Chaucer's Metrics: Linking the Beat with the Means

Chaucer does not continue to amaze students merely because of his ability to depict the richest and most subtle of human emotions, but in his ability to do so with rhythmic prowess. His use of iambic form, trochaic substitution, double entendre and stressed innuendo are not by chance or by accident. I will show in this paper that rhythm, space, stress and balance are closely considered by Chaucer and that the rhythm of his work greatly aids the content of his tales.

My goal here is to show how Chaucer uses rythmn in the line to aid in character development, distinguish different social estates, and create motion within the text crucial to the survival of any long poem. Chaucer's skill with meter is not merely and understanding of simple structures, it goes as far as having great awareness of when to stress and not stress a word or phrase. These poetic tricks are not merely decorative; they are examples of form aiding content. As hard as it may be to know exactly how the Middle English passages from the Canterbury Tales should be pronounced in Modern English, one can make a connection between the metrical qualities of a given passage and the way the passage was possibly meant to be considered. This intense coupling of form and content makes Chaucer's verse impenetrable and I will strive to show how this happens.

I would first like to observe Chaucer's use of iambic pentameter, or use of the five-foot line of iambs. Paull F. Baum states in his book Chaucer's Verse that,

But finally now, however he may have come to it, Chaucer's line is a series of five iambs. For this line he had no native models-though a few isolated specimens have turned up-and the means of relieving monotony he either discovered for himself or deduced intuitively from foreign models (11).

What Baum is suggesting is that Chaucer didn't exactly invent the iambic pentameter form, rather he lifted an aural version of it through his reading of French and Italian literature. Much like all speculative iambic meter the preciseness of Chaucer's iambic pentameter is one of great debate, as Merle Fifield points out in his 1973 publication Theoretical Techniques for the Analysis of Variety in Chaucer's Metrical Stress,

The modern Chaucer reader recreates this stress system by intuitively combing what he believes to be the metrical or rhythmic pattern of the poetry with reconstructed Middle English phonemes, including word stress. He further increases the variety of metrical stress by unconsciously transferring stress patterns associated with Modern English syntactic units to Middle English syntactic units (1).

So, it can not be taken for granted that Chaucer's iambic flow is a precise or exact science; it is merely a framework in which those interested in metrics can disseminate rhythm. Fifield goes on to say that, "The consequences may be effective in the worst sense of a 'performance' and the method has the value of practical expediency. There is little cause to presume that the result in any way approximates the melody Chaucer heard" (2). Bearing all this in mind, one can easily feel hopeless in ever finding the true beat of Chaucer's work and as a result never finding it's contextual significance-how the rhythm aids the content. We, as readers of Modern English and only speculators of Middle English, can do our best to find out how Chaucer's meter made sense to his story.

Iambic pentameter can be used to speed a reader across a line, or to make a listener feel as if something is rolling, that the speaker is not just idling in doggerel verse or spinning his wheels with poorly placed stresses. Iambic pentameter is how the ear does not tire when listening to long passages. Its motion of unstressed-stressed feet creates a sensation of movement integral to great English poetry since Chaucer (Fussell 4). In the "General Prologue", near the end where the medieval listener may have begun to bore, Chaucer cleverly uses iambic pentameter to wrap up and proceed with the Knight's Tale.

Now have I told you soothly, in a clause

Th'esaat, th'array, the nombre, and eek the cause

Why that assembled was this compaignye

In Southwerk, at this gentil histelrye,

That highte the Tabard, faste by the Belle (715-719)

The prologue goes on for quite a while more, but this passage comes at the tail end of the host's description of the various pilgrims-exactly the point where the audience is ready for the tales to begin. It is true that the entire General Prologue could be considered more or less iambic, but it is here at line 715 that the flow becomes quite obvious and uninterrupted. Chaucer clearly saw the need for expedience, and satiated that need with a purer iambic flow. Whether or not this was purposeful, we will never know but it is the first of many examples of form aiding content which I will show in Chaucer's work.

Next I would like to look at examples of iambic deviance or trochaic substitution in Chaucer's iambic construction. In the "Miller's Tale" a good amount of evidence lends itself to an iambic construction, but there is also a great amount of deviance and off balanced stress. At first reading, much of the stress seems arbitrary and off-putting, but on a closer inspection of the lines, one finds a connection between stress and dialogue.

Ywis, lemman, I have swich love-longinge,

That lyk a turtle trewe is my moorninge;

I may nat ete na more than a mayde."

"Go fro the window, Jakke fool," she sayde

"As help me God, it wol nat be 'com pa me.'

I love another, and elles I were to blame, (3705-3710)

Notice here, on line 3708, not just the indentation but the deviance from what seems to be strict iambic flow. The word Go is given significance not only in its visual placement on the page but also because of the fact that it starts the line with a hard spondee. Notice the surrounding lines all being with seemingly perfect iambs, this indented line begins with two stressed syllables, signifying the speech of Alisoun. Later in the passage Absolon responds, but not before some more iambs occur,

Wel bet that thee, by Jesu Absolon!

Go forth thy wey or I wol caste a ston,

And lat me slepe, a twenty devel wey!"

"Allas," quod Absolon, "and weylawey,

That trewe love was evere so yvel biset!

Thank kisse me, sin it may be no bet, (3711-3716)

Again, we find a deviance in this passage, but not in the same fashion we found it previously. The stress does not come at the outset of Absolon's response, yet we see a stress again on the word Go, from the mouth of Alisoun. Chaucer's stressing of the word Go can show us something about who is wearing the pants in this scene. Alisoun's dominance and desire for Absolon's departure is strengthened by Chaucer's placement of stress. It is also important to point out that Absolon's response, Allas, is a perfect iamb, allowing for the uninterrupted movement of the line-the reader is not asked to stay a while on Absolon's thoughts, while the reader has no choice but to pause when Alisoun speaks. This of course is all relying on a Modern English interpretation of syllabic stress.

Next I would like to observe two characters in the Canterbury Tales which exhibit strikingly different dictions and attitudes and how Chaucer's knowledge of meter plays a role in the unfolding of the two characters. If there is a symbol of heroic chivalry, courtly love and prudence in the Canterbury Tales, then it is the knight, who is asked to tell his tale first by the host. It is almost uncanny--Robert Frost-like-that Chaucer maintains the knight's tale in what seems to be perfect iambic pentameter and almost unceasingly consistent end-rhyme.

I,wrecche, which that wepe and waille thus,

Was whilom wyf to king Capaneus,

That starf at Thebes-cursed be that day!

And alle we that been in this array

And maken al this lamentacioun,

We losten alle oure housbondes at that noun, (931-936)

At first glance, one may not find an iambic flow here, but to hearken back to Baum's analysis; the line is never perfect. The first two lines don't seem to exhibit this iambic flow but they do show alliteration in the repeated use of w. Alliteration here helps create flow into the rest of the stanza which starts to fall into a purer iambic flow. Perhaps these lines work better when considered half-lines, as Ian Robinson suggests in his book Chaucer's Prosody, "The whole great range of Chaucer's styles in his long line go better if he is read as balanced pentameter. High style is made wooden by suppressing the half-line movement, and comes alive if it is permitted." (156)

Next is an example of Chaucer using a less intact rhyme to allow the development character of a lower estate. Through the Miller Chaucer introduces an interrupted sequence of alternating trochaic, spondaic and iambic feet,

This drunken Miller spak ful sone ageyn,

And seyde, "Leve brother Osweold,

Who hath no wyf, he is no cokewold.

But I sey nat therefore that though art oon;

Ther ben ful gode wyves many oon,

And ever a thousand gode ayeyns oon bade. (3150-3155)

The miller's response in the second line can be considered five feet of iambs, but at some point we have to raise the question of the final -e which comes into play when reading all of Chaucer's work from a rhythmic standpoint. Robinson suggests, "Moreover, it is usually easy enough to find in the manuscripts any spelling one happens to be looking for, a fact well known to Chaucer editors" (82). Robinson doesn't seem to come to a decision on whether or not the final -e is sounded or not but has this advice to offer: "if the metre seems to demand an -e sound it, but if the resulting reading damages the poetry, suspect the metre that led to it" (108). So, in the above passage from the "Miller's Prologue" I use Robinson's advice and add the -e, giving a five foot line of iambs. Still, lines 3153-3155 seem to deviate. In a modern reading, the third line stresses sey, nat, there-, and even perhaps a terminal spondee in art oon. What is all this stressing about? The last three lines of this passage could be read thus:

/ x / / / / x / / /

/ / / / x / x / x /

x / x x / x / x x / / / x

Two lines of ten beats, and the last line ending in either 13 or 12 beats depending pronunciation of the final -e. This is a clear deviation from iambic construction and the reader is left dangling over these phrases. However, these odd stresses remind me of many a night with one too many ales. The Miller admits in his prologue that he is drunk and Chaucer makes the point that he can barely ride his horse (Kolve, 3115-3155). Chaucer is clearly using form and content together here, to create the effect of a drunk man, interjecting, speaking with a drunken lilt that starkly contrasts the knight's perfect iambic pentameter. The knight, as we heard in his tale, is concerned only with the chivalric deeds of noble Theseus, is apparently no drunk and delivers his iambic tale in great form and consistent end-rhyme. It should be noted that the miller's and knight's dictions are clearly being manipulated by Chaucer and his use of rhythm. Their balancing act is not achieved merely by their social status and Chaucer telling us about them, it is achieved through Chaucer's attention to rhyme, stress and meter.

Again, this is all speculative due to the unanswered question of the final -e, and as Robinson goes on to suggest, we shouldn't rely so heavily on this issue, "And even if we opt for the sounding the -e's as the simplest way of accounting for the phenomena, we are here making inferences from such a very incomplete data that we shouldn't have very much confidence of being right" (86).

It seems there are many questions left to be asked about Chaucer's verse, the most important; how do we pronounce Middle English? There can be no right way, there can only be a Modern English interpretation of the Middle English texts in their originality. If we attempt to find iambic pentameter in Chaucer's verse, we will. If we decide that the e's are to be silent, then we may not. The argument goes ever onward. I choose to stay firmly in the boat of: sound the e. I see a strong need for sounding the e in order to create lines of 5 feet; the verse seems to call for it - but it is as Robinson said, if the need arises to sound the e, then sound it, but if the verse seems to work against it, the don't. Indeed this strikes at the very root of the problem, we simply do not know how to sound Chaucer's work.

Perhaps I fall short of showing Chaucer's metrical ability, and instead I've only further confused an audience on the topic of his prosody. However the outcome, this question is always looming in the shadows of Chaucer's work. If anything, I hope to have shown that, regardless of the issue of the final -e, there is a coherent and gauged attention to rhythm in the Canterbury Tales as well as throughout Chaucer's work.

In the end, maybe it was Chaucer's luck that allowed him to stumble upon such good metrics, or maybe it was his big ear for the work of Boccaccio, Boethus, or maybe his metrical prowess came from the music of his time. It could be suggested that contemporary music influence Chaucer's ear, if one looks at Gallician and Italian compositions from the 13^th and 14^th century. One striking example of lyric having dominance over even time is the 13^th century piece "Quen Quer Que Tenen Desden." The movement is set in odd time, almost completely led by its unbalanced lyric. Symmetry in musical compositions seemed to come much later.

Still, It's too hard to say, but one thing can be deduced, Chaucer's work is not solely genius of content. It is his surprisingly subtle use of stress, unstress, and rhythm that gives his Canterbury Tales their majesty and longevity. Through Chaucer we find a framework by which to better understand the metrics of Shakespeare, Milton and other early English poets who have had their hand in the business of rhythm.

Fifield, Merle. Theoretical Techniques for the Analysis of Variety in Chaucer's Metrical

Stress. Ball State Monograph No. 3. Muncie: Ball State University Press, 1973.

Fussell, Paul. Poetic Meter and Poetic Form. New York: Random House, 1965.

Golden Treasury-Medieval Music. "Quen Que Quer Tenen Desden" Cantigas de Santa Maria. Alfonso le Sabio (attr.), El Escorial, Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo, Ms. T.j.I, f. 204v: Amon Ra, 1996.

Hummell, Austin. "The Importance of Meter" English 641 Class. Northern Michigan

University, Marquette, MI. March 2007.

Kolve, V.A., and Glending Olson, eds. The Canterbury Tales. 2nd ed. New York: W.W.

Norton & Company, 2005.

Lerer, Seth. "Great Courses on Tape." The Teaching Company. Scope of Chaucer's Work. Stanford University. 9 Mar. 2008 http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=304

Robinson, Ian. Chaucer's Language: A Study of the Middle English Verse Tradition.

New York: Cambridge University Press, 1971.

Tatlock, John S.P., and Percy Mackaye, eds. MODERN READER'S CHAUCER. New York: Macmillan, 1966.