But although this kind of measure hath with us been thus degraded, it still retains among the French its ancient dignity; their grand heroic verse of twelve syllables[901] is the same genuine offspring of the old alliterative metre of the ancient Gothic and Francic poets, stript like our Anapestic of its alliteration, and ornamented with rhyme: but with this difference, that whereas this kind of verse hath been applied by us only to light and trivial subjects, to which by its quick and lively measure it seemed best adapted, our poets have let it remain in a more lax unconfined state[902], as a greater degree of severity and strictness would have been inconsistent with the light and airy subjects to which they have applied it. On the other hand, the French having retained this verse as the vehicle of their epic and tragic flights, in order to give it a stateliness and dignity were obliged to confine it to more exact laws of scansion: they have therefore limited it to the number of twelve syllables; and by making the cæsura or pause as full and distinct as possible, and by other severe restrictions, have given it all the solemnity of which it was capable. The harmony of both however depends so much on the same flow of cadence and disposal of the pause, that they appear plainly to be of the same original; and every French heroic verse evidently consists of the ancient distich of their Francic ancestors: which, by the way, will account to us why this verse of the French so naturally resolves itself into two complete hemistics. And indeed by making the cæsura or pause always to rest on the last syllable of a word, and by making a kind of pause in the sense, the French poets do in effect reduce their hemistics to two distinct and independent verses: and some of their old poets have gone so far as to make the two hemistics rhyme to each other.[903]
After all, the old alliterative and anapestic metre of the English poets being chiefly used in a barbarous age, and in a rude unpolished language, abounds with verses defective in length, proportion, and harmony; and therefore cannot enter into a comparison with the correct versification of the best modern French writers; but making allowances for these defects, that sort of metre runs with a cadence so exactly resembling the French heroic Alexandrine, that I believe no peculiarities of their versification can be produced, which cannot be exactly matched in the alliterative metre. I shall give by way of example a few lines from the modern French poets accommodated with parallels from the ancient poem of Life and Death; in these I shall denote the cæsura or pause by a perpendicular line, and the cadence by the marks of the Latin quantity.
Lĕ sŭccēs fŭt toŭjoūrs | ŭn ĕnfānt dĕ l'ăudāce
Ăll shăll drȳe wĭth thĕ dīnts | thăt I dĕal wĭth my̆ hānds.
L'hŏmmĕ prūdĕnt vŏit trōp | l'ĭllūsĭŏn lĕ sūit,
Yōndĕr dāmsĕl ĭs dēath | thăt drēssĕth hĕr tŏ smīte.
L'ĭntrĕpīdĕ vŏit mīeux | ĕt lĕ fāntōmĕ fūit.[904]
Whĕn shĕ dōlefŭlly̆ sāw | hōw shĕ dāng dōwne hĭr fōlke.
Mĕme aŭx yeūx dĕ l'injūste | ŭn ĭnjūste ĕst hŏrrīblĕ.[905]
Thĕn shĕ cāst ŭp ă crȳe | tŏ thĕ hīgh kĭng ŏf heāvĕn.
Dŭ mĕnsōngĕ toŭjoūrs | lĕ vrāi dĕmēurĕ māitrĕ,
Thŏu shălt bīttĕrlyĕ bȳe | ŏr ēlse thĕ bōokĕ fāilĕth.
Poŭr părōitre hōnnĕte hōmme | ĕn ŭn mōt, ĭl făut l'ētre.[906]
Thŭs I fāred thrōugh ă frȳthe | whĕre thĕ flōwĕrs wĕre māny̆e.
To conclude: the metre of Pierce Plowman's Visions has no kind of affinity with what is commonly called blank verse; yet has it a sort of harmony of its own, proceeding not so much from its alliteration, as from the artful disposal of its cadence, and the contrivance of its pause; so that when the ear is a little accustomed to it, it is by no means unpleasing; but claims all the merit of the French heroic numbers, only far less polished; being sweetened, instead of their final rhymes, with the internal recurrence of similar sounds.