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158 ORTHOMETRY.
4.—DOUBLE AND TRIPLE RHYMES.
Under the name of Double and Triple rhymes are comprehended all those which are made by more than one syllable, of how many syllables soever they may consist. And they may consist of as many syllables as follow the last accented syllable of a word, together with that syllable, as glory, story ; beautiful, dutiful; censurable, commensurable. As in single rhymes it is required that all which follows the vowel shall be identical in sound; so in double rhymes all which follow the last accented vcnvel, both consonants and syllables, should in sound be identical, as in the examples above.
Double rhymes are but sparingly used in our serious poetry; the reason may be that they are considered as having too sprightly a character to accord with it, the rhyme of two syllables forming a trochee, and that of three, a dactyl; but in earlier times this unfitness was either not perceived or not regarded. The double rhymes in Shaks-pere's Rape of Lucrece sometimes occupy an entire stanza, as this:
Besides, the life and feeling of her passion
She hoards, to spend when he is by to hear her:
When sighs, and groans, and tears may grace the fashion
Of her disgrace, the better so to clear her
From that suspicion which the world might bear her.
To shun this blot, she would not blot the letter
With words, till action might become them better.
The rules or custom of a more correct age |
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