(Vol. vi., pp. 431. 539. 605.)
MR. CUTHBERT BEDE (Vol. vi., p. 605.) says "he thinks A. B. R. would have
to search a long time, before he found, in the pages of Pope, such
brogue-inspired rhymes as _rake well_ and _sequel_, _starve it_ and
_deserve it_, _charge ye_ and _clergy_, and others quoted by him at p.
431." Among the latter, I presume he chiefly relies on the rhymes _satire_
and _hater_, _creature_ and _nature_.
Of all these I am able to adduce parallel instances both from Dryden and
Pope. And first, as to _rake well_ and _sequel_. MR. BEDE is, of course,
aware that these are double rhymes; that _quel_ and _well_ are good English
rhymes; and that the brogue betrays itself only in the first syllable of
each, _rake_ and _se_. It is, in fact, the same sort of rhyme as _break_
and _weak_, which is of such frequent occurrence both in Dryden and Pope.
Here is an example from each:
"Or if they should, their interest soon would _break_,
And with such odious aid make David _weak_."
_Absalom and Achitophel._
"Men in their loose, unguarded hours they _take_;
Not that themselves are wise, but others _weak_."
_Essay on Man._
The next "brogue-inspired rhyme" is _starve it_ and _deserve it_. Here, as
in the former instance, the last syllables rhyme correctly, and the
objection is confined to _starve_ and _deserve_. Let us see what Dryden
says to this:
"Wrong conscience, or no conscience, may _deserve_
To thrive, but ours alone is privileged to _starve_."
_Hind and Panther._
And Pope:
"But still the great have kindness in _reserve_:
He help'd to bury whom he help'd to _starve_."
_Prologue to the Satires._
Of this species of rhyme I have noted _three other_ instances in Dryden,
and _two_ in Pope.
As regards the rhyme _charge ye_ and _clergy_, no instance, in the same
words, occurs in Dryden or Pope. They did not write much in that sort of
doggerel. But the brogue, even here, is nothing more than the confounding
of the sounds of _a_ and _e_, which is so beautifully exemplified in the
following couplet in Dryden:
"For yet no George, to our _discerning_,
Has writ without a ten years' warning."
_Epistle to Sir G. Etheredge._
Next, we have the rhyme _satire_ and _hater_. The following in Dryden is
quite as bad, if not worse:
"Spiteful he is not, though he wrote a _satire_,
For still there goes some thinking to _ill-nature_."
_Absalom and Achitophel._
Of this rhyme _satire_ and _nature_, I can adduce two other instances from
Dryden.
In the same category we must place _nature_ and _creature_, _nature_ and
_feature_. Here is an example from Dryden; and I can bring forward two
others:
"A proof that chance alone makes every _creature_
A very Killigrew without good _nature_."
_Essay upon Satire._
And here is one from Pope:
"'Tis a virgin hard of _feature_,
Old and void of all good _nature_."
_Answer to "What is Prudery?"_
Can MR. BEDE produce anything to match the following sample of the
_crater_, to be found in our most polished English poet?
"Alas! if I am such a _creature_,
To grow the worse for growing _greater_!"
_Dialogue between Pope and Craggs._
It will be seen, from the foregoing quotations, that the rhymes described
as Irish were, a century and a half ago, common to both countries,--a fact
which MR. BEDE was probably not sufficiently aware of when he introduced
the subject in "N. & Q." For obvious reasons, the use of such rhymes, at
the present day, would be open to the imputation of "Irishism;" but it was
not so in the days of Swift.