Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

the still greater rarity may be referred to the same cause.

[blocks in formation]

N.B. In agreement with the suggestion of Dr. Herbert, already brought forward, a secondary accent is here given to the long compound words in the first, second, and fourth lines last quoted.

[blocks in formation]

fully considered in § 11, may be the more briefly dismissed here.

[blocks in formation]

2 C. xx. 23. Compésce clamórem | ác | sepúlchri..

occurs only once again, 3 C. v. 43.

And these two, peculiar in their accentual beginning,

1 C. Ix. 11. Depræliántes néc | cupréssi..

3 C. XVII. 3. Denominátos ét | nepótum..

(unless a secondary accent be allowed) must be classed with similar commencements of a quinquesyllabic kind (some twenty more or less) which are found in the first and second lines of the stanza.

Under one or other of these six forms as stamped with Horace's mature approbation, every legitimate third verse of the Alcaic stanza may now be reduced; and whatever modes of structure and accentuation differ from these, are virtually excluded from all place in any classical exercise of imitative composition.

14. On the FOURTH line, which has its scansion thus,

Singularly enough, no scheme of structure likely to be adopted seems quite objectionable and bad, except that which exactly coincides with the scansion; as it is unfortunately given in that medley of metres, known by the name of Pasiphae,

v. 15. óraque | júngere | quæ'rit | óri...

which, of course, has no parallel in Horace.

The following forms are exhibited in order, according to their numerical predominance.

The form A. is decidedly the most numerous.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

4 C. XIV. 24. Mittere équum | médios | pér ígnes.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

1 C. xxxiv. 12. Concútitur, válet | íma | súmmis.

3 C. 1. 16.

40.

Om'ne cápax | móvet | úrna | nómen.
Póst équitem sédet | átra | cúra.

We have here to remark a singular change in the practice of Horace.

The form (D) above described appears very seldom in the 1st and 2d books: in the 3d and 4th it became so much a favourite as to appear nearly 10 times as often.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

differs from the precedent only by its ending in one quadrisyllabic instead of two dissyllabic words; and the few instances of it are evenly dispersed over the four books.

[blocks in formation]

Here also the change in Horace's practice is singular, but in the opposite direction to that of D. The instances, not many in all, occur three times as often in the first two books as in the two latter: the form had apparently gone out of favour with him.

F and 2 F are forms similar enough to be classed together.

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

More than two thirds of all these lines are found as in the classes A, B, D, to commence with

-^^

- | &c.

The class next in number C. consists of those which commence with

311

[ocr errors]

- I &c.

The principal forms embracing nearly the whole number of 317 have thus been reviewed: of the few that remain, a short notice may suffice. The form |

[ocr errors]

1 C. IX. 8. O' Thaliárche | mérum | dióta..

occurs very seldom.

[ocr errors]

-

In the early books also, a single case of the (here offensive) amphibrach (~~) occurs, thus:

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

1 C. xvi. 12. Téque tuásque | décet | soróres..

and three only of the following.

^1^

-

1 C. xxxI. 16. Mé cichoréa | levésque | málvæ.

and 2 C. 1. 36. XIII. 8.

Finally, three lines sui generis in singularity may speak

for themselves.

[blocks in formation]

3 C. xxx. 13, 14. Princeps Æolium carmen ad Italos Deduxisse modos....

that by happy change and adaptation he had transferred the metres of Sappho and Alcæus into the uses of Latin poetry, might require for its full justification a more detailed comparison betwixt his Lyric verses and the remaining fragments of those poets, than need at present be attempted. But for satisfaction generally on this head, the reader is referred to Gaisford's Hephæstion, 1810, to Hermann's Elementa Doctrinæ Metricæ, 1816, and to Charles Burney's article in the Monthly Review, u. s., who was the first scholar to investigate the subject, in 1798.

In the Sapphic Stanza, the Greek preference so decided of a short syllable in the 4th place where Horace always has the long, as well as numerous varieties of structure, which the Romanæ fidicen lyræ could not or would not adopt, have been sufficiently described elsewhere *, and are too well known to require formality of demonstration. Catullus's Sapphic verse also, in these pages already referred to, may easily be consulted, (Odes X1, XLVIII,) to contrast his looser and ruder movement with the regulated cadences of Horace, in that its state of perfection as a Latin metre.

Greek Metres (J. T.) 4th Edition, pp. 47–51.

« ForrigeFortsæt »