NUMB. 90. SATURDAY, January 26, 1751. IT In tenui labor. What toil in flender things! VIRG. T is very difficult to write on the minuter parts of literature without failing either to please or inftruct. Too much nicety of detail difgufts the greatest part of readers, and to throw a multitude of particulars under general heads, and lay down rules of extenfive comprehenfion, is to common understandings of little ufe. They who undertake thefe fubjects are therefore always in danger, as one or other inconvenience arifes to their imagination, of frighting us with rugged science, or amusing us with empty found. In criticifing the work of Milton, there is, indeed, opportunity to interfperfe paffages that can hardly fail to relieve the languors of attention; and fince, in examining the variety and choice of the paufes with which he has diversified his numbers, it will be neceffary to exhibit the lines in which they are to be found, perhaps the remarks may be well compensated by the examples, and the irksomeness of grammatical difquifitions fomewhat alleviated. Milton formed his fcheme of verfification by the poets of Greece and Rome, whom he proposed to him. self for his models, fo far as the difference of his language from theirs would permit the imitation. There are indeed many inconveniencies infeparable from our heroick measure compared with that of Homer and Virgil; inconveniencies, which it is no reproach to Milton not to have overcome, because they are in their own nature infuperable; but against which he has struggled with fo much art and diligence, that he may at least be faid to have deserved fuccefs. The hexameter of the ancients may be confidered as confifting of fifteen fyllables, fo melodiously dif pofed, that, as every one knows who has examined the poetical authors, very pleafing and fonorous lyrick measures are formed from the fragments of the heroick. It is, indeed, scarce poffible to break them in fuch a manner but that invenias etiam disjecti membra poëtæ, some harmony will still remain, and the due proportions of found will always be difcovered. This measure therefore allowed great variety of pauses, and great liberties of connecting one verfe with another, because wherever the line was interrupted, either part fingly was mufical. But the an cients feem to have confined this privilege to hexameters; for in their other measures, though longer than the English heroick, thofe who wrote after the refinements of verfification, venture fo feldom to change their pauses, that every variation may be fuppofed rather a compliance with neceffity than the choice of judgment. Milton was conftrained within the narrow limits of a measure not very harmonious in the utmost perfection; the fingle parts, therefore, into which it was to be fometimes broken by paufes, were in danger of lofing the very form of verse. This has, perhaps, notwithstanding all his care, fometimes happened. As As harmony is the end of poetical measures, no part of a verfe ought to be fo feparated from the reft as not to remain ftill more harmonious than profe, or to fhew, by the difpofition of the tones, that it is part of a verfe. This rule in the old hexameter might be eafily obferved, but in English will very frequently be in danger of violation; for the order and regularity of accents cannot well be perceived in a fucceffion of fewer than three fyllables, which will confine the English poet to only five pauses; it being fuppofed, that when he connects one line with another, he fhould never make a full pause at less distance than that of three fyllables from the beginning or end of a verfe. That this rule fhould be univerfally and indifpenf ably established, perhaps cannot be granted; fomething may be allowed to variety, and something to the adaptation of the numbers to the fubject; but it will be found generally neceffary, and the ear will feldom fail to fuffer by its neglect. Thus when a single fyllable is cut off from the reft, it must either be united to the line with which the sense connects it, or be founded alone. If it be united to the other line, it corrupts its harmony; if disjoined it must stand alone, and with regard to mufick be fuperfluous; for there is no harmony in a fingle found, because it has no proportion to an. other. Hypocrites aufterely talk, Defaming as impure what God declares Pure; and commands to fome, leaves free to all. When two fyllables likewise are abfcinded from the reft, they evidently want fome affociate founds to make them harmonious. Eyes more wakeful than to drouze, Charm'd with Arcadian pipe, the past'ral reed He ended, and the fun gave fignal high Firft in the eaft his glorious lamp was feen, His longitude through heav'n's high road; the gray Shedding fweet influence. The fame defect is perceived in the following line, where the pause is at the second syllable from the beginning. The race Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard When the paufe falls upon the third fyllable or the seventh, the harmony is better preserved; but as the third and feventh are weak fyllables, the period leaves the ear unfatisfied, and in expectation of the remaining part of the verse. He, with his horrid crew, Lay vanquish'd, rolling in the fiery gulph, God, with frequent intercourse, It may be, I think, established as a rule, that a pause which concludes a period fhould be made for the most part upon a strong fyllable, as the fourth and fixth; but thofe pauses which only fufpend the fense may be placed upon the weaker. Thus the rest in the third line of the first paffage fatisfies the ear better than in the fourth, and the close of the second quotation better than of the third. The evil foon Drawn back, redounded (as a flood) on those What we by day Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind, Tending to wild. The paths and bow'rs doubt not but our joint hands As we need walk, till younger hands ere long Affift us. I 4 The |