The latter,
likewise, with his rhyme striketh a certain music to the ear; and,
in fine, since it doth delight, though by another way, it obtaineth
the same purpose; there being in either, sweetness, and wanting in
neither, majesty. Truly the English, before any vulgar language I
know, is fit for both sorts; for, for the ancient, the Italian is so
full of vowels, that it must ever be cumbered with elisions. The
Dutch so, of the other side, with consonants, that they cannot yield
the sweet sliding fit for a verse. The French, in his whole
language, hath not one word that hath his accent in the last
syllable, saving two, called antepenultima; and little more, hath
the Spanish, and therefore very gracelessly may they use dactiles.
The English is subject to none of these defects.
Now for rhyme, though we do not observe quantity, we observe the
accent very precisely, which other languages either cannot do, or
will not do so absolutely. That "caesura," or breathing-place, in
the midst of the verse, neither Italian nor Spanish have, the French
and we never almost fail of. Lastly, even the very rhyme itself the
Italian cannot put in the last syllable, by the French named the
masculine rhyme, but still in the next to the last, which the French
call the female; or the next before that, which the Italian calls
"sdrucciola:" the example of the former is, "buono," "suono;" of the
sdrucciola is, "femina," "semina.
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