The Verses of 10 Syllables, which are our Heroick, are us'd in Heroick Poems, in Tragedies, Comedies, Pastorals, Elegies; and sometimes in Burlesque.
In these Verses two things are chiefly to be consider'd.
1. The Seat of the Accent.
2. The Pause.
For, 'tis not enough that Verses have their just Number of Syllables: the true Harmony of them depends on a due Observation of the Accent and Pause.
The Accent is an Elevation, or a Falling of the Voice, on a certain Syllable of a Word.
The Pause is a Rest or Stop that is made in pronouncing the Verse, and that divides it, as it were, into two parts; each of which is call'd an Hemistich, or Half-Verse.
But this Division is not always equal, that is to say, one of the Half-verses does not always contain the same Number of Syllables as the other: and this Inequality proceeds from the Seat of the Accent that is strongest, and prevails most in the first Half-verse. For, the Pause must be observ'd at the end of the Word where such Accent happens to be, or at the end of the following Word.
Now in a Verse of 10 Syllables, this Accent must be either on the 2d, 4th, or 6th; which produces 5 several Pauses, that is to say, at the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, or 7th Syllable of the Verse; For,
When it happens to be on the 2d, the Pause will be either at the 3d, or 4th.
At the 3d, in two manners: