2.3. Of proportion in measure.
Meeter and measure is all one, for what the Greeks call
metron, the Latines call Mensura, and
is but the quantitie of a verse, either long or short. This quantitie with
them consisteth in the number of their feete: & with vs in the number of
sillables, which are comprehended in euery verse, not regarding his feete,
otherwise then that we allow in scanning our verse, two sillables to make
one short portion (suppose it a foote) in euery verse. And after that sort ye
may say, we haue feete in our vulgare rymes, but that is improperly: for a
foote by his sence naturall is a member of office and function, and serueth
to three purposes, that is to say, to go, to
runne, & to stand still: so as he must be sometimes swift, sometimes
slow, sometime vnegally marching or peraduenture steddy. And if our feete
Poeticall want these qualities it can not be sayd a foote in sence
translatiue as here. And this commeth to passe, by reason of the euident
motion and stirre, which is perceiued in the sounding of our wordes not
alwayes egall: for some aske longer, some shorter time to be vttered in,
& so by the Philosophers definition, stirre is the true measure of time.
The Greekes & Latines because their wordes hapned to be of many
sillables, and very few of one sillable, it fell out right with them to
conceiue and also to perceiue, a notable diuersitie of motion and times in
the pronuntiation of their wordes, and therefore to euery
bisillable
they allowed two times, & to a
trisillable three times, & to
euery
polisillable more, according to his quantitie, & their times
were some long, some short according as their motions were slow or swift.
For the sound of some sillable stayd the eare a great while, and others slid
away so quickly, as if they had not bene pronounced, then euery sillable
being allowed one time, either short or long, it fell out that euery
tetrasillable had foure times, euery
trisillable three, and the
bisillable two, by which obseruation euery word, not vnder that sise,
as he ranne or stood in a verse, was called by them a foote of such and so
many times, namely the
bisillable was either of two long times as
the
spondeus, or two short, as the
pirchius, or of a long & a
short as the
trocheus, or of a short and a long as the
iambus:
the like rule did they set vpon the word
trisillable, calling him a
foote of three times: as the
dactilus of a long and two short: the
mollossus of three long, the
tribracchus of three short, the
amphibracchus of two long and a short, the
amphimacer of two
short and a long. The word of foure sillables they called a foote of foure
times, some or all of them, either long or short: and yet not so content they
mounted higher, and because their wordes serued well thereto, they made
feete of sixe times: but this proceeded more of curiositie, then otherwise:
for whatsoeuer foote passe the
trisillable is compounded of his
inferiour as euery number Arithmeticall aboue three, is compounded of the
inferiour numbers as twise two make foure, but the three is made of one
number, videl. of two and an vnitie. Now because our naturall &
primitiue language of the
Saxon English,
beares not any wordes (at least very few) of moe sillables then one
(for whatsoeuer we see exceede, commeth to vs by the alterations of our
language growen vpon many conquestes and otherwise) there could be no
such obseruation of times in the found of our wordes, & for that cause
we could not haue the feete which the Greeks and Latines haue in their
meetres: but of this stirre & motion of their deuised feete, nothing can
better shew the qualitie then these runners at common games, who setting
forth from the first goale, one giueth the start speedely & perhaps
before the come half way to th'other goale, decayeth his pace, as a man
weary & fainting: another is slow at the start, but by amending his
pace keepes euen with his fellow or perchance gets before him: another one
while gets ground, another while loseth it again, either in the beginning, or
middle of his race, and so proceedes vnegally sometimes swift somtimes
slow as his breath or forces serue him: another sort there be that plod on,
& will neuer change their pace, whether they win or lose the game: in
this maner doth the Greeke
dactilus begin slowly and keepe on
swifter till th'end, for his race being deuided into three parts, he spends
one, & that is the first slowly, the other twaine swiftly: the
anapestus his first two parts swiftly, his last slowly: the
Molossus spends all three parts of his race slowly and egally
Bacchius his first part swiftly, & two last parts slowly. The
tribrachus all his three parts swiftly: the
antibacchius his
two first partes slowly, his last & third swiftly: the
amphimacer, his first & last part slowly & his middle part
swiftly: the
amphibracus his first and last parts swiftly but his
midle part slowly, & so of others by like proportion. This was a pretie
phantasticall obseruation of them, & yet brought their meetres to haue
a maruelous good grace, which was in Greeke called
rihmos: whence we haue deriued this word
ryme, but improperly & not wel because we haue no such feete or times
or stirres in our meeters, by whose
simpathie, or pleasant
conueniencie with th'eare, we could take any delight: this
rithmus of
theirs, is not therfore our rime, but a certaine musicall numerositie in
vtterance, and not a bare number as that of the Arithmeticall computation
is, which therefore is not called
rithmus but
arithmus. Take
this away from them, I meane the running of their feete, there is nothing of
curiositie among them more then with vs nor yet so much.
