B. Exceptions. 1. Addition. An additional syllable may occur at the end of the verse. "Of sovran power, with awful ceremon | y." (i. 753.) "Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being." (ii. 440.) Here belong also some verses ending with r or n, which, as in fire, sometimes develops an extra syllable. In other words, the unstressed vowel before r or n is disregarded as in 3 b. "In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers." 66 (i. 771.) As far removed from God and light of Heaven.' (i. 73.) 2. Elision.-A vowel is said to be elided when it is disregarded in scansion, although generally pronounced in reading. Unaccented vowels may be elided: 66 66 a. Before another vowel. 'His trust was with the Eternal to be deemed." (ii. 46.) 'Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain." (ii. 207.) "By herald's voice explained; the hollow Abyss." (ii. 518.) b. When followed by r, l, n, and another unaccented Vowel. "The sentence of their conqueror. This is now." (ii. 208.) "A multitude, like which the populous North." (i. 351.) "In equal ruin; into what pit, thou seest." (i. 91.) 3. Contraction.-A vowel is said to be contracted when it is assumed by the scansion to be a consonant. As in elision, these vowels are to be pronounced as such in reading. Unaccented vowels only may be contracted. a. Before another unaccented vowel i and u become consonantal, i.e., more like y and w. "Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope." (ii. 142.) "Drew audience and attention still as night." (ii. 308.) 66 Though full of pain, this intellectual being.” (ii. 147.) 66 'Then most conspicuous, when great things of small.” (ii. 258.) b. Before r, l, or n, followed by an unstressed vowel. Practically the vowel r, l, n, are regarded as consonants. 66 A pillar of state: deep on his front engraven." (ii. 302.) "Abominable, inutterable, and worse." (ii. 626.) "Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host." (i. 136.) 4. Inversion. The accent may be inverted in any foot; i.e., the first syllable may be accented and the second unaccented. This in version is quite common in the first and third feet, and very rare in the last. "Róse out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill." (i. 10.) "Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy." (i. 123.) "For one restraint, lórds of the world besides." (i. 32.) "Into the Euboic sea. Others more mild." (ii. 546.) This inversion must not be disguised in reading, for it is often useful, as in the examples above, to give emphasis. 5. Substitution.-In place of two iambic feet we may have a combination of a pyrrhic and a spondee; i.e., two unaccented syllables followed by two accented. This combination may also occur in any part of the line, but is most common at the beginning. "Nor the deép tract of Hell-say first, what cause.' "That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed." "Could merit more than that smáll ínfantry." (i. 28.) (i. 8.) (i. 575.) (ii. 69.) This accentuation must not be disregarded in reading, for, as with Inversion, one gains emphasis by it. Such, omitting some details, is the metrical system of English blank verse as understood by Milton. It does not differ much from the usage of other poets.1 But all this system is merely a way of stating definitely the analysis of the cases in which, according to Milton's ear, extra syllables or inversion might occur without interrupting the flow of the rhythm. The real test is always the spoken verse: if this be euphonious, some place in the scheme of metre will be found for it; or, if not, a new exception will be made. A person totally ignorant of the cases in which Milton allowed variations from the normal verse can learn to read the poem perfectly well by trusting to his ear (if it be fairly good), and this is the main thing to be attained. If you cannot read the poem aloud, you have not yet got to the bottom of it. We may appropriately print here Milton's own remarks. upon the verse. They were printed in the original editions at the beginning of the poem. 1According to Mr. Bridges (p. 16) Shakespeare was rather looser in his use of extra syllables and of contractions. THE VERSE. The Measure is English heroic verse without rhyme, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; rhyme being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the invention. of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame metre; graced indeed since by the use of some famous modern poets, carried away by custom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse than else they would have expressed them. Not without cause, therefore, some, both Italian and Spanish poets, of prime note, have rejected rhyme both in longer and shorter works, as have also long since our best English tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight; which consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all good oratory. This neglect, then, of rhyme, so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it is rather to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to Heroic Poem from the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming. BIBLIOGRAPHY 66 It will be useful to note among the editions of Paradise Lost" the earliest and some of the latest. The following list includes the editions published in the seventeenth century, and some of the more convenient modern editions. EDITIONS OF "PARADISE LOST." 1. PARADISE LOST. A Poem written in Ten Books by John Milton. Licensed and Entered according to Order. London, printed, and are to be sold by Peter Parker under Creed Church near Aldgate; and by Robert Boulter at the Turk's Head in Bishopsgatestreet; and Matthias Walker under St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street. 1667. [Quarto: pp. 342. Issued with different title pages in 1667, 1668, 1669.] 2. PARADISE LOST. A Poem in Twelve Books. The Author John Milton. The Second Edition, Revised and Augmented by the same Author. London. Printed by S. Simmons next door to the Golden Lion in Aldersgate-street. 1674. [Small octavo: pp. 333. The Ten Books were changed to Twelve by dividing what had originally been Books vii. and x. Books vii. and viii., then, of the present editions, were originally one book. The first few lines of Book viii. were added on the division. In like manner what are now Books xi. and xii: the first lines of Book xii. being added at this time.] 3. PARADISE LOST. London. 1678. |