I think rather too much is made of this. We're only talking about a change
in conventions when the material became less expensive to produce. The
continuous verse lines in ms tradition rarely lead to confusion about where
one line ends and the next begins--conventions of meter and rhyme took care
of that.
We don't read aloud in our carrels unless we want to get kicked out of the
library. But when you're in your own space don't you ever find yourself
called upon to read aloud? Or better, don't you read aloud to whoever
shares your intimate space, or do you just pass the book along?
At 12:13 AM 1/31/2003 +0000, you wrote:
><snip>
>I'd say lineation was the syntax of silent reading. Part of a larger shift
>in the balance between the auditory and the visual.[CW]
>
>This eludes me entirely. For me the poem on the page, whether verse or
>prose, is a text for reading out loud, or at least subvocalization. Like
>sheetmusic. Potential until performed.[MW]
><snip>
>
>No quarrels with subvocalisation. Or with hearing the text as one reads.
>
>I was thinking rather of the historical shift into silent reading, so that
>we don't now sit in our carrels speaking the text aloud. The point to be
>explained being that prose and verse were both unlineated and then the
>latter was.
>
>But it's not a verse/prose distinction exactly. Cf the shrinking paragraph v
>Henry James and dictation. If that's not too broad a brush.
>
>CW
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