Andersen. — The Verse-imit. 611 



Here the pauses following " hie," " lye," and " dye " are palpably longer 

 than those following " pricke " and " be," the reason being, of course, that 

 the verses ending with the two latter words have retained the eighth unit, 

 whilst those ending with the three former have dropped that unit : — 



(13«.) The blin/ded boy/, that shootes/ so trim/, from hea/ven downc/ did hie/ ; / 

 He drew/ a dart/ and shot/ at him/, in place/ where he/ did lye/ : / 



Which soone/ did pierse/ him to/ the quicke/, and when/ he felt/ the ar/row 



pricke/, 

 Which in/ his ten/der heart/ did sticke/, he looked/ as he/ would dye/. / 

 "What sud/den chance/ is this/," quoth he/, "that 1/ to love/ must sub/- 



ject be/, 

 Which ne/ver there/ to would/ agree/, but still/ did it/ defie ? "" / / 



This fact is still more evident in stanzas of the following type, an exceedingly 

 popular one both among poets and readers : — 



(14.) We played at love in Mulga town. 

 And 0, her eyes were blue ! 

 We played at love in Mulga town, 



And love's a game for two. 

 If three should play, alack-a-day ! 

 There's one of them will rue, 

 Dear Heart ! 

 There's one of them will rue. 



(W. H. Ogilvie, " In Mulga Town," stanza 1.) 



This stanza could quite well be rounded off at the first " rue," when it would 

 be composed of three ordinary Ballad verses of seven stress-units each. The 

 addition of the " Dear Heart ! " however, converts the last line of these 

 stress-units into one of four, again followed by one of three : — ■ 



(14rt.) If three should play, alack-a-day ! 



There's one of them will rue, dear heart ! 

 There's one of them will rue. 



It simply means that the pause at the end of the line containing only three 

 stress-units is filled, making it equal to the line preceding. There is a 

 telescoping, as it were, of an eight-stressed and a seven-stressed verse, the 

 former resulting when the first and second lines of (14a) are taken together, 

 the latter when the second and third are taken together. The special point 

 to be observed is that the pause following the seven-stressed verse is of 

 sufficient duration to admit of its place being taken by an ordinary stress- 

 unit of two syllables in the present example, or three syllables in a triple 

 metre, and when its place is so filled the pause altogether disappears. 

 The inference is that whenever a verse containing only seven stress-units 

 occurs the pause by which it is followed is simply a gap from which sound 

 has been dropped, and into which sound may at any time be replaced. In 

 other words, the verse of seven stress-units, or Ballad verse, is merely a 

 variation of the verse of eight stress-units, the Eomance verse. The pause 

 may not always be exactly equal to the dropped unit, for a pause being 

 unable to assert itself as articulate sound is able, it has a tendency to collapse 

 on itself as it were — to shorten unequally. It nevertheless always retains 

 the power to expand so as to admit the restoration of the dropped unit, 

 should such restoration be desired. 



9. The full verse of eight stress-units will hereafter be called the Romance 

 verse, from the fact that it formed the metre of the French romances ; the 

 verse of seven stress-units will be called the Ballad verse, from the fact that 

 it forms the vital metre of the common English ballad. The Romance 

 metre, too, is considered as being the parent of the Ballad. 

 20* 



