2.11. Of your feet of three times, and first of the Dactil.
Your feete of three times by prescription of the Latine Grammariens are of
eight sundry proportions, for some notable difference appearing in euery
sillable of three falling in a word of that size: but because aboue the
antepenultima there was (among the Latines) none accent audible in
any long word, therefore to deuise any foote of longer measure then of three
times was to them but superfluous: because all aboue the number of three
are but compounded of their inferiours. Omitting therefore to speake of
these larger feete, we say that of all your feete of three times the
Dactill is most vsuall and fit for our vulgar meeter, & most
agreeable to the eare, specially if ye ouerlade not your verse with too many
of them but here and there enterlace a Iambus or some other foote of
two times to giue him grauitie and stay, as in this quadrein Trimeter
or of three measures.
Render againe mie libertie
and set your captiue free
Glorious is the victorie
Conquerours use with lenitie.
Where ye see euery verse is all of a measure, and yet vnegall in number of
sillables: for the second verse is but of sixe sillables, where the rest are of
eight. But the reason is for that in three of the same verses are two
Dactils a peece, which abridge two sillables in euery verse: and so
maketh the longest euen with the shortest. Ye may note besides by the first
verse, how much better some bisillable becommeth to peece out an
other longer foote then another word doth: for in place of [render] if
ye had sayd [restore] it had marred the Dactil, and of necessitie
driuen him out at length to be a verse Iambic of foure feet, because
[render] is naturally a Trocheus and makes the first two times
of a dactil. [Restore] is naturally a labus, & in this
place could not possibly haue made a pleasant dactil.
Now againe if ye will say to me that these two words [libertie] and
[conqueror] be not precise Dactils by the Latine rule. So much
will I confesse to, but since they go currant inough vpon the tongue, and be
so vsually pronounced, they may passe wel inough for Dactils in our
vulgar meeters, & that is inough for me, seeking but to fashion an art,
& not to finish it: which time only & custom haue authoritie to do,
specially in all cases of language as the Poet hath wittily remembred in this
verse -si volet usus
Quem penes arbitrium est & vis & norma loquendi.
The Earle of Surrey vpon the death of Sir Thomas Wiat made among
other this verse Pentameter and of ten sillables,
What hole graue (alas) what sepulcher
but if I had had the making of him, he should haue bene of eleuen sillables
and kept his measure of fiue still, and would so haue runne more pleasantly
a great deale: for as he is now, though he be euen he seemes odde and
defectiue, for not well obseruing the natural accent of euery word, and this
would haue bene soone holpen by inserting one
monosillable in the
middle of the verse, and drawing another sillable in the beginning into a
Dactil, this word [
holy] being a good [
Pirrichius] &
very well seruing the turne, thus,
What holie graue a las what fit sepulcher.
Which verse if ye peruse throughout ye shall find him after the first
dactil all Trochaick & not Iambic, nor of any other
foot of two
times. But perchance if ye would seeme yet more curious, in place of these
foure
Trocheus ye might induce other feete of three times, as to make
the three sillables next following the
dactil, the foote
[
amphimacer] the last word [
Sepulcher] the foote
[
amphibracus] leauing the other midle word for a [
Iambus] thus.
What holie graue a las what fit sepulcher.
If ye aske me further why I make [what] first long & after short
in one verse, to that I satisfied you before, that it is by reason of his accent
sharpe in one place and flat in another, being a common monosillable,
that is, apt to receiue either accent, & so in the first place receiuing
aptly the sharpe accent he is made long: afterward receiuing the flat accent
more aptly then the sharpe, because the sillable precedent [las]
vtterly distaines him, he is made short & not long & that with very
good melodie, but to haue giuen him the sharpe accent & plucked it from
the sillable [las] it had bene to any mans eare a great discord: for
euermore this word [alas] is accepted vpon the last, & that
lowdly & notoriously as appeareth by all our exclamations vsed vnder
that terme. The same Earle of Surrey & Sir Thomas Wyat the
first reformers & polishers of our vulgar Poesie much affecting the
stile and measures of the Italian Petrarcha, vased the foote
dactil very often but not many in one verse, as in these,
Full manie that in presence of they liuelie hed,
Shed Caesars teares upon Pompeius hed.
Th'enemie to life destroi er of all kinde,
If amo rous faith in an hart un fayned,
Myne old deere ene my my froward master.
The furi ous gone in his most ra ging ire.
And many moe which if ye would not allow for dactils the verse
would halt vnlesse ye would seeme to help it contracting a sillable by
vertue of the figure Syneresis which I thinke was neuer their meaning,
nor in deede would haue bred any pleasure, to the eare, but hindred the
flowing of the verse. Howsoeuer ye take it the dactil is commendable
inough in our vulgar meetres, but most plausible of all when he is sounded
vpon the stage, as in these comicall verses shewing how well it becommeth
all noble men and great personages to be temperat and modest, yea more
then any meaner man, thus.
Let no nobilitie riches or heritage
Honour or empire or earthlie dominion
Breed in your head anie peeuish opinion
That ye may safer auouch anie outrage.
And in this distique taxing the Prelate symoniake standing all vpon perfect
dactils.
Now manie bie money puruey promotion
For money mooues any hart to deuotion.
But this aduirtisement I will giue you withall, that if ye vse too many
dactils together ye make your musike too light and of no solemne
grauitie such as the amorous Elegies in court naturally require, being
alwaies either very dolefull or passionate as the affections of loue enforce,
in which busines ye must make your choise of very few words
dactilique, or them that ye can not refuse, to dissolue and breake
them into other feete by such meanes as it shall be taught hereafter: but
chiefly in your courtly ditties take heede ye vse not these maner of long
polisillables and specially that ye finish not your verse with them as
[retribution] [restitution] [remuneration]
[recapitulation] and such like: for they smatch more the school of
common players than of any delicate Poet Lyricke or Elegiacke.