264 
* 
weld y at defiance.—I clofe with a few. 
obfervations on the heroic blank verfe. 
Milton, the great mafter of blank 
verfe, ob{erves ae rhyme, ‘<° that it is the 
invention of a barbarous age, to fet off 
wretched matter, and Jame meter.’ 
Milton alludes to the monkith dopierals. 
as : 
Die alle, dies irae, 
Solvet feclum in favilla, 
Telte Deo,. et Sibylla. 
Ti 185 however, by no means true, that 
rhyme was the mere 7#veztion of the dark 
ages... Sir William Jones has fhewn, that 
it. was generally uled by the Arabian 
poets. Ut nequeam nubi perfuadere, Guin 
metra etiain Hebrea Arabicis fuerint perfi- 
milia, nifiquod Arabum verfculi {militer 
definant, vetcrum Hebreorum, non inem*. 
Tt was alfo prattifed by other nations: 
the ancient Saturnine verfes were rhymes. 
Blank | verfe is admirably adapted to 
exprefs ftrong conceptions, energy of 
affion, and, even when_ properly con- 
ftruéted, melodioufnefs of numbers: Mil- 
ton, in ise parts of his ParadifeLof?,”” 
is fuperior to any of our poets in melody. 
The principal excellence of blank verle, 
confifts in its capability of varying the 
paufes with greater eafe, than rhyme: it 
is, therefore, lefs monotonons: ex. 
No more of talk with God, or angel gueft 
With man, as with his friend, familiar uf?d 
To fit indulgent, and with him partake 
Rural repatt, permitting him the while 
Venial difcourfe unblam’d, 
Paradije Loft. 
The following lines, though deftitute 
ef rhyme, are too monotonous for blank 
verte: ; 
And fee where furly winter pafles off 
Far tothe north, and calls his ruffian blafts : 
His blaits obey, and quit the howling hill, 
The fhatter’d foreft, and the ravag’d vale: 
While fofter gales: fucceed, at whofe kind 
touch. oo 
Diffolving fnows in livid torrents loft, 
The mountains lift their green heads to the 
ikies. Thomfon' s Seafons. 
: Theft Lifes read like Pope’s: they have 
not the ftatelinefs of blank verfe, though 
the defeription is exquifite: With re- 
fpett:to rhyme, it has been before ob- 
ferved, that itchas naturally a paufe at 
-the end -of-each line; the clofing line of 
‘the rhyme not only requires.a paufe, but 
a ftop.. The contraryof this is true with 
tefpect to blank verfe: here the verfts:are 

+ 8 Pac Afar. Comment.” Part. ti, cap. 2, 
Mr. Dyer on Englifh Ver fifications i 
not only. permitted, but required to rurt 
frequently i intoone another. 
Tis pat. the faltry tyrant of the fouth 
Has fpent his thort-liv’d rage: more grateful 
hours 
Move filent on, 
Mrs. Bar bauld's Sumner Evenis: ig Meditation. 
Some people feem to think, that all re- 
quired of blank verleis, that it fhould be. 
meafured into. ten fyllables, or, five feet, 
and free from rhyme. This is a great 
miftake, 
The following lines have their proper. 
number of {yllables, but are wretched 
verle. 
Dele€table both to behold and tafte, 
For he who tempts, though in vain atperfes. 
_Paradife Lofty b. ix. 
Thefe lines are deftitute of harmony, 
and have wrong quantities, 
The following line is accented wrong, 
that fyllable being eres that fhould 
be craved. 
His words here ended, but his meek afpect. 
the fame. 
Milton’s verfe is fometimies. defestive 
and profaic. 
The double ending blank verfe is rare- 
ly (though +t is fometimes) admitted by 
the beft writers of blank verfe ; except, 
indeed, in theatrical performances; it is 
well adapted to the familarity of the 
f{tage, and is per piuele ufed - Shak- 
{pear : 
To be or not to. be, thatis the queftiony 
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to fujfer 
The tings and arrows of outrageous fortune, 
Or to take arms againtt a fea of trouble. 
Milton occafionally ufes the double 
ending line. But that fine poet, and ad- 
mirable verfifier, Akenfide, never. 
Frem what has been faid, it will be 
ealy to underitand why the blank verfe 
of Shak{pear; Milton, his imitator, Phi- 
lips, and Akenfide are better models for 
blank verfe, than Addifon, Young, and 
Thomfon. The blank verfe “of Mr. 
Southey’s Joan of Arc, is ‘very happy 
with refpect to vary ing the paufes, and 
with fome exceptions, is very harmonioys. 
To the litt of publications on Eneglith 
verfe already recommended, I think it un- 
neceflary to fubjoin more than one, par- 
ticularly as fome valuable books have 
been recommended by your correfpondent 
I. T. The book fallude to is, the fir 
and fecond books of ** Paradife Loft,” col- 
lated, the * Or iginal Syftem of Ortfogra- 
_ phy reftored : > « The Punfuation cor- 
rethed and extended:’? with the various 
Readings 
