262. EBB to Uvedale Price
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 2, 47–56.
[Not all marks of stress and pronunciation have been reproduced in this transcript. They are all reproduced in the print volume.]
Hope End.
[ca. 15] April. 1827 [1]
My dear Sir,
I shall not detain you for any unnecessary prologuizing purpose, but with your permission shall go en avant at once, & “tell you what I am going to say”. Pray have a great deal of indulgence ready for me, for I assure you I shall want all you can spare.
Page 32. [2] “There is a manifest absurdity in transferring the Latin mode of accentuation to the Greek, yet we certainly should not like to follow the Greek mode.” Here you give the general taste a great deal more credit than it deserves, & more than you would give if you were acquainted with a material circumstance which I certainly imagined I had mentioned to you, but which either you must have over looked in one of my letters, or I omitted in the great hurry with which I wrote one of them. This is that they do at the Charterhouse precisely what you say we [“]should not like to do:” they read Greek by the Greek accents, & then dismiss their prisca fides [3] for the sake of embracing a new kind of idolatry, which has not even the advantage of being sanctified (may I profane that word?) by old prejudices. In short they have left Bilzebub & taken to Beelzebul; & therefore I hope you will grant them, par parenthese the special licence of liking to do any thing that we certainly should not like to do; & of being, at least in this instance, “uniformly & consistently absurd.”
Page 34. There is a difference in the character of the anapæstic and dactylic rapidity, & one that has been very happily marked by Marmontel in a very few words, “le dactyl s’elance, et l’anapeste se precipite.” [4] This, I am persuaded, is not, what it may perhaps appear at first sight, [“]a fanciful distinction”. I am very sure it is not & cannot help pausing here to say how much I have been struck with the whole of this forcible illustration of Marmontel’s position: Milton who often likes to free English verse from the Iambic & Trochaic dynasties,—you must let me think so still,—seems to have been quite aware of the distinction on which the position is founded: and has made admirable use of it in a line expressive of the lost Angels’ ‘ruining’ from Heaven—
Eternal wrath
Bŭrnt āftĕr thĕm / tŏ thĕ bōttŏmlĕss pīt. [5]
where by the grand situation of the first long monosyllable we have revealed to us, first the Avenger with fixed foot on the battlement of Heaven,—& then the dactylic out-darting of the scorching thunderbolt—& then the headlong & precipitate descent of the condemned.
The intermediate monosyllable which, as you observe, is necessary in an hexametral union of the two rhythms has been omitted by Milton, and perhaps with a view to the expression. For the pause by which we compensate the metre, adds, as I concieve, very singularly to the effect of this sublime line; by giving something unusual to the cadence that arrests the attention with the voice; as if our fear made us take breath a moment before we could turn from the contemplation of power to its terrible effect. Reasoning as Paley’s savage did about the watch, [6] it becomes clear to me that the remarkable construction of this line is not accidental; & what makes me still more satisfied that Milton really intended to express the distinction in question is the circumstance that during the whole of his description he has had so evidently in his head the sublime combat of the immortals in the Theogony, where Hesiod has made use of the very same cadence,—tho’ of course with an intermediate syllable,—to express the precipitation of the conquered.
Ουρανοθεν κατιων δεκατη [7] —
It is clear then to my mind that Milton considered his “tŏ thĕ bōttŏmlĕss pīt” as equivalent to Hesiod’s κᾰτῐων δεκᾰτη; & that consequently he would have agreed with you in your pronunciation of the Greek, & have recieved your position .. “accent,[”] [(]in its modern sense) gives length—both the first syllable of bot′tomless & the concluding word pit′ being accented,—& long, according to Hesiod’s analogy,—if that be admitted; tho’ short according to the new heresy. Do not be ungrateful to Milton, & try to resolve his verse into iambi & trochees: which you will here find a much too difficult matter to accomplish. This is one instance out of the thousand he offers us.
Of English cut on Greek & Latin–
I know you will add, & justly;
Like fustian heretofore on satin. [8]
Page 36 [“]In the second book of the Æneid, there is an instance of a mixture of the two rhythms, but where the expression is chiefly in the Anapœstic.” I dare to contend upon your own principle founded on Marmontel’s distinction that in your simile quoted from Virgil, the expression neither lies chiefly in the anapæstic cadence, or chiefly in the dactylic but equally in both. I appeal to Philip against Philip, [9] —& beg you to consider whether the dactylic impetus at the beginning of the line Fertur in arva furens cumulo [10] does not bring to the mind the first out-bursting of the spumeus amnis, [11] where it leaps forward from the stronghold of its bank; as much as the anapæstic fall does its rushing descent upon the plains. You, who are so just & rigid in your ‘division of property’ should really adjudge this case equitably.
Page 37– “We have not many choriambi in English & of them none I believe are of Greek or Latin or perhaps of Saxon origin”. I like so much all you say about the choriambi, that I am the more sorry you should shut the door of English poetry in their face—
If they were lame
Ugly & slanderous to our mother tongue
I would not care, I then might be content [12]
but it really seems to me a little hard that we should be denied their acquaintance the minute after you have proved it to be most desirable. I shall try to maintain that, neither we or the choriambi having a disinclination to each other’s company, you are very uncharitable to make such mischief between us: & I shall therefore put down one or two respectably sounding words derived from the Greek & Latin,—tho’ not from Greek & latin choriambi,—as candidates for that rank in English. You will, I think, admit charăctĕrize—tēmpĕrăment—tēmpĕrăture,—if you can by any means get over their disallegiance to ancient quantity. You may, perhaps admit pātrĭŏtism: but I bring this example forward with no kind of triumph; for, in common discourse, we pronounce it much as five syllables; & find it rough & unmanageable on reducing it to four; which however, I believe, is undeviatingly done in poetry. The most inharmonious line Campbell ever wrote has no reason to be obliged to it—
If the pātrĭŏtism ŏf yŏur fathers— [13]
You may not, a fortiori, refuse to admit rīghtĕoŭsness—of Saxon extraction,—
“Just confidence & native rīghtĕoŭsness.” [14]
& its connections par la suite, .. hīdĕoŭsness—glōrĭoŭsness .. hōrrĭblĕness &c.
I think līnĕămēnt tho’ pleading guilty to the imperfections you find out in chārĭŏteer, has no weak claim—
Six wings he wore to shade
His līnĕăments divine. [15]
And vīrtŭŏsest,—rather a rusty word,—recieves testimonials from Milton for itself & kindred—
Seems wisest, vīrtŭŏsest, discreetest, best!
It seems to me that you can only make one objection to my next candidate—
Oh ālĭĕnāte from God! Oh Spirit accursed—
And that another is almost unexceptionable
Plēnĭpŏtēnt on earth of matchless might,
I feel so sure about this last word Plēnĭpŏtēnt that I should not scruple to treat him as Atlas & make him bear the whole burden of my defence—without going on,—which I might do,—to such compound tetrasyllables as ōvĕrfătīgue—ōvĕr-dĕlīght,—Cōnqŭerŏr-līke &cæ. Nēvĕrthĕlēss before dismissing the subject, it is quite proper for me to be candid, & confess that I am aware of the imperfection of most of our choriambi; & that, generally speaking, the foot is considerably mutatus ab illo [16] in the process of its naturalization into our language. But you do recognize our dactyls; for which they owe you no obligation; for you must do so on your principle, & the recognition is unattended with any complimentary or obliging expressions on your part,—rather with Boileau’s pathetic remonstrance–
Que vous ont fait nos oreilles
Pour les traiter si durement? [17]
Therefore I submit to you whether our choriambi do not deserve a similar recognition, tho’, possibly, a similar remonstrance.
Page 46. “If my mode of accenting Pope’s verse be thought the right one, it seems clear that a trochee at the beginning of an English verse, if followed by another trochee, tho’ it may give vigour, does not also produce grace.” I have so little intention of decrying the choriambus, in marking down the above passage, that I have merely been induced to do so by sympathizing very strongly with your delighted feelings respecting it,—& by a consequent regret that you should depreciate its propriety in the second place,—which you seem to do, with some reservation. There can I should think be no doubt as to the propriety of your reading, in Pope’s line,
Jumping hīgh oĕr the shrubs ŏf the rough ground [18]
and there can be no doubt that, according to your reading, the line has much more vigour than grace. The ungracefulness, however, seems to me produced, not so much by the choriambus, as by that very rough termination of the whole .. a spondee preceded by a pyrrhic; so that, according to my idea, ce n’est que le dernier pas qui coute, [19] —unless indeed we take into consideration the cacophonous assemblage of harsh consonants, & vowels which are “rather seen than heard”. As the line stands, however, it is extremely expressive, but perhaps hardly a fair specimen of the introduction of a choriambus into the second place. There is a considerable degree less roughness & more impetuous energy in the following example
Shoots ĭnvīsĭblĕ vīrtue e’en tŏ thĕ deep [20]
where the dernier pas is composed of another choriambus. I hope you do not disapprove of choriambi introduced into the internal part of the line—but as you only mention, approvingly, the incipient & final choriambus I am half afraid that you do.
I shall not be satisfied if you profess to tolerate them sometimes “for the sake of expression”; a principle on which we admire many deformities, & among them those multiplied elisions that make Virgil’s line a “monstrum horrendum informe” [21] in itself! The plea of expression in versification is something like the plea of expediency in morals; & the internal choriambi do not seem to me reduced to such a last resource. When a dactyl, or amphibrach, begins the verse, the choriambus appears to follow it in a singularly pleasing manner; giving to the cadence of the line a swelling graceful movement which is quite delightful to my ears: as in Lord Byron’s
Thou wert a beautĭfŭl thought, & softly bodied forth [22]
or Shakespeare’s
As Zephyr blōwĭng bĕlōw the violet— [23]
which you can hardly find fault with; for you say (page 65) in your observations on amicitiam that “its cadence (that of a choriambus with a preceding short syllable) is of a very pleasing kind.” Also before the last iambus, as Chamberlayn has it,
His yielding spirits now prepare to meet
Death, clothed in thoughts whīte ăs hĭs wīnding sheet. [24]
I think with regard to these examples that they are both harmonious & expressive; tho’ in all of them we feel the “fall” which you mention,—in the case of the choriambus following the commencing trochee,—rather in a tone of regret as far as relates to the general harmony. To go to another part of the subject, I observe that you only notice two feet which follow the trochee commencing an English verse: viz. the iambus usually, & the trochee casually; whereas it is sometimes followed by a pyrrhic,—as in Miltons—
Myrĭăds bĕtween two brazen mountains lodged—
Embryŏs & īdiots eremites & friars— [25]
& not unfrequently by a spondee with very good effect
Bone ŏf my bone thou art, & from thy state
Mine never shall be parted– [26]
Strains hĭs young nerves & puts himself in posture. Cymbeline [27]
Rāptŭre! bōld mān! who temp’st the wrath divine. [28]
Page 47. I am glad you have marked “Hīgh ŏvĕr-arched” [29] as a choriambus. It gives me an opportunity of writing down an anapæstic line of Stevens’—
Like artillery tier ŏvĕr tier [30]
and of submitting to you whether you are not forced by the metre,—your suprema lex,—to treat over,—the distinct dissyllable,—exactly as you have treated over; the compounded; by taking away the accent. And if you take away the accent,—which seems to me a most evident necessity,—you are immediately reduced to another necessity quite as evident,—that of recognizing English pyrrhics. I believe that English pyrrhics exist much in the same word [sic, for way] that Latin unaccented words may be said to exist by the doctrine of atonics: & I am struck with a singular analogy between the two cases. There is, I concede, no English dissyllable, a pyrrhic per se; &, in Latin, according to Quinctillian, “non est aliqua vox sine acuta.” [31] But in Latin, according to Quinctillian, some words by juxtaposition with others lose their own accent—ex. gr: circum lítora or ab óres: &, in an analogous manner many English dissyllables either by incorporation with other words, as Hīgh ŏvĕr-arched, or by juxtaposition with them, as tier ŏvĕr tier, lose their own accent, in its modern sense. English pyrrhics made by these means seem to me sufficiently abundant: I shall put down a few exemplary lines: one from Anstey
The ladies you see very jūstly remark [32]
from Cowper
You speak vĕry fīne & you look vĕry grāve. [33]
And again Anstey’s
O’erflow all my hay, may my dōgs nĕvĕr hunt [34]
& Cowpers
But the sound of the Chūrch-gŏĭng bell
These valleys & rōcks nĕvĕr heard–
Nĕvĕr sīghed at the sound of a knell! [35]
Page 50. “As far as I have observed the hexameter never begins with a dispondee.” There are several examples to militate against the “never”: one I shall take from Lucretius—
Immōrtālī sunt natura proedita [sic, for prædita] certe [36]
& a very expressive one from the Theogony—
Νῑκησᾱντες χερσιν `υπερθυμους περ εοντας– [37]
Page 54. By laying our accent wherever the Romans laid theirs, & no where else, we have left them but one dissyllabic foot in the language. Should we not, even by the misapplied accentual rule, give the Romans one or two iambi? It appears so; if there be any correctness in a note attached to my edition of Foster, where I find an extract from Ælius Donatus (supported by Victorinus) who makes some exceptions to the general rule of the accent falling on the first of dissyllables “pro causa discretionis, ut in adverbio pone, ideo ne verbum putetur imperativi modi:—ut in ea particula quæ est ergo.” [38] From which, it appears that our measure of absurdity is not yet filled up; that accent (or rather, as you would say, Quantity, under its name) having turned so many iambi into trochees, has to do now; pro causa discretionis; the very different office of turning trochees into iambi; or else cry peccavi,—pro causa discretionis [39] indeed! This is a case analogous to that you mentioned to Mr Commeline, of Θοαι and diu, & which he tried to get rid of by the adoption of a monosyllabic pronunciation. But such a measure, could it be admitted in that case, is no panacea,—as is obvious from the present case of pone & ergo.
Page 81. You observe relatively to the first lines of Virgils first Eclogue that if an advocate for the system gave a length to tu & nos for the sake of expression, “he would do wrong in respect to his system & its rules; one of which is that all unaccented syllables should be quickly passed over to the next accented one.” I will submit to you with deference whether you do not rather beg the question by calling tu & nos “unaccented syllables”. You are well aware of the old rule so simply & clearly stated by Franciscus Sanctius,—“Accentum in se monosyllaba dictio ponit;” [40] & tho’ the rule be, in practice, modified by the doctrine of atonics, yet I have some doubts,—&, a fortiori, an advocate of the system might possibly have,—whether such disciminating monosyllables should not in recitation be separated from the neighbouring words, on account of the expression; & so claim a length even on accentual principles. This is an impression which perhaps I should not have felt, but for want of better information, & which I certainly should not communicate to you but in desire of it.
You have now the whole history of my doubts & difficulties; as I have reported them very faithfully in obedience to your desire. The obedience was at least a proof of my confidence in your kindness; & in that light I hope you will consider it; for I have run a great risk in passing such an Ægæan [41] in such a scaphula. [42] My general debt of information, to you, is put down among those singular debts which are pleasant to think of, & which the debtor can never be expected to repay: but I must be allowed to thank you in particular for that percussion vers le [sic] fin [43] you give the Abbate Scoppa. [44] — It is extremely forcible and entertaining,—& presents an example of your peculiar manner of amusing your readers—by convincing them. You have indeed made it abundantly clear that the Abbate for his system’s credit should have been muet as his French E. But, tho’ I have put off making the charge so long, my poetical conscience wont let me rest till I accuse you of committing heinous profanation in page 48; first by quoting Wīll ŏ thĕ Wīsp contemptuously as “a little phrase”; & secondly by introducing it to your readers in such company as Jăck ĭn ă box’s Mouse ĭn ă cheese’s, Būg ĭn ă rŭg’s &cæ. And should you really feel “some regret” if it became the fashion to say Wĭll ō the Wĭsp—Bŭg īn ă rŭg &cæ? Our poets, from Milton upwards & downwards, who have sanctified the first of those “little phrases” in their melodious verses, would sympathize feelingly in your regret; & might beg you at the same time to disengage Will o the Wisp from Bug in a rug, forthwith. Could not rīddlĕ mĕ ree do your business as well, without sacrificing such an Iphigenia?
I have done reading your correspondence with Mr Commeline; & with all your adversary’s ingenuity, am considerably confirmed in my convictions on your side. I thought it odd that an article of the Edinburgh Review should be referred to, on a philological subject; &, on looking into the one which Mr Commeline calls the ‘Manual of his heresy’, I was surprised to find us accused there of [“]subverting the true metrical structure of Latin hexameters, even according to the accentual system” by not laying our accent on the long syllable, & by laying it on the short ones. [45] The Reviewer seems confused in his speculations: but that passage is so decidedly in favour of your position, that I think you can hardly have seen the article or would have retorted Mr Commeline’s own Manual on himself.
Papa was very glad to see you at Hereford, & I was very glad to hear from him, nomine mutato, [46] exactly what you have since said of his good looks. We hope to have favorable accounts of you all,—dear Miss Price in particular,—&, with our best regards,
Believe me
Your grateful
E B Barrett.
Publication: Printed by Clement Shorter as The Art of Scansion, December 1916.
Manuscript: British Library.
1. This letter is a detailed critique of Price’s writings, following receipt of his manuscript, as mentioned by EBB in letter 257.
2. This and following page numbers mentioned by EBB refer to those of Price’s manuscript. For any reader who may wish to refer in detail to any of the passages discussed, we give the equivalent page numbers of the published text. MS page 32 = p. 137; 34 = 141; 36 = 142; 37 = 144; 46 = 154; 65 = 174; 47 = 155; 50 = 158; 54 = 162; 81 = 192; 48 = 155.
3. “Old-fashioned faith.”
4. Éléments de Littérature (1787) by Jean François Marmontel (1723–99). The sentence quoted (“the dactyl soars up, and the anapæst hurries on”) can be found in I, 368 of the 1846 edition.
5. Paradise Lost, VI, 865–866.
6. The illustration of the watch is in chapter 1 of Natural Theology (1802), by William Paley (1743–1805).
7. “Falling down from heaven on the tenth day” (Theogony, 723).
8. Samuel Butler’s Hudibras, Pt. I (1662), I, 97–98.
9. A reference to the story told of Philip of Macedon, who said “Appeal to whom?” when a woman expressed herself dissatisfied with his judgement. “To Philip, sober,” she replied.
10. “Is carried in a raging mass into the fields” (Æneid, II, 498).
11. “Foaming river” (Æneid, II, 496).
12. We have not located the source of this quotation.
13. Line 11 of “Men of England,” first published in The New Monthly Magazine, IV (2nd series), no XVIII, p. 576 (June 1822). Campbell must have come to share EBB’s distaste for this line; in later editions of his works “patriotism” was changed to “freedom.”
14. Paradise Lost, IX, 1055.
15. This and the following three quotations are from Paradise Lost; respectively, V, 277–278; VIII, 550; V, 877 and X, 404.
16. “Changed from that one” (Æneid, II, 274).
17. “What have your ears done to you to treat them so harshly?” (Œuvres de Boileau Despréaux, 1821, II, 540. In the printed text, the final word is “rudement”).
18. Translation of The Iliad, XXIII, 142.
19. “It is only the last step that is painful.” EBB has reversed the usual rendering, which refers to “the first step.” The saying is attributed to Mme. du Deffand (1697–1780), in a letter of 6 June 1767 to Horace Walpole (1717–97).
20. Paradise Lost, III, 586.
21. “Horrible formless monster” (Æneid, III, 658).
22. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto the Fourth, line 1035.
23. Cymbeline, IV, 2, 172.
24. Pharonnida, an Heroic Poem (1659), I, canto 3.
25. These two lines are, respectively, Paradise Lost, VII, 201 and III, 474.
26. Paradise Lost, IX, 915–916.
27. III, 3, 94.
28. Line 141 of “Night the Third” in Edward Young’s The Complaint: or Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality (1742).
29. Paradise Lost, I, 304.
30. George Alexander Stevens (d. 1784), “The Wine Vault,” verse 7: “Yon bottles are Burgundy! mark how they’re pil’d, / Like artillery, tier, My brave boys.”
31. “There are no other words without an acute accent” (Institutio Oratoria, I, v, 31–32).
32. “To the Patriot” (The Poetical Works of the Late Christopher Anstey, Esq., 1808, p. 179).
33. “Pity For Poor Africans” (1800), line 29.
34. “The New Bath Guide” (Anstey, op. cit., p. 123).
35. “Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk” (1782), lines 29–31.
36. “They have surely indeed been given an immortal nature” (De Rerum Natura, I, 236).
37. “With their hands vanquishing them, daring though they were” (line 719).
38. “For the sake of distinction, as in the adverb pone [behind], namely that it not be considered a form of the imperative mood:—as in that particle which is ergo [therefore].” This note appears on p. 42 of the 3rd edition (1820) of An Essay on the Different Nature of Accent and Quantity by John Foster (1731–74). Ælius Donatus, 4th century grammarian and teacher, was the author of Ars Grammatica. Gaius Marius Victorinus was a 4th century grammarian, rhetorician and neo-Platonist philosopher.
39. “I have sinned—for the sake of distinction.”
40. “A monosyllable placed an accent on itself.” This passage appears in the chapter “De Quantitate” of Minerva seu de Causis Linguae Latinae Commentarius by Francisco Sanchez (1523–1601).
41. Ægeon was a mythical monster with 50 heads and 100 arms.
42. “A little boat.”
43. “Blow towards the end.”
44. Antonio Scoppa (1762–1817) was the author of Des Beautés Poétiques de toutes les Langues (1816), in which, according to Price, Scoppa’s “great point is to establish by arguments and examples … the preeminence of accent over quantity.” Price criticizes Scoppa’s work at length in his Essay (pp. 195–201).
45. This is a paraphrase of a statement on p. 364 of The Edinburgh Review, No. XII (July 1805), in the course of a long review of William Mitford’s book, An Inquiry into the Principles of Harmony In Language … (pp. 357–386).
46. “By changing the name.”
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