Xvi. Transition Period

_Examples of Break-down in Literary Verse._

(_a_) Lydgate's decasyllabic couplet:

Ther he | lay to | the lar|kè song [̆̄] With no|tès herd|è high | up in | the ayr. The glad|è mor|owe ro|dy and | right fayr, Phe|bus al|so cast|ing up | his bemes The high|e hyl|les ʌ | gilt with | his stremes.

(_Story of Thebes_, 1250 _sqq._)

(3, tolerable; 2, ditto, with hiatus at cæsura; 1, last foot missing; 4, "acephalous"; 5, syllable missing at cæsura.)

(_b_) His rhyme-royal:

This is | to sein |--douteth | never | a dele-- That ye | shall have | ʌ ful posses|sion Of him | that ye | ʌ cher|rish now | so wel, In hon|est man|er, without|e offen|cioun, Because | I know|e your | enten|cion Is tru|li set | in par|ti and | in al To loue | him best | and most | in spe|cial.

(_Temple of Glass_, st. 16.)

(_Two_ examples (2 and 3) of the so-called "Lydgatian" missing syllable at cæsura.)

(_c_) A typical minor, John Metham, in _Amoryus and Cleopes_, stanza 1:

The charms | of love | and eke | the peyn | of Amo|ryus | the knyght 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 _six_teener, and three decasyllables, the last very shaky either as that or as an Alexandrine! In fact, sheer doggerel of the unintended kind.)