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; somnus. Fata volcant con|ditque nă tantiă | lumina A word of five syllables may properly stand thus in a hexameter verse; Experiuntur et in medijum quæ sita reponunt. Prætereo atque aliis pòst | commemorandă relinquo. A word of six or more syllables is generally situated thus in a hexameter verse; Stat sua cuique dijes breve et | irrĕpă |rābilě | tempus. Helle spōntiă ci ser vet tutela Priapi. Secretos montes et in ambiti osă colebat. A word of seven syllables may stand thus in a hexameter line; Junonis gravis | ira et în exsătu|rābile | pectus. At Dana um proceres ăgă memnoniæque phallanges 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 short vowel should be placed before words beginning with sc, 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, Hac Aruns subit, et tacitus lustrat vestigia. 6 Atlantiades paret dictis genitoris, et inde Summa pedum properè illigat plantaribus alis, 7. Principio, mirantur naturam non reddere mare majus, -quò sit aquarum tantus decursus, Quò veniant omnia flumina ex omni parte. 8. Jamque Titanis, surgens per confinia emeriti Phœbi, -latè subvecta silenti mundo, Tenuaverat gelidum aëra roriferâ bigâ. 9. Equoreæ aquæ miscentur; æther caret ignibus, 10. Movit et eoos recessus fama bellorum, 11. Hic purpureum ver; hìc circumfundit flumina varios -humus flores; hìc candida populus imminet antro; -et lentæ vites texunt umbracula. Huc ades: sine insani fluctus feriant littora. 12. Dixerat: ille concutit pennas madidantes novo nectare, -et maritat glebas fœcundo rore. Quàque volat, vernus color sequitur; turget in herbas omnis humus, medioque patent sereno convexa. ELISION. Elision is the cutting off of the final vowel or the two final letters of a word, and is divided into synalæpha and ecthlipsis. Synalæpha is the elision of a vowel or a diphthong at the end of a word, when the following word begins with a vowel or the aspirate h; as, Humidă solstitia atque hyĕ mēs ō rātē sērēnās, Ecthlipsis is the elision of the consonant m with the vowel preceding it, in the last syllable of a word, when the follow ing word begins with a vowel or the aspirate h; as, Illě dělům vitam accipilēt divisquě ví débit. The preceding definitions of synalæpha and ecthlipsis must be un derstood with some limitations. The final letters are elided or omit ted in scanning only, and not in writing, nor in the usual mode of pronouncing a verse. Hence the first two lines here quoted from Virgil, though scanned with the vowels cut off, are always written and generally pronounced thus, Humida solstitia atque hyemes orate serenas, Two vowels at the end of a word are sometimes cut off, when the next word begins with a vowel; as, Stellin et lucifù|gis cōn|gēstă căļbiliă | blattīs. Synalæpha never takes place in the words O, heu, ah, proh, væ, vah, and hei: it is also occasionally omitted by poetical license in other words; as, O pǎtěr, ō hominum di|vümque æternă poltēstās. A long vowel or diphthong, when preserved from elision by poetical license, becomes common, but it is generally made short; as, Ter sunt cōnā tī īm pōněrě | Pēlio | Ossām. Imple runt inōn|tēs, flē|rūnt Rhodŏ|pēĭæ | ārcēs. A vowel at the end of a verse is not, in general, cut off, when the first word of the following verse begins with a vowel; but if the pause, which intervenes between the lines, is not required by the sense, but is merely that slight pause, which the end of the verse necessarily occasions, the final vowel, as well as the consonant m, is sometimes elided; as, Jactemur, doceas: ignari hominumque locorumque When the final vowel of a word is elided, the effect of the syllabl t as a cæsura is hardly perceptible, and it ought not, perhaps, to be nзgarded, in any instance, as a cæsural syllable. The consonant s was often elided by the ancient poets, sometimes with the vowel preceding it, but more frequently alone, and consequently with the final syllable of the word preserved; as, Vicit Olympiă | nunc sění|ō côn|fectus qui|ēscīt. A verse in which there are more than two elisions is most commonly deficient in harmony; as the following pentameter from Catullus; Quam modo qui me unum atque unicum ă micum habulit. |