ful bounds, and furprises the reader with two fyllables more than he expected.

The effect of the Triplet is the fame: the ear has been accustomed to expect a new rhyme in every couplet; but is on a fudden furprized with three rhymes together, to which the reader could not accommodate his voice, did he not obtain notice of the change from the braces of the margins. Surely there is fomething unfkilful in the neceffity of fuch mechanical direction.

Confidering the metrical art fimply as a fcience, and confequently excluding all cafualty, we must allow that Triplets and Alexandrines, inferted by caprice, are interruptions of that conftancy to which fcience afpires. And though the variety which they produce may very justly be desired, yet to make our poetry exact, there ought to be fome ftated mode of admitting them.

But till fome fuch regulation can be formed, I wish them still to be retained in their prefent ftate. They are fometimes convenient to the poet. Fenton was of opinion, that Dryden was too liberal and Pope too fparing in their ufe.

The rhymes of Dryden are commonly juft, and he valued himself for his readiness in finding them; but he is fometimes open to objection.

It is the common practice of our poets to end the fecond line with a weak or grave syllable:

Together o'er the Alps methinks we fly,
Fill'd with ideas of fair Italy.

Dryden fometimes puts the weak rhyme in the firft:

Laugh all the powers that favour tyranny,
And all the standing army of the fky.

Some

Sometimes he concludes a period or paragraph with the first line of a couplet, which, though the French seem to do it without irregularity, always displeases in English poetry.

The Alexandrine, though much his favourite, is not always very diligently fabricated by him. It invariably requires a break at the fixth fyllable; a rule which the modern French poets never violate, but which Dryden fometimes neglected:

And with paternal thunder vindicates his throne.

Of Dryden's works it was faid by Pope that he could felect from them better fpecimens of every mode of poetry than any other English writer could supply. Perhaps no nation ever produced a writer that enriched his language with fuch variety of models. To him we owe the improvement, perhaps the completion of our metre, the refinement of our language, and much of the correctness of our fentiments. By him we were taught fapere & fari, to think naturally and exprefs forcibly. Though Davis has reafoned in rhyme before him, it may be perhaps maintained that he was the first who joined argument with poetry. He fhewed us the true bounds of a tranflator's liberty. What was faid of Rome, adorned by Auguftus, may be applied by an eafy metaphor to English poetry embellished by Dryden, lateritiam invenit, marmoream reliquit, he found it brick, and he left it marble.

THE invocation before the Georgicks is here inferted from Mr. Milbourne's verfion, that, according to his own propofal, his verfes may be compared with those which he cenfures.

What

What makes the richest tilth, beneath what figns
To plough, and when to match your elms and vines
What care with flocks and what with herds agrees,
And all the management of frugal bees,

I fing, Macenas! Ye immenfely clear,
Vaft orbs of light which guide the rolling year;
Bacchus, and mother Ceres, if by you

We fat'ning corn for hungry mast pursue,
If, taught by you, we first the cluster preft,
And thin cold freams with spritely juice refresht.
Ye fawns, the prefent numens of the field,
Wood-nymphs and fawns, your kind affistance yield,
Your gifts I fing; and thou, at whofe fear'd stroke'
From rending earth the fiery courfer broke,

Great Neptune, O afsist my artful song ;
And thou to whom the woods and groves belong,
Whose fnowy heifers on her flow'ry plains
In mighty herds the Cean Isle maintains!
Pan, happy fhepherd, if thy cares divine,
E'er to improve thy Manalus incline;
Leave thy Lycaan wood and native grove,
And with thy lucky fmiles our work approve;
Be Pallas too, fweet-oil's inventor, kind;
And he, who first the crooked plough defign'd!
Sylvanus, god of all the woods appear,
Whofe hands a new-drawn tender cypress bear !'
Ye gods and goddeffes, who e'er with love
Would guard our paftures, and our fields improve!
You, who new plants from unknown lands fupply;
And with condensing clouds obfcure the sky,
And drop them foftly thence in fruitful showers,
Affift my enterprize, ye gentle powers!

And thou, great Cafur! though we know not yet
Among what gods thou'lt fix thy lofty feat,
Whether thou'lt be the kind tutelar god
Of thy own Rome, or with thy awful nod

Guide the vaft world, while thy great hand fhall bear
The fruits and seasons of the turning year,
And thy bright brows thy mother's myrtles wear:
Whether thou'lt all the boundless ocean sway,
And fea-men only to thyfelf fhall pray,
Thule, the fartheft island, kneel to thee,
And, that thou may'st her fon by marriage be,
Tethys will for the happy purchase yield
To make a dowry of her watry field;
Whether thou'lt add to heaven a brighter fign,
And o'er the fummer months ferenely fhine;
Where between Cancer and Erigone,

There yet remains a spacious room for thee;
Where the hot Scorpion too his arms declines,
And more to thee than half his arch refigns;
Whate'er thou'lt be; for fure the realms below.
No just pretence to thy command can show :
No fuch ambition sways thy vast desires,
Though Greece her own Elyfian fields admires.
And now, at laft, contented Proferpine
Can all her mother's earnest prayers decline.
Whate'er thou'lt be, O guide our gentle course,
And with thy fmiles our bold attempts enforce;
With rae th' unknowing ruftics' wants relieve,
And, though on earth, our facred vows receive!

}

Mr. DRYDEN, having received from Rymer his Remarks on the Tragedies of the laft Age, wrote observations on the blank leaves; which, having been in the poffeffion of Mr. Garrick, are by his favour communicated to the publick, that no particle of Dryden may be loft.

"That we may the lefs wonder why pity and terror "are not now the only fprings on which our tragedies move, and that Shakspeare may be more excufed, "Rapin confeffes that the French tragedies now all VOL. II.

Ff

66 run

run on the tendre; and gives the reafon, because love "is the paffion which most predominates in our fouls, "and that therefore the paffions reprefented become

infipid, unless they are conformable to the thoughts "of the audience. But it is to be concluded that this "paffion works not now amongst the French foftrongly "as the other two did amongst the ancients. Amongst 66 us, who have a ftronger genius for writing, the "operations from the writing are much stronger : "for the railing of Shakspeare's paffions is more from "the excellency of the words and thoughts, than the juftness of the occafion; and if he has been able to "pick fingle occafions, he has never founded the "whole reasonably: yet, by the genius of poetry in "writing, he has fucceeded.

Rapin attributes more to the dictio, that is, to "the words and difcourfe of a tragedy, than Aristotle "has done, who places them in the last rank of beau"ties; perhaps, only last in order, because they are "the last product of the defign, of the difpofition or "connection of its parts; of the characters, of the "manners of those characters, and of the thoughts "proceeding from thofe manners. Rapin's words are "remarkable: 'Tis not the admirable intrigue, the "furprising events, and extraordinary incidents, that "make the beauty of a tragedy; 'tis the difcourfes, "when they are natural and paffionate: fo are Shak"fpeare's.

"The parts of a poem, tragick or heroick, are, "1. The fable itself.

2. The order or manner of its contrivance, in re"lation of the parts to the whole.