When instrumental music came to be studied as a separate art, divested of the poet's song, and formed into the artificial and intricate combinations of harmony, it lost all its ancient power of inflaming the hearers with strong emotions; and sunk into an art of mere amusement, among polished and luxurious nations

Still, however, poetry preserves, in all countries, some remains of its first and original connection with music. By being uttered in song, it was formed into numbers, or into an artificial arrangement of words and syllables, very different in different countries; but such as, to the inhabitants of each, seemed most melodious and agreeable in sound. Whence arises that great characteristic of poetry which we now call verse; a subject which comes next to be treated of.

It is a subject of a curious nature; but as I am sensible, that, were I to pursue it as far as my inclination leads, it would give rise to discussions, which the greater part of readers would consider as minute, I shall confine myself to a few observations upon English versification.

Nations, whose language and pronunciation were of a musical kind, rested their versification chiefly upon the quantities, that is, the length or shortness of their syllables. Others, who did not make the quantities of their syllables to be so distinctly perceived in pronouncing them, rested the melody of their verse upon the number of syllables it contained, upon the proper disposition of accents and pauses in it, and frequently upon that return of corresponding sounds, which we call rhyme. The former was the case with the Greeks and Romans, the latter is the case with us, and with most modern nations. Among the Greeks and Romans, every syllable, or the far greatest number at least, was known to have a fixed and determined quantity; and their manner of pronouncing rendered this so sensible to the ear, that a long syllable was counted precisely equal in time to two short ones. Upon this principle, the number of syllables contained in their hexameter verse was allowed to vary. It may extend to seventeen; it can contain, when regular, no fewer than thirteen; but the musical time was, notwithstanding, preprecisely the same in every hexameter verse, and was always equal to that of twelve long syllables. In order to ascertain the regular time of every verse, and the proper mixture and succession of long and short syllables which ought to compose it, were invented, what the grammarians call metrical feet, dactyles, spondees, iambus, &c. By these measures was tried the accuracy of composition in every line, and whether it was so con

structed as to complete its proper melody. It was requisite, for instance, that the hexameter verse should have the quantity of its syllables so disposed, that it could be scanned or measured by six metrical feet, which might be either dactyles or spondees (as the musical time of both these is the same), with this restriction only, that the fifth foot was regularly to be a dactyle, and the last a spondee.*

The introduction of these feet into English verse, would be altogether out of place; for the genius of our language corresponds not in this respect to the Greek or Latin. I say not, that we have no regard to quantity, or to long and short, in pronouncing. Many words we have, especially our words consisting of several syllables, where the quantity, or the long and short syllables, are invariably fixed; but great numbers we have, also, where the quantity is left altogether loose. This is the case with a great part of our words consisting of two syllables, and with almost all our monosyllables. In general, the difference made between long and short syllables, in our manner of pronouncing them, is so very inconsiderable, and so much liberty is left us for making them either long or short at pleasure, that mere quantity is of very little effect in English versification. The only perceptible difference among our syllables, arises from some of them being uttered with that stronger percussion of voice, which we call accent. This accent does not always make the syllable longer, but gives it more force of sound only; and it is upon a certain order and succession of accented and unac

• Some writers imagine, that the feet in Latin verse were intended to correspord to bars in music, and to form musical intervals or distinctions, sensible to the ear in the pronunciation of the line. Had this been the case, every kind of verse must have had a peculiar order of feet appropriated to it. But the common prosodies show, that there are several forms of Latin verse which are capable of being measured indifferently, by a series of feet of very different kinds. For instance, what is called the Asclepedæan verse (in which the first Ode of Horace is written) may be scanned either by a spondens, two choriambuses, and a pyrrichius; or by a spondeus, a dactylus succeeded by a cæsura, and two dactyluses. The common pentameter, and some other forms of verse, admit the like varieties; and yet the melody of the verse remains always the same, though it be scanned by different feet. This proves that the metrical feet were not sensible in the pronunciation of the line, but were intended only to regulate its construction; or applied as measures, to try whether the succession of long and short syllables was such as suited the melody of the verse: and as feet of different kinds could sometimes be applied for this purpose, hence it happened, that some forms of verse were capable of being scanned in different ways. For measuring the hexameter line, no other feet were found so proper as dactyles and spondees, and therefore by these it is uniformly scanned. But no car is sensible of the termination of each foot, in reading an hexameter line. From a misapprehension of this matter, I apprehend that confusion has sometimes arisen among writers, in treating of the prosody both of Latin and of English verse.

cented syllables, infinitely more than upon their being long or short, that the melody of our verse depends. If we take any of Mr. Pope's lines, and in reciting them alter the quantity of the syllables, as far as our quantities are sensible, the music of the verse will not be much injured: whereas, if we do not accent the syllables according as the verse dictates, its melody will be totally destroyed.*

Our English heroic verse is of what may be called an iambic structure; that is, composed of a succession, nearly alternate, of syllables, not short and long, but unaccented and accented. With regard to the place of these accents, however, some liberty is admitted, for the sake of variety. Very often, though not always, the line begins with an unaccented syllable; and sometimes, in the course of it, two unaccented syllables follow each other. But, in general, there are either five, or four, accented syllables in each line. The number of syllables is ten, unless where an Alexandrian verse is occasionally admitted. In verses not Alexandrian, instances occur where the line appears to have more than the limited number. But in such instances, I apprehend it will be found that some of the liquid syllables are so slurred in pronouncing, as to bring the verse, with respect to its effect upon the ear, within the usual bounds.

Another essential circumstance in the constitution of our verse, is the cæsural pause, which falls towards the middle of each line. Some pause of this kind, dictated by the melody, is found in the verse of most nations. It is found, as might be shown, in the Latin hexameter. In the French heroic verse, it is very sensible. That is a verse of twelve syllables, and in every line, just after the sixth syllable, there falls regularly and indispensably a cæsural pause, dividing the line into two equal hemistichs. For example, in the first lines of Boileau's Epistle to the King:

Jeune et vaillant héros | dont la haute sagesse
N'est point le fruit tardif | d'une lente vieillesse,
Qui seul sans ministre | à l'example des Dieux,

Soutiens tout par toi-méme ¦ et vois tous par ses yeux.

See this well illustrated in Lord Monboddo's treatise of the Origin and Progress of Language, vol. ii. under the head of the Prosody of Language. He shows that this is not only the constitution of our own verse, but that by our For we manner of reading Latin verse, we make its music nearly the same. certainly do not pronounce it according to the ancient quantities, so as to make the musical time of one long syllable equal to two short ones; but according to a succession of accented and unaccented syllables, only mixed in a ratio different from that of our own verse. No Roman could possibly understand our pronunciation.

In this strain all their verses proceed; the one half of the line always answering to the other, and the same chime returning incessantly on the ear without intermission or change; which is certainly a defect in their verse, and unfits it so very much for the freedom and dignity of heroic poetry. On the other hand, it is a distinguishing advantage of our English verse, that it allows the pause to be varied through four different syllables in the line. The pause may fall after the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, or the seventh syllable; and according as the pause is placed after one or other of these syllables, the melody of the verse is much changed, its air and cadence are diversified. By this means, uncommon richness and variety are added to English versification.

When the pause falls earliest, that is, after the fourth syllable, the briskest melody is thereby formed, and the most spirited air given to the line. In the following lines of the Rape of the Lock, Mr. Pope has, with exquisite propriety, suited the construction of the verse to the subject:

On her white breast | a sparkling cross she wore,
Which Jews might kiss | and infidels adore;
Her lively looks | a sprightly mind disclose,
Quick as her eyes | and as unfix'd as those.
Favours to none | to all she smiles extends,
Oft she rejects | but never once offends.

When the pause falls after the fifth syllable, which divides the line into two equal portions, the melody is sensibly altered. The verse loses that brisk and sprightly air, which it had with the former pause, and becomes more smooth, gentle, and flowing. Eternal sunshine | of the spotless mind,

Each prayer accepted | and each wish resign'd.

When the pause proceeds to follow the sixth syllable, the tenor of the music becomes solemn and grave. The verse marches now with a more slow and measured space, than in either of the two former cases.

The wrath of Peleus' son [ the direful spring
Of all the Grecian woes | O goddess, sing!

But the grave solemn cadence becomes still more sensible, when the pause falls after the seventh syllable, which is the nearest place to the end of the line that it can occupy. This kind of verse occurs the seldomest, but has a happy effect in diversifying the melody. It produces that slow Alexandrian air, which is finely suited to a close; and for this reason, such

lines almost never occur together, but are used in finishing the couplet

And in the smooth description | murmur still.
Long loved, adored ideas! | all adieu.

I have taken my examples from verses in rhyme, because in these our versification is subjected to the strictest law. As blank verse is of a freer kind, and naturally is read with less cadence or tone, the pauses in it, and the effect of them, are not always so sensible to the ear. It is constructed, however, entirely upon the same principles, with respect to the place of the pause. There are some who, in order to exalt the variety and the power of our heroic verse, have maintained that it admits of musical pauses, not only after those four syllables where I assigned their place, but after any one syllable in the verse indifferently, where the sense directs it to be placed. This, in my opinion, is the same thing as to maintain that there is no pause at all belonging to the natural melody of the verse; since, according to this notion, the pause is formed entirely to the meaning, not by the music. But this I apprehend to be contrary both to the nature of versification, and to the experience of every good ear. Those certainly are the happiest lines, wherein the pause, prompted by the melody, coincides in some degree with that of the sense, or at least does not tend to spoil or interrupt the meaning. Wherever any opposition between the music and the sense chances to take place, I observed before, in treating of pronunciation or delivery, that the proper method of reading these lines, is to read them according as the sense dictates, neglecting or slurring the cæsural pause; which renders the line less graceful indeed, but, however, does not entirely destroy its sound.

Our blank verse possesses great advantages, and is indeed a noble, bold, and disencumbered species of versification. The principal defect in rhyme, is the full close which it forces upon

* In the Italian heroic verse, employed by Tasso in his Gierusalemme, and Ariosto in his Orlando, the pauses are of the same varied nature with those which I have shown to belong to English versification, and fall after the same four syllables in the line. Marmontel, in his Poëtique Françoise, vol. i. p. 269, takes notice, that this construction of verse is common to the Italians and the English; and defends the uniformity of the French cæsural pause upon this ground, that the alternation of masculine and feminine rhymes, furnishes sufficient variety to the French poetry; whereas the change of movement, occasioned by the four different pauses in English and Italian verse, produces, according to him, too great diversity. On the head of pauses in English versification, see the Elements of Criticism, chap. xviii. sect. 4.