The promiscuous use of _thou_ and _you_ is a common error among all our
poets, not the best or most accurate excepted.
The cause of this anomaly is not of difficult investigation. The second
person singular not being colloquial with us, (for we never use it to
our familiar friends like the French,) it at once elevates our language
above the level of common discourse--a most essential object to the
poet, and therefore he readily adopts it; but when it comes to govern a
verb, the combination of _st_ is so harsh that he as readily abandons
it.
In Pope’s Eloisa to Abelard, the singular pronoun is constantly used
till verse 65:
“--Heaven listen’d while _you sung_;”
for _thou sungst_ (without considering the rhyme) would have been
intolerable.
In lines 107, 109, the verb _canst thou_ has a good effect; as by
lengthening the syllable by position it becomes more emphatic, and the
harshness is amply compensated by the superior force of _canst thou_ to
_can you_. The fastidious critic therefore would do well, before he
passes his sentence, to consider whether an inaccuracy, which is never
discovered except it be sought after, is not fairly entitled to the
favour Aristotle grants to those deviations from strict propriety which
tend to heighten the interest of a poem.
This change however is absolutely indefensible when used for the sake of
rhyme only. Many instances of this occur in the same poem; the most
striking will be found in two succeeding couplets:
O come! O! teach me nature to subdue,
Renounce my love, my life, myself,--and _you_:
Fill my fond heart with God alone; for he
Alone can rival, can succeed to _thee_.
In some cases this change is strictly justifiable; as, when a person is
addressed in a different style. For example, in Thomson’s Tancred and
Sigismunda, when Siffredi discloses to Tancred that he is the king, he
says,
Forgive me, sir! this trial of _your_ heart.
For the respectful appellation _sir_ demands the more colloquial term of
address, but he immediately adds with animation,
_Thou! thou!_ art he!
And so in Tancred’s subsequent speech to Siffredi, he first says,
I think, my lord! _you_ said the king intrusted
To _you_ his will!--
but soon after adds, in a more impassioned tone,
On this alone I will not bear dispute,
Not even from _thee_, Siffredi!
The same distinction will, in general, be found in the speeches of
Sigismunda to Tancred.[352]
[352] Pye.
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