any Poem can contain. But fince the Aion is not properly one, nor that accomplish din the laft Suc- ceffes, I have judg'd it too bold a Title for a few Sranza's which are little more in number than a fin- gle Iliad, or the longeft of the Eneids. For this reafon, (I mean, not of length but broken Adion, tied too feverely to the Laws of Hiftory) I am apt to agree with those who rank Lucan, rather among Hiftorians in Verfe, than Epique Poets: In whofe room, if I am not deceived, Silius Italicus, though a worfe Writer, may more juftly be admitted. I have. chofen to write my Poem m Quatrains or Stanza's of four in alternate Rhyme, because I have ever judg'd them more noble, and of greater Dignity, both for the Sound and Number, than any other Verfe in fe amongst us: in which I am fure I have your Approbation. The Learned Languages have, cer- tainly, a great Advantage of us, in not being tied to the Slavery of any Rhyme, and were less conflrain'd in the quantity of every Syllable, which they might vary with Spondæes or Dactyles, befides fo many other helps of Grammatical Figures for the lengthen- ing or abbreviation of them, than the Modern are in the clofe of that one Syllable, which often confines, and more often corrupts the fenfe of all the reft. But in this necefity of our Rhymes, I have always found the couplet Verfe most eafie, (though not fo proper for this Occafion.) for there the Work is fooner at an end, every two Lines concluding the labour of the Poet: But in Quatrains he is to carry it farther on, and not only fo, but to bear along in his Head the troublefeme fenfe of four Lines together. For thofe who write correctly in this kind, muft needs acknow- ledge, that the laft Line of the Stanza is to be con
fider'd in the Compofition of the first. Neither canB 3
