תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

The paufe is tolerable even at the close of the couplet, for the reafon just now fuggested, that inverted members require fome flight pause in the fense:

Twas where the plane-tree spread its fhades around :
The altars heav'd; and from the crumbling ground
A mighty dragon fhot.

very

Thus a train of reasoning hath infenfibly led us to conclufions with regard to the mufical paufe, different from those in the first section, concerning the feparating by an interjected circumftance words intimately connected. One would conjecture, that where-ever words are feparable by interjecting a circumstance, they should be equally feparable by interjecting a paufe: but, upon a more narrow inspection, the appearance of analogy vanifheth. This will be evident from confidering, that a pause in the fenfe distinguishes the different members of a period from each other; whereas when two words of the fame member are separated by a circumftance, all the three make still but one member; and therefore that words may be feparated by an interjected circumstance, though these words are not separated by a paufe in the fenfe. This fets the matter in a clear light; for, as obferved above, a mufical pause is intimately connected with a pause in the fenfe, and ought, as far as poffible, to be governed by the fame rules: particularly a musical paufe

[merged small][ocr errors]

ought never to be placed where a pause is excluded by the sense, as, for example, between the adjective and following fubftantive, which make parts of the fame idea; and ftill lefs between a particle and the word that makes it fignificant.

Abstracting at prefent from the peculiarity of melody arifing from the different pauses, it cannot fail to be observed in general, that they introduce into our verse no flight degree of variety. Nothing more fatigues the ear, than a number of uniform lines having all the fame paufe, which is extremely remarkable in the French verfification. This imperfection will be difcerned by a fine ear even in the shortest fucceffion, and becomes intolerable in a long poem. Pope excels in the variety of his melody, which indeed is not lefs perfect of its kind than that of Virgil.

From what is laft faid, there ought to be one exception: uniformity in the members of a thought, demands equal uniformity in the members of the period which expreffes that thought. When therefore refembling objects or things are expreffed in a plurality of verfe-lines, thefe lines in their structure ought to be as uniform as poffible, and the paufes in particular ought all of them to have the fame place. Take the following examples.

By foreign hands || thy dying eyes were clos'd,
By foreign hands || thy decent limbs compos'd,
By foreign hands thy humble grave adorn'd.

1

Again:

Bright as the fun | her eyes the gazers ftrike,
And, like the fun, || they shine on all alike.

Speaking of Nature, or the God of Nature :

Warms in the fun refrefhes in the breeze,
1

Glows in the ftars || and bloffoms in the trees,
Lives through all life | extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided || operates unfpent.

Pauses are like to dwell longer upon hand than I imagined; for the fubject is not yet exhaufted. It is laid down above, that English Heroic verse admits no more than four capital pauses; and that the capital pause of every line is determined by the sense to be after the fourth, the fifth, the fixth, or seventh fyllable. That this doctrine holds true fo far as melody alone is concerned, will be teftify'd by every good ear. At the fame time I admit, that this rule may be varied where the fenfe or expreffion requires a variation; and that fo far the melody may juftly be facrificed. Examples accordingly are not unfrequent, in Milton efpecially, of the capital pause being after the first, the fecond, or the third fyllable. And that this licence may be taken, even gracefully, when it adds vigor to the expreffion, will be clear from the following example. Pope, in his tranflation of Homer, defcribes a rock broke off from a -mountain,

mountain, and hurling to the plain, in the following words.

From steep to steep the rolling ruin bounds;

At every shock the crackling wood refounds;
Still gath'ring force, it fmocks; and urg'd amain,
Whirls, leaps, and thunders down, impetuous to the
plain :

There stops | So Hector. Their whole force he prov'd,
Refistless when he rag'd; and when he ftopt, unmov'd.

In the penult line the proper place of the musical pause is at the end of the fifth fyllable; but it enlivens the expreffion by its coincidence with that of the sense at the end of the second fyllable: the ftopping short before the ufual paufe in the melody, aids the impreffion that is made by the description of the ftone's stopping fhort; and what is loft to the melody by this artifice, is more than compensated by the force that is added to the description. Milton makes a happy use of this licence witnefs the following examples from his Paradife Loft.

Thus with the year

Seasons return, but not to me returns

Day or the sweet approach of even or morn.

Celestial voices to the midnight-air

Sole or refponfive each to others note.

And over them triumphant Death his dart

Shook but delay'd to strike.
11

And

And wild

uproar

Stood rul'd stood vaft infinitude confin'd.

-And hard'ning in his ftrength

Glories for never fince created man

Met fuch embodied force.

From his flack hand the garland wreath'd for Eve
Down drop'd || and all the faded roses shed.

Of uneffential night, receives him next,
Wide gaping and with utter lofs of being
Threatens him, &c.

For now the thought

Both of loft happiness and lasting pain
Torments him || round he throws his baleful eyes, &c.

If we confider the foregoing paffages with refpect to melody fingly, the paufes are undoubtedly out of their proper place: but being united with those of the fenfe, they inforce the expreffion, and enliven it greatly; for, as has been more than once obferved, the beauty of expreffion is communicated to the found, which, by a natural deception, makes even the melody appear more perfect than if the musical paufes were regular.

To explain the rules of accenting, two general observations must be premifed. The first is, That accents have a double effect: they contribute to the melody, by giving it air and spirit: they contribute

« הקודםהמשך »