gainst Blank Verse, by the same reason? If the words of some Poets, who
write in it, are either ill-chosen or ill-placed; which makes not only
Rhyme, but all kinds of Verse, in any language, unnatural: shall I, for
their virtuous affectation, condemn those excellent lines of FLETCHER,
which are written in that kind? Is there anything in Rhyme more
constrained, than this line in Blank Verse?

"I, heaven invoke! and strong resistance make.

"Where you see both the clauses are placed unnaturally; that is, contrary
to the common way of speaking, and that, without the excuse of a rhyme to
cause it: yet you would think me very ridiculous, if I should accuse the
stubbornness of Blank Verse for this; and not rather, the stiffness of
the Poet. Therefore, CRITES! you must either prove that _words, though
well chosen and duly placed, yet render not Rhyme natural in itself_; or
that, _however natural and easy the Rhyme may be, yet it is not proper
for a Play_.

"If you insist on the former part; I would ask you what other conditions
are required to make Rhyme natural in itself, besides an election of apt
words, and a right disposing of them? For the due _choice_ of your words
expresses your Sense naturally, and the due _placing_ them adapts the
Rhyme to it.

"If you object that _one verse may be made for the sake of another,
though both the words and rhyme be apt_, I answer it cannot possibly so
fall out. For either there is a dependence of sense betwixt the first
line and the second; or there is none. If there be that connection, then,
in the natural position of the words, the latter line must, of necessity,
flow from the former: if there be no dependence, yet, still, the due
ordering of words makes the last line as natural in itself as the other.
So that the necessity of a rhyme never forces any but bad or lazy
writers, to say what they would not otherwise.

"'Tis true, there is both care and art required to write in Verse. A good
Poet never concludes upon the first line, till he has sought out such a
rhyme as may fit the Sense already prepared, to heighten the second. Many
times, the Close of the Sense falls into the middle of the next verse, or
farther off; and he may often prevail [_avail_] himself of the same
advantages in English, which VIRGIL had in Latin; he may break off in the
hemistich, and begin another line.

"Indeed, the not observing these two last things, makes Plays that are
writ in Verse so tedious: for