CHAPTER II. STAVES WITH CONTINUOUS RHIME are to be found in all the older poems of the Welsh and Irish, and were, doubtless, familiar to all the other branches of the great Celtic family. The length of the stave seems to have been chiefly regulated by that of the period; and in some of the Welsh poems (probably written in the sixth century) it varies from three or four to as many as twelve or even fifteen verses. The earlier Romance poems have, in like manner, a continuous rhime, varying at uncertain intervals. For the most part each period has its own peculiar rhime; but, in some poems, the rhime overrides several sentences, and even changes in the midst of a period. These staves of uncertain length were well known to the Romance dialect, which was spoken at the English court during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In some cases, the same rhime is repeated as many as twenty or thirty times—the common endings on, ence, ent, &c. affording great facilities, in heaping together these rhiming terminations. The poems, in which we claim an interest, always, I believe, consist of alexandrines; but the poem on Boethius-the oldest poem in the Romance of Oc, which has come down to us-is written in verses of five accents. Final rhime, when first introduced into English poetry, was sparingly used in detached couplets-the correspondence being confined to the final syllables of the two sections. Occasionally we have four or five of these rhiming couplets occurring together; and, in Conybeare's rhiming poem,* they are often furnished with the same rhime. In some poems, also, written in the metre of four accents (as in the Biblical history, quoted by Warton†) we have the verses rhiming sometimes two, sometimes three, four, five, or even six together. But neither in this, nor in the Anglo-Saxon poem, does the rhime exercise that control over the stops, which is essential to the construction of a well-defined stave. In some of our loose and tumbling Psalm-metres, I think I have met with instances where the rhime was continued through an uncertain number of verses, and, at the same time, governed the punctuation. I have, however, lost my references, and cannot readily call to mind any instance of such a combination. 66 When final rhime was first applied to the Latin rhythmus," staves both of a simple and of a complicated structure had long been familiar. In some of the shorter poems the same rhime was continued from the beginning to the end; but, for the most part, the correspondence between the final syllables varied in each stave. Hence were obtained staves of a definite length, that rhimed continuously, and exercised the requisite control over the punctuation. Many of these staves have been imitated in the modern versification of Europe. The favourite combination of the Iambic Dimeter was the stave of four verses; and its "rhythmus" was often furnished with the continuous rhime. The following hymn, which was probably written at the close of the thirteenth century, was, no doubt, intended as an imitation of such rhiming rhythmus. Its cadence seems to have been a good deal influenced by that of our native rhythms. * See p. 97. + Hist. of Engl. Poetry, vol. i. p. 19. See also Bennet MS. R. 11. Among our tumbling Psalm-metres we often find staves of four verses rhiming continuously. Staves of a like kind were used in several of the Latin " rhythmi;” and, as the flow of our English verses is generally too loose to afford any safe test, it is hard to say on which of these Latin forms the English staves were modelled. The writers of the songs noticed in Chapter VI., seem to have had in their view the rhythmus of Walter Mapes;3 and I suspect this favourite combination was floating before many of our poets, in cases where the looseness of the rhythm does not enable us to trace the imitation. 2 Towards the close of the sixteenth century a stave came into fashion, which consisted of three verses, each of five accents. It kept its popularity nearly a century, but I cannot satisfactorily trace its origin. Ben Jonson has used it more than once. Though you sometimes proclaim me too severe, In friendship, I confess, yet dear friend hear. 1 Harl. 2253. There are fifteen stanzas in all. * See p. 226. 3. See p. 184. Sweet Jesu! king of bliss Mine heart's love, mine heart's joy, Wo is him, that shall miss thee ! Sweet Jesu! mine heart's light, Thou art day, all without night! Sweet Jesu! my Lord! My life; mine heart all is thine, Little know they, that professe amitie And lesse they know, who being free to use That friendship, which no change but love did chuse The affecting elegy, written by Charles, and preserved by Burnet, may furnish us with another specimen. Nature and law by thy divine decree The fiercest furies, that do daily tread Upon my grief, my grey discrowned head, Are those that owe my bountie for their bread, &c. But, sacred Saviour, with thy words I woo Thee to forgive, and not be bitter to Such as, thou knowst, do not know what they do! Augment my patience, nullify my hate, Preserve my issue, and inspire my mate, Yet, though we perish, bless this church and state! The compound staves which rhimed continuously were, for the most part, formed on a very simple plan. Certain verses, varying in number from four to eight, took the same final rhime, and a couplet furnished with a different rhime shut in the stave- -iteration being em Chot aburde in a bour: ase beryl so bryht : Hire rode is ase rose that red is on rys The primerole he passeth: the pereuenke of pris : Coynte ase columbine such hire cunde ys He is blosme opon bleo : brihtest under bis He is papeiai in pin: that beteth me mi bale To trewe tortle in atour: ytelle the mi tale He is faucoun in friht: dernest in dale 1 "Under gore," "in gro and in gris," and "under bize," are common phrases in our old English poems, used for the purposes of generalization— just as the Anglo-Saxon used the phrases, under the heaven, under the welkin, on mold (that is, on earth), and others of the same kind. They show a more artificial state of society, inasmuch as they all refer to articles of |