278 PROFESSOR BLACK1E ON THE 



Latin, German, and Italian. Only for short lyrical efforts can we manage the 

 rhymed trochaic ending with graceful effect ; all attempts to go beyond this 

 natural limit have ended either in a manifest artificial strain, or an admixture 

 of the comic element which is fatal to the effect of serious composition.* 



If this rich and various disposition of the accent on terminational syllables 

 is thus manifestly a plain element of euphony, that accentuation, on the other 

 hand, will be justly esteemed cacophonous which, by drawing the accent back 

 to the beginning of the word, that is to the third, fourth, or even fifth syllable 

 from the end, has a tendency to cheat the ultimate or penultimate syllable of 

 its full musical value ; we say a tendency, because it is only in this tendency that 

 the evil lies ; for, if by careful elocution the tendency is corrected, the blot may 

 be turned into a beauty on a principle to be mentioned under the next head. 



The remark here made is a very serious consideration for us English, as our 

 predominant accent is decidedly antepenultimate, and the fashion seems to be 

 increasing of throwing back the accent from the penult to the antepenult, and 

 from the antepenult sometimes to the fourth syllable from the end. Thus we 

 used to say contemplate and illustrate, whereas we say now con'template and 

 illustrate, disputable has become disputable, and contemplative, of course, must 

 become con'templatite. The tendency of this practice to deprive our syllabifica- 

 tion of its natural melody is obvious enough. In such words, for instance, as 

 signify and purify, the tendency to rob the final y of its natural long quantity 

 is strong, while in co'lumbine, brogardine, from the fuller quality of the final 

 syllable it is less. But if the danger be great in the case of the final syllable of 

 such words, it is greater in the case of the penult, that is, the syllable imme- 

 diately following the accented antepenult ; for, in the case of the final syllable, a 

 secondary accent may come in to save the prominence of the vowel, while the long 

 unaccented penult lies under the double disadvantage of a sinking inflexion 

 and a feeble stress, after the combined force, it may be, of an elevated accent 

 and a long quantity. From this cause it is that in vulgar speaking the second 

 syllable of the verb educate is so liable to be shortened and turned into edlcate ; 

 and so strong is this tendency, that many English scholars will tell you that to 

 pronounce the Greek word avOpcoTros, with the accent on the first syllable and 

 the second syllable long, is impossible ; and it is no doubt true that it is not so 

 easy as saying avOpoiros, which the modern Greeks generally do ; but as to the 

 alleged impossibility, we have only to look to such words as landholder, codl- 

 hedver, com' dealer, to see that it exists only in the unpractised orthoepic organs 

 of the objectors. Of all languages that I know, the Gaelic is that whose euphony 

 has suffered most from the habit of throwing the accent back to the beginning 

 of the word. Of this there cannot be a more striking instance than words com- 



* This is one among half-a-dozen reasons for the general want of success in our English hexa- 

 metrical experiments. 



