Andersen. — Metre. 477 



so, too, the length of the sentences uttered by that breath. 

 Macduff (Macbeth, ii, 3) cries in horror, — 



Awake, awake ! 



Ring the alarum-bell. 



Murder and treason ! 



Ban quo and Donalbain ! 



Malcolm ! awake ! 



Shake off this drowsy sleep, death's counterfeit, and look 



on death itself ! 

 Up, up, and see the great doom's image ! 

 Malcolm ! 

 Banquo ! 



Here all the feeling is in the short, abrupt exclamations : they 

 are cries of horror at the deed : only when that horror is for 

 a time forgotten in metaphor does the quickly drawn breath 

 permit of longer sentences. 



As a contrast, compare the length of the following sentences, 

 where the emotion is so calm as to permit the breath to utter 

 long imaginative phrases : — 



Proserpina, for the flowers now, that, frighted, thou 



lett'st fall from Dis's waggon ! 

 Daffocfils, that come before the swallow dares, and take 



the winds of March with beauty, 

 Violets, dim, but sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes or 



Cytherea's breath. 



How shall these two extracts be laid in the Procrustean bed of 

 decasyllabic verse \ 



Take another quotation, from the murder scene in " Othello," 

 where the contrast in the varying emotion is more percept- 

 ible :— 



(10) It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul, — 



(14) Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars ! — It 



is the cause. 

 (6) Yet I'll not shed her blood ; 

 (21) Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, and 



smooth as monumental alabaster. 

 (10) Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men. 

 (10) Put out the light, and then — put out the light ! 

 (25) If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, I can again 



thy former light restore, should I repent me : 

 (17) But once put out thy light, thou cunning'st pattern 



of excelling nature, 

 (16) I know not where is that Promethean heat that can 



thy light relume. 

 (16) When I have plucked thy rose, I cannot give it 



vital growth again, 



(5) It needs must wither. 



(6) I'll smell it on the tree. 



(16) balmy breath, that dost almost persuade 

 justice to break her sword ! 

 (4.) One more, one more.1 



