Thus farre therefore we will aduenture and not beyond,
to th’intent to shew some singularitie in our
arte that euery man hath not heretofore obserued, and
(her maiesty good liking always had) whether we make
the common readers to laugh or to lowre, all is a
matter, since our intent is not so exactlie to prosecute
the purpose, nor so earnestly, as to thinke it should
by authority of our owne iudgement be generally applauded
at to the discredit of our forefathers maner of vulgar
Poesie, or to the alteration or peraduenture totall
destruction of the same, which could not stand with
any good discretion or curtesie in vs to attempt,
but thus much I say, that by some leasurable trauell
it were no hard matter to induce all their auncient
feete into vse with vs, and that it should proue very
agreable to the eare and well according with our ordinary
times and pronunciation, which no man could then iustly
mislike, and that is to allow euery world polisillable
one long time of necessitie, which should be where
his sharpe accent falls in our owne ydiome
most aptly and naturally, wherein we would not follow
the license of the Greeks and Latines, who made not
their sharpe accent any necessary prolongation of
their tunes, but vsed such sillable sometimes long
sometimes short at their pleasure. The other sillables
of any word where the sharpe accent fell not, to be
accompted of such time and quantitie as his ortographie
would best beare hauing regard to himselfe, or to
his next neighbour word, bounding him on either side,
namely to the smoothnes & hardnesse of the sillable
in his vtterance, which is occasioned altogether by
his ortographie & situation as in this word
[dayly] the first sillable for his vsuall and
sharpe accentes sake to be always long, the second
for his flat accents sake to be alwayes shoft, and
the rather for his ortographie, bycause if he
goe before another word commencing with a vowell not
letting him to be eclipsed, his vtterance is easie
& currant, in this trissilable [dau-nge`ro`us]
the first to be long, th’other two short for
the same causes. In this word [da-nge`rou`sne-sse]
the first & last to be both long, bycause they receiue
both of them the sharpe accent, and the two middlemost
to be short, in these words [remedie] & [remedilesse]
the time to follow also the accent, so as if it please
better to set the sharpe accent vpon [re] then
vpon [dye] that sillable should be made long
and e conuerso, but in this word [remedilesse]
bycause many like better to accent the sillable [me]
then the sillable [les] therefore I leaue him
for a common sillable to be able to receiue both a
long and a short time as occasion shall serue.
The like law I set in these wordes [reuocable][recouerable]
[irreuocable][irrecouerable] for sometimes
it sounds better to say re-uo`ca-ble then re`uo-ca`ble`,
re-coue`rable then reco-ue`ra`ble for this