Hence Popes and Drydens never cease to be found in collections of English verse, as well as Spensers and Miltons: hence Butlers and Swifts, as well as Popes and Drydens: hence all writers in verse, who have any character of their own whatsoever, and whose productions, having once become acquainted with them, readers who love "geniality" of any kind,

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singing," would miss. Butler could not have said so well in prose what he has said in verse; and hence he felt an impulse to speak in verse, and he is a witpoet accordingly. The flow of Swift's wit, of Prior's, of Green's (pity that the stream in the two former is so often polluted), would have wanted half its force and effect, without the compression given to it by verse. They felt this; they were as much inclined to the song of it as to the substance; and hence they also are wits who "sing"-poets, after their kind, not to be left out of the collections.*

*It is gratifying to see that Mr. Bell's new edition of the Poets proceeds on this principle. He has given us a sample of it in being the first to admit into such a collection the works of Oldham, accompanied by a most satisfactory estimate of the life and writings of that promising young demi-savage of the school of Dryden.

I had intended to close this Preface with something very modest, and very true, upon the difference, in various respects (I do not say in every respect), between my knowledge of what poetry ought to perform, and my own power of performing it. But I am a little tired of helping incompetent critics to discover and to overstate what is defective in me, and therefore shall leave them to gather the information where they can.

The Story of Rimini was written at a period of transition from the artificial to the natural style of verse, and was thought at the time a bold innovation in behalf of the latter. I had the pleasure of seeing it break up the monotony of the heroic system of versification then remaining. Had I written the poem now, I should have done much of it in a different manner, though I doubt whether with advantage to something in it of a certain youthful freshness. The young painting, however, has now become an old one; perhaps time has given it a mellowness which in some eyes may not be without its recommendation, especially when so many experiments are being made in poetical drawing and colouring, the correctness and congruity of which are not always as apparent as the abundance

of their materials. At all events, the painting is after a certain mode, and had better be judged accordingly.

I hope the long interval between its composition and that of later pieces and the Legend of Florence, has not altogether been passed in vain.

A STUDY IN VERSIFICATION.

(From the Preface to the Octavo Edition of the Author's Poetical Works in the Year 1832.)

I HAVE retained, in the versification of the following poems, not only the triplets and alexandrines which some have objected to from their infrequent use in heroic poetry since the time of Dryden, but the double rhymes which have been disused since the days of Milton.

It has been said of the triplet, that it is only a temptation to add a needless line to what ought to be comprised in two. This is manifestly a half-sighted objection; for at least the converse of the proposition may be as true; namely, that it comprises, in one additional line, what two might have needlessly extended. And undoubtedly compression is often obtained by the

triplet, and should never be injured by it; but I take its true spirit to be this;-that it carries onward the fervour of the poet's feeling; delivers him for the moment, and on the most suitable occasions, from the ordinary laws of his verse; and enables him to finish his impulse with triumph. In all instances where the triplet is not used for the mere sake of convenience, it expresses continuity of some sort, whether for the purpose of extension, or inclusion; and this is the reason why the alexandrine so admirably suits it, the spirit of both being a sustained enthusiasm. In proportion as this enthusiasm is less, or the feeling to be conveyed is one of hurry in the midst of aggregation, the alexandrine is perhaps generally dropped. The continuity implied by the triplet is one of four kinds: it is either an impatience of stopping, arising out of an eagerness to include; or it is the march of triumphant power; or it "builds the lofty rhyme" for some staider show of it; or lastly, it is the indulgence of a sense of luxury and beauty, a prolongation of delight. Dryden has fine specimens of all.

Of the impatience of stopping:-a description of agitation of nerves :—