Andersen. — The Verse-unit. 639 



10. To return again to the Dowsabel stanza, it is probable that its full 

 development cannot be traced in British poetry ; it possibly began its 

 evolution in France — Warton derives it from the French chansons.* Its 

 source may lie in the same fount from whence flowed the Latin hymns of 

 Adam of St. Victor and others, having reference to hymns of similar sub- 

 structure. The following is from one by Adam of 8t. Victor :— 



(32.) Verbi vere substantivi, 

 Caro cum sit in declivi 

 Temporis angustia, 

 In aeternis verbum annis 

 Permanere nos Johannis 

 Docet theologia. 



This stanza has been translated by Dr. Neale (incorrectly according to 

 Archbishop Trenchf) as follows : — 



(32f/.) That substantive word, united 

 "^ To the flesh, and therein plighted 



To a life of misery sore, 

 Him to be the Coeternal, 

 John's theology supernal 

 Testifieth evermore. 



These hymns swell into vet fuller stanzas : The following, again, is by Adam 

 of St. Victor :— ' 



(33.) Jucundare, plebs tidelis, 



Cujus Pater est in coelis, 



Recolens Ezechielis 



Prophetae praeconia : 



Est Joannes testis ipsi, 



Dicens in Apocalypsi, 



Vere vidi, vere scripsi 



Vera testimonia. 



In this stanza the insertion of a half-verse in each section has converted 

 the irregu.lar Dowsabel stanza into one perfectly regular. Whilst the 

 language of these hymns may be no more than dog-Latin, they have a 

 sonorous, majestic sweep of rhythm. The metre of Poe's " Raven " is based 

 on No. (33). Without authentic specimens of its early forms, it is perhaps 

 unprofitable to speculate as to the actual origin of the combination that 

 results in the irregular Dowsabel stanza. The change from the abrupt 

 (trochaic) form of the Latin hymns to the ordinary duple (iambic) of 

 British verse is due to the syntactic construction of the language, but 

 the actual form of the stanza is the result of metrical forces. It is hardly 

 possible that it was derived from the hymns themselves, as they, when 

 occurring in the form of No. (34), are composed of four-stressed lines 

 throughout — as though in each half of the stanza two Romance verses had 

 been " telescoped," not a Romance and a Ballad verse as in the Dowsabel 

 stanza. 



11. In paragraph 5 of this section reference was made to thoughts 

 which exceeded or fell short of the average verse. In Ballad metre the 

 verses may lengthen regularly to Romance, or contract to Nibelmigen or 

 Alexandrine. In the old Danish ballads examples have been given of 

 verses lengthening even beyond the Romance ; but in only one example, 

 No. (30&), 1 to 3, was there even an embryonic indication of an apparent 



* Warton's "History of English Poetry," as before, p. 29. 

 t " Sacred Latin Poetry," p. 71. 



