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Of Poetical plan has been followed in narrative odes and ballads Arrange- both ancient and modern. The historian pursues a ment, &c. different method. He begins perhaps with an account of the manners of a certain age, and of the political constitution of a certain country; then introduces a particular person, gives the story of his birth, connections, private character, pursuits, disappointments, and of the events that promoted his views, and brought him acquainted with other turbulent spirits like himself; and so proceeds, unfolding, according to the order of time, the causes, principles, and progress of the conspiracy, if that be the subject which he undertakes to illustrate. It cannot be denied, that this latter method is more favourable to calm information: but the former, compared with it, will be found to have all the advantages already specified, and to be more effectually productive of that mental pleasure which depends on the passions and imagination.

35 Unity of design necessary to

the higher poetry.

II. If a work have no determinate end, it has no meaning; and if it have many ends, it will distract by it multiplicity. Unity of design, therefore, belongs in some measure, to all compositions, whether in verse or prose. But to some it is more essential than to others; and to none so much as in the higher poetry. In certain kinds of history, there is unity sufficient if all the events recorded be referred to one person; in others, if to one period of time, or to one people, or even to the inhabitants of one and the same planet. But it is not enough that the subject of a poetical fable be the exploits of one person; for these may be of various and even of opposite sorts and tendencies, and take up longer time than the nature of poetry can admit :-far less can a regular poem comprehend the affairs of one period or of one people :-it must be limited to one great action or event, to the illustration of which all the subordinate events must contribute; and these must be so connected with one another, as well as with the poet's general purpose, that one cannot be changed, transposed, or taken away, without affecting the consistence and stability of the whole *. In itself an incident may be intePoct. 8. teresting, a character well drawn, a description beautiful; and yet, if it disfigure the general plan, or if it obstruct or encumber the main action, instead of helping it forward, a correct artist would consider it but as a gaudy superfluity or splendid deformity; like a piece of scarlet cloth sewed upon a garment of a different colourt. Hor. Ar. Not that all the parts of the fable either are, or can be, equally essential. Many descriptions and thoughts, of little consequence to the plan, may be admitted for the sake of variety and the poet may, as well as the historian and philosopher, drop his subject for a time, in order to take up an affecting or instructive digression.

* Arist.

Poct. v. 15.

& c.

36

The pro

:

III. The doctrine of poetical digressions and episodes priety of has been largely treated by the critics. We shall here digressions only remark, that, in estimating their propriety, three things are to be attended to:-their connection with sodes de- the fable or subject; their own peculiar excellence ; and pends upon their subserviency to the poet's design.

and epi

37 their connection

with the subject of

(1.) Those digressions that both arise from and termi. nate in the subject, like the episode of the angel Raphael in Paradise Lost, and the transition to the death of Cæsar and the civil wars in the first book of the

the poem. Georgic, are the most artful, and if suitably executed, claim the highest praise :-those that arise from, but do not terminate in, the subject, are perhaps second in the

38

39

the poet's

order of merit; like the story of Dido in the Æneid, of Poetical and the encomium on a country life in the second book Arrange. of the Georgic: those come next that terminate in, but ment, &c. do not rise from, the fable; of which there are several in the third book of the Eneid and in the Odyssey: and those that neither terminate in the fable nor rise from it are the least artful; and if they be long, cannot escape censure, unless their beauty be very great. But (2.) we are willing to excuse a beautiful episode Their own at whatever expence to the subject it may be introduced. peculiar exThey who can blame Virgil for obtruding upon them ceilence, the charming tale of Orpheus and Euridice in the fourth and Georgic, or Milton for the apostrophe to light in the beginning of this third book, ought to forfeit all title to the perusal of good poetry; for of such divine strains one would rather be the author than of all the books of criticism in the world. Yet still it is better that an episode possess the beauty of connection, together with its own intrinsic elegance, than this without the other. Moreover, in judging of the propriety of episodes and their subother similar contrivances, it may be expedient to attend serviency to (3.) to the design of the poet, as distinguished from the design. fable or subject of the poem. The great design, for example, of Virgil, was to interest his countrymen in a poem written with a view to reconcile them to the person and government of Augustus. Whatever, therefore, in the poem tends to promote this design, even though it should in some degree hurt the contexture of the fable, is really a proof of the poet's judgment; and may be not only allowed, but applauded. The progress of the action of the Æncid may seem to be too long obstructed in one place by the story of Dido, which, though it rises from the preceding part of the poem, has no influence upon the sequel: and, in another, by the episode of Cacus, which, without injury to the fable, might have been omitted altogether. Yet these episodes, interesting as they are to us and all mankind because of the transcendant merit of the poetry, must have been still more interesting to the Romans because of their connection with the Roman affairs; for the one accounts poetically for their wars with Carthage; and the other not only explains some of their religious ceremonies, but also gives a most charming rural picture of those hills and valleys in the neighbourhood of the Tiber, on which, in after times, their majestic city was fated to stand.-And if we consider, that the design of Homer's Iliad was not. only to show the fatal effects of dissension among confederates, but also to immortalize his country, and celebrate the most distinguished families in it, we shall be inclined to think more favourably than critics generally do of some of his long speeches and digressions; which, though to us they may seem trivial, must have been very interesting to his countrymen on account of the genealo gies and private history recorded in them.-Shakespeare's historical plays, considered as dramatic fables, and tried. by the laws of tragedy and comedy, appear very rude compositions; but if we attend to the poet's design (as the elegant critic has with equal truth and beauty ex+ Essays on plained it), we shall be forced to admire his judgmenting and in the general conduct of those pieces, as well as un- genius of equalled success in the execution of particular parts. Shakes

writ

There is yet another point of view in which these di- peare, gressions may be considered. If they tend to elucidate P. 55. any important character, or to introduce any interesting event not otherwise within the compass of the poem, or

to

Of Poetical to give an amiable display of any particular virtue, they Language, may be intitled, not to our pardon only, but even to our admiration, however loosely they may hang upon the fable. All these three ends are effected by that most beautiful episode of Hector and Andromache in the sixth book of the Iliad ; and the two last, by the no less beautiful one of Euryalus and Nisus in the ninth book of the Æneid.

Arist. Poct.

IV. And now, from the position formerly established, that the end of this divine art is to give pleasure, it has been endeavoured to prove, that, whether in displaying the appearances of the material universe, or in imitating the workings of the human mind, and the varieties of human character, or in arranging and combining into one whole the several incidents and parts whereof his fable consists, the aim of the poet must be to copy nature, not as it is, but in that state of perfection in which, consistently with the particular genius of the work, and the laws of verisimilitude, it may be suppo

sed to be.

Such, in general, is the nature of that poetry which is intended to raise admiration, pity, and other serious emotions. But in this art, as in all others, there are different degrees of excellence; and we have hitherto directed our view chiefly to the highest. All serious poets are not equally solicitous to improve nature. Euripides is said to have represented men as they were; Sophocles, more poetically, as they should or might be*. Theocritus in his Idyls, and Spenser in his Shepherd's Calendar, give us language and sentiments more nearly approaching those of the Rus verum et barba + Martial. rumt, than what we meet with in the Pastorals of Virgil and Pope. In the historical drama, human characters and events must be according to historical truth, or at least not so remote from it as to lead into any important misapprehension of fact. And in the historical epic poem, such as the Pharsalia of Lucan, and the Campaign of Addison, the historical arrangement is preferred Nature al- to the poetical, as being nearer the truth. Yet nature ways to be is a little improved even in these poems. The persons improved by the poet, in Shakespeare's historical plays, and the heroes of the though Pharsalia, talk in verse, and suitably to their characters, and with a readiness, beauty, and harmony of expression, not to be met with in real life, nor even in history: speeches are invented, and, to heighten the descrip tion, circumstances added, with great latitude: real events are rendered more compact and more strictly dependent upon one another; and fictitious ones brought in, to elucidate human characters and diversify the nar

40

try fails short of

this per

ration.

The more poetry improves nature, by copying after general ideas collected from extensive observation, the more it partakes (according to Aristotle) of the nature of philosophy, the greater stretch of fancy and of observation it requires in the artist, the better chance it has to be universally agreeable.

Yet poetry, when it falls short of this perfection, may when poe have great merit as an in-trument of both instruction and pleasure. To most men, simple unadorned nature is, at certain times, and in certain compositions, more fection it agreeable than the most elaborate improvemen s of art; may have as a plain short period, without modulation, gives a great me rit in other pleasing variety to a discourse. Many snch portraits of respects. simple nature there are in the subordinate parts both of

5

Homer's and of Virgil's poetry: and an excellent effect of Poetical they have in giving probability to the fiction, as well as Language, in gratifying the reader's fancy with images distinct and lively, and easily comprehended. The historical plays of Shakespeare raise not our pity and terror to such a height as Lear, Macbeth, or Othello; but they interest and instruct us greatly notwithstanding. The rudest of the eclogues of Theocritus, or even of Spenser, have by some authors been extolled above those of Virgil, because more like real life. Nay, Corneille is known to have preferred the Pharsalia to the Æneid, perhaps from its being nearer the truth, or perhaps from the sublime sentiments of stoical morality so forcibly and so ostentatiously displayed in it.

Poets may refine upon nature too much as well as too little; for affectation and rusticity are equally remote from true elegance. The style and sentiments of comedy should no doubt be more correct and more pointed than those of the most polite conversation: but to make every footman a wit, and every gentleman and lady an epigrammatist, as Congreve has done, is an excessive and faulty refinement. The proper medium has been hit by Menander and Terence, by Shakespeare in his happier scenes, and by Garrick, Cimberland, and some others of late renown. To describe the passion of love with as little delicacy as some men speak of it would be unpardonable; but to transform it into mere Platonic adoration is to run into another extreme, less criminal indeed, but too remote from universal truth to be universally interesting. To the former extreme Ovid inclines, and Petrarch and his imitators to the latter. Virgil has hap pily avoided both: but Milton has painted this passion as distinct from all others, with such peculiar truth and beauty, that we cannot think Voltaire's encomium too high, when he says, that love in all other poetry seems a weakness, but in Paradise Lost a virtue. There are many good strokes of nature in Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd; but the author's passion for the rus verum betrays him into some indelicacies: a censure that falls with greater weight upon Theocritus, who is often absolutely indecent. The Italian pastoral of Tasso and Guarini, and the French of Fontenelle, run into the opposite extreme (though in some parts beautifully simple), and display a system of rural manners so quaint and affected as to outrage all probability. In fine, though mediocrity of execution in poetry be allowed to deserve the doom pronounced upon it by Horace; yet it is true, notwithstanding, that in this art, as in many other good things, the point of excellence lies in a middle between two extremes; and has been reached by those only who sought to improve nature as far as the genius of their work would permit, keeping at an equal distance from rusticity on the one hand and affected elegance on the other.

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盛豐

Of Poetical

Language. 1. Of Poetical Language considered as SIGNificant.

The lan

43 If, as it has been endeavoured to prove, poetry be guage of imitative of nature, poetical fictions of real events, poe poetry an tical images of real appearances in the visible creation, imitation and poetical personages of real human characters; it of the lan- would seem to follow, that the language of poetry must be an imitation of the language of nature.

guage of

nature,

* Essays,

Part ii.

chap. I.

According to Dr Beattie, that language is natural

which is suited to the speaker's condition, character, and circumstances. And as, for the most part, the images and sentiments of serious poetry are copied from the images and sentiments, not of real, but of improved, nature; so the language of serious poetry must (as hinted already) be a transcript, not of the real language of nature, which is often dissonant and rude, but of natural improved language improved as far as may be consistent with probability, and with the supposed character of the speaker. sistent with If this be not the case, if the language of poetry be such probability, only as we hear in conversation or read in history, it

44

as far as

may be con

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&e.

45 All lan

guages

will, instead of delight, bring disappointment: because it will fall short of what we expect from an art which is recommended rather by its pleasurable qualities than by its intrinsic utility; and to which, in order to render it pleasing, we grant higher privileges than to any other kind of literary composition, or any other mode of human language.

The next inquiry must therefore be, "What are those improvements that peculiarly belong to the language of poetry?" And these may be comprehended under two heads; poetical words, and tropes and figures.

Art. I. Of Poetical WORDS.

One mode of improvement peculiar to poetical diction results from the use of those words and phrases which, because they rarely occur in prose, and frequently in verse, are by the grammarian and lexicographer termed poetical. In these some languages abound more than others but no language perhaps is altogether without have words them, and perhaps no language can be so in which any peculiar to number of good poems have been written for poetry is poetry. better remembered than prose, especially by poetical authors, who will always be apt to imitate the phraseology of those they have been accustomed to read and admire; and thus, in the works of poets down through successive generations, certain phrases may have been conveyed, which, though originally perhaps in common use, are now confined to poetical composition. Prose writers are not so apt to imitate one another, at least in words and phrases, both because they do not so well remember one another's phraseology, and also because their language is less artificial, and must not, if they would make it easy and flowing (without which it cannot be elegant), depart essentially from the style of correct conversation. Poets, too, on account of the greater difficulty of their numbers, have, both in the choice and in the arrangement of words, a better claim to indulgence, and stand more in need of a discretionary power.

The language of Homer differs materially from what was written and spoken in Greece in the days of Socrates. It differs in the mode of inflection, it differs in the syntax, it differs even in the words: so that one might read Homer with ease who could not read Xenophon; or Xenophon, without being able to read HoVOL. XVI. Part II.

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mer. Yet we cannot believe that Homer, or the first Of Poetical Greek poet who wrote in his style, would make choice Words. of a dialect quite different from what was intelligible in his own time for poets have in all ages written with a view to be read, and to be read with pleasure; which they could not be if their diction were hard to be understood. It is more reasonable to suppose that the language of Homer is according to some ancient dialect, which, though not perhaps in familiar use among the Greeks at the time he wrote, was however intelligible. From the Homeric to the Socratic age, a period had elapsed of no less than 400 years; during which the style both of discourse and of writing must have undergone great alterations. Yet the Iliad continued the standard of heroic poetry, and was considered as the very perfection of poetical language; notwithstanding that some words in it were become so antiquated, or so ambiguous, that Aristotle himself seems to have been somewhat doubtful in regard to their meaning t. And Poetic. if Chaucer's merit as a poet had been as great as Ho- cap. 25. mer's, and the English tongue under Edward III. as perfect as the Greek was in the second century after the Trojan war, the style of Chaucer would probably have been our model for poetical diction at this day; even as Petrarch, his contemporary, is still imitated by the best poets of Italy.

The rudeness of the style of Ennius has been imputed by the old critics to his having copied too closely the dialect of common life. But this appears to be a mistake. For if we compare the fragments of that author with the comedies of Plautus, who flourished in the same age, and whose language was certainly copied from that of common life, we shall be struck with an air of antiquity in the former that is not in the latter. Ennius, no doubt, like most other sublime poets, affected something of the antique in his expression: and many of his words and phrases, not adopted by any prose writer now extant, are to be found in Lucretius and Virgil, and 46 were by them transmitted to succeeding poets. These The poetiform part of the Roman poetical dialect; which appears different from the writings of Virgil, where we have it in perfec- from that tion, to have been very copious. The style of this of prose, charming poet is indeed so different from prose, and is altogether so peculiar, that it is perhaps impossible to analyse it on the common principles of Latin grammar. And yet no author can be more perspicuous or more expressive; notwithstanding the frequency of Grecism in his syntax, and his love of old words, which he, in the judgment of Quintilian, knew better than any other man how to improve into decoration ||.

cal dialect

Instit.

della lite

The poetical dialect of modern Italy is so different viii. 3. § 3. from the prosaic, that persons who can read the historians, and even speak with tolerable fluency the language of that country, may yet find it difficult to construe a page of Petrarch or Tasso. Yet it is not probable, that Petrarch, whose works are a standard of the Italian poetical diction §, made any material innova-Vicende tions in his native tongue. It is rather probable that 1atura del he wrote it nearly as it was spoken in bis time, that is, Denina, in the 14th century; omitting only harsh combinations, cap. 4. and taking that liberty which Homer probably, and Virgil certainly, took before him, of reviving such old but not obsolete expressions, as seemed peculiarly significant and melodious; and polishing his style to that degree of elegance which human speech, without beco5 E

ming

Of Poetical ming unnatural, may admit of, and which the genius Words. of poetry, as an art subservient to pleasure, may be thought to require.

47 Phrases in English poetry not usual in

prose.

The French poetry in general is distinguished from prose rather by the rhime and the measure, than by any old or uncommon phraseology. Yet the French, on certain subjects, imitate the style of their old poets, of Marot in particular; and may therefore be said to have something of a poetical dialect, though far less extensive than the Italian, or even than the English. And it may be presumed, that in future ages they will have more of this dialect than they have at present. This may be inferred from the very uncommon merit of some of their late poets, particularly Boileau and La Fontaine, who, in their respective departments, will continue to be imitated, when the present modes of French prose are greatly changed: an event that, for all the pains they take to preserve their language, must inevitably happen, and whereof there are not wanting some presages already.

The English poetical dialect is not characterised by any peculiarities of inflection, nor by any great latitude in the use of foreign idioms. More copious it is, however, than one would at first imagine; as may appear from the following specimen and observations.

(1.) A few Greek and Latin idioms are common in English poetry, which are seldom or never to be met with in prose. QUENCHED OF HOPE. Shakespeare.SHORN OF HIS BEAMS. Milton.-Created thing NOR VALUED HE NOR SHUN'D. Milton.-'Tis thus we riot, while WHO SOW IT STARVE. Pope.-This day BE BREAD AND PEACE MY LOT. Pope.-INTO WHAT PIT THOU SEE'ST FROM WHAT HEIGHT FALLEN. Milton. He deceived the mother of mankind. WHAT TIME HIS PRIDE HAD CAST HIM out of heaven. Milton.-Some of these, with others to be found in Milton, seem to have been adopted for the sake of brevity, which in the poetical tongue is indispensable. For the same reason, perhaps the articles a and the are sometimes omitted by our poets, though less frequently in serious than burlesque composition.In English, the adjective generally goes before the substantive, the nominative before the verb, and the active verb before (what we call) the accusative. Exceptions,, however, to this rule, are not uncommon even in prose. But in poetry they are more frequent. Their homely joys, and DESTINY OBSCURE. Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight; and all the air a solemn stillness holds. In general, that versification may be less difficult, and the cadence more uniformly pleasing; and sometimes, too, in order to give energy to expression, or vivacity to an image, the English poet is permitted to take much greater liberties than the prose writer, in arranging his words, and modulating his lines and periods. Examples may be seen in every page of Paradise Lost.

(2.) Some of our poetical words take an additional syllable, that they may suit the verse the better; as, dispart, distain, disport, affright, enchain, for part, stain, sport, fright, chain. Others seem to be nothing else than common words made shorter, for the convenience of the versifier. Such are, auxiliar, sublunar, trump, vale, part, clime, submiss, frolic, plain, drear, dread, helm, morn, mead, eve and even, gan, illume and illumine, ope, hoar, bide, swage, scape; for auxiliary, sublunary, trumpet, valley, depart, climate, submissive, frolic

some, complain, dreary, dreadful, helmet, morning, mea- Of Poeties dow, evening, began or began to, illuminate, open, hoa. Words. ry, abide, assuage, escape.- -Ofsome ofthese the short form is the more ancient. In Scotland, even, mora, bide, swage, are still in vulgar use; but morn, except when contradistinguished to even, is synonymous, not with morning (as in the English poetical dialect), but with morrow. The Latin poets, in a way somewhat similar, and perhaps for a similar reason, shortened fundamentum, tutamentum, munimentum, &c. into fundamen, tutamen, munimen.

(3.) Of the following words, which are now almost peculiar to poetry, the greater part are ancient, and were once no doubt in common use in England, as many of them still are in Scotland. Afield, amain, annoy (a noun), anon, aye (ever), behest, blithe, brand (sword), bridal, carol, dame (lady), featly, fell (an adjective), gaude, gore, host (army), lambkin, late (of late), lay (poem), lea, glade, gleam, hurl, lore, meed, orisons, plod, (to travel laboriously), ringlet, rue (a verb), ruth, ruthless, sojourn (a noun), smite, speed (an active verb), save (except), spray (twig), steed, strain (song), strand, swain, thrall, thrill, trail (a verb), troll, wail, weiter, warble, wayward, woo, the while (in the mean time), you, of yore.

(4.) These that follow are also poetical; but, so far as appears, were never in common use. Appal, arrowy, attune, battailous, breezy, car, (chariot), clarion, cates, courser, darkling, flicker, floweret,emblaze,gairish,circlet, impearl, nightly, noiseless, pinion (wing), shadou y, slumberous, streamy, troublous, wilder (a verb), shrill (a verb), shook (shaken), madding, viewless.-The following, too, derived from the Greek and Latin, seem peculiar to poetry. Clang, clangor, choral, bland, boreal, dire, ensanguined, ire, ireful, lave, (to wash), nymph, (lady, girl), orient, panoply, philomil, infuriate, jocund, radiant, rapt, redolent, refulgent, verdant, cez nal, zephyr, zone (girdle), sylvan, suffuse.

(5.) In most languages, the rapidity of pronunciation abbreviates some of the commonest words, or even joins two, or perhaps more, of them, into one; and some of these abbreviated forms find admission into writing. The English language was quite disfigured by them in the end of the last century; but Swift, by his satire and example brought them into disrepute : and, though some of them be retained in conversation, as don't, shan't, can't, they are now avoided in solemn style; and by elegant writers in general, except where the colloquial dialect is imitated, as in comedy. 'Tis and 'twas, since the time of Shaftesbury, seem to have been daily losing credit, at least in prose; but still have a place in poetry, perhaps because they contribute to conciseness. 'Twas on a lofty vase's side. Gray.-'Tis true, 'tis certain, man, though dead, retains part of himself. Pope. In verse too, over may be shortened into o'er, (which is the Scotch, and probably was the old English pronunciation); never into ne'er; and from the and to, when they go before a word beginning with a vowel, the final letter is sometimes cut off. O'er hills, o'er dales,o'er crags, o'er rocks they go. Pope.-Where'er she turns, the Graces homage pay. And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave. Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll. Gray.—T'alarm th' eternal midnight of the graveThese abbreviations are now peculiar to the poetical tongue, but not necessary to it. They

sometimes

Of Poetical Sometimes promote brevity, and render versification less Words. difficult.

45 to be used

(6.) Those words which are commonly called compound epithets, as rosy-finger'd, rosy-bosom'd, manytwinkling, many-sounding, moss-grown, bright-eyed, straw-built, spirit-stirring, incense-breathing, heaventaught, love-whispering, lute-resounding, are also to be considered as part of our poetical dialect. It is true, we have compounded adjectives in familiar use, as high-seasoned, well-natured, ill-bred, and innumerable others. But we speak of those that are less common, that seldom occur except in poetry, and of which in prose the use would affected. And that they sometimes proappear sparingly; mote brevity and vivacity of expression, cannot be denied. But as they give, when too frequent, a stiff and finical air to a performance; as they are not always explicit in the sense, nor agreeable in the sound; as they are apt to produce a confusion, or too great a multiplicity, of images; as they tend to disfigure the language, and furnish a pretext for endless innovation; they ought to be used sparingly; and those only used which the practice of popular authors has rendered familiar to the ear, and which are in themselves peculiarly emphatical and harmonious.

(7.) In the transformation of nouns into verbs and participles, our poetical dialect admits of greater latitude than prose. Hymn, pillow, curtain, story, pillar, picture, peal, surge, cavern, honey, career, cincture, bosom, sphere, are common nouns; but to hymn, to pillow, curtained, pillared, pictured, pealing, surging, cavern'd, honied, careering, cinctured, bosomed, sphered, would appear affected in prose, and yet in verse they are warranted by great authorities, though it must be * Johnson. confessed that they are censured by an able critic, who had studied the English language, both poetical and prosaic, with wonderful diligence.

Some late poets, particularly the imitators of Spenser, have introduced a great variety of uncommon words, as certes, eftsoons, ne, whilom, transmew, moil, fone, losel, albe, hight, dight, pight, thews, couthful, assot, muchel, wend, arrear, &c. These were once poetical words, no doubt; but they are now obsolete, and to many readers unintelligible. No man of the present age, however conversant in this dialect, would naturally express himself in it on any interesting emergence; or, supposing this natural to the antiquarian, it would never appear so to the common hearer or reader. A mixture of these words, therefore, must ruin the pathos of modern language: and as they are not familiar to our ear, and plainly appear to be sought after and affected, will generally give a stiffness to modern versification. Yet in subjects approaching to the ludicrous they may have a good-effect; as in the Schoolmistress of Shenstone, Parnel's Fairy-tale, Thomson's Castle of Indolence, and Pope's lines in the Dunciad upon Wormius. But this effect will be most pleasing to those who have least occasion to recur to the glossary.

Indeed, it is not always easy to fix the boundary between poetical and obsolete expressions. To many readers,

lore, meed, behest, blithe, gaude, spray, thrall, may al- Of Poetical
ready appear antiquated; and to some the style of Spen- Words.
ser, or even of Chaucer, may be as intelligible as that of
Dryden. This however we may venture to affirm, that
a word, which the majority of readers cannot understand
without a glossary, may with reason be considered as ob-
solete; and ought not to be used in modern composition,
unless revived, and recommended to the public ear, by
some very eminent writer. There are but few words in
Milton, as nathless, tine, frore, bosky, &c.; there are
but one or two in Dryden, as falsify (F); and in Pope,
there are none at all, which every reader of our poetry
may not be supposed to understand: whereas in Shake-
speare, there are many, and in Spenser, many more, for
which one who knows English very well may be obliged
to consult the dictionary. The practice of Milton, Dry-
den, or Pope, may therefore, in almost all cases, be ad-
mitted as good authority for the use of a poetical word.
And in them, all the words above enumerated, as poe-
tical, and in present use, may actually be found. And
of such poets as may choose to observe this rule, it will
not be said, either that they reject the judgment of
Quintilian, who recommends the newest of the old words,
and the oldest of the new, or that they are inattentive to
Pope's precept;

Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
Ess. on Crit. v. 335.

We must not suppose that these poetical words never occur at all except in poetry. Even from conversation they are not excluded: and the ancient critics allow, that they may be admitted into prose, where they occasionally confer dignity upon a sublime subject, or heighten the ludicrous qualities of a mean one. But it is in poetry only where the frequent use of them does not savour of affectation.

Nor must we suppose them essential to this art. Many passages there are of exquisite poetry, wherein not a single phrase occurs that might not be used in prose. In fact, the influence of these words in adorning English verse is not very extensive. Some influence however they have. They serve to render the poetical style, first, more melodious; and, secondly, more solemn.

49

melodious.

First, They render the poetical style more melodious, In which and more easily reducible into measure. Words of un- case they wieldy size, or difficult pronunciation, are never used by may render correct poets, where they can be avoided: unless in their the poetical sound they have something imitative of the sense. Ho-style more mer's poetical inflections contribute wonderfully to the sweetness of his numbers: and if the reader is pleased to look back to the specimen above given of the English poetical dialect, he will find that the words are in general well sounding, and such as may coalesce with other words, without producing harsh combinations. Quintilian observes, that poets, for the sake of their verse, are indulged in many liberties, not granted to the orator, of lengthening, shortening, and dividing their words :- Instit. words*:-* and if the Greek and Roman poets claimed this indul-Orat. lib. x 5 E 2

gence cap. i. § 3,

(D) Dryden in one place (Eneid ix. verse 1095.) uses Falsified to denote Pierced through and through. He acknowledges, that this use of the word is an innovation; and has nothing to plead for it but his own authority, and that Falsare in Italian sometimes means the same thing.

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