99 
rere) 
ferred from obfervation on Latin and 
Greek verfes, fhould hold good in the 
Englith language; where the moft 
folemn recitation in ufe (which the hex- 
ameter prefuppofes and requires) ftill 
falls far more fhort of fong than the 
mode of declamation among the ancients. 
Yet the fecond obfervation of Varro is fo- 
juft, that,in reading an Enelith hexameter, 
the cefura, or reit, as naturally falls at 
the fifth half-foot, as, m reading an 
Englifh heroic, it does at the fourth 
fyllable. { 
The foreign critic farther fufpedts, 
that the Enghih dialeé&t, on account of 
its extreme difconnection, will be found 
inferior to the German for the purpofes 
ef the hexametrift.. He compares our 
Inmguage to a heap of odd and unce- 
mented pebbles—to fand without hime. 
And, no doubt, the Enghth much negleét 
the ufe of formative fyllables, and prefer 
expreffmg the relation, connection, and 
dependence of words by auxiliary par- 
ticles, to exprefing them by infieCtions 
of the words themfelves.. Hence the 
fuperabundance, in -our ftyle, of mores 
and thans, and ofs and thes, and the 
facility of confiruéting thofe monefyllabic 
fentences, ; 
Where ten low words oft creep in one dul! line. 
Hf, therefore, to. hexametrize fhould be- 
come an amufement of our poets; if we 
are one day to pofiefs an Iliad refembling 
the original, in matter and fora; Hf our 
devotion is to be revived by a perufal of 
the Medfiah in the méa/ures of Klepftock ; 
Wt may, perhaps, be. found expedient to 
tolerate (1) the revival of the regular 
genitive in zs—fubftituting the omitted 
vowel to the apofircphe, when we are 
obliged to pronounce it fully—as if Pope 
had written, ‘by young Telemachus ss 
blooming years :”? (2) the revival of poly- 
fyilabic comparatives—we now, indeed, 
fay, * lowelicr, happier, ampier, abier, 
aferecter, foliter,. fhallower, prefaunder ; 
bat we ijhould ftarile at biddexer, for 
more hidden; deauteoyfer, for more 
beauteous;. wrathful/er, for more wrath- 
ful; charminger, for more charming 3 or, 
baieder, for more hated; and. we thould 
be convulfed with laughter, at the fight 
of a comparative..@/ Adlemande, which 
not uncommonly comprifes.a trechee and 
daétylina fingie word, fuch as ce/ebrateder. 
Thetfe long-toed wards, it muft be owned, 
mereafe. the facility.of interweaving the 
feet of an hexameter moft amazingly. 

¥ Itis an error of Lowth to cenfure /e/fer or 
worfer, which are etymologically corre, 
- - 
Englifh Hexameters. 
[| May, 
\ 
The firft attempt at Englith hexameter 
appears to have been made by Sir Philip 
Sidney, who entertained the erroneous 
notion, that pofitign, not emphafis, was, 
in our pronunciation, the caufe of quan- 
tity. He has, therefore, but by accident, 
preduced -a metrical line. Upon his 
fyRem, anew fcheme of orthography 
might have fpoiled all the poetry in the 
lansuage. . The following have been 
quoted, as the mofi agreeable of his verfes 
to the ear: 
Of Phebus . violence 
Cypariffus, &c. 
O glittermg miferies of man, if this be 
the fortune, &c. 
With moanful melodies, for enough our griefs’ 
be revealed, &c. 
' Queen Elizabeth better perceived the 
{pirit of our profody, when fhe propofed, 
as part of a memoria technica, Perfius, a 
rabb-fiaif; bawdy Martial; Ovid, a 
fine ;wag. > 
anonymous author of 42 Inire- 
du&ienx of the Greek and Latin’ Meafures 
in thade of ~fweet 
. ro : : _ 
~ into Britife Poetry, printed in 1737, alfo 
founds on pofition his diftinétion be- 
tween long and fhortyllables. He had 
furely not read the line of Pope, 
Man never is but always to be bleft, 
or he muft have perceived. that on 
however infignificant a monofyllable the 
emphafis happens to fall, that fyllable is, 
by the ftrefs, rendered equivalent with a 
long fyllable, and may correéily fupply 
the place of one in an iambic foot. Our. 
auxiliary particles and verbs, our adverbs, 
- prepofitions, and. pronouns, are, then, 
1 y a 
although habitually fhort, capable, when 
the meaning requires them to be empha- 
tic, of being employed as long fyHables. 
This writer has, according toa theory 
is own, laid down. four rules of 
y, and has reduced to praétice his 
ireélions, in a-tranflation of the’ firft 
: Virgil, which thus begins : 
ityrus, canopy’d by a broad beech, foftly 
reclining, 
Tun’d on a reed flender, meditate your harmony 
yivan, 
Our country’s borders, and pleafing fields we 
relincuilh : 
We fly our country: you, Tityrus, eafy in 
umbrage, 
Teach the groves echoing to refound divine 
Amaryllis. 
It isnot, however, at a tranflation of 
Virgil, that one would advife any Tyro 
in fcanning to wear his finger-ends,— 
The floventy hexameters of Homer may 
more eafily be rivalled: but the dexteri- 
ties of the Virgilian ftyle require a prac- 
tiled hand. En the original paftora}, 
conta ined 
4 
