[4] Ibid., "Rules," pp. 32-33; Cowley is quoted in Dryden, tr., The Works of Virgil (London, 1697), sig. fl^v.
[5] Ibid., "Rules," p. 1; Quatre Traitez, p. 51. Lancelot adds that Italian and Spanish verse, "like that of all other vernacular languages," are syllabic (ibid., p. 93).
[6] Coleridge, Complete Poetical Works, ed. E. H. Coleridge (Oxford, 1912), I, 215.
The PREFACE.
So many are the Qualifications, as well natural as acquir'd, that are essentially requisite to the making of a good Poet, that 'tis in vain for any Man to aim at a great Reputation on account of his Poetical Performances, by barely following the Rules of others, and reducing their Speculations into Practice. It may not be impossible indeed for Men, even of indifferent Parts, by making Examples to the Rules hereafter given, to compose Verses smooth, and well-sounding to the Ear; yet if such Verses want strong Sense, Propriety and Elevation of Thought, or Purity of Diction, they will be at best but what Horace calls them, Versus inopes rerum, nugæque canoræ, and the Writers of them not Poets, but versifying Scriblers. I pretend not therefore by the following Sheets to teach a Man to be a Poet in spight of Fate and Nature, but only to be of Help to the few who are born to be so, and whom audit vocatus Apollo.
To this End I give in the first Place Rules for making English Verse: And these Rules I have, according to the best of my Judgment, endeavour'd to extract from the Practice, and to frame after the Examples of the Poets that are most celebrated for a fluent and numerous Turn of Verse.
Another Part of this Treatise, is a Dictionary of Rhymes: To which having prefix'd a large Preface shewing the Method and Usefulness of it, I shall trouble the Reader in this place no farther than to acquaint him, that if it be as useful and acceptable to the Publick, as the composing it was tedious and painful to me, I shall never repent me of the Labour.