gence, merely to interrupt the monotony ; and, has frequently chofen to difgrace his measures, rather than to fatigue the ear. Hor. SOME Critics do not understand this fo, when they tax his verfe with being often weak and unequal. Eug. THE error then must have been in his judgment; for, these inequalities were most certainly defigned. ? HAVING in this place fupported an obfervation on Shakespear, by a proof drawn from the practice of Milton, it may not be improper to fhew, that the verfification of these two poets had other points of refemblance. Full many a Lady I've ey'd with best-regard, and many a time, Th Th' harmony of their tongues hath into bondage Brought my too diligent ear; for several virtues, Have I lik'd feveral Women, never any "With fo full soul, but some defect in her Did quarrel with the nobleft grace the ow'd, "And put it to the foil. But you, O you! "So perfect, and fo peerless are created "Of every creature's beft. Tempeft. In this paffage, the rifing from the feeble and profaic movement of the first lines, to the even tenor of harmony in the last, is entirely Miltonic. Or, to speak more justly, it is one of thofe fine gradations in poetic harmony, which give a kind of growing energy to a thought, and form a principal E 2 beauty beauty in the verfification of Shakespear and Milton. Hor. THERE is a fpecies of harmony, Eugenio, of which you have made no mention; and yet, fome of our poets feem to delight much in it; I mean the imitating the precife idea in the found; as, in the whispering of the breeze, the tumbling of ruins. Eug. OR, The rumbling of Drums, as thus, The double, double, double beat Of the thund'ring Drum Cries, Hark, the foes come. Drydeni THIS is altogether ridiculous; that rule of Criticifm, the found should seem an echo to the fenfe, must not be understood too literally. literally. The founds fhould, indeed, be always in accord with the fenfe; but they should accompany, not mimic it. As the movements of a good dancer are governed by the mufic, fo the mufic of the verse fhould be governed by the idea: but, the nature of language will not admit, in this latter cafe, of a conftant correfpondence: however, though we cannot, so often as we might wish, make our numbers harmonize with the fubject, we fhould never fuffer them to run counter to it as they too evidently do in the following inftance. Not half fo fwift the trembling doves can fly, When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid fky; Not half fo fwiftly the fierce eagle moves, When thro' the clouds he drives the trembling doves. E 3 Windfor Foreft. I HAVE not met with any lines more at variance with their subject than these : inftead of running lightly off, they do cleave to the tongue. To prescribe how far we may go in this kind of imitation, is impoffible, otherwise than by examples; for this, like many other beauties in poetry, can be determined only by a happiness of feeling. THE author of the Fleece has carried the fentimental harmony to the utmost allowable point, in the following description of a fudden calm. with eafy courfe The veffels glide; unless their speed be stopp'd By dead calms, that oft lie on those smooth feas, |