Letters Concerning Poetical Translations - And Virgil's and Milton's Arts of Verse, &c. by William Benson
page 86 of 91 (94%)
page 86 of 91 (94%)
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By what I have shewn in the preceding Letters, it sufficiently appears that _Virgil_ and _Milton_ had good reason to begin with _Hinc canere incipiam_. _Nunc te Bacche canam._ _Arma Virumque cano._ _Sing Heavenly Muse._ Their Verse is all _Musick_, and that is the reason why their Poems please, though ever so often read: And all Poetry that is not attended with Harmony, is properly speaking no Poetry at all. Let the Sense be ever so fine, if the _Verse_ is not _melodious_, the Reader will undoubtedly find himself soon overtaken with Drowsiness. But what I chiefly hope I have made out, is, that _Rhyme_ does not owe its Original to _Druids_, or to _dreaming Monks_, since it is certain there is more _Rhyme_ in _Virgil_, than there can be in any _English_ Translation of his Works. _English_ Verse never admits but of two Syllables that Rhyme in two Lines. But in _Virgil_, it is not easy to tell how many Rhymes there are in a single Line; as for Example, "_O nimium Coelo, & pelago confise sereno,_ "_Et sola in siccâ secum spatiatur arenâ._ And the like. But what would you say, if I was to observe to you all that _Erythræus_ has writ of the Rhyme _Cum intervallo, & sine intervallo_ in _Virgil_? Of the Rhyme _sine intervallo_ there are four Examples in the two first Lines of the _Æneid_, namely, in the first, _no_--_tro_, and _qui_--_pri_. In the second, _to_--_pro_, and _que_-- _ve_. "_Arma virumque can[=o], tr[=o]jæ qu[=i] pr[=i]mus ab oris Italiam, fat[=o] pr[=o]fugus, Lavinaqu[=e] v[=e]nit._-- |
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