Andersen.— 77i(? Ver.<e-i/in'f, 607 



3. It is to be observed, however, that the Hue had assumed defiuiteuess, 

 and maintained that definiteness, whatever it was, before the poet could 

 have any thought of printing at all ; at the time, in fact, when the poems 

 were recited or suiig. So absolute was this definiteness that on the intro- 

 duction of printing it required no ingenuity, no labour, on the part of the 

 printer to set down the poems in a way that has not to this day changed 

 in any essential particular. In many instances where he had manuscript 

 before him he would no doubt be guided by the scribe, who, if the lines were 

 run on, would show the divisions and subdivisions by periods and colons, 

 or by some other equivalent device. 



4. At the time of the mingling of the Saxon and Norman races the form 

 of English poetry underwent a great change, passing from the alliterative 

 stave of the skald to the metrical verse of the minstrel. That such change 

 did not take place mtliout the struggle attendant on all changes is well 

 shown in the " Vision of Piers Plowman," a poem which is a connecting- 

 link between the two forms. The type of the new form is seen in the 

 *' Metrical Romances," which were built up of verses of eight stresses, not 

 yet divided into stanzas. M. Leon Gautier thinks that these verses, 

 divided into four-stressed lines, were derived from a Latin form, the 

 " iambic dimeter " : — 



Forti sequemur pectore.* 



The tracing of the absolute origin of these lines must be accomplished before 

 the final word can be written, but it need not concern us here, seeing that 

 the English form was not derived from the Latin, but from the already 

 evolved French type. It was in this French eight-stressed verse that a 

 notable developmental change took place when the metre became accli- 

 matized in England. 



5. Professor Saintsbury has notedf that the verse of the " Metrical 

 Romances " showed a constant tendency to 'drop a unit ; and this tendency 

 has resulted in the metre becoming seven-stressed, the seventh stress being 

 followed by a pause. The new metre, once evolved, became one of the 

 most popular and persistent forms in English poetry, which it still pervades, 

 forming the basis of all the lyrical metres. It will therefore be of interest to 

 see if any cause can be assigned to the fact that the new metrical form was 

 a verse of eight stresses, and that the eight stresses shortened to seven 

 stresses and a pause. 



6. Any regular stanza will serve as illustration : take Burns's — ■ 



(5.) Ye banks and braes o' bonie Doon, 



How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair ? 

 How can ye chant, ye little birds, 



When I'm sae weary, fu' o' care ! 

 Thou'll break my heart, thou warbling bird. 



That wantons thro' the flowering thorn ! 

 Thou minds me o' departed joys. 

 Departed never to return. 



(" The Bauks o' Doon," stanza 1.) 



These verses, being modern, are thus printed, each verse being spht into 

 two lines of four stresses each. It will readily be noted, however, that 



* H. E. Berthon, " Specimens of Modern French Verse," p. xv of Introduction. 

 t "History of English Prosody," vol. i, p. 248, and Appen. vi, p. 406. 



