The other poem is that which is quoted in page 266 of vol. i., and which was probably the last that was ever written in this kind of metre in its original simplicity, unaccompanied with rhyme. It should have been observed above, in page 266, that in this poem the lines are throughout divided into distichs, thus: "Grant Gracious God, Grant me this time," &c. It is entitled Scottish Fielde (in 2 FITTS, 420 distichs), containing a very circumstantial narrative of the battle of Flodden, fought Sept. 9, 1513: at which the author seems to have been present, from his speaking in the first person plural: "Then WE Tild downe OUR Tents, that Told were a thousand." In the conclusion of the poem he gives this account of himself · 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 3 Jest. MS. 4 Probably corrupted for-" Says but as he Saw." 66 5 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 Bannockburn, says, "Nae man wot whar they yearded him." 6 us.' MS. In the second line above, the MS. has 'bidding.' 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 and pieces of light humour, as in the following song of Conscience, and in that well-known doggrel, 8 "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 7 And in that of Robert of Gloucester.-See the next note. 8 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, vol. i., p. 345, &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 ther power, tho thii were so rive, Robert of Gloucester wrote in the western dialect, and his 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. heroic verse of twelve syllables 9 is the same genuine offspring of the 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,' 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 heroic 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.2 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 Lord Surrey we also owe the first introduction of blank verse in his versions of the second and fourth books of the Eneid, 1557, 4to. 1 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 ǎt Pāris, must needs know the Grēve, The fatăl retreat of th' unfōrtunăte brāve. Hě stěpt to him straight, and did him require." 2 See instances in L'Hist. de la Poésie Françoise, par Massieu, &c. In the same book are also specimens of alliterative French verses. After all, the old alliterative and anapestic metre of the English poets, being chiefly used in a barbarous age and in a rude unpolished language, abounds with verses defective in length, proportion, and harmony, and therefre 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 I 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 I shall denote the cæsura or pause by a perpendicular line, and the cadence by the marks of the Latin quantity. Le succes fut toujours L'intrěpīdě voit mieux un enfant de l'audace; that dressĕth her to smite. ět le fantōme fuit,3 When shě dolefully saw | how shĕ dãng dōwne hir fölke. Du měnsōngě toŭjoūrs | lě vrāi děmēurē māitrē, Pour părōitre hōnněte hōmme | ĕn ăn mõt, îl făut l'ētre.3 where the flowers wěre manye. 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. MS., containing 27 passus, and beginning thus: "Whener folk fastid [feasted, qu.] and fed, fayne wolde thei her [i. e. hear] Some farand thing," &c. Catalina, A. 3. ✦ Boileau, Sat. 5 Boil., Sat. 11. 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: "Crist Crowned Kyng, that on Cros didest," And art Comfort of all Care, thow 8 kind go out of Cours, In Dremyng, in Drecchyng, and in Derke swevenes.' The author, from this promium, takes occasion to give an account of a dream that happened to himself; which he introduces with the following circumstances: "Ones y me Ordayned, as y have Ofte doon, With Frendes, and Felawes, Frendemen, and other; Than Lift y up my Lyddes, and Loked in the sky, He then describes his dream: 66 Methought that y Hoved on High on an Hill, 6 In a small 4to MS. containing 38 leaves, in private hands. 7 Didst dye. Being overpowered. • Though. 1 i. e. either, or. |