Pentam. "In Stygian cáve forlórn." "Hence loathed Melancholy." "But cóme, thou góddess fáir and frée, "Of Cerberus and blackest midnight bórn, Where brooding darkness spreads his ráven wings." do. Hyperm. "Midst hórrid shapes and shrieks, and sights unhóly." 6. Troch. Tetram. do. with Anacrusis. "Thére to come in spíte of sorrow, And át my window bíd good morrow." "Cóme and tríp it as you gó O'n the light fantástic tóe.” For additional examples of such combinations, see Collins, Ode on the Passions; Gray's Progress of Poetry; Dryden's Alexander's Feast, &c. § 356. ALLITERATION. This consists in the recurrence of words or syllables beginning with the same letter: as— "The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free." (Coleridge, Anc. Mar.) § 357. Alliteration is now used only occasionally. It was once an important principle of English versification. Anglo-Saxon poetry, like Icelandic, is entirely alliterative; and it is not till about the beginning of the thirteenth century that alliteration begins to give place to rhyme. § 358. The often quoted lines— "Merie [sweetly] sungen the muneches binnen Elý, Roweth, cnihtes, noer the lant, And here we these muneches sæng" (Craik, i. p. 195.) are proof that rhyme was not unknown previous to the Norman Conquest; and in the Brut [Brutus] of Layamon [1200 A.D.] rhyming couplets are of frequent occurrence. But it is not till about the year 1300 that our literature can boast of any extensive poetical work written throughout in rhyme. The Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester is in fourteen-syllable rhyming verse. § 359. The change from alliteration to rhyme was no doubt due in great measure to the influence of French versification, which has always been based on rhyme. The old alliterative method retained its ground among the masses of the people, and can boast the earliest great work of imagination in our literature-The Vision of [i.e. concerning] Piers Plowman. This is the earliest of the three great allegorical works which have successively gained the ear of the English people.* § 360. The Vision is written in lines of from about ten to twelve syllables. Each line readily divides itself into two hemistichs, and is often so written. There are four accents or rhythmic beats [§ 331] to each line; and the words or syllables on which the first three at least of these fall, begin with the same letter: 66 I was weary for-wandered, and wént me to rest And as I lay and léned and looked on the waters, 1 slúmbered into a sleping, it swayed † so mury." (Pass. i.) § 361. Soon after the date of the Vision [latter half of the fourteenth century] the alliterative method fell into disuse. But though abandoned as a principle of versification, alliteration has continued to be more or less employed by almost all our poetical writers. Scarcely a stanza of the Fairy Queen is free from it; and Shakspeare, Milton, Pope, and others occasionally introduce it with very pleasing effect: e.g.— "Sweet slumbering dew the which to sleep them bids." (F. Q. i. 1, 36.) "A bold bad man, that dared to call by name "This precious stone set in the silver sea." (Ib. 38.) [Ex. in Earle.] (Sh. Rich. II. ii. 1.) "It was the winter wild When the heaven-born child } + All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lay." (Milt. Nativ.) "And waving wide her myrtle wand." (Ib.) "The sound must seem an echo to the sense." "Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux." (Pope, Crit.) (Id. Rape of L. i.) *Piers Plowman; Fairy Queen; Pilgrim's Progress. † Swayed so mury = sounded so sweetly. These two lines are exactly after the manner of the Vision: "In a súmmer season, whan sófte was the sónne." (P. P. line 1.) "The bookful blockhead ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head." "A life of pain, the loss of peace For every touch that woo'd its stay (Id. Dunc.) With wounded wing and bleeding breast." (Byron, S. of Corinth.) "Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease!" (Tennyson, Lotos-Eaters.) PUNCTUATION. § 362. POINTS or STOPS are used to mark the divisions of sentences. The following are the principal stops : 1. Period or Full Stop ( . ) 2. Colon (:) 3. Semicolon ( ; ) 4. Comma (, > 5. Note of Interrogation (?) 6. Note of Exclamation ( ! ) Other marks in common use are the dash -; parenthesis ( ); inverted commas or Quotation marks" "; brackets [ ]or ( ). § 363. A FULL STOP or PERIOD marks the end of a sentence, whether simple or complex. $364. A COLON is used after a member of a sentence which makes a complete and independent sense by itself: especially when the succeeding member is not linked to it by a Conjunction: as "The fifth race, which succeeds to the Heroes, is of iron: it is the race to which the poet himself belongs, and bitterly does he regret it." (Grote, Hist. Gr. i. 90.) "Among the Commons there was a strong opposition, consisting partly of avowed Republicans, and partly of concealed Royalists: but a large and steady majority appeared to be favourable to the plan of reviving the old civil constitution under a new dynasty." (Mac. H. E. i. p. 142.) "But Mr. Pendennis wanted to see him, and begged him, with a smile, to enter: whereupon Mr. Foker took off the embroidered tarboosh or fez and advanced, bowing to the gentlemen and smiling on them graciously." (Pendennis, ch. xiii.) "How she became Madame Fribsby, nobody knows: she left Clavering to go to a milliner's in London as Miss Fribsby. ." (Ib. ch. xvi.) It is sometimes difficult to decide whether a Colon or a Full Stop is more appropriate: but the Colon is preferable whenever the succeeding member is closely connected with the former one. A Colon is used before a quotation; often with a dash :— "The most sensible thing said in the House of Commons, on this subject, came from Sir William Coventry :- Our ancestors never did draw a line to circumscribe prerogative and liberty.'" (Mac. H. E. i. p. 223.) § 365. A SEMICOLON marks a less complete pause than a colon. It is used (1) After a member of a sentence which, while it makes a complete sense by itself, is yet closely connected with a succeeding one, the connection being usually marked by a Conjunction: as "In this morass the Roman army, after an ineffectual struggle, was irrecoverably lost; nor could the body of the emperor ever be found." (Gibbon, ch. x,) "The conflict was terrible; [for] it was the combat of despair against grief and rage." (Ib.) "His pride was flattered by the applause of the senate; and medals are still extant, representing him with the name and attributes of Hercules the Victor and of Mars the Avenger." (lb.) "The pike had been gradually giving place to the musket; and, at the close of the reign of Charles the Second, most of his Foot were musketeers." (Mac. H. E. i. 297.) (2) Between the co-ordinate members of a sentence combining a number of statements: "The Samaritans were condemned; the leaders of the insurrection adjudged to death; the rest of the people expelled and interdicted from settling again in Naplous; and, by a strange edict, the Samaritans were no longer to inherit the property of their fathers." (Milm. H. of Jews, iii. 65.) "The first line of the Goths at length gave way in disorder; the second advancing to sustain it shared its fate; and the third only remained entire, prepared to dispute the passage of the morass, which was imprudently attempted by the presumption of the enemy." (Gibbon, ch. x.) "He attended his beloved master during the trial; undertook to plead his cause; indeed, began a speech which the violence of the judges would not allow him to continue; and pressed his master to accept a sum of money sufficient to purchase his life." (Lewes, Plato.) § 366. A COMMA is the slightest pause of all. It serves to mark off members of a sentence which do not make a complete sense of themselves. A comma is used (1) Before and after all phrases and sentences enlarging the Subject or other Noun: as "His father, the Marquess of Argyle, had been the head of the Scotch Covenanters." (Mac. H. E. i. 537.) "The court, sick of the importunities of two parties, . ... at length relieved itself from trouble by dictating a compromise." (b. 188.) "Dunkirk, won by Oliver from Spain, was sold to Lewis the Fourteenth, king of France." (lb. 191.) "Faith is one of these [words], which was formed upon the French foi, Anglicised fey." (Earle, p. 267.) "The aristocracy, which was held in great honour by the middle class and by the populace, had put itself at the head of the movement against Charles the First .. (Mac. H. E. i. 187.) But when the Adjectival sentence is merely defining and restrictive (§ 233), commas are not used: as "The design was disapproved by every Scotchman whose judgment was entitled to respect." (Ib. 185.) (2) When two or more Adverbs or Adverbial phrases come together, to mark off one from the other: as "Then, at length, tardy justice was done to the memory of Oliver." (Ib. 192.) Lastly, in our own days, Mr. Finlaison, an actuary of eminent skill, subjected the ancient parochial registers of marriages, baptisms, and burials, to all the tests which the modern improvements in statistical science enabled him to apply." (Ib. 284.) (3) Before and after any single Adverbial phrase when let into the body of a sentence and brought before the Verb to which it refers: as "Such inquiry, according to him, was out of their province." (Ib. 196.) "But, both in public and in the closet, he, on every occasion, expressed his concern that gentlemen so sincerely attached to monarchy should unadvisedly encroach on the prerogative of the monarch." (lb.) "Everywhere it was remembered how, when he ruled, all foreign powers had trembled at the name of England.” (Ib. 193.) "But, though she had rivals on the sea, she had not yet a superior." (Ib. 201.) But a comma is not needed when the Adverbial comes at the end of the sentence: as "The Chevalier was pacing down below in the hall of the inn when Pen descended from the drawing-room." (Pendennis, ch. xxvii.) "I will keep what I had to say till you come home." (Ib.) The same rule is usually observed in the case of the Conjunctions therefore, however: as, "The Long Parliament, however, had passed ordinances which had made a complete revolution in church government." (Mac. H. E. i. 158.) "These ordinances, therefore, were never carried into full execution." (Ib. 159.) (4) When more than two Nouns or other words are brought together in the same connection, a comma is placed after each one excepting the last: as "Everywhere men magnified his valour, genius, and patriotism." (Ib. 193.) "And after three days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother . . .” .. (Matt. xvii. 1.) "To love, honour, and succour my father and mother ." (Catechism.) "With an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart 66 (C. Prayer.) Similarly, when words are arranged in pairs, each connected together by and, a comma is used after each pair. that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations." (C. Prayer.) 66 Temperance and abstinence, faith and devotion, are in themselves[,] perhaps[,] as laudable as any other virtues." (Spect. No. 243.) (5) After various impersonal phrases followed by a Nounsentence which is the real Subject: as |