"Mr. Walscott asked if he (Dryden) was an Englishman or an Irishman, for he never could find out. 'You would find out,' answered Mr. Pope, 'if you heard him talk, for he cannot get rid of the habit of saying _a_ for e. He would be an Englishman with all his heart, if he could; but he is an Irishman, that is certain, and with all his heart too in one sense, for he is the truest patriot that country ever saw.... You must not talk to him about Irish rhymes,' added Mr. Pope, 'any more than you must talk to me about the _gods_ and _abodes_ in my Homer, which he quarrels with me for. The truth is, we all write Irish rhymes, and the Dean contrives to be more exact that way than most of us.' 'What!' said Mr. Walscott, 'does he carry his Irish accent into his writings, and yet think to conceal himself?' Mr. Pope read to us an odd kind of Latin-English effusion of the Dean's, which made us shake with laughter. It was about a consultation of physicians. The words, though Latin in themselves, make English when put together; and the Hibernianism of the spelling is very plain. I remember a taste of it. A doctor begins by inquiring, "'Is his Honor sic? Præ lætus felis pulse. It do es beat veris loto _de_.' "Here _de_ spells _day_. An Englishman would have used the word _da_. "'No,' says the second doctor; 'no, notis as qui cassi e ver feltu metri it,' &c. "_Metri_ for _may try_. "Mr. Pope told us that there were two bad rhymes in the _Rape of the Lock_, and in the space of eight lines: "'The doubtful beam long nods from side to side; At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside. But this bold lord, with manly strength endued, She with one finger and a thumb subdued.' "_Mr. Walscott._ 'These would be very good French rhymes.' "_Mr. Pope._ 'Yes, the French make a merit of necessity, and force their poverty upon us for riches. But it is bad in English. However, it is too late to alter what I wrote. I now care less about them, notwithstanding the Doctor. When I was a young man, I was for the free _disinvolte_ way of Dryden, as in the _Essay on Criticism_; but the town preferred the style of my pastorals, and somehow or other I agreed with them. I then became very cautious, and wonder how those lines in the _Lock_ escaped me. But I have come to this conclusion, that when a man has established his reputation for being able to do a thing, he may take liberties. Weakness is one thing, and the carelessness of power another.'"--_New Monthly Magazine_, vol. xiii. (1825), pp. 551, 552. With regard to the French rhyme, I see, in a note to _Odes and other Poems_, by Henry Neele, 1821, that he apologises for rhyming _multitude_ with _solitude_, by saying: