——This late example
Of base Henriquez, bleeding in me now,
From each good Aspect takes away my trust.
And in another place,
You have an Aspect, Sir, of wondrous wisdom.
The word Aspect, you perceive, is here accented on the first Syllable, which, I am confident, in any sense of it, was never the case in the time of Shakespeare; though it may sometimes appear to be so, when we do not observe a preceding Elision.
Some of the professed Imitators of our old Poets have not attended to this and many other Minutiæ: I could point out to you several performances in the respective Styles of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare, which the imitated Bard could not possibly have either read or construed.
This very accent hath troubled the Annotators on Milton. Dr. Bentley observes it to be “a tone different [pg 180] from the present use.” Mr. Manwaring, in his Treatise of Harmony and Numbers, very solemnly informs us that “this Verse is defective both in Accent and Quantity, B. 3. V. 266.
His words here ended, but his meek Aspéct
Silent yet spake.——