Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/411

 OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 385 2. As to scansion, one limitation only obtains, that (or »^w — ) in the 6th never precedes www in the 7th. Even in Comedy a verse like the following is exceedingly rare: (B. P. xlviii. = -13.) Oure yap vat;ayo5, av fxr} yrj^ XdjSrjTaL | ^epo/xei'os. whereas of — w or www in the Gth preceding www in the 7th in- stances in Tragic verse are not at all uncommon. (The following line exhibits also www in the 1st and oth.) Pkoen. 618. 'Avocrtos -n-ecfiVKas' aA/V ov TrarptSos, ojs crv, j TroXe/xtos. 3. In structure, the most important point is this; that the fii'st dimeter must be divided from the second after some word ^vhich allows a pause in the sense; not after a preposition, for instance, or article belonging in s}-ntax to the second dimeter. (The folloA^ing lines exhibit also WW— in 2nd and 6th.) Orest. 787. ws vlv iKerei-o-oo jx^ crajo-at. | to ye hiKO-iov wS" e;et. Phoe/i. 621. Kttt ori', jjL'iJTep; ov Oefxa crot j ixqrpos dvo/xa^etv kg pa. 4. If the first dipodia of the verse is contained in entire words (and so as to he followed at least by a slight break of the sense), the second foot is a Trochee {or may be a Tribrach) : Phcen. 636. ws art/xos, | otKTpd -rda-^oyv, iieXavvofxat ^(Oovos. Orest. 788. fxrjrepos Se j firjS^ ISoLfXi ixvrjfJia. TroXe/XLa yap yjv. Bacch. 585 = 629. Ka^' o Bpo/xio?, | cos e/xocye cftaLveraL, So^av Xeyo). This nicety of structure in the long Trochaic of Tragedy was first discovered by Professor Porson ; not an idea of such a canon seems ever to have been hinted before. (Yid. Kidd's Tracts and Misc. Criticisms of Porson, p. 197; Class. Journ. Xo. xlv. i:)p. 166, 7; Maltby's Zea^iCOJi Grceco-Prosodiacmn, p. Ixvii.) In the following lines, apparently exceptions to the rule, the true sense marks the true structure also : Orest. 1523. iravTa^^^ov | ^t^v rjhv p.dXXov y Oavelv rots aojcfypocnv. Here -n-avTaxov belongs to the whole sentence, and not to ^fjv ex- clusively. Ijjh. A. 1318. Tov ye Trj<i 0€d<; TralSa, | t€kvov, <S ye Scvp' iX'r]Xv6a<;. Here no pause of sense takes place after 6ed^, (which is a mono- syllable,) but the words from tov to TratSa are inclosed, as it were, in a vinculum of syntax. The two following verses, the first with an enclitic after the four initial syllables, the second with such a word as is always subjoined to D. T. G. 25