Edmund Griffiths  

E d m u n d   G r i f f i t h s




Vnhappie verse: quantitative poetry in Elizabethan England

Oxford Communist Corresponding Society, 21 November 2019



ACCENTUAL IAMBIC PENTAMETER

x x
or
x x
x x x x x x x x
or
x x x

A shepherd, unhappy in love, looks at the trees in winter and sees in them a reflection of his own emotional state (Edmund Spenser, 1579):

    You na|ked trees, | whose sha|dy leaves | are lost,
    Wherein | the birds | were wont | to build | their bower,
    And now | are cloth’d | with moss | and hoa|ry frost,
    Instead | of blooms, | wherewith | your buds | did flower:
 5  I see | your tears, | that from | your boughs | do rain,
    Whose drops | in drea|ry i|cicles | remain.


QUANTITATIVE DACTYLIC HEXAMETER

x x x
or
x x
x x x
or
x x
x x x
or
x x
x x x
or
x x
x x x x x
or
x x

Queen Dido of Carthage wakes to learn that her lover Aeneas, a refugee from the fall of Troy, has abandoned her and is sailing away with his followers to found a new kingdom in Italy (Virgil, first century BC):

    regi|na e specu|lis ut | primam al|bescere | lucem
    vidit et | aequa|tis clas|sem pro|cedere | velis,
    litora|que et vacu|os sen|sit sine | remige | portus,
    terque qua|terque ma|nu pec|tus per|cussa de|corum
 5  flaven|tisque ab|scissa co|mas ‘pro | Juppiter! | ibit
    hic,’ ait | ‘et nos|tris in|luserit | advena | regnis?
    non arma | expedi|ent to|taque ex | urbe se|quentur,
    diripi|entque ra|tes ali|i na|valibus? | ite,
    ferte ci|ti flam|mas, date | tela, im|pellite | remos!
10  quid loquor? | aut ubi | sum? quae | mentem in|sania | mutat?
    infe|lix Di|do, nunc | te facta | impia | tangunt.’

Translated into English quantitative verse (Richard Stanyhurst, 1582):

    The Queen, | when the day|light his | shining | brightness a|ffordeth,
    Peeps from | lofty bea|cons and | sailing | navy be|holdeth.
    The strands | and the ha|vens of | vessels | empty she | marketh.
    Thrice, nay she | four sea|sons on | fair breast | mightily | bouncing
 5  And her | hair out-|rooting ye|llow, ‘God | Jupiter, | O Lord,’
    Quoth she, ‘Shall | he ’scape | thus? Shall a | stranger | give me the | slampam?
    With such | depar|ture my | regal | seigniory | frumping?
    Shall not all | our sub|jects pur|sue with | clamorous | hue-cry?
    With my fleet | boat follow|ing shall | not their | navy be | burnèd?
10  On, men; a|larm; fire|brands see ye | take; sails | hoise; row ye | swiftly!
    What chat I | fool? What | place me doth | hold? What | frenzy me | witcheth?
    O for|lorn Di|do, now | now wraw’d | destiny | grubs thee.’