which contribute to the richness of the melody, render it lefs fit than several other forts for a narrative poem. There cannot be a more artful contrivance, as above observed, than to close an Hexameter line with two long fyllables preceded by two short but unhappily this conftruction proves a great embarraffment to the fenfe; which will thus be evident. As in general, there ought to be a strict concordance between a thought and the words in which it is dreffed; fo in particular, every close in the sense ought to be accompanied with a close in the found. In profe, this law may be ftrictly observed; but in verse, the same strictnefs would occafion infuperable difficulties. Willing to facrifice to the melody of verse, some share of the concordance between thought and expreffion, we freely excuse the separation of the mufical pause from that of the fense, during the course of a line; but the close of an Hexameter line is too confpicuous to admit this liberty: for which reafon there ought always to be fome pause in the fense at the end of every Hexameter line, were it but fuch a pause as is marked with a comma; and for the fame reason, there ought never to be a full close in the fenfe but at the end of a line, because there the melody is closed. An Hexameter line, to preserve its melody, cannot well admit any greater relaxation; and yet in a narrative poem, it is extremely difficult to adhere ftrictly to the rule even with these indulgences. Virgil, the

chief of poets for verfification, is forced often to end a line without any close in the sense, and as often to close the sense during the running of a line; tho' a close in the melody during the movement of the thought, or a close in the thought during the movement of the melody, cannot be agreeable.

The accent, to which we proceed, is no lefs effential than the other circumstances above handled. By a good ear it will be difcerned, that in every line there is one fyllable diftinguishable from the reft by a capital accent: that fyllable, being the 7th portion, is invariably long.

Nec bene promeritis || capitur nec | tangitur ira. Again:

Non fibi fed toto || genitûm fe | credere mundo.

Again:

Qualis fpelunca || fubitô com/mota columba.

In these examples, the accent is laid upon the laft fyllable of a word; which is favourable to the melody in the following refpect, that the pause, which for the fake of reading diftinctly must follow every word, gives opportunity to prolong the accent. And for that reafon, a line thus accent

,ed,

ed, has a more fpirited air, than when the accent is placed on any other fyllable. Compare the foregoing lines with the following:

In lines where the pause comes after the short fyllable fucceeding the fifth portion, the accent is difplaced, and rendered lefs fenfible: it seems to be split into two, and to be laid partly on the 5th portion, and partly on the 7th, its usual place; as in

Nuda genu, nodôque || finûs collecta fluentes

Again:

Formofam refonâre [] docês Amaryllida fylvas

Befide this capital accent, flighter accents are laid upon other P rtions; particularly upon the 4th, unless where it confifts of two fhort fyllables; upon the 9th, which is always a long fyllable;

and upon the 11th, where the line concludes with a monofyllable. Such conclufion, by the by, impairs the melody, and for that reason is not to be indulged unless where it is expreffive of the fenfe. The following lines are marked with all the accents.

Ludere quæ vellem calamo permifit agrefti.

Again :

Et duræ quêrcus fudâbunt rôscida mella.

Again :

Parturiunt montes, nafcetur ridiculus mus.

Reflecting upon the melody of Hexameter verse, we find, that order or arrangement doth not conftitute the whole of it; for when we compare different lines, equally regular as to the fucceffion of long and fhort fyllables, the melody is found in very different degrees of perfection; which is not occafioned by any particular combination of Dactyles and Spondees, or of long and short fyllables, because we find lines where Dactyles prevail, and lines where Spondees prevail, equally melodious. Of the former take the following inftance:

Eneadum genitrix hominum divumque voluptas.

Of

Of the latter:

Molli paulatim flavefcet campus arista.

What can be more different as to melody than the two following lines, which, however, as to the fucceffion of long and fhort fyllables, are conftructed precisely in the fame manner?

Spond. Daft. Spond. Spond. Dact. Spond.
Ad talos ftola dimiffa et circumdata palla.

Hor.

Spond. Dact. Spond. Spond. Dact. Spond.
Placatumque nitet diffufo lumine cœlum.

Lucr.

In the former, the pause falls in the middle of a word, which is a great blemish, and the accent is disturbed by a harsh elifion of the vowel a upon the particle et. In the latter, the pauses and the accent are all of them diftinct and full: there is no elifion; and the words are more liquid and founding. In these particulars confifts the beauty of an Hexameter line with refpect to melody: and by neglecting thefe, many lines in the Satires and Epiftles of Horace are lefs agreeable than plain profe; for they are neither the one nor the other in perfection. To draw melody from these lines, they must be pronounced without relation to the fense it must not be regarded, that words are divided by pauses, nor that harfh elifions are multiplied. To add to the account, profaic low-founding words are introduced; and which is ftill worse,

accents