2. En, proles antiqua redit; virtus concordia, 4. Quòd si quis monitis aures tardas adverterit, 5. Arte laboratæ puppes Tu tua brachia plùs remis posse putes? Nitent pace bidens vomerque; at tristia duri 7. Non domus et fundus, non acervus æris et auri Non animo curas. Oportet valeat possessor, 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, Dumosâ pendere procul de rupe videbo. Carmina nulla canam; non, me pascente, capellæ, When two adjectives are introduced in the same verse, they are most commonly placed together in the beginning of the line; as, 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 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 verse 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. 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 verse, unless it is elided, or preceded by another monosyllable; as, Sicut erat magni genibus procumbere non est. A dissyllable is most commonly found at the end of a pentameter 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 cœsura; 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 vocant conditque nă tantiă | lumina | somnus. A word of five syllables may properly stand thus in a hex verse; ntur et | in medijum quæ sita re|ponunt. Prætereo atque aliis pòst | comměmo rāndă relinquo. A word of six or more syllables is generally situated thus in a hexameter verse; Stat sua cuique dies breve et | irrĕpă rābilě | tempus. Helle spontiă ci ser vet tu tela Pri api. Secretos montes et in ambiti osă colebat. A word of seven syllables may stand thus in a hexameter line; Junonis gravis | ira et în exsătă râbile | pectus. At Dana um proceres aga memnoniæque phalanges. 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 sound it therefore follows, that what would be a license in the beginning of a verse would be doubly so towards its close. No word ending with a fore words beginning with short vowel should be placed besc, sp or st. Short vowels should be excluded from the last syllables of pentameters, and hardly ever be admitted to end a hex ameter. The monotony occasioned by the recurrence of two a's is to be avoided in the last penthemims of pentameters. A word ending with a diphthong can never be placed before a word beginning with the same diphthong. The adverb temere always precedes a word beginning with a long vowel, and the final e is always elided. Ac always precedes a consonant. Some of the above rules may occasionally be violated, even with advantage; but the beginner should reject every liberty, however it may be supported by the authority of the greatest poets, and conform strictly to the rules placed before him. The lines in the exercises which follow are designed to exemplify the preceding observations, and may be formed into verses by changing the arrangement of the words. The words printed in Italics are either compound words, which must be divided, or words which are designed to be placed at the beginning of the next line. EXERCISES. 1. Ego non falsa loquar: ter acutum ensem sustulit, Ter recidit manus malè sublato ense. 2. Sed timor obstitit et pietas ausis crudelibus, Castaque dextra refugit mandatum opus. 3. Aures vacent lite, insanaque jurgia protinus absint: ―livida lingua, differ tuum opus. 4. Navita non moritur fluctu, non miles cuspide: Oppida, immunia funerei lethi, pollent. 5. Quacunque se medio agmine virgo furens tulit, Aruns subit, et tacitus lustrat vestigia. des paret dictis genitoris, et inde |