Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

tain that the first syllable of every foot must have been pronounced. with the rising inflection, and consequent swell of the voice, to give melody to the verse; and that, even though the syllable was naturally short, such an increase of time was thereby given to it, as to make it long in the recitation. Upon what other principle can we account for the lengthening of those short cæsural syllables that occur so frequently in Homer? It is not from their oc currence in any particular place; for they are to be found at the commencement of almost every foot. If it be said that it is in consequence of the pause; I must be allowed to ask upon what principle does that pause depend? It is not because they terminate particular words that they are made long, but because they form the first syllable of a foot; which in consequence, whether at the end, at the beginning, or in the middle of a word, must be pronounced equal in length to a syllable naturally long, to preserve the harmony of the verse. With what particular cadence and accent hexameter verse was chaunted or sung, we can never learn: It was certainly not monotonous, but required the sound to be regulated in such manner as, consistent with the nature of the feet, would make them most agreeable to the ear: and this, I apprehend, could only be done by giving a particular tone or swell to the first syllable. Upon this principle depends the lengthening of all casural syllables, as well vowels and dipthongs as short syllables. Upon it also depends, what has, I imagine, hitherto escaped observation, the lengthening of many short syllables in the beginning, and in the middle of words; a circumstance which has perplexed grammarians exceedingly, and obliged them to have recourse to expedients to support the metre, which led to a corruption of the language." P. 24, &c,

Such are the observations of Dr. Maltby and the learned Professor on this important and hitherto perplexed subject. We shall now redeem the promise we made at the commencement of these extracts, by subjoining a few more remarks of our own.

We stated, p. 461, that when the arsis fell on an incipient short syllable of a foot, it would have the power to make that syllable long. We wish to explain this a little further. In hexameter verse, it falls always on the incipient syllable of each foot, and therefore if that syllable be naturally short, it not only may, but must thereby be made long. For no foot in an hexameter verse can begin with a short syllable, and we must, therefore, (taking for granted that the passage is genuine, and the authority of the poet indisputable) admit the short syllable to be lengthened either by the ictus or some other cause. Now if we find on the one hand, that exclusively of the ictus, we can meet with no sin

* The Professor would have expressed himself more clearly had he said, at the commencement of the foot in every place. Rev.

gle

gle adequate cause, but are obliged to shift our ground, and find fresh expedients as often as we meet with fresh instances of short syllables, sometimes having recourse to cæsura, sometimes to an aspirate, sometimes to doubling a consonant, sometimes to inserting a vowel, sometimes to transposing a letter in pronunciation; and if on the other hand we find that the ictus alone will in all cases give a substantial and invariable cause for the effect produced; the short syllable so lengthened, being invariably that on which the ictus is placed, there cannot remain a question, but that the ictus, in hexameter verse, must lengthen a naturally short syllable. Thus the first syllable in izan, when it has the ictus on it, for instance at the beginning of a verse, cannot be short. This, however, arises only from the nature of the verse, in which the only admissible feet being dactyls and spondees, no foot can begin with a short syllable. But in the trochaic metre, where the ictus is still on the first syllable of each foot, it will not make the incipient syllable of a tribrach long, for then a tribrach in the first place, would be no longer equivalent to a trochee, but to a dactyl.

We must now proceed to extend the doctrine of the ictus beyond the limits assigned to it by Dr. Maltby, who confines it to Heroic, and principally to Homeric verse, and expressly excludes it from dramatic, except in the case of the letter g. We, think, however, we can account for some very-difficult anomalies in the Tragic writers by the adoption of this principle. For instance, in those passages which have excited so much contro versy among critics in Eschylus,

« Ιππομέδοντος σχῆμα καὶ, μέγας τύπος.”

Sept. Th. 488. Ed. Pors. * Παρθενοπαῖος Αρκὰς ὁ δὲ τοιόσδ ̓ ἀνήρ.” Ibid. 547. * Οι 'γώ τεκᾶσα τόνδ' ὄφιν ἐθρεψάμην.” Choeph. 927.

[ocr errors]

Ὁρῶ κονῖν ἂναυδον ἄγγελον ςρατε.” Suppl. 179.

In all these cases the ictus is on the naturally short syllable, and is, in our opinion, the cause of its being lengthened.

So again in Anapastic metre,

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

In all these instances we can assign the same simple, intelligible, and invariable cause for the same effect; and if no other cause so simple, so intelligible, so invariable, can be adduced, we cannot surely hesitate to admit the power of the ictus into dramatic poetry, in other cases also, besides the universally acknowledged one of the letter •

Even with respect to the passage we have already instanced

from

from Theocritus, p. 457. in which the first syllable in xaλòs is both. long and short in the same line, we may remark that the ictus falls on the long syllable; and we may farther remark, that when Theocritus uses the same word twice in the same line, where the ictus does not fall on the first syllable, he uses it in both instances short.

σε Τὰς δαμάλας παρελεῦντα, καλὸν καλὸν ἦμες ἔφασκεν.”
Id. viii. 73.

Having thus, we trust, satisfactorily shewn that the ictus always may, and in some cases must lengthen a short syllable on which it falls, not only in hexameter verse, but in all other kinds of metre, we shall just touch on our other assertion, that when it falls on a long syllable it has a tendency to make it longer. But as we hope we have now rendered the subject familiar to our readers, we shall content ourselves with producing the first instance that occurs.

[ocr errors]

« Λάαν ἄνω ἄθεσκε πολ λόφον - Odyss. λ. 595. Here the last syllable in avw which ought to be short before the following vowel, is lengthened by the ictus, just as the last syllable of zoll is lengthened from the same cause.

We have so far transgressed our limits that we can only cursorily call the attention of our readers to the same principle for the solution of apparent anomalies in the metres of Virgil and the Latin poets. We must content ourselves with a striking instance or two, and leave the rest to the diligence and sagacity of those who wish to investigate a subject which we can venture to predict will afford both conviction and entertainment.

"Sit pecori; apibus quanta experientia parcis." Georg. 1. 4. Here the last syllable in pecori, which naturally would be cut off, not only maintains its position but is even continued long. On the contrary, we find a long vowel on which the ictus does not fall, if it maintains its position without elision (as in the case of a Greek long vowel), still is made short before a subsequent rowel,

"Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam." Georg. 1. 281. which is a verse remarkably elucidating the property of the ictus, the last syllable of conati being neither shortened nor suffering elision, because the ictus falls on it, while that of Pelio, though to be considered not only as an w, but as the dipthong, not having the ictus on it, is made short.

So again,

"Clamassent, ut littus, Hylā, Hylă, omne sonaret."

Ecl. vi. 44.

The

The last syllable of the first Hyla is long because it is sustained by the ictus, while that of the second is short because it has no longer that support.

In all these cases it is evident that the naturally long vowel is supported, or made longer by the ictus, because when the ictus. is removed we find it follows the common rule of one vowel preceding another, and is made short.

Before we close our remarks we must trespass a little further on the patience of our readers, by observing that when the ictus makes a naturally short vowel long, it more frequently occurs on vowels followed by one set of consonants than another, but occasionally upon all. Thus all the liquids, in the following order, g.,, v, and of the mutes # in particular, will be found, either in the same or different words, often to follow the naturally short vowel on which the ictus falls. It is not, however, the subsequent consonant, but the ictus, which lengthens the vowel, as must be evident from considering such words as Ilgiauions, where the naturally short incipient vowel is sustained without any intermediate consonant, merely by the force of the ictus; and a thousand passages in Homer besides those already quoted, where the vowel is sustained in case of an hiatus, from the same cause. The reader may collect abundant proofs of this from every hundred lines of Homer. That is, he will find the lengthened vowel on which the ictus falls, more frequently followed by the consonants we have mentioned, (which, from their natural pronunciation, readily lend support to the voice) than by any other; but he will find, that when the same vowel is followed by the same consonant without the ictus, it will, according to its natural quantity, continue short; if, therefore, in all cases where the ictus does not fall it continues short, and where it does fall it becomes long, we surely must attribute this increase of quantity to the ictus alone.

We must now hasten to take our leave of Dr. Maltby, and his valuable work. If our suggestion should be so far attended to by him, as to induce him to think in earnest of publishing a Thesaurus in his own name, we cannot forbear recommending him to avoid that multiplication of notes upon text, and notes upon notes, which, though abounding in valuable matter, gives a degree of heaviness and perplexity to his present dissertation. While indeed he had to comment on Morell's text and notes this was in great measure unavoidable; but it may be easily remedied in a future publication, by incorporating much of the matter of the notes into the text, and at least having one set of notes only. We wished to have added a specimen from the body of the work, but we have already exceeded our usual limits, and are spared the necessity of doing so by the

copious

copious detail we have given. We cannot, however, omit the final sentences of Dr. Maltby's concluding observations, which contain rules and examples for the quantity of doubtful syl

lables.

"Ex iis quæ in posteriori parte observationum horum posuimus, facile sibi lector colliget, quantæ sit molis regulas aliquas, in universum veras, de quantitate ancipitum vocalium in Græca lingua conscribere: adeo inter se discrepant diversæ indolis atque ætatis Poetæ ; adeo infinita est verborum copia; adeo denique in permultis locis librariorum inscitiæ atque aliis temporis injuriis obnoxii fuerunt Heliconiadum, qualescumque comites. Ubi regulæ poni possunt, quales Bentleii, Dawesii, Porsoni sollertia excogitavit, in evolvendis iis operam sedulo navent tirones; dein optimorum Poetarum lectione memoriam simul et judicium exerceant, Illud tameu in animos semper revocent,-dum aliæ leges apud omnes omnino Scriptores semper obtinent, sicut productiones vocalium ante duplicem, aut duas consonantes, (modo cum mutis non concurrant liquida) alias aut servari aut negligi solere, prout Poeta Epicus aut Dramaticus fuerit,-in Tragoedia aut Comoedia versatus."

[ocr errors]

"His in studiis persequendis, si a nostris laboribus paullo magis adjumenti aut voluptatis, quam antea, ceperint ingenui juvenes, tam sæpe ad sera lumina huic operi curam impendisse, tam sæpe ante exortum solis libros evolvisse, nos minime pœnitebit.”

We shall only add that the Latinity of Dr. Maltby is, like his own mind, clear, luminous, and correct; and shall conclude with recommending this most learned and useful work as indispensably necessary to the Greek student, and fully meriting the title of a THESAURUS.

ART. II. A Voyage to Abyssinia, and Travels into the interior of that Country, executed under the Orders of the British Government, in the Years 1809 and 1810: in which are included an Account of the Portuguese Settlements on the East Coast of Africa, visited in the course of the Voyage; a concise Narrative of late Events in Arabia Felix, and some Particulars respecting the Aboriginal African Tribes, extending from Mosambique to the Borders of Egypt; together with Vocabularies of their respective Languages. Illustrated with a Map of Abyssinia, numerous Engravings, and Charts. By Henry Salt, Esq. F. R. S. pp. 592. 51. 5s. Rivingtons. 1814.

ALTHOUGH this work throws very little new light either on the ancient history or present state of Abyssinia, yet we were carried through its numerous pages with a considerable degree

of

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »