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Lindsay on the Saturnian W. M. Lindsay, on the Saturnian Metre (American Journal of Philology, Vol xiv. No. 2).

A. S. Wilkins

The Classical Review / Volume 8 / Issue 03 / March 1894, pp 108 - 110 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X0018761X, Published online: 27 October 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X0018761X

How to cite this article: A. S. Wilkins (1894). The Classical Review, 8, pp 108-110 doi:10.1017/S0009840X0018761X

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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 142.104.240.194 on 25 Apr 2015 108 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW for ' velint' rests on a possible supposition 1 (which it is difficult to take as all due to of misunderstood contraction, and the word copyists), it would seem to show some ten- has in other authors the meaning here given dency in the author to chronological inac- to it, but the sentence so read seems on the curacy. whole somewhat weak and pointless. As a small point to alter in another (12) In c. 39, 12, the insertion of ' audi- edition, Draeger has been wrongly followed endis ' derives some support from a blank in giving ' proeliator' as a new word (see space left in one MS. which seems generally the reference in the note on c. 37, 32). to have been overlooked, and, with the Also it does not seem quite clear on what slight change ' patronis ' for ' patronus,' principle Dr. Peterson uses italics in the gives good sense. emendations of text, and it might be better As a sample of good discussion of a to restrict them uniformly to cases in which difficult point, attention may be drawn to words supposed to have dropped out are the notes on the chronological difficulty in inserted. c. 17. It might perhaps be worth while to It is much to be hoped that this treatise, compare the slighter but somewhat similar evidently (to judge from the number of difficulty of dates in Germ. 37, where ' ses- recent editions) not unpopular in Germany, centesimum et quadragesimum,' which does may be henceforth rescued from its most not look like a round number, is either to undeserved neglect in England. An abridged be so taken or as an inaccuracy for A.U.C. 641, edition for schools would be needful to and 'ducenti ferme ' has to stand for 210 effect this object, and would probably cost years. If we add the slight errors of Dr. Peterson little trouble in preparation. reckoning in Ann. 3, 31,1 ; 12, 25, 3 ; 14, 64, H. FURNEAUX.

LINDSAY ON THE SATUENIAN METRE.

W. M. LINDSAT, on the Saturnian Metre room for a fresh examination of the whole {American Journal of Philology, Vol xiv. question on sound scientific methods; and No. 2). this is what Mr. Lindsay has given us. Whatever other results his inquiry may have ME. LINDSAY has grappled with a thorny had, it is certainly a fine specimen of the subject in undertaking to determine the way in which such an inquiry ought to be real nature of the Saturnian metre. The conducted. extant specimens are derived almost wholly It is clear that we have abundant from citations by the grammarians, not evidence of the quantity of words as used in uncommonly open to the suspicion of being the comic dramatists ; and the whole burden corrupt, or from inscriptions, in which a of proof lies upon those who would assert certain amount of illiteracy oh the part of that this was not the quantity which was the inscribers is at times a disturbing observed in Saturnians. Forms like Lucwm, element. The theoretical explanations of itdque have no intrinsic probability, and the grammarians are shaped by their inca- must be established by strong evidence pacity to look at any metrical question before we can accept them. On the other except through Greek spectacles. Hence it hand there is so much evidence that the is little wonder that of the two most recent ordinary accentuation of a sentence treatises on the Saturnian metre (both was observed by and Terence, that published in 1892) one emphatically pro- there is a strong presumption in favour of nounces it quantitative, while the other its holding good also in Saturnians. We assumes it to be accentual. M. Havet, the shall therefore naturally start with reading author of the most elaborate and (as far as Saturnians according to the current rules collection of materials goes) valuable work for quantity and accent, until we are forced on the question (Paris, 1880), declares that to do otherwise. no poet before Commodianus (circ. A.D. 250) Mr. Lindsay begins his inquiry by ever attributed the slightest importance reprinting all extant Saturnian verses. As to accentuation; and now again Mr. Lind- the number does not reach 150, this does say finds accentuation to be the prime not take up much space, and it is very determining principle. There is obviously convenient, not only for reference, but also THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. 109 us admitting of diseussions on the text, by the facts : the reason which he gives for where necessary, without interrupting the it is not cogent. If Thurneysen's rule is thread of the argument elsewhere. Then accepted, what would prevent, he says, a he proceeds to consider whether there is large number of sentences in 's any evidence in Plautus or Terence for speeches from possessing Saturnian metre? quantities forced upon those who suppose This supposition he regards as so awful as the Saturnian metre to be based upon to need a double mark of exclamation to quantity: e.g. if we are to start with express his horror at it. But why should a _ v> _ a , we assume a in the not they possess it 1 We know, of course, nominative quoins forma virtutei parisuma that Cicero carefully avoided allowing his fuit. But of this there is no satisfactory rhythm to pass into metre, in spite of which proof. Passing on to the question of accent, metrical bits are not very uncommon (cp. he shows by a large collection of instances Reid on Acad. ii. 117). But the metra that Plautus and Terence distributed the which he avoided was quantitative, not metrical ictus with due regard not only to accentual. We have no reason to suppose the usual law of the penultima, but also to that he was so conscious of the nature of the modification of this produced by ' word- the Saturnian rhythm as to deliberately groups,' as in voluptds-mea coctum-dabo and avoid it. And how easily a rhythmical the like ; and confirms his conclusions by succession of accents presents itself unsought some interesting phenomena of the Romance is evident from the well-known fact that languages. Then on the firm basis thus sentence after sentence—I had almost won he tests the rival theories of accentual written page after page—in a writer like and quantitative scansion, and finds the Dickens falls into blank verse :—a phenom- latter directly clashing with the facts enon only too familiar to those who have observed in the only trustworthy specimens to read many translations of Greek or that we have of early Latin poetical litera- Latin poets into English prose. Still this ture. The only possible device for getting is no reason against, even if it is not decisive over some of these difficulties—to assume for, a further restriction of the schemes of that the metre might be trochaic or iambic Saturnian versification. Mr. Lindsay adds at discretion, a tolerably audacious sugges- two more conditions: (1) the normal tion—involves a metrical accentuation like number of syllables is seven in the first inclutus, which is always avoided by the hemistich, six in the second : (2) after the dramatists. The conclusions to which Mr. first two feet of the lines, a regular Lindsay comes are so far the same as those alternation of accentual rhythm is sought, of Thurneysen in his book Der Saturni&r so that a ' rising' accent is followed by a (1885), i.e. that the lines are'scanned ' falling' and vice versa. The first is of according to accent, without regard to course subject to the usual licence of reso- quantity, the first half having three accents, lution, though within well-defined limits. the first of which always falls on the first Hence he arrives at the normal types:— syllable of the line, the second having two accents ; and his service consists in having (A) Ddbunt mdlum Metilli || Ndevio poetae. removed more completely certain difficulties (B) H6nc oino ploirume || cosSntiont R&mai. by means of a more thorough investigation In the rare cases of five syllables instead of the accentuation of certain word-groups, of six in the second hemistich, this licence and especially of the conditions under seems to be due to a desire to secure the which a secondary accent was allowed to alternation of accentual rhythm : e.g. Julsse count. (By the way, is Mr. Lindsay right virum. Other irregularities may have been in saying that the first syllable of ' fort- caused by a wish to introduce nightly ' has a secondary accent, and the or rhyme. second the main accent 1 I fancy that with There is no doubt that on this system the the usual tendency in English to regressive great majority of Saturnian lines can be accentuation most people would lay the scanned quite satisfactorily ; but a few diffi- main accent on the first syllable, not on the culties remain for further elucidation. second. It seems to me a parallel rather There seems to be no clear rule as to the to ' householder' than to ' Entsagung,' or treatment of secondary accents. Words ' unfolding.') like prlmdrium, cdnlegium, Taiirdsia are allowed to have two accents, each counting In his second paper he contends however in the scansion; others like consentiunt, that this rule is not sufficient, and proposes saiplssume, and even imperatdribus (in a to add a further limitation. Whether the very illiterate inscription, it is true), have restriction held good or not, must be decided but one. The reason is not obvious. Then 110 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. again some of the ' word-groups ' are natural influence and thrust the native metres into enough in themselves (Mr. Lindsay well the background, and that ultimately the compares f6rtis-vir with gentleman), or are principle of accentuation gained the upper established by the usage of Plautus or the hand again, modifying even the quantitative express testimony of the grammarians. But metres and determining entirely the form of of others Mr. Lindsay can only say that they those of popular origin. To assume that are ' strange.' If we can take Ulixi cor or quantity may have been in primitive Italic mare mdgnum as a word-group carrying times the regulating force seems to me to but one accent, it is hard to see what limits ignore the course of history. There is much can be set to this licence. that is attractive in Mr. Lindsay's suggestion It is not possible to lay much stress on as to the possible course of development of the Saturnian lines which may perhaps be the Saturnian; but it does not explain how embedded in some passages of Livy. "With what he calls the B type, which according all the ingenuity of M. Havet and Mr. to him represents the earlier form (x'x, x'x, Lindsay we cannot feel confidence in a x'xx), is so much less common than the A method which after conjectural transposi- type (x'x, x'x, xx'x). It is hardly sufficient tions gives us such a foot as ' trim tH, a&dax.' to say that the former was disliked, because Mr. Lindsay rightly admits that most of it maintained the falling accentuation these lines lack the true ring of Saturnians. throughout the hemistich. Why was this In his suggestions as to the origin of the natural rhythm disliked ? But the sugges- Saturnian verse and its possible relations tion is put forward merely tentatively, and to primitive metres in the languages, Mr. Mr. Lindsay recognises the need of fuller Lindsay is on still more slippery ground. information from specialists as to the We have at last arrived at an explanation primitive metres of various Indo-European of the metre on the basis of the accentual nations, before any trustworthy conclusions system in use when extant specimens were can be drawn. It is perhaps worth while produced. But we know that there was an putting in a plea for refraining from prema- earlier system, not bound by the law of the ture identification. In view of the range of penultima, which does not furnish a satis- possibilities offered by metre, it is certainly factory explanation of Saturnians as we rash to assume that all varieties must have have them. It seems undue caution for had a common source, although it is highly Mr. Lindsay to say that it is equally interesting to establish this wherever it is impossible to affirm or deny with certainty possible. the hypothesis that quantity alone supplied An apology is due to the readers of the the rhythm to the earlier Saturnians. I Classical Review for offering what is rather should have thought that this hypothesis a summary than a criticism of papers so was one which could have been discarded easily accessible, and confined within the with as much certainty as is ever possible modest limits of some sixty pages, so that in speaking about things of which no they make no heavy demands upon the specimen is in existence. If anything is students interested in the subject. My clear about the history of Italic metre it is excuse is, in the first place, the request of (more than ever after the publication of the editor; in the second, my own sense of Mr. Lindsay's papers) that accentuation the high value of Mr. Lindsay's methods furnished its earliest basis, that metres and results. regulated by quantity came in through Greek A. S. WILKINS.

NEUMANN ON EUSTATHIOS.

Eustathios ah kritische Quelle fiir den Ilias- vital addition to them. It is certain that text; mit einem Verzeichnis der Lesarten any editor would require such a fresh survey des Eustathios. Von MAX NEUMANN. of the critical remarks embodied in the Teubner: Leipzig. 1893. Mk. 5. iraptK^oXai, as La Roche's citations in his apparatus criticus are notoriously inexact THE materials for a critical edition of the and incomplete. Needless to say that I Iliad are slowly, very slowly, accumulating ; have not attempted to check the new the present work is a useful, but not a collections of the various readings of