540 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 162. 



but by the managed and trained steeds of the 

 most polished and accurate English poets. Since 

 I have read Mr. Bede's critique, I turn at random 

 to what is considered, perhaps, the most finished 

 poem in the English language, The Rape of the 

 Lock, and I find the Pegasus of even the polished 

 Pope flinging up his heels in the face of the " pro- 

 nouncing dictionary," with quite as much of the 

 brogue as the "hobbelar" of the Irish doctor, 

 thus — 



" Soft yielding minds to water glide away, 

 And sip, with nymphs, their elemental tai/ ! " 



Again : 



" Late as I ranged the chrystal wilds of air, 

 In the clear mirror of thy ruling star." 



Or; 



" Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams, 

 Launch'd on the bosom of the silver Thames." 

 Or: 



" Here thou, great Anna ! whom three realms obey. 

 Dost sometimes counsel take — and sometimes tea " 

 (tay again). 



Or: 



" Straight the three bands prepare in arms to join (jine), 

 Each band the number of the sacred nine." 



Here are a i^vf instances out of several selected 

 from a model poem of the premier poet of Eng- 

 land, embodying the very liberties with pronun- 

 ciation which an Englishman hypercritically pro- 

 nounces peculiarly Irish. 



I have no doubt I could with a little research 

 multiply these examples from other poets, but will 

 not occuj)y your space by doing so. I shall 

 content myself with adducing a much worse 

 rhythmical liberty, growing in modern English 

 poetry, a piece of "pure Cockneyism," which 

 cannot be too soon corrected ; it arises out of a 

 certain softness of London pronunciation, which 

 dismisses the rolling (r) from certain words, such 

 as alarm, harm, the consequence of which has been 

 the production, by so elegant a poet as Bernard 

 Barton, of such a stanza as the following : 



" The heaven was cloudless, the ocean was calm. 



For the breeze that blew o'er it scarce ruffled its 

 breast, 



\ Not a sight or a sound that might waken alarm, 



Could the eye or the ear of the wanderer molest." 



I cannot just at this moment recall any other 

 instances of the same slip-slop metre (though I 

 know I have seen many such) except the following 

 ludicrous specimen. 



I remember to have walked the streets of 

 London during the illuminations in honour of the 

 eighteenth birthday of her gracious Majesty, our 

 Queen, just previous to her coming to the throne. 



Her Majesty's tradesmen were vieing with each' 

 other in the splendour of their devices and de- 



monstrations of loyal attachment, and one shop in 

 a leading thoroughfare, which I will not designate 

 more particularly, was adorned with the foUowinof 

 complimentary morceau to the Princess and her 

 royal mother : 



" All hail to Victoria and her glorious mama. 

 Who rear'd up in safety so brilliant a star !" 



Mr. Bede will decide by the English pronouncing 

 standards whether the rhyme in the foregoino- 

 should be established by adding r to the first line, 

 or deducting it from the last. 



Seriously, and in perfect good humour, I submit 

 to your correspondent's further examination, 

 whether it be quite fair to hold up as Irishisms, 

 those rhyming liberties, which English, as well as 

 Irish, poets seem to have taken poeticd licentid. 



A. B. R. 



Belmont. 



In The Tatler, a literary penny paper, esta- 

 blished by Leigh Hunt about 1830, but which 

 came to an untimely end by a harsh application 

 of the stamp duties, was an article on Swift's. 

 Irishisms, In whicli his rhymes were cited, and the 

 brogue traced through the Anglo-Latin of his 

 Consultation of Physicians. This is not surprising, 

 as Swift was an Irishman. Pope has — 



" Here thou, great Anna ! whom three realms obey. 

 Dost sometimes counsel take — and sometimes tea." 



Perhaps he caught it of Swift. 



The most imaccountable use of Irish rhymes Is 

 in Young, whose life was passed in good English 

 society. I select a few examples : 



"'Tis Tory, Wliig; it plots, prays, preaches, pleads. 

 Harangues in senates, squeaks in masquerades." 



" In Britain, what is many a lordly seat. 

 But a discharge in full for an estate ? " 



" Men, overloaded with a large est;ite, 

 May spill their treasure in a nice conceit." 



" Is there whom his tenth epic mounts to fame ? 

 Such, and such only, might exhaust my theme." 



The above are from the Love of Fame, Sat. i., a 

 poem of 286 lines. The following are from The 

 Foreign Address: 



" The labour of the deep my Muse surveys 

 A fleet, whose empire o'er the '.^ave 

 You grant time strengthens, Nature gave, 

 Now big with death the terror of the seas." 



" But give just cause, at once they blaze, 

 At once they thunder o'er the seas." 



" And now, who censures this address ? 

 Thus crowns, states, common men, make peace." 



" And when rank interest has prevail'd. 

 And artifice the treaty seal'd." 



In conclusion, let me offer a specimen of Irish 

 rhyme from a poem where it might have been ex- 

 pected, The Emerald Isle : 



