ing couplets; and it is habit alone, which renders us infenfible of the incongruity. Could we diveft ourfelves of the prejudice arifing from habit, it would be impoffible to read two paffages of nearly equal poetic merit, one in rhyme, the other in blank verfe ;-fuch, for example, as Pope's celebrated imitation of Homer's Night-Piece, at the end of the eighth book of the Iliad, and Milton's defcription of Night, in the fourth book of the Paradife Lofts-without feeling, that, while, in the latter, juft and beautiful imagery appears without alloy in all the dignity of poetical language, the former lofes fome portion of the effect of imagery equally juft and beautiful, by an unfeasonable and incongruous mixture of the trivial and playful. But, it will be faid, that in eftimating the value of rhyme, we ought not to confider the mere reiteration of fimilar founds, but obferve the effect of this repetition, when combined, at regular intervals, with metrical numbers. Thus combined, rhyme is fuppofed to furnish an admirable expedient for conftructing harmonious verfes in languages whofe metre is fcanty and imperfect. Dr. Johnson vindicates the ufe of rhyme, in English verfe, chiefly on this ground: "The mufic (fays he) of the English heroic line ftrikes the ear fo faintly, that it is eafily loft, unless all the fyllables of every line co-operate together: this co-operation can only be obtained by the prefervation of every verfe unmingled with another, as a diftinct fyf tem of founds and this distinctnefs is obtained and preserved by the artifice of rhyme." In this argument it is too confident ly affumed, that the English language is fo defective in metrical power, as to render the help of rhyme neceffary. If it be true, that English verfe is formed by accent, and not by quantity, it is at least as easy to ascertain which fyllables in a verfe are accented or unaccented, as which are long or fhort. If, from long habit, Englifhmen have taught their ears to find no melody in English verfe, without the prevalence of that regular recurrence of accented fyllables, which answers either to the iambic, the trochaic, or the anapæftic foot in ancient profody; the difficulty of framing thefe, in verses and stanzas of a given form, cannot be greater than that of arranging words in all the varieties of feet and measure, which the feveral kinds of Greek and Latin verfe require. Though English poets have relied too much upon their accustomed auxiliary, to make many experiments in blank verfe; we are not without fuccessful examples to prove, that the English language is capable of metrical meiody without ryhme. What ear is not charmed with Collins's Ode to Evening, or Mrs. Barbauld's Ode to Spring? If it be allowed, that rhyme is not a neceffary help," it must, at the fame time, be admitted to be a grievous incumbrance. One obvious inconvenience attending the ufe of rhyme, is, that it puts a troublesome restraint upon the writer in the construction of his periods. Each couplet being, by itfelf, an entire structure of melody, it is naturally expected, that it fhould terminate with a paufe in the fenfe. In ftanzas where the rhyme is alternate, or mixed, it is commonly thought neceffary that the fenfe and the melody fhould be completed together. Where thefe rules are frequently violated, the effect of the rhyme rhyme and numbers is impaired. The poet, in thus bringing every period to its proper dimenfions, is fometimes obliged to stretch out a fentence beyond its proper length, but much more frequently to reftrain his ideas, and contract his expreffions, that both may be brought within the exact compafs of his measure. As lord Kaimes fays, "the fentence must be curtailed and broken to pieces, to make it square with the curtnefs of rhyme." In fome inftances, this may produce conciseness and energy, and Pope has often been mentioned as a happy example of this effect. But whatever real advantage is gained in this refpect by rhyme, would be as well obtained in measured ftanzas without it and it is furely a fufficient check upon the flight of genius, to tie it down to the laws of verfe, without, at the fame time, loading it with the shackles of rhyme. An objection, of still greater weight, against the ufe of rhyme, arifes from the restraint which it unavoidably lays upon the writer's conceptions and expreffion. It cannot be fuppofed, that, of the words which are moft proper to exprefs the poet's ideas, a fufficient number fhall have fimilar endings; and that these very words fhall exactly fall into that place which at once beft fuits the numbers and grammatical construction, and is the proper interval of the rhyme. In fome inftances, it must happen, that of the proper words in a couplet, no two fhall be fo fortunate in their termination, as to tally with each other. In other inftances, though there fhould be two rhyming words within the required limit, it may not be poffible, without the most awkward tranfpofition, or even with it, to bring these two words to a proper distance from О each other at the clofe of the lines. Whenever either of these cafes happen, the poet, being determined not to part with his rhymes, must give up his poetical idea, and thus make a facrifice of fenfe to found. For the fame reafon that the rhyming poet muft drop many thoughts and expreffions, which he might have withed to introduce, he must be often guided in the choice and arrangement of his ideas by the words which he finds it neceffary to place at the clofe of his verfes. It will feldom happen, that both lines of a couplet will be entirely dictated by fancy or fentiment; a regard to the rhyme will almost neceffarily dictate the one or the other. A fmall degree of attention to the train of ideas in many of our most admired poems, will fhow, that thoughts and expreffions are often introduced for the fake of the rhyme, which would not otherwise have been admitted. This is fo manifeft in every page of our modern rhyming verfions of the ancient poets, that it is a perversion of terms to call them translations. The experiment has been fairly tried, by two poets of acknowledged excellence, in rendering into English verfe the first poem of antiquity and though fome may be difpofed to think Pope's Iliad a better poem than Cowper's, few perfons will, I believe, doubt, that, as a tranflation, the former is inferior to the latter, and chiefly because it is burdened with rhyme. The fame effect is apparent in every other kind of ferious poetry, Take an example from Pope's Eloifa to Abelard: "Ye rugged rocks, which holy knces have I have not yet forgot myself to stone.” Here, probably, the word thorn, happening to rhyme with worn, fuggefted the image of the fecond line; the fourth line was conceived before the third, and led the poet into the trival expreffion, "keep their vigils," and the last line, alfo formed before its fellow, requiring a rhyme to the word fone, prompted the flat and inelegant phrafe, grown unmov'd and filent."-When Pope had framed the strong line, "An honeft man's the nobleft work of God," he was, doubtlefs, refolved, at all events, to make another line for its fake, and wrote, to precede it, the quaint verfe, “A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod." Even writers of the firft order have fometimes been betrayed, by the feduction of rhyme, into inharmonious and unpoetical compofition, which could not have efcaped them in blank verfe. Pope has hazarded the following couplets: "Unfinish'd things one knows not what to call, Their generation's fo equivocal." Some beautics yet no precepts can declare, For there's a happiness, as well as care." And Dryden, in his rhyming tragedy of Aurengzebe has written : "Are you fo loft to fhame? Morat, Morat, Morat, you love the name So well, your every queftion ends in that, You force me ftill to answer you, Morat." Such miferable jingle as this, is little better than Sternhold's eke alfo, and almost deferves a place with the following notable stanza': "And Og the giant large, He gave his people-the'." Another argument against the ufe of rhyme, of too much weight to be omitted, is, that it produces a tirefome fimilarity of expreffion in different poems. The rhyming vocabceedingly fmall, in comparifon with ulary being, in every language, exthat of words proper for verfe, every verfifier neceffarily turns his thoughts to the fame ftrings of rhyming words which have been hacknied by former poets; and it is fcarcely poffible, efpecially on fimilar fubjects, that the fame rhymes fhould not frequently fuggeft to different writers fimilar ideas and expreffions. Perhaps this circumftance, more than any other, has contributed to produce the appearance of imitation in the writings of modern English poets, and to encourage an idea, by no means juft, that the fubjects -of poetry are almoft exhaufted, and that genius will, in this late age, in vain attempt any thing new. Rhyme, then, instead of being an ornament, may be pronounced, in general, an incongruous appendage, and a troublefome incumbrance of verfe. In works of wit and humour, indeed, such as thofe of Butler and Swift, rhyme poffeffes its proper province, and may be advantageously retained, as a fource of unexpected and whimsical combinations but from every other kind of poetical compofition, however bold the innovation, it might, perhaps, be a real improvement to dif mifs it altogether. The good fenfe, and correct taste, of modern times, has detected the abfurdity of decking tragedy in the trim drefs of thyme; what is wanting, but a due attention to the fubject, to extend the profcription which has banished rhyme from the English ftage, to all ferious poetry ? Whether the English language admits of any fubftitute for rhyme, by by which the end of a verfe may be as diftinctly marked, as by the dactyl and fpondee in hexameters; whether varieties of verfe, compofed of regular feet, fimilar to thofe of the ancient lyrics, can be fuccefsfully attempted; or, whether it be more favourable to the genuine fpirit and primary end of poetry, that metrical melody fhould remain in the irregular and defective ftate in which it appears in our blank verfe, are queftions ftill left fubjudice. BIOGRAPHY. THE LIFE OF MR. JOHN POMFRET. IT is a natural piece of juftice ftill due to the memory of our author, in the first place, by giving fome account of his family, to clear him from the afperfions of fanaticifm, which have been generally caft on him through a notorious miftake; and, in the next place, to defend the genuineness of his writings from the injurious treatment of those who have either through malice or ignorance, afcribed fome of them to other perfons. The true account of his family is as follows. Mr. Pomfret's father was rector of Luton in Bedfordshire, and himself was preferred to the living in Malden in the fame county. He was liberally educated at an eminent grammar school in the country; from whence he was fent to the uni-, versity of Cambridge; but of what college he was entered I know not. There he wrote most of his poetical compofitions, took the degree of Mafter of Arts, and very early accomplished himself in most kinds of polite literature. It was shortly after his leaving the univerfity, that he was preferred to, the living of Malden abovementioned and fo far was he from being the least tinctured with fanaticifm, that I have often heard him exprefs his abhorrence of the deftructive te nets maintained by thofe people, both against our religious and civil rights. This imputation, it feems, was caft on him by there having been one of his furname, though not any way related to him, a diffenting teacher, who died not long ago ;* fo far diftant from the accufation were the principles of this excellent man. About the year 1703, Mr. Pomfret came up to London for inftitution and induction into a very confiderable living; but was retarded for fome time, by a difguft taken by Dr. Henry Compton, then bishop of London, at these four lines in the clofe of his poem, entitled, THE CHOICE. "And as I near approach'd the verge of life, The parenthesis in these verses was fo malicioufly reprefented to the bifhop, that his lordship was given to underftand, it could bear no other conftruction, than that Mr. Pomfret preferred a mistress before a wife though I think the contrary is selfevident; the verfes implying no more than the preference of a fingle life to marriage; unless his brethren of the gown will affert, that an unmarried clergyman cannot live without a mistress. * Mr. Samuel Pomfret, who published fome rhymes upon fpiritual fubjects, as they are pleased to call them." a miftrefs. But the worthy prelate was foon convinced of the prepenfe malice of Mr. Pomfret's enemies towards him, he being at that time married; yet their bafe oppofition of his deferved merit had in fome measure its effect; for by the obstructions he met with, and the small pox being at that time very rife, he fickened of them, and died at London, in the twenty-fixth year of his age. The ungenerous treatment he has fince met with, in regard to his poetical compofitions, is in a book, entitled, Poems by the Earl of Rofcommon and Mr. Duke ;* in the preface to which the publifher has peremptorily inferted the following paragraph: "In this Collection (fays he) of my lord Rofcommon's poems, care has been taken to infert all that I could poffibly procure that are truly genuine; there having been feveral things publifhed under his name, which were written by others, the authors of which I could fet down, if it were material." Now this arrogant editor would have been more just, both to the public, and to the Earl of Rofcommon's memory, in telling us what things had been published under his lordship's name by others, than by concealing the authors of any fuch grofs impofitions. Inftead of which, he is fo much a ftranger to impartiality, that he has been guilty of the very crime he exclaims againft: for he has not only attributed the prospect of Death to the Earl of Rofcommon, which was wrote by Mr. Pomfret many years after his lordship's decease; but likewife another piece, entitled, The Prayer of Jeremy paraphrafed; prophetically reprefenting the paffionate grief of the Jewish people for the lofs of their town and fanctuary ; written by Mr. Southcott, a worthy gentleman now living, who first publifhed it himself in the year 1717.t So that it is to be hoped, in a future edition of the earl of Rofcommon's and Mr. Duke's poems, the fame care will be taken to do thefe gentlemen juftice, as to prevent any other perfons from hereafter injuring the memory of his lordship. PHILALETHES. MEMOIRS OF FILANGIERI. GAETAN FILANGIERI was born at Naples, in the year 1751. He was a fon of the Prince of Arianiello, defcended of an illuf trious family, coeval with the original establishment of the monarchy of the Two Siciles. It appears that his ancestors paffed over to Italy from France with the Norman conquerors, being in all probability natives of Angers; for the corrupt Latin name of the founder of the family was Angerius, and his children were called, in the feudal reg ifters of the kingdom of Naples, Filii Angerii, from which the Italian name Filangieri was afterwards compounded. This family is not at prefent very opulent, a circumftance, which fuch as are acquainted with the hiftory of Naples can easily account for; it being well known that about the year 1430, Jane, the feeond queen of Naples, to gratify the ambition of her favourite, Ser Gianni Caraciolo, High Chancellor of the kingdom, procured him a large inheritance, by enacting a law which altered Octavo. *Printed for Jacob Tonfon, 1717. + See Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, printed for Bernard Lintot. Octavo. |