Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

In the fourth foot, the cæsura is not necessary, if there is one at the penthemimeris; as,

Pinguis et ingrā te prěmě rētur | căsăŭs | ūrbi.

The syllabic and monosyllabic cæsuras are seldom introduced after the fourth foot, but the trochaic often occurs at the enneemimeris, and is, in most instances, conducive to the harmony of the line; as,

Sæpě lě vi somnum suā debit în ire su sūrro.

Hinc ältä sub rupe că net frön dator ad auras.

When there is but one cæsura in a verse, it is generally in the third foot, sometimes in the fourth, but never in the second: as,

Quem měă carminibūs měrů¦:sset fistulă | caprūm.

In a pentameter verse, a syllabic cæsura generally takes place at the penthemimeris, and a trochaic in the foot preceding the final syllable in the second hemistich or half verse; as,

Nec quererer tar dōs | īre relictă dilēs.

Nil mihi rescribās | attăměn | ipsě vě│ni.

There is sometimes a monosyllabic cæsura at the penthemimeris of a pentameter, when the preceding word is a monosyllable; as,

[ocr errors]

Māgnă tă mēn spēs ēst | in boni|tātě ději.

The trochaic cæsura is sometimes neglected in the foot preceding the final syllable of a pentameter, and the verse is concluded by a word of four or more syllables; aś,

Lis est cum för mā māgnă pudicitiæ.

The syllabic cæsura sometimes lengthens a short syllable; as,

Pēctoribus inhi|āns spī rāntiă | consulit | extā.

EXERCISES.

The exercises which follow consist of lines to which the preceding observations on the casura are to be applied, and which may be formed into hexameter or pentameter verses, by a change of the position of one word in each line.

1. Ipse dei clypeus terrâ cùm ima tollitur,

Mane rubet; rubet terrâque, cùm conditur imâ.

2. En, proles antiqua redit; virtus concordia,
Cumque fide pietas cervice alta vagantur.
3. Sol fugit, et removent subeuntia cœlum nubila,
Et effusis, gruvis decidit imber, aquis.

4. Quòd si quis monitis aures tardas adverterit,
Heu, referet quanto mea verba dolore!

[ocr errors]

5. Arte laboratæ puppes vincuntur ab æquore.
Tu tua brachia plùs remis posse putes?
6. Interea colat pax arva; pax candida primùm
Duxit sub juga curva araturos boves.
Nitent pace bidens vomerque; at tristia duri
Militis situs in tenebris occupat arma..

7. Non domus et fundus, non acervus æris et auri
Deduxit ægroto domini corpore febres,

[ocr errors]

Non animo curas. Oportet valeat possessor,
Si uti comportatis rebus bene cogitat.

'ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS.

The principal rules for the arrangement of words in Latin prose are applicable also to the composition of verse; but the language of poetry admits of a much greater variety of inversion than the language of prose, and consequently of a more frequent deviation from the general laws of position.

An adjective is generally placed in poetry before one or more words, which intervene between it and its substantive; it is sometimes found immediately after the noun to which it relates, and sometimes immediately before it; and it occasionally occurs in other situations; as,

Dumosa pendere procul de rupe videbo.

Carmina nulla canam; non, me pascente, capellæ,
Florentem cytisum et salices carpetis amaras.

When two adjectives are introduced in the same verse, they are most commonly placed together in the beginning of the line; as,

[ocr errors]

Agrestem tenui meditabor arundine musam.

When an adjective is peculiarly emphatic, it is elegantly placed at a considerable distance after its substantive, and sometimes in the beginning of the following line; as

Vox quoque per lucos vulgo exaudita silentes
Ingens, et simulacra modis pallentia miris.

Prepositions are often placed, in poetry, after the noun which they govern, and are sometimes separated from the words with which they are compounded, and placed in a different part of the verse; as,

Spemque metumque inter dubii seu vivere credant.

Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum.

The compounds quicunque, quisnam, priusquam, with a few other compound words, are sometimes divided by the figure tmesis; as,

Qui te cunque manent isto certamine casus.

Although each of the first four feet in a hexameter versè may be either a dactyle or a spondee, yet the greatest harmony generally results from a judicious intermixture of both these kinds of feet. This variety, however, is often neglected, and sometimes with an expressive and striking effect. It may in general be observed that lightness, rapidity or confusion may be expressed the most forcibly by dactyles, and slowness, grief or dignity by spondees; as,

Radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas.
Cara deûm soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum.

A sentence is most commonly completed in every distich, or two lines of pentameter or elegiac poetry, but the elegance of hexameters is increased, when neither a sentence nor the clause of a sentence is finished with the verse, and when each line, through several successive verses, is begun with one or more words immediately connected in sense with the preceding line. When one word only is thus carried on to the next verse, it is in most instances either a dactyle, or a polysyllable of sufficient length to complete the first foot, and leave a cæsural syllable in the second; it is seldom or never a monosyllable only, and, unless the word is remarkably emphatic, it is not often a spondee.

A monosyllable is seldom found at the end of a hexameter or pentameter versé, unless it is elided, or preceded by anoth er monosyllable; as,

Sicut erat magni genibus procumbere non est.
Littoribus nostris anchora pacta tua est.

A dissyllable is most commonly found at the end of a pen tameter verse. A word of four, and, preferably, a word of five syllables may occasionally be admitted; but words, of one syllable, and words of three syllables must be absolutely excluded. A dissyllable often occurs also in the last foot of a hexameter, but seldom in the fifth, unless a trochaic cæsura takes place in it; as,

Ilion, et Tenedos, Simoisque, et Xanthus, et Ide,

Nomina sunt ipso penè timenda sono.

A hexameter line frequently ends in a trisyllable, but very seldom in a polysyllable. A spondaic hexameter is most commonly concluded with a polysyllable, but sometimes by a word of three syllables.

It is obvious that the preceding observations on the concluding foot of a verse may be traced to the rules for the regulation of the cæsura; but, as the most constant attention to these rules is essential to the composition of Latin verse, the repetition of a part of them in this chapter may not be either irrelevant or useless. The following lines, which are designed to show in what parts of a verse polysyllables are advantageously placed, may be referred also to the same rules.

A word of four syllables may with propriety stand thus in a hexameter verse;

Fata volcant con|ditque nă|tāntiă | lumina | somnus.
Plurima perque vi as ster nuntur in ērtiă | passim.
Te věnĭlentě die, te decedente ca nebat.
Neć magnus prohibere la bor tu | regibus | alas.
Luctus à rista i vitrě isquě sẽ dilibus omnes.
Stat fortuna do mûs, et a vi numě rantur a vorum.
Quà niger humectat fla ventiă culta Ga lesus.
Eripe non illis quis quam cunc tantibus altum.
Narcis sum aut flexi tăcu issēm | vimen a canthi.
Induě rat totidem autum no matura te nebat.
Aut one ra accipiunt venijentûm aut | agmine | facto.
Era la cu gemit impositis in audibus Ætna.
Jamque mi nistran tem plata num po tantibus umbras.
Exer centur agris pars intra | septa do morum.
Nec verò a stabulis pluviâ impendentě re cedunt.
Usque coloratis am nis de vexus ab | Indis.

A word of five syllables may properly stand thus in a hex

ameter verse;

Expĕri untur et in medium quæ sita reponunt.

[ocr errors]

Prætere atque aliis pòst | commemo rândă relinquo.
Hoc geritur Zephyrus primùm impellentibus undas.
Umbræ i bant tenu es simulacrăque | luce ca rentûm.
Contu soque animos et res mise raběrě fractas.
Mellaque ǎ rundině is in ferre ca nalibus ultro.
Longiùs aut credunt cœlo, adventantibus | Euris.
Obscœnique canes, im portu næquè volucres.
Quo perii super impo nãās abo lere ne fandi.
Et tamen hanc pela go præ terlā bāre necesse est.
Diver si circumspiciunt hoc | acrior | idem.
Tros an chisiă des ani mos tamen omine | tollit.
Morte Neoptolě mi regnorum | reddita | cessit.
Ingemu it Glau cumque Me dontaque | Thersilo chumque
Ut puer et vaculis ut in observatus in herbis.
Intem pesti va tur bantes | festa Minervâ.

A word of six or more syllables is generally situated thus in a hexameter verse;

Stat sua cuique dies breve et | irrepă|rābile | tempus.
Nam quis te juve|num confiden tissímě | nostras.
Aut arguta la cus circumvoli tavit hirundo.
Hic labor ille do mûs et inextricabilis error.
Res ǎgă memnoni as vic tricia que arma se cutus.
Lãomě dontē a lui mus per juria | Troja.
Helle spōntiă ci ser vet tu tela Priapi,

Secretos montes et in ambiti ōsă colebat.

A word of seven syllables may stand thus in a hexameter

line;

Junonis gravis ira et in exsăturabilě | pectus.

At Dana um proceres ăgă memnoniæque phalanges
Laomě dontia dæ bellumne in ferre paratis.

The pronoun is should be avoided in all cases and genders as an independent word. It may be used adjectively, and affixed to its substantive, but it must, even in that case, never be found at the end of a pentameter.

Adjectives, participles, adverbs and conjunctions are excluded from forming terminations to pentameters: adjectives and adverbs, by approved usage, as prepositions, by their nature, are excluded. The exclusion of the participle from the last place in a pentameter may be regarded as a positive rule. The genius of Latin verse demands, that the ending word should be among the more important in sense and

« ForrigeFortsett »