Historical Manual of English Prosody. Saintsbury George

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664605436

Table of Contents

       PREFACE

       BOOK I INTRODUCTORY AND DOGMATIC

       CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY

       CHAPTER II SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH PROSODY—THE ACCENTUAL OR STRESS

       CHAPTER III SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH PROSODY—THE SYLLABIC

       CHAPTER IV SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH PROSODY—THE FOOT

       CHAPTER V RULES OF THE FOOT SYSTEM

       § A. Feet

       § B. Constitution of Feet

       § C. Equivalence and Substitution

       § D. Pause

       § E. Line-Combination

       § F. Rhyme

       § G. Miscellaneous

       CHAPTER VI CONTINUOUS ILLUSTRATIONS OF ENGLISH SCANSION ACCORDING TO THE FOOT SYSTEM

       I. Old English Period Scansion only dimly visible.

       II. Late Old English with Nisus towards Metre ("Grave" Poem. Guest's text, spelling, and accentuation; the usual marks for the latter being substituted for his dividing bars, and foot division added in dots.)

       III. Transition Period Metre struggling to assert itself in a New Way. Part of the verses of St. Godric.

       IV. Early Middle English Period Attempt at merely Syllabic Uniformity with Unbroken Iambic Run and no Rhyme. Orm.

       V. Early Middle English Period Conflict or Indecision between Accentual Rhythm and Metrical Scheme. Layamon.

       VI. Early Middle English Period The Appearance and Development of the "Fourteener."

       VII. Early Middle English Period The Plain and Equivalenced Octosyllable.

       VIII. Early Middle English Period The Romance-Six or "Rime Couée."

       IX. Early Middle English Period Miscellaneous Stanzas.

       X. Early Middle English Period Appearance of the Decasyllable.

       XI. Later Middle English Period The Alliterative Revival—Pure.

       XII. Later Middle English Period The Alliterative Revival—Mixed.

       XIII. Later Middle English Period Potentially Metrical Lines in Langland (see Book II) .

       XIV. Later Middle English Period Scansions from Chaucer.

       XV. Later Middle English Period Variations from Strict Iambic Norm in Gower.

       XVI. Transition Period Examples of Break-down in Literary Verse.

       XVII. Transition Period Examples of True Prosody in Ballad, Carols, etc.

       XVIII. Transition Period Examples of Skeltonic and other Doggerel.

       XIX. Transition Period Examples from the Scottish Poets.

       XX. Early Elizabethan Period Examples of Reformed Metre from Wyatt, Surrey, and other Poets before Spenser.

       XXI. Spenser [37] at Different Periods

       XXII. Examples of the Development of Blank Verse

       XXIII. Examples of Elizabethan Lyric

       XXIV. Early Continuous Anapæsts

       XXV. The Enjambed Heroic Couplet (1580-1660)

       XXVI. The Stopped Heroic Couplet (1580-1660)

       XXVII. Various Forms of Octosyllable-Heptasyllable (late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century)

       XXVIII. "Common," "Long," and "In Memoriam" Measure (Seventeenth Century)

       XXIX. Improved Anapæstic Measures (Dryden, Anon., Prior)