74 



therefore, the (evere, the nervous, inventive Dante, and the more poliflied 

 Petrarch, with their graceful and copious brother, Boccacio, belongs the 

 honour of Italian poetry. Thefe were the fathers and founders of its 

 verfe, the venerable Homers of their country, whofe felf-illumined con- 

 ftellation rofe upon the world, and though eclipfed for a time, as the 

 fun itfelf fliall be quenched and darkened, lighted Italy to the facred 

 fountain, of whofe waters the refl; of Europe has fo largely drank. Yet 

 thefe immortal men, fo far from difdaining the rhime, found in it the 

 legitimate harmony of verfe, that harmony whofe mufic has fmce capti- 

 vated all Europe, and will continue to charm the ear of poetry to the 

 end of the world, with which it is coeval, and out of which it fprang. 

 If Arioflo, therefore, has dreffed out a rhimelefs comedy,* or Milton an 

 heroic poem in a dialed till then unknown, it proves nothing againft the 

 general argument ; rather fliewing that a poem 7nay be fuftained without 

 rhime, than that it Jhould. 



We are now arrived at Germany ; and on fuch a dry foil, what flafF 

 can fupport our uneafy fleps ? Taubmannus referring to Tacit, de mor. 

 Germ. cap. 1 1 . fliews that feveral hundred years before the time of 

 Otho, a vad: number of German poets had exifted, who compofed 

 their verfes in rh'une, after the manner of the Celts, " Qui 

 " fere rythm'tcam poefim induebant." And Pafchius, alluding to Otho, 

 " Qiiin longe antiquiora artis vefligia apparent. Apud Celtos (quo no- 

 " mine appellarl omnes populi qui Gcrmaniam et Galliam occuparunt, 

 " a quibus ipfi quoque Galli fuam originem trahunt) celebrantur 

 " olim bardi, unde antiquum vocabulura, Bar, ortum, quod cantilenam 

 " fignificavit." 



Of Carolus Magnus, who, like Otho, had been the reputed founder 

 of the Celtic poetry, becaufe he had extended certain new privileges to 

 the order of bards, Taubmannus fays humoroufly, " quem quidem I'eu- 



" tonicae 



* See Appendix, No. z. 



