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XIX.—Rhythm and Rime Before the Norman Conquest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

J. W. Rankin
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Extract

The orthodox view regarding the introduction of end rime into English verse is succinctly set forth in the following quotations : “ Endrime, being a stranger to the early Germanic languages, its appearance in any of them may commonly be taken as a sign of foreign influence. In general, of course, rime and the stanza were introduced together into English verse, under the influence of Latin hymns and French lyrics.” “ Die alliterierende Langzeile war die einzige in der ags. Poesie bekannte Versart und blieb in derselben bis zu ende der ersten ags. oder altenglischen Sprachperiode in Gebrauch.” “ The transformation of the O. E. alliterative line into rhyme verse did not take place before the Middle English period. It was due to the influence of the rhymed French and Latin verse.” “ Alliterative verse was remodelled on Latin and French verse—or foreign verses were directly imitated.” The implication is that there never existed in Anglo-Saxon any verse of a form different from that of the five-type alliterative verse which prevails in the corpus of extant Anglo-Saxon poetry.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 1921 , pp. 401 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1921

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References

1 R. M. Alden, English Verse, N. Y., 1903, p. 121.

2 Schipper, Grundriss der Eng. Metrik, p. 54.

3 Kaluza: A Short History of English Versification, tr. by A. C. Dunstan, London, 1911, p. 126.

4 Kaluza: Op. cit., p. 128.

5 F. Kluge, “Zur Geschichte des Reimes,” P. B. B., ix, 444.

6 Kluge, op. cit., p. 449.

7 Cambridge Hist. Eng. Lit., i, 151.

8 Ibid., i, 661.

9 Ibid., i, 468.

10 Wilhelm Grimm, Zur Geschichte des Reims, Königl. Akad. der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1852, p. 179 f.

11 Paul Verrier, Métrique Anglaise, Paris, 1909, ii, p. 165 f.

12 Cf. Verrier, ii, p. 212: “L'homophonie sert à mettre en ***relief le rythme proprement dit, le rythme intensif, dont elle souligne les temps marqués principaux, dont elle aide à signaler la division en vers, en strophes, en poèmes.”

13 Cf. F. M. Warren, P. M. L. A., xxvi, 299.

14 Cf. Pauls Grundr., 2nd ed., ii, 958 ff.

15 Cf. Grundr., ii, 69 f., also 37-43.

16 Cf. Grundr., ii, 973, also 47-50.

17 Grundr., ii, 62 f., also 973 f.

18 Cf. Grundr., ii, 47 f.

19 Verrier, Metrique Anglaise, ii, 163.

20 Verrier, op. cit., ii, 163 n.

21 Verrier, op. cit., p. 164.

22 Bede, Hist. Eccl., iv, cap. 24.

23 I refrain from discussing the mythical, folklore quality of Bede's account and of poetic inspiration through dreams.

24 Cf. Grundr., ii, 974; also Verrier, op. cit., ii, 164.

68 Turning from the latest Anglo-Saxon poems to the earliest in Middle English, may we not say that the Cantus Beati Godrici (ca. 1150) is possibly rather a further recognition of native than an imitation of foreign rhythms:

Sainte Marie, Christes bur,

Maidenes clenhad, moderes flur,

Dilie minne sinne, rix in min mod,

Bring me to winne wiþ self god.

The rhythm would seem to be at least as close to that of the Anglo-Saxon bee charm as to that of the accentual Latin hymns : cf.

Sitte ge, sigewif, sigaþ to eorþan!

Naefre ge wilde to wudu fleogan!

Beo ge swa gemindige mines godes,

Swa biþ manna ***gehwile metes and eþeles.

Moreover, the Cantus Beati Godrici, like the Chronicle poem, is too early to have been influenced by any similar manuscript French poetry, even if such manuscript actually existed at the time.