The Grammar of English Grammars Part 302

[494] (1.) In the Latin and Greek languages, this is not commonly supposed to be the case; but, on the contrary, the quant.i.ty of syllables is professedly adjusted by its own rules independently of what we call accent; and, in our English p.r.o.nunciation of these languages, the accentuation of all long words is regulated by the quant.i.ty of the last syllable but one.

Walker, in the introduction to his Key, speaks of "The English p.r.o.nunciation of Greek and Latin [as] injurious to quant.i.ty." And no one can deny, that we often accent what are called short syllables, and perhaps oftener leave unaccented such as are called long; but, after all, were the quant.i.ty of Latin and Greek syllables always judged of by their actual time, and not with reference to the vowel sounds called long and short, these our violations of the old quant.i.ties would be found much fewer than some suppose they are.

(2.) Dr. Adam's view of the accents, acute and grave, appears to be peculiar; and of a nature which may perhaps come nearer to an actual ident.i.ty with the quant.i.ties, long and short, than any other. He says,

"1. The _acute_ or _sharp_ accent raises the voice in p.r.o.nunciation, and is thus marked [']; _profero, profer_. [The English word is written, not thus, but with two Effs, _proffer_.--G. B.]

"2. The _grave_ or _base_ accent depresses the voice, or keeps it in its natural tone; and is thus marked [`]; as, docte. [Fist] _This accent properly belongs to all syllables which have no other_.

"The accents are hardly ever marked in English books, except in dictionaries, grammars, spelling-books, or the like, where the acute accent only is used. The accents are likewise seldom marked in Latin books, unless for the sake of distinction; as in these adverbs, _aliqu, continu, docte, una_, &c."--_Adam's Latin and English Grammar_, p. 266.

(3.) As stress naturally lengthens the syllables on which it falls, if we suppose the grave accent to be the opposite of this, and to belong to all syllables which have no peculiar stress,--are not enforced, not acuted, not circ.u.mflected, not emphasized; then shall we truly have an accent with which our short quant.i.ty may fairly coincide. But I have said, "the mere absence of stress, which produces short quant.i.ty, we do not call _accent_;"

and it may be observed, that the learned improver of Dr. Adam's Grammar, B.

A. Gould, has totally rejected all that his predecessor taught concerning _accent_, and has given an entirely different definition of the thing. See marginal notes on page 771, above. Dr. Johnson also cites from _Holder_ a very different explanation of it, as follows: "_Accent_, as in the Greek names and usage, seems to have regarded the tune of the voice; the acute accent, raising the voice in some certain syllables, to a higher, (_i.e._ more acute) pitch or tone; and the grave, depressing it lower; [Fist] _and both having some emphasis_, i.e. _more vigorous p.r.o.nunciation_.

HOLDER."--_Johnson's Quarto Dict., w. Accent_.

[495] (1.) "Amongst them [the ancients,] we know that accents were marked by certain _inflexions_ [inflections] of the voice like musical notes; and the grammarians to this day, with great formality inform their pupils, that the acute accent, is the raising [of] the voice on a certain syllable; the grave, a depression of it; and the circ.u.mflex, a raising and depression both, in one and the same syllable. _This jargon they constantly preserve_, though they have no sort of ideas annexed to these words; for if they are asked to shew how this is to be done, they cannot tell, and their practice always belies their precept."--_Sheridan's Lectures on Eloc._, p. 54.

(2.) "It is by the accent chiefly that the quant.i.ty of our syllables is regulated; but not according to the _mistaken rule_ laid down by _all who have written_ on the subject, that the accent _always makes the syllable long_; than which _there cannot be any thing more false_."--_Ib._, p. 57.

(3.) "And here I cannot help taking notice of a circ.u.mstance, which shews in the strongest light, the _amazing deficiency_ of those, who have hitherto employed their labours on that subject, [accent, or p.r.o.nunciation,] _in point of knowledge_ of the true genius and const.i.tution of our tongue. Several of the compilers of dictionaries, vocabularies, and spelling books, have undertaken to mark the accents of our words; but so _little acquainted_ were they with the nature of our accent, that they thought it necessary only to mark _the syllable_ on which the stress is to be laid, without marking the _particular letter_ of the syllable to which the accent belongs."--_Ib._, p. 59.

(4.) "The mind thus taking a bias under the prejudice of false rules, never arrives at a knowledge of the true nature of _quant.i.ty_; and accordingly we find that _all attempts. .h.i.therto_ to settle the prosody of our language, have been vain and fruitless."--_Sheridan's Rhetorical Gram._, p. 52.

[496] In the following extract, this matter is stated somewhat differently: "The _quant.i.ty_ depends upon the seat of the accent, whether it be on the vowel or [on the] consonant; if on the vowel, the syllable is necessarily long: as it makes the vowel long; if on the consonant, _it may be either long or short_, according to the nature of the consonant, or _the time taken up_ in dwelling upon it."--_Sheridan's Lectures on Eloc._, p. 57.

This last clause shows the "distinction" to be a very weak one.--G. BROWN.

[497] "If the consonant be in its nature a short one, the syllable is necessarily short. If it be a long one, that is, one whose sound is capable of being lengthened, it _may be long or short_ at the will of the speaker.

By a short consonant I mean one whose sound cannot be continued after a vowel, such as c or k p t, as ac, ap, at--whilst that of long consonants _can_, as, el em en er ev, &c."--_Sheridan's Lectures on Elocution_, p. 58.

Sheridan here forgets that "_bor'row_" is one of his examples of short quant.i.ty.

Murray admits that "accent on a _semi-vowel_" may make the syllable long; and his semivowels are these: "_f, l, m, n, r, v, s, z, x_, and _c_ and _g_ soft." See his _Octavo Gram._, p. 240 and p. 8.

[498] On account of the different uses made of the breve, the macron, and the accents, one grammarian has proposed a new mode of marking poetic quant.i.ties. Something of the kind might be useful; but there seems to be a reversal of order in this scheme, the macrotone being here made light, and the stenotone dark and heavy. "Long and short syllables have _sometimes_ been designated by the same marks _which_ are used for accent, tones, and the quality of the vowels; but it will be better[,] to prevent confusion[,]

to use different marks. This mark may represent a long syllable, and this a short syllable; as,

'At the close of the day when the hamlet is still.'"

--_Perley's Gram._, p. 73.

[no over 'let', sic--KTH]

[499] _Dr. Adam's Gram._, p. 267; _B. A. Gould's_, 257. The Latin word _caesura_ signifies "_a cutting_, or _division_." This name is sometimes Anglicized, and written "_Cesure_." See _Brightland's Gram._, p. 161; or _Worcester's Dict., w. Cesure_.

[500] "As to the long quant.i.ty arising from the succession of two consonants, which the ancients are uniform in a.s.serting, if it did not mean that the preceding vowel was to lengthen its sound, _as we should do_ by p.r.o.nouncing the _a_ in _scatter_ as we do in _skater_, (one who skates,) _I have no conception of what it meant_; for if it meant that only the _time of the syllable_ was prolonged, the vowel retaining the same sound, I must confess as ut er [sic--KTH] an inability of _comprehending this source_ of quant.i.ty in the Greek and Latin as in English."--_Walker on Gr. and L.

Accent_, --24; Key, p. 331. This distinguished author seems unwilling to admit, that the consonants occupy time in their utterance, or that other vowel sounds than those which _name_ the vowels, can be protracted and become long; but these are _truths_, nevertheless; and, since every letter adds _something_ to the syllable in which it is uttered, it is by consequence a "_source of quant.i.ty_," whether the syllable be long or short.

[501] Murray has here a marginal note, as follows: "Movement and measure are thus distinguished. _Movement_ expresses the progressive order of sounds, whether from strong to weak, from long to short, or vice versa.

_Measure_ signifies the proportion of time, both in sounds _and pauses_."--_Octavo Gram._, p. 259. This distinction is neither usual nor accurate; though Humphrey adopts it, with slight variations. Without some species of _measure_,--Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic, Dactylic, or some other,--there can be no regular _movement_, no "progressive _order_ of sounds." Measure is therefore too essential to movement to be in contrast with it. And the movement "from _strong_ to _weak_, from _long_ to _short_," is but one and the same, a _trochaic_ movement; its reverse, the movement, "_vice versa_," from _weak_ to _strong_, or from _short_ to _long_, is, of course, that of _iambic_ measure. But Murray's doctrine is, that _strong_ and _long, weak_ and _short_, may be separated; that _strong_ may be _short_, and _weak_ be _long_; so that the movement from _weak_ to _strong_ may be from _long_ to _short_, and _vice versa_: as if a trochaic movement might arise from iambic measure, and an iambic movement from trochaic feet! This absurdity comes of attempting to regulate the _movement_ of verse by accent, and not by quant.i.ty, while it is admitted that quant.i.ty, and not accent, forms the _measure_, which "signifies _the proportion of time_." The idea that _pauses belong to measure_, is an other radical error of the foregoing note. There are more pauses in poetry than in prose, but none of them are properly "_parts_" of either. Humphrey says truly, "_Feet_ are the _const.i.tuent parts_ of verse."--_English Prosody_, p. 8. But L. Murray says, "_Feet and pauses_ are the const.i.tuent parts of verse."--_Octavo Gram._, p. 252. Here Sheridan gave bias. Intending to treat of verse, and "the pauses peculiarly belonging to it," the "_Caesural_" pause and the "_Final_," the rhetorician had _improperly_ said, "The const.i.tuent _parts_ of verse are, feet, and pauses."--_Sheridan's Rhetorical Gram._, p. 64.

[502] "But as many Ways as Quant.i.ties may be varied by Composition and Transposition, so many different Feet have the _Greek_ Poets contriv'd, and that under distinct Names, from two to six Syllables, to the Number of 124.

But it is the Opinion of some Learned Men in this Way, that Poetic Numbers may be sufficiently explain'd by those of two or three Syllables, into which the rest are to be resolv'd."--_Brightland's Grammar_, 7th Ed., p.

161.

[503] "THE BELLS OF ST. PETERSBURGH."

"Those ev'ning bells, those ev'ning bells, _How_ many a tale their music tells!"--_Moore's Melodies_, p. 263.

This couplet, like all the rest of the piece from which it is taken, is iambic verse, and to be divided into feet thus:--

"Those ev' | -ning bells, | those ev' | -ning bells, How man | -y a tale | their mu | -sic tells!"

[504] Lord Kames, too, speaking of "English Heroic verse," says: "Every line consists of ten syllables, _five short and five long_; from which [rule] there are but two exceptions, both of them rare."--_Elements of Criticism_, Vol. ii, p. 89.

[505] "The Latin is a far more _stately_ tongue than our own. It is essentially _spondaic_; the English is as essentially _dactylic_. The _long_ syllable is the spirit of the Roman (and Greek) verse; the _short_ syllable is the essence of ours."--_Poe's Notes upon English Verse; Pioneer_, Vol. i, p. 110. "We must search for _spondaic words_, which, in English, are rare indeed."--_Ib._, p. 111.

[506] "There is a rule, in Latin prosody, that a vowel _before two consonants_ is long. We moderns have not only no such rule, but profess inability to comprehend its _rationale_."--_Poe's Notes: Pioneer_, p. 112.

[507] The opponents of capital punishment will hardly take this for a fair version of the sixth commandment.--G. B.

[508] These versicles, except the two which are Italicized, are _not iambic_. The others are partly trochaic; and, according to many of our prosodists, wholly so; but it is questionable whether they are not as properly amphimacric, or Cretic.

[509] See exercises in Punctuation, on page 786, of this work.--G. B.

[510] The Seventieth Psalm is the same as the last five verses of the Fortieth, except a few unimportant differences of words or points.

[511] It is obvious, that these two lines may easily be reduced to an agreeable stanza, by simply dividing each after the fourth foot--G. B.

[512] In Sanborn's a.n.a.lytical Grammar, on page 279th, this couplet is ascribed to "_Pope_;" but I have sought in vain for this quotation, or any example of similar verse, in the works of that poet. The lines, one or both of them, appear, _without reference_, in _L. Murray's Grammar, Second Edition_, 1796, p. 176, and in subsequent editions; in _W. Allen's_, p.

225; _Bullions's_, 178; _N. Butler's_, 192; _Chandler's New_, 196; _Clark's_, 201; _Churchill's_, 187; _Cooper's Practical_, 185; _Davis's_, 137; _Farnum's_, 106; _Felton's_, 142; _Frazee's_, 184; _Frost's_, 164; _S.

S. Greene's_, 250; _Hallock's_, 244; _Hart's_, 187; _Hiley's_, 127; _Humphrey's Prosody_, 17; _Parker and Fox's Gram._, Part iii, p. 60; _Weld's_, 211; _Ditto Abridged_, 138; _Wells's_, 200; _Fowler's_, 658; and doubtless in many other such books.

[513] "Owen succeeded his father Griffin in the princ.i.p.ality of North Wales, A. D. 1120. This battle was fought near forty years afterwards.

North Wales is called, in the fourth line, '_Gwyneth_;' and 'Lochlin,' in the fourteenth, is Denmark."--_Gray_. Some say "Lochlin," in the Annals of Ulster, means Norway.--G. B.

[514] "The red dragon is the device of Cadwallader, which all his descendants bore on their banners."--_Gray_.

[515] This pa.s.sage, or some part of it, is given as a trochaic example, in many different systems of prosody. Everett ascribes it entire to "_John Chalkhill_;" and Nutting, more than twenty years before, had attached the name of "_Chalkhill_" to a part of it. But the six lines "of three syllables," Dr. Johnson, in his Grammar, credits to "_Walton's Angler_;"

and Bicknell, too, ascribes the same to "_Walton_." The readings also have become various. Johnson, Bicknell, Burn, Churchill, and Nutting, have "_Here_" for "_Where_" in the fifth line above; and Bicknell and Burn have "_Stop_" in the eighth line, where the rest read "_Stops_." Nutting has, for the ninth line, "_Others'_ joys," and not, "_Other_ joys," as have the rest.--G. B.

[516] OBS.--Of this, and of every other example which requires no amendment, let the learner simply say, after reading the pa.s.sage, "This sentence is correct as it stands."--G. BROWN.

[517] OBSERVATION.--In the Bible, the word LORD, whenever it stands for the Hebrew name JEHOVAH, not only commences with a full capital, but has small or half capitals for the other letters; and I have thought proper to print both words in that manner here. In correcting the last example, I follow Dr. Scott's Bible, except in the word "_G.o.d_," which he writes with a small _g_. Several other copies have "_first_" and "_last_" with small initials, which I think not so correct; and some distinguish the word "_hosts_" with a capital, which seems to be needless. The sentence here has eleven capitals: in the Latin Vulgate, it has but six, and one of them is for the last word, "_Deus_," G.o.d.--G. B.

[518] OBS.--This construction I dislike. Without hyphens, it is improper; and with them it is not to be commended. See Syntax, Obs 24th on Rule IV.--G. B.

[519] On the page here referred to, the author of the Gazetteer has written "_Charles city_," &c. a.n.a.logy requires that the words be compounded, because they const.i.tute three names which are applied to _counties_, and not to _cities_.

[520] OBS.--The following words, _as names of towns_, come under Rule 6th, and are commonly found correctly compounded in the books of Scotch geography and statistics; "Strathaven, Stonehaven, Strathdon, Glenluce, Greenlaw, Coldstream, Lochwinnoch, Lochcarron, Loehmaber, Prestonpans, Prestonkirk, Peterhead, Queensferry, Newmills," and many more like them.