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Another kind of license permitted to the heroic verse, is to have an additional syllable at the end; as, His wish and best endeavour, us asunder. Paradise Lost.

or even two; as, For solitude sometimes is best society.--Ib. but all such syllables must be unaccented for an accent upon the last syllable, when two are added, would make an alexandrine, which is another species of verse; and one additional syllable, accented, would destroy every known measure of verse. This license ought not to be taken often in serious poems; because the unaccented terminations have the lightness of the trochee and dactyle, which is unsuitable to pieces of a graver character. The drama, which claims peculiar licenses in versification, uses them more freely.

To these some critics † have added the license of using trisyllable feet;

as,

Ominous conjecture on the whole success. and such lines as this,

Many a repast he gave to many a friend. But as this license, whatever it be accounted, does not belong exclusively to iambic verse, we shall say no more of it till we come to treat of elisions.

The same licenses which are given to the heroic line are allowed to the other species of iambic measure: and, by observing upon what ground they stand, it will be seen how many of them may be taken in each species.

From the account of the numerous licenses which are permitted by substituting some other foot for that which is fundamental to this measure (the iambic), will appear what a variety the English heroic verse is cathan the Latin or Greek hexameter pable of exhibiting: much greater can produce, whatever has been advanced to the contrary. But this is a point that does not rest upon opinion; it is a matter of computation: neither is the variety such as is allowable only, but not in usage; it is to be seen in all our poems of that measure; and it will not be foreign to our subject to establish these facts by evidence and proof.

The measures which enter into the composition of an hexameter, are the dactyle and spondee, and no other; and the last foot of the verse being invariably a spondee, there remains a line of five feet to receive all the varieties that can be made by two different measures. Now the first foot admits of two, and the second of the same number; which, combined with the first, is four; the third of twice four, viz. eight; the fourth of twice eight, viz. sixteen; the fifth of twice sixteen, viz. thirty-two. And this was precisely the number of varieties which the ancient grammarians recognized in the hexameter; as the Rhetorician Hermogenes informs

us.

But the English heroic verse admits of four different feet; and according to the same rate of combination, its varieties in the second foot

We have quoted this line because it has been called an alexandrine; Essay on the Harmony of Language, p. 133, 1st edition, where an alexandrine is defined to be "a verse of the heroic cadence, and consisting of six feet." By heroic cadence, is meant such measures (or feet) as an heroic verse is made of. It is true, that an alexandrine must contain six iambic feet; but it is not true, that every verse of six such feet, the last being unaccented, must be an alexandrine. If it must, then it follows that a line of five such feet must be an heroic verse; and these in Hudibras,

She laid about in fight more busily,

Than th' Amazonian dame Penthesilé. P. i. c. 2.

are not doggrel, as is commonly supposed, but of a higher order, and may claim to be ranked with the heroics of Pope and Dryden. The line in Milton is exactly like the following in Othello:

For sure he fills it up with great ability,

With any strong or vehement importunity. Act III. sc. 3.

and like numberless others that occur in our tragedies, which were never yet reckoned as alexandrine, but as heroic verses with two redundant syllables.

Tyrwhitt's Essay on the Versification of Chaucer, p. 55.

The grammarians were literary characters, who employed themselves particularly in studying and commenting upon the poets. The passage of Hermogenes is in the tenth chapter of his second book upon the various species of eloquence.

would be four times four, viz. sixteen, and so on; but because (as has been said) two trochees cannot stand together, nor two pyrrhics, the varieties will not be so many; yet they will amount to a much greater number than those of an hexameter.

Varieties.

Two Iambics, Trochee and Iambic, Spondee and Iambic, Pyrrhic and Iambic, Pyrrhic and Spondee, Iambic and Spendee, Trochee and Spondee, Iambic and Pyrrhic,

And that this variety is not imaginary, but continually employed by our poets, may be shown from any of their works. The same epistle of Pope, to which we have already had recourse, will afford the proof. The first two feet of each verse will be sufficient for the purpose.

And yet the fate of all extremes is such. Line 9.
Gránt but as many sorts of mind as moss. Line 18.
Quick whirls | and shifting eddies of our minds. Line 24.
And in the cunning truth itself's a lie. Line 68.
Nor will life's stream | for observation stay. Line 37.
We grów | móre pártial for the observer's sake.
Sée the | sáme mán | in vigour and the gout. Line 71.
His prínciple | of action once explore. Line 27.

In this example, taken from a poet who is more distinguished for the smoothness than the variety of his measures, the varieties in two feet amount to eight, which is double the number that the hexameter is capable of making within the same compass: the varieties of our entire heroic line must therefore exceed those of the hexameter in a still greater proportion.

SECTION II.

Of Licenses in the Trochaic, Anapestic, and Dactylic Measures.

There being some affinity between the trochaic and iambic measures, the licenses permitted in each will be similar, as far as consists in the substitution of some other foot for that which is characteristic of the kind. But beside these, there is another license very generally extended to the trochaic; viz. that of cutting off part of the concluding foot. This is allowed in every species of the trochaic verse, whether of two, three, or four feet; so that we have lines of three, five, and seven syllables, and some specimens of them have been given already.

The pure trochaic line is composed of trochees without the intermixture of any other foot: and if quantity concurs with accent to form the measure, it is then perfect; as in the following example, where the accented syllables are all long, and the unaccented all short:

Richly paint the vernal arbour.-Gray. A perfect line is not oftener found in this kind, than in the heroic verse.

We now proceed to the licenses;

Line 12.

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We do not find an iambic in the composition. In the first, it has obsecond or third foot of any authentic tained a place by the authority of Gray, and others: it is nevertheless so harsh a violation of the regular foot as hardly to be approved of. The well known ballad of Admiral Hosier's Ghost is composed in trochaic measure, but with this, and frequent other deviations from regularity; allowable, perhaps, in such a

dream'd

piece, yet not expected from a writer, And now my dream's out; for I was a who is said to have been accurate and even fastidious in the arrange ment of his numbers.*

The anapestic verse allows but few licenses. One is a redundant syllable at the end of a line; another, an iambic, or spondee, in the first foot. And where the former of these is introduced, the other ought to be taken in the line next following, as in this example:

To invite the gods hither they would have
had reason,

And Jove had descended each night in
Byrom.

the season.

This rule, though but little attended
to, is good and proper; because the
observance of it will keep the mea-
sure entire, which otherwise is some-
times overloaded, and produces a bad
effect on the ear.

Prithee, pluck up a good resolution,
To be cheerful and thankful in all.

Byrom. The second line begins with an anapest; and by the word to, the measure is broken: omit it, and the whole will run smoothly and agreeably.

Another license claimed by some writers is that of dropping a syllable in the middle of the verse; Swift takes it very often, as here,

That I saw a huge rat-O dear how I

scream'd!

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Glover. See Dr. Pemberton's Observations on his Leonidas.

+ Our old version of the 104th Psalm is in anapestic measure; but it contains something peculiar. The first half of every stanza appears to be defective, for it halts like the lines here quoted, while the other half is full and perfect. But the translator arranged it not in four lines, but eight;

With light as a robe,
Thou hast thee beclad ;
Whereby all the earth
Thy greatness may see:
The heavens in such sort
Thou also hast spread,
That they to a curtain
Compared may be.

By this arrangement he was allowed the license of retrenching a syllable at the beginning of each line: still the want of a syllable between the first and second, and again between the third and fourth, produces a disagreeable effect. The omission was not casual, but studied: for in every stanza of the Psalm, which extends to twenty-four, the same precise measure is repeated to a syllable. This strictness was an unnecessary restraint, but such as was not unusual for the versifiers of that age to lay upon themselves; as Webbe, in his Discourse of English Poetry, informs us. He says, "there are infinite sorts of fine conveyances (as they may be termed) which are much frequented by them, both in the composition of their verse, and the wittiness of their matter;" and he gives some curious instances. (P. 65.)

Drayton makes April three syllables. (See note in the next page.)

This is one of those combinations (the diphthong i with 7) which cannot be pronounced without the interposition of another letter (here the short u) as Tucker has remarked: and he adds, "I think hire and dire have as fair claim to be counted dissyllables as higher and dyer, though we will not allow them the same rank in verse.” On Vocal Sounds, p. 17.

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Far above all the flowers of the field, When its leaves are all dead and its colours áll lost. | Watts. And while a false nymph | was his theme, A willow supported his head.-Rowe.

The licenses taken in dactylic verse are sometimes such that they disguise the measure, and render it equivocal; as in this uncommon specimen :

Oh! what a pain is love!

How shall I bear it?
She will unconstant prove,
I greatly fear it.
Please her the best I may,
She looks another way;
Alack and well-a-day,

*

Phillida flouts me!

Ellis's Specimens.

Every line of this stanza, but the last, is divisible into iambic feet, and they all make verses in that measure: they are nevertheless designed for the dactylic, as appears by these next, which cannot be so divided without violence:

Thou shalt eat curds and cream
All the year | lasting;

And drink the crystal stream,

Pleasant in tasting.

Ibid.

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Drayton has a poem in this kind of verse: and Mitford has made the same observation on the ambiguous measures (as he calls them) of that piece. A few lines will show Drayton's manner of versification, and what liberties he has taken:

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The Guardian, No. 67, contains a very humourous and benevolent account and

recommendation of Tom Durfey, by Addison.

OF THE COMBINATIONS OF VERSES.

Verses, as they have been now considered, differ in species, and in kind; in the same respects they admit of combination.

A combination of the same species

is made by verses which differ in the
number of their feet, as in the ex-
amples here given; where the figures
denote the number of feet in each
verse :-

5. In realms long held beneath a tyrant sway,
Lo! Freedom hath again appear'd!

Combinations in 4. the Iambic..

3.

In this auspicious day

6. Her glorious ensign floats, and high in Spain is rear'd. Banded despots hate the sight;

4.

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And in spite

Arm their slaves for war and plunder:
But the British lion's roar,

Heard on every shore,

5. Soon shall break their impious league asunder.
Then Spaniards shall set at defiance

3.

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Their foes that advance:

They shall laugh at the threats of the Holy Alliance,
And baffle, indignant, th' invasion of France.

On to the field!

Heaven will assist the defenders of Freedom:
Prayers, and arms in your cause if you need 'em,
Every Briton will yield.

The remainder of this section in our next.

C.

RILEY GRAVE-STONES.

A DERBYSHIRE STORY.

All living things, save man, foresaw and fled-
Afar the wild bird fled its summer haunts-
Afar the bee fled from the honey bloom-
Afar the wild-deer fled their wonted lairs-
Afar the rooks flew from the pine-tree tops-
Afar the wild-doves fled, and farther still
The wild swan sail'd away on shuddering wing-
The ox low'd loud, nor tasted the rich grass;
And from the midnight hearth the household dog
Howl'd long and deep a melancholy howl;

But man stirr'd not. Sad signs came next: the stars
One summer night rain'd all the vale with fire;
The silver ash-keys hung with drops of blood;
Red blood, not dew, fill'd Eyam's violet bells;
Earth shook, and bubbled up red bells of blood;
And two grim ravens came to our church tower,
Chased off the preacher's snow-white doves, nor sought
They food, but, stretching out their sooty necks,
And pointing down their beaks, sat and conferr'd
About the people passing by-they seem'd
To croak of coming corses.

THE story you wish me to tell is one of sorrow, and the time when it happened is long gone by. These hairs, now so thin and white, were then black and glossy; those whom. I then loved have dropped away,

The Plague of Eyam.

one by one, from my side; and as much as chaff represents corn, so do my years of eighty-and-eight represent blithe and buoyant eighteen. Some seventy years ago it happened, towards sun-rise, on an autumn

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