Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/440

398 Blank verse is now, with one consent, allied

To Tragedy, and rarely quits her side.

Though mad Almanzor rhymed in Dryden's days,

No sing-song Hero rants in modern plays;

Whilst modest Comedy her verse foregoes

For jest and pun in very middling prose.

Not that our Bens or Beaumonts show the worse,

Or lose one point, because they wrote in verse.

But so Thalia pleases to appear,

Poor Virgin! damned some twenty times a year!

Whate'er the scene, let this advice have weight:—

Adapt your language to your Hero's state.