pronounced with the strange intonations of a Fifeshire dialect.

Again, in a whisper there can be neither gravity nor sharpness of tone, as the voice is absent; yet even in a whisper the rhythm of a verse or sentence may be distinctly traced. I do not see what answer can be given to either of these objections.

But though an increase of loudness be the only thing essential to our English accent, yet it is in almost every instance accompanied by an increased sharpness of tone. This, of course, applies only to the prevailing dialect. The Scotchman, we have seen, pronounces his accented syllable with a grave tone, and in some of our counties I have met with what appeared to be the circumflex. But the Englishman of education marks the accented syllable with a sharp tone; and that in all cases, excepting those in which the laws of emphasis require a different intonation.

Besides the increase of loudness, and the sharper tone which distinguishes the accented syllable, there is also a tendency to dwell upon it, or, in other words, to lengthen its quantity. We cannot increase the loudness or the sharpness of a tone without a certain degree of muscular action; and to put the muscles in motion requires time. It would seem, that the time required for producing a perceptible increase in the loudness or sharpness of a tone, is greater than that of pronouncing some of our shorter syllables. If we attempt, for instance, to throw the accent on the first syllable of the verb become, we must either lengthen the vowel, and pronounce the word bee come, or add the adjoining consonant to the first syllable, and so pronounce the word become. We often find it covenient to lengthen the quantity even of the longer syllables, when we wish to give them a very strong and marked accent. Hence, no doubt, arose the vulgar notion, that accent always lengthens the quantity of a syllable.

It is astonishing how widely this notion has misled

men, whose judgment, in most other matters of criticism, it would be very unsafe to question. Our earlier writers, almost to a man, confound accent with quantity; and Johnson could not have had much clearer views on the subject when he told his reader that in some of Milton's verses, "the accent is equally upon two syllables together and upon both strong,-as

Thus at their shady lodge arrived, both stood,

Both turn'd, and under open sky adored

The God that made both sky, air, earth and heaven.”

Every reader of taste would pronounce the words stood, turn'd, with a greater stress, than that which falls upon the words preceding them. But these words are at least equal to them in quantity; and Johnson fell into the mistake, at that time so prevalent, of considering quantity as identical with accent. Even of late years, when sounder notions have prevailed, one who is both critic and poet, has declared the word Egypt to be the only spondee in our language. Surely every one would throw a stronger accent on the first syllable than on the second!

In every word of two or more syllables there is one, which receives a stronger accent than any of the others. This may be called the verbal accent, as upon it depends the accentual importance of the word. When the word contains two or more syllables there may be a second accent; this, of course, must be subordinate to the first, and is commonly called the secondary accent.

When a word of three syllables has its primary accent on the first, our poets have, in all ages, taken the liberty of giving a secondary accent to the third syllable, if their rhythm required it. Thus harmony, victory, and many others of the same kind, are often found in our poetry with the last syllable accented. The rule applies to words of any number of syllables, provided the chief accent falls on the last syllable but two.

An ignorance of this principle has led the Danish phi

lologist Rask, into much false criticism. He objects to the Anglo-Saxon couplet,

because the first verse has but one accent; and supposes that heah, or some such word, may have been omitted by the transcriber. The verse, however, has two accents, for a secondary one falls on the last syllable de. He pronounces another verse, consisting in like manner of one word, altmiht-ne, to be faulty, and for the same reason; he even ventures to deny the existence of such a word in the language, and would substitute almightig-ne. Now, in the first place, al might-ne may well form a verse of two accents, supposing a secondary accent to fall on the last syllable; and secondly, there are two adjectives almight and almighty; the first is rare in Anglo-Saxon, but is often met with in old English, and beyond a doubt is used in the verse last quoted.

A word of four syllables can hardly escape a secondary accent, unless the primary accent is on one of the middle syllables, when it falls under the same rule as the trisyllable. If it end in ble, it is occasionally pronounced with one accent, as disputable; but I think the more general usage is, to place a secondary accent on the last syllable, disputable.

A word of five syllables, if accented on the first, cannot have less than two, and may have three, accents. We may pronounce the following word with two accents, in consolable, or with three in consolable. When the accent falls on one of the middle syllables, the word may, in some instances, take only one accent, as indisputable.

When two syllables are separated by a pause, each of them may receive the accent, the pause filling the place of a syllable. In the verses

Virtue, beau tie and speech: did strike|—wound|—charm

My heart-eyes-ears with won|der, love, delight|.

:

strike, wound, charm, heart, eyes and ears, are all of them accented, though only separated by a pause.

It is probable, that at one time every stop, which separated the members of a sentence, was held, for rhythmical purposes, equivalent to a syllable. At present, however, it is only under certain circumstances that the pause takes a place so important to the rhythm.

As no pause can intervene between the syllables of a word, it follows that no two of its adjacent syllables can be accented. There was however a period, when even this rule was violated. After the death of Chaucer, the final e, so commonly used 'by that poet and his contemporaries, fell into disuse. Hence many dissyllables became words of one syllable, mone became moon, and sunne sun; and the compounds, into which they entered, were curtailed of a syllable. The couplet,

Ne was she darke, ne browne, but bright
And clere as is the mone light.

Romaunt of the Rose.

would be read, as if mone light were a dissyllable; and as the metre required two accents in the compound, they would still be given to it, though less by a syllable. By degrees this barbarous rhythm became licensed, though it never obtained much favour, and has been long since exploded. Spenser has left us some examples of it.

Per. All as the sunny beam so bright,

Wil.

So love into my heart did stream.

Per. Or as Dame Cynthia's silver ray,

Wil.

Heyho the moon-light|!

Per. Upon the glittering wave doth play,

Wil.

Such love is a piteous sight!

August.

We have said that the rhythmical accent must be stronger than that of any syllable immediately adjoining.

When the verbal accent is both preceded and succeeded by an unaccented syllable in the same word, it is, of course, independent of the position such word may occupy in a sentence. But when the accent falls on the first or last syllable, it is not necessarily preserved, when the word is combined with others; or-to vary the expression-the verbal accent is not necessarily the same as the accent of construction. Thus the word father has an accent on its first syllable, but in the lines

Look, father, look, and you'll laugh | to see |

How he gapes and glares | with his eyes on thee.

such accented syllable adjoins a word, which has a stronger stress upon it, and consequently loses its accent. The verbal accent, however, can only be eclipsed by a stronger accent, thus immediately adjoining. The license, which is sometimes taken, of slurring over an accent, when it begins the verse, is opposed to the very first principles of accentual rhythm. In Moore's line,

Shining on, shining on, by no shadow made tender. The verbal accent of shining is eclipsed, in the second foot, by the stronger accent on the word on; but in the first it adjoins only to an unaccented syllable, and therefore remains unchanged. It is true, that by a rapid pronunciation, and by affixing a very strong accent to the third syllable. we may slur it over; but, in such case, the rhythm is at the mercy of the reader; and no poet has a right to a false accent, in order to help his rhythm. Neither length of usage, nor weight of authority, can justify this practice.

When a verse is divided into two parts or sections, by what is called the middle pause, the syllable, which follows such pause, is in the same situation as if it began the verse, and cannot lose its accent, unless it be succeeded by a more strongly accented syllable. In this case, however, the same license is often taken as in the last, particularly in the triple metre.