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POE TIC LICENCES. 119 |
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Pope, in the poem where he stigmatizes the hiatus as a fault, has repeatedly committed the same fault, and done so in every one of those instances which he exhibits as faulty; they art; these:
Though (i) oft the (ii) ear the (iii) open vowels tire.
And these are his own faults:
(i) Though each may feel increases and decays.
" Ess. on Crit." 404.
(ii) And praise the easy vigour of a line.
lb. 361.
(iii) As on the land while here the ocean gains.
lb. 54.
As for their frequency, they recur sometimes as often as twice in one line:
Unlucky as Fungosa in the play.
lb. 32S.
Who, if once wi*>ng, will needs be always so.
lb. 569.
But taking the whole poem, there will be found, upon an average, an hiatus in every eleven lines; and, except the u&Lneid above-mentioned, the hiatus occurs nearly as often throughout all the poetry of Dryden and Pope. This observation is made, not to condemn their practice, but to show partly that the fault is not so great as they seem to represent |
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