1. Rimed hexameters; as those of Anselm on Lanfranc: Ipse tamen tectus fuit asperitatis amictu; PETER.-A. D. 1140. Lanf. Op. Vit. 17. СНАР. VIII. ORIGIN AND PRO- THE MID- 2. Hexameters; sometimes riming in couplets. and sometimes in the middle of the line, where the author could not produce the terminal consonance. Thus Peter, a friend of Malmsbury, who calls him a versifier to be ranked among the most eminent, BOOK writes on an abbot, beginning with a studied allite VI. LITERARY. ration: Vir probus et prudens, vir vere consiliorum HOVEDEN.- —A. D. 1199. 3. Our ancient Hoveden has tried some quatrains of Latin rime on his admired contemporary Richard I. The two first are, Graves nobis admodum dies effluxere, Qui lapillis candidis digni non fuere, Quis enim non doleat tot sanctorum cædes? Devolutos nobiles ad servorum pedes?—Hoved. 666. Six others follow. BERTERUS.-A. D. 1150. 7 4. Those of Magister Berterus on the crusades, are more like some of the forms of the vernacular poetry. It ends, Cum attendas ad quid tendo, Pro me moriendo. Then follows what has been the chorus to the pre ceding parts : Lignum crucis Signum ducis RIME IN THE MID Specimens of the rimes of the Anglo-Norman GRESS OF poetry may be seen in the quotations before made in this volume. The above instances present a continuing sequence of the use of rime in various parts of Europe, from the fourth century to the twelfth, and with varied metres: and these specimens, connected with those adduced from the Oriental languages, lead us, unhesitatingly, to infer, that rime has been an appendage to poetry in all ages and countries, from its earliest composition to the present day, and is no more peculiar to the Arabians than to any other nation on earth." It prevailed more or less in the east, the south, the west, and north parts of the world; altho some nations preferred musical melodies for their metres, instead of the riming consonancy. The metrical forms of classical poetry were without it; and these seem to have gained the predominance, from their ancient relation or adaptation to their musical airs. To complete this subject, it only remains to make a few observations on that form of verse called Leonine, in which the middle of every line rimes with its termination. ON LEONINE RIME. DLE AGES. Ir is well known, that the verses in which the middle syllable rimes with the ending one, as those from Thierricus, in the next page, have received the appellation of Leonine rimes. How anciently they "That rime was a regular appendage to the Sanscrit poetry, we see by the Ghata Karparain, a Sanscrit poem of the tenth century, published with a translation in 1828, by M. Durtch, at Berlin. BOOK VI. LITERARY HISTORY OF ENGLAND. were so named, appears from the instances quoted by Du Cange, Gloss. Med. v. 2. p. 251. Thus, Ægidius Paris: Nec minus in sacris, melico sermone leonem Thierricus Valliscoloris : Karolin. 1. 5. His replicans clare, tres causas explico quare Episcopus Senogall : Quia passus leoninos.-Itin. Greg. 11. Guill. Guiart: Et cils qui ne set en sa rime Qu'est consonant, ou leonime. Metulinus: 4. Ut haberet leoninitatem in versu.—Grec. c. 15. From these, and especially from the first citation, Du Cange infers that they were called Leonine, "because they were invented by a certain Leo, a poet, who lived about the time of Louis VII. or Philip Augustus." This opinion is also an ancient one; for Eberhard Bethuniensis, who wrote in 1212, thus the third part of his " Labyrinthus:" expresses, in Sicut, inventoris de nomine, dicta leonis His instance is Pestis avaritiæ, durumque nefas simoniæ. Fab. Med. Lat. 1. 11. p. 776. I am not fond of opposing ancient authorities, who being so much nearer the time of actual knowlege, must have better materials for judging than we can possess. But yet this theory is so wrong as to the origin both of the verse and the name, that I cannot discharge the duty I have undertaken, of exhibiting, as far as I am able, the historical truth on the main subjects of attention in the middle ages, without ending the error, and attempting to elucidate the CHAP. actual fact. VIII. AND PRO- Ist. There are no works of such an assumed Leo ORIGIN extant, and nothing known about him; and no chronology, country, parentage, profession or situation RIME IN really or justly applied to him. 2d. Verses or lines thus rimed did not originate in the middle ages, but were known to both the Greeks and Romans; and such coinciding sounds are noticed as one of the verbal graces of ancient composition. See Aquila Romanus in Antiq. Rhet. p. 23. 3d. These are thus also noticed by our venerable Bede, "Hac figura poetæ et oratores sæpe utuntur. Poetæ hoc modo. Pervia divisi, patuerunt cærula ponti." De Tropis. Ant. Rhet. p. 378. 4th. Above two centuries before the arbitrary placing of this fancied inventor Leo, a long poem of several hundred hexameter verses, all Leonine rimes, was composed by a German lady, HROSVITHA, on the actions and life of Otho, the emperor of Germany, who married the daughter of our AngloSaxon Athelstan. She brings her work down to the year 967, about which time she finished it. The following specimen is a part of its beginning: Et cum te libri, laudantes congrue multi, Post hoc ascribentur, merito que placere probentur, THE MID DLE AGES. Rer. Germ. Reub. p. 162. 5th. They were also used by MARBODIUS, who died 1123, at the age of 88, and whose poem De Gemmis has been already noticed. This was written |