152 LITERATURE AND DRAMA 



for indeed our author makes no attempt to show why one com- 

 bination should sound better than another, nor does the new 

 method remove any of the difficulties which confessedly arise in 

 scanning. Like Mr. Brown, Dr. Guest must find five accents 

 in Milton's line : 



The multitude of angels with a shout ; 



whereas a plain man without a theory would surely say there 

 were but three. But Dr. Guest plays lightly with accents, 

 tossing them with much ease from syllable to syllable. Ben 

 Jonson wrote : 



A third thought wise and learned, a fourth rich, 



and we think this good stout line well able to withstand all the 

 assaults of its enemies ; but unfortunately there are two con- 

 secutive accents on the last two syllables in plain defiance of 

 the Doctor's rule. He condemns the line as in duty bound, but 

 not for this reason. He selects it as an example of the vicious 

 practice of putting an accent on the article ' a,' not a little to 

 the bewilderment of the straightforward reader who, at this 

 page of the book, has not yet learnt the law of the composition 

 of sections, according to which no two accented syllables ever 

 can come together ; since the line is undoubtedly verse, Dr. 

 Guest logically concluded that * a' was accented and 'fourth ' 

 was not. Jonson might allege that he had no intention of 

 putting an accent on the article ; but then he knew nothing of 

 the new rules of verse. Again, Milton wrote : 



Thus at their shady lodge arrived, both stood, 

 Both turned. 



One line ends with three strong syllables, and the next begins 

 with two we have here apparently five consecutive accents 

 but Dr. Guest escapes from this difficulty with the greatest 

 readiness. In defiance of Dr. Johnson, who thought diffe- 

 rently, he will not allow that ' both ' receives an accent in 

 either line. 



He assumes as incontrovertible that there are always five 

 accents in each heroic line, neither more nor less. We have 

 already quoted a line from Milton with only three accents, and 



