and long vowels may be heard in the the rules of English prosody and pronunciation of these words. 1st. a sam psalm e pen pane o jo cose Ist. u full fool 2d. ucub no long sound. And here it may be seen that the long vowel is represented by a different character from the short one, for the most part: so the long vowel of e is a, pane; of i, ee, seen; of 14, 00, fool; and that the short vowel of a, in hall, is o, as in holly, oracle, &c. Other anomalies of the alphabet are not less remarkable: such are these among the consonants. 1. A single written character stands for more than one elementary sound, as, j, in judge, &c. 2. A single elementary sound is represented by a double character, as in the words sing, shall, this; where ng, sh, and th, stand each for simple sounds. There are consonants, again, and among them s and th, which do not always stand for the same sound; for example, hiss, his; thin, thine. These observations are introduced to remind the writer of verse, that thime are not applicable to the language as it appears in writing, but as it is heard in pronunciation. Our language, so considered, is not inferior to the best. Its elementary sounds, both in variety and number, are adequate to all our occasions. The consonants, according to some grammarians, are nineteen; according to others, twenty-one. To the vowels already mentioned are to be added five dipthongs, as uttered in these words, vine, tune, aye, joy, cow. And beside these, that great variety of vowel-sounds produced by the elements wory, when prefixed to a vowel or a dipthong, as, ell, yell; ire, wire; all, wall, yawl; which are computed to be nineteen at least. "All these elements have their distinguishing qualities, of smooth, rough, soft, strong, close, open, clear, obscure, and others; by which they give a corresponding character to the sound of a verse. There is also, in many cases, a great agreement between them and the thing signified; as is shown by Dr. Wallis, in his grammar, at much length; though indeed he has extended his principle too far, and some of his examples are merely fanciful. § • It is not easy to give an evident instance of the short o, without having the same letter long in the same word, as, notorious. "The short sound of this vowel (says Mitford, Harmony in Language, p. 28, 2d ed.) never occurs in a syllable strongly offered to the ear." **+ Grammarians have remarked, that the dipthong ai is not used, except only in the word aye. The reason is, that our tongue has been much corrupted by polite and courtly speakers, who have debased the original and true pronunciation of many terms, which were too broad, or too clownish, in their opinion. The words, maintain, road, and door (from the Greek Supa), are examples of this sort. A similar corruption has happened in other languages, as the French l'eau (water) is pronounced by the provincials as two syllables, l'e-au; for which they are ridiculed by the polite, who pronounce it like our vowel o. The comparison between the English tongue and others, in the note subjoined, will, perhaps, entertain the reader. It is taken from Steel's Prosodia Rationalis, p. 168; but the information would have been more satisfactory, if some authority for the assertions had been given. " In English the proportion of monosyllables to polysyllables is more than as five to two: in French, something less than as three to two; but in Italian, which, having more vowels, has less occasion for monosyllables, their proportion to polysyllables is not quite three to four, or one and a half to two. The superior melody of one language over another will be nearly in proportion as one exceeds the other in the number of (vowels or) vocal sounds. The number of vocal and consonantal sounds in Italian are nearly equal, or fifty-four consonants to fifty-three vowels; in Latin, five consonants to four vowels; in French, supposing the orthography not as written, but as sounded in pronunciation, the consonantal to the vocal sounds are as four to three; and in English, in the like manner, the proportions are as three to two. Therefore, in this view, the French has an advantage over the English in proportion of nine to eight; but this is overbalanced by the English advantage in its monosyllables, which it has more than the French, in the proportion of five to three, or ten to six." § See extracts from Wallis in Dr. Johnson's grammar; see also Sheridan, Art of Reading, p. 76, 77. No single element, in a man's nas tive tongue, is of difficult pronunciation to him whose organs of speech are naturally perfect: in a foreign language there may be such, as the Welsh gutturals, and the French u, to an Englishman. But there are various combinations, either difficult to utter, or unpleasant to hear;* and others again of an opposite cha racter; with all of which it is useful for every writer to be acquainted: and therefore, some of the ancients, Dionysius of Halicarnassus in particular, have entered into this sub, ject very minutely, as will be shown when we treat of syllables in the next section. Let it not be thought degrading to any composer of English verse to attend to the power and effect of these elementary sounds, since Bacon has recommended an inquiry into the nature of language, for purposes of the same kind: nor accounted it beneath him to record in his works, that we cannot pronounce the letter t after m, without inserting p, as a circumstance worthy of notice. Ex. empty, Hampton.t compose them, of which an account was given in the last section; there are likewise other qualities of syllables to be regarded; which are, tone, accent, and quantity. By tone (to speak of it in this place) is meant the sound of a syllable, considered as high or low; not as long or short, for that belongs to quantity. It is not the same with accent, but wholly distinct from it: nor is a high tone always joined with the accented syllable: in Scottish pronunciation it is just the contrary. In English speech, also, the last syl lable of a question, though unaccented, will have the higher tone: for example, " he is going to London. To London? aye, to-morrow. Tomorrow?". In each of these questions the English custom of speaking will admit the last syllable to be raised above the preceding accented one, as much as the difference of the fourth from the key-note in the scale of music. But it is unnecessary to pursue this topic farther; for tone is no constituent part of a verse. By accent, is to be understood the force of the voice used in uttering a syllable; not a higher or lower sound (the acute and grave of the Greeks and Romans). "It is more usual with us (says Mitford) to speak of syllables merely as accented, or unaccented; that is, as being marked by a peculiar stress of the voice, or not being so marked." (Harmony of Language, p. 30, 1st edition.) This is a just and accurate account. * The maker of verse, who has command of his language, will not feel himself much cramped by these combinations; some few there may be which are unmanageable: such is that made by the second person singular of the past time, in verbs, ending with a double consonant: as, touch, touchedst. This was the incompressible throng of consonants which Pope once found in his way, and which he could no better avoid than by trespassing with unwarrantable licence upon grammar, O thou my voice inspire, Who touch'd Isaiah's, &c. - Pope's Messiah. : + A similar case of insertion is remarked by Tucker on Vocal Sounds, p. 17, viz. the short u between some of the vowels (and particularly the dipthong i) and, as fire, dire, pronounced fiur, diur. + The reader may like to know what other authors say of the accent. "The English accent is a difference between loud and soft." - Monboddo's Origin and Progress of Language, vol. ii. p. 299. Steele, the author of Prosodia Rationalis, corresponded with Lord Monboddo upon the subject of his Lordship's book; and he says, "He very justly explained the true sense of the term accent, and yet, from too much complaisance to a vulgar error, uses it in a sense contrary to his own definition."-Prosodia Rationalis, p. 19. "By accent, is meant a certain stress of the voice upon a particular letter of a syllable, which distinguishes it from the rest, and at the same time distinguishes the syllable itself to which it belongs, from the others which compose the word." - Sheridan's Art of Reading, p. 104. But Dr. Johnson considers accent and quantity to be all one; for he says (treating of Sometimes it is used on the short syllable, and the long syllable is left unaccented, as, désert, discúss. With accent, as it has been here described, emphasis has a near connection. Emphasis has been defined thus: "a certain grandeur, whereby some letter, syllable, word, tence, is rendered more remarkable than the rest, by a more vigorous pronunciation, and a longer stay upon it." (Holder's Elements of Speech.) or sen From this account it appears, that what emphasis imparts to any syllable is either accent or quantity, but has no concern with prosody, or the structure of a verse, otherwise than as possessing those qualities. By the term quantity, when applied to syllables, is signified the time requisite to pronounce them; as was said before of the vowels: which time being more or less, from that circumstance syllables are denominated long or short. This division into two classes has been deemed sufficient for all the purposes of prosody; though it is certain, that in neither class are the syllables all equal among themselves, as will appear when we have stated what is allowed to constitute a short or a long syllable.. 1st. A short vowel when alone, or when no consonant follows it, is taken for a short syllable, as the articles, a, the. 2d. A short vowel, when followed by a single consonant, is a short syllable, as, man, pen: or by the same consonant doubled, as, manner, penny. 3d. A short vowel, in some cases, when followed by two consonants, makes a short syllable, as, decline, reprove, at last. For this we have the example of the ancients both in Greek and Latin, who permitted a short vowel to stand for a short syl lable, though followed by two consonants, if the first was a mute, and the second a liquid. The cause is founded in nature; and therefore holds with us: it is that such a com bination of consonants is more rea dily pronounced than others are. A syllable is long, 1st, when it contains a long vowel, or a dipthong, as, see, go, loud, joy. 2d. When it consists of a short vowel followed by two different consonants, if they be not a mute and a liquid; as, into, number. Such a syllable is called long by position. The ancients, by whose authority we are guided in this arrangement of syllables, allowed a short vowel, before a mute and liquid, to make the syllable either short or long: in that point therefore they fixed the boundary between them. The reason why such a syllable might be accounted short, was because the mute and liquid could be pronounced more readily than two other consonants in their place. It follows then that the same vowel before two other consonants would make a syllable that took more time in the utterance; which, of course, must be ranked together with the long. When it is recollected, that every letter is formed by a particular position of the organs of speech, and each different letter by a different position, it is certain that some time is employed in passing from one to another.* Dionysius of Halicarnassus has shown this at more length, in his Treatise on Composition, (i. e. on the choice and order of words in a sentence). He has taken some lines from Pindar, for examples of a harsh composition, produced by the meeting of certain consonants; as n before p, th, 1, and others, where he observes that these letters, being sounded by different organs of speech, and in different parts of the mouth, there must be such a change in passing from the first to the second, as necessarily occupies some portion of time, greater than other combinations require.t prosody), "Pronunciation is just, when each letter has its proper sound, and when every syllable has its proper accent, or, which in English versification is the same, its proper quantity."-Grammar of the English Tongue. * On the quantity of syllables Mitford has written at length, and very satisfactorily, in his Inquiry into the Principles of Harmony in Language, sect. 3, second edition. + See Dion. Hal. περι συνθ, ον. sect. 22. The same author, Dionysius,* as well as Quintilian, has thought proper to note, that neither the long nor the short syllables have all the same proportions between themselves; but that some long, are longer, and some short, are shorter than others. This may seem to be an unnecessary piece of information; for having been taught what makes a long syllable, for instance, a dipthong, as in the word by, we know that the syllable bind is longer, because of the time taken to utter the two consonants that follow the dipthong. So in this passage of Virgil, exire locosque Explorare novos.-Æn. 1. The first syllable in explorare is longer than the first in exire, by as many consonants as would of themselves suffice to make a syllable long. Of so obvious a conclusion as this the ancients could not have been ignorant; yet, when their prosody made but one general distinction, it might be fit to remind them that there were subordinate differences of syllables, by which they might give considerable effect to the flow of a period, or the structure of a verse. There are some who will think these observations on quantity might have been spared, because they maintain that quantity has no concern whatever with English versification, but that it depends entirely upon accent. We trust that such an opinion will be sufficiently disproved in the following pages; where it will be shown that quantity cannot be altogether neglected without manifest and great injury to the verse. But if the question be put, whether verse cannot be composed without any regard to the quantity of syllables, so that the accents be set in their due places; it is to be acknowledged that it may. Still the verse would have juster measure, would sound better to the car, and be much nearer to perfect, if the accented syllables were long, and others short; so that the quantity and accent should coincide. Take an example: The busy world and what you see, It is a silly vanity. Of this couplet the first line has its accents regular in place and number, together with three long syllables. The second line is accented regularly as to place, but it contains only two accented syllables, and not one long. It cannot be denied that these verses are in true and exact measure; and, if accent alone be requisite, they are in nothing defective. But now, let them be altered, so as to observe quantity as well as accent, in this manner. The gaudy world, whate'er you see, It does not require a nice ear to perceive the difference of these lines from the former, nor any great skill to form a right judgment between them, in respect of their structure, which is the only point, at this time, under consideration. Regard to quantity is not indeed essential to English verse; neither is symmetry or proportion essential to a dwelling-house: but to a good dwelling-house they are essential, and so is regard to quantity to good English verse. This, however, was a matter to which Pope, at least, in his early life, appears to have been insensible, or inattentive, if the following anecdote be true. The second line of his first pastoral stood originally thus: Nor blush to sport on Windsor's peaceful plains. He would have altered it to happy; but Walsh objected to that correction, saying the quantity would not then be the same; for the first syllable of happy was short: Pope therefore put blissful.t • Dion. Hal. περι συνθ. ον. sect. 15. + Boswell on Shakspeare's Metre, p. 560. Note. 1 : bles, which compose English verse,. by the names of feet, and to apply to, them the denominations of Iambic, Spondee, Dactyle, and the like, would deserve much censure, if they were used to signify the same things, precisely which they stand for in, Greek and Latin poetry; because that would tend to confuse and mislead a reader. But as the sense in which these terms are used here will first be defined, they may as well be taken for the purpose as any other unauthorised terms whatever. In the prosody of the ancients we have feet of four and five syllables each; such' feet have never been adopted by us; nor was there any occasion for it; because every foot of four syllables or more is divisible into shorter. We have in use those only of two and three syllables, nor yet all the varicties of them. SECTION IV. Of Feet of two Syllables. These are four in number, distinguished by the names of Iambic, Trochee, Spondee, and Pyrrhic. In the learned languages, these and the other names of feet denote the quantity, in English the accent of their syllables. By the • An example of the Pyrrhic foot cannot be given in a word of two syllables; because every such word has one syllable accented. It does not often happen that a dissyllable is pronounced as a Spondee; i. e. with two accents, as it may properly be in this instance, maintain. SECTION V. Of Feet of three Syllables. There are eight varieties of these feet; but they need not all be enumerated; since only two of them (or at most three) are considered as belonging to our prosody, or forming any part of an English verse. Those used by our poets are, 2. The Day, 1. The Dactyle, which has an accent f first syllable only, as, handily, réverence, last syllable only, as, magazine, to demand. on the The anapest is a foot not often made by a single word, except those derived from the French, as, debonáir, dishabille. To these feet may be added, another of three syllables, called the Amphibrachys, which is accented on the middle syllable only, as, delighted. We might have omitted all mention of this foot, but for the mistake of certain critics, who, finding such a foot at the end of a verse, asserted that the same kind of foot properly constituted the whole verse, and was the legitimate measure by which it was to be scanned. The following line from Swift's Poems is an example of the measure in question. Because he has never a hand that is idle. Here, it is true, the three last syllables make the foot termed Amphibrachys, and the whole line may be |