Correspondence

238.  EBB to Uvedale Price

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 257–261.

[Not all marks of stress and pronunciation have been reproduced in this transcript. They are all reproduced in the print volume.]

Foxley.

October—1826.

Mr Price’s desire that I should read these sheets [1] with the design of remarking on them I have obeyed with much deference to him, & distrust of myself. I have read them with deep interest & attention—& have been greatly struck by the original chain of argument, consolidating a powerful body of facts—by the vanquishing of possible objections—the meta fervidis evitata rotis. [2] It would lie rather hard on my veracity to be obliged to cavil for the mere sake of cavilling; & Mr Price’s system as explained in the Ictus metricus [3] & very original chapter on Elisions has left a strong impression on my mind. I have been made satisfied that if, as scriptural commentators concieve, light represent order or consistency, the present established system of accentuation is one “cui lumen ademptum”. [4] And I am convinced that, of the two systems, Solomon’s judgement would not acknowledge a relationship to poetry in that system, whose object it is to destroy the animal life of poetry .. the harmony. Having this conviction it is extremely pleasing to me to own it. I have so much satisfaction in thinking that Horace’s hexameters may be read with an ear & yet with luxury. And I have so much more than satisfaction in thinking that we may grasp at the celebrated harmony of Homer, & find no longer a mere κεινη τρυφαλεια [5] —the pleasant sound of Greek words without the music of their disposition. This satisfaction I am indebted for to Mr Price. The doubts which offered themselves to my mind in the course of reading what I have read of his, I either found dispelled as I went on, or a little consideration on my part dispelled them. To speak in Homers own style, which may be applied to many objections (& objectors) to this system, the Cranes are only formidable to the Pygmies.

With regard however to the chapter on hexameters as compared to modern heroic metres, my cranes, as they have been flatteringly asked to do so, will have the boldness to say something. They are inclined to think that maugre the decided truth as well as wit of Mr Price’s Greek pun, a degree more variety than he has allowed to our heroics is due to their structure. I will write down, under correction, his statements, & my reasons for doubting them!

Mr Price’s assertion that “we cannot in strictness have any dissyllabic spondee” seems to be controvertible. I think we have several examples to the contrary in Milton whose ‘os magna sonaturum [6] is very partial to the spondaic structure. I cannot recall to my mind any line which the ancients have left us of much grander construction than the following—710. book 3d of Paradise Lost.

 

Cŏnfūsiōn hēārd hĭs vōi̅ce, ̆& wīld uprōār

Stōōd rūled.

Now I certainly feel strongly that if the spondaic claim of “Uproar” be not admitted—if it be converted into a trochee, or left an iambus, the grandeur of sound will be sensibly diminished. I feel strongly the exquisite effect of the first amphibrach & subsequent trochees—like the heaving of the half formed elements.

 

“Cŏnfūsiŏn hēārd hĭs vōice ănd[”]—

And I feel no less strongly the sudden cessation of confusion, the sudden firmness, & “standing fast” produced by what appear to me the five successive long syllables—when

 

“wīld ūprōār

Stōōd rūled”.

I think that in this instance as in a great many others, there is a poetical necessity for the acknowledgment of the existence of English dissyllabic spondees—& that this necessity may be exemplified by the unconscious accentuation of any unlearned reciter who has feeling & a correct ear. For ‘uproar’ is surely in this place as true a spondee as the Italian virtù, or Pope’s monosyllabic one “vast weight”.

On the line

 

“When Ajax strives some rocks vast weight to throw” [7]

there is among others, the following observation—“That Ajax is really a trochee will be felt by putting it in the place of vast weight, where a trochee would evidently injure the metre & rhythm.” Putting ‘Ajax’ in the place of vast weight certainly proves it to be a trochee from the peculiar change which takes place in the construction of the line. But I do not think a trochee in that place injures the metre any more than an iambus would. It has appeared to me that a trochee introduced before the last foot (supposing the last foot to be an iambus) produces an agreable relief from the monotony of the usual heroic structure. The following examples from Chaucer’s Knight’s tale are among the most melodious I can recollect–

 

“And solitaīre he was ever alone

And wailing all the night making his mone”. [8]

 

Also Milton’s.

 

For Lȳcidas is dead, dead ere his time. [9]

 

That “our heroics seldom begin with a dactyl.” This must from the context allude to trissyllabic dactyls, which however I had concieved not rare at the beginning of English heroics.

With regard to dactyls monosyllabically composed they give I think a frequent charm to the beginning of our heroics. Mr Price quotes from Milton

 

Light as the lightening glimpse, they ran they flew. [10]

and observes upon it—“This beginning—a trochee followed by a short syllable, that by a long one, & forming a choriambus, is frequent in Hexameters & hardly less so in our heroics”. Now I do not see why the trochee with its subsequent short syllable should be made perforce part of a choriambus instead of being permitted to hold, by courtesy at least, independant rank as a dactyl. I will take the commencing part of the dactylic Greek Hexameter, quoted immediately below, and I will write it in the place of the commencement of what Mr Price calls rather strongly, our anti-dactylic heroic verse. If, after having done this, the accentuation or tune of the line suffer no alteration, I believe a fair conclusion may be drawn that the two commencements have a ressemblance in character—that the character of each is dactylic.

 

“Light as the lightening glimpse, they ran they flew.”

“’Ἆνερες ῆδε [11] glimpse, they ran, they flew.”

 

One word in favour of a poetical prejudice.

“Shakespeare Milton Ariosto and Tasso have done all that was possible in less perfect languages & metres”. I regret that, in this enumeration of modern great Poets, Dante should be omitted—for the cause of the omission is any thing but clear. I acknowledge a strong feeling of preference for Dante in his rugged grandeur, to Tasso “tra i fiori e l’erba” [12] —I dont say “estinto [13] —and setting aside sublimity of conception, which I certainly have little to do with here, it appears to me that on mere metrical grounds he has a claim to the honor of being named by Mr Price, & associated with Milton. Not having studied the Divina Commedia with immediate reference to the present subject, & not having it by me to refer to, many splendid examples must necessarily remain unremarked. But one instance of metrical felicity occurs to me, singularly expressive, which Mr Price will recall without an effort—

 

“E caddi come corpo morto cade”. [14]

It is almost superfluous to observe what a different character is here given to the iambi—(no longer celeres [15] )—by the monotony of consonants & vowels— How much heaviness & falling & stiffness we have instead—how much of the “corpo morto”. Dante has at least “done all that was possible in a less perfect language & metre”.

Publication: HUP, II, 64–70.

Source: EBB’s fair copy at Huntington Library.

1. Apparently, while EBB and Henrietta were visiting Uvedale Price at Foxley in October 1826, he asked her to read and criticize the proof sheets of his book (An Essay on the Modern Pronunciation of the Greek and Latin Languages, published in the following year). After discussing her comments in person, Price wrote a more reflective response (letter 241).

2. “The turning-post avoided by furious wheels” (Horace, Odes, I, i, 4–5).

3. On pp. 37–38 of his Essay, Price defines the ictus metricus as “a stroke or stress given to certain syllables in metrical compositions … always on a long syllable” and calls it “the surest and most approved guide in recitation.”

4. “Deprived of sight” (Vergil, Æneid, III, 658).

5. “Empty helmet” (Iliad, III, 376).

6. “Tongue of noble utterance” (Horace, Satires, I, vi, 43–44).

7. “An Essay on Criticism” (1711), line 370.

8. “The Knight’s Tale,” lines 1365–66.

9. “Lycidas,” line 8.

10. Paradise Lost, VI, 642.

11. The substitution of the Greek words (“men and”) is only to make a point; they have no meaning in this context.

12. “Through the flowers and the grass.” Variations on this phrase are found both in Dante’s Purgatorio and Tasso’s Rime sparse.

13. “Dead, extinct.”

14. “And fell as a dead body falls” (Divina Commedia, I, 5, 142).

15. “Rapid.”

___________________

National Endowment for the Humanities - Logo

Editorial work on The Brownings’ Correspondence is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This website was last updated on 3-28-2024.

Copyright © 2024 Wedgestone Press. All rights reserved.

Back To Top