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DEFENCE

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RHYME and MUSICAL METRE.*

AS all the Poems and Songs here are written in the form of what is called Rhyme and Common Metre, fo the reafon thereof is to anfwer the defign propofed to me, of making the Scripture Songs adapted to our common tunes, fo as it may be practicable to fing them, as we do the Pfalms of David: and it is owned, that as to the rhyme here, it is not defignedly neglected, but rather exactly ftudied, notwithstanding that blank verfe is now become very fashionable; that is, where the measure is kept without rhyme.

The Author of the book, intitled, The Art of English Poetry, p. 35. fays, Shakefpear, to avoid the trou"blefome constraint of rhyme, was the first that in"vented blank verfe; that our poets, fince him, have "made ufe of it in many of their comedies and trage"dies; but that the most celebrated poem of this kind of verfe, is Milton's Paradife Loft." In a fhort preface to which book of Milton's, I fee an encomium upon that kind of verfe that is written without rhyme, as is that of Homer in Greek, and Virgil in Latin, &c.

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This DEFENCE of RuYME and MUSICAL METRE, was first prefixed by our Author to his poems on the book of JoB; but in regard the most of his poetical compofitions are of this kind, it was judged proper now to make it front the whole of his Poetical Works.

"Rhyme, fays that author, being no neceffary adjunct, "or true ornament of poems, or good verfe, in longer "works efpecially, but the invention of a barbarous age, to fet off wretched matter, and lame metre."The fame author goes on to difparage rhyme as "a ་ thing in itfelf, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true mufical delight; which confifts only of apt "numbers, fit quantity of fyllables, &c. not of jingling "founds of like endings, &'c.; a fault avoided by the "learned antients both in poetry and all good oratory." Upon which he adds, in favour of that blank verse, "that the neglect of rhyme is fo little to be taken "for a defect, though it may feem fo to vulgar "readers, that it rather is to be efteemed an exam"ple fet (the firft in English) of antient liberty re"covered to heroic poems, from the troublefome and "modern advantage of rhyming."

It is neceffary, in fetting forth a book of Scriptural Songs, wherein fo much rhyme is ufed, that we here vindicate the ufe thereof; which I am not to do, by faying any thing to the difparagement of blank verfe, wherein fo many fine and excellent thoughts are now delivered, but by offering a juft defence of rhymeagainst fuch mighty attacks, as tend to the utter difparagement thereof. Seeing, therefore, that fuch public advertisements of that kind, though they feem to make an exception of fhorter poems, yet may tend to make any performance, coming forth in rhyme, to be the more defpicable, and thereby the benefit that otherwife might be reaped by the following poems, in a great measure, be marred to fome readers, I fhall here endeavour to roll that ftumbling-block out of the way, by giving the judgment of fome of the most modern writers in favours of rhyme, who will be acknowledged, by all the readers of poefy, to be very competent judges.

By the way, fuch as are ready to conceive prejudice at rhyme, in favours only of modifh blank verfe, may remember, that rhyme, even as thefe who difparage do acknowledge, "hath been graced by the ufe of our "moft famous English poets, both old and late," with

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out feeming, in the leaft, to be under any restraint or bondage thereby, any more than thefe that ftudy blank verse are confined, by making them confist of apt numbers, and fit quantity of fyllables, and the proper meafure: befides, that that kind of verfe appears to very many to agree much better with the Greek and Latin dialects, than with the English; and that the proper pause, at the end of Latin verfes particularly, feems to be much more eafy and natural, than it is in English blank verfe; which, for the moft part, feems to have fuch a blank, to their apprehenfion, that they are ready, either in humouring the measure, to lofe the fenfe; or, in feeking the fenfe, to lofe the meafure; efpecially where the periods are long. This feems to be the fentiment even of a renowned poet, the famous and ingenious Dr. WATTS, in his preface to his Lyric Poems; where, after his very high commendation of Milton's works, he hath these words; "Yet all that vast reverence, with which I read his Paradife Loft, cannot perfuade me to be charmed with every page of it: "the length of his periods, and fometimes of his pa"rentheses, run me out of breath; fome of his numbers "feem too barsh and uneafy. I could never believe that roughness and obfcurity added any thing to the true grandeur of a poem; nor will I ever affect a quaint uncouthness of speech, in order to become perfectly "Miltonian, &c. The oddnefs of any antique found gives but a falfe pleafure to the ears, and abuse the "true relish even where it works delight," &c. Thefe being the fentiments of fuch an eminent Poet, concerning the measure and model of fome blank verfe, I have thought the lefs ftrange, that fome very judicious perfons, of my acquaintance, have wifhed, that Milton's Paradife Loft, Young's Night Thoughts, &c. had been written rather in poetic profe, fuch as Hervey's Meditations, and the like, that they might be the more easily and pleasantly read by them.

But further, that I may vindicate rhyme from the forementioned tafh; in cafe any fhould think that I have ftudied too much exactnefs in humouring the found, I fhall, on this head, offer the judgment of fome, whose

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fkill, in poetry, cannot well be queftioned. One is Mr. EDWARD BASSHE, the author of the forefaid book, intitled, The Art of English Poetry, who fays, that "the "office of RHYME is to content and please the ear; and "being defigned for mufic, the found muft be regarded, "as well as the measure; and that if care be not taken "in the propriety of the rhyme, that the found of the "laft fyllable be not too weak and languishing, the "verses can never be graceful in the delivery, nor pleaf"ing to the ear." And in his Preface to his Dictionary of Rhymes, he fays, p. 7. that, "RHYME is by all allowed to be the chief ornament of verfification, in many of "the modern languages; and therefore the more exact we are in the obfervation of it, the greater applaufe "our productions of that nature will defervedly chal"lenge and find."

Another author I quote is the defervedly celebrated Mr. POPE, who, in our Scots Magazine, is defigned the British Homer, and of whofe death it is faid, The power of Song, and force of Mufic died. In his Preface to his Effay on Man, he gives this as one of his reafons for writing it in rhyme: "This, fays he, might have been "done in profe, but I choofe verfe, and even RHYME,' "for two reafons; the one will appear obvious, that principles, maxims, and precepts, fo written, both "trike the reader more ftrongly at firft; and are more easily retained by him afterward."

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By these inftances given, from fuch as cannot but be reckoned amongst the beft judges of poetry, the readers of the following Poems may be guarded against the temptations of vilifying and undervaluing the facred matter thereof, on account of the ftrict obfervance of the rhyme and metre, which, according to what is faid above, ought rather to recommend them; and which is here ftudied, not, I hope, for the fake of vain applaufe, fuch as Mr. BASSHE feems to fpeak of, but that the divine truths may be delivered in a ftrain tending both to please the ear, and by that to ftrike the heart of the reader, and facilitate the retention or rememberance of the poems, which, in that form, as Mr. POPE obferves, are more eafily committed to the memory,

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especially if the truths delivered therein be duly apprehended by the mind, and embraced in the heart: and, indeed, I cannot imagine that the verfes need be the lefs agreeable to the judgment that they are not harih and ungrateful to the ear.

Though the verfes in the book of Jos have rhyme, for the the most part, not only in the fecond and fourth, but even in the firft and third lines of every stanza; for the neglect of which, Dr WATTS hopes his reader will forgive him, in fome of his hymns: yet I cannot fay that I was thereby brought under much restriction and confinement; becaufe, when the matter was once conceived, the fimilar endings, together with the proper quantity of fyllables, natively enough occurred, without much study: and if they be rendered thereby the more mufical, I hope it fhall not hence be the more exceptionable, at least to the ordinary feroius readers, for whofe fake I have not industrioufly neglected it.

It is evident, indeed, from the examples we have in the Greek and Latin poets, and alfo the English, since Shakespear's time, that rhyme is not effential to poetical writings, and that there may be the mufic of poetry, without the ornament of rhyme; but yet it seems as evident, that this ornament is no novelty. Bailey's Dictionary informs, that Mr. Skinner is of opinion, that rhyme was firft brought into Europe by the Arabians, but that inftances are given of rhymes in the Saxon poetry long before the Arabians made fuch a figure in the world. But if that be rekoned a barbarous age, it is of more confequence that is farther told us, that Mr Dryden fays, Monfeur le Clerc has made it out, that DAVID's Pfalms were written in as arrant [mere] rhyme as they are tranflated into. And if fo, then this ornament has a very antient original, and is no modern. invention.

Though I will never defend rhyme, without reafon; or bafe jingling metre, without folid matter, and fome fprightly metal (the great want whereof makes me far from commending my own:) nor would I ever commend what is only mufical in the ear, without being alfo inftructive to the mind; for, no doubt, right rhyme will

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