by two short, which always close an Hexameter line, are a fine preparation for a pause: for long syllables, or syllables pronounced slow, resembling a slow and languid motion, tending to rest, naturally incline the mind to rest, or to pause; and to this inclination the two preceding short syllables contribute, which by contrast, make the slow pronunciation of the final syllables the more conspicuous. Beside this complete close or full pause at the end, others are also requisite for the sake of melody; of which I discover two clearly, and perhaps there may be more. The longest and most remarkable, succeeds the 5th portion: the other, which being shorter and more faint, may be called the semi-pause, succeeds the 8th portion. So striking is the pause first mentioned, as to be distinguished even by the rudest ear: the monkish rhymes are evidently built upon it; in which by an invariable rule, the final word always chimes with that which immediately precedes the said pause:

De planctu cudo || metrum cum carmine nudo
Mingere cum bumbis || res est saluberrima lumbis.

The difference of time in the pause and semipause, occasions another difference no less remarkable, that it is lawful to divide a word by a semipause, but never by a pause, the bad effect of which is sensibly felt in the following examples:

Effusus labor, atque inmitis rupta Tyranni

Again:

Observans nido im||plumes detraxit ; at illa

Again:

Loricam quam Dellmoleo detraxerat ipse

The dividing a word by a semi-pause has not the same bad effect:

Jamque pedem referens || casus elvaserat omnes.

Again:

Qualis populea || morens Philemela sub umbra

Again:

Ludere que vellem || calamo per misit agresti.

Lines, however, where words are left entire, without being divided even by a semi-pause, run by that means much the more sweetly:

Nec gemere aërea || cessabit | turtur ab ulmo.

Again:

Quadrupedante putrem || sonitu quatit | ungula campum.

Again:

Eurydicen toto || referebant | flumine ripæ.

The reason of these observations will be evident upon the slightest reflection. Between things so intimately connected in reading aloud, as are sense and sound, every degree of discord is unpleasant: and for that reason, it is a matter of importance, to make the musical pauses coincide as much as possible with those of sense; which is requisite, more especially, with respect to the pause, a deviation from the rule being less remarkable in a semipause. Considering the matter as to melody solely, it is indifferent whether the pauses be at the end of words or in the middle; but when we carry the sense along, it is disagreeable to find a word split into two by a pause, as if there were really two words and though the disagreeableness here be connected with the sense only, it is by an easy transition of perceptions transferred to the sound; VOL. II.

11

by which means, we conceive a line to be harsh and grating to the ear, when in reality it is only so to the understanding.*

To the rule that fixes the pause after the fifth portion, there is one exception, and no more: If the syllable succeeding the 5th portion be short, the pause is sometimes postponed to it.

Pupillis quos dura || premit custodia matrum

Again:

In terras oppressa || gravi sub religione

Again:

Et quorum pars magna || fui; quis talia fando

This contributes to diversify the melody; and where the words are smooth and liquid, is not ungraceful; as in the following examples:

Formosam resonare || doces Amaryllida sylvas

Again:

Agricolas, quibus ipsa || procul discordibus armis

If this pause, placed as aforesaid after the short syllable, happen also to divide a word, the melody by these circumstances is totally annihilated. Witness the following line of Ennius, which is plain prose:

Romæ mania terru||it impiger | Hannibal armis.

Hitherto the arrangement of the long and short syllables of an Hexameter line and its different pauses, have been considered with respect to melody: but to have a just notion of Hexameter verse, these particulars must also be considered with repect to sense. There is not perhaps in any other sort

* See Chapter II. Part i. Sect. 5.

of verse, such latitude in the long and short syllables; a circumstance that contributes greatly to that richness of melody which is remarkable in Hexameter verse, and which made Aristotle pronounce, that an epic poem in any other verse would not succeed.* One defect, however, must not be dissembled, that the same means which contribute to the richness of the melody, render it less fit than several other sorts for a narrative poem. There cannot be a more artful contrivance, as above observed, than to close an Hexameter line with two long syllables preceded by two short: but unhappily this construction proves a great embarrassment to the sense: which will thus be evident. As in general, there ought to be a strict concordance between a thought and the words in which it is dressed; so in particular, every close in the sense ought to be accompanied with a close in the sound. In

prose, this law may be strictly observed; but in

verse, the same strictness would occasion insuperable difficulties. Willing to sacrifice to the melody of verse, some share of the concordance between thought and expression, we freely excuse the separation of the musical pause from that of the sense, during the course of a line: but the close of an Hexameter line is too conspicuous to admit this liberty for which reason there ought always to be some pause in the sense at the end of every Hexameter line, were it but such a pause as is marked with a comma; and for the same reason, there ought never to be a full close in the sense but at the end of a line, because there the melody is closed. An Hexameter line, to preserve its melody, cannot well admit any greater relaxation: and yet in a narrative poem, it is extremely difficult to adhere strictly to the rule even with these indul

Poet. cap. 25.

gences. Virgil, the chief of poets for versification, is forced often to end a line without any close in the sense, and as often to close the sense during the running of a line; though a close in the melody during the movement of the thought, or a close in the thought during the movement of the melody cannot be agreeable.

The accent, to which we proceed, is no less essential than the other circumstances above handled. By a good ear it will be discerned, that in every line there is one syllable distinguishable from the rest by a capital accent: that syllable, being the 7th portion, is invariably long.

Nec bene promeritis || capitûr nec | tangitur ira.

Again:

Non sibi sed toto genitûm se | credere mundo. Again:

Qualis spelunca | subitô commota columba.

In these examples, the accent is laid upon the last syllable of a word; which is favorable to the melody in the following respect, that the pause, which for the sake of reading distinctly must follow every word, gives opportunity to prolong the accent. And for that reason, a line thus accented, has a more spirited air, than when the accent is placed on any other syllable. Compare the foregoing lines with the following:

Alba neque Assyrio || fucâtur ❘ lana veneno.

Olli sedato | respondit corde Latinus.

In lines where the pause comes after the short syllable succeeding the fifth portion, the accent is