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Riverside Versification [in The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry D. Benson (3rd ed.) (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987)] xlii INTRODUCTION gon henne (Tr 3.630). In some phrases the infini- with inversion of verb and subject, as Al speke he tive has a passive sense: to blame (Tales 1.3710), never so rudeliche (1.734), Al were he short to preyse (VI.42), to drede (VI1.3063 ),jor to chese (111.624), or in other ways such as hou soore that (Tr 2.470). This is related to the use of the me smerte (1.1394), wher-so she wepe or synge inherited "inflected infinitive" in ye woot what is (11.294). In all these the verb is usually subjunc- to doone (what is to be done; Tales 111.2194). A tive, but not invariably: e.g., Though in this toun concessive use of the jor to infinitive appears in is noon apothecarie (VII.2948), what so any wom- places like for to dyen in the peyne (though we man seith (VII.2912). were to die under torture; 1.1133), For to be deed (even if I were to die; IV.364). In sentences Negation The primary negative adverb is ne, expressing the terms of an agreement the infini- placed before the verb (or incorporated in it in tive often accompanies a nominative pronoun: those contracted forms noted above in the de- Andye, my lord, to doon right as yow leste (IV.105). scription ofverb forms, p. xxxviii), which is suffi- The subjunctive in main clauses may express cient to mark a sentence as negative: she ne wiste wish, as God yelde yow (may God reward you; what it signyfied (1.2343), I noot how men hym calle Tales 111.2177), an imperative ofthe first person (1.284). It is very often reinforced by another plural, as go we se (Tr 2.615), and concession, as negative, most frequently nat or nought: he ne Bityde what bityde (Tales VII.874), Be as be may le/ie nat (1.492), Ne studieth noght (1.841). Nat or (VII.2129). It is used in the apodosis (main nought alone, following the verb, may also clause) of a hypothetical conditional sentence: suffice, as in His arwes drouped noght (1.107), It is A clerk hadde litherly biset his whyle (a scholar nat honest; it may nat avaunce (1.246); exception- would have wasted his time; 1.3299). In depend- ally, it precedes the finite verb, as in Nat greveth ent clauses it is largely concerned with condition us youre glorie (1.91 7), Ye felen wei yourese/f that I or hypothesis, as ifgold ruste (1.500), ifthou telle nought lye (Tr 2.1283). Sometimes a series of it (1.3505), and especially in the frequent tag if words in a passage, pronouns as well as adverbs, so be / were, with a subordinate clause also using may all be given negative forms: He nevere yet no a subjunctive: if so be that thou my lady wynne vileynye ne sayde / unto no maner wight (Tales (1.161 7). It extends naturally to the negative 1.70-71). condition in clauses introduced by but if (un- less)-Who may been afool but ifhe love? (1.1799), Interrogation A pOSItive sentence is normally and the unfulfilled condition expressed by the converted into a question by inversion of verb past subjunctive nere (were [it] not), as Nere myn and subject: Wostow that wei? (Tr 1.775), se ye extorcioun (if it were not for my extortion; nought? (2.1465). When the question concerns 111.1439). Inversion of verb and subject, as in two alternatives, the interrogative may be inten- this example, often expresses condition: Had sified by beginning the sentence with the pro- thou nat toold (VII.2053), konne he letterure or noun whether, as Wheither seistow this in ernest or konne he noon (VIII.846). The subjunctive is fur- in pley? (Tales 1.1125). After interrogative ther used in hypothetical comparison, for in- words such as why, or what as object, inversion stance, As though he stongen were (as though he is also normal: Whycridestow? (1.1083), What do had been stabbed; 1.1079); it may express pur- ye? (1.3437), how thynke ye? (111.2204). pose, as Lest thee repente (111.2088); and anticipa- tion of a future event, as er that thou go henne (1.2356), til that it dye (111.1145). It implies the Versification uncertainty of information in Where that he be I Verse in English in the fourteenth century was kan nat soothly seyn (1.3670), and the unwilling- composed in two different traditions, which ness of a speaker to vouch for a report in I trowe were usually kept distinct, though some authors that he be went (1.3665), though it is likely that combined them in the same work. One system, in such dependent clauses the use ofthe subjunc- which evolved from Old English and the general tive was at least to some extent conventional. Germanic tradition, depended on the pattern of Another principal function of the subjunctive is stressed syllables in each line ofverse, linked by to mark concession, which may be expressed by alliteration of initial sounds; normally lines did the conjunction though (that), as Thogh thou heere not rhyme together. The other, which in Eng- walke (II.784), or by the introductory adverb al land began in the twelfth century and was imi- LANGUAGE AND VERSIFICATION xliii tated from French and Latin models, depended Good Women and most of The Canterbury Tales. partly on the number ofsyllables in each line and No earlier model for this has been found; it partly on the linking of lines in couplets or may well have been his own extension to the groups by rhyming final sounds. Before the four- five-stress form of the pattern so familiar with teenth century, by far the most frequently used the shorter line. of the second type was a line that in principle Chaucer wrote rhymed verse in all his poetical contained eight syllables, but might in practice works. He clearly knew the alliterative form vary between seven and ten, arranged in rhym- (see the Parson's comment in Tales X.42-44), ing couplets. This form as used by French writ- and exploited features of it in a few passages ers regularly had eight or nine syllables, and the (such as 1.2605-16), but the alliterative form is syllable count determined the line. Syllable never essential to the structure of his verse. His stress is more prominent in English than in rhymes are in general careful, matching sounds French, and when this form was imitated in Eng- that must have corresponded exactly in the type lish syllables bearing stress usually alternated of English he wrote. In some words, or groups with syllables of less weight, so that the line was of words, he took advantage of the existence of characterized by four stresses, or beats. The alternative pronunciations (much as a modern number of unstressed syllables was less re- versifier may rhyme again either with main or stricted than in French, probably owing to the with men ). Thus the verb die often appears as dye, influence of the native type of line. This form rhyming with such words as/olye (e.g., 1.1797- was used in many English poems, some long and 98), but sometimes as deye, rhyming with words important, from the early thirteenth century on- like weye (e.g., 1.3033-34); the verb liste ward, so it was obviously well known long be- (please) often rhymes with such words as wiste fore Chaucer began to write. (e.g., Tr 1.678-79), but its variant leste, a pro- In spite of a good deal of irregularity of nunciation characteristic ofthe southeast ofEng- rhythm in the texts as preserved in the manu- land, rhymes with such words as beste (e.g., Tr scripts, there is no reason to doubt that this fa- 1.1028-29). Choice among optional variants miliar type of verse was what Chaucer intended such as these is one aspect of the flexibility of to write in his early poems The Book 0/ the Duch- Chaucer's use of language. ess and The House 0/ Fame. (Four-stress lines also The most significant difference between form part of the "tail-rhyme" stanzas of the Chaucer's verse and that of later centuries lies in Tale of Sir Thopas.) It has, of course, remained the greater number oflight syllables required or popular to this day. In his other poetry, how- permitted by the inflectional system of his lan- ever, Chaucer used a longer line, containing guage, described above. Some of these inflected five stresses, or beats, which before his time forms are comparatively familiar because related had appeared only rarely, in a few anonymous forms survive in particular circumstances in the poems. It is likely that this form was suggested modern language; for instance, participial forms by the decasyllabic line often used in French, such as aged and learned, when used as adjectives, especially arranged in groups to form stanzas, are pronounced as two syllables. In the four- but in part also by the eleven-syllable line used teenth century the ending -ed was pronounced as in Italian verse, which is of similar length but a separate syllable in other participial functions freer in rhythm. Chaucer took up the five-stress as well, for example, in perced and bathed (Tales line early in his writing career, in the eight-line 1.2,3). Other instances are unfamiliar to a mod- stanza of the ABC (a French form), and used it ern reader because the sound is no longer pro- again in The Monk's Tale.
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