flection also, as this is the inflection they would necessarily have in prose; though from injudiciously printing the last couplet, so as to form a fresh paragraph, the word whole is generally pronounced with the falling inflection, in order to avoid the bad effect of a question with the rising inflection at the end of a paragraph; which would be effectually prevented by uniting the last couplet to the rest, so as to form one whole portion, and which was undoubtedly the intention of the poet.

- Having premised these observations, I shall endeavour to throw together a few rules for the reading of verse, which, by descending to particulars, it is hoped will be more useful than those very general ones, which are commonly to be met with on this subject, and which, though very ingenious, seem calculated rather for the making of verses, than the reading of them.

Of the accent and emphasis of verse.

RULE I. In verse, every syllable must have the same accent, and every word the same emphasis, as in prose; for though the rhythmical arrangement of the accent and emphasis is the very definition of poetry, yet, if this arrangement tends to give an emphasis to words which would have none in prose, or an accent to such syllables as have properly no accent, the rhythmus, or music of the verse, must be entirely neglected. Thus the article the ought never to have a stress, though placed in that part of the verse where the ear expects an accent.

EXAMPLE.

Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never failing vice of fools.

Pope.

An injudicious reader of verse would be very apt to lay a stress upon the article the in the third line, but a good reader would neglect the stress on this, and transfer it to the words what and weak. Thus also, in the following example, no stress must be laid on the word of, because we should not give it any in prosaic pronunciation.

Ask of thy mother earth why oaks are made
Taller and stronger than the weeds they shade.

Pope.

For the same reason the word as, either in the first or second line of the following couplet, ought to have

no stress.

Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise.

Pope.

The last syllable of the word excellent, in the following couplet, being the place of the stress, is very apt to draw the reader to a wrong pronunciation of the word, in compliance with the rhythmus of the verse.

Their praise is still, the style is excellent:
The sense they humbly take upon content.

Pope.

But a stress upon the last syllable of this word must be avoided, as the most childish and ridiculous pronunciation in the world. The same may be observed of the word eloquence and the particle the in the following couplet :

False eloquence, like the prismatic glass,
Its gaudy colours spreads on ev'ry place.

Pope.

If in compliance with the rhythmus, or tune of the verse, we lay a stress on the last syllable of eloquence, and on the particle the in the first of these verses, to

--

a good judge of reading scarcely any thing can be conceived more disgusting.

When the poetical accent is to be preserved, and when

not.

RULE II. One of the most puzzling varieties in reading verse is that which is occasioned by the poet's placing a word in such a part of the line as is quite inconsistent with the metre of the verse. It is one of the most general rules in reading, that every word is to have the same accent in verse that it has in prose. This rule, however, admits of some few exceptions. Many of our good poets have sometimes placed words so unfavourably for pronunciation in the common way, that the ear would be less disgusted with an alteration of the common accent for the sake of harmony, than with a preservation of this accent with harshness and discord; for, in some cases, by preserving the common accent, we not only reduce the lines to prose, but to very harsh and disagreeable prose. Thus we cannot hesitate a moment at placing the accent on the first syllable of expert in the following line of Pope, though contrary to its prosaic pronunciation:

Then fell Scamandrius, expert in the chace. But it will be demanded, is the ear the only rule when we are to pronounce one way and when another? It may be answered; this is the best rule for those who have good ears; but like most of the rules given on this subject, it amounts to no rule at all. To offer something like a rule therefore, where there is none, will not be unacceptable to those at least who have not ears sufficiently delicate to direct themselves, and

those who have will not be displeased to find a reason given for such a choice of accent as they approve.

And first, let us try the different effects which these disjointed and inharmoniously accented words have on the ear, (for unquestionably they are not all equally disagreeable,) and that perhaps may lead us to something like a rule for directing us when we are to comply with the poetical accent, and when not.

In the first place, let us bring together words of two syllables, with the accent on the first, which the poet has transferred to the last.

Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy-
In their triplé degrees, regions to which-
Which of us who beholds the bright surfáce
Of thrones and mighty seraphim prostráte.
Male he created thee; but thy consort, -
Not to incur; but soon his clear aspéct.
Beyond all past example and future.
To do aught good never will be our task.
Moors by his side under the lee, while night-
Abject and lost lay these cov'ring the flood.
Gods, yet confess'd later than heav'n and earth.
These other two equall'd with me in fate.
And flow'rs aloft shading the fount of life.
Second to thee offer'd himself to die.
Which tasted, works knowledge of good and evil.
To whom, with healing words, Adám replied.
Grateful to heav'n; over his head behold.

P. L. i. 123.

Ibid. xi. 140.

Ibid. vi. 472.

Ibid. 841.

Ibid. vii. 529.

Ibid. 336.

Ibid. 840.

Ibid. i. 159.

Foid. 207.

Ibid. 312.

Ibid. 509.

Ibid. iii. 33.

Ibid. 357.

Ibid. 409.

Ibid. vii. 543.

Ibid. ix. 290.

Ibid. 864.

Preserving the poetical accent on many of these words would be merely turning them into ridicule, and therefore, every reader who has the least delicacy of feeling will certainly preserve the common accent of these words on the first syllable, and let the metre of the line shift for itself.

In the next place, let us adduce such words of two syllables as have a contrary transposition of accent, that is, such as have the common accent on the last syllable, which the poet removes to the first.

Next Chemos, th' obscene dread of Moab's sons.
And sat as princes, whom the supreme king.
Encamp their legions, or with obscure wing.
Our supreme foe in time may much relent.
Of mankind in one root, and earth with hell.
In confined march, forlorn, th' advent'rous bands.
Forth rush the levant and the ponent winds.

P. L. i. 123.

Ibid. 735.
Ibid. ii. 132.
Ibid. 210.
Ibid. i. 313.

Ibid. 615.
Ibid. x. 704.

In placing the accent on the first syllable instead of the second on these words, as the poet has done, we find no such harshness to the ear as in the former examples, and I think we may therefore conclude that something like a rule is discovered respecting words of two syllables.

The management of the misaccented words of three syllables is not perhaps so easy. After trying every possible way to reconcile the accent and the metre, I have not been able to conceive a better method than that of compromising the demands of each. Perhaps the least offensive method to the ear of preserving the accent, and not entirely violating the quantity, would be to place an accent on the syllable immediately preceding that on which the poet has misplaced it, without dropping that which is so misplaced; by this means the word will be heard with the true accent, which will in some measure abate the impropriety of the false one: and thus, by the succession of two accents, we shall only seem to be enforcing the sense, while we are really hiding the fault of the measure. Thus the word blasphemous may be accented both on the first and second syllable: