"Aeterne rerum conditor", "Jam surgit hora tertia" and "Veni redemptor gentium". These are all composed in stanzas of four iambic dimeters, each constructed according to the common classical scheme, namely

and all exhibit a fairly strict adherence to the traditions of quantity. In the first-named of the four there are two imperfect lines, namely

in the second, there is one slight imperfection, in

Jesu labentes respice; (25)

and similar irregularities may be found in the others; but in general quantity is respected, and of course (as the example given in the preceding section shows) there is no appearance of any regard for prose accent. From the teaching of Augustine we know that this form of composition involved a considerable degree of pedantry, -that it was governed by tradition rather than instinct;and from the example of Commodian we can very well understand that what actually appealed to the ear in the reading of these hymns was not the quantity but the metrical ictus. Commodian avoided putting the ictus on any syllable which his senses felt to be short; Ambrose put it only on syllables which his erudition knew to be long.

§ 21. Sedulius. This poet (b. second half of 4th cent d. first half of 5th) wrote a hymn beginning “A solis ortus cardine". The hymn now extant with this beginning is thought to be only in part the work of Sedulius, but the whole hymn may properly be considered here as an early imitation of Ambrose.(1) The hymn is as strictly

(1) Although lines 13-24 are sometimes attributed to Ambrose him. self: see Julian's Dictionary.

quantitative as those of Ambrose himself, the irregularities -being of the slightest kind, e. g.

Verbo concepit filium. (16)

The peculiarity of the hymn is this, that the authors have apparently sought, while observing quantity with scrupulous care, to attend to the prose accents also. The first three stanzas, for example, can be read accentually with perfect smoothness;-they will be found to contain no inversions except such as are common in modern English poetry.

A solis ortus cardine

Ad usque terrae limitem

Christum canamus principem,
Natum Maria virgine.

Beatus auctor saeculi
Servile corpus induit,
Ut carne carnem liberans
Ne perderet quos condidit.

Castae parentis viscera

Coelestis intrat gratia;

Venter puellae bajulat

Secreta quae non noverat.

An accentual reading of the whole hymn will, to be sure, exhibit more violent inversions than these, as for example in Templum repente fit Dei (14)

or even Et angeli canunt Deo. (26)

But these inversions are decidedly less noticeable than they would be in the hymns of Ambrose, similarly pronounced; and it is especially worthy of remark that in this Sedulian hymn the inversions always fall upon dissyllables. In all the 96 lines of the poem there is no polysyllable in which the metrical stress does not fall upon the accented syllable. That this would in all likelihood not be the case if it were not designed, is made sufficiently clear (without consideration of antecedent probability) by observation of the shorter hymns of Ambrose. In the first-named of the four already described we find

Although the authorship and date of "A solis ortus cardine" cannot be assigned with certainty from external evidence, the curious fact just noted seems to afford ground for a safe conjecture. Not long after the time of Sedulius a complete divorce had been consummated between rhythmic and metric. Thereafter those who wrote "rhythms" felt no scruple in disregarding quantity, and those who wrote in quantity recognized fully that their art was of the past not the present, and so could hardly care to struggle for an ineffectual compromise. This hymn, therefore, seems to have been composed, if not by Sedulius, at least by some one or more of his early followers, when the old system was still in the top of the fashion. They sought to keep it fresh by skilful doctoring.

§ 22. Fortunatus. There is at least one hymn, however, of unquestioned authorship, which exhibits the same peculiarity as that just discussed. This is the "Vexilla regis prodeunt" of Fortunatus (530-609 ?). That this hymn was composed with careful regard for quantity is evident from the consistent care with which the 3rd and 7th places in the verse are reserved for short syllables, the only slip being in

Dicens in nationibus. (11)

This interesting hymn contains several verses which, if

read accentually, show the ordinary inversion of the first foot,—namely lines 10, 11, 13, 18, 22, 24 and 31. Three verses show inversions of a more serious nature, namely Fulget crucis mysterium (2) Regnabit a ligno Deus (12)

O crux, ave, spes unica. (29)

But here, as in "A solis ortus cardine" there is no case of a polysyllable in which the normal ictus fails to coincide with the prose accent.

For convenience and brevity, dissyllabic words used with iambic stress have been spoken of as exhibiting "inversions". This is true only if the verses are read accentually, and it is of course not to be presumed that such a reading was ever intended by these early poets. We must, for the present, assume that such lines as Dicens in nationibus

were meant to be read with a regular alternation of arsis and thesis, and in them ictus and prose accent did not coincide. They exhibit the phenomenon known as "wrenched accent", rather than inversions of foot. But in the care with which the accent of polysyllables is preserved, there is a curious significance. Even to our modern ears, trained as they are to accentual rhythm, there is much less of the obviously conventional in such lines as those above quoted from Fortunatus, than in the Hoc omnis errorum chorus Matri loquebatur suae

or the

of Ambrose: and it is evident that while the authors of the two hymns last described were anxious to respect the conventions of prosody they also were especially anxious not to thrust then into the foreground.

Further but perhaps more dubious evidence of the intention of these poets is found in the endings of their lines. In the hymn of Fortunatus only one line ends with a dissyllable: that is to say, only one line fails to show concidence of ictus and accent at its end. In "A

solis ortus cardine", with a total of 96 lines, there are 9 dissyllabic endings. In the four hymns of Ambrose, with a total of 124 lines, there are 37.(1).

§ 23. Substitution of accent for prosodical length. But the most remarkable fact about this hymn of Fortunatus has yet to be mentioned. Although the verse is for the most part quantitative, as has been shown, there are two lines in which, in defiance of the rules of quantity, short syllables receive the metrical stress. These lines are

Suspensus est patibulo (4)

and Praedamque tulit tartari. (20)

Here the stressed short syllable is the one that bears the prose accent. Patibulum is of course an impossible word in pure iambics, but the 20th line could have been saved by an easy transposition. The poet chose rather to let a merely accented syllable stand for a long syllable, than in either case to make any sacrifice of rhetorical effectiveness. Fortunatus was of course consciously following what he believed to be the best fashion in sacred composition. He imposed upon himself, for the nonce, unusual restrictions, in the effort to secure coincidence of accent with verse-ictus. He allowed himself frequently to sacrifice the normal accent in the first foot of the line; that was necessary, unless he would avoid dissyllabic beginnings, and it was comparatively unobjectionable: but he did not in general allow himself the same liberty at the verse-end, although he had to forego dissyllabic endings to avoid it, for there it was not unobjectionable. In polysyllables, which could not be treated lightly without a serious wrench, he adhered strictly to

(1) I state these facts because they exhibit the most vulnerable point in this argument. There is no reason why wrenched accents should be especially objectionable at the verse-end: cf. our English ballads. I can explain the scruples of Fortunatus only by the consideration that rime and "rhythm" were both new, and he treated them with the tenderness of unfamiliarity.