496 Transactions. 



10. Often the clash between stress and accent is avoided by judicious 

 pausing : the pause need not even be equal to a syllable, but it serves the 

 purpose of separating two elements that are at war if jtixtaposed. but are 

 in harmony when superimposed. In any lanit a rhythmic stress will never, 

 apparently, yield to a syntactic accent : if the latter be present, the former 

 will not be absent : they may be coalesced by a pause, and harmony is 

 restored. Over and over again verses occur where it is impossible to over- 

 look the fact that a pause forms a vital part of the unit. The pauses in 

 Tennyson's 



(2(5.) Break, break, break, 



cannot possibly be overlooked ; and they are as evident in the second of 

 Moore's lines, — 



(27.) But there's no/thing half/ so sweet/ in life/ 

 As love's/ yonng/ dream/. 



Is it not evident that a syllable has been dropped before each of the words 

 "young " and " dream," and that the place of such syllable is occupied 

 by a pause 1 Each of the words " young " and " dream," with its auxi- 

 liary pause, forms a complete unit, equal in time-value to any other unit 

 in the verse — even to the first, which contains three syllables. That this 

 is no fictitious value may be seen in the two follo\ving lines — 

 (28.) a. 0\\/, dear/, what/ can the mat/ter he, 



h. March/, march/, Et/trick and Te/viotdale, 



— where there can be no doubt that the umts composed of a single syllable 

 and pause are equal to those containing three syllables. 



11. Always, then, when the unit contains only one syllable — often 

 when it contains two, and even when it contains three — a more or less 

 palpable pause may be discerned. This pause is most e\'ident when the 

 units of the verse are not equally syllabled — that is, when one-syllabled and 

 two-syllabled, or two- and three-, or one-, two-, and three-syllabled imits 

 mingle in the one verse. 



(29.) The ne/vir a word/ had Di/ckio to say/, 



8ae he thrust/ the lance/ thiough his fause/ bodie/. 



This verse is from " Kinmont Willie," one of the old ballads that show 

 the intimate mingling of duple and triple metres. In " Kinmont Willie " 

 the duple predominates, yet in verses such as (29) it will be noticed that 

 whenever a duple unit follows a triple a slight pause comes between : a 

 pause, be it remembered, which is vocal ; it is not a cessation of sound, 

 but a dwelling on the stressed vowel. In the second line of (29) a pause 

 — slight indeed, yet a pause — precedes " the lance," and another precedes 

 " bodie." It is possible to change the position of the first of these pauses 

 by making the stress fall on " through " instead of on " lance " — 



(29a.) Sae he thrust/ the lance through/ his fause/ bodie/. 



— or it is possible to cause the disappearance of the pauses by putting 

 syllables in their place — 



(296.) Sae he thrust/ the long lance/ through his cra/veu bodie/. 



12. It is not contended that the two-syllabled and three-syllabled metres 

 cannot each have a distinctive " tempo " ; but it is contended that such 

 " tempo " is artificial, and, if it exist, is the result of the schools drawing 

 a sharp line of demarcation between units containing two and units con- 

 taining three syllables — it is, in fact, a result of the artificial science of 



