fpect to find it fufceptible of still greater refine

ment.

We proceed to blank verfe, which hath fo many circumstances in common with rhyme, that what is peculiar to it may be brought within a narrow compafs. With refpect to form, it differs not from rhyme further than in rejecting the jingle of fimilar founds. But let us not think that we gain nothing by this difference except the purifying our verse from a childish pleasure: in truth, our verse is extremely cramped by rhyme; and the great advantage of blank verfe is, that, being free from the fetters of rhyme, it is at liberty to attend the imagination in its boldest flights. Rhyme neceffarily divides verfe into couplets; each couplet makes a complete mufical period, the parts of which are divided by paufes, and the whole fummed up by a full clofe at the end; the melody begins anew with the next couplet: and in this manner a composition in rhyme proceeds couplet after couplet. I have often had occafion to mention the correspondence and concord that ought to fubfift between found and fenfe; from which it is a plain inference, that if a couplet be a complete period with regard to melody, it ought regularly to be the fame with regard to fenfe. This, it is true, proves too great a cramp upon compofition; and licences are indulged, as explained above, which however must be used with discretion, fo as to

preferve

preferve fome degree of concord between the fense and the music: there ought never to be a full clofe in the fenfe but at the end of a cou plet; and there ought always to be fome pause in the fenfe at the end of every couplet: the fame period as to fenfe may be extended through feveral couplets; but in that cafe each couplet ought to contain a diftinct member, diftinguished by a paufe in the fenfe as well as in the found; and the whole ought to be closed with a complete cadence *. Rules fuch as these, muft confine rhyme within very narrow bounds: a thought of any extent, cannot be reduced within its compass; the fenfe must be curtailed and broken into parts, to make it fquare with the curtnefs of the melody; and it is obvious. that short periods afford no latitude for inversion.

I have examined this point with the greater accuracy, in order to give a just notion of blank, verfe; and to show that a flight difference in form may produce a very great difference in fubitance. Blank verfe has the fame paufes and accents with rhyme; and a paufe at the end of every line, like what concludes the firit line of a couplet: in a word, the rules of melody in blank verse, are the fame that obtain with refpect to the first line of a couplet. But luckily, being difengaged from

This rule is quite neglected in French verfification. Even Boileau makes no difficulty, to clofe one fubject with the first line of a couplet, and to begin a new, fubject with he fecond Such licence, however fanctified by practice, is ample afant by the difordance between the paules of the fenie and of the melo ly.

rnyme,

rhyme, or, in other words, from couplets, there is access to make every line run into another, precifely as where the first line of a couplet runs into the fecond. There must be a mufical paufe at the end of every line; but this paufe is fo flight as not to require a paufe in the fenfe: and accordingly the fenfe may be carried on with or without pauses, till a period of the utmost extent be completed by a full close both in the fense and the found: there is no restraint, other than that this full close be at the end of a line; and this restraint is neceffary in order to preferve a coincidence between fenfe and found, which ought to be aimed at in general, and is indifpenfable in the cafe of a full clofe, because it has a ftriking effect. Hence the aptitude of blank verfe for inverfion and confequently the luftre of its paufes and accents; for which, as obferved above, there is greater fcope in inverfion, than when words run in their natural order.

In the second section of this chapter it is shown, that nothing contributes more than inversion to the force and elevation of language: the couplets of rhyme confine inverfion within narrow limits; nor would the elevation of inverfion, were there accefs for it in rhyme, be extremely concordant with the humbler tone of that fort of verfe. It is univerfally agreed, that the loftiness of Milton's ftyle fupports admirably the fublimity of his fubject; and it is not lefs certain, that the loftinefs of his ftyle arifes chiefly from inverfion. Shakespear

Shakespear deals little in inverfion: but his blank verse, being a fort of measured profe, is perfectly well adapted to the ftage, where laboured inverfion is extremely improper, because in dialogue it never can appear natural.

Hitherto I have confidered the advantage of laying afide rhyme, with respect to that fuperior power of expreffion which verfe acquires thereby. But this is not the only advantage of blank verfe: it has another not lefs fignal of its kind; and that is, of a more extenfive and more complete melody. Its music is not, like that of rhyme, confined to a fingle couplet; but takes in a great compafs, fo as in fome meafure to rival music properly fo called. The interval between its cadences may be long or short at pleasure; and, by that means, its melody, with refpect both to richness and variety, is fuperior far to that of rhyme; and fuperior even to that of the Greek and Latin Hexameter. Of this obfervation no perfon can doubť who is acquainted with the Paradife Loft: in which work there are indeed many careless lines; but at every turn it fhines out in the richest melody as well as in the fublimeft fentiments. Take the following specimen.

Now Morn her rofy fteps in th' eastern clime
Advancing, fow'd the earth with orient pearl;
When Adam wak'd, fo cuftom'd, for his fleep
Was aëry light from pure digeftion bred,
And temp'rate vapours bland, which th' only found
Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan,
Lightly difpers'd, and the fhrill matin fong

Of

Of birds on every bough; fo much the more
His wonder was to find unwaken'd Eve
With treffes difcompos'd, and glowing cheek,
As through unquiet reft: he on his fide
Leaning half-rais'd, with looks of cordial love
Hung over her enamour'd, and beheld
Beauty, which, whether waking or asleep,
Shot forth peculiar graces; then with voice
Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,
Her hand soft touching, whisper'd thus. Awake
My faireft, my efpous'd, my latest found,
Heaven's laft beft gift, my ever new delight,
Awake; the morning fhines, and the fresh field
Calls us; we lofe the prime, to mark how spring
Our tended plants, how blows the citron grove,
What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed,
How nature paints her colours, how the bee
Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet.

Book 5. 1.1.

Comparing Latin Hexameter with English Heroic rhyme, the former has obviously the advantage in the following particulars. It is greatly preferable as to arrangement, by the latitude it admits in placing the long and short fyllables. Secondly, the length of an Hexameter line hath a majestic air: ours, by its fhortnefs, is indeed more brisk and lively, but much lefs fitted for the fublime. And, thirdly, the long high-founding words that Hexameter admits, add greatly to its majefty. To compenfate thefe advantages, English rhyme poffeffes a greater number and greater variety both of paufes and of accents.

Thefe