Well-Weighed Syllables: Elizabethan Verse in Classical MetresSidney's statement in his Apology for Poetry that quantitative verse on the Latin model is more suitable than the accentual verse of the English tradition 'lively to express divers passions, by the low and lofty sound of the well-weighed syllable' is only one of numerous assertions of the superiority of classical over native metres made by English scholars and poets during the Renaissance, stretching from Roger Ascham some twenty years earlier to Ben Jonson some fifty years later. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Problems of Latin prosody | 7 |
The Elizabethan pronunciation of Latin | 21 |
The Elizabethan reading of Latin verse | 30 |
Latin prosody in the Elizabethan grammar school | 41 |
Vowellength quantity and accent | 69 |
Continental discussions of Latin quantity | 78 |
Attitudes towards accentual verse | 89 |
The quantitative movement characteristics | 136 |
Uncompromising imitation Richard Stanyhurst | 165 |
Scholarship and sensitivity Sir Philip Sidney | 173 |
Our new famous enterprise Spenser Harvey | 188 |
Four approaches to quantitative verse | 195 |
Theory and compromise Puttenham and Campion | 217 |
Epilogue | 228 |
| 237 | |
Other editions - View all
Well-Weighed Syllables: Elizabethan Verse in Classical Metres Derek Attridge No preview available - 1979 |
Well-Weighed Syllables: Elizabethan Verse in Classical Metres Derek Attridge No preview available - 1975 |
Common terms and phrases
accent actual appeared attempt attitudes authority caesura Campion century Chapter classical clear close coincidence common conception concerned consider consonants containing correct course definition discussed distinction doubt duration edition Elizabethan English evidence examples experiments fact feet final foot further given gives grammar Greek Harvey hexameters imitation important included indicate instance Italy kind language later Latin verse learned less letter lines marked matter mean method metre metrical movement native nature normal observed occurs passage pattern penultimate perhaps poem poetry poets position possible practice probably problem pronounced pronunciation published quantitative verse question quoted reading reason reference regard regular result rhyme rhythm rules sapphics says scanning seems seen short Sidney Sidney's similar Smith sound Spenser Stanyhurst stress structure suggests syllables tense thee theory thought tradition translation understanding unstressed vowel words writing written