and shortly afterwards we have the broken line

That dotage gives (it.

without continuation in either case.

It seems therefore probable that we should give the same explanation, where the line is continued by the next speaker, as in Lear I. 4. 252:

Than the sea-mons(ter.

Pray, Sir, be patient.

We proceed now to consider the diminution in the normal number of syllables. This may take place by the loss of the first unaccented syllable in the line, what is called initial truncation, a license to be explained on the same principle as the feminine ending spoken of above.

Examples from Chaucer are given by Prof. Skeat and
Morris:

Til wel ny the day | bigan | to spring(e.
Now it schyneth now | it reyn eth_fast.
It is not uncommon in Marlowe, as

Barbarous and bloodly Tamburlane.

There are a few, not unquestioned, examples in Shakespeare, as

Stay, the king | hath thrown | his ward er down. Rich. II. 1. 3. Boot less home | and weather-beat en back. Hen. IV. Part I. But it is far more common in the shorter iambic and the anapaestic metres to be examined hereafter. I shall therefore postpone to a later chapter the treatment of truncation, whether initial, final, or internal.

In some cases the apparent absence of a syllable is due to a change in pronunciation, as we find the termination ion made disyllabic in old writers; compare the

line above quoted from Lear, where 'patient' is trisyllabic:

Than the sea-mons(ter. Pray, sir, | be patient and Spenser :

Whose yielded pride | and proud | submission,
Still dreading death when she had marked long,
Her heart gan melt | in great | compassion,

And drizzling tears | did shed | from pure | affection.

Or the rolling of an r may supply the place of a syllable, as in Marlowe :

Because I think | scorn | to be | accused.

For similar instances compare my Chapters on Metre, pp. 36, 44, 165, 172.

At other times a pause takes the place of a syllable (internal truncation), as in Hamlet

Forward not permanent. | Sweet | not last(ing

on which see Chapters on Metre, p. 204 f. and below, pp. 32, 34.

EXERCISES ON CHAPTER II.'

Scan the following lines, i.e. divide the metrical feet, and mark the stress; add notes, pointing out any variation from the strict type, either in the accentuation or in the number of syllables, and naming the irregular feet:

DRYDEN, Character of Shaftesbury.

A fiery soul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy body to decay,
And o'er-informed the tenement of clay.

DRYDEN, Character of Villiers.

A man so various that he seemed to be,
Not one, but all mankind's epitome:

1 The more difficult rhythms are postponed to a later chapter.

Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong,
Was everything by turns and nothing long;
But, in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon;
Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking,
Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking.

POPE, Character of Addison.

Peace to all such! but were there one whose fires
True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires;
Blest with each talent and each art to please,
And born to write, converse, and live with ease;
Should such a man, too fond to rule alone,
Bear, like a Turk, no brother near the throne,
View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes,
And hate for arts that caused himself to rise;
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike;
Alike reserved to blame, or to commend,

A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend;

Who but must laugh, if such a man there be?
Who would not weep, if Atticus were he?

COWPER, The Palace of Ice.

In such a palace Poetry might place

The armoury of Winter, where his troops,
The gloomy clouds, find weapons, arrowy sleet,
Skin-piercing volley, blossom-bruising hail,

And snow that often blinds the traveller's course,
And wraps him in an unexpected tomb.
Silently as a dream the fabric rose.

The Christian's Enjoyment of Nature.
His are the mountains, and the valleys his,
And all the resplendent rivers. His to enjoy
With a propriety which none can feel,
But who, with filial confidence inspired,
Can lift to heaven an unpresumptuous eye,
And smiling say-'My Father made them all.'

COLERIDGE, Wallenstein.

The way of ancient ordinance, though it winds,
Is yet no devious way. Straightforward goes
The lightning's path, and straight the fearful path
Of the cannon-ball. Direct it flies and rapid,
Shattering that it may reach, and shattering what it reaches.
My son, the road the human being travels,

That on which blessing comes and goes, doth follow
The river's course, the valley's playful windings,
Curves round the cornfield and the hills of vines,
Honouring the holy bounds of property.

WORDSWORTH, Lines on Tintern Abbey.

I have learnt

To look on nature, not as in the hour

Of thoughtless youth; but hearing often-times
The still, sad music of humanity,

Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.

CHAPTER III.

ON THE OTHER IAMBIC METRES1.

PROCEEDING Upwards from the five-foot iambic we come to the six-foot iambic or Alexandrine, which is a common French metre, but is rarely found in English,

1 The signs and may be conveniently used to denote the addition or omission of unaccented syllables whether at the beginning or end of the verse. Thus the feminine heroic

Cromwell, I charge | thee fling | away | ambi(tion,

which shows an extra syllable after the last bar, would be classed as iamb. 5+.

The truncated trochaic

Come not here A

may be marked with a caret after the last accent, and classed as troch. 2-.

A hypermetrical syllable at the beginning of the verse may be marked with a curved line following, as in the line from Lilian

She), looking through and through me,

which would be classed as troch. +3; while that from the Deserted House would receive both marks,

So) frequent on its | hinge before ^,

and be classed as troch. +4-. Conversely an iambic verse, which suffers truncation at the beginning and has a feminine ending, would be thus written

A Subtle-thought|ed, myriad mind(ed,

and described as iamb. - 4+.

In the trisyllabic metres, where there is often a loss of two