Note 143 — Chapter II · FROM BYSSHE TO GUEST

The passage is of importance and must be given:—

"And now ... I proceed to the indictment of my ears. If the charge had come from Dapple it would not have surprised me. One may fancy him possessed of more than ordinary susceptibility of ear; but for the irritability of yours, I cannot so satisfactorily account. I could heap authority on authority for using two very short syllables in blank verse instead of one—they take up only the time of one.[144] 'Spirit' in particular is repeatedly placed as a monosyllable in Milton; and some of his ass-editors have attempted to print it as one, not feeling that the rapid pronunciation of the two syllables does not lengthen the verse more than the dilated sound of one. The other line you quote is still less objectionable, because the old ballad style requires ruggedness, if this line were rugged; and secondly, because the line itself rattles over the tongue as smoothly as a curricle upon down-turf:

This kind of cadence is repeatedly used in the Old Woman and in the 'Parody.'"[145]

The quantification, it should be observed, is original.