p. H. james elsewhere. He combines the specialized language of a period and social class with language that "belongs to all ranks and all countries," and to give the general effect of remoteness, even for bygone centuries, finds the language of a few generations past to be sufficient. Thackeray, in Esmond and The Virginians, represents the more modern, more realistic fidelity to the speech of a past period. Dialect, while specially characteristic of the nineteenth century, has considerable place in much earlier fiction. In the picaresque and satirical novel of the Renaissance we have abundant reproduction of the "cant" phrases of the thief, the lawyer, doctor, priest, etc. A famous example of an original introduction of the terms of a special craft is found in the seaman's language of Smollett. Simple examples of the use of syntax to individualize characters are found in the third person plural with which Dolly Winthrop refers to the Deity (Silas Marner); the parenthetical sentences of Bulwer's Squire Brandon (Paul Clifford), and in Dickens, who frequently uses the "gag" with the effect of caricature. George Meredith is a prominent example of a novelist (as Browning is of a dramatist) whose own personal syntactical habits overshadow the utterances of his characters.1 One may conveniently note here typographical variations for artistic effects. Italics are characteristic of sentimentalism, and are common in Richardson and his followers. They are used in early fiction to distinguish proper names. Bulwer is fond of italics, small capitals, dashes, and exclamation points. Sterne and other humorists use typographical devices for comic effects. In the history of the English novel, the syntax of Euphuism has perhaps been given the most close analysis. A few examples of characteristic vocabulary and syntax of other well-marked historical types may be suggestive. 1 For examples of study of the syntactical peculiarities of individual noveiists, see Brunetière on Bourget (Roman Naturaliste), Cross on Stevenson, and Professor F. N. Scott's editorial introduction to Rasselas. 1. Heroic Romance. Its formal phrasing is shown by these chance selections from Boyle's Parthenissa: "unintermitted obligations "; "passionate conjurations of a meritorious servant"; "accessional force in so ambitioned a victory." Its complicated sentence structure may be indicated by the fact that Parthenissa contains sentences of over two hundred and fifty words. 2. Ossianic figure and Gothic phrasing may be exemplified from James White's Earl Strongbow (1789): "Like the thunder when it smites the stupendous head of Snowdon, or roars amidst the cliffs and woody pinnacles of Plinlimmon"; "A range of reverend towers enveloped in ivy"; "It was a mansion sacred to silence and repose "; "worm-eaten timbers and rusty hinges"; "dim Gothic window." 3. The "sentimental school" of the later eighteenth century. From Brooke's Juliet Grenville; or, the History of the Human Heart: "drowned in tears," "brimming tears"; "flood of tears"; "tears of grateful sensibility" (this same phrase occurs in Catherine Parry's Eden Vale; compare Morley's introduction to the Man of Feeling, Cassell's National Library); "alarming transports"; "transport of tender endearment"; "paradisiacal delirium of infantile deliciousness." Compare Section 5. 23. Vocabulary. So far as the novelist creates words, or selects or modifies them for definite artistic purpose, they may be considered structural elements. Considered as narrative, the novel employs the power of words to accelerate, retard, produce suspense, surprise, climax, etc.; as description, it has been prominent in the selection and determination of a specialized vocabulary for interiors, landscapes, physiognomy, the sensations and emotions of the individual, and the mental states of society. As a general type, it is characterized by range and variety of vocabulary; contrast of dramatic and non-dramatic words; combination and differentiation of the vocabularies of individuals and social groups. Creative vocabulary has been a special feature of the voyage imaginaire and of allegory. There are abundant examples in Campanella's City of the Sun, Gulliver, Paltock's Peter Wilkins, Pilgrim's Progress, etc. Dialectic vocabulary has been prominent in picaresque fiction, satire, and the novel of manners. Glossarial explanation, not unknown in Renaissance fiction, expands till for the Waverley Novels a glossary of some two thousand words is necessary. In general, the novelist has been a radical in the use of words - an iconoclast and a neologist. The aesthetic connotation of many such words as Gothic, sensibility, novel, romance, romantic, picturesque, picaresque, hero, soul, etc., has been largely determined by the usage of the novel. The mere names in a novel are often suggestive of the general type of the fiction. Compare the names of the characters of White's Earl Strongbow (Gothic historical romance), “Richard Fitzwalter," "Sir Reginald Fitzalan," "O'Carrol of Uriel," etc.; of Boyle's Parthenissa (heroic romance), "Artabanes," "Izadora," "Callimachus," etc.; of Ingelo's Bentivolio and Urania (didactic allegory), "Alethion and Agape," ," "Theosebes and Urania," "Panaretes and Irene," with those of a picaresque novel, a modern novel of manners, etc. A study of special value and wide scope is suggested by the general theory of Stoddard's Evolution of the English Novel - the development of interest from the physical to the spiritual. The modern novel shows even in its vocabulary a richer æsthetic result in the exploration and combination of these two interests than any other form of prose literature. One may profitably analyze the vocabulary of form, color, movement (the power of visualization is often mentioned as a chief essential of the great fictionist), sound, touch, of vague inner sensation, as in swoon, dream, and delirium; comparing it with the vocabulary of emotion, thought, and volition. In both cases the development of the exact, concrete word has been remarkable. 24. Phonology. Such structural details as alliteration, assonance, melody, pitch, time, etc., may be included under this term. Rhythm has been briefly noticed in Section 12. Phonetic effect for its own sake is not characteristic of the novel, as it is, to some extent, of the romance and certain types of short story. When the sound-value is emphasized, the values of characterization, action, setting, and thought are liable to become dim. But as a means to a less purely æsthetic end, the novelist explores every power of phonetic combination. In narration the clash of consonants or the swiftness of vowel sequences are important agencies; in description onomatopoetic effects may be introduced, or general impressions of beauty, ugliness, simplicity, or complexity emphasized by an appropriate arrangement of sounds. It is in dramatic characterization, perhaps, that the most significant or characteristic use of phonetic resources is found in the novel. One has only to recall the wide variations in the reading aloud of the same dramatic passage by different persons to realize the importance of this point. Alliteration, consonantal friction, etc., may be important indications of the mental condition of a speaker, especially in highly emotional states. Compare the degrees and manner in which the novelist determines the details of utterance in these passages from Chapter XIV of George Eliot's Janet's Repentance: 1. "Janet!' The loud jarring voice," etc. 2. "Perhaps he would kill her.'" 3. "I'll cool your hot spirit for you. I'll teach you to brave me."" 4. "Let him. Life was as hideous as death."" CHAPTER II CONSECUTIVE STRUCTURE 25. Significance of Consecutive Structure. A novel may be simply and conveniently considered as a series of parts, each with its own identity, value, and relation to the whole series. The chief significance of this consecutive structure is threefold: it gives, in the main, the order in which the novelist composed, though the original conception may be found in the catastrophe, and there are often other variations; it is the natural order in which the reader becomes acquainted with the novel; and it is a very important æsthetic aspect of the work itself, especially as a narrative. As a sequence of divisions shown to the eye, the series is in a sense spatial; and, though much more definite, if a building is considered as a whole, may be compared with architectural series. As a sequence of sounds, it is essentially temporal; and, though in many respects less definite, may be compared with musical series. These two aspects are exactly those which have been examined under "external structure"; but a novel also presents a series of images, emotions, and thoughts, belonging to what may be called, for contrast, the "internal structure." Except in the scientific and practical sense in which we grasp several elements at once, every detail of sound, imagery, and thought in the entire novel comes to us at some definite point in the series. Ordinarily one does not attempt to "realize" the minute details of either sound or meaning; though for special purposes a passage may be |