Chapter XV Prosody
The prosody of the Celtic languages is often very elaborate, but the more modern tendency has generally been in the direction of assimilating it to the prosody of English, or, in the case of Breton, to that of French. In Welsh two systems exist at the present day, and the rules of them are known respectively as y Rheolau Caethion and y Rheolau Rhyddion, the bond or strict rules and the free rules. The former are founded on elaborate rules of Cynghanedd or consonance, which term includes alliteration and rhyme, and every imaginable correspondence of consonant and vowel sounds, reduced to a system which Welsh-speaking Welshmen profess to be able to appreciate, and no doubt really can, though it is not easily understood by the rest of the world. The rules of Cynghanedd are applied in various ways to the four-and-twenty metres of the Venedotian (Gwynedd or North Wales) school, and to the metres of the Dimetian (Dyfed or South-West Wales) and the Glamorgan schools. Modern Welsh bards, however, though they often use the strict rules as tours-de-force for Eisteddfod purposes, as often compose poetry according to the free rules, which are mostly the ordinary go-as-you-please metres of the Saxon. The Bretons follow the ordinary French rules as to the strict number of syllables, the cæsura, and the rhyming, taking very little account of the stress accent either of words or sentences.
The prosody of the older Cornish literature has little in common with the strict system of Welsh. Though one does find alliterations and “internal” rhyming and correspondence of consonants, they do not seem to be at all systematic, but are only either introduced as casual ornaments or purely accidentally. The rules of the older Cornish prosody have more in common with those of Breton, except that, but for one case in the Dramas of a five-syllabled couplet, and the rather irregular Add. Charter fragment in the British Museum, there are only two lengths of lines, seven or four syllables, and the cæsura is not very definite.
The seven-syllabled lines are the more common. The whole of the Poem of the Passion is in stanzas of eight seven-syllabled lines, rhyming alternately, but written as fourteen-syllabled lines; and the greater part of the Dramas is in lines of the same length, though with varying arrangements of rhymes. Sometimes whole passages of four-syllabled lines occur, and frequently four-syllabled lines occur in the same stanza with those of seven syllables. The rhythmic accent seems to be trochaic, and the heptasyllabic line to consist of three trochees and a long syllable, but as the stress accent of words is absolutely disregarded, and the strong beats of the rhythm sometimes fall on monosyllables which out of poetry would probably be enclitic or proclitic, or at any rate very slightly accented, one can only be sure of the fact that the poet of the Ordinalia was careful to count his syllables exactly, and to make the last syllable of every line rhyme with the last syllable of some other line. The author of the Poem of the Passion was not quite so careful, and Jordan was still less so. Diphthongs, as in Breton, are occasionally counted as two syllables, a y followed by another vowel is sometimes a vowel and sometimes a consonant, and there are occasional elisions and perhaps contractions, understood but not expressed, 180a but with these few exceptions the number of syllables to a line is strictly accurate, and in the Ordinalia is never varied by the unaccented and uncounted syllables that often occur in English verse. The rhymes are quite strict to the eye, but that is no doubt because in the days when one could spell as one pleased, the writer might arrange his spelling to suit, but there appear to be cases where the dh and th, both written th, as final consonants are made to rhyme together, and the three sounds of u (oo and the French u and eu) are sometimes confused. Though the rhymes are always “masculine” (i.e. of one syllable), there are occasionally cases where, unless one counts the rhymes as “feminine” (i.e. of two syllables), they would not be rhymes at all, and yet feminine rhymes would throw out the rhythm. 180b
The metres of late Cornish were usually rather more assimilated to English, but apparently some memory of Celtic prosody lingered on. Lhuyd quotes a proverb, of which he gives two versions, in the old three-lined metre known in Welsh as the Triban Milwr, or Warrior’s Triplets, which is found as early as Llywarch Hen’s Laments for Geraint ap Erbyn and for the Death of Cynddylan, in the sixth century. Lhuyd himself wrote a Cornish Lament for William of Orange in what he claimed as the same metre, a singularly inappropriate subject for the language of a nation of loyal Jacobites, as the Cornish certainly were as late as 1715. Boson (Gwavas MS., f. 7) wrote a short elegy on James Jenkins of Alverton, also in rhyming triplets. The curious little song, which is all that remains of Jenkins’s poetry, seems to show indications of a feeling for internal rhymes and something like a rudimentary Cynghanedd, but there is not enough of it to reduce to any definite rules. Even in Boson’s verses and in those of Gwavas and Tonkin of St. Just (not the historian), in the Gwavas MS., the old system of counting syllables and taking very little account of the stress accents of words, is occasionally found, but generally in the later verse the extra unaccented syllables freely introduced show that a sense of accent and beats of rhythm had come in.
Specimens of Cornish Verse.
I. Five- (or four) syllabled lines, with occasional six-syllabled, rhyming A A B C C B. From the fragment on the back of Additional Charter 19,491 in the British Museum, late fourteenth century.
Golsow ty cowedh, (5)
Byth na borth medh, (4)
Dyyskyn ha powes (6)
Ha dhymo dus nes. (5)
Mar codhes dhe les; (5)
Ha dhys y rof mowes, (6)
Ha fest unan dek (5)
Genes mar a plek. (5)
Ha tanha y; (4)
Kemmerr y dhoth wrek, (5)
Sconye dhys ny vek (5)
Ha ty a vydh hy. (5) 181
Hearken, thou comrade,
Never be ashamed,
Alight and rest
And to me come near.
If thou knowest thy advantage;
And to thee I will give a girl,
And truly a fair one
To thee if she is pleasing.
Go take her now;
Take her to thy wife,
Refuse thee she will not
And thou shalt have her.
It is probable that this metre is intended to be five-syllabled throughout, except that a “feminine” or double rhyme is occasionally allowable (e.g. powes-mowes), and that the light first syllable of a line may be omitted. This accounts for the two six-syllabled and two four-syllabled lines respectively. In the rest of the poem there are lines of four, five, seven, eight, and even nine syllables. The whole fragment of forty-one lines, though not much earlier than the Ordinalia, is much less regular in rhythm, and is much less syllabic.
II. One of the commonest metres of the Dramas, and indeed of much mediæval verse in other languages, consists of seven-syllabled lines rhyming A A B C C B, or A A B A A B.
From the Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, the second of the Ordinalia, fifteenth century. (Our Lord’s speech to the Pueri Hebræorum.)
Ow benneth ol ragas bo
Ow tos yn onor thymmo
Gans branchis flowrys kefrys.
Un deyth a thue yredy
Ma’n talvethaf ol thywhy
Kemmys enor thym yu gwrys.
My blessing be all upon you
Coming in honour to me
With branches and flowers likewise.
A day shall soon come
When I shall repay it all to you
As much honour as is done to me.
This is the metre of the well-known Whitsunday Sequence, Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come, thou Holy Spirit, come).
Note that gwrys (gwres in Modern Cornish) is a monosyllable, and that the ue of dhue is a single vowel=eu. This metre is varied by being made into eight-lined stanzas, rhyming A A A B C C C B.
III. Another very common metre in the Dramas consists of stanzas of eight lines of seven syllables, rhyming alternately. Usually the stanza only contains two rhymes, but sometimes, especially if four lines of the eight are given to one character and four to another, the rhymes of the two quatrains are independent of one another.
From the Ordinale de Origine Mundi, fifteenth century. (Eve’s speech to Adam after gathering the apple.)
My pan esen ou quandre
Clewys a’n nyl tenewen
Un el ou talleth cane
A ughaf war an wethen.
Ef a wruk ow husullye
Frut annethy may torren
Moy es Deu ny a vye
Bys venytha na sorren.
I when I was wandering
Heard on the one side
An angel beginning to sing
Above me on the tree.
He did counsel me
Fruit from it that I should break;
More than God we should be
Nor be troubled for ever.
Note the apparent “feminine” rhymes, torren-sorren, which are really rimes riches in the French style.
The whole Poem of the Passion is in this metre, but is written in lines of fourteen syllables.
IV. Four-syllabled lines, often written as eight-syllabled, rhyming alternately. Thus (Passio D. N. J. C. in the Ordinalia, 1. 35):—
A mester whek· gorthys re by
Pan wreth mar tek· agan dysky.
Asson whansek· ol the pysy,
Lettrys na lek· war Thu mercy!
O sweet master, glorified be thou,
When thou dost so sweetly teach us.
How we desire all to pray,
Learned and lay, to God for mercy!
The same two rhymes run through a stanza of eight (written as four) lines.
V. Four-syllabled lines in six-lined stanzas, rhyming A A B A A B (Passio D. N. J. C., 169).
Gorthyans ha gras
The Dew ow thas
Luen a verci,
Pan danvonas
Yn onor bras
Thym servysi.
Glory and thanks
To God my Father,
Full of mercy,
When he sent
In great honour
Servants to me.
VI. Sometimes a mixture of the last two forms of stanza is found extended to ten lines. Thus (Origo Mundi, 1271):—
Dyvythys of
The’th volungeth,
Arluth porth cof
Yn deyth dyweth
A’m enef vy.
Lavar thymmo
Pandra wrama;
Y’n gwraf ytho
Scon yn tor-ma
Yn pur deffry.
Come am I
To thy will.
Lord remember
In the last day
My soul.
Tell me
What I shall do;
I will do it now
Soon in this turn
Very seriously.
VII. Mixed seven and four syllabled lines. Sometimes these are only the metre of II., with the third and sixth lines four-syllabled instead of seven-syllabled.
Thus in Origo Mundi, 911, we find:—
Ou banneth theughwhy pub prys,
Mar tha y wreugh ou nygys
Prest yn pub le.
Gorreugh an fals nygethys
Gans Abel a desempys
The yssethe.
My blessing to you always,
So well you do my business
Quickly everywhere.
Put the false flier
With Abel immediately
To sit.
VIII. Sometimes alternations of stanzas of four and seven-syllabled lines are found. A very remarkable and effective set opens the Drama of The Passion. It is in stanzas of thirteen lines, eight lines of four syllables (written as four of eight syllables), rhyming A B A B A B A B, one line of seven syllables with rhyme C, three lines of seven syllables with rhyme D, and a seven-syllabled line with rhyme C.
Thyugh lavara· Ow dyskyblyon,
Pyseygh toythda· Ol kescolon
Deu dreys pup tra· Eus a huhon
Theygh yn bys-ma· Ygrath danvon
Yn dyweth may feugh sylwys.
Gans an eleth yu golow,
Yn nef agas enefow
Neffre a tryg hep ponow
Yn joy na vyth dywythys.
To you I say, my disciples,
Pray quickly, all of one heart
God above everything, who is on high
To you in this world His grace to send
In the end that ye may be saved.
With the angels there is light,
In heaven your souls
Ever shall dwell without pains
In joy that shall not be ended.
IX. In the Drama of St. Meriasek there are no less than ten classes of stanza, counting by the number of lines to the stanza, and these may be considerably multiplied by alternating or mixing seven-syllabled with four-syllabled lines in various orders, and by varying the number of sets of rhymes to a stanza and the order of those rhymes. Perhaps one of the most elaborated (1. 168-180) will serve as a specimen. It is a thirteen-lined stanza of twelve seven-syllabled lines, and one (the ninth) four-syllabled line, with four sets of rhymes, rhyming A B A B A B A B C [four syllables] D D D C.
Gelwys ydhof Conany,
Mytern yn Bryton Vyan;
Han gulascor pur yredy
Me a beu ol yn tyan.
Der avys ou arlydhy
Mones y fannaf lemman
The Duk pen a chevalry,
Nesse dhymmo yn certan
Par del yu ef
Yma maryag galosek
Cowsys dhyn rag Meryasek
Mergh dhe vyghtern gallosek,
Nynses brassa yn dan nef.
Called am I Conan,
King in Little Britain;
And the kingdom very readily
I own all entirely.
Through the advice of my lords
I will go now
To the Duke the chief of knighthood.
Second to me certainly
Like as he is.
There is a mighty marriage
Spoken to us for Meriasek
Of the daughter to a mighty king,
There is not a greater under heaven.
It is evident that by varying the number of lines and rhymes to a stanza, varying the distribution of the rhymes, and mixing lines of different length, an almost infinite variety may be obtained, even with only two forms of line.
X. The metres of Jordan’s Drama of The Creation (1611) do not differ materially in intention from those of the Ordinalia, on which they are evidently modelled. But in this play one begins to find signs of a tendency to a less accurate ear for exact syllabic rhythm. About eighty lines out of the 2548 of which the play consists have eight syllables, about twenty have only six, and in each case these ought to be seven-syllabled. Also there are two cases of three and six of five syllables in what ought to be four-syllabled lines, and there are several cases of nine syllables in a line, and one case of ten. No doubt some of these discrepancies may be accounted for by elisions and contractions not expressed in writing (as is often the case in Latin), and some of the short lines contain diphthongs which may be meant to count as two syllables, but by no means all are explainable by anything but the influence of English, or, as is less probable, a reversion to some such archaic idea of rhythm as that of the Add. Charter fragment.
After this we come to the verses of late Cornish. These are few, poor, corrupt, and illiterate, and for the most part without value for metrical purposes. The strictly syllabic metres of the older Cornish have nearly disappeared, and though the tonic accent is still disregarded when convenient, extra unaccented syllables, as often in inferior, and sometimes in good English verse, are freely introduced by way of anacrusis, etc., in a manner that shows that accent was considered in a sort of way, and that the accents of a line rather than the syllables were counted. John Boson wrote a few lines in three-lined stanzas somewhat after the fashion of the Welsh Triban Milwr, and Lhuyd’s artificial elegy on William of Orange is another instance of the same. The only poem remaining of James Jenkins of Alverton (printed by Pryce and Davies Gilbert) is a sort of irregular ode, which refuses to be satisfactorily analysed. The lines are all sorts of lengths, they may begin with an accent or they may have one or two light syllables before the first strong beat, the rhymes may be single or double. The principle of the first part seems to be little lines of two beats, varying from three to seven syllables rhyming in couplets. Thus:—
| Ma léeaz gwréag | There are many wives |
| Lácka vel zéag, | Worse than grains [i.e. brewers’ refuse], |
| Gwéll gerrés (or gwéll gérres) | Better left |
| Vel kommeres (or vél komméres), | Than taken, |
| Ha ma léeaz bénnen | And there are man women |
| Pókar an gwénen | Like the bees, |
| Ey vedn gwérraz de go tées | They will help their men |
| Dendle péath an béaz. | To earn the goods of the world. |
| Fléhaz heb skéeans | Children without knowledge |
| Vedn guíl go séeanz; | Will do [according to] their sense; |
| Buz mar crówngy predery | But if they do consider |
| Pan dél go gwáry | What their play is like, |
| Ha mádra tá | And consider well |
| Pandrig séera ha dámma, | What did father and mother, |
| Na ra hens [wrans?] móaz dan cóoz | They will not go to the wood |
| Do kúntle go bóoz. 188 | To gather their food. |
The latter part has lines of four beats, with a very variable number of unaccented syllables, which in reading were probably hurried over rather vaguely. This rhythm may be compared with the “new principle” (as the author calls it in his preface) of Coleridge’s Christabel. 189a
Boson’s triplets are mostly of ten-syllabled lines, Lhuyd’s are generally of eight syllables, but sometimes of nine or even ten and eleven.
Tonkin of St. Just, a tailor, wrote two songs, which are in the Gwavas MS. They are in four-lined stanzas generally of seven-syllabled lines, though as often as not having an extra light syllable to begin with. Thus:—
Pa wrîg ev gŏrra trâz war tîr
Ev vê welcombes me ôr gwîr.
Ha devethes dhô Caresk
Maga saw besca vê pesk. 189b
When he [i.e. William of Orange] did put foot on land
He was welcomed I know well.
And having come [came] to Exeter
As safe as ever was fish.
The epigrams printed by Pryce and Davies Gilbert were mostly composed by Boson and Gwavas. Eight-syllabled lines are frequent among them, but they are of little or no value, and are altogether on English models, and not very good models at that.
Should any one wish to attempt verse-writing in Cornish, it would be best either to use one of the seven or four syllabled (or mixed) metres of the Dramas, using their purely syllabic methods, which undoubtedly work all right in modern Breton, or to extend the same principles, as the Bretons do, to lines of other lengths. The triplets of old Welsh and perhaps of very old Cornish are effective metres, but are not so easy as they look, for it is not enough merely to write rhyming triplets. Lhuyd in his one attempt has produced a peculiar though allowable metre, with lines of all sorts of lengths, and the old specimens, Llywarch Hen’s Marwnad Geraint ap Erbin, and the Englynion called Eiry Mynydd, are largely in lines of seven syllables, and some of them, such as the Song of the Death of Cynddylan, and the curious ninth-century poem in the Cambridge Juvencus, seem to have also the gair cyrch, that strange little tag to the first line of the triplet, outside of the rhyme but not outside of the assonance or alliteration, which is so marked a characteristic of the four-lined Englyn, while in most of them there are alliterations, vowel correspondences, and internal rhymes, which are not so haphazard as they look. It is well not to attempt to force a Celtic language into a Teutonic mould. Some of the most beautiful metres that the world has ever known are to be found among the works of English poets, but they are no more suitable to Cornish than hexameters, sapphics, and alcaics on strict quantity lines would be to English. It is possible, however, to write ten-syllabled blank verse in Cornish, provided a fair amount of alliteration is used.
One word about inversions of the order of words in poetry. This should be done very sparingly, and it is not easy to lay down very definite rules as to what is allowable and what not. It is best not to deviate from the usual order of words unless one can find a precedent in one of the Dramas. Some inversions, however, are quite allowable. Thus one may put the complement of a predicate, e.g. an infinitive, an accusative, or a participle, at the beginning of a phrase:—
bewa ythesaf pub eare (Creation, 1667), living I am always.
banna ny allaf gwelas (Creation, 1622), a drop I cannot see.
defalebys os ha cabm (Creation, 1603), deformed thou art, and crooked.
yn bushes ow crowetha (Creation, 1606), in bushes lying.
gans dean pen vo convethys (Creation, 1618), by man when it is discovered.
worthaf ve sertan ny dale (Creation, 1619), with me, certainly, ought not.
determys ove dha un dra (Creation, 236), determined I am of one thing.
mos then menythe me a vyn (Creation, 1082), go to the mountain I will.
These are all taken from Jordan’s Creation, and mostly at random from the same page. Still, the less one inverts the normal order of words the better.