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kind a little after in the same piece, to represent uncommon speed:

Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o'er th'unbending corn, and skims along the main *). A most wonderful and peculiar felicity in this measure to be alike adapted to imitate the opposite qualities of swiftness and slowness. Such contradictions would almost tempt one to suspect, that this species of resemblance is imaginary altogether. Indeed, the fitness of the Alexandrine to express, in a certain degree, the last of these qualities, may be allowed, and is easily accounted for. But no one would ever have dreamt, of its fitness for the first, who had not been misled by an erroneous conclusion from the effect of a very different measurè, Greek and Latin hexameter. Yet Pope is not the only one of our poets who hath fallen into this error. Dryden had preceeded him in it, and even gone much farther. Not satisfied with the Alexandrine, he hath chosen a line of fourteen syllables, for expressing uncommon celerity: Which urg'd, and labour'd, and forc'd up with pain, Recoils, and rowls impetuous down, and smoaks along the

plain **).

Pope seems to have thought that in this instance, though the principle on which Dryden proceeded was good, he had exceeded all reasonable bounds in applying it; for it is this very line which he hath curtailed into an Alexandrine in the passage from the Odyssey already quoted. Indeed the impropriety here is not solely in the measure, but also in the diphthongs oi, and ow, and oa, so frequently recurring, than which nothing, not even a collision of jarring consonants, is less fitted to express speed. The only word in the line that seems adapted to the poet's view, is the term impetuous, in which two short syllables being crowded into the time of one, have an effect similar to that produced by the dactyl in Greek and Latin. Creech), without the aid of an Alexandrine, hath been equally, if not more unsuccessful. The same line of the Latir. poet he thus translates,

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And with swift force roll thro' the humble plain.

Here the sentiment, instead of being imitated, is contrasted

⚫) Essay on Criticism. -**) Lucretius, B. III. ***) Th. Creech, gest. 1701, Uebersetzer des Lukrez.

by the expression. A more crawling spondaic verse our heroic measure hardly ever admits.

At the same time, in justice to English prosody, it ought, to be remarked, that it compriseth one kind of metre, the anapestic, which is very fit for expressing celerity, perhaps as much as any kind of measure ancient or modern. But there is in it a light familiarity, which is so ill adapted to the majesty of the iambic, as to render it but rarely admissible into poems written in this measure, and consequently either into tragedy or into epic.

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Ere I conclude what may be said on the subject of motion, I shall observe further, that there are other affections of motion besides swiftness and slowness, such as vibration, intermission, inequality, which to a certain degree may be imitated in the sound of the description. The expression

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in the translation of the Iliad, is an instance of the first, the vibration being represented by the frequent and quick recurrence of the same letters ranged a little differently. In the line

Tumbling all precipitate down dash'd,

already quoted from the Ruins of Rome, there is an attempt to imitate the motion as well as the sound. The last of the four following lines from Milton, contains also a tolerable imitation of both:

Oft on a plat of rising ground

I hear the far-off curfew sound
Over some wide-water'd shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar *).

Another very natural subject of imitation is size, or whatever the terms great or little may be applied to, literally or metaphorically. Things grand may be imitated by long and well-sounding words, things bulky by long and ill-sounding words, things little by short words. The connection here is as obvious as in either of the two former cases; but the power of our language is rather less. It affords so little variety in the choice of words in respect of length, often the grandest objects in nature cannot be expressed with propriety otherwise than by a poor monosyllable. Bulkiness

*) Il Penseroso.

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accompanied with motion, will fall to be exemplified in the next article.

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A fourth subject of imitation in language is difficulty and ease. There is a considerable difference in this respect in the pronunciation of different words and sentences, which, if happily accommodated to the sentiment, adds to the effect of the expression. If, for instance, what is difficultly acted, be difficultly pronounced, and if, on the contrary, what is performed with facility, be uttered with ease, there will result a certain degree of vivacity from this slight resemblance. For it is an invariable maxim, that the ear is grated with hearing what the organs of speech find it uneasy to articulate. Several things contribute to render pronunciation difficult. First, the collision of vowels; that is, when one syllable ends with a vowel, and the next (it matters not whether it be in the same word or not) begins with the same vowel, or with one which approaches to it in sound. Re-enter, co-operate, re-inforce, re-animate, tho' oft, the ear, the open, are examples of this. A certain effort is required to keep them as it were asunder, and make both be distinctly heard as belonging to different syllables. When then vowels are very unlike in sound, or the formation of the one is easily accomplished after the articulation of the other, they have not the same effect. Thus in the words variety, coeval, the collision doth not create a perceptible difficulty. Now as difficulty is generally the cause of slowness in any operation, such a clashing of vowels is often employed to represent a tardy or lingering motion *). A second cause of difficulty in utterance, is the frequent recurring of the aspiraty (h), especially when placed between two vowels that are both sounded. It is this which renders the translation of the passage above quoted from the Odyssey, so significant of the same qualities:

Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone. A like effect is produced by any of the mutes that are aspirated, as the th and ph or f, especially if combined with other consonants, The following line of Chaucer is not a bad example of this :

He through the thickest of the throng gan threke **).

*) It is chiefly from this cause that the line in the Odyssey above quoted is so expressive of both. Дaav άvo odrone. **) Knight's Tale. gan zusammengezogen für þegan;

threke ein veraltetes Wort für thrust,

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A third cause of difficulty in pronunciation, is the clash of two or more jarring consonants. Some consonants are easily combined; the combinations of such are not expressive of this quality, but it is not so with all. An instance of this difficulty we have in the following line,

And strains from hard bound brainsλ six lines a-year *) We have here once five consonants, sometimes four, and sometimes three, which are all pronounced without an intervening vowel. The difficulty is rendered still more sensible by the double pause, which occasions a very drawling movement. Another example I shall take from the same

author:

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move slow **).

In the first of these lines the harsh combinations of consonants make the difficulty of pronunciation very observable; in the second the author hath not been so successful. I know not how it might affect the more delicate ear of an Italian, but if we compare it with the generality of English verses, we shall find it remarkably easy and flowing. It has nothing in respect of sound, either in the syllables separately, or in the measure, that in the least favours the sentiment, except only in its ending in a spondee, instead of an iambus. But this is too common in our poesy to have any effect that is worthy of notice. Vida's translator, in a passage extremely similar, hath been happier, if he may not be thought to have exceeded in this respect:

If some large weight his huge arm strive to shove, The verse too labours, the throng'd words scarce move ***). First, the word verse is harsher than line; secondly, the ending is in two spondees, which, though perhaps admissible into the iambic measure, is very rare, and hath for that reason a more considerable effect. A fourth cause of difficulty in the pronunciation, is the want of harmony in the numbers. This is frequently an effect of some of the examples already quoted. In the following passage from Milton, one of the most unharmonious in the book, hugeness of size, slowness and difficulty of motion, are at once aptly imitated:

Pitt.

*) Pope, Fragment of Satire. **) Essay on Criticism. ***)

Part, huge of bulk!

Wallowing, unwieldy, enormous in their gait,
Tempest the ocean *).

An illustration of tardiness, difficulty, and hesitancy through fear, the same author hath also given us in the ill-compacted lines which follow:

He came, and with him Eve, more loth, tho' first

To offend, discountenanc'd both, and discompos'd **). Several of the foregoing causes concur in the following couplet:

So he with difficulty, and labour hard,

Mov'd on, with difficulty and labour he ***).

A fifth cause of difficulty, the last I shall take notice of, is when there is a frequent recurrence of the same letters or syllables, especially where the measure requires a quick pronunciation, because then there is the greatest risk of mistake and confusion ****).

I shall just mention another subject of imitation by sound, which is very general, and may be said to comprehend every thing not included in those above mentioned. The agreeable in things may be adumbrated to us by smooth and pleasant sounds, the disagreeable by such as are harsh and grating. Here, it must be owned, the resemblance can be but very remote, yet even here it will sometimes serve to enliven the expression.

Indeed the power of numbers, or of a series of accor dant sounds, is much more expressive than that of single sounds. Accordingly, in poetry we are furnished with the best examples in all the kinds; and as the writer of des hath in this respect a much greater latitude than any other kind of vrsifier, and at pleasure may vary his measure with his subject, I shall take a few illustrations from our lyric poets. All sorts of English verse, it hath been justly remarked,

***)

*) Paradise Lost, B. VII. **) Paradise Lost, B. X. Ibid. B. II. ****) An excellent example of this kind we have from the Iliad, XIII. 116.

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Πολλὰ δ ̓ ἄναντα, κάταντα, πάραντά τε δόχμιά τ ̓ ἦλθον,

(d. i. sie gingen einen weiten Weg bergauf, bergunter, schief, un d in die Quere).

This recurrence is the happier here, as it is peculiarly desicriptive of rugged ways and jolting motion.

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