the last fyllable, but upon that immediately before it, the rhyme must fall both upon the accented fyllable and upon that which is not accented. It must be a double rhyme.

In the Italian language, when the accent falls neither upon the last fyllable, nor upon that immediately before it, but upon the third fyllable from the end, the rhyme must fall upon all the three. It must be a triple rhyme, and the verfe is fuppofed to confist of twelve fyllables:

Forsè era ver, non però credibile, &c.

Triple rhymes are not admitted into English Heroic Verfe.

In the Italian language the accent falls much more rarely, either upon the third fyllable, from the end of a word, or upon the last fyllable, than it does upon the one immediately before the last. In reality, this fecond fyllable from the end feems, in that language, to be its most common and natural place. The Italian Heroic Poetry, therefore, is compofed principally of double rhymes, or of verfes fuppofed to confift of eleven fyllables. Triple rhymes occur but feldom, and fingle rhymes ftill more feldom.

In the English language the accent falls frequently upon the laft fyllable of the word. Our language, befides, abounds in words of one fyllable, the greater part of which do

(for

(for there are few which do not) admit of being accented. Words of one fyllable are moft frequently the concluding words of Englifh rhymes. For both these reafons, English Heroic Rhyme is principally compofed of fingle rhymes, or of verfes fuppofed to confift of ten fyllables. Double Rhymes occur almost as rarely in it, as either fingle or triple do in the Italian.

The rarity of double rhymes in English Heroic Verfe makes them appear odd, and aukward, and even ludicrous, when they oceur. By the best writers, therefore, they are referved for light and ludicrous occafions; when, in order to humour their fubject, they ftoop to a more familiar ftyle than ufual. When Mr. Pope says;

Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The reft is all but leather or prunello;

he means, in compliance with his fubject, to condefcend a good deal below the ftateliness of his diction in the Effay on Man. Double rhymes abound more in Dryden than in Pope, and in Hudibras more than in Dryden.

The rarity both of fingle and of triple rhyme in Italian Heroic Verfe, gives them the fame odd and ludicrous air which double rhymes have in English Verse. In Italian, triple rhymes occur more frequently than fingle rhymes. The flippery, or if I may be allowed to ufe a very low, but a very expref

five word, the glib pronunciation of the triple rhyme (verfo fotrucciolo) feems to depart lefs from the ordinary movement of the double rhyme, than the abrupt ending of the fingle rhyme (verfo tronco e cadente) of the verse that appears to be cut off, and to fall fhort of the ufual measure. Single rhymes accordingly appear in Italian verfe much more burlesque than triple rhymes. Single rhymes occur very rarely in Ariofto; but frequently in the more burlefque poem of Ricciardetto. Triple rhymes. occur much oftener in all the beft writers. It is thus, that what in English appears to be the verfe of the greatest gravity and dignity, appears in Italian to be the moft burlefque and ludicrous; for no other reafon, I apprehend, but because in the one language it is the ordinary verfe, whereas in the other it departs the most from the movement of the ordinary vérfe.

The common Italian Heroic Poetry being compofed of double rhymes, it can admit both of fingle and of triple rhymes; which feem to recede from the common movement on oppofite fides to nearly equal diftances. The common English Heroic Poetry, confisting of fingle rhymes, it can admit of double; but it cannot admit of triple rhymes, which would recede fo far from the common movements as to appear perfectly burlesque and ridiculous.

In English, when a word accented

upon

upon the third fyllable from the end happens to make the laft word of a verfe, the rhyme falls upon the last fyllable only. It is a fingle rhyme, and the verfe confifts of no more than ten fyllables: but as the laft fyllable is not accented, it is an imperfect rhyme, which, however, when confined to the fecond verfe of the couplet, and even there introduced but rarely, may have a very agreeable grace, and the line may even seem to run more easy and natural by means of it:

But of this frame, the bearings, and the ties,
The ftrict connèctions, nice depèndencies, &c.

When by a well accented fyllable in the end of the first line of a couplet, it has once been clearly afcertained what the rhyme is to be, a very flight allufion, to it, fuch as can be made by a fyllable of the fame termination that is not accented, may often be fufficient to mark the coincidence in the fecond line; a word of this kind in the end of the firft line feldom fucceeds fo well:

Th' inhabitants of old Jerufalem

Were Jebufites; the town fo called from them.

A couplet in which both verfes were terminated in this manner, would be extremely difagreeable and offenfive.

In counting the fyllables, even of verses which to the ear appear fufficiently correct, a confiderable indulgence muft frequently be Y 3 given,

given, before they can, in either language, be reduced to the precife number of ten, eleven, or twelve, according to the nature of the rhyme. In the following couplet, for example, there are, ftrictly speaking, fourteen fyllables in the firft line, and twelve in the fecond.

And many a humoŭrous, many an amorous lay,
Was fung by many a bard, on many a day.

By the rapidity, however, or, if I may use a very low word a fecond time, by the glibnefs of the pronunciation, thofe fourteen fyllables in the first line, and those twelve in the fecond, appear to take up the time but of ten ordinary fyllables. The words many a, though they plainly confift of three diftinct fyllables, or founds, which are all pronounced fucceffively, or the one after the other, yet pass as but two fyllables; as do likewise these words, humourous and amorous. The words heaven and given, in the fame manner, confift each of them of two fyllables, which, how rapidly foever they may be pronounced, cannot be pronounced but fucceffively, or the one after the other. In verfe, however, they are confidered as confifting but of one fyllable each.

In counting the fyllables of the Italian Heroic Verfe, ftill greater indulgences must be allowed: three vowels muft there frequently be counted as making but one fyllable, though they are all pronounced, rapidly indeed,