§ 94. Another peculiarity of frequent but irregular occurrence in even-beat verse is alliteration, a feature which is derived from the old native metre, and is still (consciously or unconsciously) employed by many poets as an ornament of their verse.
The arbitrary use of alliteration in the freer form of the long line has been already discussed.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it is mostly used merely to give a stronger emphasis to those words of the verse which bear the logical and rhythmical accent,[131] but even as early as this we can observe a decided predilection for accumulated alliteration. Sometimes the same alliterative sound is retained through several successive lines. In other instances a fourth alliterating word is admitted in the line (as in the example referred to above). In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries this striving after accumulation of alliteration was carried to such a length that it became a rule that as many words in the line as possible, whether accented or not, should begin with the same letter. This accounts for King James VI’s metrical rule quoted above (p. 89), that in ‘Tumbling verse’ the line is to be ‘literal’. Even Chaucer, in spite of his well-known hostile attitude to regular alliterative poetry,[132] allowed his diction to be influenced strongly by it, e.g.:
I wréche, whích that wépe and wáylle thús,
Was whílom wýf to kýng Capáneús.
Kn. Tale, ll. 73–4.
And hé him húrtleth wíth his hórs adóun.
ib. line 1758.
This accumulation of alliterative sounds occurs in the works of many Modern English poets, some of whom, as Peele and Shakespeare, have themselves ridiculed it, but were unable, or were not careful, to avoid it altogether in their own practice.
And wíth sharp shrílling shríekes | doe bóotlesse crý.