The Christianisation of Latin Metre a Study of Bede’S De Arte Metrica
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto Seppo Heikkinen The Christianisation of Latin Metre A Study of Bede’s De arte metrica Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki in auditorium M1, on the 21st of March, 2012, at 12 o’clock. ISBN 978-952-10-7808-8 (paperback) ISBN 978-952-10-7807-1 (PDF) Unigrafia Helsinki 2012 Contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1. General observations 1 1.2. Grammar and metre in Anglo-Saxon England 2 1.3. The dating of Bede’s De arte metrica 5 1.4. The role of metrics in Bede’s curriculum 9 1.5. The structure and aims of De arte metrica 11 1.6. Bede’s Christian agenda and its implementation in his discussion of metrics 13 2. Hexameter verse and general prosody 17 2.1. The dactylic hexameter in Anglo-Saxon England 17 2.2. Classical and post-classical prosody: common syllables 24 2.2.1. Plosives with liquids 26 2.2.2. S groups 29 2.2.3. Productio ob caesuram and consonantal h 34 2.2.4. Hiatus and correption 40 2.2.5. Hic and hoc 44 2.2.6. Summary 47 2.3. Other observations on prosody 49 2.4. The structure of the dactylic metres 58 2.4.1. The dactylic hexameter 58 2.4.2. The elegiac couplet 72 2.5. The aesthetics of verse 75 2.5.1. Enjambment 77 2.5.2. Bede on word order 81 2.5.2.1. The golden line 81 2.5.2.2. Other observations on word order 92 2.6. Word division and caesurae 97 2.7. Elision and hiatus 108 2.8. Bede on prosodic licences 118 2.9. The differences between pre-Christian and Christian poets 126 2.10. Conclusion 134 3. The lyric metres 137 3.1. The phalaecean hendecasyllable 141 3.2. The sapphic stanza 147 3.3. The terentianean metre 152 3.4. The anacreontic metre 158 3.5. The iambic trimeter 164 3.6. The iambic dimeter 168 3.7. The trochaic septenarius 175 3.8. Conclusion 185 4. Rhythmic verse 187 4.1. Introduction 187 4.2. The evolution of prosodic terminology in late antiquity 187 4.2.1. From mechanical to vocal ictus 187 4.2.2. The redefinition of rhythm 190 4.3. The origins of rhythmic poetry 192 4.4. Bede’s definition of rhythm 195 4.5. Conclusion 204 5. Summary 207 Bibliography 211 Acknowledgements I am deeply indebted to several people for their support in the completion of this thesis. Firstly, I must thank my supervisors Heikki Solin and Matti Kilpiö for their insights, technical and cultural alike. They are both humanists in the true sense of the word and I enjoyed our sessions more than I could ever have anticipated. Many of my other colleagues have given me their time, help and inspiration. They include Anneli Luhtala, Olli Salomies, Paavo Castrén, Leena Pietilä-Castrén, Martti Leiwo, Maarit Kaimio and Reijo Pitkäranta; this list, of course, is far from exhaustive. I would also like to thank my pre-examiners Gerd Haverling and Jyri Vaahtera whose suggestions improved my thesis immeasurably. Special thanks are due to my sister Kanerva Blair-Heikkinen and her husband John Blair for their never-flagging belief in my work as well as their insights into the Anglo-Saxon world. John also kindly read my whole draft and corrected my English. All the remaining mistakes are, of course, mine. I could not have accomplished what I have without the help and support of my parents Olavi and Katri Heikkinen and my aunt Kirsti Hämäläinen. I am grateful for their having been so endlessly supportive and gently pushing me at times when I was not inclined to push myself. My research was financially supported by the Reinhold Ekholm Foundation, the Research Foundation of the University of Helsinki and the Emil Aaltonen Foundation. Lastly, I must thank my fellow musicians, dead and alive, professional and amateur alike, for their inspiration. The art and scholarship of Bede may seem only tenuously connected to those of Bach or, say, Shostakovich, but they were all dedicated to the coordination of sound with time, to our pleasure and, ultimately, improvement. Helsinki, 24 February 2012 Seppo Heikkinen 1 1. Introduction 1. 1. General observations Bede’s De arte metrica is, in many respects, a revolutionary work: it is one of the first metrical treatises composed for an audience who were not native speakers of Latin. At the same time it is the first practical presentation of metrics intended for the purposes of the medieval monastic curriculum. Its role in the transmission of the classical poetic tradition cannot be underestimated; however, its departures from what we consider the classical norm of quantitative metrics also exerted a strong influence on medieval poetry. Despite the background of the work, it turned out to be surprisingly long-lived, and its popularity can be said to have outlasted the curriculum for which it was composed. De arte metrica remained in use throughout the Middle Ages and, although its influence began to wane somewhat after the cultural revolution of the twelfth century, it was not really abandoned: it is telling that its first printed edition appeared shortly after the invention of the printing press, and the work was circulated, even in vernacular translations, as late as the sixteenth century.1 The modern age, however, has been less kind to Bede’s writings on grammar. Without doubt, this is largely due to Bede’s prominent role as exegete and historian, which has often eclipsed his “minor” grammatical works, but also to their hitherto inaccurate dating. Until quite recently, scholars viewed Bede’s works on orthography (De orthographia), metre (De arte metrica) and “schemes and tropes” (De schematibus et tropis) as early works; the idea seems to have been that Bede honed his skills in what is considered a preliminary field of scholarship before moving on to such grander things as biblical exegesis. Ostensibly, the early dating of Bede’s grammatical writings corroborated their place as a kind of juvenilia within his oeuvre. Yet another factor which has contributed to the underrated status of Bede’s grammatical writings has been the role of grammar itself, as it was perceived in antiquity: grammar, which formed a part of the trivium, was literally a “trivial” subject; that Bede, representing an entirely different educational system with a curriculum of its own, did not share this view has not always been recognised or appreciated, although it has a direct bearing on the role and prominence of these works within his literary production. The scrutiny to which these works have been subjected has, inevitably, suffered from the disdainful view which scholars sometimes take of Roman grammarians. Admittedly, Late 1 Avalle 1992, 400-401. 2 Latin grammarians were not always the most original of thinkers: in their work we often encounter much that is recycled from earlier sources with little criticism or imagination. A reader acquainted with the works of Bede’s predecessors would be perfectly justified in failing to be impressed by his first glance at Bede’s De arte metrica, as it, superficially, seems to fit into this mould: much in it is derived from earlier sources, and even verbatim quotations from other grammarians are conspicuously frequent. It is only when one looks closer that one sees the true individuality of Bede’s views on metre. Bede rarely goes so far as to refute openly anything in his sources, but through subtle manipulation of wording, as well as careful elimination and introduction of material, he has often managed to alter the traditional presentations of metrical rules in ways that often amount to virtual redefinitions. In addition to the individual revisions of his material, Bede can, with some justice, be regarded as the creator of a literary genre: his De arte metrica presents syllable prosody and the poetic metres as a unified system rather than as separate subjects, and his presentation served as the primary model for the subsequent artes metricae of the Carolingian era and the high middle ages.2 1. 2. Grammar and metre in Anglo-Saxon England The relationship between Christianity and grammatical scholarship had been an uncomfortable one in late antiquity, as the study of grammar was seen as inextricably linked to the study of pagan literature. Vivien Law (1997, 74) cites several historical anecdotes which illustrate this sad state of things, the best-known of which is undoubtedly Jerome’s vision where he was accused of being “Ciceronianus, non Christianus”.3 As Christianity gained the upper hand, it nevertheless required an ever-growing number of educated young men for its offices. The school system of the Late Empire, however, was still largely based on the old, pagan, tradition of the artes liberales, to which the church had to adjust, and as the socio-economic structure of the empire collapsed, the Christians ultimately had to take over education. In 529, the Council of Vaison instructed parish priests to care for the education of youths in schools that were founded as adjuncts of the diocesan system. Although nominally Christianised, the episcopal and diocesan schools of late antiquity did not differ markedly 2 Leonhardt 1989, 75. However, Leonhardt, as Manitius (1911, 74) before him, underestimates the actual content of Bede’s treatise (p. 75: “Dabei bringt Beda, wie bereits Manitius zu Recht bemerkt hat, nichts, das nicht auch bei den antiken Grammatikern zu finden wäre.”).