our recollection affords us a modern line, which will exactly correfpond with that of Klopftack. Projicit Etna latente et anhelus ab igne Velevus. Tonender fangen verborgen von buschen med liebender klagë. We believe it will be readily granted that fuch a verse is inadmiffible in Latin heroic poetry; we doubt whether fuch an arrangement of acute accents will be found in Greek, but have not leifure to ascertain the fact. Two or three lines have been pointed out to us in the Odyffee, where the firft fyllable of each foot has either an acute or circumflex ; but they commence with fpondees, and the accentual cadence is also broken by a stop. We do not, however, pretend to give an opinion on this fubject, which we have not fufficiently inveftigated. The first line that will occur to every Greek scholar, is Αντις ἔπειτα πίδονδε κυλίνδετο λάας αναιδής, which we have been taught to read according to Latin accent with that most unpleasant cadence. We beg our readers, who have probably feen a ftone bounding down the steepest pitch of a hill, rolling along the flope, and ftriking at last against some obftacle below, to read that verfe according to its real accents; that is, mura and midovde like the English word cruelty, and the last fyllable of like the English dace; and they will find a remarkable inftance of what has been called imitative harmony. If it be faid, that in fo reading the verse the quantities are falfified, we muft afk whether the following Latin line is falfe in quantity; which, if the two last words be spoken together, will be fimilar to it. Inde rúens per ágros nemorósaque tésqua fugit sús. Here we must observe, that the opinion, pretty generally received, that Greek hexameters, read according to their accents, would be offenfive to an English ear, is erroneous; for lines of a different construction are read by us with the fame pofition of accents, and are not offenfive. For instance, xx is fimilar to exauator πυρ and αποθεος φως; νημερτέα βέλην τo τεκε νύμφη and απο ναων; βασιλεύσει 'Axação to isles os xen or cyfudi de sas, and fo forth. "Avaž, Pęoveir vàg οἱ ταχεῖς ἐκ ἀσφαλεῖς would have the fame cadence that we now give το Δεδραχ" ολοιμην ών επαιτια με δραν. On the other hand, we fould get rid of that peculiarly offenfive form of the hexameter, which, if ever, will certainly be rarely found according to Greek accentuation and it is remarkable, that the jingling cadence, which was banished by the Roman poets, occurs frequently, according to our improper mode of reading Greek, efpecially where the metre is very dactylic. Such verfes as Νειόθι δ' αλλοθι γαῖα Φερίσβιος ασιατ ̓ ἀνδρῶν in Apollonius Rhodius, or Πολλὰ δ' αναντα κάταντα παρατάτε δοχμιάτ ̓ ἦλθον in Homer, are aftually ludicrous as we read A a 2 -them; them; but, fpoken according to their accents, they affume a very different character. We do not at present affert that that cadence was abfolutely excluded in Greek: it is fufficient for our argument that at least it occurred rarely, and that the structure of the hexameters did not naturally lead to it: confequently, thofe who would have transplanted them into another language, fhould not have fought, but avoided it. It is impoflible, however, to conceive a greater error than that of the Germans, in fancying that their metre admitted greater variety than the verfe of Homer. If the Greek hexameter has a fault, it is that its accentual cadence is perhaps too irregular. It is in general too various to fatisfy an Eng. lifh ear, which is accustomed to more regular recurrence of accents, and pays lefs attention to the quantity of fyllables. It was too various to fatisfy the Romans; and, on that account, in this, as in other metres which they adopted from the Greeks, they restricted the cadence by certain rules, which we think have never been properly confidered. The invariable rule, by which all Latin words were accented, did of itself limit the number of accentual combinations, which certain combinations of quantities could produce but that was not fufficient. In hexameters the poets of the Auguftan age adopted as a general rule, from which they occafionally departed, that the accent fhould fall on the first fyllable of the two laft feet, which was matter of indifference to the Greeks. There are, according to our recollection, but three lines in the first Georgic ending like férilis dominántur avena, where four unaccented fyllables ftand together before the two last feet; although the form of liquefactaque volvere saxa, fimilar in quantity, occurs thirteen or fourteen times. We have already faid that Virgil never permitted the accents to fall on the first fyllable of every foot. When he wished to produce a rapid dactylic verse, he ufed three accents on fhort fyllables. Quadrupedante pútrem rápido quátit ungula campum. In alcaics and afclepiads, the Romans did not fuffer three unac cented fyllables to fall together, unless comprised in one word; except in the first part of the verfe, where an aberration of accent was permitted; as in English we allow, Spirits odorous breathe, and Murmuring and with him fled, &c.; though, except at the beginning of a verfe or fentence, this aberration would be offenfive. The Latins permitted this at the commencement of the line, as Mentem facerdotum and Perrupit Acheronta; but in any other part of the verse it could not be fuffered. The only inftance we recollect is, Mentemque lymphátam Mareótico; and there it is clear, that Horace intended to throw the metre out of its regular form to exprefs the madness produced by intoxication; as in the fecond fecond ode of the 4th book he altered the ufual cadence of the Tapphic to express the dithyrambic ftyle of Pindar. It appears to us that the Romans attended very much to accentual cadence. In the third verfe of the alcaic ftanza, it was a rule, almoft invariable, that an accent should fall on the fifth or fixth fyllable: only three lines in Horace, ending with a quadrifyllable, offend against it. The fact has been formerly obferved, but not the reason: another peculiarity in this verfe has perhaps efcaped notice; that the two first feet cannot be feparated in two diffyllables, or comprised in a quadrifyllable. The accentual laws of the dimeter and trimeter iambic admit of no exceptions, and are diftinct from any rules of cæfura or of dipodia. Et fpiffa némorum cóma, is a very common form of the glyconic verfe; but Et fpiffa montium cóma, which bears the fame accentual cadence, (that is, the acute on the second, fourth, and seventh) though a very just dimeter iambic as to quantity, is not a Latin verfe, because it bears the cadence peculiar to the glyconic. The iambic foot is however ufed freely in the third place, and this form must have occurred very often, if it had not been purposely avoided: but there is not one fuch dimeter iambic in Horace; not one in the Senecas, though indeed they wrote but few; not one in Aufonius, who wrote many, and ufed them by themselves; not one in Boethius; not one in Prudentius, who wrote upwards of feventeen hundred. One inftance, and only one, stood in the oldeft editions of Prudentius; Ornare nanias Nume: but, although the principal objection to this verfe had never been obferved, the true reading has been restored in later editions from manufcripts; Orare fimpuvium Nume. An ignorant tranfcriber, who had probably not read the fixth fatyre of Juvenal, fubftituted nanias for a word which he did not comprehend. On the other hand, it is worthy obfervation, that Inúltus út flebo púer is a good cadence in the iambic, but excluded from the glyconic; for instance, Veloces pér ágros cánes is not a Latin verfe. No fuch line is to be found in Horace, in Catullus, in the glyconic choruffes of the tragedians, in Boethius, or any ancient writer that we have feen. One only fimilar to it occurs in Catullus, and in that the cadence is interrupted by a femicolon after the first word, which completely alters the cafe. In other forms, where the difference of quantity more forcibly ftruck the car, the fame cadence was permitted in both. The Latin catalectic iambic is governed by the fame accentual laws, as the Italian verfe of eleven fyllables; the tenth must always be accented, and either the fixth, or both the fourth and eighth. For inftance, the following lines are accurate. Cosi difs' élla e lagrimándo tácque. Triffino. but, Difs' ella così e lagrimándo tacque, and Marifque vefáne fre A a 3 pentis urges, would not be metre in either language, on account of the aberration of the accent from the fourth as well as the fixth place. The cadence of the fapphic is the fame, when it divides, as ufual, after the fifth fyllable. It is accented on thé fixth, or both fourth and eighth. Vidimus flavum Tiberim retortis, and Dexterâ sacras jaculatus arces. When the accents are differently placed, every ear perceives that the verse is lefs harmonious; and Horace only admits, as an occafional variety, the accent on the fifth and feventh, or the fifth and eighth, which the Italians never ufe. But as the affection for the cadence above mentioned appears to have increased gradually amongst the Romans, the later poets never admitted thofe varieties of accent, though they ufed the dactyle fometimes inftead of the fpondee in the fecond foot. There is not one fapphic verfe in Statius, the Choruffes, Boethius, or Prudentius, which has not the accent on the fixth, or fourth and eighth. The Latin hendecafyllable is again the fame in its most ufual form. Cafio veniam obvius legni, and Tenens in grémio mea inquit Acme. The Italians admit occafionally the accent on the fourth and feventh, which is a form of the hendecafyllable. Acmen Septimius súos amores, and Ella a coprir la malizia amorósa. There are the three beft forms of the hendecafyllable; but others are ufed, which the Italians never admit. It is obfervable, that of the catalectic iambics, in which fo little variation is permitted, two were never ufed together; that the fapphics in which a little more variety is ufed, were broken at a longer interval by the adonic; and the hendecafyllables, which admit great variety, were ufed alone. The Italian verfe of twelve fyllables, called fdrucciolo, is accented like the trimeter iambic ending with a polyfyllable. The accents must always fall on the fame places as in the catalectic. Quid nos, quibus te víta fit fupérftite. Horace. O la, grida con fáccia atra e bisbética. Barufaldi. Giunto alla foglia del Museo fatídico. Bar. Ut affidens implúmibus pultis avis, in Horace, is an iambic verfe, because the 6th is accented; but Ut offidens pullis avis deplumibus, though exactly the fame as to quantities, would not be a verfe on account of the wrong pofition of the accents. We are aware, that an objection will here be made, that this regular diftribution of accents arifes from the divifion of the line called cæfura; and that if the Grecks ufe the fame laws of cafura, the arrangement of accents in Latin trimeter iambics, must be incidental. But our doctrine is, that fuch lines as the Greeks would have admitted, the Romans excluded. Both objected generally to the divifion of verfes into halves, except in particular metres where they required it: but with refpect to iambics, this divifion, though in fome cafes avoid ed, was certainly not abfolutely excluded. The Greeks objected more decidedly to the divifion of an iambic verfe into three equal parts by a quadrifyllable in the middle, which Horace has here admitted; but there are feveral inftances in Greek, of the following form, which cannot be used in Latin, on account of the improper fituation of the accents, not on account of any law of cæfura; for the verfe may be cut into two equal parts, and the third foot may be detached from both fecond and fourth. Ut afidens pullis inafuetis avis is faulty metre, Λέγω σ' ἐγὼ δολῳ Φιλα κτήτην λαβών is not. We conceive that the Romans were gratified by the pofition of the accent on the fixth, or fourth and eighth, and therefore they restricted the laws of the Greek iambic and fapphic to produce this effect; and, as far as we know, the fame pofitions have been obferved by every European nation that has written eleven-fyllabled accentual verfe of the even cadence. If we have not yet fufficiently proved, that these laws were independent of any rule of cæfura, the examination of the Latin tragedies, which are fuppofed to have been written by three different authors, but bear the name of Seneca's tragedies, will incontrovertibly establish it. The only rule attended to by the Latin tragedians, refpecting the divifion of words, was, that generally the two middle feet should not be detached from both the fecond and fifth feet. They admitted great licenfe of quantity, ufing the tribrach freely for the fecond and fourth feet; the tribrach, fpondee, anapæft, and dactyle, indifcriminately for all the odd feet, and even four fhort fyllables for the first foot: but, in confequence of this license, they found it neceffary to limit the accentual cadence more than Horace had done. Therefore, although it excluded forms, which he had ufed with fuccefs, they eftablished as an invariable law, that an accent fhould fall upon the fixth place, which was the keystone of their verfe; that is, if the third foot was an iambic, fpondee, or anapæft, on the laft fyllable of it; if a dactyle or tribrach, on the laft or middle. The only inftance of the contrary, in the ten tragedies, will be found in the Thebais, and the line is evidently corrupt, for the feet all ftand diftinct. Ponitis ferrum ocius Ac dico, et ex æquo mihi dextras datis.' Probably aquas jam fhould be fubftituted for ex æquo. Two other lines, which at firft appear to oppose our system, tend to confirm it. Nefcio in two inftances, itands as a dactyle in the third foot: the aberration of accent appearing in no other lines, it must be granted, that this was pronounced nec fcio, or at leaft with the fame tone as the words had before they coalefced. Provolvitur, nec fcio quid onerato finu Gravis unda portat,' is accurate. Yet this law excluded the following terminations, to which no other objection could be made, A a |