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A band thai maid]: in prew |a illusion,
Althair power to wyrk | his confusion.

:

Wallace, 11. 205.

When they next wake: all this I division,
Shall seem a dream]: and fruit less vision.

If gracious silence: sweet | attention|,
Quick sight and quic|ker: apprehension,

M. N. D. 3. 2.

(The lights of judgment's throne) shine any where,
Our doubtful author hopes to find them here.

B. Jons. Prol. to Cynthia's Revels.

The double accent quickly passed to other terminations.

Her name was Agape, whose children werne,
All three as one: the first | hight Pri|amond,
The second Diamond: the youngest Triamond.

F. Q. 4. 2. 41.

Skipper, stand back: 'tis age that nourisheth,
But youth in ladies' eyes that flourisheth.

:

Tam. of the Shrew, 2.1.

A serious blunder was sometimes the result of this practice. There are examples, among the early Elizabethan writers and their immediate predecessors, where ion is resolved into two syllables in one line, while, in the one corresponding, it follows the last legitimate accent of the verse ; so that we must either increase the proper number of accents, or falsify the rhime. Even Spenser was guilty of this fault;

Who soon as he beheld that angel's face,
Adorn'd with all: divine | perfection|,
His cheered heart eftsoons away gan chase

:

Sad death, revived with her sad | inspection,
And fee ble spirit in ly felt | refection,

:

As wither'd weed through cruel winter's tine,

That feels the warmth of sunny beams | reflection,
Lifts up his head, that did before decline,

And gins to spread his leaf before the fair sunshine.

F. Q. 4. 12. 34.

Right true it is and said full yore ago,

:

Take heed of him that by | the back | thee claw eth,
For none is worse than is a friendly foe.

Though thee | seme good: all thing that thee | deli teth,
Yet know it well that in | thy bosome crep'eth;

:

For many a man: such fire | oft times he kind leth,
That with the blase: his beard himself | he singleth.

In the above stanza Wyat intended to rhime claweth, deliteth, crepeth; and also the words kindleth and singeth. In the following stave he rhimes other with higher;

But one thing yet there is | above | all other,

I gave him winges whereby he might upflye,

To honour and fame: and if | he would | to higher

Than mortal things above the starry skye.

There are also cases in which an unaccented syllable is made to rhime with one accented.

She reft | my heart]: and I | a glove | from her|, Let us see then if one be worth the other. And Bacchus eke: ensharps | the wit of some, Facun di calices]: quem non | fece re disertum.

Wyat.

Higg. M. for M. King Chirunus, 2.

DOUBLY-ACCENTED RHIME

seems to owe its origin to the lavish use of the substantives in ion. The facilities of rhime afforded by the endings ation, ition, &c., were too great to be resisted, and they were used with such a profusion, as to make a great and certainly not a favourable impression on the language. Now ion was sometimes used as one syllable, and then the rhime became double, a|tion; sometimes as two syllables, and then the rhime was thrown on the last, altion. Sometimes the poet began his rhime with the first syllable, even when he resolved ion into two.

What ned eth gret er dilatation?

:

I say by treatise and ambassatrie,
And by the poples: mediation|
They ben accorded.

Chau. Man of Lawes Tale.

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:

Wallace, 11. 205.

When they next wake all this | division,
Shall seem a dream and fruit|less vision.

:

If gracious silence: sweet | attention,
Quick sight and quicker: apprehension,

M. N. D. 3. 2.

(The lights of judgment's throne) shine any where,
Our doubtful author hopes to find them here.

B. Jons. Prol. to Cynthia's Revels.

The double accent quickly passed to other terminations.

Her name was Agape, whose children werne,
All three as one: the first | hight Priamond,
The second Diamond: the youngest Triamond.

F. Q. 4. 2. 41.

Skipper, stand back]: 'tis age that nourisheth,
But youth in ladies' eyes]: that flourisheth.

Tam. of the Shrew, 2.1.

A serious blunder was sometimes the result of this practice. There are examples, among the early Elizabethan writers and their immediate predecessors, where ion is resolved into two syllables in one line, while, in the one corresponding, it follows the last legitimate accent of the verse; so that we must either increase the proper number of accents, or falsify the rhime. Even Spenser was guilty of this fault;

Who soon as he beheld that angel's face,
Adorn'd with all: divine perfection,
His cheered heart eftsoons away gan chase
Sad death, revived with her sad | inspection,

And feeble spirit: inly felt | refection,

As wither'd weed through cruel winter's tine,

That feels the warmth of sunny beams | reflection,
Lifts up his head, that did before decline,

And gins to spread his leaf before the fair sunshine.

F. Q. 4. 12. 34.

CHAPTER VII.

THE PAUSES,

which serve for the regulation of the rhythm, are three in number; the final, middle, and sectional. The first occurs at the end of a verse, the second divides it into two sections, and the third is found in the midst of one of these sections. It is of great importance, that these pauses should not be confounded with such, as are only wanted for the purposes of grammar, or of emphasis. To keep them perfectly distinct, we shall always designate the latter as stops.

There is no doubt, that our stops were at one time identical with our pauses. In the Anglo-Saxon poems, we find the close of every sentence, or member of a sentence, coincident with a middle or final pause. In the works of Cadmon and other masters of the art, we find even the sectional pause so placed as to aid the sense; though I never knew a regular division of a sentence, which thus fell in the midst of a section.

In the present chapter, we shall first examine the pauses in their order-final, middle, and sectional-and endeavour to settle the limits, which mark out their position in a sentence. We will then ascertain in what places of the verse the stops may fall; or, in other words, how far the punctuation of a verse has, at different periods, been accommodated to its rhythm.

THE FINAL PAUSE.

In the Anglo-Saxon, there does not appear to have been any distinction made between the middle and final pauses.

The sections, whether connected by alliteration or not, were always separated by a dot, and were written continuously, like prose. In the old English alliterative poems, we find the alliterative couplet, or the two sections that contained the alliteration, written in one line, like a modern verse. In these poems also we find a marked distinction between the two pauses, but the Anglo-Saxonsso far at least as regarded the pause-appear to have considered each section as a separate verse.

As a general rule, we may lay it down, that the final and middle pauses ought always to coincide with the close of a sentence, or of some member of a sentence. This rule may be best illustrated, by noticing such violations of it, as have at different periods been tolerated in our poetry.

Perhaps there never was a greater violation of those first principles, on which all rhythm must depend, than placing the final pause in the midst of a word. Yet of this gross fault Milton has been guilty more than once.

Cries the stall-reader "Bless me! what a word on
A title page is this," and some in file
Stand spelling false, till one might walk to Mile-
End Green.

And fabled how the serpent, whom they call'd
Opheon, with Eurynome the wide-

Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule
Of high Olympus.

Sonnet.

P. L. 10.

All must remember the ridicule, which was thrown upon this practice in the Anti-Jacobin; but Creech, in the hapless translation to which it is said the envy of Dryden urged him, had in sober earnest realized the absurdity.

Pyrrhus, you tempt a danger high,
When you would tear from angry li-
Oness her cubs.

Hor. Odes, 3. 20.

There are many verbs followed by prepositions, which must, for certain purposes, be considered as compounds; and although, in some cases, words may be inserted be

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