None can help feeling the delicate beauty of such lines as: And the hyacinth, purple and white | and blue, It was felt as an odour within the sense but in what way is the metre especially appropriate to the subject? There is nothing of vehemence or passion, or pathos, or merriment: it seems rather a rippling fairy music belonging to the world of Ariel and Titania, and audible only to the poet's ear. We have seen then something of the special uses to which trisyllabic metre has been applied by the poets, and of the reasons which may have induced them to choose this metre for particular subjects. Can we arrive at any similar conclusion with regard to the iambic and trochaic metres ? Instead of the terms iambic and trochaic, Mr Dabney prefers to make use of the terms Strict Disyllabic and Disyllabic with Direct Attack, and in like manner anapaestic becomes Strict Trisyllabic, and dactylic Trisyllabic with Direct Attack. He maintains (p. 47) that 'the direct attack gives a splendid momentum to the rhythmic movement, much like the first launching spring of a swimmer.' I cannot say that this judgment as to the difference between the trochee and dactyl on the one hand, and the iamb and anapaest on the other, and the superiority of the former to the latter, commends itself to me, as did the previous judgment in reference to trisyllabic metre generally'. I cannot see that the trochaic 1 Mr Dabney himself, speaking of Browning's Good News (p. 89), says 'this poem is in strict verse, advisedly so.... The anacrusis is required for the cumulative effect and so vivid is the effect that the reader himself becomes the actor, &c.' Troch. 5. He shall | find the | stubborn | thistle | bursting. Troch. 7. Iamb. 7. Thunder heaves and | howls about them, | lightning | But ere stern conflict mixed | both strengths, | fair Indeed it is difficult to make any assertion about lines which differ so much in character as troch. 4, troch. 5, and troch. 7. If I were required to lay down any broad distinction between the effects of the iambic and trochaic rhythms, I should rather be inclined to say that the former was a severe uphill movement, the latter (as the Greek name implies) an easy, tripping, down-hill movement; that the former was masculine, rational, formal, dignified, while the latter was feminine, emotional, playful; but such distinctions are only applicable within a very limited range, and on the whole I think it wiser not to generalise beforehand, but to start by endeavouring to ascertain the means employed to produce particular effects in particular poems; and I will deal first with those irregularities in the heroic metre of which we have treated in the earlier chapters, beginning with the use of the feminine (or double) ending. CHAPTER X. AESTHETIC USE OF METRICAL VARIATION ARISING FROM FEMININE RHYTHM, ENJAMBEMENT, POSITION OF PAUSES, INTERCHANGE OF FEET, SPECIAL QUALITY OF VOWELS AND CONSONANTS, ALLITERATION AND ONOMATOPOEIA. 'a spirited scene with a sort DR ABBOTT has pointed out (New Shakesp. Soc. Trans. for 1874, p. 76) that though we may trace on the whole a steady increase in the use of the feminine ending, as we pass from the earlier to the later plays of Shakespeare, yet such double endings are very unequally distributed through the scenes of the same play. Thus he contrasts Rich. II. Act 1. Sc. 1, which he calls of trumpet sound about it,' and in which there is free use of the extra syllable (24 in 146 lines), with Act v. Sc. 5, containing Richard's soliloquy in prison, where the extra syllable occurs only once in 119 lines. And he thus states the occasions on which it is used, 'in moments of passion and excitement, in questions, in quarrel, seldom in quiet dialogue and narrative, and seldom in any serious or pathetic passage.' The phrase 'trumpet sound' does not commend itself to me as applicable here, but otherwise Dr Abbott's remarks agree fairly with my observations in Hamlet, except that I should add 'especially in the light and airy conversation of polite society.' Thus to take the extremes of the use of the feminine ending in Hamlet, we find it most freely used in IV. 5. 76-96. The King to the Queen; average almost one in 2. V. 2. 237-276. Dialogue between Hamlet and Laertes; average the same. I. 3. 91-135. Polonius to Ophelia (omitting Ophelia's replies); average one out of 24. The average is one in less than 3 in the King's speech to the Ambassadors and Laertes (1. 2. 1-56), and in the King's speech to Hamlet (1. 2. 87—117). If we examine these scenes, we find that in the conversation between Hamlet and Laertes there is on both sides a straining after excessive courtesy, partly because they are about to enter into a contest of personal prowess, but even more from the wish, on Hamlet's part, to atone for previous rudeness, and, on the part of Laertes, to hide his murderous intention. By the use of the feminine ending the poet endeavours to reproduce the easy tone of ordinary life; and this no doubt explains its indiscriminate use in Fletcher, the poet of society'. There is felt to be something formal, stilted, high-flown, poetic, in the regular iambic metre. Three of the other scenes contain speeches by the King. Now the King, we know from Hamlet, is a 'smiling villain'; he affects affability and ease; there is nothing strong or straightforward in his character, but he carries his point by cunning subtilty, 'with witchcraft of his wit.' The same explanation will 1. It is now generally agreed, as I have mentioned before, that the scenes in Henry VIII., in which the feminine ending is conspicuous, are by Fletcher. account for the prevalence of feminine rhythm in the speech of the worldly-wise Polonius. Consider now the opposite extreme. I. 1. 112-125. one in 14. Horatio's speech, double endings, III. 4. 31-87. Hamlet's speech to his mother, one in 9. III. 4. 140-213. Hamlet's speech to his mother, one in 6. IV. 4. 32—66. Hamlet's soliloquy, one in 7. III. I. 56-88. I. 5. 10-91. one in 7. Ghost's speech, one in less than 7. II. 2. 473-540. Old play (The rugged Pyrrhus), one in 6. III. 3. 73-96. Hamlet (seeing his uncle praying), one in 5. III. 3. 36-71. King's soliloquy, one in 5. Horatio's speech, commencing 1 A mote it is to trouble the | mind's eye. In the most high | and palmy state | of Rome, The graves stood ten antless, and the sheet ed dead is a piece of fine imaginative poetry, standing in strong contrast with the preceding rapid business-like statement about the claim of Fortinbras. In place of the rough, broken rhythm of the former speech we have here some four or five of the most musically varied lines in Shakespeare, marked by slow movement, long vowels, and 1 Alliteration is marked by italics. |