I really fear that you will spend
The Honey Moon in eating honey!"
Most dissyllabic nouns, having a diplhong in the latter syllable, have the accent also on that syllable: as,
"A Hamlet that draws
Is sure of appláuse."
A Hamlet that draws? There are not many who own give even an outline of the character.
In a few words ending in ain the accent is placed on the former syllable: as, "Víllain," which is pronounced as the natives of Whitechapel pronounce "willing."
Those dissyllables, the vowels of which are separated in pronunciation, always have the accent on the first syllable: as, lion, scion, &c.
When is a young and tender shoot
Like a fond swain? When 'tis a scíon.
What's the most gentlemanly brute
Like, of all flow'rs? A dandy lion.'
Trisyllables, formed by adding a termination or prefixing a syllable, retain the accent of the radical word: as, "Lóveliness, shéepishness, knávery, assúrance."
The first syllable of trisyllables ending in ons, al, ion, is accented in the generality of cases: as in the words "sérious, cápital," &c.
"Dr. Johnson declared, with a sérious face,
That he reckoned a punster a villain:
What would he have thought of the horrible case
Of a man who makes jokes that are killing?
"In his diction to speak 'tis not easy for one
Who must furnish both reason and rhyme:
