241. Uvedale Price to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 263–270.
[Not all marks of stress and pronunciation have been reproduced in this transcript. They are all reproduced in the print volume.]
Foxley
Novr 17th 1826
As I have taken the liberty of calling you Ba, I shall not be more ceremonious in writing than in speaking; & therefore in this, & in all future letters, unless you forbid me, shall quit dear Miss Barrett, for dear Ba.– I have read your paper with more attention than I could give it in a hasty reading; & now, after repeating how much pleased I am with your approbation of the main part of what I have written, & with the very gratifying & ingenious manner in which you expressed it, I shall go to your remarks on what I have said of the pre-eminence of the hexameter. “Mr P’s position, that we cannot in strictness have any dissyllabic spondee, appears to me controvertible: I think we have many examples of the contrary in Milton. I cannot recall to my mind any line that the ancients have left us of a more sonorous construction than
Confusion heard his voice, & wild uproar
Stood rul’d;”
Your comment on this striking line & on its spondaic rhythm is very just & impressive;– I agree with you that uproár is in that place as true a spondee as virtù, but not so true a one as vast weight; a nice, yet, I believe, not a fanciful distinction. The Italians,—I speak, however, with diffidence of what relates to a foreign language,—do not make virtù an iambius though accented on the last syllable; they do not pass quickly over the first syllable, as in ferì, tremò, [1] but—giving more length & stress to the accented syllable—pass on to it adagio, ma non troppo, as “Cáde virtù dall’infiammate stelle”, [2] —not dwelling equally on both syllables as might be indicated by vir′ tù, yet not hurrying over the first as in Cáde valòr. So I should do with the word in question: not make it, as many readers, on seeing that the accent was in this case shifted from the first to the last, might be apt [to] do,—ŭprōār, yet still give the chief length & stress to the last syllable; & I should do it on account of the expression. The emphatic syllables are wild & roar; up, is much less so, tho’ a useful augmentative; & therefore I should not pass rapidly, but move, as it were, leisurely over it, & rest fully on roar.– In fact, as it appears to me, the word is not changed from a trochee, as we now pronounce it to a spondee, but, as I said before, the accent is merely shifted from the first to the last, & therefore, according to the usual mode of pronouncing would be an iambus; but, from what you very truly & ingeniously term “a poetical necessity”, the voice ought to well upon it more than it would according to the common rule, yet less than on the accented syllable, & in a tone of voice less marked & decided. This instance then, though very well adduced, & perhaps as good a one as you will be able to get, does not at all affect my position—namely that we have not in strictness any dissyllabic spondee in our language, every dissyllable having an accent either on the first or the last,—& accent (you must give me credit till I can bring my full proofs) always making the accented syllable the longest. One experiment you may easily & in various cases try yourself: place the ancient mark of long, in greek, latin, or english verses on the syllables upon which we lay our accent, & the mark of short on the unaccented, & it will guide you exactly to our pronunciation of them whether right or wrong; if right, as in
Αῦ´τῐς ὲπε′ιτᾰ πεδὸν´δε κῦλῖν´δὲ᾽τὸ λᾶ′ᾶς ᾶνᾶ′ ῖδης [3]
accent & true quantity,—as you see—coincide, while in
Sĭ pēʹtĕrĕt pĕr āʹmĭcĭʹtĭăm pāʹtrĭs āʹtqŭe sūăm nīl [4]
accent & our false quantities equally coincide. But again, to shew the lengthing power of accent, & it’s useful guidance when properly applied, place an accent on all the long syllables, & on those only of this piece of wretched prose, & it will guide you to the true rhythm of an hexameter; &,—what no one could suspect from our recitation—to a dactylic, tho’ not a very harmonious rhythm: the accentual marks will indicate the exact quantity; those of the Ictus the syllables on which the ancients laid a stress
Sí peterét per amiʹcitiamʹ patrĭs átque suám, níl
uńquám próficerét.
On the other hand, place the ancient marks of long & short on all the syllables of an english verse & it will as truly indicate the pronunciation as the accentual: as
Gōddĕss ăwāke ărise, ălās my fēārs. [5]
Our accent then & ancient quantity are hereby identified; for I do not conceive how any clearer proof of their identity can be given than the convertibility of the marks. If this be so—to return to the foot in question—no dissyllable in English can strictly be a spondee; for a spondee with one accented or long, & one unaccented or short syllable, is a contradiction. Among the dissyllables proposed as spondees, amen (not a very english one) is most frequently mentioned: & when pronounced solemnly, on solemn occasions, an equal length is given to the two syllables: but the strong bent of our pronunciation is to accent, that is to lengthen one of the syllables in every disyllable. In the responses, you often hear the a hurried over: & this is more likely to take place where the word is introduced into compositions that are any thing but solemn; as in the old ballad of Qn Eleanor
Amen amén quoth earl Marsháll [6]
where the second amen would naturally be made an iambus, were it only for the rhythm. In Greek, setting the eta at defiance, we make it a trochee, accompanying it with two others: α´μην α´μην λε´γω υ´μιν. [7] Finite is another word claiming to be a spondee & with as good a claim as any: Johnson accents it on the first, but gives no example from poetry: it is not used by Shakespear, & only once by Milton,
will he draw out,
For anger’s sake, finite to infinite? [8]
& there, with little difference to the metre or the rhythm, it may be made a trochee, an iambus, or a spondee: such is the licence in our prosody & pronunciation! Julý has also pretentions, & not ill founded, tho’ our propensity inclines us to make it an iambus: I remember it’s being made a trochee in some ludicrous verses of Mrs Greville’s:
Bút you in the month of Júly
Grew so frisky & unruly. [9]
I am well persuaded from all that I have observed, that there is no dissyllable in English, to the two syllables of which we habitually give an equal length, as the Greeks, & as the Romans must have done; who certainly did not make their proper name Jūlī so frisky, as to appear in the character of a spondee, a trochee, or an iambus according to the wish & fancy of the poet. To the ancients, spondees, molossi & dispondees, were familiar in their strict quantity; our speech is so decidedly trochaic & iambic, that it requires something of effort & reflection to make us give an equal length even to two syllables in the same word. We trochaize the french language, as [we] do these of the ancients; & when a Frenchman says of an Englishman, “il a beaucoup,” or, “tres peu d’ accent,” [10] it is not, I believe, merely on account of the difference in the tones, but in the quantity; thus, for instance, when in the “François a Londres,” Le Milor says to his model & instructor in french manners & graces, “Mōnsiĕur le Mārquĭs, ăpprēnĕz mŏi lĕs aīrs & lĕs fācŏns,” [11] he makes all the dissyllables trochees; raising at the same time the pitch of his voice on the first syllable: what then is called our accent in French, is compounded of accent, in the ancient sense, & of quantity; of elevation & of duration; & nearly as much of the one as of the other: these, in truth, are the two main distinctions in all human speech.—— In Pope’s line,
When Ajax strives some rocks vast weight to throw, [12]
I have said, in order to shew the proper name to be really a trochee, that if you transpose Ajax & vast weight, the trochee would evidently injure the metre & rhythm; this you object to; not to the proof of its being trochee, but to the injury that would be done to the metre & rhythm: I shall alter the passage something in the way you have suggested, by calling it “the peculiar change made by a trochee so situated in the cadence of the line.” I might have said that, so placed, a trochee checks the usual flow of the rhythm by an unusual pause, although as you observe, it would produce an agreable relief from the monotony (an avowal very much in favour of my general position) of the usual heroic structure.. Your expression “a peculiar change” shews it not to be frequent, & I cannot call to mind any instance of the sort, tho’ there probably must be several: those you have given & marked from Chaucer
And solitaire he was ēvĕr alone
And wailing all the night, mākĭng his mone [13]
are exactly in point as we now pronounce the words, but not (I might almost say certainly) as Chaucer did: I am persuaded that evér & makíng were then as much spondees as toujours & faisœnt, or, at least, that the accent was on the final. The line from Milton has better pretentions; still I think the trochees doubtful
For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime. [14]
eŕe is a very long syllable to the ear, & moreover is contracted; & tho’ we have no scruple or difficulty in vaulting over the longest syllables, yet dead ere his makes but an indifferent dactyl, & there seems to be no objection on the score of expression to laying some stress on “ère his prime”; for the affecting circumstance is, that with such high promise of future excellence he died before it was realized: as Homer, & after him Virgil, mentions the pathetic circumstance of the parent birds being robbed of their young while yet unfledged,
῾οισι τε τεχνα
Αγροται εξειλοντο, παρος πετεεινα [sic, for πετεηνα]
γενεσθαι [15]
I have spoken of the beginning of Miltons line
Light as the lightening glimpse, they ran they flew, [16]
as forming a choriambus; & improperly: for tho’ it does form one, it is with the first of a dissyllable: upon this you say “I do not see why the trochee with its subsequent short syllable, should be made perforce part of a choriambus, instead of being permitted, at least by courtesy, to hold independent rank as a dactyl.” This is a very lively, & good-humourdly sarcastic attack: I acknowledge the perforce, & readily give up the choriambus: but you must allow me to say that your independent dactyl, will on more than one account require a good deal of courtesy: “Light as the” compared with true ancient dactyls is just such a one as Των πας θε .., or, Tum fas de .., a bad dactyl with the addition of a subsequent long syllable must make a bad choriambus, and “Light as the light” answers exactly to Των πας θεων [17] or Tum fas deum: the dactyl, if pronounced by itself & made independent, would not be in favour of the dactylic character of our language; for besides as, which does not promote rapidity, the, which, on such occasions, we pronounce with a sort of e muet, as the French do te, & me, is neither an harmonious nor a very articulate termination: & the second & third monosyllable, ought, I think, for the sake of euphony & connection, to be joined at once to the object of comparison. In reciting the line, I should lay a strong emphasis on the first word; &, after a very slight pause should pass on, without any other stoppage, to the fifth word. Light, as the lightning glimpse; the greek beginning of a verse join’d to the english word—“Ανερες ηδε glimpse” as you have joined them, certainly answers to it, as far as a perfect dactyl & trochee, can answer to such very opposite specimens of those feet; & the junction shews the extreme difference between the character of the hexameter & that of our heroic verse both in metre & rhythm: the greek dactyl & trochee absolutely require a subsequent short syllable, as “Ανερες ηδε γυναιχες,” [18] when the rhythm goes off with quite another spring & elasticity from “Light as the lightning glimpse,” where the rapidity is checked by the long monosyllable (after a trochee, not quite so rapid as the thing signified) just as it would be in “Ανερες ηδε γην.” A second dactyl, as
“Light, as the lightning of heaven,”
tho’ more rapid, would hardly accord with our style of versification; I never, indeed, observed an instance of even two successive dactyls in our heroics; whereas in hexameters, three & four often succeed one another, & not unfrequently five, as they do in the greek line. I therefore think myself justified in calling our heroic metre, as compared with that of the ancients, anti-dactylic; tho’, compared with that of the French, it may be called dactylic; for Marmontel says “nous n’avons pas de dactyles, nous n’avons que des anapestes.” [19] In our heroic metre the dactyl is not consider’d as a foot, it must always, I believe, be resolvable into dissyllabic feet, or the verse will not scan; just as, in hexameters, trochees, iambi, anapæsts &cæ must form part of dactyls or of spondees: most of our english dactyls, especially when compared with those in Greek or in Latin are very imperfect, & defective; numbers of them end on two consonants: on nt, as Firʹmament; some with two likewise in the middle, as Govʹernment; numbers on ng, that being the termination of our participles present; & of a most retarding kind, as clustering murmuring: compare this last—not one of our worst—with murmura or μερμερα. In this set also there are sometimes two consonants in the middle as comforting, or—the termination being different—with three, as comfortless, yet, being accented on the first syllable, they all pass muster as dactyls. Harmony, is among the most perfect in the language, & a word in every way pleasing: so likewise is Victory: in each of them,—the consonant in the first syllable being followed by one of a different kind,—we are obliged to separate them in pronunciation: the o is followed by a single consonant, & the y has the vowel sound of our e, not, as in many cases the diphthongal & long sound of our i. Melody, considered as a dactyl, is imperfect from having a short accent: Minstrelsy with the same termination, is clogged in the centre. In magnify glorify, & other words of the same sort, the two first syllables are as we could wish them; but the y has the diphthongal sound of i, & the words were formerly pronounced as amphimacers, magʹnifý. satisfy has a short accent at the beginning, & two consonants in the middle; & this I believe is a fair account of the mass of our trissyllabic dactyls. In the ancient languages, besides the trissyllabic, a number of excellent dactyls were formed by trochees with a subsequent short syllable; but as our trochees so often end on two consonants, & begin with a short accent, the dactyls formed by them must have the same defects & imperfections. Numerous & excellent greek & latin dactyls are formed by means of an iambus followed by a pyrrhic: our iambi are perfect; but (begging pardon of Bro & the Charterhouse), we have no dissyllabic pyrrhic; nor, as we pronounce them, is there a single on[e] in Greek or in Latin; that fruitful source of dactyls is therefore cut off altogether: it may easily be reproduced in Greek & Latin; it cannot be produced in English (nor, I may add in Italian) without destroying the established character of the language. These statements, tho’ not made with that view, convincingly shew, what you, indeed, neither want to be informed nor convinced of, the various reasons why the attempt to make a poem in english hexameters is the idlest of all attempts: it is attempting to build a palace without proper or sufficient materials. Voltaire, who cannot be accused of want of partiality to the french language & to french poetry, used to say, when any one spoke in raptures of his verses, & promised them immortality, “helas! Monsieur, nous bâtissons en brique!” [20] & tho’ he spoke immediately of his own, he probably meant to include modern languages in general. He called the Greek, & most truly, “la plus belle langue que les hommes ayent jamais parlé” [21] The Latin, as the Romans themselves felt & acknowledged, is much inferior: yet had the Greek never existed, who could read the best latin writers of the best ages both in prose & in verse without being tempted to pay it the same compliment? or at least that of its’ being the best adapted to the various styles of composition. By selecting what is choicest in the materials we possess, & studying how they may be most happily disposed & arranged, much has, & much may be done; but there is no giving to them the higher quality, & superior splendour of the ancient marbles.—— You have given me a good scold for my omission of Dante; & well deserved, & thank you for it: I believe what carelessly passed in my mind was, that Shakespear & Ariosto, Milton & Tasso lived about the same time,
Ουτος δε προτερης γενεης, προτερων τ᾽ ανθρωπων. [22]
even prior to Chaucer. This is but an idle excuse for the neglect of such a man; he shall be placed, where on every account he ought to be placed, at the head of his countrymen.
<As there will be three Italians, I must have three English,—were it only for the sake of symmetry,—to oppose to them: & after Shakespear & Milton (following the order of Gray) shall come, “Dryden’s less presumptuous ear.” [23] I hope you admire his ode as much [as] I do; tho’, probably, as I do, with some few drawbacks: we had no conversation on the subject; but I trust that if you had felt any material objections to what I had advanced on the versification, & the various metres, you would have mentioned, or put them down in writing.
Believe me most truly yours
U Price> [24]
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. In this and later letters discussing scansion, numerous foreign words are cited as examples of particular accent or rhythm. As their meaning is not relevant in the context in which they are used, we do not translate them.
2. “Virtue falls from the flaming stars.” It is likely that Price, relying on memory, misquoted Petrarch’s “Cade virtù dall’infiammate corna” (“Virtue falls from the burning brows”; line 4 of Sonnet 9, Rime di F. Petrarca, 1821, I, 11).
3. “And again earthward rolls the pitiless stone” (Homer’s Odyssey, XI, 598).
4. “If he should beg him by his father’s friendship and his own, no [headway could he make]” (Horace’s Satires, I, iii, 5).
5. Thomas Gray (1716–71), “Hymn to Ignorance” (1742), line 25.
6. Line 43 of “Queen Eleanor’s Confession” in Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765).
7. “Amen, amen, I say unto you.”
8. Paradise Lost, X, 801–802.
9. We have been unable to locate the source of this quotation. Presumably it was by the Fanny Greville (née McCartney) whose “Prayer for Indifference” (ca. 1753) appears in many anthologies.
10. “He has a lot” or “very little accent.”
11. “Monsieur Marquis, teach me airs and graces.”
12. “An Essay on Criticism,” line 370.
13. “The Knight’s Tale,” lines 1365–66.
14. “Lycidas,” line 8.
15. “From whom farmers take their young before they can fly” (Odyssey, XVI, 217–218).
16. Paradise Lost, VI, 642.
17. “All of the gods.”
18. “Men and women.”
19. “We have no dactyls, we have only anapæsts.” An inaccurate quotation from Éléments de Littérature. Marmontel’s observation was “the French language has few dactyls and many anapæsts” (I, 154 in the 1846 edition).
20. “Alas, Sir, we build in brick!” This appears to be a paraphrase of Voltaire’s observation “Les anciens travaillaient en marbre et nous en pierre” (“The ancients worked in marble and we in stone”; The Complete Works of Voltaire, ed. Theodore Besterman, 1968, II, 516).
21. “The most beautiful language that men have ever spoken” (letter of 6 May 1768 to Étienne de La Montagne; Besterman’s edition of Voltaire, letter no. 14051).
22. “But this one is of a former age and of earlier men” (Iliad, XXIII, 790).
23. Gray’s “The Progress of Poesy,” line 103.
24. The passage within angle brackets appears immediately after page six of the manuscript and Price added this headnote: “This page I very giddily skipped over; as you must, & return to it after the two next.”
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