For the reasons given, metres in which the accented syllables are fewer than the unaccented ones, are favorites with those who wish to describe events or scenes characterized by rapidity of movement,-in such poems, for instance, as Scott's Lochinvar :

Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the west,

Through all the wide border his steed was the best.

or Read's Sheridan's Ride, e. g.:

Up from the South at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,

or Browning's How They Brought the Good News from Ghent, a poem, which, with its galloping measures, is probably the best phonetic representation of a horseback ride in the language, equally true to the requirements of discoursive and of dramatic elocution:

I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he ;

I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three ;

"Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;
"Speed!" echoed the wall to us galloping through.

Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest,

And into the midnight we galloped abreast.

A metre similar in effect to those just mentioned is the classic hexameter, used by Homer and Virgil. In most of the English imitations of this metre, however, the easy flow of the movement, which, as readers of Greek and Latin know, is its chief characteristic, fails to be produced. One reason for this is that our language, largely because it lacks the grammatical terminations of the classic tongues, contains fewer short syllables then they; and, in the place of the only foot of three syllables allowed

in their hexameter-I mean the dactyl, containing one long and two short syllables,-our poets often use long syllables only, influenced to do this, probably, by the false theory that quantity has nothing to do with English metres. Another reason is, that notwithstanding the poverty of our language in short syllables, many seem to think that the hexameter necessarily requires a large number of them. But Greek and Latin lines are frequent in which measures containing short syllables are few, e. g.:

་

ἀρνύμενος ἣν τε ψυχὴν καὶ νόστον ἑταίρων.—Homer. Illi inter - -1

sese magna vi brachia tollunt.-Virgil.

Both of these causes serve to make our English hexameters slow and heavy. Besides this, most of those who write them, misled by the notion that they must crowd as many syllables as possible into their lines, are tempted to use too many words, and thus to violate another principle not of poetry only, but of rhetoric. Take the following, for instance, from Longfellow's Children of the Lord's Supper:

Weeping he spake in these words: and now at the beck of the old man,
Knee against knee, they knitted a wreath round the altar's enclosure.
Kneeling he read then the prayers of the consecration, and softly,
With him the children read; at the close, with tremulous accents,
Asked he the peace of heaven, a benediction upon them.

An English verse representing accurately-what is all that is worth representing-the movement of the classic hexameter, would read more like this, which, itself, too, would read better, did it contain fewer dactyls; but to show the possibilities of our verse these have been intentionally crowded into it:

Weeping he told them this, and they, at the villager's bidding,

Knitting with knee to knee a wreath at the altar's railing,
Knelt as he softly led in the prayer of the consecration.

In it the children joined, until in a tremulous accent

Closing the prayer he had asked for the Lord's benediction upon them.

This passage from Longfellow is a typical specimen of what is called English hexameter. Here is another (not so good), from Frothingham's translation-in many respects an admirable one-of Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea:

Thitherward up the new street as I hasted, a stout-timbered wagon
Drawn by two oxen I saw, of that region the largest and strongest,
While with vigorous step a maiden was walking beside them;
And, a long staff in her hand, the two powerful creatures was guiding,
Urging them now, now holding them back, with skill did she drive them.

Not until such lines have been reduced to a form more like the following, can we be prepared to debate whether or not the effects of the classic hexameter can be reproduced in English. Those, too, who choose to compare these lines with the original, will find this translation more literal than the last.

Now my eyes, as I made my way along the new street there,
Happened to light on a cart with a frame of the heaviest timber,
Drawn by a pair of steers of the largest breed and stoutest.
By their side was a maid, and with vigorous gait was walking,
Waving a staff in her hand, and guiding the strong pair onward.
Urging or holding them in, right skilfully did she drive them.

In these last lines, there are more spondaic verses,— verses, that is, in which the fifth foot contains two syllables-than were often used in the classic hexameters. But this fact does not change the general effect of the movement. Matthew Arnold says of the following, that, "it is the one version of any part of the Iliad which in some degree reproduces for me the original effect of

Homer." It is a translation from the third book made

by Dr. Hawtrey of Eton College:

Clearly the rest I beheld of the dark-eyed sons of Achaia,

Known to me well are the faces of all; their names I remember.
Two, two only remain, whom I see not among the commanders,-
Castor fleet in the car,-Polydeukes brave with the cestus,—
Own dear brethren of mine,-one parent loved us as infants.

Are they not here in the host, from the shores of loved Lacedæmon?
Or though they came with the rest in ships that bound through the waters,
Dare they not enter the fight, or stand in the council of heroes,
All for fear of the shame, and the taunts my crime has awakened?

Instead of two we sometimes find three consecutive unaccented syllables, combined with which there is occasionally a slight but secondary accent on the second of these. As the general effect of this kind of rhythm is to cause four syllables to be uttered in the time usually given to two, it increases the rapidity of the movement; e. g.:

The king has come to marshal us in all his armor dressed,
And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant crest,
He looked upon his people, and a tear was in his eye;

He looked upon the traitors, and his glance was stern and high ;
Right graciously he smiled on us, as rolled from wing to wing,
Down all the line in deafening shout, God save our lord the king!

"And if my standard-bearer fall,— -as fall full well he may,
For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray,—
Press where ye see my white plume shine amid the ranks of war,
And be your oriflame to-day, the helmet of Navarre."

-The Battle of Ivry: Macaulay.

CHAPTER V.

ELOCUTIONARY AND POETIC FORCE.

Force, representing Instinctive Tendency of Utterance, or Physical Energy-Different Kinds of Force-the Degree of Force-Loud and Soft Force as used in Elocution-Their Poetic Analogues-Loudness and Softness, Strength and Weakness, Great and Slight Weight as represented by Long or Short Accented or Unaccented Syllables.

THE next rhythmical element of expression to be

considered, is force. This is to sounds what different degrees of light and shade are to objects of sight; and is essential to the effects of rhythm in the same way that shading is to those of proportion. In elocution, no one in feeble physical health can manifest an excess of force, while, at times, without it, his delivery may be characterized by the greatest amount of intelligence and soul, of thought and the emotion that is con nected with thought. For these reasons, it seems right to infer that force represents physique rather than intellect or spiritual feeling; in other words, energy that is instinctive and connected with the physical nature rather than any thing that is reflective and connected with the psychical. As used for emphasis, force differs mainly in three regards, which, according to the principle of classification pursued hitherto, may be stated thus: first, on its purely instinctive or physical side, it differs in degree-it may be loud or soft; second, on its reflective or intellectual side, it differs in gradation—it may be strongest at the beginning,