266

Sapphic
Verses.

Catullus has employed the Glyconic with great happiness in his long 'Epithalamium,' and in one other poem, the 34th. The stanza in the former consists of four Glyconics, followed by a Pherecratean :

in the latter, of three Glyconics followed by the Pherecratean. But
his rhythm is nearer the Greek than is Horace's, as he prefers
Trochee for the base; and in one stanza the four lines are con
nected by synaphea, the last syllable of the Glyconic being alway
long, while that of the Pherecratean is doubtful; in the othe
stanza the first three and last two lines are similarly connected
The light Trochaic base, and the point given by the final long syl
lable together produce a beautiful and powerful metre, hyper
metrical syllables sometimes suffering elision at the end of a line.
Horace's earlier Asclepiads seem to suffer from the number of
weak short syllables at the end of verses; and to a feeling of this
we refer the occurrence of such lines as these in the 4th book:
Cur facunda parum decor/o (hypermetrical)
Sed cur heu, Ligurine, cur;

Lentum sollicitas ille virentis et
Audivere Lyce di meą vota di

and even the Alcaic:

Ne forte credas interitura quae.

(8) The SAPPHIC stanza, consisting of three Sapphic Hendecasyllables, followed by a Dactyl. Dim. Catal. in disyllabum (Versus Adonius):

20020 Rísit Apollo.

In his first three books Horace rarely departs from the following rhythm in the Sapphic Hendecasyllable:

Iám satis terrís | nivis átque dirae,

differing in this exceedingly from Sappho. The monotony is increased by his always having a Spondee in the second foot. He seems himself at least to have felt the faultiness of his monotonous caesura, and in his fourth book and 'Carmen Saeculare' often substitutes the caesura at the third Trochee: as,

Liberum munivit | iter daturus.

But the stiffness is thus increased and the monotony not much diminished.

He sometimes, like Sappho and Catullus, has hypermetrical verses; sometimes too, like them, he has no break between the third and fourth verse: as,

Labitur ripa Iove non probante u-
xorius amnis..

Catullus has two Sapphic Odes, one a very early poem, a translation of Sappho; the second written with reference to this, and, as it were, a defiant retractation of it. He is less regular in his

rhythm than Horace, and three times has a Trochee in the second foot.

But he seems to have felt the futility of competing with Sappho, and has with brilliant success made a variation of the Sapphic his own, by adopting in forty out of fifty-nine of his Lyric and Iambic poems the Phalaecian Hendecasyllable, which differs from the Sapphic in this, that the Dactyl forms the second instead of the third foot. This difference, however, has enabled him to wield it with marvellous grace and at the same time freedom, as it has no regular caesura, which is apt in a short verse to cause monotony:

詠

Quoi dono lepidum novum libellum
Arida modo pumice expolitum?

Měas esse aliquid putare nugas.

Martial has adopted it with equal success; but the first foot with him is always a Spondee; and we learn from the elder Pliny that a Spondee in his time was alone admitted. In his 55th poem Catullus has tried the experiment of occasionally substituting a Spondee for the Dactyl, but the result is not happy.

267

(9) Horace's most successful stanza is that in which he has adapted Alcaic to Latin forms the famous system called after Alcaeus. It consists Stanza. of (1. 2) two Hendecasyllabic verses of this form,

Qui rore puro Castaliae lavit.

(3) an Enneasyllabic verse of this form,

Dumeta natalemque silvam.

completed by (4) an Alcaic Decasyllable:

200120012020

Delius et Patareus Apollo.

This varied metre, combining Dactylic, Iambic, and Trochaic forms, has gained by the restrictions to which the poet has subjected it. In the three first verses of the stanza he has admitted an Iambus rarely in the first foot, and not at all in his 4th Book. The fifth syllable too of verses 1, 2, which Alcaeus uses as doubtful, is always long, with one single exception:

Si non perirět immiserabilis.

In those verses the Penthemimeral Caesura is strictly observed, with only these two exceptions:

Mentemque lymphatam Mareotico.

Spectandus in certamine Martio ;

though more than once he has the quasicaesura after the Preposition of a compound word; as,

Hostile aratrum ex-ercitus insolens.

Verse 3. too gains stateliness and weight by rejecting the most usual Iambic movements; thus,

Hunc Lesbio sacrare plectro

268 Galliam

bus.

is the only instance of the second Iambus being contained in a word thus ending in an Iambus; and only in the earlier books does it ever end with a word of four syllables, like barbarorum. Its most normal rhythms are :

and next to these:

Breunosque velocis et arcis.
Commisit immanisque Raetos.
Quantis fatigaret ruinis;

Vexare turmas et frementem.

In the verse 'Non decoloravere caedes,' there is probably a pause after the preposition de.

This verse is sometimes hypermetrical: as, 'Cum pace delabentis Etruscum | In mare.'

In Verse 4 these seem the best rhythms:

Vindelici didicere nuper.

Alpibus impositas tremendis.

Auspiciis pepulit secundis;

or modifications of these:

Stravit humum sine clade victor.

The Galliambus of Catullus is worth considering from the celebrity of his sixty-third poem. Varro and others used this metre in poems now lost. Its nature, often misunderstood, is simple enough. We may take as its type an Ionic a minore Tetram. Cat. with an unvarying caesura at the end of the second foot:

No whole verse of Catullus is of this primary form.
Of the first part an example is

Et earum omnia adirem :

of the second,

'stadio et gymnasiis ;' but Catullus probably wrote guminasiis.

As a rule, in each part what is called Anaclasis occurs, that is to say, the last long syllable of the first foot changes place with the first short syllable of the second foot; and the same occurs between the third and fourth feet: we then get this form:

Aliena quae petentes | velut exules loca.

This is the most common form for the first part; but usually in the second part a further change takes place: the second long syllable is resolved into two short ones; and we then get the regular type of the verse:

Super alta vectus Attis | celeri ratě măria.

Occasional variations of this type occur.

Tībīcěn ŭbĭ canit Phryx | curvo grave calamo,

gives in one verse three of these variations:

Ibi mariă vasta visens | lacrimantibus oculis,

gives the fourth.

(1) Trimeter Catalecticus in Syllabam (Penthemimer) called

Archilochius Minor:

- པ པ | - པ པ |

Arbori busque comae, Hor.

(2) Tetrameter Catalecticus in Disyllabum, called Alcmanius:

- པ པ ། - པ པ 」 - པ པ ] -£

Mobili bus po|maria | rivis, Hor.

In the case of a Proper Name Horace has a Spondee in third foot:
Menso rem cohi bent, Archyta.

(3) On the Hexameter and the Elegiac Pentameter. see §§ 259261.

(2) The Tetrameter Catalectic or Septenarius was used by the Greek Tragic and Comic Poets; also by Plautus and Terence. The Latin Poem (of uncertain age and author) called Pervigilium Veneris, is a Monocolum in this metre; of which the following is the scheme:

Cras amet qui nunquam amavit || quique amavit | cras amet.
Dialysis after the 4th foot is essential.

In Comedy the license of feet is vastly wider (see Note, p. 474); but a Trochee or its equivalent, a Tribrach, must precede the final syllable. Plautus also uses the Tetrameter Acatalectic or Octonarius with similar license, but always with final Trochee.

C. IAMBIC RHYTHMS.

(1) Dimeter Acatalectus:

Forti seque mur pectore, Hor.
Canidi a tractavit | dapes, Hor.

(2) Alcaicus Enneasyllabus: Iamb. Dim. Hyperc.,

Periu ra pugnacis | Achivos, Hor.

Caesura after the 3rd syllable is required. See § 267.

(3) (Trimeter Acatalectus, or Senarius, which sometimes consists of six lambic feet (Hexapodia Iambica):

Suis et ipsa Roma viribus | ruit, Hor.

Gemel le Castor et | gemelle Castoris, Catull.

But usually Spondees are admitted into the first, third, and fifth places; a Tribrach may stand in any place but the last for an lambus; a Dactyl in the first place, and an Anapaest in the first (rarely in the fifth) for a Spondée :

Pater na ru ra bo bus exercet | suis, Hor.

Aliti bus at que cani bus homi cidam Hec torem, Hor.

Pavidum que lepo¦rem et ad venam | laqueo | gruem, Hor.

A penthemimeral or hephthemimeral caesura is necessary to the harmony of the Verse. This Verse may form a Metrum Monocolum, as Hor. Epod. 17.

Note. The Comic Poets, Plautus and Terence, admit Spondees, Dactyls, and Anapaests, in every place but the last, sometimes even Procelcusmatics; with numerous other licenses.

The Iambic Trimeters of the fabulist Phaedrus resemble these, but take fewer feet of three syllables and fewer licenses.

(4) Scazon, or Choliambus; which is an Iambic Trimeter with a Spondee in the sixth, and an Iambus in the fifth, place; as, Miser | Catulle de sinas | ineptire, Catull.

Used as a Metrum Monocolum, but not by Horace. The caesuras as in (3).

(5) Trimeter Catalecticus:

10010

Mea | reni det in | domo | lacunar, Hor.

Junctae que nymphis Gratiae | decentes, Hor.

The penthemimeral caesura is essential.

(6) Versus Hipponacteus (Dimeter + Hephthemimer). Deprensa na vis in | mari || vesa nien te vento, Catull Dialysis after the Dimeter. This verse forms a Metrum Monocolum, not used by Horace.

Miserarum est neque amori | dare ludum, | neque dulci, Hor.

(3) Versus Galliambus. See § 266.