New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-02

Macmillan company
After having spent fifty years in reading al
most every line penned by English poets. real
and imaginary, and after having given the
world the first fruits of this labor Of love in
three valuable volumes Of literary history. Pro-
lessor Saintsbury turns his wonderfully eouipped
mind TO questions Of verslfcat ton. Those who
admire his writings on English literature may,
AZ their first dip into this newly dug well
Of information, experience an unpleasant chill
Il is easy TO get q first impression that the
book IS only the corpse Of one much loved
but Rugged 10 death. The average reader IS
more or less justified IN feeling that prosody
IS the stuff that is left after poetry has heen
drunk up, and that Professor Saintsburv's IN
terest in It is n delight IN the lees which is
known only TO him who has known the wine too
well and TOO long. There is much humanity and
truth in this instructive attitude. Nobody en-
Joys poetry the more for having scanned the
lines Of a thousand vorsihers and probably no
poet worthy of the name Won his laurels bv
writing according 20 rules Of feet and measures
II IS also likely that historical problem OF any
Importance viii ever be ended by the discovery
Of aHybody's prosodic pecullar!ties. But H. as 81
might seem. prosody Itself must fight for its
life. how much more desperate must be the
struggle for existence which the history Of
pTosody IS called upon 10 make! How shall It
nology OF untmportant events?
Professor SGintsbury IS TOO deeplv immersed
IN his own pool to hear the suspicion whispered
across its surface. He IS too thoroughly q his
torian 70 entertain, even for an instant the
thought that some real events may not be worth
recording. I IS e pet fancy OF many historians
nowadays 70 apply the notion Of rigid aIl-per-
vading law-borrowed from physics and biology
TO the sum total Of past events and 10 register
the shores Of q drunken Chinaman on the plea
that everything in history influences everything
else. The author, Of the present book Is not IN
fscted with this philosophical elixir Of death; At
the very outset he insists that all theories (of
pTosody as well as of everything else) must
come from facts, and that these latter should
never be spun on the pattern OF some previous
fancy. But, while he is free from the great
vice, he does not appreciate the need Of defend
ing the study Of prosody. One would have TO
peruse this first volume Of the history with
more than ordinary care IN order TO discover in
the presented facts the best possible justin
cation Of Professor saintsburys toilsome re-
searches Prosody appears in these studies
longer as a patent medicine for poetasters. guar
anteed to cure all the horrors OF literary OBJ
nv1cn. but rather vital expression both Of
the genius Of a language and Of the thoughts Of
men. Verse types are not rules 10 be followed
by the ambitious; they are outgrowths Of char
acter. And II We can bring ourselves TO see
them in this light. We shall be aided IN under
standing q poets sentiments by his lines just
as we are helped in following his talk by his
gestures and the lines in HIS face. The History
OF Prcsody" though unconscious OF its own out
come, actually succeeds II giving US a new kind
OF insight into the profoundest racial and per
sonal differences Of temperament and thought
fulness
Pre-speuserian prosody described by Pro-
fesscr saintsourys appreciatlvo pen. lays bare
the most salient characteristics Of the English
mind In IL We find structural principles wholly
different from those OF classical prosody. The
historian nnds in this earliest period what proves
later 10 be general rule namely. that feet or
spaces" are the true integers Of English versih-
cation. This rule IS cOngpIcuOusly an Anglo
Saxon one, being found In the very Oldest frag-
rnents; II contrasts radically with the Latin and
Greek principle Of rigid syllable form. Early
French poetry differs from early English chiefly
IN its adherence 10 the Latin structure, which
demands fixed number Of syllables in each
line The Englshnan never felt deeply the i'm
portance OF either the syllable or the line; he
builds freely upon certain number Of intensi-
fed centres in each line, letting two syllables do
duty for three. three for two one for two, and
20 on. Again. he has always had a strong i'm
pulse toward letter-cOlOTing, such ALTERATION
maintenance OF some vowel or consonant type
and later on. rhyme. Finally, much more per-
sistently and forcefully than the classic poets
be pauses sharply in the midst Of each verse
The history OF English prosody consists pri-
rnerIlv IN an account Of the growth Of these
three strong, characteristic tendencies. all Of
which were present in the poets Of the twelfth
century.
In explaining how the advance was made from
the. nrhyth1ne6, unrhymed Anglo-Saxon to po-
etry with swing and ring, Professor Saints
bury Introduces the reader to his theory Of the
relation between rhyme and rhythm Rhyme"
he says whenever accepted by any language
gradually but necessarily breaks up prosody by
versicles OF sections merely. and substitutes
prosody by feet-that is 10 say, by minor inter-
nal divisions, which are patched and brought to
rnetrical correspondence by the rhyme itself"
Rhyme. then. Is not passive added grace to an
already rhythmical prosody; It is the precursor
and the cause Of rhythmical development Who
ever IS surprised at this hypothesis viii do we'll
70 study well the second chapter Of the book be-
fore protesting AS usual. the historian protects
his position by a bulwark Of facts.
The interesting Investigations of Professor
skeat and others have doubtless caused our his
torian TO refrain from extensive discussions
about the evolution and significance Of allitera-
ton in English poetry. Apart from conven-
tional illusions 70 the well known alliterative
nature Of Anglo-Saxon verse, Professor Saints
bury hardly does more than to distinguish be-
tween ornamental ALTERATION and the structural
kind the former effective and the latter per-
nicious-as proved by the writings Of Langland
and his contemporaries. It is surely true that
structural ALTERATION. such Is found in
Anglo-Saxon. is an impotent implement, having
q primitive but very limited charm. The much