In this of Ovid is an instance of both redundancies, Barbæ color aureus, aureaque Ex humeris medics coma dependebat in armos. Other instances of the latter sort most frequent in verses, are, Dü, düis, ii, iis, queis, dein, dehinc, deest, meo, tuo, suo, eo, of one syllable; Tidem, iisdem, deinde, proinde, deeram, deessem, deero, deesse, anteit, antehāc, omnia, deorsum, Theseus, Thesei, of two syllables; Achillei, Ulyssei, abiěte, ariěte, semihomo, of three; Arietibus, &c. semiănimis of four, with a few others; which we may safely imitate; Quæ tuto quivis imitabitur. Voss. PENTAMETERS, &c. To the class of Hexameters belong Pentameters, and six other smaller verses, as being parts of an Hexameter. PENTAMETER. This verse, also called Elegiac, because used in elegy, consists of five feet; of which the first and second may be either Dactyls or Spondees, the third a Spondee generally, though sometimes an Iambus under the condition of a Casura, the two last always Anapests; as, Non bene coelestes impia dextra colit. Ov. oul- 10 -I 20 .10 Qui dederit primus oscula, victor erit. Id. Some scan this verse by two Penthemimers, each consisting of two feet and a cæsura or single syllable; as, Non bene coelestes impia dextra colit. Pentameters are seldom found by themselves alone: but Ausonius has the sayings of the Seven Wise Men, all expressed in Pentameters only. In Martianus Ca pella is a continuation of two and thirty such verses; and Heliodorus, in his Ethiopic history, has an entire. ode of them. In good Pentameters there is ever a cæsura after the second foot; of course there must be no ecthlipsis or synalepha after the second foot, because then the cæsura would be destroyed in a manner. The most graceful cadence in this verse is a dissyllable; next to that a word, not of three, but of four syllables; and least of all a monosyllable, unless it be absorbed by one of the synalephas; as, Invitis oculis litera lecta tua est. Ov. A great fault in Pentameters is a synalepha in the third or fourth, or beginning of the fifth foot; as, Herculis, Antæique, Hesperidumque comes. Propert. Troja virúm et virtutum omnium acerba cinis. Cat: Quadrijugo cernes sæpe resistere equos. Ov. Quem modo, qui me unum atque unicum amicum habuit. Catul. A synalepha in the fifth foot of an Hexameter, which should have been noted above, has likewise a very ill effect; as, Catul. Difficile est longum subito deponere amorem. These are set as marks on rocks, upon which young poets sometimes suffer shipwreck. We must avoid rhyming in this and every other sort of Latin verse. The following verse of Ovid is spoiled by a rhyme : Quærebant flavos per nemus omne favos. Such verses are called Leonine, not, as I formerly conjectured, from the harsh sound they sometimes make, not, as Mr. Bailey says, "from their making, as it were, a Lion's tail," by the reflection of the rhyme on its corresponding syllable, as he ought to have explained himself, nor exactly as Dr. Johnson states it, "from their author Leo;" but, as I have since learned from Vossius on Lithocomus, they are so named from Leonius, a Benedictine Monk, of the Monastery of St. Victor, in Paris, A.D. 1160, and from him, not as their author, (he was not the first who wrote so, as we see), but because he was the first who affected this way of versifying, and wrote much so. Hence it is also called Monkish verse. Vossius condemns it; "Fugiendi etiam "Versus Leonini; etsi nec poetæ principes semper eos 66 effugerint." Lat Gram. Lithoc. The late ingenious author of METRONARISTON, a Dissertation upon Part of the Greek and Latin Prosody, which I should here gladly recommend to the notice of young Grammarians, were its matter and design purely Grammatical, admires such verses; as indeed do I, when they appear rari nantes, and in such examples as he cites in his note, p. 72. "O pater, O patriæ cura decusque tuæ- where certainly the rhyme confined to only one or two letters is soft and musical: but not so in that other of Ovid above qoted, including three letters; nor in those which spoil the dignity of some hymns in the Romish Liturgy; as in that of Corpus-Christi day. Nobis datus, nobis natus Ex intacta Virgine, Et in mundo conversatus, Sparso Verbi semine, Miro clausit ordine. Here the rhyme is too frequent: but its distinguishing fault is, that it includes a prior consonant, which makes it always harsh, as in these, Trajicit, i, verbis virtutem elude superbis. Virg. SIX OTHER SMALLER VERSES, PARTS OF AN HEXAMETER. Of these six, three form the beginning, and three the latter part of an Hexameter. 1. AN ARCHILOCHIAN PENTHEMIMER. This has its name from Archilochus its author; and is composed of two Dactyls and a Cæsura, being therefore also called a Dactylic Penthemimer, and by Servius, A DACTYLIC DIMETER HYPERCATALECTIC; as, 1. Pulvis et umbra sumus. Hor. 4. 7. 2. AN ALCMANIC DACTYLIC TRIMETER, or TRIPODLA HYPERCATALECTIC. This was first used by Alcman, the Greek poet, and consists of three Daetyls, and (therefore styled Hypercat.) a Cæsura; as, Munera lætitiamque Dei. Virg. Æn. 1. Infabricata fugæ studio. Id. En. 4. T 3. AN ALCMANIC DACTYLIC TETRAMETER, or TETRAPODIA. This contains the four first feet of an Hexameter, the last being always a Dactyl; as, 4. A PHALISCUS, or ARCHILOCHIAN HEROIC, or SPONDAIC TETRAMETER. This contains the four last feet of an Hexameter; for here the last must be a Spondee; and therefore it should not be called, as by some it is, Dactylic, but Spondaic; as, 5. A PHERECRATIAN TRIMETER, or TRIPODIA. This, invented by Pherecrates of Athens, contains the three last feet of an Hexameter; the last of course, and the first, being commonly a Spondee; as, Quamvis pontica pinus. Hor. 1. 14. Catullus sometimes makes the first a Choree; as, (Although, with submission, I understand the exam ple, Hymen o Hymenae, as in the former editions, to be correct, Hymen being in the Voc. Case; yet, as it has been objected to, I have substituted another for it. I am far from thinking this account of the Latin Metre faultless; and would thankfully correct every error that was certainly pointed out to me, however ungentlemanly and barbaric the manner of the critic might be. I wish my own book to give place, when a better appears, as I hope there may. See Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine for November 1821.) Boethius has an Anapest in the first place; as, And |