BLANK VERSE is verse without rhyme (q.v.), and depending upon meter (q.v.) alone. The classical productions of the Greek and Roman poets—at least of them as have come down to us—are composed on this principle; and, accordingly. when time passion for imitating classical models set in, rhyme came to be looked upon as an invention of Gothic barbarism, and attempts were made in most countries to shake it off. The first specimen of blank verse in English is a translation of secoad and fourth books of Virgil's by the earl of Surrey, who was executed in 104o_ ; hut it had been used by Italian and Spanish writers as early as about the beginning of that century. In England, its adaptation to the drama was at once felt, and in that department of poetry it soon became and has continued dominant—if we except the effort made by Dryden and others, after the restoration, to return to rhymed plays; but in other kinds of poetry, it was not till the appearance of Paradise Lost 0667) that it could be said to have taken root;' and even then the want of rhymes was felt, as the poet expected it would. Many poets have since followed Milton's exam0e;
and English narrative, didactic, and descriptive poetry is partly in B. V., partly in rhymed couplets. It is chiefly in " heroic " meter, as it. is called—that is, in verses or lines of ten syllables—that blank verse has found a firm footing. Some, in fact, would restrict the Dame B. V. to lines of ten syllables, not considering it applicable to such meters as those of Southey's ghataba and Longfellow's Illawatha.—Dramatic B. V. is characterized by the frequent occurrence of a supernumerary syllable at the end of the line: To bet or not ! to be, t that is l the ques!tion: Whether 'tis nolbler in I the mind to oaf ifer.
In Italian and Spanish, B. V. never became popular, and still less in French. Tho German language seems to admit every variety of blank meter.