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J
ALLITTERATIO LATINA
:
ALLITTERATIO LATINAOR-':'.
ALLITERATION IN LATIN VERSE
REDUCED TO RULE^,
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CATULLUS, HORACE, JUVENAL, LUCAN, LUCRETIUS, MARTIAL, OVID, PERSIUS, PHAEDRUS, PRIAPEIA,PROPERTIUS,STATIUS,
TIBULLUS,
AND
VIRGIL
BYJ. THE rRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE, CARMARTHEN, AND SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD
WALTER
EVANS, M.A.
PKINCIPAL OF
Fronte exile negotiumet
dignum
pueris putes
adgressis labor arduus.
Ter,
Maur. 63-5.
LONDON
WILLIAMS AND NORGATE14
HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.2192 1
*
MA in
TO
THE MEMORY OF
MY
EARLIEST INSTRUCTOR IN LATIN,
MY FATHER,AND TO THATOF
MY BRAVE,
SELF-SACRIFICING, DEVOTED MOTHER,
WHO
SURVIVED HIM
NEARLY HALF A CENTURY(1864-I9IO)
498281
:
PREFACEAbout twelveyears ago I rose from a perusal of Lombroso's
Manand
of
Genius with the knowledge that a tendency to alHteration in verse
and prose was a well-marked feature
of insanity in Italy
;
in
someI
of the illustrations
quoted from the writings of French mattoidsis
thought I saw a general resemblance to what
known
in
Welsh
poetry as cynghanedd
La nomade a mis
la
madonne
A la paterne deQuandLele
Petronne
grand Dacier etait diacre
caffier cultive
du fiacre.attention to the complicated
To me who had not given muchsystem inherited byhighly amusingrallying;
my
countrymen the coincidence appearedoffered, I could
and,
when opportunity
not help
my friends amongNoneof
the bards on their affinity to the lunaticshurt,I
of the South.
took
my
fun in
them seemed much such good part that when
and one
was elected
them Dean ofof
Divinity in the University of Wales he addressed some compli-
mentary verses to
me
in a local journal.
Needless to say, the
characteristic alliteration
was there
in force,I
and
I
examined
it
with
uncommon
interest.
It soI
happened that
was reading Persius at
the time, and
whenacsi
came upon the
line (iv. 33)
unctus cesses et figas in cute solem
it
occurred to
me
to
wonder why the poet had chosen that peculiarwriting could have
ending, and
how such
commanded
the popularity
viii
ALLITTERATIO LATINAsatires are
which the
known
to have immediately attained.
A
casual glance revealed the correspondence
csncts gsncts,andinI then
knew thatI
there was
more
in Latin alliteration
than the
stock illustrations had ever suggested.
Recollecting the statementsfuriously.
Lombroso,
now began
to think
somewhat
Was
the
versification of those
poor lunatics a reversion to type under the
influence of
some
cerebral derangement, or
was the feature which
they shared with the poets of both Wales and ancientelement in
Rome an?
human
nature which even disease could not destroy
I argued that
whatever the explanation might be, the phenomenonrule.
ought to admit of being reduced tounconsciousart.
There was such a thing asuntutored song withof its being imitated
The nightingale
trilled its
an exactness and uniformity which allowed
by mechanical means and perhaps reduced to notation, and I saw no reason why alliteration in Latin verse should not yield its secret,evenif
the Latins themselves did not consciously conform to rule.of puzzles,
I
had always been fondworth the solving.in so doing
and here was one which seemed
I accordiagly set tofirst
work on the Aeneid, andadapted for experimentali.
made mysome
mistake
:
for the bewildering reverberaill
tions of the Virgilian
Hexameter wereof the lines,
purposes, thoughuseful check
and particularly
7,
served as aBaffled
on
myI
successive theories for several years.
in the attempt to discover a single feature that looked like
an
approach to law,
took refuge in the Pentameter, as being a some-
what shorter
line,
and from the Pentameter was driven to
Lyrics,
where, side by side withpresence of such lines as
much
to encourage, I found myself in
cessant flamina tibiae.^
Lenaee sequi deum.^illic
bis pueri die.^
Jupiter in
Ganymede
flavo.*
The
situation
was decidedly embarrassing, but meanwhile the
conviction that there was a law had become an obsession, which,
Hor. C. III. xix.
19.
76.
lU. xxv.
19.
lb.
IV.
i.
36.
lb. IV. iv. 4.
PREFACEnotwithstanding
ix
manyI
bouts of despair, never weakened for moreof course
than a night.
was
aware throughout that nothing
could be finally settled until the pronunciation of the letters wasitself
settled
;
and here theit
difficulties
would have seemed
in-
superable, werein the texts
not for the expectation that, spite of variationsspelling, the poets
and the
would help to solve them.
A
closeI
study of Lindsay's Latin Language
workalso
owe
my
warmest acknowledgments
to which monumental introduced me to thewhomI
German
writers, Stolz,
Seelmann, Marx, and others, to
am
under deep obligations.
But
as
all
my
authorities
either
expressed uncertainty or difiered in their conclusions on points ofcardinal importance to
my
subject, I finally
had recourse to thewhich
ancient grammarians, whose pages I carefully searched for additionalinformation, fortifiedI
by a
large
number
of intractable lines
had by that time accumulated.
Daylight gradually dawned, and
hammered out the scheme which I now present to my readers. It has cost me more time and labour than I care to remember, and I have done my utmost to make it watertight but, though I have much confidence that in the main I have proceededlittle
by
little I
;
on the right
lines, I
am;
far
from thinking that theit is
last
word haslines ofeffect
been said on the subject
andI
not reasonable to suppose that,
working single-handed asverse, with Httle or
have done on over 100,000I
no ear for music,
have never misjudged andifficulty.
or
drawn a
false inference or^
overlooked a
The remarksmissed
of Aulus Gellius
warn me on the one hand thatalliteration^
I
may have
much
that nature and training have given
me no
eyes to see, and
Mons. Loth's analysis of Welshstraining after richness
on the other that, inwhere the data
and symmetryseen
in a sphere
are often uncertain, I
may haveit is
much
that a
Roman would not
have missed.
I have,
however, shirked or obscured no difficulty
that I actually noted, andlittle
on the
faith of this assurance that
my
book basesof
its
claim to the attention of students of the classics.
Such
them
as are
moved
to pursue the investigation can hardlyeasily
fail to improve on the work of a first adventurer, and they may
6 *
VI. (VII.) XX., XIII. xxi. (XX.).
La Metrique
Galloise (Paris, 1900), reviewed
by
Prof. Sir J. Morris Jones of
Bangor
in the Zeitschrift fur cdtische Philologie of 1903.
Xfind that
ALLITTERATIO LATINAwhatis
true of Latin
is also true,
mutatis mutandis, of the
sister-language Greek.
The best
line for
experimental purposes in
Latin
is
the Phalaecian, being short, simple, and available Kara
cTTixov in considerable quantity.
WALTERGrben Hill, Oabmabthen.
J.
EVANS.
CONTENTSINTRODUCTION
xiiF.
ALLITTERATIO LATINAPAGB. .
THE LETTER u {v) G. THE LETTER y H. THE ASPIRATE J. THE LETTERS b, p; g, c (k, q); d, K. THE LETTER / L. THE LETTER w M. THE LETTER n N. LIAISON AND LIGATION O. HIDDEN QUANTITIES (INCLUDING ALPHABETICAL. .
.
.127131
131.
t
.
.
.
133
.
.
.
.
.
.
,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.137 .141 .156 .164LIST)168
INDEX TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS INDEX TO THE EMENDATIONS GENERAL INDEX
186.
191 193
INTRODUCTIONThe term "aUiteration "is
said to have been invented
by Pontanus
in the fifteenth century.elastic connotation,
Like
many other words
it
has a somewhatpeople does notit is
and on theit will
lips of different
always mean the same thing.a sort of rhyme, and
None, however, would deny thatif
conduce to clearness
we
deal
first
with
the more familiar word.
Varieties of rhyme.in
Khyme may be
defined as an agreement
sound between two or more
syllables (or groups of syllables).;
Such agreementsingle word.
may
extend either to one letter or more
and,
if
weit,
hold to our definition,
may
be looked for even within the limits of a
There
is
no reason why we should not hold to
and, though rhymes in close proximityto the ear,it is
may not
always be agreeable
instance in "
only just to admit them where they are found, as for Lama," " lowly," " added," " dodo," " sentimental,"Usually, however,
" iUimitability," " abracadabra."
rhyme
is
only;
recognised between word and word. and, to narrow thefield, let
Be
it
so for present purposes
the words be monosyllables, so thatarise in their
we
may the better see how rhymesIt will1.
most elementary forms.
appear that there are at least fourfirst
varieties.
The
form
of rhyrae is
where the vowels rhyme, and theThis
vowels alone,is
e.g.
" Hke " and " sight " or " sin " and " miU."
what is known as Assonance, and in old French poetry, e.g. the " Chanson de Roland," was the only requisite for a terminal rhyme.
In Spain and Portugal such rhymes are current to this day, as they are in English when the vowel ends the word, e.g. " me " and" see."
In modern languages, however
(if
Welsh be excepted),
they are only found in accented syllables, which in the case of
xiv
ALLITTERATIO LATINAmean sonoroussyllables,
such as the2.
French, where accent is disclaimed, will first of " dire.''
The second form
of
rhyme
is
where the post- vocalic consonantse.g.
(or coalescing consonants)
rhyme, and these alone,This rhymeis
" like " and
" joke," or " send " and " found."
not
uncommon
even in English verse, particularly in hymns, where the vowelsoften
rhyme onlyIcelandic
to the eye
;
^
and
is
one of the regular featuresside with our third variety.is
of Gothic poetry,
where
it
exists side
by
As the
name
for it (skothending)
untranslatable,
it
may3.
here be distinguished as Post-sonance.
In this case also the
syllable
must be an accented syllable. The third form of rhyme is where the
pre- vocalic consonantse.g.
(or coalescing consonants)
rhyme, and these alone,
" like "
andit
" lost," or " prince " and " pray."
To balance
Post-sonance,of
might be known as Pre-sonance.(monosyllable or other)it is
At the beginning
any word
and
is
the only form
of
a strong rhyme, regardless of accent, " alliteration " recognised by some
writers.4.
The fourth form
of
rhyme, that between pre- vocalic and post-
vocalic consonants, such as " like "
and "
roll,"
does not appear to be
recognised
by any Englishit
authority, the explanation apparently
being thatof verse.
does not enter into any of the listed systems as a ruleis
Yet such a rhyme
not without
effect.
Tennyson's
line, for instance,
12The murmurwould be shorn of halfhalf.its
12
3
3
of innumerable bees,
beauty without the echoes in the latterLetit
In Latin
it
would appear to be well established.In "life
be
known
as Trans-sonance.
" and "
feel
" there are two
such rhymes.
These elementary rhymes, or half-rhymes as they are sometimescalled,
may obviously be combinedCowper's stanza:
in a variety of ways, e.g. " like,"
"look," "elk," "clay";*
"like,"
"life";
"like,"
"chyle";
Of,
O
A A
walk with God, calm and heavenly frame, light to shine upon the roadfor a closer
That leads me to the Lamb
INTRODUCTION" like," " strike."Tlie composite
xvof course richer
rhymes are
than
the others, though not rich enough to satisfy the English ear asterminal rhymes between line and line, with the single exception of the last (" like," " strike "), which has not unnaturally appropriated toitself
the generic appellation Consonance.
But
all
the
rhymes, both elementary and composite, are occasionally found inthe body of theline,
where they are undoubtedly pleasing, when
skilfully introduced, e.g.
And ice, mast-high, came floating by (Coleridge).Her look was hke the morningLightly and brightly breaksstar^
(Burns).
Sloping slowly to the west (Tennyson).
away
(Byron).
And feelsLong
its life in
every limb (Wordsworth).wistfully gazed
at the
window he stood and
on the
landscape (Longfellow).Internal rhymes of this description are sometimes called line-rhymes.
Alliteration : its
meaning, raison d'etre,and place in English. As intimatedwhich
Having thus cleared the ground, we may now return to "alliteration,"which was provisionally described as a sort of rhyme.supra, thearises
word is often used exclusivelyinitial
of the particular sort
between
and
initial,
such as we have in Tennyson's
Prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans,or in Coleridge's
The
fair
breeze blew, the white foam flew,free;
The furrow followedandit is
so understood
by the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, which
describes Churchill's attempt to illustrate the sense
by the sound
in
Apt
alliteration's artful aid
as a failure, remarking that " alliteration is never effective unless it runs upon consonants " and obviously ignoring the ^'s and the
r,
r's
and the
Vs.
This view, however, seems too restricted
;
andresist
it is
noticeable that even those2
who adopt
it
cannot always
the
Bums no
doubt rolled the
which would here be rated by many phoneticians
as a vowel.
xvilogic of facts.
ALLITTERATIO LATINAMarsh, for instance, in commenting on tlie alliterationlicence
of Piers
Plowman^ admits that by what he terms a poeticinitial syllables^
accented syllables in the middle of a word are sometimes allowed to
rank asall
;
and Sidgwick, who commonly neglectsx. 100,
but
initial
rhymes, says on Aen.
" Observe the alliterationLarousse's Dictionnaire
pat pot pot
[in jKiter, omnipotens,
potestasy
Universelle recognises
no
limitations, defining the
word simply
as a
" repetition of the same letters, the same syllables," and quoting " qui terre a, guerre a " as an example. And in the Grande EncyclopSdie thearbitrary:
narrower interpretation
is
condemned
as
altogether
" C'est tout a fait arbitrairement que les grammairiensle
ont restreintat our back,
sens de ce mot, alliteration."
With
these authorities
we need make no apologyword
for adopting the larger view,
and we
shall accordingly use the
of
any rhyme other than the
special English varietyillustration of
known as terminal.is
An excellent line for the
our meaning
provided by Tennyson'sall
Universal Ocean softly washing
her warless
isles.
Tennyson himself disclaimed aalliteration,
liking for what he understood by remarking that he had " sometimes no end of troubleit
to get rid of
";
*
and, as he pronounced the verse just quoted to
it is obvious that for him the word did not cover the congruences in " ocean " and " washing," " all " and " isles," etc. For us, however, who are influenced not by spelling,
be one of his best,^
nor, in
any undue measure, by the positioneffects,
of the
rhyming
letters,it
but only by aural
the line
is
as full of alliteration asartificiality.is
could
well be without provoking
an appearance of
That aural repetitions have a natural charm
proved abundantly("
by
the frequency of their occurrence in"),
hackneyed phrases
by
hook or by crookpolitical cries ("
proverbs ("money makes the mare to go"),"),
peace and plenty
advertisements (" pink
pills
for
pale people "),
and nursery literature (" Jack the Giant,";
"
Baby Bunting,"
etc.)
and
it is
this fact
which explains their
presence in verse.
For though the poet'sp.
distinctive faculty
may be
' StvderWs English Language (Murray, 1872), going paragraphs owe a good deal.*
390
a work to which the forei.
Memoir by
his son, vol.
ii.
p. 15.
'
lb. vol.
p.
401 n.
INTRODUCTIONvision,
xvii
and
his real
power reside
in appeals to the imagination
and theaids.
heart, he
can seldom afford to dispense with adventitious
Even,.
in that sublime Psalm,
The Lord is my Shepherd He maketh me to lie down
:
I shall not want.
in green pastures
He
leadeth
me
beside the
still
waters,
there are artificial elements
more or
less
patent to the Hebraist'smeretriciousinter alia
eye
;
and when the essenceis
of poetry is wanting,
ornament
the only resource.^Its effect
Hence the recourse to
alliteration.
having been noted in ordinary speech,
its
magic was enlisted in the service of song.There can belittle
doubt that
alliteration
was one
of the earliestit
embellishments of verse,the place of what
and that among primitive peoples
took
we now understand by rhyme using this word in the ordinary and narrower sense. To use it in the wider sense, we may say that while, generally speaking, the modern line rhymes externally and only at the end, the ancient line rhymed internally and more or less all along. The progress from the one mode to theother can often be traced, and particularly in the case of English,
where the materials available for study are very considerable.Neither in England nor elsewhere did the change come about in a
daywas
natura nihil facit per saltumfirst
used,
it
was by way
and when the terminal rhyme not of substitution, butof addition.lose
Only whentheir hold.
this
had been firmly established did the others
The
following extract from Piers
Plowman
(fourteenth century)
will illustrate
one of the old English styles which had no terminal
rhyme
':
In a Somer Season,I shope
[
when hot was the Sunne,|
me
into Shroubs,|
as I a Shepe were
;
In Habite as an Harmet
unholy of Werkes,|
Went wyde
in thys
World
Wonders tooff
heare.
" The invention of a barbarous age to set
wretched matter and lame metre,"
is
Milton's description of one of these ornaments, terminal
rhyme
(Pref. to Par.
Lost).'
only an ornament. The correspondence between " were " and " heare "
Of course metre
itself is
is
accidental.
xviii
ALLITTERATIO LATINAis
The law which
said to obtain here
is
that in every line at least
three accented syllables (usually initial syllables)
must begin with
the same letter, and that at least one of the rhyming syllables must
appear in each section of theAlliteration in
line.
Welsh.In
Welsh, alliteration
is
on
its
throne,
even to-day, though there are signs that the influences which haveprevailed in England are also operating here, for writers of
hymnsre-
and other
varieties of song are
no longer bound by the
strict rules.
As the
principles underlying internalit
rhymes have a generalthis
semblance,
may
be worth while to examine some of the forms inancient tongue,
which they have expressed themselves inwhich, asis
now
well understood,
is
derived from the same stock as
Latin and Greek, andIts love of
may be assumed to have shared their heritage.
rhyming groups
which often
extend to half a dozen
consonants or more
is
very remarkable.
Premising that a Welsh verse does not consist of a stated numberof feet, such as dactyles or spondees, but only of a statedsyllables,
number of of them observing one rule of verse, others another, and yet others two or more combined either in the same line or the same stanza weand that the metres are very numerous, some
address ourselves at once to the rules themselves.
In dealing withis
them, we shall have to neglect the bardic terminology, whichuntranslatable except in cumbrous paraphrase; and
we have noOur objectForfuller
space for the regulations relating to pause, caesura, accent, and thelike,is
though these things are of cardinal importance.
merely to bring to the notice of the reader the salient features
which have or
may have
a practical bearing on Latin.
information he wiU go elsewhere.
The four heads under which the rhymes
are usually treated
may
be conveniently thrown into the following forms.^^"
The examplesii.
Cf. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (Wheatley's ed., 1876), vol.
pp. 377-9.
In Welsh;
may
1911, etc.)
in English, in the
bo recommended Yr Ysgol Farddol (Evans & Son, Carmarthen, Rector Edwards's Prize Essay on " The Characteristics of
Welsh Poetry "our Preface.
Carnarvon Eisteddfod Transactions
of 1886
;
and (by waya note to
of supplement) the valuable Zeitschrift article (English) referred to in
1" The Welsh examples are from Yr Ysgol Farddol ; the English from the Carnarvon Essay, the author of whioh is careful to explain that English, with its
INTRODUCTIONunderis
xix
(6)
are lines with a trochaic
rhythm at points where such(trochaic) ending
optional.I.
Between the pausal
syllable
and the
:
Cyng-
hanedd Lusg.(a)
MinauIn fact
afI
|
dros yr afon:
:
af af
he was actinglet
act act.:
Do(6)
not
go
|
the poet
o
o.
Minau groesaf|
yr afon|
:
af af:
SomeII.
discord
was afforded
ord ord.
'
Between the beginning(a)
of the line
and the ending:
:
C, Draws,
Mam 3^1 ceryddu eiI felt that he
merch
m m.:
was using
force:
f f
(b)
Cafwyd elfenau cyfoeth
cf cf.:
AIII.
lover
was then leaving
Iv Iv.
Between the pausalC. Sain.
syllables in the first
and second sections
of the line,
and (alternating therewith) between the second section:
and the third(a)
Dyddan
|
yw
can
|
yn mhob
cell.
XX
ALLITTERATIO LATINA:
IV. Between the two halves of the line(a)i
C. Groes.
mi wr
lledf
|
o
He(6)
brought a cart|
mor Hon mrll mrll. by a right course:|
:
brghtc brghtc.
Ygwirfdrddbewar'|
oGaerfyrddin:
:
grfrdd grf rdd.
how you borrow
br br.:
The following show composite rhymesar ol
Hywel
|
i'r
helyg.
INTRODUCTION8.
xxi
The
repetition of a consonant without
an intervening vowelindispensable, subject
does not vitiate the symmetry of a group.9.
Otherwise,
symmetry
in the grouping
is
to the provision that a consonant
may do
double duty, as in " Enter
a painter pointing " (supra).Miscellaneous.10.
h
may
be neglected, except init is
ch,
ph,
ih.
11. n,
wheng
the
first
consonant in a half -verse,
may
be
neglected.12. h,d,
may in certain cases rhyme with p,(e.g. ot ot)
t,
c respectively.
13. In " consonance "
short vowels
may rhymeits
with
long.14.
An
inflected
word may be treatedin
as
if it
retained
radical
vowel,15.
e.g.
the vowel in " spoke "
may rhymesome
with that in " weak."
Rhyming elements mayAt a pause
cases be in arsi or thesirule.
indifferently.16.
Other cases are governed by
or ending the concluding consonants are in certain
cases not available for internal rhyme.17.
A
concluding syllable will sometimes rhyme with the
first
syllable in the following line instead of
rhyming
in its
own line
;
and
sometimes with the pausal syllable of the followingto
line in addition
rhyming
in its
ownline.
line.
18. Liaison, ligation ( 29),
and Sandhi
( 20.
i
n.)
operate even
between
line
and
To
lovers of the strict measures, alliteration
is
a fetish which
overrides everything in a way, so that in presence of an attractive
combination of consonants asense rather than the sound.
versifier will
sometimesit
sacrifice
the
A
century or two ago
was actuallyand evenslave to the
held that poetry could not exist without the
artificial jingle,
a writer of thesuperstition.
first
rank
like
Coronwy Owen was a:
Addressing a friend in 1753, he saysis
^^
" Paradise Lostfind
a book I read with pleasure.
.
.
.
You
will
me^^
ready to subscribe to anything that can be said init,
praise of
provided you do not
call it poetry.1876), vol.ii.
... As Enghshp. 53.
Jones' 8|(?orow2^
Owen (Longmans,
xxii
ALLITTERATIO LATINApoetryis
too loose, so ours'
is'
too
much
confined and limited,
not by theit
cynghaneddau
(alliterations)
for without themetc.
would not be poetry
but by the length,"of
The author's investigations incHne him to main point and for several centuries the poetsated by a similar feeling.Alliteration in Latin:
believe that
on the
Rome
were domin-
1.
Modem
estimates. The
alliterative
character of Latin poetry has not always been recognisedwriters.
by Englishall
Marsh, for instance, afl&rms ^^ that " alliteration was wholly
unsuited to the metrical system of the ancients, which rejectedechoings of sounds, andits
accidental occurrenceall
was regarded as
a rhetorical blemish."
Macleane, too,
but ignores the subject:
in his Horace, the following being perhaps the only reference
" Dillenbr. in his Quaestiones Horatianae has drawn particularattention to the alternate arrangement of the epithets in this
passage [C. III.are'
i.
21],
.
.
.
He
gives several instances,
and they
numerousIt
enough to constitute a feature in Horace's style.'
Spiritum Graiae tenuem Camoenaeis
is
one instance out of
many.
said to arise out of the liking the Latin poets
had
for homoeoteleuton.^'Ellis, in his
elaborate:
commentary on
Catullus, confines himself
to a few brief noticesxlv.1.
Septimiossuos.
is
perhaps preferred as an assonance to
12.
The
repetition of the full vowel o in ilh purpureais
ore
no doubt
intentional.
...
Its effect is
heightened by the triple a of saviata.15.
muUo mihi. .
major, triple alliteration in answer to
Septimius's pote plurimum perire.Ixiv. 150. eripuiiv..
crevi,
assonance like [Aen.
ii.
134, 96,
374, Enn. Ann. 51].et
xcvii.
4.
mundior
melior, double alliteration as in
.
.
.
leniter et leviler, Ixxxiv.
8 (where
it is
remarked
that Apuleius*
is full
of such assonances).
Student's English Language^ p. 393.
INTRODUCTIONConington seems to regard the recurrence of anhe interprets the meaning of our wordintroduced for specialinitial
xxiii
for so as only an occasional devicethe feature in Virgil
effect, his notices of
they are not
many389.
being generally accompanied by an attempt to
explain such effect
G.
i.
The
alliteration, as in
the previous verse, gives the
effect of
monotony.
A.
iv.
460. Is doubtless intended to produce the effect of
solemnity.ix.
30. Gives the effect of slowness
and
quiet.
89. Is
intentional,
expressing
rhetorically
the
in-
tensity of the anxiety.340.
The alliteration mandit'
'
mollemutummetus
'
is
expressive,of r
xi.
627.
The recurrencetentional.
and
here
is
doubtless in-
Mr Arthur
Sidgwick, in his admirable notes on Virgil, reveals a
truer appreciation of the facts in abstaining from interpretations
which cannot be consistently applied, andwith his author's fondness for the letter vxii.
is
particularly impressed
825. Notice the alliteration of v's, the
commonest in Virgil.
Lindsay, in discussing the orthography of Martial's Epigrams{Jwirn. of Phil., 1903), remarks on the care with which the author
must have weighed{Bihl. Oxon.)
his every word,^^ and in his preface to Plautus emphasises the " Celtic assonance " which he finds:
in the poet's treatment of vowels
Curandumenunties,
est litteras,
praesertim vocales, vere et Latinefere Celtica
ut in
cum Plautus non raro assonantia Amph. 1042 (troch. septenar.)rectais
gaudet
jam ad regemPerhaps nowhere
me ducem resque ut facta
est eloquar.
there a finer tribute to the music and par-
ticularly to the sonorousness of Latin poetry
than in Verrall's chapter
on Literature in the Companion^^
to
Latin Studies,^* though the
"
Cf. Ov. Ex P. I. V. 19-20 for an indication of the same fastidious attitude. Edited by Dr Sandys (Cambridge, 1910).
xxivsensitive ear ofticular effects.
ALLITTERATIO LATINAtliis
capable writer did not always approve of par-
It
is,
however, in Munro's Lucretius that the purely
alliterative aspect is
most strongly
insisted on,
and the language
there employed
is
so
much:
to the point that
an omission to quote
would be inexcusable"
One
of theis
most marked
peculiarities of the old Latin
writers
their extreme fondness for alliteration, assonance,
repetition of the
same or
similar words, syllables,in the
and sounds,
often brought togetherfashion.
and combined
most complexnot the
In Latin, as in some other languages, this usage was
clearly transmitted
from most ancient times, and
is
invention of any one writer.it
Ennius and the serious poets use:
to produce a poetical effectit
Plautus and the comic poets..
employartifices
for
comic purposes.:
.
Cicero does not despise such
even in prose
but none scatters them about more
prodigally than Lucretius, both singly
and
in manifold
com-
bination
:
they are to be counted in his poem by hundreds, nay. . .
thousands.
His alliterations comprise almost every:
letter
of the alphabet
the more effective letters such
s.s
mpvThe.
(prolast.
nounced w) are often used with strikingsometimes expressespity, as its
effect.
sound well
fits it
to do
.
or
force or violence, because the
words indicating such.. .
effects
begin
many:
of
them with the:
letter.
Often various lettersis
are used in combination
the following
a good instance of
m p and vnon
pararepotuit, pedibus qui
pontum per vada possentdivellere mentis
transire et
magnos manibus
multaque vivendo
vitalia vincere saecla.
Compare Ennius'sMarsa manus, Peligna cohors, Vestina virumvis.
Such combinations are commondreds in Lucretius.less..
in Virgil
;
but occur by hun-
.
After Virgil's time they appear to be:
frequent in Latin literature
people probably got tired
of them, as has
happened
in other literatures." ^^
"
Vol.
ii.
pp. 15-16.
Cruttwell'8 Hist, of
Rom.
Lit. (6th ed.,
1898) has a lengthy
note on the general subject, pp. 238-0.
INTRODUCTIONon the Continent than in England.
xxv
On the whole the subject seems to have attracted greater attention Prof. KviSala of Prague, whoa weighty though not an indispensable element in Latin poetry,
confesses to a rooted conviction (feste Ueberzeugung) that alliterationis
has analysed the language of the Aeneid with meticulous care, andin his
Neue
Beitrdge zur
Erkldnmgall
der Aeneis^^ (p. 294)in the
namesfield.^'is
several investigators
who had laboured
same general
His
own
book, which takes
the letters at their face value,
mainly concerned with the registration and
classification of the
rhymes which appealed toordered system.It
his ear,
and makes no pretensions to an
would appear, nevertheless, to be a marked
advance on anything that had gone before.
Such then
is
the attitude of the moderns,
translated internal jingle into a law of verse.
who have in no case The common view ison Vowelin Latin
no doubt that expressed by Mr ClassenAlliteration in the
in his treatise
Old Germanic Languages (1913)is
that
poetry alliteration
not an essential part of the technique, but onlyalliterationis
an ornamentrules (p. 45).
;
and that the
not determined by any
Alliteration in Latin:ancients say?
It
2. Ancient allusions.What do the must be admitted that no passage can be pro;
duced which definitely points to recognition of a systemindeed alliterationis
andas a
seldom referred
to.
But there
is
evidenceit
enough to show that the grammarians were well aware ofrhetorical device.in its variousccmfricatio, etc.
They have,irapofjiOLov,
in fact,
many names
for the figurecollisio,
forms
ofxoLOTeXevrov,
adnominatio,
and they provide^^
inter alia the following illustra-
tions
:
solus Sannio servat
(Donatus).^^
quidquam quisquam cuiquam quod conveniat negetad Herenn. IV.xii.^^
(Rhet.
(18) in
Nobbe'siii.
ed. of Cicero),
non verbis sed armis16 1'
(Quint. IX.
75).
Prag, 1881.
Specially attractive among the works referred to seem Schliiter's Vet&rum Latinorum alliteratio cum nostratium alliteratione comparata (Monast., 1820) and Cadenbach's De alliterationis apud Horatium usu (Essen, 1837), both of which have
eluded the author's search.18
Ter. Eun. 780.
i
Ennius.
20 p^^til.
Lup.
2. 12.
xxvi
ALLITTERATIO LATINA^i
puppesque tuae pubesque tuorum
(ib.). ^^
machina multaK.I. 447.4).
minax minitatur maxima muris^^
(Diom.
sola mihi tales casus Cassandra canebat
(Servius).
Anchisen agnoscit amicum
^* (ib.).
In
its
most aggressive form the feature was regarded by somewith disfavour.(loc. cit.)
writers
Thus the authorit
of
the Rhetorica ad
Herennium
defines
as ejusdem Utterae nimia assiduitas.
Martianus Capella remarks, ^^ Compositionis vitiumvitare aijuslibet Utterae assiduitatem in
maximum;
est
nonis
odium repetitam
and he
supported by
Servius, who, in connection with the
two verses
last
quoted, says, Haec compositio
jam
vitiosa est quae m^joribus placuit.
Ennius's lineTite tute Tati tibi tanta turanne tulistiis
condemned byet
several of the grammarians, as for instance
by
Plotius Sacerdos under the figure Aprepia, which he defines as
absurda
indecens verborum structura.^^
Servius's
concluding words quae mujoribus placuit show that
literary taste
had undergone a change during the four centuries
which separated him from Virgilrecurrentall
at
least
on the question
of
initials,
even as the taste has changed in England.
Indeed,
the passages suggest that the writers
alliterative
law
^^
which,
however,
against the existence of such a law.Piers Ploivman
had been forgotten;
knew nothing of any is by no means conclusive The rules which obtain in among ourselves until theyandin Latin the process of
were discovered about a century agoforgetting
was helped by the changes
in pronunciation, which of
course went far to obscure the uniformities observedof earlier times.
by the poetsnot altogether
Assuming that there were some governing
rules, it is
surprising that they should have been left imnoticed
by the con-
" a *'
Virg. A. Virg. A.
i.
399.183.
^'
Anon.lb.iii.
(Keil's
minatur
is
obviously a misprint).Art. Rhetor., 33.
iii.
"
82.
" Derules,
K. VI. 454. 30. If Aulus Gellius had understood the
refer to
them
in connection with
parses a dozen lines of Virgil
he could hardly have failed to remarks on euphony. Priscian, who at great length, and even scans them, has not a word
some
of his
to say about the alliterative features.
INTRODUCTIONtemporary writers whose works have come down toearly grammarians, evenif
xxviius.
For the
they were acquainted with them, would
probably have regarded them as outside their province, or even
beneath their notice.
The chances are that they were not acquaintedIn Wales, where
with them, or at least not well acquainted.alliterative verse
has been the vogue for centuries, the rules are onlyare themselves writers.
known
to those
who
The public are indeedeffects, but, as
aware of their existence and appreciate thetiUan says,^are producedsubject,it is;
Quineffects
only the expertsin a
who understand how theis
and except
work dealing expressly with theseldommentioned.Itis
cynghanedd
(alliteration)
stated in the Zeitschrift article, referred to in a note to our Preface,
that
when Dr
Griffith Roberts,
who wrote on Welsh poetryhim the
in the
sixteenth century, asked a bard to explain to
rules of verse,
the latter refused on the ground that he was " sworn to teach no onethese secrets."
And even
to-day"
many
a Welsh poet
is
imperfectly
article,
acquainted with the canons. He writes," says the author of the " by ear rather than by rule ; he has read thousands of Huesin the bardic metres,
and
his ear has impressed their
form on
his
mind.of their
The
lines
themselves
may He
be forgotten, but the impressions
form remain, and become the moulds into which the bardtakes;
pours his new molten metal.as they
first
one and then another
happen to
suit his
purpose
but, though he uses
them
all,
he
may
not have classified them, or even counted them.
In time
of course he learns the rules,
which he easily understands, as they;
only enunciate more definitely what he already knows
but he no
more begins by studying
rules
than he begins to speak by studying
grammarancients.
"
(p.
141).
AndA-e^ts
the same was probably true of the?
What was
{JieXonoua
When
Aristotle
^^
speaks of
it
as distinguished fromit
or metrical composition, he dismissesIt
with the remark that
its
meaning was obvious to everybody.
seems not unlikely that what he had in his mind was the music ofalliteration in the sense
we have adopted.^^
And
so Horace,
when he
contrasts niodi with tempora
or numeri,^^ or speaks of distinguishingfingers,^^
a rightly constructed verse by the ear as well as by thewell have28
may274.
meant the same29
thing.
Ovid too seems to hint at more3i
IX.
iv. 116.
Poet.
c. 6.
^o I. Sat. iv. 58.
A.P. 211.
32 /^^
xxviii
ALLITTERATIO LATINAhe characterises thecolor
than mere language and metre when (without claiming much creditfor the innovation)
and
structura of hisif
verse as something distinctive
and uncommon.^^
It looks as
he
were referring
to some self-imposed
restriction in the ordering of
his rhymes, the nature oflines.^*
which was discernible even in his opening
Finally, Martial has
an epigram
^^
containing the coupletlibellos,
Lector et auditor nostros probat, Aule,sed quidam exactos esse poeta negat.If
the reference
is
not to the poet's Latinity or metrification
neither of which, so far as the author knows, has been seriouslyassailed
it
must be to some law
of alliteration
which Martial
(perhaps only occasionally) failed to observe.Alliteration in Latin : 3.
Treatment in translation.Whateverall
may be thought of the author's attempt to systematise the alliterativefeatures referred to, there can be no doubt at
that the features
themselves are
real.
In such
lines, for instance, as^^'^ ^^
verpus praeposuit Priapuscrtida Virgine
ille
Marciave mergi
chartae Thebaicaeve Caricaeve
carmina caeruleos composuisse deos
nam
didici Getice
Sarmaticeque loqui
*^**
vel anseris medtillula vel imula oricilla
they leap to the eyewillif
;
and an attentive studyaffects
of the following pages
show that they are nowhere
entirely absent.
Now, obviously,
justice is to
be done to a poet who
them, they ought to bepresented in a modernto us can have
reproduced in some form or other when hedress, particularly aslittle
is
much
that has
come downall,
had
to attract beyond the
jingle of the verse.
Translators, in so
far as they
have regarded the matter at
have usually taken the
view that the demand was adequately met by a terminal rhyme
appended to a measure which had noin so behaving they
relation to the original.;
Butit is
do the ancients a double wrongCf. 166 (infra).'
and
ExOv.
P. rV.
xiii.
M
"
jx. ixxxi.
Cf.
95
obs. (infra).
3 Cat. xlvii. 4. 3
Mart. VI.lb. III.ii.
xlii. 18.
"i
Stat. Silv. IV. 9. 26.
Ex P. IV.
xvi. 22.
"
40.
Cat. xxv. 2.
INTRODUCTIONI perhaps one of the reasons why their workis
xxixso seldom valued either
by
scholars or others. ^^justification for
Theear,
abandoning the ancient metres
is
no doubt
the fact that with few exceptions they do not appeal to the modern
when taken as they stand.
Amongis
the exceptions are the metre
of the Pervigilium Veneris,
which
that of Tennyson's Locksley
Hall:Cras amet, qui niinquam amavit:
quique amavit, eras amet'tis
Comrades, leave
me
here a
little,is
while as yet
early
morn:
;
and the metreFor
of Cat. xxv.,
which
that of Tennyson's Brook
Remitte pallium mihi
meum quod involasti men may come and men may go, but I:
go on for ever
;
and the dominant metrein
of Catullus's E'piihalamium,
which
is
found
Darby and Joan
ColHs o Heliconieicultor,
Darby
dear,
you are old and gray
:
Uraniae genus
Fifty years since our wedding day
!
But there are others which appear to resist ordinary treatment. The remedy is to break up the lines, even (if need be) to the divisionof a foot,
and to introduce;
alliterative or terminal
rhymes at the
important ictuses
whenday.
it will
be found that in at least most cases
the whole will work out in a form hardly distinguishable from the
metres of our
own
So at
least it
seems to the author, who, in
evidence of his good faith, submits a dozen illustrations to the
judgment
of his readers, claiming for
them no more than:
will
be
willingly conceded to1.
an amateur
in verse
Cat. xvii. 13-14 (Priapean),
Insulsissimus est homo, nee sapit pueri instar
bimuli tremula patris dormientis in ulna.JFoolis
he
not the wide world through:
Found would be such another Has not sense of a child of two Drowsed in arms of its mother.*2 Tennyson, who once remarked that " the benefit of translation rested with the translator," compared the Sapphic stanza to " a pig with its tail tightly curled," and parodied the pentameter with " All men alike hate slops, particularly gruel
(Memoir by
his son).
XXX2.
ALLITTERATIO LATINACat. XXX. 3-4 {Second Asclepiad),
Jam me prodere, jam non dubitas fallere, perfide ? num facta impia fallacum hominum coelicolis placentCare you,Falsest of men,
?
Dare you
Dream?
that a wrong
Thus to repay
?
Flouting the skies
Thus to betray
Vengeance
defies
And then3.
For longI. iv.
?
Hor. C.
1-2 (Fourth Archilochian),
Solvitur acris hiemps grata vice veris et Favoni,
trahuntque siccas machinae carinas.Winter's a-wing
And a breath of spring From the welcome WestAnd, winches manned,
is
coming
;
Each busy strandIs
humming.I. viii.
4.
Hor. C.
1-2 (Second Sapphic).
Lydia die per omneste deos oro, Sybarin cur properes
amando
perdere.
Hettie,Tell
by heav'n above you.you're ruining Guy,?
me why
Luring the lad to love you5.
Hor. C.
I. xxiii.
1-4 (Fifth Asclepiad).
Vitas hinnuleo
me
similis, Chloe,
quaerenti pavidam montibus aviis
matrem nonaurarumFlo,
sine
vano
et siluae metu.
you
fly
me
in fear, like a
young deer that
hies
Headlong over the hoe, seeking the doe, her eyes
Wild with
idle alarm, in
bushes visioning harm
And
skies.
INTRODUCTION6.
xxxi
Hor. C.
II. X.
1-4 {First Sapphic).
Rectius vives, Licini, neqiie altum
semper urgendo neque,iniquum.
dum
procellas
cautus horrescis, nimium premendolitus
Best
is
not,
good
friend, to
be got by heading
Out to seaPerils
perpetually, or threadingshore,
more near rock-ridden
Mid-ocean hurricane dreading.
7.
Hor. C.
III.
i.
1-4 {Akaic).et arceo;
Odi profanum vulgusfavete linguis:
carmina non priussacerdos
audita
musarum
virginibus puerisque canto.
Keep To
off,
ye
commonboys and
raff
:
from theseattempted
cloisters fly.I
A hymn no human lipsartless
e'er
girls
am
bringing.
Priest of the nine
who
are served
by
singing.
8.
Hor. C.
III. xxiv.
31-2 (Third Asclepiad).
Virtutem incolumem odimus, sublatam ex oculis quaerimusinvidi.
Hating Worth, while
it
walks on earth.
Envy
looks for the hght, only
when
lost to sight.
9.
Hor. Epod.
v.
87-90 (Iambic).
Venena magnumconverterediris
fas nefasque
non valent
humanam vicem:
agam vos
dira detestatio
nulla expiatur victima.
xxxii
ALLITTERATIO LATINANo drugor devil's art so strong
Can laws invert of right and wrong To pleasure man.*^
On you my curses hot shall hail Nor ever victim's blood avail To lift the ban.
10. Virg.
Aen.
vi.
737-43 {Hexameter).
Penitusque necesse est
multa diu concreta modis inolesceresupplicia expendunt.
miris.
Ergo exercentur poenis, veterumque malorumAliae panduntur inanes;
suspensae ad ventos
aliis
sub gurgite vasto
infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igniquisque suos patimur manes.**
Much
of the mischief
they wroughtsoul have extended,
Must needs to the
Foulness in which must be fought
BySome
penance for justice ofiended.of us,
hung to the
blast,;
Are winnowed by dolorous breezes
Some
are 'neath cataracts castof diseases;
For the scouring awayOthers in furnaces burn
Out the
traces of contamination
All of us victims in turn
Of the vice we have brought for purgation.*^
Humanam
vicem, a great trouble to the commentators,
is
hominum(Epod.**
vicem, the
meaningi.
of
which
is sufficiently
illustrated
only a variation of by Helenae vicem2, I. ix. 1),
xvii. 42), illius vicem,
nostram vicem
(Cic.
Ad Fam.
IV. v.
and
publica vice (Quint. XI.
42).
Here too the commentators are perplexed, but quite
needlessly.
The divine
essence has been contaminated by the body, and carries with it into the other world the noxious elements that have to be painfully purged away ; so that the
condition of the individual manes (or soul)
is the measure of its punishment. Patimur munea is merely a contracted expression for patimur supplicia quae neceaaaria aini ad manea noatroa purgandoa.
INTRODUCTION11. Ovid,
xxxiii
Amor.
II. xix.
19-20 (Elegiac),
Tu quoque, quae
nostros rapuisti nuper ocellos,
saepe time insidias, saepe rogata nega.*^
Thou, too, whose rapturous charms
But newlyFeign often
my
senses bemuse,
fictitious alarms,.
Often thy favours refuse.12. Ter.
Maur. 142-5 (Sotadean).
Hanc
edere
vocem quotiens paramusdicere, sic citetur ortus
ore:
nitamur ut u
productius autera coeuntibus labellis
natura soni pressior altius meabit.If to utter
you seek
But shoot out theBringing the tipsSteadily nigher:
lips,
V in the
Greek
Fairly and fully.
Your mouth you must round, A note you will strike As though to sound Not much unlike, u in (say) Tulli. But thinner and higher.*^*^ " Not Ovidian," says Palmer {Heroides, Pref., p. xii), who, in agreement with Lachmann, remarks that time insidias is nonsense, and accordingly conjectures " saepe tamen sedeas.^^ Plainly the meaning is, " often pretend that your husband is on the watch, and that you are afraid of being caught." In blank verse no one has handled elegiacs more skilfully than Watson, e.g.:
Man and his Man and his**
littleness perish, erased like
greatness survive, lost
an error and cancelled. in the greatness of God.lines. So in remarks (1454, 2054) and
Syllables have been resolved in this{e.g.
and the corresponding
Ter. Maur. occasionally
1560).
Cf. his general
54
(infra).
xxxiv
ALLITTERATIO LATINAABBREVIATIONSAncient Literature.
Cat.Gell.
Catullus
:
Postgate, 1889.:
Hor. Juv.
K.Lucan.Lucr.
Aulus Gellius Teubner, 1853. Horace Oxf. Pocket Text. Juvenal: Lewis, 1882. Keil's OrammcUici Latini.:
Lucan
:
Haskins, 1887.:
LucretiusMartial:
Mart.
Bibl.
Munro, 1893. Oxon.
Ov.Pers.
Ovid
:
in Heroides, i.-xiv.,:
Palmer
;
elsewhere Teubner.ed.
Persius
Conington, 1874.:
Phaedr.Priap.Prise.
PhaedrusPriapeiaPriscian:
J.
M.
B., 1847,
supplemented by Valpy's Delphin
Bibl. Lat., Athens, 1888.
:
Krehl, 1819.:
Prop.Quint.Stat.
PropertiusStatinsVirgil
Bibl.
Oxon.:
Quintilian's Institutes:
Meister, 1886.
Valpy's Delphin ed.:
Tib.Virg.
TibuUus:
Bibl.
Bibl.
Oxon. Oxon.
ModernLindsay, L.L.:
Literature.
Latin Language, 1894.Historical Latin
L.O.:
:
Marx
Hiilfsbiichlein
Orammar (2nd ed., 1915). fur die Av^sprache der lateinischen Vokale (3rd
ed.,
1901).
Ramsay
:
Manual:
of Latin Prosody (2nd ed., 1859).lateinische Sprache, 1819.
Schneider
Grammatik der
SeelmannStolz:
:
Aussprache des Latein, 1885.
Historische:
Grammatik der
lateinische Sprache, 1894.
Walde
Lateinisches etymologisches Worterhuoht 1910.
SYMBOLSA^ A^ A^ indicate initial, medial,
and terminal
liaison or ligation respectively.
In a Line ofItalics indicate that
Verse.
a syllable (allowing for sandhi) does not rhyme independentlyline.
of
a neighbouring
InItalics indicate
the Analyses.;
annexed by liaison or ligation or an interlineal rhyme (which may also be an internal rhyme). B and the like an oblique rhyme. BB and the like (usually in brackets) an initial rhyme. 8 a broken uniped. s and the like an unbroken uniped. s, and the like ss, s 8, s . that the letters are in a position to pair. t, and the like 8'~'t, s t, s indicates a (legitimate) transposition in the elements of a group somewhere inaletter::
:
.
.
.
:
.
.
.
:
"I"
thea, e,
line.
, 0,
u
often represent a, oc,
e (y),
oe (oi),
and eu
respectively.
ALLITTERATIO LATINACHAPTERRHYME 1.(2) (6)
I
The elements(3)
of a verse in
any language are(4)
(1)
the thought,
the diction,
the syntax,
the metre,
(5)
the rhythm,
the consonantia litterarum,^ and usually (7) the rhyme.trivial or obscure,
The thought may be
the diction inelegant or
prosaic, the syntax involved or ungrammatical, the
metre irregular,
the rhythm jerky, the consonantiathe
litter
arum
frigid or harsh, ^
and
rhymeis
imperfect.
Few:
poets are concerned to observe the rules
of their art at all times
for,
with so
many
interests to attend to,
there
a constant temptation to sacrifice the less important to the;
more importantcerned,
and rhyme, with which alone
this
book
is
con-
has
sometimes been sacrificed altogether.
In Milton's
Paradise Lost, for instance, the ornament is missing. " rhyme," as commonly understood, 2. The wordterminal rhyme, such as thefirst
meanswhere:
we have
in the following quatrain,
rhyme
is
an assonance, and the second a consonanceis
All nature
but art unknown to thee.
All chance direction which thou canst not see,All discord
harmony not understood,
All partial evil universal good.^^
who(A.
The term consonantia litterarum is borrowed from Gell. VI. (VII. xx. (capitulum), also makes use of the expression consonantia vocum jproximarum (XIII. xxi.)
(xx.) 5).iii.
In speaking of
Virgil's preference for the termination
-e,
or
which are regarded (by a convention orvalue, such asjp
having the same
and
6, e.g.
praemia ponit (p p) posse negabat (p b).^ These refractory lines do not exceed 50 out of the 110,000 or so which have formed the author's field of inquiry. Only in about half of them are there no manageable variants. * Some writers use arsis and thesis in a converse sense. ' Ov. F. IV. 760. The thetic I has no significance.
4
ALLITTERATIO LATINAstrongest
Theictic
rhymes are undoubtedly those
in
which the rhyming
consonants are the same and either both precede or both follow the vowel. The English " bell," for instance, is a closer echo of" bat " thanit is
of " rub "it
;
and
so pcmit
rhymes moreif
effectively
with praemia thanthe 6 were p.
would with negabat, even
in the latter
word
Still
they were both good rhymes to the Latin ear,only noted for the sake of accuracy.
and the 8.
distinction
is
Rhymes may
subsist
between
like
vowels as well as betweenBut, thoughit
like
consonants
and on the same indulgent footing.might answer toe.
e (for instance)
ae, it is
hardly credible that
would
be admitted as a rhyme tosense of quantity than
For the Latins had a more delicateitis
weit
have, and
known
that a wrong
pronunciation on the stage would provoke an immediate uproar
on the benches.sufficient
Indeed,
would seem that short vowels had not
volume to furnish a rhyme under ordinary circumstances,accordingly be found that under our rules they are only
and
it will
recognised
when they
are lengthened
by the poet
(
60-62) or enter
into the relations described in 22
ara Dianae (a a)
laudesque manebunt
(e e).
There are
many lines whichsufficiently
as
will
be understood at a later stagee.g.
would rhyme
with their vowels alone,
tentator 6ri6n Dianae
non potui
fato nobiliore mori'violabis
quo non Romanes
vomere manes.^
9. A series of homogeneous rhymes, however short, termed a " sequence,^' which may be either simple {p
may.
be
.
.
p) or
compoundthesequence."
(pr
.
.
.
pr).
A
series of
minimum
requirements of a verse
sequences sufficient to satisfy may be termed a " line of
10. It will
be observed that in the hexameter endings quotedis
supra the rhyming consonant
not supported by a rhyming vowel,
nor the rhyming vowel by a rhyming consonant.
Such support
is
never necessary, and the rules that govern the terminal rhyme in
Hor. C. III.
iv. 71.
Mart. XI. Ixix. 12.
i
Luoan,
vii.
862.
RHYMEEnglisli
5
need not trouble
us.
Composite echoes, however, after the
EngUsh patternmeter endings(
are not exchided in Latin. 29^.)
the tendency is to avoid an icticis
But except in pentarhyme in which by the same vowel
the same consonant(6s OS, so so), the
followed or preceded
prevaihng rule being uniformity in the one and
variety in the other, or, f aiUng that, an inversion of the order of theletters. 11.
The hexameter endings which we have quoted were intended
to illustrate alliteration in its simplest form
thatis
of the single
rhyme.
The following
are examples of the double rhyme, in
some
of which, it will
be seen, the order of the recurrents:
(quite legiti-
mately) reversed
Mdrtis amore
:
mr mr:
ctira pectili
:
cti
cu
Pergama
Graiis
rg gr.
taha fatur
:
ta at.
By
combining two or more double rhymes, we get
triple,
quadruple,
quintuple, sextuple rhymes, and so on, as will be exemplified at alater stage.suffice:
For the present, instances of the
triple variety will
praemia primiexercita ciirsu 12.
:
prm prmsrc crs.
viscera
quisquam:
:
vsc vsq
:
ostroque decoriof the letters will
roq cor.
The phonetic values
be set forth in a
succeeding chapter.
Owing
to the fact that there are only sixteenitis
consonant or vowel sounds which cannot echo each other,diflScult to
construct a long line without a single rhyme.desirable,
An example,is
however,
is
and the followingearit
elegiac couplet
offered as
a curiosity.
To the Roman
would be nothing more than a
fragment of song in which every note was out of tuneAssiduene idee, pulcherrima Laodamia,aggrediebaris toUere vina
mea
?
Contrast with these the following unpretentious line
:
non meruio
lis"
tali forsitan 6sse loco ^^
so
Ov. Tr. V.
X. 50.
6
ALLITTERATIO LATINAby combeaten out hisconticuere
or this other, where the poet has replaced simple rhymes
pound, and
music with both his hands
omnes intentique ora tenebant.^^nenent v. .r
nt v.r
nene
fntcv.r.o
ntcv.Virg. A.ii.
.
ro
"
1.
CHAPTER
II
ORTHOGRAPHY 13.
One
of the difficulties connected with theitself is
problem to which
this
book addresses
the spelling, which often confronts us inof the
more than one form.
The explanationthat
phenomenon must betwo pronunciations
either (1) that the spelling
was optional while the pronunciationit
remained the same, orcorrupted by copyistsfashions of theirsuperiors.^
(2)
reflected
current at the same time, or (3) that the original texts have been
who accommodated the spelling to the own age or to the mistaken directions of theirprobability somethingis
In
all
due to eachit
of these
causes.
How muchamount
to one
and how much to another,
may
never
be possible to determine.certainof guidance helps,
But
at least on
some points we have a
from the ancient grammarians, and ourprimarily to the fewness of the lines
alliterative
scheme
though not to such an extent as might
have been expectedwhich arefree
owing
from superfluous ornament.
The
variations
may
be conveniently dealt with under three heads
:
14. (a)
Where
the variations did not affect the pronunciation to
the extent of interfering with thei.
rhymes;
(see
Chapter
III.).
-cumque, -cunqueetc.
;
umquam unquam;
quamquam quanquam,
tamtus tantussumsi sumpsi
;
;
damdus dandus eumdem eundem, etc. sumtum sumptum hiems hiemps Rodus; ;
Rhodus,
etc.
cum quum^
;
cui quoiare
;
scaena scena
;
circumeo circueo,
etc.
The
rules laid
down
still
greatly increased
by
modem
editors,
extant in some cases. The complications are who, for the sake of what they deem consist-
ency in the
spelling, are often unfaithful to the
MSS.
7
8ii.
ALLITTERATIO LATINAsulphur sulfur;
negligo neclego;
;
cycnus cygnus,;
etc.
s
maximus maxumus apud aput sed set;
lubet libet
portubus portibus,
etc.
;
baud haut,;
etc.
vulgo volgo
;
vertex vortex
faciendus faciundus, etc.
15. (6)
Where
the spelling
was optional and
reflected
two
pronunciations with different rhyming powers.i.
totiens toties
;
deciens decies, etc.;
ii.
forensia foresia
Megalensia -esiaetc.
;
intrinsecus -isecus, etc.
iii.
tonsus tosus tinguo tingoetc.
;
mensus mesus,;
iv.
unguo ungo
;
urgueo
urgeo
;
tempto tento,
V. querella querela
;
ligurrio ligurio, etc. (see Alphabetical List in
Appendix 16.
0).
Two
spellings
(and pronunciations) are also found in aof
large
number
of
words compounded with prepositions, in oneis
which the
final
consonant of the preposition
assimilated to theitself is
following consonant,
and
in the other not.
Assimilation
the
outcome
of a
tendency to avoid a combination of sounds whicheffort,
cannot be produced without a sense of
such as
is
involved in
passing rapidly from one organ of speech to another not convenientlyplaced.
and if we In other words, it is due to a sort of laziness " Harry " or " Bessie " instead of " Henry " or " Betsy," it is say;
because they come more easily to the tongue.
Now, when comformed,^that^
pounds
like ad-curro, dis-fero, in-ruo, etc.,
were
first
sense suggests
pace some weighty authorities
common
the words
were pronounced as here written.so pronouncedis
For how long a period they wereIn
another matter.
many
cases assimilationclassical
must
have become permanently established beforearose;
literature
in other cases;
two pronunciations may
well have existed side
by
side
and
in yet others, after perhaps centuries of the lazier
usage, the fashion would change,2
and there would be a harkingand
" It
is
quite a mistake to suppose the unassimilated forms to be the olderp. 313),is
the assimilated the more recent," says Lindsay {L.L.,in Prager Phil. Studien, 1887.
appealing to Dorsch
Perhaps the statement
not intended to apply to
the pre-literary period.
ORTHOGRAPHYback("
9Itis
re-composition ") to the original forms. ^
noticeable
that in
MSS. and
inscriptions the
same word
is;
sometimes spelt in
different
ways on the same page or monument
and*
in the case of
adcurroB.C.)
we have theit
distinct testimony of Lucilius
(second century
that
did not matter whether the d was assimilated or not adcurrere scribas
d-ne an
c,
nonif
est
quod quaeras eque
labores.
It certainly looks as
in at least
option.
If so,
and
in such cases,
many cases usage sanctioned an we may be sure that in elevatedis
discourse
and
official
documents the leaning would be to the moreIn poetry, where thereever a
dignified, etymological spelling.
tendency to avoid the commonplace and to introduce even outwornforms for the sake of their associations and the appeal they maketo the imagination, the preferencedirection, particularlyif
would often befell
in the
same
the less familiar spellingline.it
in best with
the alliterative requirements of the
Onis
the evidence of the
grammarians
contradictory thoughwhichresist it
often
assimilation would;
seem to have been the rule
in our period,^
and the author has not^
met manyother
lines
underlines
his
treatment
but on thefor the
hand there are many:
which plead strongly
" Applicat : secundum praesentem usum per ^ Cf. Servius's note on Aen. i. 616 d prima syllaba scribitur secundum antiquam orthographiam per p." By antiquam he no doubt means roughly (like many other grammarians) " during the: . . .
classical period."
from the"
That Lucilius did not approve of indiscriminate assimilation is evident which he sets to the assimilation of per, which, he says, could only unite with I. Cf. Vel. Long. K. vii. 65. 14, where the true reading must be*
ix. 25.
limit
Apud Lucilium
legit ur in
praepositionem
'
per
':
praepositum
nam
'per' 'liciendo' congeminatI.)
1."
{Per prefixed to Ucere doubles the^
thought that the etymological spelling was due to ignorance " Frequenter invenimus adfatur, adludo, adrideo, adnitor, adsumo. Errore tamen scriptorum hoc fieri puto quam ratione " (II. i. 7) and he cannot understand why the etymological spelling should be held more euphonious than the other. So " [Novissimam litteram praepositionum] quidam imperite semper Ter. Scaurus custodiunt, adripit et conripit et conludit " (K. vii. 25. 18). Cassiod., however, " Est ubi [d] sonet et ubi scribatur is in conflict with Priscian on one point ut adfluo, adfui, adfectus" (K. vii. 151. 16). It seems clear that in every case thePriscian:. . .
;
:
'
'
'
'
'
'
:
.
.
.
pronunciation followed the spelling.
Lucan, ix. 488, demands adligat and Stat. Silv. III. i. 73, inmaduit (unless * Libyam). With this cf. Cat. Ixi. 169 (173), which, without requiring, strongly suggests in-minentes. For adsiduus, cf. 182. 6o, 6i.^;
we read
10
ALLITTERATIO LATINA:
etymological spelling
and
his general conclusion is that, in the
absence of countervailing reasons, individual cases must be decided
by the ear. We know that Virgil's choice of turrim, was dictated solely by considerations of euphony.Obs.
urheis, trisy etc.,
The same general observations apply to other compounds suchsometimes
as idcirco {iccirco), quidquid {quicquid). 17.
Words compounded with con and in form a class apart. Beforeand sometimes(2),
liquids these prepositions behaved like other prefixes, being
assimilated
not,
and the same general considerations
apply.
Before sit
d (t), c{gk q),jy and (during our period) v the n was
retained, as
not always.tions,
sometimes was before the labials (b pf) also, though The evidence relating to these labials from inscrip-
MSS., and the grammariansit
is
confusing and conflicting, and
only by disregarding some of easyclari
can a practical rule be reached.
An
way out
of the difficulty
would be to admit the teaching of the
homines vouched for by Mar. Victorinus, that before a labial
the illustrations are Sambyx, Ampelo,intermediate betweeneither,
Lycambe
m hadignored
a sound
m
and
n, which,
without being identical with
partook of the nature of both, and was presumably capable ofeither.
rhyming with
But
as this teaching
is
by other
ancient grammarians and contestedit
by many modern
philologists,
seems safer to rely on Ter. Scaurus, who flourished near the close
of our period
and at
least recognises
(what other grammarians do
room for distinguishing, and that there were He says that cases where com and im could not be (properly) used. the n was preserved before these labials when they introduced anot) that there wassyllable containing a
vowel which was long by nature or positionit
leaving us to infer that in other cases
was a matter
of indifference
whether the n was changed intospellings
mby
or not (see 291-7).
His
may
therefore be typified
inpurus
conpelloinbellis
impia or inpia
conburoinfamis
imbuo
or inbuo
infirmus
imfimus or infimus.
They
satisfy the requirements of our alliterative scheme,
though
it
must be admitted that the
crucial lines are exceedingly few.of in
Obs. In words which are not compounds assumed to be m {umbrae semper etc.).^
and con the
spelling
is
ORTHOGRAPHY 18. (c)
11
Where
the spelling
and pronunciation may have changed
during the Golden and early Silver Ages.
During the period in which we are interested, many words under-
went a change and
of spelling side
by side with a change of pronunciation
;
this, it is clear,
should properly be taken into account in dealing
with the alliterative features of a particular author.afiected both vowels
The changesof spellings
and consonants.'
Out
of a
number
which Lindsay has
listed
as current in the time of Quintihan
(whomthe
he regards as the best model), the following are the most importantfor
present
purposes.
They do not
necessarily
represent
spellings current in earlier years.abicio,
adicio,
etc.,
better
convicium, not -tium.cotidie
oboedio, not -edio.better:
than abjicio, etc. Alexandrea, Dareus,
and
cott-, not quo-, obscenus,
than
etc.,;
dicio, better
thanf
ditio.
-scaenus
not -scoenus.
during the Republic-rius afterwards.
-ria,
faenum andfoenum.
enum, not paenitet,
not pen- ?M)r poen-.
pernicies, not -ties,better than pomoer-. proelium, not prae-.
amoenus.artus, artareearlier.;
fecundus, not foe-.arct- is
pomerium,
femina, not foe-.fetus, not foe-.
auctor,
etc.,
not autor.auct-.
Hadria, not Adria.-probably better than ar-.
setius, not seciua.
autumnus, not
harena, harundo, haruspex solacium, not -tium.
caecus, not coe-.caelebs, not coe-.
soUemnis, not -nnis.suscenseo, succenseo.-tio.
hedera, better than ed-.heres, not haeres nor eres.
better
than
caelum, not coe-.
caenum, nx)t coe-. camena, not -moena.cena, not coena.^oondicio, better than -ditio.
indutiae,
nx)t -ciae.
infitiae, not -ciae.
maereo, maestus,f/iaw
nx3t
suspicio, better than tempto, not tento. moe-. Thrax and Thraex.
multa, not mulcta
{old),
trans-
and tra-mitto,
etc.
co-necto,
etc.,
better
nactus and! nanctus.
uraQTViBandwaxoT, better than
conn-.contio, not concio.
negotium, not -cium.nuntio, not-cio.
hum-,
'
L.O., pp. 204-6.
^
Ov.
Am.
I. iv.
2
demands
coena.
CHAPTER
III
ALPHABETICAL VALUES 19.
Anything that
may
be said in this chapter on the subject
of pronunciation assumes the spelHng which
we have
recognised as
current in hterary circles at
Romewill
during the activities of the writers
named on ourwe
title-page,
and
be primarily concerned with the
values of the letters as elements of rhyme.rely will be found in the Appendices.
The evidence on which
Here we confine ourselves
to the conclusions
we have reached(e.g. U)
;
and we begin with the remark
that a double lettersingle,
has no more alliterative value than a
and that short vowels which are not lengthened by thei tt
poet have no alliterative value whatsoever, apart fromcertain positions 20.( 22).
and y
in
The phonetic value;
of a letter often
depends on the
letter
which immediately followsfeatures of a line aright,in
and
if
we
are to estimate the alliterative
it will
be necessary to discard the face-values
many
cases,n.
m, for instance, ceases to be an
m
when
it is
proin
nounced as
Such phonetic changes are sometimes expressed
the spelling by the substitution of a letter representing the true sound, as in tantus for tamtustions;
but except occasionally, in inscripof ilhterate
and certain MSS., at the hands
workmen andItis,
careless scribes, this is not
done between word and word.^
however, important to remember that the influence of a followingletter is felt
even when theis
latter is in another word,line.
and even wheninitials
that word
in
another
The terminals and
have
^ In Sanscrit, where the changes are expressed in script, the figure is known as Sandhif and the term is often used to describe the same feature in other languages. In Welsh the mutations are chiefly found at the beginning of a word, where they often effect a striking transformation, e.g. eu pen, dy ben, fy mhen, e phen (their,
thy,
my, her head).12
ALPHABETICAL VALUEStherefore to be carefully watched,in
13
and the proper adjustments madeseveralspecified in detail below.is
pronunciation.
The circumstances under which thewill
letters 21.
change their values
be
The reader will remember what
meant byby a
like letters
and
unlike (7).
Owing to the
fact that certain letters are able tolicence,
rhyme
effectively with certain disparates
and withcomlittle
yet others under the transforming influence of a neighbour, the
number
of those
which can only rhyme with their fellows
is
paratively small.different.If these
When we comebe counted, they
to sounds, the casewill
is
a
be found
discarding niceof
distinctions
to be twenty-five.
Some, however, even of these are
too hke each other to be regarded as distinct alliterative elements,
and experiment has shown that those which are incapablewith each other are just sixteen.
rhyming
They are the sounds represented by
dhcdehijlmnorsuv and their likes, or (as we may perhaps nowcall
them without danger
of being misunderstood) equivalents ( 24).
22.
Vowels, Semi-vowels,
and Diphthongs (when not;
elided),
a
e
as in father, mate, rope respectivelye
a rhymed with ai and au,
withOhs.
ae,
and
o with oe
and
oi.
When the interjectionutinam=o-v-utinam.^
was followed immediately by u, thev,
pronunciation appears to have demanded the intervention of ae.g.
Presumably the rule applied to ano.
initial
u
following
any unelided
i
1.
When
a consonant (j)
:
as in jet.
Consonantal
i
behaved
like other consonants, and,i
between two vowels, asit
though the
were doubled, which indeed
sometimeswith the
visibly was, e.g. Maiia.
The union of the
earlier i
preceding vowel had the effect of lengthening the latter,
but did not otherwise affect the pronunciation,(TpoLa)=Troi-j-a, peior=pei-j-or.^i is
e.g.
Troia
In words Hke Teia the
treated as a vowel.
2.
When
a long vowel
:
as in feelits
;
rhymed withline,
ei
and
y.
Before another vowel inj,
own
the
i
(whether
long or short) developed a
so that Pieria=Pi-j-eri-j-a,
cuius =cul-j-us, pecori apibus *=pecori-]-apibus.2^*
It
Hor. C. I. XXXV. 38. seems unlikely thatVirg. G.i.
ei
in cases like this could
have been pronounced as
i.
4.
14
ALLITTERATIO LATINA1.
u
When
a consonant
(v)
:
as in win.
Consonantal v
behaved
like
other consonants.
In late Latin the pro-
nunciation changed.2.
When
a long vowel
:
as in food
;
Before another vowel inor short) developed a
its
own
Hne, the
rhymed with eu. u (whether longheu ubi
v,
so that fuit=fu-y-it,
c
Whether it was a vowel or a consonant after hin such words as cui, anguis, aqua, huic, hui-uSy maybe an open question, but in any case the v was vocal during=heu-v-ubi.
gq
our period, except in quum.
Thus^
qui nocuere suo
y
has the v rhyme at every ictus. =the French or Welsh u (GermanLatini.
ii)
and rhymed with thelikei,
Before a vowel
it
behaved
developing a
j,
so that LyaeusIA-yaeus.Ohs.
Except ine.
a few cases where(e.g. sylva),
it
properly introduced
the letter
seems to have been imis only found in words
borrowed from the Greek.
aeai
rhymed withas insJisle
or ah^y-e^ (a being the predominant sound).if
auei *
like av in gra.vel,
the v were a
w
;
rhymed witho.
a.
In
special cases it probably
rhymed withetc.).
(Cf.
202
obs.)
I
(but not in peius, eius,u.
euoe, oi
rhymed withwith6.
as in oh^y-es or 6oy (pronounced with a long o)
;
rhymed
quoi was pronounced like cui.
23.
Consonants (andrespectively,
h).
b
dg
as in bww, done,
gun
except
(1)
(2)
when followed closely by h when closely associated with a sharp {pt;
c s),
in which cases they were pronoimced
s^s
p
I
c respectively,
with which, whether so pronounced or not, they could
always rhyme,6
b might also
rhyme with/.
Ov. Ex. P.t.
I.
ii.
136.
Priscian says
(I. 6.
32) that the ancients
for
Nigidius Figulus
deemed
it
employed this diphthong everywhere a stnpid superfluity (GelL XIX. xiv. 8).
ALPHABETICAL VALUESObs.
15f,
Final d may have been regularly pronounced asIn hand the dis:
as
was the
case in late Latin.
said to have been silent before
a consonant.'c
k q
as in catlike
rliymed with
g.
f
pwh
in;
pwha^ (an
Irish pronunciation of what) or bhv in
ah^hmc rhymed with b and p. In late Latin the pronunciaThe first finff must have been a mere p. tion changed.has in hat, except in phth chth, where thesilent.first
h must have been
It did not afiect the pronunciation ofit
anyd g)
letter\
with whichitis
was
associated, except ut supra (h
and
said to
have been pronounced more strongly with
consonants than with vowels.
The soundsaspirate
of ch, ph, th
were those in ink-horn, to^-hat, pot-house.Aspiratepositions,I
might
rhyme with
in
favourable
and perhaps with /.respectively,
p
as in
let -pin
p rhymed with 17)
b and/.
m
(wheni.
the spelling
conforms to
Like1.
m in ram.of a word.
At the beginningBefore
2. 3.
Before a vowel within the word.
bfjmpv.initial
4.
Before an
vowel or h (whether in the same or
following line),5.ii.
when
elision did
not operate.
At the end
of a line before a
marked pause.
Like n in ran.1.
Before medial or
initial(c
dlnr stz.q):
2.
Before a guttural(a)
g k
when the
letters
are in different words (jam;
queritur, remque)(6)
when
the letters are in the same word and the
m
in thesisiii.
{umqudm).
Like ng in
nng ^
(with Uberty to rh5T2ie with an ordinary
n at
least occasionally)
Before a guttural,
when the
letters are in the
same
'
Mar. Victor. K.
word and the VL 15. 21.
m in arsis
(umquam).
The sound known as agma, being that of the first y in yy a word invented by the Greek grammarians to distinguish this y from the ordinary gamma.
16iv.
ALLITTERATIO LATINASilent.1.
Almost always before anline.
initial
vowel or h in
its
own
2.
In compounds of drcum before a vowel,
e.g.
circumeo
(pronounced drcuweo).Obs. A markedj'pause cannot arise within the line, and seldom occurs elsewhere, except at the end of a poem (c/. 29). The reader is reminded that the last consonant in a line
adjusts
itself
to a following initial like 17)
any other
( 20).
n
(when thei.
spelling
conforms to
Like n in ran, subject to the following Like ng in
ii.
nng
(with liberty to
rhyme with an
ordi-
nary n at least occasionally)Before a guttural, when the letters are in the same
word and the niii.
in arsis (unquam).
Silent in
mensa
(in
the sense of " table ") and perhaps in
conjux,rs
as in hoviible as in hisswriters
the
littera
canina;
rolled asit
in Scotland.z.
strongly sibilant(e.g.
rhymed with
In the oldersilent at
Catullus, Lucretius)
was sometimes
the end of a word