'cons[)i]deration' boys said _s[=i]dera_, and in spite of 'n[)o]minal'
they said _nômina_, while they still said _s[)o]litus_ and
_r[)a]pidus_.

On the other hand the following rule, of which borrowed words provide
many examples, still obtains in the Play. In words of more than two
syllables any vowel in the antepenultima other than _i_ or _y_ was
pronounced long if no consonant divided the two following vowels.
Possibly the reason was that there was a synæresis of the two vowels,
but I doubt this, for a parasitic _y_ was treated as a consonant.
Examples are _alias_, _genius_, _odium_, _junior_, _anæmia_, and
on the other hand _f[)i]lius_, _L[)y]dia_. Compound verbs with a
short prefix were exceptions, as _[)o]beo_, _r[)e]creo_, whence our
'recreant'. A long prefix remained long as in _d[=e]sino_. The only
other exception that I can remember was _Ph[)o]loe_.

In polysyllables the general rule was that all vowels and diphthongs
before the penultima other than _u_, when it bore a primary or
secondary stress, and _au_ and _eu_ were pronounced short except
where the 'alias' rule or the 'larva' rule applied. Thus we said
_h[)e]r[)e]ditaritis_, _[)æ]qu[)a]bilitas_, _imb[)e]cillus_,
_susp[)i]cionem_, but _fid[=u]ciarius_, _m[=e]diocritas_,
_p[=a]rticipare_. I do not know why the popular voice now gives
_[)A]riadne_, for our forefathers said _[=A]riadne_ as they said
_[=a]rea_.

In very long words the alternation of stress and no-stress was
insisted on. I remember a schoolmaster who took his degree at Oxford
in the year 1827 reproving a boy for saying _Álphesib['oe]us_ instead
of _Alphesib['oe]us_, and I suspect that Wordsworth meant no inverted