Adjective for Adverb: -ll. 583, 944, 987, 1229, 1681. Latin Participle from Noun :-11. 1754, 1755. Double Enallage, or interchange of parts of speech :— 1. 924. Hendiadys, or the expression of a single complex idea by means of two nouns connected by a participle (" and " or "of ") instead of by a noun qualified by an adjective:-11. 105, 159, 535, 1394, 1734-5. Hypallage, or the attribution of an adjective to another than its natural noun, also called Transferred Epithet':-11. 536, 552. Hyperbaton, or a displacing of the normal order of words in a sentence:-11. 1238, 1505, 1623, 1647-8, 1726. Litotes or Meiosis, i.e. stating less than is actually meant, or using two negatives as a feeble equivalent of an affirmative:-11. 180, 970. Metonymy, or the use of a related word for the proper one, e.g. Abstract for Concrete:-11. 28, 635, 1512. Concrete for Abstract :--11. 464, 899. Country for Inhabitants:-11. 889, 891. Part for the Whole (Synecdoche), L 677. - Oxymoron, or the joining together of apparent contraries :11. 75, 100. Paronomasia, or play upon words having a similar sound, but different meanings :—ll. 588, 1117-8, 1134, 1278, 1529. Pathetic Fallacy, or ascribing human feeling to inanimate objects: -1. 8. Prolepsis, or the use of a predicative adjective or participle in a sentence when the action implied by the verb of the sentence takes place before that implied by the adjective or participle:-ll. 253, 439, 1134, 1241, 1430. Synesis, or construction according to sense, rather than form-ll. 424, 501, 645-6, 1408, 1604. Zeugma, or "the connexion of one word with two words or clauses, to both of which it does not equally apply, so that for one of them, another word, to be gathered from the sense of the passage, must be mentally supplied" (Kennedy) :—ll. 139-40, 231-2, 568, 738, 1191, 1211-12, 1612. IV. Many of the following constructions are SHAKSPERIAN which of them are so, can be determined by a reference to the Notes. 'As' used for that':-1. 354; used for 'so that':- —1. 1397; omitted:-1. 931. '-ed,' the sign of the passive participle, omitted after a dental sound:-11. 31, 259, 1556; used for the active '-ing':-11. 119, 403, 1124; used for the adj. term: '-able':-1. 915. 'Had,' used for 'would have':-11. 1019, 1495. · Infinitive mood, used in a peculiar sense :—ll. 535, 1500, It,' impersonal, omitted :—11. 63, 1455, 1498, 1600. Negatives, two, not amounting to an affirmative:-11. 815. Nominative absolute, a quasi form of :—ll. 149, 1480. Noun, omitted after an adj. pronoun :-11. 266, 483. Prefixes, unusual forms of :-11. 282, 442, 1022. = = Reflexive pronouns used without 'self':-11. 241, 586, 1495. There,' omitted at the beginning of a sentence :--11. 38, 1554, 1721. 'To be,' omission of various forms of the verb; thus 'to be' is omitted:-11. 212, 300, 514, 554. 840, 1306; 'was' is omitted:-1. 165, 418; 'is there' omitted: Verbs of Motion, such as 'to go' or 'to come,' omitted : 11. 920, 1250, 1370, 1445, 1552. 'Was,' auxiliary used instead of 'had':-1. 253. The metre of Samson Agonistes is blank verse of five Versification. feet in each line, and each foot consisting of two syllables,- -an unaccented followed by an accented. This is known as Heroic blank verse, and each foot so constituted is called an Iambus. There are many variations, however, from this normal order, and two views have been taken of them. The older view, commonly adopted in grammars, is to explain these variations according to rules of Greek and Latin prosody. Thus, when three syllables occur in a foot, they are reduced to two by processes called crasis or synizesis or elision or synalapha, e.g. "the Ocean stream becomes "th' Ocean stream." Such processes, however, seem to be repugnant to the character of English pronunciation, as may be seen by simply writing the above as it would be pronounced, if this system were followed "thocean stream." Dr. Masson, who rightly calls such pronunciations "comicalities" when applied to English, adopts a second view-namely, that of having the number of syllables the same in scanning as they are in actual pronunciation, and providing for them as simple trisyllabic variations from the normal order, e.g. :—" Bùt próvì | dènce ór | instinct | òf ná | tùre seems"; where the trisyllable is an amphibrach; "Afford | mè àssáss | ìná | tèd and | bètray'd"; where the trisyllable is an anapaest (the most common form of this variation). : Another rule of classical prosody, by which no departure from the scheme of the verse is permitted, even when the number of syllables in a foot remains unaffected by the proposed change, is also disregarded by Milton. Thus, in his verse an iambus may be displaced by other two-syllabled feet. Such a displacement Dr. Masson calls a dissyllabic variation, e.g.— "O mád | nèss! tò | think úse | óf stróng | èst winés," where there occur two dissyllabic variations :—a pyrrhic in the second, and a spondee in the third, foot: "Full òf | divíne | instinct | áftèr | sòme proof," where the first and fourth feet are trochees. A third peculiarity, which, more than any other, has drawn upon Samson Agonistes the charge of harsh versification, is the use of a line with a supernumerary final syllable. This is due to the old English practice of ending a verse with a strong syllable followed by a weak one. The proportion of such extra-syllabled lines is larger in Milton's dramatic, than in his epic, poems; the proportion in Samson Agonistes being, according to Masson, one in every six lines of dialogue, while in Paradise Regained it is one in every thirty. See 11. 303, 306, 939 etc. Milton uses Alexandrines or Iambic Hexameters in certain places where the length of the verse is meant to be an echo of the sense. See ll. 146, 149, 157, 497, 630, 1035, 1429; and the notes upon them. In the following words the accent follows that of the word (Latin or French) from which each is derived :exploits, 11. 32, 525; captived, 1. 33; exiled, 1. 98; transverse, 1. 209; contrite, 1. 502; ferment, 1. 619; irreparáble, 1. 644; contést, 1. 865; comrades, 1. 1162; instinct, 1. 1545, Effective Caesuras, or a distinct stop in the middle of a foot, serving to emphasize the idea contained in the portion of the verse preceding the stop, occur in the following lines-101, 201, 375, 775, 944, 946, 1213, 1321, 1371, 1418. The effect is most striking when the caesura recurs in the middle of the first or second foot. Dr. Masson gives a more extended meaning to the Miltonic caesura (vol. i. p. cxxvii.). A change of metre, meant to indicate contempt, occurs in ll. 298, 775, 1072; or to convey a repulsive idea, in 11. 621-622. Lastly, Milton, in his prefatory note to Paradise Lost, gives his reasons for the low opinion he had of rhyme as an instrument of verse:-namely, that "it is the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame metre"; and a thing "to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight." His theory receives practical illustration from the use to which he puts rhyme in Samson Agonistes. In a great number of instances where it occurs, it is meant to convey a feeling of contempt or disesteem for the person or thing referred to, or the thought or sentiment embodied, e.g. 11. 170-5, 297-8, 303-6, 658-9, 668-9, 672-3, 674-5, 688-91, 1010-17, 1031-2, 1841-2, 1053-60, 1525-6. In a few instances the use of rhymes seems to be accidental or, at least, of doubtful import, e.g. ll. 610-1, 615-6, 973-4, 1519-20. |