ducing pain untempered by any feeling of artistic pleasure. It is therefore rarely admitted. An exception is the speech, if it can be so called, of Othello (Act iv. Sc. 1. 1. 38), just before his fit of epilepsy.

Though metre is peculiarly fitted for the pleasurable expression of high passion, it can be applied also to subjects where there is little or no passion, provided that the pleasurable arrangement of words is in place.

Composition which has only rhythm, or not even that, is called prose; composition which has metre is called poetry.

93. Prose and Poetry in Shakspeare serve, as a rule, for distinct purposes. Prose is used in the dialogue between servants, and in jest, and in light conversation. For instance, Falstaff always speaks in prose, even in scenes where the other characters speak verse. Again, in "Julius Cæsar," Act i. Sc. 2, Casca speaks prose when Brutus and Cassius speak in verse. Prose is used for letters, and on other occasions, where it is desirable to give a matter-of-fact effect. There is rhythm, but not metre, in the following impassioned letter: :

Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all miscarried, my creditors grow cruel, my estate is very low, my bond to the Jew is forfeit; and since in paying it, it is impossible I should live, all debts are cleared between you and I, if I might but see you at my death. Notwithstanding, use your pleasure: if your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter.

Merchant of Venice.

Often a scene begins with prose in a conversational tone, and rises to verse as the feelings become more passionate. Thus the scene of the bargain, "Merchant of Venice,” Act i. Sc. 3, begins:

Shy. Three thousand ducats; well.

Bass. Ay, sir, for three months;

and does not become verse till the entrance of Antonio develops passion in Shylock:

Shy. Who is he comes here?

Bass.

This is Signor Antonio.

Shy. [aside.] How like a fawning publican he looks.

A similar change occurs in the household scene in “Coriolanus," Act i. Sc. 3, where the scene begins with prose, then passes into verse, and finally returns to prose. Another instance where verse begins and prose follows is in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," Act i. Sc. 1. The student should note other instances, and, where it is possible to do so, should trace the change of thought corresponding to the change of language.

One remarkable instance where prose is used instead of verse is in the speech of Brutus to the populace after the murder of Cæsar. Elsewhere Brutus always speaks verse; but in addressing the people, he refuses to appeal to their feelings, and affects a studiously cold and unimpassioned style. His speech serves in this respect as a useful foil to Antony's highly impassioned harangue. But even in this studiously frigid speech it is noticeable how, as soon as the speaker begins to appeal to the feelings of the audience, he approaches and finally falls into metre:

As Cæsar loved me, I weep for him:
As he was fortunate, I rejoice at it:
As he was valiant, I honor him:

But, as he was ambitious, I slew him.

There is tears for his love; joy for his fortune;

Honor for his valor; and death for his ambition.

So far we have merely rhythm, though rhythm on the brink of metre; now comes the appeal to the feelings, and after one line that is all but metre, the rhythm becomes absolute metre:

All.

Who is here so báse that would () bé a bóndman?

If any speak; for hím have Í offended.

Who is here so rúde that would not bé a Róman?

If ány, speak; for hím have Í offended.

Who is here so víle that will not love his country?
If any, speak; for hím have Í offended.

I pause for á reply.

None, Brutus, none.

Brutus. Then none have I offended.

94. Didactic Poetry. Although prose seems to us the most natural style, and poetry might be supposed to be an invention of civilized and ingenious nations, the truth is that poetry is earlier and more universal than prose. So strong was the natural inclination to give form and some kind of regularity to every "set form" 1 of words, that written composition assumed at once a metrical form, and prose is rather the after-thought of a more advanced civilization. The earliest philosophers hampered themselves with metre, and their example has been followed in modern times by a doubtful style, didactic (or teaching) poetry, of which the most famous example in English literature is Pope's "Essay on Man." It is only, however, when the subject requires very precise reasoning, or deals with very dry abstractions, that any objection can be made to this style. A subject which excites the feelings will always admit of high rhythm and of metre, so long as it is not handled too closely. There is a kind of

1 Compare the Latin "carmen."

prose composition which is essentially didactic, and yet is highly rhythmical; and there is a kind of didactic poetry which is to be regarded as the highest exaltation of this style,

-e.g., many poems of Wordsworth, and some parts of the "Essay on Man." A specimen of the false didactic style is Darwin's "Loves of the Plants," which should be compared with the burlesque of it in Canning and Frere's "Loves of the Triangles."

95. Language Metrical and Unmetrical.

As an example of the difference between metrical and unmetrical language, compare ·

with

Achilles' wrath to Greece the direful spring

The wrath of Achilles, the spring direful to Greece.

The former gives more pleasure to the ear than the latter, by its superior regularity. In the former the syllables are so arranged that the first is to the second as the third to the fourth and the fifth to the sixth, etc. In the latter no law can be discovered. It is the regularity itself which gives pleasure. Of what kind the regularity may be is of less importance, provided that it be readily perceptible. In early English poetry we find a regularity of a different sort, a regular recurrence in the first letters of certain accented syllables :

Lúcifer with légions || léarned it in heaven.

And in modern English poetry there is commonly another regularity by the side of the regularity in accent. Syllables terminating with the same letters are introduced at regular distances. These syllables are said to rhyme :

Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring

Of woes unnumbered, heavenly goddess, sing.

Here the tenth and twentieth syllables terminate in the same letters, or rhyme. We proceed, then, to examine the different kinds of metre.

96. Metre, different kinds of. The regularity on which Metre, as we have just said, depends, may affect (a) syllables; (b) small combinations of syllables, called feet; (c) combinations of feet, called lines or verses; (d) combinations of verses, called couplets, stanzas, etc.

i. (a) Syllables may be merely counted, and not classified

at all.

ii. (a) Syllables—e.g., strīves, in-might be classified according to the time necessary to pronounce them; ¿.e., their quantity. This has never been the English system.

iii. (a) Syllables—e.g., the first in Lucifer and Legion—may be classified according to their initial letter; i.e., by alliteration, the ancient English system.

iv. (a) Syllables—e.g., the first and second in happy—may be classified according as they are pronounced, more (') or less () loudly than the syllables next to them; i.e., according to accent.

v. (a) Syllables e.g., hate and mate· may be classified according as they have the same vowel sound (in English the vowel sound has to be followed by the same, and preceded by a different, consonantal sound, but this is not necessary in Spanish); i.e., according to rhyme.

The smallest recurring combination of syllables is called (b) a Foot. Feet might depend on any of the five classifica