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metres, pentametres, sapphics, and alcaics, just as the Latins and Greeks had, is wholly incorrect. The English system of versification is founded, not upon the periodic recurrence of similar quantities, but upon the periodic recurrence of similar accents.

The less incorrect method consists in giving up all ideas of the existence of quantity, in the proper sense of the word, as an essential element in English metre; whilst we admit accent as its equivalent; in which case the presence of an accent is supposed to have the same import as the lengthening, and the absence of one, as the shortening, of a syllable; so that, mutatis mutandis, a is the equivalent to and x to .

In this case the metrical notation for—

,

The way was lóng, the wind was cold—
Mérrily, mérrily, sháll I live nów-

would be, not

respectively, but

x α, x α, x α, x α,

a x x, a x x, α x x, a

Again

is not

but

As they splásh in the blood of the slippery streét,

x x α, x x α, x x α, x x α,

With this view there are a certain number of classical feet, with their syllables affected in the way of quantity, to which there are equivalent English measures with their syllables affected in the way of accent. Thus if the formula

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A, be a classical, the formula a x is an English trochee.

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And so on in respect to the larger groups of similarlyaffected syllables which constitute whole lines and stanzas; verses like

A. Cóme to seek for fáme and glóry

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E.

At the close of the day when the hámlet is stíll— are (a), trochaic; (b), iambic; (c), dactylic; (d), amphibrachych; and (e), anapæstic, respectively.

And so, with the exception of the word amphibrachych (which I do not remember to have seen), the terms have been used. And so, with the same exception, systems of versification have been classified.

§ 584. Reasons against the classical nomenclature as applied to English metres.-These lie in the two following facts:1. Certain English metres have often a very different character from their supposed classical analogues.

2. Certain classical feet have no English equivalents. Certain English metres have often a very different metrical character, &c.-Compare such a so-called English anapæst

as

with

As they splásh in the blood of the slippery streét—

Δεκατον μεν ετος τοδ' επει Πριαμου.

For the latter line to have the same movement as the former, it must be read thus

Dekatón men etós to d' epéi Priamóu.

Now we well know that, whatever may be an English scholar's notions of the Greek accents, this is not the way in which he reads Greek anapæsts.

Again the trochaic movement of the iambic senarius is a point upon which the most exclusive Greek metrists have insisted; urging the necessity of reading (for example) the first line in the Hecuba

Hæ'ko nékron keuthmóna kai skótou pýlas.

rather than

Hækó nekrón keuthmóna kai skotóu pylás.

I have said that certain English metres have often a very different metrical character, &c. I can strengthen the reasons against the use of classical terms in English prosody, by enlarging upon the word often. The frequency of the occurrence of a difference of character between classical and English metres similarly named is not a matter of accident, but is, in many cases, a necessity arising out of the structure of the English language as compared with that of the Greek and Latin-especially the Greek.

With the exception of the so-called second futures, there is no word in Greek whereof the last syllable is accented. Hence, no English line ending with an accented syllable can have a Greek equivalent. Accent for accent

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but no Greek word (with the exception of the so-called second futures like veμw = nemó), and (probably) no Latin word at all, is accented like presúme and cavalier.

From this it follows that although the first three measures of such so-called English anapæsts as

As they splásh in the blood of the slippery street,

may be represented by Greek equivalents (i.e. equivalents in the way of accent) —

Ep' omóisi feróusi ta kleína—

a parallel to the last measure (-ery street) can only be got at by one of two methods; i. e. by making the verse end in a socalled second future, or else in a vowel preceded by an accented syllable, and cut off—

or,

Ep' omóisi feróusi ta kleína nemó—

Ep' omóisi feróusi tá kleína prosóp'.*

* For prosópa. The Greek has been transliterated into English for the sake of showing the effect of the accents more conveniently.

Now it is clear that when, over and above the fact of certain Greek metres having a different movement from their supposed English equivalents, there is the additional circumstance of such an incompatibility being less an accident than a necessary effect of difference of character in the two languages, the use of terms suggestive of a closer likeness than either does or ever can exist is to be condemned; and this is the case with the words dactylic, trochaic, iambic, anapastic, as applied to English versification.

Certain classical feet have no English equivalents.-Whoever has considered the principles of English prosody, must have realized the important fact that, ex vi termini, no English measure can have either more or less than one accented syllable.

On the other hand, the classical metrists have several measures wherein there is more than one long syllable. Thus, to go no farther than the trisyllabic feet, we have the pyrrhic (~) and tribrach (~~) without a long syllable at all, and the spondee (--), amphimacer (--), and molossus (---) with more than one. It follows, then, that (even mutatis mutandis, i. e. with the accent considered as the equivalent to the long syllable) English pyrrhics, English tribrachs, English amphimacers, English spondees, and English molossi are, each and all, prosodial impossibilities.

It is submitted to the reader that the latter reason (based wholly upon the limitations that arise out of the structure of language) strengthens the objections of the previous section.

§ 585. The classical metres metrical even to English readers. -The attention of the reader is directed to the difficulty involved in the following (apparently or partially) contradictory facts.

1. Accent and quantity differ; and the metrical systems founded upon them differ also.

2. The classical systems are founded upon quantity.

3. The English upon accent.

4. Nevertheless, notwithstanding the difference of the principle upon which they are constructed, the classical metres,

VOL. II.

K K

even as read by Englishmen, and read accentually, are metrical to English ears.

Preliminary to the investigation of the problem in question it is necessary to remark—

1. That the correctness or incorrectness of the English pronunciation of the dead languages has nothing to do with the matter. Whether we read Homer exactly as Homer would read his own immortal poems, or whether we read them in such a way as would be unintelligible to Homer reappearing upon earth, is perfectly indifferent.

2. That whether we pronounce the anapæst pătulæ, precisely as we pronounce the dactyle Tityrě, or draw a distinction between them, is also indifferent. However much, as is done in some of the schools, we may say scri-bere rather than scrib-ere, or am-or, rather than a-mor, under the notion that we are lengthening or shortening certain syllables, one unsurmountable dilemma still remains, viz. that the shorter we pronounce the vowel, the more we suggest the notion of the consonant which follows it being doubled; whilst double consonants lengthen the vowel which precedes them. Hence, whilst it is certain that patula and Tityre may be pronounced (and that without hurting the metre) so as to be both of the same quantity, it is doubtful what that quantity is. Sound for sound, Tityre may be as short as pătulæ. Sound for sound, pättulæ may be as long as Tittyre.

Hence, the only assumptions requisite are—

a. That Englishmen do not read the classical metres according to their quantities.

b. That, nevertheless, they find metre in them.

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§ 586. Why are the classical metres metrical to English readers? Notwithstanding the extent to which quantity differs from accent, there is no metre so exclusively founded upon the former as to be without a certain amount of the latter; and in the majority (at least) of the classical (and probably other) metres there is a sufficient amount of accentual elements to constitute metre; even independent of the quantitative

ones.

Many (perhaps all) classical metres on a level with the un

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