| 单词 | poulter's measure |
| 释义 | > as lemmaspoulter's measure poulter's measure n. [apparently with reference to the habit of poulterers of frequently adding some extra eggs when selling a dozen eggs, making the total number either twelve or fourteen (compare quot. 1575)] Prosody (now chiefly historical) a metre consisting of lines of 12 and 14 syllables alternately; cf. short metre n. at short adj., n., and adv. Compounds 6a. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > versification > metre > [noun] > variety of > poulter's measure poulter's measure1575 short metre1718 poulterer's measure1841 1575 G. Gascoigne Certayne Notes Instr. in Posies sig. U.ij The commonest sort of verse which we vse now adayes (viz. the long verse of twelue and fourtene sillables) I know not certainly howe to name it, vnlesse I should say that it doth consist of Poulters measure, which giueth xii. for one dozen and xiiij. for another. 1586 W. Webbe Disc. Eng. Poetrie sig. F.iiiiv When one staffe containeth but two verses, or (if they bee deuided) foure: the first or the first couple hauing twelue sillables, the other fourteene, which versifyers call Powlters measure, because so they tall[i]e their wares by dosens. 1838 E. Guest Hist. Eng. Rhythms II. iii. vi. 233 The metre..is but rarely met with, except during the sixteenth century; when it was commonly known by the name of poulter's measure, because the poulterer, as Gaskoyne tells us, ‘giveth twelve for one dozen, and fourteen for another’. 1994 Renaissance Q. 47 442 Even a poem like Gascoigne's ‘In prime of lustie years,’ composed in the deadly Poulter's Measure, acquires an unexpected suavity and lyricism when sung to the ‘Tinternell’ melody that Gascoigne specified. < as lemmas |
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