CHAPTER II. METRE § 1. Metrical Feet. 230 RHYTHM (numerus) is the harmonious proportion, which results from the methodical arrangement of words according to their long and short syllables; and from a recurrence of an emphasis or stress at intervals. If the rhythm is not regulated by fixed laws it is called prosaic (solutae orationis numerus). If the emphasis recurs according to a definite measure, the rhythm becomes metre (metrum). Every recurrence of the emphasis is termed a metre, and those collections of metres, which recur as distinct wholes, are called verses or lines (versus). 231 The emphasis, on which the metre depends, is called the ictus, because the time was marked by a stamp of the foot; hence the old Latin metre, or Saturnian verse, was termed tripudiatio— triplex pedis pulsatio; and Horace says (3 Carm. XVIII. 15), gaudet invisam pepulisse fossor ter pede terram, 'the labourer delights to have beaten the hated earth with the three blows of his foot,' i. e. to dance in the old fashion. When the emphatic and unemphatic parts of the metre are contradistinguished, they are called the arsis (ǎpois) and thesis (Oéois) respectively, i. e. the raising and sinking of the voice. 232 Every short syllable, which is the unit of metre or measurement, is considered as one mora or 'time;' and every long syllable consists of two such morae. According to this principle, long syllables are resolved, short syllables combined, and rhythms calculated. 233 When a rhythm is considered as the element of a verse, it is called a 'foot' (pes), and the division of verses into feet is called scanning or scansion (scansio, i. e. ascending or climbing up by steps, whence a scale in music, from scala, ‘a ladder'). The following are all the combinations of long and short syllables, which are called feet, and which have distinctive names: Of two Syllables: Although it is necessary that the student should know this nomenclature, he must be assured from the first that it points to an erroneous classification, and that it will not help him to understand the first principles of Greek or Latin metre. 234 There are only two kinds of proper feet or distinct and primitive rhythms. (a) The equal rhythms, consisting of four morae, in which one long syllable is opposed to two short, so that the ratio is 1; these are Dactylus, the dactyl,' -; as mūnĕră; Anapaestus, the anapæst,' -; as lāpīdēs. (b) The double rhythms, consisting of three morae, in which a long and a short syllable are opposed, so that the ratio is ; these are Trochaeus, 'the trochee,' -; as mūsă; Iambus, the iambus,' ~; as amās. To these may be added the representative feet; i. e. the spondaeus or 'spondee,' which represents (232) the equal rhythm by two long syllables, as dicunt, and the tribrachys or tribrach,' which represents the double rhythm by three short syllables, as brevibus. 235 If in any verse the regular course of the rhythm is preceded by an unemphatic syllable, whether long or short, this is called an anacrusis, or 'back stroke,' and if the anacrusis extends to three or four morae, it is called a basis or 'pedestal.' It is customary to mark the onward course of the ictus by the acute accent, the anacrusis by the grave, and the basis by the two accents crossing one another. The divisions of the feet are marked by vertical lines, and the change of rhythm in the middle of the verse by two vertical lines. 236 All verses, except the dactylic and the old Saturnian trochaics, reckon the metre by a double foot or dipodia, as it is called, and have only one ictus to the pair of feet. 237 It is essential to the harmony of a line that some one or more of its feet should be divided between two different words. This division is called caesura or 'cutting.' There are two kinds of caesura—the masculine, strong, or monosyllabic caesura, when only the first syllable of the foot is in the preceding word; and the feminine, weak, or trochaic caesura, where the first two syllables of a dactyl are in the preceding word, and the remaining short syllable in the word which follows. Thus in the following line we have strong caesuras in the third and fourth feet, and weak caesuras in the first and second places: Arma vir-\umque | cano Tro-jae qui | primus ab oris. If a word is so placed in a verse as to coincide with a metrical foot, we have a diaeresis, which is the opposite of the caesura; thus there is a diaeresis in the first and fifth feet of the following line of Virgil: Lumina | labentem caelo quae ducitis | annum. 238 Half a foot is technically called a hemimer (μpepés), and caesuras, which take place in the middle of the second, third, fourth and fifth feet respectively, are called trihemimeral, penthemimeral, hephthemimeral and ennehemimeral caesuras. 239 If a metre terminates in a hemimer, it is called catalectic or interrupted;' if it is completed, it is called acatalectic or 'uninterrupted.' If the supposed or prescribed metre is redundant by a hemimer, the term hypercatalectic is applied. Two catalectic forms are so common that they are often called feet; these are the choriambus or dactylic trihemimer; as extule|rās||, which may be termed the dactylic dimeter catalectic; and the creticus or trochaic trihemimer; as efferunt, which may be termed the trochaic monometer catalectic. § 2. Equal Rhythms. A. Dactylic Verse. 240 (a) Hexameter or Heroic Verse. The only dactylic rhythm, which appears in long systems of single lines, is called the Hexameter, because it contains six metres or repetitions of the ictus. The first four metres may be either dactyls or spondees, but the fifth must generally be a dactyl, and the sixth must always be a spondee, or, according to 229, vI., a trochee. The following are examples: Pástō|rés õvi|úm těně|rós de péllitě| fõetūs||. Tú nihil | invi|tá di|cás fáci|ásvě Mi|nérvā||. Obs. 1 In these verses there is generally, as in the examples, a penthemimeral cæsura, and often a hephthemimeral cæsura also. In fact, the former must occur, unless there is a cæsura in the fourth foot. And even then the absence of the penthemimeral cæsura is comparatively rare, e. g. in such lines as the following verse of Catullus: Eumenides quibus | anguineo redimita capillo. Obs. 2 If there is a strong hephthemimeral but a weak penthemimeral cæsura, there is generally also a strong trihemimeral caesura; as Non unquam gravis | aere domum mihi dextra redibat. and we have rarely a weak penthemimeral without a strong trihemimeral cæsura, or vice versa; as Degene remque Neoptolemum narrare memento Weak cæsuras very seldom follow in succession; but we have occasionally such lines as Daphnin ad astra feremus amavit nos quoque Daphnin. Obs. 3 The third foot rarely makes a diaeresis; as for this divides the hexameter into two trimeters: and it must not consist of a single word; for the exception in the line of Virgil, Summa leves hinc | nescio | qua dulcedine laetae, is only apparent, since nescio qua is regarded as constituting one word equivalent to an indefinite pronoun (above, 175, (b)). Obs. 4 The second foot is very rarely comprised in a single word, as in the line of Virgil, Scilicet omnibus | est labor impendendus et omnes; except when inter or intra is followed by a monosyllabic pronoun; as Talibus inter se dictis ad tecta subibant, for then the connexion of the words produces a quasi-caesura. Obs. 5 The fourth foot is not comprised in a single word, unless it is preceded by a word of two short syllables, as in the line Excisum Euboicae latus | ingens | rupis in antrum, |