_SIR,_
[Sidenote: XI.]
I am now to proceed to the _Assonantia Syllabarum_ or _Rhyme_. I have
shown under this Head how much _Virgil_ abounds in _Rhyme_; from
whence I conclude, that it may be reasonably supposed _Rhyme_ had its
Original from a nobler Beginning than the Barbarity of _Druids_ and
_Monks_. It is very probable that _Chaucer_, _Dante_, and _Petrarch_
learnt it from _Virgil_, and that other Nations follow'd the Example
they had set them.
To say the _Bards_ rhym'd in the Times of grossest Ignorance, merely
by their own Invention, only proves that Rhyme is naturally
harmonious. We are told by the Learned that the _Hebrew_ Poetry is in
_Rhyme_, and that where-ever any Footsteps of this Art are to be
trac'd, _Rhyme_ is always found, whether in _Lapland_ or in _China_.
If it should be objected that the _Greek_ Tongue is an Exception to
this general Rule; that Matter perhaps may be disputed, or a
particular Answer might be given. But that the _Latin_ Language is a
Friend to _Rhyme_ is clear beyond all doubt; and the same is as true
of all the living Tongues that are distinguished in the learned World.
It is no wonder that _Verse_ without _Rhyme_ has so many Advocates
amongst the Dealers in Poetry, because of its Facility. _Rhym'd_
Verse, with all its Ornaments, especially the artful Way of varying
the Pause, is exceeding difficult; and so are all the curious
Productions of Art. Fine Painting, fine Musick or Sculpture, are all
very hard to perform; it is the Difficulty that makes those Performances
so deserving of Applause when they attain the highest Perfection. As to
the Matter before us; _Rhyme_ (as Mr. _Dryden_ justly observes) never
was _Milton_'s Talent: This appears from his juvenile Poems. And when
he sate down to write the _Paradise lost_, his Imagination was too
vigorous, too lofty to be shackled by _Rhyme_. It must be own'd that a
thousand Beauties would have been lost, which now shine with amazing
Splendor in that Poem, if _Milton_ had writ in the most exquisite
_Rhyme_. But then on the other hand, it is as certain that upon the
whole it would have been a more agreeable Poem to the Generality of
Readers than it is at present. Of this Opinion was the learned
Foreigner mentioned in a former Letter, a judicious Critick both in
the ancient and modern Languages.
"Quicquid tamen ejus sit, ostendunt Miltoni scripta virum vel in
ipsâ juventute: quæ enim ille adolescens scripsit carmina Latina,
unà cum Anglicis edita, ætatem illam longè superant, quâ ille vir
scripsit poëmata Anglica, sed sine rythmis, quos, ut pestes carminum
vernaculorum, abesse volebat, _quale illud decem libris constans,
The Paradise Lost_, plena ingenii & acuminis sunt, sed insuavia
tamen videntur ob _rythmi_ defectum; quem ego abesse à tali carminum
genere non posse existimo, quicquid etiam illi, & Italis nonnullis,
& nuper Isaaco Vossio in libro _de Poematum cantu_, videatur."
_Polyhist._
However, we must take _Paradise Lost_ as it is, and rejoice that we
have in it, one of the finest Works that ever the Wit of Man produc'd:
But then the Imperfection of this Work must not be pleaded in favour
of such other Works as have hardly any thing worthy of Observation in
them. Placing _Milton_ with his blank Verse by himself (as indeed he
ought to be in many other respects, for he certainly has no Companion)
this Dispute about the Excellency of _blank_ Verse, and even the
Preference of it to _rhym'd_ Verse, may be determined by comparing two
Writers of Note, who have undertaken the same Subject; that is,
_Virgil_'s Æneid.
Now I will take all the Passages of that Poem mentioned in my Letters
to you, and compare them in these two Translations: And if it shall
appear by the Comparison that the _rhym'd_ Verses have not only more
Harmony and Conciseness, but likewise that they express _Virgil_'s
Sense more fully and more perspicuously than the _blank_ Verse, will
it not be easy to determine which of these two Sorts ought to be
preferr'd?
Octob. 22. 1736.
_I am_, SIR, _&c._
* * * * *
_P.S._
When I was taking notice of _Virgil_'s Arts of Versification, I should
not have omitted his sudden varying the Tense of the Verb from the
Preterperfect to the Present.
"_Non tua te nobis, Genitrix pulcherrima talem_
Promisit, _Graiisque ideo bis_ vindicat _armis_.
This is very agreeable both as to the Verse and the Sense; for it
makes the thing described more immediately present than it would be
otherwise. I cannot just now recollect an Example in _Milton_ of this
nature, but I remember one in _Fairfax_, in a Couplet already cited.
"Their jolly Notes they _chanted_ loud and clear,
And horrid Helms high on their Heads they _bear_.
This is much more lively and peinturesque than if he had writ _bore_,
and you will easily perceive it. It may be said, perhaps, that
_Fairfax_ used _bear_ here for the sake of the Verse; let that be
allow'd, but then it must be likewise granted, that _Virgil_ uses
_vindicat_ instead of _vindicavit_, for the sake of his Verse, which
he would not have done, if it had not been more beautiful than the
common Prose way of writing: And as it is an Excellency in _Virgil_,
so it is in _Fairfax_.