Volume Ii Part 7 (1/2)

What a n.o.ble pair of ears this worthy Theobald must have had! The eight amphimacers or cretics,--

Over hill, over dale, Thoro' bush, thoro' briar, Over park, over pale, Thoro' flood, thoro' fire--

have a delightful effect on the ear in their sweet transition to the trochaic,--

i do wander ev'ry where Swifter than the moones sphere, &c.--

The last words as sustaining the rhyme, must be considered, as in fact they are, trochees in time.

It may be worth while to give some correct examples in English of the princ.i.p.al metrical feet:--

Pyrrhic or Dibrach, u u =_body, spirit_.

Tribrach, u u u =_n.o.body_, (hastily p.r.o.nounced).

Iambus u ' =_deli'ght_.

Trochee, ' u =_li'ghtly_.

Spondee, ' ' =_Go'd spa'ke_.

The paucity of spondees in single words in English and, indeed, in the modern languages in general, makes, perhaps, the greatest distinction, metrically considered, between them and the Greek and Latin.

Dactyl, ' u u = _me'rrily._ Anapaest, u u ' = _a propo's,_ or the first three syllables of _ceremo'ny_.

Amphibrachys, u ' u = _deli'ghtful_.

Amphimacer, ' u ' = _o'ver hi'll_.

Antibacchius, u ' ' = _the Lo'rd Go'd_.

Bacchius, ' ' u = _He'lve'llyn_.

Molossus, ' ' ' = _Jo'hn Ja'mes Jo'nes._

These simple feet may suffice for understanding the metres of Shakspeare, for the greater part at least;--but Milton cannot be made harmoniously intelligible without the composite feet, the Ionics, Paeons, and Epitrites.

'Ib.' sc. 2. t.i.tania's speech:--(Theobald adopting Warburton's reading.)

Which she, with pretty and with swimming gate _Follying_ (her womb then rich with my young squire) Would imitate, &c.

Oh! oh! Heaven have mercy on poor Shakspeare, and also on Mr.

Warburton's mind's eye!

Act v. sc. 1. Theseus' speech:--(Theobald.)