Introduction.

The revival of alliterative poetry in the fourteenth century is one of the most remarkable features in the history of English literature. For the student of language this poetry is of special importance, because alliteration affords one of the principal criteria for ascertaining the accent of words. From this point of view the alliterative poems of that period have as yet been too little examined, and we possess hitherto no work or article in which this subject is comprehensively dealt with.

It will therefore be the object of the present investigation to examine carefully, especially in compounds, the word-stress in Middle English, as it may be deduced from the accentuation prevailing among our alliterative poets.

In this connection simple or uncompounded words need not be considered, as in such words, when they consist of more than one syllable, the chief stress in Middle English, in agreement with the practice in Old and in Modern English, is constantly laid on the first syllable, which is the root-syllable (cf. Morsbach, Me. Gramm. § 20).

Apart from Richard the Redeles three important works of considerable extent, of different dates, and by different authors, have been used as the basis of our investigation, viz. the socalled Troy-Book, the Morte Arthure and Piers the Plowman.

Considered from a metrical point of view, the first of these is undoubtedly the most important, owing to its superiority over the other poems, especially over Piers the Plowman, in respect to the care and accuracy with which the system of alliteration has been applied.

Although the following few observations concerning the authorship, the time of composition, and the dialect of our

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poems may contain nothing new, it will perhaps not be out of place, if we briefly recapitulate what is known in respect to these several matters.

The Troy-Book.

Various opinions have been expressed on the question of the authorship of this work. Donaldson, in the Preface to his edition of the Troy-Book for the E. E. T. S., advocates the view that the poet who wrote the Morte Arthure is also the author of the Troy-Book. He bases this opinion chiefly on the similarity of the vocabulary in both works, and says: „In both poems we find the same peculiar words and phrases, the same peculiarities of thought, the same favourite subjects, and the same methods of viewing and representing them: even the differences of thought and expression are such as could be presented only by the same mind in different moods."

Morris, in the Preface to his edition of Early English Alliterative Poems, for the E. E. T. S., is inclined to see the author of the Troy-Book in the writer of those poems. He adduces the following reasons in support of this opinion: „... for, leaving out identical and by no means common expressions, we find the same power of description and the same tendency to inculcate moral and religious truths on all occasions where an opportunity presents itself."

Remarks, somewhat vague and general in expression, like those quoted, are hardly convincing. A more accurate examination of this subject is found in Trautmanns article „Der Dichter Huchown und seine Werke" (Anglia I p. 109 sq.). On the basis of metrical investigations, he reaches the conclusion that the Morte Arthure and the Troy-Book are not by the same hand. This question was afterwards again dealt with by Brandes in his essay „Die me. Destruction of Troy und ihre Quelle" (Engl. Studien VIII p. 398 sq.). Against Trautmann he upholds the authorship of Huchown for our poem.

It would carry us beyond the scope of the present treatise to enter more fully into this question. We would, however, offer one more remark on the subject. When Wyntown, in Pe Originale Cronykil of Scotland, v. 304 sq. says of Huchown:

He made pe gret Gest of Arthure
And pe Awntyre of Gawane

Pe Pystyl als of Swete Swsane,

it may appear strange that, if Huchown were also the author of the Troy-Book, Wyntown should have made no mention whatever of this work, a poem both more extensive and certainly not less important than those that are mentioned by him.

Formerly the Troy-Book was assigned to the second half of the fourteenth century. According to Kölbing (Engl. Stud. XI 285), the poet of the Troy-Book clearly imitated Chaucer. The poem must, therefore, be later, about the beginning of the fifteenth century, and consequently cannot be ascribed, as it has been, to Shir Hew of Eglintoun.

With reference to the dialect of the Troy-Book, Luick (Anglia XI p. 406), says: „Consequently the Troy-Book will probably belong to the northern part of the West- Midland".

Morte Arthure.

According to Trautmann (Anglia I, p. 109 sq.), Huchown is probably to be accepted as the author of the Morte Arthure (cf. also T. P. Harison: A Study of the ME. Poem, The Pystal of Susan. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Publications, vol. VIII No. 4 Baltimore 1893; but also ten Brink, Hist. of English Lit. II, p. 402 sq., and Luick, 1. c. p. 586).

With reference to the time and locality of the composition of the Morte Arthure ten Brink (1. c. p. 403) says: „The author of this poem wrote probably in the north of England towards the beginning of the fifteenth century". And Luick (1. c. p. 586): In any case our poem is not of Midland origin, but more northern than all the documents which we have hitherto considered".

Piers the Plowman.

For this work we possess distinct data as to authorship and time of composition. The facts in connection with these points are generally known and accepted. The author of the poem is William Langland (or Langley), who was born about 1331 in south Shropshire at Cleobury Mortimer situated between

Ludlow and Kidderminster, and who died about the year 1400. The poem is preserved in numerous MSS. in three different versions: the A-text 1362, the B-text 1377, and the C-text 1393.

As to the dialect of the work, Skeat (Clar. Press. edition, vol. II p. lvii.) gives his opinion as follows: „There can be little doubt that the true dialect of the author is best represented by MSS. of the B-text, and that this dialect was mainly Midland, with occasional introduction of Southern forms. The A-text was printed from the Vernon MS., as this seemed to be the best MS., upon the whole; none of the MSS. of that text being very satisfactory. But the Vernon MS. differs in dialect from almost all other copies of the poem; the scribe, who has written out a large number of other poems also, has turned everything into the Southern dialect. The MSS. of the C-text are mostly in a Midland dialect, but it is remarkable that many of them frequently introduce Western forms, as if the author's copy had been multiplied at a time when he had returned to the West of England". (cf. Morsbach, Me. Gramm. §3 Anm. 2: Also the so-called B-text of Langland's Piers the Plowman affords evidence of an altogether insufficient nature as to questions of dialect".)1)

Richard the Redeles.

The poem of Richard the Redeles, so called by Skeat according to this expression in the first verse of Passus Primus: Now, Richard the Redeles reweth on zou-self,

consists of a Prologus of 87, and of four Passus respectively of 114, 192, 371, and 93 verses. Skeat (1. c. p. lxxxiii sq.) assigns it to the year 1399 and to the author of Piers the Plowman.

As we stated before, from a metrical point of view, the Troy-Book is the most important of our texts, because it is the most regular in the use of alliteration. As a rule there

1) For the dialect of the B-text, see the dissertation of Kron, Untersuchungen zu W. Langley etc., Erlangen 1885. There (pp. 13, 27 sq. and p. 53) the MS. Laud Misc. 551 is stated to be in the poet's handwriting, which is distinctly denied by Morsbach (Me. Gramm. § 129 Anm. 8). Skeat also (p. lxviii) believes this MS. to be the author's autograph copy“.

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