Page:Annus Mirabilis - Dryden (1688).djvu/10

 blesome sense of four lines together. For those who write correctly in this kind, must needs acknowledge, that the last line of the Stanza is to be consider'd in the composition of the first. Neither can we give our selves the liberty of making any part of a Verse for the sake of Rhyme, or concluding with a word which is not currant English, or using the variety of Female Rhymes, all which our Fathers practised; and for the Female Rhymes, they are still in use amongst other Nations; with the Italian in every line, with the Spaniard promiscuously, with the French alternately, as those who have read the Alarique, the Pucelle, or any of their later Poems, will agree with me. And besides this, they write in Alexandrins, or Verses of six feet, such as amongst us is the old Translation of Homer by Chapman: All which, by lengthning of their Chain, makes the sphere of their activity the larger. I have dwelt too long upon the choice of my Stanza, which you may remember is much better defended in the Preface to Gondibert; and therefore I will hasten to acquaint you with my endeavors in the writing. In general I will only say, I have never yet seen the description of any Naval Fight in the proper terms which are us'd at Sea; and if there be any such in another Language, as that of Lucan in the third of his Pharsalia, yet I could not prevail my self of it in the English; the terms of Art in every Tongue bearing more of the Idiom of it than any other words. We hear indeed, among our Poets, of the Thundering of Guns, the Smoke, the Disorder and the Slaughter; but all these are common notions. And certainly as those, who, in a Logical dispute, keep in general terms,