AN ESSAY TOWARDS ESTABLISHING THE MELODY AND MEASURE OF SPEECH TO BE EXPRESSED AND PERPETUATED BY PECULIAR SYMBOLS. LONDON: PRINTED BY W. BOWYER AND J. NICHOLS: FOR J. ALMON, IN PICCADILLY. MDCCLXXV. YAaaa via ? .-T^pr-T-rrvji aa OT HD3a4S "iO 3jIU2Aaiv: //JJiQADDif VI. , .. :^JA -T, ;io..i *P£ TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND HONOURABLE | ^Q '4- THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, INSTITUTED FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF NATURAL KNOWLEDGE; AND TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ANI> HONOURABLE THE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF ARTS, THIS TREATISE ON THE MELODY AND MEASURE of SPEECH IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY THEIR MOST HUMBLE SERVANT, X H E AUTHOR. "S V .J O il vli i ?, I I y 3 *o SIR JOHN P R I N G L E, BART. PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETYi SIR, FINDING that, of this Child, which I have fo long nou- rilhed in private, feme imperfedt rumours are fpread abroad ; and, exciting curiofity, have moved my friends and others to difcourfe varioufly about it; I have thought proper to let it go into the world, and fpeak for itfelf. And though it may appear aukward or deficient, for want of that farther education which I intended to have procured for it, under the advice of thofe learned perfons, to whom I made it known laft year; yet reflecting on the many advantages of a more public fchooling, I am refolved to keep it at home no longer: however, as I cannot -►ii. - 5 thiiik [ vl ]. think of letting it fet out under my name alone, without feme other of better authority to recommend it, I hope I may be indulged with the liberty of prefixing yours as its fponfor. I might fay, as fomething more; ^fois as my love of fcience owes very much to the happinefs I had of an early acquaintance with you, fo if I had not been lately prompted by your fpirit of invcf^gation, I think, this offspring of mine had [never -fe^n the light at all. : ft 1 g T fi ? 1. 1 am, SIR, with great regard. ^n I Your moft obedient humble fervant, {hsioiL: bfia^ufl 3rj£ ziuoinwi jjji:ij! 2 lEof) eioni hnt\) hufftii _ „ _ ^ i'^'^k PREFACE. ,i THE following flieets, fo far as the two firfl parts, were written as remarks on a few chapters of a late philo-^, fophical treatife, called 'tbe Origin and P^ogrefs of Language^ and being communicated to the Author of that ingenious work',\^ he was candid enough to give \ip many of the mulical opinions' which he had publillied in his firft edition: opinions wiiich ha was led -into by authors of great fame,, as A^-ell as by pra<5ticali; niuHcians, whom he had confulted. , -joi h^•m\^^y-y\. enoiJiiaiafj 3-. As, I beUeve, it feldom, or perhaps never, has hiappened^V that the firft knowledge or renovation of any art or fcience, came into the world compleatly fyftematized, I am .'more, defirous ioj6 fubmitting my imperfe6l endeavours to the corre6lions of ablet hands, than ambitious of praife for having produced a . finiflled piece. And therefore, I have thought it beft, oh this occafipr^ to give the following matter nearly in its original form; feleding: from the firft eciition of 'Tfje Origin andProgrefs^ tliofe iOpiiiion^t; as a text, to which tl;ie remarks and conclulions, that.mado xh^ fubjedt of my two firft letters, more imniediately' relate; '.tM: fubftance of which letters are contained in. the two,:, firft part3. Andjjiext in order, the queries and doubts aftenvards ;pirQpofed l)y the ingenious author of T'be Origin <3f«^:Pr(?^r , , ^'^^^ 'J ugly, hin, ihut, g?/t. ow=how, bough, fow, hour, gown, town, (this diphthong is founded long, dwelling chiefly on the latter vowel) ^ CO The letters and founds, which in modern languages pafs "under the names of diphthongs, are of fuch different kinds, that they cannot -properly be known by any definition I have feen : for, according to my fenfe, the greateft part of them are not diphthongs. Therefore, that I may not be mifunderfbood, I will define z proper dipbthong'Xo be made in fpeech, by the blending of tzvo vozvel founds fo intimately into one, that the ear fliall hardly be able to diftinguiffh more than one uniform found; though, if produced for a longer time than ufual, it will be found to con- tinue in a found different from that on which it began, or from its diphthong found. Arid therefore the vowels, which are joined to make diph- thongs in Englilh, are pronounced much fliorter, when fo joined, than as fingle vowels ; for if the vowel founds, of which they are compofed, efpecially the initials, are pronounced fo as to be eafily and diifinilly heard feparately, they ceafe to be diphthongs, and become diftindt fyllables. b 2 Though Xii PREFACE. Though the grammarians have clividecl the vowels into three clafles ; long, lliort, and doubtful ; I am of opinion, that every one of the feven has both a longer and fliorter found : as, a is long in «//, and fhort in lock and oc (lack and ac) A is long in arm^ and lliort in cat. E is long in may and make^ and fliort in natioy- I is long in be^ and Ihort in //. is longer in hole than in open ; long in corrode, fhort in corrofive. w is long xnfool, fliort (by comparifon) in foolifli. u is long in tune and plus, and fhort in f?/per and du. But the fhortelt founds of o, w, and u, are long in comparifon with the fhort founds of the four firfl vowels. The French, the Scotch, and the Welfli, ufe all thefe vowel foimds in their common pronunciation ; but the Englifli feldom or never found the u in the French tone (which I have fet down as the laft in the foregoing lift, and which, I believe, was the found of the Greek vnai'Xh) except in the more refined tone of the court, where it begins to obtain in a few words. 1 have been told, the moft correal Italians ufe only five vowel founds, omitting the firft and feventh, or the a and the u. Perhaps the Romans did the fame : for it appears by the words which they borrowed from the Greeks in latter times, that they were at a lofs how to write the r\ and the u in Latin letters. As the Greeks had all the feven marks, it is to be prefumed that at fome period they muft have ufed them to exprefs fo many different founds. But having had the opportunity of converfing xvith a learned modern Greek, I find, though they ftill ufe all the PREFACE. xui the fcven marks, they are very far from making the diflindlion amons: their founds which nature admits of, and \\hich a i^erftdt language requires : hut all nations are continually changing bolli their language and their pronunciation; though that people, who have marks for feven vowels, which are according to nature the competent number, are the lead; excufable in fufFering any change, whereby the proper diftindtion is loll:. Some very ufeful alterations and additions might be made among the confonants, towards attaining a rational orthography. But I forbear to go any farther here, on this head, than juit to throw out thefe hints; from which it may be judged, \\\iat very- great advantages might arife to the lingual and literary commerce of the world, by a fet of learned men fitting down, under fome refpe61:able authority, to reform the alphabet, fo as to make it contain diftindt elementary marks for expreffing all the lingual founds of the European languages at leaft; in doing which, the difficulty would be infinitely over-balanced by the great and general utility. So much it was nccelTary for me to fay on the incongruity between our prefent letters and our natural elementary founds; becaufe having, for many years paft, conlidered that and the melody and ineajure oi Jpeecb together, as parts of the fame fub- jedt, it is probable, I may have ufed, in the following fheets> expreflions with a latent reference to thefe elementary founds^ which, -without this flight explanation, might be unintelligible. But to return to the immediate fubje(St of the following effay. I fet out^^"ith fuppofing the reader to have fome practical knowledge of modern mufic; — I fay praclical, for without that in fome degree. xiv T' n E F A C E. degree, it is next to impodible by theory alone, to comprehend clearly and diitin^lly, either the rhythmical or metrical divifions of time; the ditierence bet\veen C/nphafis ■2i\\(\. force of louclnefs; and Hill lefs the differences of accent, acutCy grave, and the circHmJiexes. To mulicians, thefe -will be no difficulties at all; and a very few Icffons of a maftcr, either on a bais viol, or a gvQdtl^^ pilch-pipe, or the voice, will be lufficient to enable any pcrfon, with a tolerable ear, to overcome them. -i.wo Muiic among moderns, though much cultivated for pleafure, has beell considered by men of letters, at beft, only as a feminine ornament, or an amuiemenJrI^"Mn hour of relaxation ; but, if this fyftem be adopted,' the grammarian muft either affociate Svith, "Orfubmit himfelf to, the mufician, until fuch time as he liimfelf becotote a, mufician: for, to make the bell ufe of this knoM'ledge, it flrould be blended with the firffc dodtrinal elements t)f fpeech. And now, in fupport of this opinion, becaufe I lsLn6\^' an<^ient, or clallical, authorities are oftentimes more con" vincing than modern reafon, I will call a few to my afliftance. -Gillian in his Various Hiftories, b. VII. ch. 15. tells us ('Hvixa rrjc ^oiTiUa-ayic, S^c.), " When the Mitylenians had the chief command *' at fea, they inflidted this punifliment on their deferting allies, "" 'fhat their children ^/hoUld not learn letters, nor be ijijirudied in ** miific; being, in their opinion, the heavielf of all punifli- *' ments, to live (h dy-x^ia, ^ diiama) unlettered and unmu- " siCAL." \^^\\Q\\ Parmeno, in Terence's Eunttch (a<5t iii. fc. 2.), is extolling tlie accomplifliments of the flave' prefented to I'haiSy * I mean by a great p'ttch-pipe, any large Jiute-pipe, or diapafin-pipe of an organ, fitted with a long fliding Hopper, by means of which, may be made, Hiding tones, like thofe of . 1 ■ ilic Voice, he P R E F A C E. XV he fays : " Examine him in hterature, prove him in gymnadics, " try him in niufic; I will vouch him ikilled in every thing " becoming a gentleman." SocrateSy in Plato's dialogue calh-d T'heages, alks the young man, " Whether his father had nor " taught him all thofe things in which nohle youths were com- " monly inftru(5ted; y^a/i'.jwara t£, y^ xih.ott^nv, ^ noi/.uUiV, li^ ih " «AA>]y dymtoLv; that is, literature, music, wreitling, and the *' other exercifes." Xeiiopbon, treating of the manners of the Lacedcemojiians, fays : " Bnt other Greeks, and efpecially thofe *' who wifh to have their children educated in the moft elegant *' manner, as foon as they are able to nnderftand what is faid, *' put them under the care of (T:o(.i^xyuy^c^i^/, or \^^^, or/'*'"^, or\^^; which lines, when drawn on the foregoing fcale, will eafdy fliew through how many quarter tones the voice is to Hide ; and thefe I call the accents or notes of melody. In the next place, the quantity or proportion of time allowed to each note, may be dilliinguiflied by adding tails of different forms, always drawn upwards, to prevent confufion, by mil- taking the head for the tail, or vice verfa', becaufe oiu- heads ha^■c fome refemblance to the tails and tyes of quavers in the ordinary mufic, and our tails have fome refemblance to their heads of minims and briefs ; as thus, Various forms of tails to exprefs the difference ] d 9 Y I of quantity, ■ J ' ' ' The heads which mark- the accent or difference \ y \ /% ^ of melody, ■ J Tails :, the heads being )^ H 9 V | h-a\vii upwards, J y**^"^^ ^Sy. t^ [ 8 ] Tails and heads joined together at the bottom and the tails dr which, being thus joined, form, as it were, one note, expreffing both accent and quantity. Though \\c differ fomcwhat in form, let us however (fince the mcafures of time in mufic and in fpeech are both the fame) adopt the names by which the different quantities or proportions of time, are diilinguiflied in common muiic. Such as a fcml-brief =: i minims = 4 crotchets = 8 quavers. For which let o„, mark. be, ^= ^^ '}>\}\= \^],y)^ And let the rerts or paufes be reprefented thus, a lenii-briLf reft = 2 niin^m refts=:4 crotchet rcftsrrS qmver reft?. I := -- = rrrr = nmm We alio adopt the method ufcd in common mulic, of lengthen- ing a note, by the addition of a point, as, \l:- >l^-' >]^^ Then the note, on the foregoing fcale, over the interjection Oh ! whofe duration in time is only that of a crotchet, reprefents the melody of the voice to have made a Aide from B to Ex, and thence down again to C«; a flight, up and down, through nine- teen quarter tones; and this I apprehend may very 2:)roperly be called a circiinifiex. In devifmg a fcheme for expreffing on paper the mufical Aides of the voice, in the melody of fpeech, I chofe one which might come as near as poffible to the modern notation of mufic, in order to make it the ealier to be comprehended by thole whofe ideas of founds and meafure of time are already formed on that plan. [ 9 ] plan, I had no intention of imitating the figures of the Greek accents ; and yet, by meer accident, in purfuing my own fchcme, I found my new invented notes were exadtly in the Greek form. From this fortuitous coincidence, may we not fufpe^l, that we have hit on the true meaning of the Greeks (who \\ rote, as we do, from the left to the right) by their marks, of acute for the Hide upwards, and of grave for the Aiding return downwards : for (omitting the tails, which are only for the purpofe of mea- furing the time,) to mark a Aide progreilively tipwards by our fyftem, it mull go thus >^ — , and progreilively down- oh! >vards, thus, Ny^ — . Why did the Greeks mark their accents ho! by exacflly fuch floping lines, if they did not mean them as we do, for the expreflion of a Aide upwards y^ , or of a Aide downwards ^S^ ? I muft allow, however, that this coincidence between the marks which I have adopted and thofe ufed by the Greeks is fome- what extraordinary, confidering that they called their moft acute found, low; and their moft grave found, high; and alfo that their diftin<5lions of notes in writing, were not made by pofition as ours are (that is, the higher notes occupying the higher parts of the fcale, and vice verfd) ; but their notation ran in one ftrait line, each different note being diftinguiAied by a particular characSler, like a line of common writing. But to folve this difficulty to' myfelf, I have fuppofed their calling the graveft note, high; and the moft acute, low; Mas in relation to the pofition of their notes on their inftruments : for I think their expreflions of n [ lo ] innoKTic und uvxTxais "'' ^s applied to the acuie^ aiid of 'a.v£(yiq to the grave, feem to imply that they conlidercd the voice as afcending to the firll, and defcending to the laft; for uiilefs they had been led by this fentiment, they flionld have made their marks for the acute and grave quite contrary to what they really did, and to what I have done, by making them conformable to our modern notation I of mufic. If the learned author of the Origin and Progrefs of Language, had conceived that the melody of our fpeech was formed by Aides, he Mould have found his quotation (page 278.) from Dion. Thrax. ((piavrjc a,7:ri)(ricri; ivxpi/.cvi8i '/} xoiT di/ocTxaiv sv ryj o^sia. to have been perfecftly agreeable to our fyflem ; and his difficulty to comprehend why the grave, marked on a laft fyllable, lliould (by fome commentators be faid to) denote the acute would vanifli, if he had confidered that a grave accent mufb begin com- paratively acute, in order to end grave, by Aiding downwards. The true fenfe of thefe words of Dionylius is probably this : " That accent is the change of the enharmonic voice, by an " extent or ftretch up to the acute, or by levelling it to the grave,. " or by making a circuit in the circumflex." In other words, Aiding up to the acute. Aiding down to the grave, and Aiding up and down, without change of articulation in the circumflex.^ Suppofe the word ovpuvoc to be noted in our ■ ■ , - / manner: ou, with the acute, rofe or Aid up ^ '^ \ - "%. . ov py. voQ ^ about a fifth; ^x, with a grave, fell or Aid * Ariftid. Quint, fays exprefsly (in Meibom. vol. II. p. 8. and 9.) yliilxi Si, »' jxlv ftx- fiiT»i;, xxTxhv avcupi^ofAiua IS zvi^jfj-eHoi' li J' e^urris, sVi TO.r,i s7fcVcf«>a; that is^ afrwefomid h produced from ihe bottom or loweft .part of the breath ; aiid an acute found, fr,oni the top or upper part. 3 down [ II ] down to the common level; confequently, to let vo; fTide to the i^rave, in like manner, the voice mull be allowed to get to the top, or acute part of the grave, in order to Hide down again; otherwife, if the identical tone that ^a, ended on fliould be Con- tinued vmiformly to the whole of the fyliable vof, it would fall under the defcription or definition of common fong, by dwelling for a perceptible Ipace of time on one tone. Wherefore I think it mult be underttood, that acute and grave were not fingle fixed tones, like the notes of diatonic mufic, but v/ere the marks of vocal Aides; viz. that the acute began grave and ended acute; and on the contrary, the grave began acute and ended grave. As all Ipeech, profe as well as poetry, falls naturally under / emphatical divifions, which I will call cadences : Let the thefis or pulfation, which points out thole divifions, be marked by barSj as in ordinary mufic. Modern muficians, very impro- perly, ufe the words accented and U7iaccented in the place of thefis 7*^ and arfis ; but the proper fenfe of accent refers only to the melody of acute and grave, or diverfity of tone ; whereas the tbejis and arjis fliould relate folely to pulfation and remijfion. By which diverfity of exprefljon, emphatic and remifs, the modes of time ^ are pointed out, and the meafure governed. " Of modes of time there are only two genera; the one, where the whole time of a bar, or cadence, is divided by 2, and its fub- duples or fub-triples ; the other, where the Avhole time of a bar or cadence is divided by three, and its fub-duples or fub-triples. More fl^iall be faid of this and of emphafis hereafter, under the head of Meafure or Rhythmus. ^ C 2 Almoft ^ [ 12 ] Almoft every fyllable in our language (monofyllables excepted) is afFedted pofitively either to the arfis or thefts^ though Ibme are of a common nature, and may be ufed with either. Our heroic, or ten fyllable lines, moft commonly begin with a fyllable under arfis : and fuppofmg the line to confift of 5 feet, or rather according to our fyftem, of 5 bars or cadences of mulical time (exclufive of refts or paufes), there will be half a bar at the beginning, and half a bar at the end; that is, it will begin with arfis and end with thefis : but fometimes the afte6lion of the firll fyllable is fo pofitive to tbejis, as to oblige the meafure of the line to begin wifh a whole bar (for the beat, or tbefs, con- Itantly falls on the firft note or fyllable of the bar); but always fome reJIs or paufes are neceffary, as being more agreeable both to the fenfe and to the meafure; fo that, including the r^x, a line of nominal 5 feet, or ten fyllables in words, occupies at leaft the time of 6 bars or cadences^ as in the example foUoAving ; in which the fyllable, oh! is pofitively emphatical and under thejisy and the fyllable our (agreeable to the fenfe in this expref- lion) is, as politively, remifs, and under arjis. But here let it be obferved, that this emphajis of cadence and the expr^ion of loudnefs^ are not to be conlidered as equivalent terms or affecflions of the fame kind;^ for the arfts^ or remifs^ may \)^loud^ or forte-, and. the ^>6^j-, ox emphatic^ pia7io or fofty oeca- lionally. The tbefis and arfis being periodically alternate, whether expreffed or fuppofed; whereas the applications of \)i\e forte and piano are ad libitum^ or apropos.. Therefore, beiide the chara6ters which diftinguifh the variety of founds and of meafure of time, there are others required to marK [ 13 ] mark where the /£r/£^ndp/^«<9 iliould be exprefled. The modern: muficians have no other charaiflers for thele than the words them fe Ives. However, they will be better fuppUed in our fcheme by the af per ^ , and le nis > , of the Greeks * ; the crefcendo^ rinfor- za?ido, or /well, by wVV\AAA ' ^^^ ^^^ fmorzando, or dying away, by I/V/yAAA^^; all which will be more conveniently written under than over the words, to prevent their interfering with apoftrophes or tittles of the letter /. THE FOREGOING CHARACTERS APPLIED IN THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLE. Oh, happinefs ! our being's end and aim ! In an attempt fo new in our age, as the reducing common fpeech to regular notes, it will not be expelled that this firfl * I mean, by adopting thefe marks, to inlinuate a conjeflure ; and, if I am right, will not the neceffity of tiuo/pirits, as well as two accents, be apparent ? — Though very learned men have tliouglit otherwife. In the ancient guttural languages, the forte was probably afpirated ; ^~~j that is, the found of the letter H was frequently thrown in : for a frequent energic afpiration is a principal caufe of the Iridi vicious tone in pronouncing Englifli ; and that afpirated tone is derived from the original Trifh language, which, like all the other antient languages, is extremely guttural. -' eflay [ u ] eflay lliould be extremely accurate; for there is a great latitude in the Hides not only of different fpeakers, hut alfo of the fame fpeaker at different times. People who play by ear on inftruments of mufic, as well as thofe who play by notes, can feldom -plj-Y their voluntaries a fecond time witho\it great variation. Now all people, orators of pulpit, bar, and ftage, in refpeil of the melody and rhythmus of language, are but as players of voluntaries exhibiting by ear» having no notes as a teft or ftandard to prove their corredlnefs, and to meafure the degrees of their excellence. We have heard of Betterton, Booth, and Wilks, and fome of us have feen Quin ; the portraits of their perfons are probably preferved, but no models of their elocvition remain; nor any proofs, except vague alTertions and arbitrary opinions, to decide on the comparative merits in the way of their profeffion, between them and the moderns. Had fome of the celebrated fpeeches from Shakefpeare been noted and accented as they fpoke them, we fhould be able now to judge, whether the oratory of our ftage is improved or debafed. If the method, here effayed, can be brought into familiar ufe, the tyjjes of modern elocution may be tranfmitted to pofterity as accurately as we have received the muflcal compofitions of Corelli. But perfed:ion and accuracy in this art can only be attained by experience and a clofe attention, in eftimating the pitch and extent of vocal Hides by the ear, with the affiftance of a proper jnftrument. I hope, however, this example will fliew, that the melody of Speech is formed by Jlides ; and that by thefe, or fome other apt characters, [ 15 ] charadters, the mufical expreffion of fpeech may be defcribed and communicated in writing. But if this elTay be not fufficient to prove what the melody of fpeech is, let us, in the next place, endeavour to fliew what it is not. It is not like the proclamation of a parifli-clerk announcing the pfalm, esi & -t^_. :E eEl^^^ JLet us fing to the praife and glory of God ! where the whole fentence is in one tone, without any change of acute or grave. SIEi ■^^s^. ^— p p^ ;i Oh, happinefs !— our being's end and aim! Neither is it like the intonation of the choroftates, or precentor in our cathedrals, where the change of tone is made between one fentence and another, or between one word and another; that is, where the change is made, not upon fyHableSy but upon words Qx fentenees. n i^lfel Lord ! have mercy upon us !. S^; i $ i Oh, happinefs! — our being's end and aim! Now to fubmit thefe feveral examples to the judgement of common ears, let a bafs viol have a j^aper pafted on the whole length of the finger-board near the 4th ftring, marking all the chromatico- [ i6 ] chromatico-diatonic ftops or frets, fuitable to that bafs, from the bottom to the top, as in the figure reprefented below. For the experiment of the Hides, let the 4th firing (though aaually tuned to ^=3= J be called ^^~^ for the fake of keeping our flides within the compafs of the five black lines, or nearly fo ; and alfo to keep the hand, making the ihdes, fo high on the fliift, as never to fall down to the open firing. Then while the player draws the bow over the 4th firing, let him try, by Aiding his left hand on the fame firing up or down the finger-board, to imitate the rapid turns or flecSlions of the voice in common fpeech, and he will foon find, that they will have either their beginnings or endings, for the mofl part, in the intervals between the fretts; which intermediate flops, we may call quarter tones : for it will be accu- rate enough for our purpofe, to call every degree of tone a quarter, that does not coincide with any tone or femitone of the chromatico-diatonic. And then, if he can pronounce, being thus aflifled by the in- ftrument, all the foregoing examples, as they are written or noted, the auditors will mofl probably agree in the following conclufions. Top. ifl, That ;[ X7 ■] I ft, That the found or melody of fpeech is not monotonous, or confined Hke the found of a drum, to exhibit no other changes than thofe of loud or foft. adly, That the changes of voice from acute to grave, and vice verfd, do not proceed by pointed degrees coinciding with the divifions of the chromatico-diatonic fcale ; but by gradations that feem infinitely fmaller (which we cz\\.Jlides)\ and though altogether of a great extent, are yet too rapid (for inexperienced ears) to be diftin6lly liib-divided; confequently they muft be fubmitted to fome other genus of mufic than either the diatonic or chromatic. 3dly, That thefe changes are 7nade, not only upon words and uponfentences, but upon fyllables and monofyllables. Alfb, 4thly, and laftly, That in our changes on fyllables or mono- fyllables, the voice Aides, at leaft, through as great an extent as ^V^ the Greeks allowed to their accents; that is, through a fifth, more or lefs. / D PAR T. [ i8 ] PART 11. 'T^HE art of mnfic, whether appUed to fpeaking, finging, or dancing, is divided into two great branches, found and meafurey more famiharly called tune and time. Inftead of which words, I "ufe (for the moft part) the Greek terms of melody and rhythmuS) being more fignificant, as generals, than our vulgar terms. Whether the notes or chara(5lers ufed by the Greeks for writing their mufiCj were as good or better than ours, is a matter worth the labour of the curious to enquire into : but the modern fcale and notes (which may be called the accidence of our mufical grammar) are now fo thoroughly known all over Europe, that, with a little alteration and addition, they will ferve better for the exponents of what I have to offer concerning rhythmus, than if I was to attempt to follow the obfcure track of another fyftem, now totally unknown to the majority, and only very imperfectly to the few. When the cadences of our language, either poetry or profe, are properly marked in our way, every perfon initiated in the pradtical knowledge of mulic, Avill be able to comprehend our meaning, and to read the words according to the melody and rbytbmus we fhall mark to them. Neither would the Greek feet, under all their various names, anfwer in any fuitable degree to the rhythmus of our language; for the commentators have told us, 3 their [ 19 1 tlieir long and lliort fyllables were in proportion to each other, only V;^ >^e^ as 2 to I ; whereas in our rhythmus we have the fevcral propor- )r- '^ tions of 2. I. 4" ?• "^"^^ 3- I- J- iJ ^11 which will appear in the \ * examples which we lliall let down. Befides, I apprehend, J I w^hoever takes up the confideration of this fubje(5l in oiu* way^ j will find it much eafier to examine it in the Greek fyflem after- / wards, when he may perhaps be able to dctecfl the errors of \ commentators, fome of whom, not being muficians, mifunder- j llood the fubje<5l they undertook to expound. The fifth chapter of part II. book ii. of ^be Origin and Progrefs of Language, treats, according to the plan of the contents placed at the head of the chapter, " Of rhythm in general, and the " divilion of it into the rhythm of motion without found. — " Sub-divifion of the rhythm of found into five different fpe- " cies. — Of that fpeeies of it which is called quantity or metre.—— " Verfe in Englifli not made by quantity, but by what we call " accent.'''' The ingenious author refolves the different percep- tions, of found y as acute and grave; of cadence, as arfis and thefis; of quantity, as long and fhort ; and of quality., as loud and foft ; into one original caufe, motion. Which, however true, feems not fo neceffary in this place, as it would have been to have defcribed, in apt terms, how thefe feveral effedls of motion differed from each other. He has very juftly explained the true fenfe of the term accent', and yet, from too much complaifanee to a vulgar error, ufes it in a fenfe contrary to his own definition, and contrary to, his own very fenfible remark at the end of this chapter. " In matters of fcience, the ideas of different things " fhould be kept, and expreffed by different names: for, as I D 2 *' obferved i -t [ ^o ] *' obferved before, I am perfuaded that it was fome fuch confu- " lion in the ufe of the word pro/ody, that contributed to lead " men into the error concerning the ancient accents.'^ p. 328. Therefore, in order to avoid the confufion made by moderns in the mifufe of the word accent, let us call the note or fyllable on which the cadence falls, heavy, and, where necelTary, denote it by this mark (a); and the note, or fyllable, erroneoufly called unaccented, we will call light, and mark it thus (.*.); and as we lliall find, there are two forts of light notes, let the lighteft be reprefented thus (..). Our breathing, the beating of our pulfe, and our movement in walking, make the divifion of time by pointed and regular L cadences, familiar and natural to us. Each of thefe movements, or cadences, is divided into two alternate motions, flgnificantly expreffed by the Greek words arjls and theJJs, raijing and pojing, or fetting down; the latter of which, coming down as it were with weight, is what we mean to call heavy, being the moll energic or emphatic of the two; the other, being more remifs, and with lefs emphafis, we call light. So when we lift our foot, in order to walk, that motion is arjis, or light; and when we put it on the ground, in order to proceed, that a6t of poling is thejis, or heavy. If we count on our fingers every ftep or cadence we make in walking, we fliall find each of them confifiing of, and fub- divided by, thefe two motions, arfis and thefis, or the light and the heavy, and if we count only on every fecond cadence or ftep (which makes a pace), we fliall find each pace fub-di^'ided by fovir [ 21 ] four motions; two of which will be thefes or heavy ^ and the other two arfes or light. This divilion of the ftep by the even number 2, and of tlie pace by the even number 4, naturally arifes from the walk of a found or perfecTt man. The halting of a lame man makes a pace divifible into fix^ inilead of four; that is, the tbejis or pojing of one of his feet refls twice as long on the ground as that of the other foot; eonlequently, in each pace of this lame walk, there will be one thejis of lb much greater weight or emphafis than the other, that the fecond thelis appears, in comparifon with it, to be light. Wherefore this whole pace is conlldered only as one cadence, divided tmequally into heavy (a), lighteft (..), light (.*.), and lighteft(..)- Here then are two general modes or measures of time. The /fr/?, wherein each ftep makes a cadence^ and is divided equally by the even number 2, and the pace, or double cadence, by 4; and is in mufic called conimo7i time, andante, or the measure of a march. TYiefecoiid, where the whole pace, making only one cadence, may be equally divided by the number 6, as the double of 3; and is called triple tiine, or the measure of the minuet and jigg. But the two fteps compofmg the pace of triple time, A .. ' are fo far diffimilar, that one of them is compofed by 3+1, and the other by 1 + 1 ; as, ?=p F~ ?7 = ^^-Jt-J--*^ j ; which diverfity, when A ,. .-. .. A .. .'. .. ilow,. \ H ^^ I flow, makes the graceful variety of the minuet; and, when f after, the merry hobble of the jigg^--. ]Kaw all fpeech, as M^ell as other mufic, is fubjedt to the in- fluence o|l QADENCE, by arjfs and f/?e/iSy or the //o/jt and the heavy ^ as well as of measure, which determines thofe cadences to the common or the tripky and likewife to the affe6tion of quantity (as. an inferior diyifipji of rhythmus or measure) by xh& long and th&J/joy^. An^ as the length of fyllables, as well as their particular. aflfe*^ioiis to, the,//o/'/ and \\\q. heavy ^ is various, according to the genius of the language; folbme words and fentences muft be meafured b,y common time, and fome by triple tijne. I Mufieians mark the modes or meafures of time, according to which their mufic is to be performed, by prefixing at the beginning of the movement, the marks ^, or the letter G or (J^ for common time; and 3, or |, or |, or any of the multiples of _3_ ill the numerators for triple time (the denominator ferving only to fhew into how many parts a femibrief is fuppofed to be divided in that air) ; and at every cadeiice a j^erpendicular ftroke or bar is put, or fuppofed ; as thus, A .*. A .*. A .*. A A .*. A .*. A /. A .'. -~wr. -V feg; or • • • • 5 c > c A .. .*. A ? C 9 < A .-. A /Vvvv^ I Lp~r r - ztzfcE: ifEE^S z:i=3^ i^F ^Je3 ; I ^^y fuppofed, be- * It is probable the Greeks derived their notions of the rhythmus in mufic from the aftion of walking, by their having made the word foct a principal term in the art of profody. caufe t ^3 ] caufe t\\t) or more cadences may be comprized within the fpace called a bar, as in the fecond example, or there may be a bar at every cadence, as in the firft ; the bar of itlelf being of ho other lignification than as an eye-mark to the performer, to fliew where fome cadences are, by which he can eafily obferve the others: for, at the pleafure of the compofer, the fpace between bar and bar may contain either i, or 2, or 3, or 4, or 6, or 8, or 9, or 12, Sec. cadences; that is, any number of cadences which may be the multiples of 2 or of 3, but whereof neither 5, 7, 11, 13, or any prime number, except the fore- going 2 or. 3, fliall be the divifors or fa6tors: (I mean this more flri(5tly as applied to the compofition of mulic, than to the rhythmus of fpeech; and perhaps the number 5, as being com- pofed of the prime numberi2 and 3, fliould be allb excepted.) But here 1 will obferve again, that (in common mulic) no lefs than a whole pace muft be allowed for a cadence of triple meafure; becaufe, as before mentioned, it is compofed of- two unequal fteps. However, in the rhythmus of fpeech, where the ' two genera are continually intermixed, the triple cadence is only equal to one ftep. In the above exanipl'es, I have written the marks of light- and heavy^ over the notes, and of the piano and forte, under them, in order to ihew clearly, that there are five orders of ^ accidents incident to melody and meafure, eflentially different in their nature and effects from each other, and very material to be attended to in the conilderatiou. of the melody and meafure / of fpeech. For I ^4 ] For I conceive, Speech r o melody by Hides acute and grave loud or foft. o J meafure or rhythmus of motion and reft dillinguifhed by ' pong quantity •! and Lfliort. heavy cadence \ and light. and And here it may be proper to recapitulate and bring the feveral marks, which we have adopted for the expreffion of thefe five orders of accidents, into one view. I ft, ACCENT. Acute y^ grave "N^^, or both combined /\\y'. adly, QUANTITY. Longeft ^^ long *]*, fliort Y, fliorteft J . 3diy, PAUSE ovfiknce, Semibrief reft i, minim reft-, crotchet reft r, quaver reft n. 4thly, EMPHASIS or c«3'fl'l?;^<:^. Heavy A, light .*., lighteft .. 5thly, FORCE ox quality of found. Loud c, louder c c, foft 5 fofter J 5 . Swelling or increafing in loudnefs -avVV, decreafing in loudnefs or dying away VAA^^'^^ . Loudnefs uniformly con- Alfo the fub-divifion of bars or cadences may be, at the pleafure of the compofer, in any fradional parts, the fum of which will make up the whole quantity of the bar or cadence^ provided that the denominators of the faid fradional parts are always, either fub- duples or fub-triples, of the whole number of the bar or cadence. And alfo all meafured refls or paufes are as fignificant in com- putation of time and in value of place, refpeding cadence or the heavy [ ^-5 ] heavy and light, as exprefs notes of found. For example, let the time of a whole bar in a piece of mufic be equal to i,' then the fub-divifion of other bars in the fame piece may be + TT+ A+TT + TT^ ^c. the fum of each bar making always i. Anct this diverlity of diviiion within a cadence or bar is t^ie fubjcd: of quantity. That member of rhytbmus which I call a cadence^ has, in my lyfhem, nearly the fame effedl as that which by the Greeks was called metron. The divifion of ^ + ^ is naturally governed by the andante or walking cadence of a perfe<5t man. The divifion of | + j is the halting of a lame man, or minuet meafure. And the TT+TT+Tr + TF+Tr+TT) or, as commonly marked by mulicians, |*, equivalent to r6+T6 + iT+r6+'r6 + ^» ^^ ^^ cantering of a horfe, or the meafure of a jigg. The example in page 1 5, of the parifli clerk announcing the pfalm, is in this meafure ; the na- tural rhythmus and metres of thofe words will admit of no other. The diviiion of all rhythmical founds by the multiples or fub- duples of 2 or of 3, is fo ftrongly affe6led by our nature, that either a tune or a difcourfe will give fome uneafinefs, or at leaft ( not be quite fatisfadory to nice ears t, if its whole duration be * |, the denominator 8, fliews into how many parts a femibricf is fuppofed to be divided, and confequently, tliat a bar of this meafure contains only three quarters of a femibrief. If a fc'uiKjrief reprefentcd any pofitive length of time, this rule, of making it appear as a ftandard, would have fome ufiful meaning; but as its length is only relative, it has little or none, and the figures 2 and 3 would be futlicient to denote all changes of meafure, and be more finiple and more fatisfa£tory, f The laft movement in the celebrated overture of La Buona Figliuola has this defeft, and every nice ear feels it. E not I /untC^. z^'/< end and aim.'i A .-. A Oh, P'4 sT' happinefs ! A .. /. A ■I our A .-. being's A .'. ?• Y ^ c\ end and aim! I A .-. A .'. A ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF SIX CADENCES. Y- I Y animals A .. .'. ? Y ftate al r? 'tis A .-. Y-Y- lotted Y? given A .'. ? Y them by Y ? heaven * It were to be wiflied, that foniething more than an affertion, with an appeal to nature, and a ccnjeilure, could be offered as an illuftration of this myfterious law. But may not fpace of time be analogous to fpacc in geometry ? wliich can only be equally and uniformly divided by quadrilateral or triangular polygons, their multiples, or fub-duples; that is, by fquares D, parallelograms CD, triangles A, or hexagons^ ; for with a feries of pentagons or heptagons, or any other polygons than thofe firft mentioned, no fpace can be uniformly covered, without leaving void interdices of heterogeneous forms ; whereas any quadrilateral or triangular fpace can be compleatly covered with homogeneous quadrilateral or triangular figures No [ 2^7 ] ? rNo • • ? rNo ? T vain re A .-. ? Y. fears ot ? Y fearchcs ? Y dark fu A .-.I Or the fecond line thus, Y Y ? Y ? Y r To en joy the ftate al A .-. e'er dil A .-, YY Y turity A .. /. Y Y Y lotted them ? .Y tiirb their ? r reft A A r ? mo ? r left. A .-. A -Y by Y ? heaven Which divifion of the line into Jix bars or cadences of time, is as little as can be allowed for the reader or fpeaker to fetch his Jbreath; and this in the plai n nar rative ftile, for if there be required any very pointed expreflion, more refts or paufes rnuft be thrown in, which maft neceflarily either increafe the number of Jjars, or, by ufing fliorter notes in fome parts, throw the fyllables of two bars into the time_of one, or paflly one, partly the other. Wherefore our heroic lines are truly hexameterSj — The thefts or heavy note or fy 11 able, on which the hand or foot beats time, is always the firft in the bar; and if in that place, inftead of an exprefs note of found, there fliould be marked a reft, then the thefis or heavy part of the cadence falls on that reft : the laft note in a bar (or in that extent which we allow to a cadence) is always light. If there be only one note or fy liable which fills the whole extent of a cadence, of courfe, that one note is at firft heavy, and then the latter continuance fuppofed light. For thefe afFecSlions are always alternate, except cut off by refts, or long- holding tones, without change of articulation. If a cadence be fub-divided into many notes or fyllables, they E 2 fhall ,y [ ^8 ] Ihall be nearly divided under the feveral degrees of emphafis of heavy (a), light (.•.), and lightell: ( . . ) ; as thus, A A .. ^ ^' P-T rizipzzB; or, SI Having j^remifed fo much, I will now give a general precept and example in the following fentence : whether 2, 4 Every T T fentence ;• in our T T language, > 5-\ profe or P^ verfe, A r r A /. ^4 has a A .-. > X rhythmus A r n\ yj. PV ^r r r pe culiar to it felf; r r A .-. A .*. A .-. A .'. A .'. A /. 3 4 Y Y i - 1 That is, in the language ot T- 1 r either in y y y common time rrT or r T dern m\i • • • • r ? ficians, A .-. r r it is A .-. r T r triple time; rrT vi TTT delicet. A .. ^ s • •*• A . . .*. I I Y T minuet time. rr Y or Y- Y- jigg time, rr r or Y- rn mixed. To the firft member of the above fentence (which I ha^'e written in common time, as marked by |), I have noted the accents, the quantity znd cadence; to the latter member, which is in triple meafure, I have only marked quantity and cadence, together with the proper rejis or paufes throughout the whole. I have [ ^-9 ] h:.ve omitted the marks of piano and forte, becaufe in calm unempaliioned fentences the addition of tliofe exprcHions, to any fenlible degree, would convert plain difcourfe into bombaft. minu in the w_, or , — '^ — , is ufed, it is to lhe\\', that as Where this mark many fyllables or reils as are written over that Une or embrace, are all to pafs as one in refpedt of the A , or the .*. . I ^^'ill now fhew forae fmall alterations that may be made in the meafure of the foregoing example, and fill up the refts, between 7'hytbmiis -xnd peculiar, by expletives. 2 4 ^ Hi Every A . . /. rJ / fentence in A . . 'A our A /. language. The mark ^ fliews, that thofe three notes wrote under that arch pais off in the time of two ; by which means, the two modes, coinmon and triple, are cafily intermixed. In this alteration, the monofyllable in (one of our pliant fyllables) M'hich before was hewcy and acide, becomes light and grave : and our hQcom^ts heavy on the diphthong oil, and light oil the liquid r; and extending to the length of two fyllables, is. accented with a circumflex, as before. Has a A .-. y y rhythmus of its \ \ own pe A 1 ^ ^ A .-. A .-. culiar A .-. to it A .'. felf . G\ The foregoing example conflrts in the whole of 3 2 ba}s or cadences, including the relb, \\hich were abfolutelv neccliairy, in [ 30 3 in order to pronounce it with propriety; and with thofe refts it divides into 8 rhythmical claufes, of 4 cadmces in each. Tliough I have given a Icale, in my firft part, in order to demonftrate witli accuracy, the nature and extent of the Aides we make in fpeech, yet with a little practice I found, that drawing my Hides on the common five black lines was fufficicnt (at leaft for a perfon who is already a mufician and mafter of the language) to diredl; the voice to the proper tones ; for there is a great latitude which may be ufed without any feeming blemifli ; as whether the Aide runs a quarter of a tone or three quarters, up and down, more or lefs, feems of little confequence, provided the proprieties of (the rhythmus) quantity and cadence^ are duly obferved. And with ftill more pradice I found, that drawing the accents fimply over the lyllables, without the black lines, (but with fome regard to higher or lower, by pofition of the marks, as in the examples here given), was fo certain a guide, that I could always read the fentences, fo marked^ nearly in the lame melody; but the other four accidents, of quantity^ paufing^ empbaJiSj and fortepiafto^ excepting the laft, I could no how abridge or omit. And I alfo found, that the marks of quantity^ paufing^ and emphafis alone, were fo fufficient that a native needed fcarce any farther help to read with fur- prizing corrednefs of exprelTion; though I muft acknowledge the meaning of a fentence may often be entirely altered, by changing the accent from acute to grave, or vice verfci. I will now fet down fome of the lines of Englilli poetry (quoted by the learned author of T'be Origin and Progrefs of Language^ in the firft edition of his 8th chap, of book iii. part II.) which I will accompany with the marks of ?'efiSj quantity^ and I cadence [ 31 ] cadence^ in order to fhew, that the method of meafuring by the Greek feet, without any allowance for paufes, is inaccurate and indecillve: for, fuice the ingenious author admitted (what he called accent, by us called) cadence of heavy and light to be in our language, though he denied us to have quantity, it will appear, that his verfes of five feet confill at leaft of fix cadences^ and com- monly thofe of four feet confift of five. Lines which confift of five cadences or metres have lefs grace and dignity than thofe of fix or eight. T- Y I. Daughter of A .. /. ? T God and A .-. T ? Pleafures, A - T the A /. ? r Sex, A .-. ? man, A ■r as -Y ac Y ? compHfii'd A ? Y children A .*. ? Y birds pur A ? r Eve. A .'. ? r lue. A .*. - Y Tho' A ? r -Y ? r deep, yet clear; A .*. A .'. A .-. - Y tho' ? Y Y- Y- ? rl gentle, yet not dull; A .-. A .-. A .-. r, ? rlr I Y -1 Strong, A without • • • < ? r rage; A .-. • Y with lA Y- Y- out o'er A .-. ? Y A flowing Or -thus., as pronounced by Mr. Garrick : T' ? Y Strong with Thou, out A .'. rage; A .-. ■ Y w^th Y-Y- out o'er A flowing ? Y Stella, A .V ?■ Y wall no A ? Y ? longer young, • Y When ? Y firit, for A ? Y thee, my A ? Yl ? r lyre I flrung. A ? r full. A full. I Ihall 'ff/jr^^^^ [ 3^ ] A .-. A /. 1 fliall onut the llvAidrq^k, of rh^'ming upon ajlick\ becaufe, though fuch doggrell may help out a laugh, the particle ^, in Englifli, is fo abfolutely lights that it cannot be put in the heavy part of the cadence, \vithout violence to our pronunciation and a fliock to gravity. A .-. A .'. A .-. A .*. Before Porto Bello lying. If this was the original of this fong, the vox populi, whofe ears were too nice to fuffer fo barbarous a mifapplication of the word before^ have long lince altered it to As near A .-. Porto A .'. Bello A .-. lying, A .'. On the I gently A .'.A fwelling A flood, r A I'lJ \l-Ht.C For be^ in the word before^ is fo politively light that it cannot bear to be put out of its place ; though (^^, as a monofyllable, is fo pliant as to ferve any where; and the latter fyllable fore^ is as pofitively heavy^ and cannot without the greateft violence be put under the light. rn I Y From the A ri i Y From the A .. .-. Y- 1 Y knaves, and the Y- 1 Y fools, and the Y- fops 1 Y ot the Y^nr time, i A A A .. .'. A .-. I Y- 1 Y drudges in Y- 1 Y profe, and the Y- Y triflers in Y- rn rhyme. *1A • • • • A .. .-. A .. • • A • • • My - T T- I, r My time, oh,.ye A /. A - r r- I T When. Phoebe jWent A .'. I A ..I v*. -r T-h r It e'er in thy A .*. A .. .*. - T y- i T De tend me trom A .*. A [ 33 ] T r Y A Mufes, was • • >« • - r- I Y A light, I found Y- 1 Y happily A .. /. Y-'"!"' Y with me, where A Y- I Y favour, A A .. .". Y- I Y alters that A . . Y- I Y all the dil A .. Y- ri Ipent, A Y-l Y ever I ^ • • • • Y ? polio, A /. Y ? follow A .*. r- r 1 went. A Thefe three diftichs are all in triple time and jigg meafure; and the lyllable more or lefs, at firft or at laftl, makes no difference in the rhythmus. In applying my rules to thefe examples, I endeavour to do juftice to the proper meafure of our language, without the leaft intention of adapting them to the feet of the Greek profody. IJball addone more from the gtb chap, page 403. Y. I Y Place me in Y- hY Where not a Y Y II regions of e A . ^of?f:V Y-Yn ternal Y- Yr winter. ^ • • • • z\ • • • • Y Y 1 I bloffom to the A .. Y- iY breeze can YY 1 I open; but A .. ■A\r 9^ V'\ Y Darkening • • • • Y Y r tempefts Y-l II doling all a Y Y r round me, i^j Y- 1 Y YY.r Chill the ere ation. A A.. .-. Place [ 34 ] Place me where r Y-1 fun-fhine M r Y evermore me Y Y Y Climes where no YYr mortal A .. .'. A Y- i M builds his habi Y Yr fcorches ; Y Yrj ration ; ' A .. .*. Y- I Y Yet with my Y Yr charmer Y- 1 I I fondly will I ^A • • • • i-L • t « • • • Uk « • • • YY r wander Y- I Y Fondly con Y Yr verfing. Now if after all I have faid, any one fhould flill doubt or deny- that our language has both melody and meafure, I would refer to the following experiment : Take three common men; one a native of Aberdeeiifhire,, another of Tipperary, and the third of Somerfetfhire ; and let them converfe together in the Englifli language, in the prefence. of any gentleman of the courtly tone of the metropolis ; his ears will foon inform him, that every one of them talks in a tune very different from his own, and from each other; and that their difference of tone is not owing merely to hud and foft^ but to a variety both of melody and of meafure, by a different application, of accents, acute ?nd grave; and of quantity , fhort and long; and of cadence, light and heavy. Every one of the four perfons^ will perceive the other three have very diftind: tones from each other,, [ 55 ] other, and that the tone of each is phiinly diilinguilhed by the a/io and l^a/fO) though each in particular may fancy his om n tone to be quite uniform, and in the unifon with itfelf. The extreme famiharity exifting between a man and his native language, makes him lofe all fenfe of its features, of its defor- mities, and of its beauties; though under this Itate of indiffer- ence, if the love of variety, fo natural to man, fliould prone him into a liking of fome foreign tongue, fuch a circumftance may make him very fliarp-lighted towards the faults of his own, and as blind to its perfe(5tions. I will not pretend to compare our language to the Greek ; but as to its melody, I think it about. us good as the Latin, and much better than French or German, though far inferior to the Italian, which, in that quality, exceeds ■ the Greek ; I fay, exceeds the Greek in melody, as far as we can judge of the Greek pronunciation; for, I apprehend, the befb Grecians in modern Europe, not excepting the inhabitants of Greece itfelf, know no more of the ancient tone of that language, as it was fpoken in the age of Demofthenes, than w^e do of the Britiili in the age of Alfred, and much lefs than an Englifli. boarding-fchool mifs does of the Parifian tone of French. Having proceeded fo far in this fyflem, as to convince myfelf that our language, under the influence of the two general modes of time, common and triple, has an exa(51: rbythmus^ both as to cadence, by the heavy and the light, and as to quantity,^ hy- the long and the JJyort ; and alfo that it has an accented melody of great variety and extent hj Jlides, acute 2\\di grave, and mixed iiv the circumflex', my next endeavour was to find out, whether our F 2 theatrical [ 36 ] theatrical declamation might not be agreeably and advantageaully ajflifted, as well as that of the ancient Greeks and Romans, by a fuitable bafs accompaniment. I confidere.d, tjrat as t)).e prolpdical changes of the voice by JlideSy acute and grave, \yere very rapid, the bafs accompaniment ought, by th.e rules of h^prnony, to be very fedute, with little or no motion by the acute or gr^ve : for, in the diatonic genuSy whenever tlije cantus takes a rapid flight, either up or down, tbrough all the notes of the octave, the moft proper and agree- able bafs is on.e continued found, either of \\iq. fundamental key- note, ox of the 4th to the key-note, or of the 5 th to the key, or of two of them founded together, in difcord or harmony, as the occalion and the tafte of the compofer may require. Neither could it be proper for the accornpaniment of the Hides, to exhibit the found of the bafs otherwife thap by tajlo fob fofienuto, or one holding note; becaufe to cont\x\\\t it JificcatOy or by feveral re- peated ftrokes, might interfere with, and confound, the articula- tion of the fpeaker. Experience muft teach us when this note may b£ intermitted, and when changed for another. I therefore concluded, that there could be no occalion, in the accompaniment of fpeech, for the bafs to found any other tone than the fundamental of the key, its fourth, or its fifth ; or the key-note with its fifth, in concord; or perhaps with its fourth reverfed, alfo in concord : becaufe, while any of thefe are con- tinued founding, the voice, by Aiding through the whole extent of the o6tave, muft, in its progrefs, exhibit every coi^cord of harmony that is poihble between twQ- founds. And therefore I made trial of the fundament^il (or deepeft note on the inftru^ ment) that feemed to he key-ni)X§ ^9 the common, i^yf^ of my. voice [ 37 ] voice in fpeaking, which I fuppofe to he ^=3h C of confort pitch, . .:»lt vin; :;r:, and made life of the open tone of the fourth firing of a violincelio, '~~\~ 'it)!!^ \Vas the odtave below •'•• my cotiimo'rt f^e!'. J~€C - ■ :>■» ;; , . ■; . I found my Aides in common difcourfe went about a fifth (of the diatonic Icale) above tlie level or key-note, and about a feventh below it; but if empaffioned, it run two whole tones higher, which made in the whole extent a compafs of 13 notes, or o6tave and fixth. Height of empanioned f(;eech, Of common dif< Common level, Of common difcourfe, . . . ^ \* t2)w§it note of fpcech, .... . ~ -3- I fometimes a), to continue the ancient manner of accompanied declamation; the bafTes of which being generally by a toflo fdo on a ground, or finale note, feem, according to our fyftem, to countenance this conje£lure ; but for the reft, the moderns liaving no proper idea of the ancient chromatic or enharmonic genera, and none at all of" the melody and vocal Aides in fpeech, write the canlus of their recitative in the chromatico- diatonic, which, until our cars are dcbaucb.ed into a cuftomary liking, founds unnatural and difgufting. x remainder remainder with all the marks of expreffioii, but '\vithont the accents. I^argo. o/r.*!*? 3 The tone for -♦<- the b:ifs ac- comi'ani- nient. ^ !k: To be! 9^ y Y 5^ -^ -tp^ — A .'. A . . ' .'. A /. A /. A or not to be ? that is the queftionkqfnt) ^^V=^ * •FP- ±& rr^"--'r i^-^ X - whether 'tis nobler in the mind to fufFer the a^-il:J'r.i-i.i-t'< ^#^F^ A .*. A /. A . . .*. A /. A ftings and arrows of outrageous fortune, A .-. A . . or to a^ Y 9 i!!^ # ^ i ^ 9 Y Y HbM A .-. A take arms againft affail of troubles, and by op- pofing B^9 i ^ ^ [ 41 ] Si t* Y r- -r- 9- ^ ^ 3; MtLt ^ A .'. A .*. poling, end them? — AAAAAAA^^AAAAAAArA Bi m Y A /. A .-. to die, 1=4 A .'. A .'. to fleep,- A .'. A .-. No more, =j^^^^^i>g^ # 3E X A .*. A .*. A .'. A /. A and by a lleep, to fay, we end the heart ach, 0f Y Y . Y- Y -. Y Y fe^ i^ A .. .'. A and the thoiifand A .. .'. A .'. A na tu ral fliocks that flefli is a^ V Q •X ^S + y y V jz:e P^ " A .*. A .. .*. .. A .. .•• A .. .*. A .•• heir to : — 'tis a confummation devoutly to be wilh'd. « A^AAArAAAAAAAA/VV^AAA/^AA/VVAA^/^/AAAAJ^/^A - Y ?• - Y ?• " Y ?• I. - Y ? Y ? To die — to deep , — ^-^ — to lleep! BB per chance to dream ; A .-. A .-. A .-. A .-. A .-. A /. A .-. A A .-. N\ rj\i\f^ J\f\ Aj\r\A t AMAAA'W\ ^/AC 5 G dream; C 42 3 I. ?• aye, A .'. I. ?• T there's the ? r rub ; A /.A for ' Y in ? r that ? Y fleep of ? r death A .'. A .*. A /. A .*. A ' Y what dreams may A .-. ?• come, AA^Ay\AA^AAAAAAAA^^A/^^ ? when we have A ? Y mortal coil, A .-. I. ? r mull r Y Y give us paufe. A .'. \/VWWW\A/v\vv- I I Y Y niuffled off this Y- I Y There's the ref- ? Y pe6t that ? Y makes ca Y- Y lamity rY Y of fo long ?• hfe: Allegretto. 1. rY " 2 .) for A A . . /. A.. .-. A/. A .'. A .-. Y' who would A Y- 1 Y Y bear the whips and A A Y- 1 fcorns of Y r time. A A .♦. < t^ r Y th'op A AAA^^/\AAA/^^^^/^/u^AAAAAA/v^A/^^A7^AAAAAA/\^^ Y Y 1 Y- n preffor's wrong, r 1 the A .*. 1 A AAAAAAATAA/VAAAA, ? proud A ? man's contumely, A r Y the AAA/"/\AAr/\.AAAAAAA/V\AAAAAAArA AAA pang [ 43 ] pang of ? def- A .% ? pib'd ? love, , — '-- ^ A /. r -i the /\rAA/"\AAAA^/VV\AAAAAAA^ Y- I lan's de- ? lay, A .*. r X the infolence of -■^-^ < — " — ' A 1 Yi offi.ce, r I I and tht I A A Y- I fpurns that Y-Y- 3 .) patient Y-Y- I merit, A/V\A/\A/\rAArAAAAA/V\AAAA/V\A/NAAAA/\A^ Y Y Y of the un A . . .'. Y- Y- ? r - Y iX ? r worthy takes; when he him felf A .*. A A .-. A .-. A /. ? r might A rY Y. his qui Y-Y- etus ? r make. with a bare ? Y bodkin? A.. .*• A .-. A ' — ' — > A .% A/. A .-. » Lai rgo. Allegretto. Y- I 2.) who would A t A/V\AAA ? Y groan and A Y Y Y r " Y fardles bear, 30 to A /. A .-. A .-. ? r fweat Y- Y under a ? Y weary ? r life. A .-. A . . .'. A .-. A .-. r. Y- 1 Y but that the ? Y.^ dread ol A .. .*. A :. 1 c Y- Y- Y-Y' ? r " Y ? Y fomething after death, (that undil- A A .*. A A /. A .-. Y- Y-l Y Y r covered coLUitry, Y- Y- from whole A ? Y bourne no I I Y- I traveller re ? r turns) A G 2 puzzles [ 44 ] T Y T ? r - Y ? Y ? Y puzzles the will ; and makes us rather A A /. A .•• A A .-. ? Y bear the ? Y ills we A .-. ? r rrY ? Y Y Yr Y ? have, than fly to others that we A .'. A .". A /. A .. /. A .-. Y- Y- know not Y- Y- confcience ? Y does mak^ Y Y 1 I cowards of us of. I. ? r Thus A .-. A .-. Y- Y- native ? Y hue of Y-Y' refo A .-. Y-Y- lution r 1 T' is all: - Y and A .*. A .-. Y- Y- licklied ? Y thus the ?• I r Y Y o'er with the ?• 1 "^ ^1 ? pale 1 call of thought ; A .'. 1 A - Y and A .-. Y-Y- enter A /. Y-Y I prizes of A .. great A .-. ? Y pith and Y- Y- moment, - Y with A ? Y this re gard, Y their A • • Y- Y- currents A ? Y ? r turn a wry, A a' .-. ' Y 1 ? Y arid I lofe the , .-. I A ? Y, name of A Y ?!'• action. _ Allegretto. Largo. A ? Y ? r 2. - Y Soft you, now ! B the A .-. A .'. A .-. fair [ 45 ] ? r fair Op ? r lielia ? A /. I. ? r Nymph, r 1 in thy or ilbns, A .'. -r be ? Y all my A .-. ims re A .-. Y ? member'd. a-r i VARIATJONS. ■ r ■■ ' ■ iii ^ A .♦. To A.*. die A .*. A .*. A .'. A to fleep — no more ! Of? ^ Q V Q Q V v. Y" ^ ^^^^ -^ li^ A .-. A .-. A .*. A .-. A and by a fleep to fay^ we end the heart ach, ^ Y Y Y* Y° Y Y Y -PV Ms Q - }■ I H \Ul A . . .*. A /. A . . /. A A .-. A and the thoufand natural fliocks that flefli is heir to ; 'tis [ 46 ] f^-i. Y -^ =^ ^ V V -^ i^^fe A . . .*. . . A . . .'. A .'. A . . /. A — 'tis a conlummation devoutly to be wifli'd ! But to conclude, as the pra6lice of the enharmonic genus of raufic, and the art of reducing the melody and nieajure of fpeech to i:)ra6licable and legible notes (if it was ever compleat), and of accompanying the fame by a continual bafs •'■•, ha\'e lain, as it were, in a terra incognita, for at leaft a thoufand years paft, I think, thefe fmall fpecimens produced, may be our vouchers to prove, that we have difcovered the land, and marked out the" route which may be followed by others : and therefore, I hope, gallant adventurers will not' be wanting, to pufli thefe difco- veries further, to explore and bring to light thofe rich curiofities that Hill lie hid in the interior parts of the country. * In the modern practice of mufic there feems no fignificant reafon, why the common accompanying bafs, of all forts of airs, fliould be called hajfo continuo, or thorough bafs, unlefs the term was taken from that bafs, which, by accompanying theatrical declamation, was continued all thorough the performance, while the other baffes, for the accompanyment of incidental dironiatic or diatonic airs, as interludes, were only introduced now and then. For the faft is, the modern bajfo continuo is no more continual than the cantus, or any other part of the fympliony. Nor do I know any thing which can properly be called a thorough bafs^, in out ' days, except the drone of that ancient inftrument the bag-pipe, made by tibiis imparibus, founding exaftly the two notes (key note and fifth) which I have made ufe of in thefe experiments. SINCE C 47 ] QJlNCE writing the foregoing treatife, I have heard Mr. *^ Garrick in the chara6ter of Hamlet; and the principal differences that I can remember, between his manner, and what I have marked in the treatife, are as follow : In the firll: place, that fpeech, or foliloqiie, which I (for want of better judgement) have noted in the ftile of a ranting adtor, fwelled with forte and foftened with piano, he delivered with little or no diftindlion of piano and forte, but nearly uni- form; fomething below the ordinary force, or, as a mulician would fay, fotto voce, or Jempre poco piano. Secondly, as to meafure, the firft line thus : 3 To be or , A .'. A /. A .-. not to be I. A .. .-. that is the • • ■ • queftion. ^^ Thirdly, as to accent and qxiantity, thus : -r^ -^/ ^. ; r ^ r To die. — to fleep, — no more. The words,, as flejij is. heir to! he pronounced as I have marked them in my variation, page 46.; where the two fyllables, heir to, are both acuted,, and by that modulation,, give the idea of the fenfe [ 48 ] fcnfe being fufpended, for the thought which immediately follows. Laltly, Nynipby in thy orifonSj he pronounced in common meafure, as, y in thy orifons, A .-. A Nymph, A /. making the word orifons quite different from mine ; I was led to make the firft fyllable o fliort and light, and the fecond ri long and heavy, by fu^^pofing the word to have been originally Norman French, oraifon ; but I fuppofe I was wrong in this, as in every other inftance where I have fliewn the difference. I fliall forbear to give any more fpecimens of that great a6lor's elocution, from the memory of once hearing, lefl I fliould do him injuflice, as my intention here is not to play the critic; but merely to fliew, that by means of thefe charaif ers, all the varieties of enunciation may be committed to pajier, and read off as eafily as the air of a fong tune. There is a perfection in the pronunciation of the befl fpeakers (which was remarkable in the late Mrs. Gibber, and is the fame in Mr. Garrick) : they are diftin(5lly heard even in the foftelt founds of their voices; when others are fcarcely intelligible, though offenlively loud. This eflential quality is chiefly owing to the fpeaker's dwelling M'ith nearly uniform loudnefs on the whole length of every fyllable, [ 49 1 fy liable, and confining tlie extent of the accents, acute and grave, ^^■ithin the compafs of Ibiir or five tones ; and alio to adopting, in general, a deliberate inftead of a rapid nieafure. For if a perfon pronounces from fix to nine fyllablcs in a fccond of time, as many people do, an auditor mnft be extremely quick and attentive to be able to keep up Avith fo rapid an utterance. But good fpeakers do not pronounce above three fyllables in a fecond, and generally only two and a half, taking in the ne- ceflary paufes. There are feveral public fpeakers, whofe fpeeches, if com- mitted to paper, would appear to have combined all the force of logical argument, all the flowers of rhetoric, with an elegant choice of words capable of being pronounced with graceful euphony; but by an erroneous delivery in refpe<^ oi accent^ rhyth- mus, paufe, and force, though they may be juft in quantity and empbajis, under their miftaken meafure, their fpeeches want much of that beauty and effeft which they fliould derive from a proper enunciation. Now to fliew that fuch errors might eafily be corrected, by the ufe of the foregoing rules, let us only fuppofe fuch fpeakers mftrudled in the practice of ordinary mufic; might they not then be able to fing their fong according to the notes fet before them, keeping the prefcri bed W(?^->W J^-^ >-^ -H. de li be ra ti on and counfel, the prefent jundlure 9 9 5 9 5 r '>^'vwvWWAAAAy\ ± \y ^ -F- i :^-> m 3C ^^ A .-. • • • I calls loudly for them; we mull be careful, &.c. 5 95 9555 9 5 -^vWWVVAAA * Walking meafure means, tliat the duration of the whole quantity of fyllables anclpaufcs contained in one cadence (that is, as much as are marked between two bars), lliould be equal to the time of making one ftep of walking; which admits tlie varieties oi Jloiv, ordhiaiy, and quick walking', the next degree above which, in velocity, \s running meafure. H a Second [ 5^ 3 Second manner. Too rapid, though in an uniform tenor of loudnefs* Corrente, or running meafure. ^ tn^fi V **^*— % V V V - y-^ -^^—^ /- A .*. A . . .% A •*. A . . .*. A And now, if ever we flood in need of mature 3 w y Y y y ^VF^ V V V ^^^■M^^^^^^ X < "j->-^ ■Xr H^-NiT A .. .*. A .. A A A .. deliberation and counfel, the prefentjundlure calls 4^— t-r-^ i ^ "^ ^ r ^ . 2!=S fcZ2^ A .'. A .% A loudly for them ; we muft be careful not to drive m i -s^ » • • • tlxofe to ex A- tre mi ties who are, Sec. Tliird I 53 1 Third manner. SlozVy firm^ and uniformly loud'^ Walking meafure. 51 f4^ y Q. -F^ X- ^£12' Y. 9. Y y y. 5 sc ■^ *Vr->'^-*W >^-^ :i^^V^- :^ A .*. A .'. A /. A . » .'. A .*. A /. A . . And now, if, ever we flood in need of mature. T ^ ff y V, (' T* rr ^ • T* T' lT' ^' ■ '^• 1 1 1 •^•J .t^ 1-^^ ^^ y '< J^^H, ^' ^ k ^^_ ^ >^ % J^ '^ >'' -^ ^» ^^ <^ "^ A .. .% A .'. A .% A .V A de li be ra ti on and counfel, the jirefent jundura p. 9 y V 9 s ^ • • £ ^t^=^ i^ j^ > A .V A ••.. A /. A.*. A /. A .» . calls loudly for them; we muft be careful Y. SE X t: Y X- ;^ j^I 32=5Sz:i{=i=pz z^~^ i\ •• • • ^ • • • • /\ • • •*• not. to drive thofe to ex tre mi tics A . . who are won^. [ .^4 1 A /. A .'. A /. A .*. A .*. A iiov/ al' rem bled, and call themlelves the y . v. ti V . ^ m T*^ ^-^ r>->- '^^-^ •vL T A .. • • • < council of Am phydti ons. "When this fyftem was explained to Mr. Garrick, among many- judicious remarks and queries, he afked this queftion: r" Suppofmg a fpeech was noted, according to thefe rules, in the manner he Ipoke it, whether any other i:>erfon, by the help of thefe notes, could pronounce his words in the fame tone and manner exadlly as he did? To which he was anfwered thus : Suppofe a firft-rate mulician had written down a piece of mvilic, which he had played exquifitely well on an exceeding fine toned violin; another performer with an ordinary fiddle might undoubtedly play every note the fame as the great mafler, though perhaps with lefs eafe and elegance of exprefhonj but, notwithftanding his corrednefs in the tune and manner, nothing could prevent the audience from perceiving that the natural tone C 55 ] tone of his inftrument was execrable: fo, though thefe rules may enable a mafter to teach a juft application of accent, cm- phafis, and all the other proper expreflions of the voice in fpeaking, Avhich will go a great way in the improvement of elocution, yet they cannot gi\'e a: fweet voice where Natura has denied it. ORSER- [ 56 ] OBSERVATIONS and QUERIES, by the AUTHOR ov THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS of LANGUAGE, iM HIS ANSWER TO SIR J. P. WHO HAD TRANSMITTED TO HIM THE TWO LETTERS CONTAINING THE FOREGOING SYSTEM. § 1. " T HAVE perufed with much pleafure and mftriidlion, " A. the very ingenious differtation you have fent me from ^' your mufical friend, and am now fully convinced that there " is both a melody and rhythm even in our common fpeech in "*' Eneliih. As to inelodv, I was before convinced that there *' was a different tone in the different languages of Europe. ^' Secondly, that in the fame language there is a variation of " tone, arifing from the j^affions, or even the chara6ter, of the *" fpeaker; but 1 did not know before, that in plain fpeech, ■*' without paffion, humour, or any other mark of character, " there was any variation of tone: and even after reading the ^' differtation, I was very unwilling to believe that there was any *' variation upon the fame fyllable. I was foon convinced that *' there was a variation in the whole tenor of the fpeech; fo that *' before we had fpoken two or more fentences, or even one *' fentence to an end, the tone of the voice is changed : but I *■'' thought this change proceeded from word to word, or from *' different fyllables of the fame word, M'ithout any change ujjon *■'' the fame fyllable. But upon confidering the matter more ^' fully, and conferring with fome learned muficians of this a " place, a I 57 ] place, I am convinced that Mr. S — is in the right, and that " the voice does not reit in the fame tone, even upon the fame " fyllablc; but goes on continually changing, not only upon " different words and fyllables, but upon the fame fyllablc. " And indeed I now begin to think, that to keep the voice in the *' fime tone, even for the fliorteft time, or, in other words, " to fpeak in a perfecSt monotony, is a thing of art which nobody " but a mufician can perform. I am alfo convinced, that the " voice does not only rife or fall upon the fame fy liable (I mean " in mulical modulation), but alfo that it fomctimes docs both " rife and fall upon the fame fyllable, particularly upon fuch " lyllables as make a word by themfelves, or are pronounced ■■' with any pathos; fuch as the fyllable obf given as an inftance " by Mr. S — , who has obferved, with great accuracy, that the " voice rifes upon this monofyllable twelve enharmonic intervals " or quarter tones, but falls only feven. Such fyllables he very *' properly calls circumflex\ and he has made a diftinilion of " them, which no grammarian ever made, but whichy for any " thing I know, may be well founded in the ufe of the Englifli " language; into thofe circuinflexes Avhich begin with rifing and " end with falling; and thofe which, vice verfa., begin with " falling and end with rifing. And the obfervation he has " made on the circumflex t of the monofyllable ob! that it does ** not fall fo much as it rifes by five quarter tones, is alfo an " obfervation, I am perfuaded, entirely new, and fuch as could " have been made only by a man of fo nice an ear, and fo accu- " rate an obferver, as Mr. S — . t This and the following marks refer to thfc anfwers hereafter given to thcfe obfervations. I § a. But C 58 ] § 2. " X But ftill it remains to be conficlered, ^vhcthe^ there ** be any diftcrence with refpedt to tone, betwixt the accented *' and unaccented fyllables of words in Enghfli ; that is to fay, ," whether the voice does not rife or fall in its tone, or do both, " upon what is commonly called the accented fyllable, as upon *' any other. Upon this point, I hope, Mr. S — will take the " trouble to inform me. If it be true, that there is no difference ;" in this refped: betwixt the accented and unaccented fyllables in " Englifli, then I am in the right in faying, that it is only loud- " nefs or foftnefs in the pronunciation which diftinguillies thefe " fyllables from the rett; — that it is by this variety, and this " variety only, that all the various kinds of verfe are made in " Englifli, more various than the verfe of any other language in " Europe; becaufe none of thefe languages has its fyllables fo " much diilinguiflied in that way: whereas in jDoint of tone "there is not, I believe, any great difference betwixt them and " the Englifli. This is a matter of fome curiofity, and I hope *' Mr. S — will think it worth his while to conflder it atten- ^' tively, § 3. '' As to the Greek accents Mr. S — fuppofes, that tjie " voice rofe by Aides up to a fifth^ which made the acute accent, " and fell down again uj^on the next fyllable in the fame way; *' and that in the circumflex . accent it Aid up and do^\n " upon the fame fyllable. I was much inclined at firil to " reje6t this hypothefls, and to fuppofe, that the voice rofe at " once upon the acuted fyllable, and fell at once to the grave, " as commonly happens in mufic; but. upon ftudying attentively " the paifages which I have myfelf quoted from the ancient I " writers [ 59 ] " writers of mufic, 'videlicet^ Arilloxenus and Gaudentius (vol. " II. p. 286.), and likewife from Dionyfms Thrax. (ibid. p. 278), " which I fee is obferved by Mr. S — , I am fully convinced, that " in founding the acute accent in Greek the voice rofe by Hides " to a fifth, and fell again upon the next fyllable in the fame ** manner; and that it both rofe and fell in that way upon the " circumflex accent; and that this way of rifnig and falling was " the principal diftinftion betwixt the melody of fpeech and of " mufic. Ujion this fuppofition, the pronunciation of the Greek " language will not be fo like chanting, as it would be, if the " voice had rifen at once to a fifth upon a fingle fyllable, and " will be much liker the pronunciation of our Engliih, though I *' think it is impoflible to deny, that it was much more mufical. " For upon every word of Greek that was not an enclitic, the " voice rofe a fifth, which is certainly not the cafe in Englifli, " though I do not deny, that the tone of a whole declamation, " or perhaps of one fentence of it, may, by fmall intervals, rife " even higher; and perhaps upon one fingle paflionate word, " fuch as ob! the tone may come near a fifth. And indeed I " think we need no other proof of the Greek language being " more mufical than ours, than that it was a beauty in their " compofition to arrange their acute and circumflex -accents, fo " as to make a variety in the melody of their language agreeable " to the ear. See what I have faid upon this fubje<5t, p. 380. et " feq. of vol. II. Now this is a beauty of compofition unknown " in Englifh. And fo much for the melody of fpeech, confifting " of the mixture of acute and grave, to which, as Mr. S — very " properly obferves, the word accent ought to be intirely appro- I 2 " priated, [ 6o ] " priated, that being its true etymological fignification. I have *' indeed uied it in its common meaning in Englifti; but, I think, " I have always diftinguiflied it from accent, properly lb called, " by the addition of Engli/h to it, or fome other exprefTion, " which, I hope, has removed all ambiguity, though I acknow- " ledge that it were better that different things were diftinguiflied " by different names; and that, in treating a fubjedl fcientifically, " fo much complaifance fhould not be fliewn to vulgar ufe as to " confound different things under the fame name. I will there- " fore for the future, ufe Mr. S — 's terms of /Igbt and heavy, " which correfpond very well to the ancient terms of arjis and *' thefs. § 4. " Belides acute and grave^ Mr. S — obferves in common. " fpeech three things ; videlicet, light and heavy, forte and piano,. " or loud and foft, under which are included J welling and dyi7ig " away, being modifications of loud and foft; and laftly, long " and Jbort, || Now as I am no mufician, I am not able to " make the diftin6f ion betwixt light and heavy,, and loud and/o// ;. *' and though I have confulted more than one of the greateft " muHcians here, I cannot difcover the difference;, nor do they " feem to me to underftand it any more than 1 do,, even in mufic " And as to words, I cannot conceive how the heavy, or accented, " fy liable, as it is commonly called, fliould be founded yq//, or " the light fy liable loud, I can indeed conceive how the whole " fentence may be pronounced in a fofter or louder voice; but ** ftill the heavy fyllable will be louder than the reff, and the light,. " fofter. Now I hope Mr. S — will take the trouble to explain this. As to the difference betwixt_y&i?r/ and long (that is, quantity), and 3 " light (( C 6i ] " light and heavy^ I perfedly agree with him : and I am alfci " convinced, that we have not only long and fhort fyllablcs in *' Englifli; but that fome lyllables are four times as long as " others, even without the vowel or diphthong, being lengthened " by pofition; that is, by the addition of conlbnants in the fame *' fyllable; and {o I find Mr. S — has marked fomc of them in " the notation that he has given us of the mulic of fome fen- " tences. It Mas not io in the learned languages; for there, " though a long fyllable \^'as made fomewhat longer by the " addition of confonants, and a Ihort fyllable Ihortcr by the " taking them away, a long vowel v/as always to a fliort vo\ver " in the ratio of two to one ; for a long vowei ■svas juft the flioit " vowel twice pronounced. But we are not to expert that a *' barbarous language fuch as the Englifli, not formed by rules " of art, fliould be fo regular in its pronunciation. " Upon the whole, it is my opinion, and I find it is the " opinion of all the mufical men here to whom I have fliewn it, " that Mr. S — 's Diiiertation is a moft ingenious performance. " It is reducing to an art what was thought incapable of all rule '• and meafure ;. and it fhews, that there is a melody and rhythm " in our language, which I doubt not may be improved, by *•• obferving and noting vvjiat is moft excellent of the kind in the " beft fpeakers. In that v/ay I fliould think that both the voice " and ear of thofe who do not fpeak fo well might be mended, " and even the declamation of our beft acftors may be improved, " by obferving in what refpeds they fall fliort or exceed; for as " foon as a thing is reduced to art, faults will be found iii the ^^ beft performers, that were not before obferved. If c\-er I publilli " imothcr [ 62 ] " another edition of my fccond volume, I fliall certainly make " that part of it, which treats of the melody and rhythm or' " fpeech, more i5erfe6t from his obfervations, if he will allow *' me to make ufe of them. It is ti'ue what he obferves, that I *' have, in explaining that matter, gone to very general prin- *' ciples, and made many divifions of the fubje(Sl, more perhaps ** than are neceflary for practice ; but I profefs to give the philo- *' fophical principles of every part of language, and, as I fee *' that Mr. S — is a man of a philofophical turn, as well as a " pra6lica] mufician, I muft beg the favour that he would let *' me know, if he thinks 1 have erred in the philofophy of that ^^ part of language, ** LETTER C 63 ] LETTER TO THE AUTHOR of the ORICtIN and PROGRESS OF LANGUAGE, at EDINBURGH. London, March 17, 1775. I CONFESS it is a long time fince my much efteemed friend Sir J. P. communicated to me the Series and Qbfervations made by your 1 — p on my Httle treatife concerning the melody and meafure of fpeech: obfervations that do me great honour, and at the fame time imprels me with the higheft opinion of your candour and condefcenfion, m adopting a fyftem fo contrary to what your 1 — p and many other great men have fo ably ad- vanced. Temporary and unavoidable bulinefs has prevented me hitherto from giving the attention that was abfolutely neceffary in order to give your 1 — p fatisfacftory anfwers to your doubts. The method I iiavc taken for that end is this ; I ha\'c read over the 5th chap, of book ii. vol. II. of your very learned and inge- nious v/ork, and have fet down my further remarks thereon, referring generally to the page; after which, I again read over and conlidered your I — p's remarks and queries, and thereupon added fiich explanations as I thought would remove all difficulties. From which, together with the re-con fideration of the treatile, I hope your 1 — p ^^■ill comprehend my meaning in full. l\\ [ 64 ] la the Ihidv ol muric, as in common arts, an artift can attain a much more apparent degree of perfection, Avithont knowledge in the theory, than a theorift can without pradice in the art. Hence it happens, that the carpenter who works, unconfcious of the fcience, tmder the rules of geometry, though he cannot demonlfrate a fingle propofition, is, in the eyes of the vulgar, a more valuable man than a perfe6l geometrician. — The prailifing mulicians are often without a tincture of the theory ; for to excel to a certain degree in playing, and even to compofe in tafte, are both far fliort of that theory in which your 1 — p has entered very deep. The greateft part of the fkill of fome great matters is derived more from j-jrailice and inJihiB^ than from the ftudy of firft principles ; therefore I do not much wonder that your 1 — p had not fatis factory anfwers to your inquiries among them. The defire your 1 — p exprefles, to make ufe of my treatife in a re-publication of your excellent fyftem, does me too much honour to fuffer me to make the leaft objection. I am about to print privately a few copies, fomewhat more enlarged than that your 1 — p had, in order to fubmit it to tb'^- judgement and corredtion of my friends ; among w^hom, I fhall be very happy if you will permit me to count your 1 — p. I am, 8j:c, PART C 65 ] ART III. FARTHER REMARKS ontheORIGIN akdPROGRESS OF LANGUAGE, vol. II. book ii. chap. 5. AGE 304. " This rhythm (with found) is of two kinds; " for it is either of founds not articulated, which may be " called mufical rhythm; or it is of founds articulated; and that " is the rhythm of language." REMARK. Language is articulated by fyllables; and music is articulated by a diviiion of any one found into many or more than one ^^m found ; as fuppofe the femi-brief equal in dura- tion of time to the fwing of a pendulum of 1 60 inches, to be put as the complement of a bar in mufic; it can be articulated into two minims, p — -p Tr—P^zj or four crotchets, or eight quavers. Therefore the femi-brief being a continued found of one whole bar's length; and its feveral fub-divifions into two, four, and K and [ 6.6 1 ci^ht notes, being alfo each of them a whole bar's length, and nnilbns with the femi-brief ; fo are they, properly, lub-articu- lations of the original femi-brief. Speech is neceffarily articulated by fyllables, in as much as two fyllables cannot poflibly be founded or pronounced, without articu- lating or dividing the tone, under which they are to be founded, into two parts, at the leaft ; for if the word fo//y were to be fung im- der tlie tone of • o -, the finger muft neceffarily divide that tone into two articulated parts, as zi^E ^^ :."F~^t- I have faid, into folly folly two parts at leaft, becaufe when words are joined with mulic (in the modern ftile) even fyllables, by the aid thereof, are capable of being varioufly and minutely articulated, as -ra 5- :gmqqjT-dz^ — l^^^jrip-jg-g-. which, independent of mufic, they — j^- >' ivbai a fo/ /v /" are not. A divilion of notes, which are unifons with each, other, is a divifion fimply by articulation. Thofe which are not imifons, but either afcend or defcend, are divided both by arti- culation and modulation. Page 305. and 306. " And firft it is evident, that without " fome change of one kind or another in the found, there could ** he no rhythm, &c. — In order, therefore, to know the nature " of rhythm, when applied to found, we muft confider the « feveral changes an^ mpdificatiqns whicl> found admits. The « firft C 67 ] " lirft and molt fenfible variation, is when the found ccafes *' altogether, 8cc." REMARK. Our animal exiftence being regulated l^y our pulfc, we Icem to have an inftin<5tive fenfe of rhythmiis^ as connected with, and ' governing, all founds and all motions ; whence it follows, that we find all people feel the effedls of rhythmuSi as they do thofe of light and warmth derived from the Sun; fo that, without fearching for the reafon, it has generally been paffed over as a firft principle, or felf-evident truth. From this inftindtive fenfe of rbythfiUiSj when we mean to meafure either motions or founds continued, articulated, or interrupted by fliorter or longer paufes, M^e muft pre-fuppofe an exadt periodical pulfation, as regular as the fwings of a pen- dulum, the length of which periodical pulfation we may vary according to our j^eafure, as often as we would chufe to quicken or flacken the movement ; and then all continuation of founds or paufes are to be fubferviently meafured and regulated by this uniform and fteady pulfation, as long as that proportion of pul- fation (or pendulum) fhall be continued. Page 307. *' The queflion then is, what changes continued ** found admits of, and what are the rhythms thence arifing? *' And there is one obvious change which very flrongly llrikes *' the fenfe; namely, that from louder \.of offer,, or vice verfd,'^ K 2 REMARK* [ 68 ] REMARK. The variety of loud and foft fliould never be confidered as (neceflarily) a governing principle of rhythnms ; becaufe though it may, fometimes, be accidentally coincident with rhythmical l^ullation, yet it would be ofFenfive if it continued fo for any conflderable length of time : for the application of the loud and tbefoft^ both in mulic and language, either for ufe or ornament, muft not be indifcriminate or periodically alternate, but as occa- lion calls for it; whereas the rhythmical pulfation is regularly periodical and conftant as the fwings of a pendulum, but of itfelf implies no noife or found at all. And agreeable to this, a band of muficians are much better governed in their meafures by ■xjilent waving of the hand, or of any thing that may catch the eye, than by the more ordinary noify way of beating time with the foot. The expreffions, or rather the afFedlions of heavy and light are neceflarily the governing principles of rhythmus; for they are as conftantly alternate and periodical as the pulfe itfelf, and they muft be continued, by conception in the mind, during all mea- sured refts or paufes, as well as during the continuance of either uniform, articulated, or modulating founds. The afifedtions of heavy and light were always felt in mufic,. though erroneoufly called by fome modems accented and unac- cented', however, the accented, or heavy note, was never under- ftoodtobe necejjarily loud, and the other necejfarily /off, becaufe if it were €o, there could be no occafion for feparate diredtions, where to apply the forte and pianOf in as much as the affe<5tions of [ 69 ] of heavy and light are continued in every cadence of every air, from the beginning to the end : whereas the forte and piano are often applied directly contrary to heavy and light \ as in tl\e fol- lowing example, almoft all the heavy notes are piano., and the light notes., forte. i^P— P- T—-— r-r-T— -1 ^^m iispi A 5 A .*. A .*. 5 « > « A .*. A 5 « «C Therefore the diftin A .-. A .V A ,-. A .. .*. A .*. Y / r r / given, 'i'.j r r r\ To en joy the ftate al A A .\ A .-. lotted them by A .V \ Y n \ heaven. Each ime is ftill meafiired by lix bars or rhythmical cadences^. and the fyllables, now reftored^ are provided for, without injuring the metre of the cadences ^yy^ fub-dividing their quantities^. into as many aliquot parts (not exceeding the integer of each cadence) as are required for exprefling the recovered fyllables,, within the time of the bar or cadence under which they fall. Page 326, " Our verfe made by accent and not by " quantity. Take for example the firft verfe of the Paradife ** hoJi\ Of man's Jirji dif obedience, and the fruit. Here the five '^ accented, fyllables are, man'Sy dif be^ andy fruit.''* ! REMARK. Poetry is often read in. a certain formal manner, fuppolTng the ten fyllables of our heroics muft be cut exa<5tly into five cadences ©f two fyllables in each, or, of four whole and two half cadences \ -whereas they always require the tifne of fix cadences at leaft; but thofe [ 77 ] thofe who have only the idea of five cadences^ feklom attend to the neceffary rejis or paufes^ or to a nice metrical fub-divifion of the cadences according to the natural and neceffary cmphafis (or poize'^-J and quantity of each fyllable; and therefore frequently mifplace the light and the heavy. To give the proper expreflion to the firft lines of Milton's. Paradife Loji, I humbly conceive, they fliould be noted thus. Of man's firft difo > r\ bedience, and the fruit of > \ that for- A ,» .*. r 1 A A .*. A bidden y tree, ; A .'. A .•. A whofe ;--r' mortal T T tafte brought death into the .'. A .'. fv\ •^fjl ' 'ifl ^r lo Y > T ;^ ^ \ yi y ■ r ;> ^ world and all our woe; fing, heavenly Mufe. A .-. A .-. A .V A .-. A /. A .-. A. .. /. A .'. Page 316. "I fhall fay nothing fiirther of this mufical' " rhythm, except to obferve, that the ancients were very accu- "rate in it, as in, every thing elfe; for they meafured it by feet, * 1 fhall take the liberty for the future to appropriate this word poize as a common ternj f(W the A^^heavy and the .'^ light, as acctnt is for ccutt and grave, and quantity for. long and Jhefl, X 1^ [ 78 ] " as they did the rhythm of their language, and had dadyls " and fpondecs, and the like in their mufic, as well as in their ".poetry." K E M A R K.. x\s I confider our fenfe of rhythmus to be much more inJlinSiive than rational^ 1 am of opinion, that the ancient Greeks might have been pra<5licaUy as excellent in that part of mufic, as the moderns ; but, from any thing I have read, I cannot think they had fo accurate a manner, of defcribing or noting it, as we have. Their diftindlions, by various feet, compared with our mufical rhythmus, feem, many of them, only ferving to puzzle, without any real difference as to meafure. Our rules, which reduce all the poffible fpecies to two genera, are obvioufly more excellent, becaufe more fimple ; of which I have given fome examples in the foregoing treatife. I am of opinion, that no language was ever fpoken under {o confined a proportion of quantities as two and one, for the long and theji?'(?r/; and yet thofe commentators, who hint at a greater latitude, have mentioned no rule of proportion except the two and one : neither have they left us any fufficient or fatisfadlory rules for rejls or paufes^ without which neither poetry or profe can be graceful or juft in its expreflion. Ariftides, it is true, fays, Ki)i6Q y-h Sv hi x^ovo^^ lib. I. p. 40. ; that is, " There is a vacant orfilent tinie^ which is left without any found *' to compleat the rhythmus, TYi^JborteJiJilent time in rhythmus is ** called kiinma or a remnant ; and a long filent time^ double to *' the fliort, is called projlhefis or an addition." And he had faid juft before, " That where in the rhythmus ofjniji.ed fget, a foot - . „ ^^ happened [ 79 I " happened to be infufficient to fill the metre., the vacancy was to " be fupplied by 2ifilence^ either of a leiwfna or of -Siprq/lbefis'' This, however, is all he fays of it : though, as it agrees perfectly with my fyftem, it is fufficient to convince me, that the accidents of rhythmus belonging to our language, were alfo the fame to the Greek. But as thofe grammarians who compofed the rules of profody now in ufe, have made no rules or allowances at all for rejls ov JilenceSj it is to be prefumed it was not intelligible to them^ or they would never have omitted fo material a part, both of rhythmus and metre.. And further it is plain, that deter- mining Greek and Latin heroics, fuch as the Iliad and ^neid, to be hexameter lines,, oy^ba^^^ rhythmical paufesiAtQgQ\\\Qx. For example, to fet the firft four lines of the ^neid in our notes,, flridlly according to the Latin profody, they will be thus, in common time : ? TT Arma vi ? T Y rumque ca ? ? noTro ? ? I ? Y Y J£e qui primus ab A ?YY I tab ? ? am, fa ? Y Y to profu gus, La ?YY vinaque ? ? venit ?YY Litora ;• ? Y Y Vi fupe ? ? mult' ii 7 ? 1' et ter ? ? ris jac rum, fae ? Y Y vae memo ? Y Y|??| tatus et I alto i A rem Ju A/. ? Y Y nonis ob ?? oris A /. ? ? iram. Here y T r[ So ] '. He-re is no room for variety of metre, nor a moment's paufe even for breathing, each Hnc being ilridly confined to the fix metres ' or cadences ••■. But if I could meet with a hving Vii-gil, I fliould > alk him, whv theie Unes might not be fet in the following --nianner, in triple meafure, ilill preferving the long and the ''lftj6i-t fyllables, but with an extended variety of long^^^^ ^*^$3]^y 'Jbort ^ndjljorter^ and alfo with the proportion of triples and ibirds as well as of doubles and halves^ And if he gave me a better reafon why they fliould not, than either the grammarians -or the commentators have done, I would certainly fubmit to him, and copy his manner of pronouncing exadly, in accetU as well as quantity, ^^'hich would molt probably be quite new to all Evirope. ^^ / Arma vi ;• u rumque ca y noi Tro ;• J- jcequi primus ab oris MA A .-. I tab A . . .*. am. fa to profu y §us, A .'. r "1 V. La vinaque A .. venit , * I have fet the lines above, according to their quantities prefcribed by the rules of profody ; but it is fit I fliould alio fliew them as they are generally fcanded in our fchools ; where, by making tlie lafl fyllable of the daflyl longer than the firft (in direft contvadiflion to the real quantities), they turn daflyls intojinapefts. ;'Ar ma vi I A .'.A .'. Y- I ? rumqwe ca A .'. A .'. ? 3 .? ?. T'l \ ? ? no 1 ro J£ qui primus ab or IS. A .-. A /. A .-. A .*. A .. A.*. A .'.A.*. Litora t 8i ] Vly Litora ; A .', multum il le et ter ris jac tatus et alto " r A .. .*. A A .'. A . . .*. A .-. A.-. Vi fupe rum, A .-. fee A.-. ;/N J-^ ;/^ ?^- - r v£e memo rem, Ju nonis ob iram. A A A . . .'. A .'. A .*. Ill this manner, the multum ilk and the ille et are pronounce3 i' a J'fW " h"/} MOQ r-^^r-^^ A .. .•• A ...•• A .-. A :• 0\S>.Q\kl- C 83 ] / \/ OvX0fJt.£ A .. /. p VYJVy A.'. n A A .*. «Ay£ £ A 9/3;f£* .*. A r "1 r n A .-. ^k A.'. ■mpo'i ai};£v A /. A .-. ^^ wv. A /. rn;- au T' T- THQ £ A .. A .'. A .-. ol w VoTci TB "V OQ £T£ T'T* " r A .-. A .. .\ A ^.•. A .-. A A .. .-. A .-. A.-. In fetting thefe lines, I have followed authorities as far as I could find them ; the rei1: I mull take upon myfelf. We have Eullathius's authority for the two manners of difpoling of the extraordinary fyllable in Urikriix^i'ji'^ in either of which ways, he fays, *' the tetrafyllable is to be confidered only as a da6lyl." However, it was ftridly, in either way, a paeon, either a firft or a fecond ; and was a point of difpute among commentators : in our method it admits of no difficulty, whether it be tetra- M a fyllable V- H'' 11 I fyllabl© or triiyllable ;; ini Qither way it ia accommodated to thes : time osf our ca^ufe* T I thiak, frprri the examples 1 h^ve given in the three Ian* / guages, it may be inferred, either that tl^e Gre^k and Latirj: poetry had ^Eiot fb regular a rbythmus^ fuch even n^etr^s (that is,, cadences)^ nor fo great a variety in their quantities, as onr Ian-- guage has; or that the ancient grammarians did not -write the. laws pf their profody np to the genius of thofe learned lan-;^ guages ; or that the rujes of that art hav^ been tranfmitted to us., in a very imperfedl ftate. SOME r 3s 1 SOME FARTHER EXPLANATIONS, in ANSWER TO THE REMARKS and QUERIES made by the AUTHOR.^ OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS of LANGUAGE. + See Obfervations, V' I "^HE extent and form of circumflexes P'^S^ 57" § !• J A are very various in our language; two or three quarter tones more or lefs make little difference in the fenfe of their application. By the rules I have given, and the examj^les under them, I do not: mean to give models of pronunciation ; but to fhew how any particular pronunciation may be fixed in characters, and tranf-^- mitted to polterity. I fuppofe there are as many different circumflexes as there are- different tempers and features in men; to fave words, I will exemplify fbme by notes : acuto-grave^ grave-acute. ^ The circiimflexes, actito-grave, are charadleriftic of the Irifh- tone; and the circumflexes, grave-acute^ are charadteriftic of the Scottifh tone. The diale s will you dofo? r "i • A r 1 will you do fof A .. .-. A A > \ will you A /. do A .*. fo? A .'. Now I lay, that the affecSlions of heavy and light are the moil efTential governing j)owers of rhythmus\ for, fince the accents, acute, grave, and circum/lex, are common both to the heavy and to the light; And fince quantity, or the long and the Jhort, are likewile: common to each ; And fince the accidents of loud M\d/oft are alfo common to each ;; And laflly, fince the accidents of accent, loudne/s., and quantity,. occur not periodically, but occafionaUy, whilft cadence is ftridlly periodical, and divided into heavy and light- alternately; which... affecStions are to be accoimted for in the mind, whether yoz^wo'/;/^; m' paujing, continued or articulated, It C 88 1 It follows, that heavy and light (as the certain alternate divifion of cadence) are the moft effential governing powers of rhythmus both in poetry and profc;^^ A(rr;i^ ^ The fame thing, viz. heavy and lights which govern/rhythmtis in our language, governed it alfo in the Greek : for Ariftides fays, rh y-h ^u^{xoi/ ev a^asi ^ dsasi Trjv saiav 'sx^iV to $s (abt^ov iv //, &c." ^^.--^ I have made feveral remarks, and have given mufical exam- ples, in order to diftinguiili clearly the difference between heavy and loud, and between light and foft, which I will endeavour to illuftrate further by a familiar example, in two words. Suppofe a man fpeaking to his miflrefs in the words, " my " dear!" Df^^sT being, in this place, put fubftantively, is abfo- liitely affecSled to the heavy ; therefore thofe words muft be noted to be pronounced thus, " my | dear." Suppofe the converfation -•. I A to have begun in the ordinary degree of loudnefs, and at the initant he has pronounced My, a perfon appears in fight, who ought not to hear the next fy liable, the fpeaker can inftantly foften [ 89 ] foften his voice, even to a whifper, though flill the word will carry its f>roper emphafis, and remain heavy ; lb that to write thofe two words, as diredlory to an acTtor, they Ihould be noted thus, MY dear! A forte, i^iano. As the ancient Greeks, as well as their language, are all dead, I do not wifli to be drawn into a comparative conteft about them. I am fure I fliould be overborne by the number and abilities of their champions; for as nobody envies the dead, they have always, on thefe occalions, more friends than the living. I am ready to believe that they had many rules of art that are now unknown to us. If any perfons of genius and affiduity think it worth their while to purfue the tracks my hints point out, they .will perhaps find, that the juft rules of melody and meafure arc as natively applicable to our language as to the Greek; though, from our too frequent terminations on mute confonants, and on "7 I the letters ^S and M, our language is far lefs melodious than I theirs, and infinitely inferior, in that refpeil, to the modern j Italian. N LETTER C 9 " continued, and without divilion, we have no idea of number oi-s *' meafure ; for, as Cicero fays-, Numerus in coniinualmie nullum " eji : dijim^iio^ et ^qualium et fiVpe variorwii intervallorum per- *' cuffio, nunieru7n corificit. But the queiiion is, how do we divida " it ? and what meafure do we apply to it ? To which I think it- *' may be anfwered in general, that it mult be fome pre-con- " ceived ftandard, or meafure, of which, we have formed an- " idea, and which we have been in ufe to apply to other things r " thus we meafure time by the ufual ftandard of hours, half~ " hours, quarters, and minutes ; and it is furprizing how accu^ " rately fome perfons will do this, merely from the idea they- ** have in their mind of thole meafures, efpecially fuch as are " not in ufe to confult clocks or watches. There are alfo other' " ways of meafuring time, fuch as that which Horatio, in> " Hamlet y mentions, when he fays, that the ghoft ftaid with> " them, while one, with moderate hafte, could count a hundred.. " But this, and every other way that can be imagined, of mea-- *' furing tiine, muft neceffarily refer to fome pre-conceivecb *' ftandard. § 3. " Thirdly, To apply this to mufic, I am now fully con- "vinced, that every man, who conliders a piece of mulic " attentively, and with any degree of knowledge of the art, " muft neceflarily divide it into parts, greater or fmaller; and " particularly I 96 ] " particularly into bars, which is a meafure by which every tune "is divided into equal parts. And I am alio convinced, both " from the reaibn of the thing, and the experience of my ear, " that the note which begins each bar, and which you call the " heavy note, is not necelfarily either a loud or a foft note, a high ^' or a low, a long or a fliort note; nor does it appear to me to " have really any pulfation or i6tus, except what the mind may " fuppofe it to have, when it makes it the leading note of the ■*' bar. But here I am at a lofs to know how the •'• length is " determined of thefe equal portions into w^hich the mind is ■" pleafed to divide the tune. Why are they not greater? or -" why are they not lefs ? To what pre-conceived ftandard does ■*' the inind refer in this divifion ? It may be my total ignorance ■" of the pra6lice of mufic, that makes me have this doubt ; but ^' if you think you can fatisfy me with little trouble, I hope you " will be fo good as to do it. In the mean time I would beg ■" leave to fuggeft that of all the motions which you have men- ■" tioned, as a natural ftandard for the meafure of a bar, the ftep ** and pace appear to me the apteft ; and where the bar confifts " of two notes, a light and a heavy ; or of four, viz, two heavy *' and two light, the movement appears to me to be very like a " ftep, or two fteps, in ordinary walking. % But I obferve, that *' the mind naturally divides fome tunes, particularly Scotch *' tunes, into many more notes, which are all connected toge- *' ther by one pulfation, real or fuppofed, and io make one bar. **■ There I find it difticult to refolve the bar into fteps or paces, * This and the following marks refer to the anfwers hereafter given to thefe particular parts, a " whether [ 97 ] *' whether of a found or a hime man; and I fliould think, tliaC *' in 'fuch a cafe the mind fixed upon fome meafure, fuitable " indeed to the genius of the tune, but fuch as has no ftandard *' in nature. ' ' ' § 4. *' I am convinced, that the ancient mufic muft have been *' divided, as well as the modern, into bars; and that the arfis " and thefis^ of which they fpeak fo much, muft have referred "^ to fuch a divifion. " I am obliged to you for your obfervation upon the inaccu- '^ racy of my expreflion, with refpe6t to the harpfichord. If I " had faid, that there is no difference of length in the notes, " while they continued invariably the fame; that is, with the " fame degree of intenfenefs without dying away, I believe it " would have been the truth; but I have exprefled the thing too " generally. I might have added further, in difpraife of the " harpfichord, that it is incapable of what I think a very great " beauty in mufic, and that to which it owes a great part of its expreflion, I mean the fwelhng of the note. But though I think it be not a pleafant mufic in itfelf, it is moft ufeful for the purpofe you mention, of keeping a concert in time. § 5. " As to what I have faid of time in the paflage you mention, I do not fpeak there of the time of mufic in parti- *' cular; but I fliould think, that the duration of any foundmay " be called its time. I believe, indeed, muficians do not call " the length or fliortnefs of the particular notes, compared with *' one another, the time of a tune', but the length or fliortnefs " of fyllables is, in the language of thofe who treat of the *' metrical art, the time of the fyllables. In the language of O *< mufic, ii t 93 1 ^^ miific, I obferve, that the word is ufed in a fenfe a good deal •< different from its natural and proper fignification ; for, inftead <' of denoting the duration of the movement, it denotes the *' nature of it, according to the divilion which you have made of •* it into common and triple time. " This is all I have to obferve upon your mufic ; in which if <' I did really differ from you, I fhould be afliamed to o^^'n it. *' As to language, your intention appears to be, to apply to it ** the rules of mulical rhythm, and particularly to divide it into " bars, without diftin<5tion, whether the fyllable beginning the bar " be a long or a lliort fyllable, loud or foft, or whether the tone ** of it be high or low; and you compute the paufes, which the " fenfe requires, to make part of the bars. It is, I think, a " noble attempt; for as muiical rhythm is exa6t and regular, ** being reduced to rule, and comprehended in the art; if we " could apply it to fpeech, we fliould certainly meafure it more " exadlly, and make it more truly rhythmical and numerous. '* That it may be done, at leaft in fome degree, and that it will ** have this efeil, I have little doubt; but that it hitherto has not " been done, not even in the learned languages ; and that it has ** been as yet made no part of either the grammatical or rhetorical, " art, I think I can take upon me to aveT with fome confidence. " For as to the learned languages, and particularly the Greek, * which was by far the mofl learned of the two, I mean the ** language of greater art, there are two things belonging to ** compofition in that language, which their critics have diftin- '^ guiflied accurately, not jumbled together as modern authors ** havei I I 99 1 *^ have doiie under the name of pro/oc/y c-j ; I mean melody and " rhythm. The firft is, that mufic which was produced by " the proper mixture of grave and acute tones in their language, ^' fo as to have a plealing effedt on the ear. The other arolc " from the combination of long and fliort fyllables in what they " called /t?^/, by which they made their prole, as well as their *' verfe, numerous, fo as to affedt the ear wonderfully, according " to the defcription they give of it. § 6. " As to their melody, you have convinced me that I was " in an error, when I fuppofed that the acute accent rofe at once " to a fifth upon one fyllable, and fell down again precipitately " upon the next. I now fee clearly, both from the reafon of " the thing, and from authorities which I myfelf had collected, *' but not well underftood, that their voice in fpeaking was \ " never at reft as in mufic, but was conftantly Hiding \\p and j " down, and was only at the higheft upon the acuted or circum- 1 " fled:ed fyllable ; after which it fell gradually, till it rofe again ' " to the fame pitch upon the next acuted or circumfieded " fyllable. But I have fome doubt, whether upon every grave *' fyllable they began acute and ended grave. I rather incline ! " to think, that upon the fyllable next following the acute, -'*'^y^^' *' the voice would begin to fallt, and continue falling upon that, /3/j* " and perhaps upon the next after that, till it came within a " fyllable or two of the next acuted fyllable, and then it would *' begin to rife gradually, till it arrived at its height upon that *' fyllable. This feems to me to be the ^vaic, or ^ozv^ of the " melody of fpeech mentioned by the ancient grammarians and (a) See what I have faid upon this fubjea, vol. II. p. 271. 275. and 382. O 2 " muficians. [ loo ] *' muficians. But I fliall be very glad to be further inftrudled by *' you upon this fubjedt §.7. " Before I leave this fubjedl, I muft repeat an obferva- *' tion I have elfevvhere made <"*;, that when I fpeak of the accents ♦' or tones of the Greek language, I mean only fyllabical tones, *^ which were appropriated to particular fyllables of each word, *' according to certain rules delivered by the grammarians; not " the tones of paffion or fentiment, which did not belong to " fyllables, but to words and whole fentences^ Thefe made a " principal part of the player's art, which was much ftudiedj '' and in great reputation among them. But whatever the tone " was that paffion or fentiment dictated,, the accents or fyllabic " tones were ftill obferved as an elTential part of the grammar of " the language^ As to the variety of loud or foft,. it muft- have " been in their language, as well as m ours ; but it was not affedled " to fyllables II, as with us, but belonged to words or fentences. § 8. " As tO' what they called the rhythm of their language^ " which was compofed of the quantity of fyllables, you feem to ** think, that the refpedive length of their fyllables was not *' fufficiently fixed; and that the long fyllable was not to the *' lliort as- two to one. And that it often, was the caibj, that: the " long was not exactly in that ratio to the lliort, is certainly true ; " and we are fo told by their grammarians, and critics.. But then '* you are to confider, that the length or fhortnefs is properly in " the VGwel, on the vocal found, not in the confonants with *' which it was enounced. Now it is- laid down, by all the " writers upon the metrical art, and I have always held it to.be sl {-i.; Vol, II. p, 277, " rule 'C loi 3 " rule that fuffered no exception, that a lon^ vowel was to a " fliort as two to one. By the confonants indeed, either pre* " fixed or following the vowel, the pronunciation of it will be " fo much retarded, as to make a long vowel longer; and if tw» " confonants follow after it, they will, you know, make a flioit " v^owel long; or, to fpeak more properly, the fyllable long. '^' But the preceding confonants, and even a iingle confonant " following, though they no doubt varied the quantity a little, " yet that palled for nothing; and all hexameter verfes were **• reckoned of the fame length, though fome of them neceflarily " muft have been in reality longer than others. For you knov^, ^ " that there are many things in all arts, even in mufic, which I '* hold to be a more perfect art than language in this matter of " rhythm, which affe6l the fenfes, and yet are not reduced to " rule, and perhaps, by their nature, cannot be reduced to " rule. " It is by thefe feet that the ancients divided the continuity " both of their verfe and profe. Thefe, if you pleafe, you may " call bars J andl. think they would be peoperly fo called; becaufe *^ I am perfuaded, the beginning of them was- marked, at leaft " in their poetry, hj tYiQ-fupploJio pedis, and fix)m thence, as you " very ingenioully obferve, they had. their name. But there " was this difference betwixt thofe bars and fuch as we have, and " I believe they had, in mufic, that they did not- divide the " fpeech equally, except in certain kinds of verfe,, fuch as " hexameter; but on the contrary, the variety of feet of " different times was reckoned a beauty in their, prole compo- ^' lition. That they had no other divifion or meafure of the 3 <' rhythm [ 102 ] " rhythm of their language than thefe feet, or bars, if you *' pleafe to call them fo, I think, is certain ; othervvife, I think, " it is imiK)ffible but fuch writers as Ariflotle and the Halicar- *•' naffian, who have all treated fully of the rhythm and numbers *' of their language, would have mentioned it. " As to the paufes or refts which the fenfe require, I under- " ftand they treat of them M'hen they fpeak of the various *' lengths of periods, and their feveral members. But it feems *' they did not reckon filence any part of the rhythm of lan- *' guage, though, I think, it may be very properly Co confidered " in language as well as in mulic: and I am convinced, that no ■" language, whether profe or verfe, can be agreeable to the ear, *' if paufes are not properly adjufted and commenfurated to the " words. The variety of paufes, even in their poetry, by which " the verfe was broken into feveral parts, like a period in profe, " is praifed by the Halicarnaflian (O as a beauty, in the fame *' manner as the variety of paufes in Milton's blank verfe is " commended by our critics. " And in this way, I think, there muft have been a great deal •" of rhythm as well as melody in the Greek language, if rhythm *' be, as I have defined it, vol. II. p. 302. " A certain relation *' or analogy, in refpecSt of length or duration, which the " mind perceives betwixt founds or motion of any kind." For " the ratios of the metrical feet of the ancients to one another *' are various. The ratio of the fpondee to the da&yl is that of *' equality ; the ratio of the fpondee or daSiyl to the pyrrbichius ** is as two to one ; of the pyrrbichius to the trilMchys as two to {c) See vol. IT. Diff. iii. p. 56c. " three; I [ 103 ] "three; of the tribachys to th^ fpondee as three to four, Sec. " And if you want any other meafure of the ancient poetry " befides the feet, you have the verfe itfelf, at the end of which " there was always a paufe greater or lefs; the confequence of " which was, that the laft fyllable, though by its nature fhort, " was confidered as long. And this by the bye fhews, that the " paufes, according to your notion, flood for fomething in the " meafure of the ancient verfe ; and that perhaps, not only in " the end of it, but in any other part of it, if the fenfe required " a paufe. And I have a fancy, that many difficulties in the " verification of Homer might be folved in that way, though nc^ " critic, as far as I know, has thought of fuch a folution. " Concerning this I will enquire further when I have more " leifure. And fo much for the melody and rhythm, of the " Greek language.. § 9. " As to the melody of our language, I once thought that " there was no tone in it, but what was either provincial, or " what belonged to fome paflion, humour, or fentiment. But' ^' you have convinced me, that even when we fpeak in the ** plaineft manner, and as much upon a level as pofTible, flill' " there is not a perfed: monotony ; but the voice is perpetually " Aiding up and down, more, as you obferve, in public fpeaking, " or even the converfation of men from the country, lefs in the *'' converfation of men bred at court. *•'■ But our accents differ " from the Greek in two material refpeds. Firil, they are not " appropriated to particular fyllables of the word, but are laid. '* upon different fyllables according to the fancy of the fpeaker, '^ or rather as it happens; for I believe no man fpea;king Englifli ''' does, n it [ 104 ] *> does, by choice, give an accent to one fyllable of a ^vord " different from that which he gives to another ; but he varies ** from neceflity, not being able to keep his voice upon different " fyllables, perhaps not uj^on the fame fyllable, at the precife *' fame pitch of tone. Secondly, the tone in common conver- " fation in Eng]ifli, when we fpeak without palfion or declama- " tion, never rifes fo high as a fifth, at leafl as far I have " obferved; and, though fome fpeakers may vary their voice " fo much, I am perfuaded it is not common : whereas in Greek every man, who fjxske the language properly, raifed his voice to that pitch upon certain fyllables and no other, ^^ hether he "was fpeaking with palTion or without paffion, and whether he " was haranguing or in ordinary converfation ; for it was part of " the grammar of the language, and a man would have been " accounted a barbarian who fpoke otherwifeC''^. From thefe " fo material differences, I think, it follows, that our accents " never can be reduced to rules of art, as the Greek were, or " made part of the grammar of our language ; far lefs can they " be made a beauty in our comjDofition as they were in the Greek. " Nay I do not think that we could venture to mark the accent " upon any fmgle word taken by itfelf, unlefs perhaps it were ] *' an interjection, fuch as oh! All we can do is to obferve how, (d) Relative to this there Is a remarkable flory told by the Scholiaft upon the oration of Demofthenes Trff i ZrtipaKS. He tells us, that Demoflhenes in afking the queftion of the judges. Whether ^fchines was the friend or the hireling \ji.ia^arlC\ of Alexander barbarized on puipofe ffSafSapi^f], by laying the accent upon the laft fyllable inftead of the firft. Upon which the people, as was natural enough, correfted him by repeating the word properly accented. This he took for an anfwer to his queftion ; and, fays he, you hear, jEfchines, what they fay, »>«£($ « Xtyuo-i. <*4n [ 105 ] ill certain compofitions of words, either in verfe or profe, the belt Ipeakers accent particular iyllables. And even among the belt fpeakeis it will be found, that as to the prccife degree of the accent there is a great difference, and perhaps in the fame fpeaker at different times ; lb that I fliould think it were ahiiolc impoflible, even in compofitions of wcrds, to mark precifely the accent of each fyllable, though, if it be polTible, you have fallen upon a very ingenious way of doing it. It Upon the whole therefore, I am of opinion, that very little can be made of the accents of our language; and that to obferve them at all, is more a matter of curiofity than utility. " There is in our claufules, or ends of our fentences, not only a fall of the voice, but alfo, I think, a change of tone. This may be accounted part, and it appears to me the principal part, of the melody of our fpeech : for if it be negletSted, the ear, as you obferve, is cheated, and it really is very ofFenfive. An exadt notation how much the voice is let down in the con- clulion of periods, with refpedt both to loudnefs and tone, according to the pracftice of the beit fpeakers, might, I think, be very ufeful ; for I have obferved, that many fpeakers offend in this article; fome keeping up their ends too high, to ufe a phrafe of Mr. Bayes ; fome letting them down fo low as not to be diftindlly heard; fome changing the tone too much, and others too little. And fo mvich for the melody of our language, § lo. " As to the rhythm of it, I think it muft confilt in one or other, or all of the four following things : the quantity of the fyllables; the variety of loud and foft; the paufes; and P « laltly, (( [ io6 ] " laftly, your divifion into bars. And I fliall confider all the " four; firll: with regard to our profe, and then with refpedl to *' o\ir verfe. § 1 1, (vide anfwer /o ^ j.) " As to quantity; though we have " undoubtedly in o\ir language fome fyllables much longer than " others, yet I have always been of opinion, that it made no part " of the rhythm of our language; and that it was a vain attempt " to endeavour to reduce our compoiitions to metrical feet. And *' I am much confirmed in this opinion by obfcrving, that you '^ lay no v/eight upon the quantity with regard to rhythm, " though you have taken the trouble to note it. Two reafons, I think, may be affigned for this. The firlt is, that the ratio " betwixt the fliort and long fyllables is by no means afcertained, " as it w^s in the ancient languages. The fecond is, that by far " the greater number of our fyllables aj^pear to be of the fame *' length, as much as the different beats of a drum. I fay, " appear, for I would not be underftood to mean, that there is " not betwixt mofl of them, fome fmall difference of lengths, " difcernible by a nice ear, like yours, but is altogether imper- " ceptible to a common ear, and therefore muft go for nothing *' in the compolition either of our verfe or profe; -whereas in " the learned languages the difference was fo great, that a falfe " quantity in pronunciation was, as we are told, offenfive to the " meaneft of the people. § 1 2. (vide anfiver /o § 7. 1|.) " As to the variety of loud and foft " in the fyllables of the fame word, it is a dii^indion which I fee; " you admit; and indeed it is in Englifh fo perceptible to every " ear, as to diftinguiili.our language moil fenfibly not only from a " the I [ 10 7 ] " the learned languages, but, I believe, from every other modern " language in Europe, as I am lure it is from the French. It " has not, however, been attended to in our profe compofition; " and though, I think, it might even there make fome kind of " rhythm that might be agreeable, yet I do not know that it *' would be a beauty worth ftudying. § 13. (vide my anfwer /o § 10.) " It is the third thing I men- " tioned, namely, the paufes, that, in my opinion, make the " chief, if not the only, rhythm of our Englifli profe. If thefe <' be not properly attended to, and the llyle properly divided into " periods, and members of periods, of different lengths, varied " likewife by paufes, fliorter or longer, the compolition will be " altogether without numbers, and will never be approved by a *«-^ood ear; and, as fpeaking is the beft trial of compofition, this *' defedt will chiefly appear when the performance is read or " fpoken. But though I infift fo much upon the variety of the ** paufes, as well as the whole ftru6lure of the compofition, I do " not deny, that there fliould be likewife fometimes an uni- " formity ; and that fometimes periods, and members of periods, " of the fame length, fometimes with words anfwering each to " the other, v/ill now and then be agreeable. This was a figure "■ well known to the ancient mafters of art, and was too much " pradlifed by fome of their orators, particularly Ifocrates; but " was more moderately ufed by Demofthenes, who has joined in " his ftyle great variety, and at the fame time uniformity, vdth " refpe6l to his paufes, as well as every other pait of his com- *' pofition. p 2 *' The [ io8 ] " The laft thing belonging to the rhythm of our language I " propofed to confider, was your method of dividing our prole " into equal parts, which you call bars. That this has hitherto •' never been pradtifed in Englifli is a fa6l moft certain; but that *■' it is pradicable I have no doubt, as I can fee nothing in the " genius of our language that forbids it. And if it be true, as ^' it luidoubtediy is, that there can be no rhythm without " nieafure, a method \\'hich contrives to meafure the whole " compofition, the paufes or intervals, as well as the founds, " fliould contribute very much to make the compolition rhythmi- " cal and numerous. Of i'uch a rhythm, I believe, every perfon " who had an ear would feel the effect, though very few would " be able to affign the caufe, which you know is generally the " cafe in all the popular arts. And lb much with refpedt to the " rhythm of our profe. § 14. " As to our verfe, there is one part of its rhythm " wliich every body perceives, and that is the equal length of " the verfes. That arifes from their conlifting of the fame " number of fyllables; ten, for example, in our hexameter verfe. " Nor can this be difpenfed with; for even a paufe, however " long, will not fiipply the want of a fingle fyllable. " 2.dly, In our rhymmg verfe, and particularly in Mr. Pope's, " there is a kind of rhythm produced by the ftop or csefure, " about the middle of the verfe, of the fame kind with that of " the French long verfe. This I have always thought a blemifh, *♦ both in our verfe and the French; for it makes the compo- " fition, which was before too uniform, by being in fentences " of a certain determined number of fyllables, ftili more tedioufly " uniform.. [ 109 ] uniform. And I approve much more of our blank verfe, which only ftops where the fenfe requires it, befides the advantage its has of running the fenfe of one Ime into, another ;, a privilege which our rhyming poets of former times ufed> biit which is now given up. This divifion, therefore, of verfe into hemi- ftiches is not an elTential property of our verllfication, an'/ more than the rhyme;, but the firft I mentioned; ^v>.. tha number of fyllables is effential, fo that there cannot be verfa without it. And I am now to mention another, which L Ukewife hold to be effential ; and that is,, \f^ (lHje fame ^j § 7. 1|.) " sdLy, The mixture of loud and foft fyllables, and the percuffion at certain ftated intervals of ths loud fyllable. This is fo effential to our verfe,. that, if ths fenfe require that an emphafis fliould be laid upon the foft fyllable, it evidently mars the verfe. Thus, if in reading ths firft line of the Paradife Lq/i, you were to lay an emphafis upon the word /fr/?, which by no means is neceffary, the verfe would plainly halt, and be different from the fucceeding verfe, w^here the fyllable /o/', of the word, forbidden , which anfwers to the word Jirfi in the preceding line, muft neceffarily be founded foft. And it is a beauty in our verfification, when the emphafis, which the fenfe requires, and the forte^ w hick is neceffary to the verfe, coincide, as I have obferved ro in thofe famous verfes of Denham upon Cooper's I-U/i, " Though dctp, yet clear, Sec." And as this mixture of loud and foft is peculiar to our verfe, fo it is alfo peculiar to our language ; diftinguifliing it, as I have obferved, not only from the learned languages, but (/-) Vol. II. p. 389. " fron\. f no ] *' from evei7 other modern language in Europe, as far as I know. ^' I fhould therefore have thought it ftrange, if it had not entered *' into the compofition of our verfe. § 1 6. " The two things, therefore, that, in my opinion, « conftitutc our verfe are, the number of fyllables, and the '' mixture of loud and foft, according to certain rules. ++ As to ■" quantity, it is certainly not elTential to our verfe; and far lefs ■*' is accent. *' As to your method of dividing our poetry into bars, like *' mulic, it is exceedingly ingenious; and I have no doubt that " it will be ufeful in poetry, as well as in profe, towards forming "' a juft ear. But it is to be obferved, that the rules of mufic " will not apply to our verfe in this refpe<5l |||| ; that the paufes, *' as I have obferved, cannot ftand for any part of the verfe, nor *' fupply the place of a lingle fy liable; \vhereas in mufic, the *' paufes make bars, or parts of bars. At the fame time, thefe *' paufes are a very great beauty, particularly in our blank verfe, " filling up a confiderable part of the time; and therefore are " very properly conlidered as a part, at leaft, of the time of the " verfe, if not the verfe itfelf *•'■*. "As to the companion you make betwixt the melody and " rhythm of the Englifli language and thofe of the Greek, " although you have fliown that there is more of each in the *' Englifli language than is commonly believed, yet I cannot " think, that our language will bear comparifon wdth the Greek in this any more than in other refpeds. As the excellence of their grammatical art admitted of a great variety of arrange- ment; -fttand as certain fyllables of certain words had parti- ** cular t III ] *' cular tones appropriated to them, they had it in their power, by *' different compofitions of thofe words, to mix thofe tones, fot *' as to make a mufic agreeable to the ear, and which accordingly *' is obferved by their critics as one of the beauties of their com- ¥ pofition. Now, I think, it is certain, as I have already *' obferved, that our compofition can be little or nothing im- " proved in that way. And as to rhythm, we have not what " they called rbyt/?m lll^ ariluig from a certain compofition of *' long and fhort fyllables; and therefore we are obliged to mak& "our verfe in a manner quite different from theirs; that is, by " the number of fyllables, and the mixture of loud and foft : a " way which we may think preferable, becaufe our ears are not *' formed to their rhythms; but which I cannot bring myfelf to " think, is near fo numerous as their verfification. |1|||[ In fliort, *' the Greek language was the work not only of grammarians and; " philofophers, but of muficians;. for the Greeks excelled no lefs " m mulic than, in other arts, and applied it very much to the- " improvement of their language : whereas the Romans,, whofe " mulical parts (to ufe an. expreflion of my lord Shaftefbury) " were not near fo good, though they fpoke originally the fame ** language, did not cultivate it fo much in any refpeil, and' " particularly did not improve the found of it fo much as the " inhabitants of Greece did. Our language, on the other hand,. " is the produdlion of unlearned, popular ufe, corrupting a. " better language, out of which it has grown ; I mean the Saxon,, "which again is a corruption of the Gothic. This degeneracy " of the art of language, as well as of other arts, is, I think, to:- " be accounted for from the nature and hifhory of man ; and I; "will: [ 112 i *' will endeavour to do it, in the laft part of my work, wherein •^' 1 am to treat of the decline of language, if ever I fliall execute *' it. For the prcfent it will be fufficient to obferve, that in the "*' art of mufic, which you underftand fo well, if we can believe ** the teftimony of all the ancient authors who treat of it, there ■*' is a wonderful falling off; for the diatonic^ which we now ufe, *■'■ was only the mullc of the vulgar among them; whereas the ^' mufic of the connoifleurs and the men of tafte was the chro- ^* niat'ic^ and particularly the enharmonic. If you think it worth " while, you may fee what I have further faid upon this fubjedl, *' vol.11, p. 288." PART [ 113 ] ART IV. ANSWERS TO THE SECOND SET of OBSERVATIONS AND QUERIES, BY THE AUTHOR of the origin and PROGRESS OF LANGUAGE. IN order to anfwer lb accurate and fubtilizing a querift as your 1 — p, I have endeavoured, froin the beginning, to reduce my lubjecSt to fyftem. This required a fet of pertinent appropriated terms, which were not eafy to find, to my intire fatisfaclion, confidering the mifapplication of fevera] important words, and particularly of accent and meafure^ confirmed by immemorial vulgar ufe. Accent, I was obliged to compel, as it were, by rude force to its proper duty. Measure, I unwillingly left, in compliance with the vulgar idiom, as a term of the fame import with rhythmus ; and yet, in truth, it fliould have been confined to the Greek fenfe of metre. But having adopted cadence inftead of metre, as a word which feems to explain itfelf to our fenfes, by intimating the pulfation of time, I fliall ftill continue it in that place; becaufe, though I frequently fliew, that metre is almoit fynonymous v.ith Q cadence, [ 114 I CADENCE, yet they are not quite the fame, as I fliall explain hereafter. Rhythmus, as it fignified with the Greeks number \ that is, the number of metres contained in a line or fentence ; fo it may fignify with us, the number of cadences in a line or fentence: but I ufe it alfo as the general term under which cadence is a divifion, and quantity a fub-divifion. And when I defcribe this fub-divifion of a cadence, I fay, it is metrically divided into fuch aliquot fraftional parts ; that is, long and fliort quantities,. as make up the intirety of the cadence. But before we come to the fra(5tional divifion of the cadence,. there is an integral divifion of it to be confidered, properly called its METRE, according to which the aliquot quantities are metri- cally comj)uted and difpofed.. That is, the cadence is either equally divided by the integral even number two, or the integral odd number three which conflitute the two general modes of metre (or measure); thefe two, being the firft numbers pofiible, that occur, for the divifion of matter. That is, the firfi: pofiible divifion of any length is into two parts; and. the next poflible divifion is into three parts. But further than thefe two modes of equal divijion natm"e has never yet gone in the equal divijion of fenfible time. For if a cadence be divided into four integral equal parts,, the number two will flill be the divifor, and it mv'iW fenjibly become two cadences. A divifion into Jive equal parts nature wiU not adinit. (Vide p. 2,3. and 26.) A. divifion [ 115 ] A divifion into fix equal integral parts is either the double of three, or the triple of two ; and confequently, may be mentally reduced or fub-divided into two cadences^ or into three cadences. And the like of all other admiffible divilions ; for the divifions of 7, II, 13, 17, 19, &c. equal 2)arts, are not achniffiblc. (P. 23. and 26.) I have fliewn the fimilitude between the Greek metres and our CADENCES ; videlicet, that the rbytbmus or number of metres made lines, thence called hexametres, pentametres, &c. ; fo with us, the rbytbmus or number of cadences make lines, fuch as oclometres, hexametres, &c. Now I muft fliew how they differ. Cadences, under the fame rhythmus, are exa6lly equal in. duration of time to each other, and are commenfurable by even Iteps, or by the pulfes of a pendulum. But the Greek metres, though nominally under the fame E.HYTHMUS, are not always of equal length; fome being fimple METRES of one footy and others compounded by copula of two feet, of various lengths; confequently, not always reducible within the compafs of equal periodical pulfations like our CADENCES. For CADENCES always begin with thejis, or A the hea^y fyllable, and end with arjis, or .'. the light ; confequently, between Itep and flep, or, mufically fpeaking, between bar and bar, the whole of each cadence is included. But fome Greek /^^/, of which their metres are compofed, begin with arjis, or .*. the light, and fome with tbejis, or A the heavy. And confequently, the Greek metres cannot always be Q a included, X [ ii6 ] includccl, as our cadences may be, between the pulfes of equal time luch as ourjeps, and fuch as we mean to mark by mufical Ifars; becaufe the pulfes, always coinciclent with thefis, or A the heavy, w'oukl fometimes fall in the middle, fometimes on the beginning, and fometimes obliquely, neither on the beginning nor in the middle, which is the cafe in almoft all the metres by copu/a, the bacchic^ the cretic, the piCons, and the epiirites. The fpace of time between each j^ulfation and the next fucceeding pvilfation, I have called a cadence or bar, becaufe I ufually mark a bar at every cadence, though in common mufic, two or more cadences are often comprifed in one bar's length. The whole time of the cadence or bar (as aforefiud) muft be capable of being equally divided either by the number two, the eflential and dillinguifliing mark of the genus of common meafLire, or by the number three, the effcntial mark of the genus of triple meafure. The whole quantity of the time or duration of a cadence or bar (whether common meafure confifling of two integral units, or triple meafure confining of three integral units), may be fub- . divided by metrical articulation (xw fQwnd or xwjikncej into any unequal fractional quantities of time, provided their fum alto- gether be neither more nor lefs than the integral quantity of the i-3iii(\ cadence or hav. (Vide page 24.) The term quantity is appropriated to difcriminate tlie relative valae of founds in duration of time, being either the quantity of whole cadences, or the cvuantity of each of the fub-divifions of a cadence; that is, it refers to the diftindion of longer and Jhorter notes orfyllables, or of longer and lliorter y;^/.^/^j-. Confequently, [ 117 ] Confequently, the time or duration of every individual found, fyllable, or paufe (in the fub-divifion of the equal or integral numbers of a cadence into unequal though aliquot parts ; or the re-union of fuch unequal or aliquot fradions into whole num- bers), is called its quantity. The injiinciive fenfe of pu!fati07t gives the mind an idea of emphafis and emphatic dhijions, independent of any acSlual incre- ment of found, or even of any found at all. But emphafis and emphatic diviiions imply, that there are fome founds of a different nature ; that is, that there is a difcontinuance or dimi- "vjiution of emphafis -with or without difcontinuance or diminution of found; or, in other words, independent of found. And hence we have the mental fenfation of efiipbatic and unemphatic^ which I diilinguirh and reprefent by the words and fymbols of A heavv and .'. light. (Vide p. 20.) And as a common term to flgnify both, I appropriate the word poize, in like manner as ACCENT is ufsd as the common term for acute and grave, and QUANTITY for long zvAjhort. (See note, p. 77.) It is the office of rhythmus, aided by the influence of this inJlinBive poize, to regulate the whole duration of any melody or movement by an cxadly equal and periodical pulfation, until it is thought proper to change the meafure, for fome other uni- form pulfation,- either quicker or flower. In the time of the world, a natural day (night included) is a fingle cadence', the fetting and rifing of the Sun are the ibejis and arfis'; feafons and years are rhythmical claufes: the real begin- r-.ing and the ending of this melody are out of our fight ; but to / [ ii8 ] to human apprehenfion, the apparent are birth and death, and hfe is our part in the fong. See Obfervations, p. 96. § 3, -. *' How is the length of thofe <' equal portions, into which the mind is pleafed to divide the " tunc, determined? Why are they not greater? or why are " they not lels? To what previous ftandard does the mind refer *' in tliis divilion ? Sic." The beating of our pulfe^ which we mufl feel whenever Me are filent and inaflixT, prones us to rhythmical divijions even in the feries of our thoughts; as foon as we begin to move, our fteps fucceed in the government of rythnkal pulfation, and the meajure may then be at o\xx option f after or flower; for while we were illent and motionlefs, the meafure of our thoughts mull have been regulated by the cadences of our puljcy which is aii involuntary motion. Every fingle y?f/>, or every pace, may mark a cadence^ the putting down the foot being A heavy ^ and the lifting it up being .'. light. Now it is obvious, that a man walks fafter or flower, either for convenience or pleafure ; but I think it as needlefs here as it would be endlefs, to look for the caufes that might be the firfl: movers in his mind, either of his conveniency or his pleafure in fuch a cafe. It ovir pulfe is to govern the time or length of a cadence^ the thefts A and arjis .*• muft keep pace and coincide with the fyjiole. and diajlole of the heart. 3 If [ 119 ] If the Jlep or pace, then between walking and running there is a latitude for a great variety. But in the rbytbmus of language, all polyfyllables are afFedted' to xheiT poize of heavy 3.i\6. light fo pofitively (and the poize deter- mines the cadence)^ that nothing remains in doubt except the difference between the floweft and the fafteft fpeaker. However, that doubt is of no confequence in this argument, fince every fpeaker, if he preferves the proportions demanded by the natural quantity and poize of the words, muft adopt that meafure of quicknefs that the poize of the words points out; that is, he muft allow himfelf time to make the difference between long and fhort fyllables : for, as it has been often, repeated before, a cadence muft begin with &. the heavy and end with /. the light (the ., lightejl being only an inferior fpecies of the light) ; or, in other word, as every cadence begins with A the heavy,, of courle the whole of every cadence lies between A heavy and A heavy, as often as they occur. For example. Im poffible A.. ^ ; im K>1 poffible A .. This word jn common raeafuje cannot be twice repeated without leaving the quantity of half ti cadence in filence under the A heavy , as the. firft fy liable im is under the light .*. poize. ^ la r L [ 1:^0 ] In triple mcnfr.rc it may be noted thus: -; in} in' nil pofTible im poffiblc A .. .*. A •• < But luppofe a perfon of opinion, thzt accent, quantity, znd poize, were quite arbitrary in modern languages, fliould defire them to be varied on this word; for example thus : H_ H fj impol fible impof fible A /. A /. A .'. A .-. it is no longer an EngliJJj, but clearly a French word. Now to return to the anfwer of the queftion before us, thefe examples fliew, that though a rapid fpeaker may repeat three hexameters, while a deliberate fpeaker pronounces only one ; yet if they both underftand the language, and give it its due, each of them mufl allow Iix cadences to each hexameter line ; for it is evidently the language, and the words themfelves, that meafure and point out the cadences. Thefe examples may alfo ferve to illuftrate what is faid (in p. 115. and 116.) concerning the difference between Greek metres and our cadences. For the EngliJIj words, impojftble^ tmpojjible, are metres of two choriambic feet ; but the cadences are anapcvjls in common meafure, znd Jon ici a mi nor e in triple meafure; as French words they are fpondaic, metre and cadence all the fame. But [ I^I ] But as I propofe thefe new marks of notation to be written with profe or poetry, in order to prefcribe any fuch manner of enunciation to a reader, as the writer fliall think proper; the writer May follow his judgement or fancy in fixing the degree of velocity, by marking it for two fteps to a fecond of time, or one ftep to a fecond, or more, or lefs; or he may leave a greater latitude, by marking it Jlow walking time^ moderate walking time, quick walking time^ or running time. I have fliewn in feveral examples, how eafily the two general modes of times, common and triple^ may be inte rmix ed, by varying the metrical fub-divifion of the cadences, and without making any alteration in the rhythmus\ as, fuppofe a piece marked for com^Jion meafure thus. 1 3 2^: i"i^Tn— 1 1 — ■ A /. A /. A .*. A .*. Here the mark O denotes that the three quavers under that arch, are to occupy only the time of two quavers ; confequently, though all the cadences are of equal length in time, yet the firft and third are in common meafure ; the fecond in triple meafure ; and the fourth mixed, half triple, half comj7ion. Again, fup- pofe a piece marked for triple meafure, as, iipiiiiiilia Here the fecond and 4th bars or cadences have evidently the efFetft of being in common meafure, as each of them confift of only two R notes y. Yt -1 -;• ^i ysi ;? 1 - r rumque ca no, Tro jce qui primus ab oris A A .•• A .-. A .-. r t A A .*. A.-. C 122 1 notes of equal length ; the firft and third cadences are evidently in triple meafure; but all the cadences are of equal length, and imder one rhythmus. Now fuppofe a line written and noted, and at the pleafure of the writer the meafure to be governed by that of a moderate ^alk, wherein each ftep occupies a fecond of time ; Arma vi 1 y- (Here, though the meafure. is marked /r^/i?, yet as the two genera \ are virtually intermixed, the quantity allowed to the arfis or the light part being by the mark .-. (which in this cafe compre- hends as many notes as are equal to half the cadence or bar) made equal in duratioa of time to (A) the heavy part, the whole bar or cadence conlifts only of on^Jlep.) Then let the reader walk and pronounce, putting down, (fuppofe) the right foot to ar, lifting up the other with ma vi, down again on rum, right foot up to que ca^ down to no^ the left up under the paufes r l j and down "under the paufes r i , the right up to ^ro, down to 7<;?, left up to qui^ down to /)//, right up to nius ab, down to c, left up to r/j", left down and the right up to the.paufes; of - mmira and r crotchet.. J See p. 96. § 3. "But I obferve, that the mind naturally '< divides fome tunes, and particularly Scotch tunes, into many ♦^ more notes, 8ic.^- — ^There I find it difficult to refolve the bar " into " into fleps or paces. - C 123 ] -A meafure, — fuch as has no ftandard a m nature. In anfwer to this, I fay, that the (A) -6^<3:^;^, and (.%) //^,^/f, in common meafure, where two is the divifor; or the (a) beav\\ (..) light ejl^ and (.-.) lights in the pure triple meailire, where three is the divifor, are to correfpond wdth thofe integral monads, which determine the genus of the meafure, and not with their various fra6tional fub-divifions ; which, though 1 thinlc it has been fliewn by examples before, I will here endeavour to illuftrate farther by fome others. EXAMPLE I, Veryjlozv ivalking-ti?ne. . Line of equal integral mo-" ^^-^^rrEzi^E^: nads in the cadences of > Trr zpri^i-zp common meafure, J Metrical fub-dlvifion of the fame ca- dences into unequal quantities; -.m:^. A .\ A .*. A A .*. 'i^tm?^:^ EXAMPLE IK AJlep to afecond of iinie. Or the fame"! -rr^ Or the 1 ame "j ■:sJt~zizTirz:z:T-~~-% t— -i— y— j T"f n"~T ~1~"i^T — melody thus j|i;SiEg:i|i|Eg|g:g||g|Ep The line of equal"! ZI^^ZZ integral nionadsj j- ^^IF?^ miililiiiii '■^^ A .% A .-. A .". A . , A .*. A .*. A .% R a E X A M P L E i 124 ] EXAMPLE III. Example where two fteps or a pace make a cadence of triple meafure, correfponding with the walk of a lame man. Three Seconds of time equal to a cadence; the thefis of the lame leg equal to A ..; and that of the found leg equal to .*. .. isgii^i^^iiijspi • • • • A . . .*. Line of 3 equal integral monads correfponding with this exam- ple. ^gi^iii izn 3£ ip A.. A.. A.. A .. .*, EXAMPLE IV. Example of the pure triple meafure, one Jlep only to a cadence.^ and the time three-fourths of a fecond to each ftep. ippp^iilptipiiiiNii Vent'annl fono fofte tro vat:; qui' abbando nata da' un Colonello. If your 1 — p had pointed out to me what particular tunes you found, that would not fubmit to your meafurement by fleps, I would have given you a demonftrative anfwer on thofe very tunes ; [ 125 1 times; for I will venture to affert, that there are none in nature that will not fubmit to thefe rules. When our modern method of notation was firft introduced, and for a long time after, there were no bars thought of; and alio for many years after the divifion by bars was found ufeful, they were rather applied as the marks of rhythmical claufes (vide p. 23. and p. 30.) than of individual cadences. In Corelli's com- politions they were, for the moft part, fo fparingly ufed, as to be only the marks of rhytbn^ical claufes : for inftance, the allegro,- called Giga^ in the eleventh fonata, opera fecunda, of that author, (the m-eafure of which feems fo difficult to young performers, that it has got the name of the Devil's fonata), has its bars marked only at q\qij fourth cadence\ and the difficulty of keeping the meafure arifes firft, that • the bars feem as if they were marked, not at the beginning of each apparent claufe, but either on a cadence too foon or too late; fecondly, the claufes appear. as. if they were unequal, as there feems to be in the firft part, three claufes of four cadences in each claufe^ and. two of ten cadences in each. But the fecond part, which is eafier to be 2:)laycd, is divided into eight claufes of four cadences in each: however, it cannot be doubted, that the author intended this as a piece of rhythmical drollery; for had the bars been marked at each real cadence,- which in this air confifts of three quavers, the meafure would appear to be the fame as that now ufually marked in the triple naeafure pre/Ios of modern compofers, and would remove the difficulty fo puzzling to young performers. The Scotch airs, called Lovely Nancy, T'hrd' the ijcood, laddie, , the Englifli air, As near Porto Bello lying, and many others, in the- hke [ 126 i like flile, are fct in flow triple meafure of three monads in a bivr (vide foregoing example, n° hi.). But in fa6t, each bar of that flow meafure may be confidered as a rhythmical claufe of three cadences or fteps of common meafure, each cadence or ftep including its A and /. in the fpace of a fecond of time. Thus, I ft. ad. 3d. 4th. -*- ^iS^i s3ii^le;^^£Sae3 pg^iJ^ C( A .'. A .*. A .'. A .*. A .•. A .'. A .*. A How can you, lovely Nancy, ^c." A .'. A .'. L^- I have marked the beginning of each claufular divilion by thick ybarSy numbered ift. 2d. 3d. and 4th. in thofe places where only 3ARS are marked in the ufual way of writing this air in triple meafure, each of thofe thic^ bars comprehending three of our cadences \ and thefe are truly the natural cadejices of this air, ivhich demands the A emphafis as often as I have marked it. Whether, by what I have faid, I fhall be able to fatisfy your 1 — p in this point or not, I cannot tell; but I am quite clear myfelf, that every fpecies of rhythmical found can be afcertained by the ftandard of our ftep. And though the various paces of quadrupeds furnifli us with rhythmical movements of jig triples Y J T- and double cadences, fuch as the ra ta pat and the ra ta pa ta .'.A A .. .-. -rr which are not naturally made by bipedes, yet our habit of riding raaKes us almoft as familiar with the meafures beaten by the paces of horfes as if they were our own. 7 P. 97- C 127 ] p. 97. § 4. "I am convinced, that the antient mufic muft *^ have been divided, as well as the modern, into bars, &c." If your 1 — p has found any antient authority to convince you of this, it muft convince me too ; but until that is pointed out to me, I muft remain of a different opinion. Though the instinctive sense of periodical pulf at ion is cer^ tainly coeval with our animal frame, yet the invention of the penduhan has made the inoderns more accurate and expert in divilions of time than thofe antients who had no fuch help. I think, if the Greeks had had the fame idea and.ufe of bars in their mufic as tlie moderns have, Ariftides Quintilianus would not have been totally lilent about them. When he is explaining rhythmus, he fays, MeXo; f<£V yot,^ vcsnociy xali' ctvTo fxh toic ^loc- X6^[xdim ii^ Ka'Ko^v. 'PuSjWoc J"£ Ka^^ amoif ^h £7r) ij^iA^j; o^yYJasi^c'' /^ -/ ixsjd^s yAxaCj iv m'Koi.?. (Meib. vol. II. p. 32.) Which I under— / / ftaiid thus: " Song, limply by itfelf, appears in written cbaradiers " and in unmeafured melody. And joined with rhythmus alone, " in pulfes And feet. Rhythmus by itfelf , appears in /-■• naked " (or filent) dancing.; but joined with fong, iii/^fi"/."' I take the word zpHixa, (or ptdfes) to fignify here the throbbing founds of inftruments ftruck like the lyre, which., could . only marki. the.. quantity of each note, but not meafure. cadences. . And. vtwAa muft mean /^^/, the members into which their mulic and poetry were divided : for if it meant the members made by the casfure, it was > departing, from the true meaning of rhythmus, whicliis number i; *--Tiie movement of dancing witliout, or abftrafled from, mwfic. . that^. C 1-^8 ] that is, the nunibcr of metres or feet in ?. line. Surely, if they had had any ^ixy^:c[xf':uio!. like our dars for marking the (divifions of rhythmus into) metres^ tliis author \vculd have mentioned them, as ^^'ell as the diagrammata or written charadlers for the fono; or melody. The invention of our modern notes, the figures of which declare accurately their metrical quantities, together with the bars to mark the pi/I/cs or rhythmical divif.ons^ have rendered the Greek feet totally ufelefs in the pra6tice of our mufic. As mechanical inftruments for the compolition of poetry, the Greek feet were ingenious, though intricate and inaccurate when compared with our mufical rhythmus; but now, if joined with ours, I conceive, the two together may become ufeful for the better reading of the antient claffics, and perhaps for modern compofitions in our own language. According to our method of rhythmical divifions, by bars or cadences, and by the metrical fub-divifion of thofe cadences into fub~diiples, fub-triples, or any fuch mixed fradlional numbers as are aliquot parts of the whole cadence, there are no words or form of words, but what, by the aforefaid rules and the aid of mea- fured paufes, may be reduced to an exad: rhythmus. i^' Ariilides's divifion of ti?nes into rhythmical and non-rhythmical, I underftand as meaning to fay as I have done (p. 1 1 . 21. 23. 2.6.); that is, that r/&>'//6;;?/c<3;/ time is only capable of being gene- rically divided either by the even number two, or by the odd number three; but that the numbers feven, eleven, thirteen, feventeen, nineteen, &:c. are non-rhythmical divifors. And perhaps his rhytbmoides, or apparently rhythmical times may correfpond I 1^9 ] correfpond with the exception which 1 have made for the number five in clai(fular divi/Ions (page 23.). His fentence, ihtuv $£ ol [xh a metre of five times, giving two to arfs and three to thefts, or vice verfd: and in a metre of feven times, giving three to arfs and [ 131 1 and four to thefis^ or vice verja. Still infifting, that for fyllablcs, they had only two meafiires; videlicet^ of one time^ or of two times. Whereas, when the modern rauficians refer to any thing like •A. Jlandard for time^ it is to a jiiaximuni., wliich they fuppofe may be fubdivided to infinity hy fub~duples ox fub^tripks. However, in fettling a ftandard for the metrical quantities of language, it is moft proper to adopt the minimum^ or Jhorteji Jyllable^ for that purpofe, as no found in fpeech can be fliorter than the fhorteft fyllable; and therefore, in this fyftem I have made no mark for any note fliorter than ( | ) the quaver, which, according to the Greek manner of computing, ftands for one time. P. 99. §6. t. "I rather incline to think, that upon the *' fyllable next following the acute, the voice would begin to " fall, and continue falling upon that, and perhaps upon the " next after that, &:c." Your 1 — p's opinion in this matter is, in general, very right, as you will fee in the M^ord happinefs in my firft example and many others. It would require but little pra6lice, with the help of an inftrument (as directed p. 1 6.), to be able to mark all the accents of any fpeech or poem : for, in general, the diftin6tion between acute and grave is fo obvious, it can feldom or never be miftakcn. The only difficulty lies in the circumflex tones (either a^ or \i)\ for as they are confined within a fmall extent, and pro-, nounced exceedingly rapid in the polite tone of our language, S 2 and [ 132 ] and yet have in thcmfelves both the founds of acute and grave, if not accurately attended to, they may pafs for either, though they are, limply, neither: therefore, whenever the ear is much puzzled to know whether an accent is acute ov grave, it will be a rood rule to fufpecft it to be a circumflex of one or the other fort. Our Englifli found applied to the vowel u, which in moft cafes is really a diphthong, as in you., tife, cure, pure, muje, and the like, is always under the circumflex '\ acuto-grave. And the Englilh found / in the firft perfon, in idle, iron, try, fly, and the like, is always made by a circumflex \/ grave-acute. P. ICO. § 7. " When I fpeak of the accents or tones of the. " Greek language, I mean only fyllabic tones which are appro~ " priated to particular fyllables of each words, according to " certain rules delivered by the grammarians, &c." When rules are delivered dogmatically as univerfals, without / marking the exceptions and exemplifying all the varieties to which they are liable (a matter difficult to do, and very rarely done), they often lead into errors, either by too limited or too loofe a conftrucftion. And this, we have great reafon to think,, has been the cafe, in regard to the profodical rules of the Greek language, I have no doubt, that the antient Greeks had nearly the fame- ideas annexed to the/is and arfis, as I have given to heavy and light ; but not having ufed any marks for thofe expreffions, is, I believe, the caufe why accent, quantity, and e-mphafls, have been confounded together, as one thing, by the commentators of the middle and latter times^ The C 133 '] The grammatical rules for fixing the accents in all Greek mords are certainly not followed by the modern Greeks in the pronunciation either of their vulgar or of their antient language ; though the learned among them are very correcft (under thole rules) inmarking them in their writings; yet in their Ipeaking (like all other nations), they make a manifeft difference in the profody of the fame fyllables when in a queftion, and when in an anfwer, or in other different intentions. I think there can be no articxilated language without empbqjiSy . accent^, and quantity. And any language (if any fuch there be) which wants the power of diverfifying the application of each of thofe accidents in all its words, on particular occafions, mult be fo far deficient in the elegance, force, and aptitude of its.^ exprelTions. The few words, called by the Greeks enclitics^ had, as we are • told, this convenient quality, in fome degree, by changing and . giving up their accent to the word they clung to ; but furely this was not enoughs Our monyfyllables are much more pliant than their enclitics. \ cannot recolledl one that is not capable of changing to the com-- plexion that will heft fit the meafure and intention of the fpeakcr, and alTuredly this is a perfedfion in language, which the com- mentators would fain perfuade us the Greek language had not, by laying down rules that abfolutely excluded it; however, I rather impute this to their errors or neglei5t, than to real.defecl in the language. To elucidate what I have faid, I will give a familiar initanee in Qur own tongue, to Ihew the utility of changing thefe accidents of [ 134 ] of fyllabic exprefTion. In which I lliall introduce two of our monofyllables that feem moil obftinately afFed:ed to the light poize \ notwithftanding which, they readily fubmit to the heavy, when their pofition and the fenfe requires it. Thefe are the prepofitions to and/;-o;/2. EXAMPLE. As ; \^l Peter was TT I I going to the A .. y hall, A .. .'. he met A .. John. -y^- • • • « Sure, you mif A .. .*. take ; you murt mean, A .. .*. Peter A . . .*. coming from the hall. or thus, you mult mean, as Peter was A .. .-. A . . .*. A .. .-. coming from the hall. A . . .•. Coming A from ! I " ^ A .. .*. no, no, I i^ • • • • fay going to. A ., .*. In this example, the monofyliable to is, in the firft line, Jlwrtj acute, 3.nd tight; in the laft, Jong, acuto-grave, znd heavy. FROM, [ 135 ] FROM, in the fecond and third line, is^/bort, acute ^ :ind/iol/t- ^ in the laft, /on^; acute^ and heavy. HALL, in the firlt hne, is long, heavy, and acute\ in the fecond and third, long, heavy, and grave. "^ Here aUb it may be obferved, that the two fyllables of the word GOING being joined together by vowels, without the inter- vention of a confonant, pafs off almoft as a monofyllable, and the word, in regard to its poize, is alfo as pliant as a mono" fyllable; for in the firft line it is Z'^^':;y, and in the laft, light. Every one of thefe varieties makes a fignificant difference iii: the expreffion. A fignificant variety, without which no language can be compleat, either in fpeaking or in writing; but which, if. applied to the Greek, mvift deviate frequently from the letter of the rules as commonly received and underftood.- The variation, on the latter part of the fecond line, fliews,, that though the words as and was were not exprefly required to explain the fenfe, they were ufeful as expletives for the euphony,: and that their addition, made no alteration either in the rhythmus- or in the fnetres of the cadences, lince their quantities, when, omitted, pafTed in lilent paufes. I have laid in my anfwer to § 4. p. i 28. " That perhaps the " Greek method of compofing by feet, joined with ours, might be " of fome ufe in modern compofitions." In this view I fliall here fet down feveral Englifli words, the fnft that occiir to mc, marking them with my notes of accent, quantity, va\d' paizCy. and likewife give them the names ot. fuch Greek feci as their quantities feem to refer them to.. 3L TJhis [ 136 ] This fpecimen, I hope, will fliew that our language has the fame title to fyllabic accents, and perhaps as fixed, as thofe of Greek; for it is not probable, that the Greek tongue fliould have been denied the convenient power of marking the difference^ between an interrogative and -^pofitive expreflion, by the change of accent. WORDS MARKED WITH PROPER ACCENT, QUANTITY, AND EMPHASIS. 1 T- T- :./ / conjiant f A :. willing f / / "ntaxim f Jiicceedf ■•\> / \ conjiant. A .-. T'T- IV i I ling. T'T- tnaxim. A .% T-T- Jucceed. .-, A T'T* (to) accent? (to) accent. / / carelefsf A .'. > > wickedP > > wonder f \ > fuccefs f T'T* T- T" / \ carelefs. A .-. T- T' > \ wicked. > \ wonder. fuccefs. T'T' > fpondees. (an) accent?' (an) accent. A /. A .'. (to) [ 137 ] \> (to) infulty /. A )■ fpondee. (an) injult^ A .'. mujic, trochee. A .♦. or, muJiCj fpondee. A .-. T 1 I T a bi H ty^ chonambic. .*. A .*. ever, A.-. never, A.'. fever, A /. y pyrrhic. K eager, trochee. A .* T T T compenfate, mololTus. .♦. A .^ eagerly, dailyU A .. .*. T I I T compenfation, choriambus. A .*. A .'. \ able, trochee, A .% compofe, iambic. .♦. A compofitiony [ 138 I compq/itwn, third ei^itrite. va r'le ty^ choriambic; A .'.A .*. A .V ivonderjuU^ • » • • T- i T abfolute .^ A .. .'. T- I T abfolute. T M ^ hnpojfiblef •-*■ ^ • • • • T; 1 I Y impoijibie^ curiouSy dactyl or fpondeCi dadyl, or anapseft ^^ ^^ y I iambus and anapaslV ^ ,' ^ curioji ty, > ^ a majore. ,_ w,_^ ' per copulam. :. A .*. J choriambicor I ft pseon... terrify, anapaeft. A .-. extermmate, choriambic. exquifite, anapaeft.. various, da^flyl or fpondee.. Tl I T deliberate, choriambic. •.« h^ • • avarice;. avariccy anapaeft. [ 139 3 or, confejjbry cretic. A.. aver J iambus. .-.A fucceffiorij iflpseon. .% A iR average^ anapxfb fuccejjbr, dadlyl. A .. confefs, iambus. .*. A T I T OY, fucceffbr, cretic. A . . .'. €onfeJfion, da'.s • ' difference^ [ 141 ] difference, anapaelt, ref A .. .*. r r /\ pediive, (Englifli) moloflus. A .'. proper delicate, anapccft. A .. .*. I T T delinquent, bacchic. .*. A {2i)projeB, iambus. A .*. refpe£'hve, A .. /. (Scotch) anapaeft. error TT mifer, fpondee. Y A .-. M; mifery, anapccft. A, .% T- T {x.o)proje£l, fpondee.'V /.A •• ^ fpecieSy dadyl or fpolideev A .-. T ? refpecl, (in fufpenle) .-, A T T /\ refpeB, (final) .*. A 4. \' fpecific, ^^i,!^^- Orefif- .% A . . .i_9mj^icsj^ K > T ? compare, iambus.- .-. A comparifony [ i4» I comparij'o}^ choriambic. /. A /. //H comparable, proceleiifmatic. V/A continual, chpriambus. T'l T conttnu A . . .'. A .'. a lion, dad;, and fpond. T T injlant, fpondee. V.' T TT T conjlituthn, dif-fpondee. A ..A /. inftantaneous, fpoiid. and dad. A .*. A ,. .'. conjlttuent, choriambus. • • ^\ • « • • communicate, .choriambus. conjianti A .. .'. T T"" /\ n-Qple, A .. molofliis and fpondee. communication, dad. and j(pond. tn/lruct, fpondee. A ...'.A .*. VA continue., cretic. .*. A •• T T T \ / \ inftru£lton,i moloflus. A .-. injirumenty [ 143 ] > \ / injirumenty dadtyl. A .. .*. {{.o) produce y iambus. T T (to) frequent f :. A T T (adjedt.) frequent , A .*. > fpondee. (fh.€) produce y ditto. I I infpircy iambus. .•• A Y produBy ditto. A .*. T TT T infpirattony dif-fpondee^ A /. A .'. I T T produSiiony bacchic. .*. A .*. or, infpirationy ionicus a minor t* .*. A fyttahky anapseft. A .. .'. fyllabiCy da(5lyl. :. A .*. T T' / \ Vibratey fpondee. r A « N / /* vibratio?iy moloffus. vccupf^ [ -M4 :] occupy, dacftyl. \ \/\ -T l.-T repetition^ pi'oceleufmatic. occupation^ ionicus_^ mtiiore. ,Y or, repetition, diambic. A /. A .*. 'or, occupation, diambic. A .-. A /. , ^ '' T / repeat, iambus, :. A 1 I T^ /K \ obdurate, A .. .'. anapxft, or \vith the paule ionicus a ini- nore. or thus, according to Milton, P. L. b. I.. line 58. T? T ■"■~'^"-"- obdu} ate, amphibrachys . .% A .\ The POIZE of fylLables is the moft determined accident in our language. Quantity (pv xYiq long ^^djbort) is occafionall^ varied, more or lefs, in all words that may be fpoken, either in common or in triple meallife, which is probably derived from our language having four times as many different quantities as the Greeks had jules for *. The 7^ * The Greeks gave rules for the long quantity equal to two times, and the fhort qunntity erjual to one iims. Only two proportions in all. The Englifli language has at leaft fight difRrent [ ^145 1 The ACCENTS muft always be liable to be changed according to the pofition of words, whether in quejlion or m anfzver^ in a Jufpended or in Tijinaljenfe. Befides thefe neceflary licences of variation, there is alfo a manner oi gracing the tones ad libitum^ as in linging; by the ufc of what the Italian muficians call the ^//oo-^/V/Z/^r^?, ov fupporler\ which is a little (as it were fupcrfluous) note, that the fniger introduces, to Aide up to, or down to, the real prefcribed note of the ibng, and therefore might be called an in finuator. This appoggiatura being a grace ad libitum., the linger varies it in different ways at different times in finging the fame tune. For example : The upper line fliews the real prefcribed -^^^ notes of the tune ; the middle and bottom i lines have exadly the fame notes in large ^j j. -=-*- cliaradters, befides the little appoggiaturas ^3zi:zEEzP:3~tz:33 or infinuating notes, in two different man- -«- VS:. t 4 ners; and that there lliould be no breach in the meafure, the quantities of thefe little notes .f be they more or lefs, are to hQjiolen out of xht great ones. ::i3~p=:d: :12. ififferent proportions of quantity; videlicet, l=i; |-:..li; Y =2 J Y " =3 ; ?=4; ?'=Ci C|=8; q-=, Or thus, 1=,; |. = ix; Y=2; | + |.=:2|; Y " = 3 ' Y + ! ' =3l J ?=4; T + T'^S; '^^^'^ ^^ '^Y former obferva- tions (p. 88.), to fhew, that heavy a and light .'. being obftinately and periodically fixed, are aftecStions quite different from loud and foft; for no fentence can be pronounced without diftin- guifliing the poize of fyllables; whereas a whole narrative or reafoning difcourfe may pafs without any variation of force U 2 refpeding <. [ 148 ] relpcfting loud and loft (vide p. 47. Mr. Garrick's manner of delivering To he or not to be) . P. 100. § 8, " As to what they called the rhythm of their " language, M'hich was compofed of the quantity of fyllables^ « &c." I underftand that the Greek rhythmus was compofed of metres ; that metres conlifted oi Jingle or copulated feet ; and that feet were compofed of fyllables, according to their quantities, long or fliort: and therefore, that the bufinefs of rhythmus, in grofs, went no farther than to number the metres', and that it was the office of thefe latter to regulate feet and their quantities, in detail. The Greek ideas of the duration of found were derived from the af^ual lengths of their fyllables. The fliorteft fy liable was their ilandard for meafuring all their other foiuids. This ftandard was fo much an objedt of imniediate fenfe, that when they heard no articulate founds, they feem to have had no rule or ftandard for meafuring filence beyond the length of one fy liable; and this happened more particularly, becaufe their rhythmical divijions or metres always embraced a whole foot at lead. And thiQii' feet being of various and varying lengths, their rhythmical divifions could never have been generally com- priied, as ours are, within the periodical fwings of a pendulum^ or the equality of ftcps, which enables us to meafure lilences as accurately as founds. But alfo from the fame caufe, the unequal length of their rhythmical divijions, they were unable to make an accurate meafurement of fyllables, and therefore were content to [ 149 ] to let them j)afs as if they were always in the proportion of two to one, though they knejw.j yery w ell they were otherways. Whereas our rhythmical divi/ions, or cadences, confifting either of founds or filences, being equalized by a pendulum or by our fteps, enables us to compare and compute the proportions both, of founds and lilences to a great, exacftnefs. P. 103. § 9. "-''•"•'•• " But our accents differ from the Greek in " two material refpedls. Firft, they are not appropriated to " particular fyllables of a word; but are laid upon different " fyllables,. accorduig to the fancy of the fpeaker, or rather as " it happens, 8cc." 1 fuppofe there was a time when the Greeks had no rules either for pun&uation or accentuation in their language, when perhaps the invention or the pra<5ticability of fuch rules were not thought to be poflible, or to be ufeful if they were ; nor, when they were firff introduced, was it probably forefeen, to what perfe6lion, by their afliflance, their language might arrive. The foregoing liil: of words, poized, meafured, and accented, I fliews that our language is as determined as the Greek, to have 1 fixed accents. It is not in the indecifive ufe of thofe properties that its imperfedliion lies. Time, aided by learned men with mufical ears, may perhaps rub off fome of its unnecefTary, uncouth confonants . As to the extent of our flides, fo far from being generally lefs than a fifth, I obferve, the common error is the other way ; "">^-^- for there are few people that, without great attention, can confine themfelves to fuch narrow bounds, P. 104, 1^0 p. 104. § 9. note (d). " Relative to -this there is n remarkable *' ftory. Demollhenes, in afldng the quelHon of the judges, " ^^-hether TEfchincs was the friend or the hireling [iW/VOwtoc] of .*. ..A ■^' Alexander, barbarized on purpofe, by laying the accent upon ^< the laft fyllable inftead of the iirft, &c." To Ihew the pofTibility of a limilar inftance in our language, let us fuppofe a patriot, in a popular aflenibly, faying, " Sir, I ■" would afk, whether we ought to look upon this peace-making *' minifter as the difinterefted friend of mankind, or the t Jt;^ ^ ^ that it was not monotonous, not even on a fuigie fyllable. Or if it be /\ admitted that we have accents, but that they are ufelefs, vague, A »V \/ and arbitrary ; then any provincial clown may accent his words /. A as properly as Mr. Garrick. /\ But if it be admitted, that a change of accent may alter the A /. fenfe of an expreffion (vide interrogatwe 2xsA poJitive.f p. 136.); \/ and that Mr. Garrick may accent his words Avith more grace and .-. A lignificant propriety than a clown, it fliould feem that a method \/\ of accenting words and fentences, as pronounced by the mofl: .*. A .*. Gorre6l fpeakers, ought to promife fome future utility. I hope thefe additional explanations, together with a review of the whole treatife, which your 1 — ^p will find now more enlarged [ T52 1 enlarged, and more corredl than the fketches of laft year, will give yoii rcalbn to alter your oi)inion. We have a recent example of the powerful efFe6ls of mufical rhythmiis in the improvement of an art, with M'hich, in the eves of moderns, mulic was as little conne6led as with language. Thirty years ago, military men confidered mulic in no other light than as an amufement of parade to their corps; when one officer of uncommon genius, who ftill lives the ornament of his profeffion, began to ufe it as an engine of difcipline, by engaging the minds of a body of men, through the force of melody, to attend to one thing; and after having fo attached their attention by their ears, then to make them perform all their motions and evolutions under the inftindtive power of whatever rhythmus he had prefcribed to his muficians. It required no lefs than the unremitting perfeverance of this able officer to ftem the prejudices of vulgar minds againfi; what appeared to them a puerile and vilionary innovation. A few years, however, convinced the moft obftinate; and ever fmce the commencement of the late war, not only the Britifli regulars, but the militia alfo, perform their manoeuvres and evolutions under the influence of melody and rhythmus, as well as the antient Greeks. Ariftides fays |(lib. II. Meib. vol. 2d. p. 71.): Ev T£ TCiV TioXi^oic, iv olg [xciXig-a, sv^oxifxria's ;^ sv^oKifxsl, TC^oa^au OS ;^ iv^oKiiioiriy ii]v y,h xuj^ nvppiyjiv tuv riXHlimv ^ieXsT/jV^ us ^nx, [/.^aiKTig -KoisiTaii n M xiysiv ; zx^i yoi^ ^riza ravTOi (poivs^ix' «AA' ToiQ 7rA£(s-of5 at^'jiAov, s'v ocvtoIq toIq dytj^aii ^ to/'; hiv^vvoic, tx y.sv J;a Aoywy zoKKciKiQ d7:ohyiyci^€i 'Kotoci?yB'hiJi.ix\oiy wV ^Xoi^ov\ix el roiQ 01^0- 'o^ymo-'i [ 153 ] Xe^Aiois a^riXoic, 7ol^ ^s cpiXioig (TOcp£ ift. 2d. 3d. 4th. 5th. 6th. trochee trochee daftyl anapasft fpondee iambus. To all in T'l T fe rior animals y< It is A minim reft or filence, together with the fy liable to, makes the firft cadence a trochee. In the fourth cadence, the word ANIMALS, by itfelf, is an anapajl'., but to give a denomination to the whole cadence, which includes a rejl or filence of a crotchet, it fhould be called an ionicus a minore. The word given in the fixth cadence is an iambus; but to give a denomination to the Y % whole r [ 164 ] whole 'cadence, which has a trochee in filence, we mufl call it an antilpart. The above line, if read as noted, is a good hexamelre, not alexandrine, and yet has thirteen fyllables. And as a proof that our language has fyllables afFe6ted to quantity as woW as to accent znd poize, the word animals, though of three fyllables, was not long enough to make up the meafurc of the cadence without the crotchet rejl which follows it; and the monofy liable ALL in the fecond cadence is exadlly as long as the three fyllables of ANIMALS. Again, the monofyllable it in the fifth cadence was not long enough to ftand for half the fpondee, without the aid of the quaver reji which follows it. If authorities can be quoted againll thefe opinions, to fliew, for example, that it may be long and Ah'L^/hort, we mull be obliged to acknowledge, we have many examples of bad writers, and bad readers, and bad men, who pay no regard to accent, quantity,, poize, decency, good order, or common honefty ; but, notwith- ftanding all violences and irregularities, accent, quantity, poize, order, decency, and honefty, have ftill an effential exiftence, in the language and manners of mankind. Several of our monofyllables, fuch as our, hour, tome, ivorn, horncy. and the like, are fo long as that any one of them with eight other fyllables will make an unexceptionable hexametre Hne. However, thefe long fyllables fo employed have evidently the efftHSt, and nearly the fame found, as two fyllables, though in other lines they can be founded as mere monofyllables. EXAMPLE [ i65 ] EXAMPLE OF A LINE OF NINE SYLLABLES IN SIX C.VDLNCESj COUPLED WITH AN ALEXANDRINE OF EIGHT CADENCES. So Britain, K worn A /. A .-. A .'. > ^ out with Muft now be, A A .-. ftock'd with t. V /■ < croi^s ot A r brutes. r men ■; T- T vildernels a gam A .. .V A.-. A .-. •This is u p. 109. § 15. " The mixture of loud and foft. — " fo elTential to our verfe, that if the fenfe require that an emphafis fnould be laid upon the foft fyllable it evidently mars " the verfe, Sec." In this obfervation, two things, diftin<5l in their nature, feein to be confounded together,. /jo/s^ and/ore^. Loudnefs of fpeech, whether on fyllables, words, or fentences, muft always be ad libitum, and is therefore an accident different from, and independent of, eniphajis or the A beavy poize of a fyllable, which is never ad libit mn, but pofitively fixed, in all words, except monofyllables. For if loudnefs be rcvquircd on a particular word or fentence, it fhould continue uniformly on all and every one of the fyllables of that word or fentence ; ^\•he^eas empbafis or the A heavy poize is confined to a fingle fv liable, or to half r [ i66 ] half a cadence at mofl, the next fyllable or next half cadence recjuiring abfolutcly the iincmpbatic or .'. light poize. V/e have A proved by a clear example (fee p. 88. my dear), that the A heavy fyllable may be ( > )/o//, and the /. light fyllable ( « ) loud. Now all our polyfyllables, except thofe which may be con- traded into 7nonofyllables, have their poize y for the moll part, unalterably fixed; fo that wherever they are employed in poetry or profe, whether intended to be fpoken loud or foft, the words fhould be fo arranged, that they may be pronounced, without violence, according to their proper poize. And a writer muft have but little fkill or a bad ear, who cannot always affedt this, fnice almoft all the jnonof y liable s, with which our language abounds, are lb pliant as to fubmit, according as the cafe may require, to either the .*. light, or A the heavy. But the words SOIL, TOIL, and fome others feem abfolutely heavy; for which an exception lliould have been made in p. 133. I obferve your 1 — p thinks the word fij-Jl, in the firft line of the Paradife Loft, fliould be read (.*.) light, which I have marked A heavy. As it is not my intention in this treatife, to decide magifterially on the certain pronounciation of any word, which, in the feveral parts of this illand, may be underftood to be the fame, though very differently founded, I will not infill on the redlitudc of the expreflion which I have applied to that or any- other fyllable; my defign being principally to lliew, that all the neceffary expreffions, or accidents of elocvition, may be reduced to rule, and committed to writing, by thefe legible fymbols. However, [ i67 ] However, if my judgement was erroneous m the above men- tioned inftance, I will juft mention what led me into it. I thought fo great a poet as Milton would not have put an unmeaning expletive in the firft A.-. I- A U line ; of his poem ; A • • • • • A .-. but that, on the contrary, he meant to point out emphatically (not loudly) what particular a<5l of man's difo r-iT bedience A . . /. it was, which had ; drawn on him and his race fo T X T heavy a punifliment, A .. and there- fore I marked it, ot man's firft difo A .-. bedience neither do I fee any reafon for bringing the accidents attending the fyllables in the firft line of a diftich to tally numerically with tliofe of the fecond : for in that cafe, the ccefure muft always be in the fame periods of both lines, which your 1 — p juftly remarks as a great fault in French and Englifli poetry; though, 1 think, it does not neceftarily happen in the latter. And M. Voltaire has. [ i68 ] has avoided it, in fomc degree, fmce he has adopted our ten fyllable meafure •■••. P. I lo. § i6. :!;]; "As to quantity, it is certainly" not efTential *' to our verfe; and far lefs is accent.'"' If your 1 — p's opinion prevails here, it will deftroy my whole fabric. But having laboured to afcertain and explain thefe eflential accidents of our language by legible notes; and to prove the truth of their exiftence, by experinjents fubmitted to our vulgar fenfes, by the aid of a bafs \io\~ov pitcb-pipe. I muft now call the feveral examples, which I have made the fubjefts of thofe experiments, facts; and thofeyh'i^6 :] '* objeflion to your fyflem : for, till I fliall have feen what you *' have written, I muft ftill continue to doubt, whether there be *' any other divifion of the found of language than, firft, what ^^ is common to all languages; viz. the paufes which the fenfe "requires; fecondly, the divifion into feet, confifting of certain combinations of long and iliort fyllables, which is peculiar to the learned languages ; and, thirdly, the combination of loud " and foft fyllables, which makes what we call the fee^ * of our -*' Englifh verfe, and may, I think, alfo be applied to the rhythm " of our profe. Belides thefe, I, for my part, perceive no other "" rhythm in fpeech. At the fame time, I am far from fetting " up my perceptions as a rule : for I am fenfible how much they " are governed by cuftom, of which we need no other proof " than that we certainly have not the fame perception of the *' divifion of language into combinations of long and fliort fylla- ** bles (that is, metrical feet), as the ancients hadt; becaufe " having no fuch rhythm in our language, our ears are not ** accuftomed to itr";. | That language may be divided into bars *' as well as mufic, you have lliewn very evidently; and it is " likely, that a well-taught ear, fuch as yours, will perceive *' that divifion, and will meafure fpeech by it as well as it does a " tune. It may alfo perceive, that thofe bars proceed either by " common or triple time. But I much doubt, whether any ** man, that is not a mufician, can be made to perceive it ; the ** confequence of which is, that it will be of no ufe. It may, ** however, be true, that though the divifion itfelf may not be * This and the fallowing marks, in thefe obfervations, refer to the anfwers which follow them. (aj Vide p, 11910 121. 13610 144. ** perceived [ 177 ] "** perceived by any but thofe of learned ears, yet the efFefts of it ** may be felt by all. For this is generally the cafe of the *' popular arts, of which every body feels the effeits, but only ** the learned know the caufes which produce them. As to ** mulic, I am convinced, that the divifion of a tune into bars, " whether in common or triple time, is ablblutely neceflary. ** Now if the reafon of this could be fliewn, we fliould be able " to judge, whether that reafon would not likewife be applicable *' to fpeech. You feem to think it difficult, if not impoffible, " to difcover this reafon; and if it be impoffible to you, I am " perfwaded it is to every other. But it is certainly poffible to *' be fure of the fad;; — I mean, || whether a fpeech, compofed " in fuch a way as not to be capable of a divifion into bars, will " not offend the ear as much as mulic fo compofed. And if " that be the fa6t, I ffiall be fatisfied, without knowmg the' " caufe; though I ffiould be obliged to confefs, that I have " fpoken all my life in mufical bars, without knowing that I " did fo, like the bourgeois gentilhomme you mention in Moliere, " who had fpoken profe all his life without knowing it^ " Before I quit this fubjed, ** I muft own myfelf fully con- " vinced, that the paufes make an effential part of the rhythm " of fpeech; and that if a man in fpeaking, flops where he " flioiild not, or ftops too long or too lliort, he will not only " offend the underllanding, but the ear; and our notation of " thefe floi:>s in writing is imperfed, inafmuch as they only " mark that one paufe is greater than another; but do not let us " know by how much, or in what proportion, the one is longer " than the other. A a '' As -K-- C 178 ] " As to the Greek language, the knowledge of its accents and " rhythmus does not belong to your general lyftem, any farther <' than as it may ferve to explain and illuftrate your theory. " Till I fee more of your flieets, I fliall believe, that the tones of " the Greek language were altogether different from the tones of " Englifli, or of any other language now fpoken in Europe, in - " this refped:, that each word in Greek, pronounced by itfelf, " and without the leaft degree of paflion or fentiment r*^ had an " acute accent upon one particular fyllable of it, juft as much as *' any Englilh poly fyllable, pronounced by itfelf, has one fyl- *< lable founded louder than the reft. The modern Greeks have " loft thofe tones, and in place of acute and grave have fubfti- " tuted loud and foft tt ; for they conftantly found every fyllable " loud which is marked in the Greek books wdth an acute accent, " which makes their pronunciation refemble more that of the ** Englifli than of any other language in Europe. In this man- " ner, I imagine, the lingle Greek word was pronounced; and « in compofition, whether tlie fpeaker fpoke loud or foft, or in " whatever tone or paflion, ftill the elevation of the tone upoa, " the accented fyllable was obferved r*;. " And here there occurs a problem well worthy the confidera- " tion of fuch a mulician as you; viz, wherein the difference " confifts betwixt the tone of paflion %% and the muflcal tones of ** acute and grave ? That there is fuch a difference I hold to be a " certain: foil. |{|i For one man will fing a.tune fo as to make it ** touch the heart of every body who has any feeling; while. / (I) Vide p. 136. Englifh words have the fame*. (f) It is the faille in Englilh». " another C 179 3 " another lliall ling the fame tune, the fame notes, the' fam"© *' rhythm, and in the fame key, but without any ex;i:>reffion. *' Now I fliould be glad to know, what makes this difFerenc5e. ** Is it, that the one voice is clearer, fweeter, or more licjuiil " than the other? Or is there fomething more than all that? " There is another thing concerning the Greek language, of *' which I fliould be glad to have your opinion; --■■*•';- whether I ** do not carry the dodlrine I have learned from you, of the Aides *' of the voice in fpeaking, too far, when I fupj>ol"e, that the *' Greek acute accent did not rife at once upon the accented " fyllable; but was rifing gradually upon the preceding fyllal^les, " and only came to its greatefl height upon the acutcd, and fell " down again in like manner upon the fuccceding fyllablcs. " This is a conjediure I propofed in the laft obfervations I fent " you, and I hope you will favour me with your opinion of if''-'. *' I have only to add, that I am very fenlible of the truth of " what you hint in your lait letter, that I know not enough of " the prailice of mufic to be able to judge rightly of your fyflem. " But though my curiofity be very great, I am afraid that I am *' too late in life to learn that, or any thing clle, of which I " know nothing at all. I have a very high opinion both of the " theory and pra6tice of mufic. As to the theory, I am clearly " of the opinion of the Pythagoreans, that all nature is mullc; " that is, numbers and proportions. Every philolbpher, there- *' fore, fliould ftudy the theory of it : and as to the praAice, " I hold it as a part of a liberal education to be taught it more or *' hil. This, at leaft, was the opinion of the ancients, hi (d) See p. J42. the words «w^ S> 4' ? they 4. 4. 4. ? - ? ran, they A , . .*. 6. 2. J.. ?• r- flew. But if the fame words were uttered in the follow ing manner by a third perfon, w^here, by the inequality of the metres or CADENCES, the RHTTHMUS is quitc deflroycd, and the poize mifplacedj Falfe i 190 3 Fal/e cadences, or metres , of unequal ' time. I. 4. 8. 1 ? q Light as the A .% 4. 8. 8. ? qq hghtening AAA 4. 8. ghmpfe, /. A 4. 2. 4. 4. - r- ? they ran, .'. A .*. A 4. 4. 4. ? - ? they flew. ;. A .'. c^c,- ^^/^f> we fliould perceive the language fo altered, as that it would fcarce feem to be the fame ; it would be ridiculous or difagreeable, like the moft uncouth mixture of different provincial manners ; and the diflocated order of the poize (if any one could pronounce fo) would give pain to an audience. People who flutter, pronounce partly in this latter manner; but it is notorious, when fuch perfons ling, they never hefitate or flutter; whence it may be fuppofed, the moft eafy and effec- tual method of curing them, would be to accuftom them to beat time to their reading and common difcourfe, by which means they might learn to fpeak in juft time to the proper meafure of their w^ords and phrafes. For it fliould feem, the caufe of their hefitation and fluttering arifes from fome inaptitude to fall in immediately with the rhythmical puljation ox poize befitting their words ; but w^hich, in finging, they are enabled to do, by the additional influence of the diafte7natic _ melody, \^herein the CADENCES are more certainly pointed out, than even in poetry, or any language without additional mufic. P. 177. -* " I muft own myfelf fully convinced, that the " paufes make an effential part of the rhythm of fpeech, and " that if a man ftops too long or too fliort, &c." I As [ T9I 1 As your 1 — ^p is convinced of the neccflity of mcnfurcil paiifes^ you will ealily conceive, that neither /j'/Z^/^/t'J' nor /^ I'Jcs can be mealured or duly proportioned without a certain uniform; pulfation^ either actual or in the mind;, and this ])rings us to the neceffity of the divifion by cadences or bars^ the beginning of eacli CADENCE being marked almoft as fenfibly by the A heavy POIZE, as if the meafure was beaten by the hand or foot. P. 178. t+ " The modern Greeks have loft thefe tones, and *' in place of acute and grave have fubftituted loud -xixCi f oft \ for " they conftantly found every fyllable loud which is marked in " the Greek books, with an acute accent^ ^c." Allow me here to put my terms of heavy and lights in the room of your 1 — p's words loud andyo//; and then we Ihall agree, that the modern Greeks, mifunderftanding what their anceftors meant by thesis and ap.sis, and raifled by the gram m^arians and commentators of the barbarous middle ages, are now in the fame error with ourfelves, by not confidering that " the pcize *' of fyllables is the moft determined accident in language" (p» 144.), though all nations muft feel it, and by not making a \ / r // / \ proper diftindtion between that and accent.. P. 1 7 8. %% " Wherein (does) the difference conflft betwixt " the tone of paffion and the mulicai tones of acute and grave:" The tones of paflion are diftinguilhed by a greater extent of "^1 the voice both into the acute and the grave ^ and by making the untitbe/rs, or diversity between the two, more remarlcable, ' AKo / [ 192 ]■ by increafing the forte^ and making contrails occafionally between the forte and piano \ and by giving an extraordinary energy or empbaJlSy and blending the forte now and then with the heavy poize; and laftly, by fudden and defultory changes of the meafure and of its modes ; that is, from fajl to flow, and 'vice verfd ; and from common to triple^ and vice verfa. P. 178. 1111 " One man will fing a tune fo as to touch the " heart; another without any expreffion." A great deal of this difference lies in the tone of voice, but a great deal more belongs to art, which comes under the head of tafte, and is done by adding injinuating graces (fee p. 145.) and by the difcreet ufe of the Jlaccato and fojlenuto^ the piano and forte^ Xh^fwell and dying away. P. 179. •*"••■•'• " Whether the Greek acute accent did (or " did) not rife at once upon the acuted fy liable^ but w^as rifing *' gradually upon the preceding fyllables, 8cc." This depended generally on the fubje 14. fcr number read numbers li.>|i|,w|j| I. for the marks read the other marks .% I A I Al A ...-. I 5. for To I be ! I or I not to be ? I &c, read Ta Y ? 1. /or def- read dcf- . A .♦. «p Y 3. for he him read he him I Y I YI ? 6. for i but that the 1 drcai laft but one, for rhythmus read metres 4. for or read and 4. for viz. i^a'!?y and light which govern read viz. the poize of heavy aiKl lighlwhkh governs 1 1, yir (the fame as § 7. 1|.) read § 15. (the fame as § 7. Ij.) 9. y^r parts ; ;vai5? parts, 16. for odd number three read odd number three, 17. y«r (or MEAsuRt) )Vfl(f (or measure) ; 4. from the bottom, for ra ta pa ta read ra ta pa ta A .. .'. .-. A .. .*. .» Til TIT 6. /ar fpe ci tic, dactyl, read fpe ci tic, cretic • . i\ • » ». Za . . 6. from the- bottom, for (p. 23. 29, 30.) ?Vi7^ (23. 29. 32.] 2. yir undefland read underlland INDEX. I N D E X. JC CENTS, notes of, pages 7, 8, 9. -^ 24. ftanclard of, 75. rules t'oi- finciinsi the difference of, liable to be chancretl o fometimes, 145. demoiiftrated, by example of the fame word in a noun and a verb, 151. Accentual Jlidei, diftinguiihed by polltion of their fymbolic marks, 30. 19 Cadence, fub-cfivifion of, 25. the governing power of rhytlnnuSj not quite tlie fame as metre, 1 13. difference from metre, 115. 120. impull'e of, accounted for, n8. often divides a foot, ihid, CharaHcrs, or lymbolic marks of accentuation, of tlic meloJy and meafure of Ijx^ech, in an example, 13. Circumjlexes, their forms, 6, 7. 13. 24. 86, 87. as infinuators or graces, 146. Accentuation, a general term orders of accidents, 150, of the fame words in diflerent intentions, 87. Accidents, five orders of, 24. llluftrations of, 26. 31. t\:c. Analyfis of the accidents in the melody and meafure of ipeech, ibid. A^oghe, or drift of rhythmical emphafis, 183. 186. 188. 191. Atijwers to the lirft let of obfervations of the Author of the Origin of Language, S5. to the fecond let, 113. — — . — to the third let in the poftfcript, 183. Apology for the negledt of accentuation in modern languages, 171. Appoggiatiira, or infinuator, 145. for all the five Compafs of the llidcs, moft agreeable, 48, 49. Arfts and Thefn, 11, 12. 20. 27. 117. 132. 170. 183. 88. B. Bars, 11.22, 23. 155. not ufed by the Greeks. 127. Beating of time derived from the beating of our pulfe, 20.. Cadence, li, 12. 25. 123. . heavy and light, 20» D. DaSly], why fo called; and apology for the liberty taken with it, 81.- Dcjinition of the chroinatico-diatonic or or- dinary mufic, 4. of the melody of fpcech, ibid. of rhythmus, 72. 114. 127. of quantity, 72. n6. Difference of elocution, exemplified on a fen- tencc from Demofthcjies, in three difircrcnt manners, 51, 52, 53. between force or loudncfs and cni- phalis or poize, 68. 88. 165. 18.3, between cadences and (Jreek me- tres, 1 15. no. of tliythmus, metres, feet, antl quantity, 148. of Englifli and French pronuncia- tion in the fame words, 120. 150. Diphthongs, how made, ix. diiil-dlion of, ibid. in Englilh, defcribcd, xi, definition of, ibid. Drift, of rhytlunical impull'e, 183. 191. E. Btifion of fyllables not neccffary in good poetry, 75, Emphiijisy. N D X. Emthafv, II, i::. zi,. 28. 30. 49. 87. 117. 132. 154. 165. 1S3. Engl.Jh heroic; are liexnmetres, 27. Engirjh hevamelrcs, in Greek metres and mo- dern cadences, 163. Evsiirip/gs, a line from Pope, 13. 26. 38. 129. . from otliers, 26, 27. 31, 32, 33. 76. from Shakefptarc's Haniler, 40. variation, 45. of Mr. Garrick's manner, 31. 47. of a fentcnce from Demofthenes, ill three manners, 51, 52, 53. ■ of articulation of loimd on a An- gle fyllabie, 66. — of fojr lines from Milton's Para- •dife Loft, 77. the fame defended, 167. of four lines from the yEneid, 79. 80. of four lines fom the Iliad, 82. of tlic necelfary changes in accen- luation, 87. 134. 136. . to llicw how far accentuation is fixed in inglini words, 136, 137, &c. of circumflexed graces, 146. of feveral lihes from Milton, that want great help from the notes of accen- tuation, 159, &'c. toihew, that Engl ifh heroics may Iiave more or lefs than ten fyllabie in each line, 163. -16^. £xpenm{>ii to m.ake the rccentual Aides by a hal's viol, 16. The orders of accidents, in fpeech, 24, a ■Graces, 145. 192. .^ r- — circumllexed, 146. H. Heavy poize, note, or fyllabie, 20. 27. Heroics in Latin and Greek are truly oflo- iiietres, 81. Infmuators, or graces, 145. Integral monads in cadence, 123* Intercejjlon in favour of the mother tongue. Letter to t!ie Author of the Oiigin of Lan- guage, 63. from ditto, 90. to ditto, 92. from ditto, 93. from ditto, 174. to ditto, 181. Lines from Paradife Loft, tliat require great afliftance by the marks of poize, quantity, and paufe, 159. M. JlJdodv, common to all language?, 171. Metre, orMetron, 25.. 72, 73. 77. 79. 84. 113' "4, 115- 120. 128, 129. 131. 135. 170. 187. always comprehended a whole foot at leaft; but never divided one, 116. 148. makes the diftribution of quantities. 155- ylic'/r/W cadences, 158.188. . fub-divifion of cadence, 123. Modes of time, 1 1. 22. Momjyllahles, in general, either heavy or ■liglit, 134- exception, 166. their advantage in a language re- dundant with confonants, 168. in a note. Monotony, exemplified, 15. Ai