race, are evidently unfounded. With respect to one of those suppositions, which derives it from the Arabians, it may not be unimportant to observe a singular circumstance in contradiction to it, that the earliest redondillas or romances of the Spaniards, who had most connexion with that ingenious people, are without rhyme, except such as arises incidentally from the many words in the language which have similar terminations 22. Rhyme was enumerated by the Greek and Roman rhetoricians amongst the figures of elegant language 23: but their orators and writers had too much taste often to adopt such affected ornaments in their prose compositions. In the best poets of Greece and Rome, innumerable examples may be found of it, yet it occurs too seldom to have been considered as any very essential ornament. The unknown author of the treatise on the poetry of Homer, sometimes attributed to Plutarch, says expressly, that similarity of termination, or rhyme, was a figure used by him, and that it contributes greatly to the 22 Depping. Sammlung der alten Spanischen Romanzen. Einleitung, p. xiii. 23 Aristot. Rhet. Lib. III. ch. 9. Quintil. Lib. IX. ch. iii. Dionys. Hal, etc. Muratori, Antiq. Ital. vol. iii. dissert. 40. col. 685. grace and beauty of a poem. He gives many examples: as, Χρὴ ξεῖνον παρεόντα φιλεῖν, ἐθέλοντα δὲ πέμπειν24. It is to be found in the tragedians, though rarely, as in Sophocles: Ἐπιβαίνοντες, τὸ μὲν εἴπωμεν τὸ δ ̓ ἀκούσωμεν, καὶ μὴ χρείᾳ πολεμῶμεν25. Αἴρετ', οπαδοί, μεγάλην μὲν ἐμοὶ τούτων θέμενοι ξυγγνωμοσύνην, μεγάλην δὲ θεοῖς ἀγνωμοσύνην 26. 24 Ὑπάρχει δὲ ὁμοιοτέλευτον σχῆμα παρ' αὐτῷ, ἐν ᾧ τὰ κῶλα εἰς ὁμοίας τῶν ἤχων λέξεις τελευτᾷ, τὰς αὐτὰς συλλαβὰς ἐν τοῖς πέρασιν ἔχοντα. -Καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα μάλιστα προστί θησι τῷ λόγῳ χάριν καὶ ἡδονήν. Edit. Ernesti, Hom. Opera, vol. v. p. 168. Upon a cursory perusal of the Iliad I have found the following, besides many other imperfect rhymes: A. 220. B. 484. A. 382. E. 239. 529, 530. 865. Z. 232. 236. A. 105. M. 274. E. 10, 11. II. 86. Σ. 555. 606. T. 143. p. 239. In the Odyssey, A. 40. 397. 0.224. K. 425. M. 70. E. 199. II. 353. Φ. 90. Χ. 324. 25 Adip. in Col. 177. 26 Trachin. 1227. καὶ μὴ δοκῶμεν, δρῶντες ἂν ἡδώμεθα, * μνημονεύεις οὖν, ἅ σοι παρήνεσα; The modern Greek verses rhyme like those of other European countries. From the many instances which occur in the fragments of Ennius and other ancient poets, it seems not improbable that rhyme constituted an essential part of the primitive poetry of Rome, and that it was borrowed from the Fescennina Licentia of the country people, who enlivened their harvest-homes by abusing each other in alternate verse 29. Cicero has quoted the following lines from Ennius, or some other old poet : and, Cœlum nitescere-arbores frondescere. Non cauponantes-bellum, sed belligerantes ". Even in the more polished poets it occurs frequently. A few specimens may suffice: In Ovid; quite in the Leonine monkish style: Quot cœlum stellas, tot habet Roma puellas. In Propertius: Non non humani sunt partûs talia dona, Horace : Nox erat, et cœlo-fulgebat luna sereno, Inter minora sidera. Cum tu, magnorum-numen læsura deorum, Again : Non satis est pulchra esse poemata, dulcia sunto, Virgil: Illum indignanti-similem, similemque minanti. But although occasional rhyme was considered as 32 Cic. Off. Lib. I. C a poetical beauty, and many examples of it were to be met with in the times of classical purity, the proper Latin poetry of which it formed a regular and constituent part, was the invention of the middle ages. Whether its introduction was accelerated, or derived its origin from any of the vernacular languages, I will not pretend to say, as I think we have not sufficient materials to decide: but I shall observe that, in point of fact, there are no poems extant in any of the modern European languages of equal antiquity with the rhyming Latin verses, unless perhaps in some of the Celtic dialects. But there is no necessity to resort to this supposition. Rhyme being already well known in the Latin language, many circumstances naturally occasioned its more extensive use. As the language degenerated in purity, as the tone of literature was debased, false ornaments, antithesis, puns, and rhyme, became more usual in prose writers, particularly the ecclesiastics. Cyprian, Sidonius Apollinaris, Cassiodorus, and Augustine, abound with them. As the genuine spirit of poetry evaporated, poets gradually substituted other contrivances to maintain their distinguishing character. The name of Leonine, given to these verses, was derived not from any supposed resemblance to a lion, but from Leonius, or Leoninus, a canon of the |