II. TRISYLLABIC VARIATIONS.-Less numerous than the lines that escape from the strict 5 xa formula by the substitution of the Trochee, the Pyrrhic, or the Spondee, for the Iambus, but still very frequent, are the lines that escape from the formula by the bolder substitution of one of the trisyllabic feet. This occasions even a greater irregularity in appearance; for, wherever an Anapæst, a Dactyl, a Tribrach, or other trisyllabic foot, displaces an Iambus, the line, of course, is lengthened to eleven syllables. Nevertheless the trisyllabic variation consists with the genius of English Blank Verse, and imparts to it an additional power and freedom. Again a collection of examples, out of the abun. dance bedded in Milton's text, will best yield conclusions :—

1. "To quench the drought of Phoebus, which as they taste."
"Likeliest and nearest to the present aid."

2.

3.

4.

To seek i' the valley some cool friendly spring."

"Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the woods."

5. But for that damned magician, let him be girt."

6. "Crams and blasphemes his feeder. Shall I go on?"

7.

"I must not suffer this; yet 'tis but the lees."

8. "Made Goddess of the river; still she retains."

9.

10.

12.

13.

II. "Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme."
"Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain."
"Passion and apathy and glory and shame."
14. "Immeasurably: all things shall be our prey."
15.
'The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar."
16. "Of massy iron or solid rock with ease.'

19.

17.
"So he, with difficulty and labour hard."
18. "Moved on: with difficulty and labour he."
"If true, here only, and of delicious taste.'
"The organs of her fancy, and with them forge."
"Virtue in her shape how lovely : saw and pined."
"No inconvenient diet, nor too light fare."

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

"Each to other like, more than on Earth is thought."
"Plant of the field, which ere it was on the Earth."
"Of rainbows and starry eyes.
The waters thus."

Over fish of the sea and fowl of the air."
Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold."
How dies the Serpent? He hath eaten and lives."
"Thorns also and thistles it shall bring thee forth."
"That, jealous of their secrets, fiercely opposed."
"Wherefore didst thou beget me? I sought it not."

32. "Thy punishment then justly is at his will."
33. "To a fell adversary, his hate and shame."
34. "Not this rock only: his omnipresence fills."
"In piety thus and pure devotion paid."

35.

36. "Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue."
37. "Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named."

38. "By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire."

39.

"Their city, his temple, and his holy ark.

40. "The throne hereditary, and bound his reign."

4I. "Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise."
42. "By vision found thee in the Temple, and spake."
43. "Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art."
44. "And on that high authority had believed."

45.

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Behold the Kings of the Earth how they oppress." 46. "Little suspicious to any king; but now.'

47.

48.

"Powers of Fire, Air, Water and Earth beneath."
"No advantage, and his strength as oft assay."

49. "Only in a bottom saw a pleasant grove."

50. "From us, his foes pronounced, glory he exacts.'

51. "How quick they wheeled, and, flying, behind them shot." "Of their pursuers, and overcame by flight."

52.

53. "City or suburban, studious walks and shades."

54. "Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece."

55. "Epicurean, and the Stoic severe."

56. "Have brought thee and highest placed; highest is best."

57. "The mystery of God, given me under pledge."

58. "By the idolatrous rout amidst their wine."

59.

"With youthful courage and magnanimous thoughts." 60. "Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with that gift?"

61. "Miraculous, yet remaining in those locks."

62. "Out, out, hyæna! These are thy wonted arts."

63. "She's gone, a manifest serpent by her sting."

64. "The sumptuous Dalila floating this way."

65.

Afford me, assassinated and betrayed."

66. "Tongue-doughty giant, how dost thou prove me these?" 67. "This insolence other kind of answer fits."

68. "Whether he durst accept the offer or not." 69. "To something extraordinary my thoughts." 70. "Relation more particular and distinct."

All these lines might be rectified into Decasyllabics by supposing elisions, slurs, or contracted utterances; and there are some who seem to favour such a practice. There could be no more absurd error. Will any one venture to say that the word "Phabus" in No. I is to be pronounced Phabs," the word "magician" in No. 5 "magish," the

66

66

66

words "feeder" and "river" in Nos. 6 and 8 "feed"" and "riv'," the words "the ocean-stream" in No. 9 "thoceanstream," the word "reason" in No. 11 "reezn," the word "difficulty" in No. 17 diffikty," the work "purple" in No. 27 "purp'," the word "ridiculous" in No. 37 “ridic'lous," the word "capital" in No. 41 captal," the words "No advantage" in No. 48 "Nadvantage," the word "Philistines" in No. 60 "Philstines," the word "giant" in No. 66 "gint," or the word " particular" in No. 70 'partiklar"? Did Milton require these pronunciations in his verse, or the other violences and comicalities that would be necessary to reduce the rest of the lines to Decasyllabics? I do not believe he did; and, if Blank Verse required such, Blank Verse would not be worth having. But it does not. The lines above, and any other such lines, remain perfectly good Blank Verse even with the most leisurely natural enunciation of the spare syllable; and the pedantic expression of this fact is that English Blank Verse admits a trisyllabic substitute for the Iambus, and may thus become hendecasyllabic.

Scanning the seventy specimen lines, my own ear makes out this result; which may pass on the whole, though it is by no means likely that it will be accepted in all particulars. -In eighteen the supposition of an Anapæst (xxa) mends the line-three times in the first metrical place (Nos. 26, 43, 48); six times in the second metrical place (Nos. 3, 21, 29, 56, 64, 65); three times in the third (Nos. 9, 12, 45); three times in the fourth (Nos. 47, 51, 57); and three times in the last (Nos. 5, 10, 24). In six lines the Dactyl (axx) solves the knot-four times in the first place (Nos. 2, 46, 49, 53); once in the second place (No. 54); and once in the fourth place (No. 50). The Tribrach also accounts for six-once in the first place (No. 55); once in the second (No. 14); and four times in the third (Nos. 17, 18, 33, 40). For three lines the Antibacchius (aax) comes to the rescue, twice in the second place (Nos. 19 and 34), and once in the third (No. 32); and for two lines the rarer Cretic (axa) is the solvent, once in the first place (No. 23) and once in the fourth (No. 7). This leaves thirty-five of the lines, or exactly one half, unaccounted for; and in these, strange to say, the neatest agent is the Amphibrach (xax). It fits the first place eight times (Nos. II, 15, 25, 35, 37, 39, 61, 67), the second seven times (Nos. 16, 27, 52, 58, 62, 63, 66),

the third eleven times (Nos. 1, 5, 6, 8, 20, 22, 31, 44, 60, 69, 70), and the fourth nine times (Nos. 13, 28, 30, 36, 38, 41, 42, 59, 68).—The introduction of a trisyllabic foot is apt to cause a disturbance even in the rest of the fabric of the line, made up as it is of dissyllabic feet with their accents. Hence some of the lines quoted require very peculiar scanning, apart from the inserted trisyllabic foot. Some of them, indeed, would not pass for Blank Verse at all if they stood by themselves, and are such only when fused into the music of the context: e.g: Nos. 24 and 26. In both these cases Milton is quoting from Scripture, and it is his habit then to compel the metre to adopt the literal text.

Are there any examples of two trisyllabic variations in one line? There are, though exceedingly rare. I quote a

few :

I. "Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait."

2. "Where obvious duty erewhile appeared unsought."

3.

"Of sorrow unfeigned and humiliation meek."

4.

5.

"Though ravenous, taught to abstain from what they brought.'

"The one winding, the other straight, and left between."

6. "Aim at the highest: without the highest attained.'

7. "Curiosity, inquisitive, importune."

In each of these, if the pronunciation is not slurred, there are twelve syllables; and yet they are not Alexandrines. They are verses with two trisyllabic feet each, so that the metre of the whole line is pushed wider by two syllables. Thus in No. I "Wallowing" is a Dactyl in the first place, followed by an Anapest in the third; in No. 2 there is an Anapest in the second place, followed by another, or perhaps rather a Bacchius (xaa), in the third; in No. 3 there is an Amphibrach in the first place, followed by a Cretic in the fourth; in No. 4 there is an Amphibrach in the first place, followed by an Anapæst in the third; in No. 5 a Bacchius begins the line, followed by an Anapæst; in No. 6 there is an Amphibrach in the second place, repeated in the fourth; and, if No. 7 is to be scanned at all, it is by supposing an Anapest in the first place, followed by a Tribrach in the second, a Trochee in the third, and then two Iambi.

If all Milton's thousands of lines of Blank Verse, there

fore, were examined individually, they might be distributed, so far as we have yet seen, into four sorts :-I. The normal 5 xa, or pure Decasyllabics of five Iambi. Such lines do occur pretty numerously, and generally, I think, with a calming, soothing, or pathetic effect. II. The 5 xa, with more or less of dissyllabic variation. This is by far the prevailing sort, and is divisible into sub-varieties, according to the amount and method of the dissyllabic variation. III. Lines of the 5 xa formula converted into Hendecasyllabics by some single trisyllabic variation. These are numerous. IV. Lines of 5 xa widened into Duodecasyllabics by a double trisyllabic variation. These are exceedingly rare.

Of one feature of Milton's Blank Verse we have hitherto taken no account. It is THE SUPERNUMERARY FINAL SYLLABLE. This is a distinct thing from the supernumerary syllable or syllables that may arise within any line from the trisyllabic variation. It is a relic of the old English habit of speech which made it natural, as we see in Chaucer, to end verses with weak syllable after a strong, as the Italians and other nations do yet. In Shakespeare the ending of a line with a supernumerary weak syllable after the last strong one was perfectly optional: often there are five or six such lines consecutively in a single speech.-How far did Milton keep up the habit ? With respect to this question, we must distinguish between Milton's Dramatic Blank Verse, in his Comus and Samson Agonistes, and his Narrative Blank Verse, the adoption of which for his Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained he claimed as almost an invention.-The eighth line of Comus is one with a supernumerary final syllable ("Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being"); the tenth is the same; and throughout the Masque such lines occur at intervals to the number of about 70 in all, or about 9 per cent of the whole. It appears, therefore, that Milton availed himself of the traditional liberty of 5 xa + for dramatic blank verse, though more sparingly than was usual with the stage-dramatists. Not even in his Narrative

Blank did he quite reject the convenient liberty. In the first Book of Paradise Lost, consisting of 798 lines, I count nine lines with a supernumerary final syllable. This is at the rate of about one in every hundred; and rather think that the proportion throughout most of the poem is not in excess of that, though it varies in different Books, and in