are commoner than lines like
Qúeen and húntress cháste and fáir.
The multitude of unaccentuated words like the, from, &c., taken along with the fact that they precede the words with which they agree, or which they govern, accounts for the apparent antagonism between the formulæ of our words and the formulæ of our metres. The contrast between a Swedish line of the form a x, and its literal English version (x a),
shows this. In Swedish, the secondary part of the construction follows, in English it precedes, the main word:—
Swedish. Váren kómmer; fúglen qvittrar; skóven lófvas;
sólen lér.
English. The spríng is cóme; the bírd is blýthe; the wóod is gréen;
the sún is bríght.
This is quoted for the sake of showing the bearing of the etymology and syntax of a language upon its prosody.
[§ 651]. The classical metres as read by Englishmen.—In p. [500] it is stated that "the metres of the classical languages consist essentially in the recurrence of similar quantities; accent playing a part." Now there are reasons for investigating the facts involved in this statement more closely than has hitherto been done; since the following circumstances make some inquiry into the extent of the differences between the English and the classical systems of metre, an appropriate element of a work upon the English language.