In some very ancient English poetry, we find lines of twelve syllables combined in couplets with others of fourteen; that is, six iambic feet are alternated with seven, in lines that rhyme. The following is an example, taken from a piece of fifty lines, which Dr. Johnson ascribes to the Earl of Surry, one of the wits that flourished in the reign of Henry VIII:—
"Such way | -ward wayes | hath Love, | that most | part in | discord,
Our willes | do stand, | whereby | our hartes | but sel | -dom do
| accord;
Decyte | is hys | delighte, | and to | begyle | and mocke,
The sim | ple hartes | which he | doth strike | with fro | -ward di
| -vers stroke.
He caus | -eth th' one | to rage | with gold | -en burn | -ing darte,
And doth | allay | with lead | -en cold, | again | the oth
| -er's harte;
Whose gleames | of burn | -ing fyre | and eas | -y sparkes | of flame,
In bal | -ance of | ~un=e | -qual weyght | he pon | -dereth | by ame."
See Johnson's Quarto Dict., History of the Eng. Lang., p. 4.
MEASURE IV.—IAMBIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER.
Example I.—Hector to Andromache.
"Andr=om | -~ach=e! | m=y s=oul's | f~ar b=et | -t~er p=art,
Wh=y w~ith | untime | -ly | sor | -rows heaves | thy heart?
No hos | -tile hand | can an | -tedate | my doom,
Till fate | condemns | me to | the si | -lent tomb.
Fix'd is | the term | to all | the race | of earth;
And such | the hard | conditi | -on of | our birth,
No force | can then | resist, | no flight | can save;
All sink | alike, | the fear | -ful and | the brave."
POPE'S HOMER: Iliad, B. vi, l. 624-632.
Example II.—Angels' Worship.
"No soon | -er had | th' Almight | -y ceas'd | but all
The mul | -titude | of an | -gels with | a shout
Loud as | from num | -bers with' | -out num | -ber, sweet
As from | blest voi | -ces ut | t~er ~ing j=oy, | heav'n rung
With ju | -bilee, | and loud | hosan | -nas fill'd
Th' eter | -nal | re | -gions; low | -ly rev | -erent
Tow'rds ei | -ther throne | they bow, | and to | the ground
With sol | -emn ad | -ora | -tion down | they cast
Their crowns | inwove | with am | -arant | and gold."
MILTON: Paradise Lost, B. iii, l. 344.
Example III.—Deceptive Glosses.
"The world | is still | deceiv'd | with or | -nament.
In law, | what plea | so taint | -ed and | corrupt,
But, be | -ing sea | -son'd with | a gra | -cious voice,
Obscures | the show | of e | -vil? In | religi~on,
What dam |—n~ed er | -ror, but | some so | -ber brow
Will bless | it, and | approve | it with | a text,
Hid~ing | the gross | -ness with | fair or | -nament?"
SHAKSPEARE: Merch. of Venice, Act iii, Sc. 2.
Example IV.—Praise God.