Accordingly, the FIRST PART consists of a series of Exercises, in which the English is given almost literally. The proper lines in which the words are to be arranged, will be found marked by Arabic* numerals, except occasionally in the third and fourth lines of a Sapphic stanza, and in a few other cases where the order seemed very obvious; the omission of a single word, an epithet or adverb usually, is denoted by the symbol =: the omission of a clause, containing either a new idea, or an expansion of one already half-expressed, is represented by the Greek letter (♪). The Exercises in this PART are intended to be nearly equal in difficulty; occasionally, however, a stanza has been inserted intentionally more difficult, and containing a mere skeleton for the student to fill up.

It would have been difficult to confine the treatment of lyrical subjects to the short space permitted by the length of Exercises allotted to beginners. On this account, it seemed advisable to provide that each Exercise should be divisible into portions of three, four, or five stanzas. It is therefore intended that the Tutor, in using the two FIRST PARTS of the work, should have regard to this adaptation of length, selecting first those Exercises in which the number of stanzas is divisible by three, then those by four, lastly those by five.

The SECOND PART is designed to exercise the young scholar in rendering lyrical ideas into poetical language. With this view, a mere sketch of the substance of each stanza is given, embodying the idea, which is to be developed, at first with less, afterwards with greater expansion, in order to render the

*The Stanzas, where necessary, are indicated by the Roman Numerals. Where there is a hyphen between two words, if no marginal reference be attached to the latter, it signifies that a Latin word expresses both the English: if there be a marginal reference annexed to the latter words, it signifies that the two or three English words thus connected are represented by the Latin suggested at the foot of the page. Where several words are underlined, the large Arabic Numeral is intended to apply to all the words so underlined.

difficulty progressive, and to prevent the difference between the second and the former division being too startling. At the same time care has been taken to avoid English idioms, or the use of expressions calculated to mislead the learner as to the corresponding Latin.

The THIRD PART comprises selections from English Poets, designed to practice the versifier in the transference of English into Classical idioms, and modes of thought.

The FOURTH PART contains a list of subjects for original composition in Sapphic and Alcaic verse.

It is perhaps not superfluous to add that great care has been taken to model the Exercises in accordance with the rules prefixed; and that a point of much importance-all words and combinations of a degenerate stamp have been studiously avoided. And it is only justice to the Author to state that everything like elegance of English in the 'Notes' has been, to a great extent, sacrificed for the sake of conveying a clear notion of Latin words, idioms, and constructions.

PREFATORY

RULES AND OBSERVATIONS.

IN the following rules and observations the Author desires to acknowledge his obligations to Canon Tate's Chapter on Metres in the 'Horatius Restitutus'; to Professor Ramsay's 'Latin Prosody'; and to Jani's 'Ars Poetica.' They are simply designed to supply what even the best Latin Grammars in the use of Schools have held beyond their province; and therefore many of the topics touched upon are treated in a style that makes no pretension to theoretical completeness. It is hoped that they will be useful at once to the young versifier, by displaying the grounds upon which the metrical and other rules and cautions have been founded: and to the more advanced composer, by unfolding the principles of taste which led Horace to fetter the license of Lyrical Composition with these restrictions, which the mature judgment of the present age justly and zealously maintains, though the freer genius, or less delicate appreciation, of their predecessors, if we may judge from their extant performances, disdained allegiance to them.

CÆSURA.

THE term cæsura being employed by some writers in several secondary senses, it becomes important to guard against misapprehension, by specifying the meaning attached to it in the ensuing remarks on scansion.

The meaning of the term is simply this:

When the last syllable of a word remains over, after the completion of a foot, that syllable is styled a cœsural syllable, in consequence of its being separated, or cut off, from the rest of the word in scanning the verse. Upon this syllable the voice rests, when repeating the line in proper cadence, in order to mark the measure of a verse.

The proper position of the cæsural syllable varies with the different metres. Thus, in dactylic Hexameters, it is variously styled, according to the place it occupies, Trithemimeral, Penthemimeral, Hepthemimeral, &c.; in the first and second lines of Alcaic stanzas, it should be the fifth syllable; in Sapphic verse, it either is found to be the first syllable of the dactyl, or, as will be explained below, the two first syllables of the dactyl close a word, in which case the cæsura is called trochaic, as in the line,

Laurelâ, donlandus, Apollinari.

STRUCTURE.

The scansion of the Alcaic verse is shown in the following scheme :

whereby it will be seen that the first foot in either of the two first lines may be either a spondee or an iambus. But

in the first and second books of the Odes a marked preference of the spondaic to the iambic commencement is very obvious, and becomes still more so in the third; while the fourth book has not one instance of an iambus thus placed, even in a line beginning with a polysyllabic, much less with a dissyllabic word. Out of 634 Alcaic hendecasyllabics in Horace's works, 18 only have an iambus in the first place; that is, about one in thirty-five. And there is only one case of two lines in succession beginning with the iambus;

Metu Deorum continuit: quibus

Pepercit aris? I. xxxv. 37.

2. The fifth syllable ought always to be cæsural: a rule only violated by Horace in the following instances;

Mentémque lymphà tam Mareotico.

I. xxxvii. 14.

Spectàndus in cert àmine Martio. IV. xiv. 17.

the latter of which is, from the distribution of the accents,* far less obnoxious than the former.

In three cases the cæsura falls upon a preposition in composition, which may be separated from the word with which it is united; but this is harsh, especially in the first of the following lines;

Hostile aratrum exercitus insolens. 1. xvi. 21.
Antehac nefas depromere Cæcubum.
Utrumque nostrum incredibili modo.

I. xxxvii. 5.

II. xvii. 21.

Of elisions after the cæsura, like the subjoined,

Mutare, et insignem | attenuat Deus. I. xxxiv. 13.
Regum timendorum | in proprios greges.

there are not twenty in all.

The enclitic que, elided thus, is very rare,

III. i. 5.

Urbesque, gentesque et Latium ferox. I. XXXV. 10.

* Comp: King Edward VI. Lat: Gr: § 183.