Historical Manual of English Prosody. Saintsbury George
wish,
As thou | wel myght:
The sun, | the moyn|è, ve|rament
Thou maid|è: [and] | the fir|mament,
The star|rès al|so full | fervent
To shyn|e thou maid|e ful bright.
("Townley" Plays, iii. p. 23, E.E.T.S.)
X. Early Middle English Period
Appearance of the Decasyllable.
The idea that the new metres in English were invariably direct copies of those already existing in French (or Latin) seems to be decisively negatived by the fact that the decasyllabic line—the staple, not indeed in couplet but in long batches or tirades, of the earlier French chansons de geste—makes a rare appearance in English verse before the late fourteenth century. But it does appear, thereby, on the other hand, negativing the notion that Chaucer "introduced" it, and suggesting that it was, in part at least, a genuine experiment—not in imitation, but in really independent development, of the possibilities of English metre. Here are scanned examples of different periods.
(a) Uncertain in intention, but assuming distinct couplet cadence:
Cristes | milde | moder | seynte | marie,
Mines | liues | leome | mi leou|e lefdi,
To the | ich buwe | and mi|ne kneon | ich beie,
And al | min heor|te blod | to the | ich offrie.
(Orison of Our Lady (c. 1200).)
(b) Expansion of octosyllable in single line:
And nu|tes amig|deles | thoron|ne numen.
(Genesis and Exodus, 3840 (c. 1250).)
(c) In couplet:
And swore | by Je|su that | made moon | and star
Agenst | the Sara|cens he | should learn | to war.
(Richard Cœur de Lion, 2435–36 (before 1325?).)
(d) Overflow of octosyllable into decasyllable; probably, in the first place, from the equivalenced lines lending themselves to another run:
The bugh|es er | the ar|mes with | the handes,
And the | legges, | with the | fete | that standes.
(In Hampole's Prick of Conscience, 680, 681 (before 1350), with scores of others.)
XI. Later Middle English Period
The Alliterative Revival—Pure.
The examples of this revival (see Book II.) cannot, of course, in their nature, be strictly scanned. But it is important to bring out the change of rhythm as compared with the older examples (v. sup. p. 37).
(To prevent confusion with positive metrical scansion, I have made the scanning bars dotted, and have doubled the foot-division line for the middle pause in the first extract.)
Hit bifel ¦ in that fo¦rest there fast ¦ by-side,
Ther woned ¦ a wel old cherl |¦| that was ¦ a couherde.
(William of Palerne.)
(Notice that the nisus towards anapæstic cadence overruns the break both in the metre and, as at "-glent," "stor," "-port" below, in the half line.)
Wende, wor¦thelych wyght ¦ vus won¦ez to seche,
Dryf ouer ¦ this dymme wa¦ter if thou ¦ druye findez,
Bryng bod¦worde to bot ¦ blysse ¦ to vus alle.
(Cleanness.)
Thenne ho gef ¦ hym god-day ¦ and wyth a¦glent laghed,
And as ho stod ¦ ho stonyed hym ¦ with ful ¦ stor wordes,
"Now he that spedes ¦ uche spech ¦ this dis¦port yelde,
Bot that ye ¦ be Gaw¦ayn hit gotz ¦ in mynde."
(Gawain and the Green Knight.)
XII. Later Middle English Period
The Alliterative Revival—Mixed.
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