cond, fourth, and other even syllables; the odd syllables being un-accented. But the number of pure duce the dactylic metre, as witness the following curious sample. o Phărăch, măy wě gõ ? Phẳrăch said,“ Găng, ăn yẽ cần găng” but it did not succeed. Nor was it more successful in France, where it was also attempted about the same period; though it appears to somewhat less disadvantage in the following specimen—a translation from Martial, 8, 21— Aūbě, rěbāillě lě joūr: pourquoi nōtre āisě rětiēns-tú? Cēsăr dōit rěvěnīr: aūbě, rēbāillě lě jōur. · un An elegant and ingenious poet of the present day has, in one of his sportive moments, made a new attempt at English dactylics, without rbime: but he unfortunately chose one of those English" forms of the dactylic, in which he could not reasonably hope for success; and, though his other poems will undoubtedly pass to posterity with applause, I venture to predict that his dactylics will not find many admirers or imitators. Captain Morris, bowever, has, with ludicrous felicity, employed rhimed dactylics in some of his pieces: but neither will he, I presume, have many imitators: for, as the metre in question consists entirely of dactyls, if we wish to render it in any degree tolerable to an English ear, we must close the verse with a trisyllabic rhime, as thundering, wondering-sociěty, notoriety; it being necessary, as I have before observed, that the rhime should always begin on an accented syllable: and what one of a thousand poets will have the patience to seek, or the ingenuity to find, a sufficient number of such rhimes? Besides, this triplicate rhime, however well it may occasionally be suited to light, careless, jocular compositions, would leave our dactylics wholly destitute of poetic dignity and grace. There are, however, two forms of the dactylic metre, which our language might very well admit, the one consisting of two, and the other of three dactyls, followed, in each case, by an Iambics, found in the writings of our poets, bears a small proportion to that of the mixed Iambics, in whose composition are admitted other feet besides the 'Iambus, as I shall hereafter show; contenting myself accented syllable. Thus constituted, they would be exactly equivalent, to anapæstics deprived of the first semi-foot, as will appear by the following exemplification- Anapastic We speak of the pō-l-ets, who choose, for their lay, The me--tre dacty--lc, so live-l-ly ǎnd gãy— The pō--ěts, who choose, | for their | lay, A me--tre so live--ly and gay Dactylic Speak of the poets, who choose, for their | lãy, Poets, who choose, for their | lay, and indeed I have, in different poems, seen some odd verses of the kind accidentally interspersed among anapæstics; though I 'did not think them worthy of notice, accounting them only as imperfect anapæstics; which, in fact, they were, since it was for anapæstics that the writers had intended them. But, if adopted as a distinct and independent metre, and professedly used as such, I conceive that the longer of the two measures could, hardly fail to command the approbation of the public. At the same time, however, I foresee that the poet who adopts either of them, will find sufficient exercise for his patience and ingenuity, from the difficulty of always finding an accented emphatic syllable for the beginning of his line, where Or, For, To, In, And, or some equally undignified monosyllable, will often importunately obtrude itself for admission: and, from this circumstance, he will frequently find apapastic lines steal in un-observed among his dactylics, as Iambic lines steal in upon writers who are.composing in Trochaïcs.-See " Trochaïc." meanwhile with describing the different kinds as pure Iambics. The following rude line of fourteen monosyllables How blithe when first from far I came, to woo ănd win thẻ mãid— contains an exemplification of all the regular forms of English Iambics, amounting to seven, viz. How blithe, when first from far I came, to woo and win the maid. When first from far I came, to woo and win the maid. From far I came, to woo and win the maid. I came to woo and win the maid. To woo and win the maid. And win the maid. The maid. and, with the addition of the un-accented syllable EN at the end of each, to convert Maid into Maiden, it will moreover furnish seven hypermeters-in all, fourteen forms of the Iambic *. The seven regular forms are likewise found in the following lines †.— Behold, How short a span Was long enough, of old, To measure out the life of man. In those well-temper'd days, his time was then Survey'd, cast up, and found but three-score years and ten: And yet, though brief, how few would wish to live their term again! * To which if we add the six regular forms of Trochaïc, and six more with the additional syllable, this same line will serve to exemplify twenty-six different forms of English metre, consist ing of alternate long and short syllables.-See "Trochaïc." + The first six of these lines are a stanza of a curious old poen, published in the Lady's Magazine for 1806, page 556-the se Iambic of seven feet, or fourteen syllables. and thrice he rout--ed all | his foes, and thrice (Dryden. He slew the slain. This is the old English ballad-measure, and was originally intended for a single verse, as appears by the following line of Cowley, which has not the casura after the eighth syllable, but which, on that account, is certainly less pleasing to the earThe vessel breaks, and out the wretched reliques rūn ǎt last. It was indeed usual to make the cæsura take place between the eighth and ninth syllables, as we see in our old ballads, and likewise in our metrical version of the Psalms not again The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran, || to chase the fallow deer(Chevy Chase. Behold, the wicked borrows much, and payeth (Psalms. from which circumstance, it became easy to divide the line into two verses, and thus convert each distich into a tetrastich stanza, as modern writers have done, sometimes without and sometimes with rhime to the first and third lines, as Before the pond'rous earthly globe In fluid air was stay'd, venth, an extempore supplement of my own, added merely for the purpose of exemplification. Before the ocean's mighty springs Their liquid stores display'd..............(Mrs. Rowe. But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast. The breath of heav'n must swell the sail; Or all the toil is lost. (Cowper. When written with only a single pair of rhimes, as in the former of these examples, it is by far the most easy and convenient metre in the English language, not only because it has the fewest rhimes, but because, in that simple and homely form, it admits a certain degree of quaintness, a familiar simplicity of thought and diction, which would hardly be allowable in any other species of verse.. But, when it is furnished with two pair of rhimes, as in the latter example, it commonly assumes a higher character, refuses to stoop so low in quaintness of idea and language, and may, from the great frequency of its rhimes, be considered as one of the most difficult of our metres. There sometimes occurs, in old ballads, a variety of this metre, which I should not have deemed worthy of notice, if it had not been studiously adopted by some polished writers, who have thus given to it a degree of consequence, which otherwise it never would have enjoyed *. The variation con I purposely omit, in the following pages, several wild irregular violations of metre, occurring particularly in songs written |