METRES OF HORACE.

THE Metres of Horace, consisting of nineteen species, may be divided into four classes:

I. Those which have been seldom used by Horace, and which are scarcely lyrical, No. 1 to 5.

II. Those in which the Epodes are written, No. 6 to 12, chiefly Iambic, and the earliest written by Horace.

III. Those commonly called Glyconic, and having their usual character from the introduction of the Choriambic, No. 13 to 17. IV. The Sapphic and Alcaic, the favourite measures of Horace, No. 18 and 19.

CLASS I. METRE I.-ODE I., IV.

The first verse consists of a Dactylic Tetrameter a priore (or Alemanic) and three Trochees. The second is an Iambic Trimeter Catalectic:

d. Solvitur acris hyems grata vice||veris et Favoni.
B. Trahuntque siccas machinæ carinas.

1. The Spondee, of course, being admissible in the first three places of the Dactylic Tetr.

2. The fourth foot of the Dactyl always ends with a word, i. e. there is a divisio vocum between the Dactylic and Trochaic portions.

3. The Dactyl, in the fourth place, does not consist of one word :

This verse always has the Penthemimeral Cæsura, whence it may be scanned as an Iambic Penthemimer +an Ithyphallic, thus:

The Iambic Trimeter Catalectic occurs in two combinations; 1. With the Archilochian Asynartete; and 2. With a Trochaic Dimeter Catalectic, as in Carm. II. 18. Its scansion and structure is the same as the Iambic Trimeter Acatalectic.

METRE II.-OD. IV., VII,

The first verse consists of a Dactylic Hexameter.

The second of the latter half of a Dactylic Pen

tameter:

a. Diffugere nives: redeunt jam gramina campis.

B'. Arboribusque comæ.

METRE III. Od. I., VIII.

The first verse consists of a Choriambus, with a Bacchius, or (since the last syllable is considered common) with an Amphibrach.

The second is the Sapphicus major, or long Sapphic, consisting of a second Epitret, with two Choriambi and a Bacchius or Amphibrach

a. Lydia dic per omnes.

B'. Te deos óro | Sybarin | cur properes amando.

1. The first always has a Dactyl, or Dactylic combination in the beginning, thus excluding the accent on the first syllable.

2. The second has two regular Cesuras, the Penthemimeral, and Octohemimeral (as above, B'.), cutting off an Anapast between them.

3. This second verse may be considered as made up of two-one consisting of a second Epitret+Choriambus, the other the same as the first, thus:

Lydiă dic per ōmnēs

Té děōs ōrō Sybărin

Cur propĕrēs ămāndo.

METRE IV.-Od. II., XVIII.

The first verse is a Trochaic Dimeter Catalectic. The second is an Iambic Trimeter Catalectic, as in Metre I., B':

This second verse has once a Tribrach in the second place, instead of the usual Iambic :

Regum que pueris nec satelles Orci.

This might be avoided by reading natis for pueris.

METRE V.-ODE III. XII.

This whole Ode consists of four stanzas, each of ten feet, thus:

1. See Introduction to the Ode.

2. The Synapheia (ovvapeía) is strictly observed.

3. The Cæsura between the several feet is not closely observed. See ver. 5. 7. 8. 12.

CLASS II.

Consisting of those in which the Epodes are written, chiefly Iambic, and the earliest forms used by Horace.

METRE VI.-EPOD. I.

The first is the Iambic Trimeter, or Senarius: The second the Iambic Dimeter :

d. Ibis Liburnis inter alta navium.

B. Amice propugnacula.

The Anapest is apparently sometimes admitted in other places than the first; but these are instances of Synalophe. Thus in Epod. II. 35 :

Pavidumque leporem et advenam lăquēo gruem,

Laqueo is a dissyllable, laquo; as alveo, in Carm. VII. 28: Tusco denatat alveo.

Similarly we may compare Ep. V. 79:

Priusque cœlum sidet inferius mari. And XI. 23: Nunc gloriantis quamlibet mulierculam, with Virg. Geor. II. 482: Fluviorum rex Eridanus. In all these cases i becomes a vowel-consonant : INFERYUS, Fluvyonum, &c.

The Casura occurs (1) generally at the fifth half

foot (Hepthemimeral), or sometimes (2) at the seventh half foot (Hepthemimeral) :

1. Beatus ille || qui procul negotiis.

2. Ut gaudet insitiva || decerpens pyra.

The leading accent, in the Iambic Trimeter, is on the sixth half foot, i. e. on the first syllable after the usual Casura, where, after the pause natural to the Casura, there would also naturally be a stress of the voice on commencing anew:

EP. I. 3:-Paratus omne || Caésaris periculum.

If the accent be not on the sixth half foot, it should be on the fourth and eighth:

EP. I. 7:-Utrumne jússi || persequémur otium.*

The accent on the sixth, although usually after the Penthemimeral Cæsura, sometimes occurs under other circumstances.

EP. I. 15-Roges tuum labóre | quid juvem meo.
EP. II. 19:-Ut gaudet insitiva decerpens pyra.
EP. I. 19:-Ut assidens inplúmibus pullis avis.
EP. XI. 15-Quod si meis inæstuat præcordiis.

A line in Ep. XI. 13, though having the regular Casura, appears to err regarding accent:

Simul cálentis inverecúndus deus.

METRE VII.-EPOD. XI.

Consists of the Iambic Trimeter (described above) and the Elegiambus:

a. Petti, nihil me sicut antea juvat.

B'. Scribere versiculos | amore perculsum gravi.

The Elegiambus belongs to the class of Asynartete verses (aovvapτýtoɩ), i. e. verses whose members belong to different species of metres incapable of union; in fact, each member is considered as an independent verse.

The account of the origin of Asynartetic verses (the invention of which is attributed to Archilochus) is thus given by Bentley:

Sub primis poeticæ artis initiis simplici pede versus decurrebant,

Tate remarks, that although very many instances of verses constructed Ilke this occur in Horace, in the Prologues of Terence, and in Phædrus, yet, in the Tragedies which bear the name of Seneca, not a single instance of a verse thus formed is found.