The Iambus*; consisting of two syllables, the first un-accented, and the latter accented, as ădōre, běhind. The Trochee, of two syllables, the first accented, the latter un-accented, as hōly, thunder. The Spondee, of two syllables, both accented, as why charge in the following line Why charge we heav'n in those, in these acquit ? (Pope. The Pyrrhic, of two un-accented, as is to in the following verseA choice collection! what | is to | be done? (Young. The Anapast, of two un-accented, and one accented, as each of the four feet in the following line-ăt the close of the day, \ when the hām-\-lēt is stīll... (Beattie. The Dactyl, of one accented, and two un-accented, as holiness, thundering. of that animal's name is long, and the other two short; whereas, in English prosody, the same marks are to be understood as simply meaning, that the first syllable in Pēgăsŭs is accented, and the other two un-accented. This observation applies to every other case. This foot is sometimes improperly called an Iambie; which is equally wrong, as to say a Boyish or a Girlish, for a Boy or a Girl.-Iambus, Trochee, Anapast, &c. are the substantive names of the feet themselves: but Iambic, Troehaïc, Anapastic, &c. are adjectives, solely applicable to the metre, verse, or poem, consisting of such feet. The Tribrachys, of three un-accented, as -ritual in the word Spiritual. The Amphibrachys, of one accented, between two un-accented, as removal coēvăl. Elision.-Synarĕsis.-Diarěsis, In our versification, we have very frequent examples of elision and synærěsis-none, or very few, of diarĕsis. Elision is of three kinds, viz. 1. Apheresis, which cuts off the initial letter or syllable of a word, as 'squire, 'gainst, 'gan, for esquire, against, began. 2. Syncope*, which strikes out a letter or syllable from the body of a word, as sp'rit + for spirit-lov'd, thund'ring, lab'rer, for loved, thundering, laborer—— se'nnight for sevennight. * The use of syncope is not confined to verse: in prose also, numberless instances of it occur, as don't for do not—wondrous for wonderous-hast, hath, for the obsolete havest, haveth— grown, sown, for the antique growen, sowen-midst, for middest, an old superlative from mid, &c. &c. Right in the middĕst of that paradise, The barren ground was full of wicked weeds, Now growěn great, at first of little seeds. (Spencer. + Converted, by the addition of E to lengthen the sound, into Sprite, which, together with Sprightly, proves that the syncope took place in the first syllable, and that the syncopated word was intended to be Sp'rit, rhiming with Grit, not Spir't, rhiming 3, Apocope, which cuts off a final vowel or syllable, or one or more letters, as Gi' for give, Fro' for from, O' for of, Th' evening for the evening, Philomel for Philomela. Synarěsis is the contraction of two syllables into one, by rapidly pronouncing, in one syllable, two or more vowels which properly belong to separate syllables, as AE in Israel, IE in Alienate, EE in E'en and E'er, IO in Nation: for, though the IO, in such terminations, be usually accounted a diphthong*, with Squirt, as I have seen it printed in the following line of Milton, Par. L. 5, 877— men," O alienate from God! O spirit accurst! 66 two Diphthong.-Some late writers have directed us to pronounce this word as Dipthong, and some have even adopted that mode of spelling it; because, as one of them observes, aspirations in succession are disagreeable to an English ear." This may be partly true in some cases, on account of the accompanying consonants, as "worth their while," "both those """come forth thence:" but, in "worth his while," "both his eyes," "he led forth his army," the double aspiration will, I believe, be found more easy to the tongue, and more grateful to the ear, than the single one in "worth is esteemed," "the merit of both is equal," "the Forth is a Scottish river;" the continued aspiration more softly blending and combining the syllables in "worth his," "both his," "forth his," without leaving that disagreeable chasm, or requiring that effort of the voice, which necessarily attend the utterance of "worth is," "both is," Forth is." But, to return to PHTH, let us see how the doctrine of the double aspiration applies to it. That the Greek consonant, which we render by PH, was an aspirated P, is certain; and that, and TION, of course, a single syllable, yet, in strict propriety, TI-ON are two distinct syllables; and instead of writing, as we do, stop him, up hill, kept him, a Greek would have written stoph him, uph hill, kephth him. How he pronounced the P thus aspirated, is of no consequence to us: but, in our pronunciation, the Greek PH and the English Fare sounded so exactly alike, that any objection, which lies against the PH, will bear with equal force against F. Now I submit to any of my readers, young or old, whether, in the following combinations with TH, the F (or its equivalent GH) be not in reality much less difficult to the tongue, and less grating to the ear, than P-Charles the fifth, Charles the fipth-a tough thong, tup thong-a stiff thorn, stip thorn—a rough thimble, rup thimble -the gruff thunderer, grup thunderer-you have not enough thought on it, enup thought-put off their clothes, op their-a whiff through a pipe, whip through-quaff thick beer, quap thick —a cough threatens a consumption, cop threatens-if Theodore's wife thinks, ip Theodore's wipe thinks. In all these examples, I confidently anticipate the unaniinous vote of my readers in favor of F: and so far indeed is the English ear or tongue from being shocked or embarrassed by the sound of F before TH, that the vulgar (whom one of the advocates of Dipthong holds up to us as "no contemptible guides" in pronunciation) are often heard to aspirate the T, in after, laughter, left her, pronouncing afther, lafther, lefth her; to which may be added the Yorkshire "thruff the world," for "through the world." Hence it would appear, that the harsh and irregular dipthong did not originate from any repugnance of the English tongue or ear to the more smooth and regular difthong, but from some other cause-very probably from the ignorance of some of those village dames of former days who initiated children in spelling-and who, not knowing the power of the H added to P, taught the younglings to convert the same remark applies to Dubious, Duteous, Plenteous, Warrior, &c. Besides these and similar examples of synæresis, which take place in prose, the licence is carried further in poetry, where we find Virtuous, Arduous, Gradual, Patriot, used as dissyllables, with many others which will occur in the following pages. Diaresis is the division of one syllable into two, as when Puissant, Puissance, which are properly dis Seraph into Syrup, A nymph into An imp, Pheasant into Peasant, Diphthong into Dipthong, &c.-From them the corruption spread among the lower class of the community, until at length their example was held up for the imitation of their betters, as a late writer has seriously recommended to us to adopt their Sparrow-grass instead of Asparagus. If the natural order of things is to be thus inverted-if the vulgar, instead of learning from their superiors, are to become their models and their teachers then let Sphinx also be altered to Spink, which I suppose to be the prevalent pronunciation among the private soldiers of his majesty's foot guards; for so I have heard the word very distinctly pronounced by one of them, who was explaining to the bystanders the ornaments on the carriage of the Egyptian gun in St. James's Park. I hope, however, that none of my young readers will ever adopt either Spink, Sparrow-grass, or Dipthong, but invariably pronounce PH as F, wherever they can so pronounce it; which they always can do in the body of a word, as Diphthong, Naphtha, Ophthalmia, &c. There may indeed be some excuse for not so pronouncing it before TH at the beginning of words, as Phthisis, Phthia, Phthiriasis, because it is there thought to be difficult of pronunciation; though, for my part, I see no difficulty in it, if custom would only allow us. to utter those words with the sound of FTH. |