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Whatever be the faults of his diction, he Cannot want the praise of copiousness and variety he was master of his language in its full extent; and has felected the melodious words with fuch diligence, that from his book alone the Art of English Poetry might be learned.

After his diction, fomething must be said of his verfification. The meafure, he fays, is the English beroick verfe without rhyme. Of this mode he had many examples among the Italians, and fome in his own country. The Earl of Surrey is faid to have tranflated one of Virgil's books without rhyme; and, befides our tragedies, a few fhort poems had appeared in blank verfe; particularly one tending to reconcile the nation to Raleigh's wild attempt upon Guiana, and probably written by Raleigh himself. Thefe petty performances cannot be supposed to have much influenced Milton, who more probably took his hint from Trifino's Italia Liberata; and, finding blank verfe easier than rhyme, was defirous of perfuading himself that it is

better.

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Rhyme,

Rhyme, he fays, and fays truly, is no neceffary adjunct of true poetry. But perhaps, of postry as a mental operation, metre or mufick is no neceffary adjunct: it is however by the mufick of metre that poetry has been difcriminated in all languages; and in languages melodiously constructed with a due proportion of long and short fyllables, metre is fufficient. But one language cannot communicate its rules to another: where metre is fcanty and imperfect, fome help is neceffary. The mu fick of the English heroick line ftrikes the ear fo faintly that it is easily loft, unless all the fyllables of every line co-operate together this co-operation can be only obtained by the preservation of every verfe unmingled with another, as a distinct system of founds; and this diftinctnefs is obtained and preferved by the artifice of rhyme. The variety of pauses, fo much boafted by the lovers of blank verfe, changes the measures of an English poet to the periods of a declaimer; and there are only a few skilful and happy readers of Milton, who enable their audience to perceive where the lines end or begin. Blank

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verfe, faid an ingenious critick, feems to be verfe only to the eye.

Poetry may fubfift without rhyme, but English poetry will not often pleafe; nor can rhyme ever be safely fpared but where the subject is able to fupport itself. Blank verfe makes fome approach to that which is called the lapidary ftyle; has neither the eafiness of profe, nor the melody of numbers, and therefore tires by long continuance. Of the Italian writers without rhyme, whom Milton alleges as precedents, not one is popular;: what reafon could urge in its defence, has, been confuted by the ear.

.

. But, whatever be the advantage of rhyme, I cannot prevail on myself to wish that Milton had been a rhymer; for I cannot wish his work to be other than it is; yet, like other heroes, he is to be admired rather than imitated. He that thinks himself capable of astonishing, may write blank verse; but those that hope only to please, muft condescend to rhyme.

The highest praise of genius is original invention. Milton cannot be faid to have

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contrived the ftructure of an epick poem, and therefore owes reverence to that vigour and amplitude of mind to which all generations muft be indebted for the art of poetical narration, for the texture of the fable, the variation of incidents, the interpofition of dia logue, and all the ftratagems that surprise and enchain attention. But, of all the borrowers from Homer, Milton is perhaps the leaft indebted. He was naturally a thinker for himself, confident of his own abilities, and difdainful of help or hindrance: he did not refuse admiffion to the thoughts or images of his predeceffors, but he did not seek them. From his contemporaries he neither courted nor received fupport; there is in his writings nothing by which the pride of other authors might be gratified, or favour gained; no exchange of praife, nor folicitation of fupport. His great works were performed under discountenance, and in blindness, but difficulties vanifhed at his touch; he was born for whatever is arduous; and his work is not the greatest of heroick poems, only be cause it is not the first.

BUTLER,

BUTLER.

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F the great author of Hudibras there is life prefixed to the later editions of his poem, by an unknown writer, and therefore of difputable authority; and fome account is incidentally given by Wood, who confeffes the uncertainty of his own narrative; more however than they knew cannot now be learned, and nothing remains but to compare and copy them,

SAMUEL BUTLER was born in the parish of Strenfham in Worcestershire, according to his biographer, in 1612. This account Dr. Nash finds confirmed by the regifter. He was christened Feb. 1 34

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