70 



his fucceffors could not entirely accomplifli, was now performed by thefe 

 ingenious people, who before the end of the eleventh century entirely 

 broke the language of the Latin, and eftablifhed the Arabic and other 

 Eaftern modes of verfe, with dated and regular rhimes, which the Spa- 

 nifli poetry yet retains; the sd and 4th line of every flanza uniformly 

 ending in a double rhime, with rarely the intervention of a monofyllablc. 



The numerous colleges founded by the Moors in this country, con- 

 tributed much to preferve that tallc and harmony they had introduced : 

 and if the Spaniards at any time rhimed the Latin, as the drones of 

 Italy and France and our own dreamers had done, what they performed 

 was in contempt of the Latin, with a view through the influence of the 

 rhime to difengage their poetry from the Roman feet. When there- 

 fore it was faid above, that Spain did not become an accomplice in the 

 murder of the mufe, the expreflion was not incorreft. Yet when they 

 f//c/ rhime the Latin verfe, fuch rhime was principally confined to their 

 hymns, which being in Latin for the fervice of the church, and the 

 Roman quantities giving offence, they as of neceffity introduced into them 

 a ratio of their own. This, it is apprehended, will fuffice for a brief 

 coutline of the origin and growth of Spanifh rhime. 



After what has been faid on the general fubjeft of Englifli poetry, it is pre- 

 fumed there will be little neceffity of going into a long deduftion of its rhime, 

 efpecially as all that can be faid on the fubjeft of its verfe may be found 

 in Mr. Wharton and other labourers in this quarter of Parnaflus. Enough 

 has been already ftated to fliew the general fterility and uncouthnefs of 

 the language, efpecially of its poetry and verfification, prior to the thirteenth 

 century, when our poetry firft began to alTume a form, under Robert 

 of Glocefter, who figures in more than 13,000 rhimes! I fhall ^afs by 

 Pierce Ploughman, who wrote about the middle of the fourteenth cen- 

 tury, and excelled in the j:f>"/p^.fi«, or alliteration, which may be called 

 the. r\{iv!\t inceptive, and of which it were endlefs to produce inftances: 

 every language- favors it, and none I fhould fuppofe more adapted to it 

 than another. For the like reafon I (hall alfo pafs by Gower, and his 

 " Confeffion of a Lover," with his Eches, and Lo?ides, and Mates ; 

 likewife his difciple Chaucer, with his jiyens and Be/motrids, abundance 



of 



