The Art of English Poetry (1708) Part 4

The Verses of 4 and 6 Syllables have nothing worth observing, and therefore I shall content my self with having made mention of them. They are, as I said before, us'd only in Operas, and Masks, and in Lyrick and Pindarick Odes. Take one Example of them.

_To rule by Love, To shed no Blood, May be extoll'd above; But here below, Let Princes know, 'Tis fatal to be good._ Dryd.

SECT. III.

_Several Rules conducing to the Beauty of our Versification._

Our Poetry being very much polish'd and refin'd since the Days of _Chaucer_, _Spencer_ and the other antient Poets, some Rules which they neglected, and that conduce very much to the Ornament of it, have been practis'd by the best of the Moderns.

The first is, to avoid as much as possible the Concourse of Vowels, which occasions a certain ill-sounding Gaping, call'd by the Latins _Hiatus_; and which they thought so disagreeable to the Ear, that, to avoid it, whenever a Word ended in a Vowel, and the next began with one, they never, even in Prose, sounded the Vowel of the first Word, but lost it in the p.r.o.nunciation; and it is a fault in our Poets not to do the like, whenever our Language will admit of it.

For this Reason, the _e_ of the Particle _The_ ought always to be cut off before the Words that begin by a Vowel; as,

_With weeping Eyes she heard th' unwelcome News._ Dryd.

And it is a fault to make _The_ and the first Syllable of the following word two distinct Syllables, as in this,

_Refrain'd a while by the unwelcome Night._ Wall.

A second sort of _Hiatus_, and that ought no less to be avoided is, when a Word that ends in a Vowel that cannot be cut off, is plac'd before one that begins by the same Vowel, or one that has the like Sound; as,

_Should thy Iambicks swell into a Book._ Wall.

The second Rule is, to contract the two last Syllables of the Preterperfect Tenses of all the Verbs that will admit of it; which are all the Regular Verbs whatsoever, except only those ending in D or T, and DE or TE. And it is a fault to make _Amazed_ of three Syllables, and _Loved_ of two; instead of _Amaz'd_ of two, and _Lov'd_ of one.

And the second Person of the Present and Preterperfect Tenses of all Verbs ought to be contracted in like manner; as _thou lov'st_, for _thou lovest_, &c.

The third Rule is, not to make use of several Words in a Verse that begin by the same Letter; as,

_The Court he knew to steer in Storms of State.

He in these Miracles Design discern'd._ Dav.

Yet we find an Instance of such a Verse in _Dryden's_ Translation of the first Pastoral of _Virgil_;

_Till then a helpless, hopeless, homely Swain._

Which I am perswaded he left not thus through Negligence or Inadvertency, but with design to paint in the Number and Sound of the Words the thing he describ'd, a Shepherd in whom

_Nec spes libertatis erat, nec cura peculi._

Now how far the Sound of the _H_ aspirate, with which three Feet of that Verse begin, expresses the Despair of the Swain, let the Judicious judge: I have taken notice of it only to say, that 'tis a great Beauty in Poetry, when the Words and Numbers are so dispos'd, as by their Order and Sound to represent the things describ'd.

The fourth is, to avoid ending a Verse by an Adjective whose Substantive begins the following; as,

_Some lost their quiet Rivals, some their kind Parents_, &c. Dav.

Or, by a Preposition when the Case it governs begins the Verse that follows; as,

_The daily less'ning of our Life, shews by A little dying, how outright to dye._ Wall.

The fifth is, to avoid the frequent Use of Words of many Syllables, which are proper enough in Prose, but come not into Verse without a certain Violence altogether disagreeable; particularly those whose Accent is on the fourth Syllable from the last; as _Undutifulness_.

SECT. IV.

_Doubts concerning the Number of Syllables of certain Words._

There is no Language whatsoever, that so often joyns several Vowels together to make Diphthongs of them, as ours; this appears in our having several compos'd of three different Vowels: as EAU, and EOU in _Beauteous_: IOU in _Glorious_, UAI in _Acquaint_, &c.

Now from hence may arise some Difficulties concerning the true p.r.o.nunciation of those Vowels: Whether they ought to be sounded separately in two Syllables, or joyntly in one.

The antient Poets made them sometimes of two Syllables, sometimes but of one, as the Measure of their Verse requir'd; but they are now become to be but of one, and it is a fault to make them of two: From whence we may draw this general Rule;

That whenever one Syllable of a Word ends in a Vowel, and the next begins by one, provided the first of those Syllables be not that on which the Word is accented, those two Syllables ought in Verse to be contracted and made but one.

Thus _Beauteous_ is but two Syllables, _Victorious_ but three, and it is a fault in _Dryden_, to make it four, as he has done in this Verse:

_Your Arms are on the_ Rhine _victorious._

To prove that this Verse wants a Syllable of its due Measure, we need but add one to it; as,

_Your Arms are on the_ Rhine _victorious now._

Where tho' the Syllable _now_ be added to the Verse, it has no more than its due number of Syllables, which plainly proves it wanted it.

But if the Accent be upon the first of these Syllables, they cannot be contracted to make a Diphthong, but must be computed as two distinct Syllables: Thus _Poet_, _Lion_, _Quiet_, and the like, must always be us'd as two Syllables: _Poetry_ and the like, as three.

And it is a fault to make _Riot_, for Example, one Syllable, as _Milton_ has done in this Verse.

_Their Riot ascends above their lofty Tow'rs._