"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 sudden_? This nicking of him, who spoke before, both in Sound and Measure, is so great a happiness [_felicity_], that you must, at least, suppose the persons of your Play to be poets, _Arcades omnes et cantare pares et respondere parati_. They must have arrived to the degree of _quicquid conabar dicere_, to make verses, almost whether they will or not. "If they are anything below this, it will look rather like the design of two, than the answer of one. It will appear that your Actors hold intelligence together; that they perform their tricks, like fortune tellers, by confederacy. The hand of Art will be too visible in it, against that maxim of all professions, _Ars est celare artem_; 'that it is the greatest perfection of Art, to keep itself undiscovered.'