4. T

4. THE SPENSERIAN STANZA.--The _Faerie Queene_ is written in the Spenserian Stanza, a form which the poet himself invented as a suitable vehicle for a long narrative poem. Suggestions for its construction were taken from three Italian metres--the Ottava Rima, the Terza Rima, the Sonnet--and the Ballade stanza. There are eight lines in the iambic pentameter measure (five accents); e.g.-- v -/- | v -/- | v -/- | v -/- | v -/- a gen | tle knight | was prick | ing on | the plaine followed by one iambic hexameter, or Alexandrine (six accents); e.g.-- v -/- | v -/- | v -/- | v -/- | v -/- | v -/- as one | for knight | ly giusts | and fierce | encount | ers fitt The rhymes are arranged in the following order: _ab ab bc bcc_. It will be observed that the two quatrains are bound together by the first two b rhymes, and the Alexandrine, which rhymes with the eighth line, draws out the harmony with a peculiar lingering effect. In scanning and reading it is necessary to observe the laws of accentuation and pronunciation prevailing in Spenser's day; e.g. in _learned_ (I, i), _undeserved_ (I, ii), and _woundes_ (V, xvii) the final syllable is sounded, _patience_ (X, xxix) is trisyllabic, _devotion_ (X, xl) is four syllables, and _entertainment_ (X, xxxvii) is accented on the second and fourth syllables. Frequently there is in the line a cæsural pause, which may occur anywhere; e.g.-- "And quite dismembred hath; | the thirsty land Dronke up his life; | his corse left on the strand." (III, xx.) The rhythm of the meter is also varied by the alternating of end-stopped and run-on lines, as in the last quotation. An end-stopped line has a pause at the end, usually indicated by some mark of punctuation. A run-on line should be read closely with the following line with only a slight pause to indicate the line-unit. Monotony is prevented by the occasional use of a light or feminine ending--a syllable on which the voice does not or cannot rest; e.g.-- "Then choosing out few words most horrible." (I, xxxvii.) "That for his love refused deity." (III, xxi.) "His ship far come from watrie wilderness." (III, xxxii.) The use of alliteration, i.e. having several words in a line beginning with the same letter, is another device frequently employed by Spenser for musical effect; e.g.-- "In which that wicked wight his dayes doth weare." (I, xxxvi.) "Sweet slombring deaw, the which to sleep them biddes." (I, xxxvi.)