CHAPTER I.

SYSTEMS-NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL.

Few things appear, at first sight, more easy, or upon trial are found more difficult, than the clear and orderly arrangement of many and varied particulars. To class them according to their several relations, so that they may follow each other in due subordination, would seem rather an exercise of patience than of intellect; to require industry, or at most some little discrimination, rather than depth of thought, or an enlarged comprehension of the subject. But it has ever been by a slow and tedious process, that theory has disentangled itself from mere knowledge of fact; and we soon learn how much easier it is to collect materials, than to form with them a consistent whole. The many systems, which have been hazarded in the exact sciences, may well make us cautious, when we treat of matters, from their very nature, so much more vague and indeterminate.

The systems of the naturalist have been called (with no great accuracy of language) natural or artificial, accordingly as they were founded on more or less extensive analogies. The same terms have been applied to the systems of philology, accordingly as they were based on the gradual developement of language, or accommodated to the peculiarities of a particular dialect. If we may use these terms, when speaking of our literature, I would venture to denounce as artificial, every system, which makes time or place the rule of its classification. The example of

Warton* shows us, how difficult it is to follow a merely chronological arrangement; and the claims, which have been made by local vanity or prejudice, to appropriate certain portions of our literature, are listened to with less patience, as our knowledge of that literature becomes more widely extended.

The success of our critics might have been greater, if their ambition had been less; had they noticed with more care the outward make and fashion, and confined themselves less exclusively to the spiritual tendencies of our poetry. The instinct of imitation appears to have seized the points most tangible-the rhythm and the versification. The sentiments and the language seem rather to have been looked upon as necessary appurtenants, than as independent and essential elements. We find particular trains of thought, and particular idioms (in some cases amounting almost to a change of dialect) for ages appropriated to certain rhythms.

The history of our language has suffered, equally with that of our poetry, from overlooking the peculiarities of our poetical dialect. Some of our critics will have Chaucer to exhibit a faithful specimen of the English tongue, during the fourteenth century—but who, judging from style and language, would suppose him to be a contemporary of Langland? or that, in the following century, the same hand wrote the "Twa mariit women and the Wedo," and "The Golden Targe?" How widely does the foreign and artificial stateliness of the ballet style differ from the rude but native vigour of our alliterative poetry!

A complete history of our rhythms would probably lead to a very satisfactory arrangement of our poetry; and enable us to trace, with more truth and precision than has hitherto beed done, at once the progress of our language, and the gradual developement of our inventive genius.

* All must admit his failure as regards the arrangement of his subject ;however much they admire the taste and learning of this accomplished scholar.

Unfortunately, the published specimens of our early literature are so scanty, as rarely to furnish us with an unbroken series of any early rhythm. Large gaps occur, which can only be filled up by a laborious search into manuscripts, scattered through the country, and not always very easy of access. In such cases similarity of idiom, or of subject may sometimes aid us; and enable us to recognise a particular rhythm, when the changes it has undergone might otherwise make us hesitate.

With better means of information, I might probably see reason to modify much that is advanced in the following book; but I cannot think that any of the more important divisions would require material alteration.

ARRANGEMENT OF THE SUBJECT.

The next chapter will be devoted to the consideration of Anglo-Saxon rhythm-that main stock, from which have branched almost all the later rhythms of the language. In the third chapter, we shall treat of our sectional metres—or such as were produced by making each section a distinct verse. In the fourth, we shall trace the progress of such metres as were based on the shorter AngloSaxon rhythms; and in the fifth, the history of our old English alliterative metre—or, in other words, of that metre, which resulted from modifying the longer AngloSaxon rhythms by the accentual rhythm of the Latin chaunts. The origin of the Psalm-metres may be considered as the converse of this; they appear to be the natural growth of the Latin rhythm modified by the native rhythm of the language. These will form the subject of the sixth chapter. The metre of five accents will be considered in the seventh chapter; and the tumbling metre in the eighth. We shall, in the ninth chapter, notice certain loose rhythms, which have been occasionally used; and in the tenth, such new metres as have from time to time been invented or adopted by our English poets.

CHAPTER II.

Before we enter upon the subject of Anglo-Saxon rhythm, it may forward our inquiry, if we first throw a rapid glance over the present state of Anglo-Saxon litera

ture.

Among the writers, to whom this literature has hitherto been considered as very deeply indebted, must be ranked the names of Hickes, Lye, and Conybeare. The first of these published his Thesaurus in 1705; Lye's Dictionary followed after the lapse of half a century; and Conybeare's "Illustrations" appeared, as a posthumous publication, so late as the year 1826.

The censures, which have been passed upon these works latterly, have been fully equal to any former eulogies. It would require much care, and some discrimination, fairly to portion out the merit due to their respective authors. Their errors, it is true, are many, but the subjects on which they speculated were new; and, when an art is in its infancy, an increased range of knowledge is sometimes of more importance than extreme accuracy. They, who devote themselves to discovery, have rarely time for minute investigation; and their mistakes may well claim the forbearance of those, who have profited by their labours. It is no slight praise, that the materials, which these writers furnish, are readily seized upon, even by those, whose criticism has been most hostile. No one, I believe, has studied Anglo-Saxon literature, since these blundering works" were published, without having them at his elbow.

66

The interest, which has been felt of late years in favour of these studies, has not however been confined to our own country. It has spread to the scholars of Denmark