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.
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