Class 4388.29 49272745 1831, Sept. 7. Gift of Obadiah Rich, of London. LONDON: IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. RHYME, &c. FROM the times of Petrarch and Boccacio down to the present, ability in Latin versification has been deemed one of the finest, if not the best test of classical taste and accuracy. Scholars of every age, and of every degree of genius and knowledge, have bestowed their attention on this subject; so that I know not the department of knowledge in which the roll of great names is longer, and in which the combination of talent and learning has effected less. Even those who have most successfully laboured in cultivating the metrical resources of our own or other languages, and have counted it their pride to imitate the beauties of Latin composition, have frequently believed that the Greeks and Romans were but little acquainted with the graces of rhyme, which they call a gothic invention, unworthy of the sweetness and majesty of Latin verse. And yet it was, in fact, no less than an absolute impossibility, that the Romans should have composed in what is properly named blank verse; for in the first place, their cæsural pauses are regular, and fall in or near the middle of the lines, whereas the variation of the pause constitutes a leading beauty in the mode of composition they are supposed to have practised. And in the second place, their terminations are few, the majority being in m, n, s, and t; whereas blank verse requires that the terminations should be various, both in the ends of the lines, and the winding up of the cæsural stops; besides which, it may be added, that Latin versification allows the cæsura and the end of the line to be in a short quantity, while few cases can occur in which such a thing would be tolerable in blank verse, which requires, as having no symphony to please the ear, that its pauses should be grave and full. I will give a few lines from Milton to illustrate these observations, marking the cæsuras and their quantities as I proceed. "High on a thrōne of royal state, which far Or where the gorgeous east with richest hand, Here it is observable that the cæsural place is changed three times, the pauses being on the fourth, sixth, fifth and sixth syllables, besides which, the two lines making the cæsura on the fourth, are distinguished by the one beginning in a trochee, the other in a spondee; and the third is distinguished from the fifth by coming to its cæsura in a dactyl. I should prefer, if it be admissible, putting the cæsura on barbaric, which would improve the sense and vary the pauses very considerably. I will now give an instance of faulty composition in blank verse, to illustrate the same remarks by showing the defectiveness of blank metre, where these requirements are not observed. It is taken from the speech of Sarpedon, in Broome's Homer, I shall mark only the pauses and short quantities at them. "Why are we honour'd, | Glaucus, by the Lycians, Why do they worship | us like awful Gods, Where wanton Xanthus | feeds the fruitful plains? We should shine forth, | conspicuous in the war, Then shall the generous | Lycians speak aloud, There are three leading faults: 1. Lycians, and plains, say and day, and us, Zanthus, and Glaucus, rhyme at a distance not far enough to prevent the ear catching an unpleasant ring.—2. At the cæsuras there are frequently short quantities. -3. The cæsuras fall regularly on the fourth or fifth syllable, in the latter case, exactly dividing the line, which causes a most miserable monotony. Now all these defects exist in Latin poetry, and yet in spite of the melody, I am told it is blank verse; I must venture to pronounce it an absolute impossibility. It is sufficient in reply to any objection against reasoning from English examples alone, to say that the English were the first people who practised blank verse successfully, and that they did it in professed imitation of the ancients. When many of Chaucer's |