ALLEGRETTO, not so quick as Allegro. VIVACE, with life and spirit. PRESTISSIMO, very quick. STACCATO, the notes short and distinct. All these directions, and a great many more of a similar nature, are very indefinite; and by no means fix the precise time in any one case. We can make the pulsations of heavy and light, and of course, the cadences, quicker or slower at pleasure, just as we alter the swings of a pendulum, by making it shorter or longer. Thus, in common time, we have all the varieties, from the slowest walking movement, to the quickest running measure; for, while the :: and the are alternate, the measure is common, without respect to the rapidity of their alternations. The same varieties will be found to prevail in triple time. In reading and speaking, the four following varieties, in common time, are in general use, viz. 1. Slow walking measure. 2. Ordinary. 3. Quick walking. 4. Running measure. In each of these there may be many degrees of quickness or slowness. Walking measure means, that the duration of the whole quantity of syllables contained in one cadence, that is, as much as is marked between two bars, should be equal to the time of making one step in walking, and so of the rest. 3 Though the mixture of the two kinds of rhythm, that is, and and, is constantly occurring in prose, yet when properly explained and exemplified, the and the pointed out, the quantities distinctly ascertained, and the ear properly tuned to the nature of a cadence, nothing is more simple. The or pulsation is not peculiar to a long syllable, nor the or remission to a short one, but may be upon either: in other words, and are accidents of language totally distinct from quantity. Whether a cadence begin with a long or a short syllable or note, or with a rest in silence, is quite indifferent to rhythm; but that syllable, or note, or rest, with which the cadence begins, must invariably carry with it the heavy poize. The Greek feet, or artificial prosody, cannot answer in any suitable degree to rhythm; for the commen tators have told us, and our learned prosodians and grammarians scrupulously follow their directions, that their long and short syllables were in proportion to each other as 2 to 1; whereas in our rhythm, we have all the proportions, from 1 to 8; and when we add to this, that by artificial prosody, no use is made of pauses, the conclusion is unavoidable, that to measure English verse with Greek feet, is, to say the least of it, inaccurate and indecisive: and hence it may be demonstrated, that those who scan our verses by those feet, measure our language, not only with rules by which they never read, but by which they cannot read; and give the best possible proof that they have yet to learn the nature, power, and effect of pulsation and remission, quantity, cadence, and rhythm of the English language. However important the difference may be between a dactyl pep, an anapest, and a cretic ppp; or between a spondee ↑ ↑, a trochee pp, or an iambus , to those who measure our verse by their eyes rather than by their ears, as all must do who scan by artificial prosody-it will be found, upon experiment, which is paramount to a host of such prosodists, that the difference is extremely unimportant in our language, provided the · heavy or the light poize is not put out of its proper place. The invention of our modern notes, the figures of which denote, accurately, their metrical quantities, together with the bar to mark the pulses, or rhythmical divisions, has rendered the Greek feet totally use less in the practice of modern music; and, it is to be hoped, that the time is not far distant when these very feet will be equally useless in the measuring of English verse. If it were not for the rhymes in modern poetry, the ear would never discover the ends of verses when properly pronounced, because the rhythm never stops, not even at pauses; for though there is a discontinuance of sound, the rhythm still continues till the end of the piece, and by that continuance every pause is measured. CHAP. IX. Various kinds of Meters and Cadences.-Rhythm, common and triple.-Exercises to be written out by the Scholar. Two or more cadences may be comprised within the space called a bar, or there may be a bar at every cadence; the bar, of itself, as already mentioned, being of no other use than as an eye-mark to the reader, to shew where some cadences are, by which he can the more easily observe the others. Examples of lines with the Bar placed after the second Cadence. The and being the boundaries of cadences, and the essentials of all rhythm, must always be marked with the greatest accuracy. In moder- ation placing all my glory, While tories | call me Whig," and Whigs a Tory. Soft rising now, the eastern breeze,▾ Plays, rustling through the quivering trees. 7 Let the following Examples be marked, as above, by the Scholar. T 1. Come lovely Health, divinest maid,“/ And lead me through the rural shade. `/ 2. A troop came next, who crowns and armour wore, And proud defiance in their looks they bore.7 3. In man or woman, but far most in man, And most of all in man that ministers And serves the altar, in my soul I loath 4. All, levell'd by the hand of Death, Lie sleeping in the tomb; Till God, in judgment, calls them forth, To meet their final doom. 5. No radiant pearl, which crested fortune wears, No gem, that, twinkling hangs from beauty's ears, Nor the bright stars which night's blue arch adorn, Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn, Shine with such lustre, as the tear that breaks, For other's wo, down Virtue's manly cheeks. 6. Still on thy banks, so gaily green, May numerous herds and flocks be seen; And shepherds piping in the dale; And ancient faith, that knows no guile; And hearts resolved, and hands prepared, Let the Bar be placed after the FIRST and FOURTH Cadences of the following Examples. 1. My soul shall yield thee willing thanks and praise, For the chief blessings of my fairest days. |