has all advantages
of Prose, besides its own.

But the excellence and dignity of it, were never fully known, till Mr.
WALLER taught it. He, first, made writing easily, an Art: first, showed
us to conclude the Sense, most commonly in distiches; which in the Verse
of those before him, runs on for so many lines together, that the reader
is out of breath, to overtake it.

This sweetness of Mr. WALLER's Lyric Poesy was, afterwards, followed in
the Epic, by Sir JOHN DENHAM, in his _Cooper's Hill_; a Poem which, your
Lordship knows! for the majesty of the style, is, and ever will be the
Exact Standard of Good Writing.

But if we owe the invention of it to Mr. WALLER; we are acknowledging for
the noblest use of it, to Sir WILLIAM D'AVENANT; who, at once, brought it
upon the Stage, and made it perfect in _The Siege of Rhodes_.

The advantages which Rhyme has over Blank Verse, are so many that it were
lost time to name them.

Sir PHILIP SIDNEY, in his _Defence of Poesy_, gives us one, which, in my
opinion, is not the least considerable: I mean, _the Help it brings to
Memory_; which Rhyme so knits up by the Affinity of Sounds, that by
remembering the last word in one line, we often call to mind both the
verses.

Then, in the Quickness of Repartees, which in Discoursive Scenes fall
very often: it has so particular a grace, and is so aptly suited to them,
that _the Sudden Smartness of the Answer, and the Sweetness of the Rhyme
set off the beauty of each other_.

But that benefit, which I consider most in it, because I have not seldom
found it, is that _it Bounds and Circumscribes the Fancy_. For
Imagination in a Poet, is a faculty so wild and lawless, that, like a
high ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it outrun the
Judgement. The great easiness of Blank Verse renders the Poet too
luxuriant. He is tempted to say many things, which might better be
omitted, or, at least, shut up in fewer words.

But when the difficulty of artful Rhyming is interposed, where the Poet
commonly confines his Sense to his Couplet; and must contrive that Sense
into such words that the Rhyme shall naturally follow them, not they the
Rhyme [pp. 571 581]: the Fancy then gives leisure to the Judgement to
come in; which, seeing so heavy a tax imposed, is ready to cut off all
unnecessary expenses.

This last consideration has already answered an objection, which some
have made, that "Rhyme is only an Embroidery of Sense; to make th