Y what I have shewn in the preceding Letters, it sufficiently appears that Virgil and Milton had good reason to begin with Hinc canere incipiam. Nunc te Bacche canam. Arma Virumque cano. Sing Heavenly Muse. Their Verse is all Musick, and that is the reason why their Poems please, though ever so often read: And all Poetry that is not attended with Harmony, is properly speaking no Poetry at all.
Let the Sense be ever so fine, if the Verse is not melodious, the Reader will undoubtedly find himself soon overtaken with Drowsiness. But what I chiefly hope I have made out, is, that Rhyme does not owe its Original to Druids, or to dreaming Monks, since it is certain there is more Rhyme in Virgil, than there can be in any English Translation of his Works. English Verse never admits but of two Syllables that Rhyme in two Lines. But in Virgil, it is not easy to tell how many Rhymes there are in a single Line; as for Example,
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"O nimium Cœlo, & pelago confise sereno,
"Et sola in siccâ secum spatiatur arenâ.
And the like. But what would you say, if I was to observe to you all that Erythræus has writ of the Rhyme Cum intervallo, & sine intervallo in Virgil? Of the Rhyme sine intervallo there are four Examples in the two first Lines of the Æneid, namely, in the first, no—tro, and qui—pri. In the second, to—pro, and que—ve.
"Arma virumque canō, trōjæ quī prīmus ab oris
Italiam, fatō prōfugus, Lavinaquē vēnit.—
But for this particular, and the other just mentioned, I refer you to Erythræus himself, if you would be fully instructed on this Subject. The Conclusion of this whole Matter is this: Rhyme is certainly one of the chief Ornaments of Latin Verse, even of Virgil's Verse: Most of his wonderful, harmonious Paragraphs are concluded with a full, strong, plain Rhyme: And if this is the Case; if Virgil's Verse would lose one of its chief Ornaments by being stript of Rhyme, What would English Verse do without it? Those learned Persons who in their Writings have treated Rhyme only as a needless Gingle, had not fully considered all that could be said on this Subject: Rhyme, as I have observed once before, has many Enemies because of its Difficulty, when accompanied with all the other necessary Arts of Versification. It is a particular Talent which very few are blessed with, and ought to be esteemed accordingly: But if we give way to the Disuse of it, and even suffer Blank Verse to be brought in Competition with it, Poetry will in a short time be lost in England, as it has been long[page 80] since in Italy, and, if I mistake not, from this very Cause. They have Blank-vers'd Homer, Virgil, and Milton, and I believe all the Classick Poets: And if we follow their Example in giving Applause to this kind of Verse, we must expect the same Consequences. We should be the more to blame in this respect, because we have lately had so many excellent Writers of proper Verse amongst us, as Addison, Rowe, Prior, and many others; and have now Mr. Pope, Mr. Pit, and some whom I do not just now recollect.