DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48956#0261
255
Sea. IV, BEAUTY OF LANGUAGE
sed; we fliall afterward have occasion to see, that
the pause necessary for the sense musf often , in
some decree, be sacrificed to the verse-pause, and
the latter sometimes to the former.
The pronouncing syllables in a high or low
tone, contributes also to melody. In reading
whether verse or prose, a certain tone is assumed,
which may be called the key-note \ and in that
tone the bulk of the words are sounded. Some-
times to humor the sense, and sometimes the me-
lody, a particular syllable is sounded in a higher
tone; and this is termed accenting a fyllable, or
gracing it with an accent. Opposed to the accent,
is the cadence, which 1 have not mentioned as one
of the requisites of verse, because it is entirely re-
gulated by the sense, and hath no peculiar relation
to verse. The cadence is a falling of the voice
below the key-note at the close of every period;
and so little is it essential to verse, that in correct
reading the sinal syllable of every line is accented,
that syllable only excepted which closes-the period,
where the sense requires a cadence. TLhe reader
may be satished os this by experiments; and for
the purpose I recommend to him the Rape oj the
Lock , which, in point of versification, is the most
complete performance in the Englissi language.
Let him consult in a particular period canto 2. be-
ginning at line 47. and closed line 5s. with the
word gay 7 which only of the whole final syllables
is pronounced with a cadence. He may also exa-
Sea. IV, BEAUTY OF LANGUAGE
sed; we fliall afterward have occasion to see, that
the pause necessary for the sense musf often , in
some decree, be sacrificed to the verse-pause, and
the latter sometimes to the former.
The pronouncing syllables in a high or low
tone, contributes also to melody. In reading
whether verse or prose, a certain tone is assumed,
which may be called the key-note \ and in that
tone the bulk of the words are sounded. Some-
times to humor the sense, and sometimes the me-
lody, a particular syllable is sounded in a higher
tone; and this is termed accenting a fyllable, or
gracing it with an accent. Opposed to the accent,
is the cadence, which 1 have not mentioned as one
of the requisites of verse, because it is entirely re-
gulated by the sense, and hath no peculiar relation
to verse. The cadence is a falling of the voice
below the key-note at the close of every period;
and so little is it essential to verse, that in correct
reading the sinal syllable of every line is accented,
that syllable only excepted which closes-the period,
where the sense requires a cadence. TLhe reader
may be satished os this by experiments; and for
the purpose I recommend to him the Rape oj the
Lock , which, in point of versification, is the most
complete performance in the Englissi language.
Let him consult in a particular period canto 2. be-
ginning at line 47. and closed line 5s. with the
word gay 7 which only of the whole final syllables
is pronounced with a cadence. He may also exa-