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Show H An E S S A T before both in found and meafure, is fo great an happinefs, that you muft at leaft fappofethe Perfons of your Play to be born Poets, Arcades omnes&cantarepares & refporJere parati: They'muft have arriv'd to the degree ofquicquid conabar dicere .-To makeVerfes almoft whether they will or no : Ifthey are any thing below this,it witl look rather like defign of two than the Anfwer of one : It will appear that your Aaors hold intelligence together, that they perform their tricks like Fortune-Tei-lers, by Confederacy. The hand of Art will be too vifible in it againft that maxime of allProfeffions; Ars eft celare artem, That it is the greateft perfection of Art to keep it felf undifcover'd. Nor will it ferve you to object:, that however you manage it, 'tis ftill known to be a Play;. and confequently the Dialogue of t wo Perfon underftood to be the labour of one Poet. For a Play is ftill an imitation of Nature:, w e know w e are to be deceiv'd,and w e defire to be fo; but noMan ever was decc' 'd but with a probability of truth, for w h o will fuffer a grofs lie to be faftea'd on fiim ? Thus w e fufficiently underftand that the Scenes which repcefent Cities and Countries to us, are not really fuch, but only painted on Boards and Canvafs: But fhall that excufe the ill Painture or defignment of them; N a y rather ought they not to be labour'd withfo much the more diligence and exaftnefs to help the imagination ? fince the mind of M a n does naturally tend to, and feek after Truth; and therefore the nearer any thing comes to the imitation of it, the more it pleafes. Thus, you fee, your R h y m e is uncapable of expreffing the greateft Thoughts naturally, and the loweft it cannot with any grace : For what is more unbefitting the Majefty of Verfe, than to call a Servant, or bid a door be fhut in Rhime ? A n d yet this miferable neceffity you are fore'd upon. But Verfe, you fay, circum-foribes a quick and luxuriant fancy, which would extend it felf too for on every fubieft,. did not the labour which is requir'd to well turn'd and polifh'd R h y m e , fet bounds to it. Yet this Argument, if granted, would only prove that w e m a y Write better in Verfe, but not more naturally. Neither is it able to evince that; for he w h o wants judgment to confine his fancy in blank Verfe, m a y want it as much in R h y m e ; and he w h o has it will avoid errours in both kinds. Latine Verfe was as great a confinement to the imagination of thofe Poets, as R h y m e to ours: And yet you find Ovid faying too m u c h on every fubjeft. Nefcivit f fays Seneca) quod bene ceffit relinquere : O f wliich he gives you one famous inftance in his Defcription of the Deluge. Omniapontus erat, deermt quoque Litora Ponto. N o w all was Sea, N o r had that Sea a jfliore. Thus OvitPs fancy was not limited by Verfe, and Virgil needed not Verfe to have bounded his. In our o w n Language w e fee Ben. Johnfon confining himfelf to what ought to be laid, even in die Liberty of blank Verfe ; and yet Corneille, the moft judicious of the French Poets, is ftill varying the fame fence an hundred ways, and dwelling eternally upon the fame fubjeft, though confin'd by Rhyme. Some other exceptions I have to Verfe, but being thefe I have nam'd are for the moft part already publick; I conceive it reafonable they fhould firft be anfwer'd. It concerns m e lefs then any, faid Neander, (feeing he had ended) to reply to this Difcoarfe; becaufe when I fhould have prov'd that Verfe m a y be natural in Plays, yet I fhould always be ready to confefs, that thofe which I have Written in this kind come fhort of that perfection wliich is requir'd. Yet fince you are pleas'd I fhould undertake this Province, I will do it, though with all imaginable refpeft and deference both to that Perfon from w h o m you have borrow'd your ftron<reft Arguments, and to whofe judgment when I have faid all, I finally fubmit. But before I proceed to anfwer your Objections, I muft firft remember you, that I exclude all Comedy from m y defence; and next that I deny not but Blank Verfe may be alfo us'd, and content m y felf only to affert, that in ferious Plays where the fubjeft and characters are great, and the Plot unmix'd with mirth, which might allay or divert thefe concernments which are produe'd, R h y m e is there as natural, and more effeftual than blank Verfe. And now having laid d o w n this as a Foundation, to begin with Crites. I muft era ire leave to tell him,that fome of his Arguments againft R h y m e reach no farther than from the faults or defects of ill Rhyme, to conclude againft the ufe of it in general. May not I conclude againft blank Verfe by the fame reafon ? If the Words of fome Poets w h o Write in it, are either ill chofen, or ill placed (which makes not only Rhime, but all kind of Verfe in any Language unnatural;) Shall I for their vicious Affeftation condemn thofe excellent Lines of Fletcher, which are Written of Dramaticb Poefie. 25 written in that kind ? Is there any thing inRhyme more conltrain'd than this line in blank Verfe ? J Heav*» invoke, and flrong refinance make, where you fee both the claufes are plac'd unnaturally ; that is, contrary to the common way of fipe and that without the exci Rhyme to caufe it: Yet you would think m e very ridiculous, if I fhould accufe I he ftubbornnfs of blank Verfe for this, and not rather theftifnefs of the Poet. ore, Crites, you muft cither prove that W o : though well chofen, and dulv plac'd, yet render not R h y m e natural in it felf; or, that however natural and afie the R h y m e may be, yet it is not proper for a Play. If you infift upon the fo i ner party I would ask you what other Conditions are requir'd to make R h y m e natural in it felf, befides an election of apt words, and a right difpofingof them? For the due choice of your Words cxpretles your fence naturally, and the due placing them adapts the R h y m e to ii. if vou object that one Verfe may be made for the fake ofanother,tho' both the words and R h y m e be apt; I anfwer it cannot poffibly fo fall out ; for either there is a depen, \ce betwixt the firft line and the fecond,or there is none: Iftherebe thatconiK ten in the natural pofition of the Words, the latter hue muft of ne ttn the former: If there be no dependance, yet ftill the due ordering of W < the laft line as natural in it felf as the other : So that t of a Rhyi never forces any but bad or lazy Writers to fay what they would not oth 'Tis true, there is both care and Art requir'd to write in Verfe; A good Poet never concluds upon the firft line, till he has fought out fuch a Rhy knfc, already prepar'd to heighten the fecond : Mahytin i fenfe falls into the middle of the next Verfe, or farther of, and he may felf of the fame advantages in Englifh whkhFirgil ha in the Hemyftich, and ' aother line : Indeed, the not obten things, make Plays which are writ in verfe fo tedious: for • monly, the fence is to be confin'd to the Couplet, ye. tenore fiaere, run 1; Line Channel, can pleafe ajwi ing of a Stream, h not varying in the fall, caufes at hrft.attcnti, drowfinefs. Variety of Cadences is the beft Rule, the great. and refrefhment to the Audience. If then Verfe may be made natural in it felf, h o w becomes .it lmt Play? You fay the Stage is the reprefentation of Nature, and no M a n in oil convention fpeaks in Rhyme. But you foreiaw when you find this,that it i be anfwer'd ; neither does any M a n fpeak in blank Verfe, or in toe Rhyme. Therefore you concluded, that which is neareft N ferr'd. But you took no notice that R h y m e might be mad .as natural Verfe, by the well placing ofthe Words, &c all the difference beiwec when they are both correft, is the found in one, which the other wants ; B » fo, thefweetnefsof it, and all the advantage refulting from it, which are b in thePrefaceto t h e * * W . L ^ w i l l vet ftand good As for tnat place o where he fays Plays ftiould be writ in that kind of Verfe which is-i it makes little for you, Blank Verfe being properly but meafur d Profe. N o fure alone in any modern Language, does not conftitute Verfe; thofe cients inGreek and Latin,confifted in quantity of Words,and ai determ natenu, . of Feet. But when, by the inundation o the Goths^ and I anaals n o hdy. Languages were brought in, and barbaroully mingled With t ^ L a t : « £ * * * th, Italian, Spamfh, French, and ours (made out of them and the U*o», Dialeas : a new way of Poefie was praais'd; new, I fay » ^ ( W in all probability it was that of the Conquerours in their own Nations Th way confifted in meafure or number of Feet and ^ ^ J ^ ^ f ^ f Rhyme, and obfervation of Accent, *%$*%$* P.^ ° ^ S w not the which could neither exaaiy be obferv'd by thofe ^ ' ^ ^ ^ L f S r Rules of it, neither was it fuitable to their Tongues as it had been tc, the Gi and latin No Man is tied in modern Poefie to obferve any hi ther Rule in the Feetof is Verfe but hat they be diffylables ; whether Spondee, I rocher or 1 K n ^ Mm or Germans acknowleds>ataU,^^,TcJ& Profe , , Sermope- Blank Verfe ^f^^^T^S^0^Hoiowfedge Rhyme to be im-deftris, and as fuch moft fit lot Comedies, w n e r c i * Co,inlet Verfes m a y be proper *^&"*$$^£$^*&Z& I S* rendred as near Profe « BUnk ™ ^ " £ V t e W W another line, thereby |
