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Show 26 An ES S AT to Couplets ftriaiy, w e may ufe the benefit ofthe Find arick way praftis'd in the Siege of Rhodes; where the numbers vary and the Rhyme is difpos'd carelefly, ff!ir from often Chyming. Neither is that other advantage of the Ancients to be defpis'd, of changing the kind of Verfe when they pleafe with the change of the Scene or fome new^entrance : For they confine not themfelves always to lam-bicks bit extend their liberty to all Lyrick numbers and fometimes, even to Hexameter. But I need not go fo far to prove that R h y m e as it fucceeds to all otherOftices ofGreek and Latin Verfe,foefpecially to this of Plays,fince the Cuftom of all Nations at this day confirms it: All the French, Italian and Spanifb Tragedies are generally writ in it, and fure the Univerfal content of the moft civihz'd parts ofthe World, ought in this, as it doth in other Cuftoms, include the reft. But perhaps you may tell m e I havepropos'd fuch a way to make R h y m e natural and confequently proper to Plays, as is unprafticable, and that I fhall fcarce find fix or eight lines together in any Play, where the Words are fo placM and cho • fen as is requir'd to make it natural. I anfwer, no Poet need conftrain himfelf at all times to it. It is enough he makes it his general Rule ; for I deny not but fometimes there may be a greatnefs in placing the Words otherwife; and fometimes they may found better, fometimes alfo the variety it felf is excufe enough. But if, for the moft part, the words be plac'd as they are in the negligence of Profe, it is fufEcient to denominate the w a y prafticable; forweefteem that to be fuch, which in the Tryal oftner fucceeds than miffes. And thus far you may find the praaice made good in many Plays; where you do not, remember ftill, that if you cannot find fix natural Rhymes together, it will be as hard for you to produce as m a ny lines in blank Verfe, even among the greateft of our Poets, againft which I cannot make fome reafonable exception. And this, Sir, calls to m y remembrance the beginning of your Difcourfe, where you told us w e fhould never find the Audience favourable to this kind of WTriting, till w e could produce as good Plays in R h y m e , as Ben. Johnfon , Fletcher , and Shakefpear , had writ out of it. But it is to raifeenvy to the living, to compare them with the Dead. They are honour'd, and almoft ador'd by us, as they de-ferve; neither do I know any fo prefumptuous of themfelves as to contend with them. Yet give m e leave to fay thus much, without injury to their A flies, that not only w e mall never equal them, but they could never equal themfelves, were they to rife and write again. W e acknowledge them our Fathers in Wit, but they have ruin'd their Eftates themfelves before they came to their Chi hands. There is fcarce an Humour, a Charaaer, or any kind of Plot, which they have not blown upon: All comes fullied or wafted to us: And were they to entertain this A g e , they could not make fo plenteous treatments out of fuch decay'd Fortunes. This therefore will be a good Argument to us either not to write at all, or to attempt fome other way.There is no Bays to be expected in their Walks ; Tentanda via eft qua me quoque poffum toilere humo. This w a y of writing in Verfe, they have only left free to us; our Age is ar riv'd toaperfeftioninit, which they never k n e w ; and which (\f wre may guefs by what of theirs w e have feen in Verfe, as the Faithful Shepherdefs, and Sad Shepherd:) 'tis probable they never could have reach'd. For the Genius of every A gc is different ; and though ours excel in this, I deny not but that to imitate Nature in that perfection which they did in Profe, is a greater commendation than to write in Verfe exaftly. As for what you have added, that the People are not generally in-clin'd to like this w a y ; if it were true, it would be no wonder, that betwixt the fhaking off an old Habit, and the introducing of a new, there fhould be difficulty D o w e not fee them ftick to Hopkins and Sternhold's Pfalms,and forefake thofe of David, I mean Sandys his Tranflation of them? If by the People you underftand the multitude, the owXXa). 'Tis no matter what they think, they are fometimes in the right, fometimes in the wrong; their Judgment is a meer Lottery. Eft ubi pjebs rcdcputat, eft ubipeccat. Horace fays it of the vulgar, judging Poefie. But it you mean the mix'd Audience of the Populace and the Noblefs, I dare confidently affirm that a great part ofthe latter fort, are already favourable to verle ; and that no ferious Plays written fince the Kings return have been more kind y receiv d by them, than the Siege of Rhodes, the Muftapha,thc Indian Queen and Indian Emperor. ^ > But I come now to the inference of your firft Argument. You faid the Dialogue of Plays is prefented as the effect of fudden thought, but no M a n fpeaks fuddenly or ex tempore m Rhyme: And you inferr'd from thence, that Rhyme, which you acknowledge to be proper Epick Poefie cannot eouallv be oroner IDr ZTI ?°u unlet; of Dramatic/^ Poefie. 27 • • * ^ ^ ^ m m -..- * * ' • - -- - lefs w e could fuppofe all M e n born fo much more than Poets, that Verfes fhould be made in them, not by them. It has been formerly urg'd by you, and confefs'd by me, that fince no M an fpoke any kind of Verfe ex tempore, that which was neareft Nature was to be pre-ferr'd. I anfwer you therefore, by diftinguifhing betwixt what is neareft to the nature of Comedy, which is the imitation of common Perfons and ordinary fpeak-ing, and what is neareft the Nature of a ferious Play : This laft is indeed the reprefentation of Nature,but 'tis Nature wrought up to an higher pitch. The Plot the Charafters, the Wit, the Paffions, the Defcriptions, are all exalted above the level of c o m m o n converfe, as high as the imagination of the Poet can carry them with Proportion to verifimility. Tragedy w e know is wont to Image to us the Minds and Fortunes of noble Perfons, and to portray thefe exactly, Heroick R h y m e is neareft Nature, as being the nobleft kind of modern Verfe. Indignatur enim privatis, ejr prope focco. Dignis carminibus narrari ccena Thyefta. fSays Horace.) And in another place, Fffutire levels indigna tragadia verfus. Blank Verfe is acknowledg'd to be too low for a Poem, nay more, for a Paper of Verfes; but if too low for an ordinary Sonnet, h o w much more for Tragedy, which is by Ariftot '• he difpute betwixt the Epick Poefie and the Dramatick; for many reafons he there alleges rank'd above it. But fetting this defence afide, your Argument is almoft as ftrong againft the ufe of R h y m e in Poems as in Plays; for the Epick way is every where interlac'd with Dialogue, or difcourfive Scenes; and therefore you muft either grant R h y m e to be improper there, which is contrary to your affertion, or admit it into Plays by the fame title which you have given it to Poems. For tho' Tragedy be juftly preferr'd above the other, vet there is a great affinity between them, as m a y eafily be difeo-ver'd in that definition of a Play which Liftdeius gave us. The Genus of them is the fame, a juft and lively Image of Humane Nature, in its Aaions, Paffions, and traverfesof Fortune : So is the end, namely for the delight and benefit of Mankind. The Charaaers and Perfons are ftill the fame, viz. the greateft of bodi forts, only the manner of acquainting us with thofe Aaions, Paffions and Fortunes is different. Tragedy performs it viva voce, or by Aftion, in Dialogue, wherein it excels the Epick Poem which does it chiefly by Narration, and therefore is not fo lively an Image of Humane Nature. However, the agreement betwixt them is fuch, that if R h y m e be proper for one, it muft be for the other. Verfe 'tis true is not the effect of fudden thought; but this hinders not that fudden thought may be reprefented in Verfe, fince thofe Thoughts are fuch as muft be higher than Nature can raife them without premeditation, efpecially to a continuance of them even out of Verfe, and confequently you cannot imagine them to have been fudden,either in the Poet, or the Aftors. A Play, as I have faid to be like Nature, is to be fet above it; as Statues which are plac'd on high are made greater than the Life, that they may defcend to the fight in their iuft Proportion. Perhaps I have infifted too long unon this Objeftion; but the clearing of it will make m y ftay fhorter on the reft. You tell us Crites, that R h y m e appears moft unnatural in Repartees7or fhort Replies: W h e n he w h o anfwers,(it being prelum d he knew not what the other would fay, yet) makes up that part of the Verfe win- h was left incompleat, and fupplies both the found and meafure ot it; 1 his you fay looks rather lik; the confederacy of two, than the Anfwer of. one. This, I con*fs, is an obieftion which is in every ones Mouth w h o Loves not R h y m e : But mppofe, I befeech you,the Repartee were made only in blank Verle might not part ofthe fame argument be turn'd againft you ? For the meafureiu; as often fuppfyU there as it is in Rhyme. T h e latter half of the Hemiftich as commonly madeup, or a fecond line fiibjoin'd as a reply to the former•; which anyone leaf in Johnfon^ Plays will fufficiently clear to you. You wall often find in the Greek Tragedians, and InSen.a, that* when a Scene grows up.mtc> the warmthof Repartees &(whichistheclofe fighting of it) the latter part ofthe^ T r imeter is f u^ ply'd by him w h o Anfwers; and yet it was never obferv'd as afednnthwi by any of the Ancient or Modern Criticks. The cafe is the lame in our ^ * * « ™ .in theirs ; R h y m e tons being i n & u of quantity, to ^ ^ B u t ^ k t i t u d e ^ is to be all but you indeedMufas colere fevenores: I O U W O L U U uo*w *^ "»""/£/ 'R„I-VO' follow he/on Foot: You have difmounted him from his Pegafus. But) ou tea us |