got his rhime, unless from the Gothic conquerors of the empire, as the Romans were confessedly ignorant of it. I would answer, in all probability from the Celtic races; who appear to have retained no small portion of their language, even amid all the degradation of Roman and Gothic servitude. The earliest poems of the Irish have final rhime, and we know that the Welsh used it, at least as early as the sixth century. Some of the Welsh poems have a rhythm strongly resembling that of the early Romance poems. Final rhime is found in both, and was in all probability derived from one common source. A second reason, that has led me to this opinion, is the peculiar flow of Anglo-Saxon verse. Final rhime has been called a " time-beater;" it separates each verse from the others by a strongly marked boundary, and has ever a tendency to make the sense accommodate itself to these artificial pauses. We find this to be the case even in those alliterative poems, which were written after final rhime had been introduced among us. The verse generally ends with the line, as if the new rhythm had completely overspread the language. But in the Anglo-Saxon rhythms, we find the sense running from line to line, and even preferring a pause in the midst of a verse. I incline therefore to think, though the subject is one of difficulty, that final rhime first originated with the Celtic races, that it was early transferred to the Latin, and from thence came gradually into our own language. The only final rhime, that has been tolerated in our language, is of the sixth kind, or that which requires a correspondence both in the vowels and final consonants. This law is not always observed in those specimens of final rhime, which have come down to us from the AngloSaxons. We do not always find the vowel sounds identical, nor the final consonants always corresponding. But when we remember that these verses have never more than three accents, that they are subject to the law of alliteration, and sometimes also contain internal rhime, that the rhiming syllables, moreover, are sometimes as many as eight or nine in number, we may see reason rather to admire the skill of the poet, than to blame his negligence. When, however, the verse was lengthened and alliteration banished, we had a fair right to expect greater caution, and very rarely indeed does Chaucer disappoint us. His rhimes are, for the most part, strictly correct. The writers who succeeded him seem to have been misled by the spirit of imitation. Many syllables, which rhimed in the days of Chaucer and Gower, had no longer a sufficient correspondence, owing to change of pronunciation. Still, however, they were held to be legitimate rhimes upon the authority of these poets. Hence arose a vast and increasing number of conventional rhimes, which have since continued to disfigure our poetry. Pope used them with such profusion, that even Swift remonstrated with him on his carelessness. Another source of these conventional rhimes was the number of dialects, which prevailed during the 15th and 16th centuries. Some of the Elizabethan writers honestly confined themselves to one dialect, and wrote the same language that they spoke. Others, and among them some of our greatest, allowed themselves a wider license, and, when hard-pushed for a rhime, scrupled not at taking it from any dialect which could furnish it. Spenser sinned grievously in this respect, and grievously has he answered for it. He has been accused of altering his spelling to help his rhime! The charge is silly enough, and to a sensible man carries its own refutation with it. In a large proportion of these cases, the word supposed to have been tampered with, is found to be still flourishing in our country dialects. His real offence, however, was a serious one. It introduced a vagueness into our pronunciation, under which the language is still suffering. The following passage from Puttenham may help to make this matter clearer. "There cannot be in a maker a fowler fault than to falsifie his accent to serve his cadence, or by untrue orthographie to wrench his words to help his rime, for it is a sign that such a maker is not copious in his own language, or (as they are wont to say) not half his crafts maister; as for example, if one should rime to this word restore, he may not match him with doore or poore, for neither of both are of like terminant either by good orthographie or by naturall sound, therefore such rime is strained; so is it to this word ram, to say came, or to beane, den, for they sound nor be written alike, and many other like cadences, which were superfluous. to recite, and are usual with rude rimers, who observe not precisely the rules of prosodie. Neverthelesse in all such cases, if necessitie constrains, it is somewhat more tolerable to help the rime by false orthographie, then to leave an unpleasant dissonance to the ear, by keeping true orthographie and losing the rime; as, for example, it is better to rime dore with restore, then in his truer orthographie, which is doore, &c." Notwithstanding some inconsistency of expression, the critic's meaning is, on the whole, tolerably clear. He prefers a spelling and a pronunciation, different from those generally used, to a false rhime. He would have doore spelt and pronounced dore, though such spelling and pronunciation were vulgar and unfashionable, whenever it was made to rhime with restore. It is singular that the provincial pronunciation has now got the upper hand; although we still spell the word door, we pronounce it dore. While upon this subject, it may be observed, that s and th are used in our language, to represent both a whisper and a vocal sound; and these sounds often rhime conventionally. Such rhime may fully satisfy the eye, but it is most offensive to the ear. In the fat age of pleasure, wealth, and ease, Sprung the rank weed, and thrived with large increase. Pope. Essay on Criticism. Soft o'er the shrouds aerial whispers breathe, Pope. Rape of the Lock, The rhiming syllables, we have seen, must have a correspondence between the vowels and the final consonants; but here the correspondence ceases; no perfect rhime can be allowed. Puttenham warns his reader against rhiming such words as constraine and restraine, or aspire and respire; "which rule, neverthelesse, is not well observed by many makers for lacke of good judgment and a delicate ear." It was sometimes violated by Chaucer, and frequently by Pope. The blunders of no writer, however eminent, should weigh with us as authority. The perfect rhime always sounds strangely to the ear, and in some cases most offensively so. The final rhime may be single, double, or triple. In the rhiming Anglo-Saxon poem, above alluded to, we have all the three. Chaucer seems to have preferred the double rhime; the letter e, or some one of its combinations, forming, for the most part, the unaccented syllable. The poets of Elizabeth's reign had no objection to the double rhime; but it was seldom used by Dryden, and still more rarely by Pope. The latter, in Johnson's opinion, was never happy in his double rhimes, excepting once in the Rape of the Lock. The following couplet is, no doubt, alluded to; The meeting points the sacred hair dissever From the fair head for ever and for ever! The triple rhime is properly an appurtenant to the triple measure. In our common measure it is hardly ever found, and seems opposed to the very nature of the rhythm. There are instances indeed, in which the triple rhime closes our common verse of five accents, but it is then always a professed imitation of a foreign model, the sdrucciolo rhime,-as in that stanza of Byron, Oh ye immortal Gods]: what is | theogony? Oh thou too mortal man: what is | philanthropy ? Men become wolves on any slight occasion. Don Juan, 9. 20 The affectation has no other merit than its difficulty. MIDDLE RHIME, or that which exists between the last accented syllables of the two sections, may be considered as the direct offspring of final rhime. In the Anglo-Saxon poem already mentioned, each section rhimes, and becomes to many purposes a distinct verse. But when the rhiming syl lables were confined to the close of what had been the alliterative couplet, this couplet became the verse, and it was then necessary to distinguish between the middle rhime, if any such were introduced, and the regular final rhime, which shut in the verse. This middle rhime was most frequently introduced into verse of four accents. In the stanza of eight and six, as it has been termed, it was very common. In the 16th century it was employed by learned bishops, and on the most sacred subjects; but not with the approbation of Puttenham. That critic was of opinion that "rime or concord is not commendably used both in the end and middle of a verse; unlesse it be in toyes and trifling poesie, for it sheweth a certain lightness either of the matter or of the makers head, albeit these common rimers use it much." The poems of Burns show, that it still keeps its hold upon the people; and Coleridge, who wrote for the few, has used it, and with almost magical effect; |