in fome particular fituations, cannot fupply the of fice of long fyllables. WHEN the Latin and Greek languages became degenerate, the usage of observing the quantities of the feveral fyllables was neglected in difcourfe, and the accent began to govern their verfe. It is evident from St. Auftin's treatise fo often mentioned, that in his time, at least where he lived, the quantities of the fyllables might be unknown to those, who spoke the language. And Maximus Victorinus fpeaks of verfes commonly writ in his time, in which the juft quantities of the fyllables were difregarded; the verfes being regulated by the ear upon principles so different, that whenever they ran in true measure, it was the effect of chance, I not of defign; nay his words imply this regulation to have been by the accent. Our countryman, the venerable Bede, has writ a piece on the measures of verfe +, in which, after copying, as it were, the words of Victorinus, he illuftrates them by this ex ample, *Metrum poëticum eft verfificandi difciplina, certa fyllabarum ac temporum ratione in pedibus obfervata.— cui rhythmus eft confimilis, qui fic definitur. Eft verborum modulatio et compofitio, non metrica ratione, fed numeri fanctione ad judicium aurium examinata; veluti funt cantica poëtarum vulgarium.—Plerumque tamen cafu quodam invenias etiam rationem metricam in rhythmo, non artificii ratione obfervata, fed tono et ipfa modulatione ducente. De Carmin. heroic. in princip. De metrica ratione. ample, which, he fays, is formed upon the model of the iambic measure Rex æterne, domine, Here the juft quantity of the fyllables is departed from in every line, but the fecond. In all the reft long fyllables are found where the iambic measure indifpenfibly requires fhort ones; and in the first and third verfes, befides their being deficient by a fyllable, fhort fyllables, but accented, supply the place of long ones. These verses in relation to the accent resemble in every circumstance verses of this length composed in our own language: for as the accent falls not on the second, but the first fyllable in the second and fourth of thefe verfes, and the first verse at least iş deficient by a fyllable; both these irregularities are practifed by our poets. Bede gives also another example like this in imitation of trochaics. Apparebit repentina In tremendo die judicii. I have now before me the whole Iliad of Homer epitomized in the fame fort of verfes. They always end end with a word accented on the laft fyllable but one, and generally the other accents, at least the acute and circumflex, fall on the alternate fyllables from these, though there occur in this respect fome irregularities. The language feems of a middle age, the words being for the most part ancient, but interfperfed with fome modern idioms. The ninth book ends thus, two verses being writ in one line; πάντες δὲ οἱ ἡγεμόνες ἐπαινέσασε τὸν λόγον το θρασέως διομήδος κ ̓ ἔλαβε ὁ καθείς της δείπνου, καὶ εἰς τὰς σκιάςτες ἦλθον, κ' ἐκοιμήθησαν ἐνταῦθα. Crufius in his Turco-Græcia has given the Batrachomyomachia in modern Greek. The verfes are in rhyme, and by fupplying the accent upon the alternate fyllables of the long words they correfpond to tretrameter catalectic iambics, that is, iambics of eight feet wanting a syllable, and have a cæfure, which divides them all at the fourth foot. The poem begins thus ; προ τον' ἀρχήσω, δέομαι τὸν ὕψισον τὸν δία, The principal deviation in these verses from the form, here afcribed to them, is in the firft foot of either hemiftic. In the fecond hemiftic of the fecond * Turco-Graec. 1. 6. K fecond and third lines the firft fyllable carries an accent, and the second not; the like is done in both hemistics of the fifth line. It is evident, that the vowels in the fourth line are contracted into one, and the word eds in the last line is ufed as a monofyllable. BUT now, as our verfe is regulated by the accent, to give our narrative five-foot verfe its juft and compleat measure the second, fourth, fixth, eighth, and tenth fyllable ought to be capable without any violence done the words of receiving fome degree of emphafis, and be pronounced in a longer time than the reft; the movement of the verse being always difturbed, when fuch emphasis is removed from any of these fyllables to any other." THE Italian narrative verfe is formed upon the fame rule; but their language not abounding in words accented on the last fyllable this verse is longer by one fyllable than ours. The French narrative verfe confifts of twelve fyllables, and when it ends with their feminine e, of thirteen; but that language is fo untractable in regard to harmony, that they have not been able to bring their -verfe under any farther limitation than being divided in the middle into two hemiftics, and the fixth fyllable of each certainly accented. As any error in the measure of the verfe is the leaft offenfive toward the beginning of it; our poets do often indulge themselves in commencing their verse with a fyllable carrying emphasis. But fuch verfe labours in reality under a defect, which is greateft, when the following fyllable cannot also be lengthned out. However, other modern languages use the same liberty. We found examples of this in the modern Greek verses above fet down; and an Italian grammarian, Lodovico Dolce, directs only the fourth, fixth, eighth, and tenth fyllables to be accented in his language*. Triffino goes fo far as to allow either a trochaic, or two fhort fyllables in any of the four first places, except in the third only, when either of these feet chances to be in the second t. But our epic verse will scarce bear any fuch licence beyond the first foot, befides receiving into the place of a long fyllable monofyllable particles pronounced short in profe, when the fyllables on each fide of it are fhort. The emphafis or accent falling upon the foremost of the two fyllables in any foot, except the firft, which will make that foot resemble a trochaic; or two fyllables placed together in the fame foot, which muft both of neceffity be pro nounced fhort, will certainly deftroy the harmony of the verse. Also a syllable in the beginning of the fourth, or even of the fecond foot, which is beft pronounced long, renders the verfe lefs perfect. If the laft foot begin with a long fyllable, the verse K 2 will Offervat. nella vulgar lingua, 1, 4. |