Again, Steel could the works of mortal pride confound, And hew triumphal arches to the ground. Again, She fees, and trembles at th' approaching ill, Again, With earnest And this fuggefts another experiment, which is, to fet the different orders more directly in oppofition, by giving examples where they are mixed in the fame paffage. First and second orders. Sol through white curtains fhot a tim'rous ray, Not youthful kings in battle feiz'd alive, Not Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die, Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinn'd awry, First and third. Think what an equipage thou haft in air, Again, What guards the purity of melting maids, Again, With tender billet-doux he lights the pyre, Again, Jove's thunder roars, heav'n trembles all around; Blue Neptune ftorms, the bellowing deeps refound, VOL. II. 3 I Earth Earth shakes her nodding tow'rs, the ground gives way, And, the pale ghosts start at the flash of day! Second and third. Sunk in Thaleftris' arms, the nymph he found, Her eyes dejected, and her hair unbound. Again, On her heav'd bofom hung her drooping head, Mufing on the foregoing fubject, I begin to doubt whether I have not been all this while in a reverie. Here unexpectedly a fort of fairy-fcene opens, where every object is new and fingular. Is there any truth in the appearance, or is it merely a work of imagination? The scene seems to be a reality; and if it can bear examination, it must exalt greatly the melody of English heroic verfe. If uni formity prevail, in the arrangement, in the equality of the lines, and in the refemblance of the final founds; variety is still more confpicuous in the paufes and accents, which are diversified in a furprifing manner. The beauty that refults from combined objects, is juftly obferved to confift in a due mixture of uniformity and variety*. Of this beauty many inftances have already occurred, but none more illuftrious than English verfification. However rude it may be by the fimplicity of arrangement, it is highly melodious by its pauses and accents, fo as already to rival the most perfect fpecies known in Greece or Rome. And it is no difagreeable prospect to find it fufceptible of ftill greater refinement. We proceed to blank verfe, which hath fo many circumstances in common with rhyme, that what is neceffary to be faid upon it may be brought within a narrow compass. With refpect to form, it differs not from rhyme farther than in rejecting the jingle of fimilar founds. But let us not think this difference a trifle, or that we gain nothing by it but the purifying our 7 I verfe from a pleasure fo childish In truth, our verfe is extremely cramped by rhyme and the great advantage of blank verfe is, that, being free from the fetters of rhyme, it is at liberty to attend the imagination in its boldest flights. Rhyme neceffarily divides verfe into couplets: each couplet makes a complete mufical period; the parts of which are divided by pauses, and the whole fummed up by a full clofe at the end: the modulation begins anew with the next couplet: and in this manner pa compofition in rhyme proceeds couplet after couplet. I have more than once had occa→ fion to obferve the influence that found and fenfe have upon each other by their intimate union. If a couplet be a complete period with regard to the melody, it ought regularly to be fo alfo with regard to the fenfe. This, it is true, proves too great a cramp upon compofition and licences are indulged, as explained as bove. Thefe however must be used with difcretion, so as to preferve fome degree of uniformity betwixt the fenfe and the mufic There' .. |