in the Dactylus on the second, and in the Anapastus on the third or last syllable *. Hence on ARIST. Plut. 965. for — Tŵv év | dolí na | XEGW | Tiva, Dawes prefers the Baroc. MS. lection, volev, in order that the Ictus may not fall on the final syllable of a trisyllabic word, vdo, and adds: "Severiores Musas coluisse video poetas Atticos, quàm quæ in vocis hyperdisyllabæ ultimam correptam cadere paterentur." Misc. Crit. p. 211 †. Let us try a few of the Aldine examples which Mr. Wakefield has cited in defence of his Canon: Diatribe, p. 5. and 36. Hecub. 232. Ουδ' ώλεσέ με Ζεύς, τρεφει δ' ὁπώς όρω. 1178. Ει τις γυναικας τῶν πριν ειρηκί κακως. Silv. Grit. I. p. 81. 288. Και τάσδ' ερώμαι τίνες εφέστασὶ δόμοις. 1446. Εισήδαγε σοφίσμ ̓ ὁμίλια χθονος. All these five instances are in direct contradiction to Dawes's Canon; for in each of these verses the Ictus must fall on the final short syllable of words which are hyperdisyllabic. In our opinion, however, Dawes's Canon is eminently right: it is founded on truth and reason. An Epsilon, terminating a word of three or four syllables, is too feeble a letter to bear the stress or Ictus, which must necessarily be placed on some particular syllables in every line, in order to give to it the elasticity and spring which every metre demands. The position of this Ictus is the characteristic mark which distinguishes one species of verse from another, and verse itself from prose. What confusion, it may be added, would arise in several Iambics, if the final N were neglected! For example, how would this line be divided: Ουδεὶς ἐπλούθησε τάχεως δίκαιος ὤν. Menander apud Stob. Grot. Fl. x. p. 69. and p. 276. of the unfinished Stobæus of Nic. Schow.-Whether the third foot of this line be disyllabic, or trisyllabic, the lctus must fall on the oɛ, the final syllable of an hyperdisyllabic word; which is impossible.-Read inhouτnow, and the difficulty or impracti cability of scansion is removed; and the Ictus rests on a syllable lengthened by position. Again: Ὁ δέ μ ̓ ἀκολούθησε μέχρι τῶ πρὸς τὴν θύραν. Menander apud Hermog. de Invent. IV.—In this verse, the omitted N produced exactly the same error and ambiguity. *The Proceleusmaticus is not an admissible foot in Iambics. + Conferend, etiam p. 320. Read, xoxovencev, as by accident it is published by Joannes Clericus. Euripides, Cyclops. 144. Ἐν σέλμασι νεώς ἔστιν, ἢ φέρεις οὗ νιν; The editions rightly give σéàμaow; which added N enables the last syllable of the trisyllabic to support the Ictus. So in this Trochaic verse in Ipheg. in Taur. 1241. Τοῖς τὰ πλειον ειδόσι θεοῖς σόι τε σημαινω θεά, In the second Dipodia, the words idéo so do not form a legitimate Trochaus and Anapastus; for in this metre, when an Anapastus assumes the place of the Trocheus, the regular foot, the Ictus must be made on the first of its three syllables. Thus: -answering to. The true reading is-dów eois-and os must be pronounced monosyllabice.-Farther illustration sems unnecessary. There is still one point of view in which this Canon of Mr. Wakefield must be considered. He asserts that a short vowel at the close of a word is lengthened, ob vim pausæ in syllabá postrema vocis, at the end of a foot in Anapasticis et Iambicis, and in the beginning of a foot in Heroicis; and that the final N is unnecessary in such situations. Ernesti, as was remarked, observes, in Ham. II. A'. 2. that in the Florentine and first Aldine Homer the final N is generally omitted, in medio versu, ubi syllaba ultima est in Gæsura. Mr. Wakefield appears to suppose that the Casura in Iambics is different from the Casura in Heroics; for he assigns one place, namely, the close of the foot, for the influence of the [Cesural] pause in the former metre; and another, that is, the beginning of the foot, for the same influence in the latter. The Iambic metre of the Tragic Poets (for we must confine our remarks to that alone) has two Incisions, or тoua. The first is the Incisio metrica, by which the verse may be divided into single feet, or Dipedia, as: Orest. 1. Ουκ ἴσ [τινου | δ ν δει ] νὸν ὧδ' [ ἐιπῖιν | ἔπος. The second is the Incisio Casurarum, by which the rhythm of the metre is regulated *: Ουκ | ἴσιν ουδὲν δεινὸν ὡδ ̓ ἐἰπεῖν ἔπος. Bentley So Bentley. It was our wish to have proceeded to some length in the illustration of the incisions of the Iambic metre: but the enormous extent of this article compels us to omit what might have proved, perhaps, of some slight utility to those who are desirous of entering deeply into the metrical excellencies of the antient tragedians. We may, how ever, refer them to the observations of the old Grammarians, pub 5 lished Bentley observes, Schediasm. de Metris Terentianis: OMNE versuum genus suam habet CESURAM sive INCISIONEM, qua verbum terminatur, et vox in decursu paulum interquiescit. In the Dactylic Heroic Hexameter, this pause frequently appears to lengthen a final short syllable, which falls in the Casura; that is, a short syllable which closes a word and begins a foot. In Iambic verse, such a power of elongation could never be allowed to the Cesural pause; for the first syllable of every foot, from the nature and constitution of the metre, may be short; and must necessarily be short, in three of the six feet of which the Senarian is composed. If the Cesural pause were to have effect at the end of the foot, in this metre, the rhythmus of Iambics would be totally lost; and we might expect verses in which each Dipodia would consist of two disyllables, or of one quadrisyllable: but not such verses, unless in corrupt instances, appear in the Tragedies. They would, indeed, be ranked among the xaxoμeтpa by the old Grammarian Trypho, whom Mr. Burgess has cited in his remarks on Dawes, M. Cr. 441. His whole note merits an attentive perusal. κακομετρα It is curious to observe that, much in the same manner in which Mr. Wakefield has tried to confine the power of the pause in lengthening short vowels, to the last syllable of the foot, in Tragic Iambics, JOHN CORNELIUS DE PAUW has attempted to fix it on the last syllable of the foot in Heroic Hexameters. This doctrine he has promulgated in several of his notes on Quintus Calaber; and he has been very justly reprehended for advancing such an opinion, by Dorville, in his Critica Vannus, p. 318 et seq. De Pauw had also, long before the appearance of his Quintus Calaber, thus remarked on a verse which he palms on Menander : Αρκαδικὸς ἀν τίυναντίον ἀλίσκεται (p. 176. Ed. Cler. and apud Athen. IV. p. 132.) after he had scornfully rejected Bentley's corrections; "Nam quod tu fortè lished by Putschius: to the decisions of Bentley, in his tract on the metres of Terence; to those of Dawes and his learned editor Burgess; and to the remarks in the Crit. Vann. of Dorville, on the subject of the Cesural pause and power, in Heroic Hexameters and Iambics. The sentiments of Dorville, indeed, are interlarded with a degree of scurrility and abuse which is unpardonable in a philological work. De Pauw merited not compassion; for he was arrogant, abusive, precipitate, and totally without judgment:-yet his blunders might have been corrected, by his adversary, without a forfeiture of that civilized character which becomes the profound scholar and the genuine critic. ignoras, ego una cum Eruditioribus scio, ultima in Touravliov PRODUCITUR propter spiritum asperum in voce àλíoxíla, et VIM CÆSURE." We assert, as we have on some former occasion observed, that the spiritus asper has no power, nor influence, which can lengthen a preceding short final vowel. Instead of offering any observations on this note of de Pauw, we shall transcribe Dorville's remarks on it, from his Critica Vann. p. 327. "Vi cæsuræ Tovvalio producitur, ubi ne quidem umbra cæsuræ est! Sane secundam dada in trimetro Iambo video in ultima hujus vocis finiri, Casuram nullam deprehendo quin, Metricorum stolidissime, nescis casuram in Iambico nunquam aliquid posse operari ad producendam syllabam. Nam casus in hoc carmine nequit dari, ut syllaba, in quam casura cadit, cum natura sit brevis, ob versum fieri longa debeat. Nam nihil vetat, quo minus brevis maneat. Imo rectius brevis, quam longa, in omul casu erit. Imo Si in hoc tuo versu fingere velis, syllabam ON posse produci beneficio finite acosas, vel, quam BARNESIUS sæpe crepat, vi finalis, fingas boc per me licet. quoniam Iambicus ter feritur secundum Terentianum, p. 94. contende ultimam cujusque d'as posse produci non modo, verum etiam ultimam cujusque pedis, quoniam Horatius H. P. Vs. 253. ait Jambum senos ictus reddere, et EVERTE OMNEM PROSODIAM." The quotation is long, but it is too closely allied to the subject before us to admit abbreviation. With it we shall conclude; for it seems unnecessary to pursue this topic farther. In the arguments and proofs which have been advanced, we have endeavoured to evince that Mr. Porson, when he inserted the final N in his edition of the Hecuba, instead of rendering himself liable to censure, deserved the praise of the learned reader. We have been desirous of shewing, in opposition to the assertions of Mr. Wakefield, that the omission of the final N, when a long syllable is demanded, is not sanctioned in Euripides by the authority of Aldus; and that it is not established by the steady practice of any other editor, nor by the metrical rules of any critic or grammarian, antient or modern *. We have * The great Bentley's opinion on this subject, though he has expressed it rather carelessly, may be collected from the following pas sage; in which he begins the examination of the defective Anapestics which Mr. Boyle had produced against the critic's and Terentian's famous Canon: have aimed at demonstrating that, if such a rejection were to be adopted, it would render the scansion (and, indeed, the rhythm) of several verses doubtful; and that it would totally annihilate the laws by which the Incisio Cæsurarum, and the consequent pause of the voice, are regulated in the Greek tragedies-the most admirable of all the compositions which have escaped the ravages of time, and the still more levelling destruction of barbarism. It was originally intended, after an examination of Mr. Wakefield's Diatribe, to have presented our readers with an ample account of Mr. Porson's editions of the Hecuba and Orestes. At that time, however, we had formed no just esti mate of the number of pages which this critique would occupy; nor how much our undertaking would trespass on the patience of those readers, who consider the Monthly Review as a vehicle of general information. To these, any unusually large portion of classical investigation must in course appear tedious; as the variety of the materials, of which our work is usually composed, forms in their opinion one of its first excellencies. It is incumbent on us, therefore, to comprise in as short a compass as possible our concluding remarks: "The Critic's laws the Critic's patrons give; For we, who live to please, must please to live." With regard to the general merits then of these two plays, our learned friends may form a very just notion, by duly "These two verses, as our Examiner imagines, are ended with a Trochee, the last syllable being short. Now methinks a man of half the learning of Mr. Boyle might have known, that may be long here, by adding N to it before a consonant, as poets frequently do: εισοιχνεύσιν, περίνοισιν. "This very fable, that Mr. B. quotes, might have taught him: Επαοιδαισί θέλξει σιερέας. V. 173. or that verse in Supplic. Ομβροφόροισι τ ̓ ἀνέμεις ἀγείας. V. 36. or these of Aristophan. Αλσι διασμηχθεὶς ἔναλ ̓ ἂν ὁδοσί. Plut. Παλὲς ὧν καὶ μαλις ὡς φασι σοφος. Nub. "In all which places, and a hundred more that it's easic to allege, the syllable is long; as if it were pronounced, iwandaion, oμSpopuροισει, αλεὶ, and φασί. And these examples are all found in the middle of verses, lest the Examiner should make any exceptions, if they were at the end of Anapests.” Bentley's meaning is plain, but the expression is deficient. The words should have been written as they were pronounced; and as the final N was requisite in speaking these verses, it should have been added by the transcriber and printer. weighing |