LETTER IX.
SIR,
T
O reply to the Opinion that Vossius has given in favour of French Verse compared with English, I would observe in the first Place that what the French call Heroick Verse, is the very worst Sort of Verse that can be contriv'd. If the Excellence of Verse consists chiefly in varying the Pause, as I have shewn it does in the Latin, and could do the same in the Greek and other Languages; what must be thought of that Sort of Versification in which the Pause is most strictly preserv'd in the same Place in every Line, be it for 10 or 20 thousand together, especially in Verses of 12 Syllables? Perhaps an Englishman may not be a very proper Person to make this Objection to French Verse: I will therefore produce the Opinion of several of their own Writers.
Ronsard, in the Preface to his Franciade, owns that their Alexandrine Lines have too much prattle (ils ont trop de caquet) and that it is a Fault in their Poetry that one Line does not run into another, and therefore he wrote his Franciade in Verses of ten Syllables, and broke the Measure. The Author of the History of French Poetry confesses, that the constant Pause in their Lines makes the Poetry tedious; and the judicious and learned Translator of[page 74] Quintilian says directly, that it is owing to the continual Sameness of Numbers that their Verse cannot please long. In reality, it is a kind of Stanza, and ought to be so writ.
Jeune & vaillant Heros
Dont la haute sagesse
N'est point le fruit tardif
D'une lente vieillesse.
Not to insist upon the Prattle (as Ronsard calls it) of these two celebrated Lines; for what does Vaillant add to Heros, or haute to sagesse, and what is the Difference between tardif and lente? I say to let this pass, the eternal Repetition of the same Pause is the Reverse of Harmony: Three Feet and three Feet for thousands of Lines together, make exactly the same Musick as the ting, tong, tang of the same Number of Bells in a Country-Church. We had this wretched sort of Metre amongst us formerly, and Chaucer is justly stil'd the Father of English Verse, because he was the first that ever wrote in rhym'd Couplets of ten Syllables each Line. He found, by his Judgment, and the Delicacy of his Ear, that Lines of eight Syllables, such as Gower his Cotemporary wrote in, were too short, and the twelve Syllable-Lines too long. He pitch'd upon the other Sort just mentioned, and that is now found, by the Experience of so many Ages, to be the most majestick and most harmonious kind of Verse. Just the same Obligation the Romans had to Ennius: He first introduc'd the Hexameter Line, and therefore is properly called the Father of their Poetry; and it is judiciously said, that if they had never had Ennius, perhaps they had never had Virgil. If the French had taken Ronsard's Advice instead of following Malherbe, perhaps they might, and indeed they certainly would have arriv'd at a better Art of[page 75] Versification than we see now amongst them: But they have miss'd their Way; tho' had it happen'd otherwise, they could never have equall'd the English in Poetry, because their Language is not capable of it, for two Reasons which I shall mention, and many others that I could add to them.
1st, Their Words do not sound so fully as ours, of which these Nouns are Examples, God, Dieu. Man, L'Homme. In both the English Words every Letter is perceiv'd by the Ear. In the French the first Word is of a very confused Sound, and the latter dies away in the e mute. So Angels, Ange. Head, Tete. And innumerable others. And in Verbs, to love, to hate, Aimer, Hayir. In the English the Sound is clear and strong. In French the last Letter is dropp'd, and the Words don't dwell upon the Ear like the English.
2d, They have too many Particles: To shew how much more their Verse is incumber'd by them than the English, I will give you an Example from a Passage in Milton.
"So spoke, so wish'd much humbled Eve, but
Subscrib'd not; Nature first gave Signs, imprest
On Bird, Beast, Air; Air suddenly eclips'd
After short blush of Morn.——————
Now to put this Passage into French all the following Particles must be added.
Le, La, Des, Les, Les, Le, Le, Un, Du. Of which there is not one in the English: And what an Effect this would have in Heroick Verse, you will easily judge.
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Upon the whole, Vossius was very little acquainted with English Heroic Poetry. Hudibras was the favourite Bard in his time, and therefore he does us the Honour to say, the English is extremely fit for that sort of Poetry which the Italians call Sdruccioli, that is, Doggrel Verse.
Thus much for Vossius, and his French and English Poetry. I will now shew you a very different Opinion of another learned Foreigner, referr'd to more than once already, and I will give it you in his own Words.
"Sane in Epico Carminum genere; Joh. Miltoni insigne poema, The Paradise Lost, Gallos omnes in epicis inseliciores longo post se intervallo reliquit.
Morhosius Polyhistor.
This judicious Critick gave the same Opinion of Mr. Cowley above 50 Years ago, which Mr. Pope has given of him lately in one of his Horatian Epistles.
"Abr. Cowley seu Coulejus poemata scripsit, &c. Quæ ad genium Virgiliani Carminis non accedunt: argutiis enim nimium indulget, ut Epigrammaticum potius quod interdum scribat, quam planum carmen: Ac præterea non ubique purus est: quanquam Angli illum omnes veterum Poetarum numeros implevisse sibi persuadeant.
Foreigners, I am apt to think, frequently judge with more Exactness of our Countrymen's Performances than the generality of the Natives. I think the Judgment of another learned Foreigner very sensible, when he says upon reading Virgilium Dryděni, "That if the Original had been no better than the Copy, Augustus would have done well to have committed it to the Flames." But the Author's own Words are worth perusing.
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"Sæpe, Maro, dixi, quantum mutatus ab illo es!
Romani quondam qui stupor orbis eras.
Si te sic tantum voluisset vivere Cæsar,
Quam satius, flammis te periisse foret.
Vid. Fabric. Bib. Lat.
December 4. 1736,
I am, Sir, &c.
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