149 



ON RHYTHM IN ENGLISH VERSE. 1 



I. 



THE reprint of Dr. Guest's well-known book will be welcome to 

 all students of English verse. The present editor truly says 

 that its numerous and well-arranged quotations give the work a 

 great and permanent value ; we will add that this value is much 

 enhanced by the copious index which Mr. Skeat has compiled, and 

 by the complete references which he gives to the source from 

 which each quotation is drawn. The title is somewhat mislead- 

 ing, although many historical facts of interest are to be found 

 in the book, more especially with reference to Anglo-Saxon and 

 Early English metres. We should rather describe the work as 

 treating of the analysis imd classification of English metres 

 according to a new system based on Anglo-Saxon practice. 

 Mr. Skeat does not insist upon the merit of this system, which, 

 to our thinking, is in itself of small value, although it led Dr. 

 Guest to write a valuable and interesting work. It must, how- 

 ever, be conceded that no two persons ever yet agreed concern- 

 ing the theory of English verse. 



The older writers assumed that each line was composed of 

 feet analogous to those employed in classical metres, and their 

 theory is not wholly abandoned even in the present day. Ac- 

 cented and unaccented syllables are, however, now usually 

 accepted as the elements of the English metrical foot in place of 

 the longs and shorts of our gradus, but the word accent is some- 

 what loosely used to denote any prominence given to any 

 syllable. It is clear that feet consisting of elements which 

 differ merely by their strength and weakness are not metrically 



1 Abridged from three articles in the Saturday Reriew for February and 

 March 1883 ; the first a review of A History of English Bhytkm*. By Edwin 

 Guest, LL.D. D.C.L. F.R.S. New Edition, edited by the Rev Walter W. 

 Skeat, M.A. 



