all 299, the odd number being occasioned by what they call a triplet, which was a vicious way of rhyming, wherewith Dryden abounded, and was imitated by all the bad versifiers in Charles the Second's reign. Dryden, though my near relation, is one I have often blamed as well as pitied. He was poor, and in great haste to finish his plays, because by them he chiefly supported his family, and this made him so very uncorrect; he likewise brought in the Alexandrine verse at the end of his triplets. I was so angry at these corruptions, that about twenty-four years ago I banished them all by one triplet, with the Alexandrine, upon a very ridiculous subject[1]. I absolutely did prevail with Mr. Pope, and Gay, and Dr. Young, and one or two more, to reject them. Mr. Pope never used them till he translated Homer, which was too long a work to be so very exact in; and I think in one or two of his last poems he has, out of laziness, done the same thing, though very seldom. I now proceed to what I would have corrected in your poem. Line 6, for han't, read want; I abhor those han'ts and won'ts, &c. they are detestable in verse as well as prose. L. 46, for whilst, put while. L. 83, derives, I doubt, there is no verb deponent, but always active. L. 106, "If Noll usurps, or James;" Noll is too much a cant word for a grave poem; and as to James, he was a weak bigotted papist, desirous, like all kings, of absolute power, but not properly a tyrant. P. 109. And midst harsh and rough, the elision unluckily placed. L. 115, 116. I cannot suffer an ill rhyme, such as seen and scene; (I forgot the triplet in L. 108, which I wish
- ↑ See the concluding lines of the Description of a City Shower.
were
