better or worse, certainly altogether different from any in English poetry. Now even in languages where such feet are found, most English readers very rarely render them in reading, so that comparatively few persons are really aware of the difference between the two forms of poetry. But in most of the accompanied parts of the play the music is set to the Latin measure and this makes it necessary for the speaker to follow that measure as it existed in Latin. And thus we may get approximately, at any rate, the effect of ancient classic verse. Thus the play becomes a study in ancient poetry as well. In the modern delivery of poetry the verse as a strain or melodic phrase is almost lost sight of. "John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave. His soul is marching on," represents in a manner the modern delivery of poetry. In Latin it would be, "JohnBrown'sbody liesamoulderingin thegrave. Hissoulismarchingon." The attempt has been made to approach the Latin metrical utterance, though in many places our English influences have been rather too strong for us.

Nor is it in poetry alone that these long and short syllables and this continued utterance have their significance. The cadence of common speech, which was not very different from that of the verses in the play, was entirely different from any which we have in English. Very much of the effect of English speech depends upon slurring unemphatic words and dwelling upon those more important. This tends to produce a jerky and irregular utterance not customary in other European languages. In Latin, as well as in all other languages that have quantity, the length of syllables is determined beforehand and even common speech has a measured cadence, a musical quality, to which rhetorical composition carefully attends, so that certain sequences are approved and others not. This difference of effect has until lately been almost entirely disregarded. And even now though many schools teach the proper method of utterance theoretically, yet it is so foreign to English modes that very rarely is a person found who knows anything about the quantitative pronunciation of Latin practically. Boys know that some syllables are long and others short, but what that difference means to the ear they can very feebly realize. But in a considerable part of the play this pronunciation is unavoidable and so the illustration of Latin verse gives an illustration of Latin prose also.

Besides these more important aspects of the play there is another not uninteresting to Latin students. The whole is given with the comparatively lately adopted 'Roman pronunciation.' Many persons are wont to ridicule this method, simply because their ears are unaccustomed to it. They prefer the mumpsimus of the ignorant priest to the sumpsimus of the Latin ritual. The sooner such persons, or any persons for that matter, become accustomed to the right way, the sooner they will find that there is no more difficulty and no less enjoyment in this than in the old barbarous jargon. For the English pronunciation is essentially that. It is not strange that the islanders should have swung away from their continental neighbors in this matter, but it is strange that they should have adhered to their perverse pronunciation in spite of all the efforts of various intelligent persons to adopt in some manner the continental system. Milton, like a sturdy Puritan, fought vigorously against it, and Walter Scott opposed it, though his more gentle disposition made him finally yield to the custom of Court and College.

It is true that all the modern nations have essentially pronounced Latin according to the sounds of their own language, but no one has departed so far from the original as the English. Others have changed a few consonantal sounds, in accordance with the usage even of the early centuries of our era, but the vowels have been preserved by them without significant change. In English, however, no sound is sufficiently preserved to be understood by an ancient Roman. It was this ultra perversion of the Roman sounds that led to the adoption of the present system. As a change was necessary there seemed no better course than to adopt the pronunciation which according to sufficient evidence was, so far as any approximation can be made to a foreign tongue, really used by the Romans. We may be sure that a Roman could understand the words of the Latin play, though he might think they were spoken by a very barbarous people.

J. B. GREENOUGH.