312 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 178. 



There are other expressions, framed upon this 

 "lucus anon lucendo" principle, which may fairly 

 be classed among contre-verites. The French say 

 that a thing is d propos de bottes, when it is alto- 

 gether inappropriate. We all use the formula of 

 "your most obedient, humble servant," even when 

 we intend anything but humility or obedience. 



Henry H. Breen. 



St. Lucia. 



IRISH RHYMES. 



(Vol. vi., pp. 431. 539. 605.) 



Mr. Cuthbert Bede (Vol. vi., p. 605.) says 

 " he thinks A. B. R. would have to search a long 

 time, before he found, in the pages of Pope, such 

 brogue-inspired rhymes as rake well and sequel, 

 starve it and deserve it, charge ye and clergy, and 

 others quoted by him at p. 431." Among the 

 latter, I presume he chiefly relies on the rhymes 

 satii'e and hater, creature and nature. 



Of all these I am able to adduce parallel in- 

 stances both from Dryden and Pope. And first, 

 as to 7-ake loell and sequel. Mr. Bede is, of course, 

 aware that these are double rhymes ; that quel and 

 well are good English rhymes ; and that the brogue 

 betrays itself only in the first syllable of each, rake 

 and se. It is, in fact, the same sort of rhyme as 

 hreak and weak, which is of such frequent occur- 

 rence both in Dryden and Pope. Here is an 

 example from each : 



" Or if they should, their interest soon would break. 

 And with such odious aid make David weak." 



Absalom and Achitophel. 



" Men in their loose, unguarded hours they take ; 

 Not that themselves are wise, but others weak." 



Essay on Man. 



The next " brogue-inspired rhyme " is starve it 

 and deserve it. Here, as in the former instance, 

 the last syllables rhyme correctly, and the objec- 

 tion is confined to starve and deserve. Let us see 

 what Dryden says to this : 



" "Wrong conscience, or no conscience, may deserve 



To thrive, but ours alone is privileged to starve." 



Hind and Panther. 



And Pope : 



i " But still the great have kindness in reserve .- 

 He help'd to bury whom he help'd to starve." 



Prologue to the Satires. 



Of this species of rhyme I have noted three other 

 instances in Dryden, and two in Pope. 



As regards the rhyme charge ye and clergy, no 

 instance, in the same words, occurs in Dryden or 

 Pope. They did not write much in that sort of 

 doggerel. But the brogue, even here, is nothing 

 more than the confounding of the sounds of a and 



e, which is so beautifully exemplified in the fol- 

 lowing couplet in Dryden : 



" For yet no George, to our discerning, 

 Has writ without a ten years' warning." ' 



Epistle to Sir G. Etheredge. 



Next, we have the rhyme satire and hater. The? 

 following in Dryden is quite as bad, if not worse r 

 " Spiteful he is not, though he wrote a satire. 

 For still there goes some thinking to ill-nature." 

 Absalom and Achitophel. 



Of this rhyme satire and nature, I can adduce tw€>» 

 other instances from Dryden. 



In the same category we must y)lace nature and 

 creature, nature and feature. Here is an example- 

 from Dryden ; and I can bring forward two othersc 



" A proof that chance alone makes every creature 

 A very Killigrew without good nature." 



Essay upon Satire 

 And here is one from Pope : 



" 'Tis a virgin hard oi feature, 

 Old and void of all good nature." 



Answer to " What is Prudery 9 " 



Can Mr. Bede produce anything to match tho- 

 foUowing sample of the crater, to be found in our 

 most polished English poet ? 



" Alas ! if I am such a creature. 

 To grow the worse for growing greater!" 



Dialogue between Pope and Craggs.. 



It will be seen, from the foregoing quotations, 

 that the rhymes described as Irish were, a cen- 

 tury and a half ago, common to both countries, — 

 a fact which Mr. Bede was probably not suffi- 

 ciently aware of when he introduced the subjecte 

 in "N. & Q." For obvious reasons, the use of" 

 such rhymes, at the present day, would be open to- 

 the imputation of " Irishism ; " but it was not sa 

 in the days of Swift. Henry H. Breen. 



St. Lucia. 



In a former Number I drew attention to thafe 

 peculiar fondness for " Irish rhymes " which is 

 more evident in Swift than in any other poet ;. 

 and another correspondent afterwards gave ex- 

 amples to show that " our premier poet. Pope,"" 

 sometimes tripped in the same Hibernian manner.. 

 In looking over an old volume of the New Monthly 

 Magazine, during the time of its being edited by 

 the poet Campbell, I have stumbled upon a pas»- 

 SQge which is so apropos to the subject referred to, 

 that I cannot resist quoting it ; and independent 

 of its bearing on our Irish rhyming discussion, the 

 passage has sufficient interest to excuse my making 

 a Note of it. It occurs in one of a series of papers 

 called " The Family Journal," supposed to have 

 been written by the immediate descendants of the 

 " "Will Honeycomb " of the Spectator. A diuneu- 



