518 
founded in egotistical prejudice, we 
have no doubt; and we join, with the 
utmost cordiality, with the reviewer 
in the anticipation, that this, like many 
other of our national prejudices, is 
wearing, and will wear, away; for 
certainly no Englishman can have 
witnessed the representation of the 
fine scenes of Racine or Voltaire, by 
Talma and Duchenois, without enter- 
taining a much more exalted notion of 
Gallic dramatic poetry than, with his 
English apprehensions of the numbers 
and the language, he is likely to have 
formed in the closet. Some of the 
observations in this article on the 
structure of the French verse, and on 
the hemistiche in particular, as far as 
our English ears are competent to 
their appreciation, are judicious, 
though we confess ourselves to be of 
opinion, that their heroic verse would 
be found, upon strict analysis, to be 
constituted not of dissyllabic, but 
trisyllabic, feet ; and that it is only by 
virtue of pause and e@sura, or, as the 
reviewer would say, by cesura and 
hemistiche, that their twelve syllables, 
otherwise making but five, are ren- 
dered into six, feet. But, if we do 
not entirely accord with the writer of 
this article upon the subject of French 
poetry, still less are we disposed to 
give implicit assent to his general 
theory of rhythmical composition, 
especially in its. application to the 
structure of our own versification. 
In the very nature of the thing, a 
metrical foot is a portion of syllabic 
utterance, beginning heavy and end- 
ing light, (or, as the Grecian classic 
would call it, an alternation of the 
thesis and arsis of the voice,) whether 
one, two, three, or four, syllables, &c. be 
enunciated in that alternation, From 
the different quantities and proportions 
of the syllables that may occupy the 
space of such alternation arise, in 
reality, in every language, all the va- 
rieties of the feet that can be employed 
either in verse or prose. A_ single 
example will illustrate the different 
results of the respective theories in the 
scansion of English verse. The fol- 
lowing is the scanning of the reviewer 
of one of Moore’s most popular 
measures into lines of four hypothe- 
tical feet:— 
Oh, think—not my spi—tits are al—ways as light 
And as free—from a pang—as they seem—to you 
Nor expect—that the heart—cheering smile—of to- 
night . I 
Will return—with to mor—row to bright—en my 
brow. { 
Philosophy of Contemporary Criticism, No. XXXIV. 
[Jan. 1, 
—We quote but half of it, as being 
sufficient for the purpose of illustra- 
tion. . Our scansion of the same lines 
would be as follows. We use the per- 
pendicular bar, as more convenient, 
for the separation of the feet. 
Oh, | think not” my | spirits are | always as | light | 
And as | free from al pane” as they | seein to you 
now; 
Nor ex| pect” that the | heart-cheering | smile of 
_, to | night 
Will re | turn with the | morrow” to | brighten my. 
| brow. | 
—Let any person read the two speci- 
mens in separate portions, as they are 
marked, with an obyious pause be- 
tween supposed foot and foot, for the 
sake of making the distinction more 
obvious, and (especially if he adds, as 
ought to be added, the suspensive 
quantity of a foot or bar, where the 
rhythmical c@sura are marked,) we 
will trust the validity of our theory to 
the result of the experiment. 
The fifth article is the Spanish Man- 
devile of Miracles, or the Garden of 
curious Flowers. The extracts from 
this very curious melange of marvellous 
credulities will be not only amusive 
but instructive, to those who wish to 
be acquainted with that authentic and 
ascertainable part of the history of 
mankind, which preserves to us the 
record of his gullibity, or what hereto- 
fore he was capable of thinking and 
believing. 
The sixth article, Miscellaneous 
Works of Dr. Arbuthnot, is a judicious 
specimen of well-written criticism, as 
far as criticisin is concerned ; and pre- 
sents an amusive selection of extracts, 
anecdotes, &c. illustrative of the lite- 
rary history of the age of Swift, 
Pope, &c. 
The seventh article contains the Mar- 
riages of the Arts, a Comedie, written 
by Barton Holiday, Master of Arts,and 
Student of Christ Church, in Oxford, and 
acted by the Students of the same House, 
before the University at Shrovetide. The 
curious amalgamation of genius, wit, 
and pedantry, to which this article is 
dedicated, may help to inform us how 
scholastic learning may sometimes 
cumber and pervert, as well as ex- 
pand and rectify, the powers of the 
human. mind. The dramatis persone 
of this ingenious piece of allegorical 
foppery, will indicate sufficiently what 
species of dramatic interest it was 
calculated to awaken. But it con- 
tains some good jolly songs, one espe- 
cially on tobacco, and some spirited 
versions of Anacreon. However, 
Holiday’s fame will be more lasting 
as 
