varieties; for it is examples and grounds for comparison and observation, as much as, or more than, precepts, that are now wanted to assist us in our researches into the nature of lyrical compositions. It is chiefly, indeed, as a repository of the verses of ancient lost poets, that I consider Hephæstion's book as useful and indispensable, especially augmented and enriched as it now is with much new matter, and a most elaborate commentary by the late editor. It matters not whether the line in Catullus, Nec facta impia fallacum || hominum Coelicolis placent, be written as one line, or be divided into two, provided we understand the nature of the metre, and mark its peculiar comma, and do not confound it with the line in Horace, Nullam Vare sacra || vite prius || severis arborem, which, although agreeing with that of Catullus in rhythm, that is, in number of times, has separate and distinct sections, and is, therefore, in effect a different metre. Indeed it is better, perhaps, to write all these long asclepiads as one line, except when we wish to make their peculiar commas, colons, and sections more perceptible, as otherwise it might produce a notion that the last syllable is independent, and need not be elided before the next section beginning with a vowel, a quality that belongs only universally to the termination of a whole line, and not equally, and by no means always to a colon, section, or comma. Thus in the elegiac pentameter, although there is always a comma or section at the penthimemer, yet nevertheless it does not admit of an hiatus of a short vowel; but the short vowel is uniformly cut off before another word beginning with a vowel, as Quam cœpta est, nonamque || edita post hyemem. Catull. 92. v. 2. This strophe of Catullus has a Grecian air, and a graceful freedom, while that of Horace is uniform and monotonous, but at the same time probably best suited to the Latin muse, which is more severe, and less flexible, than the Grecian, as I have often observed before, and shall have occasion to observe again when I come to consider the peculiar laws of the Latin Sapphic and Alcaic. I will now revert to the preceding scale, where I have placed several lines, all exhibiting one or more choriambs placed in the middle. One of these lines, the 7th, is the short asclepiad so frequently occurring in the Odes of Horace, namely, Οὐ γὰρ | οἰκίᾳ ἐν μοισοπόλων | θέμις, equivalent to -I wish to draw attention to this particular metre, because it appears to me that the catalectic form of it is that which best suits some fragments of Sappho. I will place the entire metre, and then some catalectic examples of it in one scale, thus This first section of an asclepiad forms sometimes of itself a light Anacreontic, as Μεγάλῳ | δ' ήύτε μ' ἔρως | ανήρ ..Hephæst. p. 68. Ib. p. 71. By the addition of a syllable a longer Anacreontic is formed of the same rhythm, as the pherecratiau, as We have seen that the long asclepiad regularly consists of three pure choriambics in the middle, bounded at the beginning and end by a dissyllabic foot, as ̓Ενθόν τ ̓ [ ἐξ ὀρανῶ, | πορφυρέαν | πεῤῥέμενον | χλάμυν, Sappho affords examples of three dactyls similarly placed, allowing the line to begin with any dissyllable, but concluding it uniformly with a spondee, as γαμβρὲ καὶ | λῶς ἐϊ Τίνι τ' | ὦ φίλε Ὁ μὲν | γὰρ καλὸς ] ὅσσον ἰ κάσδω ; δεῖν πέλε- | ταί [σοι]. When there are four dactyls in the middle, preceded and followed by a spondee they make the Sapphic heroic, as Χρύσει- | οι ἐρές | βινθοι ἐπ' ἀϊό- \ νων ἐφύ- | οντο. A single dactyl in the middle seems also the characteristic of the Phalacian metre, or what is commonly called, hendecasyllables, as Παν, Πε- | λασγικὸν ['Αργος ἐκβα- [τεύων. 1 Sappho uses the same metre, prefixing only to it a syllable, as "E- χει μὲν | ̓Ανδρομές | δα και λὰν ἀ- | μοιβάν. and also the same metre, deducting from the beginning a syllable, Sometimes an iambic penthimemer, or ditrochaic, with a syllable prefixed, precedes, then a dactyl in the middle intervenes, and for a close a trochaic dimeter catalectic, or trimeter catalectic is appended, as in Ω ναξ "Απολλον ξ παῖ μεγά- ¦ λῶ Διός. τω There is a singular metre in the fragments of Simonides (Gaisford's Poetæ Minores, Vol. I. p. 381. Gaisford's Hephaest. p. 343.) and to be found also in Callimachus, well calculated to illustrate the Sapphic metre, and shew the force of a dominant middle foot. It seems composed of a trochaic base, preceded by a broken imperfect foot, containing either one or two times of a choriamb, in the middle, terminating always in a whole word, and by way of close, of another trochaic base like the first, as The Sotadean metre exhibits three choriambs with a broken foot of one or two times prefixed, and with a long syllable affixed, as Τῶν | χρυσοφόρων | οὐδὲ γυναι- | κῶν βαθυκόλ | πων. Heph. p. 320. But this metre in the first and second foot is extremely free and licentious, admitting several rhythmical interchanges for the choriamb, namely, a molossus, the same resolved into an ionic, a ditrochee, and a diiamb, of six or seven times indifferently, and lastly, an epitrite. The third foot is more confined, and seems restricted either to a choriamb or diiamb. I will insert here some instances of the most licentious placed in a scale, according to my present mode of scansion. There is but one line among the many collected by Herman, where the third foot contains a diiamb of seven times, namely 3 or 4 Πολύ- | ποδα φαγὼν ὁ | Διογένης | ὠμὸν τέθνη | κεν, Heph. 335. Πολύ- | ποδα φαγὼν ὁ | Διογένης | τέθνη- κεν ὠ- [ μόν. It appears that the last syllable of each foot, when it terminates a word, is common in the same manner as at the end of a verse, as in the following instances: Καὶ γὰρ κατὰ γαῖ ̓Αγα- | θὸς εὐφυής Του φθόνου λαβεῖν αν τὰ κακὰ πέφυ- κεν ἀ- | εί. Herm. 335. δίκαιος εὐτυχής ὃς ἂν = ᾖ. Ib. 336. δεῖ μερίδα μῶμον ἔχειν δεῖ. Ib. ἀλλὰ πάθος | παρέλαβεν αυτόν. Ib. In the preceding lines I have not divided the two first feet into their respective arsis and thesis, as I do not readily comprehend how a choriamb, which is in the dactylic or even rhythm, can be made to pass into a molossus, which is in the iambic or double rhythm. The one is what is now called common time, and the other triple time. Perhaps, however, there is here no change of rhythm, but the rhythm is continued, the long vowel suffering what may be called a mental and musical diæresis, as the diphthong frequently does a visible and syllabic diæresis. So the Pherecratian line in Catullus, 59, v. 25. Nutri unt humore, is to be scanned as if it were Λ Nutri- unt hu- umo- re, and then it answers precisely to 3 tur, et pedum et digitorum ictu intervalla signant, quibusdam notis (dele) atque æstimant quot breves illud spatium habeat, Lib. 9. The preceding lines are all ouoiwy, but in Gaisford's Hephæstion, and also in Herman there are eight Sotadean verses xarà oxéσiv, and of a most curious and elaborate composition, the two first feet terminating in a whole word, as will be best seen by placing them in a scale. προβάτιον εἴ χεν, κ. τ. λ. Herman (p. 58.) not aware that a molossus may represent a choriamb finds fault unnecessarily with the following line of Seneca: Ut pri- mum magni || natus Age- | noris. The licence that prevails in the Sotadean verse may serve to explain to us a similar licence which exists in the following Galliambic verses: Here, instead of the diiamb and choriamb, which are the only isochronous interchanges which occur in Catullus, we have, as in the Sotadean verses, a molossus, Mātēr Dēûm, or if Deûm be not contracted into a monosyllable, an epitritus tertius, Mātēr Děūm, a molossus resolved into an ionic, tibi gallī, and an epitritus primus, modōs tibi. I will observe that Mater Děüm may be esteemed a diiamb, notwithstanding the spondee in the first place; but if this is so, then the order reversed, Děūm mātēr, forming an epitritus primus, like modōs tībī, contains precisely the same number of times as before, and is extάonuos alike in both cases, and is therefore equally admissible, as we have just seen, in rhythmical compositions. I will now correct some Sotadean verses, so far as to make them at least metre. |
