The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

hex METRES OF HOKACB.
CfraiO I P§rrhd sM \
antra.
Other poets, however, make the first foot sometimes a tro
chee or an anapaest, rarely an iambus.
16. CHORIAMBIC DIMETER.
The choriambic dimeter consists of a choriambns and a bac-
chlus ; as,
Lydld, die, | per omnes.
This measure occurs once in Horace, in conjunction with an-
other species of choriambic verse.
17. IONIC a minore.
Ionic verses are of two kinds, the. Ionic a majore and the lonie
o minore, called likewise lonicus Major and Ibjiicus Minor, and'
so denominated from the feet or measures of which they are
respectively composed.
The Ionic a minore is composed entirely of the foot or meas-
ure of that name, and. which consists of a pyrrhic and a spondee,
as ddc&tsslnt. It is not restricted to any pai'ticular number of
feet or measures, but may be extended to any length, provided
only that, with due attention to synapheia, the final syllable of
the spondee in each measure be either naturally long, or made
and that each sentence
long by the concourse of consonants ;
or period terminate with a complete measure, having the spon-
dee for its close.
Horace has used this measure but once (Qarm. iii., 12), and
great difference of opinion exists as to the true mode of arrang-
ing the ode in which it occurs. If we follow, however, the au-
thority of the ancient grammarians, and particularly of Terenti-
anus Maurus, it will appear that Ihe true division is into stro-
phes ;
and, consequently, that Cuningam {Animadv. in HoraU,
Bentl., p. 315) is wrong in supposing that the ode in question
was intended to run on in one continued train of independent
tetrameters. Cuningam's ostensible reason for this aiTangement
is, that Martianus Capella (i?« Nwpt. Philol., lib. 4, cap.
ult) has composed an Ionic poem divided into tetrameters : the
true cause would appear to be his opposition tb Bentley. This
latter critic has distributed the ode into four strophes, each con-
sisting of ten feet ; or, in other words, of two tetrameters follow