Chapter XX: Section II: Of double and treble rhyme

All words that are accented on the last save one, require rhyme to begin at the vowel of that syllable, and to continue to the end of the word; and this is what we call double rhyme; as,

"Then all for Women, Painting, Rhyming, Drinking,
Besides ten thousands Freaks that dy'd in Thinking."—_Dryden._

But it is convenient to take notice, that the ancient poets did not always observe this rule, and took care only that the last syllables of the words should be alike in sound without any regard to the seat of the accent. Thus nation and affection, tenderness and hapless, villany and gentry, follow and willow, and the like, were allowed as rhymes to each other in the days of Chaucer, Spenser, and the rest of the ancients; but this is now become a fault in our versification; and these two verses of Cowley rhyme not at all,

"A dear and lively Brown was Merab's Dye;
Such as the proudest Colours might envy."

Nor these of Dryden,

"Thus Air was void of Light, and Earth unstable,
And Waters dark Abyss unnavigable."

Because we may not place an accent on the last syllable of envy, nor on the last save one of unnavigable; which nevertheless we must be obliged to do, if we make the first of them rhyme to dye, the last to unstable.

But we may observe, that in burlesque poetry it is permitted to place
an accent upon a syllable that naturally has none; as,

"When Pulpit, Drum Ecclesiastick,
Was beat with Fist instead of a Stick."

Where, unless we pronounce the particle _a_ with a strong accent upon it, and make it sound like the vowel _a_ in the last syllable but one of ecclesiastic, the verse will lose all its beauty and rhyme. But this is allowable in burlesque poetry only.

Observe that these double rhymes may be composed of two several words, provided the accent be on the last syllable of the first of them; as these verses of Cowley, speaking of gold,

"A Curse on him who did refine it,
A Curse on him who first did coin it."

Or some of the verses may end in an entire word, and the rhyme to it be composed of several; as,

"Tho' stor'd with Deletery Med'cines
Which whosoever took is dead since."—_Hudibras._

The treble rhyme is very seldom used, and ought wholly to be exploded from serious subjects; for it has a certain flatness unworthy the gravity required in heroic verse. In which Dryden was of opinion, that even the double rhymes ought very cautiously to find place; and in all his translations of Virgil he has made use of none, except only in such words as admit of a contraction, and therefore cannot properly be said to be double rhymes; as giv'n, driv'n, tow'r, pow'r, and the like. And indeed, considering their measure is indifferent from that of a heroic verse, which consists but of ten syllables, they ought not to be too frequently used in heroic poems; but they are very graceful in the lyric, to which, as well as to the burlesque, those rhymes more properly belong.