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The strong accents of the alliterating syllables supply the music with firmness, while the low-toned syllables give opportunity for the most varied nuances of declamation. The first radical development of Wagner's theories we see in "The Flying Dutchman." In "Tanhhäser" and "Lohengrin" they find full sway.
The Anglo-Saxon poetry, for example, had been rhythmical and alliterative. It was commonly written in lines containing four rhythmical accents and with three of the accented syllables alliterating. Reste hine thâ rúm-heort; réced hlifade Geáp and góld-fâh, gäst inne swäf. Rested him then the great-hearted; the hall towered Roomy and gold-bright, the guest slept within.
The art of subtle suggestion could hardly go further than in this line, where the alliterating v's, the mute e's, and the placing of the long syllables combine so wonderfully to produce the required effect. But it is not only suggestions of nature that readers like Mr. Bailey are unable to find in Racine they miss in him no less suggestions of the mysterious and the infinite.
Arms and battles were to him abominable, as they are to us. But arms and battles were the delight of Romans. He was ridiculed in his own time, and has been ridiculed ever since, for the alliterating twang of the line in which he declared his feeling: "Cedant arma togæ; concedat laurea linguæ."
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