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THE RELATION OF METRICAL ICTUS TO ACCENT AND QUANTITY IN PLAUTINE VERSE
Author(s): CHARLES EXON

Source: Hermathena, Vol. 12, No. 29 (1903), pp. 470-504
Published by: Trinity College Dublin
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23036752
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IHE
RELATION
ACCENT
OF
AND
is
METRICAL
QUANTITY
the
TO
ICTUS
IN PLAUTINE
VERSE.
important problem of Plautine

exact relation
of the metrical
most
THE
470 ]
versification
to the
ictus
word-accent
This problem may

of prose and to quantity.
Those
Plautine
scholars into two camps.
scholars
as the philo
who may perhaps be distinguished
or scientific school, favour, for the most part, the
logical
verse was determined
theory that the ictus of Plautine
be said
chiefly,
to divide
if
not
exclusively,
by
the
and
word-
sentence
accent
of prose.
In the learned
essay on The Accentual
Element
in Early Latin
that
forms the appendix
Verse,
to his large edition
of the Captivi
Prof. Lindsay
(1900),
strives to bring into harmony with the accentual
system
of
prose,
which
seem
number
large
to
of
agreement with Prof. Skutsch.

which may perhaps
be called
hold
that the
literary school,
little or no influence
of Plautine
verse.
of
instances
be in conflict
with
it.
Another
school
the
stress
he
in producing
This view
the characteristic
has
been
is in
of critics,
or
non-philological
natural
prose accent
Klotz.
Seyffert, and by the late Richard
The most characteristic
phenomenon
is
metrical
In this
had
features
expressed
of Plautine
by
verse
the
of originally long syllables

shortening
by the so
Law of Breves Breviantes.
That law need not yet
formulated.
It will be enough
to say that, in that
called
be
shortening,
stress-accent
cooperates
syllable in shortening a following

ening occurs very often in Plautus;
with
This
long one.
and the question
short
short
arises
RELATION
whether
the stress-accent
was the word-accent
471
ICTUS.
OF METRICAL
that is a factor
of prose, or the metrical
in producing it
ictus imposed
hold
school
of the poet.
The
philological
firmly that it was the former, while the non-philological
seem
view.
school take the opposite
Seyffert and Klotz
by
the will
to regard this shortening as a purely metrical phenomenon,

the latter, for instance, holding that the shortened syllable
syllable
(brem'ans) must both
(<hreviata) and the shortening
belong to the same arsis or thesis.
metric cannot be
of Plautine
It is clear that questions
of the character of
kept distinct from the wider question
On that subject, too, there is much
Latin verse in general.
are not even agreed as
of opinion.
Scholars
divergence
some
to the proper way of reading Vergil's
hexameters,
should
holding, with Bentley1 and Hermann, that the words
be pronounced
as in prose ; others
holding, with Luc.
that
Miiller,2
the
one writer3 at least

out
or
ictus
either
be
should
accents
prose
holding
but
word-accent,
with
; and
disregarded
that they should
be read with
regard
scrupulous
to quantity!
we
If, therefore,
it will
For
views.
which
the
necessary
example,
of his
some
course
of a
to
at
arrive
the
these
underlie
Skutsch
as
views
review
of
the
to
very
the
reveals
Plautine
Klotz'
Jahresb. 1891,4 where

poetry is properly suited
Vollmoller's
of
truth
divergent
on
postulate
verse
Altrdmische
he
matter,
or unex
the expressed
to examine
that
postulates
pressed
in
be
are
declares
rest
in
Metrik
that
only to a language
the
that
and
only verse suited to a
accent,
is accen
a
stress-accent
which, like Latin, had
language
this postulate,
therefore, and
In examining
tual verse.
other views,
underlie
which
other postulates,
presumably
quantitative
with a musical
1 In his Sch.edia.sma de Metr. Terent.

2 Res
Metr,2, pp. 233 sqq.
3 C. E. Bennett : What-was Ictus in
Latin Prosody ? in the Amer. Jour, of

1898).
Phil., vol. xix. 4 (Baltimore,
4 The
passage will be quoted below.
472
METRICAL
OF
RELATION
TO
ICTUS
ACCENT
it will be necessary
to inquire into the exact meaning
of
and ' accentual'
the terms ' quantitative'
as applied to verse,
to distinguish
precisely the various kinds of word-accent,
and
to determine
their
relations
to different
respective
above all, if such an inquiry is
metrical
And,
systems.
to ask what is the
hopefully, it will be desirable
element in verse.
The whole subject
of metre,
as to which there is so much disagreement,
can only
become
clear when it is unifiedwhen
ancient
verse is
to begin
essential
modern
with
compared
bothif
and
verse,
the
there be onedisengaged.
element
common
to
I.
In this, as in other matters,
the
known
produced
to
by
the
modern
duced
by ancient
unknown.
tively
admitted
it is best to proceed
For
verse
is
us
moderns
but
known;
the
verse on its contemporaries

We are also substantially,
as to the
from
the
effect
effect
pro
is compara
though not
external
means
by which the
is produced.
It will probably
be
that a line of English or German will be recog
perfectly, agreed
effect of modern
nised
unknown.
as verse
at
recurring
verse
when
it suggests
normally
to the ear a beat or pulse

intervals
regular
of
time.
The
intervals
need not be exactly equal.

It is enough that the
effect of equality be produced on the ear.
There may be
acceleration
or retardation of the time, but the acceleration
or retardation
will be normally
uniform, though, as in
music,
more
or
less
sudden
for the sake
pauses
may
be
occasionally
of special
effect. Nor need every
heard.
A beat may be omitted ; but
employed
single beat be actually
a thing may be suggested
omission
of a beat
such an
and the
by its very absence,
in English
conditional,
verse, on
of the part of the verse in which it
is
arrangement
occurs that the voice dwells
as if the missing
as long on that part in recitation

beat were heard.
Thus the time occupied
AND
IN
QUANTITY
PLAUTINE
473
VERSE.
in reciting
of a beat.
an English
line is not affected by the absence
The effect of a regularly recurring
beat or
is
a
pulse
given by
regularly recurring stressed syllable,
and the stressed syllable
requires
normally more time for
its
utterance
than
the
how much
exactly
unstressed
one
therefore,
but,
necessary;
require twice as
syllables
is
The stressed
syllable
Immortal
which
on
beside
Age
determine
is scarcely
the stressed
roughly speaking,
much time as the unstressed.
normally,
as in
To
syllables.
time
more
the
immortal
can
voice
dwell,
yofith.
or,
auf,
Steiget
Let
verse can be
in an English
syllables
but
whichever
short;
they be, the voice
unstressed
either
case,
to call such syllables

long, and syl
agreed
like the first of never and German
bitte, short.
The
The
Traume
it be
lables
will
ihrdlten
or
long
dwell
on
stressed
the
short
them
syllable,
syllable
shorter
time
however,
can
is
not
than
be
prolonged,
on
short;
but
the
and
the
time is filled out by a pause.

the short
Usually
is
with
the
pronounced
syllable
following syllable
pause
follows
to
take
the
place
of
the
unstressed
stressed.
in
that
required
stressed
; and a
syllable;
as in
She
n6ver
t61d
her
love,
in the
where the two syllables
of ' never' are pronounced
to
the
time of one long one, and there is a pause
equal
are also
There
time of a short syllable
before ' told.'
There is
other breaks
in the regularity
of the pattern.
the phenomenon
called inversion
of the accent, in which
the stressed syllable
the
occupies
place of the unstressed,
and vice versa.
of the accent is usually found
Inversion
of these
of the line.
Several
only at the beginning
474
OF METRICAL
RELATION
characteristics
are
TO ACCENT
ICTUS
illustrated
in
the
of
lines
Shake
speare
Duke.
And
what's
Viola. A bldnk, my 16rd.

But
on
her
history
She n6ver t61d her 16ve,
16t concealment,
F6ed
her
like
damask
a w6rm
i' the
bud,
chdek.
Twelfth Night, ii. 4. 112 ff.

The
last line here exhibits
of the accent in the first
inversion
in the
foot, and the stressing of a short syllable (' damask')
second.
x
the
for
an
unstressed
Using
symbol
syllable
(which may be long or short indifferently), and the symbol A
for a pause equal to the time required for the utterance
of
an
unstressed
syllable,
we
last line as follows1:
may
represent
the
scheme
verse
is
of the
xx|x
Inversion
of
the
accent
in
German
shown
in
Goethe's
War
and stressed
Jetzt
es
ein
G6tt
der
dfese
Zefchen
schrieb,
Faust,
short syllable
in
erst
was
erk^nn'
ich
der
Wefse
434,
spricht,
Faust,
442,
' -kenn' ich'

is a pause before ' was,'
being
spoken together in the place of one long stressed syllable.2
It is by no means
my purpose to attempt a complete
account
of modern verse, as
in English
and
represented
German.
The points to which I should like to direct
attention are that, omitting details,
and German
English
where
there
1 I am indebted
for some valuable
hints on English metre to Prof. E. A.
Sonnenschein.
2 Stressed
short syllables
are less
common
in German
verse than in
English, because English has preserved
many originally short vowels which in

German, since the Middle High German
contrast
period, have become long:
Eng. I give, Ger. ich gebe, O. H. G.
ih gibu.
AND
verse
for
depends
stressed
seen,
much
or
this
often
most
its
PIAUTINE
effect
on
at regular
syllables
have
IN
QUANTITY
the
the
It
The
even
may
of
charm
be
admitted
that
on
depends
is
the
But
long
is, we
pattern
verse
English
of the
of
recurrence
intervals.
broken.
of
475
VERSE.
pattern
pattern.
breaking
; it is divined amid all variations.
not
destroyed
Let
us
turn
now
to
questionnamely,
It
will
be
ancient
best
to
take
Greek
time.
of
place
occupied
the
the
modern
Greek
stressed
an
metre
the
consecutive
Greek
closely
have
as
Oecng as
in
and
fourth,
sixth
some
apaeig
must,
no
pauses
of
portion
But
Olatig.
other
For
in tragic
was
So
apaiQ.
with
of long
and
of time,
on
long
unstressed
take
character
recurrence
the
intervals
regular
Oeauc
time
an
in
metre differs from the English.
second,
In
or
much
as
in reciting
We
twice
dwelt
verse
verse.
syllables
twice
corresponds
metre.
at
being
Greek
two short syllables
Also
a Oeaig as
English
voice
apaic
two
one.
long
syllables
the
stressed
six
that occasionally
in reciting
far
that
these
one
same
six 61<juq, that is to

and they occur at equal intervals
syllables,
Further,
are long, except

the
as
from modern
widely
trimeter we find
say, six stressed

of
the
propose
examples,
differs most
admittedly
a Greek iambic
and
verse,
did its effect, as verse, depend?
on what
on
we
an
find
apaig
between
verse
the
respects
example,
the
consist
verse,
short syllable;
again, a Oiaig can never be
single
omitted, nor can it change places with an apcng (inversion
of a
of
and
stress);
there
are
(\povoi
inania
kevoi,
temftor a, Quint,
ix. 4. 51).
then, of the characteristics
of a Greek iambic
Which,
trimeter are we to regard as essential ? What is that which
we could not take away from it without making it cease to
have
the
because,
long
Would
nature
of a verse
perhaps,
syllable
in
it remain
a pedant
the
second
essentially
I do
not
might
apaig,
cease
say,'
hold
it
to be
a verse,'
that if you put a
ceases
to
be
a verse if pronounced
verse.
without
OF METRICAL
ICTUS
stress in the dtoae ?or if long
syllables
476
RELATION
of
apauQ
the
even
as the essential
feet
itself
the
verse
us
compels
former
to the
both wrote
Shakespeare
which their
verse
were found in the
words,
are
we
verse
that
to
regard
which
it has
verse, or that which is peculiar to

of some other literatures ? Logic
with modern
almost
other
in Greek
element
in common
and
In
TO ACCENT
conclusion.
iambic
in
has
verse.
will
common
and
Sophocles
Surely, then, that

be its essential
element ? Many writers seem to hold that the aesthetic

effect of ancient verse was due to what is called quantity,
that is, a certain arrangement
of long and short syllables.
If it was, why do we also find stressed syllables

recurring in
Greek verse at regular intervals ? Or it may be said that
the aesthetic effect of Greek verse was only partly due to the
recurrence
at
to an
partly
of
intervals
regular
arrangement
orderly
stressed
If that is the right view, then we must

verse
we
was
must
modern
to
deny
those
We
incapable
verse.
At
verse
any
verse
in
Shakespeare,
ears
Athenian
admit,
of feeling
rate,
of Sophocles
I must
does
admit
ears
that
confess,
not
seem
to
that
Greek
equal
we
and
the
Goethe
in
fulness
by Aeschylus
the full beauty

for
syllables.
more;
and
effects
too,
short
something
and
in
must
is,
and
modern
Dante,
produced
Sophocles.
grown
the
that
of producing
power
to
all
and
syllables,
and
of long
moderns
and
have
of quantitative
that
my
own
part,
me
more
beautiful,
as
classical
verse, than that of Shakespeare.
Many
scholars
seem to have had almost a superstitious
feeling
about
as
of
of
a
and
lost
quantity,
quality
mysterious
which no modern ear could appreciate.
Thus
which arose out of Matthew
Munro, during the discussion
Arnold's Lectures on Translating Homer, not only attributed
the whole force of ancient verse to " the instinctive feeling
for and knowledge
and
of quantity"
of the old Greeks
language
but proceeded
Romans,
even potentially
in any
to deny that quantity

"existed
modern language,"
or that any
AND
IN
QUANTITY
PLAUTINE
VERSE.
477
it or feel its effect.1 Such

recognise
of the laws
opinions must be soon dispelled by a knowledge
that govern the life and growth of language.
But the
ear
modern
could
quantity was the cause of, or even con

verse can be
the
aesthetic
effect of ancient
to,
to
otherwise
than
an
answered
appeal
subjective feelings
by
question
tributed
whether
if it can
be shown
quantity in ancient verse served

it was a part of the technic of
purposethat
another
quite
ancient
that
not
verse,
of its
essence.
verse are usually
and modern
Ancient
and
accentual
respectively.
quantitative
They do not necessarily
defining.
element in the two kinds of verse.
as
distinguished
The terms need
the essential
predicate
We have seen that, in
of long stressed
verse, we find a regular succession
stress
be called
therefore,
If,
may
(Ola tig).
syllables
ancient
verse
is
as much
a
in
which
there
is
sense
accent,
Greek
as
accentual
course,
stressed
not
In
so.
more
not,
two
the
difference.
In
is
syllable
always
in
speech:
prose
Greek
verse,
the
names
modern
ancient
metrical
the
verse
that
syllable
bears
verse
ictus
of
do,
that
(to
use
is
the
term) is as often in conflict with the word
technical
as
accent
real
of
word-accent
But
verse.
represent
metrically
the
modern
as,
(rrepyeiv
for
in
instance,
at iraOai
yap
/xe yi> xpovos
$vvmv
jua/cpos SiSacncci.
0.
Soph.,
C.
7.
by saying that modern

Both
with ancient verse.
as compared
of
succession
a
kinds of verse have
recurring
regularly
stressed long syllables ; but in reading a modern verse, we
that is really
verse is accentual
And
are
guided
accent,
where
while
all that is meant
to
place
in reading
1 Cited
by J. M. Robertson,
those
stresses
by
natural
a Greek verse natural
in New Essays
towards a Critical
word
word-accent
Method,
p. 347.
OF METRICAL
478 RELATION
ICTUS
TO
ACCENT
and we must be guided

is utterly disregarded,
by some
That
else.
else
was
For
something
thing
quantity.
in
the verse of Sophocles
instance, the reciter was guided,
of
to the placing
above,
quoted
the
by
(Tripyeiv
short
of a stress on the last syllable
syllable
line.
reading
of long
and
modern
be the first syllable

the first syllable of the
verse,
short syllables
was
the clew
is the clew to the
certain
arrangement
to the reading
of an
verse.
ancient
The
and
next step in the inquiry is that we should ask why

a quantitative
clew to its verse, while English
used
Greek
is, that
German
is
Such
musical.
be
accent
of
natural
it is because
while
the
usual
of
old
Greek
and
was
implies the general proposition

a
of
with an exspiratory
poetry
language
with a musical
accent
Latin
was
Latin
quantitative
It is necessary,
accent
The
of English
an answer
and
of
accent.
the accent
accentual,
will
language
clew
exspiratory,
that the natural

accent
the
use
German
answer
the
so
the
generally,
will
as the word-accent
In other words,
of
and
yap;
first Qtaig of a Greek iambic line

followed by a short oneexcluding
the
it
exspiratory,
poetry
therefore,
natural
will be
of
poetry
would
As
quantitative.
follow
that
must
be pronounced
artificial.
to examine
this point rather
closely.
It is well known that word-accents
can be distinguished
different waysfirstly,
to the principle
according
in the word is determined,
on which their position
and,
to
their
nature.
secondly, according
in two
If we regard its position

three kinds of accentFree,
languages
with
F ree
accent,
in the word, we may

distinguish
i. In
Fixed, and Rhythmical,
each
word
has
one
chief
accent,
may fall in any part of the word, however long the

word may be.
Different inflexions of the same word may
which
have
the accent
is Fixed,
in different places.
2. When the accent
is determined on a uniform principle ;
its position
AND
and
it must
inflexional
must
and
be
in the
in
where,
PLAUTINE
VERSE.
479
same
in every part of an
place
accent is found in the Germanic
Fixed
system.
languages,
IN
QUANTITY
the
words,
uncompounded
accent
fall on the first syllable,

that is, the root-syllable;
it must remain
there throughout
all inflexions
or
by suffixes;
lengthenings
like, likeness, like

3. When
begin, hegdn, beginner.
it is restricted to certain syllables,
e.g., English
nesses, liken, likening-,

accent is Rhythmical,
its position being determined
depends
number
in each case by a law which

the
is, the
solely
rhythm of the wordthat
and quantity of its syllables.
When the word is
inflected
or increased
tion
on
of the
accent
is
by the addition
as
changed
of suffixes, the posi
often
as
bring it into harmony with the rhythmical

in Latin,
of accent is perfectly illustrated
is
necessary
to
This
kind
law.
less
perfectly in
Greek;
pdpulus,
e.g., vides, videtis, mdebdtur, videbatiirne;
free
and
fixed
kinds
accent
The
of
may be
populdrum.
as
that
intended
classed together
is, they were
Significant,
clearer:
to make the speaker's
meaning
they
originally
Thus in English
to the understanding.
were addressed
the predicative
from
and German, the accent distinguishes
the
elements
formative
of uncompounded
words.
But
the
in a
kind of accent
:
is,
sense, meaningless
rhythmical
to the ear, it is placed automatically.
It
it is addressed
will be seen that this distinction is not without importance
for the theory of Latin metric.
to its nature, two kinds of accent are usually
According
and
Musical.
Exspiratory
Exspiratory
distinguished
accent
is
often
to
supposed
consist
of the
breath,
musical
Grundy.*,
i. 52.
solely
in
stronger
solely in a
as
But,
Brugmann
points out,1 no accent
heightened pitch.
or purely a pitch-accent.
Differ
is purely a stress-accent,
associated.
But
ences' of pitch and stress are always
emission
and
accent
480
OF METRICAL
RELATION
where
the
called
element
of
stress
the
exspiratory,for
IOTUS
TO ACCENT
the
preponderates,
sake
is
accent
and
of convenience,
vice
versa.
In
accent is partly a musical

reality, every exspiratory
accent is partly an exspiratory
accent, and every musical
accent.
Thus the accent of ancient Greek is called musical,
while
the accent
of modern
Greekfound
in
the
same
called exspiratory.
position as in the ancient languageis
What has happened
is thatowing
to causes
of deep
interest and importance
stress-element
philologicallythe
in ancient Greek accent has continually
waxed, while the
has as continually
pitch-element
relations
have
The
been
character
of accent
can always be determined with

effects.
The effect of accent in the
from its
certainty
of a language
modification
of
strength
its
until their mutual
waned,
reversed.
is in direct proportion
stress-element.
Stress-accent
to the
lengthens
short vowels;
e.g., Ital. meno, fudco, from Lat.
N.H.G.
viel, gebe, from M.H.G.
focus;
vil, gebe.
the element
of stress is strongly preponderant,
originally
minus,
Where
the
vowels
and
of the
unaccented
in
Thus,
quality.
and
lose
syllables
both
unaccented
English,
indeterminate
quantity
vowels
are
in quality;
short,
normally
e.g., the
unaccented
of water, sailor, beggar, figure, have
syllables
When, in English or German, the
exactly the same sound.
unaccented
vowel is associated
with a nasal or liquid, the
vowel
is syncopated,
and the nasal
or liquid
becomes
as in gentleman, pron. gentlmn; Reisender,
sonant;
pron.
reisndr.
The accent
of English
and
it is also fixed.
German, then, is not only

Moreover
the element
of
exspiratory:
stress preponderates
in it as strongly as possible, especi
where all unaccented
ally, perhaps, in English,
syllables
' Ablaut.'
suffer
With
such conditions prevailing
normally
in
the
necessity.
languages,
As
an
accentual
the ictus falls
system
normally
of
on long
verse
is
syllables,
AND
IN
QUANTITY
PLAUTINE
481
VERSE.
are available
for its reception,
only the accented
syllables
all others having
lost both quantity
The
and quality.
accent is directly due to its
powerful action of English
character, but it may also be indirectly connected
fixed incidence.
An accent that abides
always
same
changes
mountain
that
torrent
more
produce
than
inflexions
that
to
keeps
conspicuous
a stream
that English
often
and German
the effects of exspiratory
the
will
We
action
see,
then,
not precisely
but
accent,
exspiratory
accent in those languages
are.'
accentual
can
of English
course.
an
have
languages
they
languages
channel
verse are accentual,
because
The
narrow
by its erosive
its
those
what
one
changes
changes
because
are
on
and
will
through
changes
a more powerful effect than one which
produce
under inflexion from syllable
to syllablejust
as
syllable
probably
a
all
with its
verse
be
of
other
accounted
for
modern
in
Indo-European
the
same
way
as
that
and German, which have been taken as their

Thus in Italian
normal
coincidence
of
representatives.
ictus and accent
is necessitated
by the fact that all accented
are long, and all unaccented
short.
syllables
syllables
have
We
seen
of the
tatives
why
tual verse ; let
us
of
representative
and
English
modern
tongues,
and
now briefly consider

the
ancient
as
German,
have,
represen
have,
accen
why Greek, as the

had,
tongues,
the
must
and
could
not
The accent of old Greek

verse.
had, quantitative
is shown, by the general absence of those effects which are
with an exspiratory
accent,
always observed in languages
been
musical.
as
has been pointed out, that
to have
But,
but have
not
does
from it.
element
mean
that
The
of
the
element
stress
was
element
of
of pitch
present,
stress
was
quite
predominated;
and
was
even
absent
but
the
strong
to produce certain effects.

This is, it is true, denied
but
is
held
to
be
Brugmann,1
proved by other philo
by
enough
HERMATHENAVOL.
XXI.
Grundr,2,
i, 1051.
2 I
482
OF METRICAL
RELATION
logists.
accent
the most certain trace of the effects of

Perhaps
the law discovered
which
by Wackernagel,1
the relation between
pairs of words like Kopar):
is
explains
; Old
KovpzvG
TO ACCENT
ICTUS
Att.
opaog:
ovpa.
these
tries
Brugmann2
but he
over
to
explain
in silence
the
passes
examples;
of
words 'sputj (for Ftpat)):
strongest instance of all, the pair
' it rains.'
:
Ind.
cf.
O.
Hirt
(for
varshati,
ovpem
Fopaeiw)
away
holds
law
to be proved.3
As regards
its
accent was rhythmical, though within
limits the original Ind.-Eur.
accentuation
Wackernagel's
incidence, the Greek
certain
narrow
was retained.
the
that
But the important
accented
vowels
vowels
unaccented
common
long
The
l^avioraiw.
orrixovTa,
But
syllables.
in
unaccentedas
the
ictus
long
very often short.

could not coincide,
as
a general
no
guide,
was
therefore,
or clew,
reader
of
verse
guide
saw
called
before
him
was
fall
are
the
accented
practice.
to
the
ictus,
Trpoa
like
how was he to be directed
to find the ictus
tion or stumbling, seeing

of receiving
were capable
that
three
on
often
very
syllables
and
The
accent
accent of
and
another
it, had to be found.

a word
in
normally
syllables
ictus
the
rich
fdaaiXiwg,
must
Consequently,
I have
as
as
is
and
short,
Greek
words
e^avitrravaiand
are
word,
often
Further,
long.
polysyllablessuch
point for the argument
were
If a
7r/>ocr<Tra'xovra,
without
hesita
consecutive
syllables
it ? And before the invention of
to be held firmly together, to be
writing, how were verses

clew was quantity,
kept in shape ? The
only possible
which the poets did not invent, but found there to their
and soldiers,
hand, in a language
spoken by shepherds,
and artizans.
an
of
short
and long
By
arrangement
which
was
the
syllables,
suggested
by
itself, the
language
reciter
1 Kuhn's
could
be
unerringly
Zeitschrift, 29. 127 ff.

J 846, Anm.
Grundr.2,
guided
in the placing
3 Handbuch
undFormenlehre,
der griechischen
237.
of the
Laut
AND
The
ictus.
IN
QUANTITY
use
unstressed
of a
short
VERSE.
for
the
syllable
of the
portion
PLAUTINE
foot,
by the fact that in all versein

unstressed
ancientan
syllable
I
stressed.
was
with
begins
verse,
on
rested
the
of
'
stress:
since
metre
enables
removes
latter
quantity
The aesthetic effect
a doctrine
and
suggested
shorter than a
function
recurring
Such
modern
and
unjustly
"
regularly
pulse-beat.'
ancient
unify
has
the
by
produced
is naturally
the
or
apatg,
verse as well as in
but practical.
was not directly aesthetic,
be
naturally
modern
that
then,
suggest,
marking
would
483
the
slur
us to
which
Renascence.
scholar
readily admits" the superiority
Every classical
over English,"
wrote an editor of
of Latin versification
verse
is
more
1836 ; and the belief that ancient
in
Dr. Nuttall,
Juvenal,
than
perfect
modern
verse
is
wide
probably
put forward will perhaps be

if
it is, it is directed against a
a
as
but,
heresy;
regarded
I
believe, is not of aesthetic origin
Quantity,
superstition.
The Goths, in the days of Wulfila, spoke
in any language.
The
spread.
possessed
not,
and
sense
of
contemporaries
is also
language
quantitative
a
here
doctrine
an
exalt
we
that
and
Shakespeare
its
to
over
verse
that
hold
were
that
lacking
?
Goethe
at the present
strictly quantitative
therefore,
are
instinct
day;
of the
rest
they
to
the
Hungarian
but we need
of modern
Europe.
The nature of old Greek verse is sufficiently revealed

the
facts and details of Greek metric, provided that those
by
Often they are treated
facts and details be interrogated.
as needing no explanationas
laws, to be
being ultimate
as
determined
the
needs of
used only a, priori, and not
by
the
that
men
made
places.
words
that
Why
of
the
permission,
and
them,
they had to work with.

Greek tragedy allows
was
measure
all
the
of the
character
material
For example, the iambic trimeter of

iambus in the odd
an ' irrational'
that ?
The
of
words
language
or
having
2 1 2
contained
TrpoaardxovTa.
two
or
more
many
Without
consecutive
ICTUS
OF METRICAL
484 RELATION
long syllables would

could still have been
have
TO
excluded.
been
ACCENT
Pure
iambics
written ; but each considerable

per
formance therein would have been a tour deforce. Why then
did they not admit such words to every foot in the line ?
: there would have been
it was simply impossible
Because
no clew for the reciterhe
such
averse
trochaic
feet was
as
just
might
iambic.
as well
a clew
But
in
have
the
made
alternate
in an English
or German
Again,
a
trochaic
ictus
we
as
we
have
often
seen,
line,
find,
in the first foot.
Why do we never, or almost never, find
it in Greek iambics?1
To modern verse it gives variety
sufficient.
iambic
and
in
an
added
some
charm.
answer
The
is
word-accent
respects,
the
to
better
is
question
verse-clew
that,
than
It is surer; it requires less attention on the part

quantity.
of the reciter.
some things are possible to a
Consequently
modern
poet
Greek
iambic
and
opening,
u | u z | _,
have
thus
was
If
debarred.
_ ^ u | _ s, say,
the
throwing
reason
line
that
that
those
iambics
Athenian
pronounced
same
the
precisely
an
which
with a trochee, followed by

line had begun
the reciter might have mistaken it for a dactylic
an iambus,
z
from
out
we
are
so
of
never
gear.
find
instead
It
in
of
is
for
Greek
in English
will show that it is
common
pauses
verse (see above, p. 473 f.). Experiment
to allow them in Greek dialogue
impossible
clew to their fluent recitation.
the
injuring
metres without
This
seems
to
of
be proved by the fact that such pauses [iempora inania
of
found
in
the
are
parts
lyric
constantly
Quintilian)
also
have
not
but
inver
There
we
only pauses,
tragedy.
sions
of
rtTpaaitfioi,
the music
the
etc.
ictus
and
(avaicXacrie)
The
furnished
reason
is
that,
prolongationsrpio-r/juoi,
in
the
lyric
passages,
the clew, not quantity.
1 The
only instances known to me are
Theb. 475, where an iamb,
in Aesch.,
trim, begins with 'hnrofieSovTos <Txyf+a,
' a concession
to the inevitable'
and Aesch.,
Choeph. 1049:
(Verrall);
re"
Aesch., Theb. 547*
1paioxiraiies.
jected by Dindorf, H. Wolf, Verrall,
and others.
AND
IN
QUANTITY
PLAUTINE
485
VERSE.
It would be interesting to pursue this subject, and to

seek the raison d'etre of other details of Greek metric ; but
the limits
of this paper forbid an exhaustive

treatment.
Enough has been said, perhaps, to bring support to the
doctrine that quantity in Greek verse had as its immediate
of an aesthetic effect, but the
function, not the producing
is
guiding of the reader or reciter in his declamationthat
to say, a merely practical
This seems to be
function.
shown by the fact that quantity is sacrificed wherever that
of damage
can be done without the practical inconvenience
in the alternate feet of
to the metrical clewfor example,
the
less
places
excellent
leaving
tion
to
one
the
belief
to
we
verse
less
the
have
to
inversion
the
bold
student
of the
in
that,
classics
way
fact
more
cannot
but
rules
without
convenience.
Greek
verse.
by
It had
occasional
pauses.
by permitting
was
to
the
respects,
lines
monotonous.
feel
to
superior
stated
some
the
before
made
that
often
to modern
of
cadence
wordit
the
is
which
ictus, and
of the
a
seen
to
But
been
some
definitely
the superiority
vary
wordand
more
ear,
living
here
due
partly
like to call atten
already
in
even
the
of the line by
utterance
I should
was
be
can
must yield
power
their
iambic
an
than
perfect
has
verse
belief
metres
of
places
the stately march
for
Reference
ancient
versea
reference
odd
less
of the subject
point.
that
ancient
But
time
longer
this part
modern
or
Or did they break
requiring
of
the
Were
SnrXamov.
yevog
trimeter
sadness
In
in
that
It must be granted
admitting it; but truth compels.
mo
more
verse
is
all
necessarily
quantitative
The preceding
verse.
than
accentual
notonous
and I
argument is an attempt to show why it must be so ;
Professor
the
late
witness
cite as a supporting
would
:
Newman
"
I have
Very
few
persons
; by listening
have
ever
to Hungarian
actually
poems,
heard
read
quantitative
to me
verse.
by my friend
OF METRICAL
486 RELATION
Francis
Mr.
single
page
'
replied:
untie,
So
the
turning
Pulszky,
I
before
we
do
native
complained
the
of his
changes
by frequent
and
it';
cut
poet
had
of
gravely
of
TO
He
Magyar.
complain
that
pages,
ICTUS
the
not
the
finished
a
He
monotony.
then
knot
ACCENT
showed
which
me,
he
by
could
not
metre."1
element in
have now inquired what is the essential
and
it
to
be
a
succession
of
stressed
found
verse,
syllables
in what
of time; we have inquired
at regular intervals
We
exact
ancient
sense
verse
modern
can
is
called
be
we
accentual;
verse
modern
verse
have
asked
and
accentual,
necessarily
and
quantitative,
further
why
ancient
verse
; and we have found that the function

quantitative
in
verse was not aesthetic, but practical.
Greek
quantity
has
been
so
not
as
because
the
because
what
are
languages
not
quantitative,
accent,
English
much
argued
accentual,
accent,
that
as
accented
so
because
vowels.
effects
they
had
have
they
and
because
short
ground
an
Greek
Greek
in
been
those
was
verse
a
had
and
accented,
having
exspiratory
accent
that
It
are
verse
German
of exspiratory
are;
much
it
The
and
of
thus,
musical
un
long
as
I hope,
cleared, we may pass to the subject of Latin versification,

to Plautine
versification.
and, more particularly,
II.
of the Latin language
approached
that of English or German than it did that of
Greek, then, doubtless, it follows that an accentual
poetry
would have been better suited to it than a quantitative
If the
character
more closely
poetry.
Some
authorities
seem
to
consider
is settled when it is said that the accent
that
the
of English
question
That seems
is, and the accent of Latin was, exspiratory.
to be the view of Prof. Skutsch,
for instance.
In the
1 Cited
by J. M. Robinson,
New Essays
towards
a Critical
Method.
London^
1897.
AND
course
of a
Vollmoller's
Klotz'
review
of
Klotz'
of
theory
VERSE.
Altrdmische
he
i8gi,
Jahresbericht,
quantitative
PL A UTINE
IN
QUANTITY
the
487
in
Metrik,
criticises
adversely
Saturnian
and
metre,
observes:
" Die
einfache
hinzugefiigt,
Accent
von
kennen
sowie
So
dass
oder
Griinden
naheliegenden
Poesie
quantitierende
ausschliesslich
mit musikalischem
iiber
den
Accent
ist,
Haufen."
as
a Latinist, and so sound a philologist,
with
the
on
such
a
speaks
subject
greatest
'
but I confess that the ' obvious reasons
(nahe
any
with
language
are
poetry,
modern
to
more
starting
with
to
not
less
our syllogism.
that
position
of
systems
this statement
that
also
We
any
the
as
natural
from
have
stock
that
and
our
major
system
been accentual,
must first establish
have
also
they
it seems
But
that
premiss,
of
there
all
that
recognise
Indo-European
accent,
exspiratory
to
or syllable-counting
clear.
quite
of verse.
deduce
fication would
accent
exspiratory
languages
or
accentual
an
than an accentual
me
European
a
of, which render it impossible
here spoken
the first any other
proceed
und,
exspiratorischem
accentuierende
Skutsch
liegende Griinde)
have
aus
Saturniertheorie
quantitierende
authority;
have
die
als
eminent
Prof.
for
andere
kennt
mit
sei
vorsichtig
Sprache,
Sprache,
eine
der Sprachen
Eigentiimlichkeit
wirft jede
aus
Poesie
kann,
keine
indogermanische
Haus
silbenzahlende
dass
Erwagung,
keine
Latin
if,
we
versi
is a flaw in
the general pro

have
stress-accent
with
all languages
and obviously we can only
accentual
an
;
poetry
naturally
do that if we show why it is necessary for the verse of such
if there are
And
a language
to be accentual.
again,
that fact also may vitiate

different degrees of stress-accent,
verse may only begin to
accentual
our reasoning
because
;
a
with
certain
be necessary
degree of stress-accent.
are both
accent
and Latin
accent
English
Though
called
exspiratory,
there
are
two important
differences:
488 RELATION
Latin
(i)
ICTUS
OF METRICAL
accent
English;
and
English
accent
was
TO
ACCENT
than in
strongly exspiratory
while
accent
was
rhythmical,
accent
The English
has, gene
all unaccented
vowels of length
less
(2) Latin
is fixed.
deprived
rally speaking,
The
and determinate
quality.
and early Imperial
Republican
accent, at least in
times, had not had that
Latin
effect.
and
are found in unaccented
vowels
syllables,
the
had
their proper
dratores.
Nor
quality;
e.g.
and early Imperial
times, the
accent, in Republican
Long
retain
Latin
effect of lengthening
vowels, as
originally short accented
in German, Italian, and modern
we see them lengthened
The Latin
Greek.
accent, therefore, though undoubtedly
could
exspiratory,
not
have
been
so
exspiratory
strongly
or German.
Further, it
English
does not seem quite safe to speak
of ' the Latin accent,'
as if the language
had remained
during the
unchanged
as the accent
whole
of
its
the Latin
of modern
literary
but
respects,
also
The
history.
of Juvenal
in
are widely
the
Latin
of
and
Plautus
different, not only in other
character
of
accent.
their
Even
in the time
of Horace, the Latin accent was probably not

it was in the time of Juvenal, since, in the time of
what
the
further
latter,
destruction
of
final
become
had
progress
in
been
made
towards
unaccented
the
For
quantity
syllables.
instance, Horace does not shorten an originally long final
but before Juvenal's
0, when a long syllable precedes;
day
0
had
everywhere
short.
In
the
time
of
as
is well known, most originally long termina

Plautus,
tions remained
under the Law
of Breves
long, except
B rem antes, so that we find such pronunciations

as orator
It would seem, therefore, that the stress-element
clamat.
in the Latin accent gained
from the
strength continuously
time of Plautus
to later Imperial times, when it probably

as strong as it is in modern Italian.
Latin accent
is only roughly classed when it is called exspiratory.
became
AND
that an
It is natural
feel that, if the
and
word,
become
one
the
why
accent
must
be
absurd.
obvious
the
it,
word
that
Perhaps
mentioned
reasons'
of
poetry
an
on
imposed
or
natural
only
accent
'
of the
489
VERSE.
or a German should
Englishman
is taken off a
prose stress-accent
natural
new
unintelligible
be
may
PLAUTINE
IN
QUANTITY
feeling
Skutsch,
by
stress
with
language
must
it is
In English
poetry.
the accentuation
of a word of
accentual
to change
simply impossible
native origin, or thoroughly naturalised,
because, generally
the unaccented
contain only the short
speaking,
syllables
indeterminate
vowel, which could not receive the accent
without
made
being
of the originally
indeterminate.
been
no
syllables
determinate
But
because
impossibility,
contained
vowels
of
capable
from
But, apart
while considering
of
sonant
syllable would, in turn, become

in Latin there could, at least, have
such
placement
the
whereupon
accented
unaccented
the
accented.
being
of impossibility,
it is worth
the dis
the feeling
against
questions
whether
a stress-accent
would
be
likely
to be
as
strong
a language
with a rhythmical
among a people
speaking
has
accent as it must be among a people whose language
of
the
a fixed accent.
accent
As has been said, the fixed
Germanic
for
the
language
In
understanding.
it distinguishes
origin
and
elements;
in
that is, it has a meaning
is significant,
it
compounds
has
Accent-shifting
affect the intelligibility
Take
The
the
place
the series
accent
the
accent
be
therefore
is meaning
only to the
less
likely
to
of a word in Latin than in English.

of words, vides, videtis, videbdtis, videbatisne.
moves
fourth.
would
logical
purely
But the rhythmical accent of Latin

for the understanding,
and is addressed
ear.
native
from the formative
function.
less
of
words
uncompounded
the predicative
step
by
Consequently
on
any
of
in some
the
almost
it was
syllable
it might not rest naturally
from
step
Latin
to
root-syllable
impossible
word
other inflexion
on
to
which
or some
490 RELATION
OF
other
the word videbatis

Suppose
accented on the firstvidebatis:
collocation.
been unnaturally
accentuation
would
it to
Suppose
secondvidebatis:
in videbas.
videbatiseven
enclitic
I do
to the
at least
have
have
if it had
that pronunciation
to
the
on the last
to prove
not suppose
this reasoning
versification.
actual facts of Plautine
objection
and
on
familiar
when
an
followed.
Latin
word
than
there
that
suggest
anything as
They must
methods, by means of an exami

Its object has been to show that
there is no a priori objection

of
an
in vides.
at least
familiar
was
to have
such
accented
accented
been
ACCENT
familiar
unnaturally
accentuation
was
be proved by a,posteriori
nation of Plautine
verse.
tion
TO
been
been
that
And
ICTUS
METRICAL
in
to an 'unnatural'
at
verseor,
be
would
least,
in English
conclusions
as
to
the
accentua
a
less
strong
or German
sort
of verse
to Latin, drawn from a hasty comparison

and modern Germanic
accents, are in danger
suited
naturally
of the Latin
of error
from
therefore,
now,
Plautine
the
of important
overlooking
proceed
versification
to
with
interrogate
a view
by a posteriori methods, an answer

for solution.
which I had proposed
differences.
the
actual
facts
I
of
to winning from them,

to the specific questions
The preceding
inquiry
into the essential

element in verse, the meaning of' quanti
'
and ' accentual'
as applied
to verse, the true func
tion of quantity in Greek verse, and the character
of the
tative
word-accent
in the languages
involved in the discussion
all that inquiry has been designed
to facilitate as objective
an interpretation
as possible of the facts, an interpretation
of any particular
school of Plautine
critics.
independent
III.
The
chief question
may be thus stated : Is Plautine

or purely quantitative
? Or does
accentual,
purely
it partake of both characters i And if it partakes of both
verse
AND
to what
characters,
determined
causes
IN
QUANTITY
PLAUTINE
is that fact due,
the
VERSE.
and
of the
employment
what
one
491
cause
or
the
or
other
principle in any given case ? And the precise meaning of

verse purely accentual,'
is this :
the question, ' Is Plautine
the
stress
of his
Did the actor of a Plautine
play place
always on the syllable which would have borne it in
which
place it on syllables
prose, or did he sometimes
would not have borne it in prose, and neglect or suppress,
voice
when
a
of
statement
the
is
as
it to
assume
So
concrete
because
necessary
decided
quite
of course,
I,
accent
prose
question
writers do not seem

of ictus.
the
necessary,
metrically
to the precise
have
been
some
nature
and
stress,
A conclusive
the point will, I hope, be definitely proved.
answer to part of the question proposed
may be found in
That law
the working of the law of Breves Breviantes.
be
may
thus
stated:
the
need
be
not
in
connected
closely
in
^ - and
symbols,
itthat
on
word,
but
as
utterance
if
next
syllables
must
u and
u _ & became
is,
the
of
sequence
same
the
in
syllable,
fell
imme
or
syllable,
The
syllable.
or
was
after
immediately
short
preceding
following
Or
or
before
diately
nature
by
by
word-accent
preceded
position,
if the
itself
shortened
on
long
short
syllable
and
they
be
as
were.
u u & respec
It need hardly be said that we have here no

tively.
mere metrical phenomenon,
but a linguistic
phenomenon,
The
of speech.
the causes of which lie in the physiology
obvious.
not
if
it
were
can
be
tolerably
point
proved,
operated if Latin had had no poetry

at all.
But when we find this law operating in verse, the
if metrical ictus
; because,
question is slightly complicated
and if it could fall on syllables
was itself a stress-accent,
The
law would
unaccented
the
time
whether
have
in prose,
the
and
natural
the ictus
could
prose
could
suspend
accent,
not have
the
usurped
and
abolish
question
for
arises
the functions
of
492 RELATION
OF METRICAL
the
and
accent,
prose
have
ICTUS
acted
as
by the law of Breves Breviantes.

I take for the present a single
TO
ACCENT
in
shortening
factor
of the working
example
of this law in the verse of Plautus:

dedisse
dono
hodi6,
qua
te llli
|| donatum
6sse
dfxeras.
Am.
761.
It is not disputed
that the ictus fell as I have marked
It is not disputed that the first foot is a tribrach,
and that it becomes
so by the operation
of the law of
the line.
Breves
ment
Breviantes.
not be
the
word-accent
abolished.
porarily
the law
how ?
It follows
from the state
the middle
of dedisse
syllable
if the word-accent
remained
shortened
therefore
has
It also
been
follows
could
it:
upon
and
superseded
tem
from the statement
fallen
shortened
to a Latin word-accent
equivalent
before
or immediately
after
immediately
the
syllable,
breviata.
The
only
trace
of such
a stress here is the ictus on the first syllable of dedisse.

that in this place
follows, therefore, indisputably
metrical
strong
of
that a stress
must have
the
But
of the law that
ictus
as
was
Latin
temporary
word-accent,
at
stress-accent
that
it
fell
on
It
the
least
as
syllable
in prose, that it superseded

and abolished
the
and that it shortened
the middle syllable of
prose-accent,
dedisse.
There is only one escapethe
ultima
ratio of
unaccented
declaring
safely be
phenomenon
1
the
line
rejected
occurs
corrupt.1
; but the
are
too
has, it is true, suggested

with
the
hesitationthat
shortening in dtdisse here may possibly
be due to ' the accentuation
of the
Lindsay
though
dedisse-ddno'
word-group
(Capt. 1900,
is
But the suggestion
Intr,, p. 36).
it
because
even though
surprising;
were granted that dedisse-ddno formed
If it stood
verses
in
it might
alone,
which the same
numerous
to
be
rejected,
a word-group,
and that dedisse was a
proclitic in that group, without even so
much as a secondary accent, even then
the shortening would not fall under
any statement
Breviantesthe
of the
tion he of course
law
law
of Breves
to whose
attributes
it.
opera
AND
even
if their
remarkable
PLAUTINE
IN
QUANTITY
not forbidden
were
rejection
The
circumstance.
493
VERSE.
a certain
by
instances
do
not
occur
conditions.
in the text, but under special
indiscriminately
They have been collected by Ahlberg
(De Correptione Iam
bica Plautina.
Lundae.
1901). Ahlberg began his inquiry as
an
adherent
of the
view
it is
that
the
and
word-accent,
the metrical ictus, which operates in the shortening

He
in Plautus
under the law of B. B.
syllables
not
of long
is con
He gets rid
sequently an unwilling witness, as it were.
is possible
whenever
it
of instances
to
that
view,
opposed
caused by
to do so, by supposing
enclisis, accent-shifting
and so forth. But after all
so-called
elision,
synizesis,
an irreducible
minimum
of
there remained
deductions,
under
the
which
instances
of shortening
word-accent,
to sound critical
could not be got rid of without violence
and
scientific
of them
All
method.
or
in
verse.
the
In
anapaests.
the
fact
anapaests
view
are
which
peculiarities
ditions,
in
Now,
of the
to
of
numerous
handed
is
strong
that
of
have
of
parts
metrical
same
the
or trochaic
they
to occur
con
shortening
colon,
been
or in
correctly
down.
already examined
in the first foot of a trochaic
I have
other
all
other
instances
these
evidence
in
under
occur
occur in the first foot of an iambic

anapaests,
found
line or hemistich,
occur
they
found
all
that
were
or trochaic
in the first foot of an iambic
instance
distraxissent
from
disqu6
an
a typical
occurring
I will take one
septenarius.
anapaestic
tulissent
instance
|| satellites
octonarius
tui
miserum
m6
foede.
Trin. 833.
two syllables
shortened, and both would
if the view of Lindsay
in prose,
been
accented
have
were enclitic, is
and Skutsch, that pronominal
adjectives
the
to
seeks
correct.
shortening of the
explain
Lindsay
Here
we have
494 RELATION
METRICAL
OF
ICTUS
TO
ACCENT
that in this word the older Latin

syllable -ell- by supposing
accentuation
on the first syllable
But even if
survived.
that were admitted,
the shortening
of -tes has still to be
accounted
foran
enclitic.
But
cause
can
accented
whether
be
; and if it was
prose-accent,
caused
shortening
723, Trin.
The
Am.
law
of B.
of both
B.
the
either!
accent
prose
Poen.
1278,
of
examples
Bacch. 1106, Aul
Other
are
907,
922,
871,
90,
Capt.
etal.
431;
321,
the
overpowered
the
with
the
Mil.
821,
the
it is marked
of the
statement
other
than
shortening
Yet it is held that it could not have
in question.
syllables
had
to do
anything
under
the
and
no
not,
shortening
admittedly fell as
from
have
above,
given
or
here
a stress-accent
it must,
if tut was an
(in prose),
accented
for its
assigned
ictus.
The ictus
metrical
above
syllable
was
-tes
of
shortening
761 would
the
middle
of
syllable
dedisse
in
not have
the effect of making

the word
because
a
similar
would
unintelligible,
pronunciation
be familiar in dedissemus and dedzssetis.
Even
those
the
annul
law
scholars
prose
of B. B.
accept
the
Plautus,
following
can
cause
ictus
of
is shortened
or followed
immediately
preceded
2. No originally
long
I think,
to
power
the
by
refuse
to
facts:
in Plautus
unless it is
the
metrical
ictus.
by
is shortened
under the
Phil. Woeh., 1891, p. 77).
syllable
ictus (Seyffert, in Berliner
are shortened
3. Some long syllables
accent (Ahlberg,
op. cit.).
metrical
the
shortening
hardly,
statement
syllable
to
deny
and
accent,
in
1. No long
who
under
the prose
If only the first two of these statements be

admitted,
the facts are very significant.
If the third be also admitted,
the conclusion
to which the facts point is clear.
Lindsay,
quoting
the
second
of
these
statements,
suggests1
that
Op. cit., p. 38.
AND
IN
QUANTITY
there
is an
which
he would
quern
PLAUTINE
495
And.
Trag.
38. R,
immulgcns
opem.
in Liv.
instance
adverse
VERSE.
scan
alui
eg8 nefrendem
lacteam
But the line can be scanned

r
quem
alui
ego nefrendem
lacteam,
&c.,
the shortening in this part of the line of the accented syl

lable in nefrendem being justified, according
to Ahlberg's
rules (op. cit.), by the elision.
It
is
a large
at
was,
least
any
as
be seriously
times
one
course
as
ask
shortening
contended
why
ictus
another
to
have
seems
It
anapaests.
may
be
and
thought
that
ictus
was
and
at
at
that,
and
accent,
prose
accented
only in the first foot of iambic
corrupt
which
prose,
the
that the metrical
sometimes
the
in
overpowered
of an
as
reject
the metrical
stress-accent
word-accent
it
thing,
we
in Plautus,
sometimes,
sometimes,
the
caused
rate
unless
that,
of passages
strong
rate
any
therefore,
clear,
number
Can it
syllable.
ictus was some
we
But
had
this
trochaic
this
must
power
and
cola,
was
of
in
'special
because
used sparingly
he felt it to
licence,'
by Plautus
be a straining of the language.
Why, then, did he use
Let us not think so
it at all ? Under metrical stress ?
of that genial
lightly of the facile powers

it can
be
shown
that
no
metrical
stress
artist.
existed.
Besides,
And
why
did he elect to use it in any foot of an anapaestic

line, but
and trochaic cola ?
in the first foot only of iambic
which has
is the only metre in Plautus
The anapaestic
' irrational'
each foot contains
In anapaests
feet.
rigidly four morce, no more and no less, and the metrical
no
ictus recurs
an
anap.
always
This
punctually
octon.
falls
on
contains
the
is not the case
3rd,
of four morae.
at intervals
morae,
thirty-two
7th,
nth,
....
and
and
so
with any other metre used
the
on,
Thus
ictus
morae.
by Plautus
496 RELATION
(the rare
OF
septenarius,
be
may
dactylic
for
METRICAL
TO
number
ACCENT
In the trochaic
disregarded).
the
example,
ICTUS
of morse
and the ictus might

twenty-three to twenty-nine,
did
not
show
that
any regular numerical
syllables
in
Consequently,
anapaests
was
quantity
from
ranged
perfect
fall on
order.
clew
to
of the ictus or metrical

is, to the placing
stress.
The actor, as it were, cut up his line into perfectly
equal lengths as he went along, and dropped his stresses
at equal
without paying
the slightest
intervals,
regard
the metrethat
Hence lines like Trin. 239, which

of prose.1
to excite the surprise of Professor Lindsay
(Capt.
to the accent
seem
Introd.
p. 77):
We
can
Plautus
the
under
go
law
see
the
ictus
of
B.
B.
in
impossible
astrayto
of the
line.
lose
part
will appear,
In iambic
reason
possible
in
almost
to
now
allowed
That
to
part
in
why
shorten
any
&c.
menddx,
harpdgo,
blandlloquentulus,
accented
of
the
for
syllables
line.
the
anapaests
the
verse-clewin
this
was
the
anapaests
actual
It
was
reciter
any
reason
I hope, in the succeeding

and trochaic verse Plautus
argument.
allows this special
shortening only in the first foot. Why ? It could not have
been because
he felt it to be a straining of the language,
or that words so ' mispronounced'
became unintelligible
or
ridiculous.
A mispronunciation
is not more tolerable
in
the first foot than
tolerable
elsewhere
in anapaests
in the line; nor is it more

metres.
It is impos
than in other
1 This is
perhaps too strong a state
ment. Plautus adopted for his anapaests
the dipody-law
of the Greeks, which
forbade a dactyl in the second place of

the dipody unless it was preceded by a
but he adopted
dactyl in the first place;
it with a slight modification.
He
allowed
a dactyl in the second place
of the dipody even when other feet

the dactyl preceded in the first
that the word-accent
place, provided
than
rested on the first short syllable of the

dactyl in question, that is, on the first
of the resolved
arsis.
syllable
instances see Klotz,
Allr. Metr.,
281 ff.
For
pp.
AND
IN
QUANTITY
PLAUTINE
VERSE.
497
sible to separate
this particular
of the first foot
privilege
from others.
It is well known that a number of Plautine
rules are relaxed
metrical
that
too,
are
for the first foot.
relaxed
also
It is significant,
wherever
for anapaests,
they
The reason, therefore, why any particular licence
possible.
is found in the first foot of iambic or trochaic verse (and in
will probably explain why all the rest are found
anapaests)
there.
It has already been remarked that Plautine

iambic
and trochaic verse differs from anapaestic verse in admitting
' irrational'
The number of syllables
found in
feet freely.
such lines was not constant, and the ictus fell on syllables
that did not show

was
that
order.
The con
any regular numerical
it was harder to recite such verses
sequence
without hesitationharder
to steer the voice without stumb
That this difficulty was felt by

ling to the end of the line.
Plautus
is proved by the existence
of those metrical rules
this statement.
referred
Let
me
illustrate
A
to.
already
dactyl
first
might
six
feet
take
a
of
the place
trochaic
reciter met a dactylic

it was
for
possible
whether
he
whether
he should
should
the sequence
third.
How
A
number
sequence
him
give
to
When,
beginning
hesitate
the
in any
of a trochee
septenarius.
whole
for
sequence
of the
a trochaic
foot,
uncertain
moment,
to
therefore,
that
foot,
or
of
give to it only the first two syllables
foot
with
a
new
the
and
begin
(a trochee)
is the difficulty met in Plautine versification?
of rules
Plautus.
have
are
They
Four
they overlap.
am considering.
been
disengaged
from
and
the
text
of
sometimes
mostly prohibitions,
or five bear on the particular
case
1. A dactylic word or word-ending

may not occupy the
this forbids, e.g.,
foot:
in
the
first
of
a
trochee
place
except
pectora \ mulcent.
2. A dactylic word or word-ending
may not occupy the
foot: this forbids
first
in
the
of
an
iambus,
place
except
pectora | mulcent.
HF-RMATHENAVOL.
XII.
2 K
OF
498 RELATION
METRICAL
TO
ICTUS
ACCENT
3. The first two syllables of an anapaest may not be the

it forbids sed fee \ tora mul \ cent,
ending of a polysyllable:
or sed pec \ tdra mul \ cent. This rule does not apply to
anapaests.
word may not receive the ictus on its

4. A dactylic
middle syllable, except in the first foot of dialogue
metres,
and in anapaests ; it forbids pectdra.
be combined,
Now if these four prohibitions
they give
metres a
positive rule, namely, that in dialogue
must be accented
word or word-ending
on its
dactylic
such a rule
first and third syllablespectord.
Obviously
But when we combine with it the rule
facilitates scansion.
a single
caesura
trochaic
of a
dactyl
{e.g., confl | ge
for a reciter
to
impossible
sagit | Us), it is practically
a dactyl for a trochee.
I regard these
stumble by speaking
forbidding
an
as
therefore,
rules,
aesthetic,
conventionalas
purpose.
a practical,
serving
Professor
sees
Lindsay1
in
not
the
rule
of a dactylic word on its middle

forbidding the accentuation
"
for
the
natural
accentuation
of words."
regard
syllable
had
then,
Why,
less
Plautus
tual of words in anapaests

?
metres
can
see
But
if these
they
why
rules
should
as we have
verse-clew:
first foot
supported
accentuation
pectdra
accentuation
dence
would
begins
that
served
been
genera
in
this
natural
practical
relaxed
and trochaic
accen
we
purpose,
for
anapaests
In anapaests,
for a reciter to miss the
seen, it was impossible

it was equally impossible
of the dialogue
metres.
by another
the
in the first foot of dialogue
have
and the first foot of iambic
for
regard
and
cola.
to go astray
of Plautine
detail
in the
This
explanation
versification.
is
The
is allowed
in the first foot, but an

is never allowed.
Is it a mere coinci
case
particular
an
accentuation
genera
even in the first foot ?
to uncertainty
an iambic line, the ictus
lead
Capt.
App,
must
If peclora
fall on the middle
p. 360.
AND
IN
QUANTITY
PLAUTINE
499
VERSE.
but if genera had been allowed to begin an iambic

syllable;
line, the ictus might have fallen either on the second or third
find
we
then,
When,
syllable.1
Plautus
an
shortening
syllable by the law of Breves Breviantes only in

and in the first foot of the dialogue
metres, we
accented
anapaests
are justified
in suspecting
that his reason for doing so was
with his reason for confining many other relaxions
Let us
of his metrical rules to the same parts of his verse.
identical
In Am. 761 he begins a trochaic line with

test this point.
But
to miss the clew.
didisse ddno; and it is impossible
in
middle
of
dedisse
dono
the
sed
tibi
he
had
written
suppose
a line:
the
must
reciter
hesitated
have
sed tibi
between
he had known that the

dedtsse and sed tibi dedisse, unless
forbidden in that
dedisse was conventionally
pronunciation
It appears,
therefore, that Plautus only
part of the verse.
from shortening
abstains
by the
long accented
syllables
power of the metrical ictus
viantes when he is forced
the
confusing
he
verse
accent
at
stress-accent
do
In
clew.
other
parts
the
metrical
least
by the
so
But
shortening.
at all proves that
shortening
tine
metrical
to
such
admits
the law of Breves
under
danger
of
his
strong
as
of
verse
of such
existence
in Plau
ictus was
as
Bre
the
word
of prose, that it could fall on syllables unaccented

and that it could temporarily prevail over and
in prose,
annul
the
accent.
prose
Let us consider
laud6,
now a verse like the following:
malum
amici
quom
tuom
ducfs
malum.
Capt.
If the preceding
argument
stressed the second syllable
1 The
bidden
accentuation
also
prohibition
in
was
genera
is sound, the actor must have

of laudo, and have pronounced
was
for
There
the
anapaests.
rendered necessary
151.
the Plautine
modification
of the Greek
re
for anapaests, already

dipody-law
ferred to in note 1 on page 496.
by
2 K 2
500 RELATION
METRICAL
OF
ICTUS
TO
ACCENT
first syllable
without stress, and so on through the
had
line. What clew
he to that 'unnatural'
accentuation?
its
but quantity.
He stressed
the second
because
of the short syllable
following
Nothing
of laudo
as
syllable
it, just
in
Koka<rrijV
iw
7rplv -qjjM.pTrjjjAvMV,
Soph., 0. C. 439,
the actor's
voice was guided to the stressing of the second

of
u> by the short first syllable of Ko\aarriv. As
syllable
there are thousands
of such verses in Plautus,
it follows
that
his
modern
verse
was
not
accentual
verse is accentual.
That
in
the
sense
in
which
fact indeed
is sufficiently
technical metrical
indicated
by the very existence of those

rules which have been already referred to. If they have been
here rightly interpreted as serving a merely practical pur
pose, they clearly prove that the poet felt it to be a matter
of the first importance
to provide his actors with a sure
conventional
where
need
guide or clew to the verse in all those metres

there was any possibility of going astray.
But he
'
had
have
no anxiety on this head if the
natural
accentuation
of
the
words'
the pronunciation.
That
the'natural
accentuation'
of different
phrases
stressing,
had
been
the Plautine
sufficient
is further indicated
in
different
clew
to
actor did not follow

metres,
by instances
of the same
\ e.g.
quoi homini df sunt pr6pitif.
Cure.
quoi homini di sunt propitii.
531.
Ib. 557
But it is notorious
that the metrical ictus coincides with

to a conspicuous
It was
degree in Plautus.
and
has been reaffirmed by Ritschl,
by Bentley,
and other scholars.
The fact is indis
Lindsay,
But in view of the evidence
already considered,
the word-accent
observed
Skutsch,
putable.
AND
it would
P LAV
IN
QUANTITY
or
language,
an
produced
nunc
quia
involved
accent
felt that, he might have
VERSE.
from it that Plautus
be rash to conclude
conflict of ictus and
TINE
felt that
of the
any straining
result.
unpleasing
If
written more verses
remissus
501
6st ed6ndi
he
had
like
ex6rcitus.
Capt. 153.
We must consider
A
certain
accent
there was any other cause.
first whether
amount
of
between
correspondence
ictus
and
is accounted
for, as we have seen, by certain techni

cal rules, adopted or invented by Plautus
for the guidance
of his actors.
But there is another
The Latin
cause.
is rich
of the measure
of spectdtdres,
concldmabant.
Such
words
could find
drdtores, effundebant,
no place
in iambic
or trochaic
verse strictly composed
after the Greek model.
It was necessary,
therefore, for
language
the
Roman
from
the
modify
tive.
But
and
trochaic
strictest
comic
use
the
in words
of
Greek
they
model.
can
models.
abstain
the
the
chosen
be
and
Catullus
or
latter
Latin
Horace
to
alterna
other.
in
written
altogether
metres,
dialogue
chose
They
have
to
in
words
might
verse
Greek
either
poets
such
Iambic
after
wrote
the
poems
in pure iambi, and the Pervigilium

Veneris is written in
trochaics which conform to the requirements
of the Greek
metre.
But if Plautus
had retained the Greek model, as
we find it in the New Comedy,
he would
have been
and his verse
hampered,
some of its comic force.
would
have
lost freedom
modified
the
and
Greek
Having
a spondee
into every foot
model, therefore, by admitting
but the last of iambic cola, and the seventh of trochaic
sept.,
he produced
sed
verses
spectatores,
like
vos
these:
nunc
ne
miremini.
Bacch.
stulte
ecastor
fecit:
sed
tu enumquam
cum
quiquam
1072.
viro.
Cist. 86.
502 RELATION
OF
METRICAL
TO
ICTUS
ACCENT
quantity does not give the clew

to the placing
of the metrical ictus.
As, therefore, the
admission
to comic verse of words like spectatores involved
it was
the frequent failure of the quantitative
verse-clew,
It is obvious
that here
necessary to find another

clew was word-accent.
reciter
of iambics
in the
alternate
feet.
clew;
Now,
or trochaics
and the only other possible

in the Greek model, the
for his
looked
verse-clew
feet, which might be called the guiding

continues
to give the clew in the same
the Roman
which decrees that
Dipody-law,
Plautus
feet.
Hence
when
the thesis
in the even feet of iambics,

feet of trochaics, consists of a long syllable,
bear the word-accent.
The law is conveniently
negative form ; but its real force was positive.
or the odd
it must not
stated
in a
If the long
thesis in the guiding-feet was not accented,

a neighbour
arsis
was
and
the
accented;
ing
plain meaning
always
of the law is simply this:
When
the quantitative
clew
in the guiding-foot
must be an
there
fails,
accentual
clew.
are used
sheer
It
necessity.
quantity
not the
The
side by side;
may
be
clew is used from

that
said
safely
clews
accentual
and
quantitative
and the accentual
where
the
a sufficient clew to the ictus, Plautus

shows
and
to
of
ictus
the
conflict
slightest
objection
gives
word-accent.
Professor
in the essay
on The Accentual
Lindsay,
in Early
Latin
Verse already
referred to, sees
evidence
that the Latin language
was from its character
suited to accentual
rather than to quantitative
verse in the
Element
modifications
poets.
Hexameter,
deliberate
does
cannot
made
changes
words
of Greek
There
any
by the Augustan
reasonable
by Horace,Vergil,
doubt
and Ovid
and
prove
or metrical
anything
for the
beat
Latin
that
the
in the Sapphic,
were
Pentameter,
respectively,
"
to
reconcile
the
stress-accents
attempt
with the ictus

that
metres introduced
be
due
of the line."
to
of the
Rut
of the Plautine
AND
IN
QUANTITY
PLAUTINE
503
VERSE.
that the earlier Roman

imi
age ? It is usually supposed
tations of Greek verse were the freerthat they approached
more
assumed
the
to
nearly
to have
national
been
Italian
which
of verse,
type
is
If that is so, why do we

like Catullus conforming
model than Ovid ? The
accentual.
find republican writers of elegiacs

more completely
to the Greek
poets were highly cultured : their instinct must

Yet
to copy the Greeks as closely as possible.
out of their way, apparently,
to do what earlier
Augustan
have been
they go
poets had not doneto
changes in the Greek models.

They must, it would seem, have felt some pressure, and
they must have felt it more strongly than the republican
It has already been suggested
that the character
poets.
of the
Latin
between
accent
the Plautine
p.
century
Ch.
n.,
as
make
must
have
we
see
from
considerably
By the third
changed
and Augustan
the
ages.
of Commodianus,
poems
That
quantity was practically
destroyed in spoken Latin.
is to say, short quantity in accented, and long quantity in
unaccented
Latin.
in
the
become
no
longer
found
in
spoken
change
change implies a strictly concomitant
It must have
accent.
character
of the Latin
more
impossibility
we
were
syllables,
That
must
strongly
that the
assume
for
It is a physiological
accent which
exspiratory
exspiratory.
strongly
the
third
could
century,
have
in
with the long quantity still found unimpaired
like
This
Plautus.
of
final syllables
in the time
change,
must have been silent and un
all changes
in language,
coexisted
but continuous;
and, therefore, we seem to be
that the Latin accent
the
conclusion
justified in drawing
in the Augustan
age was more strongly exspiratory than it
had been in the early republican
age, and to that fact were
perceived,
due
the
Augustan
Saturnian
changes
made
in certain
Greek
metres by the
of
the remains
I do not here discuss

poets.
verse in their bearing on my subject.
It seems
OF
504 RELATION
that
in the
conclusions
THE
METRICAL
state of our knowledge

present
are to be obtained
from them.
As regards the general question

and accent in ancient verse, I have
ETC.
ICTUS,
no
of the relations
certain
of ictus
hinted
already
that, to
or a German, it almost necessarily seems an
an Englishman
unnatural
thing that words should have had in poetry an
But the language
different from that of prose.
accentuation
of prose and the language

of poetry serve different purposes.
The one speaks chiefly to the understanding
: the other, to
the soul.
It is not unnatural,
that
the poet,
therefore,
when he takes
to diviner
meaner
the speech of the market-place

and turns it
uses, should seek in all ways to put off from it its
associations.
is called
Hence,
undoubtedly,
the
use
of what
poetic
Hence, too, the poet discards as
much as possible
the petty emphasis
of prose, and sings
in solemn pulses, or the happy beat ofjoy.
then,
Perhaps,
to an ancient poet it may have been a boon to be able to
air by chanting
strip a word at once of its work-a-day
it
to
another
diction.
and
stranger
cadence.
CHARLES
EXON.

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THE RELATION OF METRICAL ICTUS TO ACCENT AND QUANTITY IN PLAUTINE VERSE

Author(s): CHARLES EXON

important problem of Plautine

This problem may

agreement with Prof. Skutsch.

of originally long syllables

syllable in shortening a following

was the word-accent

of prose, or the metrical

to regard this shortening as a purely metrical phenomenon,

one writer3 at least

that they should

Jahresb. 1891,4 where

1 In his Sch.edia.sma de Metr. Terent.

Latin Prosody ? in the Amer. Jour, of

verse on its contemporaries

to the ear a beat or pulse

need not be exactly equal.

for the sake

as long on that part in recitation

to call such syllables

time is filled out by a pause.

Viola. A bldnk, my 16rd.

She n6ver t61d her 16ve,

Twelfth Night, ii. 4. 112 ff.

last line here exhibits

of the accent in the first

last line as follows1:

' -kenn' ich'

many originally short vowels which in

metre differs from the English.

two short syllables

six 61<juq, that is to

are long, except

say, six stressed

did its effect, as verse, depend?

that if you put a

stress in the dtoae ?or if long

were found in the

verse, or that which is peculiar to

Surely, then, that

element ? Many writers seem to hold that the aesthetic

If it was, why do we also find stressed syllables

If that is the right view, then we must

the full beauty

to deny that quantity

it or feel its effect.1 Such

quantity was the cause of, or even con

quantity in ancient verse served

verse are usually

term) is as often in conflict with the word

/xe yi> xpovos

by saying that modern

all that is meant

a Greek verse natural

and we must be guided

of a stress on the last syllable

be the first syllable

is the clew to the

next step in the inquiry is that we should ask why

implies the general proposition

that the natural

first Qtaig of a Greek iambic line