i 5 8 LITERATURE AND DRAMA 



pauses. Even the Americans are apt to lose the true English 

 rhythm, and to break our sentences into short sections which 

 strike the English ear as quaint. Thus we may imitate one 

 American mode of speech as follows : I confess me : much 

 guilty : to deny : so fair : and excellent ladies : anything.' 

 But, although no art is necessary to insure that each phrase we 

 speak shall be rhythmical, yet the rhythm may be good or bad 

 Our worst or weakest rhythms arise from monotonous redupli- 

 cation, as titum titum, or tumti tumti. Sections of this cha- 

 racter take all force out of any phrase in which they recur 

 frequently. There is in prose no law for the collocation of suc- 

 cessive sections; but unless they vary in length and character 

 the sentence will ring poorly, while if they balance and answer 

 one another too obviously, the effect is artificial and pompous. 

 Observe how admirably Orlando's compliment stands all tests- 

 no section poor, no repetition, no antithesis ; some sections long 

 enough to let us hear the rhythmical pulse ; and these followed 

 by a break in the time, due to a natural pause. 



This last condition is essential in strong prose. We like 

 occasionally to hear long sweeping sections ; but if one con- 

 tinuous beat is maintained for several successive sections without 

 a check, in place of flowing prose we hear weak verse. In con- 

 trast to Shakespeare's prose let us take a sentence such as any 

 of us may write when we are so intent on saying what we mean 

 as to be quite indifferent to rhythmical effect : 



! In fact : 2 we must : 3 as will sh6rtly appear : 4 measure labour : 



5 by the ani6unt of pain : 6 which attaches to it. 



1 Titum 2 titum 3 tititum-tititum 4 tumti-tumti * tititi turn -titum 



6 tititumtiti. 



The first two sections are identical ; the third consists of a 

 repetition of two identical parts ; the fourth is one of the 

 poorest groups possible ; and the sixth is weak, in consequence 

 of the symmetry of its form. Only the fifth can escape censure. 

 Then, as to their collocation ; no pause of sufficient importance 

 occurs to warrant our breaking the time from first to last ; and 

 if the reader will beat time so as to bring one stroke on each 

 accented syllable, he will speak like a professor painfully 

 explaining his point. 



