ON RHYTHM IN ENGLISH VERSE 157 



*! beseech you : 2 punish me not . 3 with your hard thoughts : 

 wherein : 5 I confess me much guilty : 6 to deny . 7 so fair and ex- 

 cellent ladies : 8 any thing. 



The shorter pauses are here and hereafter indicated by a dot, 

 and the longer pauses by two dots, or a colon. The strong syl- 

 lables are indicated by an accent. Other readers might divide 

 the passage otherwise, as by pausing after ' fair,' and not after 

 ' deny ; ' but all Englishmen would break up the sentence in 

 some such way as is here indicated. Each group given above 

 has a distinct rhythmical character, which, avoiding all contro- 

 versy as to length or accent, we may indicate in time-honoured 

 terms as follows : 



Humtititi 3 tititumtum 4 titum 5 tititum-titumtumti 

 Hititum 7 titum-titumtiti-tumti Humtiti. 



The hyphens introduced in the longer sections may, perhaps, 

 enable the reader more easily to catch the rhythm indicated ; 

 they are not intended to denote any peculiarity in the rhythmical 

 character of the groups. No one will deny that the short groups 

 are rhythmical, for they are closely analogous to classical feet. 

 The longer groups owe their rhythmical character to the regular 

 beat which falls on each strong syllable each of these is, within 

 the section, separated from its neighbour by a constant time- 

 interval. If we were to employ musical notation to express the 

 time occupied in delivery, each strong syllable would begin a 

 fresh bar. The fact that the beats are regular is best observed 

 in the larger groups ; as, ' I con|fess me| much] guilty,' or, 

 * So| fair and| excellent|ladies.' The bar here is placed as a 

 bar is placed in musical notation. At the end of each section a 

 pause of uncertain length may be introduced ; the time begins, 

 or may begin, de novo. No effort is required to secure rhythmi- 

 cal character for each section as we speak or write. This cha- 

 racter belongs essentially to every sentence, depending wholly 

 on our native mode of delivery. A Frenchman hardly ever 

 masters the art; indeed, he seems to be without the organ 

 which recognises a difference between tumtiti and tititum. 

 His rhythm, in English at least, consists of a series of equal 

 beats on all syllables, followed by a long uncertain pause, 

 sometimes on a syllable, sometimes on the stops or chief 



