Andersen. — Classification of Verse. 501 



This could never have been intended : the rimed words " hovering " and 

 " wing " would never have been allowed by Milton. The verse may be 



read, 



(456.) Hovering ou wing under tlie cupe of hell, 



where one choriamb is retained, and the word "' under " is irregularly 

 accented. I think, however, the reading should be as in (45), where a pause 

 — even though onlv slight — separates the choriambs, and a pause also 

 comes between the first choriamb and the stressed last word of the 

 preceding line. This pause is an integral part of the rhythm, and the 

 choriamb should be resolved into two units, one consisting of a pause 

 and a single stressed syllable, the other of three syllables. The construc- 

 tion " hovering on wing " at a verse-opening is very common in Milton 

 and Shakspeare, and it will be found that a pause invariably separates 

 the stressed first syllable of such opening from the stressed last syllable of 

 the previous verse. Noav, where such choriambs occur in Milton, they 

 are never clipped ; they are regarded as a combination of two units, a 

 trochee followed by an iamb, and the pause is left out of count. The 

 following example must be excepted : — 



(46.) He ended fio wiling, ;ind his look denoimc'd 

 Desp'rate revenge, and battle dangerous 

 To less than Gods. (P,L., ii, 107.) 



But this has been clipped only because the choriamb would otherwise 

 contain five syllables. The leaving out of count of the pause preceding 

 the choriamb would, in case of clipping, reduce the number of syllables in 

 the verse to nine ; and this would violate an old rule that such verse should 

 never have less than ten syllables. It was also a rule, but a rule to which 

 necessity compelled exceptions, that the verse should not have more than 

 ten syllables ; therefore it is that verses may be found with two clipped 

 triple units : — 



(47.) on thee 



Impress'd th' effulgence of his glory' abides, (P.L., iii, 388.) 



Tmnsfus'd on thee his ample Spirit rests. 



The fact that choriambs are not usually clipped seems conclusive evidence 

 of the fact that they were looked on as trochee and iamb combined, and 

 that the pause was disregarded. The following verses from " Paradise 

 Lost " contain two choriambs : — 



(48.) a. Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell, (i, 1. 345.) 



b. Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve, (iv, 1. 800.) 



c. Moors by his side under the lee, while night (i, I. 207.) 

 Invests the .sea, and wished moni delays : 



The onlv pause considered at all was the cgesura, or natural break in 

 the verse, which is not a part of the rhythm, but a slight suspension of it, 

 as the pause "7- is in music. It was never supposed that a pause might 

 take the place of a syllable, though a study of the then despised ballad 

 might have taught the possibility of it. Consider the following lines horn 

 " A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode " :— 



(49.) And loke your hertes be .seker and sad 



Your strjTiges trusty and trewc. (fytte 4, .st. II.) 



In the second line, divided thus — 



(49a.) Your stryn/ges trus//y and trewe/ 



