1 62 LITERATURE AND DRAMA 



So long as this sense of unity is preserved, much licence is 

 permitted to the poet -and to those who speak his lines. If the 

 verse is otherwise strongly marked, the speaker may break 

 the beat by a random pause. If the scanning is strict, the 

 number of sections may be allowed occasionally to vary. If the 

 length and the number of sections are normal, the scanning 

 may be lax. English scansion is often indefinite and lax, 

 probably because its laws are not of indigenous growth. More- 

 over, our sense of number is weaker than that of time orr hythm. 

 The schoolboy trying to write verse beats time naturally, and 

 finds some rhythm, good or bad, by instinct, but he counts 

 the syllables on his fingers. Further examples are needed to 

 show how far these theories may assist in the critical examina- 

 tion of style, and what aid they bring to elocution. 



III. 



The normal English heroic line is an iambic of five feet, 

 broken into four sections by one major and two minor pauses. 

 The time of its delivery is measured by beats, each falling on an 

 accented syllable or on a pause, and the number of these beats 

 may vary from three to seven or even eight, although the number 

 of long elements in the feet is only five. 



The beauty of a line cannot be determined by noting how 

 closely it approaches to the central type. We require indeed 

 that no line shall be so abnormal as to disturb our sense of 

 unity ; but there is no formula for a good line, and no criticism 

 is more absurd than that which condemns famous verses because 

 some stress or pause may fall in an unusual place. Neverthe- 

 less, if a theory of metre is to be of any value, it must help us 

 to give praise where praise is due, and to point out the cause of 

 failure when a cultivated ear rejects a line as bad. Our object 

 at present is to show how far the thesis already stated will give 

 us aid of this sort. 



The character of a line varies much, according to the number 

 of beats required for its delivery, or, in other words, according 

 to the number of syllables which receive a strong or primary 



