[84] Compare Flaubert's extreme statement: "that a beautiful verse without meaning is superior to one that has meaning but is less beautiful."
[85] Triple rimes are naturally excellent for joco-serious purposes, like the celebrated intellectual: henpecked you all, Timbuctoo: hymn book too, thin sand doubts: ins and outs.
[86] Swinburne, Dedication, 1865.
[87] For an extreme example of mimicry, see Southey's Lodore.
[88] Lines 370 ff. Dr. Johnson's comment on this last line is curious: "The swiftness of Camilla is rather contrasted than exemplified. Why the verse should be lengthened to express speed, will not easily be discovered. In the dactyls, used for that purpose by the ancients, two short syllables were pronounced with such rapidity, as to be equal only to one long; they, therefore, naturally exhibit the act of passing through a long space in a short time. But the alexandrine, by its pause in the midst, is a tardy and stately measure; and the word 'unbending,' one of the most sluggish and slow which our language affords, cannot much accelerate its motion."
[89] It is not to be understood, however, that the higher the pitch the greater the emphasis; for the contrary is often the case.
[90] It is perhaps useless to debate about this line. Whether one divides thus:
_̷ ◡ | ◡ _̷ | _̷ ◡ | _̷ ◡ | ◡ _̷
and says there is an 'inversion' in the first, third, and fourth feet, or preferably thus:
‸ _̷ | ◡`[A] _̷ | ‸ _̷ | ◡ _̷ | ◡`[A] _̷