27th Annual California Celtic Studies Conference

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Middle English Verse Forms and the Development
of Cornish Prosody
Bridging the Tamar
Benjamin Bruch Department of Celtic Languages and
Literatures Harvard University
27th Annual California Celtic Studies Conference
University of California, Berkeley 19 March 2005
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Middle Cornish Verse

• Syllabic meter

• Most lines are seven syllables long

86

• Four-syllable lines are also common

12

• Rhyme usually involves only the final syllable
  of each line

• Stressed syllables may rhyme with unstressed
  syllables

• Three basic stanza types are found

• Type I

alternate rhyme
ABABABAB

• Type II

tail-rhyme
AABCCB

• Type III

hybrid
ABABcDDC
ABABcDDC
ABABcDDC
ABABcDDC
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Middle Cornish Verse Origins and Influences

• Parallels with other Celtic languages

• Syllabic meter (compare Welsh, Breton, Irish)

• Rhyming rule similar to that of Breton and Welsh

• Cornish verse lacks internal rhyme,
  alliteration, and cynghanedd

• Cornish uses stanza forms not found elsewhere in
  Celtic poetry

• Alternate-rhyme and tail-rhyme stanzas were
  common in medieval European poetry

Latin, French, Provençal, English

• As early as 1877, Henry Jenner noted
  similarities to English verse

• This connection was overlooked or dismissed by
  later scholars

• Typologically, Cornish versification was closer
  to English and French than to Welsh, Breton or
  Irish (Tristram 2002 293)

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Type III Stanza
7 7 7 7 4 7 7 7
Me yw gylwys duk bryten ha seuys a goys ryel ha
war an gwlascur cheften nessa Zen myterne
vhell kyng Conany aye lynnyeth purwyr y
thof gwarthevyas war gvyls ha dof
doutis yn mysk arlyZy
7 7 7 7 4 7 7 7
Beunans Meriasek, lines 1-8
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Type III Stanza
1
2
3
4
6
5
7
8
Beunans Meriasek, lines 1-8
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Middle English Verse

• Stress-based meter

• Most lines have four or three stresses

• Shorter lines may have one or two stresses

• Rhyme generally involves a stressed syllable

• Masculine (monosyllabic) rhymes

say play

• Feminine (polysyllabic) rhymes

sorow borow
ete mete

• A wide variety of verse forms are found

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Middle English Verse Forms

• Rhymed couplets

not common in Cornish

• Alternate-rhyme stanzas

ABABABAB

• Tail-rhyme stanzas

AABCCB
AAABCCCB

• Often have shorter B lines

a common variant in Cornish

• Hybrid forms

thirteener
ABABABABcDDDC
ABABABABcDDDC
ABABABABcDDDC
ABABABABcDDDC

• Parallel structure to the Cornish Type III stanza

• Type III forms with an eight-line frons are
  found in Cornish

• Type III stanzas with a cDDDC cauda are also
  attested

• These variants become rarer over time

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Wakefield Stanza
First Shepherds Play, lines 27-39
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2
I thank it god hark ye what I mene ffor euen or
for od I haue mekyll tene As heuy as a sod I
grete with myn eene When I nap on my cod for
care that has bene And sorow All my
shepe ar gone I am not left oone The
rott has theym slone Now beg I and borow
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2
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Wakefield Stanza
First Shepherds Play, lines 27-39
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Extended Type III Stanza
Passio Christi, lines 14-26
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Proclamation Stanza
Fall of Man, lines 234-46
Adam If we it Ete
oure self we kylle as god us tolde we xuld be
ded to ete yt frute my lyf to spylle I dar
not do aftyr yi reed
Eua A ffayr Aungell yus seyd me tylle to
Ete yt appyl take nevyr no dred so kunnyng as god
in hevyn hille yu xalt sone be wt rune a sted
yer fore yis frute yu ete
Adam Off goddys wysdam for to lere
in kunnyng to be his pere of thyn hand
j take it here xal sone tast yis mete
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 3
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 3
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Proclamation Stanza
Fall of Man, lines 234-46
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Castle of Perseverance Nine-line Stanza
now syn þou hast be hetyn me so I wyl go with
þe a say I ne lette for frende ner fo but
with þe werld I wyl go play certis a lytyl
þrowe In þis world is al my trust to
lyuyn in lykyng in lust haue he I onys
cust we schal not part I trowe
4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 3
4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 3
Castle of Perseverance, lines 393-401
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Castle of Perseverance Nine-line Stanza
Castle of Perseverance, lines 393-401
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Type III Stanza Alternate Layout
Beunans Meriasek, lines 4548-56
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English and Cornish Prosody Conclusions

• Medieval English and Cornish verse both use a
  hybrid stanza form

tail-rhyme cauda

• Alternate-rhyme frons

• Short C line links the two sections

• This verse form appears to be a British
  innovation

English ? Cornish

• Direction of transmission

• Bilingualism more likely in Cornwall than in
  England

• Cornish forms attested later than equivalent
  English forms

• Early varieties of the Cornish Type III stanza
  resemble the Middle English thirteener
  (ABABABABcDDDC) more closely than do later forms
  (ABABcDDC)

divergent evolution

• Cornish versification represents a hybrid
  tradition, combining indigenous notions of rhyme
  and meter with imported stanza forms

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Middle English Verse Forms and the Development
of Cornish Prosody
Bridging the Tamar
Benjamin Bruch Department of Celtic Languages and
Literatures Harvard University
27th Annual California Celtic Studies Conference
University of California, Berkeley 19 March 2005