470 Transactions. 



The so-called 'Varieties of metre (such as trochaic, dactylic, 

 anapestie, amphibrachic) arising from these variations will be 

 spoken of more particularly in the chapter on metre ; all that 

 is required in this place is to show that the normal fourteen 

 syllables are maintained in all these lines, divergent as many 

 may appear from the normal type. (See Chapter VI.) 



(b.) As suggested in Chapter I, section 2, the equal divisions 

 of poetry, called " feet," may be more or less filled with sound. 

 The rhythm is the integral movement of which a foot is part ; 

 the foot is one of the equal divisions of the rhythm, and each foot 

 normally consists of two beats — one light, one heavy. Words 

 float on the beat of the rhythm, and the rhythm is constant, 

 though a word may here and there be dropped or doubled. The 

 place of the word in the former case is taken by a pause ; in the 

 latter a triplet is produced. Take the second line of the 8th 

 quotation : — 



And here | is aljso twen|ty marke | for | your curjteysy.| 



Nine out of ten would read " marke " as one syllable, making 

 the line the same as the second of quotation 13 : — 



Toward j the towne | of Notjyngham, | out | lawes as | they were.| 



The tenth might give the " e " of " marke " its full old-time value, 

 when the line would have its fourteen syllables ; so also to the 

 gross ear would the line last quoted by the insertion of " bold " 

 before " outlawes." In the same manner a pause takes the 

 place of the first syllable in the first line of quotation 3 : for 

 " Robyn stode " read " Good Robyn stode." The second 

 line of quotation i runs, — 



He set | the monke | to-fore j the brest, I to the ground | that he I can gone.| 

 Here there are three syllables to the fifth foot, but it is evident 

 they only occupy the time of two ; they are, in fact, what 

 triplets are in music — they alter the time only of the foot in 

 which they occur. So again in quotation 6 : here there are 

 no less than four trisyllabic feet in the two lines ; and, the 

 time remaining constant throughout, an agreeable tripping effect 

 is produced. In quotation 15, " Alas ! then sayd | good 

 Ilnbyn," the accented syllable is dropped: the line reads 

 normally by inserting 'Hood" after "Robyn." Taking 

 quotation 11, — 



And yf ] I toke | it twyse, | a shame | it were | to me ; | 

 And trew|ly, gen|tyll knvght, | welcome | art thou | to me. | 



In reading, a distinct pause is made after " twyse " and 

 " knyght " —a pause equal to the two syllables dropped. In 

 the second line of quotation 5, — 



The head | and the fed era of ryohe rede gold, j in Engjlande is j none lybe | 



