Alliteration [pp. 186-187]

1871.] ALLITERATION 187
equally good terms "milk-girl," " butcher-man," etc. Possibly, too,
partiality for this figure impresses us with such appellatives as "fan cy free," "brow-beaten," "hot-headed," "hard-hearted," "heavy handed," and the like. Many catchwords and slang expressions owe
their popularity to this figure, and certainly much of the charm of
our nursery-rhymes may be attributed to abundant use of this artifice.
Viewed in this light, the celebrated "Peter Piper," who "picked a
peck of pickled peppers," deserves to be treated with greater respect,
as the offspring of a poetical figure.
Such sentences as these, "'Round the rough and ragged rock the
wretched rascals ran," and "Theophilus Thistlethwaite thrust three
thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb," are familiar to
many. This class of curiosities abounds both in French and in German, and doubtless in Italian.
Alliteration dates from a very early period; ancient Hebrew poetry
furnishes us with the earliest examples, as in Psalm cxix., Lamentations iii., etc., though possibly these should be considered as acrostical,
and not alliterative.
How the Greeks and Romans employed it, we have imperfectly developed. It frequently degenerated, however, in the middle ages, into
what have been aptly called "ridiculous feats of poetical legerdemain." Thus, in 876, the monk Hugbald wrote a work entitled
"Ecloga de Calvis," in which every word begins with the letter C. It
commences thus "Carmina clarisonme calvis cantate Camenae "and extends to one hundred and thirty-six lines.
Publius Porcius wrote a poem of three hundred lines, in which
every word begins with the letter P; it is entitled "Pugna Porcorum,
per Publium Porcium, Poetam," and contains such lines as these:
"Propterea properans Procousul, poplite prono
Precipitem, Plebem, pro Patrum, pace poposcit,
Peuta paulisper, Pubes preciosa precamur," etc.
The letter P probably possesses peculiar properties particularly
appropriate to such poetical performances; for the Anglo-Saxon luminary Aldhelm wrote a letter to Eahfred, beginning:
"Primitus (pantorum procerum prctorumque pio potissimum paternoque proesertim, privelegio) panegyricum poemataque passim
prosatori sub polo promulgantes," etc.
In the thirteenth century, a Jew named Aubonet Abraham composed an oration, every word of which began with the letter M.
This spirit of excessive alliteration dates back to very early times;
for Eunius, who lived two hundred years before Christ, wrote:
"0O Tite, tute, Tati, tibi, tanta, Tyraune tulisti."
Leaving the Latin tongue, we find that alliteration was common
at a very early period in a great number of dialects; the Icelandic,
Celtic, Gothic, Welsh, and Scandinavian poets depended much on
alliteration. In German, three poems are extant, dating from the
eighth and ninth centuries, all in alliterative verse.
In the Icelandic and other dialects, alliteration precedes and takes
the place of rhyme. One of the earliest English poems is written in
alliterative metre, without rhyme. We refer to the famous satirical
allegory, ascribed to Robert or William Longlande, a secular priest
of the fourteenth century, entitled "The Vision of Piers Plowman."
This poem is entirely made up of alliteration and rhythmical accent,
without rhyme, as is shown in the following extract:
"In a Somer Season
When soft was the Sunne
I shope me into Shroubs
As I a shepe were;
In Habit as an Harmet
Unholy of werkes;
Went Wyde in thys world
Wonders to heare.
Ac on a May morwening
On Malvern hills
Me befel aferly
Of faery me thought."
Bishop Percy, in his "IReliques of Ancient English Poetry," remarks that the author of the poem just quoted has not invented any
new mode of versification, but only retained that of the old Saxon
and Gothic poets.
Of later English poets, Spenser, Dryden, and Gray, especially,
abound in this figure. Gray has been quoted. He was very fond of
verses divided into two clauses, with alliteration on the opposite
sides:
"Thoughts that breathe and words that burn."
" Hauberk crash and helmet ring."
" Weave the warp and weave the woof."
Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Byron, employ this ornamental figure;
Southey and Poe have produced remarkable examples of that kind
of alliteration connected with imitative harmony-the former, in his
"Falls of Lodore;" the latter, in his "Bells."
It is a curious fact that the Kaffre language is characterized by a
remarkable tendency to alliteration. We would scarcely expect to
find savage tribes studying euphony; yet, "when two words stand in
certain grammatical relations to each other, the initial of one is
changed to that of the'principal word," just as if we said in English
bunbeamn instead of sunbeam.
The absurd performances of Publius Porcius, Hugbald, and others,
are sometimes called macaronticpoetry. Under this head, but exactly
opposed to alliteration, are the works of the ancient "lipogrammatists," in which certain letters are purposely omitted. Examples
of lipograms are not very numerous; the following are the most noteworthy:
Tryphiodorus wrote an " Odyssey" in twenty-four books; the first
contained no a, the second no B, the third no -y, and so on. Fulgentius wrote a similar work. Pindar composed an ode in which S is
omitted. Vincent Cardone, a Dominican friar, wrote a work entitled
"La R sbandita sopra la potenza d'amore," in which the letter R was
wholly discarded; it was published at Naples, in 1614, and is accounted a very rare and curious work among bibliophilists. It is
rather amusing to learn that the compiler of a "Dictionnaire Historique Universelle," misunderstanding the nature of the poem, and
taking R for the initial letter of "Religione," announced the title
thus: "La Religione sbandita sopra la potenza d'amore" (" Religion
discarded; or, the Power of Love").
Vincent Cardone, the author of this work, only imitated a similar
one, by Horatio Fidele, beginning "Giove poiche Nettuno," and containing fifteen hundred and forty lines.
Tryphiodorus also found an imitator, in the author of "L'Alfabeto
distrutto."
The voluminous Spanish writer Lope de Vega wrote five novels in
which the vowels are successively rejected. The historian Gregorio
Leti presented a discourse to the Academy of Humorists at Rome, in
which the letter R was wanting; a friend, who requested a copy, was
favored with a letter, seven pages in length, in which the same peculiarity was observed.
The following amusing anecdote is related by Disraeli, in his "Curiosities of Literature:"
"A Persian poet read to the celebrated Jami a sonnet of his own
composition, which the latter did not like. The writer informed Jamni
that it was, nevertheless, a curiosity, for the letter Aliff was not to
be found in any one of the words. Whereupon Jami sarcastically
replied:'You can do better yet-take away all the letters from every
word you have written!'"
The concluding alliterative poem is probably the most ingenious
specimen existing in the language. We are ignorant of the name of
the author, and would gladly be informed of it:
"An Austrian army, awfully arrayed,
Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade.
Cossack commanders cannonading come,
Dealing destruction's devastating doom.
Every endeavor engineers essay
For fame, for fortune fighting-furious fray!
Generals'gainst generals grapple-gracious God!
How honors Heaven heroic hardihood!
Infuriate, indiscriminate in ill,
Kindred kill kinsmen, kinsmen kindred kill.
Labor low levels longest, loftiest lines;
Men march'mid mounds,'mid moles,'mid murd'rous mihes;
Now noxious-noisy numbers, noting naught
Of outward obstacles, opposing ought;
Poor patriots, partly purchased, partly pressed,
Quite quaking, quickly "Quarter! Quarter!" quest.
Reason returns, religious right redounds,
Suwarrow stops such sanguinary sounds.
Trace to thee, Turkey! Triumph to thy train,
Unwise, unjust, unmerciful Ukraine!
Vanish vain victory! vanish victory vain!
Why wish we warfare. Wherefore welcome were
Xerxes, Ximenes, Xanthus, Xavier?
Yield, yield, ye youths Iye yeomen, yield your,yell I
Zeus's, Zarpater's, Zoroaster's zeal,
Attracting all, arms against acts appeal!"
H. CARRINGTON BOLTON.
1871t.1
ALLITE RATI OXO.
187