The development of alliterative metre from Old to Middle English

Description

The thesis deals with the history of the alliterative long line from Old English to both early and late Middle English, and demonstrates that the differences between the metrical systems of those periods are explicable in their entirety by the historical changes in the linguistic prosody rather than a discontinuity of the alliterative tradition. The first three chapters of the thesis examine the alliterative metre in Old English (primarily on the basis of Beowulf), early Middle English (primarily on the basis of Layamon's Brut), and late Middle English (primarily on the basis of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Morte Arthure, and the Siege of Jerusalem). The discussions pay particular attention to those points that are subsequently used in the historical reconstruction presented in the final chapter. At the same time, each of the period chapters aims to provide a coherent systemic formulation of the particular metre. The chief method employed by the study is the standard procedure of matching the linguistic and metrical data, as described in the introduction. The historical reconstruction is based on the premise that in particular types of poetic environments certain changes in the linguistic prosody will automatically result in a restructuring of the metrical system. The premise leads to a new version of the history of English alliterative poetry based on the concrete evidence of the extant texts. ABSTRACT......Page 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 3 Key to scansion symbols......Page 5 BookmarkTitle:......Page 7 Linguistic change and the continuity of alliterative verse......Page 8 The alliterative tradition in medieval England......Page 9 Theories of continuity......Page 16 The framework hypothesis......Page 21 Prosody and alliteration......Page 30 Outline of the thesis......Page 31 Methodology of the metrical study......Page 36 Theories of Old English metre: the Sievers tradition......Page 49 A metrical system or rhythmical catalogue: Sievers, Pope, and Bliss......Page 50 Cable's metrical theory......Page 61 Interdependency of the rules......Page 69 Patterns with five metrical positions......Page 72 Secondary stress......Page 77 A morphological metre......Page 81 A sidetrack: Old English extended metre......Page 90 CHAPTER 2. Late Middle English alliterative metre......Page 96 Chronology of loss......Page 100 Inflections in the final dip in SGGK......Page 105 Inflections in the medial dip in SGGK......Page 114 Inflection of disyllabic adjectives......Page 116 Final -e in SGGK: conclusions......Page 122 Inflections in the final dip in MA......Page 123 Singular nouns in the final dip in MA......Page 129 Inflections in the medial dip in MA......Page 134 Evidence for final -e in SGGK and MA: a comparison......Page 141 Final -e in MA: conclusions......Page 145 Suffixes in the weak dip......Page 149 Extent of the restriction......Page 156 The form of the a-verse......Page 162 Two-lift a-verses......Page 163 Three-lift a-verses: a rhythmical catalogue and strong final dips......Page 168 Three-lift a-verses: non-schwa syllables......Page 174 Existence of three-lift verses......Page 179 Three-lift b-verses......Page 187 Late Middle English alliterative metre: a summary......Page 192 The metre of Layamon's Brut: the late Middle English perspective......Page 195 Language and spelling......Page 197 Initial metrical statement and preliminary tests......Page 201 The prefix licence......Page 205 Elision......Page 207 Compounds......Page 208 Scansion of the basic fragment......Page 210 Comparison to the Otho passage......Page 211 Prefix licence: summary of the evidence......Page 214 Layamon: an intermediate stage......Page 215 The metre of Layamon's Brut: further observations......Page 218 Length and resolution in early Middle English verse: introductory remarks......Page 219 Resolution in Layamon......Page 224 The form of the final dip......Page 228 Suffixes: the strong dip......Page 229 Suffixes: compound stress......Page 236 Suffixes: primary linguistic stress......Page 239 Suffixes: the weak dip......Page 242 Suffixes: resolution......Page 248 Rhythmical patterns of two-lift b-verses......Page 250 Rhythmical patterns of three-lift b-verses......Page 253 Rhythmical patterns of a-verses......Page 255 Existence of three-lift verses......Page 257 Length and resolution in early Middle English verse: concluding remarks......Page 259 Layamon's verse: summary of the findings......Page 268 BookmarkTitle:......Page 272 CHAPTER 4. The development of alliterative metre......Page 273 From Old English to early Middle English......Page 274 From early to late Middle English......Page 287 Dynamism of the metrical system......Page 289 The antiquarian question......Page 292 Which Old English metre?......Page 294 When did Middle English begin?......Page 297 CONCLUSION......Page 300 Bibliography......Page 302