VERSIFICATION. 



numerable ; tliat he had heard many, and learned fome from 

 bis anceftors, who were the laft of the royal family of the 

 Licas. Their Licas or chiefs had been poets or muficians 

 in the early periods of their hiftory. The fame author pre- 

 fents us with fome fpecimens of their verfe, which bear every 

 character of aboriginal texture. Father Lafitau (Mocurs 

 des Sauvages, torn. ii. p. 213-) has given a circumftantial 

 account of the feftivities of the Iroquois, Hurons, and fome 

 lefs confiderable tribes of North American Indians, in which 

 yerfe and fong bore an effential part. Thefe, for the moil 

 part, confill of the fables of ancient times, and are com- 

 pofed in a ftyle fo antiquated as to differ materially from 

 their colloquial dialect. They were obferved alfo to re- 

 trench or ftrike off fome fyllables from their words, to pro- 

 duce the requilite meafure ; and ttie audience beat the time 

 with a correfponding motion of the head, accompanied with 

 fhouts, repeated at certain intervals with fuch accuracy that 

 they never err. 



It is eafy to perceive that our remarks have hitherto been 

 confined to trace the earlieft fource and rife of verfification 

 amongft thofe nations only, where we were moft likely to 

 difcover it in a (late unmixed with borrowed ftreams. The 

 taflc is evidently not a little difficult, to fay exactly where it 

 can be contemplated in a Itage purely nafcent. Its diftant 

 courfe has gradiially receded from our view, and ultimately 

 loft itfelf in the remote and vifionary forms of aborigmal 

 tradition. Nor do we mean to afBrm that the fubfequent 

 meanders, which, from each infulated fountain, we have 

 for a while been led to purlue, has, in every inilance, re- 

 mained unblended with the confluence of adventitious chan- 

 nels. It is futficieiit if, by the preceding remarks, we 

 have, in any degree, developed thofe features which appear 

 to be uniformly pecidiar to its infant ftate. This, however, 

 will not only apologize for, but even warrant, our omitting, 

 until this, to mention the Greek and Roman verfification, 

 where we can contemplate it only in an engrafted predica- 

 ment. It is admitted, that knowledge and ufeful arts the 

 Greeks received from the Eall ; yet it is the opinion of 

 fome, that fince " the Greeks ftudied no foreign language, 

 it was impoffible that any foreign literature (hould influence 

 their's. Not even the name of a Perfian, AfTyrian, Phoe- 

 nician, or Egyptian poet is alluded to by a Greek writer. 

 The Greek poetry was, therefore, whoUy national. The 

 Pelafgic ballads were infenfibly formed into epic, tragic, 

 and lyric poems ; but the heroes, the opinions, the culloms 

 mentioned in them, are exclufively Grecian ; as they had 

 been, when the Hellenic minftrels knew little beyond the 

 Adriatic and the Egean." This argument, however, is not 

 fo conclufive as to lead to the inference, that the Greeks 

 had no preceding example from which to copy. No more 

 can we fuppofe that Homer was the moft ancient poet : for 

 as the Pavadil'e Loft of Milton plainly implies that other 

 epic poems exiilcd prior to this, and that Milton had read 

 them ; fo do the Ihad and OdylTey of Homer. It is con- 

 trary to all the phenomena of the human mind, that fo 

 finiflied a work fhould have been the Jirfl efTay of the kind. 

 There can be no room to doubt but many poets flouridied 

 before Homer. As the Paradife Loft neceffarily fuppofes 

 Spenfer's Fairy l^ueen ; that, TafTo's Gerufalemme Libe- 

 rata ; that, Virgil's ^neid ; and the TEneid, the Ihad of 

 Homer ; fo the Ihad itfelf may ftand in reference to as 

 many preceding poems as the Paradife Loft does. As the 

 .£ueid never could have exifted, had not the Iliad gone 

 before, after the model of which it is entirely conftrufted ; 

 and as the Jervifalem Dehvered is a proceed from the 

 ^neid, as the Fairy Queen is from the poem of Taflo, 

 and the Paradife Loft from the whole ; fo we may conjec- 



ture, tb.at tUe Iliad is iron tlie works of preceding poets, 

 and that we are left to lament the irreparable lofs of a v^ft 

 mafs of intelleft in the deliruftion of the works which pre- 

 ceded and gave birth to thofe of Homer. 



In the art of verfification, the Greeks and Romans claim 

 that eminent and difhnguifhed rank, which has already fe- 

 cured to their memory that renown and celebrity to which 

 they were fo unqueftionably entitled. But as they pof- 

 feifed this art only in an engrafted ftate, and as their fuc- 

 cefs in this department of literature is fo univerfally known, 

 and as we fhall have a future opportunity to notice it, our 

 limits compel us here to pafs to that which is more recondite 

 and lefs generally underftood. 



According to the teftimony of the abbe Andres, and the 

 authentic MSS. which he cites, it is to the Arabs that Spain, 

 France and Italy, were not a little indebted for tiie cultivated 

 ftate of their verfification. Thefe nations had for a long 

 time groaned under the yoke of the barbarians of the North ; 

 and according to the teftimony of the abbe Andres, it is 

 chiefly to the inftrumentality of the Arabs that we owe the 

 return of the fciences into Europe. Amongii the French 

 and the Spaniards who have cultivated with the greateft fuc- 

 cefs the poetry of which the Arabs gave them the exam- 

 ple, the Troubadours of Provence, for the harmony of their 

 enchanting verfe, which has been received with fuch eclat 

 through Weftern Europe, ftand pre-eminently diftiiiguiflicd. 

 The hitlory of the Troubadours is replete with the names 

 of thofe exalted perfonages, to whom it had become a de- 

 lightful recreation to compofe verfe in the Proven(;al dialed. 

 We may mention, amongft others, Wilhain, duko of Aqui- 

 tania, whofe verfes were coinpofed in the yeai- 1 100 A.D. ; 

 Peter I. ; Alphonfe I. ; J.imes the Conqueror ; James I. ; 

 Thibaut, king of Navarre ; Charles of Anjou, brother of St. 

 Louis, king of Naples and Sicily ; Henry, duke of Brabant ; 

 Peter Mauclerre, earl of Brittany ; Raou], count of Soif- 

 fons. There exifts yet at the Efcurial a code, of which 

 Cafiri (tomei. p. 126.) makes mention, and which notices 

 the literary difpute between Abu-Jahia, fon of the king of 

 Toledo, and Almotemed, king of Cordova, to obtain the 

 poetic prize. Neither muft we omit to mention the name 

 of Frederic II., who patronized the Mufes, and was himfelf 

 a poet. Nor the poems compofed by king Alphonfe X. 

 fon of St. Ferdinand, who fignalized himfelf for the protec- 

 tion lie afforded to the Troubadours. 



The encouragement which the- Provencal poets enjoyed 

 under the aufpices of the great, induced them to traverfe 

 Europe in every direction. They reforted to the caftles and 

 palaces of kings, they were received with tranfport, and their 

 melodious ftrains were hftened to witli enthufiaftic plaudits. 

 Nor was England without fome fhare of the general fervour. 

 It was by the aid of the Troubadours, fays Dryden, that 

 Chaucer enriched and poliihed that language, which the fame 

 Dryden calls " fterile." Richard I. was furrounded by the 

 Troubadours and cultivated their verfe. In fhort, fays the 

 fame Andres, every king and emperor accounted it an honour 

 to become accomphihed in Provencal poetry. 



From the intercourfe of the Provencals throughout Italy, 

 their verfe obtained the honour of becoming the mother of 

 Italian poetry. This is afferted by Bembo, Equicola, Varchi, 

 and by many other Itahan authors, and efpecially by Baftero 

 (Prefaz alia Crufca Provenzale. ) There is no Itahan au- 

 thor who has more frankly pronounced his opinion in favour 

 of the Provencals than Bembo. (Prof. I.) He favours us 

 with a long detail of all that the Itahans had borrowed from 

 .the Provencals. Redi alfo enumerates thofe amongft the 

 Itahans, who had blended in their Tufcan compofition, a 

 multitude of words and phrafes pecuhar to the Provencals. 



The 



