When Afia's ftate was overthrown, and Priam's kingdom ftout, All guiltlefs, by the power of gods above was rooted out. As thefe lines had their break, or cafura, always at the eighth fyllable, it was thought, in time, commodious to divide them: and quatrains of lines, alternately, confifting of eight and fix fyllables, make the most soft and pleafing of our lyrick measures; as, Relentless Time, deftroying power, In the Alexandrine, when its power was once felt, fome poems, as Drayton's Polyolbion, were wholly written; and fometimes the meafures of twelve and fourteen fyllables were interchanged with one another. Cowley was the first that inferted the Alexandrine at pleasure among the heroick lines of ten fyllables, and from him Dryden profeffes to have adopted it. The Triplet and Alexandrine are not univerfally approved. Swift always cenfured VOL. II. them, them, and wrote fome lines to ridicule them. In examining their propriety, it is to be confidered that the effence of verfe is regularity, and its ornament is variety. To write verse, is to difpofe fyllables and founds harmonically by fome known and fettled rule; a rule however lax enough to fubftitute fimilitude. for identity, to admit change without breach of order, and to relieve the car without difappointing it. Thus a Latin hexameter is formed from dactyls and fpondees differently combined; the English heroick admits of acute or grave fyllables varioufly disposed. The Latin never deviates into feven feet, or exceeds the number of feventeen fyllables; but the English Alexandrine breaks the lawful bounds, and furprises the reader with two fyllables more than he expected. The effect of the Triplet is the fame; the ear has been accustomed to expect a new rhyme in every couplet; but is on a fudden furprized with three rhymes together, to which the reader could not accommodate his voice, did he not obtain notice of the change from the braces of the margins. Surely Surely there is fomething unikilful in the neceffity of fuch mechanical direction. Confidering the metrical art fimply as a fcience, and confequently excluding all cafualty, we must allow that Triplets and Alexandrines, inferted by caprice, are interruptions of that conftancy to which fcience afpires. And though the variety which they produce may very justly be defired, yet, to make our poetry exact, there ought to be some stated mode of admitting them. But till fome fuch regulation can be formed, I wish them ftill to be retained in their prefent ftate. They are fometimes convenient to the poet. Fenton was of opinion, that Dryden was too liberal, and Pope too sparing, in their use. The rhymes of Dryden are commonly just, and he valued himself for his readiness in finding them; but he is fometimes open to objection. It is the common practice of our poets to end the fecond line with a weak or grave fyllable: O 2 Together Together o'er the Alps methinks we fly, Dryden fometimes puts the weak rhyme in the firft: Laugh, all the powers that favour tyranny, Sometimes he concludes a period or paragraph with the first line of a couplet, which, though the French feem to do it without irregularity, always difpleafes in Englith poetry. The Alexandrine, though much his favourite, is not always very diligently fabricated by him. It invariably requires a break at the fixth fyllable; a rule which the modern French poets never violate, but which Dryden fometimes neglected: And with paternal thunder vindicates his throne. Of Dryden's works it was faid by Pope, that he could felect from them better fpecimens of every mode of poetry than any other English writer could fupply." Perhaps no nation ever produced a writer 46 that enriched his language with fuch variety of models. To him we owe the improvement, perhaps the completion of our metre, the refinement of our language, and much of the correctness of our fentiments. By him we were taught "fapere & fari," to think naturally and exprefs forcibly. Though Davies has reasoned in rhyme before him, it may be perhaps maintained that he was the first who joined argument with poetry. He fhewed us the true bounds of a tranflator's liberty. What was faid of Rome, adorned by Auguftus, may be applied by an easy metaphor to English poetry embellished by Dryden, "lateritiam invenit, marmoream "reliquit." He found it brick, and he left it marble. THE invocation before the Georgicks is here inferted from Mr. Milbourne's verfion, that, according to his own propofal, his verfes may be compared with those which he cenfures. What makes the richest tilth, beneath what figns To plough, and when to match your elms and vines; 03 What |