THE VERSES H E meafure is EngiUh Heroic Verfe without Rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin ; Rime being no neceffary adjundt, or try ue Ornament of Poem or good Verfe ; in longer works efpecially : but the invention of a barbarous \ age, to fec of wretched matter and lame metre : graced indeed fince by the ufe of fome famous mo- dern Poets, carried away by cuflom ; but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and conflraint to ex- prefs many things otherwife, (and for the molt part worfe) than elfe they would have expreft them. Not without caufe therefore fome (both Italian and Spanifb) Poets of prime note have rejeCted Rime, both in longer and Cnorter works ; as have alfo long fince our bell Englifh Tragedies ; as a thing of itfelf, to all judicious ,,ears, trivial and of no true mufical delight : which confifis only in apt Numbers, fit quantity of fyllables, and the fenfe varioufly drawn out from one Verfe into another : not in the jingling found of like endings ; a fault avoided by the learned Antients both in Poetry, and all good Oratory. This neglect then of Rime fo little is to be taken for a defea ; (though it may feem fo perhaps to vulgar readers) that it rather is to be efleemed an example fet, the firll in Engin, of ancient liberty recpvered to Heroic Poem, from the troublefome and modern bondage of Riming. THE
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