1
TATE'S
INTRODUCTION
TO THi:
GREEK METRES,
WITH THE
SAPPHIC STANZA AND ELEGIAC DISTICH
HOW AI>DE1>.
■Hi
PA
412
,634.
HM
TJHE LIBF^AF^Y
OF THE
nibersitt) of Toronto,
FROM
THOMAS HODGINS, M.A.
1890
GREEK METRES.
PR
III 2.
T3S
(
xifvffy/)
TO
JOHN SLEATH, D.D,
HIGH MASTER OF ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL, 85c. 85c.
My Dear Sir, *
You here receive the completion of my design
as to the metres of Greek poetry. To the Introduction
as given in its former state, I have added new Treatises
on the Elegiac Distich and on the Sapphic Stanza. And
as the Principal Tragic and Comic Metres seemed hardly
sufficient of themselves to constitute a book for separate
publication; the volume is now not only enlarged in
bulk by these two Treatises, but still more, let me hope,
in practical utility, by the directions which they contain,
for the young scholar's guidance in the task of imitative
composition.
The dedication of the work, thus augmented, to the
High Master of St. Paul's School, is demanded of me by
striking circumstances both of a public and a private
nature.
When our most Gracious Sovereign, on the recom-
mendation of my noble Patron, (whose name likewise
must ever in my heart be indelibly united with honour
and gratitude,) was pleased to confer on me the dignity
of Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's ; even that preferment
was in my estimate enhanced by its peculiar locality.
IV DEDICATION.
The residence, which, by God's blessing, I now occupy,
carries with it the felicity of immediate neighbourhood
to one of the most generous of men and the most valuable
of friends; and while it happily serves to show the in-
timacy cherished between us, makes me justly proud of
so delightful a connection.
Even that consideration alone, however, might be
deemed inadequate to the present purpose ; if some more
appropriate reason besides did not justify my inscribing
a book like this with your name.
During the course of the last five years, the illustrious
Society of Trinity College, Cambridge, has had to enroll
in the list of its Fellows no less than six Paulines, your
pupils; who have not risen to that distinction without
a large share also of University Scholarships and Chan-
cellor's Medals.
In that splendid line of success, no second instance,
I understand, is on record, as having so rewarded the
labors of any classical preceptor, however accomplished,
and faithful, and beloved.
The propriety, therefore, of this address, can admit of
no question; and I am glad of the present, as of every
opportunity, to declare myself,
Dear Sir,
Your most obliged, devoted,
and affectionate friend,
JAMES TATE.
Amen Corner,
21st January, 1834.
CONTENTS.
Chap. I. The Tragic Trimeter, in its scansion . = . P, 1
II. The Comic ... 4
III. The Tragic Trimeter, in its structure ... 4
IV. The Comic ... 7
V. The Iamhic Tetrameter, in its scansion and
structure . . 8
VI. The Trochaic Tetrameter of Tragedy,
in its scansion . 10
in its structure - 11
VII. The Trochaic Tetrameter of Comedy, in its
scansion and structure 13
Anapestic Verses in scansion and structure.
VIII. The Dimeter of Tragedy . . , . . . . 14
IX. The Tetrameter of Comedy 18
X. The Ictus Metricus of Anapestic Verse . . 21
XI. of the long Trochaic of Tragedy . 23
XII. of the Iambic Trimeter of Tragedy 25
XIII. of the long Trochaic of Comedy . 27
XIV. of Iambic Verse in Comedy, Tri-
meter and Tetrameter .... 27
XV. Note A. on the Concurrences of certain feet in
the Comic Trimeter 28
XVI. Note B. on the Pause or Cretic Termination . 30
XVII. Note C. on the Anapest Proprii Nominis, and
on other similar licences 34
Appendix, on Syllabic Quantity in Homer and Ari-
stophanes 41
Treatise on the Sapphic Stanza 47
on the Elegiac Distich 58
AN
INTRODUCTION
TO THE PRINCIPAL
GREEK TRAGIC AND COMIC METRES
IN SCANSION, STRUCTURE, AND ICTUS.
The principal verses of a regular kind are Iambic, Tro-
chaic, and Anapestic.
The Scansion in all of them is by dipodias or sets of two
feet. Each set is called a Metre.
The structure of verse is such a division of each line by
the words composing it as forms a movement most agree-
able to the ear.
The metrical ictvis, occurring twice in each dipodia, seems
to have struck the ear in pairs, being more strongly marked
in the one place than in the other. Accordingly, each pair
was once marked by the percussion of the musician's foot.
Pede ter percusso is Horace's phrase when speaking of what
is called Iambic Trimeter.
Those syllables which have the metrical ictus are said
also to be in arsi, and those which have it not, in thesi, from
the terms apaie and dime : the latter is sometimes called the
debilis positio.
I. — The Tragic Trimeter.
1. The Iambic Trimeter Acatalectic, (i. e. consisting of
three entire Metres,) as used by the Tragic writers, may
have in every place an Iambus, or, as equivalent, a Tribrach
GREEK TRAGIC
in every place but the last; in the odd places, 1st, 3d, and
5th, it may have a Spondee, or, as equivalent, in the 1st
and 3d a Dactyl, in the 1 st only it may have an Anapest.
This initial Anapest of the Trimeter is hardly perceptible
in its effect on the verse : in the short Anacreontic,
MeffovvKrioiQ iroff wpaig
^rpi(f>£Tai or ApKTOg i]Cr), k. t. X.
it evidently produces a livelier movement.
A Table of the Tragic Trimeter.
1 2
n yju W w
3 4
W WW w WW
— WW
5
W WW
«-> w
Verses containing pure Iambi («), Tribrachs in 1st, 2d,
3d, 4th, and 5th places (b, c, d, e,f), Spondees in 1st, 3d,
and 5th (g), Dactyls in 1st and 3d (7j, i), Anapest in 1st
(J), are given by Gaisford in his Hephaestion, p. 241, or
may be read in the following lines of the GEdipus Rex :
(l- 8. 6 iraai kXzivbg OicLttovq kaXovfievog.
v. 112. TTortpa <)' kv (hkoiq f/ ' v aypolg 6 Auiog.
C. 26. (pdivovtru o' aytXaig ftovvofxoig, TOkotai re.
d. 568. 7rwc ouv rod' ovrog 6 tro(pug ovk T)'v()a ra.de ;
€. 826. firjrpoQ £vyijvut, kctl iraripa KCtTaKTaveiv.
j£ 1496. ri yap tcaKtav Aweerri ; ruy iraripa nari'ip.
g. 30. "Ai$T)r arzvaypoig teal yooig 7rXovri^£rat.
It. 270. /.h'jt aporov avroig yijy aviivai riva.
1. 2o7- uvdpog y aplarov (latriXiwg t oXwXorog.
J. 18. hpijg' eyuj fxiu Zrji'og' o'lce r tjdiu)i> . . .
2. The last syllable in each verse appears to be indif-
ferently short or long : and even where one line ends with a
AND COMIC METRES. l»
short vowel, a vowel is often found at the beginning of the
next, as in (Ed. R. vv. 2, 3 ; 6, 7 ; 7, 8.
Sometimes, however, one verse with its final vowel elided
passes by scansion into the next, as (Ed. Col. vv. 1164, 5.
trot (j>aa\v abrbv eg Xdyovg eXOelv fioXovr
alrelv, inreXdelv r a<T(f>aXu>g rijg cfevp' ocov.
The case is thus restricted by Porson, ad Med. 510.
Vocalw in fine versus elidi non potest, nisi syllaba longa
prcBcedat. (On this curious subject consult Hermann's
Elementa Doctrinse Metricae, Lips. 1816. Glasg. 1817.
pp. 36 = 22, 3.)
3. Besides the initial Anapest (restricted, however, as
below *) in common words, in certain proper names, which
could not else be introduced, the Anapest is admitted also
into the 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th places of the verse.
(2d.) Iph. A. 416. i)v 'IcptyifEiar (bvdfxafcg kv ddfxotg.
(3d.) (Ed. Col. 1317. TETapTov'IirirofxecovT cnriaretXev Trarifp.
(4th.) (Ed. It. 285. ^idXttrra $ot/3w Teipsoiav, Trap' ov rig civ.
(5th.) Antlg. 11. Efj.ol fitv ovcelg fjtvdog, 'AuTiyovij, (piXojy.
In all these the two short syllables of the Anapest are
inclosed betwixt two longs in the same word, and show the
strongest as well as the most frequent case for the admission
of such a licence. (The nature of this licence will be con-
sidered in a note (C) ch. xvii. on the admission of Anapests
into the Iambic verse of Comedy.)
In the few instances where the proper name begins with
an Anapest, as MeviXaog, Tlpiafxov, &c. those names might
easily by a different position come into the verse like other
words similarly constituted. Elmsley, in his celebrated
critique on Person's Hecuba, ed. 1808, considers all such
* This Anapest in the Tragics is generally included in the same word ; ex-
cept where the line begins either with an article or with a preposition followed
immediately by its case. Monk, Mus. Crit. i. p. 63.
Phlloct. 754. tov ifftv %pivt>v .
Orest. 088. &m Ttydt y,yopiuov
Iph. A. f>46. -ru( Ijut) ....
b2
GREEK TRAGIC
cases as corrupt. (Vid. Edinburgh Review, Vol. xix. p. 69.)
Pol-son's judgment seems to lean the other way. — At all
events, the whole Anapest must be contained in the same
word. (Vide Hecub. Porsoni, London. 1808. p. xxiii.=
p. 18. Euripid. Porsoni a Scholefield, Cantabr. 182G. To
these editions only any references hereafter will be regularly
made.)
II. — The Comic Trimeter ;
besides the initial Anapest which it takes with less restric-
tion, admits the Anapest of common words in all the other
places but the last : it admits also the Dactyl in 5th.
V esp. 979- KUTafla, KUTupa. | KarajSct, K«r«/3a, J Ka.Tafi{]OOUCH.
Plut. 55. irvBoi^LEff av | tov ^pr}(Tfxvi> ii\fxu>v on voti.
In the resolved or trisyllabic feet one limitation obtains:
the concurrence of — ^ or uw and ^ — in that order never
takes place. The necessity for this will hereafter be seen,
note (A), ch. xv.
A Table of Scansion
for the Trimeter both Tragic and Comic.
III. — 77ie Structure of the Iambic Trimeter
is decidedly Trochaic.
1. The two principal divisions of this verse, which give
the Trochaic movement to the ear, and continue it more or
less to the close, take place after two feet and a half (M), or
after three feet and a half (N), with the technical name of
AND COMIC METRES. 5
Ccesura. One or other of these divisions may be considered
as generally necessary to the just constitution of the verse,
the form M however being more frequent than the form N,
nearly as four to one :
(M.) QEd. It. 2. rlvag tto& edpag | timtDe jxoi doc'i^ere,
(N.) 3. iKTijptoig kXucoktiv I itearrEfifievoi ;
The four cases of the Caesura (M) and the eight cases
of the Csesura (N), as exemplified by Porson, are given
below from the Suppl. ad Prcefat. pp. xxvi. xxvii. — 21, 22*.
* Nunc de caesuris videamus. Senarius, ut notum est, duas
praecipuas caesuras habet, penthemimerim, et heptherairaerim,
id est, alteram quam voco A, quae tertium pedem, alteram,
quae quartum dividat. Prioris caesuras quatuor sunt genera:
primum est, quod in brevi syllaba fit ; secundum, quod in brevi
post elisionem; tertium in longa, quartum in longa post eli-
sionem.
Hec. 5. {A a) Klvdvvog e(T"^e \ ciopl itege~iv 'EXXjji't/cw.
11. \A 6) Ilcm/p iv e'L ttot j 'IXtov reivn ttectol.
2. {A c) Atiriov 'lv"AiCi]g | \wp\g wtaarai Bewv.
42. (y4 d") K.CU TEV^ETCll TOVC J OVC' Ctdwpr}TOQ flXlOV.
Alterius caesurae, quam voco B, plura sunt genera.
Primum, cum in fine disyllabi vel hyperdisyllabi occurrit
sine elisione ; secundum, post elisionem ; tertium, cum brevis
syllaba est enclitica vox ; quartum, cum non est enclitica, sed
talis quae sententiam inchoare nequeat; qviintum, cum vox ista
ad praecedentia quidem refertur, potest vero inchoare senten-
tiam ; sextum, cum syllaba brevis post elisionem fit. Duo alia
caesurae hujus genera ceteris minus jucunda sunt, ubi sensus
post tertium pedem suspenditur, et post distinctionem sequitur
vox monosyllaba, vel sine elisione, vel per elisionem facta.
Hec. 1. (B (l) "Uku) vEKpwv KEvdjjiCJva j kciI ckotov irvXag.
248. (B &) JloWwj' Xoyiov Evp{)f^a^ , | ware fii) Bcive~iv.
—— 266. (13 c) Keivt) yap &Xectev viv \ eiq Tpolav r aytt.
319. (B d) Tvfxj3ov C£ l3ovXoijj.r]i' av | a'£,tovfievov.
Soph. El. 530. (2? e) 'E7r£t Trarr)p ovtoq aog | ov Qpt)VE~ig llEi.
Phil. 1304. (Bf) 'AW our kfiol KaUv roc' | karlv ovte aoi.
iEsch. Theb. 1055. (B g) 'AW ov 7t6Xiq orvyE't, av | rifi>'iaEig
ra<J)0) ;
Soph. El. 1038. (B 1i) "Orav yap ev tppoi'tjc, -6(Y j iiy>)a£i av
v5v.
6 GREEK TRAGIC
2. The two minor divisions, which give or continue the
Trochaic movement, frequently occur after the first foot and
a half (L) of the verse, and before the last foot and a half
(R), called the final Cretic ( — w — ).
(L.) CEd. It. 120. to ttoIov ; 1 tv yap 7ro\\' av ifcvpoi fj.aduv,
(R.) 121. ap^i/v fipayjuav El Xa/joifxey \ iXTricoQ.
The former of these divisions (L), though not necessary,
is always agreeable. The latter (R), requiring ^- and re-
jecting -- in 5th, takes place not only in such a simple
structure of words as that above given, but under circum-
stances more complex, which will be explained in note (R)
ch. xvi., on the Cretic Termination. This delicacy of struc-
ture was discovered by Porson, who gave the name ofpansa
to it, p. xxxii. = °,7.
8. The following lines may serve to exhibit all the di-
visions connected with the structure of the verse:
(L) (M) (N) (R)
CLd. R. <Sl. trutrfjpt \ fiah] | \durrpdc \ uxnrep \ ofifiari.
1 rom. V. 1005. >*/ warpi | <f>vyai I Zr/tt \ ttigtov \ ixyyihov.
4. When the line is divided in medio versu with the
elision of a short vowel in the same word, or in the little-
words added to it, such as ci, fit, at, ye, re, that division is
called by Porson the (jiia.si-ca'.sura, p. xxvii. = 22.
CEd. R. 779. 1111)1) yap zv ceiirt'Oic fi I v7rep7r\T](Tdtlg fxtOijr.
Hecub. 355. yvtuiil irapBivoig t \ airofiXtirTOQ fxira.
Aj. rl. 435. to. irpiora kaXXtortt' | apicrTevaac crrpaTOv.
Hecub. 387. KtvTiiTE, j.u) ydctcrff' \ iyio "tekov Uapiv.
Verses of this latter formation Elmsley ingeniously defends,
by an hypothesis that the vowel causing the elision might
be treated as appertaining to the precedent word, and be so
pronounced as to produce a kind of hepthemimeral casura
(in this treatise marked by the letter N) :
r<( irpwra KaWiTTtia | pirrTevaar irrparov.
Vid. Notes on the Ajax, Mus. Crit. 1. p. 477-
5. Several instances, however, are found of the line di-
AND COMIC METRES. I
vided in medio versu without any such elision, a worse
structure still.
Aj. Fl. 1091. MevfAcif, | fxr) yywfxag \ vTtoariiaaQ J aotyag.
Pers. 509 = 5 15. QpijKrjy | 7repaaavTeg | fxuyiQ | ttoXXw nova).
On this latter verse vid. the Note of Blomfield, and Her-
mann's remark in the work already quoted, p. 110 = 70.
6. But though the verse sometimes does occur with its
3d and 4th feet constructed as in the instances above, yet
there is a structure of the words which the Tragic writers
never admit ; that structure which divides the line by the
dipodias of scansion like the artificial verse preserved by
Athenseus :
2e tov fooXotg | vicpoKTviroiQ I cvtr^iifiepov.
The following line, scarcely less objectionable as it stood
in the former editions of iEschylus, Pers. 501 =507,
SrparoQ ireoa \ KpvaTaXXoirTiya. | 2ta liupov,
has been corrected by an easy transposition :
KpvaraWoTrijya | <)ia iropov crrparog TrtpQ.
Vide Porson, u. s. pp. xxix, xxx. =24, 25.
IV. — The Structure of the Comic Trimeter
]. frequently admits such lines as are divided in medio
versu without the quasi-caesura, and, though somewhat
rarely, such also as divide the line by the dipodias of scan-
sion.
PlutUS, 68. ClTToXw TOV avQpUTTOV | KO.Ki.IJTa TOVTOVl.
Acham. 183. a-xovZag (pipeig \ twv tifnriXojv \ rsrf.tr] fxii'wv ;
2. It readily admits also a Spondee in the 5th foot with-
out any regard to the law of Cretic termination, as
Plut. 2. AovXov yeviadai Trapacppovovvrog | ZecnroTOv,
29. KaKWQ tTTpCLTTOV koX Txivf\c l)v. | Otcci TOl.
u3. Ae'^ou tov iivtipu kiu tov bpviv | roii deov.
3. And even when a Dactyl occupies the 5th foot, the
8
GREEK TRAGIC
modes of concluding the verse which usually occur are those
most directly unlike to the Tragic conclusion : as
Plut. 55. Trvdot/j.ed' av tov xprjtrfiov yfiwv, \ o ti voei.
while forms of this kind are comparatively rare :
Plut. 823. "Evcov nivtiv i\v' 'ilaKvz yap \ -it fiXttyapa fiov.
• 1149- "JLirtiT cnroXnrijv tovq deovc | ev66.Se [xeveIq ;
V. — The Iambic Tetrameter Catalectic,
1. peculiar to Comedy, consists of eight feet all but a
syllable ; or may be considered as two dimeters, of which
the first is complete in the technical measure, the second is
one syllable short of it.
This tetrameter line, the most harmonious of Iambic
verses, is said to have its second dimeter catalectic to its
first : the same mode of speaking prevails as to Trochaic
and Anapestic tetrameters.
The table of scansion below, exhibiting all the admissible
feet, is drawn up in every point agreeably to Porson's ac-
count of the feet separately allowable ; except that Elmsley's
plea for the admission (but very rarely) of ^- of a com-
mon word in 4th is here received as legitimate. See his
able argument on that question, Edinb. Rev. u. s. p. 84.
2. In the resolved or trisyllabic feet one restriction ob-
tains; that the concurrence of the feet — w or u^u and
uu — in that order never takes place ; a rule which even in
the freer construction of the Trimeter (Ch. ii.) is always
strictly observed from its essential necessity.
1
2
3
4
5
G
7
8
u
u
u
U UU
u
U UU
UU
u —
U LU
u
u uu
u —
u uu
u —
u
uu
—
uu
UU —
(P.E.
uu
uu
rccipit.)
uu "—
Proprii
UU
Nominis
uu —
AND COMIC METRES. 9
3. From the first appearance of the scansional table here
exhibited, it might be supposed that the varieties of this
verse would be exceedingly numerous. Two considerations,
however, for which we are indebted to the acuteness and di-
ligence of Elmsley, show sufficient cause why the actual
number of those varieties is comparatively small :
" All the trisyllabic feet which are admissible into Comic
Iambics are employed with much greater moderation in the
catalectic tetrameters than in the common trimeters." Ed.
Rev. u. s. p. 83.
" The Comic Poets admit Anapests more willingly and
frequently into 1st, 3d, and 5th places, than into the 2d,
4th, and 6th of the tetrameter. 1 ' Ed. Rev. u. s. p. 87-
4. In the verses quoted below from Porson (xliii. = 38)
examples of the less usual feet will be found: of (a) v^, m
4th, of (b) uu- in 6th, and of (c) and (d) uu- proprii no-
minis in 4th and 7th.
The uu- (e) of a common word in 4th is given in de-
ference to the judgment of Elmsley (Nub. 1059.) :
(«.) 7rpu)-iara ueV yap eva ye riva Kadelaev EyKaXvipag.
(&.) oif% i)ttov f] vvv ol \a\ovi'~£Q. yXlQiog yap >'/<70a.
(c.) 'A^iXXf'a tlv ?) Niofirjv, to irpoawivov ovy^i CEucvvg.
(a 7 .) 'EyeVero, "M-evaXiimag ttoiwv, Qatcpag te, Tlr]vi\6Trr)v (is.
(e.) ITo.WoTc - 6 yovv Tlifkevg eXafiev Eul tovto tt/v fxa^aipav.
5. The structure generally agrees with the scansion, and
divides the verse into two dimeters. In the Plutus, those
lines which have this division are to those lines which di-
vide the verse in the middle of a word or after an article
&c. nearly as four to one :
Plut. 25/, 8. ovkovv bpag ipfiw^LEVOvg | i/ficig 7rciXai Trpodv/xiog,
a>£ eIkoq ecttiv aaQevtig \ yiporrag civdpag i'l^rj.
• 284, 5. 'AW ovk£t clv Kpv\pai/jif top | YlXovroy y«p*
<i' vfipeg, rJKEi
liywv o CEGK'jTr]g, og i>|udr irXovaiovg no^aEi.
10
GREEK TRAGIC
And very often the verse is even so constructed as to give
a succession of Iambic dipodias separately heard :
Plut. 253, 4. 'Q, ttoWcI h) [ rw t)e<77rdr»7 1 tclvtov dv[j.ov \ tyayuvrte,
avhpeg 0t'Aot | /cat Crj/jLOrai I teal tov woyeiy | epacrrai.
After these pleasing specimens of the long Iambic, it is
proper to state that the comedy from which they are taken
exhibits in all respects a smoothness and regularity of versi-
fication unknown to the earlier plays of Aristophanes.
(Elmsley, u. s. p. 83.)
N. B. Of the nature of that licence which admits the
Anapest, whether more or less frequently, into any place of
the comic verse but the last some account may be reason-
ably demanded. A probable solution of the difficulty will
be offered in the note (C), ch. xvii., subjoined.
VI. — The Trochaic Tetrameter Catalectic of
Tragedy,
1. consists of eight feet all but a syllable, or may be con-
sidered as made up of two dimeters, of which the second is
catalectic (vide ch. v. §. 1.) to the first.
Its separate feet are shown in the scansional table below ;
and the Dactyl of a proper name, admissible only in certain
places, is marked by the letters P. N.
P.N.
— \j
The Dactyl of a proper name is admitted chiefly where
its two short syllables are inclosed between two longs in the
same word ; very rarely where the word begins with them ;
under other circumstances, never.
AND COMIC METRES. 11
Iph. A. 882. Eig ap' 'l<pLyivEtav'E\ii'TiQ j vborog %v TrEnpwfievog.
1531. TtavTEQ "JLWtjve g, ffrparog Se | MvpiMJjovwv ov crot
Trapijy ;
Orest. 1549. Svyyovov r ijxi]v, Xlv\ah]v re \ rbv rc't^e ^vvCpwvra
fXOt.
On the Dactyl or Anapest of proper names in the Tro-
chaic or Iambic verse of Tragedy a suggestion will be offered
in the note (C) ch. xvii.
In the two following lines will be found specimens of the
pure Trochaic verse and of the Trochaic Spondee in all its
places :
x hcen. o'31. avTiTufofiai kteviov at. J kujjle tov^ eptjc i%£i.
' OOy. Ko^Trag el, (nrovoalg 7reTroi6wc, I ai (te (TwCovmv 6cive~iv.
2. As to scansion, one limitation only obtains, that
(or uu-) in 6th never precedes KJUU in 7th. Even in
comedy a verse like the following is exceedingly rare:
(R. P. xlviii. = 43.)
Ovte yap vavaybg, av ju>) yrjg Xciftrjrai \ tyEpuf-iEvog.
whereas of -^ or uuu in 6th preceding uuu in 7th instances
in Tragic verse are not at all uncommon. (The following
line exhibits also ww in 1st and 5th.)
I hcen. 618. , Avocnog TTE(j>VKag. a\X ov iraTpihog, die gv } | TroXifiiog.
3. In structure, the most important point is this ; that the
first dimeter must be divided from the second after some
word which allows a pause in the sense ; not after a preposi-
tion, for instance, or article belonging in syntax to the second
dimeter. (The following lines exhibit also w- in 2nd and
6th.)
Orest. 787. tog viv iKETtvau) jxe (tuxtcii. \ to ye dinaiov wi>' €\ei.
1 hcen. 621. kol av } fiiJTEp; ov dtfxig aot | p.i]Tpbg ovofiu^Ety Kapa.
4. If the first dipodia of the verse is contained in entire
words, (and so as to bejbllozved at least by a slight break of'
the sense,) the second foot is a Trochee (or may be a Tri-
brach);
12 GREEK TRAGIC
Phoen. 636. wc ari/xof;, | olKTpinra<ryo)v. t^eXavrofiai yQvvog.
Orest. 788. jxt]TtpoQ 6e \ firjh' 'idotfii fivij/jia. TzoXtjxia yap i)v.
Bacch. 585 = 629. ^8' o Bp6f.uoc, | we t/uoiye <paiverai, cui,ai>
Xiyw,
This nicety of structure in the long Trochaic of Tragedy
was first discovered by Professor Porson : not an idea of
such a canon seems ever to have been hinted before. (Vid.
Kidd's Tracts and Misc. Criticisms of Porson, p. 197. — Class.
Journ. No. xlv. pp. 166, 7. — Maltby's Lexicon Graeco-
Prosodiacum, p. lxvii.)
In the following lines, apparently exceptions to the rule,
the true sense marks the true structure also :
Orest. 1523. iravrayov J (i]V i/cu /jtaXXoy ?*/ Oare'iv rdig
auHppoffw.
Here Travraypv belongs to the whole sentence, and not to
^ijy exclusively.
I ph. A. 1318. ruv ye r»7e Btuc iralca, j t£kvov,$ ye cevp' lXi)Xvdac.
Here no pause of sense takes place after deae, (which read
as a monosyllable,) but the words from rdv to iraiSa are in-
closed as it were in a vinculum of syntax.
The two following verses, the first with an enclitic after
the four initial syllables, the second with such a word as is
always subjoined to other words, have their natural division
after the fifth syllabic, and all is correct accordingly:
I ph. A. 1354. KarBaveiv flip juot | SidoKTai' tovto& ubroftovXofxai.
897. aXX' tKX)'iOi]c yovy | TaXaivr/g irapQivov <j)lXoc tt6(ti£.
Nor does the following verse,
Orest. /94. tovt eiceivo ktcIo-0' i7aipovg, fit) rv avyytvtQ uovov,
contain any real exception to the canon : for the first dipodia
does not end with a word marked by any pause of utterance.
Quite the contrary indeed; for ktivo is pronounced in im-
mediate contact with tcraaQt'.
70vr' iKtirowacrtf i7aipovc, K. r. X.
otherwise the 2nd foot would not be a spondee at all. (Some-
AND COMIC METRES. 13
thing more on this head will be found in note (B), ch. xvi.,
where lines like the following are considered:
Hecub. 723. 'Hficlg jxev ovv tu)fxev, ovte \pavofiev.)
5. If the verse is concluded by one word forming the
Cretic termination (->.»-), or by more words than one to that
amount united in meaning, so that after the sixth foot that
portion of sense and sound is separately perceived, then the
sixth foot is -u or u^, i. e, may not be — or uu-.
Phoen. 616. E^EXavvofiEaQa Trarplcog. mi yap yXdeg | e£,eXwv.
643. eXttiSeq d' oinrw Kadavdova, alg iriiroiQa \ trvv dadig.
Can it be necessary to remark, that in verses like that be-
low the words at the close naturally go together, to form a
quadrisyllable ending, and have nothing to do with the rule
here laid down ?
Iph. A. 1349. au> TTcarec ra c' uevvad' t]fdv Kaprepslv \ oil pcftwv.
The same is true of similar disyllabic, quinquesyllabic, and
other endings; which, however, in Tragic verse rarely take
place.
VII.— In the Comic Tetrameter,
1. the Scansion agrees with the Tragic; except only that
the in 6th sometimes, though very rarely, precedes the
uw in 7th (ch. vi. §. 2.), as in the line from Philemon:
Ovte yap vavaybq, av fit) yfjr Xcifirjrai (pEpofiEvoQ.
The Comic like the Tragic Tetrameter admits the -uu
only in the case of a proper name, and not otherwise.
2. But in respect of Structure the nice points of Tragic
verse are freely neglected. Neither the great division in
medio versu (ch. vi. §. 3.), nor the rules (ch. vi. §§. 4, 5.)
concerning those divisions which sometimes take place after
the first dipodia, or before the final Cretic, appear to have
been regarded in the construction of comic verse. Lines
like the following occur in great abundance:
14 GREEK TRAGIC
Nubes, 599« irpdra fxtv yaiptiv ' Adr)i'ai\oi<ri xai rote %Vfifta.%ptQ.
yoU. arr a»> v/ieiq \ tt,anap7T)T , £tti ro ptKnov rpeirety.
568. TrXelara yap deioy cnruyTwy ux^tXovaaig \ ri)y ttoXiv.
VII I. — Anapestic Verses.
1. The Anapestic Dimeter of Tragedy is so named from
the striking predominance of the Anapestic foot, though
it frequently admits the Dactylic dipodia. In a regular
System it consists of Dimeters with a Monometer (or Ana-
pestic base) sometimes interposed, and is concluded by a
Dimeter Catalectic, technically called the Paremiac verse.
The separate feet of the Dimeter Acatalectic are shown
in the scansional table below:
2. In the predominant or Anapestic dipodia the Anapesl
and Spondee are combined without any restriction:
Prom. V. 93, 4, 5. dipyjSijff altaiQ \ aUlauriv \
$iUKy<ti('i[if)<ic | TOV fivparfi |
ypovov <\I)\ev(tu). I
3. In the occasional or Dactylic dipodia the Dactyl mosl
usually precedes it^ on n Spondee, a> in three instances which
the following verses contain:
Prom. V. 292-o. fro I | ripfta xtXevdou \
i m/itt \litjifvoQ I irpuc at, Xlpofl^Btv, \
rov irrepvyMKij | run' oltavbv \
yvuftp trrofjluv | Hrep sbOvvbtv. \
4. Sometimes the Dactyl is paired with itself:
Mrd. 101, '». '£2 p£ya\o Qifu | ko.1 w6rrt "Apretu, |
lU/, o. (,') -('trip, tl> ttoXic, | wv a-f) u<t0t)v
<('irr^f>i7ir ray iftOV \ KTf.lva.ea xumv. |
(Dactyli sa?pissinie substituuntur Anapeestis, nee tantum
AND COMIC METRES. 15
unus aliquis, sed saepe etiam plures continui. Quinque con-
tinuavit iEschylus in Agam. 1561=1529.
TOVTO' TrpoQ //yuwj/
Kcnnrecre, Kctrdave, mu KaTadd\hofX£v,
ov% inro KXavdfiuiP rwv ei; o'ikwv.
Septem Euripides in Hippolyt. 1361 =1358.
Trp6(T(popa /.i aipere, avvrova o ek/cere
Toy KaKohai/iova, kui Karaparov
irarpoq afiTrXctKiaiQ.
Herman, p. 377=240.)
5. Very rarely, and perhaps not agreeably, in the Dactylic
dipodia the Spondee is found to precede the Dactyl: of the
two following instances, the first presents the more objection-
able form; the second, succeeded by a Dactyl and Spondee,
can hardly be said to offend at all :
Androm. 1228=1204. Sai/iwv See tig, | \evwfv aldipa
7TOpdfJ.£v6fI£VOQ, [
Iph. A. 161=159. dvrjTuiv c oXfiiog \ £ig teXog ou^ei'c.
On this curious subject, in all its minutiae, vide the acute
and diligent Elmsley, ad Med. 1050. note g, and (Ed.
Colon. 1766.
6. The Dactyl, when in any way it precedes the Anapest,
appears to be considered by metrical scholars as a case of
great awkwardness and difficulty. The following statement,
reprinted with a few verbal alterations from the Museum
Criticum (vol. i. p. 333.), may suffice perhaps for all prac-
tical purposes.
The concurrence of Dactyl with Anapest in that order is
not very often found betwixt one dimeter and another.
Electr. Eurip. 1320, 1. ivyyovE ^LXtute-
Old yctp C,£vyvva ij/xag TraTpiwv.
(vid. S. Theb. vv. 827, 8. 865, 6. for two more instances.)
The combination is very rare where one dipodia closes
with a Dactyl and the next begins with an Anapest, thus:
16 GREEK TRAGIC
Electr. Eurip. 1317. Qapozc UaWacoc | baiav ij&ig
Hecub. 144. I'C ' Ay a fiifxvovog | ikitiq yovaTwv.
Within the same dipodia we may vetnure to assert that
such a combination never takes place.
7. Thus far of the Anapestic Dimeter, when the first di-
podia, as most usually it does, ends with a word.
This, however, is not always the case; and of such verses
as want that division those arc the most frequent, and the
most pleasing also, which have the first dipodia after an
Anapest (sometimes after a Spondee) overflowing into the
second, with the movement Anapestic throughout.
Agam. 52. Trrepvyiov tptTfioiaw \ kptaau^troi.
794 — 766. kul i,vy\(iipovaii> | ufjioiOTrpaTreiQ.
(vide Gaisford, Hephaest. pp. 279, 80. Maltby, Lex. Gru?co-
Pros. pp. xxviii, xxix. for a large collection of miscellaneous
examples.)
The following rare, perhaps singular, instance-,
I rom. V. 1 <2— 1 <9. <ai /n' o'v-e | fitXiyXutraoic ttciOovc,
comes recommended at least by the uniform movement :
whereas this line, if the reading be correct, from the Hip-
polytus,
V. J87o=j857. tiq i(f>i<r-t]K titt^ta irXtvpoic i
within the same word, lv\ ull'ers the transition from
Anapestic movement to Dactylic ; a transition perhaps not
entirely illegitimate, but one of very rare occurrence.
In the second line of those quoted below the structure,
though exceedingly rare, is recommended by the continuity
of Dactylic feet before and after it :
Agam. 1557=1504 H)v iro\vK\avrriv
'Iftyiveiuv | &val;ta dpaaas,
a£ta irdcr^uji', k. t. X.
8. The synaplica, (or uvratytia,) that property of the Ana-
pestic System which Bentley first demonstrated, is neither
AND COMIC METRES. 17
more nor less than continuous scansion: that is, scansion
continued with strict exactness from the first syllable to the
very last, but not including the last itself, as that syllable,
and only that in the whole System, may be long or short in-
differently.
In this species of verse one hiatus alone is permitted, in
the case of a final diphthong or long vowel so placed as to
form a short syllable. The following instances may serve
(Hermann, p. 373 = 237):
Pers. 39- rat kXeiofiarai. vau>v spiral.
— — 548. TzoQiovoai iSslv ctpri^vyiav.
— ^— 60. o'l^erat tivcpGJv.
Hecub. 123. T & QriaelBa 3\ o£w 'AQvvwv.
With this point of prosody premised, two passages may suf-
fice to exemplify the Synaphea :
Prom. V. 199, 200. eiq updfiuv £/.ioi rat (ptXorrjra
OTTTEvdlOV (JTTEVeOVTt 7TO0' i]L,£l.
The last syllable of v. 199- becomes long from the short
vowel a being united with the consonants <nr at the begin-
ning of v. 200. Had a single consonant, or any pair of con-
sonants like ra, ttX, &c. followed in v. 200, the last syllable
of v. 199. would have been short, in violation of the metre.
Again, Med. 161, 2. w [xeyaXa Qifxi rat ttotvi "Aprefii,
\zva(7E&' a Tvaayb),
If after v. 161, ending with a short vowel, any vowel
whatever had followed in v. 162, that would have violated
the law of hiatus observed in these verses. And if a double
consonant, or any pair of consonants like kt, <r7r, fye, fxv, &c.
had followed in v. 162, "Aprefii, necessarily combined with
those consonants, would have formed the Pes Creticus,
and not the Dactyl required. But Xeihtctoj follows with X
initial, and all is correct.
9. The Versus Parcemiacus hath its table of scansion as
follows :
18 GREEK TRAGIC
1 2 3
One limitation as to the concurring feet obtains, that
in 1st never precedes u«- in 2nd.
10. In the common dimeter, as must have already ap-
peared, those dipodias form the most pleasing verse which
end in entire words: but this law does not equally obtain in
the Paremiac, which then comes most agreeably to the ear
when it forms the latter hemistich of the dactylic hexameter,
whether with the first dipodia distinctly marked, as
Proin. Y . 127. rruv poi <f>oficp()v I to Trpoaipirin .
or with any other variety of structure, as
PrOTO. V. 146. typovpiiv u£r]\ov o\i'i(Tu).
1 () 4. tadpole ITTiyjlipTU TTfTTOvQa.
HOG. ">7t<\ i'lrTiv (\-(~rvrr(i flSXXov.
906. (piXnc ttrri fteftaioripiir rrot.
Sometimes, however, the Paremiac is differently formed,
admitting (with restriction §. 9.) the Dactyl in 1st:
Aleii. lOoOt obx uirof.iouo'ov to yvvutKwr.
(Vide Museum Criticum, \ '. i. pp. 888, 9. 882, 8.)
11. The following may Berve as a Bhort Bpecimen of an
Anapestic System with all its USUal parts:
Med. 757. 761. 'AAXa a 6 Ma/ac iro^Traior «>n£
■mXuaiit coyote,
(.';) T exlvOtm rnriiiflir K(lTi\li)l'^
irpaitia< . . Iirel yuMi'ioi <niip,
\<yii>, Trap' tfiol ceooKt/aat.
1\. — The Anapestic Tetrameter Cf/tft/eetie,
1. peculiar to comedy, consists of eight feet all but a syl-
lable; or may be considered as made up of two dimeters, of
AND COMIC METRES. 19
which the second is catalectic to the first. Its scansional
table is given below :
u
One restriction as to the feet separately admissible obtains,
that the two feet - ou w -, in that order, nowhere concur in
the long Anapestic.
2. In the long as in the short Anapestic verse Dactyls are
admitted much more sparingly into the second than into the
first place of the dipodia. (Elmsley, p. 93.)
3. In the 1200 (or more) Tetrameter Anapestics of Ari-
stophanes only 19 examples occur of a Dactyl in 2nd, the
only second place of a dipodia which it can occupy.
In 13 of those verses the preceding foot is also a Dactyl,
as in Nub. 400.
ovCz KXewvv/Jioi', oboe Qitopov ; \ kuitoi atf>6^pa y eW kiriopKot.
In the remaining 6 of those verses 4 have the Dactyl after
a Spondee, as Nub. 408.
&TTTh)y yaarkpa to~iq avyytviaiv, \ k^t ovk taywv a.^{Ky\aaq.
The other 2 have the Dactyl after an Anapest, as Nub.
351.
t'i yap, t)j> fipiraya rdv trifxoaiiov | Karldwai St'/xwva, ri Cpwatv;
(Elmsley, p. 93.)
4. The last quoted verse exhibits the transition (in long
Anapestics) from Anapestic movement to Dactylic in sepa-
rate words. The following verses show within the same
word the transition from Dactylic movement to Anapestic.
Both cases are very rare.
Vesp. 706. ft yap kfiovkovTO fi'tov Tzopiaai | rw c{)jjl(o, pa'Siovrjv av.
Ranae 1044. OvArotc' ovdtlg rjvriv kpu)fTav\ir(i)iroT kironqoa yvvatKa.
5. Of all those nineteen Tetrameters described in §. 3.
c 2
20 GREEK TRAGIC
one only is destitute of the division (or ccemra technically
so called) after the first dipodia :
Nubes 353. tuvt apa, ravra KXe\ &)vv\xov avrai froy pi\paawtv
X&k Icovaai. (Elmsley, p. 94.)
6. This division after the first dipodia is indispensable, if
the 2nd foot be a Dactyl and the 3rd a Spondee: there-
fore the last syllable of the Dactyl may not begin an Iambic
or (kj ) Bacchean word.
The following verses, faulty on that account,
Eccl.514. S,vfiftov\oi(TLv uTruaaiQ I vfilv,-)(pii<rb>nai. Kalyap EKeifiOi.
Equit.505. ifvayKa'Ctv 'iirr) I XH,ovtuq y tQ to Btarpov irapaftfivai.
have been corrected, the one by Brunck, the other by Porson,
and by both from the same delicacy of ear, thus :
i,VfJ\Wv\oi<TlV I TTUtTCllQ VjTlV | )(f5 >'/ (TW^UU . MXl yUp EKtl flOl.
yvayKafev XI^ovtclq ittt/ tfpog to diaTpov irapaprjvai-
(vide Porson, lix, lx.=53, 54.)
7. The division after the first dimeter is as strictly observed
in the long Anapestic as in the long Trochaic verse (ch. vi.
§. 3.); and, as in that, cannot take place after a preposition
merely or article belonging in Syntax to the second dimeter.
J hit. 487, 8. liXX i\ci] \p>iP | ti Xiyttv vfxdcX aotyov, w vik{]<tet£
TT)1< I.
iVToiai Xoyoic | avTlkiyoVTEC'l uaXdKOV o' ivcuxtite [nySef.
These lines exhibit, beside the one necessary division after
the first dimeter, that after the first dipodia also, which
always gives the most agreeable finish to the verse.
8. It has been remarked on the authority of Elmsley (vide
ch. v. §. 5.), that the Plutus was written after the versifica-
tion of the comic stage had assumed an appearance of smooth-
ness and regularity quite unknown before.
The following Analysis of 110 long Anapestic verses from
v. 486. of the Plutus to v. 597. (there being no v. 566. in
Dobree's edition) may very happily illustrate the truth of
that remark.
AND COMIC METRES. 21
In 104 of those lines, that which is here regarded as the
most harmonious structure of the verse uniformly prevails.
Of the six which remain, three verses (517. 555. 586.)
differ only by having the Dactyl in quinto:
555. wg fxaKapirr)}', \ w Atifiarep, j tov (jLov avrov KariXe^ag.
And the other three verses (519. 570. 584.), though want-
ing the division after the first dipodia, yet present the con-
tinuous flow of Anapestic movement throughout.
570. EirifiovXsvovai TE TlZ 7r\»/0£l, K(t\ Ttd h'lfif iroXtfxovtTiv.
N. B. In the Tetrameter Anapestic the very same hiatus
of a long vowel or diphthong sometimes occurs as in the
Dimeter. (Vide ch. viii. §. 8-)
For instance,
PlutllS 528. Ovt kv Zairiaiv' tic yap v<paiv£iv eOeXjivei, yjnia'iov
ovtoq;
549. Owovv h'lirov rrjg Tlrwx £ < £ Heviav <pafikv Etvat a.SiX(f>r]v.
X. — The Ictus Metricus of Anapestic Verse.
1. The metrical ictus has been briefly explained at the
beginning of this Introduction. Its application to the di-
podias of Anapestic verse is quite clear and perspicuous:
the ictus falls on the last syllable of the w w — and its com-
panion , and on the first of the — u w and its accom-
panying .
First, in a line of pure Anapests, all but one Spondee in
5th, which there seems to predominate:
i ii i ii i i
Aves 503. ofioXov tcaTEftpo^Biaa, Kara kevov tov BvXukov oiicaS'
\
CMpEtXKOl'.
Secondly, in a line of Anapests and Spondees:
U " i ii i,. i i
PllltUS 53G. KO.I TTUldapiWV VTTOTfEtVMVTWV KCtl ypaicnOl' KoXoffvpTOV ;
£M- GREEK TRAGIC
I II I II I II I II
Phoen. 618. avoaioq iretyvKag. aXX ov 7rarptCog wq ov TtoXt\iiog.
6. What the Tribrach is to the Trochee, the nominal
Anapest is to the Trochaic Spondee, as its equivalent or
substitute; and this Anapest of course has its ictus on the
i
first syllable uu -.
i ii i ii ill ii
Orest. 1510. aXXa fiErafoovXEvoofieoda. tovto cT ov kuXuq XsyEig.
I II I II 11 I II
1529. ov yap, ring 'EWacS' civtoiq $pv£i ^u\vjj.r)vaTO.
7. The following lines, formed artificially, (like Bentley's
Commodavi, &c. in his metres of Terence,) are calculated
merely to afford an easy praxis for the ictuation of Tro-
chaic verse:
i n i ii i ill
tjXOei' OVTOQ i]\6ev o'vror | tjXOev ovrog tjXOe <)r).
' , " ' ' ' I ' "
aBiKog i)X8ev acacog tXt)o)i> | acacog tjXSev rjXde 2?;.
i ii y i ii i ii
rjXOet' a(u:oc i]X6ev aeacuv | tjXOev aciKog r)X0e i)jj.
I |^ I I I II | li
jrOrepa <ttit, irortpa 2t?if, | irortpa IeZie CtCwra;
8. Instances frequently occurring of words like those now
given, adiKog, actKwv, &c. ictuated on the antepenult, may be
considered, if not as positively agreeable to the ear, yet at
any rate as passing without objection or offence.
But where the penult of words like a^<porepa or Bopvjiog is
marked with the ictus, something awkward and hard, or so
fancied at least, has even led to violations of the genuine
text under pretence of improving the metre.
For example, the following genuine verse, Iph. A.
875=886,
i i ( i 1 1 i ii i ii
to Ovyarep, i^Eig iii oXedpm Kai av KCti fir)Trjp oiBev,
has on that very plea been disfigured (vid. ch. vi. §. 4.) by
this alteration:
i j i ii i ii i ii
QvyriTfp, ljKEir I E-TT oXtBpti) (TO) k"«t OV Kill f-U)Tl]p OeBeV.
AND COMIC METRES. 25
In v. 1324 = 1345. the word Ovyarep occurs with the more
usual, and it may be the pleasanter, ictuation :
I II . 1 ' 1 I II ! II
LJ yvvai raXaiva, A>/Sag OvyarEp. ov ibev^r] BpoEir.
A similar difference is found in the ictus of Aprefiidi,
Iph. A. 872=883.
i ii i ii i ii ii
izavT e\elq. ApTEfiidi Ovaeiv Traioa ar\v /jeXXei iraTrjp.
I II I II I B I II
348 = 359. ApTtptCt., teat itXovv eaecrdat Aavaioaie, r/<70£ig (ppevag.
The two following lines from the Persse also exhibit that
peculiar ictus :
i ii i ii i ii i ii
739. (o [ieXeoq, olav ap 1 ijftrjy ^vfifia^iou aTrojXe&E.
INI II I II I II
176. tovce fioi yEVEaQe, YlEpawv yijpaXEa TuaTWfxara.
Other varieties, and not of very rare occurrence, may be
remarked in these lines :
I II i II I I! f I II
Agam. 1644. CEyofAEVOiQ Xejeiq QavEiv oe' rt]i> Tvyj\v 2' EpujfXEOu.
i II l II | II i
Iph. A. 852 = 863. wc /jlovoiq Xtyoic ov, £sw (T eX6e fiaaiXiKwv
II
dofiwv.
I II I II I II I
900 = 911. OVK E^U) filOfXOV KCtTCKpVyElV ClXXoV 1] TO OOV
II
yovv.
XII. — The Ictus of Iambic Verse in Tragedy.
9. In the Iambic dipodia (supra 4.) the Iambus and the
Spondee have the ictus on the second syllable. When the
Tribrach stands in the place of the Iambus, and the nominal
Dactyl in that of the Spondee, each of those feet has the ictus
on the middle syllable, wu, -uu.
The ictuation therefore of Iambic verse in its resolved
feet may be readily shown :
(Ed. R. 112. TTOTEpO, ()' £V 01K01Q T) V CiypOlQ 6 Att£0£.
Oil ' . " ' " ' ll
26. (j)Oipov(ia o aytXaic ftovyofiouj tukokti te.
°,4 GREEK TRAGIC
I II I II II I n
Phoen. 618. avoaiog 7ri<pvKag. aXX' ov TrarptCog ljq av noXifiiog.
6. What the Tribrach is to the Trochee, the nominal
Anapest is to the Trochaic Spondee, as its equivalent or
substitute; and this Anapest of course has its ictus on the
i
first syllable w -.
i n in i I i n
Orest. 1540. aX\a niTafiovXivoofiMrda. tovto c)' ov mXwg Xiyng.
I li l II III II
1529. ov yap, >/ri£ 'EXXaS* avroig $pv£,i cuXv/xrjvaTO.
7. The following lines, formed artificially, (like Bentley's
Commodavi, &c. in his metres of Terence,) are calculated
merely to afford an easy praxis for the ictuation of Tro-
chaic verse:
i i i ii i ill
rjXdiv ovtoc ijXtiev ovrog \ i)Xdiv ovrog rjXBe trj.
II I ^ II I II I II
adixog jjXdei- aciwg iXOiov | aciKog t]X6iv r]Xdi Brj.
I i^i y i l I II
ilXtiir a(ii;oc tjXBiv aciicwv | rjXdiv aciKog tjXde Brj.
1 ! I I I) I II
nOrepn ticu, iroripa Suit, | irorepa BiZit CiCwra;
8. Instances frequently occurring of words like those now
ii
given, adiKog, adiKuv, &C. ictuatcd on the antepenult, may be
considered, if not as positively agreeable to the ear, yet at
any rate as passing without objection or offence.
But where the penult of words like afxtponpa or Bopvjiog is
marked with the ictus, something awkward and hard, or so
fancied at least, lias even led to violations of the genuine
text under pretence of improving the metre.
For example, the following genuine verse, Iph. A.
875 = 886,
i i i f ll i n i li
to dvyarip, ytcng in oXiftpa) icai ov ecu /i>J7"»/f> endiv,
has on that very plea been disfigured (vid. ch. vi. §. 4.) by
this alteration:
i n i n i ii i ii
Bvyarep, iiKiig j in oXiQpu> of ira< ov iccu fo/r^p aiQiv.
AND COMIC METRES. 25
In v. 1324 = 1345. the word dvyarep occurs with the more
usual, and it may be the pleasanter, ictuation :
i • n . i ' ii i ii i ii
to yvvai TitXaiva, Ai]Oag Qvyartp. ov \pevdi] Opoeir.
A similar difference is found in the ictus of Apre/iidi,
Iph. A. 872=883.
i ii i ii i ii ii
tvclvt e\elq. ApTEfxiCi OvfTEiv 7T(uoa ot]v [ieXXei -rrarrip.
I II I II I ^ II t I II
348— -359. ApTepiCi, KOt ttXovv egegBcii Aavaicaig, i](jQelq typEvaq.
The two following lines from the Persse also exhibit that
peculiar ictus:
739. to [xeXeoq, olav ap 1 i)fir}v ^vfjifxa-^tov cnrwXeaE.
I II I il l II I II
1 76. tovce fxoi jevevQe, XlsptTtov yrjpaXEa TnaTtofxara.
Other varieties, and not of very rare occurrence, may be
remarked in these lines
i
Again. 1644. C£yo}i£VoiQ XEyEig davEiv cte' ti]v rvyj]v 2' Epto/iEBa.
I II I ll I II i
Iph. A. 852 = 863. we fxovoig Xeyoig «»', e£w e)' eX6e ftaaiXiKtov
II
hojXtoV.
I II I II I II I
900^=911* OVK E\to fttoHOV KltTCKpVyElV ClXXoi' »/ TO GOV
yovv.
XII. — The Ictus of Iambic Verse in Tragedy.
9. In the Iambic dipodia (supra 4.) the Iambus and the
Spondee have the ictus on the second syllable. When the
Tribrach stands in the place of the Iambus, and the nominal
Dactyl in that of the Spondee, each of those feet has the ictus
on the middle syllable, uuu, -uu.
The ictuation therefore of Iambic verse in its resolved
feet may be readily shown :
i f ii i ii t \j
GEd. R. 112. TTOTEpa t)' EV OIKOIQ Tf 'v CiypOlQ 6 AcUOC.
20. <p(iipuvffa o oyeXatr ftovvofioig TUKoiai te.
2fi GKEEK TRAGIC
I II B I I
(Ed. R. 568. 7twc ovv to& ovroq o ao(f)OQ ovk rjvda race;
I I i II i II
Med. 1173. £lt avTifioXirov ijKtv oXoXvyrjQ fxiyav.
i li ill II
03d. R. 719. appealer uXXljp ytpatv eiq aftarov opoQ.
i fl II i ll
Phoen. 40. to l,ivt, rvpavvoiq iKvoctov fxediarcKTO.
i n i n i n
(Ed. R. 25/. avcpuQ 7 apiarov /3a<rtXtwc "' oXtoXoroc.
10 i II I II
Orest. 288. kcu vvv avuKuXvyrr , to Kaaiyri)Tov KCipa.
10. It has been truly asserted (eh. iii.), that the structure
of the Iambic Trimeter is decidedly Trochaic. And though
every principal point in the constitution of that verse has
been here separately stated and explained, yet the corre-
-pondency betwixt the Iambic Trimeter and a certain por-
tion of the Trochaic Tetrameter (as hinted above, $. 4.) may
be advantageously employed to illustrate the common pro-
perties of both. With this view, then, to any Trimeter
(except only those very few with Anapests initial) let the
Cretie beginning <//\a. ,, or &XXa vvv be prefixed, and every
nicety of ictuation. more clear as it i- and more easily ap-
prehended in Trochaic verse, will be immediately identified
in Iambic.
For instance, the lines already quoted, (Ed. R. 112.
Orest. 288. (Ed. R. 719. with the Crctic prefixed, become
long Trochaic-, and admit the Trochaie analysis:
I I i I i I i i
< i\XaCi). irorepa 5' iv oixoic i] '»' aypou: !> Am
I I l I -I I I
>i\<u i]. km wv avajeaXvrr, w KaaiyvriTov xapa.
i i i i i i i
aXXa wv eppi\f/tv aXXair yipoiv ur aparov op/
\\\ B similar process, the identity of the Cretie termination
in both verses (ch. iii. §. 2. R. and eh. vi. vjj. 5.) as subject
to the same canon is instantly discovered :
Orest. 7()2. <aror oi woXXol, KaicovpyovQ I Stw iyutrt \ rpocrrara^.
541 tnrtXOirt,) t ij ro'tr Xtiymaiv | iKiruttor.
\\\<i i ijf t'nriX(hru) c;/| ru'tr Xoyoiaiv \ iKKohitV.
AND COMIC METRES. 27
The correspondency, however, of the Iambic Trimeter with
that portion of the Trochaic Tetrameter is then only quite
perfect when the former verse has the predominant division,
M, (ch. iii. §. 1.) as in the Senarius quoted above.
XIII. — The Ictus of the long Trochaic of Comedy.
11. The scansion of the Comic Tetrameter agrees with
that of the Tragic, except in one point, that it admits,
though very rarely, the - - in 6th before the ^^ in 7th ;
and the ictuation is the very same in both verses. Of that
exception the line already quoted may afford a sufficient
example :
i ii i n i ii i n
ovte yap vavayoq, av fii] yr\c XafirjTcu tyepojitvoQ.
XIV. — The Ictus of Iambic Verse in Comedy.
12. The Comic Trimeter in Scansion differs from the
Tragic by admitting the -uu in 5th, and the w- in 2d, 3d,
4th, and 5th.
The Dactyl in 5th of the Comic has the same ictus
— ukj as it has in 1st and 3d of the Tragic Senarius, thus :
I H I III
1 lut. OO. 7rv6oifxe6' av tov ^prja/jov ljfiwv, on voei.
. ,11 i II I i
114y. ettelt airdknrwv tovq 6eovq EvdaCE (xeveiq.
Whatever be the real nature of that licence which ad-
mits the Anapest so freely into Comic verse, no doubt can
exist as to the place of its ictus on the last syllable
and the following lines may serve as examples :
I ii i n i t i
.Nub. 2. w Zev paaiXev, to -)(prj^.a twv vvktwv baov.
..,„. I II \ II i ll
JNub. 24. tiff f.t,iKoirr}v Trporepov tov o<p8a\fiov Xidto.
i II i ll t II
— — 20. oTroaoig o(p£i\oj, Kai Xoyiawfiat tovq tokovq.
i II i II i II
11. etX\' a cWei, peyKwfiev tyKiKaXvfifitvoi.
>
28 GREEK TRAGIC
13. The Tetrameter of Comedy admits no feet but those
which are found, and with more frequency, in the Trimeter.
The ictuation on the feet in each verse is the very same,
as the following lines may serve to exemplify : (Porson,
xli. = 38.)
I i i i i i
Plut. 253. b) TroWa CT) rw CEtnroTr) tuvtov dvfiov tyayovTEQ.
in i ii i ii i
Ranae 911. Trpo^iara fxey yap Iva ye riru kclQeioev eyKa\v\pac.
i II l 1 I
917. ()V\ 1ITTOV 7) VVV 01 XaXoVlTEC. 7/\t01OC yUp T}oQ(L.
1 1 n ^ 1 11 1
Thesm. 549. «y£»£roM£\av£7T7rac ttoiwv <$>aicpac te HijveXotttjv ce.
In this verse, generally, the Iambic structure so clearly
predominates, that little advantage can be gained by sub-
mitting it to the Trochaic analysis; as, against the judg-
ment of Bentley, has been lately recommended by Ilgenius.
(Vide Maltby, Lex. Gr. Pros. p. xxxvi.)
And yet in Borne cases, perhaps, of resolved feet, and in
verses too wanting the regular caesura, the law of ictuation
may be more correctly apprehended by applying the Tro-
chaic scale than otherwise.
It is worth the while to observe, that of 37 Tetrameters
in the Plutus, v\. 853 — 289, containing only two resolved
feet, one a Tribrach and one a Dactyl, (vid. Elmsley, u. B.
p. 83.) the- versification i^ remarkably smooth; and if those
lines be read with the proper ictus, the Iambic movement
cannot fail to be pleasantly and distinctly felt on the ear.
XV. — Note A. On the Concurrences.
In ch. ii., where the concurrence ofuuu or -^ before uv,-
in the Trimeter of Comedy is condemned, a promise is
given, that the necessity for that limitation should be made
to appeal-.
The true constitution of the Comic Scnarius (in all it>
bearings) was first discerned by Dawes. In his Emenda-
AND COMIC METRES. 29
tions on the Acharnians (Misc. Crit. 253 = 463, &c.) at
v. 146.
E^ tomtl tol-^olq eypatyov Adrjvaioi Ka\oi,
he condemns as unlawful the concurrence of feet above-men-
tioned ; and claims the credit not only of discovering that
canon, but of assigning the true reason also as derived from
the laws of Iambic ictuation.
As the verse stands at present, he says,
i i
Ey tomtl toi-)(oiq eypacpov Adrjvaioi KaXoi,
you have, with gross offence to the ear, the interval of four
syllables from ictus to ictus, when the lawful extent of that
interval can only be three. His emendation, demanded no
less by the syntax of the whole passage than by the metre
of that line, has since been sanctioned by the authority of
the Ravenna MS.
iii ii
Ej/ TOltTl TOL^OLQ EypCKp, ABlfVaLOL KClXoi.
On the Trochaic scale of Scansion, it is obvious to remark,
that the redundance of a syllable in the vulgar text would
be instantly detected :
i ii i ii i ii i ii
a\Xa vvv ev \ tomtl tol^olq | eypatyov Adr)vat\oi kci\oi.
One illustration more, from a false reading in Tragedy,
may not be deemed superfluous.
In the Orestes 499 = 505. the text of the old editions
stands thus :
cti/roe KCtKiiov kyivero fxrjTtpa ktcivloV
which in the Iambic Scansion presents the concurrence of
the — uw and the ^ — . Here again the Trochaic scale
affords the ready test ; it instantly detects the redundant
syllable :
i ii . i ii i ii i ii
ci\\a vvv av\ro£ icaiaiov \ eyevero /j.r]re\pa KTaviov.
The just and simple emendation of Porson need hardly
be given :
civtoq KCtKiiov fir/Tep' lyivero KTaviov.
30 GREEK TRAGIC
XVI. — Note B. On the Pause or Cretic Termina-
tion. (Vide ch. iii. §. 2. ch. vi. §. 5.)
1. In the Iambic Trimeter, if the slightest pause or break
in the sense cause the word or words which give to the
verse a Cretic ending ( — — ) to be separately uttered, then
the 5th foot may not be , but must be u — , or www.
The different modes of concluding the line which reject
the in 5th shall be first exhibited.
a. The simplest structure which rejects the there
is the following, when the Cretic consists of a single de-
tached word :
Hecub. 343. Kpvn-ovTa \tlpn k<u irp6<WTrov \ efiiraXiv.
Ion 1. ' ArXar 6 VUTOIQ yaXKioimv I ovpai'vi:
which lines in the old editions stand thus:
Kp6rrro»Ta \ et P a kU ' irpotHinrnv \ TOVfliraXlV.
ArXac o yjuXxioioi rwroiq | ovpavvr.,
(Vide Porson, xxx. = 27.)
ft. In the next case the Cretic consists of — u and a
syllable, thus:
Orest. 1079. ri;£o£ <~f rohuov xai aov ovkIt \ iari | i </•
10S1. x a '." °" "/"/' hfi* * 0TI tovto, | aoL 7 £ I A"/ 1 '-
or the Cretic consists of an article or preposition ( — ) at-
tached (in syntax or collocation) to the subsequent word :
Hecub. '382. KaKug fj.eyti7rag, Ovyarep, uXXu | rw KoXfi.
379- iiiYur -^apaKTtip, Ka-irrrifior | ti> pporn'ir.
Under this head of monosyllables are embraced -<V, ttwc,
when interrogative, with wc,ov, ml, and the like. (Vide Por-
son, xxxi.— 27.)
2. Many semblances of the Cretic termination occur to
which the Canon bears no application. Those cases, ad-
mitting the — — in 5th, may be commodiously classed un-
der the following heads-
AND COMIC METRES. 31
Where a monosyllabic word before the final Iambus be-
longs by collocation to the preceding word ; as in enclitics :
Hec. 505. (nrevSwfXEv, kyKovw}iEv' i)jov /xoi | yipov.
Prom. V. 669. H irapdEVEVEi lapov, kl,6v cot | yauov.
Agam. 1019. ktrw <f>pEvu>v \iyovaa irdQw viv J Xoyw.
Rhes. 717. fiiov cT kiraiTtiv Eipw ay vprrjg Tig \ Xcirpig.
Philoct. 801. Efxirpriarov, w yEwale' fcdyw roi J ttote.
or in such words, not enclitic, as cannot begin a sentence or
a verse :
Prom. V. 107. owv te jjloi Tiiao iari dvrjrolg yap \ yipa.
Trach. 718. xwc ovk 6\eT teal tovo^e; doiirj yovv ] t/ijf -
Prom. V. 846. \ky' ei dk tciivt E'iptfKag, yifj.lv av \ \aptv.
CEd. T. 142. aXX' iog rdyiara Tra'iCEg, vjj.E'lg fikv | ftadpwv.
Soph. Electr. 413. e'I /xot Xkyoig Tr)v oxpiv, e'ittoi/jl av \ tote.
In the numerous instances of av so posited it deserves re-
mark, that av is always subjoined to its verb, and that with
elision as in the line quoted. (Vide Porson, xxxi.=28.)
3. Where words like ovMg and fxricsig so given ought in
Attic orthography to be written thus : ohd' tig and ^cT £ I e :
Phcen. 759. afxtyvTEpoV iiiroXEKpQkv yap oufi' ev 6a~Epov.
Ale. 687. rjv 3' kyyvg E.\dr] davarog^ ovc* Eig j3o{j\E-ai.
(Vide Porson, xxxiv. v. =31.)
4. And where, in the Plays of Sophocles, the dative
cases plural of kyw and m) are exhibited as Spondees, thus,
flfiiv, ifftv ; when that Tragedian, however strange it may
appear, employed those pronouns in his verse actually as
Trochees. In that pronunciation, they are by some Gram-
marians written, {^iv, hfxlv, but rjfxiv, vfitv, more generally :
Electr. 1328. H) vovg eveotiv ovTig vfiiv kyyEvi]g ;
(Ed. Col. 25. nag yap Tig rivCa tovto y i)\xiv kfXTropojv.
In which two lines bffiv and jfyuv would vitiate the metre.
(Vide Porson, xxxv. =32.)
GREEK TRAGIC
5. One particular case seems to have created a very need-
less perplexity ; namely, where the verse is concluded by a
trisyllabic word with certain consonants initial which do not
permit the short vowel precedent to form a short syllable.
(Vide Porson, xxxviii. =34, 5.)
The following verses, as being supposed to labor under
the vicious termination, are recommended by the Professor
to the sagacity of young Scholars for correction :
Hecub. 717. yfielg /utV ovv £u>fj.tv, ovee \pavofiey.
Androm. 347. (pevyet to ravri]£ auxppov a\\a \p£v<TETUi.
Iph. A. 531. Kajx u>g vni(TTr}v flu/io, Ka.rn xptvdofiat.
(In these verses also from Euripides the very same dif-
ficulty, if it be one, is involved :
Bacchas 1284. 'ili/uwy/utVoj' ye npoadiv >'/ at yvuipiaai.
Electr. 850. -\{]jjhov '0/3£<T7//(," <«XA« /<>'/ ^e ktiivite.)
Here the word preceding the final Cretic must be either
a Trochee or a Spondee. If it is a Trochee, all is well :
nothing more need be said. If it is not a Trochee, but a
Spondee, what causes it to be so ? Evidently the final short
vowel of each word being touched in utterance by the initial
it of i//, or 7r<r, with which the next word commences.
Then, so far from any pause or break of the sense inter-
vening, on which condition alone the Canon operates, there
is an absolute continuity of sound and sense together ; and
the verse ends with a quinqucsyllabic termination, as com-
plete as in Phceniss. 32. 53. where i^avlpoviitvoq and avyKoi-
fiojfiiri} terminate the line: even so, ovcinrravo^iv, aWuiroivae-
rai, Ka-aTzathcofiai. (This was stated so long ago as 1802.
Vide Dalzel, Collect. Gra>c. Maj. T. ii. Nott. p. 101.)
0- Several modifications of the line, according to the con-
nexion of the words by which it is concluded, come next to
be considered. Some of these cases, when the words are
duly separated, present a dissyllabic, some a quadrisyllable
AND COMIC METRES. 33
ending: in others the combination is such as to exhibit a
collective termination of five syllables, or more :
a. CEd. sx. 4<oO. iifXEig roioic' 'ifv/iev, we filv aoi cokCl.
This line, even so read, would not violate the Canon ; for
it does not present a Cretic separately pronounced. But
it stands far more correctly thus in Elmsley 's Edition,
— cog (Toi fiev I cokeI, with an ending clearly dissyllabic.
/3. The following line again as clearly presents a termina-
tion of four syllables :
CEd. It. 1157. kcwi;'' vXiadat o' wfeXov | rrj^ yfxipq..
The three following instances are taken from Elmsley, ad
(Ed. Col. 115.
y. Iph. A. 858. covXoq, oi/^ afipvvofxai T(5o' ?/ rvyrj yap fx ovk icf..
Here the ending is not trisyllabic; for p ovk go together,
and the enclitic «e hangs upon yap -. and as yap in collocation
is attached to the precedent ?/ ru^jj, the accumulation of syl-
lables in continuity amounts to seven.
2. Ion 808. cicnroiva, TrpodtoofiecrQa' avv yap croi votrw.
Here the words avv yap trot, being under the vinculum of
Syntax, cannot be disjoined. And avv aoi yap, if so read,
from the law of collocation in words like yap, must go to-
gether. Either way the structure of the verse is legitimate,
with a dissyllabic ending.
£. Eur. Electr. 275. i'jpovrod'; ala\pov y z'nrag' ohyapvvvcuc^ii].
Here oh negatives vvv, and of course must be uttered in
the same breath with it, oh yap vvv \ aicfifi.
Elmsley himself (ad (Ed. Col. 1 15.) on the two following
lines,
'(. (Ed. Col. 2oo. ovofia fiovov CeiaavTtQ' oh yap di) to ye,
7]' Electr. 4>o2. rvfxfit*) Trpoaa\p}]Q ^j]div oh yap aoi difiig,
justly remarks, that neither line contains any thing wrong:
for the words croi and h), the one enclitic, the other by col-
34 GREEK TRAGIC
location attached to the word precedent, make a slight dis-
syllabic ending, as far as any separate termination exists.
7. The following line may serve to represent several others
of similar construction :
Aj. Fl. 1101. tfcar avaavsiV) tov oc fiyelr o'ticoOev.
(Vide Elmsley, Mus. Crit. V. i. pp. 476-480. et ad
Heracl. 371. 530.)
" If we suppose the first syllable of o'ikoQev to be attracted
by the elision to the preceding word, the verse will cease to
be an exception to Pol-son's Canon." At the same time, he
frankly confesses, that he is not satisfied with this solution
of the difficulty, and goes on with great acuteness to state
his objections to it.
Now, on the other hand, we are told of Hcgelochus, who
acted the part of Orestes in the IMay so named, that when
lie came to v. 273. Ik Kvjxarwv yUp avOic av yaXfiv vpCi, want-
ing breath to pronounce ya\>/j'' !>pu> witli the delicate syna-
lepha required, he stopped between the words, and uttered
these sounds instead, yaXfjv opu. (Vide Porson,ad Orest. 273.)
From this anecdote have we any right to conclude, that
iu cases like that of . . . . r,ytir o'tKodev, at the close of the
verse, the first syllable of oIkoQev was by the elision attracted
to the preceding word //ye/ro? and in all similar cases may
we suppose the two words to have been so closely connected
in sound as to leave no perceptible suspension of the sense
whatsoever ?
It is enough perhaps to have thrown out the suggestion ;
and there let the matter rest for the present.
XVII. — Note C. On the Anapest Proprii Nominis
in the Tragic Senarius, and on other licences of
a similar description.
Before we engage in the direct discussion of the point here
proposed, let a few remarks be premised,
AND COMIC METRES. 35
1 . In the first place, there is a well-known distinction in
music betwixt common time and triple time. To this musical
distinction there exists something confessedly analogous in
the difference betwixt the time of Anapestic and Dactylic
verse, and that of Iambic and Trochaic.
Agreeably then to this analogy, we may be allowed for
the sake of illustration to use the terms common and triple
time in the pages which follow.
2. In the next place, the terms Anapest and Dactyl have
been already used on two occasions palpably different.
First, as the names of the natural feet in the triple time
of Anapestic and Dactylic verse, with their ictus thus,
i i
I II I II
Med. 167, 8. u> Trarep, w ttoXiq, wv aTreyaadrjy
I ll I II
aicryjpuQ rov efxov ureivaaa kcloiv.
Secondly, as the names of two short syllables before or
after a long one, in the common time of Trochaic or Iambic
i i
verse, with a different ictus, thus, uu — , — w .
' , " i ii i u
CEd. R. 257. avSpoQ y apiarov fiaaiXeioc r oXwXotoq.
in i ii i n v i i
Phoen. 621. rat gv /Jtrj-ep; ov Of/xtc ooi [xijrpoQ orofxa^ziit Kapa.
In future, it may be safe and useful to call the first of
these the natural, and the second the nominal, Dactyl and
Anapest.
3. Thirdly, the terms Anapest and Dactyl have a dif-
ferent use still, to denote certain feet admissible in certain
kinds of Iambic and Trochaic verse, as equivalent to the
proper feet of each metre, being admitted not only into the
Spondaic places of the dipodia, but into the Iambic and
Trochaic likewise.
In the pronunciation of those peculiar feet, it is probable
there was something correspondent to the slurring, so called,
of musical notes; and, since necessity demands a third name
36 GREEK TRAGIC
for a third character, it may justify our adoption of slurred
Anapest and slurred Dactyl, as terms not inappropriate for
that purpose.
Let the marks then, ^(u) — and — ( w )u, be permitted to
represent each of those peculiarities, when each requires to
be separately represented. But for reasons of convenience,
which will be found very striking when we come to the
practical part of the subject, we beg leave to introduce a
more comprehensive method, equally suited to Iambic and
Trochaic verse; and that is, to make — uu — the sign of the
i i
apparent syllables involved in the discussion, and — (u)u —
or — w — the sign of the real sounds as they are supposed to
have been uttered.
Nubes 131. \6yiov aKfuftwy ff^ivoaXa/Joug fiaQ{]aop.ai;
— \J yj —
Iph. A. 882. elg ap' 'Ifiytveiav 'EXeVjjc vootoq i)v irnrpionivoQ;
— o \J —
4. Whatever truth or probability may be found in the
following attempt to account for the — uu — Proprii Nominis
in the Trochaic or Iambic verse of Tragedy, (and for the
admission of that licence with common words also into the
Iambics of Comedy,) the whole merit of the discovery, if
any, is due to S. Clarke, whose suggestion (ad II. B. v. 81 1.)
is here pursued, enforced, and developed.
Clarke, after quoting instances of U u — Proprii Nominis,
but only in the 4th foot of the Trimeter, proceeds to argue
thus. If the Iambic verse of Tragedy, under other circum-
stances, rejects in 4th the U o — as equal in time to- ,
and admits only the u — or equivalent U uu, then it is clear
that the proper names which exhibit ^ — to the eye could
never have been pronounced at full length in three distinct
syllables, but must have been hurried in utterance, so as to
carry only u — to the ear.
And since long proper names (as Clarke justly observes)
AND COMIC METRES. '37
are from their nature liable to be rapidly spoken ; in the
following verses,
x hoen. 764 = /().). yafwvg S' aceXftjg 'Avriyovijs Traicug re oov,
Androm. 14. rw vi\oivtTt\ Nov7rro\e^uw £opbc yipag,
and in that above,
eig i'tp I<jjiiyiveiav 'EXiviJi vootoq t)v TTEirpwpiroc ;
naturally enough the names 'Avnyovrje and Nou7rroX«fp;> and
'ltyiyiveiav might be slurred into something like 'A»Vydv^c,
ISovTrr'Xi^o), 'lpyevetav : the ear of course would find no cause
of offence, and the eye takes no cognisance of the matter.
5. If this mode of solution be allowed as probable at least
in the department of proper names in Tragic verse to which
it bears direct application, by parity of argument perhaps
it may be extended to the similar case of common words
used in Comic verse also.
Take for instance the line above quoted ;
\6yi>)v aKpiflwi' cr^ivcaXafiovQ uadrjaroaai ;
What was the objection to the old and vulgar reading,
vKtv^aX^iovQ? Clearly this: that it placed a in 4th.
What then does er-^ti'caXafxovQ place there ? Either vu — is
pronounced as three distinct syllables, in what is called
triple time, while the metre itself is in common, or by
rapid utterance o-xi^'Xa/xove comes to the ear, and so the
verse proceeds with its own regular movement.
Briefly, we have either aKivdaXfiovQ, a molossus, ,
which murders the metre entirely;
or (Txt"ca\ct/xovc, a full- sounded choriambus, — uu — ,
which contrary to the law of the verse mingles triple with
common time;
or 0xu'6(a)XanovQ, i. e. in effect, the pes creticus, — ,_, — ,
that very quantum of sound which the metre requires.
P. S. It may be necessary to remark, that Clarke's rea-
soning about the uu — Proprii Nominis in 4th is just as ap-
E
38 GUEEK TKA(;iC
plicable to the 2d place also with that foot as to the 4th.
And if his argument, as here stated, be sufficient to account
for the licence in the 2d and 4th places, of course, where
the same licence occurs in the 3d and 5th, its admission
there also must be considered in the very same lio;ht.
For examples of the ou — (or — uu — ) Proprii Nominis
in all the four places, see eh. i. §. 3.
6. Before advancing a step farther, it is but right to
avow, that all which we at present propose, is to set this
question fairlv agoing on its apparently reasonable and very
probable ground.
High probability then favors the idea, that the Anapests
(and Choriambi) of Greek Comedy (under all combinations
of words and syllables) were passed lightly over the tongue
without trespassing on the time allowed betwixt ictus and
ictus in verses not containing those feet, i. e. in metres of
common time.
Any thing like a perfect enumeration of particulars com-
modiously classed would be found to demand a serious
sacrifice of leisure and labor. The classes which are here
given in specimen only, while they undoubtedly embrace a
very great majority of the facts, may serve to show the na-
ture of that extensive survey which would be necessary to
make the induction complete.
7. Instances like ffxiv3tt\ujuou<;, it might a priori be cal-
culated, are not likely to be very numerous; hardly 10 in
every 100 of the Comic Trimeters: nor do all the words of
J
similar dimensions with a^ivluXaiiovc present a choriambus
so readily obedient to our organs at least for running four
syllables into three.
Nubes 10. ur\npo-o\t~i | (f tiriTOVQ' fyw c' UTrvWvtjai,
PlutUS 25. tvi'ovc yap wv cot | TzvvBavo^iai \ iravv c&oCpa.
Besides the instances of — ^ — in one word, which afford
the strongest case for the admission of the licence, some
AND COMIC METRES. 39
other principal modes in which that apparent foot is made
up may be classed under four heads.
A. Where a long monosyllable, from its nature more or
less adhering to the word which it precedes, may be sup-
posed to form a coalescence of this kind, jj — | ^^ — f :
Pllltus 45. eTr ov i,vvii]Q j rt)y £irivot\av tov deov ;
Acharn. O c 2. cnroi'Oac iroiuadai j ~phq \aKtdai\fxoviovQ fiovia.
Nubes 1~. ctW I ov dui'dfiai j ceiXatog tvhtw ^aKVoynvog.
B. Where either a monosyllable precedes, having from
the law of collocation less adherence to what follows; or
some longer word precedes, not particularly attached to the
word which follows, or by syntax united to it :
x lilt. OO. aye | ct) irpuTepov | av rravrov, ootiq tl, (ppaaov.
Nub. 2o. $«'\|wj', afiaCEiQ' | iXavve tov aavrov dpo^iov.
x lut. 148. ^ouAjoc y£yeyi]\jJLai Cta to firj 7rXovT£~iv lawg.
C. Where, after an elision, concurrences of this kind
take place:
x lut. 12. fi£\ay-)(o\\G)VT air en Efi^e fxov tov ceairoTrjv.
• 16. ov\toq 3' o.ko\ov\Qs1.) KcLpe irpotrfiiaZeTat.
lJo. i;av | ravd' a.vvor)\Tat, rerrapciKOvra fiovXerai.
D. W here a monosyllable by its natural position follows
a longer word :
1 lut. 088. 70 ypoiciov o' the j ijaOero crj I fiov tov \po<pov.
— 94o. teal return Trpog to fii-wirov J avTiKa cV; | /.taXa.
N. B. From the very close connexion of the article with
its noun, to ueVw7tov may be fairly taken as one word ; and
so, in the following line, we may consider to. jw/tytam :
xlut. <0o„ ceiaac' ekeivo<; c' ev kvkX<i> tci vo(?i)fxa.Ta.
Thus v. 943. will become referrible to the class A, and
v. 708. to the class B, along with many combinations of the
very same kind.
8. If the idea of this inquiry had struck the mind of
Elmsley as worthy at all of his careful research, little or
nothing would have been afterwards left for investigation.
E
<>
40 GREEK TRAGIC AND COMIC METRES.
The topic was not without interest to him as an Editor of
Aristophanes: and on the Acharnians, ad v. 178. and in
reference to v. 531.,
Tt egtiv ; iyio fikv Zevpo trot oirovhaQ (pipuii 1 —
"HarpcnrTEv, efipovra, £,vi>£kvkcl ti]v "EWada
in a note of great and successful acuteness, he examines and
settles a curious point in the main subject itself.
" 178. Hodie hie H kar malim, et ijarpairr, v. 531. Nam
longe rarius, quam putaram, anapaestum in hoc metri ge-
nere inchoat ultima vocis syllaba^ 1 The whole note will
amply repay the trouble of perusal.
9. And now, at the close of this article, we may safely
allude to the similar, though far from identical, question of
comic licence in Terence's Plays, so well illustrated by the
labors of Hare and of Bentley. Great accession of pro-
bability, no doubt, may be derived from whatever is re-
ceived as satisfactory in Terence to whatever wants elucida-
tion in Aristophanes. And in the slurring of short syllables
especially, which forms the principal point of agreement in
versification betwixt those two writers, whatever is acknow-
ledged as any thing like demonstration in the Latin Poet
may be considered as a fortiori credible of the lighter and
more volant speech of the Athenian.
With great caution, however, let the young Student pro-
ceed to investigate the metres of Terence in comparison with
those of Aristophanes; or he may find himself sadly con-
fused by their diversity, instead of being at all instructed
by their similitude; notwithstanding the general agreement
of both in the cause of so much apparent licence, namely,
in the approach which Comedy always must make to the
familiarity of common discourse.
APPENDIX.
On Syllabic Quantity, and on its Differences in
Heroic and Dramatic Verse.
1. By syllabic quantity is here meant the quantity of a
syllable under these circumstances : the vowel, being un-
questionably short, precedes a pair of consonants of such a
nature that it may anywhere be pronounced either dis-
tinctly apart from them, or in combination with the first of
the two.
If the vowel be pronounced apart from those consonants,
as in Tre-rpac, that syllable is said to be short by nature.
If the vowel be pronounced in combination with the first
of those consonants, as in ver-pag, the syllable then is said to
be long by position.
2. The subjoined list comprises all the pairs of consonants
which may begin a word, and also permit a short vowel
within the same word to form a short syllable.
i. irp, up, rp : <pp, XP, dp • flp, 79, fy-
ii. 7r\, icXj tX: <j)\, x^> 6\. — m - ' KV > Kv: X v > ® v ' — * v * r / LU
The only remaining pairs, ft\, y\: cjj.: and pv, which are at
once initial and in a very few cases permissive, may, on
account of that rarity, be passed over for the present. But
the following pairs, kji: xi 1 * fy- Tv '- <$> v > though not initial,
yet within the same word permissive, deserve to be stated
here, as they will afterwards be noticed.
3. More than twenty other combinations of consonants,
(along with J>, £, £,) though qualified to be initial, are of
42 APPENDI*.
course foreign to the purpose, as never being permissive
also; at least in the practice of those authors to whom
these remarks are confined.
The combinations last mentioned it may be allowed in
future to call non-permissive ; and for this reason, that
neither within the same word, nor between one word and
another, (of verse at least,) do they permit a preceding short
vowel to be pronounced distinctly apart : it seems to be
coupled with them always by an irresistible attraction.
In turning from the Comic trimeter of Aristophanes to
the stately hexameter of Homer, the difference of syllabic
quantity must be strikingly felt: and that contrast is here
purposely taken, to show the more clearly in what the great
difference consists betwixt the prosody of heroic and that of
dramatic verse.
4. Homer seldom allows a short vowel to form a short
syllable before any of those permissive pairs lately detailed,
and only before some few of them. The following cases
occur betwixt one word and another: such correptions within
the same word are yet more uncommon :
A. 113. Q'iicoi iytiv' ko< yap pa K\vr(iifivi)rTTpi]c TrpojUftovXa.
— xbo. Oiov n.eipi6oov 7f Aiiwiitk re, —oi^iiva \auv.
— 5~8. 'II, kcu Kvaiirjaii 1 iv 6<bpvai vtvni Kpovloiy.
— 009- Zevc ct -par (>>■ \ty^(i<: fji OXvptmor avTipoTriiTyc.
5. Aristophanes (with very few exceptions in Anapeslic
verse, pointed out by Porson, pp. lx. Ixi.— p. 54.) never
allows a short vowel cum ictu to form a long syllable with
any permissive pair, even within the same word.
i
Plllt. 449. iroioiaiv mr-Xrnc »*/ Zvvapti Tmroidori^ .
Such was, indeed, the vulgar reading, till Dawes, (M. C.
p. 19G-) anticipating, as usual, the Ravenna MS., gave the
true text :
i I
QotOlC 6-vXoHTlV I) ivii'lfl: r ;
APPENDIX. 43
(). Homer, on the other hand, not only in the same word
cum ictu, but in the same word extra ictum, and even be-
tween two words in the same debilis positio, makes the
syllable long.
i
A. 13. AvaofAtvuQ te Ovyar-pu, <j>ip<0VT airEpeitn' airdiva.
— /7- 'II {J-iv fioL Trpod>-p(0}> tVerrtv kcu y^Epuiv api'iiyEtv.
— 345. "£lc (pciro' IluT-poK-Xog de cpiXo) £7^£7^£(0£O , kraipu).
I l
A. 57- aWa-^-pT] Kal Efibv Qif.is.vai ttovov ovk arfAforoj'.
II. 189. yvw f)EK-\r)pov afjfia iCljv, yi'idrjaE ci 6vf.i(p.
7. The only possible case in which Aristophanes might
prolong such a syllable would be in the use of verbs like
these, Eic-Xvia, eic-fiaivio, Lk-vevu), h-pew, if compounds of that
kind ever occur ; because, from the very nature of the com-
pound, <k- must always be pronounced distinct from the
initial consonant of the verb.
8. In Homer, on the contrary, even the loose vowel of
augment (e) or reduplication, when it precedes wX, kX, Kp, rp,
&c. initial of the verb, not only cum ictu, but even extra
ictum, is made to form a long syllable.
1
A. 46. EK-Xay^uv $ rip' oicrrol £7r' &[j.u)y \wofAEroio.
' 309. 'Eg 3' EpETag EK-piVEV EElKOfflV, EG 2' EKaTUfx(jl]V.
II
S. 176. TIe^U/JLEPT], \Ep(Tl wXoKUfXOVQ ETT-Xe^E tyUELVOVQ.
N. 542. Aaifibv rvd/, ettI 61 TET-pa\x\iivov, 6£,£i covpi.
9- In Homer no dissyllabic word like irarpoQ, tekvov, oc/>pa,
&c. which can have the first syllable long, is ever found with
it otherwise : in Aristophanes those first syllables are con-
stantly shortened.
10. Briefly then it may be said, that, in Homer, whatever
can be long is very seldom (and under very nice circum-
stances) ever short : in Aristophanes, whatever can be short
is never found long.
44 APPENDIX.
To complete the purpose of this little sketch, the tragic
prosody also, (of Euripides, for instance,) in a few corre-
spondent points, may as well be presented.
11. Aristophanes, even in the same word, and where the
ictus might be available, (§. 5.) never makes a long syl-
lable : Euripides, who excludes the prolongation even cum
ictu betwixt one word and another,
(Orest. 64. -rrapdirov, Ifiij re fxi}Tp\ iruptZ^Ktv Tpitpttv.
1. e. not TraptCwKcr-p£(j)iiy-)
within the same word readily allows it :
i
Med. 4. Tfi7]6e"i(Ta ttevkt], /tt//S' ipiT-fuoirai yipac.
<- '
1 i . Kpooovi yap u'vrov TSK-ya, ctcr-nvTii' t ku.r\v>
i
'?.). roi' iravra ffvvrfiicovera 8aK-pvois \povor-
12. In Euripides, even those dissyllabic words, (alluded
to §. 9.) wherever, from its position, the syllable is decisively
long or short, exhibit that syllable thrice short to one case
oi' long. Consequently, in certain positions (unietuated) of
Iambic or Trochaic verse which indifferently admit cither
quantity, there can be no reasonable ground for supposing
that syllable to be lengthened : of course, therefore, the fol-
lowing lines are thus read :
jVIed. ;»;.<>. iri-Kpuq ttoXitcuc toriv auadttiQ vtto.
Iph. A. 891. ejrt tivoq aitov^aariov fioi /.laWov, fj tc-kvqv iripi ;
13. In cases where the augment falls as in iwiickwerev or
KacXfjadat, or where, as in 7ro\vxpvtros and airuTpoTrot, the short
vowel closes the first part of a composite word, the pro-
longation of that syllabic in Euripides, though not altogether
avoided, is yet exceedingly rare. (R. P. ad Orest. 64.)
14. One great cause of the many mistakes about syllabic
quantity should seem to be involved in that false position of
S. Clarke's, (ad B. 5o"i.) that a short vowel preceding any
APPENDIX. 45
two consonants with which a syllable can be commenced,
may form a short syllable. Nothing was ever more un-
luckily asserted, or more pregnant with confusion and error.
15. To the perspicacity and acuteness of Dawes (M. C.
pp. 90, 1. 196. 146, 7.) we are indebted for the first clear
statement of the principal points in this department of pros-
ody : to the deliberate and masterly judgment of Porson
(ad Orest. 64. and elsewhere) we owe whatever else is
correctly and certainly known.
16. Some little things, however, may serve to show, that
an English ear, especially on a sudden appeal, is no very
competent judge of Attic cot reptigns, so called.
For instance, in the following lines,
Phoen. 1444. Iv tu^e ftriTnf r) raXaiva 7rgo<r / sriTVEi 9
Ale. 434. E7Tl(TTa/J.al JE, KOVK OCtpVtt HOiKOV t6$£,
it is not from any practice of our own, certainly, that we
should pronounce the words 7T£o<rW-TV£i, and a-tpvu, with
precision and facility in that very way.
17. So, too, if ax/AYi and la^iv were on a sudden proposed
as to the shortening of the first syllable in each, it might
seem to an English ear just as improbable in the noun as in
the verb; although in Athenian utterance we know very
well the fact was quite otherwise.
That eminently learned and powerful scholar, Toup, (vid.
Emendd. vol. i. 114, 5. iv. 441.) stoutly maintained in his
day (what is now called) the permissiveness of a-/*; and
actually on that ground suggested the following as an
emendation of a passage in Sophocles, for e/^h or I'/aev :
EleCt. 21, 2 0)5 EVTauff £~<TfjLSV,
'tv ovket SkveTv aai^og, aXK sgycov ax.fjt.ri.
(where arc/xr) of course is right enough, being pronounced
a-xfAYi.) Since Porson's delicate correction of that error
(u. s. p. 441.) no argument has been advanced in its defence.
And yet, a priori, why should not a-p be permissive, as well
as 0p } for instance? "The consonants <t(/. can begin a word:
E
46 APPENDIX.
why not commence a separate syllable ? How can 9p com-
mence a syllable, when notoriously it cannot begin a word ?"
Honesta oratio est.
18. The plain truth however stands thus : that *//■ and 8/*,
(with %/*, <pv, tv,) though never used as initial to any word,
yet within the same words are found permissive much too
often to admit the shadow of a doubt on that head.
Phcen. 551. Kaj yag /xer^' av^dnroKTi kou /as^yi (rra-6/j.uv
may be taken for one undisputed example: there is no
want of more.
19. How far in the different pairs of consonants which
have been defined as non-permissive (§. 3.) a physical ne-
cessity was the obstacle, in some at least, if not in others,
might be a question for anatomy rather than for criticism.
THE
GREEK SAPPHIC STANZA.
In considering the Greek Sapphic stanza, the principal
points which first demand attention, are three : the scansion
with the metrical ictus, the prosody, and the structure of
the verse.
i. The Scansion of the three longer lines as stated in the
table below, consists of the double Trochee - « | - ^ or Epi-
tritus secundus - - - -, the Choriambus -««,-, and the
Baccheus «, - - or Amphibrach « - « ; while the short line or
Adonic so called which terminates the stanza, is scanned by
a Dactyl and Spondee with the last syllable common.
The metrical ictus falls on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 10th
syllables of the longer line, and on the 1st and 4th of the
short.
II I I I
I I
kouk sQeXoiuav.
ii. Let the subject of Prosody have a preliminary remark
essential to its correctness : two parts of the verse are in
Trochaic (or Iambic) time and movement, the part between
them is in Dactylic. The Dactylic is a more lively mea-
sure and carries with it a stronger ictus.
This distinction, however important in all metres of
mixt time, has yet been very little regarded: the moment
it is pointed out, it is recognized as true. The Choral
Odes of Tragedy often demand the distinction.
e 2
48 ON THE SAPPHIC STANZA.
1. In the Trochaic parts of Sapphic verse, no hiatus of
a long vowel or diphthong may be allowed, either as short
extra ictum or as long cum ictu. The following instances
(taken from Musce Cantabrigienses, 1810.) are faulty.
dea/tu E^ifKE^EV K^ajs^co TTXavarag. M. C. p. 116.
nai ~E8evo{ toj fxax^a @i@av, xai o'v^ug. p. 108.
And this fictitious verse,
exQetu Aiag xgajEfog [taxnTYig, would be faulty also.
The Jirst of the errors here remarked seems to rest on
the plea, that what does obtain in Dactylic, may therefore
be allowed in Trochaic movement.
But Iliad. A. 88.
Tldvdagov ccvtiQegv difyfAEvog, ei ttou iipEugoi,
surely affords no justification for a Sapphic line ending thus,
TIa.vda.gov dt£ri/ji.EV0<;, eikou eu^oi.
Nor A. 116.
'Awa xai ug e9e\u do/tEvai TraTuv, ei Toy a/AEivov,
for one thus beginning,
^Oj xa\ u-^icnuv ra/jciag KE^auvuv.
The second error here shown in the fictitious line,
exQetu Atag xgarEgog ixa-fflxyg^
the hiatus of a long vowel as long cum ictu, being very
seldom likely to occur, may be dismissed without farther
notice.
2. In the Dacf //lie parts of the verse, certain positions
may perhaps allow along vowel or diphthong in hiatu to
form a short syllable.
Thus, vara; 'Ka o-Ta9y)o-0fjLai ; y doxsi /xot. M. C. p. 192.
And in the Adonic line doubtless, the following cases
arc legitimate.
SaxvETai riTog. p. 150. — xa^TEgo) avfrgEg. p. 181. —
axra) IjzYigcov. p. 174.
3. But before or after the two shorts, a long vowel or
diphthong final, and with the ictus therefore, may not in
hiatu form a long syllable.
Not in this case, QaivErai xtivu ivoxMqog eia(j.ev.
ON THE SAPPHIC STANZA. 49
nor even in this perhaps, crx^a. as^vov Kaxxioap^ou A9avag.
4. No long vowel may suffer elision any where.
Byv i'/AEV, i. e. @yjvai, p. 109. and a^o/ji upvuv, i. c. a^o/tai,
p. 117. are not legitimate in Sapphic verse.
Neither has Homer's fiouKoit kyu, i. e. ^ov^o^ai, A. 117, or
the Comic yfa^opayco, i. e. y^a-^ofj-ai hu, any authority for
admission there.
It is true that one extant line of Sappho's, i. v. 22.
may seem to justify the elisions above condemned. But the
peculiarities of the line itself render it very precarious for a
general example; and that may be very rightly laid down
as a safe rule for practical purposes now, which as a re-
strictive canon for correcting the text of an Ancient would
be instantly rejected.
5. Apostrophe, or elision of final short vowels (chiefly a,
f, o), yet that also within certain limits, is commonly al-
lowed; and the Apliceresis sometimes, of the short vowel
initial (s), takes place, in the following manner,
to /j.o) ' pav, i. e. s^av. Sxiyco 'TudeuaYtv, i. e. iT:$il)<jY\v, Sap-
pho, ii. vv. 5. 15.
6. Syllabic quantity, in respect of consonants also,
comes next: and in the Sapphic Ode, the law seems to
stand simply thus.
Whenever a word ending with a short vowel precedes
any pair of permissive consonants (vid. Appendix on Syl-
labic Quantity, pp. 41, 2.), if that vowel is the seat of the
ictus, the syllable becomes legitimately long :
auTina. xf<£> 7tv% u7ro$efy6fji.aKEv. Sappho, ii. v. 10.
otherwise, the syllable remains naturally short,
(3a|if, wj a^iia. kXuuv x.t.X. M. C. p. 121.
Of the vis metrica in the letter p initial as the ictus is
there or not, or of that in the combinations of consonants
called non-permissive, it may be unnecessary to speak in
this place.
50 ON THE SAPFHIC STANZA.
iii. The Structure of the Verse, &c.
Horace, in cultivating the Sapphic stanza, with Catul-
lus's example of freedom before him, (in this metre not
happily shown,) successfully adopted a model more severe
and more congenial to the Latin tongue ; as well by exclud-
ing the short syllable constantly from the 4th place, as by
confining himself to the following three modes of structure.
A. _w || V w - w'- S
]3. -u_-_w|u-||w--
c _ ^ — - « I « - u I —
Such at least became his settled and favorite practice;
and that nearly in the following ratio, for every twelve lines,
nine like A, two like B, and one like C, in their structure,
respectively.
The following stanza from the close of the Carmen Sae-
culare exhibits the three modes, in the inverted order.
C. Hsec Jovem sentire | deosque | cunctos
B. Spem bonam | certamque j domum || reporto,
A. Doctus et Phcebi || chorus et Dianae
Dicere laudes.
These fonns occupy a great share in constituting the
Greek verse of Sappho likewise ; with whom also the form
A has a decided predominance.
A. Tag iy^ag av^ag || atoiaa TtoKKag
B. ixXusg, 7ra.T^6g tz j 36/j.ov || M7ro'i<7a
XgiicrEov YivQsg
C. ctgi* b7ro<7^EvHcra.(7a' | naXo) 5e r j ayov, x.t.K
But as might be expected from the different character
of the two languages, Sappho's own stanza exhibits many
other modifications of the line ; which practically perhaps
and in aid of memory may thus be classed according to
their principal beginnings. The examples are here taken
from the first and second Odes of Sappho ; except the two
lines added from Tweddell, M. C. which however are in
sufficient accordance with all the rest.
o\ THE SAPPHIC STANZA. ">1
ai7r<ra. J' ixcriKOVTo' I iu d\ J fxxHXi^ci. i. v. 1:}.
D. =|--|--| a
EfA./XEV (ZVYIg, I OTTIJ I Ef<XVTiOJ TOI. ii. V. '2.
2D. -«-o|--«|-w-a
TlotKitoPfov, I aflivaT' I AtpfodiTa. i. v. 1.
3D. -w-m|-ww-||w-0
fMEiOtaaair' I afiavaTa; [| Tr^QGwnw. i. v. 14.
1 I), - w - . I - w w - w I - 5,
fxy] /jl a<Tai<ri | ijlv\V oviattri | Ja/*va. i. v. S.
E. - v - || - - w I =.
aftiTEXov || <rri^ysi rs | -zs-aya/zEfEi/av. M. ('. p. 1 1 0.
(To this form belongs that single line of Horace,
Laurea || donandus | Apollinari,
which from its natural rareness alone will very seldom
occur).
2E. -w-||u-ww'|-w-C.
Y\au Aiog || ^oKotsKoxe \ M<r?o t uxi te. i. v. 2.
3 E. -w-||»»-ww-||w-B.
Eu<poovY]g || rav a.fj.'ZSE^ovav || £o(poio. M. C. p. 110.
Such arc the principal varieties of form (with a few others
perhaps) which may safely be adopted in constructing the
Greek Sapphic verse; liable however, amidst such appa-
rent licence of structure, to several restrictions, in respect
of the words and the sense, which on the authority of Sap-
pho or from their own rationality, are entitled to observ-
ance.
1. At the end of the iirst or second verse, no word unless
a monosyllable ending in £ (like ye, te, &c.) and onempha-
tlC, m;i\ be elided before a vowel in the line following.
M us. < 'antab. Praef. p. v.
Thus, Sappho, axxk xxfAuh yiMOWa RFayE, \E7TT0v £'
czoTixx xpx.T.A. ii. vv. !*, 10.
Tweddell, faultily thus. axipE; t' avo'^xT
>ij <Pfavos Kte'iQfov, x.t.a. M. C. p. 108.
52 ON THE SAPPHIC STANZA.
2. Nor may any monosyllabic word, being emphatic and
in close syntax with the following verse, be admitted at
the end of the line, in this manner,
kou <tu, koHxwo^yi TCaoa, Mavrucxg | og
<rEf/.vov EiMo-crEig TTora/xov, «.t.A. M. C. p. 146.
3. Nor on the same ground may a dissyllabic or even
trisyllabic word at the end of a line, be allowed in this man-
ner to open a new sentence.
'Ayyhiag, yowEg, EOEifffxa. | Ka./u.u
Ei te 7ra^nM9EVTSg y k.t.X. M. C. p 141.
aXKa yap roiavr aTroKwh' ' | aolcfoug
vuv ex,ei x,6wv aKKo^airog, K.t.'h. M. C. p. 161.
4. The third verse is generally considered as united by
very strict o-uvocOeioc with the Adonic.
Thus, Sappho. <V&zvej, kou 7rXoco-iov a$u <pcovoi-
aag etzockovei. ii. 3, 4.
But the hiatus of a long vowel, perhaps, betwixt the one
and the other line may without offence be allowed.
ola 7T0VTC0
ayE/xovEuwv. M. C. p. 191.
5. The close continuation of sense from stanza to stanza,
if not too frequently indulged, admits of no controversy ; un-
less afterwards in the stop of one sentence and the transition
to another something very sharp and sudden be involved.
But surely it is harsh and awkward to commence a new
sentence with the Adonic verse ; of which the first and na-
tural use was to conclude the metre with an agreeable repose.
And yet, apparently, after Tweddell's example (thrice re-
peated, vv. 60, 68, 84.) . . opag a-ma^Ei
sg 9a.Ka./j.oug yag
TCXfJiEDOV TrOpQlAEUg VEKVUV KOI\e7 0~E, K.T.K
M. C. p. 112.
what in him probably was affectation, has been followed by
other scholars as if it were a model of elegance.
Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile.
ON THE SAPPHIC STANZA. 53
Singularities sometimes fascinate; and are even copied
for some beauty which they are fancied to convey.
Horace's singular line, Spectandus in cer! tamine Martio,
4 C. xiv. 17. may supply another instance for similar re-
mark, having been again and again imitated, and awk-
wardly too, in modem Alcaics.
After the extent to which this detail has been carried,
on three principal points, the Scansion with ictus, the Pros-
ody, and the Structure, of the Greek Sapphic verse; there
yet remains the very important question of the Dialed and
Style, in which the school exercise or academic prolusion
may most judiciously be attempted.
Now, it is well known, that one of the Prize medals of
Sir William Browne's institution in 1775, was to be given
to the hest Greek Ode in imitation of Sappho.
The celebrated Dr. Charles Bumey in his critique on S.
Butler's edition of Marcus Musurus, &c. Month. Rev.
Jan. 1798, pp. 3 — G. when promulgating the canon for
the divisio rods in Jine versus as betwixt the third and
fourth lines only legitimate, was the first to lament the se-
lection of the Sapphic stanza for the Prize Ode, on such a
diversity of topics as even then had appeared.
" Where the subjects continually vary, this confinement
to one metre seems a strange and unjustifiable restriction ;
especially as so few Greek stanzas written in it, have been
preserved." p. 6.
For the first condemnation of mixing dialects and of
the confusion arising from it, we are indebted to the cor-
rect judgment pronounced in the Preface (p. vi.) to the
Musce Cantabrigienses, 1810.
" Sunt qui hujusmodi carminum dialectum ad Sapphus
et Pindari normam exigi debere affirmant, quibus non om-
nino obsequimur: quid enim vetat ea in quavis dialecto
54 ON THE SAPPHIC STANZA.
conscribere, si in Pindarica licet, qua? a Sapphica pluri-
mum distat ? Hoc vero cavendum esse statuimus, ne cum
iEolica et Dorica confundatur Ionica vel Attica Dialectus,
quod persaepe factum esse vidimus."
The next declaration of dislike to such dialectic mix-
ture was made by the Author of these pages ; whose
various articles of criticism on the composition of the
Greek Sapphic Ode may be found in the Classical Journal,
betwixt the years 1811 and 1818.
In the last of those communications (No. xxxvi. pp. 373
— 380.) I ventured strongly to condemn the frequent prac-
tice of blending almost any thing and every thing from
Theocritus to Homer, or the oscillation at best betwixt
the .Eolic of Sappho and the late Doric of Theocritus.
I even recommended, if a Greek Ode on a distinct com-
plete model be required, to take it even from Pindar
alone ; marked as he is " with a dialectic character of his
own, yet not provincial and rude, but elegant at once
and popular — from Thebes to Athens, and from Syracuse
to Cyrene." p. 375. Or if the .-Eolic style and dialect
were altogether considered as creating an arduous or unne-
cessary task; why then might not a general pattern be
found in the collective manner and matter of the finest
Choral Odes in the three Greek Tragedians ; a plan which
from its comparative simplicity (with the slight use of a
few Doric forms) would, if discreetly pursued, at any rate
banish the long prevalent chaos of all dialects and all styles
of diction. Either of those plans indeed, once avowedly
adopted, would bestow on this academical exercise its only
rational end, " the cultivation of classical taste along with
exactness of critical knowledge," on some determinate,
consistent, rule of ages and of authors, p. 376.
After such a series of endeavours, I may well be sup-
posed to have read with delight the judgment delivered by
Mr. H. Nelson Coleridge, a scholar every way entitled to
speak on this subject, in his Introduction to the Greek
ON THE SAPPHIC STANZA. 55
Classic Poets, (1830) as here quoted below*. The deci-
sion of the matter in dispute must be left with other Heads
than ours; to whose consideration and final sentence it is
thus respectfully submitted.
And here it may be convenient, for many purposes of
reference, to subjoin the two Odes of Sappho, from the
text of Pr. Blomfield, as exhibited by me in DalzePs
Collectanea Grceca Majora, torn. ii. 1827. pp. 257, 8, 9,
or as intimated in pp. 235, 6, 7, of the notes, with the best
discrimination in my power.
a. El; 'Apf oSrrai/.
7roiKix6<pgov, aQccvar "'Atpgodlra,
(xy\ (jl a<rat<ri } (mo ovtaia-i ^d/xva,
dxxd tuT^ £1/5', at ttotcc xdrs^ura 5
Taj Sfxa; au$a$ d'toitra 7roXXag
ekXkej, 57-aTfo'f te dofjt-ov Xi7ro7a-cc y
agft v7roal)iVH<ja<ia' kocXo) $s t dyov
TTUKva divsi/VTsg 7Trsf air cogavu QL
geug did //.eaffu.
* " Upon this subject it may be remarked with regret, that the Greek Prize
Odes of the last few years have not been written in the consistent dialect
of the Tragic chorus. The jEolic of Sappho herself is surely in nubibus to
us : and even if Bishop Blomfield's arrangement of it be authentic, can any
young man by the help of analogy with the forms used in some fifty or sixty
lines, write upon various subjects in such dialect consistently ? The attempt
produces a farrago which, in point of Greek, is disgraceful to the reputation
of the University : for what can be more lamentably absurd than to see the
lowest ' bucolisms' of Theocritus thrust in as the necessities of a Sapphic
Ode require ? The Greek Professor might very profitably publish a canon
on this subject." p. 1, note.
56 ON THE SAPPHIC STANZA.
cuTTcra 2"' sxctIhovto' ru 2', co fiaxatga,
YlDE OTTI T h , TO KETTOvQa, HUTTl ¥ 15
jiv, to xaMlMy
nurrt fxiu fMaKtar eQeXco yEVEcrbat
fxatvo'Ka du/xw vivos a v rv 7TEtQo7
fxaitg aayyivEvaag <pt/\orara ; rig, Zan-
<po?, t aJuw; 20
xa\ yap a/ psi/yEi, Ta^laij mu%si,
at 5e Jaipa /*>] Septet', aAAa 2wo-£i,
a/ 2e (jly) tpiXti, TaxBus (pt~hao-Et
kovk idsXoitrav.
evSe fxot xa) vbv, %aAE7rav te Xt/aov 25
eh fj.Egt/ut.vav' oaaa $e fxot TEXETcrGat
6u/xog ifAEppEi, teAeo-ov, tv J' aura
au/xfxax,og eo~co.
@. ULig' Efu/xevav.
fyatvETal fxot xyvog icog 6eo7o-iv
Efx/xEV avwp, ottij kvavTiog ret
icrdavEt, xa\ iz'Kaatov aou <puvoi-
aag EiraKOVEt
xa\ yE\ao~ag Ifxe^osv, to fiot fxav 5
xao&tav ev ara^Eatv EirroaaEV
ag re yaf R5w, /3po%E«s P B <P^vag
, V >' > «
0U0EV ET IHEt
aXXa xafx/xh y^uaaa FeRzve, Aetttov o
avrina x§® T&f uTrodsfyofxaxEv, 1
OTtTtarEaat V obokv ogrjfj.\ ETTtppofA-
@euo~i o anouai'
xadd' ityug ZTO-uxgog ;£££Ta:<, r^ofiog 6e
vracrav ay^Et' ^AwpoTEfa oe Tsotag
EfXfXl' TEbvaHYW ft' Oh'tyU) IttOEVO'YW *■&
<patvo/j.at, 'At(5<.
\
ON THE SAPrHIC STANZA. 57
* * * *
And now, on the subject of Sir William Browne's medal
for " the best Greek Ode in imitation of Sappho," may I
not venture to renew the exclamation (and nearly in the
same words) which 1 uttered some fifteen years ago.
" Grant, that the text of Sappho's few reliques has re-
ceived from the critical acumen and depth of Dr. Blom-
field, its most elaborate and perhaps final castigation. Yet
surely, even now, no modest man would undertake, for the
labour of a life time, to write, on a new subject, five and
twenty stanzas, exactly and purely after the manner of
Sappho ! One may defy any man living to do it and to
demonstrate it rightly done. The thing is impossible : and
it palpably is so, from the want of sufficient materials for
imitation in the archetype."
Before concluding this treatise, let me recommend to
the reader's perusal the five noble stanzas by Erinna (so
called) ei$ Th TftiVi". That only other known specimen of
Greek Sapphic verse (referable, I should think, to the
age of iEmilius Paullus) may be read in Dalzel, u. s. pp.
284, 5. or in Gaisford's Stobceus (vol. i. p. 204.) with the
judgment of an illustrious scholar on its proper title there
recorded.
" Putavit haud dubie Stobasus 'Poo/aw heic esse avtyslav.
At mihi tamen valde se probat eorum opinio qui posterioris
sevi hoc poema putant urbi Romse dicatum. Certe verba
omnia earn in rem quadrant." Grotius.
ON THE
GREEK ELEGIAC DISTICH.
The Greek Hexameter obviously differing from the Latin
in its more varied freedom of structure, and in what partly
creates that variety, the greater store of short-syllabled
words, of course suggests the expectation to find a similar'
difference betwixt the Greek Pentameter also and the
Latin.
Agreeably to this remark, Ovid in particular (cut in hoc
versus genere primus dant artis periti. Hermann.) exhi-
bits in his Hexameters and Pentameters a striking con-
trast to the Elegiac distich, of Tyrtaeus, for instance. For
Ovid, in forming his own model of that verse, proceeded on
the same delicate feeling; of which Horace when adorning
Roman poetry with Greek lyric metres, had so beautifully
set the example.
The principle of both Poets was this, to consult in all
points the genius of the Latin language into which the
metre was transplanted, and instead of attempting a diffi-
cult or impracticable identity, to adopt such a correspond-
ency to Greek verse as a rational accommodation would
produce. If this consideration be duly kept in mind, the
characteristic differences between the Greek and Latin
Elegiac distichs will either be recognized at once or readily
apprehended on a slight indication. And the young scholar
ON THE ELEGIAC DISTICH. 50
is requested to consider the peculiarities of the Greek not
in the light of things irregular to avoid, but as graceful
varieties for judicious imitation.
The principal specimens of Elegiac verse to which re-
ference is made in the following treatise, are selected partly
from being excellent of their kind, and partly also from the
facility with which they may be commanded.
Tyrt.eus, — the two extracts given by Professor Dalzel
in his Analecta Minora, pp. 97 — 100, corresponding to
the Poetoe Grceci of Eton, pp. 221, 2, 3. and 227, 8, 9.
Euripides, — Andromache, vv. 103 — 116.
Theocritus, — Idyll, viii. vv. 33 — 60.
Callimachus, — In Lavacra Palladis, from the text of
Dr. Blomfield.
On the Scansion and Structure.
i. The Scansion of the Hexameter, which shows the set
of admissible feet, being the same in Greek as in Latin,
hardly needs to be presented here.
ii. The Structure of the Greek, as already intimated,
admits of much greater freedom and variety, than in that
of the Latin is either practicable or allowed.
Accordingly, the Hexameter of Tyrtaeus, far from being
limited to modes of structure like these in Ovid: —
Una domus vires || et onus susceperat | urbis.
Egreditur castris || miles generosus | ab iisdem.
Quo ruitis, generosa | domus? || male creditur hosti.
admits the chief diversities found in Homer, which there is
no necessity perhaps here to specify.
60 ON THE ELEGIAC DISTICH.
iii. The Scansion of the Pentameter, in respect of the
admissible feet and syllables, is the same in Greek as in
Latin.
— ww
(The ictuation of both verses is quite obvious.
1,111 I I
Ou¥ El TlQ&lVOtO <pVY\V XCtOlEO-TSgOS £(«,
II II II
TlXOUTOM $E MjSeW HCCl KlVUfECO @a6l0V.)
Tvrt. i. vv. 5, 6.
iv. But in Structure considerable difference exists be-
tween them, especially in the latter hemistich.
Thus, the Greek Pentameter may freely terminate,
with « * -j forbidden to the distich of Ovid,
NlKiJH $1 &EUV Q^ri'iKlOV I pOfEYlV. Tyr. i. V. 4.
with - « w - , which it occasionally admits,
Ka) drfiuv ogeyon' kyyuQEv | laTa/xEvog. i. v. 12.
or with «--«-, very rare in Ovid : Latin words so con-
stituted, are themselves rare.
Ot/T£ zroduv a$ETrj$, oute | ira'ha\.7fx.ou{j\y\' 1 . v. 2.
v. Tn Ovid, the sentence very seldom overflows from one
distich into another, and then always after some pause or
interruption of sense very distinctly defined. In the Greek
the sense often is carried in continued flow from the se-
cond line into the third, with liveliness of movement or
with advantage of effect; in both cases with a cadence,
uncongenial to the Latin, at any rate seldom attempted by
any Latin author.
rioXXol fMEV 7Th0UT0U(Tl Katco), ayado) ?£ 7TEV0VTCZI'
A*x' ri/H£ij avro7g oil h^taf/.Et^6//.EBa
Trig a^ETijg rov 7T>.outoV cite) to (avj s\u7rE$6v etti,
XgYipoiTa. d' avfyooiscov aXhoTE a^Xog ex 11 - SOLON.
ON THE ELEGIAC DISTICH. 61
E/j ayabpoc. Tng Ou^avlcxg 'AcpcodtTwg.
'H Ki/9Tfij ou Trdv^Yi/xog' ixdcrxEO ty]V 0eov, eittwv
Ovgaviav, dyvag cxvOe/mx X^ucroyovcxg
OlKCp EV ' AfJLtpiKXEOU^ CO H.OCI TEKVCX H.CU (3tOV eI^E
s,vvov' cle\ cJe aQiv hco'iov eI; srog yv
'E« 0~e8eV «^%0/X£VO(J, CO TTOTVia' HY^OfJt.EVOl yd(>
'Adavdrcov auToi 'eXe'iqv exovctl (3goTol.
Theoc. Epigram, xiii.
vi. Whereas in Ovid, at the end of the first hemistich,
the ccesural division is strictly observed, so as never to
admit a line like this of Catullus, with a syllable elided,
Si vera est Persarww impia relligio ;
in the Greek, a short vowel final, being cum ictu there,
with any pair of consonants following, legitimately forms a
long syllable.
'AvolpaiVj o\ ttxyux %p yi^cxt exovcti @iy k.t.X.
Theognis. (Gaisford. Poetae Minores Graeci, vol. i. p. 230.
Read as if it were, Ta/xax^/^aT exoucti, conjunctively.
And a short vowel superfluous suffers elision as freely in
that position as elsewhere.
MyjcJe cpiXo-^ux^ czvtydcrt (jiagvdfJLEVot. Tyr. ii. v. 18.
i. e. ^(Xo^y%aT£.
*A fx.lv ktpa, wailog cJ' ofx/j-ara vv£, e@cx\ev. CALL. v. 82.
vii. Of Prosody, more generally, under several heads.
1. On the long vowel in hiatu.
The long vowel (or diphthong) in hiatu even when ictit-
ated, does not in Homer very frequently form a long syl-
lable ; although his first line affords an example of it.
Mrjviv aEih, ®ecx, ny\Yiid$Eu 'A%tA>Jof.
In later times, that prolongation seems to have been dis-
liked and fallen into desuetude, certainly so with the Ele-
giac writers. And yet from Callimachus in the first hun-
dred lines three examples may be quoted.
F
62 ON THE ELEGIAC DISTICH.
' H kg 'A/Au/Auvriv givete t«v Aavau. 58.
TloXXamg a o^al/xuv f/.tv sco E7rs(3r)<Ta,T0 $iq>ga. 65.
"\7i7tu ett) K^avtx 'JLMxuvldi KaXa, pEoi<ra. 71.
But then in all the instances here produced, it is obvious
to remark, that the long vowel so posited, forms the first
syllable of a dactyl and not of a spondee.
A fortiori, therefore, such a position of the vowels as
that exhibited in the following line, should be carefully
avoided.
Oi/dk 7«£> !v/3io'tw u/j,a$ etXyi/jlev i^strdai.
Musts Eton. 1795. torn. iii. p. 1.
The correption of the long vowel (or diphthong) in hiatu
when extra ictiw/, is common enough, especially with
dactylic endings like the following.
Oi/T' av fAVYi(rai(jt.Y\v, out ev Aoy& avtya tiSeZ/zhv. TyR. i. V. 1.
Ol/ yag avy\$ ayaQog yiyvsrai ev mote/Aca. Ibid. V. 10.
And very much with xa) in that position.
TloXXa, dia (tte^volo, nai a<j7ri$og o/xtpahOEO-o-ns. v. "25.
Most frequently altogether, be it observed, in the third
syllable of the dactyl: very much less so, in the second, as
in these verses.
TIavToi Eag, ttocvto. $e vo/xol, iravTa. $s yaKaKrog. ThE0C. v. 41.
'Ryyl/g $e crravTEg Xaaitxg fyuog avrpou otticQev.
Theoc. Epigram. V. v. 5.
2. The Homeric elision, like that of (2ouko/a kyu, i. e.
@otxo/Aat kyib, A. v. 117. though by the other Elegiac wri-
ters apparently avoided, did not however offend Callima-
CHUS; in whose lines the verbal termination ai occurs
thus elided.
ON THE ELEGIAC DISTICH. 63
Kai (3ti)jA.oi 7r0Ta.iA.cp keTvt lm KougaXico. v. 62.
i. e. KsTvrai.
"EgxsT''' Adavaia vuv aT^EKsg' aWa. Je^e^Ae, x.r.h. v. 137.
i. e. "EfxETat.
The Comic prosody of yga^o/xdyco, i. e. yga^o/xai sya,
Vesp. v. 536. {R. Dawes. Misc. Crit. p. 269) or of any
similar crasis more commodious to dactylic verse, is to-
tally unknown to the Elegiac distich.
3. On the short vowel final in hiatu, when elided or not.
Even in Homer, words -with the open vowel circum-
stanced like the following, very rarely occur.
a. *H 'Iva. u,3§iv i'ty 'Aycx^E/xvovog 'ArgEidao. A. 203.
e. Oupsdt T£ o-HioEvra, QaKao-cra te ^%w£(70-«. — 157.
i. Axx' o'vTCug en eix,ev uTrorgEcrai, oucJ' avaduvai. H. 217.
o. 'Axx' axEOVcra xaQyo-o, ifxZ 5"' ettitteiQeo /j,u9u, A. 565.
v. 'H oyE <pa.o-ya.vov d|y Eguo-o-a.fj.Evot; nsa^a. fj.r\oou. — 190.
In the Elegiac writers, the short vowel thus posited even
in the case of i, o, v, appears so very seldom, if at all,
that the only safe rule in a Greek exercise would be, to
avoid it entirely, unless the actual words be taken also
which involve its use.
On the other hand, for the final short vowel elided, in
the case of all but v, {qace vocalis elidi non potest, Her-
mann.) the example of Tyrtaeus alone, if observed within the
line of his usage, may be sufficient authority. The reader
will collect the instances for himself.
4. The final short vowel, cum ictti, in Elegiac verse,
may constitute a long syllable with any permissive pair
(so called) of consonants, but not with any single conso-
nant, nor even with any of the liquids except p.
OuOE 7T0TE X\E0$ SCtQtCoV 0,71 "O^AUT 'at , 0V& OVOfA UUTOU.
TYR.i. v. 31.
Ai-^Jicrai; % 'cx.qa.tQv tj, 7Tot) poov nhuds H^xvaq. Call. V. 77.
f2
64 ON THE ELEGIAC DISTICH.
Here, however, let it be remarked, that within the same
word not only cum ictu but extra ictum, the short vowel
with any permissive consonants may form a long syllable.
Cum ictu. E/ /4jj tetWji fxh oguv <p6vev cupaToevra.
Tyr. v. 11.
Extra ictum. Al^a ?£ dutrfisvsuv av5pv bt^s-^b QaKayyat;.
ib. v. 21.
5. Such Homeric prolongations as the following in the
final syllables of &*.os and a^n^za, are quite unknown
to Elegiac verse.
to'!' co/aoktiv 'ixav J ajj.<pri^<pza tb tpafETgnv. A. 45.
'A^Taf sttsit avToiai @b\o<; £%fz<j-£y«Ej etpisig . . . ib. 51.
The prosody in Homer so common for the short vowel in
ictu with o- to constitute a long syllable (as »vvs<r<riv. A. 4.
— fisteo-crtv. 42. — KaXsa-a-aro. 45. — o^ocraov. 76, &C. &C.) Was
not by the Elegiac writers relinquished altogether. A fa-
cility therefore and convenience like this cannot well be
denied to the young scholar :
— dabiturque licentia sumta pudenter.
viii. As the specimens of Elegiac poetry selected in
sect. i. of this treatise may serve the young scholar for a
beginning at least to his study of the subject ; a few ob-
servations shall now be submitted on the p eculiarities of
each.
Tyrt.eus, by the seventy-two lines alone of unrivalled
excellence here referred to, might well justify the compli-
ment which so proudly unites his name with that of the
bard of Troy :
Post hos insignis Homerus
Tyrtseusque mares aninios in Martia bella
Versibus exacuit. Horat. A. P. vv. 401, 2, 3.
On a lower scale of instruction, the pure Ionism of Tyr-
taeus deserves critical remark. In those admired fragments
ON THE ELEGIAC DISTICH. 65
yet extant, the dialectic forms present a pattern of con-
gruity and unison, valuable on that account alone.
Homer, on the contrary, though an Ionian born, seems
to have caught from the ^Eolic minstrelsy of his neighbours
as well a few of its other words, «/*/«, v/t/Mi, &c. for instance,
as some of its sonorous forms in particular, alx/J'-nra.uv, A.
152. 'ArfEidao, 203, &c. and for the sate of variety to have
scattered them, but still sparingly, over his own native and
predominant Ionic.
With this hint in mind, which may easily be expanded
and applied, a very instructive and acute remark of Henry
Stephens in his Prolegomena to Herodotus, will not be
deemed impertinent if introduced here. The father of
poetry and the father of history throw mutual light on
each other.
" Quod ad Homerum attinet, quisquis lectionis illius stu-
diosus est, ad earn profecto neque magis compendiariam
ncque magis expeditam viam, quam hunc autorem pervolu-
tando, sternere sibi potest; nee aliunde melius quae apud
Homerum Ionica sint, et quae non tarn Ionica quam Poe-
tica, cognoscere."
The Elegiac verses of Euripides (with a few peculiari-
ties which hardly need indication) have been selected as
well for their intrinsic merit, as for the purpose of remark-
ing the perspicuity of expression in them. The style of
Euripides indeed may well be recommended generally for
imitative composition wherever a higher tone of poetic
diction is not required; inasmuch as he formed his lan-
guage " chiefly of the words and phrases of customary
speech, properly selected.' 1 '' sav rig e* tyj$ eiojQulas ^ta^Urou
snteyuv auvTi8y' otvi^ 'Eugnridns 7roi£i, xal inredeii-E Tr^urog.
Aristot. Rhetor. 1. iii. c. ii. §. 8.
When Theocritus is mentioned, occasion maybe taken
to remark, that his Idyllia present the later Doric in its
natural congruity. Homeric words, to be sure, and forms
66 ON THE ELEGIAC DISTICH.
of words are intermixed, (for in all the Poets of dactylic
verse that seems unconsciously done,) but prevail the
most, as might be expected, where his subject also partakes
of the grand and heroic character.
The Elegia of Callimachus is praised very highly by
Dr. Blomfield; to whose critical diligence in the edition
of that Poet we are so greatly indebted.
" Jam vero nemo est, ut opinor, qui hoc carmen in La-
vacra Palladis perlegerit, quin similem ejus Elegiam om-
nium hymnorum jactura perlibenter redemturus sit: adeo
se venustate sua ac simplicitate nobis prae iis commendat."
This poem has Dorisms largely sprinkled over it : " locus
enim, in quo res ponitur, est Doricus, Awf ikqv "A^yoj."
After all, the young scholar who is engaged in the study
of Elegiac Greek, will do well to guide himself principally
by the writings of the early poets, those of Tyrtaeus, Theog-
nis, Solon, Simonides, &c. and for practical purposes, by
those of Euripides also. Subsequently to the age of that
Tragedian, the very latest style which one may regard at
all as a model, or rely upon as authority, is that of the
Scholar poets of Alexandria, in the time of Ptolemy Phil-
adelphia: and yet not even in their pages can every thing
be wan-anted as bearing the stamp of genuine purity and
elassic correctness.
Elegiac Greek naturally connects itself with the Greek
of the Epigrammata in their earliest, some think it their
most beautiful age, and even to a period as late down as
that of Alexandrine poetry : and so far in many respects,
writers of the one class may practically be considered
along with those of the other. But if any person, either
for his own amusement, or on account of exercises given
to his pupils, or with a view to Sir William Browne's
ON THE ELEGIAC DISTICH. 67
prize at Cambridge " for the best Greek Epigram after the
maimer of the Anthologia" shall be inclined to peruse the
Greek Epigrams in that very miscellaneous collection so
entitled; let him by all means be advised to keep con-
stantly before his eye the chronology of the different Epi-
grammatists. He will stand so much the better chance to
avoid being misled by apparent authority into strange
errors of diction and of taste, into every thing paltry and
bad. For that purpose, he may use with certain
advantage the well arranged manual of Epigrammata
Grceca published by an accomplished scholar, my quon-
dam associate, Mr. John Edwards (now Head Master of
Bury St. Edmund's), in the year 1825. And whoever
wishes to enjoy the beauties of the Greek Anthology in an
English dress, will find his gratification in the Collections
from it by Mr. Bland and others, which Mr. Merivale has
recently edited.
FINIS.
G. Woodfall, Printer, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.
X
PA Tate, James
412 An introduction to the prin-
T33 cipal Greek tragic and comic
1834 metres. 4th ed.
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
<fc
