868 



RHYME RHYTHV. 



restrained ; nnd we find in the best English poets 

 rhymes which strike a foreign ear as very impure 

 In v>nn instances, such as sky ami liberty, hand 

 itixl nnniiiund, gone and alone, the correspondence 

 in the letters makes what might be called a rhyme 

 t.i the eye, which supplies, in some measure, the 

 want of correspondence in sound. In other instances, 

 however, this is not the case, as in revenge and 

 change, remote and thought; and the liberty of 

 making rhymes of syllables corresponding in sound, 

 though different in spelling, is greater in English 

 than in most other languages; as water and mortar, 

 irarm and ttorm. If the rhyme is only in the last 

 syllables, as in forgave and behave, it is called a 

 male rhyme ; if in the two last syllables, as bitter 

 and glitter, it is called & female rhyme. Sometimes 

 the last three syllables rhyme, as callosity and 

 reciprocity, or the Italian diacine and duracine, 

 or tavola and favola (the verso sdrucciolo). This 

 last sort of rhymes is principally used in pieces of 

 a comic or conversational character. Rhymes 

 which extend to more than three syllables, 

 are almost confined to the Arabians and Persians 

 in their short odes ( gazelles), in which the same 

 rhyme, carried through the whole poem, extends 

 sometimes to four and more syllables. Some 

 languages incline more to- the male rhyme, as the 

 English, on account of its superabundance of 

 monosyllables; others, as the Spanish and Italian, 

 more to the female: the German and French pos- 

 sess an almost equal store of both; hence in these 

 two languages we find them generally interchanged 

 regularly; yet there are numerous poems in these 

 languages, written exclusively in male or female 

 rhymes. Of the four continental idioms just men- 

 tioned, the German, from its abundance of conson- 

 ants, has the greatest variety of final syllables, and 

 therefore the smallest collection of rhymes for any 

 given termination. It has, however, to compen- 

 sate for this deficiency, a regular prosody, arising 

 from the possession of long and short syllables. 



The modern use of rhyme was not known to the 

 ancients. We meet, indeed, with some rhymed 

 verses in Ovid, in which the rhyme was evidently 

 intentional; but the object was not to distinguish 

 the verses, but to give impressiveness to the sense, 

 as Shakspeare often introduces a rhymed couplet, 

 for the same purpose, in blank verse. In the La- 

 tin poems of the fathers of the church of the fourth 

 century, rhymes are more frequently used. The 

 rhyme is harmony, music, and therefore is addressed 

 directly to the feelings, and thus partakes es- 

 sentially of the character of modern art, whilst 

 the metrical forms of antiquity are in the spirit of 

 that plastic age. (See Classic, Plastic, and Ro- 

 mantic.) The Goths introduced rhyme from the 

 East into the northern languages. The most an- 

 cient relics of Scandinavian poetry are not in 

 rhyme, but are distinguished by alliteration. These 

 circumstances gave rise to the opinion that rhyme 

 originated with the Arabians, who came into con- 

 tart with the Europeans of the south as early as 

 the eight century. Schlegel, in his Observations 

 tur la Literature Provencale, however, denies this. 

 Joseph von Hammer, on the other hand, is a de- 

 cided believer in the influence of the Arabians on 

 the provengal poetry in respect to the structure of 

 rhjmed couplets and the forms of rhyme in the 

 southern poetry; which seems undeniable, though 

 it is not necessary to derive rhyme itself from the 

 A rabians. The oldest forms of rhymed verse are 

 the couplet and the continuation of one and the 

 same rhyme through a whole piece. The Trouba- 

 dours first attempted a variety of artificial com- 

 binations of rhyme in the sonnet, canzone, &c., 



and the Spaniards and Italians, with their musical 

 languages and delicacy of ear, perfected the forms 

 of involved rhyme. The Italians, however, at a 

 later period, carried the artificial intricacies of 

 rhyme to great excess. Rhyme, well managed, is 

 one of the most pleasing of all inventions for en- 

 tertaining the mind, constantly raising expectation, 

 and as often satisfying it. The ear anticipates the 

 sound, without knowing what the sound will ex- 

 press; and how various are the forms of grace and 

 majesty of which it is susceptible! Yet it has 

 misled many persons to think they were compos- 

 ing poetry, whilst they were only rhyming ; and 

 were it not for rhyme, we might have been saved 

 from a flood of insipid verse, which has so long 

 overspread the field of literature. See Sonnet. 



RHYTHM, in general, means a measured divi- 

 sion of time. The rhythm, in dancing, is made 

 manifest to the eyes by steps, and, in music and 

 language, to the ears by tones. (See the beginning 

 of the article Dancing.) We must refer the fond- 

 ness for rhythm, in the human mind, to its love of 

 order, harmony, symmetry, which lies at the basis 

 of all the arts. As song, music and dancing sprung 

 from the same sources, and, in the earliest periods 

 of nations, are actually united, the rhythm of all 

 three has much in common. The rhythm of 

 poetry is susceptible of the same exact divisions of 

 time as the rhythm of dancing and music; but rhe- 

 torical rhythm is satisfied with a pleasing cadence 

 of syllables an approximation to the rhythm of 

 verse, particularly at the beginning and end of 

 periods. The orator or eloquent prose writer ar- 

 ranges his words in an expressive and pleasing suc- 

 cession, but he does not follow precise rules, like 

 the versifier. The poetical rhythm, like every spe- 

 cies of rhythm, requires a succession of motions of 

 regular duration, which, variously interrupted, must 

 yet be obvious, and combined according to the rules 

 of beauty and grace, so as to form a harmonious 

 whole. In order to make rhythm please, its consti- 

 tuent parts must excite the feeling of variety in 

 harmony or unity. The various parts must form a 

 whole, and exhibit a beginning, middle and end, by 

 a measured rise and fall. Those parts which re- 

 ceive the ictus, the stress of the rhythm, are called 

 arsis (elevation), the other parts thesis (positio, de- 

 pression). To denote the arsis, the common acute 

 accent is used ('), e. g. 



Singula qu&que locum tcrieAnt sortita decfnter. 



The arsis must by no means be confounded with 

 the long syllable, nor the thesis with the short syl- 

 lable. As the short syllable is the smallest consti- 

 tuent part of a verse, it is considered as the ori- 

 ginal unit for the measure of time in the rhythm, 

 and is called a time, or mora. The absolute dura- 

 tion of this unit depends upon the quickness or 

 slowness with which the rhythmical composition is 

 uttered. The smallest rhythmical magnitude is the 

 foot, by which every union of arsis and thesis is 

 understood. A single word may constitute a foot ; 

 or the beginning and end of the foot may be in the 

 middle of words, as in the following verse: 



ConUtn-nit, &r-tib&-gue vi-vit di.ditum turpis-timii. 



Rhythm can be imagined without words, and may 

 be indicated by notes, or other signs of long and 

 short syllables. Hence the rhythm may also be 

 divided differently from the words, as we have just 

 seen; and the division of the words should not 

 agree with the rhythmical feet, except where a 

 rhythmical series is concluded, or the pausing of a 

 part of the same requires a break in the text. In 

 all other cases, the divisions of the rhythm ought 



