The new form of this Edition, and the alterations

made in it, have been adopted with the sanction of

Professor Kennedy, and have been submitted to his revision.

PREFACE.

THIS volume is intended to serve as a manual for the young composer of Greek Tragic Senarii. It presents in the first place a concise and practical account of the laws of Tragic Iambic, Trochaic, and Anapæstic Verse, and a few cursory notices of the dialect and peculiar phraseology of the Dramatic poets, to be improved and expanded by the reading and observation of the young student himself. These are followed by a graduated series of exercises: and the volume concludes with a few Greek translations, designed to furnish the beginner with specimens of the skill and tact by which the difficulties of version from one into another poetic language are overcome after a little practice. For such a purpose the best exercises of school and college are more suitable than the masterpieces of the most finished scholar of riper years. The boy who is told to imitate Euripides, Virgil or Cicero, will be rather damped than encouraged by this advice, unless he possesses that rare temperament, which thinks "it were an easy leap to pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon. But when the models proposed for his imitation are the exercises done by those who are nearly of the same age and under the same circumstances as himself, he at once feels and owns that he has before him a standard which may be reached, and, if he has a proper share of emulation, he will do all in his power to reach it. And this indeed is the principal reason why the

compositions of boys at public schools are in general so much superior to those written in the course of private education. Of the exercises most are intended to be done in school, under the master's eye; and a judicious master will easily understand what kind and degree of help it will be desirable for him to supply at each step, either to the class at large, or to individual boys. If, after being scanned and accented, they are likewise construed, and the tragic forms and idioms carefully noted, their usefulness will be carried to its utmost limit.

Although these exercises have been arranged with a main regard to the use of the middle forms in public schools, they will be quite as useful to that large class of private students, whose skill in composition is unequal to their general attainments in Greek scholarship.

It has not been thought necessary to add any exercises in Trochaic, very few in Anapastic verse. The attention of the young composer ought not to be distracted by a variety of metres. When he has learned by diligent practice to write Iambic Senarii with ease and elegance, he will find no difficulty in applying his metrical skill, together with his stores of Tragic phraseology, to the Trochaic and Anapæstic rhythms.

The third Edition of this volume has been prepared for the press by the care of George Preston, Esq. Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

INTRODUCTION.

1.

I. ON RHYTHM.`

RHYTHM is the regular succession of parts of time, which are technically called Times.

2. A stronger Time is called Arsis, a weaker Time Thesis.

3. A syllable in Arsis is said to have an Ictus or stress of pronunciation (') (not to be confounded with the acute accent).

4. Rhythms which begin with Arsis are called descending: as

Shé, with áll a mónarch's príde,
Félt them in her bósom glów;
Rúshed to battle, foúght, and díed;
Dying, húrl'd them át the fóe.

5. Rhythms which begin with Thesis are called ascending: as

O Thoú that dry'st the moúrner's teár,
How dark this world would bé,

If whén deceived and wounded hére,
We could not fly to Theé.

II. ON QUANTITY.

1. A short syllable (~) is considered equal to one Time.

2. A long syllable ( − ) = (~~) = two Times.

III. ON FEET.

1. Certain limited successions of Arsis and Thesis are called Feet. There are Feet containing from two to four syllables, from two to eight Times. The Foot of two Times (~) is called Pyrrichius.

2. The Feet with which we are now concerned, are those of 3 (Tpíxpovo) and 4 (TEтpáxpovo) Times: as,

Note. (--) is called Creticus, a foot of five Times.

IV. ON IAMBIC RHYTHM.

1. The Iambic is an ascending Rhythm, and the converse of the Trochaic, which is descending.

2. Iambic and Anapæstic Trochaic Rhythms may be measured either by single Feet, or by Aiodía, Dipodies, (Double-feet). Each Strodía is called a Metre (μέτρον).

Note. In the Dactylic and other measures one foot makes a Metre.