CHAPTER XIV.

OF THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF VERSE.

With different lengths of verse, and various combinations of stanza, rhyming terminations continued to be indispensable for nearly two hundred years after the age of Chaucer, when the unfortunate Howard, Earl of Surrey, translated the second and fourth Books of Virgil's Eneid into Blank Verse,—that is, Verse without Rhyme. This translation was printed in 1557; four years after that of Gawm Douglas. The ten-syllable verse, chosen by Howard, had been long in use; but, we believe, he was the first who freed it from its rhyming chain, and enabled it to stand alone. In this unfettered state, it has since been rendered sacred by the genius of Shakspeare and the talents of Milton.

The verse of ten syllables, whether blank or tied to a rhyme, is generally composed of five Iambic feet: having its syllables, alternately, short and long; or else unaccented and accented. Thus:

With what | attract- | ive charms | this good- | ly frame Of Nature touch- | es the consent- | ing hearts,

Of mor- tal men; | and what | the pleas- | ing stores
Which beauteous im- | ita- | tion thence | derives
To deck | the po- | et's, or | the paint- | er's toil:
My verse unfolds. | Attend, | ye gen- | tle powers
Of musical | delight! | and, while | I sing,
Your gifts, your ho- | nours, dance | around | my strain.

It is not understood, in the English tongue, that these Iambics are to be fixed to time, or even to the stress of accent, with invariable formality; but we are to consider this as the strain, or flow, of the verse: and, keeping that in view, we must preserve the emphasis of the sentence, with as much favour as we can to the imperfections of the poet. The, for instance, in the second line of the preceding quotation, is unnecessarily accented: a perfect verse would ask for no such indulgence.

The chief variation allowed in this kind of verse is, that the first foot may be a Trochee, and the other four Iambics, as before. This often gives a spirit to the line, and breaks the monotony which a long continued series of Iambics produces :

All ǎre but parts of ōne | stäpen- | dous whōle,
Whose bō- dy Na- | ture is | ǎnd Gōd | the soul;
That changed thro' all | ănd yet | in all | the same;
Great in the earth | ǎs în | th' ǎether- | ĭal frame;
Warms in the sūn, | rěfrēsh- | ĕs în | thě brēeze,
|

Glows in the stars | ǎnd blōs- | soms in the trees,—

To avoid confusion the straight line (-) is here used to mark both the long and accented syllable. The Trochee, at the beginning of the first line, is determined by the sense. To have laid the stress

on the word are, would have seemed as if the assertion of the poet had been previously contradicted.

There are other liberties, taken with this species of verse, which can scarcely be considered as regular exceptions; because, depending on the flow of expression, they would be inadmissible in a string of languid lines. It is to snatch a grace beyond the reach of art:

But to my task: Neptune, besides the sway
Of every Salt-flood and each ebbing stream,
Took in by lot twixt high and nether Jove
Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles,
That like to rich and various gems inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep,
Which he to grace his tributary Gods,

By course commits to several government,

And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns,
And wield their little tridents; but this isle,

The greatest and the best of all the main,
He quarters to his blue-hair'd deities:—

We should err, if we did not consider the words salt-flood and sea-girt as real Spondees, and read them accordingly, though this is at

variance with the general rule of the mea

not be mutilated

sure. Every and several need into ev'ry and sev'ral; for the middle e, being almost silent, does not add a syllable to the foot, but gives a softness to the sound: the same may be said of flowery, flattering, wintery, and other similar words. But the grand exception is in the last line:

He quarters to his blue-hair'd dēĭties.

Thus, closing the line with a Dactyl is inadmissible in serious Rhyme; because, although an echo were found, the labour of the search would be too apparent; but in Blank Verse, especially when the speech is long, it forms a pleasing variety. The following, from the same poem, (Milton's Comus) are additional examples:

O thievish Night,

Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end,
In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars

That Nature hung in heaven, and fill'd their lamps

With everlasting oil, to give due light

To the misled and lonely trávěllĕr?

What might this be? A thousand fantǎsies
Begin to throng into my memory.

A common variety of this form of versification, is made by the addition of a single unaccented

syllable at the end of the line. Thus, in Othello's address, the first, second, third and fifth lines are of this kind, and the other termination is a Dactyl like those last quoted:

Most potent, grave and reverend Signiors,
My very noble, and approv'd good Masters;
That I have tane away this old man's Daughtĕr,
It is most true; true I have married hĕr;
The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent, no more.—

The close of a verse makes a natural pause; but, besides, there is a slight suspension of the voice, in verses of a certain length, somewhere about the middle, which is termed the Casura: a Latin word from cædo, I cut, because it divides the verse into two Hemistichs, or half-verses. The cæsural pause, in the verse of which we now speak, has an extensive range; and regulates the cadence, or fall of the voice in the enunciation. It may be placed any where between three syllables from the beginning and three from the end of the line; but is usually after the fourth, fifth or sixth syllable. An early Cæsura is supposed to give lightness to the verse, while the gravity deepens as it progresses to the close. The great art of the poet is to make this pause coincide with the natural cadence of the thought; and