10
EXERCISE IN PRONUNCIATION
HOW TO READ LATIN
17. To read Latin well is not so difficult, if you begin right. Correct habits of reading should be formed now. Notice the quantities carefully, especially the quantity of the penult, to insure your getting the accent on the right syllable. (Cf. § 15.) Give every vowel its proper sound and every syllable its proper length. Then bear in mind that we should read Latin as we read English, in phrases rather than in separate words. Group together words that are closely connected in thought. No good reader halts at the end of each word.
18. Read the stanzas of the following poem by Longfellow, one at a time, first the English and then the Latin version. The syllables inclosed in parentheses are to be slurred or omitted to secure smoothness of meter.
EXCELSIOR [HIGHER]1
The shades of night were falling fast, As through an Alpine village passed A youth, who bore, 'mild snow and ice, A banner with the strange device, Excelsior!
His brow was sad; his eye beneath, Flashed like a falchion from its sheath, And like a silver clarion rung The accents of that unknown tongue, Excelsior!
In happy homes he saw the light Of household fires gleam warm and bright; Above, the spectral glaciers shone, And from his lips escaped a groam, Excelsior!
"Try not the Pass!" the old man said; "Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
Cadebant noctis umbrae, dum
Ibat per vicum Alpicum
Gelu nivequ(e) adolescens,
Vexillum cum signo ferens,
Excelsior!
Frons tristis, micat oculus Velut e vagina gladius; Sonantque similes tubae Accentus linu(ae) inconitae, Excelsior!
In domibus videt claras Focorum luces calidas; Relucet glacies acris, Et rumpit gemitus labris, Excelsior!
Dicit senex, "Ne transeas! Supra nigrescit tempestas;
1 Translation by C. W. Goodchild in Praeco Latinus, October, 1898.
