The Arte of English Poesie Part 8

Where ye see euery verse is all of a measure, and yet vnegall in number of sillables: for the second verse is but of sixe sillables, where the rest are of eight. But the reason is for that in three of the same verses are two _Dactils_ a peece, which abridge two sillables in euery verse: and so maketh the longest euen with the shortest. Ye may note besides by the first verse, how much better some _bisillable_ becommeth to peece out an other longer foote then another word doth: for in place of [_render_] if ye had sayd [_restore_] it had marred the _Dactil_, and of necessitie driuen him out at length to be a verse _Iambic_ of foure feet, because [_render_] is naturally a _Trocheus_ & makes the first two times of a _dactil._ [_Restore_]is naturally a _Iambus_, & in this place could not possibly haue made a pleasant _dactil_.

Now againe if ye will say to me that these two words [_libertie_] and [_conquerours_] be not precise _Dactils_ by the Latine rule. So much will I confesse to, but since they go currant inough vpon the tongue and be so vsually p.r.o.nounced, they may pa.s.se wel inough for _Dactils_ in our vulgar meeters, & that is inough for me, seeking but to fashion an art, & not to finish it: which time only & custom haue authoritie to do, specially in all cases of language as the Poet hath wittily remembred in this verse _si volet usus, Quem penes arbitrium est & vis & norma loquendi._

The Earle of Surrey upon the death of Sir _Thomas Wiat_ made among other this verse _Pentameter_ and of ten sillables, _What holy graue (alas) what sepulcher_

But if I had had the making of him, he should haue bene of eleuen sillables and kept his measure of fiue still, and would so haue runne more pleasantly a great deale; for as he is now, though he be euen he seemes odde and defectiue, for not well obseruing the natural accent of euery word, and this would haue bene soone holpen by inserting one _monosillable_ in the middle of the verse, and drawing another sillable in the beginning into a _Dactil_, this word [_holy_] being a good [_Pirrichius_] & very well seruing the turne, thus, _Wha-t ho'li'e gra-ue a'la-s wha't fit se'pu-lche'r._ Which verse if ye peruse throughout ye shall finde him after the first _dactil_ all _Trochaick_ & not _Iambic_, nor of any other foot of two times. But perchance if ye would seeme yet more curious, in place of these four _Trocheus_ ye might induce other feete of three times, as to make the three sillables next following the _dactil_, the foote [_amphimacer_] the last word [_Sepulcher_] the foote [_amphibracus_] leauing the other midle word for a [_Iambus_] thus.

_Wha-t ho'li'e gra-ue a'la-s wha't fit se'pu-lche'r._ If ye aske me further why I make [_what_] first long & after short in one verse, to that I satisfied you before, that it is by reason of his accent sharpe in one place and flat in another, being a common _monosillable_, that is, apt to receive either accent, & so in the first place receiuing aptly the sharpe accent he is made long: afterward receiuing the flat accent more aptly then the sharpe, because the sillable precedent [_las_]

vtterly distaines him, he is made short & not long, & that with very good melodie, but to haue giuen him the sharpe accent & plucked it from the sillable [_las_] it had bene to any mans eare a great discord: for euermore this word [_alas_] is accented vpon the last, & that lowdly & notoriously as appeareth by all our exclamations vsed vnder that terme.

The same Earle of Surrey & Sir _Thomas Wyat_ the first reformers & polishers of our vulgar Poesie much affecting the stile and measures of the Italian _Petrarcha_, vsed the foote _dactil_ very often but not many in one verse, as in these, _Fu-ll ma'ni'e that in presence of thy li-ueli'e he'd, Shed Caesars teares vpon Po-mpe'iu's he'd.

Th'e-ne'mi'e to life destroi er of all kinde, If a-mo' ro'us faith in an hart un fayned, Myne old dee-re e'ne' my my froward master.

The- fu'ri' ous gone in his most ra ging ire._

And many moe which if ye would not allow for _dactils_ the verse would halt vnlesse ye would seeme to helpe it contracting a sillable by vertue of the figure _Syneresis_ which I thinke was neuer their meaning, nor in deede would haue bred any pleasure to the eare, but hindred the flowing of the verse. Howsoeuer ye take it the _dactil_ is commendable inough in our vulgar meetres, but most plausible of all when he is sounded vpon the stage, as in these comicall verses shewing how well it becommeth all n.o.ble men and great personages to be temperat and modest, yea more then any meaner man, thus.

_Le-t no' no'bi-li'ti'e ri-che's o'r he-ri'ta'ge Ho-no'r o'r e-mpi're o'r ea-rthli'e do'mi-ni'o'n Bre-ed I'n yo'ur hea-d a'ni'e pe-euish o'pi-ni'o'n That ye' ma'y sa-fe'r a'uo-uch a'ni'e o-utra-ge._

And in this distique taxing the Prelate symoniake standing all upon perfect _dactils_.

_No-w ma-ni-e bi-e mo-ne-y pu-rue'y pro'mo-ti'o'n For mony mooues any hart to deuotion._

But this aduertis.e.m.e.nt I will giue you withall, that if ye vse too many _dactils_ together ye make your musike too light and of no solemne grauitie such as the amorous _Elegies_ in court naturally require, being alwaies either very dolefull or pa.s.sionate as the affections of loue enforce, in which busines ye must make your choice of very few words _dactilique_, or them that ye cannot refuse, to dissolue and breake them into other feete by such meanes as it shall be taught hereafter: but chiefly in your courtly ditties take heede ye vse not these maner of long _polisillables_ and specially that ye finish not your verse them as [_retribution_] _rest.i.tution_] _remuneration_] _recapitulation_] and such like: for they smatch more the schoole of common players than of any delicate Poet _Lyricke_ or _Elegiacke._

_CHAP. XV._

_Of all your other feete of three times and how well they would fashion a meetre in our vulgar.__

All your other feete of three times I find no vse of them in our vulgar meeters nor no sweetenes at all, and yet words inough to serue their proportions. So as though they haue not hitherto bene made artificiall, yet nowe by more curious obseruation they might be. Since all artes grew first by obseruation of natures proceedings and custome. And first your [Molossus] being of all three long is euidently discouered by this word [_pe-rmi-tti-ng_] The [_Anapestus_] of two short and a long by this word [_fu'ri'o-us_] if the next word beginne with a consonant. The foote [_Bacchius_] of a short and two long by this word [_re'si-sta-nce_] the foote [_Antibachius_] of two long and a short by this word [_e-xa-mple'_]

the foote [_Amphimacer_] of a long a short & a long by this word [_co-nque'ri-ng_] the foote of [_Amphibrachus_] of a short a long and a short by this word [_re'me-mbe'r_] if a vowell follow. The foote [Tribrachus_] of three short times is very hard to be made by any of our _trissillables_ vnles they be compounded of the smoothest sort of consonants or sillables vocals, or of three smooth _monosillables_, or of some peece of a long _polysillable_ & after that sort we may with wresting of words shape the foot [_Tribrachus_] rather by vsurpation then by rule, which neuertheles is allowed in euery primitiue arte & inuention: & so it was by the Greekes and Latines in their first versifying, as if a rule should be set downe that from henceforth these words should be counted al _Tribrachus_ [_e'ne'mi'e_] _re'me'di'e_] _se'li'ne's_] _mo'ni'le's_]

_pe'ni'le's_] _cru'e'lli'e_] & such like, or a peece of this long word [_re'co-ue'ra'ble'_] _innu'me'ra'ble'_] _rea'di'li'e_] and others. Of all which manner of apt wordes to make these stranger feet of three times which go not so currant with our eare as the _dactil_, the maker should haue a good iudgement to know them by their manner of orthographie and by their accent which serue most fitly for euery foote, or else he shoulde haue always a little calender of them apart to vse readily when he shall neede them. But because in very truth I thinke them but vaine & superst.i.tious obseruations nothing at all furthering the pleasant melody of our English meeter, I leaue to speake any more of them and rather wish the continuance of our old maner of Poesie, scanning our verse by sillables rather than by feete, and vsing most commonly the word _Iambique_ & sometime the _Trochaike_ which ye shall discerne by their accents, and now and then a _dactill_ keeping precisely our symphony or rime without any other mincing measures, which an idle inuentiue head could easily deuise, as the former examples teach.

_CHAP. XVI._

_Of your verses perfect and defectiue; and that which the Graecians called the halfe foote._

The Greekes and Latines vsed verses in the odde sillable of two sortes, which they called _Catalecticke_ and _Acatalecticke_, that is odde vnder and odde ouer the iust measure of their verse, & we in our vulgar finde many of the like, and specially in the rimes of Sir Thomas Wiat, strained perchaunce out of their originall, made first by _Francis Petrarcha_: as these _Like vnto these, immeasurable mountaines, So is my painefull life the burden of ire: For hie be they, and hie is my desire And I of teares, and they are full of fountaines._ Where in your first second and fourth verse, ye may find a sillable superfluous, and though in the first ye will seeme to helpe it, by drawing these three sillables,[_i-m me' su'_] into a _dactil_, in the rest it can not be so excused, wherefore we must thinke he did it of purpose, by the odde sillable to giue greater grace to his meetre, and we finde in our old rimes, this odde sillable, sometime placed in the beginning and sometimes in the middle of a verse, and is allowed to go alone & to hang to any other sillable. But this odde sillable in our meetres is not the halfe foote as the Greekes and Latines vsed him in their verses, and called such measure _pentimimeris_ and _eptamimeris_, but rather is that, which they called the _catalectik_ or maymed verse. Their _hemimeris_ or halfe foote serued not by licence Poeticall or necessitie of words, but to bewtifie and exornate the verse by placing one such halfe foote in the middle _Cesure_, & one other in the end of the verse, as they vfed all their _pentameters elegiack_: and not by coupling them together, but by accompt to make their verse of a iust measure and not defectiue or superflous: our odde sillable is not altogether of that nature, but is in a maner drownd and supprest by the flat accent, and shrinks away as it were inaudible and by that meane the odde verse comes almost to be an euen in euery mans hearing. The halfe foote of the auncients was reserued purposely to an vse, and therefore they gaue such odde sillable, wheresoeuer he fell the sharper accent, and made by him a notorious pause as in this _pentameter_.

_Ni-l mi' hi' re-scri-ba's a-tta'me'n i-pse' ve' ni'_.

Which in all make fiue whole feete, or the verse _Pentameter._ We in our vulgar haue not the vse of the like halfe foote.

_CHAP. XVII._

_Of the breaking your bissillables and polysillables and when it is to be used._

Bvt whether ye suffer your sillable to receiue his quant.i.tie by his accent, or by his ortography, or whether ye keepe your _bissillable_ whole or whether ye breake him, all is one to his quant.i.tie, and his time will appeare the selfe same still and ought not to be altered by our makers, vnlesse it be when such sillable is allowed to be common and to receiue any of both times, as in the _dimeter_, made of two sillables entier.

_e-xtre-ame de'si-re_

The first is a good _spondeus_, the second a good _iambus_, and if the same wordes be broken thus it is not so pleasant.

_I'n e-x tre-ame de' sire_

And yet the first makes a _iambus_, and the second a _trocheus_ ech sillable retayning still his former quant.i.ties. And alwaies ye must haue regard to the sweetenes of the meetre, so as if your word _polysillable_ would not sound pleasantly whole, ye should for the nonce breake him, which ye may easily doo by inserting here and there one _monosillable_ among your _polysillables_, or by changing your word into another place then where he soundes vnpleasantly, and by breaking, turne a _trocheus_ to a _iambus_, or contrariwise: as thus: _Ho-llo'w va-lle'is u-nde'r hi-e'st mou-ntai'nes Cra-ggi'e cli-ffes bri'ng foo-rth the' fai-re'st fou-ntai'nes_

These verses be _trochaik_, and in mine eare not so sweete and harmonicall as the _iambicque_, thus: _The' ho-llo'wst va-ls li'e u-nde'r hi-e'st mo-unta-ines The' cra-ggi'st clifs bri-ng fo-rth the' fai-re'st fou-nta-ines_.

All which verses bee now become _iambicque_ by breaking the first _bissillables_, and yet alters not their quant.i.ties though the feete be altered: and thus, _Restlesse is the heart in his desires Rauing after that reason doth denie_.

Which being turned thus makes a new harmonie.

_The restlesse heart, renues his old desires Ay rauing after that reason doth it deny_.

And following this obseruation your meetres being builded with _polysillables_ will fall diuersly out, that is some to be _spondaick_, some _iambick_, others _dactilick_, others _trochaick_, and of one mingled with another, as in this verse.

_He-aui'e I-s the' bu-rde'n of Pri'nce's i-re_

The verse is _trochaick_, but being altered thus, is _iambicque_.

_Fu'll he-aui'e i-s the' pa-ise o'f Pri-nce's i-re_

And as _Sir Thomas Wiat_ song in a verse wholly _trochaick_, because the wordes do best shape to that foote by their naturall accent, thus, _Fa-rewe'll lo-ue a'nd a-ll thi'e la-wes fo'r e-ve'r_

And in this ditty of th'Erle of Surries, pa.s.sing sweete and harmonicall: all be _Iambick_.

_When raging loue with extreme paine So cruell doth straine my hart, And that the teares like fluds of raine Beare witnesse of my wofull smart._

Which beyng disposed otherwise or not broken, would proue all _trochaick_, but nothing pleasant.

Now furthermore ye are to note, that al _monosyllables_ may receiue the sharp accent, but not so aptly one as another, as in this verse where they serue well to make him _iambicque_, but not _trochaick_.

_Go'd grau-nt thi's pea-ce ma'y lo-ng e'ndu-re_

Where the sharpe accent falles more tunably vpon [graunt] [peace] [long]

[dure] then it would by conuersion, as to accent then thus: _Go-d grau'nt - thi-s pea'ce - ma-y lo'ng - e-ndu-re._

And yet if ye will aske me the reason I can not tell it, but that it shapes so to myne eare, and as I thinke to euery other mans. And in this meeter where ye haue whole words _bissillable_ vnbroken, that maintaine (by reason of their accent) sundry feete, yet going one with another be very harmonicall.

Where ye see one to be a _trocheus_ another the _iambus_, and so entermingled not by election but by constraint of their seuerall accents, which ought not to be altred, yet comes it to pa.s.se that many times ye must of necessitie alter the accent of a sillable, and put him from his naturall place, and then one sillable, of a word _polysillable_, or one word _monosillable_, will abide to be made sometimes long, sometimes short, as in this _quadreyne_ of ours playd in a mery moode.

_Geue me mne owne and when I do desire Geue others theirs, and nothing that is mine_ _Nr giue me that, wherto all men aspire Then neither gold, nor faire women nor wine._

Where in your first verse these two words [_giue_] and [_me_] are accented one high th'other low, in the third verse the same words are accented contrary, and the reason of this exchange is manifest, because the maker playes with these two clauses of sundry relations [_giue me_] and [_giue others_] so as the _monosillable_ [_me_] being respectiue to the word [_others_] and inferring a subtilitie or wittie implication, ought not to haue the same accent, as when he hath no such respect, as in this _distik_ of ours.

_Pro-ue me' (Madame) ere ye re-pro'ue Meeke minds should e-xcu'se not a-ccu'se_.

In which verse ye see this word [_reprooue_,] the sillable [_prooue_]

alters his sharpe accent into a flat, for naturally it is long in all his singles and compoundes [_reproue_] [_approue_] [_disproue_] & so is the sillable [_cuse_] in [_excuse_] [_accuse_] [_recuse_] yet in these verses by reason one of them doth as it were nicke another, and haue a certaine extraordinary sence with all, it behoueth to remoue the sharpe accents from whence they are most naturall, to place them where the nicke may be more expresly discouered, and therefore in this verse where no such implication is, nor no relation it is otherwise, as thus.

_If ye re'pro-ue my constancie I will excu-se you curtesly_.