Historical Manual of English Prosody. Saintsbury George
For Cleo|pes sake | and eke | how bothe | in fere
Lovyd | and af|tyr deyed, | my pur|pos ys | to indight.
And now, | O god|dess, I thee | beseche | off kun|ning that | have | syche might,
Help me | to adorne | ther charms | in syche | maner
So that | qwere this | matere | doth yt | require
Bothe ther | lovys I | may compleyne | to loverys | desire.
(A fourteener, a decasyllable, an Alexandrine, a sixteener, and three decasyllables, the last very shaky either as that or as an Alexandrine! In fact, sheer doggerel of the unintended kind.)
XVII. Transition Period
Examples of True Prosody in Ballad, Carols, etc.
(a) Chevy Chase:
The Per|cy out | of Northum|berland,
And a vow | to God | made he,
That he | would hunt | in the moun|tains
Of Chev|iot within | days three,
In the mau|gre of dough|ty Doug|las
And all | that ever with | him be.
(It must be observed that this modern spelling exactly represents the old prosodically. The reader will then see that there are no liberties, on the equivalent system, except the crasis of "-viot" and "ever." The former, insignificant in any case, is still more so here, for the actual Northumbrian pronunciation is or was "Chevot"; while if "ever" changes places with "that," there is not even any crasis needed. For a piece so rough in phrase, and copied by a person so evidently illiterate, the exactness is astonishing.)
(b) "E.I.O.":
To doom | we draw | the sooth | to schaw
In life | that us | was lent,
Ne la|tin, ne law, | may help | ane haw,[36] But rath|ely us | repent. The cross, | the crown, | the spear | bees bown, That Je|su rug|ged and rent, The nail|ès rude, | shall thee | conclude With their | own ar|gument. With E | and O take keep | thereto, As Christ | himself | us kenned We com|e and go | to weal | or woe, That dread|ful doom | shall end.
(Spelling modernised as before, but not a word altered.)
XVIII. Transition Period
Examples of Skeltonic and other Doggerel.
(a) Skelton:
I.
Mirry | Marga|ret
As mid|somer flower,
Gen|tyll as fau|coun
Or hauke | of the tower—
With sol|ace and glad|ness,
Much mirth | and no mad|ness,
All good | and no bad|ness:—
So joy|ously,
So maid|enly,
So wom|anly.
Her de|menyng
In ev|ery thyng
Far far | passyng
That I | can indite
Or suffyce | to write.
(Crown of Laurel.)
II.
But to make | up my tale,
She bru|eth nop|py ale,
And ma|kethe there|of sale,
To travel|lers, || to tink|ers,
To sweat|ers, || to swink|ers,
And all | good || ale-drink|ers
That will noth|ing spare
But drynke | till they stare
And bring | themselves bare,
With "now | away | the mare,
And let | us slay Care,
As wise | as an hare."
(Elinor Rumming.)
(b) Examples from Heywood and other interludes.
(1) Continuous long doggerel:
I can|not tell | you: one knave | disdains | another,
Wherefore | take ye | the tone | and I | shall take | the other.
We shall | bestow | them there | as is most | conven|ient For such | a coup|le. I trow | they shall | repent That ev|er they met | in this | church here.
(2) Singles:
(Shortened six.) This | wyse him | deprave, (Octosyllable.) And give | the ab|solu|tion. (Irregular decasyllable.) The aboun|dant grace | of the | powèr | divyne (Alexandrine.) Preserve | this aud|ience | and leave | them to | inclyne. (Irregular fourteener.) Then hold | down thine | head like | a pret|ty man | and take | my blessing.
(In all these examples the doggerel is probably intended; that is to say, the writers are not aiming at a regularity which they cannot reach, but cheerfully or despairingly renouncing it.)
XIX. Transition Period
Examples from the Scottish Poets.
(a) Barbour (regular octosyllables):
The kyng | toward | the vod | is gane,
Wery, | for-swat and vill | of vayn;
Intill | the wod | soyn en|terit he,
And held | doun to|ward a | valè,
Quhar throu | the vod | a vat|tir ran.
Thiddir | in gret | hy went | he than,
And | begouth | to rest | hym thair,
And said | he mycht | no for|thirmair.
(One "acephalous" line.)
(b) Wyntoun (octosyllables somewhat freer):
Thir sev|yn kyng|is reg|nand were
A hun|der ful|ly and for|ty year, And fra | thir kyng|is thus | can cess In Ro|me thai che|sit twa con|sulès.
(IV. ii. 157–160.)
(c) Blind Harry (regular decasyllables on French model):
Than Wal|lace socht | quhar his | wncle suld be;
In a | dyrk cawe | he was | set|dul|fullè,
Quhar wat|ter stud, | and he | in yrn|yss strang.
Wallace | full sone | the brass|is wp | he dang;
Off that | myrk holl | brocht him | with strenth | and lyst,
Bot noyis | he hard, | off no|thing ellis | he wyst.
So blyth | befor | in warld | he had | nocht beyn,
As thair | with sycht, | quhen he | had Wal|lace seyn.
(d) James I. (rhyme-royal):
For wak|it and | for-wal|owit, thus | musing,
Wery | forlain | I list|enyt sod|dynlye,