84 



upon the wings of the wind :" and inftead of " His glory beams through 

 Peloponnefus," we fliould hear him exclaim, " O Lord, my God, thou art 

 become exceeding glorious ; thou art cloathed with majefty and honour, 

 and decked thyfelf with light as with a garment." It were a delightful talk, 

 and an honourable reward, for any man of tafte, and at the fame time 

 critically fkilled in the refpeftive languages, to trace both the particular 

 refemblances, and the refpeftive differences between the Hebrew and 

 iEolian inftruraents, and oblige the learned world with fo noble a work. 



Number II. 



Jodelle firfl, according to Baillet (fur les Poeies) and after him Baif, 

 made fome idle attempts at blank-verfe in the French.' Paffant fol- 

 lowed him with equal fuccefs ; then Paquier, remembered only for the 

 impotence of his mufe. They all flouriflied about the middle of the 

 fixteenth century, Paquier at the beginning of the feventeenth. Of Baif, 

 Baillet tells this curious ftory. " II ne voulut pas mefme fe contenter 

 de faire vers rimez corame les autres, il tacha auffi d'en introduire des 

 mefurez a la mode des anciens Grecs et Romains : et dans le deffein 

 de faire mieux reuffir la chofe, il avoit etabli dans fa maifon de plaifir 

 qu'il avoit a un des Faubourgs de Paris une academie de beaux efprits, 

 et particulierement de muficiens, pour prendre plus feurement la mefure, 

 les nombres, et la cadence du vers Frangoife fans rime." But he allows 

 fome merit to Rapin, who however had been weak enough to try his 

 ilrength at " les vers mefurez," and failed like the reft. In this lift 

 we are forry to fee the charming Defportes, whofe exquifite tafte fuf- 

 tained for a long time, the purity of the French verfe, againft the bar- 

 barifms of Ronfard, who, with great genius, but a perverfe judgment, 

 had fo debauched the poetry of France, that Boileau wittily faid his 

 mufe fpoke Latin and Greek in French, 



" Sa mufe en Franjpife parlant Grec et Latin." 



Yet 



