Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/407

OF THE GKEEK DRAMATISTS. 381 3. The following lines may serve to exhibit all the divisions con- nected with the structure of the vei-se : (L) (M) ^(N)^ (R)^ (Ed. 7?. 81. o-cuT^pt I Pai-q I Xa/x7rpo5 | wcTTrep | o/x/^art. Prom. V. 1005. rj iraTpl cjivvaL Zr}vl tticttov | ayyeXov. 4. When the line is divided in medio versu with the elision of a short vowel in the same word, or in the little words added to it, such as Bi, fxi, crc, ye, re, that division is called by Person the quasi-ccesura, p. xxvii= 22. (Ed. R. 779. dv^p yap iv SetTTVois jx' vTrepTrXrjaOeU ixi$r}<;. Hecuh. 355. yvvaLil Trap^eVois t aTro^AcTTTOs /xera. Aj. Fl. 435. TO. irpwra KaXicrT€L aptcTTevo-as (rrpaTov. Hecuh. 387. Kcvretre, /xt) (^etSecr^ | eyw "reKov lidpLv. Verses of this latter formation Elmsley ingeniously defends, by an hypothesis that the vowel causing the elision might be treated as apper- taining to the precedent word, and be so pronounced as to produce a kind of hephthemimeral csesura (in this treatise marked by the letter Ttt Trpwra KaXA-icrreta | ptCTTevcra'^ crrpaTov. Yid. Notes on the Ajax, Mus. Crit. i. p. 477. 5. Several instances, however, are found of the line divided in medio vei'su without any such elision, a worse structure still. Aj. El. 1091. MeveXae, | ixrj yvwfxa<; | v7ro(TTT](ra<; | crocfxi?. Pers. 509 = 515. ©prjK-qv Trcpacravrcs | /xoyt? | ttoAAo) ttovw. On this latter verse, vid. the Note of Blomfield, and Hermann's remark in the work already quoted, p, 110 = 70. 6. But though the verse sometimes does occur with its 3rd and 4th feet constructed as in the instances above, yet there is a structure of the words which the tragic writers never admit; that structure which divides the line by the dipodias of scansion like the artificial verse pre- served by Athenseus : %e TOV /5oAoi9 I VLc{iOKTV7rOL<; 1 SvcT^ufJLepov. The following line, scarcely less objectionable as it stood in the former editions of ^schylus, Pers. 501 = 507, Sxparos TTcpa | KpvcTTaWoTrrjya ] Sid Trdpov^ has been corrected by an easy transposition : KpvcTTaXXoTriJya | Std Tropov crrparos irep^. Vide Person, u. s. pp. xxix, xxx = 24, 25.