Andersen. — Classification of Verse. 495 



9. It is still held by some prosodists that poets at times deliberately 

 give words a different accent from the prose accent. R. Bridges, quoting 

 from Dr. A. Schmidt's " Shakespeare Lexicon," gives a very full list of 

 examples in his Appendix on " Recession of Accent." From that list the 

 following are taken : — • 



(22.) a. He is complete in feature and in mind. (Gent.. II, iv, 73.) 



h. A maid of grace and complete majesty. (L.L.L., I, i, 137.) 



c. Tiiougli time seem so adverse anl means imtit. (All's W., V, i, 2().) 



d. Thy adverse party is thy advocate. (Sonn-, 35, 10.) 



Here again is a clash of accent and stress, but the alternative scansions 

 of (21a) and (21&) will not hold. Is there an actual recession of accent ? 

 — that is, has the accent absolutely been transferred from the second 

 syllable to the first ? Without doubt the first syllable bears the stress in 

 the alternate examples of (22), but has the accent altogether disajjpeared 

 from the second syllable ? I think not. It will, I think, be found that 

 (22). & will be spoken, not as — 



(23.) A miiid of grace and complete majesty, 

 but as — 



(24.) A maid of grace and complete majesty, 



where the two syllables of " complete " receive almost equal prominence, 

 tlie first by virtue of stress, the second by virtue of natural accent ; the 

 stress is, if anything, slightly heavier than the accent, but only slightly. 

 It will 1)6 noted that most words with this alternative accent are two- 

 syllabled words accented on the second syllable. This may be in accord 

 with some philological law in the English tongue, where two-syllabled 

 words accented on the first syllable greatly predominate over those accented 

 on the second, in the proportion of at least three to one. This, too, may be 

 the reason why, in poetry, two-syllabled words naturally accented on the 

 first syllable seldom have the alternative accent on the second. 



(25.) Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time : 

 Some that will evermore peep through their eyes, 

 And laugh like parrots at a ha,g-piper ; 

 And others of such vinegar aspect 

 That they'll not show their teeth \\\ way of smile, 

 Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable. 



(Merch. Ven., I, i, 51.) 



Can a reason be assigned for the fact that two-syllabled words tend to 

 take the accent on the first syllable I Words like "' courage," " reason," 

 " honour," " virtue," accented on the second syllable in Chaucer, now 

 receive the accent on the first ; the law in obedience to which this has re- 

 sulted is still operative, for in Australia " mirage " is as often pronounced 

 " mirage," and there, as elsewhere, does not the Scot say " result " for 

 " result " ? We have many instances, of course, where the two accents 

 are used to give two diiferent meanings, as " confines," " conduct," " ab- 

 stract," " object," " subject," " rebel," for the noun, and " confines," 

 " conduct," •' abstract," " object," " subject," " rebel," for the verb. 

 These words could naturally not receive the alternate accents, as each 

 accent has its own definite signification. Again, there are words which 

 in the old ballads, as, too, in some modern compositions, received the alter 

 native accents — such as " daughter," " player," " lady," " cormtry 

 distorted into " daughter," " player," " ladye," " countree " or even 

 '■ counterie." It belongs perhaps to philology to explain many of these 

 variations, but prosod}^ must at least notice them. 



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