and even the same words were repeated, which Reginaldus calls versus reciprocè Leoninicenses, or dicaces. Me recreas fessum-validus nam, si recrees, sum. 3. There were three divisions in each line, which made more varieties. The beginning and middle of each verse rhymed, and the two ends as in the couplet. As in a poem by Damianus, bishop of Ostia, addressed to the Virgin: O miseratrix-O dominatrix-præcipe dictu The rhyme of the beginning and middle was sometimes continued in the second line: 37 Eberhardus, p. 832. 38 Ibid. 39 Reginaldus in Malchum. Virgo beata-salusque parata-benigna precanti, Dona rogata-dabis cumulata—tibi fabulanti 4o. Sometimes the beginning, middle, and end, of one line rhymed with the corresponding parts of the second: Cellula mellis-fundis ardorem-virgo serena, Nescia fellis-cui dat honorem-nostra Camœna". At length rhyming was carried to such an extent, Quos anguis dirus tristi mulcedine pavit, Great refinements occur in the mode of rhyming, and names were given to the different kinds of rhyme. When the rhyme was formed by two words, they were called versus, cornuti, as in the satire of Reginaldus against his rival: Lividus et rodens-putrescat in ore suo dens: O Deus hunc puni-cessaverit à crepitu ni. A mode in which the first half of a word constituted the rhyme produced verses called inversi. 40 Eberhardus, p. 835. 41 Ibid. 42 Moreau. |