English Historical Metrics

This volume identifies historical metrics as an important discipline within English studies and raises significant questions about the composition and transmission of early English verse. The chronological range of the book covers the Old English to the pre-Renaissance periods, while its theoretical range is multidisciplinary. The keynote introduction by Thomas Cable identifies major current issues within the field. The work concludes with an extensive and up-to-date bibliography which includes linguistics, philological and text-critical work. The distinguished team of contributors includes: Russom, McCully, and Obst (focusing on Old English, with a conspectus by Stockwell); Minkova (on the Ormulum and early Middle English); Borroff, Matonis, and Osberg (Middle English verse); Bunt and Duggan (editing and Middle English metrics); and Duffell and Youmans (the origin and structure of the Chaucerian long line).

• State-of-the-art survey of many areas of Old English and Middle English study • Articles by acknowledged experts in the field

Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction C. B. McCully and J. J. Anderson; 2. Clashing stress in the meters of Old, Middle, and Renaissance English Thomas Cable; 3. Purely metrical replacements for Kuhn’s laws Geoffrey Russom; 4. Domain-end phenomena and metrical templates in Old English verse C. B. McCully; 5. Can Old English rhythm be reconstructed Wolfgang Obst; 6. On recent theories of metrics and rhythm in Beowulf Robert P. Stockwell; 7. Non-primary stress in Middle English accentual-syllabic verse Donka Minkova; 8. Systematic sound-symbolism in the long alliterative line in Beowulf and Sir Gawain Marie Borroff; 9. Non-aa/ax patterns in Middle English alliterative long-line verse A. T. E. Matonis; 10. The prosody of Middle English Pearl and the alliterative lyric tradition Richard H. Osberg; 11. Alliterative patterning and the editing of Middle English poetry Gerrit H. V. Bunt; 12. Reconsidering Chaucer’s prosody Gilbert Youmans; 13. Chaucer Gower and the history of the hendecasyllable Martin J. Duffell; 14. Libertine scribes and maidenly editors: meditations on textual criticism and metrics Hoyt N. Duggan; References; Index.