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wards the north is the vale of Clwyd, which is delervedly 

 celebrated by all travellers. Commencing at Rhuthyn, it 

 extends not lefs than twenty-four miles in length, and from 

 fix to eight in breadth, exhibiting a rich fccne cf cultivation, 

 happily blinded with many of thofe objects which conftitute 

 the picturefque. On a fmall eminence in this vale ftands 

 the village of Llan-Rh.iiadar ; and near it is a well, called 

 Ffynnon Ddyfnog, which is much eileemed by the inha- 

 bitants for its medicinal quality in the cure of rheumatifni. 

 The church here is an elegant ftru&ure in the pointed ilyle, 

 and has a beautiful call window, ornamented with ftained 

 glafs. The fubject is the root of Jefle, who is reprefented 

 as extended upon his hack, with the genealogical tree ifluing 

 from his loins, coinpriling all the kings of lirael and Judah, 

 down to the birth ot Chriit. Above is an outline rofe, in- 

 cluding an eye furrounded with a radiance, and another rofe 

 of Lancaflcr to correlpond ; which lalt emblem indicates 

 that the work was executed after the acceflion of Henry VII. 

 to the throne. Here is a fplendid but taftelels monument 

 to the memory of Maurice Jones, efq., who founded an 

 alms-houfe in this parilh, A.D. 1720; and in the church- 

 yard is a ftriking inllance of genealogical vanity, in an in- 

 fcription to the memory of John ap Robert, whole pedigree 

 is traced up to Cadel, king of Powis. Carlille's Topo- 

 graphical Dictionary of Wales, a.to. 18 1 3. A Tour in 

 South Wales, by the Rev. W. Bingley, 8vo. 1801. Pen- 

 nant's Tour through Wales, 1770, 2 vols. 4to. 



RHYAS, from ■■■.; to flow, 111 Surgery. See Riiceas. 



RHYDDA, in Ancient Geography, a town of Palelline, 

 belonging to the Arabs, according to Jofephus. 



RHYME, RhiME, Ryme, or Rime, in Poetry, the fimilar 

 found or cadence and termination of two words which end 

 two verfes, &c. 



Or, rhyme is a fimilitude of found between the laft 

 fyllable or fyllables of one verfe, and the lalt fyllable or 

 fyllablcs of a verfe fucceeding either immediately, or at a 

 diltance of two or three lines. 



Rhyme is a mau- rn invention, and the produft of a 

 Gothic age : Milton calls it the modern bondage. Yet fome 

 authors will have it, that the Englifll, French, &c. borrow 

 their rhyme from the Greeks and Latins. The Greek 

 orators, they fay, who endeavoured to tickle the ears of 

 the people, affefted a certain cadence of periods, which 

 ended alike, and called them opowrikivra.. The Latins, 

 who imitated them, called thclc chiming terminations, flnii- 

 lit.r d.flnentio. 



This affectation inereafed as the Latin tongue declined ; 

 fo that, in the later Latin writers, fcarcely any thing is more 

 common than rhyming periods. 



The French, and from them the Englifh, Sec. adopted 

 this cadence of rhyme, which feemed to them more pretty 

 and agreeable than the metrical verfes of the Greek and 

 Roman poets. 



This kind of Latin poetry in rhyme was much in vogue 

 in the twelfth century; and the verfes thus running were 

 r:dled Leonine verfes, for what rcafon Camden owns he 

 loea not know (for a lion's tail, fays lie, does not anfwer 

 to the middle parts, as thefe verfe6 do) ; but, doubtleft, 

 they had their name from a French monk of St. Victor at 

 Marfeilles, about the year 1 1 ^5, called Leoninus, who iiril 

 compofed them with fuccefs, and of whom we have feveral 

 pieces in them remaining, addreffed to pope Adrian IV. 

 and Alexander III. It is certain, however] (fays Dr. 

 T. Warton, Hift. of Englifh Poetry, vol. i.) that rhymed 

 Latin verfes were in ufe at a much earlier period. Pellou- 

 lier (Mem. fur la Lang. Celt, part i. vol. i. ch. 12.) has 

 given a very early fpetimen of Latin rhymes, occurring in 



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the beginning of the fevmth century. Latin rhymes fcem 

 to have been Iiril ufed in the church hymn?, but Leonine 

 verfes are properly the Roman hexameters or pentameters 

 rhymed, and it is not improbable, that they had their name 

 from the above-mentioned monk, who was the mod popular, 

 and almoft only Latin poet of his time in France. He 

 wrote many Latin pieces not in rhyme, and in a good ft vie 

 of Latin verification. The early French troubadours men- 

 tion a fort of rhyme in their vernacular poetry partly diltin- 

 guifhed from the common fpecies, which they call Leonine 

 or Leoniroe. 



Camden has given us a collection ef Latin rhymes of 

 our ancient Englifh writers ; among whom, Walter de 

 Mapes, archdeacon of Oxford, in the time of king 

 Henry II. makes a principal figure, efpecially for two 

 pieces, the one in praife of wine beginning, 



" Mihi eft propofitum in taberna mori, 

 Vinnm fit appolitum monentis ori ; 

 Ut dieant, cum venerint, angelorum chon, 

 Deus fit propitius huic potatori." 



The other againft the pope, for forbidding the clergy to 

 have wives, beginning, 



" Prifciani regula penitus cafl'atur, 



Saccrdos per hie et bee ohm declinatur ; 

 Sed per hie folummodo nunc articulatur, 

 Cum per noltrum prtefulum httc amoveatur." 



Since the reltoration of learning in the fixteenth century, 

 attempts have been made to banilh rhyme out of the 

 modern poetry, and to fettle the Englifll and French 

 verfes on the footing of the ancient Greek and Latin ones, 

 by fixing the quantities of the fyllables, and trulting wholly 

 to thofe, and to the numbers or meafure. 



This Milton has done, with great fuccefs, in his Paradife 

 Loit, and other pieces; and after him Philips, Addifon, 

 and fome others. Verfes of this kind we call blank verfes. 

 See Verm:. 



The French have attempted the fame, but not with the 

 fame fuccefs. Jodelet made the iiril ellay, and after him 

 Pafquier ; but they both faded. Paflerat and Rapin fol- 

 lowed them, and failed, like them. Their hexameter and 

 Sapphic verfes were neither imitated nor approved ; and the 

 cadence of rhyme was generally preferred to quantity, or 

 the ufe of long and tliort fyllables. Des Fortes, likewile, 

 made fome cllays of verfes, conftiucted of long and fhort 

 lines, without rhyme, but the attempt only ferved to con- 

 vince the world, that tin;, kind of meafure is inconliltent 

 with the genius of the French tongue. 



To fucceed in fuch kind of verfes, there muft be a 

 liberty of varying the order of the words, or of changing 

 their Ittuation, as may belt fuit the occasions of the poet ; 

 of making the fubftantive either go before or follow after 

 the verb, as the verfe requires, &C Now none of the 

 modern tongues will admit of fuch an arbitrary fituatioo 

 of the words, equally with the ancients ; yet none will 

 allow this more than the Englifh, nor any lefs than the 

 French. 



The principal defeft in rhyme is the full clofe which it 

 forces u|iiin the ear at the end of every couplet ; and in 



this relpect it is far inferior to blank verfe; (which fee.) 



Bt fides, the conitraint and Uriel regularity of rhyme are 



unfavourable to the fublime, or to the highly pathi tic 

 ft rain. 



An epic poem, or a tragedy, would be fettered and de- 

 graded by it. It is belt adapted to compolitions of a tem- 

 perate Hrain, where no particular vehemence is required in 

 1, 



