IV. ON THE FORM OF HORACE'S LESSER ASCLEPIADS. A Lesser Asclepiadean verse (->|-w|-||-w|—~|—^) is a logaoedic period composed of two cola, which are separated from each other by a fixed diaeresis. Each colon has three feet— the first irrational trochee, cyclic dactyl, triseme syllable; and the second: cyclic dactyl, trochee, catalectic trochee. Substitutions are not permitted. Therefore, the verse invariably has twelve syllables, the quantities running in a fixed order. In the Odes of Horace 86 Lesser Asclepiads are found under the form of strophe I, 164 under strophe II, 189 under strophe III, and 70 under strophe IV. Total, 509 verses. Of these, 185 are in Book I, 21 in Book II, 172 in Book III, and 131 in Book IV. It would at first seem that when these verses are indefinitely repeated, such uniformity of structure could result only in monotony and flat sameness. Yet the fact turns out quite otherwise. A large variety of sound-effects is produced through the poet's management of the following elements: I. Diaereses and Caesuras. II. Sense-Pauses. III. Elision and Ecthlipsis. IV. WordAccent as related to Ictus. V. Word-Order. VI. Other SoundEffects. Let us examine these several phases of the verse. I. Diaereses and Caesuras. (a) The verse shows in its parts unequal compactness. This term is here used to describe the sound-effect of any part of a verse as determined by the number of diaereses and caesuras contained in that part. A verse, for example, whose initial two feet show more diaereses and caesuras than the final two feet, may be said to be more 'compact' in the latter than in the former part. The above thesis is established as follows. Among Horace's Lesser Asclepiads, diaeresis or caesura as the case may be is found in: 29 per cent of the verses after the 1st syl. 28 per cent of the verses after the 4th syl. (b) The second colon tends to be more compact than the first. Four points may be adduced to show this: (1) 2579 words occur all told (each word is counted as many times as it occurs); of these 1354 are in the first colon, but 1225 (viz. 129 less) in the second colon. (2) The total number of hexasyllables used is 6 and all of them stand in the second colon. (3) The total number of pentasyllables used is 19, of which all but 7 stand in the second colon. (4) The total number of monosyllables used 423. If our thesis is true, the proportions as compared with the foregoing should here be reversed, and this turns out to be the fact, for 293 stand in the first colon and only 130 in the second. A Lesser Asclepiad then, despite its fixed sequence of feet, accords with other kinds of verse, which as a rule exhibit greater compactness, less opportunity for substitutions, and more regular sound-effects in the final part. The poet's feeling as revealed in Lesser Asclepiads accords with the feeling of the ancients about the arrangement and relative length of cola in a well constructed oration. See Cicero De Or. III, 48 fin. 50. (c) The compactness of the verse as a whole varies somewhat according to the structure of the strophe into which it enters. Two points of evidence will make this clear. (1) Sense-pauses, so far as they are revealed by punctuation (see p. 290), occur after the 1st syl. of the verse only in those kinds of strophes where three or more Lesser Asclepiads come in succession, viz. in strophes I and III. (2) Strophe I shows Lesser Asclepiads that are more compact than those figuring in strophes II, III, or IV. The Lesser Asclepiads in strophe IV, for example, when compared with those forming strophe I, show relatively 10 per cent more cases where a word ends with the 1st syl. 2 per cent more cases where a word ends with the 9th syl. The Only the 3d syl. shows a decrease and that a slight one. above thesis is explained, in part, by the fact that into the said three strophes there enters a variety of verses, as regards the number and arrangement of feet, whereas strophe I is composed exclusively of Lesser Asclepiads, complex and intricate metrical demands being most readily satisfied with short words. Contrast for example the elegiac couplet and the heroic verse: the preponderance of long words is generally to be found in the latter. (d) The compactness of the verse varies according to the period in Horace's life when it was composed. It becomes gradually less compact, the change affecting first the forward colon (viz. in Book III) and finally the second colon (viz. in Book IV). The Lesser Asclepiads in Book III, when compared with those in Book I, show an appreciable tendency to have words end more frequently with the This more than offsets the fact that words end less frequently in the The change, then, from Book I to Book III is toward a less compact verse, especially in the first colon, diaereses and caesuras increasing particularly after the 2d and 4th syllables. The Lesser Asclepiads in Book IV, when compared with those in Book III, show an appreciable tendency to have words end more frequently with the This far more than offsets the fact that words end less frequently with the 8th syl. (decrease: 8 per cent). The change, then, from Book III to Book IV is toward a less compact verse, especially in the second colon, diaereses and caesuras increasing particularly in the 7th, 9th, 10th, and 11th syllables. This thesis may properly be considered in locating an ode of doubtful date. (e) Taking into account all possible arrangements of diaereses and caesuras in a Lesser Asclepiad, we find that Horace chose to employ but few of them. The first colon, for example, in the form monosyllable, quadrisyllable, monosyllable was avoided. (For the reason, see p. 292). Only three of the 509 verses begin with a monosyllable followed by a quadrisyllable, and in two of these Horace does not write another monosyllable as the third word but a thing that nowhere else occurs in his Lesser Asclepiadshe omits the diaeresis between the cola. These two cases are in II, 12, 25 and IV, 8, 17. The latter verse is by many regarded as spurious, and the former is partly justified by the fact that the place for the diaeresis corresponds to the division between the parts of a prepositional compound word (de-torquet). The fact is, 2048 different arrangements of diaereses and caesuras are possible in any verse of twelve syllables. (The formula for finding this number in the case of any verse is 2"-1, ʼn being the number of syllables in the given verse). Yet Horace among 509 verses chose to employ simply 142 out of the 2048, confining himself indeed, as a rule, to the use of only 12. For convenience, we shall represent this aspect of the subject as follows. "3-6-912" designates a verse whose diaereses and caesuras, as the case may be, fall after the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth syllables. Horace's favorite arrangements are: Examples of these twelve types are: Maecenas atavis edite regibus. sic fratres Helenae lucida sidera. mittamus, scelerum si bene paenitet. (f) Why were these arrangements preferred? They seem to embody word-groups easily enunciated by the reader, symmetry in the divisions of the verse, the requisite variety of sound, and a certain subtle word-rhythm that plays, now within, now without the rhythm of the feet. To express it negatively, they avoid unwieldy and unbeautiful word-lengths and word-combinations; they avoid weak and unmusical verse-endings, unpleasant monotony, such as a verse composed exclusively of monosyllables or of dissyllables or one wherein the diaereses are relatively too numerous or one wherein ictus too often coincides with word-accent. (g) The ends of words fall so that they do not generally coincide with ends of feet; otherwise expressed, caesura is more common than diaeresis. The degree in which this is true may be gathered from the following facts. The word sequence wherein a single word builds each foot is indicated by the scheme 2-5-69-11-12. This form, however, nowhere occurs. Somewhat similar to it though are the following six forms, each occurring but once: 2-5-6-12, 2-5-6-10-12, 2-5-6-8-10-12, 2-5-6-8-12, 2-5-6-8-9-12, 2-5-6-9-10-12. Even in these rarely occurring. forms it is to be observed that when the poet allows coincidence in the first colon, he generally avoids it in the second-a phase of the subject that is more fully treated below. (h) Monosyllabic words are not evenly distributed throughout the verse. A monosyllabic word stands in |