No More Learning

But is it certain, after all, that the accent-law in Saturnian verse
_is_ the Law of the Penultimate? There was, as is well known, a period
in the history of the Latin language when this Law did not obtain, but
all Latin words were alike accented on the first syllable. When this
period ended we cannot precisely determine. But, as Lindsay himself
points out, the influence of the old protosyllabic accentuation was not
quite dead even in the time of Plautus. [18] Now the saturnian verse
undoubtedly reaches back to a very remote antiquity: even of our extant
specimens some are very likely as old as the eighth century. It is
probable enough, therefore, that the accent-law known at any rate to the
first saturnian poets was the old protosyllabic law. And when we
remember the hieratic character of the earliest poetry, when we take
into account the conservatism of any priestly ritual or rule, may we not
suppose it possible that saturnian verse retained the ancient law of
accentuation long after the Law of the Penultimate had asserted itself
in ordinary speech and in other forms of literature? Accented, as
Lindsay accents it, according to the Law of the Penultimate, the
saturnian loses the lilt and swing which it has under the old
'Queen-and-Parlour' system.

dábunt málum Metélli Naéuio poétae

is not a music to pray to or dance to or die to. A much easier and more
lively movement would be

dábunt málum Mételli Naéuio póetae,

that is, the movement given by the old protosyllabic accentuation.

The suggestion that the protosyllabic accent survived as a conscious
archaism in saturnian verse right down to the time of the Scipios is, I
think, at any rate worth considering. It carries us into speculations
far wider than the particular problem with which it is immediately
concerned. For if the protosyllabic law did actually survive in this way
we can the more easily explain the swift and decisive victory which the
Hellenizing Latin poetry won over the old native verse. What was
conquered was an archaism, something purely artificial. The conquering
force was not merely Hellenism but Hellenism _plus_ a complete and
radical change in Latin speech.
If anyone cares to analyse the extant remains of saturnian verse in the
light of this suggestion, I would formulate three rules which can, I
think, be deduced:

1. Each line has five feet, and each foot contains one accented syllable
_plus_ either one or two unaccented syllables. [19] The first foot,
however, _may_ consist of a monosyllable.

2. The third foot must consist of a trisyllabic word or
'word-group'[20]: save that occasionally the second and third feet
together may be formed of a quadrisyllabic (or pentasyllabic) word with
secondary accent.

3. The first and second, and again the fourth and fifth, feet may be
either disyllabic or trisyllabic: but (_a_) two trisyllables may not
follow one another in the first two feet, and (_b_) if the fifth foot
(usually trisyllabic) is a disyllable the fourth must be trisyllabic.

The normal type is

─́─ ── │ ─́─ ── │ ─́─ ── ── ││ ─́─ ──    │ ─́─ ── ──
                         ││ ─́─ ── ──

A common variation in the first two feet is either
─́─ ── ── │ ─́─ ──, or ─́─ ── │ ─́─ ── ──. A somewhat rare variation
in the last two is ─́─ ── ── │ ─́─ ──. In the first foot ─́─ sometimes
replaces ─́─ ── (or ─́─ ── ──), no doubt owing to the greater stress
at the opening of the verse.

Some exceptions (or apparent exceptions) to these rules will no doubt be
found. But the rules cover most of the extant examples of saturnian
verse: and it must be remembered that the text of our fragments is often
not at all certain. The system outlined has, however, the merit--which
it shares with Lindsay--that it dispenses with most of the alterations
of the text in which other systems involve us.


THE HYMN OF THE ARVAL BROTHERHOOD.

I have given the text of this celebrated piece according to what may be
called the Vulgate; and in the sub-title, in the Glossary and in my
Introduction p. 1 I have followed the ordinary interpretation.