520 Transactions. 



Moreover, in (1) h and d the lilt calls for the construction suggested in (1) — 

 the " harpit a grave " is echoed in " harpit a gay," and " o' your bread " is 

 echoed in " o' your wine " ; though here again it may be held that a con- 

 trast is better than an echo. So long as it is conceded that the scansion 

 in (1) is possible — that is, that the triple unit followed by a paused unit is 

 possible — the point sought by this treatise is gained ; individual taste is 

 immaterial. Take the following example : — 



(3.) Give me leave to set my hoi'ue to my mouth, 

 Aiid to blow/ bliVsts/ three/. 



(" Robin Hood and the Cm-tall Fryer." line 116.) 



If it be held the scansion should be, 



(3a.) And to/ blow blasts/ three/. 



the last unit is still a paused unit. Nor is it otherwise should the first unit 

 be considered light and the second heavy — 



(36.) And to /blow blasts// three/. 



Very few would, I think, read the line in this way. (»'-_ee also example (6) c 

 following, and remarks thereon.) 



2. A unit composed of a pause and a stressed syllable may be found. 

 however, between two ordinary units, all suggestion of the triple construc- 

 tion being absent : — 



(4.) a. Se/ven ships/ Iha/ded weel/, 



Came o'er the sea wi' me ; (" Fair Annie," st. 31.) 



b. The first/ step/ the la/dy stepped/, 



She stepped on a stane ; (" Lamkin," st. 18.) 



c. wha's/ hlJide/ is this/, he says/. 



That licth in my ha' ? (" Lamkin," st. 26.) 



One source, alreadv referred to. from which constructions may have sprung 

 is the change of two-syllabled to one-syllabled words : many old words 

 took their plural in " es," and were two-syllabled. Terminal " e," too, was 

 once sounded : when the " e " became mute it was in most cases dropped 

 or transformed, and the words originally containing it were robbed of a 

 syllable. In prose this would not be so noticeable ; in poetry it was most 

 marked. There is still option in some words, as in those ending in '" ed " : 

 Keats always gave the " ed " its own syllabic value. Editors — such, for 

 instance, as Newton — clipped words in " ed " where the last syllable was 

 not to receive its full value : — 



(5.) Nathless, he so indur^d, till on the beach 

 Of that inflamed sea he stood, and adVd 

 His legions, Angel forms, who lay intrant d 

 Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks 

 In Vallombrosa ; where th' Etrurian shades 

 High over-arch'd imbow'r ; or scattered sedge 

 Aflote, when with tierce winds Orion arm d 

 Hath vex'd the Red Sea coast, whose waves o'er-threw 

 Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, 

 While with perfidious hatred they pursued 

 The sojourners of Goshen. (P.L., i, 299 et seq.) 



Here, in eleven verses, there are eight words in " ed " clipped of a syllable, 

 and in the tenth verse is one which, following the usual rule, should be 

 chpped ; one word — " inflamed " — in the second verse receives its full three 



