¹ See G. P. Shannon,“ Nicholas Grimald's Heroic Couplet and the Latin Elegiac distich,” PMLA, xlv (1930). 532–542. My quotations follow the text of Hyder Rollins.

² See C. E. Knowlton, “The origin of the Closed Couplet in English,” The Nation, xcix (July 30, 1914), 134. Professor H. B. Lathrop, of the University of Wisconsin, has pointed out to me also how closely Marlowe's couplets preserve the couplet units of his original.

³ See J.S.P. Tatlock,“The Origin of the Closed Couplet in England,” The Nation, xcviii (April 9, 1914) 390 and A. M. Clark, “Thomas Heywood's Art of Love Lost and Found,” The Library, Fourth Series, iii, 210–222 (Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, Second Series, iii (1923).

⁴ See Knowlton, op. cit.

⁵ See Tatlock, op. cit.,—I do not know of any discussion of the elegiac distich as found in the Greek and Latin and neo-Latin epigrams upon the form of the English epigram in pentameter as a whole, and then more particularly in the work of Ben Jonson, and from his time on through the first half of the seventeenth century. But that influence is obviously very great.

⁶ For valuable tables and comparisons with other poets, see Shannon's article.

⁷ See the articles already cited, especially Shannon's and Tatlock's. Shannon points out, on the distich as a model for the couplet, that half of the hexameters and all the pentameters in the lines from which Grimald translates end in monosyllables or dissyllables, and the pentameter, moreover, gives a strong analogy for the masculine ending.

⁸ In both instances the italicized adjectives are in Grimald's originals, as Shannon notes.

⁹ The importance of certain men and works has been so widely noted, in general terms, in the commentaries, that I cite no individual comments unless they have suggested particular points.

¹⁰ PMLA, xiii (1898), 221–249.

¹¹ Ibid., p. 237.—The article is full of valuable tables and of essential definitions.

¹² Michaeli Draiton, Esquire, Poems, Printed for the Spenser Society (Manchester, 1888), Part i, p. 170.

¹³ Idem.

¹⁴ Idem.

¹⁵ Ibid., p. 178.

¹⁶ Ibid., p. 204.

¹⁷ Paull Franklin Baum, The Principles of English Versification. (Cambridge, 1924), pp. 18–19.—As Professor Scheilling reminds me, syncopation as used by Mr. Baum is not syncopation in the strict musical sense; and I shall, accordingly, in referring to this aspect of verse use the term counter-pattern or secondary-pattern.

¹⁸ For example: Wherefore do I assume

These royalties, ‖ and not refuse to reign,

Refusing to accept as great a share

Of hazard as of honour, due alike

To him who reigns, ‖ and so much to him due

Of hazard more, ‖ as he above the rest

High honour'd sits? ‖ Go therefor mighty Powers,

Terror of Heav'n, ‖ though fall'n; ‖ intend at home,

While here shall be our home, ‖ what best may ease

The present misery, ‖ and render Hell

More Tolerable: ‖ (P.L. 2, 450 et seq.)

Johannes C. Andersen, The Laws of Verse (Cambridge, 1928), p. 122.

¹⁹ Op. cit., p. 198.

²⁰ Any previous study that I have seen has merely noted the statement of Waller and referred to the epigrammatic nature of some of Fairfax's concluding couplets.

²¹ Edward Fairfax, Jerusalem Delivered, ed. Henry Morley, Revised edition (London, n.d.) p. 17.

²² Ibid., p. 3.

²³ For so general a comparison as this, the question of variations in Tasso's text and of the relation of Fairfax's work to them seems unimportant.

²⁴ Torquato Tasso Gerusalemme Liberata (Opere, v. 2) a cura di Luigi Bontigli (Bari, 1930), Canto i, stz. 22, p. 6.

²⁵ Fairfax, Jerusalem Delivered, Canto i, stz. 22, p. 6.

²⁶ Tasso, Canto i, stz. 26, l. 3.

²⁷ Ibid., Canto i, stz. 50, l. 6.

²⁸ Ibid., Canto i, stz. 53, l. 6.

²⁹ Fairfax, Canto i, stz. 26, l. 3.

³⁰ Ibid., Canto i, stz., 50, l. 6.

³¹ Ibid., Canto i, stz. 53, l. 6.

³² Tasso and Fairfax, Canto i, stz. 42, l. 5.

³³ Ibid., Canto i, stz. 45. ll. 3–4.

³⁴ Ibid., Canto i, stz. 64, ll. 6–8.

³⁵ See p. 179.

³⁶ Fairfax, Canto i, stz. 12, l. 6.

³⁷ Ibid., stz. 16, l. 6.

³⁸ Ibid, stz. 35, l. 8.

³⁹ Ibid., stz. 60, l. 8.

⁴⁰ Ibid., stz. 42, l. 6.

⁴¹ Ibid., stz. 45, l. 4.

⁴² Ibid., stz. 50, l. 6.

⁴³ See the whole seventeenth-century discussion of the theory of paraphrase in translation and the many works which are distinctly conceived of and titled paraphrases.

⁴⁴ G. de Saluste, Sr. Du Bartas, Les Œvvres Poetiques et Chrestiennes, (à Geneve; m. dc. xxxii.), p. 31.

⁴⁵ Du Bartas. His Devine Weekes and Workes Translated: … by Joshua Sylvester. Now thirdly corrected and augm. (London, 1611), p. 24.

⁴⁶ Torquato Tasso, Le Rime, a cura di Angelo Solerti (Bologna, 1898), ii, 439.

⁴⁷ William Drummond of Hawthornden, The Poetical Works, with a Cypresse Grove, ed. L. E. Kastner (Edinburgh and London, 1913), i, 30.

⁴⁸ Giambattista Marino, Poesie Varie, a cura di Benedetto Croce (Bari, 1913), p. 104.

⁴⁹ Drummond, op. cit., i, 7.—I have considered the effects of these tendencies in the work of Drummond in an article on Drummond of Hawthomden, PMLA, xxviii, 1090–1107.

⁵⁰ Quoted by Professor Schelling from Discoveries, ed. Schelling, p. 28.

⁵¹ Ben Jonson, Poems (London, 1910), p. 294.—Italics in quotation are mine.

⁵² Ibid., p. 398.

⁵³ On the dates of Sandys's Ovid, see George Sandys, The Poetical Works, with an Introduction and Notes by the Rev. Richard Hooper (London, 1872) i, xxvii.

⁵⁴ Ibid., Introduction, p. xxxiv.

⁵⁵ Edmund Waller, The Poems, ed. G. Thorn Drury (London, n.d.), Intro, p. lxxiv.

⁵⁶ Henry Wood, “The Beginning of the Classical Heroic Couplet,” AJP, xi (1890), 554–579.

⁵⁷ Raymond M. Alden, English Verse (New York) 1903, p. 187.

⁵⁸ Ovid, Metamorphoses, with an English Translation by Frank Justus Miller (London and New York, 1916), Book i, ll. 57–62, 6.

⁵⁹ Ovid's Metamorphosis. Englished Mythologiz'd and Represented in figures by G. S. (Oxford, 1632), p. 3.—The italics are mine.

⁶⁰ Ovid, op. cit., ll. 40–43, p. 4.

⁶¹ Sandys, op. cit., p. 3.

⁶² Ovid, op. cit., ll. 17–20. p. 2.

⁶³ Sandys, op. cit., p. 3.

⁶⁴ Ovid, op. cit., ll. 11–12, p. 2.

⁶⁵ Sandys, op. cit., p. 3.—Italics mine.

⁶⁶ Ovid, op. cit., p. 4.—Italics and figures mine.

⁶⁷ Sandys, op. cit., p. 3.—Italics mine.

⁶⁸ Ovid, op. cit., ll. 34–35, p. 4.

⁶⁹ Sandys, op. cit., p. 3.

⁷⁰ Ovid, op. cit., ll. 452–453, 456–457, 464–465, 488–489, pp. 34 and 36.

⁷¹ Sandys, op. cit., pp. 10–11.

⁷² Ibid., p. 3.

⁷³ Sandys, ed. Hooper, Vol. i, A Paraphrase upon Job, Chap. ii, p. 2.

⁷⁴ Idem. Italics in these quotations mine.

⁷⁵ Idem.

⁷⁶ Ibid., Chap, ii, p. 6.

⁷⁷ Ibid., Chap, iii, p. 8.

⁷⁸ Ibid., Chap i, p. 1.

⁷⁹ Ibid., p. 2.—The double-adjective-substantive line is in itself no new thing; indeed it is common in Spenser. It is differentiated here, however, both by substance and form. Spenser's adjectives are either directly sensuous adjectives or qualifying adjectives of sentiment, in either case wrought into his picture as a whole. These adjectives, on the other hand, incline to become words of intellectual or sententious definition, or in some cases hardly more than empty adjectives or fillers. And on the formal side, the end-stopped line, and even more when it is joined with the medial cæsura, throws them into a perspective and gives them an insistent balance which they did not have in the run-on line of Spenser.

⁸⁰ Ibid., p. 1.

⁸¹ Idem.

⁸² Sandys, Ovid, etc., “A Panegyricke to the King.”

⁸³ Falkland, “ To my noble Friend, Ms. George Sandys, upon his Excellent Paraphrase of the Psalms,” in Sandys, ed. Hooper, i, 83–87.

⁸⁴ Falkland, “To the Author,” in Sandys, ed. Hooper, ii, 412–415.

⁸⁵ Falkland, “To My Noble Friend, Mr. George Sandys,” Ibid., i, 83–87.

⁸⁶ Idem.

⁸⁷ Idem.

⁸⁸ Idem.

⁸⁹ Idem.

⁹⁰ “To my noble Friend Mr. Sandys, Upon His Job …,” in Sandys, ed. Hooper, pp. lxxxv–lxxxviii.

⁹¹ Henry King, “To My Much Honoured Friend Mr. George Sandys,” ibid., pp. xc–xciv.

⁹² Francis Wiatt, “To My Honoured Kinsman Mr. George Sandys, On His Admirable Paraphrases.” ibid., pp. c–ciii.

⁹³ Waller's lines to Sandys are in lyric measure and so they must not be compared with the others. But in neat rhetoric, succinctness, and strong rhymes they surpass all the others except Falkland, and in smoothness they excell him. Obviously in making a study of this sort, we must keep to the body of material which can be defined in common terms, namely, poems in pentameter in two line units. But we have seen how much the development of the special and distinctive music of the closed couplet depends upon the formation of a rhetoric lucid in expression, and of a verse-system even in texture, and one which uses small elements as the basic units of its design. The lyric measures of Ben Jonson, Waller, and Sandys may well have been as influential upon the metrics of their successors as were their couplets. We can here only suggest that a study of this lyric verse must form part of any complete history of the heroic couplet in the seventeenth century.

⁹⁴ On this point of flexible syllabization, see the anonymous preface to the edition of 1690 conveniently available in Alden's English Verse. See also the discussion of this preface by Canon Beeching in“A Note upon Waller's Distich” in An English Miscellany Presented to Dr. Furnival (Oxford, 1901), pp. 4–9. Waller has, in fact, fewer monosyllables than Spenser, but much less variation as to syllabization in successive lines.

⁹⁵ Waller, op. cit., i, 2, 4, “Of the Danger … ”ll. 15–18; 40; 72; 78.

⁹⁶ Ibid., i, 18, “Upon His Majesty's repairing of Paul's,” i. 56.

⁹⁷ Ibid., i, 2–5, “Of the Danger,” ll. 34; 62; 88; 101. Italics mine.

⁹⁸ Ibid., i, 64, “At Penshurst,” ll. 1–8.—If the reader wishes to see both how far formalization had progressed, and how purely formal Waller is, he may compare this with Grimald's “The Lover asketh pardon of his dere …” from Beza (Tottel, ed. Rollins, i, 94), which may have been in Waller's memory.

⁹⁹ Waller, op. cit., i, 66 ff.

¹⁰⁰ Ibid., l. 12.

¹⁰¹ Waller, op. cit., i, 10, “A Panegyric to My Lord Protector,” ll. 13–16.

¹⁰ John Denham, Poetical Works, ed. T. H. Banks Jr., (New Haven, 1928), p. 35.

¹⁰³ Ibid., pp. 43–44.

¹⁰⁴ Ibid., p. 52.

¹⁰⁵ Ibid., p. 153–154.

¹⁰⁶ Ibid., pp. 63–87.

¹⁰⁷ Compare this with the examples of counter-pattern from Milton and Chaucer ante p. 171 and note 11.

¹⁰⁸ This M. LL. is Martin Lluelyn. His volume contains among other things, ranging from comic folksongs to religious lyrics, a number of occasional poems and elegies. Of these the majority of the occasional poems and all the elegies are in closed couplets. It is not remarkable poetry—not at all Lluelyn's greatest—but it is firm and clear-cut in movement, and it takes the classical couplet for granted.

¹⁰⁹ Lluelyn, op. cit., p. 122.—Italics in the original.

¹¹⁰ Ibid., p. 126.—Italics in the original.

¹¹¹ Ibid., sig. A 5 verso.—Italics in the original.