The varied
accentuation of the verses is striking; and would any one convince
himself of the variety of which this measure is capable, let him try to
read this passage, and the speech of Prospero, beginning "Ye elves of
hills," to the same tune. In the verses,
"And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, | and do fly him
When he comes back,"
observe how the pauses are contrived to echo the sense and give the
effect of flux and reflux. Versification was understood in that day as
never since, and no treatise on English verse so good, in all respects,
as that of Campion (1602) has ever been written. Coleridge learned from
him how to write his "Catullian hendeca-syllables," and did not better
his instruction.[G]
[Footnote G: For the comprehension of the laws of some of the lighter
measures, no book is so instructive as Mother Goose's Melodies. That
excellent lady was one of the best metrists the language has produced.]
In "Measure for Measure," (Act i. Sc. 1,) in this passage,--
"what's open made
To justice, that justice seizes: what knows the law
That thieves do pass on thieves?"
does Mr. White believe the "that" and "what" are Shakspeare's? Does he
consider
"To justice, that justice seizes: what knows the law"
an alexandrine,--and an alexandrine worthy of a student and admirer of
Spenser? Should we read it thus, we should dread Martial's sarcasm of,
_Sed male cum recitas_.
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