For instance, in the GENERAL PROLOGUE TO THE CANTER-
BURY TALES, GEOFFREY CHAUCER relies on the four
humors to reveal characteristic about the Pilgrims.
See also PHYSIOGNOMY.
FOURTEENERS A fourteener is a line of 14 syl-
lables, usually consisting of seven iambic feet; it is syn-
onymous with heptameter. But while heptameter
describes a line of seven metrical feet, the use of the
term fourteener seems to have begun in the 16th cen-
tury; thus, its use as a critical term is often historically
specifi c, while the use of heptameter is not. Generally,
verse written in fourteeners consisted of unremarkable
rhymed COUPLETs.
Narrative verse in fourteeners fl ourished during the
later Middle Ages and the early Tudor period, enjoying
a brief vogue that roughly coincided with the initial
translation of a large number of Latin works into Eng-
lish. This has led to conjecture that the fourteener was
a response to the exigencies of such translation, the
longer line being useful to the translator since English
does not have Latin’s gift for brevity, and the seven-
foot line having some precedent in Archilochian hep-
tameter (iambic heptameter) and other classical verse
that translators would have taken as prose models.
This conjecture is borne out in the frequent use of
fourteeners in Tudor translations from the Latin—for
instance, in Jasper Heywood’s Troas, Thyestes, and Her-
cules Furens; Alexander Neville’s Oedipus; and John
Studley’s Agamemnon, Medea, and Hippolytus. These
translations’ long-winded verse did not, however, set a
precedent for the revival of classical tragedy on the
English stage, which was dominated by BLANK VERSE.
The fourteener proved more durable in poetry,
where it was combined with other lines (such as hex-
ameter in HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY’s “Complaint
of a Dying Lover,”) or its rhymed couplets broken into
four lines, becoming the eight-and-six meter of the
common BALLAD STANZA.
Nathaniel Z. Eastman“FOWELES IN THE FRITH” ANONYMOUS
(ca. 1270) This short, enigmatic lyric appears, with
musical accompaniment, in one manuscript found at
the Bodleian Library in Oxford. In the opening two-
line “section” of the poem, the speaker looks outward
and notes that the creatures of the natural world are
where they ought to be: “Foweles in the Frith, / The
fi sses in the fl od.. .” (ll. 1–2)—birds are in the woods,
the fi shes in the stream. The speaker then turns inward
and fi nds that harmonious nature contrasts with his
own, disordered state: “And I mon waxe wod. / Mulch
sorw I walke with.. .” (ll. 3–4)—literally, “And I must
grow mad. I walk with much sorrow.. .” What is the
nature of the “sorw” that separates the speaker from
nature? The answer comes in line 5: “For beste of bon
and blod” (l. 5). A corporeal being is the source of his
pain, and the opposition with the natural world seems
to heighten his suffering.
The fundamental critical debate surrounding this
lyric concerns genre: Is “Foweles in the Frith” a secular
or a religious lyric? Many critics assume that the poem
borrows conventions from the discourse of COURTLY
LOVE and fi nd the pained, subjective emotion typical of
the Provençal and Middle English love lyrics of the
12th and 13th centuries, as well as reminiscent of
LOVESICKNESS. However, others argue that the poem is
religious, either a meditation on the fallen state of
humanity or a lamentation over Christ’s sacrifi ce. This
particular lyric, though, refuses to fall unambiguously
into either camp—even the manuscript context offers
no clues—and continues to tantalize readers, making it
an often anthologized piece.
“Foweles in the Frith” draws upon a number of rec-
ognizable commonplaces and poetic traditions, but
even these do not help to settle the debate over its
nature. Most obvious is the notion of courtly love; the
“beste of bon and blod” is apparently a secular lover
who has rejected the speaker and occasioned the lyric.
Also, the natureingang, or “nature walk,” that opens
the poem is a conventional way to begin a medieval
love song and ties the poem to the REVERDIE tradi-
tion—the world is greening in springtime and teems
with life and joy. However, natureingang also recalls
the biblical Creation theme. Birds and fi sh were both
created on the fi fth day, and Adam would classify and
name them, establishing lex aeterna, or eternal law,
which alienates human beings from nature. Further,
frith can mean not only “woods” but also “divine law.”192 FOURTEENERS