VERSE OF THREE ACCENTS.

The Sections 1. and 17. with three accents are frequently met with. There is one kind of metre in which these verses occur alternately. It has been revived by Moore;

Fill the bumper fair,
Ev'ry drop we sprinkle,

O'er the brow of Care,

Smooths away a wrinkle, &c.

The Section 2. is not unfrequently mixed up with the other Sections of three accents;

The Sections 5. and 57. have been alternated; they form

2.

When, like a tent | to dwell | in,
He spread the skies | abroad,
And swath'd | about | the swelling
Of ocean's mighty flood,

He wrought by weight | and measure,
And I was with him then,
Myself | the Father's pleasure,

And mine the sons | of men.

Cowper. Prov. 8.

The Section 5l. was much favoured during the 16th century. We have songs, some of good length, entirely composed of it, though, generally speaking, it occurred at intervals.

Section 9. is of constant occurrence in our old ballads and popular songs;

Over Otter cap hill they cam in,

And so dowyn | by Rod clyffe crage,

Upon Grene Leyton they lighted down,

Styrande many a stage.

Battle of Otterburn.

Burns often used it, as in his humourous song on John

Barleycorn;

They 've ta'en a weapon long and sharp,

An' cut him by the knee,

Then tied him fast upon a cart

Like a rogue | for for|gerie|

"T will make a man forget his woe,

"T will heighten all his joy,

'T will make the widow's heart to sing
Tho' the tear | be in | her eye.

This verse has very little to recommend it.

CHAPTER III.

VERSE OF FOUR ACCENTS.

In the present chapter, we shall consider our verses of four accents as made up of two sections, and range them according to the order of the combinations.

This is not an artificial law, invented for the mere purposes of arrangement; it is the model upon which the great majority of these verses have been actually formed. The construction of the Anglo-Saxon couplet of four accents is rendered obvious to the eye, by the use of the rhythmical dot; and that the verse or couplet of four accents was formed in the same manner as late as the thirteenth century, is clear from Layamon, and other poets of that period. That the adoption of foreign metre brought with it into our language many verses, which neither had, nor were intended to have, the middle pause, may perhaps be granted; but that our poetry quickly worked itself clear from such admixture is no less certain. The critics of Elizabeth's reign insist upon the middle pause almost unanimously. They differed sometimes as to its position, and did not entertain the clearest notions as to its nature or its origin; but all seem to have acknowledged it as a necessary adjunct of English

verse.

Gascoigne tells us, there are "certain pauses or restes in a verse, which may be called ceasures, whereof I would be loth to stand long, since it is at the discretion of the writer, and they have beene first devised (as it would seem) by the musicians; but yet thus much I will adventure to write, that in a verse of eight syllables the pause

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will stand best in the middest, &c." In like manner, Sir Philip Sidney represents English verse, unlike the Italian or Spanish, as never almost" failing of the " cæsura or breathing place;" and King James has urged its importance on his reader, and with reasoning that good sense might adopt even at the present day. "Remember also to make a sectioun in the middes of everie lyne, quhethir the line be long or short." If the verse be of twelve or fourteen syllables, the section ought specially to be “othir a monosyllabe, or the hinmest syllabe of a word, always being lang," for if it be "the first syllabe of a polysyllabe, the music schall make zou sa to rest in the middes of that word, as it schall cut the ane half of the word fra the uther, and sa shall mak it seme twa different wordis, that is bot ane." He thinks indeed the same caution not necessary in the shorter lines, because "the musique makes no rest in the middes of thame;" but would have "the sectioun in them kythe something longer nor any uther feit in that line, except the second and the last." His mistake, in considering the middle pause merely as a rest for music, led him to confine his rule thus narrowly. The verse of four accents he divided like Gascoigne.

It is clear, I think, that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the middle pause was looked upon as essential; and that the verse of four accents was still formed of two sections, as in the Anglo-Saxon period. When we meet with such verses as the following;

Guiding the fiery :-wheeled throne

The cherub Con: templation.

I do not see how we can treat them otherwise than as false rhythm; or if the middle pause be disowned, at least require that they should not intrude among verses of a different character and origin. If the poet make no account of the pause, let him be consistent, and reject its aid altogether. If he prefer the rhythm of the foreigner, let him show his ingenuity in a correct imitation, and not

fall back upon our English verse, when his skill is exhausted. Both foreign and English rhythm are injured, by being jumbled together in this slovenly and inartificial

manner.

In ranging our verses of four accents, we shall take the different sections in their order, and place under each the verses, of which such section forms the commencement. We shall then take the section lengthened and doubly lengthened. The same order will regulate the second sections of each verse. Thus we shall begin with the verses 1:1, 1:17, 1: 17; 1:2, 1:27, 1: 2ll, &c., and then proceed to 2:1, 2:1, 2: 17; 2:2, 2: 21, 2:2ll, &c.

VERSES BEGINNING WITH SECTION 1.

The verse 1: 1, is met with in our old romances; and occurs so often in the fairy dialect of the sixteenth century, as to form one of its most characteristic features. It is now obsolete, but was occasionally used during the last century.