y a caftra at the eighth fyllable. Secondly, the exandrine metre (59), confiiting of not more than en fyllables, as the commoneft fort of verje then in ufe. It may e proper to obferve that the metre which Gafcoigne calls a erie of fourteen fyllables is exactly the fame with what is callit above a verse of fifrcen fyllables, juft as the French alexanrine may be compofed indifferently of twelve or thirteen fylables, and the Italian hendecafyllable of ten, cleven, or even welve. The generalruje in all these kinds of verse is, that when they confift of the greater number of fyllables the fuperfluous fyllables, as they may be called, are never accented. (59) Robert' of Brunne, in his tranflation of Peter of Langtoft, feems to have used the alexandrine verfe in imitation of his original; bat his metre (at least in Hearne's copy) is frequently defective, especially in the latter part of his work, where he affects to rhyme at the cæfura as well as at the end of his verfe.―――The alexandrine metre is generally agreed to liave been firft ufed in the Roman d'Alexandre, by Lambert li Cors and Alexandre de Bernay, toward the latter end of the 12th century. [Du Verdier, Bibl. p. 780, Fauchet, 1. ii.] A late French antiquary (M. L'Eveque de la Ravaliere) in his hiftory Das Revolutions de la Langue Francoife, p. 165, has combated this opinion upon the authority of fome alexandrine verfes which he has difcovered, as he fuppofes, in the Roman de Rou i thall only obferve that no fuch verfes are to be found in a very good mf. of the Roman de Rou, [Bib. Reg. 4. C. xi,] and I very much fufpec that upon an accurate examination they will appear to have been not the work of Wace, but of fome later author. A fimilar millake of au interpolation or continuation for the original work has led another very able antiquary of the fame nation to place the Roman de Rou in the 14th century. [Mem. de l'Acad. des I. 5 B. L. tom. xv. p. 582.] There can be no doubt that Wace wrote the Roman de Rou about the middle of the 12th century. See before, n. 47.They who attend only to the length of the alexandrine verfe will naturally derive it from the trimeter iambick rythms which were in frequent ule in the beginning of the 12th century; Face Onderic. Pind. 1. ¡i. p. 494, 409, 410, 415, et al.] but thirteen fyllables nor less than twelve, with a cæfurt at the fixth. Thirdly, the octofyllable metre, which was in reality the ancient dimeter iambick. Fourthly, the ftanza of fix verfes, of which the firft, fecond, fourth, and fifth, were in the complete octofyllable metre, and the third and laft catalectick, i. e. wanting a fyllable, or even two. $ 8. In the firft of thefe metres it does not appear that Chaucer ever compofed at all, (for I prefume no one can imagine that he was the author of Gamelyn) or in the fecond; and in the fourth we have nothing of his but the Rhyme of Sire Thopas, which being intended to ridicule the vulgar romancers, feems to have been purpofely written in their favourite metre. In the third, or octofyllable metre (60), he has left several compositions, particularly an when it is confulered that the cæfura at the fixth fyllable, fo effential to the alexandrine metre, was hardly ever obferved in the trimeter iambick, it will feem more probable, I think, that the inventor of the alexandrine took for his model what has been called above the long iambick, but for fome reafon or other retrenched a foot or two fyllables in the firft hemistick. (60) Though I call this the octofyllable metre, from what I apprehend to have been its original form, it often confifts of nine and fometimes of ten fyllables, but the eighth is always the laft accented fyllable.-The oldest French poems, to the latter end of the 12th century, are all in this metre ; but upon the invention of the alexandrine the octofyllable verse seems by degrees to have been confined to the feveral species of lighter compofitions, in which it is ftill ufed. Here in England Robert of Brunne, in his Preface to his tranflation of Le Brut, [App. to Pref. to Peter Langtoft, p. 100,] calls it light rime, in contradiftinction to firange rime, of which he has just enume rated feveral forts, [fee n. 56,] and fays that he wrote in it for luf of the lowed man :` and Chaucer himself speaks of it in nearly the fame terms in the beginning of the third book of 'The Houfe of Fame; mperfe& trariflation of the Roman de la Rofe, which was probably one of his earliest performances, The God of fcience and of light, Though fome veríe fayle in a fyllable. The learned editor of a part of The Canterbury Tales [Lon don 1737, 3ve,] has quoted this paffage [Pref. p. 25,] as proj ving, by Chaucer's own confeffion, 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 alfo that he knew well what the laws of meafure were, and that he thought that any deviation from them required an apology. Is it just to conclude, becaufe Chaucer has owned a neglect of thofe laws in one work, written in light metre, and in which he formally disclaims any exertion of art, Ever. 4, 5, that therefore he has been equally negligent of them in his other works, written in the graveft metre, and in which he may reasonably be fuppofed to have employed his utmoft skill of Verfification? In the Troilus, for inftance, [b.v.] he has a folemn prayer that none mifwrite or mifmetre his book: can we fuppofe that it was not originally written in metre? But Fall not enter any farther into the general argument concerting Chaucer's Verification, which will more properly be difcuffed in the text: my bufinefs here was only to prevent the reader from coming to the queRion with a preconceived opinion (upon the authority of the learned editor above-mentioned) that "Chaucer himself," in this paffage of The Houfe of Fame," has put the matter out of difpute." -To return again to the ofofyllable metre. Its conftitution is fuch, that the first fyllable may often be dropped without much prejudice to the harmony of the verfe, and as far as I have obferved that is the fyllable in which Chaucer's verses of this kind generally fail. We have an instance in the first line of the paffage quoted above Houfe of Fame, The Dethe of the Ducheffe Blanche, and a poem called his Dreme; upon all which it wilb be fufficient here to obferve in general, that if he had given no other proofs of his poetical faculty thefe alone must have fecured to him the preeminence above all his predeceffors and contemporaries in point of Verfification. $9. But by far the moft confiderable part of Chaucer's Works is written in that kind of metre which we now call the Heroick (61), either in diftichs er Atanzas; God of science and of light founds as well (to my ear at leaft) as Thou God of fcience and of light according to Mr. Urry's correction. The reafon, I apprehend, is, that the measure though of another fort is ftill regular; inftead of a dimeter iambick it is a dimeter trochaick catelectick. But no fuch liberty can be taken in the heroick metre without totally deftroying its harmony, and therefore when the above-mentioned learned editor fays [Pref. p. 26,] that the numbers of Chaucer are always mufical, whether they "want or exceed their complement," I doubt his partiality for his author has carried him too far. I have no conception myfelf that an heroick verfe, which wants a fyllable of its complement, can be mufical or even tolerable. The line which he has quoted from The Knighte's Tale, [ver.1228, of this edit.} Not in purgatory but in hellc however you manage it, (whether you make a paufe, or give two times to the first fyllable, as he rather advises)- can never pats for a verie of any form, ner did Chancer intend that it thould; he wrote (according to the best mfl.) Not only in purgatory but in helle (61) The heroick metre with us, as with the Italians, is of the lambick form, and confifs of ten, eleven, or twelve, fyllables, the tenth however being in all cafes the laft accented fyllable. The French have the fame metre, but with them it can and as I have not been able to discover any instance of this metre being used by any English poets before fcarce contain more than eleven fyllables, 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 verfe of twelve fyllables. The extraordinary difficulty of rhyming with three fyllables is a fufficient reafon for excluding it from all works which are written in rhyme, and in blank metre the two unaccented fyllables at the end make the clofe of the verfe heavy and languid. Milton, for the fake of variety of measure, has inferted a very few of these verfes which the Italians call fdruccioli in his heroick poems, but they are more commonly, and I think more properly, employed in dramatick compositions, where a continued statelinefs of numbers is lefs requifite.----The generical name for this metre in Italy is endecafyllabo, and the verfes of ten and twelve fyllables are diftaguished by additions, the former being called endecafyllabo tronco, and the latter endecafyllab fdrucciolo. This proves, I think, that the verfe of eleven.fyllables was the primitive metre, and principally used, as it ftill is, in Italy; and it will appear hereafter, if I am not mistaken, that the greatest part of Chaucer's heroick verses, when properly written and pronounced, are in this measure.-A learned perfon, whofe favours I have already acknowledged in the Gloffary, v. Gore, cannot acquiefce in this notion," that the "greateft part of Chaucer's heroick verfes, when properly "written and pronounced, are verfes of eleven fyllables," and for a proof of the contrary he refers me particularly to The Nonne's Preefte's Tale, ver. 14970, and the verfes following and preceding. I am forry that by an unguarded expression & fhould have expofed myself to a controverty which can only be decided by a careful examination of the final fyllables of between thirty and forty theufand fines. It would answer my purpofe as well to fay a great part, inftead of the greatest pari; but in fupport of my first idea i must be permitted to obferve that I have carefully examined a hundred lines which precede and as many which follow ver. 14970, and Lfind that a clear |