A Handbook of the English Language Part 59

But not _always_. In Byron's "Deformed Transformed" we find the following lines:--

Clay! not dead but soulless, Though no mortal man would choose thee, An immortal no less Deigns _not to refuse_ thee.

Here _not to refuse_ = _to accept;_ and is probably a Grecism. _To not refuse_ would, perhaps, be better.

The next expression is still more foreign to the English idiom:--

For _not_ to have been dipped in Lethe's lake _Could save_ the son of Thetis from to die.

Here _not_ is to be taken with _could_.

-- 517. In the present English, two negatives make an affirmative. _I have not not seen him_ = _I have seen him_. In Greek this was not the case. _Duae aut plures negativae apud Graecos vehementius negant_ is a well known rule.

The Anglo-Saxon idiom differed from the English and coincided with the Greek. The French negative is only apparently double; words like _point_, _pas_, mean not _not_, but _at all_. _Je ne parle pas_ = _I not speak at all_, not _I not speak no_.

-- 518. _Questions of appeal._--All questions imply want of information; want of information may then imply doubt; doubt, perplexity; and perplexity the absence of an alternative. In this way, what are called, by Mr.

Arnold,[65] _questions of appeal_, are, practically speaking, negatives.

_What should I do?_ when asked in extreme perplexity, means that nothing can well be done. In the following pa.s.sage we have the presence of a question instead of a negative:--

Or hear'st thou (_cluis_, Lat.) rather pure ethereal stream, Whose fountain who (_no one_) shall tell?--_Paradise Lost._

CHAPTER XXVIII.

ON THE CASE ABSOLUTE.

-- 519. Broadly speaking, all adverbial constructions are absolute. The term, however, is conveniently limited to a particular combination of the noun, verb, and participle. When two actions are connected with each other, either by the fact of their simultaneous occurrence, or as cause and effect, they may be expressed within the limits of a single proposition, by expressing the one by means of a verb, and the other by means of a noun and participle agreeing with each other. _The door being open, the horse was stolen._

Considering the nature of the connection between the two actions, we find good grounds for expecting _a priori_ that the participle will be in the instrumental case, when such exists in the language: and when not, in some case allied to it, i.e., the ablative or dative.

In Latin the ablative is the case that is used absolutely. _Sole orto, claruit dies._

In Anglo-Saxon the absolute case was the dative. This is logical.

In the present English, however, the nominative is the absolute case. _He made the best proverbs, him alone excepted_, is an expression of Tillotson's. We should now write _he alone excepted_. The present mode of expression is only to be justified by considering the nominative form to be a dative one, just as in the expression _you are here_, the word _you_, although an accusative, is considered as a nominative. A real nominative absolute is as illogical as a real accusative case governing a verb.

PART VI.

PROSODY.

-- 520. The word _Prosody_ is derived from a Greek word (_prosodia_) signifying _accent_. It is used by Latin and English grammarians in a wider sense, and includes not only the doctrines of accent and quant.i.ty, but also the laws of metre and versification.

-- 521. Observe the accents in the following lines:--

Then fare thee well, mine own dear love, The world hath now for us No greater grief, no pain above The pain of parting thus.--MOORE.

Here the syllables accented are the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, 20th, 22nd, 24th, 26th, 28th; that is, every other syllable.--Again,

At the close of the day, when the hamlet is still, And the mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove, And when nought but the torrent is heard on the hill, And there's nought but the nightingale's song in the grove.--BEATTIE.

Here the syllables accented are the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 18th, 21st, 24th, 27th, 30th, 33rd, 36th, 39th, 42nd, 45th, 48th; that is, every third syllable.

-- 522. _Metre is a general term for the recurrence within certain intervals of syllables similarly affected._ The syllables that have just been numbered are similarly affected, being similarly accented. Accent is not the only quality of a syllable, which by returning at regular intervals can const.i.tute metre. It is the one, however, upon which English metre depends.

English metre essentially consists in the regular recurrence of syllables similarly _accented_.

_Abbot._--And wh not live and act with other men?

_Manfred._--Because my nature was averse from life; And yet not cruel, for I would not make, But find a desolation:--like the wind, The red-hot breath of the most lone simoom, Which dwells but in the desert, and sweeps o'er The barren sands which bear no shrubs to blast, And revels o'er their wild and arid waves, And seeketh not so that it is not sought, But being met is deadly: such hath been The path of m existence.--BYRON.

-- 523. _Measures._--For every accented syllable in the following line, write the letter a, and for every unaccented one, the letter x, so that a may stand for an accent, x for the absence of one--

The way was long, the wind was cold.--SCOTT.

or expressed symbolically

x a x a x a x a,

where x coincides with _the_, a with _way_, &c.

-- 524. Determine the length of the line in question.--It is plain that this may be done in two ways. We may either measure by the syllables, and say that the line consists of eight syllables; or by the accents, and say that it consists of four accents. In this latter case we take the accented syllable with its corresponding unaccented one, and, grouping the two together, deal with the pair at once. Now, a group of syllables thus taken together is called a _measure_. In the line in question _the way_ (x a) is one measure, _was long_ (x a) another, and so on throughout; the line itself consisting of four measures.

-- 525. _Trisyllabic measures._--The number of measures consisting of two syllables, or dissyllabic measures, is necessarily limited to two, expressed a x and x a respectively. But beyond these there are in the English language measures of three syllables, or trisyllabic measures. The number of these is necessarily limited to three.

The first of these is exhibited in the word _merrily_ (a x x).

Merrily, merrily shall I live now, under the blossom that hangs on the bough.--SHAKSPEARE.

The second is exhibited by the word _disable_ (x a x).

But vainly thou warrest, For this is alone in Thy power to declare, That in the dim forest Thou heard'st a low moaning, And saw'st a bright lady surpa.s.singly fair.--COLERIDGE.

-- 526. The third is exhibited by the word _cavalier_ (x x a).

There's a beauty for ever unfadingly bright, Like the long ruddy lapse of a summer-day's night.--MOORE.

When grouped together according to certain rules, measures form lines and verses; and lines and verses, regularly arranged, const.i.tute couplets, triplets, and stanzas, &c.

-- 527. The expression of measures, lines, &c., by such symbols as a x, x a, &c., is _metrical notation_.

-- 528. _Rhyme._--We can have English verse without _rhyme_. We cannot have English verse without _accent_. Hence accent is an _essential_; rhyme an _accessory_ to metre.

-- 529. _a.n.a.lysis of a pair of rhyming syllables._--Let the syllables _told_ and _bold_ be taken to pieces, and let the separate parts of each be compared. Viewed in reference to metre, they consist of three parts or elements: 1. the vowel (o); 2. the part _preceding_ the vowel (t and b respectively); 3. the parts _following_ the vowel (ld). Now the vowel (o) and the parts following the vowel (ld) are alike in both words (_old_); but the part preceding the vowel is different in the different words (_told_, _bold_). This difference between the parts preceding the vowels is essential; since, if it were not for this, the two words would be identical, or rather there would be but one word altogether. This is the case with _I_ and _eye_. Sound for sound (although different in spelling) the two words are identical, and, consequently, the rhyme is faulty.

Again--compared with the words _bold_ and _told_, the words _teeth_ and _breeze_ have two of the elements necessary to const.i.tute a rhyme. The vowels are alike (ee), whilst the parts preceding the vowels are different (br and t); and, as far as these two matters are concerned, the rhyme is a good one, _tee_ and _bree_. Notwithstanding this, there is anything rather than a rhyme; since the parts following the vowel (th and ze) instead of agreeing, differ. _Breathe_ and _beneath_ are in the same predicament, because the th is not sounded alike in the two words.