Concerning the strict propriety of all these rules, as being exactly fuitable to the genius of our language, I am not at all concerned: 'tis fuffici ent, for my purpose if they are Shakespeare's rules. But one thing more ftill remains of no little confequence to our poet's honour, and that is the fettling and adjusting his metre and rhythm. For the not duly attending to this, has occafion'd strange alterations in his plays: now profe hobbles into verse, now again verse is degraded into profe; here verses are broken, where they should be continued ; and there joined, where they should be broken. And the chief reason of thefe alterations of his verfes feems to proceed from the fame caufe, as the changing his words and expreffions; that is, the little regard we pay to our poet's art.

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• Dryden fays that Milton acknowledged to him, that Spencer was his original: but his original in what, Mr. Dryden does not tell us: certainly he was not his original in throwing afide that Gothic bondage of jingle at the end of every line; 'twas the example of our TRAGEDIES here he followed ;

1 Dryden's preface to his Fables.

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2

2 Milton's preface to his Paradife loft.

BEST ENGLISH

HIS HONOURED

3 Milton's poem on Shakespeare, ann. 1630.

SHAKESPEARE.

SHAKESPEARE. And from him, as well as from Homer and Virgil, he faw what beauty would refult from variety.

Our smootheft verfes run in the iambic foot: pes citus, as Horace terms it; because we haften from the first to the second fyllable, that chiefly ftriking the ear. And our epic verse consists of five feet or measures, according to common fcanfion.

it faded on the crowing of the cock

anthe

Verfes all of this measure would foon tire the ear, for want of variety: he therefore mixes the * trochaic foot.

Náture seems déad and wicked dreams ǎbufe

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ad and wicked

4 This Measure Milton ufes in the second foot, B. X,

936.

"The fentence from thy head remov'd may light "On me fole cause to thee of all this woe,

mē, mējónly juft object of his ire.

mējónly just bject of this i

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5

The repetition me, me, as in Virgil [IX, 427.] Me, Me adfum, &c. is highly pathetic, and the trochaic following the fpondee makes the pathos more perceptible.-'Tis furprifing how Dr. Bentley should think of any alteration.

-And

And how beautifully are trochees intermixed in the following, where lady Macbeth speaks in a hurry and agitation of mind?

Which gives the ftērneft|good night|Hé's about it

"He's about

4 5

The tribrac is likewise used by our poets, as equivalent in time and measure to the iambic.

So Milton I, 91.

Now mifery hath join'd în equal ruin into what pit thou feeft|

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And Shakespeare very poetically in K. Lear, A& IV.

Edg. Sŏ mājný fälthom down precipităting. which has the fame effect as that in Virgil.

Procumbit humi bos.

And

"Ruit oceano nox.”

But

But the great art in Milton, of placing a fpondee in the fifth place, ought not here to be omited; this occafions pause and delay, and calls for the reader's attention: fo in the seventh book, where God fpeaks to Chaos,

Silence yě troubled waves and thōu Deep, peace Silence ye trouble

Ι

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No fpondee in the fifth place in Greek or Latin verfes can equal this beauty; and no poet did. ever equal it, but Shakespeare. In Macbeth. What hath quench'd thēm|hăth gīv'n me fire--Hark! peace!

If the fpondaic foot, then the anapeft, as of equal time, may likewise be admitted.

Othello. And give thy worst.

of thoughts the worft of words Iag Good my Lord pardon me. the work of wor

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Speak to me what thou art thý elvill fpirit] Brütüs

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This paffage is in Julius Caefar,, where Brutus fpeaks to the ghoft: thofe anapests speak to me, what thou art, have a beautiful effect, as they fhew a certain confusion on a furprize. Spirit is conftantly used in Milton as a monofyllable, whether 'tis fo here I leave to the reader.

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SHAKE

SHAKESPEARE has feveral hemiftiques; a poetical licence that Virgil introduced into the Latin poetry: but there have not been wanting hands, to fill these broken verfes up for both the poets. It may not be displeasing to the reader to point out fuch kind of workmanship in Virgil.

Æneas is thus addrefs'd by one of Ulyffes' fhip's crew, who had been unfortunately left behind in Sicily.

"Sum patria ex Ithaca, comes infelicis Ulyffei, "Nomen Achaemenides." III, 613. Achæmenides could very properly call himself, comes infelicis Ulyffei; fpeaking with fome pity on the long wanderings and misfortunes of his master. But Æneas with no poetical decorum could thus mention his name; his epithet would be fcelerum inventor-dirus-and fuch like. When therefore Æneas foon after is led by the thread of his narration to fpeak of Achæmenides, I don't doubt but he mentions him without any notice of Ulyffes at all:

"Talia monftrabat relegens errata retrorfum "Litora Achaemenides." III, 691.

But a meddling critic (who thought that Virgil's verfes fhould be all compleated) finding a

Bb

little