Charles Damdson — English Mystery Plays. 



231 



Characteristics : — The intrusion of the dactylic movement in every 

 verse position except the second, otherwise as Ex. 2. In the poem 

 this stanza is preceded and followed by septenar stanzas on the 

 model of Ex, 2. 



Ex. 4. De Pravitate Saeculi.' Lines 29-38. 



Sed ne vos detineam II turbine sermonum, 

 raundi caput corruit II non habet patronum : 

 ubinam est hodie ll virtus Scipionum, 

 Marcelliisque loquax ll et nomina vana Catonum ? 



ft 



u — w 



O — — U -— H 



a a a a. 



Characteristics : — The tendency shown in Ex. 3 has been reduced 

 to system, the fourth verse becoming dactylic by the loss of one 

 stress in the first half-verse and the removal of stress from the 

 syllable immediately following the caesura. There are many irregu- 

 larities in this poem, but the intention of the author seems evident 

 from such fourth lines as — Jupiter esse pium || statuit quodclimque 

 juvaret. 



We return now to Ex. 1. This passage rimes at the caesuras by 

 couplets, and can therefore be written as two quatrains. But these 

 quatrains were easily bound together into one stanza by alternating 

 rime, as is shown by the following lines taken from the same poem. 



Ex. 5. Lines 159-162. 



Inferentes miserls 



Qui non sunt cordatl, 

 Nee dlvlni munerls 



Grdtiafirmati, 

 Cdrnis deslderlls 



dnimdles dati, 

 Cujus Immundltiis, 



briitls comparati, 



Since the Latin Y-accent line was not inconveniently long, it was 

 usually written as such ; but in English the above form was favored, 

 and, through the prominence thus given to the caesura, riming half- 

 verses increased in frequency, and one type of English stanza be- 

 came fixed. 



Another form of stanza arises from a different combination of 

 Y-accent couplets of the type of Ex. 1. The two couplets given as 

 Ex. 1 may be written by taking the first half-verses alternately, and 



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Poems of Walter Mapes, p. 159. 



