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pafs the fense must be curtailed and broken into parts, to make it fquare with the curtnefs of the melody; and befide, fhort periods afford no latitude for inverfion.

I have examined this point with the stricter accuracy, in order to give a juft notion of blank verfe; and to fhow, that a flight difference in form may produce a great difference in fubftance. Blank verfe has the fame paufes and accents with rhyme, and a paufe at the end of every line, like what concludes the first line of a couplet. In a word, the rules of melody in blank verfe, are the fame that obtain with respect to the first line of a couplet, but being dif engaged from rhyme, or from couplets, there is accefs to make every line run into another, precisely as to make the first line of a couplet run 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 pause in the fenfe: and accordingly the fenfe may be carried on with or without paufes, till a period of the utmoft extent be completed by a full close both in the fenfe and the found: there is no reftraint, other than that this full clofe 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 indispensable in the cafe of a full clofe, because it has a ftriking effect. Hence the fitnefs 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 fecond section of this chapter it is fhown, that nothing contributes more than inverfion to the force and elevation of language: the couplets of rhyme con

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fine inverfion within narrow limits; nor would the elevation of inverfion, were there accefs for it in rhyme, readily accord with the humbler tone of that fort of verfe. It is univerfally agreed, that the loftinefs 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 deals little in inverfion; but his blank verfe being a fort of measured profe, is perfectly well adapted to the ftage, where laboured inverfion is highly improper, because in dialogue it never can be natural.

Hitherto I have confidered that fuperior power of expreffion which verfe acquires by laying afide rhyme, But this is not the only ground for preferring blank verse it has another preferable quality not lefs fignal; and that is, a more extenfive and more complete melody. Its mufic is not, like that of rhyme, confined to a fingle couplet; but takes in a great compafs, fo as in fome measure to rival mufic properly fo called. The interval between its cadences may be long or fhort at pleafure; 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 doubt who is acquainted with the Paradife Loft in which work there are indeed many careless lines; but at every turn the richest melody as well as the fublimeft fentiments are confpicuous. Take the following fpecimen.

Now morn her rofy fteps in th' eaftern 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

Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan,
Lightly difpers'd, and the fhrill matin fong
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 afleep,
Shot forth peculiar graces; then with voice
Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,
Her hand foft touching, whifper'd thus. Awake,
My faireft, my cfpous'd, my latest found,
Heaven's laft beft gift, my ever-new delight,
Awake; the morning fhines, and the fresh field
Calls us we lose the prime, to mark how fpring
Our tended plants, how blows the citron grove,
What drops the myrth, and what the balmy reed,
How nature paints her colours, how the bee
Sits on the bloom extracting liquid fweet.

Book 5. l. 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 fhort fyllables. Secondly, the length of an Hexameter line hath a majestic air: ours, by its fhortnefs, is indeed more brifk 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 these advantages, English rhyme poffeffes a greater number and greater variety both of pauses and of accents. These two forts of verfe ftand indeed pretty much in oppofition in Hexameter, great variety of arrangement, none in the paufes nor accents; in English rhyme, great variety in the pauses and accents, very little in the arrangement.

In blank verfe are united, in a good meafure, the feveral properties of Latin Hexameter and English rhyme; and it poffeffes befide many signal properties of its own. It is not confined, like Hexameter, by a full close at the end of every line; nor, like rhyme, by a full clofe at the end of every couplet. Its conftruction, which admits the lines to run into each other, gives it a ftill greater majesty than arises from the length of a Hexameter line. By the fame means, it admits inverfion even beyond the Latin or Greek Hexameter; for thefe fuffer fome confinement by the regular clofes at the end of every line. In its mufic it is illuftrious above all: the melody of Hexameter verfe is circumfcribed to a line; and of English rhyme, to a couplet: the melody of blank verse is under no confinement, but enjoys the utmost privilege, of which melody of verfe is fufceptible; which is, to run hand in hand with the fenfe. In a word, blank verfe is fuperior to Hexameter in many articles; and inferior to it in none, fave in the freedom of arrangement, and in the ufe of long words.

In French Heroic verfe, there are found, on the contrary, all the defects of Latin Hexameter and English rhyme, without the beauties of either : fubjected to the bondage of rhyme, and to the full clofe at the end of every couplet, it is alfo extremely fatiguing by uniformity in its paufes and accents: the line invariably is divided by the paufe into two equal parts, and the accent is invariably placed before the pause.

Jeune et vaillant herôs || dont la haute fageffe
N'eft point la fruit tardif d'une lente vieilleffe.

Here every circumftance contributes to a tiresome uniformity: a conftant return of the fame paufe and

of

of the fame accent, as well as an equal division of every line; which fatigue the ear without intermiflion or change. I cannot fet this matter in a better light, than by prefenting to the reader a French tranflation of the following paffage of Milton:

Two of far nobler fhape, erect and tall,
Godlike erect, with native honour clad,
In naked majesty, feem'd lords of all:
And worthy feem'd; for in their looks divine
The image of their glorious maker fhone
Truth, wisdom, fanctitude fevere and pure;
Severe, but in true filial freedom plac'd ;
Whence true authority in men: though both
Not equal, as their fex not equal feem'd ;
For contemplation he and valour form'd,
For foftnefs the and fweet attractive grace;
He for God only, the for God in him.

Were the pauses of the fenfe and found in this paffage but a little better afforted, nothing in verse could be more melodious. In general, the great defect of Milton's verfification, in other refpects admirable, is the want of coincidence between the paufes of the sense and found.

The tranflation is in the following words:

Ce lieux délicieux, ce paradis charmant,
Reçoit deux objets fon plus bel ornement;
Leur port majeftueux, et leur démarche altiere,
Semble leur meriter for la nature entiere
Ce droit de commander que Dieu leur a donné,
Sur leur augufte front de gloire couronné.
Du fouverain du ciel drille la refemblance:
Dans leur fimples regards éclatte l'innocence,
L'adorable candeur, l'aimable vérité,
La raifon, la fageffe, et la sévérité,

Qu'

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