and a dot placed opposite to any of these, increases them by half; thus, denotes a Crotchet and a half, or the time of a Crotchet and a Quaver. Quantity may be considered in two lights, as either absolute or relative. The absolute quantity of every syllable, as to the positive time which it requires, is, in speech as in music, to a certain degree optional on the part of the reader or speaker, for, without this liberty, we should have no difference between the most impassioned language and the most calm and deliberate; but in all degrees of reading and speaking, from the most deliberate to the most rapid, the relative proportions of quantity, which one syllable bears to another, must be preserved. It is notorious that various speakers, whose elocution as to the quantity of syllables either in the learned or the vulgar tongues, passes without censure, do all speak in very different measures of time, that is to say, some of them much faster than others, perhaps twice as fast, yet the syllables of each, singly speaking, will hold the proper proportions of long and short to each other. In order to understand the use of a knowledge of quantity, it is necessary to anticipate the definition of a cadence which will be given in a subsequent chapter. A cadence is a portion of sound beginning heavy and ending light; and into these cadences all spoken language, whether prose or poetry, is divided; the difference between prose and poetry being this, that, while the former admits into the same sentence cadences of various lengths, those of the latter are, in the same piece, all of the same length. It is the business of metre to adjust the quantities of notes or syllables contained in each cadence or bar; rhythmus is to keep by its pulsations all the cadences of an equal length. This will be best explained by an example. Each of these lines contains five cadences, and these are all of precisely the same length in duration of time: thus, the quantity of the word What is equal only to a Crotchet and a half, but the pause marked thus, which follows it, is equal to a Quaver, so that the full quantity of two Crotchets or one Minim is made up. The syllable ho is equal to a Crotchet and a half, and ly to a Quaver, so that in the second cadence the full quantity is made up. The same may be said of the third and fourth cadences, and the fifth is precisely similar to the first. In the second line the first cadence consists of a rest or pause at the beginning, which is equal to a Quaver, and of the word No, which is equal to a Crotchet and a half. The second cadence consists of a Crotchet and a half, and a Quaver; the third of a Crotchet, a pause, and a Quaver; the fourth of a Quaver, a Crotchet, and a Quaver; and the fifth of a Crotchet and a half, and a pause; so that in this line, as well as in the first, the full time of two Crotchets or one Minim is made up in each cadence. This, however, will be better understood when the nature of thesis and arsis is explained. (67) CHAPTER V. EMPHASIS-SYLLABIC AND ORGANIC. EMPHASIS, in a general sense, means any degree of force or stress by which syllables, words, or clauses, are distinguished from one another. It may be divided into five kinds: Syllabic Emphasis, Organic Emphasis, the Emphasis of Sense, the Emphasis of Force, and the Weak Emphasis. Syllabic Emphasis is what is generally, though improperly, called by writers on Grammar and Elocution Accent. It is that force or stress which is given to some particular syllable of a word above what is given to any other; thus, in the words, father, mother, the syllabic emphasis is on the first syllable; in reply, compose, veracity, it is on the second. Every word in our language, monosyllables excepted, must have one of its syllables distinguished by this emphasis, of which custom, and the genius of the language, are the sole regulators. As this Emphasis relates to the pronunciation of words taken singly, it can have little to do in a work which treats of the pronunciation of words in succession (as Elocution may not improperly be defined); for, as words justly pronounced are merely the materials for delivery, these must all be supposed to be in our possession, before we can begin to display them to advantage. A person who pronounces every word singly with the greatest purity, may not be able to read well, and another may convey the sense of an author with great force and beauty, who does not always either give to the letters of a word their proper sound, or place the emphasis on the proper syllable. The only case, therefore, in which it is necessary to take notice of syllabic emphasis in reading, is that in which the sense requires it to be transposed. This happens when two words, which have a sameness in part of their formation, are opposed to each other in sense. Thus, if we pronounce the words justice and injustice as single words, we naturally place the syllabic emphasis on the penultimate syllable of both; but if we contrast them, and say, Neither justice nor injustice has any thing to do with the present question, in this sentence we naturally place the syllabic emphasis on the first syllable of injustice, in order the more forcibly and clearly to distinguish it from justice. So also in the following passage from Shakspeare's Merchant of Venice, Act iv. Sc. 1. |