exactly in verses of fifteen syllables, without Rime, in imitation of the most common species of the Latin Tetrameter Iambic. The other piece 53, which is a moral Poem upon old age, &c. is in Rime, and in a metre much resembling the former, except that the verse of fifteen syllables is broken into two, of which the first should regularly contain eight and the second seven syllables; but the metre is not so exactly observed, at least in the copy which Hickes has followed, as it is in the Ormulur. § v. In the next interval, from the latter end of the reign of Henry III, to the middle of the fourteenth century, when we may suppose Chaucer was beginning to write, the number of English Rimers seems to have increased very much. Besides several, whose names we know 54, it is probable that a great part of the anonymous Authors, or rather Translators 55, of the 53 A large extract from this Poem has been printed by Hickes [Gram. Ang. Sax. c. xxiv. p. 222.], but evidently from very incorrect MSS. It begins thus: Ic am nu elder thanne ic wes A wintre and ec a lore; 54 Robert of Gloucester and Robert of Brunne have been mentioned already. To these may be added Richard Rolle, the hermite of Hampole, who died in 1349, after having composed a large quantity of English rimes. See Tanner, Bib. Brit. Art. HAMPOLE.-Laurence Minot, who has left a collection of Poems upon the principal events of the former part of the reign of Edward III. MS. Cotton. Galba. E. ix. Within the same period flourished the two Poets, who are mentioned with great commendations by Robert of Brunne [App. to Pref. to Peter Langt. p. xcix.] under the names "Of Erceldoun and of Kendale." We have no memorial, that I know, remaining of the latter, besides this passage; but the former I take to have been the famous Thomas Leirmouth, of Ercildoun (or Ersilton, as it is now called, in the shire of Merch,) who lived in the time of Edward I, and is generally distinguished by the honourable addition of "The Rhymour." As the learned Editor of "Ancient Scottish Poems, Edinburgh, 1770," has, for irrefragable reasons, deprived this Thomas of a Prophecy in verse, which had usually been ascribed to him, [see Mackenzie, Art. THOMAS RHYMOUR,] I am inclined to make him some amends by attributing to him a Romance of "Sir Tristrem;" of which Robert of Brunne, an excellent judge! [in the place above cited] says, Over gestes it has th'esteem, Over all that is or was, If men it sayd as made THOMAS. 35 See Dr. Percy's curious Catalogue of English Metrical Romances, prefixed to the third Volume of Reliques of ancient Poesy. I am inclined to believe that we have no English Romance, prior to the age of Chaucer, which is not a translation or imitation of some earlier French Romance. The principal of those, which, being built upon English stories, bid the fairest for having been originally composed in English, are also extant in French. A considerable fragment of Hornchild, or Dan Horn as he is there called, is to be found in French Alexandrines in MS. Harl. 527. The first part of Guy of Warwick is in French, in the octosyllable metre, in MS, Harl. 3775. and the last part in the same language and metre in MS. Bib. Reg. 8 F. ix. How much may be wanting I have not had opportunity to examine. I have never seen Bevis in French; but Du Fresnoy, in his Biblioth. des Romans, t. ii. p. 241. mentions a MS. of Le Roman de Beuves de Hantonne, and another of Le Roman de Beuves et Rosiane, en Rime; and the Italians, who were certainly more likely to borrow from the French than from the English language, had got among them a Romance di Buovo-d'Antona before the year 1348. Quadrio, Storia della Poesia, t. vi. p. 542. However, I think it extremely probable that these three Romances, though originally written in French, were composed in England, and perhaps by Englishmen; for we find that the general currency of the French language here engaged several of our own countrymen to use it in their compositions. Peter of Langtoft may be reckoned a dubious instance, as he is said by some to have been a Frenchman; but Robert Grosseteste, the famous Bishop of Lincoln in the time of Henry III, was a native of Suffolk, and yet he wrote his Chasteau d'Amours, and his Manuel des Pechées in French. [Tanner's Bib. Brit. and Hearne's Pref. to Rob. of Gloucester, p. Iviii.]-There is a translation of Cato in French verse by Helis de Guincestre, i. e. Winchester, MS. Harl. 4388, and a Romance also in French verse, which I suppose to be the original of the English Ipomedon [Percy's Cat. n. 22.] by Hue de Rotelande, is to be found in MS. Cotton. Vesp. A. vii.-A French Dialogue in verse, MS. Bod. 3904. entitled, "La pleinte par entre mis Sire Henry de Lacy Counte de Nichole et Sire Wauter de Bybelesworth pur la croiserie en la terre Seinte," was most probably composed by the latter, who has also left us another work in French prose. [See his article in Tanner, Bibl. Brit.]-Even as late as the time of Chaucer, Gower wrote his Speculum meditantis in French, but whether in verse or prose is uncertain. John Stowe, who was a diligent searcher after MSS. had never seen this work [Annals, p. 326.]: nor does popular Poems, which (from their having been originally written in the Roman, or French, language) were called Romances, flourished about this time. It is unnecessary to enter into particulars here concerning any of them, as they do not appear to have invented, or imported from abroad, any new modes of Versification, by which the Art coud be at all advanced 5, or even to have improved those which were before in use. On the contrary, as their works were intended for the ear more than for the eye, to be recited rather than read, they were apt to be more attentive to their Rimes than to the exactness of their Metres, from a presumption, I suppose, that the defect, or redundance, of a syllable might be easily covered in the recitation, especially if accompanied, as it often was, by some musical instrument. § vI. Such was, in general, the state of English Poetry at the time when Chaucer probably made his first essays. The use of Rime was established; not exclusively (for the Author of either Bale or Pits set down the beginning of it, as they generally do of the books which they have had in their hands. However, one French Poem of Gower's has been preserved. In MS. Harl. 3869. it is connected with the Confessio Amantis by the following rubric: "Puisqu'il ad dit cidevant en Englois par voie d'essample la sotie de cellui qui par amours aime par especial, dirra ore apres en Francois a tout le monde en general une traitic selonc les auctours, pour essampler les amants marriez, au fin q'ils la foi de leurs seints espousailles pourront par fine loialte guarder, et al honeur de dieu salvement tenir." Pr. Le creatour de toute creature. It contains LV Stanzas of 7 verses each, in the last of which is the following apology for the language: "Al'universite de tout le monde Chaucer himself scems to have had no great opinion of the performances of his countrymen in French. [Prol. to Test. of Love, ed. 1542.] "Certes (says he) there ben some that speke theyr poysy mater in Frenche, of whyche speche the Frenche men have as good a fantasye, as we have in hearing of French mennes Englyshe." And he afterwards concludes, with his usual good sense. "Let then Clerkes endyten in Latyn, for they have the propertye of science and the knowinge in that facultye; and lette Frenchmen in theyr Frenche also endyte theyr queynt termes, for it is kyndly to theyr mouthes; and let us shewe our fantasyes in suche wordes as we lerneden of our dames tonge." 56 It was necessary to qualify the assertion, that the Rimers of this period "did not invent or import from abroad any new modes of Versification," as, in fact, Robert of Brunne (in the passage referred to in n. 54.) has mentioned three or four sorts of verse, different from any which we have hitherto met with, and which appear to have been much cultivated, if not introduced, by the writers who flourished a little before himself. He calls them Couteee, Strangere, Enterlace, and Baston. Mr. Bridges, in a sensible letter to Thomas Hearne [App. to Pref. to Peter Langt. p. ciii.] pointed out these terms as particularly ❝nceding an explanation;" but Thomas chose rather to stuff his book with accounts of the Nunnery at Little Gidding, &c. which cost him only the labour of transcribing. There can be little doubt, I think, that the Rimes called Couwde and Enterlacée were derived from the Versus Caudati and Interlaqueati of the Latin Rimers of that age. Though Robert of Brunne in his Prologue professes not to attempt these elegancies of composition, yet he has intermixed several passages in Rime Couwée; [see p. 266. 273, 6, 7, 8, 9, et al.] and almost all the latter part of his work from the Conquest is written in Rime Enterlacée, each couplet riming in the middle as well as at the end. [This was the nature of the Versus interlaqueati, according to the following specimen, MS. Harl. 1002. Plausus Grecorum | lux cecis et via claudis | I cannot pretend to define the exact form of the Rime called Baston, but I dare say it received its appellation from the Carmelite, Robert Baston, a celebrated Latin Rimer in the reigns of Edward I. and II. [See Tanner, Bibl. Brit. in v. and Hearne's Pref. to Fordun, p. ccxxvi. et seq.] His verses upon the battle of Bannockburn, in 1313, are printed in the Appendix to Fordun, p. 1570. They afford instances of all the whimsical combinations of Rimes which can well be conceived to find a place in the Latin heroic metre. As to Rime Strangere, I suspect (upon considering the whole passage in Robert of Brunne) that it was rather a general name, including all sorts of uncommon Rimes, than appropriated to any particular species. Upon the whole, if this account of these new modes of Versification shall be allowed to be any thing like the truth, I hope I shall be thought justified in having added, "that the Art coud not be at all advanced by them." the "Visions of Pierce Ploughman" wrote after the year 135057 without Rime,) but very generally; so that in this respect he had little to do but to imitate his predecessors. The Metrical part of our Poetry was capable of more improvement, by the polishing of the measures already in use as well as by the introducing of new modes of versification; and how far Chaucer actually contributed to the improvement of it, in both or either of these particulars, we are now to consider. § VII. With respect to the regular Metres then in use, they may be reduced, I think, to four. First, the long Iambic Metre 5s, consisting of not more than fifteen, nor less than fourteen syllables, and broken by a Casura at the eighth syllable. Secondly, the Alexandrin Metre 59, 57 This is plain from fol. 68. edit. 1550. where the year 1350 is named, as a year of great scarcity. Indeed, from the mention of the Kitten in the tale of the Rattons, fol. iii. iiii. I should suspect that the author wrote at the very end of the reign of Edward III, when Richard was become heir apparent. The Visions of (i. e. concerning) Pierce Ploughman are generally ascribed to one Kobert Langland; but the best MSS. that I have seen, make the Christian name of the author William, without mentioning his surname. So in MS. Cotton. Vesp. B. xvi. at the end of p. 1. is this rubric. "Hic incipit secundus passus de visione Willelmi de Petro Plouhman." And in ver 5. of p. 2. instead of, "And sayde; sonne, slepest thou?" the MS. has, "And sayde; Wille, slepest thou?" See also the account of MS. Harl. 2376. in the Harleian Catalogue. I cannot help observing, that these Visions have been printed from so faulty and imperfect a MS. that the author, whoever he was, would find it difficult to recognize his own work. However, the judgement of the learned Doctors, Hickes and Percy, [Gram. A. S. p. 217.-Rel. of Anc. Poet. v. ii. p. 260.] with respect to the laws of his versification, is confirmed by the MSS. Each of his verses is in fact a distich, composed of two verses, after the Saxon form, without Rime, and not reducible to any certain Metre. I do not mean to say, that a few of his verses may not be picked out, consisting of fourteen and fifteen syllables, and resembling the metre used in the Ormulum; and there are still more of twelve and thirteen syllables, which might pass for very tolerable Alexandrines: but then, on the other hand, there is a great number of his verses (warranted for genuine by the best MSS.) which cannot, by any mode of pronunciation, be extended beyond nine or ten syllables; so that it is impossible to imagine, that his verse was intended to consist of any determinate number of syllables. It is as clear that his Accents, upon which the harmony of modern Rythms depends, are not disposed according to any regular system. The first division of a verse is often Trochaic, and the last Iambic; and vice versd. The only rule, which he seems really to have prescribed to himself, is what has been taken notice of by his first Editor, viz. "to have three wordes at the leaste in every verse whiche beginne with some one letter." Crowley's Pref. to Edit. 1550. 58 The most perfect example of this metre has been given above, n. 52, from the Ormulum. Each verse is composed of fifteen syllables, and broken by a Casura at the eighth, which always terminates a word. The accents are so disposed upon the even syllables, particularly the eighth and fourteenth, as to produce the true Iambic Cadence. The learned reader will recollect, that the Political verses, as they are called, of Tzetzes, and others, who wrote when the Greek versification was become Rythmical instead of Metrical, are chiefly of this form. See Du Cange, v. POLITICI VERSUS. And it is remarkable, that, about the time of our Orm, Ciullo d'Alcamo, a Poet of Sicily, where the Greek was still a living language, [Montf. Palæog. Gr. 1. vi.] made use of these verses of fifteen syllables, intermixed with Hendecasyllables, in the only production of his which has been preserved. Raccolta dell' Allacci, p. 408—16. The first Stanza is quoted by Crescimbeni, [Istor. d. V. P. 1. i. p. 3.] who however labours very much to persuade us that the verses in question ought not to be considered as verses of fifteen syllables, but as containing each of them two verses, the one of eight and the other of seven syllables. If this were allowed, the nature of the verse would not be altered: [See before, p. xxxv.] but the supposition is highly improbable, as by that distribution there would be three verses in each Stanza not riming. In what follows, Crescimbeni shews very plainly that he had not adverted to the real nature of Ciullo's measure, for he compares it with the noted tetrameter, "Gallias Cæsar subegit, Nico. medes Cæsarem," which is a Trochaic, whereas these verses of Ciullo are evidently Iambics, like those of Orm. I suspect, that, if we coud recover the genuine text of Robert of Gloucester, he would be found to have written in this Metre. It was used by Warner, in his Albions England (another Chronicle in verse) in the latter end of Q Elizabeth's reign; and Gascoigne about the same time [Instruction concerning the making of verse in Eng. Signature U. ii.] speaks of the couplet, consisting of one verse of twelve and another of fourteen syllables, as the commonest sort of verse then in use. It may be proper to observe, that the metre, which Gascoigne calls a verse of fourteen syllables, is exactly the same with what is called above a verse of fifteen syllables; just as the French Alexandrin may be composed indifferently of twelve or thirteen syllables, and the Italian Hendecasyllable of ten, eleven, or even twelve. The general rule in all these kinds of verse is, that, when they consist of the greater number of syllables, the superfluous syllables, as they may be called, are never accented. 10 Robert of Brunne, in his translation of Peter of Langtoft, seems to have used the Alexandrin verse in imitation consisting of not more than thirteen syllables, nor less than twelve, with a Casura at the sixth. Thirdly, the Octosyllable Metre ; which was in reality the antient Dimeter Iambic. Fourthly, the Stanza of six verses; of which the first, second, fourth, and fifth, were in the complete Octosyllable Metre ; and the third and last catalectic, i. e. wanting a syllable, or even two. § VIII. In the first of these Metres it does not appear that Chaucer ever composed at all, (for, I presume, no one can imagine that he was the author of Gamelyn,) or in the second; and in the fourth we have nothing of his but the Rime of Sire Thopas, which, being intended to ridicule the vulgar Romancers, seems to have been purposely written in their favourite Metre. In the third, or Octosyllable Metre, he has left several compositions; particularly, of his Original; but his Metre (at least in Hearne's copy) is frequently defective, especially in the latter part of his work, where he affects to rime at the Casura as well as at the end of his verse. The Alexandrin metre is generally agreed to have been first used in the Roman d'Alexandre, by Lambert li Cors and Alexandre de Bernay, toward the latter end of the twelfth Century. Du Verdier, Bibl. p. 780. Fauchet, 1. ii. A late French Antiquary (M. L'Eveque de la Ravaliere,) in his history Des Revolutions de la Langue Françoise, p. 165. has combated this opinion, upon the authority of some Alexandrin verses, which he has discovered, as he supposes, in the Roman de Rou. I shall only observe, that no such verses are to be found in a very good MS. of the Roman de Rou, Bib. Reg. 4 C. xi. and I very much suspect that upon an accurate examination they will appear to have been not the work of Wace, but of some later author. A similar mistake of an interpolation, or continuation, for the original work has led another very able Antiquary of the same nation to place the Roman de Rou in the fourteenth Century. Mem. de l'Acad. des I. et B. L. tom. xv. p. 582. There can be no doubt, that Wace wrote the Roman de Rou about the middle of the twelfth Century. See before, n. 47. They who attend only to the length of the Alexandrin verse, will naturally derive it from the Trimeter Iambic rythms, which were in frequent use in the beginning of the twelfth Century. See Orderic. Vital. 1. ii. p. 404. 409. 410. 415. et al. But when it is considered, that the Casura at the sixth syllable, so essential to the Alexandrin metre, was hardly ever observed in the Trimeter Iambic, it will seem more probable, I think, that the inventor of the Alexandrin took for his model, what has been called above, the long Iambic, but, for some reason or other, retrenched a foot, or two syllables, in the first hemistich. 60 Though I call this the Octosyllable Metre from what I apprehend to have been its original form, it often consists of nine and sometimes of ten syllables; but the eighth is always the last accented syllable. The oldest French poems, to the latter end of the twelfth Century, are all in this metre; but upon the invention of the Alexandrin, the octosyllable verse seems by degrees to have been confined to the several species of lighter compo sitions in which it is still used. Here in England, Robert of Brunne, in his Preface to his translation of Le Brut [App. to Pref. to Peter Langtoft, p. c.] calls it "light rime," in contradistinction to "strange rime," of which he has just enumerated several sorts [see n. 56.]; and says, that he wrote in it" for luf of the lewed man:" and Chaucer himself speaks of it in nearly the same terms in the beginning of the third book of the House of Fame. "God of science and of light, Not that I will for maystrye Here art potential be shewde; But, for the ryme is light and lewde, Yet make it somewhat agreable, Though some verse fayle in a syllable." The learned Editor of a part of the Canterbury Tales [London, 1737, 8vo.] has quoted this passage [Pref. p. xxv.] as proving," by Chaucer's own confession, that he did not write in equal measure." It certainly proves, that he did not write in equal measure in this particular poem of the House of Fame; but it proves also, that he knew well what the laws of measure were, and that he thought that any deviation from them required an apology. Is it just to conclude, because Chaucer has owned a neglect of those laws in one work, written in light metre, and in which he formally disclaims any exertion of art [ver. 4, 5.] that therefore he has been equally negligent of them in his other works, written in the gravest metre, and in which he may reasonably be supposed to have employed his utmost skill of versification? In the Troilus, for instance, [b. v.] he has a solemn prayer, "that none miswrite, or mismetre his book." Can we suppose that it was not originally written in Metre?-But I shall not enter any further into the general argument concerning Chaucer's versification, which will more properly be discussed in the text. My business here was only to prevent the reader from coming to the question with a preconceived opinion (upon the authority of the learned Editor above-mentioned) that "Chaucer himself," in this passage of the House of Fame, "has put the matter out of dispute." To return again to the Octosyllable Metre. Its constitution is such, that the first syllable may often be dropped without 66 "an imperfect Translation of the Roman de la Rose," which was, probably, one of his earliest performances; "the House of Fame ;"" the Dethe of the Duchesse Blanche," and a poem called his "Dreme:" upon all which it will be sufficient here to observe in general, that, if he had given no other proofs of his poetical faculty, these alone must have secured to him the pre-eminence, above all his predecessors and contemporaries, in point of Versification. § IX. But by far the most considerable part of Chaucer's works is written in that kind of Metre which we now call the Heroic, either in Distichs or in Stanzas; and as I have not been able to discover any instance of this metre being used by any English poet before him, I am much inclined to suppose that he was the first introducer of it into our language. It had long been practised in France, in the Northern as well as the Southern provinces ; and in Italy, within the last fifty years before Chaucer wrote, it had been cultivated with the greatest assiduity and success, in preference to every other metre, by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccace. When we reflect that two of Chaucer's juvenile productions, the Palamon and Arcite, and the Troilus, were in a manner translated from the Theseida and the Filostrato of Boccace 62, both much prejudice to the harmony of the verse; and as far as I have observed, that is the syllable in which Chaucer's verses of this kind generally fail. We have an instance in the first line of the passage quoted above sounds as well (to my car at least) as God of science and of light Thou God of science and of light according to Mr. Urry's correction. The reason, I apprehend, is, that the measure, though of another sort, is still regular: instead of a Dimeter Iambic, it is a Dimeter Trochaic Catalectic. But no such liberty can be taken in the Heroic Metre without totally destroying its harmony; and therefore when the above-mentioned learned Editor says [Pref. p. xxvi.] that the numbers of Chaucer "are always musical, whether they want or exceed their complement," I doubt his partiality for his author has carried him too far. I have no conception myself that an heroic verse, which wants a syllable of its complement, can be musical, or even tolerable. The line which he has quoted from the Knightes Tale [ver. 1228 of this Edition], Not in purgatory but in helle however you manage it; (whether you make a pause; or give two times to the first syllable, as he rather advises ;)can never pass for a verse of any form. Nor did Chaucer intend that it should. He wrote (according to the best MSS.) Not only in purgatory but in helle. $1 The Heroic Metre with us, as with the Italians, is of the Iambic form, consists of ten, eleven, or twelve syllables; the tenth, however, being in all cases the last accented syllable. The French have the same Metre; but with them it can scarce contain more than eleven syllables, as their language has few (if any) words, in which the accent is laid upon the Antepenultima. Though we have a great number of such words, we seldom use the verse of twelve syllables. The extraordinary difficulty of riming with three syllables is a sufficient reason for excluding it from all works which are written in Rime, and in Blank Metre the two unaccented syllables at the end make the close of the verse heavy and languid. Milton, for the sake of variety of measure, has inserted a very few of these verses, which the Italians call Sdruccioli, in his heroic poems; but they are more commonly and, I think, more properly employed in Dramatic compositions, where a continued stateliness of numbers is less requisite. The generical name for this Metre in Italy is Endecasyllabo; and the verses of ten and twelve syllables are distinguished by additions; the former being called Endecasyllabo tronco, and the latter Endecasyllabo sdrucciolo. This proves, I think, that the verse of eleven syllables was the primitive metre, and principally used, as it still is, in Italy; and it will appear hereafter, if I am not mistaken, that the greatest part of Chaucer's heroic verses, when properly written and pronounced, are in this measure. 62 It is so little a while since the world has been informed, that the Palamon and Arcite of Chaucer was taken from the Theseida of Boccace, that it would not have been surprising if another century had elapsed without our knowing that our countryman had also borrowed his Troilus from the Filostrato of the same author; as the Filostrato is more scarce, and much less famous, even in Italy, than the Theseida. The first suspicion which I entertained of this theft was from reading the title of the Filostrato at large, in Saxii Hist. Lit. Typog. Mediolan. ad an. 1498, and I afterwards found, in Montfaucon's Bibl. MSS. t. ii. P. 793. among the King of France's MSS. one with this title; "Philostrato, dell' amorose fatiche di Troilo per Gio Boccaccio." See also Quadrio, t. vi. p. 473. I had just employed a person to procure me some account of this MS. from Paris, when I had the good fortune to meet with a printed copy |