METRICAL FEATURES OF THE POEM. To those who desire more insight into the poetic Art of Milton it may be helpful to note a few important points of metre1. First as to the blank verse of The typical Comus. The typical blank verse is a line blank verse. of ten syllables forming five feet in which the stresses or accents fall on the even syllables. These feet are commonly termed "iambic," and the rhythm of a line composed of iambic feet is a "rising" rhythm. Here is a typical blank verse from Comus (line 30): "And all this tract that fronts the falling sún.” Blank verse prior to Marlowe, the great Elizabethan dramatist whose work influenced Shakespeare, was modelled strictly on this type. Further, this early blank verse was what is termed "end-stopt": that is to say, there was almost always some pause, however slight, in the sense, and consequently in the rhythm, at the close of each line; while the couplet was normally the limit of the sense. As an example of "end-stopt" verse look at Comus, 73-77: "And they, so perfect is their misery, Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, 1 An authoritative work is Mr Bridges's book Milton's Prosody, on which I have drawn. 2 An iambus in Greek prosody is a foot of two syllables, short + long, thus. Roughly speaking, stress or accent is the equivalent in English prosody for the "quantity" of classical prosody; i.e. a stressed syllable (') corresponds with the long syllable (-) of classical verse, and an unstressed syllable with the short (~). In "scanning" a passage it is better always to use the term "stress" or "accent" than "long syllable," and the symbol ', not -. If the whole poem were written in verse of this kind the effect, obviously, would be intolerably monotonous. Blank verse before Marlowe was intolerably monotonous, and his great service to metre, carried further by Shakespeare, was to introduce variations into the existing type of the blank decasyllabic measure. In fact, analysis of the blank verse of any writer really resolves itself into a study of his modifications of the purely "iambic," "endstopt" type. The four chief variations employed by Milton's chief Milton1 in Comus are these: (1) His use of the "overflow" of the sense from one line to another; what the French call "enjambement.” variations. The "overflow." Put simply, this only means that he makes the sense and rhythm run on from one line to another. A large proportion of his blank verse is "unstopt," not "end-stopt." Take Comus, 1—4 : "Before the starry threshold of Jove's court In those lines there is no pause of sense and consequently none of rhythm at the end of either of lines 1-3: sense and rhythm run on. Now "unstopt" verse escapes one of the dangers of blank verse: the danger of being stiff and formal, and hampering the sense, as in the early days of the metre, through arrangement in single lines or couplets. But it incurs another danger: it may be loose and formless through want of clearly marked pauses, balance of the parts, and rhythmic cadences-the qualities which should compensate for the absence of rhyme. Blank verse therefore of the "unstopt" type in which the paragraph is the unit, not the single line or couplet, needs an exquisite 1 Not necessarily peculiar to him. sense of sound, and of sound harmonised in a complex, elaborate scheme. And this sense was Milton's great gift. Hence his blank verse unites the two qualities so difficult to reconcile, yet essential, namely freedom and form: the freedom which allows an easy, natural expression of the sense and a variety of rhythm that echoes all its shifting inflections; and the form which comes from consummate mastery of pause, balance and cadence. Thus much as to the arrangement of his lines: now as to their internal formation. "Extra (2) The second great feature of his blank verse is the use of "extrametrical" syllables. Briefly, he sometimes has eleven or even twelve syllables instead of ten in a line. The extra metrical" syllables. syllable may come (a) at the end of the line, (b) about the middle after some pause, or (c) in both places. Here are examples (211, 67, 617): (a) "The virtuous mind, that ever walks attend(ed)." (b) "To quench the drouth of Phe(bus); which as they taste." (c) "As to make this rela(tion)? Cáre and útmost (shifts)." Far the commonest of these variations from the typical decasyllabic line is (a). It is a great feature of the verse of Comus and Samson Agonistes. The proportion of such lines as (a) is said to be I in 9 in Comus, I in 6 in Samson Agonistes. In Paradise Lost, on the other hand, this kind of verse is rare. This is the one great difference between Milton's early and late blank verse, and the reason for it is clear. The extra syllable at the end of the line tends to make the rhythm run on into the next line, and therefore gives a rapid movement suitable to the spoken verse of the stage. It characterises thus the dramatic and lyrical pieces, whilst epic narrative like Paradise Lost demands a statelier, slower movement. This extrametrical syllable at the end of a line is commonly called the "double" or "feminine" ending. Note that it is of two kinds-where the last syllable would naturally bear a stress or accent, and where it would not. Thus contrast 265 "And she shall be my queen. Hail, foreign won(der)" with 633 "Bore a bright golden flower, but not in thís (sóil)." Illustrations of (b) are lines 302, 415, 599, 662, 842. The other variation (c) is also illustrated, I think, by line 407. "Inversion of rhythm." (3) Another feature is "inversion of rhythm," i.e. the substitution of "falling" rhythm for "rising" by use of a trochee in place of an iambus, these feet being exact opposites. A trochee is admitted into any of the first four feet of a line. Compare (a) "Strive to | keep up a frail and feverish being" (8); (6) "Be well | stock'd with | as fair a herd as grazed" (152); (c) "But to my task. | Neptune | besides the sway" (18); (d) "Benighted in these woods. | Now to | my charms" (150). Observe that inversion generally gives some emphasis to the word. Much the commonest inversion is that of the first foot. Indeed, this use of an initial trochee is one of the most characteristic points in Milton's verse. Among many examples take lines 39 ("threats the"), 46 ("Bácchus"), 47 ("crush'd the"), 49 ("coasting"), with 60, 79, 80, 90, 147, 162, 163, 190 etc. In 145 there are two trochees ("break off, break off"); but I have not observed a similar instance. The trochee is a swift foot, and you will see that in several of the examples just given the sense refers to motion of some sort. (4) The last point is the use of weak stresses. Sometimes there are less than five strong stresses in a line. This occurs most often where there is a preposition, and is com "Weak Stresses." (৫) monest in the first and fourth feet. It gives, by way of compensation, a peculiar heaviness, as of two1 stressed syllables, to the following foot. Compare these instances: "Before | the star ry threshold of | Jove's court" (1); (6) "With the | rank vapours of this sin-worn mould " (17); "Ere morrow wake, | or thè | low-roosted lark" (317); (d) "Stepped, as | they said, | to the | next thick et side" (185). Observe that the variations (2), (3) and (4) may be used in combination, e.g. we find all three in line 49 (c) "Coasting | the Tyrrhene shore | as the | winds list(ed)," and in 617 "As to | make thís | relá (tion)? | Care and | utmost (shifts)"; and (3) and (4) in line 185 (quoted just above). Metre of the lyrics. The lyrics of Comus are simple in structure, cast for the most part in the octosyllabic measure, in "rising" rhythm, much used by Ben Jonson and easily set as musical recitative. They show that Milton exercised very freely the right of using imperfect rhymes. As proof of this Professor Imperfect Masson aptly refers to the Echo Song. It has fourteen lines, with four consecutive pairs of irregular rhyme; and it is none the less wholly beautiful. Milton varies the eight-syllabled measure (1) by an extra syllable at the end of the line, (2) by in the octo- lines of only seven syllables in "falling," i.e. trochaic rhythm, with an extra syllable, rhyme. Variations syllabic mea sure. stressed, at the end, (3) by occasional deca syllabic rhymed couplets. For (1) compare 999 "Where young Adonis oft repo(ses)"; 1 i.e. forming a spondaic foot, the classical spondee being two long syllables (- -). |