CHAPTER X
THE SEPTENARY, THE ALEXANDRINE, AND THE THREE-FOOT LINE
§ 135. The Septenary is a favourite Middle English metre, going back to a Mediaeval Latin model. It cannot, however, be definitely determined whether this is to be found in the (accentual) catalectic iambic tetrameter, an example of which is preserved, among other instances, in the Planctus Bonaventurae (1221–74) printed by Mone in his Latin Hymns of the Middle Ages, which begins as follows:
O crux, frutex salvificus, | vivo fonte rigatus,
Quem flos exornat fulgidus, | fructus fecundat gratus,
or possibly in another Latin metre which was a far greater favourite with the Anglo-Norman Latin poets. This is the (accentual) brachycatalectic trochaic tetrameter, which frequently occurs, among other instances, in the poems ascribed to Walter Map, e.g. in the still popular verses:
Mihi est propositum | in taberna mori,
Vinum sit appositum | morientis ori.
The result of an attempt to adopt this metre in Middle English might, on account of the preference of the language for iambic rhythm, very naturally be to transform it into the iambic catalectic tetrameter by the frequent addition of an unaccented opening syllable at the beginning of each half-line. Probably the latter verse-form was the model, as may be seen from Leigh Hunt’s Modern English translation of the Latin drinking-song just quoted.[145]