Xxvi. The Stopped Heroic Couplet (1580-1660)

(_a_) Spenser (_Mother Hubberd's Tale_), _v. sup._ p. 62.

(_b_) Drayton (_Heroical Epistles_, "Suffolk to Margaret"):

We all do breathe upon this earthly ball, Likewise one Heav'n encompasseth us all; No banishment can be to us assigned Who doth retain a true resolved mind; Man in himself a little world doth bear, His soul the monarch ever ruling there; Wherever then his body doth remain He is a king that in himself doth reign.

(Here all the characteristics of the eighteenth-century couplet may be found--the central cæsura or split, the balance of the two halves, the completion of sense in the couplet and almost in the line.)

(_c_) Fairfax (end couplets):

If fictious light I mix with Truth Divine And fill these lines with other praise than Thine. (i. 2.)

We further seek what their offences be: Guiltless I quit; guilty I set them free. (ii. 5.)

Thro' love the hazard of fierce war to prove, Famous for arms, but famous more for love. (iii. 40.)

In fashions wayward, and in love unkind, For Cupid deigns not wound a currish mind. (iv. 46.)

(Observe here the tendency, not merely to balance, but to positive antithesis, in the halves.)

(_d_) Beaumont, Sir John:

The relish of the Muse consists in rhyme: One verse must meet another like a chime. Our Saxon shortness hath peculiar grace In choice of words fit for the ending-place, Which leave impression in the mind as well As closing sounds of some delightful bell.

(_e_) Sandys.

Compare the openings of _Job_ I. and II.:

In Hus, a land which near the sun's uprise And northern confines of Sabæa lies, A great example of perfection reigned, His name was Job, his soul with guilt unstained.

* * * * *

Again when all the radiant sons of light Before His throne appeared, Whose only sight Beatitude infused; the Inveterate Foe, In fogs ascending from the depth below, Profaned their blest assembly.

(_f_) Waller:

With the sweet sound of this harmonious lay About the keel delighted dolphins play; Too sure a sign of sea's ensuing rage Which must anon this royal troop engage; To whom soft sleep seems more secure and sweet Within the town commanded by our fleet.

(_g_) Cowley (_Davideis_):

Lo! with pure hands thy heavenly fire to take, My well-chang'd muse I a pure vestal make. From Earth's vain joys and Love's soft witchcraft free, I consecrate my Magdalene to thee. Lo, this great work, a temple to thy praise On polish'd pillars of strong verse I raise-- A temple where if thou vouchsafe to dwell It Solomon's and Herod's shall excel.

(It should be observed on these that in Beaumont, Sandys I., Waller, and Cowley the separation of the couplets is strictly maintained; in Sandys II. not. In fact, this passage, but for the rhymes, has almost the run of Miltonic blank verse. Waller once approaches an initial trochee or "inversion of accent" in "With the." Here Cowley is pretty regular. But not far off may be found such a line as--

Themselves at first against themselves _they excite_;

where he must either have intended "they-ex-" to be elided or have meant an anapæstic ending of the kind so common in the dramatists his contemporaries. And he constantly uses (explicitly defending it) the Alexandrine, as in--

Like some | fair pine | o'erlook|ing all | th' igno|bler wood,

or--

Which runs, | and, as | it runs, | for ev|er shall | run on;

while he often employs trochees or spondees. He does not use the triplet in the _Davideis_, but does elsewhere, and, after Virgil, he sometimes indulges in half-lines.)

XXVII. VARIOUS FORMS OF OCTOSYLLABLE-HEPTASYLLABLE (LATE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURY)

(_a_) Shakespeare (doubtfully?):

(1) King Pan|dion | he is | dead, All thy | friends are | lapped in | lead.

(2) Let | the bird | of loud|est lay On | the sole | Ara|bian tree.

(These distichs from the _Passionate Pilgrim_ will illustrate the two different forms which the heptasyllable--really an octosyllable acephalous or catalectic--can take. The catalectic form (1) becomes trochaic; the acephalous (2), iambic. They can be interchanged, and either can group with the full iambic dimeter; but, _individually_, it would spoil (1) to scan it as iambic, (2) to scan it as trochaic. Yet on "accentual" scansion there is no difference; and some advocates of recent fancy "stress"-systems maintain that the rhythms are identical!)

(_b_) Shakespeare (almost certainly):

The cat | with eyne |of burn|ing coal Now couch|es 'fore | the mou|se's hole, And crick|ets sing | at the ov|en's mouth As | the ¦ blith|er ¦ from | their ¦ drouth.

(In this famous and eminently Shakespearian passage from _Pericles_, the last line, a heptasyllable, goes perfectly with the rest, or octosyllables, either as acephalous or as catalectic, either as an iambic fellow or a trochaic substitute.)

(_c_) Shakespeare (certainly):

And we fairies, that do run By the trìple Hecate's team, From the presence of the sun Follow¦ing | dark¦ness | like a dream, Now are frolic: not a mouse Shall disturb this hallowed house: I am sent with broom before, To sweep the dust behind the door.

(From _A Midsummer Night's Dream_. Same as last, except that the full octosyllable is only reached at the end, and perhaps in line 4. "Hecat[e]," as often, is dissyllabic.)

(_d_) Browne, W.:

Be ev|er fresh! | Let no | man dare To spoil | thy fish, | make lock | or wear, But on | thy mar|gent still | let dwell, Those flowers | which have | the sweet|est smell, And let | the dust | upon | thy strand Become, | like Ta|gus, gold|en sand. Let as | much good | betide | to thee As thou | hast fa|vour showed | to me.

(Pure octosyllables. There is a catalectic line now and then elsewhere, but it is an evident exception.)

(_e_) Wither:

For | in ¦ her | a ¦ grace |there ¦ shines, That o'er-daring thoughts confines, Making worthless men despair To be loved of one so fair. Yea, the Destinies agree, Some good judgments blind should be, And not gain the power of knowing Those rare beauties in her growing.

(Pure heptasyllables, taking either cadence, and, when extended, owing the extension mainly, if not wholly, to the double rhyme. The first line gives the alternative scansion; but Wither's run is, on the whole, trochaic, as Browne's is iambic.)

XXVIII. "COMMON," "LONG," AND "IN MEMORIAM" MEASURE (SEVENTEENTH CENTURY)

(_a_) See above, § XXIII., for "Drink to me only."

(_b_) Donne(?), Ayton(?), Anon.(?), (C.M.):

Thou sent'st | me late | a heart | was crowned, I took | it to | be thine; But when | I saw | it had | a wound, I knew | that heart | was mine.

A boun|ty of | a strange | conceit! To send | mine own | to me, And send | it in | a worse | estate Than when | it came | to thee.

(A capital example of the possibility of rhetorical _addition_ to the strict foot-system, as in line 2, "I took it || to be thine." For "conc_ay_t" and "estate" _cf. sup._ § XXV. _sub fin._)

(_c_) Herrick (C.M.):

Bid me | to live | and I | will live Thy Pro|testant | to be; Or bid | me love, | and I | will give A lov|ing heart to | thee.

(Strongly flavoured, and greatly improved, by trochaic substitution in first foot.)

(_d_) Marvell (L.M.):

My love | is of | a birth | as rare As 'tis | for ob|ject, strange | and high-- It was | begot|ten of | Despair Upon | Impos|sibil|ity.

(_e_) Lord Herbert of Cherbury (_In Memoriam_ metre):

For whose | affec|tion once | is shown, No long|er can | the world | beguile; Who sees | his pen|ance all | the while He holds | a torch | to make | her known.

(Great regularity of feet; but already the "circular" motion which Tennyson was to perfect.)