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 connexion 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, that often the grandest objects in nature cannot be expressed with propriety otherwise than by a poor monosyllable. Bulkiness, accompanied with motion, will fall to be exemplified in the next article.

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 in 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, reenforce, re-animate though 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 the 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

* Il Penseroso.

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 utterrance is the frequent recurring of the aspirate (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 aspi rated, 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.Ӡ

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 brains" 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 moveAnother 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."

ment.

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

* It is chiefly from this cause that the line in the Odyssey above quoted is so expressive of both: "Aaav äv∞ ☎0εoкε—” + Knight's Tale.

Essay on Criticism.

Pope, Fragment of a Satire. 1 Pitt.

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 forementioned causes, and may be illustrated by 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:

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, though first
To offend, discountenanced both, and discomposed."+

Several of the foregoing causes concur in the following couplet :

"So he with difficulty and labour hard

Moved 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 everything 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 a series of accordant 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 odes hath, in this respect, a much greater latitude than any other kind of versifier, 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, are reducible to three, the iambic, the trochaic, and the anapæstic. In the first of these, the even syllables are accented, as some choose to express it, or, as others, the even syllables are long; * Paradise Lost, b. vii. + Ibid., b. x. + Ibid., b. ii. An excellent example of this kind we have from the Iliad, 1. 116: “ Πολλὰ δ' ἄναντα, κάταντα, πάραντά τε, δόχμιά τ' ἦλθον.” This recurrence is the happier here, as it is peculiarly descriptive of rugged ways and jolting motion.

*

in the second, it is on the odd syllables that the accent rests; in the third, two unaccented syllables are followed by one accented. The nearer the verses of the several kinds are to perfection, the more exactly they correspond with the definitions just now given; though each kind admits deviations to a certain degree, and in long poems even requires them for the sake of variety. The iambus is expressive of dignity and grandeur; the trochee, on the contrary, according to Aristotle, is frolicsome and gay. It were difficult to assign a reason for this difference that would be satisfactory; but of the thing itself, I imagine, most people will be sensible on comparing the two kinds together. I know not whether it will be admitted as a sufficient reason that the distinction into metrical feet hath a much greater influence in poetry on the rise and the fall of the voice than the distinction into words; and if so, when the cadences happen mostly after the long syllables, the verse will naturally have an air of greater gravity than when they happen mostly after the short. An example of the different effects of these two measures we have in the following lines of an admired modern, whose death lately afforded a just subject of lamentation to every good man, as well as to every friend of the muses: "Thee the voice, the dance obey,

Temper'd to thy warbled lay.

O'er Idalia's velvet green

The rosy crowned loves are seen

On Cytherea's day,

With antic sports and blue-eyed pleasures,

Frisking light in frolic measures;

Now pursuing, now retreating,

Now in circling troops they meet;

To brisk notes in cadence beating,

Glance their many-twinkling feet.

Slow melting strains their queen's approach declare :
Where'er she turns, the Graces homage pay.

With arms sublime, that float upon the air,

In gliding state, she wins her easy way:

O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move

The bloom of young desire, and purple light of love."+

The expression of majesty and grace in the movement of the last six lines is wonderfully enhanced by the light and airy measure of the lines that introduce them. The anapæst

is capable, according as it is applied, of two effects extremely different first, it is expressive of ease and familiarity, and, accordingly, is often used with success both in familiar epistles and in pastoral. The other effect is an expression of hurry, confusion, and precipitation. These two, however different, may be thus accounted for. The first is a consequence of its resemblance to the style of conversation: there are so many particles in our language, such as monosyllabic pro* Rhet., lib. iii.

† Gray's Progress of Poesy.

nouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and articles, on which the accent never rests, that the short syllables are greatly supernumerary. One consequence of this is, that common chat is with greater ease, as I imagine, reduced to this measure than to any other. The second consequence ariseth purely from its rapidity compared with other measures. This effect it is especially fitted to produce, when it is contrasted with the gravity of the iambic measure, as may be done in the ode; and when the style is a little elevated, so as to be sufficiently distinguished from the style of conversation. All these kinds have been employed with success in the Alexander's Feast, an ode that hath been as much celebrated as perhaps any in our language, and from which I propose to produce some illustrations. The poet, on recognising Jove as the father of his hero, hath used the most regular and perfect iambics : "The list'ning crowd admire the lofty sound,

A présent déity' they shout around,

A présent déity' the vaulted roofs rebound.

With rávish'd eárs

The monarch heárs,
Assumes the gód,

Affécts to nód,

And seems to shake the sphéres."

But when he comes to sing the jovial god of wine, he very judiciously changes the measure into the brisk trochaic

Again, when he describes his hero as wrought up to madness, and setting fire to the city in a fit of revenge, he with great propriety exhibits this phrensy in rapid anapæsts, the effect of which is set off the more strongly by their having a few iambic lines interspersed.

Révenge! révenge! Timótheus críes ;

See the fúríes aríse!

See the snakes that they réar,
How they híss in their hair,

And the sparkles that flásh from their ey'es!
Behold how they tóss their tórches on high,
How they point to the Pérsian abodes
And glittering témples of their hostile gods.
The princes applaud with a fúrious joy,

And the king seized a flambeau with zéal to destroy."

So much for the power of numbers. It may not be amiss now, ere I conclude this topic, to make a few cursory remarks on the imitative powers of the several letters which are the elements of all articulate sounds. And, first, soft and delicate sounds are mostly occasioned by an equal mixture of

Ga