"The Craft so Long to Lerne": Chaucer's Invention of the Author(s): Martin J. Duffell Source: The Chaucer Review, Vol. 34, No. 3 (2000), pp. 269-288 Published by: Penn State University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25096094 Accessed: 25-08-2015 18:58 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Penn State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Chaucer Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "THE CRAFT SO LONG TO LERNE": CHAUCER'S INVENTION OF THE IAMBICPENTAMETER

byMartin J. Duffell

In recent two branches of and statistical years mathematics, computation analysis, have helped settle some bitter and long-running disputes in the area of Chaucer's metrics. First a statistical Gasparov developed technique, probability modelling, that compared accentual configurations in verse with those found in prose, and thereby established that the Italian endecasill abo should be classified as intermediate between syllabic and stress-syllabic.1 so Since Chaucer borrowed much from Boccaccio, this clearly has impli on cations the typology of the English poet's long-line . Then the computer-based analysis of Barber and Barber established beyond doubt that Chaucer's long-line is decasyllabic and that some word-final schwas count as syllables (however archaic that may have sounded at the end of the fourteenth century) .2My own contribution to this statistical work was to apply the principle of probability modelling to Chaucer's long-line this a conclusion on was as as verse; produced accentuation that clear that of Barber and Barber on count: unlike syllable Chaucer, any previous poet before him, in any language, avoided placing prominent syllables in odd numbered positions in the line (except the first). In other words, he invented the metre we call the iambic pentameter.5 The iambic pentameter can be defined simply and economically in terms of the of Hanson and Its has ten parameters Kiparsky.4 template positions we and is right-strong; if denote weak and strong positions by the binary digits 0 and 7, respectively, the iambic pentameter is: 0 1 01 01 01 01. Its rules are as follows: the maximum size of a correspondence position is one syllable,5 although the final strong position in the line may also con tain an extrametrical no weak unprominent syllable;6 position in the line, other than the initial contain a one, may prominent syllable.7 Prominence in this metre is defined as "having a lexically determined greater stress than either of its in the terms of Hanson and "weak neighbours"; or, Kiparsky, posi tions are constrained from the of containing strong syllables polysyllabic words."8

THE CHAUCER REVIEW, Vol. 34, No. 3, 2000. Copyright ? 2000 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 270 THE CHAUCERREVIEW

It of be no that Chaucer to should, course, surprise decided compose his mature in content of his verse works ; the makes it clear that Chaucer knew well both French and Italian decasyllabic poems. The remarkable fact is that Chaucer composed decasyllables such as no one previously had written (iambic pentameters), and it is important to trace the source of his innovation. The article aims to do this a present by qual itative analysis of types, as defined by the interaction of met rical and grammatical structures within the line: caesurae (the traditional term) or the boundaries of cola (the term now used by Unguis ticians) .9But, before I wish to some conducting my analysis, recapitulate important points in the history of both the decasyllable and Chaucer's poetic apprenticeship (the "craft so long to lerne" of my title). The earliest surviving decasyllables in a modern Romance language are found in the French Vie de Saint Alexis and the Occitan Boecis, and both date from the first quarter of the eleventh century.10 The corre vers spondence rules of this early de dix made it equivalent to two inde pendent shorter lines: they prohibited the same word from supplying the syllables in positions 4 and 5, and stipulated that both positions 4 and 10 must a also contain an extrametrical contain stressed syllable (and may syllable). The shorthand used by French metrists to describe this line is 4M/F + 6M/F.11 Other variants of the vers de dix have survived from only no slightly later that were 5M/F + 5M/F or 6M/F + 4M/F, but French an poem mixes the variants. It should be noted that extrametrical sylla ble at the (4F) made the actual number of syllables (to the last stress in the line) eleven, not ten. The transformation of the two-part (4 + 6) line into a unified line (of 10) was achieved by writers of lyrics to be set to a number of is more music. Because having regular syllables impor tant to music than lexical writers of French avoided syllabic stress, lyrics lines with a word break after 4F (termed epic caesura), and instead wrenched the accentuation of words with feminine endings so that the first hemistich was 3F (lyric caesura). At the end of the twelfth century vers the primitive alexandrine (6M/F + 6M/F syllables) replaced the de as metre and narrative in French12 when dix the of major epic poems and, was the decasyllable returned to favor in the fourteenth, it the unified line of 10M/F syllables with a mandatory caesura after the fourth sylla ble (4M or 3F). This was the only type of decasyllable composed by French Chaucer's contemporaries. vers as a Provencal troubadours clearly perceived the Occitan de dix unified line of 10M/F syllables as early as the mid-twelfth century. While + the overwhelming majority of their lines were 4 6, they occasionally included a line of 6 + 4; and, while they normally employed the lyric caesura (3F + 6M/F), they occasionally gave the first hemistich 4F sylla bles and reduced the second to 5M/F (see, for example, the verse of

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARTINJ. DUFFELL 271

Peire Vidal).13 The last practice is so alien to French poets that French metrists call this a coupe italienne. The earliest surviving Italian endecasill abi were composed in the middle of the thirteenth century at the court of the heretic emperor Frederick II (1197-1250) in Palermo and were influenced by Provencal poets seeking refuge there from the Albigensian crusades.14 some Italian a Although early poets composed poems with fixed caesura, the most influential ones cultivated the variety allowed in the Provencal unified line of 10M/F. The caesura might fall after 4M, 4F, 6M, or 6F syllables; indeed, occasional lines have no caesura at all (that is, positions 4-8 may be occupied by a word of five syllables). This ende casillabo with no fixed caesura was employed by three poets whose work Chaucer knew well: Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Francesco Petrarca (1304-74), and Giovanni Boccaccio (1317-75). Chaucer was highly unusual for a fourteenth-century Englishman in speaking and reading Italian. As a boy his father worked in the London wine trade, which in the middle of the fourteenth century employed many Italians, and he had Italian friends throughout his life. We also know that he was fluent in the to a sufficiently language make very close translation sections came of long of Boccaccio's Filostrato, when he to compose Troilus and Criseyde in the early 1380s.15 His Italian is likely to have been revived and improved when he travelled to Italy, perhaps as early as 1368, certainly in 1372-73, but most significandy in 1378. From this last journey he brought back copies of Boccaccio's Filostrato and Teseida, and Pearsall argues that Boccaccio provided the inspiration for the art flowering of Chaucer's poetic in the latter's middle age.16 Only one of a Chaucer's long-line poems, the ABC, imitated from French poem (dated 1331) by Guillaume de Deguileville, has been proposed to ante date Chaucer's 1372 Italian visit. But Pearsall points out that this early dating depends entirely on Thomas Speght, who edited the 1602 edition of Chaucer's and who wished to works, emphasize the connection between Chaucer and the House of Lancaster.17 Pearsall, himself, pro a poses date in the late 1370s for the ABC, and this is supported by my structural analysis (see below). The other model that has been proposed for Chaucer's longer line is French: the vers de dix, from which the Italian endecasillabowas derived.18 The evidence in favor of this model is, however, almost all circumstan tial, and not structural, as I shall demonstrate in this article. Chaucer was a courtier with royal patrons and the language of the royal court was French (it had been the official language of the country for two-and-half centuries after the Norman as conquest). As long the kings of England had realistic hopes of uniting France and England under their rule, it was a political necessity for courtiers to be bilingual, and {Geoffroi Chausseur) was no exception to this rule.19 The French

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 272 THE CHAUCERREVIEW speaking English court was graced by two of the most famous French poets of the age: Jean Froissart (1337-1410) and Oton de Granson (P-1397), but the most brilliant French poet of the fourteenth century was Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1370), whose work was admired widely in Europe. We know that Chaucer was familiar with a great deal of French (indeed, his early works are translations or imitations of French ones). We also know that young members of the English court, often French and there is a in themselves, composed verse, manuscript that contains a number of such Pennsylvania poems, including, perhaps, some composed by Chaucer.20 The evidence of Chaucer's authorship is slight: fifteen poems have the letters "Ch" written against their titles, and no other candidate for these initials has been proposed. The "Ch" poems, with the exception of two lines, are structurally identical to French vers de dix of Machaut or Granson (see the analysis which follows). Chaucer thus had possible decasyllabic models in both Italian and French when he decided to forsake the and compose iambic pentameters in the late 1370s.21

COMPARATIVESTRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF FRENCH, ITALIAN,AND CHAUCER'S DECASYLLABLES

The analysis that follows presents eight types of decasyllable, as defined by the interaction between major syntactic boundaries (caesurae) and metrical positions. Each is illustrated by French, Italian, and Chaucerian all of them earlier than the Tales. The French exam examples, Canterbury ples are from the poems of "Ch," the Vie de Saint Alexis (hereafter VSA), and the Cinkante Balades of John Gower (hereafter CB) .22The Italian son examples are from Boccaccio's Filostrato (hereafter Fil) and from the are nets of Giacomo Lentini (fl. 1230-40) ,23The English examples from Chaucerian works composed before 1387: the Complaint unto Pity (here after CP), the ABC, Anelida and Arcite (hereafter AA), the Parliament of Fowles (hereafter PF), and Troilus and Criseyde (hereafter TQ .24 a In the (numbered) instances quoted below I have adopted number are of typographic conventions for scansional purposes: (1) lines divided are into hemistichs; (2) syllables in different positions separated by are in those hyphens; (3) stressed syllables indicated by bold typeface; (4) line where constraints the in parts of the prominence operate, syllables a strong positions are underlined; (5) in headless lines void initial posi are tion is indicated by the symbol [V\\ (6) whenever two hemistichs or A fused by elision, apocope, synaloepha, this ismarked by the symbol linking the two affected vowels.

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARTINJ. DUFFELL 273

A. LINESWITH FRENCHMASCULINE CAESURA [4M + 6M/F]

Lines with masculine (in Italian, forte) caesura are the most common in vers de dix, because the French language has a large stock of oxytonic words and lexical monosyllables. Since the vers de dix had become a 4 + 6 metre by the fourteenth century, almost four in every five lines of the are poems of "Ch" Variant A; for example, the following lines:

son (1) Car c'est de voir corps gent et par-fait ("Ch," xv. 27) Et se au-cuns xm. (2) sa-voir vou-lez par tours ("Ch," 27) Et as-sez sa doul-ceur n. (3) puet gra-ci-eu^ ("Ch," 21)

Note that the only positions in which prominence is regulated are the last ones in each hemistich, 4 and 10. Other prominent syllables may occur anywhere: for example, positions 2 , 6, and 7 in (1), 7 and 9 in (2), and 3 and 7 in (3). French verse, as C. S. Lewis pointed out, "has no rhythm in the English sense", which is to say within the line or hemistich.25 The rhythm of French verse lies between lines. A regular succession of three undifferentiated syllables followed by a phrasal stress, then five undifferentiated syllables plus a phrasal stress. Cornulier argues that French syllabic meters are temporal because, in the syllable-timed deliv as same ery of that language, each syllable is perceived occupying the length of time.26 The phrasal stresses thus fall at regular time intervals. Such metres are a fit for modern where word stress clearly good French, so has disappeared and only phrasal stress remains, but not for , which had word stress.27 Either medieval French poets and audi ences had developed the modern Spanish and Italian double audition or (hearing mid-line stresses but not hearing them),28 else word stress was weaker than stress.29 already perceptibly phrasal This type of line is not uncommon in Italian, where it is called the ende casillabo a minore con forte cesura. Although Italian has relatively few oxy tonic words, this type of line provides fifteen per cent of Boccaccio's total. But, whereas Peire Vidal had included an occasional line with its caesura one in a place other than after position 4, this variant is only of four that Italian poets mixed with great freedom.30 The regularity of phrasal stress a of the French metre was thus lost. In its place, because Italian is lan guage with strong word stress, poets were able to create regularity within the line and hemistich by the position of other accented syllables. From the first, Italian poets clearly preferred lines with accentual regularity, in no particular those with prominent syllables in odd-numbered positions, at least in the second half of the line, like instances (4) and (5) from the Filostrato:51

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 274 THE CHAUCERREVIEW

(4) Tu, don-na, se' la lu-ce chia-raAe bella (FiL, I. 9) (5) Cio che di-ra '1mio ver-so la-gri-moso (FiL, I. 42)

These lines could be generated by Chaucer's verse design: they have no strong syllables in weak positions, except the first of (5), But, although such duple time was the favorite Italian rhythm (the major rhythm), two are also common in Boccaccio. One of them other (minor) rhythms occurs in lines with a French masculine caesura, such as (6), below:

(6) Quan-do Cal-cas, la cui al-ta sci-enza (FiL, I. 57)

The regularity of this line arises from prominent syllables in positions 1, are rare 4, 7, and 10, giving it a triple-time rhythm.32 Such lines very indeed in Chaucer, and it could be argued that Italian poets and audi ences more than ones. There other demand variety English are, however, sources of variety that Italian poets did not employ; for example, the void position 1, or optionality of an extrametrical syllable at line ends. The first of these is unknown in endecasillabi and the second was abandoned by Italian poetic fashion very early in the history of the line.33 Virtually an all Italian lines are piano (that is, with extrametrical syllable in posi tion 10) and the oxytonic words that they used at forte (masculine) caesurae were at or either avoided line end, resyllabified (for example, a was as two the word voi, monosyllable mid-line, pronounced syllables, vo-i, at the end of the line). Variant A is Chaucer's favorite structure, perhaps influenced by French verse he knew, but much more probably because English, like French, has a large stock of both lexical monosyllables and oxytonic disyllables to before the caesura. place

(7) My pur-pos was to Pi-te to com-pleyn^ (CP, 5) I. (8) Help me that am the sorw-ful in-stru-ment (TC, 10) (9) The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerratf (PF 1)

Chaucer's line is fully stress-syllabic and there is only one accentual vari one no ant: the duple-time (iambic) with prominent syllables in weak The two Italian minor that account for more than positions. rhythms cent Boccaccio's between in twenty-seven per of lines, them, appear an barely three per cent of Chaucer's. His decasyllable has become iambic pentameter.

B. LINESWITH FRENCH EPIC CAESURA [4F + 6M/F]

caesura from French By the fourteenth century the epic had disappeared vers de dix, but in the long hagiographic poems and chansons de geste of

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARTINJ. DUFFELL 275

was to a earlier centuries it almost the only alternative Variant A; and much needed because French has not a of one, only large number fem inine nouns and it also has verb forms that are adjectives, paroxytonic, as in the followiing lines from the eleventh-century VSA:

(10) Puis con-verserent an-sam-ble lon-ga-ment (VSA, 21) (11) I-loec a-rivet sai-ne-ment la na-cefe (VSA, 82)

Once we can note how the of stress is again, unregulated position word in French lines, except when it coincides with phrase accent. In (10) unregulated prominent syllables occupy positions 1 and 6, and in (11) they occupy 2 and 7. Variety, and not regularity, rules within French hemistichs.34 It is perhaps not so surprising, given the mature Italian predilection for absolute isosyllabism (lines of 10F), that no epic caesurae are found in endecasillabi. But there are a number of lines in all Chaucer's long-line works which have what he may have intended as epic caesura, and it is impossible to be sure. First of all there are lines in which the syllable in position 4 is followed by (unelidable) schwa and then a major syntactic break. We can not be certain whether such schwas should be syllabified or as we can not sure (thus producing epic caesura) not, just be whether line-final should be schwa pronounced. There is also another type of line that can be as for interpreted having epic caesura; example:

(12) Who-so thee loveth, he shal not lo-veAin veyn (ABC, 71) (13) And e-ver setteth De-sir myn hert on fire (CP, 101) (14) As for to honour hir god-des ful de-voute (TC, I. 151)

It is possible, however, that the intended pronunciation of the word before the caesura in these lines ismonosyllabic, with the final unstressed slurred to syllables something like "lov'th", "sett'th", and "hon'r". There are for and caesura good arguments against epic being intended. For caesura are epic the facts that this device seems to fit well the rhythmic structure of the English language and that Lydgate almost certainly it.35 are the facts that caesura was obsolete employs Against epic already in French and that every other type of line employed by Chaucer can be found in Boccaccio (except for "headless" lines, see below). In my sta at tistics in the table the end of this article, I quantify all possible epic caesurae as B. Type

C. LINESWITH FRENCH LYRICCAESURA [3F+ 6M/F]

By the fourteenth century this had replaced epic caesura in French vers as de dix the principal method of incorporating a feminine word at the

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 276 THE CHAUCERREVIEW

caesura. It is common in and other very Machaut, fourteenth-century French poets, including the "Ch" poet, from whom the following lines are taken.

(15) Tou-te bel-le de gra-ce droi-te plains ("Ch," I. 45) (16) Et les heu-r.es fai-re leur com-mun cours ("Ch," n. 3) iv. (17) Asim-ples-ce d'ex-cel-len-te va-lour ("Ch," 23)

can no Once again we see that the French line has one rhythm: other occur prominent syllables in positions 1, 6, and 8 in (15), thus making it a chance match for an iambic pentameter. But in (16) the other promi are nences at 5 and 9, while in (17) there is only one in 7.1 have marked the syllables at the caesura in these lines that would be prominent in nor mal speech, those in position 3. But in each case a schwa (in French, an e-muet) in position 4 must be wrenched into prominence in delivery so as to a + produce line of 4 6. This phenomenon is called recession by English metrists. Recession is found occasionally in English (but quite commonly in French) sung verse. It is also found in , probably because word stress is either weak (Old French) or non-existent (in the modern language). Because Italian, like English, has strong word stress, Italian poets rapidly rejected this type of variant. A few examples can be found in the earliest sonnets of the Sicilians, who were imitating Occitan mod els of this type of line; but by Dante's time such ugly wrenching was are avoided. The following Italian examples therefore from Lentini's sonnets:

non vor-rm (18) Se quan-to ma-don-na mia (iv. 7) (19) EAa bon fi-ne de lo so re-gi-mento (xn. 6)

Probably because English word stress is even stronger than Italian, seems to caesura. Chaucer have eschewed the lyric All the examples that might be proposed have alternative explanations, and since the number of lines concerned is very few (compared with the many in vers de dix), it is correct to that are no caesurae in Chaucer. probably say there lyric Consider the following instances:

saw *(20) I beu-te wi-thou-ten a-nyAa-tyr (PF, 225) *(21) On this lady, and now on that, lo-kyng? (TC, 1.269)

Both "beute"/ "beauty" in (20) and "lady" in (21) had alternative (Frenchified) oxytonic pronunciations in Chaucer's time, and these words I be scanned: "beu-te" and and not as should, believe, "la-dy",

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARTINJ. DUFFELL 277

above. This alternative scansion also has the merit of producing duple time rhythm throughout both lines. All the possible lyric caesurae in Chaucer seem to involve like and rather than words "beauty" "lady", or "loved". It is therefore accentually unambiguous words like "setteth"' reasonable to conclude that Chaucer shared the Italian distaste for the recessive caesura. lyric

D. LINESWITH ELIDED/FUSED CAESURA [4'+ 6M/F]

The unification of the vers de dix as a line of 10M/F gave fourteenth-cen tury French poets another way of including a word ending in e muet at the caesura: this was to elide the -ebefore an initial vowel in the second hemistich. This produces a type of line that is relatively common in four vers de the of "Ch". teenth-century dix, including poems

son (22) Pour nuit obs-cu-reAa droit a-me-ner ("Ch," III. 4) Se en I. (23) puet gra-ceAa-mou-reu-se ve-oir ("Ch," 10) (24) Mo-rir m'est joi-eAet brief fi-ner doul-cour ("Ch," II. 4)

Once again, note the difference between the positions of prominent syl lables within second hemistichs; French poets were concerned to achieve variety of word stress, and regularity only of phrasal stress in positions 4 and 10. Variant D could be argued to be a more satisfactory way of incor words at the it involves porating paroxytonic caesura, because, violating no unlike the recessive caesura. linguistic norms, lyric Poets composing in Italian deal with unwanted word-final vowels rather differently from French ones, although they use the same word, elisione, to describe the process (in order to confuse comparative metrists). It is called more correctly sinalefe (synaloepha) by Spanish metrists, who a a define this as mixing of two vowels to form sort of diphthong, as in "tuttoAin", below.36 I employ the same symbol (A) to indicate Italian synaloepha as I have used for French elision in these lines from which have a caesura after 4' Boccaccio, syllables.

(25) II mio cos-tu-meAan-ti-coAe u-si-ta.to (FiL, I. 7) (26) Con-cor-di tut-toAin un pa-ri vo-\ere (FiL, I. 54) (27) Cas-tel-laAe vil-leAar-den-doAe di-bru-ciando (FiL, I. 128)

It should be noted that instances (25) and (27) have Boccaccio's major rhythm, and their first hemistichs are also in duple time. Individually, they are iambic pentameters, except that they are set among lines that are far from being so. Chaucer appreciated the accentual regularity of such lines and modelled his upon them. Instance (26) on the other hand

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 278 THE CHAUCERREVIEW

is the minor variant with triple time (prominent syllables in positions 4, we 7, and 10) which Chaucer rejected. In (27) observe three synaloephae a in line; they glue the whole line together and defy any attempt to make a caesura into a pause in delivery. Multiple synaloepha is not uncommon in Boccaccio, but is employed even more frequently by Petrarch.37 English speech often prefers synaloepha to apocope/elision; we turn "the air" into one syllable by saying something like "thyair"; in contrast, "th'air" gives itself away immediately as artificial and poetic. Chaucer's principal method of eliminating unwanted final vowels was the elision of word-final schwa (whenever it suited his metre). There are, however, still examples of synaloepha in his verse (see that of "many a" in n5, below). Chaucer employs the elided/fused caesura frequently.

(28) Thou art lar-ges-seAof pleyn fe-li-ci-tee (ABC, 13) (29) With fyn-nes re-deAand ska-les syi-ver bryghte (PF, 189) (30) And of-ter wol-de,Aand it hadde been his wilk (TC, I. 125)

It is reasonable to query whether it is likely that Chaucer syllabified word final schwas and then elided most of them, when there is no sign that his contemporaries did so. But his contemporaries did not know Petrarch and Boccaccio, as he did, and so could not admire the way those two poets used final vowels, both to give their lines a duple-time rhythm, and to them with in one harmonious structure. glue together synaloepha As Windeatt points out, Chaucer frequently translates the lines with Boccaccio's not stress major rhythm only word for word, but also for stress.38

E. LINESWITH ENJAMBEDCAESURA [4M > 6M/F]

vers occur a In de dix, endecasillabo, and pentameter, alike, there may word break after position 4 while the caesura in my definition (the most impor tant syntactic boundary) occurs later in the line. This is called cesure enjambante in French metrics, because it is the equivalent of enjambment at the line end. It clearly helps provide variety in a poem where all lines have a word break after position 4. In Italian the caesura is held to be after the main syntactic boundary in such lines: they are endecasillabi a maiore (meaning that their first hemistich is longer than their second) caesura and may be fused by synaloepha. Examples of enjambed in the three are: languages

(31) La est aus-si Sou-ve-nir qui ne cesse ("Ch," I. 29) (32) N'ains y per-coy sa gra-ce, Dieu limire ("Ch," n. 18) (33) Che t'a-ma piu che se d'a-mor per-fetfo (FiL, I. 30) (34) A-vea Cal-cas las-cia-toAin tan-to mate (FiL, I. 81)

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARTINJ. DUFFELL 279

(35) And cer-tes yf ye wan-ten in these tweyne (CP, 76) (36) ffor I, that god of lo-ves ser-vantz sert;^ (TC, I. 15)

Note that in the layout of these lines I have shown the caesura as falling after the mandatory position 4 in the French examples, but after posi tion 6 or 7 in the Italian and English ones.

F. LINES WITH ITALIAN A MINORE, DEBOLE CAESURA [4F + 5M/F]

This caesura is not permitted in French vers de dix, and in traditional French metrics it is termed coupe italienne. It is the most important result of Provencal/Italian unification of the line: the unprominent syllable that follows the final stress in the first hemistich is not extrametrical, but occupies position 5 and the syllable count continues (from 1-10, instead of from 1-4, followed by 1-6). Because the Italian lexicon contains a of this common majority paroxytonic words, variant is very in all Italian an poets, and it is termed endecasillabo a minore con debole cesura.

(37) Io de Par-na-so le Mu-se pre-gare (FiL, I. 3) (38) E voi, a-man-ti, prie-go ch/as-col-tiate (FiL, I. 41) Ch'e-ra bel-la cre-a-tura (39) piu ch'al-tra (FiL, I. 99)

a Note that (37) has minor Italian rhythm (prominence in positions 1, 4, 7, and 10) and that the other two lines have the major rhythm (no in weak in strong syllables positions the second hemistich). In all his even uses pentameters, the earliest, Chaucer Variant F very frequently.

(40) And fres-she Beau-te, Lust, and Jo-ly-te (CP, 39) (41) Up by the bri-dil, at the sta-ves ende (AA, 184) were (42) That I wur-thi my damp-na-ci-oun (ABC, 23)

no Although French poet employs this type of caesura in vers de dix, itwas used extensively by Gower in CB. We have no way of knowing at what in were point his life these poems composed: Macaulay thinks late, but content seem the suggests early (they to be the conventionally immoral of a not mature lyrics young man, certainly the voice of the "moral Gower"). Their line structure is so similar to that of Chaucer's iambic pentameter that it is probable that Gower was experimenting with this line in at same as French the time his friend Chaucer was doing so in English, in the late 1370s.

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 280 THE CHAUCERREVIEW

(43) A vous ma doul-ce da-me tre-shal-teim (CB, xxxm. 22) (44) Ma doul-ce da-me qui m'a-vetz ou-bli (CB, xxviii. 22) (45) Ma sa ba-ne-re quant mer-ci dis-plaire (CB, xxvil. 4)

These lines not have an Italian allow no only caesura, they prominent syl lables in weak positions; they are endecasillabi/pentameters in Anglo over a Norman. It is, however, possible that Gower composed CB number of years, or even towards the end of his life, because, although almost all his English verse is in , his poem In Praise ofPeace,39 dedicated to Henry IV on his accession in 1399, is in iambic pentameters; for exam ple, lines 106-08:

(46) The wer-re ismo-dir of the wron-ges alle (47) It sleth the prest in ho-li chir-cheAat masse (48) For-lith the maid and doth hire flour to falle

The first of these lines is one of many with an Italian caesura in Gower's poem. Even more surprising than Gower's French endecasillabi/pentameters a an a caesura. is line in the poems of "Ch" with Italian minore, debole

Se-cours con-for-te I. (49) Dan-gier pres-te-ment ("Ch," 16)

Itmight, of course, be argued that "Dang-i-er" is three syllables, but that would give this line an epic caesura, something not found in either the of nor in vers de a French poems "Ch", any fourteenth-century dixhy poet. the word is two in the of "Ch" Moreover, "Dan-gier" always syllables poems verse. (for example, in IX. 13), as it normally is in French

G. LINESWITH ITALIANA MAIORE, FORTECAESURA [6M + 4M/F]

caesura vers This is not permitted by the fourteenth-century rules of the de dix, but once again Gower employs it throughout CB.

(50) O gen-ti-leAEn-gle-ter-re,Aa toi j'es-crits (Traite, 25)

The prominent syllable in position 3 proves that Gower is here imitating an not a some endecasillabo in French and Chaucerian pentameter. But of Gower's Balades seem to have a constraint do against prominent sylla bles appearing in weak positions that runs through all their lines; for example, xxxv. Another type of line with Italian caesura employed by Gower might be argued to be Variant F enjambed; because it has word

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARTINJ. DUFFELL 281

a breaks at two points mid-line; for example, this line with word break at 4F, but a caesura at 6M.

de vos-treAa-mour et xxxvin. (51) Sur-pris sus-pi-rant (CB, 10)

This is further evidence that CB represents an experiment in composing endecasillabi in French. The Italian endecasillabo a maiore con cesura is as with forte very common; its a minore equivalent, the first hemistich may end after 6M, or after 6' followed by synaloepha.

(52) Gui-da la nos-tra man reg-gi lo'n-gegno (FiL, I. 31) (53) Vo-len-do del fu-tu-roAil ve-roAu-dir? (FiL, I. 60)

Instance (52) has the second minor rhythm commonly found in ende casillabi', it occurs when prominent syllables occur in positions 6, 7, and 10, and the line breaks from duple into triple time at the caesura. Because the second hemistich's rhythm is called adonic in Classical met rics, this type of line is termed afragmento adonico.40 Instance (53), on the no other hand, has the major rhythm with prominent syllables in weak positions in the second half of the line, and contains two synaloephae binding the words together. Even in his earliest work in pentameters Chaucer uses Variant G caesura frequendy; it is especially useful for accommodating Greek names early in the line.

(54) Of que-neAA-ne-li-da and fals Ar-cite (AA, 11) (55) For when Am-phi-o-rax and Ty-de-us (AA, 57) (56) Up-on the cru-el-tee and ti-ran-ny^ (CP, 6)

H. LINESWITH ITALIANA MAIORE, DEBOLE CAESURA [6F + 3M/F]

Once no French this and the exam again, poet employs caesura, only ples of it that I can find in French are in CB.

xxvii. (57) Qe nul-le me-di-ci-ne m'est ver-rai^ (CB, 4) A-mour est u-ne voi-e xlviii. (58) dan-ge-rou.S? (CB, 15) En re-sem-blan-ce re-monte xlvi. (59) d'ai-gle qui (CB, 1)

These examples, taken in conjuction with those of Variant F, make it clear that Gower's lines are not vers de dix but Italian endecasillabi imitated in the French language.

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 282 THE CHAUCERREVIEW

This type of line, called by Italian metrists the endecasillabo a maiore con debole cesura, is common in the work of all medieval Italian poets; the fol are from lowing examples again Boccaccio:

(60) Per cui nel te-ne-bro-so mon-doAac-corfo (FiL, I. 10) (61) Per che se-gre-ta-men-te di par-tirsi (FiL, I. 65) (62) E se-coAa ram-men-tar-si del pia-cere (FiL, I. 260)

These three lines have Boccaccio's major rhythm. Lines with such a caesura Variant H appear in all Chaucer's iambic pentameter works which is too short to contain one. except CP, perhaps

(63) Ne to no cre-a-tu-re made she chere (AA, 108) (64) This no-ble em-pe-res-se, ful of grace (PF, 319) (65) To herk-nen of Pal-la-dion the ser-uyce (TC, 1.164)

Chaucer thus all three of the Italian caesurae that are never employs found in the work of French poets. one one In addition to Variant F line, the poems of "Ch" contain other line with no word break after syllable 4. It has word breaks after 3M and 7M syllables.

Et tra-ic-tier ix. (66) l'a-cort joi-eu-se-ment ("Ch", 9)

This line does not conform to any Italian type; I suspect that it contains a error: has been omitted before and scribal the word "pour" "l'accort", the dieresis in "traic-tier" is incorrect. If this is not the case, then this line evidence the author was to chafe at is another piece of that beginning vers the restrictions imposed by the mandatory word break in the de dix.

NOTE ON "HEADLESS" LINES

Headless lines in Chaucer are relatively rare. In my scansion Imark them most by the symbol [V\. The fact that Chaucer's famous work opens with one is of note. obviously

(67) [V\Whan that A-prill with his shou-res soote

This is a Variant F Italian caesura line with a void in position 1, allowed verse a metre to by the closure rule. It is common in English for be indif as to or not an before the ferent whether there is unprominent syllable first stress in the line. Thus we find in Browning's The Lost Leader two types one of line: one with an unprominent syllable before the first stress, and without.41 This is exemplified by the last two lines of the poem.

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARTINJ. DUFFELL 283

(68) Then let him re-ceive the new know-ledge and waitws, (69) [V\ Pardoned in hea-ven, the first by the throne.

The second line clearly has the same (triple-time) rhythm as the first, but it is minus one at its head. do not allow syllable Browning's pentameters this licence, probably because Milton and Pope had so much influence on some seem the later pentameter, but pentameters earlier than Milton to be missing their opening unprominent syllable, like the first line of the Canterbury Tales. An extra unprominent syllable at the start of the line is termed in Classical metrics anacrusic, a Greek term meaning "striking Music is indifferent as to whether or not there are up". similarly any anacrusic notes before the first beat in the first bar. When Chaucer on decided to impose the yoke of syllable count English long-line verse he seems to have allowed this traditional, musical, liberty of omitting the first unprominent syllable in the line.

THE RELATIVEFREQUENCY WITH WHICH VARIANTSOCCUR

The table at the end of this article shows the frequency with which each occurs type of line in Chaucer's work up to and including TC.42 Remarkably none of the differences between the individual poems are significant, with one small exception. The proportion of possibly epic caesurae (Type B) in the Complaint unto Pity is double that of the other poems. This, I believe, is probably because itwas his first composition in the metre to and Chaucer had not the survive, yet perfected technique at caesura are whereby the majority of word-final schwas the elided before a following initial vowel.

(70) But er Imyghte with a-ny word out-brefo (CP, 12) (71) The world is lore; ther is no more to seyne (CP, 77)

The implications of the other figures in the table are made clear in the conclusions that follow.

CONCLUSIONS: THE DEVELOPMENTOF CHAUCER'S IAMBICPENTAMETER

1. Chaucer's model was clearly Boccaccio's endecasillabo and not the vers French de dix. He employs all Boccaccio's variants, while his only pos sible debt to France is the occasional epic caesura (and even this is doubt ful). Chaucer also borrowed the Italians' favorite rhythm, because French

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 284 THE CHAUCERREVIEW

a lines have no rhythm within the line, and because duple-time rhythm (one of moraic trochees) happens to underlie both the Italian and the English languages.

2. In order to produce the iambic pentameter Chaucer had to restrict in his verse the two minor rhythms of Boccaccio's (the first in triple time, the second the fragmento adonico). Such rhythms constitute barely three per cent of Chaucer's lines. These rhythms are the chief source of vari ety in Italian endecasillabi, but in English, with its long accentual tradition, it was not to substitute a four-beat line for a five-beat one. To acceptable compensate for this loss, Chaucer introduced other, more traditionally sources English, of variety: the void position, the extra unprominent syl caesura lable within the hemistich, and possibly the epic (with its extra unprominent syllable).

3. All of the poems by Chaucer in pentameters that have survived have the same mastery of the line and its many variants. None is likely to be significantly earlier than the others on metrical grounds, except the Complaint toPity, which may show evidence that Chaucer's technique still one lacked refinement: eliding most unwanted word-final schwas at the caesura. studied the craft of com But, however long Chaucer may have position, his first surviving pentameters are almost identical to his last. a The iambic pentameter sprang forth in panoply; itwas not step-by step or the result of trial and at least as far as the sur process fumbling error, are viving poems concerned.

are no 4. Chaucer may be the author of the "Ch" poems: there other obvi ous candidates for the initials "Ch", and these poems contain one line that is an endecasillabo in French, and another that may show impatience with the caesura of the vers de dix. mandatory

EPILOGUE: THE IAMBICPENTAMETER AFTER CHAUCER

John Gower (? 1330-1408) may have been close enough to Chaucer (both in time and in their common interest in Italian versification) to compose a few iambic use of word-final but the new pentameters making schwa, Italianate verse did not immediately take hold. Because Thomas Hoccleve (? 1369-1426) had no Italian, he imitated Chaucer in composing deca syllables, but he tended to let the rhythms within his lines look after them selves, as the French did.43 And because John Lydgate (P1370-1449) had no Italian, he thought that the possibility of iambic verse had died with

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARTINJ. DUFFELL 285

the pronunciation of word-final schwa, and so he returned to the older English tradition of verse based on beats, while making his lines as Chaucerian (that is, iambic) as he could.44 Robert Henryson (?1424-?1506), who spoke a Scots dialect in which final schwa had not been pronounced for a with its use of century, clearly understood how Chaucer's metre, convenient and he the first iambic schwas, worked; composed pentame ters in schwa-deleted English.45 In the sixteenth century, Sir Thomas an Wyatt (1503-42) made one last attempt to develop English line that was not on a based the foreign practice of syllable count: balanced line with a central caesura and either two or three beats in each half.46 a Eventually Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (P1517-1547) and, genera tion later, Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86) turned again to Italy to reinvent the iambic pentameter; and this is the metre that then dominated English poetry for more than four hundred years.47 But none of these can be for sheer inventiveness or metrical with poets compared artistry the poet who first "lerned the craft" of the iambic pentameter, Geoffrey Chaucer.

Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London

TABLE: PERCENTAGESOF LINE TYPES WORK/SAMPLE

LINE TYPE "Ch" FiL CP ABC AA PF TC Chaucer (pre-1387) A (4M + 6) 78 15 46 46 39 41 44 42 B (4F + 6) 0 0 10 5 5 4 4 5 C (3F + 6) 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 D (4' + 6) 5 23 7 9 11 9 11 10 E (4M>6) 6 19 19 18 15 21 17 18 F (4F + 5) 0 29 11 14 19 13 15 15 G (6M + 4) 0 9 5 6 5 6 6 6 H(6F + 3)0 3 0 2 4 5 3 3

are Differences between the sums of the above percentages and 100 the result of round a ing and very small number of irregular and defective lines.

vero 1. M. L. Gasparov, "Italianskij Stix: Sillabika ili Sillabotonika? Opyt Ispol'zovanija or jatnostnyx Modelej Stixovedenii" ["Italian Verse: Syllabic Syllabo-Tonic: An Experiment in Using Probability Models in Metrics"], in Problemy Structurnoj Linguistiki, V, ed. P. Grigorjev (Moscow, 1980), 199-218; and "A Probability Model of Verse (English, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese)", trans. Marina Tarlinskaja, Style, 21 (1987): 322-58. in stress In the number of syllables in each line (or hemistich) is regulated; verse are syllabic the number and position of accented syllables also regulated. Italian ende

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 286 THE CHAUCERREVIEW

casillabi are intermediate between the two in that certain accentual configurations are strongly preferred in the second half of the line. 2. Charles and Nicolas Barber, "The Versification of the Canterbury Tales: A Computer Based Statistical Study," Leeds Studies in English 21 (1990): 81-103, and 22 (1991): 57-84. verse 3. Modern linguistic metrics employs the term design to denote a specific metre; a verse design consists of a template (the pattern that the poet carries in his head, and which can only be ascertained from an analysis of actual lines, or verse instances) and a set of cor respondence rules (governing the types of linguistic material in any verse instance that may correspond to each position in the template). 4. Kristin Hanson and Paul Kiparsky, "A Parametric Theory of Poetic Meter," Language 27 (1996): 287-335, argue that all metres may be defined by only five parameters. 5. Hanson and Kiparsky (295-97) state that the iambic pentameter may be syllable or based foot-based; in the former the maximum position size is one syllable, in the latter it one one or is moraic foot (that is, either heavy syllable two light ones). Kristin Hanson, "Prosodic Constituents of Poetic Meter," Proceedings of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 13 (1995): 62-77, shows that Milton's pentameter is syllable-based and Shakespeare's foot-based. I believe that Chaucer's pentameter is syllable-based, like the Romance versification of its models; although the expression 'many a' (three light sylla bles if pronounced slowly) invariably corresponds to only two positions in Chaucer's verse, this is probably because of its intended syllabification (two syllables if pronounced rapidly), are and not because Chaucer's correspondence rules foot-based. 6. Unstressed syllables after the final stress do not affect the rhythm of the line. This phenomenon is termed extrametricality and is explained by Bruce Hayes, Metrical Stress Theory: Principles and Case Studies (Chicago, 1995), 56-60. 7. The first weak position may contain a prominent syllable (or, in Chaucer's pen no tameter, syllable at all, making the line headless), because metrical rules are more lax at the beginning and stricter at the end of units (lines or hemistichs). This is referred to as a the closure principle by Hanson and Kiparsky (293), term derived from Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Poetic Closure: A Study ofHow Poems End (Chicago, 1968). 8. In English words like reptile or maintain both syllables have a measure of stress; see Hanson and Kiparsky, 291. But the only metrically relevant aspect of stress is whether a syl more or lable is given less stress than its neighbours. In the word reptile the first syllable has more more. stress, while in maintain the second has Only in polysyllabic words and clitic groups is relative stress lexically, rather than semantically, determined. When we say "that is," either word may be made more prominent, but when we say "to be" or "question," the language determines the relative stress of the two syllables. Modern metrists use the term strength to describe this lexically determined greater stress. 9. The definition of the word caesura as used throughout this article is grammatical: the most important mid-line syntactic boundary; see W. Sidney Allen, Accent and Rhythm: Prosodic Features of Latin and Greek: An Exercise in Reconstruction (Cambridge, Engl., 1973), 113. The traditional French definition of the word, however, makes it no more than a mandatory mid-line word boundary. 10. La Vie de Saint Alexis, ed. J-M. Meunier (Paris, 1933). Boecis, ed. and trans. Rene Lavaud and Georges Michicot (Toulouse, 1950). 11. The number of syllables up to, and including, the last accented syllable is denoted no by an Arabic numeral and is followed by M {masculin), if there is extrametrical syllable, or an F (feminin), if there is one. Because French is basically oxytonic language, French metrists name their meters from the actual number of syllables in M lines, while Italians, name whose language is predominantly paroxytonic, theirs from the actual number in F an lines; hence a decasyllabe translates into endecasillabo. 12. See L. E. Kastner, A History of French Versification (Oxford, 1903), 144-48. 13. Peire Vidal. Poesie, ed. D'Arco Silvio Avalle, 2 vols. (Milan, I960). 14. The only endecasillabi thought to be earlier than those in the sonnets of the Sicilian as see School have been exposed eighteenth-century forgeries; D'Arco Silvio Avalle, Preistoria dell 'endecasillabo (Milan, 1963), 13. corre 15. Troilus and Criseyde, ed. B. A. Windeatt (London, 1984). Windeatt places sponding passages from the Filostrato alongside Chaucer's text of Troilus and Criseyde in

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARTINJ. DUFFELL 287

order to demonstrate the close similarities in both meaning and meter between the two poems. 16. Derek Pearsall, The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical Biography (Oxford, 1992), 120. 17. Ibid., 83-84. 18. Although every accentual configuration found in Chaucer's lines also occurs in vers de dix, every type of grammatical/ metrical interaction (caesura) does not. The propor occur vers tions in which the different accentual configurations in de dix are not regulated verse are to by the design; they similar those found in randomly selected samples of French prose. 19. The French of the royal court was the French of Paris (Francien), and not that of Stratford-atte-Bowe (Anglo-Norman), spoken by the middle classes. John Gower's French works are in the latter dialect. composed " 20. Chaucer and the Poems of "Ch in University of Pennsylvania MS French 15, ed. James I. Wimsatt (London, 1982). 21. The French octosyllable had by far the easiest passage into English verse because the template of the oldest traditional English metre (that of Beowulf) has eight positions. were The earliest English octosyllables composed long before Chaucer; see George Saintsbury, A History of English Prosody from the Twelfth Century to the Present Day, 2 vols. (London, 1906), I: 112-42. 22. The Complete Works ofJohn Gower, ed. G. C. Macaulay, 4 vols. (Oxford, 1899-1902), 1, The French Works (1899). For the "Ch" poems and the Vie de Saint Alexis I have used the editions of Wimsatt and Meunier (see above). 23. Giovanni Boccaccio, Opere minori in volgare, ed. Mario Marti, vol. 2, Filostrato etc. (Milan, 1970); Sonetti dellScuola Siciliana, ed. Edoardo Sanguineti (Turin, 1970). 24. For my TC sample I have used Windeatt's edition (see above); for other poems I have used the Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry Benson et al. (Oxford, 1988). 25. C. S. Lewis, "The Fifteenth-Century Heroic Line," Essays and Studies, 24 (1938): 38. 26. Benoit de Cornulier, Art poetique: problemes et notions de metrique (Lyon, 1995), 111-13. 27. See Alfred Ewert, The French Language (London, 1943), 104-06; E. Einhorn, Old French: A Concise Handbook (Cambridge, Engl., 1974), 2-3. 28. An analysis of double audition in Spanish and how it developed is given in Martin J. Duffell, "The Santillana Factor: The Development of Double Audition in Castilian," to unpubl. paper presented the Medieval Hispanic Research Seminar, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, November 1998. 29. The assignment of phrasal stress in English is analysed by Hayes, 367-99. own caesura 30. Individual Italian poets had their preferences for position; the per caesura = = = centages of Boccaccio's lines with in each position are: 4M 38, 4F 31, 6M 20, 6F = see 11; Martin J. Duffell, "The Romance (Hen-)decasyllable: A Study in Comparative Metrics," unpubl. PhD thesis, Univ. of London, 1991, 304-5. 31. Duple-time rhythm is strongly preferred by Italian poets in the second half of the line: this varies from 70%: in Boccaccio to 89% in Tasso; see "The Romance (Hen-)deca syllable," 319. These percentages compare with figures no higher than 60% for the French vers de dix of six medieval poets, and also for medieval prose, both French ( in Aucassin et and Italian an Nicolette) (in the Vita nuova); for analysis of individual French poets' per see Martin centages, J. Duffell, "Chaucer, Gower, and the History of the ," in Historical ed. C. B. and English Metrics, McCully J. J. Anderson (Cambridge, Engl., 1996), 210-18 (217). This of line is common 32. type very in medieval Galician-Portuguese verse where it is called a see "bagpipe" hendecasyllable; Martin J. Dufffell, "Alfonso's Cantigas and the Origins of Arte mayor,"Journal ofHispanic Research 2 (1993-94): 183-204. 33. Some sonnets were early Sicilian composed entirely in bruschi (lines without extra metrical or sdruccioli with See syllables) (lines two). Leandro Biadene, "Morfologia del sonetto," Studi di Filologia Romanza, 4 (1899): 1-234. 34. LArt vers Auguste Dorchain, de (Paris, 1919), 22-23, explains how verse satisfies two basic human needs: that for securite (by its regularity) and that for surprise. In Old French verse securite is supplied by syllable count, and surprise by rhythmic variety.

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 288 THE CHAUCERREVIEW

are is one 35. Both English and Italian languages in which the basic rhythm of moraic a or two trochees; see Hayes, 125-82. A foot in such languages comprises heavy syllable as some iambic light ones and, I have noted, English poets have employed the pentame a one one at various ter as foot-based metre, substituting two light syllables for heavy points in the line. Chaucer's verse does not have to be foot-based in order to employ epic caesura; caesura French manner suffices. The the application of line-end rules to the in the earlier caesura in were in Martin arguments for, and numerous examples of, epic Lydgate given to at J. Duffell, "Lydgate's Metrical Inventiveness and his Debt Chaucer," paper presented 1998. the 11th International Congress of the New Chaucer Society, Paris, July marks it in the 36. Italian does employ the equivalent of French elision, apocope, and consonants amor is a orthography. Apocope is also employed in Italian before (where as as of a common apocopation of amore) well vowels, and is part general tendency towards final-vowel deletion in both the medieval and modern languages. 37. See "The Romance (Hen-) decasyllable," 401-03. 38. Troilus and Criseyde, 59. 39. The English Works (1901), vol. 3. was de de 40. This term coined by William Ferguson, La versificacion imitativa Fernando Herrera (London, 1970). 430. 41. Robert Browning, Poetical Works 1833-64, ed. Ian Jack (Oxford, 1975), based on 42. Applied statisticians judge the reliability of figures samples by calculating are due to sampling error, and the chance that differences between those figures merely one in standard see choosing random sample, rather than another, is measured errors; The on Michael Moroney, Facts from Figures (Harmondsworth, 1957), 120-40. samples ABC and AA the which my analysis is based vary. In the case of CP (119 lines), (184), (306), case "Ch" it is a sample is all surviving pentameter lines; in the of the poems randomly selected 300 lines; and in the case of FiL, PF, and TC it is the first 300 lines. As a result of errors in the are in some cases the relatively small size of these figures two standard table as as high 5% of lines. 43. See "The Romance (Hen-) decasyllable," 483-88. 44. See "Lydgate's Metrical Inventiveness," passim. 45. See "The Romance (Hen-) decasyllable," 488-93. 14 46. See Dennis W. Harding, "The Rhythmical Intention of Wyatt's Poetry," Scrutiny (1946-47): 90-102; Annabel M. Endicott, "A Critical study of the Metrical Effects in the Poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt, with Reference to Analogous Effects in Elizabethan Poetry," unpubl. MA diss., Univ. of London, 1960. on 47. See Kristin Hanson, "From Dante to Pinsky: A Theoretical Perspective the a issue History of the English Iambic Pentameter," to appear in Rivista di Linguistica, special on Rhythm in Language, guest ed. Irene Vogel.

This content downloaded from 136.167.36.226 on Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:58:16 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions