The Essays of Adam Smith · Adam Smith
ENGLISH AND ITALIAN VERSES.
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; The rest is all but leather or prunello; he means, in compliance with his subject, to condescend a good deal below the stateliness of his diction on the Essay on Man. Double rhymes abound more in Dryden than in Pope, and in Butler's Hudibras more than in Dryden. The rarity both of single and of triple rhyme in Italian Heroic Verse, gives them the same odd and ludicrous air which double rhymes have {470} in English Verse. In Italian, triple rhymes occur more frequently than single rhymes. The slippery, or if I may be allowed to use a very low, but a very expressive word, the glib pronunciation of the triple rhyme (_verso sotrucciolo_) seems to depart less from the ordinary movement of the double rhyme, than the abrupt ending of the single rhyme (_verso tronco e cadente_), of the verse that appears to be cut off and to fall short of the usual measure. Single rhymes accordingly appear in Italian verse much more burlesque than triple rhymes. Single rhymes occur very rarely in Ariosto; but frequently in the more burlesque poem of Ricciardetto. Triple rhymes occur much oftener in all the best writers. It is thus, that what in English appears to be the verse of the greatest gravity and dignity, appears in Italian to be the most burlesque and ludicrous; for no other reason, I apprehend, but because in the one language it is the ordinary verse, whereas in the other it departs most from the movements of ordinary verse.
Th' inhabitants of old Jerusalem Were Jebusites; the town so called from them. A couplet in which both verses were terminated in this manner, would be extremely disagreeable and offensive. In counting the syllables, even of verses which to the ear appear sufficiently correct, a considerable indulgence must frequently be given, {471} before they can, in either language, be reduced to the precise number of ten, eleven, or twelve, according to the nature of the rhyme. In the following couplet, for example, there are, strictly speaking, fourteen syllables in the first line, and twelve in the second. And many a h[)u]mo[)u]rous, many an amorous lay, Was sung by many a bard, on many a day. By the rapidity, however, or, if I may use a very low word a second time, by the glibness of the pronunciation, those fourteen syllables in the first line, and those twelve in the second, appear to take up the time but of ten ordinary syllables. The words _many a_, though they plainly consist of three distinct syllables, or sounds, which are all pronounced successively, or the one after the other, yet pass as but two syllables; as do likewise these words, _h[)u]mo[)u]ro[)u]s_, and _amorous_. The words _heaven_ and _given_, in the same manner, consist each of them of two syllables, which, how rapidly so ever they may be pronounced, cannot be pronounced but successively, or the one after the other. In verse, however, they are considered as consisting but of one syllable.
In counting the syllables of the Italian Heroic Verse, still greater indulgences must be allowed: three vowels must there frequently be counted as making but one syllable, though they are all pronounced, rapidly indeed, but in succession, or the one after the other, and though no two of them are supposed to make a diphthong. In these licenses too, the Italians seem not to be very regular, and the same concourse of vowels which in one place makes but one syllable, will in another sometimes make two. There are even some words which in the end of a verse are constantly counted for two syllables, but which in any other part of it are never counted for more than one; such as the words _suo_, _tuo_, _suoi_, _tuoi_. Ruscelli observes, that in the Italian Heroic Verse the accent ought to fall upon the fourth, the sixth, the eighth, and the tenth syllables; and that if it falls upon the third, the fifth, the seventh, or the ninth syllables, it will spoil the verse. In English, if the accent falls upon any of the above-mentioned odd syllables, it equally spoils the verse. Bow'd their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts, though a line of Milton, has not the ordinary movement of an English Heroic Verse, the accent falls upon the third and sixth syllables.
In Italian frequently, and in English sometimes, an accent is with great grace thrown upon the first syllable, in which case it seldom happens that any other syllable is accented before the fourth; _Cánto l'armé pietóse e'l capitáno._ Fírst in these fiélds I trý the sýlvan stráins. Both in English and in Italian the second syllable may be accented {472} with great grace, and it generally is so when the first syllable is not accented: _E in van l' inferno a' lui s' oppose; e in vano S' armó d' Asia, e di Libia il popol misto,_ &c. Let us, since life can little more supply Than just to look about us, and to die, &c. Both in English and in Italian Verse, an accent, though it must never be misplaced, may sometimes be omitted with great grace. In the last of the above-quoted English Verses there is no accent upon the eighth syllable; the conjunction _and_ not admitting of any. In the following Italian Verse there is no accent upon the sixth syllable: _O Musa, tu, che di caduchi allori,_ &c. The preposition _di_ will as little admit of an accent as the conjunction _and_. In this case, however, when the even syllable is not accented, neither of the odd syllables immediately before or behind it must be accented.
Yet oft, before his infant eyes, would run, &c. In which verse there are two pauses; one after the second, and the other after the eighth syllable. I have observed many Italian Verses in which the pause comes after the second syllable. Both the English and the Italian Heroic Verse, perhaps, are not so {473} properly composed of a certain number of syllables, which vary according to the nature of the rhyme; as of a certain number of intervals, (of five invariably,) each of which is equal in length, or time, to two ordinary distinct syllables, though it may sometimes contain more, of which the extraordinary shortness compensates the extraordinary number. The close frequently of each of those intervals, but always of every second interval, is marked by a distinct accent. This accent may frequently, with great grace, fall upon the beginning of the first interval; after which, it cannot, without spoiling the verse, fall any where but upon the close of an interval. The syllable or syllables which come after the accent that closes the fifth interval are never accented. They make no distinct interval, but are considered as a sort of excrescence of the verse, and are in a manner counted for nothing.
Ideas discussed in this chapter
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