we give our felves the liberty of making any part of a Verfe for the fake of Rhyme, or concluding with a Word which is not currant English, or using the variety of Female Rhymes, all which our Fathers practifed; and for the Female Rhymes, they are ftill in ufe amongst other Nations; with the Italian in e- very Line, with the Spaniard promifcuously, with the French alternately, as thefe who have read the Alarique, the Pucelle, or any of their later Poems, will agree with me. And befides this, they write in Alexandrins, or Verfes of fix feet, fuch as amongf us is the old Tranflation of Homer, by Chapman: All which, by lengthning of their Chain, makes the Sphere of their Activity the larger. I have dwelt ton long upon the choice of my Sanza, which you may remember is much better defended in the Preface to Gondibert; and therefore I will haften to acquaint you with my Endeavour in the Writing. In gene ral I will only fay, I have never yet feen the Defcrip tion of any Naval Fight in the proper terms which are us'd at Sea; and if there be any fuch in ano. ther Language, as that of Lucan in the third of his Pharfila, yet I could not prevail my felf 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 Thundring of Guns, the Smoke, the Disorder and the Slaughter; but all thefe are common Notions. And certainly as thofe, who, in a Logical Difpute, keep in general Terms, would hide a fallacy; fo thofe who do it in any Poetical Defcription, would vail their Ignorance.
Defcriptas fervare vices, operumque colores, Cur ego, fi nequeo ignoroque, Poeta falutor?
For my own part, if I had little Knowledge of the Sea,
yet I have thought it no Shame to learn: And if I