CHAUCER. 267 



loose talk of Coleridge, loose in spite of its affectation 

 of scientific precision, about " retardations " and the 

 like, has misled many honest persons into believing that 

 they can make good verse out of bad prose. Coleridge 

 himself, from natural fineness of ear, was the best 

 metrist among modern English poets, and, read with 

 proper allowances, his remarks upon versification are 

 always instructive to whoever is not rhythm-deaf. But 

 one has no patience with the dyspondeeuses, the paeon 

 primuses, and what not, with which he darkens verses that 

 are to be explained only by the contemporary habits of 

 pronunciation. Till after the time of Shakespeare we 

 must always bear in mind that it is not a language of 

 books but of living speech that we have to deal with. 

 Of this language Coleridge had little knowledge, except 

 what could be acquired through the ends of his fingers 

 as they lazily turned the leaves of his haphazard read- 

 ing. If his eye was caught by a single passage that 

 gave him a chance to theorize he did not look farther. 

 Speaking of Massinger, for example, he says, " When a 

 speech is interrupted, or one of the characters speaks 

 aside, the last syllable of the former speech and first of 

 the succeeding Massinger counts for one, because both 

 are supposed to be spoken at the same moment. 



' And felt the sweetness oft 



' Hoio her mouth runs over.' " 

 Now fifty instances may be cited from Massinger which 



e"crit et historic" et couvert de vermeil velours a dis cloux d'argent 

 dore"s d'or, et roses d'or au milieu, et a deux grands fremaulx dore"s et 

 richement ouvre*s au milieu de rosiers d'or." How lovingly he lingers 

 over it, hooking it together with et after et ! But two centuries earlier T 

 while the jongleurs were still in full song, poems were also read aloud. 

 " Pur remembrer des ancessours 

 Les faits et les dits et les mours, 

 Deit Ten les livres et les gestes 

 Et les estoires lire a fesies." Roman du Rou. 

 But Chaucer wrote for the private reading of the closet. 



