It is not known who was the inventor of the elegy. The principal elegiac writers amongst the Greeks were Callimachus, Tyrteus, Parthenius, and Euphorion; amongst the Romans, Propertius, Ovid, and Tibullus. Gray's

Elegy, written in a country church-yard, and Pope's Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady, are the best pieces of this nature in the English language.

OF EPIC POETRY.

Of the various kinds of poetry, this is universally acknowledged to be the most dignified in its character, and the most difficult in execution.

Epic poetry has, for its object, the display of heroic actions, which it should adorn with every thing virtuous and honourable. In an epic poem the subject must be great and interesting, and there must be an unity of action throughout. Unity of action is particularly evident in the most complete epic poems extant: viz. the Iliad of Homer, the Eneid of Virgil, and the Jerusalem of Tasso. The Iliad has the anger of Achilles for its subject, which is constantly kept in view throughout the poem, and as soon as possible, after reconciliation has been effected between Achilles and Agamemnon, the poem is made to close. The same observation is applicable to the Eneid, which has the establishment of Æneas in Italy, for its subject, and to Tasso's Jerusalem delivered, which has, for its subject, the recovery of Jerusalem from the infidels. Episodes, or incidental circumstances, are admitted, which may be made to form a considerable ornament.

The epic action should also be dignified, interesting, splendid, and important. Supernatural beings may be introduced, for the purpose of effect, to form what is called. the machinery of the poem. Epic poetry has a striking resemblance to tragedy, the aim of each being instruction, and the means the imitation of human actions. The principal difference between them, consists in the mode employed, the one using narration, while the other represents facts as passing immediately before the eyes. In the former, the poet is the historian; in the latter, he presents the actions without appearing himself.

Whether or not Milton's Paradise Lost may be ranked amongst epic poems, it is justly deemed one of the greatest

efforts of human genius, and affords, as an eminent writer observes, "the most complete example of elevation which the English language is capable of attaining by the force of numbers."

OF DRAMATIC POETRY.

Dramatic poetry is divided into two kinds, tragedy and comedy. It was the custom of the ancient Greeks to sacrifice annually to Bacchus, a goat, because of the injury that this animal did to the vine which was dedicated to the jolly god. At this sacrifice, hymns were sung, and odes were recited, which formed the ground-work of tragedy. For the purpose of giving variety to the exhibition, narratives were introduced at different pauses of the hymns, which was subsequently improved by the substitution of a single narrative instead of several short ones. To schylus the honour is due of being the first principal improver of this kind of entertainment. He, by introducing dialogues, and rendering the hymns, sung by the chorus, dependent on the dialogue, caused it to develope something of the character of the drama. It received a still greater improvement from Sophocles and Euripides, who increased the number of characters in the piece, and made them utter the most beautiful and forcible language.

It is not known who was the first inventor of the comedy. Performers of this kind of entertainment, were called comedians,* from their wandering about in villages, where they amused the inhabitants by a species of low buffoonery.

It is more than probable that comedy owed its origin to the satires, an interlude originally annexed to tragedies, in which the actors represented satyrs, or sylvan deities. The Greek comedy appears to have been purely satirical, and living characters were introduced for the purpose of ridicule. Aristophanes, who was the principal writer of Greek comedy, introduced into one of his plays, viz. the Clouds, that excellent man, Socrates, who had the mortification of beholding himself satirized at its first exhibition.

* From Kwun, a village, and won ab aeldw, to sing.

The chorus of the Greek drama was changed into the prologue by the Romans, who also soon stripped their plays of personal attack, and substituted characters of common life.

The works of Seneca are the sole remains of the Roman tragedy, while Plautus and Terence furnish us with the only specimens of Roman comedy. The plays of Terence, it should be remembered, are translations from the Greek of Menander; and, although the language is pure and elegant, they were considered, by the Romans, much inferior to the original.

In a work of this nature, it would be irrelevant to attempt to trace the drama from the time of the Greeks and Romans to the present time; suffice it to say, that the English drama was, until the time of Shakspeare, in a very low state. The improvements he made in it are beyond description. He caused it to emerge from darkness to a torrent of light, and, although more than two centuries have elapsed since he has been consigned to the tomb of the Capulets, no one has appeared that can challenge comparison with this powerful, this sublime writer. He stands unrivalled, and the mind cannot conceive his equal.

OF VERSIFICATION.

Poetry, from its having been formerly accompanied with music, received an artificial syllabic arrangement according to the taste of the poet. This arrangement, or versification, amongst some, was made to depend on the quantities of the syllables, while, amongst others, it principally depended on the accent and rhyme, or the recurrence of similar sounds. Greek and Latin verse is of the former nature, being formed from the combination of a certain number of syllables, whose quantities are fixed and determined, while English verse depends rather on accent than on quantity, and may, or may not, rhyme according to the nature of the subject.

The metre of the Greek and Latin verse is much more varied than that of English verse, as also the syllabic combination, called poetical feet. The different feet used at any time in English poetry are as follows:

English poetry, of an elevated or dignified nature, is generally written in Iambics, while the Trochaic, the Anapestic, and the Dactylic measures are used for subjects of a lively, agreeable, and familiar character; and these four are the principal measures, the others being used only as auxiliaries.

The shortest form of the Iambic and Trochaic verse, consists of one foot, and an additional syllable, and may extend to seven feet, or fourteen syllables, although it is more usual to divide a verse of the latter kind into two lines, consisting, alternately, of eight and six syllables. The shortest form of the Anapestic and Dactylic verse consists of one foot, or three syllables; the longest form of four feet, with an additional syllable. Heroic verse consists of five Iambuses, or ten syllables, occasionally introducing a line of twelve syllables, called the Alexandrine.

As examples of the different kinds of verse are given in most treatises on English Prosody, as well as in that universally known work, Murray's Grammar, it is thought unnecessary to repeat them here.

Although English verse is said to consist of Iambics, Trochees, &c., which would seem to imply that it depends on the quantity or length of the syllable for its structure, yet, as has been already observed, the actual length of the syllable, as long, or short, has comparatively little to do with the measurement of the verse, this depending on the accent, which answers the purpose of quantity in the

ancient languages. Also for the sake of euphony, and to prevent a disagreeable tone, which would necessarily arise, some liberty is allowed with regard to the placing of the accents, wherefore an Iambic or Trochaic verse, for instance, is not formed of pure Iambuses or Trochees, nor is the accent uniformly laid on each alternate syllable. This will be evident from the following lines, which are of the heroic measure, each line being supposed to consist of five Iambuses, or of ten syllables, alternately short and long:

Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise!
Exalt thy towery head, and lift thy eyes!
See a long race thy spacious courts adorn,

See future sons and daughters, yet unborn,

In reading the above extract, it will be perceived that the first syllable "rise," is long, both by accent and quantity, as also "see," in the third and fourth lines, whereas, if the verse consisted of pure Iambuses, these syllables would be short. "Head" and " lift," in the second line, are short, by quantity, but they are made long by accent. The first foot in the first line, therefore, becomes a spondee, while the first foot in the third line is a trochee. Other variations, of a similar kind, cannot fail to strike the ear of the reader, in perusing this extract, or any other piece of good poetry; and blank verse will be found to possess this apparent irregularity more that rhyme. It is to the skilful and judicious syllabic arrangement, that the beauty and excellence of poetry, in great measure, depends: when the subject is of a peculiarly dignified character, the verse should consist principally of long syllables; when it is of a lively nature, or when impetuosity and rapidity of movement are to be expressed, the verse should be chiefly composed of short syllables.

The Greek and Latin hexameter has an advantage over modern poetry, in this respect, as its length may vary from thirteen to seventeen syllables, whereas the number of syl