The Science of English Verse

Front matter

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CHAPTER I. Pacs

INVESTIGATION OF SOUND AS ARTISTIC MATERIAL ‘ 3 5 oH

Verse, a set of sounds and silences with definite relations, 21. Only four such relations possible: duration, intensity, pitch, and tone-color, 24. Physical _ explanation of these, 26. Words depend on tone-color, 3f. The sounds and silences of verse must be such as are not only generally, but exactly, co-ordinable by the ear, 33. Intensity an inexact relation, 39. Thus, three physical principles of classification for all possible phenomena of verse — duration, pitch, and tone-color; whose co-ordinations give, respectively, rhythm, tune, and color in formal poetry, 40. Secondary use of the four relations for grouping sounds, 41. Illustration of sound-groups by sight-groups, 42, Art of sound, a genus, with two species, music and verse, 46. Differentiation of these, 48, by (a) the generic and specific tone-colors of the speaking-voice, 50, and (4) the peculiar scale of tones used by the speaking-voice, 54. The physical principles thus discussed naturally arrange this treatise in three parts, on the Ruytums, the Tunzs, and the Cotors, of English verse, respectively, 58.

PAR SD I.

THE RHYTHMS OF ENGLISH VERSE

Chapter II. Of The Duration And Grouping Of English Verse-sounds . 59

Illustration of verse-sounds, 59. English habit of common utterance gives to all sounds definite and simple relations of time, 60, therefore all English sounds are primarily rhythmic, 62. Clock-ticks, illustration of primary and secondary rhythm, 63. Discussion of time as essential basis of primary rhythm, 6s. Secondary grouping, or the bar, in music and verse, 67. Limitations of Greek and Latin “Quantity,” 68. Means for recognition of rhythmic intent in English, 71. English printed or written words really a partial system of notation for secondary rhythm, 73. The bar a unit of measure for secondary rhythm,

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Pace.

75. Quantity inseparable from English sounds, but determined by different circumstances from classic quantity, 77. Besides the first order of sound-groups, and the second order of sound-groups, thus discussed, English utterance gives a third, and larger, order of sound-groups — the phrase — constituting tertiary rhythm, 78. Illustration of musical phrase, 80. Verse-phrasing, in Hamlet, 81. This kind of rhythmic phrasing marked-off for the ear by a rest; a second kind by alliteration, 83; a third kind by the logical accent, 85+ Difference in nature and function of the rhythmic, from the logical, accent, 86. A fourth, and still larger order of sound-groups, the line, 88. Marked-off for the ear by the rest, 89. Run-on and end-stopped lines, 90, specially in Shakspere, gt. Line-group also marked-off for the ear often by the rhyme, 92, and sometimes by change of pitch, 94. Fifth, and still larger, order of sound-groups — the stanza—and sixth order —the poem,— 94. Synoptical view of these orders, preliminary to the special separate discussions of them, gs.

Chapter III

SPECIAL DISCUSSION OF THE RELATIVE DURATION, OR QUAN- TITY, OF ENGLISH VERSE-SOUNDS, AS CONSTITUTING PRIMARY RHYTHM : . . . 5 5 < : . “ - OF

Errors as to function of accent, and failure to discriminate primary from secondary rhythm, 98. Illustration of difference between recurrence at given numbers, and at given time-intervals, 99. But further: rhythm is as much a matter of silence as of sound: and since accent cannot distinguish one silence from another, it cannot be the basis of rhythm; Tennyson’s verse reduced to musical notation, in illustration hereof, ror. True relation of accent to rhythm, 103. Musical system of noting rhythmic relations explained, 104, and shown to be the only system adequate to note all rhythmic variations in utterance, 107, as capable of accurately expressing those compensatory silences, 100, which preserve a given rhythmic type through all varieties of individual utterance, 110. Methods of initiating rhythm in English verse, rr0. Distribution of time-values, 111, in music and verse, 112. Inadequacy of “ Longs” and “Shorts,” 113. Musical interpretation of Shakspere’s time-distributions, in Measure for Measure, 114. Secret of his melody, 116. Summary of principles as to primary rhythm emerging from the discussions up to this point, 117.

Chapter IV

OF SECONDARY RHYTHM: ITS NATURE AND CAUSES . A = 10

Recurrence of rhythmic accent at regular intervals of time enables the ear to co-ordinate those next-larger groups of sound called bars, the units of secondary rhythm, rr9. Discrimination of rhythmic accent, pronunciation accent, and logical accent, 120. 3-rhythm and 4-rhythm, methods of initiating, ras. Equivocal bars at beginning, 127. Three forms of 3-rhythm, and two forms of 4-rhythm, specialized by long use in English verse, 128. Discussion of 2-rhythm, 5-rhythm, 6-rhythm, and similar forms, 129; Japanese rhythm interpreted musically, 132 (note); illustration of 5-rhythm from Hamerik’s Norse Suite, 134. Complete review of possible forms according to position of rhyth-

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PAGE. mic accent, 135. Common error of confusing number of sounds in the bar with number of time-units in the bar, 136. Complete review of possible forms according to number of sounds and silences in the bar, 137. Determination of typic forms by the sum of appearances, 139. Practical directions for students’ exercises on the matters set forth, 140.

Chapter V

OF 3-RHYTHM, GENERALLY; AND SPECIALLY OF ITS THREE Forms . : : : C 5 4 > 5 6 Sw

Passion of English ear for 3-rhythm, 141. Illustrated by musical interpretations of English rhythms from earliest Anglo-Saxon poetry to the present time, 142. Errors of scholars as to Anglo-Saxon rhythm, 143. Rhythmic alliteration in Anglo-Saxon verse, 145. Pronunciation of letters in illustrative passage, 146. Description of passage, and musical scheme of one hundred bars, from the Anglo-Saxon poem of The Battle of Maldon, 147. Translation of extract, 149. Classification and summary of Anglo-Saxon rhythmic forms, 151. Additional Anglo-Saxon illustrations, musically noted, from Czdmon, 154, Beowulf, 156, The Wanderer, 157, compared with modern rhythms of Swinburne and Morris, 158. Illustrations from The Ormulum, 13th century, 159; The Cuckoo-Song, 13th century, 160; Pzers Plowman, 163. Contrast betweeen Langland’s (Piers Plowman) and Chaucer’s rhythms, 165. Relation of Chaucer and Surrey to blank verse, 166. Musical scheme from The Knight's Tale, 167. Transition from Anglo-Saxon rhythm, through Langland’s, to Chaucer’s, as appearing in the link of Chaucer’s final bars, 168. Final e in Chaucer’s terminal bars, 169. Scheme of The Song of Ever and Never, early 16th or late 15th century, 171. Comparison of double-ending final bars in Hamlet with same in Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, 172. Musical schemes from Keats’s Endymion, Poe’s Raven, Longfellow’s Psalm of Life, and Emerson’s Brahma, 174. Schemes of five English battle-songs, covering twelve centuries, all in same form of 3-rhythm: The Fight at Finnesburg, 175, The Death of Byrhtnoth, 177, Layamon’s Brut, 178, The Ballad of Agincourt, 179, The Charge of the Light Brigade, 182. Special discussion of blank verse, or the modern English heroic rhythmus, 182. Distinct from ancient English heroic rhythmus, 183. Astonishing prevalence of this rhythm in English poetry, 184. Treatment confined to Shakspere’s blank verse, but no less exhaustive; and embraced under Shakspere’s use of (@) the rest, of (4) the run-on and end-stopped line, of (c) the double-ending line, of (d) the weak-ending line, and of (e) the rhythmic accent, 185. Shakspere’s use of the rest, same as in nursery songs, and in the Southern negro’s patting of the Juba dance, 186. Musical illustrations from Mother Goose, 187, Haydn’s Symphony, 188, and Juba, 189. Shakspere’s rests in the body of the line: illustration from Measure for Measure, 190. Method of determining doubtful lines, 191. Such rests aid expression in Shakspere, 193. Errors of commentators in this matter, 194. Discussion of Professor Craik’s remark on Coleridge, 195. Musical scheme from Christabel, 197. Shakspere’s end-stopped and run-on lines: advance from Love’s Labor’s Lost, 198, to The Tempest, 199, shown by respective

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PaGE, percentages of such lines, and caution as to this metrical test, 200. Further references on this subject, for students, 20r. Shakspere’s double-ending, or feminine-ending, lines, 202, applied to test Hexxy VJI/I, as between Shakspere’s and Fletcher’s parts, 204. Musical interpretation of Fletcher’s double endings, 206, which are often really Alexandrines, 208, greatly different from Shakspere’s double endings, 209. Definition of weak-ending and light-ending lines, and Shakspere’s advance in the use of them from early to late plays, 211, Shakspere’s peculiar management of the rhythmic accent, 212, and advance, in late plays, towards prose-rhythms, 213, preserving the rhythmic type through infinite variation, 214. Statement of principles as to rhythmic accent in Shakspere, 214, and application of these to interpreting rhythm of passage from The Tempest, 215, showing Shakspere’s three habitual methods of varying the rhythmic accent, 217. (1) Lines beginning with rests, used also by Chaucer, 217; and particularly suitable after run-on lines, 219. (2) Rests changing places with sounds in the line and thus shifting accent, 220. (3) Prolonging sound into the next bar, to shift accent, 222. Extension of these methods to classic prosody, 223. Webbe, Gascoigne and King James, on the iambus, 16th century, 224.

CHAP TE RaaViL-

OF 4-RHYTHM, GENERALLY; AND SPECIALLY OF ITs Two ForMS 225

Scheme of Hame Came my Gude Man, classic dactyls and spondees, 225. Logacedic dactyl, 226. Dactyl and spondee in Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, 227. Scheme of Jean Ingelow’s Lzke a Laverock, 228. Comic 4rhythm, 229. Anacrusis, 229. 4-rhythm in Pinafore, 231. Scheme of A Slain Love, 232.

CHAPTER VII. OF THE THIRD AND FourRTH ORDERS OF RHYTHMIC GROUPING 233

Phrase-group, logical group, alliterative group, matters of individuality, 234. No law given for third-order groups, 234. Fourth-order groups, the line; number of bars to the line in English verse, 234. System of nomenclature proposed, 235. Obliteration of the line-group in Shakspere, 235. Rhythmic function of rhyme, in marking-off the line-group, 236. Orm, 13th century, uses “‘ Rime” for rhythm, 237. 16th century terms for special sorts of lines: “ Poulter’s Measure,” 237, “ Riding Rhyme,” “ Metre Heroical,” “ Rhythm Royal,” 238.

Chapter VIII. Of The Fifth Order Of Rhythmic Groups: The Stanza 239

Various forms of stanza according to number of lines, 239. This number without limitation in English verse, 240. But one specialized stanza, the sonnet, 240. Special discussion of the Italian, or legitimate, sonnet, 241, and the English, or illegitimate, sonnet, 243. Personal character of sonnet in English poetry, 243. English sonnet-makers since Surrey and Wyatt, 244. Shak-

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PacE. spere’s sonnets, 244 (and see also, 278, 279). Confused notions among the Elizabethans about the sonnet, 245. Leigh Hunt’s Book of the Sonnet; no good collection of English sonnets yet printed, 245.

CHAPTER TX.

OF RHYTHM THROUGHOUT ALL THOSE MOTIONS WHICH WE CALL NATURE ‘ 5 : : : 5 : A 5 5 . 246

Rudest nations have instruments for marking-off rhythms, 246. Earliest form of rhythmic apparatus, in Southern negro’s “ patting,” 247. Rhythm perhaps a universal principle throughout physical nature: Herbert Spencer’s generalization, 248. Rhythmic diseases, 248. Poe’s rhythmic simile in Zureka, 249. Puttenham’s remark, 249. Antagonism, the essential principle of rhythm in physical world; extension of this to moral world, 250.

PARES Le

THE TUNES OF ENGLISH VERSE,

CHAPTER X. Or TUNE IN SPEECH: ITS NATURE AND OFFICE . . . 251

Speech-melodies necessary to ordinary communication; every feeling has its tune, 252. Not only this, but the same words differ in meaning according to the tune of their utterance, 252. Precise discrimination of melody, harmony, and rhythm; words often vaguely used, 253. Speech-tunes in the German comedy, Come Here, 254. Absence of speech-tunes has one of two effects, (x) idiotic, 256, or (2) unnatural, 257. Effect of consciously co-ordinating the tunes we hear in every-day speech, 258. ‘The clown’s speech-melodies in All’s Well that Ends Well, 258. Slander, by repeating right words in wrong tunes, 259. Other illustrations of subtle tunes of speech, 260, The modern ‘ reading,” as Charlotte Cushman’s, an art now rising, based on speech-tunes, 261. Historic outline, showing the differentiation of the speech-tune from the music-tune, 262. Relations of these two in antique period, 265. Greek musical declamation, first phase of differentiating process, 266. Clew of the fourth, 266. Medizval period: polyphonic music; discant; 268. Modern period: accompanied recitative in the early 17th century, 269. Final differentiation of the symphony, as opposed to the speech-tune, 270, Natural to expect the separation just at this present time, 271. Possible development in this direction, 271. Nature of speech-tunes; why musical system is inadequate to note them, 272. Speech-tunes employ intervals less than half-tones, 273. Power of the average ear to discriminate small intervals, 274. Capacity of the ear for education in this particular, 275. Notation of speech-recitative in negro sermon, 276. Contrast with speech-tunes of Drayton’s sonnet, Vo and I, 277. Speech-tunes of Shakspere’s sonnets, 278.

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CHAPTER XI. Pace

OF CoLors IN VERSE, GENERALLY; AND OF RHYME, SPECIALLY.

Vowels and consonants phenomena of tone-color, 280. Term “colors of verse” strictly scientific, not fanciful, 28x. Curious coincidence in King James and Webbe, 282. Four species of verse-color herein treated, rhyme, vowel-distribution, consonant-distribution, and alliteration, 283. Precise definition of English rhyme, 284. Historic outline of rhyme in English verse; Anglo-Saxon rhymes, 285. The Anglo-Saxon “ rhyming poem,” 286 (note), Aldhelm’s Latin rhymes, 289. Rhymes in The Ormulum : references for students, 293. Parties for and against rhyme in 16th century; the Areopagus, 293. Puttenham, Webbe, Ascham, Ben Jonson, Greene, on rhyme, 294. Rhyme-test for chronology of Shakspere’s plays, 295. Several cautions as to use of rhyme in English verse, 296. Must contain reason, 297; must be absolutely perfect, 297; not too far apart, 299; not finical, 299; not near shades of tone-color, 300; sonorous and dignified tone-colors, 301.

CHAPTER XII. DISTRIBUTION OF VOWEL-COLORS IN THE LINE-GROUP. : a

Exaggerated instance of iterant tone-color, 302. Examples from Daniel, 303, and Bartholomew Griffin, 304.

CHAPTER XIII. OF CoNSONANT-DISTRIBUTION : JUNCTION, AND PHONETIC Syzycy

Junction of terminal and initial consonants, 7 with 7, gwith 3, s¢ with st, &c., 305. Phonetic syzygy, 306.

CHAPTER XIV. OF ALLITERATION : 2 A 5 a 6 é i

Different rhythmic function of alliteration in Anglo-Saxon poetry from that in modern English, 310 (see also page 84). Example of modern use of alliteration to vary rhythm, from Watson’s Hekatompatheta, 311. Parties for and against it in 16th century; Greene’s and Shakspere’s jokes on it, 312. Errors of Turner and Tyrwhitt as to Anglo-Saxon allitzration, 313. Warning against “loud” alliteration.

Chapter XV. Of The Educated Love Of Beauty, As The Artist’s Only Law

Matters herein treated, only hints; no law for the artist but beauty; the appeal is to the ear; and the touch-stone is music, 315.

SCIENCE OF ENGLISH VERSE.