decide the question in each particular case: but, how that decision is to be obtained, I know not. In the mean time, it may be proper to observe, that wherever, in our Iambic metre, we find the appearance of a dactyl, an anapæst, or a tribrachys, such appearance usually presents itself in some word, or combination of syllables, that is susceptible of syncope or synæresis,―very rarely, if at all, in any others. Now this circumstance alone is sufficient to authorise a doubt whether those feet were ever intended: for, if intended, why do they not as frequently occur in words or combinations which admit no licence, and in which the trisyllabic foot would evidently and unquestionably appear? That they do not, is certain and this consideration naturally suggests the following easy and simple mode of ascertaining how far the dactyl, the anapæst, or the tribrachys, is an ornament or a disparagement to our Iambic metre -and, consequently, how far we ought to court or avoid the appearance of such feet in poetic composition or recitation. : If, from any verse of ordinary construction, we tion in our English poetry than in the Latin, where, without the smallest difference in the metre, the heroïc verse of six feet may vary from thirteen to seventeen syllables, and the common sixfoot Iambic from twelve to eighteen. At the same time it furnishes an argument against the hasty and unnecessary introduction of trisyllabic feet into our Iambic metre, to alter the number of the syllables, on which our versification appears so much to depend. remove any number of syllables, and substitute an equal number of others, exactly corresponding with them in accent-although the sense may be impaired, the metre at least will still be perfect: e, gr. Pělīdes' wrath, to Greece the direful spring of wōes unnumber'd, heav'nly goddess, sing. The Frenchman's arts, to Spain the direful spring of feūds ănd cărnăge, heav'nly goddess, sing. Hark! the numbers, soft and clear, Gently steal upon the ear. Hark! the thunders, loud and clear, Rudely burst upon the ear. With horns and with trumpets, with fiddles and drums, They'll strive to dĭvērt him, as soon as he comes. With dancing and cōncerts, with fiddles and drums, Here, in three different species of verse, three different kinds of feet are altered and yet, so far as mere sound and metre are concerned, the altered lines are equally good as the original.-Let us now apply the same test to some of those Iambic verses, in which a hasty reader might fancy that he perceives some of the trisyllabic feet: e. gr. Which ma-\-ny ǎ bārd ¦ had chant-|-ed ma-\-nă ă dãy. O'er ma-\-ný á frō-\-zen, ma-\-ný ă ƒre-\-ry Alp. In these lines, we four times discover the appear ance of anapasts, as marked *. If they be real anapæsts, and the chastened ear approve them as such, it will equally admit other, less questionable, anapæsts in their stead. Let us try— Which Ho--mer the bard had chant-l-ed once I in his day. O'er hor-\-rid ånd frō-|-zen smō-İ-king ănd fie-\-ry Alps. I have seen these verses so scanned in print, as to make | which many|-ědmānỹ |ŏ'er mānỹ | -zěn mănỹ | ă fie | so many examples of the amphibrachys. But the amphibrachys (as well observed by Mr. Dawes in his Miscellanea Critica) is not admissible on the same footing with the spondee, the dactyl, or the anapæst; and it is repugnant to the nature of our English versification, which requires the accents on the first or last syllables of such feet as have any accent: for I cannot consider the three concluding syllables of a double-rhiming Iambic as a single foot, much less an amphibrachys, because the first and second of those syllables may be, and often are, both accented.-Besides, in the following lines-the first from Dryden, the others from Gray--....By guns, invented since, | full mā-|-ny a day— Full ma--ny a gem | of purest ray serene..... Full mã-\-ny a flow'r | is born to blush unseen.... we cannot make an amphibrachys of Full many, the word Full requiring too strong an accent. Full ma- will necessarily be a spondee; and, as -ny a must here, in each case, be together taken into the following foot, we may hence learn how to dispose of the same syllables in the verses above quoted.—With respect to the Fie- in Fiery, it must be considered as a single syllable, and ought, indeed, (agreeably to its obvious etymology) to be written without the E, as Miry, Spiry, Wiry, from Mire, Spire, Wire. If any reader, of poetic ear, will seriously pronounce these altered lines to be good and admissible verses, I have not one word more to say on the subject. But, if every person of taste joins with me→→ as, no doubt, he will-in declaring them to be most detestable verses, or rather indeed no verses at allthen it seems to follow that the anapæst mars our Iambic metre: for it is not merely the badness of my anapæests that has done the mischief; as the reader will, upon trial, experience the same result from the introduction of any others, that have all their syllables distinctly pronounced. In reading, therefore, unless certain that a real anapæst occurs, let us beware of conjuring up anapæstic phantoms, to scare away the metre and harmony of the lines— especially when it is so easy to avoid thein, as here, for example, where we have only to employ a synæresis in ny a, and make each of those four feet an Iambus, by rapidly pronouncing the two vowels as a single syllable, as the IA in Britannia, Hibernia, Spaniard, Italian, Valiant, &c. By a similar synæresis, -ry aspires may be sounded nearly as two syllables, to make an Iambus, in the following line of Milton- ....Of ignominy; yet to glo-\-ry aspires— and, in many other cases, an un-accented final vowel may, without elision, be made to coalesce with the initial vowel inmediately following. In such words, too, as Echoing, Following, Bellowing, the two latter syllables may be rapidly sounded together as one by synæresis: and, in the following lines of Milton~ Of hie--rarchies, of orders, and degrees The great hierar-\-chal standard was to movethe syllables, hi-e, become one by synæresis, as Liar is made by Pope to rhime with 'Squire, and Higher by Somerville*. Let us now examine the dactyl and tribrachys, which may, in appearance, be both found in the following lines of Milton ...Murmuring; and, with him, fled the shades of night ...Innu--měrăblě | before th'Almighty's throne. But let us try a real dactyl, and a real tribrachys...Sorrowful; and, with him, fled the shades of night— ...Distin-\-guishable before th' Almighty's throne. Here again the real feet most sadly limp and faulter, nd the lines bear little resemblance to verse; while, in the original, the apparent dactyl and tribrachys move along with steady graceful step, and the lines are perfectly metrical. But the fact is, that we really do not, in the utterance of those lines, pronounce Murmuring as three complete syllables, or Innumerable as five in each case, we instinctively and * Boastful and rough, your first son is a 'squire ; The next, a tradesman, meek, and much a liar. A 'squire of Wales, whose blood ran higher If, however, any person prefer the use of syncope, to make Hi'rarchies, Hirarchal, Li'r, High'r, I am not disposed to contest the point. |