ABSTRACT
InthischapterIshouldliketoaddatheoryofIrishorigintothevarious othertheoriesastotheoriginofChaucer'sfive-stressline,usedbyhim inthegreaterpartofTheCanterburyTalesandelsewhere,andapparently introducedbyhimintoEnglishpoetry(Mustanoja1979,76;cf.Alden1929, 174-80).TheothertheoriesincludeideasofChaucer'sindebtednesshere totheFrenchdecasyllabe,totheItalianhendecasyllabicline,andtothe OldEnglishfour-stressline(seeMustanoja1979,76-79).Itisperfectly possible,ofcourse,thatChaucerowessomethingtoallofthese,andmy ownsuggestionisofferedasonethatmightbeconsideredtogetherwithones alreadymade,ratherthanasasubstituteforthem.Itmustfirstbeemphasised thatnothingcloselyresemblingChaucer'sfive-stresslineispreservedin IrishsourcesuntilwellafterChaucer'stime,infactnotuntiltheturnof thesixteenthtotheseventeenthcentury.Fromthenandlater,however, poemsarepreservedinmetrescharacteristicoftheamhrimtraditionin IrishGaelicpoetry,thatis,atraditionofstanzaicsonginwhichregularity ofstressismoreimportantthanthestrictsyllablecountcharacteristicof Irishsyllabicpoetry,andinwhichfive-stress-lineformsareprominent.It hasbeensuggestedthatthesemetreswereinfluencedbyEnglishpoetryof thesixteenthcentury(Meyer1909,1;O'Nolan1934,208;cf.Bergin1937, 280-82),butthisismadeextremelyunlikelybythefactthattheyarealso characterisedbyintricatepatternsofassonance,whereby,forexample,each ofasmanyasfivesyllablesinonelineofversemayconsistentlyassonate withitsexactcounterpartinotherlinesthroughoutthewholepoem.The metresmainlyrelevantherearethosediscussedintwoarticles,oneinIrish andoneinGerman,byBreatnach,P.A.(1983;1991),who,however,isnot concernedwiththeirrelevancetoChaucer,thoughhedoesnoteinpassing thattheyareparalleledinChaucer'sfive-stressline.Heischieflyconcerned toshowthattheyexistedinIrelandlongbeforethetimeoftheirearliest survivingIrishexamples.Ifheisright,thereisacaseforsayingthatthey existedtherebeforeChaucer'stime.
