Vii. Early Middle English Period

The Plain and Equivalenced Octosyllable.

We have seen how, in Layamon, the regular rhymed octosyllabic couplet or iambic dimeter ("four-stress line," etc.) shows itself, either as a deliberate alternative to the old long line, or as a half-unconscious result of the endeavour to adjust it to the new metrical tendencies of the language. And we saw, also, that its examples in Layamon himself vary from absolute normality to different stages of licence or incompleteness. Before long, however, we find two varieties establishing themselves, with more or less distinct and definite contrast. The first, which seems to keep French or Latin examples more or less strictly before it, is exemplified in The Owl and the Nightingale, and scans as follows:

Wi nul|tu singe | an oth|er theode, War hit | is much|ele mo|re neode? Thu nea|ver ne | singst in | Irlonde, Ne thu | ne cumest | nogt in | Scotlonde: Hwi nul|tu fa|re to Nor|eweie? And sing|en men | of Gal|eweie? Thar | beoth men | that lut|el kunne Of songe | that is | bineothe | the sunne.

Here, it will be observed, there is practically no licence except a few doubtful e's, and that of omitting one syllable and making the line "acephalous" iambic or catalectic trochaic. This form was followed largely, and, from Chaucer and Gower onwards, by most poets, except Spenser, till the time of Chatterton, Blake, and Coleridge in Christabel.

Side by side with it, however, a form embodying the special characteristic of the new English prosody-- equivalent substitution--exhibits itself in full force in the mid-thirteenth-century Genesis and Exodus, as well as in other miscellaneous poems and in the romances. Here are specimens from Genesis and Exodus, 2367-2376:

Josep | gaf ilc | here twin|ne srud, Benia|min most | he ma|de prud; Fif we|den best | bar Ben|iamin Thre hun|dred plates | of sil|ver fin, Al|so fele | o|there | thor-til, He bad | ben in | is fa|deres wil, And x | asses | with se|mes fest; Of all | Egyp|tes welth|e best Gaf he | is brethe|re, with her|te blithe, And bad | hem ra | pen hem hom | ward swithe.

And from Richard Cœur de Lion, 3261-3268:

Nay quod | Kyng Rich|ard, be God | my lord, Ne schal | I ne|vyr with him | acord! Ne hadde ne|vyr ben | lost A|cres toun Ne had|de ben | through hys | tresoun. Yiff he yil|de again | my fad|erys tresour And Jeru|salem | with gret | honour, Thenne | my wrath|e I hym | forgive And ne|vyr ellys | whyl that | I live.

Here, it will be observed, the foot of three syllables--generally, if not always, an anapæst--and even, it would seem, that of one sometimes, are freely substituted for that of two, adding immensely to the variety, spirit, and freedom of the line. The first "ne hadde" is perhaps run together.