George Puttenham - The Arte of English Poesie

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_The Piller, Pillaster or Cillinder._

The Piller is a figure among all the rest of the Geometricall most
beawtifull, in respect that he is tall and vpright and of one bignesse
from the bottom to the toppe. In Architecture he is considered with two
accessarie parts, a pedestall or base, and a chapter or head, the body is
the shaft. By this figure is signified stay, support, rest, state and
magnificence, your dittie then being reduced into the forme of a Piller,
his base will require to beare the breath of a meetre of six or seuen or
eight sillables: the shaft of foure: the chapter egall with the base, of
this proportion I will giue you one or two examples which may suffise.

_Her Maiestie resembled to the crowned piller, Ye must read vpward._

_Is blisse with immortalitie.
Her trymest top of all ye see,
Garnish the crowne.
Her iust renowne
Chapter and head,
Parts that maintain
And woman head
Her mayden raigne
In te gri tie:
In ho nour and
with ve ri tie:
Her roundnes stand
Strengthen the state.
By their increase
With out de bate
Concord and peace
Of her sup port,
They be the base
with stedfastnesse
Vertue and grace
Stay and comfort
Of Albi ons rest,
The sounde Pillar
And seene a farre
Is plainely exprest
Tall stately and strayt
By this no ble pour trayt_

_Philo to the Lady Calia, sendeth this Odolet of her prayse
in forme of a Piller, which ye must read downward._

_Thy princely port and Maijestie
Is my ter rene dei tie,
Thy wit and sense
The streame & source
Of e l o quence
And deepe discours,
Thy faire eyes are
My bright load starre,
Thy speach a darte
Percing my harte,
Thy face a las,
My loo king glasse,
Thy loue ly lookes
My prayer bookes,
Thy pleasant cheare
My sunshine cleare
Thy ru full sight
My darke midnight,
Thy will the stent
Of my con tent,
Thy glo rye flour
Of myne ho nour,
Thy loue doth giue
The lyfe I lyve,
Thy lyfe it is
Mine earthly blisse:
But grace & fauour in thine eies
My bodies soule & souls paradise._

_The Roundell or Spheare_.

The most excellent of all the figures Geometrical is the round for his
many perfections. First because he is euen & smooth, without any angle, or
interruption, most voluble and apt to turne, and to continue motion, which
is the author of life: he conteyneth in him the commodious description of
euery other figure, & for his ample capacitie doth resemble the world or
uniuers, & for his indefiniteness hauing no speciall place of beginning
nor end, beareth a similitude with God and eternitie. This figure hath
three principall partes in his nature and vse much considerable: the
circle, the beame, and the center. The circle is his largest compasse or
circumference: the center is his middle and indiuisible point: the beame
is a line stretching directly from the circle to the center, &
contrariwise from the center to the circle. By this description our maker
may fashion his meetre in Roundel, either with the circumference, and that
is circlewise, or from the circumference, that is, like a beame, or by the
circumference, and that is ouerthwart and dyametrally from one side of the
circle to the other.

_A generall resemblance of the Roundell to God, the world and the Queene._

_All and whole, and euer, and one,
Single, simple, eche where, alone,
These be counted as Clerkes can tell,
True properties, of the Roundell.
His still turning by consequence
And change, doe breede both life and sense.
Time, measure of stirre and rest.
Is also by his course exprest.
How swift the circle stirre aboue,
His center point, doeth neuer moue:
All things that euer were or be,
Are closde in his concauitie.
And though he be, still turnde and tost,
No roome there wants nor none is lost.
The Roundell hath no bonch or angle,
Which may his course stay or entangle.
The furthest part of all his spheare,
Is equally both farre and neare.
So doth none other figure fare
Where natures chattels closed are:
And beyond his wide compasse,
There is no body nor no place,
Nor any wit that comprehends,
Where it begins, or where it ends:
And therefore all men doe agree,
That it purports eternitie.
God aboue the heauens so hie
Is this Roundell, in world the skie,
Vpon earth she, who beares the bell
Of maydes and Queenes, is this Roundell:
All and whole and euer alone,
Single, sans peere, simple, and one._

A speciall and particular resemblance of her Maiestie to the Roundell.

_First her authoritie regall
Is the circle compassing all:
The dominion great and large
Which God hath geuen to her charge:
Whithin which most spatious bound
She enuirons her people round,
Retaining them by oth and liegeance.
Whithin the pale of true obeysance:
Holding imparked as it were,
Her people like to heards of deere.
Sitting among them in the middes
Where foe allowes and bannes and bids
In what fashion she list and when,
The seruices of all her men.
Out of her breast as from an eye,
Issue the rayes incessantly
Of her iustice, bountie and might
Spreading abroad their beams so bright
And reflect not, till they attaine
The fardest part of her domaine.
And makes eche subiect clearley see,
What he is bounden for to be
To God his Prince and common wealth,
His neighbour, kinred and to himselfe.
The same centre and middle pricke,
Whereto our deedes are drest so thicke,
From all the parts and outmost side
Of her Monarchie large and wide,
Also fro whence reflect these rayes,
Twentie hundred maner of wayes
Where her will is them to conuey
Within the circle of her suruey.
So is the Queene of Briton ground,
Beame, circle, center of all my round._

_ Of the square or quadrangle equilater._

The square is of all other accompted the figure of most folliditie and
stedfastnesse, and for his owne stay and firmitie requireth none other
base then himselfe, and therefore as the roundell or Spheare is appropriat
to the heauens, the Spire to the element of the fire: the Triangle to the
ayre, and the Lozange to the water: so is the square for his inconcussable
steadinesse likened to the earth, which perchaunce might be the reason
that the Prince of Philosophers in his first booke of the _Ethicks_,
termeth a constant minded man, euen egal and direct on all sides, and not
easily ouerthrowne by euery little aduersitie, _hominem quadratum_, a
square man. Into this figure may ye reduce your ditties by vsing no moe
verses then your verse is of sillables, which will make him fall out
square, if ye go aboue it wil grow into the figure _Trapezion_, which is
some portion longer then square. I neede not giue you any example, by
cause in good arte all your ditties, Odes & Epigrammes should keepe & not
exceede the nomber of twelue verses, and the longest verse to be of twelue
sillables & not aboue, but vnder that number as much as ye will.

_The figure Ouall._

This figure taketh his name of an egge, and also as it is thought his
first origine, and is as it were a bastard or imperfect rounde declining
toward a longitude, and yet keeping within one line for his periferie or
compasse as the rounde, and it seemeth that he receiueth this forme not as
an imperfection but any impediment vnnaturally hindring his rotunditie,
but by the wisedome and prouidence of nature for the commoditie of
generation in such of her creatures as bring not forth a liuely body (as
do foure footed beasts) but in stead thereof a certaine quantitie of
shapelesse matter contained in a vessell, which after it is sequestred
from the dames body receiueth life and perfection, as in the egges of
birdes, fishes, and serpents: for the matter being of some quantitie, and
to issue out at a narrow place, for the easie passage thereof, it must of
necessitie beare such shape as might not be sharpe and greeuous to passe
at an angle, nor so large or obtuse as might not essay some issue out with
one part moe then other as the rounde, therefore it must be slenderer in
some part, & yet not without a rotunditie & smoothnesse to giue the rest
an easie deliuerie. Such is the figure Ouall whom for his antiquitie,
dignitie and vse, I place among the rest of the figures to embellish our
proportions: of this sort are diuers of _Anacreons_ ditties, and those
other of the Grecian Liricks, who wrate wanton amorous deuises, to solace
their witts with all, and many times they would (to giue it right shape of
an egg) deuide a word in the midst, and peece out the next verse with the
other halfe, as ye may see by perusing their meetres.

When I wrate of these deuices, I smiled with myselfe, thinking that the
readers would do so to, and many of them say, that such trifles as these
might well haue bene spared, considering the world is full inough of them,
and that it is pitie mens heades should be fedde with such vanities as are
to none edification nor instruction, either of morall vertue, or otherwise
behooffull for the common wealth, to whose seruice (say they) we are all
borne, and not to fill and replenish a whole world full of idle toyes. To
which sort of reprehendours, being either all holy and mortified to the
world, and therefore esteeming nothing that fauoureth not of Theologie, or
altogether graue and worldy, and therefore caring for nothing but matters
of pollicie, & discourses of estate, or all giuen to thrift and passing
for none art that is not gainefull and lucratiue, as the sciences of the
Law, Phisicke and marchaundise: to these I will giue none other aunswere
then referre them to the many trifling poemes of _Homer, Ouid, Virgill,
Catullus_ and other notable writers of former ages, which were not of any
grauitie or seriousnesse, and many of them full of impudicitie and
ribaudrie, as are not these of ours, nor for any good in the world should
haue bene: and yet those trifles are come from many former siecles vnto
our times, vncontrolled or condemned or supprest by any Pope or Patriarch
or other seuere censor of the ciuill maners of men, but haue bene in all
ages permitted as the conuenient solaces and recreations of mans wit. And
as I can not denie but these conceits of mine be trifles: no lesse in very
deede be all the most serious studies of man, if we shall measure grauitie
and lightnesse by the wise mans ballance who after he had considered of
all the profoundest artes and studies among men, in th'ende cryed out with
this Epyphoneme, _Vanitas vanitatum & omnia vanitas_. Whose authoritie if
it were not sufficient to make me beleeue so, I could be content with
_Democritus_ rather to condemne the vanities of our life by derision, then
as _Heraclitus_ with teares, saying with that merrie Greeke thus,
_Omnia sunt risus, sunt puluis, & omnia nil sunt.
Res hominum cunctae, nam ratione carent._
Thus Englished,
_All is but a iest, all daft, all not worth two peason:
For why in mans matters is neither rime nor reason._

Now passing from these courtly trifles, let vs talke of our scholastical
toyes, that is of the Grammaticall versifying of the Greeks and Latines
and see whether it might be reduced into our English arte or no.

_CHAP. XII._

_How if all maner of sodaine innouatians were not very scandalous,
specially in the lawes of any langage or arte, the use of the Greeke and
Latine feete might be brought into our vulgar Poesie, and with good grace
enough._

Now neuerthelesse albeit we haue before alledged that our vulgar _Saxon
English_ standing most vpon wordes _monosillable_, and little vpon
_polysillables_ doth hardly admit the vse of those fine inuented feete of
the Greeks & Latines, and that for the most part wise and graue men doe
naturally mislike with all sodaine innouations specially of lawes (and
this the law of our auncient English Poesie) and therefore lately before
we imputed it to a nice & scholasticall curiositie in such makers as haue
fought to bring into our vulgar Poesie some of the auncient feete, to wit
the _Dactile_ into verses _exameters_, as he that translated certaine
bookes of _Virgils Eneydos_ in such measures & not vncommendably: if I
should now say otherwise it would make me seeme contradictorie to my
selfe, yet for the information of our yong makers, and pleasure of all
others who be delighted in noueltie, and to th'intent we may not seeme by
ignorance or ouersight to omit any point of subtillitie, materiall or
necessarie to our vulgar arte, we will in this present chapter & by our
own idle obseruations shew how one may easily and commodiously lead all
those feete of the auncients into our vulgar language. And if mens eares
were not perchaunce to daintie, or their iudgementes ouer partiall, would
peraduenture nothing at all misbecome our arte, but make in our meetres a
more pleasant numerositie then now is. Thus farre therefore we will
aduenture and not beyond, to th'intent to shew some singularitie in our
arte that euery man hath not heretofore obserued, and (her maiesty good
liking always had) whether we make the common readers to laugh or to
lowre, all is a matter, since our intent is not so exactlie to prosecute
the purpose, nor so earnestly, as to thinke it should by authority of our
owne iudgement be generally applauded at to the discredit of our
forefathers maner of vulgar Poesie, or to the alteration or peraduenture
totall destruction of the same, which could not stand with any good
discretion or curtesie in vs to attempt, but thus much I say, that by some
leasurable trauell it were no hard matter to induce all their auncient
feete into vse with vs, and that it should proue very agreable to the eare
and well according with our ordinary times and pronunciation, which no man
could then iustly mislike, and that is to allow euery world _polisillable_
one long time of necessitie, which should be where his sharpe accent falls
in our owne _ydiome_ most aptly and naturally, wherein we would not follow
the license of the Greeks and Latines, who made not their sharpe accent
any necessary prolongation of their tunes, but vsed such sillable
sometimes long sometimes short at their pleasure. The other sillables of
any word where the sharpe accent fell not, to be accompted of such time
and quantitie as his _ortographie_ would best beare hauing regard to
himselfe, or to his next neighbour word, bounding him on either side,
namely to the smoothnes & hardnesse of the sillable in his vtterance,
which is occasioned altogether by his _ortographie_ & situation as in this
word [_dayly_] the first sillable for his vsuall and sharpe accentes sake
to be always long, the second for his flat accents sake to be alwayes
shoft, and the rather for his _ortographie_, bycause if he goe before
another word commencing with a vowell not letting him to be eclipsed, his
vtterance is easie & currant, in this trissilable [_dau-nge`ro`us_] the
first to be long, th'other two short for the same causes. In this word
[_da-nge`rou`sne-sse_] the first & last to be both long, bycause they
receiue both of them the sharpe accent, and the two middlemost to be
short, in these words [_remedie_] & [_remedilesse_] the time to follow
also the accent, so as if it please better to set the sharpe accent vpon
[_re_] then vpon [_dye_] that sillable should be made long and _e
conuerso_, but in this word [_remedilesse_] bycause many like better to
accent the sillable [_me_] then the sillable [_les_] therefore I leaue him
for a common sillable to be able to receiue both a long and a short time
as occasion shall serue. The like law I set in these wordes
[_reuocable_][_recouerable_] [_irreuocable_][_irrecouerable_] for
sometimes it sounds better to say _re-uo`ca-ble_ then _re`uo-ca`ble`,
re-coue`rable_ then _reco-ue`ra`ble_ for this one thing ye must alwayes
marke that if your time fall either by reason of his sharpe accent or
otherwise vpon the _penultima_, ye shal finde many other words to rime
with him, bycause such terminations are not geazon, but if the long time
fall vpon the _antepenultima_ ye shall not finde many wordes to match him
in his termination, which is the cause of his concord or rime, but if you
would let your long time by his sharpe accent fall aboue the
_antepenultima_ as to say [_co-ue`ra`ble_] ye shall seldome or perchance
neuer find one to make vp rime with him vnlesse it be badly and by abuse,
and therefore in all such long _polisillables_ ye doe commonly giue two
sharpe accents, and thereby reduce him into two feete as in this word
[_re-mu`nera`ti`on_] which makes a couple of good _Dactils_, and in this
word [_contribu-ti`o`n_] which makes a good _spo-ndeus_ & a good
_dactill_, and in this word [_reca-pi`tu`la-tio`n_] it makes two
_dactills_ and a sillable ouerplus to annexe to the word precedent to
helpe peece vp another foote. But for wordes _monosillables_ (as be most
of ours) because in pronouncing them they do of necessitie retaine a
sharpe accent, ye may iustly allow then to be all long if they will so
best serue your turne, and if they be tailed one to another, or th'one to
a _dissillable_ or _polyssillable_ ye ought to allow them that time that
best serues your purpose and pleaseth your eare most, and truliest
aunsweres the nature of the _ortographie_ in which I would as neare as I
could obserue and keepe the lawes of the Greeke and Latine versifiers,
that is to prolong the sillable which is written with double consonants or
by dipthong or with finale consonants that run hard and harshly vpon the
toung: and to shorten all sillables that stand vpon vowels, if there were
no cause of _elision_ and single consonants & such of them as are most
flowing and slipper vpon the toung as _n.r.t.d.l._ for this purpose to
take away all aspirations, and many times the last consonant of a word as
the Latine Poetes vsed to do, specially _Lucretius_ and _Ennnius_ to say
[_finibu_] for [_finibus_] and so would not I stick to say thus [delite]
for [delight] [hye] for [high] and such like, & doth nothing at all
impugne the rule I gaue before against the wresting of wordes by false
_ortographie_ to make vp rime, which may not be falsified. But this
omission of letters in the middest of a meetre to make him the more
slipper, helpes the numerositie and hinders not the rime. But generally
the shortning or prolonging of the _monosillables_ dependes much vpon the
nature or their _ortographie_ which the Latin Grammariens call the rule of
position, as for example if I shall say thus.
_No-t ma`ni`e daye-s pa-st_. Twentie dayes after,
This makes a good _Dactill_ and a good _spondeus_, but if ye turne
them backward it would not do so, as.
_Many dayes, not past_.
And the _distick_ made all of _monosillables_.
_Bu-t no-ne o-f u-s tru-e me-n a-nd fre-e,
Could finde so great good lucke as he_.
Which words serue well to make the verse all _spondiacke_ or _iambicke_,
but not in _dactil_, as other words or the same otherwise placed would do,
for it were at illfauored _dactil_ to say.
_Bu-t no`ne o`f, u-s a`ll tre`we._

Therefore whensoeuer your words will not make a smooth _dactil_, ye must
alter them or their situations or else turne them to other feete that may
better beare their maner of sound and orthographie: or if the word be
_polysillable_ to deuide him, and to make him serue by peeces, that he
could not do whole and entierly. And no doubt by like consideration did
the Greeke & Latine versifiers fashion all their feete at the first to be
of sundry times, and the selfe same sillable to be sometime long and
sometime short for the eares better satisfaction as hath bene before
remembred. Now also wheras I said before that our old Saxon English for
his many _monosillables_ did not naturally admit the vse of the ancient
feete in our vulgar measures so aptly as in those languages which stood
most vpon _polisillables_, I sayd it in a sort truly, but now I must
recant and confesse that our Normane English which hath growen since
_William_ the Conquerour doth admit any of the auncient feete, by reason
of the many _polysillables_ euen to sixe and seauen in one word, which we
at this day vse in our most ordinarie language: and which corruption hath
bene occasioned chiefly by the peeuish affectation not of the Normans them
selues, but of clerks and scholars or secretaries long since, who not
content with the vsual Normane or Saxon word, would conuert the very
Latine and Greeke word into vulgar French, as to say innumerable for
innombrable, reuocable, irreuocable, irradiation, depopulation & such
like, which are not naturall Normane nor yet French, but altered Latines,
and without any imitation at all: which therefore were long time despised
for inkehorne termes, and now be reputed the best & most delicat of any
other. Of which & many other causes of corruption of our speach we haue in
another place more amply discoursed, but by this meane we may at this day
very well receiue the auncient feete _metricall_ of the Greeks and Latines
sauing those that be superfluous as be all the feete aboue the
_trissillable_, which the old Grammarians idly inuented and distinguisht
by speciall names, whereas in deede the same do stand compounded with the
inferiour feete, and therefore some of them were called by the names of
_didactilus_, _dispondeus_, and _disiambus:_ which feete as I say we may
be allowed to vse with good discretion & precise choise of wordes and with
the fauorable approbation of readers, and so shall our plat in this one
point be larger and much surmount that which _Stamhurst_ first tooke in
hand by his _exameters dactilicke_ and _spondaicke_ in the translation of
_Virgills Eneidos_, and such as for a great number of them my stomacke can
hardly digest for the ill shapen sound of many of his wordes
_polisillable_ and also his copulation of _monosillables_ supplying the
quantitie of a _trissillable_ to his intent. And right so in promoting
this deuise of ours being (I feare me) much more nyce and affected, and
therefore more misliked then his, we are to bespeake fauour, first of the
delicate eares, then of the rigorous and seuere dispositions, lastly to
craue pardon of the learned & auncient makers in our vulgar, for if we
should seeke in euery point to egall our speach with the Greeke and Latin
in their _metricall_ observations it could not possible be by vs
perfourmed, because their sillables came to be timed some of them long,
some of them short not by reason of any euident or apparant cause in
writing or sounde remaining vpon one more then another, for many times
they shortned the sillable of sharpe accent and made long that of the
flat, & therefore we must needes say, it was in many of their wordes done
by preelection in the first Poetes, not hauing regard altogether to the
_ortographie_, and hardnesse or softnesse of a sillable, consonant, vowell
or dipthong, but at their pleasure, or as it fell out: so as he that first
put in a verse this word [_Penelope_] which might be _Homer_ or some other
of his antiquitie, where he made [_pe-_] in both places long and [_ne`_]
and [_lo`_] short, he might haue made them otherwise and with as good
reason, nothing in the world appearing that might moue them to make such
(preelection) more in th'one sillable then in the other for _pe_,
_ne_, and _lo_, being sillables vocals be egally smoth and currant vpon
the toung, and might beare aswel the long as the short time, but it
pleased the Poet otherwise: so he that first shortned, _ca_, in this word
_cano_, and made long _tro_, in _troia_, and _o_, in _oris_, might haue
aswell done the contrary, but because he that first put them into a verse,
found as it is to be supposed a more sweetnesse in his owne eare to haue
them so tymed, therefore all other Poets who followed, were fayne to doe
the like, which made that _Virgill_ who came many yeares after the first
reception of wordes in their seuerall times, was driuen of neceisiitie to
accept them in such quantities as they were left him and therefore said.
_a-rma` ni` ru-mqu-e ca`ro- tro- ie- qui- pri-mu`s a`bo-ris._

Neither truely doe I see any other reason in that lawe (though in other
rules of shortning and prolonging a sillable there may be reason) but that
it stands vpon bare tradition. Such as the _Cabalists_ auouch in their
mysticall constructions Theologicall and others, saying that they receaued
the same from hand to hand from the first parent _Adam, Abraham_ and
others, which I will giue them leaue alone both to say and beleeue for me,
thinking rather that they haue bene the idle occupations, or perchaunce
the malitious and craftie constructions of the _Talmudists_ and others of
the Hebrue clerks to bring the world into admiration of their lawes and
Religion. Now peraduenture with vs Englishmen it be somewhat too late to
admit a new inuention of feet and times that our forefathers neuer vused
nor neuer observed till this day, either in their measures or in their
pronuntiation, and perchaunce will seeme in vs a presumptuous part to
attempt, considering also it would be hard to find many men to like of one
mans choise in the limitation of times and quantities of words, with which
not one, but euery eare is to be pleased and made a particular iudge,
being most truly sayd, that a multitude or comminaltie is hard to please
and easie to offend, and therefore I intend not to proceed any further in
this curiositie then to shew some small subtillitie that any other hath
not yet done, and not by imitation but by obseruation, nor to th'intent to
haue it put in execution in our vulgar Poesie, but to be pleasantly
scanned vpon, as are all nouelties so friuolous and ridiculous as it.

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