(Vol. vi., pp. 605, 606.)
MR. BEDE, who first called attention to a class of rhymes which he
denominated "Irish," seems to take it ill that I have dealt with his
observations as somewhat "hypercritical." I acknowledge the justness of his
criticism; but I did, and must still, demur to the propriety of calling
certain false rhymes peculiarly _Irish_, when I am able to produce similes
from poets of celebrity, who cannot stand excused by MR. BEDE'S
explanation, that the rhymes in question "made music for their Irish ear."
If, as he tells us, MR. BEDE was not "blind to similar imperfections in
English poets," I am yet to learn why he should fix on "Swift's Irishisms,"
and call those errors a national peculiarity, when he finds them so freely
scattered through the standard poetry of England?
Your correspondent J. H. T. suggests a new direction for inquiry on this
subject when he conjectures that the pronunciation now called _Irish_ was,
"during the first half of the eighteenth century, the received
pronunciation of the most correct speakers of the day;" and MR. BEDE
himself suggests that _provincialisms_ may sometimes modify the rhymes of
even so correct a versifier as Tennyson. I hope some of your contributors
will have "drunk so deep of the well of English undefiled" as to be
competent to address themselves to this point of inquiry. I cannot pretend
to do much, being but a shallow philologist; yet, since I received your
last Number, I have lighted on a passage in that volume of "omnifarious
information" Croker's _Boswell_, which will not be deemed inapplicable.
Boswell, during a sojourn at Lichfield in 1776, expressed a doubt as to the
correctness of Johnson's eulogy on his townsmen, as "speaking the purest
English," and instanced several provincial sounds, such as _there_
pronounced like _fear_, _once_ like _woonse_. On this passage are a
succession of notes: Burney observes, that "David Garrick always said
_shupreme, shuperior_." Malone's note brings the case in point to ours when
he says, "This is still the vulgar pronunciation in Ireland; the
pronunciation in Ireland is doubtless that which generally prevailed in
England in the time of Queen Elizabeth." And Mr. Croker sums up the case
thus:
"No doubt the English settlers carried over, and may have in some cases
preserved, the English idiom and accent of their day. Bishop Kearny, as
well as his friend Mr. Malone, thought that the most remarkable
peculiarity of Irish pronunciation, as in _say_ for _sea_, _tay_ for
_tea_, was _the English mode, even down to the reign of Queen Anne_;
and there are rhymes in Pope, and more frequently in Dryden, that
countenance that opinion. But rhymes cannot be depended upon for minute
identity of sound."--Croker's _Notes_, A.D. 1776.
If this explanation be adopted, it will account for the examples I have
been furnishing, and others which I find even among the harmonious rhymes
of Spenser (he might, however, have caught the brogue in Ireland); yet am I
free to own that to me popular pronunciation scarcely justifies the
committing to paper such loose rhymes as ought to grate on that fineness of
ear which is an essential faculty in the true poet; "here or awa'," in
England or Ireland, I continue to set them down to "slip-slop composition."
It may not be inappropriate to notice, that among Swift's eccentricities,
we find a propensity to "out-of-the-way rhymes." In his works are numerous
examples of couplets made apparently for no other purpose but to show that
no word could baffle him; and the anecdote of his long research for a rhyme
for the name of his old enemy Serjent _Betsworth_, and of the curious
accident by which he obtained it, is well known; from which we may conclude
that he was on the watch for occasions of exhibiting such rhymes as
_rakewell_ and _sequel_, _charge ye_ and _clergy_, without supposing him
ignorant that he was guilty of "lèse majesté" against the laws of correct
pronunciation.
When I asked MR. BEDE'S decision on a _palpable Cockneyism_ in verse, I did
so merely with a view, by a "_tu quoque_ pleasantry," to enliven a
discussion, which I hope we may carry on and conclude in that good humour
with which I accept his parenthetic hint, that I have made "a bull" of my
Pegasus. I beg to submit to him, that, as I read the _Classical
Dictionary_, it is from the _heels_ of Pegasus the fount of poetic
inspiration is supposed to be derived; and, further, that the _brogue_ is
not so _malapropos_ to the _heel_ as he imagines, for in Ireland the
_brogue_ is in use as well to cover the _understanding_ as to _tip the
tongue_. Could I enjoy the pleasure of MR. BEDE'S company in a stroll over
my native mountains, he might find that there are occasions on which he
might be glad to put off {484} his London-made shoe, and "to _wear_ the
_brogue_, though _speak_ none."