518 Transactions. 



accent, generally implying a lieavy unit, results, as in example (25) of Sec- 

 tion III. This is often avoided by a transposition of the two words — the 

 qualifying word, instead of being given its natural place before the word 

 qualified, is placed after it ; so, instead of saying, 



(10.) They've casten him in a deep dungeon, 

 the ballad of " Young Beichan " says, 



(10a.) They've casten him in a dungt^on deep, 



This transposition has been called poetic license ; and it probably arose 

 not so much through a desire to differentiate the language of prose and 

 poetry as through an instinctive obedience to rhythmic stress-grouping. 

 In the days when the old ballads were struck to life, word-accent was not 

 so definitely fixed as now, so that many cases of apparently false accent 

 may appear so only by reason of the then indefinite having now become 

 definite. In " Sir Patrick Spens," for instance, the word " sailor " was 

 indifferently accented either on the first or second syllables, or the ballad- 

 maker wilfully contrasted the accent in stanzas 13 and 14 (AUingham) : — 



(11.) O whare will I get a glide sailor 

 and — 



(11«.) here am I, a sailor gude 



In " Etin the Forester," stanza 16 (AUingham), we have, — 



(12.) I'd ask ye something, mither, 

 An ye wadna angry be. 



And in the following stanza, — 



(13.) Your cheeks are afttimes weet. mither ; 

 You're weeping, as I can see. 



In (12) " mither " receives the usual accent on the first syllable ; in (13), 

 the unusual accent on the second, unless the pause indicated by the comma 

 he regarded, when the usual accent is restored. Similarly in stanza 18 : — 



(14.) For I was ance an earl's daughter, 

 Of noble birth and fame ; 



An English reading would give " daitghter " the unusual accent on the 

 second syllable ; a Scottish reading — and the ballad as found is Scottish — 

 would give it the usual accent on the first syllable, the burr in " earl's " 

 filling the place of the pause which would otherwise separate " earl's " 

 and " daughter." This fascinating subject lies beyond the sphere of pro- 

 sody, whose duty it is to note the variation of units, not necessarily of 

 words. 



5. There is one duple unit, of comparatively rare occurrence, which 

 bears an accent on the first syllable, but neither accent nor stress on the 

 second. There are perhaps four such units in the whole of " Macbeth " : — 



(15.) a. I heard/ the owl/ scream and -'the cri/ckets crv/. 



'(Macb. II, ii, 16.) 



b. An/gels are bright/ sfill, though ''the bri/ghtest fell/: 



(Macb. IV, iii. 22.) 



c. The time has been, my senses would have cool'd 

 To hear/a night -/shriek, n)id/iryy fell/ of hair/ 

 Would at a dismal treatise rovise and stir 



... As life were in't : (Macb., V, v, 11.) 



d. by the clock 'tis day, 

 And vet/ dark night// strangles •' the tra/velling lamp/ : 



(Macb. II, iv, 7.) 



