III. The Book of the Duchesse.
I may remark here that the metre is sometimes difficult to follow; chiefly owing to the fact that the line sometimes begins with an accented syllable, just as, in Milton's L'Allegro, we meet with lines like 'Zéphyr, with Aurora playing.' The accented syllables are sometimes indistinctly marked, and hence arises a difficulty in immediately detecting the right flow of a line. A clear instance of a line beginning with an accented syllable is seen in l. 23—'Slép', and thús meláncolýë.'
1. The opening lines of this poem were subsequently copied (in 1384) by Froissart, in his Paradis d'Amour—
'Je sui de moi en grant merveille
Comment je vifs, quant tant je veille,
Et on ne porrait en veillant
Trouver de moi plus travaillant:
Car bien sacies que pour veiller
Me viennent souvent travailler
Pensees et melancolies,' etc.