322
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s.vn. APRIL 27,1901.
report what he says of the poet's handling
of elegiacs. This comes under one of the
sections in which he affects to show "mere
sequence in poetic endeavour, and is courage
ously stated in these terms :
" In a third he has seemingly been reading Mr. Watson's 'Hymn to the Sea,' for he adopts its English pentameters. The metre, of course, is classical ; but (save for a couplet of Coleridge) we are not aware that any poet before Mr. Watson had attempted to naturalize the metre. Conse- quently it is of Mr. Watson we think when we read such verse as this :
Man that is born of a Woman, the pride and the
shame of Creation ; Man that soars upwards to Heaven, and sinks to
the nethermost Hell."
It may be pointed out in passing that if Mr. Watson favours these measures, he is attempt- ing elegiacs and not merely using penta- meters. The niain point, however, is that people with literary pretensions members of clubs, and of ccerulean companies at afternoon meetings for intellectual commune will be misled by such an authoritative and dogmatic deliverance as that given in the Academy. Confiding in it, they will conceive false notions, not only of Sir Lewis Morris as a poet, but of " the metre " that, " of course, is classical." They may be recommended, with reference to the poet, to study his volume for themselves to give it the patient and impartial attention it fully deserves and with regard to the metre a final word may be said here and now. Hexameters and elegiacs have been in occasional favour since they engaged the serious attention of Gabriel Harvey and momentarily attracted the youth- ful Spenser. Great poems in both forms appeared in the nineteenth century. The success of Longfellow, Clough, and Kingsley in manipulating " the rise and long roll of the hexameter " should be known and appre- ciated of all men and critics. The author of 'Dorothy,' as has been seen, quotes Cole- ridge's mnemonic illustration of elegiac structure, and probably this is the couplet that strikes the Academy writer as the only existing specimen of English "pentameters'" apart from the adventurous attempt of Mr. Watson. But (to pass over the experiments of three hundred years ago, and others) there is in our own day ' Dorothy ' of 1880 to reckon with as a precursor, and there is Browning's ' Ixion,' included in * Jocoseria/ 1883. Further and chiefly, Sir Lewis Morris himself pub- lished in 'Songs of Britain,' 1887, his loftily inspired elegiac poem ' Priests of Myddfai,' one of the finest elaborations of a romantic legend in the language. Quid plura? We conclude that smart criticism is not neces-
sarily final it is painful, indeed, to find it
not always well informed and that a poet
may be most seriously misrepresented through
critical waywardness or ineptitude. Before
attempting to sit in judgment it were well,
as Browning reasonably desiderated, that
one should be fully qualified to judge.
THOMAS BAYNE.
PLOUGH MONDAY MUMMERIES.
THE hundred years which have just con- cluded witnessed the disappearance of several ancient customs, but the Plough Monday pageant has survived into the twentieth century, though not without modification. The North Lincolnshire "plough-jags," for instance, have gone from house to house this season fantastically attired ; and if they no longer drag the plough of olden times with them, they are still sometimes accom- panied by a fiery and curveting hobby- horse. It may perhaps be worth while to en- shrine the following version of the "ditties" recited by the mummers in the pages of 4 N. & Q.,' for who knows how long or how short a time may elapse before they are dis- carded and forgotten 1
The following dialogue is printed as written down for Miss Fowler, of Winter-ton, by W. A., From the dictation of his father, who lives in the parish of Hibaldstow. It contains one interesting idiom, " War out ! " which Miss Fowler herself takes down in another version as " Where out ! " The words appear to mean " Be wary ! ' " Pay attention ! " " Look out ! " or, as Lincolnshire people frequently exclaim, " Mind yersens ! " Otherwise the only noteworthy thing about the rime is that the combat which should occur is omitted, and consequently no doctor appears to bring the fallen champion to life.
PLOUGHBOYS. Clown, 1st (actor). Good evening, ladys and Gentlemen,
I am making rather a bole call ; But Christmas time is a merry time,
I have come to see you all. I hope you will not be ofended
For what I have got to say : Here is a few more jolly fellows
Will step in this way.
Soldier, No. 2nd. I am a Recuited seagant
Ariving here just now ; My orders is to enlist all
Who follow the cart and plough.
Foreign Traveller, 3rd. 0, endeed, mr seagant,
As I suppose you are, You want us bold malishal lads
lo face the Boer war.
