1801.] 
the Hebrew Hallelujah. And from the 
fame fource, we meet in Haiah xiv. 12, 
the term Obs (Hallal), in our common 
verfions tranflated Lucifer, “ the firft 
and faireft, the fupremely excellent of 
created radiances.’ Even in our own 
language, and particularly in its ruder 
and lets polifhed ftate, nothing was fo 
common as the prefent mode of giving an 
accellion of power to a term in itfelf po- 
fitive and fimple. Every old Englth ‘and 
Scotch ballad is full of fuch a figure of 
fpeech; thus in the beautiful Edom o’ 
Gordon, 
O bonnie bonnie was hir mouth, 
And cherry wer hir cheeks, 
And clear clear was hir zellow hair 
Whereon the reid bluid dreips. 
All iterative Hebraifms, and the fyno- 
nymns of other Oriental nations, as in Ge- 
nefis xxii. 17. “ Blefling I will blefs thee, 
and multiplying | will multiply thee:” 
and in the Alkoran, cap. lvi. “ Ye shall 
drink the drink of a drought-difeafed ca- 
mel'( Ag) | SD ins Eo eo) Ls) 
are of fimilar origin; and it is from the 
fame principle that all languages, which 
are capable of forming diminutives, as the 
Latin and Italian for example, which, 
though incapable of creating compound 
epithets, are poffefled of this power ina 
degree perhaps fuperior to any other, 
derive this peculiar faculty; which ‘con- 
fifts in nothing more than the iteration 
or duplication of the final fyllable, if it be 
fufficiently foft; or, if it be naturally 
harfh, of adding the final fyllable of fome 
other word which is {moother and more 
labialthan its own, and which is frequently 
ufed in a diminutive fenfe. 
From hence then I-trace the origin of 
verbal iteration, or the duplication of fim- 
ple terms; which is not a mere mechani- 
cal figure of rhetoric, but a mode uni- 
formly invented ‘in the infancy of Jan- 
guage to give additional force to indfvi- 
- dual words; and. a mode which continues 
unchanged even to the prefent moment; 
for fuch iteration of words has, if [ be not 
miftaken, a fimilar power {till when judi- 
cioufly introduced into medern. poetry; 
_and even in common. profe dialogues, the 
effect of “no, no,” ‘or “ yes, yes,” is dupli- 
fied beyond the individual ufe of either 
of thofe adverbs. 
From the werbal iteration proceed, in 
all probability, the itera/ and periodic; by 
he former of which I mean the frequent 
Mr, Good on Oriental Poetry. . 
525 
recurrence of the fame letter; and by the 
latter, of the fame period ; conftituting a 
fort of text, or favourite paflage, or pro= 
pofition, in dida@ic compofitions, and a 
chorus or burden in thofe of a lighter com- 
plexion. As to the literal iteration, or 
alliteration, as it is generally denominated, . 
I know of no poet who has fo frequently 
indulged in it as Lucretius: -it is to be 
found among the Greeks, but not fo fre- 
quently ; Virgil, however, who made 
Lucretius his great exemplar, as well with 
reipect to ftyle as to fentiments, has fol- 
lowed him with fteps nearly equal in this 
refpect, and the reader has already per- 
haps recalled to his memory the following 
couplet from his Georgics i. 388, 
Tum cornix plena pluviam vocat improba 
voce, 
‘Et sola in sicca secum spatiatur arena. 
Licretius, however, is as free in the 
ufe of the vérbal and "periodic iteration, as 
of the /iteral; but to adduce inftances 
would occupy too much fpace. In the 
periodic repetition, Virgil has not copied 
him very frequently; for, though abun- 
‘dant inftances of the ufe of this figure oc- 
cur in-his ecloeues, they are rather imi- 
tations of Theocritus, Bion,.and more ef- 
pecially the exquifite idylls ef Mofchus, 
than of his own countryman. Catullus, 
like Lucretius, affords us frequent in- 
ftances of all thefe, and half the tender- 
nefs of his diction depends often upon 
their fkilful mtroduction. : 
Of the ule of the verbal iteration by the - 
Perfian lyrifts, as it is a figure that occurs 
fo repeatedly among themfelves ‘in com- 
mon with thofe of Greece, I need add no 
example. The vitera/ iteration is-certain- 
ly met with more feldom, but this too oc- 
curs occafionally; and without loading 
the prefent letter with freth quotations, E 
fhall only refer the reader to the firft cou- 
plet, or beit, of the extract from Hafiz in 
page 521, which I fhall here transfer into 
Roman characters : 
Tersém €en oumi £¢ ber, dordy chan 
Imithandend 
Der séri Zan Zhérabati Zunénd jmanra. 
Of the periodic iteration or chorus, I 
‘thall offer as a proof the following veérfion 
of the fourth gazel under the letter 
commencing as follows, and preferving 
‘the chorus im the precife manner it is 
given in the tranflation. 
The reader 
Iiay conpare with it ode xxxix. of Ana- 
creon, beginning © Or” evw wim Tox 
067467 — 
Os a ar | OOS ¢ the DO 
O~ pee as c| OOS Se yp 
« 
