old alliterative method retained its ground among the masses of the people, and can boast the earliest great work of imagination in our literature-The Vision of Le concerning Piers Plowman. This is the earliest of the three great allegorical works which have successively gained the ear of the English people.*

§ 360. The Vision is written in lines of from about ten to twelve syllables. Each line readily divides itself into two hemistichs, and is often so written.

There are four accents or rhythmic beats [§ 331] to each line; and the words or syllables on which the first three at least of these fall, begin with the same letter:—

"I was weary for-wandered, and went me to rest
Under a brood bánk by a búrnes side;

And as I lay and léned and looked on the waters,

I slúmbered into a sleping, it swayed † so mury." (Pass. i.)

§ 361. Soon after the date of the Vision [latter half of the fourteenth century] the alliterative method fell into disuse. But though abandoned as a principle of versification, alliteration has continued to be more or less employed by almost all our poetical writers. Scarcely a stanza of the Fairy Queen is free from it; and Shakspeare, Milton, Pope, and others occasionally introduce it with very pleasing effect: e.g.

"Sweet slumbering dew the which to sleep them bids."

(F. Q. i. 1, 36.)

“A bold bad man, that dared to call by name
Great Gorgon, prince of darkness and dead night;
At which Cocytus quakes and Styx [x=ks] is put to flight."

"This precious stone set in the silver sea."

(Ib. 38.)

[Ex. in Earle.] (Sh. Rich. II. ii. 1.)

"It was the winter wild

When the heaven-born child }

All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lay." (Milt. Nativ.) "And waving wide her myrtle wand." (Ib.)

"The sound must seem an echo to the sense."

"Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux."

(Pope, Crit.)

(Id. Rape of L. i.)

Piers Plowman; Fairy Queen; Pilgrim's Progress.
Swayed so mury sounded so sweetly.

These two lines are exactly after the manner of the Vision:

"It was the winter wild, when the heaven-born child."

"In a summer season, whan sófte was the sónne." (P. P. line 1.)

"The bookful blockhead ignorantly read,

With loads of learned lumber in his head." (Id. Dunc.)

"A life of pain, the loss of peace

For every touch that woo'd its stay
Hath brushed its brightest hues away,
Till charm and hue and beauty gone,
'Tis left to fly or fall alone.

With wounded wing and bleeding breast." (Byron, S. of Corinth.) "Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease!"

(Tennyson, Lotos-Eaters.)

PUNCTUATION.

§ 362. POINTS or STOPS are used to mark the divisions of sentences. The following are the principal stops :

:

§ 363. A FULL STOP or PERIOD marks the end of a sentence, whether simple or complex.

$364. A COLON is used after a member of a sentence which makes a complete and independent sense by itself: especially when the succeeding member is not linked to it by a Conjunction: as

"The fifth race, which succeeds to the Heroes, is of iron: it is the race to which the poet himself belongs, and bitterly does he regret it." (Grote, Hist. Gr. i. 90.)

"Among the Commons there was a strong opposition, consisting partly of avowed Republicans, and partly of concealed Royalists: but a large and steady majority appeared to be favourable to the plan of reviving the old civil constitution under a new dynasty." (Mac. H. E. i. p. 142.)

"But Mr. Pendennis wanted to see him, and begged him, with a smile, to enter: whereupon Mr. Foker took off the embroidered tarboosh or fez . . . and advanced, bowing to the gentlemen and smiling on them graciously." (Pendennis, ch. xiii.)

"How she became Madame Fribsby, nobody knows: she left Clavering to go to a milliner's in London as Miss Fribsby..." (Ib. ch. xvi.)

It is sometimes difficult to decide whether a Colon or a Full Stop is more appropriate: but the Colon is preferable whenever the succeeding member is closely connected with the former one.

A Colon is used before a quotation; often with a dash :—

"The most sensible thing said in the House of Commons, on this subject, came from Sir William Coventry :- Our ancestors never did draw a line to circumscribe prerogative and liberty.'" (Mac. H. E. i. p. 223.)

§ 365. A SEMICOLON marks a less complete pause than a colon. It is used

(1) After a member of a sentence which, while it makes a complete sense by itself, is yet closely connected with a succeeding one, the connection being usually marked by a Conjunction: as

"In this morass the Roman army, after an ineffectual struggle, was irrecoverably lost; nor could the body of the emperor ever be found." (Gibbon, ch. x,)

"The conflict was terrible; [for] it was the combat of despair against grief and rage." (Ib.)

"His pride was flattered by the applause of the senate; and medals are still extant, representing him with the name and attributes of Hercules the Victor and of Mars the Avenger." (Ib.)

"The pike had been gradually giving place to the musket; and, at the close of the reign of Charles the Second, most of his Foot were musketeers." (Mac. H. E. i. 297.)

(2) Between the co-ordinate members of a sentence combining a number of statements :

"The Samaritans were condemned; the leaders of the insurrection adjudged to death; the rest of the people expelled and interdicted from settling again in Naplous; and, by a strange edict, the Samaritans were no longer to inherit the property of their fathers." (Milm. H. of Jews, iii. 65.)

"The first line of the Goths at length gave way in disorder; the second advancing to sustain it shared its fate; and the third only remained entire, prepared to dispute the passage of the morass, which was imprudently attempted by the presumption of the enemy. (Gibbon, ch. x.)

"He attended his beloved master during the trial; undertook to plead his cause; indeed, began a speech which the violence of the judges would not allow him to continue; and pressed his master to accept a sum of money sufficient to purchase his life." (Lewes, Plato.)

§ 366. A COMMA is the slightest pause of all. It serves to mark off members of a sentence which do not make a complete sense of themselves. A comma is used

(1) Before and after all phrases and sentences enlarging the Subject or other Noun: as

"His father, the Marquess of Argyle, had been the head of the Scotch Covenanters." (Mac. H. E. i. 537.)

...

"The court, sick of the importunities of two parties, at length relieved itself from trouble by dictating a compromise." (b. 188.)

"Dunkirk, won by Oliver from Spain, was sold to Lewis the Fourteenth, king of France." (lb. 191.)

"Faith is one of these [words], which was formed upon the French foi, Anglicised fey." (Earle, p. 267.)

"The aristocracy, which was held in great honour by the middle class and by the populace, had put itself at the head of the movement against Charles the First (Mac. H. E. i. 187.)

But when the Adjectival sentence is merely defining and restrictive (§ 233), commas are not used: as

"The design was disapproved by every Scotchman whose judgment was entitled to respect." (Ib. 185.)

(2) When two or more Adverbs or Adverbial phrases come together, to mark off one from the other: as

"Then, at length, tardy justice was done to the memory of Oliver.” (Ib. 192.)

'Lastly, in our own days, Mr. Finlaison, an actuary of eminent skill, subjected the ancient parochial registers of marriages, baptisms, and burials, to all the tests which the modern improvements in statistical science enabled him to apply." (Ib. 284.)

(3) Before and after any single Adverbial phrase when let into the body of a sentence and brought before the Verb to which it refers: as

"Such inquiry, according to him, was out of their province." (Ib. 196.)

"But, both in public and in the closet, he, on every occasion, expressed his concern that gentlemen so sincerely attached to monarchy should unadvisedly encroach on the prerogative of the monarch." (Ib.)

"Everywhere it was remembered how, when he ruled, all foreign powers had trembled at the name of England." (Ib. 193.)

"But, though she had rivals on the sea, she had not yet a superior." (Ib. 201.)

But a comma is not needed when the Adverbial comes at the end of the sentence: as

"The Chevalier was pacing down below in the hall of the inn when Pen descended from the drawing-room." (Pendennis, ch. xxvii.)

"I will keep what I had to say till you come home.” (Ib.)

The same rule is usually observed in the case of the Conjunctions therefore, however: as,

"The Long Parliament, however, had passed ordinances which had made a complete revolution in church government." (Mac. H. E. i. 158.)

"These ordinances, therefore, were never carried into full execution." (Ib. 159.)

(4) When more than two Nouns or other words are brought together in the same connection, a comma is placed after each one excepting the last: as—

"Everywhere men magnified his valour, genius, and patriotism." (Ib. 193.) "And after three days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother . . ."

"To love, honour, and succour my father and mother "With an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart

66

Similarly, when words are arranged in pairs, each connected together by and, a comma is used after each pair.

that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations." (C. Prayer.)

"Temperance and abstinence, faith and devotion, are in themselves[,] perhaps[,] as laudable as any other virtues." (Spect. No. 243.)

(5) After various impersonal phrases followed by a Nounsentence which is the real Subject: as

the god

"It was an ancient tradition, that when the Capitol was founded Terminus . . . alone. . . refused to yield his place to Jupiter himself." (Gibbon, ch. i.) "It is true, that such slighter compositions might not suit the severer genius of our friend Mr. Oldbuck." (Scott, Ivanhoe, pref.)

(6) A comma is often used to mark the end of a lengthened Noun-sentence or Infinitive-phrase forming the Subject to a Verb: as

"The Sophists are a much calumniated race. That they should have been so formerly[,]* is not surprising; that they should be so still, is an evidence that historical criticism is yet in its infancy." (Lewes, Biog. Hist. Phil.)

"To match an English and a Scottish author in the rival task of embodying and reviving the traditions of their respective countries, would be, you alleged, in the highest degree unequal and unjust." (Scott, Ivanhoe, pref.)

§ 367. The NOTE OF INTERROGATION is put after all questions:

as

where are they? and where art thou, My country?" (Byron.)

Obs. 1. The Note of Interrogation is not used after an indirect or reported question,

as

"He had been asked if he came on business, and had answered No."

(David C. ch. lxiii.)

"How could he make a more honourable entry on the bustling scene, than sent by, and acting in behalf of, one of the noblest houses in England; and should he," &c. (Peveril, ch. xviii.)

Obs. 2. Exclamatory sentences, such as the following

"O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!"

must not be confounded with Interrogatives.

§ 368. The NOTE OF EXCLAMATION is used after Interjections and similar expressions; also, usually, after the Vocative Case, and after entire sentences pronounced as with a sudden emotion: as

"Hark! 'tis the twanging horn o'er yonder bridge" (Cowper, Task.)
"This folio of four pages, happy work!
Which not e'en critics criticise." (Ib.)
"Earth! render back from out thy breast
A remnant of our Spartan dead!

Of the three hundred grant but three,

To make a new Thermopyla!" (Byron.)

The O of address, often used before the Vocative Case, is not written with (!); but this sign is very often put after the Noun itself: as

"O Scotia! my dear, my native soil!" (Burns.)

But the Interjection O or oh, denoting a burst of feeling, is usually written with (!) when it stands by itself:† as—

*It is not easy to see why a comma is not placed here as well as after the second parallel Noun-sentence.

+ Concerning the difference between 0 and oh, see Earle, p. 161. [The distinction appears to be modern: Milton uses always ; and in the Globe Shakspeare O is printed in the most impassioned places: see Othello, act 5.]