Rhythm. by AW De Groot. Pp. 1–228. Groningen, 1918. De Numero
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The Classical Review http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR Additional services for The Classical Review: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here Antique Prose-Rhythm Handbook of Antique Prose - Rhythm. By A. W. de Groot. Pp. 1–228. Groningen, 1918. De numero oratorio Latino. Pp. 1–52. Groningen, 1919. Albert C. Clark The Classical Review / Volume 34 / Issue 1-2 / February 1920, pp 42 - 45 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00013366, Published online: 27 October 2009 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00013366 How to cite this article: Albert C. Clark (1920). The Classical Review, 34, pp 42-45 doi:10.1017/ S0009840X00013366 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 138.251.14.35 on 05 Apr 2015 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW ANTIQUE PROSE-RHYTHM. Handbook of Antique Prose - Rhythm. repeated.1 I venture to recognise in By A. W. DE GROOT. Pp. 1-228. de Groot another ' heretic/ a word Groningen, 1918. De numero oratorio which I use with all respect, and do not Latino. Pp. 1-52. Groningen, 1919. regard as a slur. De Groot's theory is founded upon THE Handbook consists of nine some remarks made by the late A. lectures (in English) upon Prose- Thumb, in the fourth edition of Rhythm as found in ancient authors, Brugmann's Greek Grammar (19T3), chiefly Greek., The subsequent disserta- pp. 666-672. Thumb says of previous tion was written as a thesis for the enquirers, that they have committed an doctorate, and is in Latin. In this error of method in confining themselves review the two works will be quoted as to the rhythm of the clausula without Hb and NL respectively. taking into account the ' immanent * Until recently writers upon prose- rhythm of the languages, as found in rhythm, while differing in many of their those parts of the sentence which are conclusions, have worked more or less supposed to be rhythmical. He refers on the same lines. Their attention has to a paper of Marbe, published in 1904, been mainly directed to the clausula, in which, when discussing the rhythm and their method has been to tabulate of German prose, he takes as his- the forms of this found in various guiding principle the interval between authors, and to label them good and accented and unaccented syllables. bad according to their frequency. It Thumb transferred this principle from was generally agreed that the, cretic was accent to quantity, which in Greek or the chief ingredient in the rhythm of Latin replaces accent. His method the clausula, and that this was followed was to take a hundred syllables of by a trochaic cadence. According to Demosthenes, Plato, or Xenophon, and Zielinski, there are three favourite forms, to tabulate the percentages of cases in viz. which one to six shorts are found 0 — — u (I) between two long vowels. 0 — —1> 0 (2) Thumb has found an enthusiastic 0 — —<J — 0 (3) disciple in de Groot, who has a very- low opinion of the orthodox school. i.e., 1 = cretic+trochee, 2 = cretic+ He has some kind words for Zander, crefic, 3 = cretic + double trochee. (I whom he terms vir clarissismus (N.L. abstain from mentioning here various p. 30), and whose Latinity he praises in refinements, and merely remark* that 3 somewhat extravagant terms {ib. p. 27).. is substantially the same as the double For all others his motto is that of Lord trochee, which the ancients considered Fisher, * Sack the lot.' He treats the to be a sufficient rhythm in itself: and statements of ancient authorities with that the cretic base which Zielinski equal contempt and scraps them all, prefixes to it seems to suit the facts in except the a priori speculations of Latin authors more than in Greek.) In Aristotle, which he mentions with Latin these three forms become respect {Hb pp. 61-3). The only true increasingly prevalent, and were finally method, he says, is to collect statistic stereotyped in the three forms of the material {ib. p. 101). mediaeval cursus (planus, tardus, velox). This may be termed the ' orthodox' Thumb's complaint that writers had method, a term which is not intended neglected to enquire into the 'im- to claim any sanctity for it, but merely manent ' rhythm of the language has lost to show that it has been generally much of its force since the appearance adopted. A 'heretical' view has of Zielinski's work on the durchgehende Rhythmus or ' constructive ' Rhythm, as recently been put forward by Zander, 2 who holds that the essence of prose- he calls it, in 1914. In this Zielinski rhythm is to be found in iteratio and 1 Cf. C.R. 1916, pp. 53-5. that any rhythm is good, if it is 2 Cf. C.R. 1916, pp. 22-6. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 43 investigates the rhythm of the /f De Groot follows throughout the and the icafkov and compares it with the plan suggested by Thumb. He rhythm of the final clausula, his con- considers the clausula in relation to clusion being that the smaller divisions non-metrical parts of the sentence in exhibit a similar rhythm, but in a the same author, also to writings of diluted form. He compares the final other authors who did not use metre. clausula to ' cream,' the clausula of the He says that ' better metre is not the colon to ' the milk of commerce,' and " best" clausula, i.e. neither the most that of the comma to ' skimmed milk.' frequent form at the end of the sen- We may continue the simile by likening tence, nor the form which is most the residue to milk which has been not favoured at the end of the sentence, as only skimmed but watered. It is strange compared with the metre of tlje whole that de Groot nowhere alludes to this sentence. On the contrary, it is the work, and more than once asserts that form the frequency of which most no one has applied the comparative deviates from non-metrical prose' (Hb method to the body of the sentence p. 145). Elsewhere, he distinguishes and its relation to the final clausula. between negative and positive clausulae. His silence might be thought due to The first are those which do not contempt for Zielinski's methods, but increase in frequency at the end of the this would not account for the omission sentence, and the second are those that of the book in the copious bibliography, do. He expresses the distinction by which includes Zielinski's other contri- the use of a plus sign for a positive form butions to the study of the subject. and a minus sign for a negative. Thus, It is difficult to suppose that he has not where the figures for the body of the seen Zielinski's work, in view of some sentence and the end are respectively terminological similarities, e.g. the use 90 and ii"2, the form has the quotient of ' quotients' for ' positive' and (+), while where they are 4*1 and 4, it ' negative' clausulae (Hb pp. 34, 64, cf. has the quotient (—). If the relation Ziel. p. 13). It is, therefore, very odd between them is 1 to 2, e.g. 4 and 8, the that he has not made any direct quotient is 2 (+). Under their system reference to it.1 a form which occurs but rarely in the De Groot describes his own method final clausula may receive a higher thus (Hb p. 18): 'I investigated each place than one which occurs frequently. combination of a fixed number of In order to illustrate de Groot's syllables, e.g. 6, 7 or 8' (i.e. in passages methods, we may take the simplest from various authors consisting of possible case, viz. Zielinski's Form I. 1000 syllables each). 'On practical (-0—G). AccordingtoZielinski's tables, grounds I took seven and added—the this clausula occurs 4184 times in reason why will be exhibited later on— Cicero's speeches, its percentage being an eighth, the quantity of which was 23'3 of the total. Any reader who once has left out of account. We thus get his attention called to the form cannot 27=i28 possible series. There are e.g. fail to note its omnipresence, especially 7 short, 6 short and 1 long, 5 short and in what Zielinski calls the 7 type, i.e. 2 long syllables, etc' Unfortunately, when there is a caesura after the second he does not give a reference to the place syllable, e.g. mortt victstis. De Groot ' later on' where the reason is exhibited, (N.L. p. 14) allows that Cicero preferred and I did not succeed in detecting it. 1 y to other forms of 1, but on p. 5 the Also, he frequently discusses other only instance which he gives of this combinations, e.g. of 4 or 5 syllables (ib. clausula is 1 /S, which is rare in Cicero pp. 37,52, 61, etc.), thereby puzzling the and was avoided by later writers. On reader. The 128 possible forms are p. 8 he assigns to it a quotient value of given pp. 178 ff., but it needs careful i*6 (i.e. its occurrence at the end of the search to identify a particular form in . sentence as compared with its occur- the multitude. rence elsewhere is as r6 to 1). It is 1 thus a weak positive form, and ties with Since this was in print Professor Sonnen- another at the foot of a list of eleven schein has pointed out to me a solitary reference, N.L.