IRISH RHYMES.
(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.
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia.
In a former Number I drew attention to that peculiar fondness for "Irish rhymes" which is more evident in Swift than in any other poet; and another correspondent afterwards gave examples to show that "our premier poet, Pope," sometimes tripped in the same Hibernian manner. In looking over an old volume of the New Monthly Magazine, during the time of its being edited by the poet Campbell, I have stumbled upon a passage which is so apropos to the subject referred to, that I cannot resist quoting it; and independent of its bearing on our Irish rhyming discussion, the passage has sufficient interest to excuse my making a Note of it. It occurs in one of a series of papers called "The Family Journal," supposed to have been written by the immediate descendants of the "Will Honeycomb" of the Spectator. A
dinner-party is assembled at Mr. Pope's, when the conversation takes this turn:
"Mr. Walscott asked if he (Dryden) was an Englishman or an Irishman, for he never could find out. 'You would find out,' answered Mr. Pope, 'if you heard him talk, for he cannot get rid of the habit of saying a for e. He would be an Englishman with all his heart, if he could; but he is an Irishman, that is certain, and with all his heart too in one sense, for he is the truest patriot that country ever saw.... You must not talk to him about Irish rhymes,' added Mr. Pope, 'any more than you must talk to me about the gods and abodes in my Homer, which he quarrels with me for. The truth is, we all write Irish rhymes, and the Dean contrives to be more exact that way than most of us.' 'What!' said Mr. Walscott, 'does he carry his Irish accent into his writings, and yet think to conceal himself?' Mr. Pope read to us an odd kind of Latin-English effusion of the Dean's, which made us shake with laughter. It was about a consultation of physicians. The words, though Latin in themselves, make English when put together; and the Hibernianism of the spelling is very plain. I remember a taste of it. A doctor begins by inquiring,
"'Is his Honor sic? Præ lætus felis pulse. It do es beat veris loto de.'
"Here de spells day. An Englishman would have used the word da.
"'No,' says the second doctor; 'no, notis as qui cassi e ver feltu metri it,' &c.
"Metri for may try.
"Mr. Pope told us that there were two bad rhymes in the Rape of the Lock, and in the space of eight lines:
"'The doubtful beam long nods from side to side;
At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside.
But this bold lord, with manly strength endued,
She with one finger and a thumb subdued.'
"Mr. Walscott. 'These would be very good French rhymes.'
"Mr. Pope. 'Yes, the French make a merit of necessity, and force their poverty upon us for riches. But it is bad in English. However, it is too late to alter what I wrote. I now care less about them, notwithstanding the Doctor. When I was a young man, I was for the free disinvolte way of Dryden, as in the Essay on Criticism; but the town preferred the style of my pastorals, and somehow or other I agreed with them. I then became very cautious, and wonder how those lines in the Lock escaped me. But I have come to this conclusion, that when a man has established his reputation for being able to do a thing, he may take liberties. Weakness is one thing, and the carelessness of power another.'"—New Monthly Magazine, vol. xiii. (1825), pp. 551, 552.
With regard to the French rhyme, I see, in a note to Odes and other Poems, by Henry Neele, 1821, that he apologises for rhyming multitude with solitude, by saying:
"It is of that kind which is very common in French, but I fear hardly justified by English practice. Still, 'La rime est une esclave, et ne doit qu'obéir.'"
I would append to this Note a Query. Where in Swift's works is the "Latin-English effusion of the Dean's" to be met with?[[2]] or is it composed for him by the writer of the article? I only know of two such effusions really written by Swift; the Love Song, "Apud in is almi des ire," &c., and the Epigram on Dic:
"Dic, heris agro at an da quarto finale
Fora ringat ure nos an da stringat ure tale."
I should also like to know the author of the clever series of papers from which I have quoted.
Cuthbert Bede, B.A.
Footnote 2:[(return)]
[See "Consultation upon a Lord that was Dying," in Swift's Works, ed. Scott, vol. xiii. p. 471.—Ed.]