Unhappily those who agree in
regarding
the metre as purely
accentual agree in little else.
accentual agree in little else.
Oxford Book of Latin Verse
The 'semi-quantitative' theory was popularized in this country by H.
Nettleship[12] and J. Wordsworth[13]. It enjoyed the vogue which
commonly attends a compromise; and it still has its adherents, as, for
example, E. V. Arnold[14] (who follows the Plautine scholar F. Leo). But
the more it is examined the more it tends, I think, to melt into a
'pure-accentual' theory. 'It allows the shortening of a long syllable
when unaccented (_dĕvictis_)', says Nettleship[15]. Surely to say that
_dĕvictis_ is 'allowed' for _dēvictis_ is to abandon the cause outright.
But it is considerations of a more general character which seem likely
to render untenable both the 'quantitative' and the 'semi-quantitative'
theories. The recent researches of Sievers[16] and others into the
earliest metrical forms tend to shew that this metre is an
'Indo-European' heritage, and that it must be judged in the light of its
Eastern and Germanic cognates.
3. The best opinion, therefore, in recent years has been strongly on the
side of the view which makes the principle of the Saturnian metre purely
accentual. At the moment this view may, in fact, be said to hold the
field.
Unhappily those who agree in regarding the metre as purely
accentual agree in little else. We may distinguish two schools:
(a) There is, first, what I may perhaps be allowed to call the
Queen-and-Parlour school. 'There cannot be a more perfect Saturnian
line', says Macaulay, 'than one which is sung in every English nursery--
The queen was in her parlour eating bread and honey'.
Place beside this English line the Latin line which has come to be
regarded as the typical Saturnian--
dabunt malum Metelli Naeuio poetae.
If we accent these five words as Naevius and the Metelli would in
ordinary speech have accented them, we shall have to place our accents
thus:--
dábunt málum Metélli Naéuio poétae;
since by what is known as the Law of the Penultimate the accent in Latin
always falls on the penultimate syllable save in those words of three
(or more) syllables which have a short penultimate and take the accent
consequently on the ante-penultimate syllable. But those who accommodate
the Latin saturnian to the rhythm of 'The queen was in her parlour . . . '
have to postulate an anomalous accentuation:--
dabúnt malúm Metélli | Naéuió poétae.
The Saturnian line is, they hold, a verse falling into two cola, each
colon containing three accented (and an undefined number of unaccented)
syllables--word-accent and verse-accent (i. e. metrical _ictus_)
corresponding necessarily only at the last accented syllable in each
colon (as Metélli . . . poétae above).
Now here there are at least four serious difficulties:
1.
Nettleship[12] and J. Wordsworth[13]. It enjoyed the vogue which
commonly attends a compromise; and it still has its adherents, as, for
example, E. V. Arnold[14] (who follows the Plautine scholar F. Leo). But
the more it is examined the more it tends, I think, to melt into a
'pure-accentual' theory. 'It allows the shortening of a long syllable
when unaccented (_dĕvictis_)', says Nettleship[15]. Surely to say that
_dĕvictis_ is 'allowed' for _dēvictis_ is to abandon the cause outright.
But it is considerations of a more general character which seem likely
to render untenable both the 'quantitative' and the 'semi-quantitative'
theories. The recent researches of Sievers[16] and others into the
earliest metrical forms tend to shew that this metre is an
'Indo-European' heritage, and that it must be judged in the light of its
Eastern and Germanic cognates.
3. The best opinion, therefore, in recent years has been strongly on the
side of the view which makes the principle of the Saturnian metre purely
accentual. At the moment this view may, in fact, be said to hold the
field.
Unhappily those who agree in regarding the metre as purely
accentual agree in little else. We may distinguish two schools:
(a) There is, first, what I may perhaps be allowed to call the
Queen-and-Parlour school. 'There cannot be a more perfect Saturnian
line', says Macaulay, 'than one which is sung in every English nursery--
The queen was in her parlour eating bread and honey'.
Place beside this English line the Latin line which has come to be
regarded as the typical Saturnian--
dabunt malum Metelli Naeuio poetae.
If we accent these five words as Naevius and the Metelli would in
ordinary speech have accented them, we shall have to place our accents
thus:--
dábunt málum Metélli Naéuio poétae;
since by what is known as the Law of the Penultimate the accent in Latin
always falls on the penultimate syllable save in those words of three
(or more) syllables which have a short penultimate and take the accent
consequently on the ante-penultimate syllable. But those who accommodate
the Latin saturnian to the rhythm of 'The queen was in her parlour . . . '
have to postulate an anomalous accentuation:--
dabúnt malúm Metélli | Naéuió poétae.
The Saturnian line is, they hold, a verse falling into two cola, each
colon containing three accented (and an undefined number of unaccented)
syllables--word-accent and verse-accent (i. e. metrical _ictus_)
corresponding necessarily only at the last accented syllable in each
colon (as Metélli . . . poétae above).
Now here there are at least four serious difficulties:
1.
