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POETIC LICENCES. 11 I |
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For trouble' in earth take no melancholy. Be rich in patience, gif thou' in goods be poor; Who livis merry' he livis mightily : Without gladness availis no treasure.
The reader will not fail to observe that, after all these elisions, the next word begins with a vowel, and that in general the syllables cut off are short.
Contractions are made, as has been said, of syllables which are not separated by any consonant; these our language contains in great number and variety; particularly a large class from the Latin, as motion, region, occasion. The two last syllables of these and other such words are now always contracted into one, when used in a verse. It was not so formerly :
His name was heavenly contemplation ; Of God and goodness was his meditation.
Spenser. " Fairy Queen."
Some willing men that might instruct his sons, And that woufd stand to good conditions.
"Hall's Satires*
Examples in other words:
To fly his step-dame's love outrageous.
Spenser. " Fairy Queen."
This siege that hath engirt his marriage.
Shaksp'ere. " Rape of Lucrece." |
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Should bleed in his own law's obedience. |
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