LETTER VI.
SIR,
XI.
I
AM now to proceed to the Assonantia Syllabarum or Rhyme. I have shown under this Head how much Virgil abounds in Rhyme; from whence I conclude, that it may be reasonably supposed Rhyme had its Original from a nobler Beginning than the Barbarity of Druids and Monks. It is very probable that Chaucer, Dante, and Petrarch learnt it from Virgil, and that other Nations follow'd the Example they had set them.
To say the Bards rhym'd in the Times of grossest Ignorance, merely by their own Invention, only proves that Rhyme is naturally harmonious. We are told by the Learned that the Hebrew Poetry is in Rhyme, and that where-ever any Footsteps of this Art are to be trac'd, Rhyme is always found, whether in Lapland or in China.
If it should be objected that the Greek Tongue is an Exception to this general Rule; that Matter perhaps may be disputed, or a particular Answer might be given. But that the Latin Language is a Friend to Rhyme is clear beyond all doubt; and the same is as true of all the living Tongues that are distinguished in the learned World.
It is no wonder that Verse without Rhyme has so many Advocates amongst the Dealers in Poetry, because of its Facility. Rhym'd Verse, with all its Ornaments, especially the artful Way of varying the[page 61] Pause, is exceeding difficult; and so are all the curious Productions of Art. Fine Painting, fine Musick or Sculpture, are all very hard to perform; it is the Difficulty that makes those Performances so deserving of Applause when they attain the highest Perfection. As to the Matter before us; Rhyme (as Mr. Dryden justly observes) never was Milton's Talent: This appears from his juvenile Poems. And when he sate down to write the Paradise lost, his Imagination was too vigorous, too lofty to be shackled by Rhyme. It must be own'd that a thousand Beauties would have been lost, which now shine with amazing Splendor in that Poem, if Milton had writ in the most exquisite Rhyme. But then on the other hand, it is as certain that upon the whole it would have been a more agreeable Poem to the Generality of Readers than it is at present. Of this Opinion was the learned Foreigner mentioned in a former Letter, a judicious Critick both in the ancient and modern Languages.
"Quicquid tamen ejus sit, ostendunt Miltoni scripta virum vel in ipsâ juventute: quæ enim ille adolescens scripsit carmina Latina, unà cum Anglicis edita, ætatem illam longè superant, quâ ille vir scripsit poëmata Anglica, sed sine rythmis, quos, ut pestes carminum vernaculorum, abesse volebat, quale illud decem libris constans, The Paradise Lost, plena ingenii & acuminis sunt, sed insuavia tamen videntur ob rythmi defectum; quem ego abesse à tali carminum genere non posse existimo, quicquid etiam illi, & Italis nonnullis, & nuper Isaaco Vossio in libro de Poematum cantu, videatur."
Polyhist.
[page 62]
However, we must take Paradise Lost as it is, and rejoice that we have in it, one of the finest Works that ever the Wit of Man produc'd: But then the Imperfection of this Work must not be pleaded in favour of such other Works as have hardly any thing worthy of Observation in them. Placing Milton with his blank Verse by himself (as indeed he ought to be in many other respects, for he certainly has no Companion) this Dispute about the Excellency of blank Verse, and even the Preference of it to rhym'd Verse, may be determined by comparing two Writers of Note, who have undertaken the same Subject; that is, Virgil's Æneid.
Now I will take all the Passages of that Poem mentioned in my Letters to you, and compare them in these two Translations: And if it shall appear by the Comparison that the rhym'd Verses have not only more Harmony and Conciseness, but likewise that they express Virgil's Sense more fully and more perspicuously than the blank Verse, will it not be easy to determine which of these two Sorts ought to be preferr'd?
Octob. 22. 1736.
I am, Sir, &c.
P.S.
When I was taking notice of Virgil's Arts of Versification, I should not have omitted his sudden varying the Tense of the Verb from the Preterperfect to the Present.
"Non tua te nobis, Genitrix pulcherrima talem
Promisit, Graiisque ideo bis vindicat armis.
[page 63]
This is very agreeable both as to the Verse and the Sense; for it makes the thing described more immediately present than it would be otherwise. I cannot just now recollect an Example in Milton of this nature, but I remember one in Fairfax, in a Couplet already cited.
"Their jolly Notes they chanted loud and clear,
And horrid Helms high on their Heads they bear.
This is much more lively and peinturesque than if he had writ bore, and you will easily perceive it. It may be said, perhaps, that Fairfax used bear here for the sake of the Verse; let that be allow'd, but then it must be likewise granted, that Virgil uses vindicat instead of vindicavit, for the sake of his Verse, which he would not have done, if it had not been more beautiful than the common Prose way of writing: And as it is an Excellency in Virgil, so it is in Fairfax.
[page 64]
