OBSERVATIONS ON THE PSEUDO-RHYTHMUS

The most ancient instance of rhyming verse, as Sir W. Temple has observed, is that of the Emperor Adrian, about the 137th year of Christ.¹ It was undoubtedly borrowed from the barbarous nations, among whom, particularly in the east, it is said to have been in use from the remotest antiquity. The Welsh still preserve the works of the ancient British bards, Taliessin, Benbeirdh, and Lomarkk, who lived towards the end of the sixth century, and wrote in rhyme. It is possible that our ancesters, the Anglo-Saxons, might borrow it from the Britons, but it is much more probable that they brought it from Germany with them.

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