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antients, which they pretend the Poetry of modern, languages will not admit.

Rhyme, from the Greek word Pufuos, is nothing elfe but number, which was effential to the antient, as well as to the modern, verfification. As to the jingle of fimilar founds, though it was never used by the antients in any regular return in the middle, or at the end of the line, and was by no means deemed effential to the verfification, yet they did not reject it as a blemish, where it occurred without the appearance of constraint. We meet with it often in the epithets of Homer,-Apype B1010 Ava Ανδρών Αγαμεμνων-almoft the whole firft Ode of Anacreon is what we call rhyme. The following line of Virgil has been admired for the fimilitude of found in the first two words.

Ore Arethufa tuo ficulis confunditur undis.

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Rythmus, or number, is certainly effential to verfe, whether in the dead or living languages; and the real difference between the two is this: the number in antient verfe relates to the feet, and in modern Poetry to the fyllables; for to affert that modern Poetry has no feet, is a ridiculous abfurdity. The feet, that principally enter into the compofition of Greek and Latin verfes, are either of two or three fyllables: thofe of two fyllables are either both long, as the fpondee; or both fhort, as the pyrrhic; or one short and the other long, as the iambic; or one long, and the other fhort, as the trochee. Those of three fyllables are the dactyl, of one long and two fhort fyllables; the anapeft, of two fhort and one long; the tribrachium, of three fhort; and the moloffus, of three long.

From the different combinations of thefe feet, reftricted to certain numbers, the antients formed their different kinds of verfes, fuch as the hexameter

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or heroic, diftinguifhed by fix feet dactyls and fpondees, the fifth being always a dactyl, and the laft a fponder; e, g,

2

3

4 5

6

Frincipi-is obf-ta, fe-ro medi-cina pa-ratur.

The pentameter of five feet, dactyls and spondees, or of fix, reckoning two cæfuras.

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3 4 5 6

Cum mala per lon-gas invalu-ere mo-ras.

They had likewife the iambic of three forts, the dimeter, the trimeter, and the tetrameter, and all the different kinds of lyric verfe specified in the odes of Sappho, Alcæus, Anacreon, and Horace, Each of thefe was diftinguished by the number, as well as by the fpecies of their feet; fo that they were doubly reftricted, Now all the feet of the antient poetry are ftill found in the verfification of living languages; for as cadence was regulated by the ear, it was impoffible for a man to write melodious verfe without naturally falling into the use of ancient feet, though perhaps he neither knows their measure por denomination. Thus Spenfer, Shakspeare, Milton, Dryden, Pope, and all our Poets, abound with dactyls, fpondees, trochees, anapefts, &c. which they use indifcriminately in all kinds of compofition, whether Tragic, Epic, Pastoral, or Ode, having in this particular greatly the advantage of the antients, who were reftricted to particular kinds of feet in particular kinds of Verfe. If we then are confined with the fetters of what is called rhyme, they were restricted to particular fpecies of feet; fo that the advantages and difadvantages are pretty equally balanced: but indeed the English are more free in this particular, than any other modern nation. They

not

not only use Blank-verfe in Tragedy and the Epic, but even in Lyric Poetry. Milton's tranflation of Horace's Ode to Pyrrha is universally known, and generally admired, in our opinion much above its merit. There is an Ode extant without Rhyme addreffed to Evening by the late Mr. Collins much more beautiful; and Mr. Warton with fome others has happily fucceeded in divers occafional pieces, that are free of this reftraint: but the number in all of these depends upon the fyllables, and not upon the feet, which are unlimited.

It is generally fuppofed that the genius of the English language will not admit of Greek or Latin measure: but this, we apprehend, is a mistake owing to the prejudice of education. It is impoffible that the fame measure, composed of the fame times, fhould have a good effect upon the ear in one language, and a bad effect in another. The truth is, we have been accuftomed from our infancy to the numbers of English Poetry, and the very found and fignification of the words difpofe the ear to receive them in a certain manner; fo that its disappointment must be attended with a disagreeable fenfation. In imbibing the first rudiments of education, we acquire, as it were, another ear for the numbers of Greek and Latin Poetry, and this being referved entirely for the founds and fignifications of the words, that constitute thote dead languages, will not eafily accommodate itself to the founds of our vernacular tongue though conveyed in the fame time and meafure. In a word Latin and Greek have annexed to them the ideas of the antient measure, from which they are not eafily disjoined. But we will venture to fay, this difficulty might be furmounted by an effort of attention and a little practice; and in that cafe we should in time be as well pleased with English as with Latin hexameters.

Sir Philip Sidney is faid to have mifcarried in his effays; but his mifcarriage was no more than that of failing in an attempt to introduce a new fashion. The failure was not owing to any defect or imper, fection in the fcheme, but to the want of taste, to the irrefolution and ignorance of the public. Without all doubt the antient meafure, fo different from that of modern Poetry, must have appeared remarkably uncouth to people in general, who were ignorant of the claffics; and nothing but the countenance and perfeverance of the learned could reconcile them to the alteration. We have feen feveral late fpecimens of English hexameters and fapphics, fo happily compofed, that by attaching them to the idea of antient measure, we found them in all refpects as melodious and agreeable to the ear, as the works of Virgil and Anacreon, or Horace.

Though the number of fyllables diftinguishes the nature of the English verfe from that of the Greek and Latin, it conftitutes neither harmony, grace, nor expreffion. These muft depend upon the choice of words, the feat of the accent, the paufe, and the cadence. The accent, or tone, is understood to be an elevation or finking of the voice in reciting the paufe is a reft, that divides the verfe into two parts, each of them called an hemiftich. The paufe and accent in English Poetry vary occafionally, according to the meaning of the words; fo that the hemistich does not always confift of an equal number of fyllables; and this variety is agreeable, as it prevents a dull repetition of regular ftops, like those in the French verfification, every line of which is divided by a pause exactly in the middle. The cadence comprehends that poetical ftyle, which animates every line, that propriety, which gives ftrength and expreflion, that numerofity, which renders the verfe fmooth, flowing, and harmonious, that fig

nificancy,

nificancy, which marks the paffions, and in many cafes makes the found an echo to the fenfe. The Greek and Latin languages, in being copious and ductile, are fufceptible of a vaft variety of cadences, which the living languages will not admit: and of thefe a reader of any ear will judge for himself.

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A SCHOOL in the Polite Arts properly fignifies that fucceffion of Artifts, which has learned the prin ciples of the art from fome eminent mafter, either by hearing his leffons, or ftudying his works, and confequently who imitate his manner either through defign or from habit. Muficians feem agreed in making only three principal schools in mufic; namely, the fchool of Pergolese in Italy, of Lully in France, and of Handel in England; though fome are for making Rameau the founder of a new school, different from thofe of the former, as he is the inventor of beauties peculiarly his own.

Without all doubt Pergolefe's mufic deferves the first rank: though excelling neither in variety of movements, number of parts, nor unexpected flights, yet he is univerfally allowed to be the mufical Raphael of Italy. This great mafter's principal art confifted in knowing how to excite our paffions by founds, which feem frequently oppofite to the paffion they would exprefs: by flow folemn founds he is fometimes known to throw us into all the rage of battle; and even by fafter movements he excites melancholy in every heart, that founds are capable of affecting. This is a talent, which feems born with

the

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