Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/416

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390 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY consonant, or any pair of consonants like Kp, ttX, &c. followed in v. 200, the last syllable of v. 199 would have been short, in violation of the metre. Again, 2Ied. 161, 2. <x> [xeydXa 0e/xt koL ttotvl "Aprc/x-i, A.€vcrcre^' a 7racr;(co, If after v. 161, ending with a short vowel, any vowel whatever had followed in v. 162, that would have violated the law of hiatus observed in these verses. And if a double consonant, or any pair of consonants like KT, cTTT, 8/x, [xv, &c. had followed in v. 162, "Aprc/xi, necessarily com- bined with those consonants, would have formed the Pes Creticus, and not the Dactyl required. But Xcva-ao) follows with X initial, and all is correct. 9. The Versus Paroemiacus has its table of scansion as follows : 12 3 4 o v^ — yK^ — — v^ w y y —' One limitation as to the concurring feet obtains, that — ww in 1st never precedes ww— in 2nd. 10. In the common dimeter, as must have already appeared, those dipodias form the most pleasing verse which end in entire words : but this law does not equally obtain in the Paremiac, which then comes most agreeably to the ear when it forms the latter hemistich of the dactylic hexameter, jww— ^z^ whether with the first dipodia distinctly marked, as From V. 127. 7rav [xol cf>o^ep6v to Trpoa-epiroVy or with any other variety of structure, as Prom. V. 146. <f)povpdv dtprjXov ox'/cro). 164. e)(0pois cTTt^apra Treirovda. 1106. rrjaS^ tjvtlv dTrirrrvaa fxdXXov. 305. <jf)tAos iarl ^c^aioT^po^ aoi. Sometimes, however, the Paremiac is differently formed, admitting (with restriction § 9) the Dactyl in the 1st: Med. 1085. ovk dTrojxovcrov to yvvaiKiov. (Vide 3fuseicm Criticum, Vol. i. pp. 328, 9, 332, 3.) 11. The following may serve as a short specimen of an Anapestic System with all its usual parts :