ll cases of language as the Poet hath wittily remembred in this verse
_si volet usus,
Quem penes arbitrium est & vis & norma loquendi._

The Earle of Surrey upon the death of Sir _Thomas Wiat_ made among other
this verse _Pentameter_ and of ten sillables,
_What holy graue (alas) what sepulcher_

But if I had had the making of him, he should haue bene of eleuen
sillables and kept his measure of fiue still, and would so haue runne more
pleasantly a great deale; for as he is now, though he be euen he seemes
odde and defectiue, for not well obseruing the natural accent of euery
word, and this would haue bene soone holpen by inserting one
_monosillable_ in the middle of the verse, and drawing another sillable in
the beginning into a _Dactil_, this word [_holy_] being a good
[_Pirrichius_] & very well seruing the turne, thus,
_Wha-t ho`li`e gra-ue a`la-s wha`t fit se`pu-lche`r._
Which verse if ye peruse throughout ye shall finde him after the first
_dactil_ all _Trochaick_ & not _Iambic_, nor of any other foot of two
times. But perchance if ye would seeme yet more curious, in place of these
four _Trocheus_ ye might induce other feete of three times, as to make the
three sillables next following the _dactil_, the foote [_amphimacer_] the
last word [_Sepulcher_] the foote [_amphibracus_] leauing the other midle
word for a [_Iambus_] thus.
_Wha-t ho`li`e gra-ue a`la-s wha`t fit se`pu-lche`r._
If ye aske me further why I make [_what_] first long & after short in one
verse, to that I satisfied you before, that it is by reason of his accent
sharpe in one place and flat in another, being a common _monosillable_,
that is, apt to receive either accent, & so in the first place receiuing
aptly the sharpe accent he is made long: afterward receiuing the flat
accent more aptly then the sharpe, because the sillable precedent [_las_]
vtterly distaines him, he is made short & not long, & that with very good
melodie, but to haue giuen him the sharpe accent & plucked it from the
sillable [_las_] it had bene to any mans eare a great discord: for
euermore this word [_alas_] is accented vpon the last, & that lowdly &
notoriously as appeareth by all our exclamations vsed vnder that terme.
The same Earle of Surrey & Sir _Thomas Wyat_ the first reformers &
polishers of our vulgar Poesie much affecting the stile and measures of
the Italian _Petrarcha_, vsed the foote _dactil_ very often but not many
in one verse, as