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AN ENQUIRY WHETHER THE GREEK AND LATIN HEXAMETER CAN BE SUCCESSFULLY IN

TRODUCED INTO ENGLISH POETRY.

IT has been questioned, and apparently with great sincerity, whether English poets may not rival the bards of Greece and Rome in Grecian and Roman measures.

The first attempt, which was made to introduce these measures into English poetry, was that of Sir Philip Sidney, contemporary, admirer, and patron of that original genius, Spencer. Sir Philip was not more renowned as a politician and friend of Elizabeth, than, as a poet and favorite of the muses. In his romance, called Arcadia, he made an attempt to write Hexameters, Pentameters, Sapphic odes, &c. That Sir Philip did not shine in this novel art may be ascribed perhaps not so much to a failure in his own taste, as to the uncouth state of the English language, at the period in which he wrote. For, though it was somewhat more refined, and far more intelligible, than in the time of Chaucer, the father of English poetry; yet toward the close of the sixteenth century, when Sir Philip flourished, poetry was little understood, and still continued coarse and unharmonious. This is fully exemplified in the fairy Queen of Spencer; and, if we withdraw from him the praise due to originality, we leave him nothing to compensate his reader for perusing his ill constructed verse.

How far English Hexameter verse may be constructed by established rules has not yet been shewn. We are inclined however to think, that, as accent and emphasis determine the quantity in English numbers, and as these vary so much at different periods, and differ so much in the same period by arbitrary or licentious use; there will always exist a difficulty in reducing English verse to fixed rules of prosody.

As we have adverted to Sir Philip Sidney's poetic adventures, we shall furnish a few of his lines, as an example of his skill in writing Hexameter verse. For the most part his poetry is not calculated to please the ear, however much the sentiment and design of the work may amuse the reader.

The following are perhaps, some of his most fortunate lines.

Ō glittering miseries of man! if this be the fortune- &c. With mōnefül mělŏdies, for ěnōugh our griefs bě rěvēalēd &c.

It may here be remarked, that these lines are only given to shew the construction of the verse; and, without aiming to convey by them any sense, the sound only has been regarded. It cannot be discovered from them that the writer attended throughout to any fixed rules of prosody, though it will be found, that the diphthongs are long, and that, with one exception in the first line, the rule of position may be applied.

Another attempt was made to introduce Hexameter measures into English verse in an anonymous tract published in the year 1738. The author has given his examples in a translation of the first and fourth Eclogues of Virgil. With respect to prosody, he has not mentioned the rules, by which he has been governed, excepting those, by which a vowel is long when followed by two consonants; and a diphthong, when not sounded like a single vowel.

An extract from the beginning of the first Eclogue may suffice as an example of this translation.

You Tytyrus cănopy'd by ǎ broad beech, softly reclining,
Tūn'd on ǎ rẽed slender mědĭtāte your harmony sylvän;
Our country's borders, and pleasing fields we relinquifh ;
We fly our country; you Tytyrus, easy in umbrage,
Teach the groves echoing to resound divine Amaryllis,

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These lines are by no means destitute of beauty; but, whether they are more beautiful, than the Iambic verse, will doubtless be questioned, Each species may become extremely monotonous; and if, as one is wholly confined to dactyls and spondees, the other should intirely be made up of Iambic feet, the latter would unquestionably be the most tedious. But a poet of taste will avoid the pure Iambic verse, by occasionally introducing spondees, pyrrhics and, trochees and this sometimes even at the end of lines. In this way he will effectually relieve the reader, and afford variety without injuring the harmony of the numbers. In Hexameter, the last foot being a spondee and the last but one a dactyl, the writer is deprived of much of that liberty, which is exercised in common English verse; and the reader is liable to be seduced into a similar cadence, at the end of every line. We cannot but think however, that Hexameter verse admits the display of much taste and poetic skill, and is capable, if successfully written, of becoming pleasant and musical.

As to the application of rules of prosody to this species of verse, similar to those of the Greek and Latin, we imagine it to be futile. The genius of our language does not admit it. It would indeed oftentimes become a puzzling question, whether the rule, which applied, were a general rule, or an exception.

It must be acknowledged, that the translator, whom we have noticed, sometimes destroys the proper emphasis, by adhering to the rule of position. This is exemplified in the lines already furnished. But by giving up this rule, and resorting to emphasis and accent for determining the quantity of syllables, the spondaic and dactylic feet might still be preserved, and the chastity of the verse less frequently violated by prosaic readings.

We will now give a few examples of parallel passages from our anonymous translator and Dryden. The reader may compare their respective merit.

A deity gave us this leisure, O Melibaus ;

For he shall a deity by me be forever accounted;

With many a lambkin my fold shall redden his altar.

These blessings, friend, a deity bestow'd ;
For never can I deem him less than God.
The tender firstlings of my woolly breed
Shall on his holy altar often bleed.

Dryd.

Anonym.

After a long period shall I e'er my country revisit;
After a few harvests shall I view, delightfully wond'ring,
My homely cottage's thatch'd roof-to my

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O must the wretched exile ever mourn,
Nor, after length of rolling years, return?
Are we condemn'd, by fates unjust decree,

No more our houses and our homes to see? Dryd.

These examples may be sufficient for the readers curiosity, especially if he should not be so much entertained with the subject as the writer.

We leave all further remarks to the speculations of poets. It rests with them to determine, whether our language is calculated for Hexameter verse; whether this species can admit as much beauty and strength, variety and melody, as the Iambic, which has been in general use among translators, as well as original poets; and, whether particularly in translating Grecian and Latin Hexameter, it may not even surpass the Iambic, which oftentimes becomes dull and lifeless.

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A BRIEF VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF LITERÁ TURE IN GERMANY.

THE history of the progress of the human mind is the his

tory of man. The connection between knowledge, refinement, and virtue had been tested by experience, before it was asserted by Tully. And such has ever been the influence of science and study, that the character of an age may be inferred from the nature and success of its literary pursuits. The hope, which this sentiment has originated, of attaching some interest to this disquisition has induced the following abridgment from the German Museum of the rise and progress of literature in Germany.

At the decline of the Roman Empire the German's were a martial people, with all the virtues, and vices, and ignorance' of a savage age. Tacitus describes them, as exhibiting the character, which is marked by the unshackled energies of the passions, and the inert torpor of the intellectual powers. Every institution, every amusement, plays, marriages, and funerals, the business, and the diversions of life, all wore the appearance, and displayed the insignia of war. Their learning exclusively consisted of the songs of the bards, in which tradition had handed down from age to age the history of the country and the biography of its heroes, at once preserving the manners and the national spirit of old times. Though some have asserted, they were acquainted with the art of writing, it is certain, they had no peculiar alphabet, as there is no trace of such an improvement in the records of their history, or law's.

Fond of the sports of the field and the carnage of arms, the German lived in wilds and woods a kind of life, which shewed him on a grade with the lion. His passions as well, as the uneasiness, which results from thoughtless indolence, drove him from the lethargy of a permanent abode, and the quiet of cities. Nature here legislated more perfectly,

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