612 Tra7isactions. 



10. The Ballad metre has two lesser brethren, also probably sprung 

 from the Romance, though not on English ground. The first of these may 

 be called the Nibelungen metre, from the fact that it forms the metre of 

 the great German epic, the " Nibelungen Noth." It is an important ballad- 

 metre both in Germany and in Denmark. It is easy to see the relation 

 existing between Ballad and Nibelungen metres : a verse of each is con- 

 tained in Christina Rossetti's " He and She " : — 



(15.) Should one of us remember, 

 Ana one of us forget, 

 I wish I knew what each would do — 

 But who can tell as j-et ? 



This forms the typical metre of " Horatius " ; and in thirty-nine out of the 

 forty-five stanzas of that poem the two metres mingle. The Nibelungen 

 has a most distinctive lilt, and its peculiarity is due to the fact that the 

 stressed syllable of the fourth unit has been dropped : — 



(15rt.) Should one/ of us/ remem/ber, / and one/ of us/ forget/, 



I wish/ I knew/ what each/ would do/ — but who/ can tell/ as yet ?/ 



For variations in the Nibelungen metre one must turn to the great German 

 epic itself as to a treasure-house. The following are noted : — 



(16.) a. We are/ in an/cient sto/ries / won/ders ma/ny told/ 



b. Fair/ without/ a ble/mish, / her gra/cious bo/dy was/, 



c. Of fes/tival and/ rejoi/cing, / of wee/ping and/ complai/ning, 



d. Who al/so in/ his youth/ful days/ great ho/nour of/ten won/. 



e. For whom/ must ma/ny good/ly war/riors lose/ both bo/dy and breath/. 

 /. Of no/ble he/roes' stri/vings must/ ye e'en now/ to won/ders hear/ken. 



g. I will/ of both/ avoid/ me, / that 1/ from mis/chance may/ be spared/. 

 h. How sor/row / to true/ love / oft/ at length/ is bared/ ; < 



(■. So yet/ to thee/ will God/ allot/ a good/ly knight/ of stur/dy limb/. 



These variations all occur in the first Adventure, containing nineteen stanzas 

 of four verses each ; and besides these, there are many verses varied intern- 

 ally — that is, at other places besides the line-ends and verse-ends. It will 

 therefore be evident that the metre, whilst retaining its peculiar character, 

 is infinitely varied. In d, e, and / above it swells to full Ballad ; in t it 

 swells to full Romance ; in g we have a Romance verse with a Nibelungen 

 unit, an exceedingly rare verse in British poetry. Burns has a striking ex- 

 ample in " Sae flaxen were her Ringlets " — 



(17.) Sae flaxen were her ringlets. 



Her eyebrows of a darker hue, 

 Bewitchingl}' o'er-arching 



Twa laughing een o' bonie blue. 

 Her smUing, sae wyling, 



Wad make a wretch forget his woe ! 

 What pleasure, what treasure. 



Unto those rosy lips to grow ! 

 Such was my Chloris' bonie face 



When first that bonie face I saw. 

 And ay my Chloris' dearest charm — 



She says she lo'es me best of a' ! 



(Stanza 1.) 



It is seen by the concluding verses that the whole is a Romance stanza ; 

 it will be noted, too, that verses three and four are parallels to quotation h 

 so far as the opening is concerned — an opening used by very few British 

 poets outside Scotland. Tennyson has a happy combination of the three 

 verses Nibelungen-Romance, true Nibelungen, and true Romance in his 

 8ong in " The Miller's Daughter "— 



