- end"—"at the beginning"—or anywhere else. For he discriminated metres, not by the number of feet, as he ought to have done, but by the number of syllables he found in each line. His doctrine is this: "Our iambick measure comprises verses—Of four syllables,—Of six,—Of eight,—Of ten. Our trochaick measures are—Of three syllables,—Of five,—Of seven. These are the measures which are now in use, and above the rest those of seven, eight and ten syllables. Our ancient poets wrote verses sometimes of twelve syllables, as Drayton's Polyolbion; and of fourteen, as Chapman's Homer." "We have another measure very quick and lively, and therefore much used in songs, which may be called the anapestick.
'May I góvern my pássion with ábsolute swáy,
And grow wiser and bétter as life wears awáy.' Dr. Pope."In this measure a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot, [;] as [,]
'When présent we lóve, and when ábsent agrée,
I th'nk not of I'ris [.] nor I'ris of mé.' Dryden."These measures are varied by many combinations, and sometimes by double endings, either with or without rhyme, as in the heroick measure.
''Tis the divinity that stirs within us,
'Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter..' Addison."So in that of eight syllables,
'They neither added nor confounded,
They neither wanted nor abounded.' Prior."In that of seven,
'For resistance I could fear none,
But with twenty ships had done,
What thou, brave and happy Vernon,
Hast achieved with six alone.' Glover."To these measures and their laws, may be reduced every species of English verse."—Dr. Johnson's Grammar of the English Tongue, p. 14. See hisQuarto Dict. Here, except a few less important remarks, and sundry examples of the metres named, is Johnson's whole scheme of versification.
- How, when a prosodist judges certain examples to "have an additional long syllable at the end," he can "look upon the additional syllable to be at the beginning," is a matter of marvel; yet, to abolish trochaics, Churchill not only does and advises this, but imagines short syllables removed sometimes from the beginning of lines; while sometimes he couples final short syllables with initial long ones, to make iambs, and yet does not always count these as feet in the verse, when he has done so! Johnson's instructions are both misunderstood and misrepresented by this grammarian. I have therefore cited them the more fully. The first syllable being retrenched from an anapest, there remains an iambus. But what countenance has Johnson lent to the gross error of reckoning such a foot an anapest still?—or to that of commencing the measurement of a line by including a syllable not used by the poet? The preceding stanza from Glover, is trochaic of four feet; the odd lines full, and of course making double rhyme; the even lines catalectic, and of course ending with a long syllable counted as a foot. Johnson cited it merely as an example of "double endings" imagining in it no "additional syllable," except perhaps the two which terminate the two trochees, "fear none" and "Vernon." These, it may be inferred, he improperly conceived to be additional to the regular measure; because he reckoned measures by the number of syllables, and probably supposed single rhyme to be the normal form of all rhyming verse.<
- There is false scansion in many a school grammar, but perhaps none more uncouthly false, than Churchill's pretended amendments of Johnson's. The second of these—wherein "the old seven[-]foot iambic" is professedly found in two lines of Glover's trochaic tetrameter—I shall quote:
"In the anapæstic measure, Johnson himself allows, that a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot; yet he gives as an example of trochaics with an additional syllable at the end of the even lines a stanza, which, by adopting the same principle, would be in the iambic measure:
"For \ resis-\tance I \ could fear \ none,
But \ with twen \ ty ships \ had done,
What \ thou, brave \ and hap \ py Ver-\non,
Hast \ achiev'd \ with six \ alone.In fact, the second and fourth lines here stamp the character of the measure; ☞ which is the old seven[-]foot iambic broken into four and three, WITH AN ADDITIONAL SYLLABLE AT THE BEGINNING."—Churchill's New Gram., p. 391.
After these observations and criticisms concerning the trochaic order of verse, I proceed to say, trochaics consist of the following measures, or metres:
MEASURE I.—TROCHAIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER.
Example I.—"The Raven"—First Two out of Eighteen Stanzas.
1.
"Once up\-on a \ midnight \ dreary, \ while I \ pondered, \ weak and \ weary,
Over \ māny ă \ quaint and \ cūrĭoŭs \ volume \ of for\-gotten \ lor
