William Benson

“ I say to let this pass, the eternal Repetition of the same Pause is the Reverse of Harmony: Three Feet and three Feet for thousands of Lines together, make exactly the same Musick as the ting, tong, tang of the same Number of Bells in a Country-Church. We had this wretched sort of Metre amongst us formerly, and Chaucer is justly stil'd the Father of English Verse, because he was the first that ever wrote in rhym'd Couplets of ten Syllables each Line. ”

“ That erst with Musick and triumphant Song
Through the soft Silence of the listning Night
So sweetly sung your Joy the Clouds along.
All the Masters of Verse from Chaucer to Milton, and from Milton to this time, were sensible of this Art. Dryden attends to it more than any thing else.
"Beneath the Shade which Beechen Boughs diffuse,
You Tityrus entertain your Sylvan Muse:
Round the wide World in Banishment we roam,
Forc'd from our pleasing Fields and native Home. ”

“ Latin and English Lines cannot be compared together, because in a Latin Line there are six Feet, and in an English Line but five. Again, in Latin Verse there must be in every Line one Foot of three Syllables, often three or four, or even five Feet of three Syllables, and sometimes four or five Syllables in one Foot. Whereas in an English Line, there is hardly ever more than two Syllables in a foot. So that an English Verse cannot be compared with the Latin by the Line, or by the Foot, but only by the Syllables of which the Words are composed, which make the Feet in both the Languages. ”

“ Here I observed that this great Master had artfully avoided the common Pause till he came to the fifth Line; and he takes care to do it as much as possible throughout the whole Work; from whence arises one of the most material Differences in the Versification of Ovid and Virgil; and to produce more Examples would be a needless Labour. In this Place let me take Notice that it is on Account of Varying the Pause that Virgil makes his broken Lines in the Æneid, which suspend all Pauses, and the Ear is relieved by this Means, and attends with fresh Pleasure. ”

“ Can it be said that ten dull Words creep on dully in any one of these Lines? But Examples may likewise be given in rhym'd Verse, of the Harmony of Monosyllables. Harmony consists in mixing rough and smooth, soft and harsh Sounds. What Words can be rougher than such as these, Rides, Rapt, Throws, Storms ”

“ It is a particular Talent which very few are blessed with, and ought to be esteemed accordingly: But if we give way to the Disuse of it, and even suffer Blank Verse to be brought in Competition with it, Poetry will in a short time be lost in England, as it has been long [page 80] since in Italy, and, if I mistake not, from this very Cause. They have Blank-vers'd Homer, Virgil, and Milton, and I believe all the Classick Poets: And if we follow their Example in giving Applause to this kind of Verse, we must expect the same Consequences. ”

“ So that whilst this Book continues to be as publickly used among us as it is at present, the English Language cannot receive any great Alteration; but all sorts of learned Men may write, either in Verse or Prose, in the most learned manner in their native Tongue, and at the same time be perfectly understood by the common People. Indeed, if ever we should be so unhappy as to be depriv'd [page 83] of the publick Use of that Book, all that came with it, must go with it; and then Farewel the English Language, Farewel Milton, Farewel Learning, and Farewel all that distinguishes Man from Beasts. ”

“ But that the Latin Language is a Friend to Rhyme is clear beyond all doubt; and the same is as true of all the living Tongues that are distinguished in the learned World.
It is no wonder that Verse without Rhyme has so many Advocates amongst the Dealers in Poetry, because of its Facility. Rhym'd Verse, with all its Ornaments, especially the artful Way of varying the [page 61] Pause, is exceeding difficult; and so are all the curious Productions of Art. Fine Painting, fine Musick or Sculpture, are all very hard to perform ”

“ The Strength and Conciseness that Monosyllables (especially in Verbs) produce, are of wonderful Use in Lyrick Poetry, because they enter into any Foot or Measure of Verses, by different Transpositions; so that I dare venture to assert, there is no Italian or Foreign Song, which English Words will not suit ”

“ Those who may be apt to find fault with such Arts as these (for Arts they are in Virgil and Milton) little think what it is to write 10 or 12 thousand Lines, and to vary the Sound of them in such manner as to entertain the Ear from the Beginning to the End of the Work. ”

“ Suppose these two Lines were alter'd thus,
"All ye People that on Earth dwell,
Sing to the Lord with Voice chearful.
Here the natural Sound of the Words People and Chearful is very much alter'd, by their being wrong plac'd; or rather, the Verse is quite destroy'd: But to chuse an Example from Milton.
"And if our Substance be indeed Divine.————
Let this be alter'd,
"And indeed Divine if be our Substance.————
Is not the Verse quite destroy'd by this Alteration? ”

“ And as we see many Places in the Paradise Lost, which are exactly taken from this Translation, Why may we not conclude Milton acquir'd much of his Stile from this Book? I can give an Instance of another very learned Person, who certainly learnt his way of Writing from it. I mean the late Dr. Clarke. Nothing can be more clear than his Stile, and yet nothing can be more like the Greek or Latin, agreeably to the English Bible. I beg leave to produce one Instance from his Exposition of the Church Catechism.
[page 82]
"Next after the Creed are in natural Order plac'd the Ten Commandments. ”

“ Y what I have shewn in the preceding Letters, it sufficiently appears that Virgil and Milton had good reason to begin with Hinc canere incipiam. Nunc te Bacche canam. Arma Virumque cano. Sing Heavenly Muse. Their Verse is all Musick, and that is the reason why their Poems please, though ever so often read: And all Poetry that is not attended with Harmony, is properly speaking no Poetry at all. ”

“ But what I chiefly hope I have made out, is, that Rhyme does not owe its Original to Druids, or to dreaming Monks, since it is certain there is more Rhyme in Virgil, than there can be in any English Translation of his Works. English Verse never admits but of two Syllables that Rhyme in two Lines. But in Virgil, it is not easy to tell how many Rhymes there are in a single Line; as for Example,
[page 79]
"O nimium Cœlo, & pelago confise sereno,
"Et sola in siccâ secum spatiatur arenâ. ”

“ Whence it is evident that these Lines are perfectly Iambick.
The Particle and, as well as some other Monosyllables, may be said to be common, like many Words in Latin; they submit themselves to be alter'd by the Voice in reading, and may be pronounced either long or short: But this is not so in other Words. And here it may be proper to observe, that Milton has a very artful Way of varying his Numbers, by putting a Trochaick Foot at the Beginning of a Verse ”

“ Chaucer seems (to me) by the help of a delicate Ear, and a curious Judgment, to have learnt all his Graces from Virgil. 1. His Rhyme. 2. His Inversion of the Phrase: And 3. His Alliteratio. The Varying of the Pause he does not seem to have attended to. But to return to Milton.
Having spoken sufficiently of the Initial, I come now to the mix'd Alliteration. And this latter is almost as common as the former, and is to be found in all such Lines as these.
"————————And now is come
Into the blissful Field.———————
Every Ear must perceive how the f and the l are mingled in the two last Words. ”

“ Is not Heav'nly as much an Expletive as O, and can either of these Couplets deserve to be plac'd in the Front of the Iliad? I could wish Mr. Pope would return these two Lines once more to the Anvil, and dismiss all Expletives here at least. But enough of Expletives.
I shall now say something of Monosyllables, which seem to be absolutely condemn'd in the second Line of the two Verses just mention'd from Mr. Pope's Essay on Criticism.
And ten low Words oft creep in one dull Line. ”

“ Sir Philip Sidney, who was very unhappy in Versification, seems to have despised this Beauty in Verse, and even to have thought it an Excellence to fix the Pause always in one Place, namely at the End of the second Foot: So that he must have had no more Ear for Poetry than Mr. Cowley. Not but that I am apt to think some Writers in Sir Philip Sidney's time carried this matter to a ridiculous Extreme. Others thought this Beauty a Deformity, and concluded it so from two or three silly Latin [page 53] Lines of Ennius and Tully, such as ”

“ The following Words, People, Substance, Angels, Chearful, and the like, are all Trochaick Feet; for it is easily observ'd, that the first Syllable dwells [page 70] longer on the Ear than the latter.
I wonder that Vossius, who was a Canon of Windsor, did not perceive this in the Metre which he could not but often have heard at Church.
"All People that on Earth do dwell
Sing to the Lord with chearful Voice. ”

“ And in Verbs, to love, to hate, Aimer, Hayir. In the English the Sound is clear and strong. In French the last Letter is dropp'd, and the Words don't dwell upon the Ear like the English.
2d, They have too many Particles: To shew how much more their Verse is incumber'd by them than the English, I will give you an Example from a Passage in Milton.
"So spoke, so wish'd much humbled Eve, but
Subscrib'd not; Nature first gave Signs, imprest
On Bird, Beast, Air; Air suddenly eclips'd
After short blush of Morn.——————
Now to put this Passage into French all the following Particles must be added. ”

“ This is very agreeable both as to the Verse and the Sense; for it makes the thing described more immediately present than it would be otherwise. I cannot just now recollect an Example in Milton of this nature, but I remember one in Fairfax, in a Couplet already cited.
"Their jolly Notes they chanted loud and clear,
And horrid Helms high on their Heads they bear. ”

“ To find out this, I consulted the middling sort of Poets, or the first Practicers in this Art: In this Enquiry I observ'd from Hesiod and Ennius among the Greek and Latin Poets, and afterwards from Ovid with relation to the latter, and which I am now to speak of, that the common Pause or Stop in all Latin Heroick Verse (to say nothing of the Greek, which agrees with it in this Respect) is upon the 1st Syllable of the 3d Foot. For [page 20] Example,
"Ante mare & tellus | & quod tegit omnia, cælum,
Unus erat toto | Naturæ vultus in orbe,
Quem dixêre Chaos | rudis indigestaque moles ”

“ For which Reason when Virgil represents Dido in her greatest Pomp, it is,
—Reginam cunctantem ad limina primi
Pœnorum expectant.—
For the same Reason he introduces the most solemn and most important Speech in the Æneid, with three Monosyllables, which causes great Delay in the Speaker, and gives great Majesty to the Speech.
—O Qui Res Hominumq; Deumq;—
These three Syllables occasion three short Pauses. ”

“ Dr. Trapp,
"———————O Æolus (for thee
The Sire of Gods, and King of Men impow'rs
To smooth the Waves, or raise them with the Wind.)
Mr. Pit,
"———————Since mighty Jove,
The King of Men, and Sire of Gods above,
Gives thee, great Æolus, the Power to raise
Storms at thy sovereign Will, and smooth the Seas. ”

“ Kneel'd; and before Him humbled all my Heart,
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such is the Force of the Word kneel'd in that Situation, that we actually see Adam upon his Knees before the offended Deity; and by the Conclusion of this Paragraph,———Bending his Ear, Infinite Goodness is visibly as it were represented to our Eyes as inclining to hearken to the Prayers of his penitent Creature.
[page 60]
LETTER VI. SIR,
XI.
I
AM now to proceed to the Assonantia Syllabarum or Rhyme. ”

“ Where the two several Hemisticks or Parts of the Verse Rhyme each to itself.
I would observe here that both Ovid and Lucan, for want of Judgment, begin with a full Rhyme; the consequence of which is, that the Conclusion of the Paragraph is less sonorous than the Beginning, which must needs have a bad Effect.
[page 35]
"In nova fert animus mutatas discere formas. ”

“ Unus, qui nobis cunctando restituis rem.
Enn. Frag.
Sept. 21, 1736,
I am, Sir, &c.
P.S.
The Passage in the learned Muhlius, which I should have inserted at the beginning of this Letter, I send you in a Postscript. You have seen it before, but it is worth reading more than once. You know it belongs principally to the Article that treats of the varying the Pause.
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"Neque potest unus idemque semper tenor in carmine usurpari, sed debet is pro varià periodorum Poeticarum ratione distingui. ”

“ Clarke's Translation.
VI. I come now to the Collocatio Verborum, of which there is no occasion to give any more than one Instance:
"Vox quoque per lucos vulgo exaudita silentes
Ingens.——————
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The Reader cannot but perceive that the Manner of placing Ingens has a wonderful Effect; it makes him hear the melancholy Voice groan through the Grove.
VII. The changing the common Pronunciation of Words, as thus:
"Fluviŏrum Rex Eridanus.————
And
"Stridĕre apes utero & ruptis effervĕre costis. ”

“ But here let me give you a few more Instances of the Allusio Verborum, or the mixing of Sounds of Words in rhym'd Verse.
"As o'er th'Aerial Alps sublimely spread
Some aged Oak uprears his reverend Head.
Pit's Æneid.
A Gentleman justly esteemed for his great Learning and excellent Skill in Criticism, but not of so delicate an Ear as Mr. ”