When the reader comes to the fourth stanza, or if, like some irregular spirits, he takes the last first and begins with it, the most obvious scansion, though the lines are syllabically the same, will be different.
Mys¦tical | gram¦mar of | am¦orous | glan¦ces; Feel¦ing of | pul¦ses, the | phy¦sic of | love; Rhetor¦ical | cour¦tings and | mu¦sical | dan¦ces; Num¦bering of | kiss¦es a¦rith¦metic | prove; Eyes ¦ like a|stron¦omy; Straight-¦limbed ge|om¦etry; In ¦ her art's | in¦geny Our wits ¦ were | sharp ¦ and keen. Ne¦ver Mark | An¦tony Dal¦lied more | wan¦tonly With the fair ¦ | Egypt¦ian | Queen.
(Trisyllabic rhythm either dactylic[7] or anapaestic[8] as may be on general principles preferred.) And this may have occurred to him even with the first as thus:
When ¦ as the | night¦ingale | chan¦ted her | ves¦pers.
Now which of these is to be preferred? and which did the author mean? (two questions which are not so identical as they may seem). My own answer, which I have already given elsewhere,[9] is that both are uncertain, and that he probably had each of the rhythms in his head, but confusedly.[10]
'Square Cap' is much less doubtful, or not doubtful at all, and it may be thought to prove the anapaestic-dactylic scansion, especially the anapaestic of 'Mark Antony'. For it will be observed that, even from the first two verses, you can get no iambic run, except of the most tumbling character, on the line _here_.
Come hith|er, Apoll|o's bounc|ing girl, And in | a whole hip|pocrene | of sherry Let 's drink | a round | till our brains | do whirl, Tu|ning our pipes | to make | ourselves merry. _A Cam|bridge lass, Ve|nus-like born | of the froth Of an old | half-filled jug | of bar|ley broth, She, she | is my mis|tress, her sui|tors are many, But she'll | have a Square|-cap if e'er | she have any_.
The problem is scarcely one for dogmatic decision, but it is one of some interest, and of itself entitles Cleveland to attention of the prosodic kind. For these pieces are quite early--before 1645--and a third, 'How the Commencement grows new' (q.v.), is undeniably trisyllabic and meant for some such a tune as the 'Sellenger's Round' which it mentions.
With such a combination of interests, political, historical, poetical (as regards school and period), and prosodic, it will hardly be denied that Cleveland deserves his place here. But I must repeat that I am here endeavouring to deal with him strictly on the general principles of this Collection, and am in no way trying to occupy the ground so as to keep out a more elaborate edition. I have had help from my friends Professors Firth and Case in information and correction of contemporary facts; but full comment on Cleveland, from the historical side, would nearly fill this volume: and the problems of the work attributed to him would suffice for a very substantial bibliographical monograph. Neither of these, nor any exhaustive apparatus, even of the textual kind, do I pretend to supply. I simply endeavour--and have spent not a little time and trouble in endeavouring--to provide the student and lover of English literature with an accessible copy, sufficient in amount and fairly trustworthy in substance, of a curious and memorable figure in English verse.[11]