CHAPTER V

TRIPARTITE STANZAS

I. _Isometrical stanzas._

§ =267.= In the anisometrical stanzas (which might, as being the older species, have been treated of first) the distinction between the first and the last part of the stanza (_frons_ and _cauda_) is marked as a rule by a difference of metre in them; in isometrical stanzas, on the other hand, the distinction between the two parts depends solely on the arrangement of the rhyme. For this reason certain =six-lined stanzas= consisting of two equal parts and a third of the same structure (the formula being _a a b b c c₄_ or the like), which now and then occur in the _Surtees Psalter_ (e.g. Ps. xliv, st. 5), cannot strictly be called tripartite.

Stanzas like these are, however, not unfrequent in Modern English poetry, as e.g. in a song of Carew's (_Poets_, iii. 292):

_Cease, thou afflicted soul, to mourn, Whose love and faith are paid with scorn; For I am starv'd that feel the blisses Of dear embraces, smiles and kisses, From my soul's idol, yet complain Of equal love more than disdain._

For an account of many other stanzas of the same or similar structure (consisting of trochaic four-foot lines, iambic-anapaestic lines of four stresses, or lines of five, six, and seven measures), see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 355, 356.

It is only rarely that we find stanzas formed on the scheme _a a a a b b_ (e.g. in the _Surtees Psalter_, xlix. 21; in Ben Jonson, _Poets_, iv. 574); or on the formula _a a b b a b₄_, as in Swinburne, _Poems_, i. 248.

One form, analogous to the stanza first mentioned in this section and used pretty often in Modern English, has crossed rhymes _a b a b a b_. It occurs with four-foot verses in Byron, _She walks in Beauty_:

_She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies: And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which Heaven to gaudy day denies._

The same stanza of trochaic or iambic-anapaestic metres of three or five measures is also frequently met with (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 358).

The tripartite character of a strophe appears somewhat more distinctly in stanzas formed on the scheme _a b a b b b_, or _a b a b b x_ (cf. _Metrik_, ii, §359).

The only stanzas, however, that are in the strictest sense to be regarded as tripartite are those in which the first and the last part are clearly distinguished by the arrangement of rhymes, as e.g. in the type _a b a b c c_. This stanza is very popular in Modern English poetry; in the Middle English period, however, we find it very rarely used, as e.g. in the _Coventry Mysteries_, p. 315.

In Modern English it occurs e.g. in Surrey, _A Prayse of his Love_ (p. 31):

_Give place, ye lovers, here before That spend your boasts and brags in vain; My Lady's beauty passeth more The best of yours, I dare well sayen, Than doth the sun the candle light, Or brightest day the darkest night._

This form of stanza is used with lines of the same metres by many other poets, e.g. by M. Arnold, pp. 195, 197, 256, 318. Similar stanzas of four-foot trochaic (cf. p. 285), or of four-stressed verses, and especially of five-foot verses, are very popular. They are found e.g. in Shakespeare's _Venus and Adonis_, M. Arnold's _Mycerinus_ (first part, p. 8), &c. (cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 360, 361).

Similar stanzas, however, in which the _frons_ precedes the _versus_, according to the formula _a a b c b c_ (cf. p. 285), do not occur frequently; a rare form, also, is that in which the _cauda_ is placed between the two _pedes_ (cf. p. 285 and _Metrik_, ii, §362).

§ =268.= Still more popular than the six-lined stanzas, both in the Middle and in the Modern English periods, are those =of seven lines=, which are modelled on Old French lyric poetry, the prevailing type being that of an Old French ballade-stanza, viz. _a b a b b c c_. But it is not before the middle of the fifteenth century that we meet with an example of this stanza consisting of four-foot verses, viz. in Lydgate's Minor Poems (_Percy Society_, 1840), p. 129; a specimen of four-stressed verses occurs in the _Chester Plays_, pp. 1-7 and pp. 156-8. We may, however, take it for granted that this form of stanza was known long before that time, since four-foot verses were used much earlier than those of five feet, and a six-lined stanza of five-foot verses occurs (for the first time, so far as we know) as early as in Chaucer's _Compleynte of the Dethe of Pite_, and subsequently in many other of his poems (e.g. _Troylus and Cryseyde_, _The Assembly of Fowles_, _The Clerkes Tale_) and in numerous other poems of his successors, e.g. in _The Kingis Quair_ by King James I of Scotland. It has been sometimes maintained that this stanza was called _rhyme royal_ stanza because that royal poet wrote his well-known poem in it; this, however, is not so. Guest long ago pointed out (ii. 359) that this name is to be derived from the French term _chant-royal_, applied to certain poems of similar stanzas which were composed in praise of God or the Virgin, and used to be recited in the poetical contests at Rouen on the occasion of the election of a 'king'. Chaucer's verses to Adam Scrivener are of this form and may be quoted as a specimen here (after Skeat's text, p. 118):

_Adam scriveyn, if euer it thee bifalle Boece or Troylus to writen newe, Under thy lokkes thou most haue the scalle, But after my making thou write trewe. So oft a day I mot thy werk renewe Hit to corrects and eek to rubbe and scrape, And al is through thy negligence and rape._

In Modern English this beautiful stanza was very popular up to the end of the sixteenth century; Shakespeare, e.g., wrote his _Lucrece_ in it; afterwards, however, it unfortunately fell almost entirely out of use (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 364).

The same form of stanza, composed of two-, three-, or four-foot verses also occurs almost exclusively in the Early Modern English period (cf. ib., § 363).

Some varieties of this stanza, mostly formed of three-, four-, and five-foot verses, correspond to the schemes _a b a b c c b₄_ (e.g. in Akenside, Book I, Ode iii), _a b a b c b c₅_ (Spenser, _Daphnaïda_, p. 542), _a b a b c b c₂_ (R. Browning, vi. 41). Other stanzas of seven lines are _a b a b c c a₄_, _a a b b c c a₄_, _a a b b a c c₄_, _a b a b C d C₃_, _a a b b c c c₄_, _a b a b c c c₄_, _a b a b c c c₅_, _a b a c c d d₅_ (for specimens see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 365, 366).

§ =269. Eight-lined isometrical stanzas= are also frequently used in the Middle and Modern English period, though not so often as those of six and seven lines.

The scheme _a b a b b a b a_, formed from the simple equal-membered stanza of eight lines _a b a b a b a b_, it would seem, by inversion of the last two couplets, is rare in Middle English. We find it in the _Digby Plays_, consisting of four-foot verses. In Modern English, too, it is not very common; we have an example in Wyatt, e.g. pp. 118, 135, and another in the same poet, formed of five-foot verses (_a b a b b a b a₅_), p. 135.

Much more in favour in the Middle as well as in the Modern English period is the typical form of the eight-lined stanza, corresponding to the scheme _a b a b b c b c_. It is formed from the preceding stanza by the introduction of a new rhyme in the sixth and eighth verses, and it had its model likewise in a popular ballade-stanza of Old French lyrical poetry.

In Middle English poetry this stanza is very common, consisting either of four-stressed verses (e.g. in _The Lyfe of Joseph of Arimathia_, E. E. T. S., vol. 44, and _On the death of the Duke of Suffolk_, Wright's _Polit. Poems_, ii. 232) or of four-foot or five-foot verses. As an example of the form consisting of four-foot verses we may quote a stanza from Wright's _Polit. Songs_, p. 246:

_Alle þat beoþ of huerte trewe, A stounde herkneþ to my song Of duel, þat deþ haþ diht us newe Þat makeþ me syke ant sorewe among! Of a knyht, þat wes so strong Of wham god haþ don ys wille; Me þuncheþ þat deþ haþ don vs wrong, Þat he so sone shal ligge stille._

Many other examples occur in later poetry, e.g. in Minot, Lydgate, Dunbar, Lyndesay, in Wyatt, p. 119, Burns, p. 59, Walter Scott, p. 160, &c.

Similar stanzas of two-stressed and three-foot verses are only of rare occurrence; we find them e.g. in Percy's _Rel._ II. ii. 3; Wyatt, p. 41.

The same stanza, consisting of five-foot verses, was used by Chaucer in his _A B C_, the first stanza of which may be quoted here:

_Almyghty and al merciable Quene, To whom that al this world fleeth for socour To have relees of sinne, sorwe, and teene! Glorious Virgyne, of alle floures flour, To thee I flee, confounded in errour! Help, and releve, thou mighty debonaire, Have mercy of my perilous langour! Venquysshed m' hath my cruel adversaire._

Chaucer uses the same stanza in some other minor poems, and also in _The Monkes Tale_; besides this we find it often in Lydgate, Dunbar, Kennedy; more rarely in Modern English poetry; e.g. in Spenser's _Shepheard's Cal., Ecl. XI_, S. Daniel's _Cleopatra_, &c.

Now and then some other eight-lined stanzas occur, e.g. one with the formula _a b a b b c c b_ in Chaucer's _Complaynt of Venus_, and in the _Flyting_ by Dunbar and Kennedy. The scheme _a a b b c d c d_ is used in a love-song (_Rel. Ant._ i. 70-4). In the Modern English period we have stanzas on the schemes _a ~ b a ~ b c c d ~ d ~₄_ (in Sidney, _Psalm XLIII_), _a b a b c c c b₄_ (Scott, _Helvellyn_, p. 472), _a ~ b a ~ b c ~ c ~ d ~ d ~₂_ (Moore); cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 369-71.

There are also eight-lined stanzas formed by combination with tail-rhyme stanzas, as _a a b a a b c c₄_, _a a b c c d d b₄_, but they are not frequent; a stanza corresponding to the formula _a a b a a b c c₄_ we have in Spenser, _Epigram III_ (p. 586); and the variety _a a b c c d d b₄_ (the _cauda_ being enclosed by the _pedes_) occurs in Moore.

The same peculiarity we find in stanzas formed on the scheme _A A b c b c A A₄_ (Moore), or _a a b c b c d d₄_ (Wordsworth, ii. 267); cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 372, 373.

§ =270.= Stanzas of a still larger compass are of rare occurrence in Middle English poetry. =A nine-lined stanza= corresponding to the formula _a a b a a b b c c₅_ we have in Chaucer's _Complaynt of Mars_; it seems to be formed from the _rhyme royal_ stanza, by adding one verse to each _pes_; but it might also be looked upon as a combination with the tail-rhyme stanza. Another stanza of this kind, with the formula _a a b a a b b a b₅_, is used in Chaucer's _Complaynt of Faire Anelyda_ and in Dunbar's _Goldin Targe_.

A similar stanza, corresponding to the formula _a a b c c b d b d₄_, occurs in Modern English poetry in John Scott, _Ode XII_. Other stanzas used in the Modern English period are formed with parallel rhymes, as e. g. on the scheme _a a a b b b c c c₄_ (Walter Scott, _Lady of the Lake_, p. 187); forms with crossed rhymes throughout or partly are also used, as e.g. by Wyatt, p. 121, according to the formula _a b a b c c c d d₅_:

_My love is like unto th' eternal fire, And I as those which therein do remain; Whose grievous pains is but their great desire To see the sight which they may not attain: So in hell's heat myself I feel to be, That am restrain'd by great extremity, The sight of her which is so dear to me. O! puissant Love! and power of great avail! By whom hell may be felt ere death assail!_

As to other schemes (_a b a b b c d c d₅_, _a b a b b c b c c₅_, _a b a b c d c d R₄_, _a b a b c d c d d₄_, &c.) cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 374-6.

§ =271.= A Middle English =stanza of ten lines=, similar to those of nine lines, is used by Chaucer in the _Envoy_ to his _Complaynt of Mars and Venus_ (_a a b a a b b a a b₅_); another on the model _a b a b b c c b b b₄_is found in a poem _Long Life_ (E. E. T. S., 49, p. 156, quoted in _Metrik_, i. p. 421).

Some of the Modern English stanzas again are formed by combination with different varieties of the tail-rhyme stanza, as e.g. one according to the formula _a a b ~ c c b ~ d d e e₄_ in Prior, _The Parallel_ (Poets,