CHAPTER XX. 75 lent poem, called Prince Arthur, happen to give us an instance of this without one. variation. " I. sing the Briton And his gén'rous Arms, " Who vérs'd in súfferings, And the rude alarms " Of war, relúctant léft his native s611, "--And ímdisteay'd sástáin'd incessant toll, " Tíll led by heáe'n propitious hé retúrn'd, " To bless the isle which long his Absence moúrn'd." Now, because English verse generally takes this turn, ignorant persons are ready to imagine that it must be so universally, and that it is absolutely necessary to give this sort of sound to every line in poesy, and to lay a stress upon every second syllable ; whereas there is s. great deal of just liberty and variation, which poesy allows in this case, without destroying the harmony of the verse, and indeed it adds a beauty andgrace to the poetry, some- times to indulge such a variety, and especially in the first and second syllables of the line. But for want of this knowledge, most people affect to read verse in a very different manner from prose ; and they think it not sufficient to place a common accent, but laya very hard and unnatural stress on every other syllable ; and they seem to stop and rest' on it, whether the natural pronunciation of the words will allow it or no. By this means they give a false and wretched accent to many words, and spoil goodEnglish, to make it sound like verse in their opinion. In short, they would not only read the song, but give it a tune too, ,. Let the following instance be given, wherein one of these mistaken readers will be guilty of this fault in a shameful degree : Note, I have placed the accents in this example, not where they oughsto lie, but where such a common reader would place them. " Angles invisiblé to sense, " Spreading their pinions fòr a shield. " Are thé brave soúldiers bést defence, 'j When cannons in long Order shall dispénse a Terrible slaítgbter roúnd the field." What an hideous harmony doth this stanza make on the lips of such a pronounces ? The great and general rule therefore of reading English verse is, to pronounce every word, and every sentence, just as if it were prose, Observing the stops with great exactness, and giving each word and syllable its due and natural accent ; but with these two small allowauces, or alterations. I. At the end of every line, where is no stop, make a stop about half so long as a comma, just to give notice that the line is elided. II. If any words in the line happen to have two sounds, choose to give that sound to it which most favours the metre and ttie rhyme
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