This is the note in Sidney's 'The Defence of Poesy' and Selected
Renaissance Literary Criticism, ed. Gavin Alexander (Penguin Classics, 2004):
'Ditties' are lyric poems rather than epic (like the Civil Wars) or
dramatic. By 'set certain' Daniel means in the same position in every
stanza in shorter poems: if a poem in a stanza form abab begins with the b
rhyme feminine, it must continue in this way in every stanza; in practice
this extended to sonnet quatrains, and Daniel revised his sequence Delia to
conform to this rule. To put feminine rhymes 'by themselves' means in a
stanza form or sonnet in which every line has a feminine ending.
$10.88 at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0141439386/. A
bargain, in my humble opinion.
At 00:39 04/02/2005, you wrote:
>My quick take on this:
>
>Feminine rhymes are not appropriate for epic poetry (i.e. Civil Warres),
>but for light verse only; and even in that case, should be used only as
>part of a set pattern or throughout the entire poem.
>
> > From Samuel Daniel's Defence of Rhyme:
> >
> > "Besides, to me this change of number in a Poem of one nature fits not
> > so wel, as to mixe vncertainly, feminine Rymes with masculine, which,
> > euer since I was warned of that deformitie by my kinde friend and
> > countriman Maister Hugh Samford, I haue alwayes so auoided it, as there
> > are not aboue two couplettes in that kinde in all my Poem of the Ciuill
> > warres: and I would willingly if I coulde, haue altered it in all the
> > rest, holding feminine Rymes to be fittest for Ditties, and either to be
> > set certaine, or else by themselues."
> >
> > Can anyone paraphrase these last two lines?
> >
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Dr. David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask]
> > English Department Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c
> > East Carolina University Sparsa et neglecta coegi. -- Claude Fauchet
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
|