one of them taken singly; consequently, that the more things are thus added, the greater will be their effect.4 We have mentioned at the same time both accumulation and concatenation, because in painting, the objects, by existing at once, are accumulated; in poetry, as they exist by succession, they are not accumulated, but concatenated. Yet, through memory and imagination,' even these also derive an accumulative force, being preserved from passing away by those admirable faculties, till, like many pieces of metal melted together, they collectively form one common magnitude. It must be further remembered, there is an accumulation of things analogous, even when those things are the objects of different faculties. For example: as are passionate gestures to the eye, so are passionate tones to the ear; so are passionate ideas to the imagination. To feel the amazing force of an accumulation like this, we must see some capital actor acting the drama of some capital poet, where all the powers of both are assembled at the same instant. And thus have we endeavoured, by a few obvious and easy examples, to explain what we mean by the words, "seeking the cause, or reason, as often as we feel works of art and ingenuity to affect us. If I might advise a beginner in this elegant pursuit, it should be, as far as possible, to recur for principles to the most plain and simple truths, and to extend every theorem, as he advances, to its utmost latitude, so as to make it suit and include the greatest number of possible cases. I would advise him further, to avoid subtle and far-fetched refinement, which, as it is for the most part adverse to perspicuity and truth, may serve to make an able sophist, but never an able critic. 66 66 Quinctilian observes, that the man who tells us, 'a city was stormed," includes, in what he says, all things which such a disaster implies ;" and yet for all that, such a brief information less affects us than a detail, because it is less striking, to deliver the whole at once, than it is to enumerate the several particulars. His words are, Minus est totum dicere, quam omnia. Quinct. Institut. viii. 3. The whole is well worth reading, particularly his detail of the various and horrid events which befall the storming of a city. Sine dubio enim, qui dicit expugnatam esse civitatem, &c. Aristotle reasons much after the same manner: Kal diaipoúμeva dé eis tà μépŋ, τὰ αὐτὰ μείζω φαίνεται πλειόνων γὰρ ὑπεροχὴ φαίνεται: “ The same things, divided into parts, appear greater, for then there appears an excess or an abundance of many things." A word more; I would advise a young critic, in his contemplations, to turn his eye rather to the praiseworthy than the blameable; that is, to investigate the causes of praise rather than the causes of blame. For though an uninformed beginner may in a single instance happen to blame properly, it is more than probable that in the next he may fail, and incur the censure passed upon the criticising cobler, Ne sutor ultra crepidam.* We are now to inquire concerning numerous composition. CHAPTER II. NUMEROUS COMPOSITION, DERIVED FROM QUANTITY CIENTLY ESSENTIAL BOTH TO VERSE AND PROSE. RHYTHM. PEANS AND CRETICS, THE FEET FOR PROSE. DEGENERACY FROM THE QUANTITY IN TERENCE SYLLABIC. SYLLABIC, AN QUANTITY ACCENTUAL-A INSTANCES OF IT, FIRST IN VERSUS POLITICI-TRACES OF ACCENTUAL ESSENTIAL TO MODERN LANGUAGES, AND AMONG OTHERS TO ENGLISH, FROM WHICH LAST EXAMPLES ARE TAKEN. As numerous composition arises from a just arrangement of words, so is that arrangement just, when formed upon their verbal quantity. Now if we seek for this verbal quantity in Greek and Latin, we shall find, that while those two languages were in purity, their verbal quantity was in purity also. Every syllable had a measure of time, either long or short, defined with precision either by its constituent vowel, or by the relation of that vowel to other letters adjoining. Syllables thus characterized, when combined, made a foot; and feet thus characterized, when combined, made a verse; so that, while a particular harmony existed in every part, a general harmony was diffused through the whole. Pronunciation at this period being, like other things, perfect, accent and quantity were accurately distinguished; of which distinction, familiar then, though now obscure, we venture to suggest the following explanation. We compare quantity to musical tones differing in long and short, as, upon whatever line they stand, a semibreve differs from a minim. We compare accent to musical tones differing in high and low, as D upon the third line differs from G upon the first, be its length the same, or be it longer or shorter. And thus things continued for a succession of centuries, from Homer and Hesiod to Virgil and Horace; during which interval, Pliny, l. xxv. s. 12, and in Valerius Maximus, l. viii. c. 12. Those who wish to see the origin of this ingenious proverb, may find it in if we add a trifle to its end, all the truly classical poets, both Greek and Latin, flourished. Nor was prose at the same time neglected. Penetrating wits discovered this also to be capable of numerous composition, and founded their ideas upon the following reasonings. Though they allowed that prose should not be strictly metrical, (for then it would be no longer prose, but poetry,) yet at the same time they asserted, if it had no rhythm at all, such a vague effusion would of course fatigue, and the reader would seek in vain for those returning pauses, so helpful to his reading, and so grateful to his ear." Now as feet were found an essential to that rhythm, they were obliged, as well as poets, to consider feet under their several characters. In this contemplation, they found the heroic foot (which includes the spondee, the dactyl, and the anapæst) to be majestic and grave, but yet improper for prose, because, if employed too frequently, the composition would appear epic. On the contrary, in the iambic they found levity; it often made, though undesignedly, a part of common discourse, and could not, for that reason, but want a suitable dignity.* What expedient then remained? They recommended a foot where the former two were blended; where the pomp of the heroic and the levity of the iambic were mutually to correct and temper one another. But as this appears to require explanation, we shall endeavour, if we can, to render it intelligible, saying something previously upon the nature of rhythm. Rhythm differs from metre, inasmuch as rhythm is proportion applied to any motion whatever; metre is proportion applied to the motion of words spoken. Thus in the drumming of a march, or the dancing of a hornpipe, there is rhythm though no metre; in Dryden's celebrated Ode, there is metre as well as rhythm, because the poet with the rhythm has associated certain words. And hence it follows, that though all metre is rhythm, yet all rhythm is not metre." "See Aristot. Rhetor. l. iii. p. 129. edit. Sylb. Τὸ δὲ σχῆμα τῆς λέξεως δεῖ μήτε ἔμμετρον εἶναι, μήτε ἄῤῥυθμον, κ. τ. λ. So Cicero: Numeris astrictam orationem esse debere, carere versibus. Ad Brut. Orator. s. 187. * See in the same treatise of Aristotle what is said about these feet, just after the passage above cited. Tâv dè svoμŵv, 8 μèv ἡρῶος σεμνός, κ. τ. λ. All that follows is well worth reading. * Διαφέρει δὲ μέτρον ῥυθμοῦ, ὕλη μὲν γὰρ τοῖς μέτροις ἡ συλλαβὴ, καὶ χωρὶς συλλαβῆς οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο μέτρον· ὁ δὲ ῥυθμὸς γίνεται μὲν καὶ ἐν συλλαβαῖς, γίνε ται δὲ καὶ χωρὶς συλλαβῆς, καὶ γὰρ ἐν τῷ κρότῳ. Οταν μὲν γὰρ τοὺς χαλκέας ἴδωμεν τὰς σφύρας καταφερόντας, ἅμα τινὰ καὶ ῥυθμὸν ἀκούομεν—μέτρον δὲ οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο χωρὶς λέξεως ποιᾶς καὶ ποσῆς: "Metre differs from rhythm, because, with regard to metres, the subject matter is a syllable, and without a syllable (that is, a sound articulate) no metre can exist. But rhythm exists both in and without syllables; for it may be perceived in mere pulsation or striking. It is thus, when we see smiths hammering with their sledges, we hear, at the same time, (in their strokes,) a certain rhythm ; but as to metre, there can This being admitted, we proceed and say, that the rhythm of the heroic foot is one to one, which constitutes in music what we call common time; and in musical vibration what we call the unison. The rhythm of the iambic is one to two, which constitutes in music what we call triple time; and in musical vibration what we call the octave. The rhythm next to these is that of two to three, or else its equivalent, three to two; a rhythm compounded of the two former times united, and which constitutes in musical vibration what we call the fifth. It was here, then, they discovered the foot they wanted; that foot, which being neither the heroic nor the iambic, was yet so far connected with them as to contain virtually within itself the rhythms of them both. That this is fact is evident from the following reasoning. The proportion of two to three contains in two the rhythm of the heroic foot; in three, that of the iambic; therefore, in two and three united, a foot compounded out of the two. Now the foot thus described is no other than the pæan; a foot constituted either by one long syllable and three short, and called the pœan a majori; or else by three short syllables and one long, and called the pœan a minori. In either case, if we resolve the long syllable into two short, we shall find the sum of the syllables to be five; that is, two to three for the first pæan, three to two for the second, each being in what we call the sesquialter proportion." Those who ask for examples, may find the first pæan in the be none, unless there be an articulate sound, or word, having a peculiar quality and quantity," (to distinguish it.) Longini Fragin. iii. s. 5. p. 162. edit. Pearce, 4to. Metrum in verbis modo; rhythmus etiam in corporis motu est. Quinctil. Inst. ix. 4. p. 598. edit. Capper. What these authors call rhythmus, Virgil calls numerus, or its plural numeri. Numeros memini, si verba tenerem. Bucol. ix. 45. And, before that, speaking of the fauns and wild beasts dancing, he informs us, Tum vero in numerum faunosque feras- Bucol. vi. 27. So, too, speaking of the Cyclopes at their forge, he tells us, Illi inter sese magna vi brachia tollunt No English term seems to express rhythmus better than the word time; by which we denote every species of measured motion. Thus we say, there is time in beating a drum, though but a single sound; time in dancing, and in rowing, though no sound at all but what is quite incidental. The sum of this speculation is thus shortly expressed by Cicero. Pes enim, qui adhibetur ad numeros, partitur in tria: ut necesse sit partem pedis aut æqualem esse alteri parti; aut altero tanto, aut sesqui esse majorem. Ita fit æqualis, dactylus; duplex, iambus; sesqui, pæon. Ad Brut. Orat. s. 188. Aristotle reasons upon the same principles. Ἔστι δὲ τρίτος ὁ παιὰν, καὶ ἐχόμενος τῶν εἰρημένων· τρία γὰρ πρὸς δύο ἐστίν· ἐκείνων δὲ, ὁ μὲν ἐν πρὸς ἕν· ὁ δὲ, δύο ἔχεται δὲ τῶν λόγων τούτων ὁ ἡμιόλιος, οὗτος δ ̓ ἐστιν ὁ παιὰν, κ. τ. λ. Arist. Rhet. 1. iii. c. 8. p. 129, 130. edit. Sylb. Again; Cicero, after having held much the same doctrine, adds-Probatur autem ab eodem illo (scil. Aristotele) maxime pæan, qui est duplex; nam aut a longa oritur, quam tres breves consequuntur, ut hæc verba, desinitě, încipitě, còmprimitě; aut a brevibus deinceps tribus, extrema producta atque longa, sicut illa sunt, dŏmuĕrānt, sonipědēs. De Orator. iii. 57, (183.) and in his Orator. ad M. Brutum, s. 205. and before, s. 191-197. words ηφάνισε, desinite; the second, in the words μετὰ δὲ γῆν, domůĕrānt. To the pæan may be added the cretic, a foot of one short syllable between two long, as in the words eyõμai, quòvě nūnc; a foot in power evidently equal to the pæan, because resolvable, like that, into five equal times. We dwell no longer here; perhaps we have already dwelt too long. It is enough to observe, that by a discreet use of these pæans, the ancients obtained what they desired, that is, they enriched their prose without making it into verse; and, while vague and vulgar prose flowed indefinitely, like a stream, theirs, like descending drops, became capable of being numbered.a It may give credit to these speculations, trivial as they may appear, when it is known they have merited the attention of the ablest critics, of Aristotle and Demetrius Phalereus, of Cicero and Quinctilian.b The productions still remaining of this golden period seem (if I may so say) to have been providentially preserved to humiliate modern vanity, and check the growth of bad taste. But this classical era, though it lasted long, at length terminated. Many causes, and chiefly the irruption and mixture of Barbarians, contributed to the debasing both of Latin and Greek. As diction was corrupted, so also was pronunciation. Accent and quantity, which had been once accurately distinguished, began now to be blended. Nay, more, accent so far usurped quantity's place, as by a sort of tyranny to make short syllables long, and long syllables short. Thus, in poetry, as the accent fell upon de in deus, and upon i in ibi, the first syllables of these two words were considered as long. Again, where the accent did not fall, as in the ultimas of regno or Saturno, and even in such ablatives as insulâ or Cretâ, there the poet assumed a licence, if he pleased, to make them short. In a word, the whole doctrine of prosody came to this-that, as anciently the quantity of the syllables established the rhythm of the verse, so now the rhythm of the verse established the quantity of the syllables. There was an ancient poet, his name Commodianus, who dealt much in this illicit quantity, and is said to have written a Numerus autem in continuatione nullus est: distinctio, et æqualium et sæpe variorum intervallorum percussio, numerum conficit: quem in cadentibus guttis, quod intervallis distinguuntur, notare possumus; in omni præcipitante non possumus. Cic. de Oratore, lib. iii. s. 186. b See Aristotle and Cicero, as quoted before, particularly the last in his Orator, s. 189 to the end; Quinctilian, 1. ix. c. 4. Demetrius Phalereus, at the beginning of his tract De Elocut. Cicero, in his De Oratore, introduces Crassus using the same arguments; those, I mean, which are grounded upon authority. Atque hæc quidem ab iis philosophis, quos tu maxime diligis, Catule, dicta sunt: quod eo sæpius testificor, ut auctoribus laudandis ineptiarum crimen effugiam. De Oratore, lib. iii. s. 187. |