614 Tra?isactio/is. 



(21a.) Night/ is the time/ for rest/ ; / how sweet/, when la/bours close/, 



To ga/ther round/ an a/ching breast/ the cur/tain of/ repose/, / 



Stretch/ the tired limbs/, and lay/ the head/ down/ on our own/ 

 delight/ful bed !/ 



The Alexandrine in (21) is made Nibelungen by substituting " resting " 

 for " rest," and Ballad by adding " and peace " to " rest " : — 



(216.) Night/ is the time/ for rest/ ; / how sweet/, when la/bours close/, 



Night/ is the time/ for rest/ing ; / how sweet/, when la/bours close/. 

 Night/ is the time/ for rest/ and peace/ ; how sweet/, when la/bours close/. 



No dislocation of metre ensues ; the pause is simply filled ; and is not that 

 an indication that the pause is occasioned by syllables having been dropped ? 

 The pause is evident enough when the Alexandrine occurs with other 

 metres ; when, however, a poem is entirely in Alexandrines it is not quite 

 so apparent. The following is from song xxvi in Drayton's " Polyolbion " : — ■ 



(22.) And of these archers brave, there was not any one 

 But he could kill a deer, his swiftest sjjeed upon. 

 Which they did boil and roast in many a mighty wood, 

 Sharp hunger the fine sauce to their more kingly food. 

 Then taking them to rest, his merry men and he 

 Slept many a summer's night under the greenwood tree. 

 From wealthy abbots chests and churls abundant store. 

 What oftentimes he took he shar'd amongst the poor : 

 No lordly bishop came in lusty Robin's way. 

 To him, before he went, but for his jjass must pay : 



As already said, the pause, which tends to shorten, may not have, and 

 most probably has not, the full value of the dropped unit ; it is, neverthe- 

 less, potential to expand for the reception of such unit should necessity 

 demand it. 



In the old Romances these Alexandrines are at times written as couplets, 

 as was also more generally the full Romance verse. Of verses written at 

 length, Warton says,* " And some critics may be inclined to suspect, that the 

 verses which we call Alexandrine, accidentally assumed their form merely 

 from the practice of absurd transcribers, who frugally chose to fill their 

 pages to the extremity, and violated the metrical structure for the sake 

 of saving their vellum." In France the Alexandrine has been highly 

 developed ; in England it is used principally in its simplest form — a verse 

 of two parts each containing three stress-units, and divided by a pause. 

 It is here wished to show merely that this simpler form is closely connected 

 with the Ballad. 



12. Whilst Alexandrine and Nibelungen are closely related to Ballad, 

 there seems to exist between them a curious antipathy, except when they 

 are interwoven in short stanzas. In the following they blend well : — 



(23.) I loved a lass, a fair one. 

 As fair as e'er was seen ; 

 She was indeed a rare one. 



Another Sheba Queen. 

 But fool as then I was, 



I thought she loved me too : 

 And now, alas ! she's left me, 

 Falero, lero, loo. 



(Wither, "I Loved a Lass.") 



In the " Nibelungen Noth." on tlie other hand, whilst all manner of varia- 

 tions, and combinations of Nibelungen verses with Ballad and Romance 



* " History of English Poetry," section 1 (page 30 of Ward, Lock, and Tyler's reprint 

 in one volume). 



