The Art of English Poetry :: :: University of Virginia Library

SECT. II.

Of Double and Treble Rhymes.

All words that are accented on the last save one, require the Rhyme to begin at the Vowel of that Syllable, and to continue to the end of the word, and this is what we call Double Rhyme; as,

Then all for Women, Painting, Rhyming, Drinking,
Besides ten Thousand freaks that dy'd in thinking.

Dryd.

But it is convenient to take notice that the Ancient Poets have not always observ'd this Rule, and took care only that the last Syllable of the words should be alike in sound, without any regard to the Seat of the Accent. Thus Nation and Affection, Tenderness and Hapless, Villany and Gentry, Follow and Willow, and the like were allow'd as Rhymes to each other, in the Days of Chaucer, Spencer, and the rest of the Ancients; but this is now become a fault in our Versification; and these two Verses of Cowley Rhyme not at all.

A clean and lively brown was Merab's Dye
Such as the proudest Colours might envy.

Nor these of Dryden.

Thus Air was void of light and Earth unstable,
And Waters dark Abyss unnavigable.

Because we may not place an Accent on the last Syllable of Envy, nor on the last save one of Unnavigable; which nevertheless we must be oblig'd to do, if we make the first of them Rhyme to Dye, the last to Unstable.

But we must take notice that in Burlesque Poetry, it is permitted to place an Accent upon a Syllable that naturally has none; as,

When Pulpit, Drum Ecclesiastick,
Was beat with fist instead of a stick.

Hudib.

Where unless we pronounce the Particle A with a strong Accent upon it, and make it sound like the Vowel A. in the last Syllable but one of Ecclesiastick; the Verse will lose all its Beauty and Rhyme. But this is allowable in Burlesque Poetry only.

Observe that these double Rhymes may be Compos'd of two several words; provided the Accent be upon the last Syllable of the first of them; as in these Verses of Cowley, speaking of Gold,

A Curse on him who did refine it,
A Curse on him who first did coin it.

Or one of the Verses may end in an intire word, and the Rhyme to it be Compos'd of several; as,

Tho' stor'd with Deletery Med'cines,
Which whosoever took is dead since.

Hudib.

The Treble Rhyme is, when in words Accented upon the last save two we begin the Rhyme at the Vowel of that Syllable, and continue it to the end of the word. Thus Charity and Parity, Tenderness and Slenderness, &c. are treble Rhymes; And there too, as well as the double; may be composed of several words; as,

There was an Ancient sage Philosopher,
That had read Alexander Ross over.

Hudib.

The Treble Rhyme is very seldom us'd, and ought wholy to be excluded from serious subjects; for it has a certain flatness, unworthy the gravity requir'd in Heroick Verse. In which Dryden was of opinion that even the double Rhymes ought very cautiously to find place; and in all his Translation of Virgil he has, I think, made use of none except only in such words as admit of a Contraction, and therefore cannot properly be said to be double Rhymes; as Giv'n, Driv'n, Tow'r, Pow'r, and the like. And indeed, considering that their measure is different from that of an Heroick Verse, which consists but of 10 Syllables, they ought not to be too frequently us'd in Heroick Poems; but they are very graceful in the Lyrick, to which, as well as to the Burlesque, those Rhymes more properly belong.