Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

N.B.-The anaclasis here occurs at the end of a resolved foot.

In verse 73 it occurs in both halves of the verse at the end of an Ionic a majore.

Iām iām dělět | lět quòd ēgī || iām iamque poe | poenĭtět.

Now let

[blocks in formation]

represent a long syllable thus divided by an anaclasis between two Ionic feet. In the case of the Ionic a minore foot, we obtain,—

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

We are now in a position to give a complete scheme of the metre, which will account for every line of the Attis on a definite principle.

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

II.

GLYCONIC AND PHERECRATEAN SYSTEMS.

The Glyconic and Pherecratean metres, as well as the Priapean, which is a union of the two, must be considered together.

In Carm. xxxiv. we find a stanza of 3 Glyconic lines followed by one Pherecratean line, thus :

:

(once)

ter

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

(and once in Carm. lxi.)

O Latonia maximi
Magna progenies | Iovis
Quam master prope Deliam
Depo sivit oliv am.

In Carm. lxi. the Glyconic line is repeated four times, and the iambus never occurs at the beginning of a verse. There is a synaphea throughout every stanza, and we only once find a short syllable at the end of a Glyconic line, viz. in line 223, where Nosci tetur ab omnibus' is immediately followed by 'Et pudicitiam suae.'

In Carm. xvii. it is hard to say whether we ought to consider the Glyconic and Pherecratean metres as forming separate verses, or as united into one long line; whether the poem should be scanned―

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

O Colonia quae cupis
Ponte ludere longo;

or in one Priapean line :

O Colonia quae | cupis || ponte | ludere longo.

In a Priapean poem ascribed to Catullus, but not generally considered to be genuine, we find the Glyconic portion of the line twice ending with a short syllable, a

licence which, if considered really to belong to the metre, would cause it to be reckoned among asynartete verses. As it is, however, in Catullus, the ending of the Glyconic and the beginning of the Pherecratean portions of the line are so managed as to produce the effect of an antispast between two choriambuses, each Priapean line possessing also a base consisting of two syllables, and an ending consisting of one syllable, and thus being half the length of the base.

III.—THE PHALAECIAN OR HENDECASYLLABIC (ELEVENSYLLABLE) METRE.

The scheme of this metre as employed by Catullus

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

e.g.-Passer | deliciae meae puellae.

Martial, Statius, and other later poets confine themselves to

--|-~~l-ul-ul-u

.

IV. THE TRIMETER IAMBIC

is generally pure in Catullus. In one poem only do we find the ordinary Trimeter Iambic of the Greek Tragedians, the rules of which are strictly observed.

V. THE SCAZON OR CHOLIAMBIC (LAME IAMBIC)

consists of the same number of feet as an ordinary TRIMETER IAMBIC, but a peculiar effect is given to it

* Only in one poem.

by the last metre or dipodia consisting of an antispast,

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

The caesura is usually penthemimeral, less commonly hephthemimeral. For instance,-—

Mari que vasto fert | utrumque Neptunus.

VI. THE CHORIAMBIC OR GREATER ASCLEPIAD METRE

consists of a base, three Choriambi, and an ending, which is half the length of the base.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Jam te ❘ nil miseret | dure tui | dulcis amiculi.

Horace, e. g. i. Od. xviii., carefully makes the end of both the first and second Choriambi coincide with the end of a word, but Catullus is not quite so strict.

VII. THE LESSER SAPPHIC STANZA

is identical with that of Horace, except that a trochee is admitted by Catullus in the second place as well as a spondee. The scheme is,

~~|-~|~~~|-~|~ (ter)

followed by an Adonic verse :

[ocr errors]

With Catullus a modified synaphea runs throughout the stanza, such that the last syllable of the line may be indifferently long or short before a consonant, but a vowel with or without m is invariably elided before another vowel at the beginning of the next line.

VIII. The ELEGIAC Couplets of Catullus are constructed on the Greek model, and are to be compared with those in the first book of Propertius (e.g. Prop. i. 20), which are constructed on the same principle.

IX.-His HEROIC HEXAMETERS have a peculiar sweetness and charm. Their most marked peculiarity is the frequency with which a spondee in the 5th succeeds a dactyl in the 4th place. But their beauty is rather that of single lines than of a complex system, like the magnificent roll of Virgil.

« ZurückWeiter »