§ 9. b) XIX Century.

The first full survey of English prosody by Edwin Guest, A History of English Rhythms, London 1838, contains much material, but it proceeds from false assumptions. It is also so complicated that it is of little use for a clear knowledge of the evolution of English prosody. It is little altered in the second edition, edited by W. Skeat (1882). Cp. on Guest Schipper, Engl. Metrik I, p. 2; Omond, Engl. Metrists (1907), p. 132; Transactions of the Philol. Soc. 1873/74, pp. 624–645.

The greatest service to the investigation of English prosody has been rendered by J. Schipper by his standard work: Englische Metrik in historischer und systematischer Entwicklung dargestellt. I. Teil: Altenglische (i.e. OE. and ME.) Metrik, Bonn 1882. II. Teil: Neuenglische Metrik. 1. Hälfte: Verslehre, Bonn 1888. 2. Hälfte: Strophenbau, Bonn 1889. This work will for a long time remain the startingpoint for further investigations of English prosody, although in many individual questions, e.g. in the views on and treatment of the OE. alliterative verse it has been surpassed by later investigations.

In 1895 J. Schipper published an abstract of his greater work with the title: Grundriss der engli schen Metrik (Wiener Beiträge zur engl. Philologie, Bd. 2) Vienna 1895. But this work is too full to serve as an introductory handbook to English prosody.

NOTE. An English translation of the Grundriss has been recently published.

In Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie (1893) only OE. and ME. prosody is considered, so that a full treatment of English prosody is not offered in this work. The OE. prosody in the Grundriss has been treated by Sievers (II, 1, 861-897), the ME. prosody by Luick and Schipper (II, 1, 993-1072), Luick taking the 'heimischen Versarten', Schipper the 'fremden Metra'. In the second edition of Paul's Grundriss (1906) Sievers' essay on the old Germanic alliterative verse has been revised by Kaufmann and Gering, but it has been left almost unaltered. These revisers have not even discussed the criticisms of Sievers' system, which appeared in the meantime (by Möller, Hirt, Fuhr, ten Brink, Kaluza, Kögel, Martin, Trautmann, Franck), but have simply put them aside with a few words. This is a very strange proceeding for a "Grundriss", which claims. to give information about the course of scientific investigation in Germanic philology. The treatment of English prosody, which is a unity, by three authors, who to some extent approach the subject from different points of view, is moreover a great disadvantage, so that the section on English prosody in Paul's Grundriss is of little practical use and is confusing, especially for the beginner.

§ 10. c) XX Century.

A work on Middle and Modern English prosody in three volumes has recently appeared: Saints

bury, A History of English Prosody from the Twelfth Century to the Present Day (London 1906, 1909, 1910). Unfortunately OE. prosody is totally excluded, so that the description of ME. prosody has no foundation and cannot be used. At the same time terms employed in Latin and Greek prosody are uncritically transferred to English prosody, which is of a quite different nature.

An excellent survey of the metrical theories of the last four centuries is given in two books by Omond: English Metrists, Tunbridge Wells 1903, and English Metrists of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, London 1907. Omond's theoretical work, A Study of Metre, London 1903, contains much worthy of notice.

A book by R. M. Alden, English Verse. Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History, New York 1904, is to be strongly recommended. This work, as the title states, contains a collection of examples, illustrating English verse and stanza forms of early and modern times. It contains also theoretical discussions.

A book by Charlton M. Lewis, Principles of English Verse, New York 1906, is distinguished by an apt aesthetic characterization of the most important English verse and stanza forms.

Smaller handbooks on modern English prosody are: Joseph Mayor, A Handbook of Modern English Metre, Cambridge 1903 Versification, Boston 1891

Parsons, English

Corson, A Primer

of English Verse

Charles F. Johnson, Forms

of English Poetry, New York 1904.

Other works, dealing with special departments of English prosody, will be mentioned in the following paragraphs, as occasion demands.

Section I.

Old English Prosody (450-1100).

§ 11. Alliterative Verse and "Schwellvers”.

The only kind of verse used in all OE. poetry up to the end of the eleventh century is the so-called alliterative verse or alliterating long line. This long line is a unity, composed of two half lines, separated by a pause, but connected by alliteration, e.g.

Beow. 18 f.: Beowulf was brēme,

blæd wide sprang

Scyldes eaferan Scedelandum in.

A slight variation from the normal long line is formed by the so-called "Schwellverse" or lengthened lines, which occur here and there in long poems. These, as the name implies, have been formed by an extension of the usual scheme of the long line, e.g.

Beow. 1163 ff.:

gan under gyldnum bēage, sæton suhtergefæderan.

þa cwōm Wealhbeo ford þær þa gōdan twegen

bā gyt was hiera sib ætgædere.