Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/425

 OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 399 ably smooth ; aud if those lines be read with the proper ictus, the Iambic movement cannot fail to be pleasantly and distinctly felt on the ear. Xy. — Note A. On the Concurrences. In ch. II., where the occurrence of wwo' or —wo* before ww— in the Trimeter of Comedy is condemned, a promise is given that the necessity for that limitation should be made to appear. The true constitution of the Comic Senarius (in all its bearings) was first discerned by Dawes. In his Emendations on the Acharaians {Misc. Crit. 253—463, &c.) at v. 146, El/ TOtcrt TOt^ots eypacf>ov AOrjvaLoc KaXoL, he condemns as unlawful the concurrence of feet above mentioned, and claims the credit not only of discovering that canon, but of assigning the true reason also as derived from the laws of Iambic ictuation. As the verse stands at present, he says, I I El/ TOtcrt TOt^ots eypacfiov AOrjvatoL KaXoi, you have, with gross offence to the ear, the interval of four syllables from ictus to ictus, when the lawful extent of that interval can only be three. His emendation, demanded no less by the syntax of the whole passage than by the metre of that line, has since been sanctioned by the authority of the Ravenna MS. Ev TOtcrt roi)(OL<s eypa<^, AurjvaLOi KaXoi. On the Trochaic Scale of Scansion, it is obvious to remark, that the redundance of a syllable in the vulgar text would be instantly detected : I II I II I II I II aXAa vvv €V I TOtcrt Tot;)(ois | cypacfiov A0r)vaLTOL kuXol. One illustration more, from a false reading in Tragedy, may not be deemed superfluous. In the Orestes, 499 = 505, the text of the old editions stands thus : avTos KttKtW ey€V€TO ixrjrepa Kraj/cov, which in the Iambic Scansion presents the concurrence of the —wo* and the ^k^—. Here again the Trochaic scale afibrds the ready test; it instantly detects the redundant syllable : I ", I "1 "I " aXAa vvv avTOs KaKioiV | cyeveTO [xr)Tepa Kravwv. The just and simple emendation of Porson need hardly be given : auro9 KUKLow pir]Tip cyeVcro Kravtui'.