Nevertheless I would not have you entirely lay afide the thoughts of my epitaph, any more than I do thofe of the probability of my becoming (ere long) the subject of one. For death has of late been very familiar with fome of my fize: I am told my Lord Lumley and Mr. Litton are gone before me; and though I may now, without vanity, esteem myself the least thing like a man in England, yet I can't but be forry, two heroes of fuch a make fhould die inglorious in their beds; when it had been a fate more worthy our fize, had they met with theirs from an irruption of cranes, or other warlike animals, those ancient enemies to our pygmæan ancestors! You of a fuperior fpecies little regard what befals us homunciones fefquipedales; however, you have no reafon to be fo unconcerned, fince all phyficians agree there is no greater fign of a plague among men, than a mortality among frogs. I was the other day in company with a lady, who rallied my perfon fo much, as to cause a total fubverfion of my countenance: fome days after, to be revenged on her, I prefented her, among other company, the following Rondeau on that occafion, which I defire you to fhow Sappho. You know where you did defpife You know where. You, You, 'tis true, have fine black eyes, You know where. This fort of writing called the Rondeau is what I never knew practifed in our nation, and, I verily believe, it was not in ufe with the Greeks or Romans, neither Macrobius nor Hyginus taking the leaft notice of it. 'Tis to be obferved, that the vulgar fpelling and pronouncing it round O, is a manifeft corruption and by no means to be allowed of by critics. Some may mistakenly imagine that it was a fort of Rondeau which the Gallic foldiers fung in Cæfar's triumph * over From this Song of the Gallic Soldiers, I will take occafion to observe, that we have several forts of measures commonly used in our English verfification, which exactly correspond to many that are used by the Greeks and Romans; of which the following are a specimen : What we call an Alexandrine verfe in English, is perfectly like a pure Iambic verfe in Greek or Latin ; Deep in the gloo | mỹ Cave | the pen | fivě făge | reclin'd— Πεπῦσ | μένη | μὲν ῶς | ἄπει | κᾶσαι | παρει | Săbină qualis aut | perus | tă fō | libus Our verfe of four feet confifts of four lambics, like the following dimeter Iambic verfe in Horace: Remote | from cīties līv'd | ǎ fwäin | Sŏlū | tus ōm | ni foë | norë | In which measure alfo many hymns for the Church were written, by thofe elegant Latin Poets that adorned Italy at the time of the revival of literature; as the following of Ant. Flaminius; Jam noctis umbras Lucifer, Almæ diei nuntius, Terrâ poloque dimovet One over Gaul-Gallias Cafar fubegit, etc. as it is recorded by Suetonius in Julio, and fo derive its original One of the most harmonious measures in our language, bears a most minute refemblance to the Greek Trochaic measure; as will appear by reading the following paffages of Gray and Euripides together; and compared alfo with the words; Gallias Cæfar fubegit————— Where each old po | ētic | mountain Δεσμα | τοῖς ξε | νοῖσι | προσθές— Ποι δε \ σ' εκφύ | γοῖεν | αν The only difference is that the infertion of rhyme in the English measure breaks the one line into two; but the metre remains, notwithstanding, intrinfically the fame. We have alfo Anacreontic measures-confifting of three pure Iambics, and one femiped Ỏ föft | ly gli | ding năm | bers That woo❘ to gentle flūm | bers- Θέλω | λεγεῖν | Ατρία | δας Θέλω | δὲ καὶ ἡ μόνα | δειν And that exquifite Ode in Shakespear fung by Ariel, Where the Bee fucks | there fuck | I, On a Bat's back I do fly, precifely correfponds with the metre of the following lines in Horace, Tū fe cândă | mārmo | ra | We have also Anapastic verses in our metre And the King | fĕiz'd ǎ flām | beau with zeal | to děftroy | A line that contains four Anapælts, making twelve fyllables and four feet. We are always to remember that our feet are regulated by accent, not by quantity. WARTON. original from the ancient Gauls to the modern French but this is erroneous; the words there not being ranged according to the laws of the Rondeau, as laid down by Clement Marot. If you will fay, that the fong of the foldiers might be only the rude be ginning of this kind of poem, and fo confequently imperfect, neither Heinfius nor I can be of that opinion; and fo I conclude, that we know nothing of the matter. But, Sir, I ask your pardon for all this buffoonery, which I could not addrefs to any one fo well as to you, fince I have found by experience, you most eafily forgive my impertinencies. 'Tis only to fhow you that I am mindful of you at all times, that I write at all times; and as nothing I can fay can be worth your reading, fo I may as well throw out what comes uppermoft, as ftudy to be dull. I am, etc. Ατ LETTER XV. FROM MR. CROMWELL. July 15, 1710. T last I have prevailed over a lazy humour to transcribe this elegy: I have changed the fituation of fome of the Latin verses, and made fome interpolations, but I hope they are not abfurd, and foreign to my author's fenfe and manner: but they are referred to your cenfure, as a debt; whom I esteem no less a critic than a poet: I expect to be treated with the fame rigour as I have practised to Mr. Dryden and you. Hanc veniam petimusque damusque viciffim. I defire the favour of your opinion, why Priam, in his speech to Pyrrhus in the fecond Æneid, fays this to him, At non ille, fatum quo te mentiris, Achilles. He would intimate (I fancy by Pyrrhus's anfwer) only his degeneracy: but then these following lines of the verfion (I suppose from Homer's history) feem abfurd in the mouth of Priam, viz. He chear'd my forrows, and for fums of gold I am, Your, etc. |