(still) be judges. This it is to which, in fine, all your reasons must
submit. The unanimous consent of an audience is so powerful, that even
JULIUS CAESAR (as MACROBIOS reports of him), when he, was Perpetual
Dictator, was not able to balance it, on the other side: but when
LABERIUS, a Roman knight, at his request, contended in the _Mime_ with
another poet; he was forced to cry out, _Etiam favente me victus es
Liberi_.

"But I will not, on this occasion, take the advantage of the greater
number; but only urge such reasons against Rhyme, as I find in the
writings of those who have argued for the other way.

"First, then, I am of opinion, that Rhyme is unnatural in a Play, because
_Dialogue,_ there, _is presented as the effect of sudden thought._ For a
Play is the Imitation of Nature: and since no man, without premeditation,
speaks in rhyme; neither ought he to do it on the Stage. This hinders not
but the Fancy may be, there, elevated to a higher pitch of thought than
it is in ordinary discourse; for there is a probability that men of
excellent and quick parts, may speak noble things _ex tempore_: but those
thoughts are never fettered with the numbers and sound of Verse, without
study; and therefore it cannot be but unnatural, _to present the most
free way of speaking, in that which is the most constrained_.

"'For this reason,' says ARISTOTLE, ''tis best, to write Tragedy in that
kind of Verse, which is the least such, or which is nearest Prose': and
this, among the Ancients, was the _Iambic_; and with us, is _Blank Verse,
or the Measure of Verse kept exactly, without rhyme_. These numbers,
therefore, are fittest for a Play: the others [_i.e., Rhymed Verse_] for
a paper of Verses, or a Poem [p. 566]. Blank Verse being as much below
them, as Rhyme is improper for the Drama: and, if it be objected that
neither are Blank Verses made _ex tempore_; yet, as nearest Nature, they
are still to be preferred.

"But there are two particular exceptions [_objections_], which many,
beside myself, have had to Verse [_i.e., in rhyme_]; by which it will
appear yet more plainly, how improper it is in Plays. And the first of
them is grounded upon that very reason, for which some have commended
Rhyme. They say, 'The quickness of Repartees in argumentative scenes,
receives an ornament from Verse [pp. 492, 498].' Now, _what is more
unreasonable than to imagine that a man should not only light upon the
Wit, but the Rhyme too; upon the sudd