in Romeo's

This gentleman, the prince's neer Alie.

The late Mr. B.B. Rogers in his translations of Aristophanes has of
course no other pronunciation. His verses are too good to be spoiled
by what began as a vulgarism. Another equally recent vulgarism, not
recognized by the _N.E.D._ and bad enough to make George Russell
turn in his grave, is 'm['a]gazine' for 'magaz['i]ne'. It is not yet
common, but such vulgarisms are apt to climb.

In times not quite so recent the word 'prophecy' has changed, not
indeed its stress, but the quantity of its final vowel. When Alford
wrote 'The Queen's English', every one lengthened the last vowel, as
in the verb, nor do I remember any other pronunciation in my boyhood.
Now the _N.E.D._ gives the short vowel only. Alford to his own
satisfaction accounted for the long vowel by the diphthong _ei_ of
the Greek. It is to be feared that his explanation would involve
'dynast[=y]' and 'polic[=y]', even if it did not oblige us to turn
'Pompey' into 'Pomp[=y]'. In this case it may be suspected that
the noun was assimilated to the verb, which follows the analogy of
'magnify' and 'multiply'. The voice of the people which now gives
us 'prophec[)y]' seems here to have felt the power of analogy and
assuredly will prevail.

_ON PROPER NAMES._

It is to be hoped that except in reading Latin and Greek texts we
shall keep to the traditional pronunciation of proper names as it
is enshrined in our poetry and other literature. We must continue to
lengthen the stressed penultimate vowel in Athos, Cato, Draco, Eros,
Hebrus, Lichas, Nero, Otho, Plato, Pylos, Remus, Samos, Titus, Venus,
and the many other disyllables wherein it was short in the ancient
tongues. On the other hand we shall shorten the originally long
stressed antepenultimate vowel in Brasidas, Euripides, Icarus,
Lavinia, Lucilius, Lydia, Nicias, Onesimus, Pegasus, Pyramus, Regulus,
Romulus, Scipio, Sisyphus, Socrates, Thucydides, and many more.

Quin, and the actors of his day, used to give to the first vowel in
'Cato' the sound of the _a_ in 'father'. They probably thought that
they were Italianizing such names. In fact their use was neither Latin
nor English. They were like the men of to-day who speak of the town
opposite Dover as 'Cally', a name neither French nor English. A town
which once sent members to the English Parliament has a right to an
English name. Prior rhymed it with 'Alice' and Browning has

When Fortune's malice