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fying any thing humble, low, or dejected, is naturally, in prose, as well as verse, pronounced in a tone below the key-note.

We are now sufficiently prepared for particulars; beginning with English heroic verse, which shall be examined under the five heads, of number, quantity, arrangement, pause, and accent. This verse is of two kinds; one named rhyme, or metre, and one blank verse. In the former, the lines are connected two and two by similarity of sound in the final syllables, and two lines so connected are termed a couplet: similarity of sound being avoided in the latter, couplets are banished. These two sorts must be handled separately, because there are many peculiarities in each. Metre, the first article, shall be discussed in a few words. Every line consists of ten syllables, five short and five long; from which there are but two exceptions, both of them rare. The first is, where each line of a couplet is made eleven syllables, by an additional syllable at the end: There heroes wits are kept in pond'rous vases, And beaux' in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases. The piece, you think, is incorrect? Why take it; I'm all submission; what you'd have it, make it. This license is sufferable in a single couplet; but if frequent, disgusts.

The other exception concerns the second line of a couplet, which is sometimes stretched out to twelve syllables, termed an Alexandrine line:

A needless Alexandrine ends the song,

That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.

It doth well when employed to close a period with pomp and solemnity, where the subject makes that tone proper.

With regard to quantity, it is unnecessary to mention a second time, that the quantities employed in verse are but two, the one double of the other; that every syllable is reducible to one or other of these standards; and that a syllable of the larger quantity is termed long, and of the lesser quantity short. The English

language abounds in long and short syllables in words of three or more syllables; the quantity, for the most part, is invariable: the exceptions are more frequent in dissyllables; but as to monosyllables, they may, without many exceptions, be pronounced either long or (short. This shows, that the melody of English verse must depend less upon quantity than upon other cir

cumstances.

And with respect to arrangement, the English heroic line is commonly Iambic, the first syllable short, the second long, and so on alternately through the whole line. One exception there is, pretty frequent, of lines commencing with a trochæus, i. e. a long and a short syllable; but this affects not the order of the following syllables, which go on alternately, one short and one long. The following couplet affords an example of each kind:

Some in the fields of pūrěst ether plāy,

and bask and whiten in the blaze of day.

It is an imperfection in English verse, that it excludes the bulk of polysyllables, which are the most sounding words in our language, and it is accordingly almost totally reduced to dissyllables and monosyllables: magnanimity is a sounding word totally excluded; impetuosity is still a finer word, by the resemblance of the sound and sense: and yet a negative is put upon it, as well as upon numberless words of the same kind. Polysyllables composed of syllables long and short alternately, make a good figure in verse; for example, observance, opponent, and such others of three syllables. Imitation, imperfection, and others of four syllables, beginning with two short syllables, the third long, and the fourth short, may find a place in a line commencing with a trochæus.

One would not imagine, without trial, how uncouth false quantity appears in verse; not less than a provincial tone or idiom. The article the is one of the few monosyllables that is invariably short: observe

how harsh it makes a line where it must be pronounced long:

This nymph, to the destruction of mănkind.

Again—

Th' ădvent❜rous bāron the bright lōcks ådmir'd.

Let it be pronounced short, and it reduces the melody almost to nothing.

The great variety of melody conspicuous in English verse, arises chiefly from the pauses and accents, which are of greater importance than is commonly thought. The pause, which paves the way to the accent, offers itself first to our examination; and from a very short trial, the following facts will be verified: 1st. A line admits but one capital pause. 2d. In different lines, we find this pause after the fourth syllable, after the fifth, after the sixth, and after the seventh. These four places of the pause lay a solid foundation for dividing English heroic lines into four kinds. Each kind hath a melody peculiar to itself, readily distinguishable by a good ear; but the pause cannot be made indifferently at any of the places mentioned: it is the sense that regulates the pause, and consequently it is the sense that determines of what order every line must be. There can be but one capital musical pause in a line; and that pause ought to coincide, if possible, with a pause in the sense, in order that the sound may ac cord with the sense.

First, the pause after the fourth syllable:

Back through the paths | of pleasing sense I ran.

After the 5th:

So when an angel || by divine command,
With rising tempests || shakes a guilty land.

After the 6th:

Speed the soft intercourse || from soul to soul.

After the 7th:

And taught the doubtful battle | where to rage.

Besides the capital pause, inferior pauses will be dis covered by a nice ear. Of these there are commonly

two in each line: one before the capital pause, and one after it. The former comes after the first long syllable, whether the line begin with a short or a long syllable. The other in its variety imitates the capital pause in some lines it comes after the 6th, in some after the 7th, and in some after the 8th syllable.

In Hexameter verse, a full pause ought never to divide a word: such license deviates too far from the coincidence that ought to be between the pauses of sense and melody.

The same rule is not applicable to a semi-pause, which, being short and faint, is not sensibly disagreeable when it divides a word:

Relentless walls || whose darksome round | contains.

For her white virgins || hyme | neals sing.

In these deep solitudes || and awful cells.

The capital pause is so essential to the melody, that one cannot be too nice in the choice of its place, in order to have it clear and distinct. It cannot be in better company than with a pause in the sense; and if the sense require but a comma after the fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh syllable, it is sufficient for the musical pause. But to make such coincidence essential, would cramp versification too much; and we have experience for our authority, that there may be a pause in the melody where the sense requires none. We must not, however, imagine that a musical pause may come after any word indifferently: some words, like syllables of the same word, are so intimately connected, as not to bear a separation even by a pause. The separating, for example, a substantive from its article would be harsh and unpleasant.

To explain the rules of accenting, we premised first, -That accents have a double effect: they contribute to the melody, by giving it air and spirit; and to the sense, by distinguishing important words from others.* These two effects never can be separated, without im

* An accent considered with respect to sense is termed emphasis.

pairing the concord that ought to subsist between the thought and the melody; an accent placed on a low word, has the effect to burlesque it, by giving it an unnatural elevation; and the injury thus done to the sense does not rest there, for it seems also to injure the melody. Secondly, a word, of whatever number of syllables, is not accented upon more than one of them; because the object is set in its best light by a single accent, so as to make more than one unnecessary for the sense: and if another be added, it must be for the sound merely; which would be a transgression of the foregoing rule, by separating a musical accent from that which is requisite for the sense.

The doctrine of accenting English heroic verse is extremely simple. In the first place, accenting is confined to the long syllables; for a short syllable is not capable of an accent. In the next place, as the melody is enriched in proportion to the number of accents, every word that has a long syllable may be accented; unless the sense interpose, which rejects the accenting a word that makes no figure by its signification. According to this rule, a line may admit five accents. But supposing every long syllable accented, there is, in every line, one accent that makes a greater figure than the rest, being that which precedes the capital pause. It is distinguished into two kinds; one immediately before the pause, and one divided from the pause by a short syllable. The former belongs to lines of the first and third order: the latter to those of the second and fourth. Examples of the first kind.

Smooth flow the waves | the zephyrs gently play,
Belinda smil'd I and all the world was gay,

He rais'd his azure wând and thus began,

Examples of the other kind.

There lay three gârters || half a pair of gloves,
And all the trophies | of his former loves.
Our humble province II is to tend the fair,
Not a less pleasing || though less glorious care.
And hew triumphal arches | to the ground.

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