348 HENRY KIEKE WHITENS EEifAIXS. 



The naine "hears evident affinity totlie ItuVnmsondhre, 

 *' to resound," — " sing around," which originated in 

 tlie Latin sonans, — sounding, jingling, ringing : or, in- 

 deed, it may come immediately from the French sonncr, 

 to sound, or ring ; in which language, it is observable, 

 we first meet with the word sonnette, where it signifies 

 a little hell, and sonnettier a maker of little bells ; and 

 this derivation affords a presumption, almost amounting 

 to certainty, that the conjecture before advanced, that the 

 sonnet originated with the Proven9als, is well founded. 

 It is somewhat strange that these contending derivations 

 have not been before observed, as they tend to settle a 

 question which, however intrinsically unimportant, is cu- 

 rious, and has been much agitated. 



But, wherever the name originated, it evidently bears 

 relation only to the peculiarity of a set of chiming and 

 jingling terminations, and of course can no longer be 

 ajplied with propriety where that peculiarity is not pre- 

 served. 



The single stanza of fourteen lines, properly varied in 

 their correspondent closes, is, notwithstanding, so well 

 adapted for the expression of any pathetic sentiment, 

 and is so pleasing and satisfactory to the ear, when once 

 accustomed to it, that our poetry would suffer a material 

 loss were it to be disused through a rigid adherence to 

 mere propriety of name. At the same time, our lan- 

 guage does not supply a sufficiency of similar termina- 

 tions to render the strict observance of its rules at all 

 easy or compatible v.-ith ease or elegance. The only 

 question, therefore, is, whether the musical effect pro- 

 duced by the adherence to this difficult structure of verse 

 overbalance the restraint it imposes on the poet, and in 

 ease we decide in the negative, whether we ought to 

 preserve the denomination of sonnet, when we utterly 

 renounce the very peculiarities v»'hich procured it that 

 cognomen. 



In the present enlightened age, I think it will not be 

 disputed that mere jingle and sound ought invariably to 

 be sacrificed to sentiment and expression. Musical effect 

 is a very subordinate consideration ; it is the gilding to 



