number nór example with him wrought' (P. L., v, 901), (and cf. P. L., VII, 253). Articles are more rarely stressed and a indeed never, except perhaps in P. R., 1, 70. But the definite article the does at times receive an accent, as in P. L., 1, 756: 'At Pandemonium, the high capital' (and cf. P. L., II 219; IV, 592; VII, 448, 469, 550; x, 279; xII, 369; P. R., I, 245; IV, 633). Only, as these instances show, it is almost always when the article has more or less a demonstrative force. So, too, the sign of the infinitive to is fairly often stressed when it implies purpose, e.g. 'Receive him coming to receive from us' (P. L., v, 781), (and cf. P. L., VII, 222; VIII, 412, 632; XI, 339; P. R., 1, 101; III, 247; IV, 308). These words with secondary accents occupy various places in the line, but do not, as a rule, occur consecutively. We may also notice from the above examples that such weak stresses, except through some slip on the part of the poet, are not found at the beginning or at the close of the verse. Indeed, the tenth sounded syllable in Milton's epic poems always takes a strong accent (a canon sometimes violated by the Elizabethan dramatists), and less important words, such as then, these, who, etc., are only placed there when they play a somewhat prominent part in the sentence. The weaker stresses, therefore, mostly appear in the second or the fourth foot of the heroic metre and serve as a kind of foil to the more emphatic accents which they enclose. This alone would suffice to show what a careful writer Milton is. Notice, too, how seldom he allows two consecutive stresses without an intervening pause1. He usually requires an interruption brought about by a break in the sentence, by a full stop or the close of a paragraph. It is always so between strong accents, as in P. L., III, 400: 'Not so on Mán: hím, through their malice fallen,' and cf. P. L., Iv, 985; v, 521; VII, 261; IX, 553; XII, 420; P. R., II, 91. Minor accents are also mostly not consecutive. In the case of a light and a strong stress following on each other the poet interposes a pause, if not an actual caesura, between them as in P. L., VIII, 622: Whatever púre / thoú in the body enjoy'st,' and cf. P. L., III, 621; v, 257; ix, 172; x1, 890. With regard, therefore, to the accentual spondee, that is, a foot formed of two consecutive stresses, we take it that not only does it seldom 1 We must except a small number of lines where two consecutive accents occur without a marked break in the sense at the traditional place formerly reserved for the regular caesura. Thus we occasionally find them on the fourth and fifth syllables as in P. L., 1, 281: No wonder, fáll'n súch a prodigious height' (and cf. P. L., 1, 562; vi, 32, 826, 906; VII, 543; Ix, 92; x1, 60), or less frequently still on the sixth and seventh syllables, as in P. L., II, 692: Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons' (and cf. P. L. III, 161; viii, 62; 1x, 33, 203, 206; P.R. ш, 135). occur in Milton, owing to its infrequency in the English language, but that it is never found in his epic poems without an intermediary caesura1. Having thus ascertained the poet's practice with reference to the smallest number of accents he admits and their position in his heroic line, we must now notice the liberties he takes in such matters. His chief departure from the usual rule as stated above, is the adoption of a few more stresses, and in most cases of six, for his blank verse. He then generally places these accents together at the beginning or at the end of the metre which is made to have three caesuras, as in P. L., IV, 722: 'The Gód that máde both ský, aír, earth, and Heaven.' If this is not observed in some of his verses (e.g. P. L., vi, 44; IX, 473; P. R., IV, 633), it would seem to be because they may be scanned with but five stresses or because, as in P. L., IX, 111: 'Productive in hérb, plánt, and nobler birth,' or in P. L., Ix, 206: 'This Garden, still to ténd plánt, herb and flower,' the fifth and the seventh syllable respectively may receive an accent as coming after the traditional position of the caesura. As a rule, however, the fact remains. that Milton prefers grouping at least three nouns, adjectives or verbs (e.g. in P. L., II, 893; IV, 115; vII, 212, 502–3; P. R., 1, 474; III, 75), which he separates from each other by some sort of pause. Such six-stressed lines are comparatively frequent in the epic poems, since we find eight of them in a total number of 1189 verses in the ninth book of Paradise Lost (11. 111, 113, 118, 206, 335, 473, 730, 899). Those with seven or eight accents are much rarer. Of the former, in our opinion, there are only three, e.g.: 'The cúmbrous éleménts-Earth, Flóod, Aír, Fire' (P. L., III, 715), 'Of sénse, whereby they heár, sée, smell, toúch, táste' (P. L., v, 411), 'I meán of táste, síght, smell, hérbs, fruits, and flowers' (P. L., VIII, 527), and the latter are represented by a single specimen3, viz.: ‘Rócks, cáves, lákes, féns, bógs, déns, and shades of death' (P. L., II, 621). They all, however, have this in common that each is composed of ten sounded syllables and has at least four distinct caesuras. Some metrists indeed, as for 1 For this reason we fail to see consecutive accents in such lines as P. L., II, 231, 624, 702, 755, which some critics (see G. Conway, A Treatise on Versification, 1878, p. 38) consider faulty in Milton's epic. We should in these quotations emphasize not the nouns, but the adjectives and verbs, e.g. scanning P. L., 11, 702, thus: Thy ling'ring or with one stroke of this dárt' or perhaps with one stroke of this dárt' (see the previous note). 6 2 Prof. Masson (op. cit., vol. III, p. 219) quotes P. R., Iv, 633, as a line of seven accents. We can only detect five, or perhaps six, in it. 3 The two other lines, P. L., 1, 376, and P. R., iv, 423, which Prof. Masson (op. cit. vol. III, p. 219) regards as having eight stresses seem to us to contain merely five. instance G. Conway, insist on reducing these lines to five accents by leaving a few of the nouns unstressed. This to us seems an inadmissible contention. To take a case in point, P. L., III, 715 contains an enumeration of the four elements, and there is no reason why the first and third should be considered of less account than the second and fourth. A similar argument holds good in the other cases, and it therefore appears that Milton willingly allows more than five accents in his epic metre provided they are separated from each other by an unstressed syllable or a strongly marked caesura. Should the question be raised why the poet departs at times from his usual rule, it would be hard to give a satisfactory answer. Milton seems to admit a six-stressed line for the sake of metrical variety, though he remains true to the syllabic principle of his verse and takes care that one-half of the measure should be perfectly regular. Perhaps, too, he adopted such hexameters, if we may so term them, in imitation of the grand alexandrine which so aptly concludes the Spenserian stanza. They already occur in the works of several sixteenth century poets1, and the increased number of accents and caesuras lengthens the line for the ear and adds to its harmony and impressiveness. Applied, as they usually are, to an enumeration, they forcibly bring out its several terms and heighten the cumulative effect. With regard to stresses, therefore, Milton adopts no hard and fast rule. Whereas his epic metre must contain ten sounded syllables, the accents may be variously distributed in the line. Seldom, indeed, do we find two consecutive decasyllables stressed in the same manner. Now the emphasis falls quite regularly on every other syllable and we get a perfect iambic rhythm, now it rests on the initial syllable of the measure or on the one after the caesura, or again, when the pauses are shifted, it can occupy almost any place in the heroic line. And, if the thought expressed requires them, we may meet with as many as seven, or even eight accents. The poet's sway over words is absolute. He disposes them at will, and in his poems they stand grouped or isolated, in accordance with his hidden purpose, like the trees that make up some vast forest. WALTER THOMAS. 1 Something similar is shown by E. A. Abbott, op. cit., pp. 397-99. THE DATE OF COMPOSITION OF LOPE DE VEGA'S COMEDIA, LA ARCADIA.' LOPE DE VEGA's comedia, La Arcadia, was first published in the Trezena parte de las Comedias de Lope de Vega Carpio, Madrid, 1620. It is well known that this comedia has the same argument as his pastoral romance, La Arcadia, first published in 1598 (Madrid, L. Sanchez), in which he celebrated the love-affairs of his patron, D. Antonio, Duke of Alba. However, not all the incidents of the pastoral romance were included in the comedia, the comic scenes in which Cardenio plays a part, being especially developed in the latter. Opinions as to the probable date of composition of this play have differed widely. Sr Menéndez y Pelayo in his introduction to this play, published in the Spanish Academy's edition of Lope de Vega, thinks it is not likely that it belongs to the first half of Lope's dramatic career, since the title does not appear in either of the lists of his plays, published by Lope in El Peregrino, in 1604 and 16181. Schack, speaking of Lope's pastoral play's, says 'Unter den wenigen, die seinen späteren Jahren angehören, glänzt La Arcadia durch die schöne Klarheit des Styls und durch den Reiz der Natur- und Empfindungsgemälde.' the other hand, Chorley3, judging from the fact that the play has no true figura del donayre, a feature introduced into the comedia by Lope at least before 1602, thinks that La Arcadia was among the earliest pieces of the author, but that it was retouched to its present form before its publication in 1620. On In the prologue to this Parte Trezena, Lope complains bitterly that certain persons had committed his plays to memory, in the theatre, and then had sold incorrect versions of them to other theatrical managers. To this must be added the stealing of comedias by those whom the vulgar call, the one Memorilla, and the other Gran Memoria; who, with the few verses which they learn, mingle an infinity of their own barbarous 1 Obras de Lope de Vega, published by the Spanish Academy, vol. v, p. lxv. J. P. WICKERSHAM CRAWFORD 41 lines, whereby they earn a living, selling them to the villages and to distant theatrical managers: base people these, without a calling, and many of whom have been jail-birds. I should like to rid myself of the care of publishing them (i.e. these plays), but I cannot, for they print them with my name, while they are the work of the pseudo-poets of whom I have spoken'.' He makes a similar complaint in his dedication of La Arcadia to Dr Gregorio López Madera. Espero, entre otras cosas, que quien ha escrito é impreso (si bien en tan distintas y altas materias) se dolerá de los que escriben, y que ahora tendrá remedio lo que tantas veces se ha intentado, desterrando de los teatros unos hombres que viven, se sustentan y visten de hurtar á los autores las comedias, diciendo que las toman de memoria de sólo oirlas, y que este no es hurto, respecto de que el representante las vende al pueblo, y que se pueden valer de su memoria, que es lo mismo que decir que un ladrón no lo es porque se vale de su entendimiento, dando trazas, haciendo llaves, rompiendo rejas, fingiendo personas, cartas, firmas y diferentes hábitos. Esto no sólo es en daño de los autores, porque andan perdidos y empeñados, pero, lo que es más de sentir, de los ingenios que las escriben, porque yo he hecho diligencia para saber de uno de éstos, llamado el de la gran memoria, si era verdad que la tenía; y he hallado, leyendo sus traslados, que para un verso mío, hay infinitos suyos, llenos de locuras, disparates é ignorancias, bastantes á quitar la honra y opinión al mayor ingenio en nuestra nación y las extranjeras, donde ya se leen con tanto gusto. 6 Christóbal Suárez de Figueroa gives us more definite information in regard to this practice, so strongly condemned by Lope, in his Plaza Universal de todas ciencias y artes, published at Madrid in 1615. He says: Hállase en Madrid al presente un mancebo grandemente memorioso. Llámase Luis Remirez de Arellano, hijo de nobles padres, y natural de Villaescusa de Haro. Éste toma de memoria una comedia entera de tres vezes que la oye, sin discrepar un punto en traça y versos. Aplica el primer dia á la disposicion; el segundo á la variedad de la composicion; el tercero á la puntualidad de las coplas. Deste modo encomienda á la memoria las comedias que quiere. En particular tomó assí la Dama Boba, el Principe Perfeto, y la Arcadia, sin otras. Estando yo oyendo la del Galan de la Membrilla que representaba Sánchez, 2 Obras de Lope de Vega, vol. v, pp. 707-8. 1 Ibid., p. 272. 3 Ed. of Madrid, 1615, Discurso LVIII, De los Professores de Memoria, fol. 237. The relation of this passage of the Plaza Universal to Lope's complaint in the dedication of La Arcadia, was first mentioned by J. K. Seidemann, Zur Geschichte des spanischen Dramas in Lope de Vega's Zeit, in Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung, 1853, No. 31. |