4. Whatever truth or probability may be found in the following attempt to account for the Proprii Nominis in the Trochaic or Iambic verse of Tragedy, (and for the admission of that licence with common words also into the Iambics of Comedy,) the whole merit of the discovery, if any, is due to S. Clarke, whose suggestion (ad Il. B. v. 811) is here pursued, enforced, and developed. Clarke, after quoting instances of Proprii Nominis, but only in the 4th foot of the Trimeter, proceeds to argue thus. If the Iambic verse of Tragedy, under other circumstances, rejects in the 4th the as equal in time to ___, and admits only the or equivalent, then it is clear that the proper names which exhibit to the eye could never have been pronounced at full length in three distinct syllables, but must have been hurried in utterance, so as to carry only to the ear. And since long proper names (as Clarke justly observes) are from their nature liable to be rapidly spoken; in the following verses, Phœn. 764=769. γάμους δ ̓ ἀδελφῆς ̓Αντιγόνης παιδός τε σοῦ. Androm. 14. τῷ νησιώτη Νουπτολέμῳ δορὸς γέρας, and in that above, εἰς ἄρ' Ιφιγένειαν ̔Ελένης νόστος ἦν πεπρωμένος ; naturally enough the names 'Αντιγόνης and Nουπτολέμῳ and Ιφιγένειαν might be slurred into something like ̓Αντ' γόνης, Νουπτολέμῳ, ἐφ ̓ γένειαν: the ear of course would find no cause of offence, and the eye takes no cognizance of the matter. 5. If this mode of solution be allowed as probable at least in the department of proper names in Tragic verse to which it bears direct application, by parity of argument perhaps it may be extended to the similar case of common words used in Comic verse also. Take for instance the line above quoted; λόγων ἀκριβῶν σχινδαλάμους μαθήσομαι; What was the objection to the old and vulgar reading, oxidadHoúc? Clearly this: that it placed a in 4th. What then does σxivdaλáμovç place there? Either is pronounced as three distinct syllables, in what is called triple time, while the metre itself is in common, or by rapid utterance oxid'λáμovç comes to the ear, and so the verse proceeds with its own regular movement. Briefly, we have either oxidaλuoúç, a molossus, which murders the metre entirely; or oxidaλáμovç, a full-sounded choriambus, -, which contrary to the law of the verse mingles triple with common time; or σxivd(a)λáμovs, i. e. in effect, the pes Creticus, very quantum of sound which the metre requires. that P.S. It may be necessary to remark, that Clarke's reasoning about the Proprii Nominis in the 4th is just as applicable to the 2nd place also with that foot as to the 4th. And if his argument, as here stated, be sufficient to account for the licence in the 2nd and 4th places, of course, where the same licence occurs in the 3rd and 5th, its admission there also must be considered in the very same light. 6. Before advancing a step farther, it is but right to avow, that all which we at present propose, is to set this question fairly a-going on its apparently reasonable and very probable ground. High probability then favours the idea, that the Anapests (and Choriambi) of Greek Comedy (under all combinations of words and syllables) were passed lightly over the tongue without trespassing on the time allowed betwixt ictus and ictus in verses not containing those feet, i. e. in metres of common time. Any thing like a perfect enumeration of particulars commodiously classed would be found to demand a serious sacrifice of leisure and labour. The classes which are here given in specimen only, while they undoubtedly embrace a very great majority of the facts, may serve to show the nature of that extensive survey which would be necessary to make the induction complete. 7. Instances like oxidadáμovç, it might à priori be calculated, are not likely to be very numerous; hardly 10 in every 100 of the Comic Trimeters: nor do all the words of similar dimensions with oxidadáμovs present a choriambus so readily obedient to our organs at least for running four syllables into three. Nubes 16. ὀνειροπολεῖ [ θ ̓ ἵππους· ἐγὼ δ ̓ ἀπόλλυμαι, Plutus 25. εὔνους γὰρ ὤν σοι | πυνθάνομαι | πάνυ σφόδρα. Besides the instances of __ in one word, which afford the strongest case for the admission of the licence, some other principal modes in which that apparent foot is made up may be classed under four heads. A. Where a long monosyllable, from its nature more or less adhering to the word which it precedes, may be supposed to form a coalescence of this kind, |- Plutus 45. εἶτ ̓ οὐ ξυνίης | τὴν ἐπίνοιαν τοῦ θεοῦ; Acharn. 52. σπονδὰς ποιεῖσθαι [ πρὸς Λακεδαιμονίους μόνῳ. Nubes 12. ἀλλ' | οὐ δύναμαι | δείλαιος εὕδειν δακνόμενος. B. Where either a monosyllable precedes, having from the law of collocation less adherence to what follows; or some longer word precedes, not particularly attached to the word which follows, or by syntax united to it: Plut. 56. ἄγε | δὴ πρότερον | σὺ σαυτόν, ὅστις εἶ, φράσον. Plut. 12. μελαγχολώντ ̓ ἀπέπεμψε μου τὸν δεσπότην. D. Where a monosyllable by its natural position follows a longer word: Plut. 688. τὸ γρᾴδιον δ ̓ ὡς | ᾔσθετο δή [ μου τὸν ψόφον. 943. καὶ ταῦτα πρὸς τὸ μέτωπον | αὐτίκα δὴ | μάλα. N.B. From the very close connexion of the article with its noun, τὸ μέτωπον may be fairly taken as one word; and so, in the following line, we may consider τὰ νοσήματα : Plut. 708. δείσας· ἐκεῖνος δ ̓ ἐν κύκλῳ τὰ νοσήματα. Thus v. 943 will become referrible to the class A, and v. 708 to the class B, along with many combinations of the very same kind. 8. If the idea of this inquiry had struck the mind of Elmsley as worthy at all of his careful research, little or nothing would have been afterwards left for investigation. The topic was not without interest to him as an Editor of Aristophanes : and on the Acharnians, ad v. 178, and in reference to v. 531, Τί ἐστιν; ἐγὼ μὲν δεῦρό σοι σπονδὰς φέρων- in a note of great and successful acuteness, he examines and settles a curious point in the main subject itself. "178. Hodie hic rí or' malim, et norρar', v. 531. Nam longe rarius, quam putaram, anapæstum in hoc metri genere inchoat ultima vocis syllaba." The whole note will amply repay the trouble of perusal. 9. And now, at the close of this article, we may safely allude to the similar, though far from identical, question of comic licence in Terence's Plays, so well illustrated by the labours of Hare and of Bentley. Great accession of probability, no doubt, may be derived from whatever is received as satisfactory in Terence to whatever wants elucidation in Aristophanes. And in the slurring of short syllables especially, which forms the principal point of agreement in versification betwixt those two writers, whatever is acknowledged as any thing like demonstration in the Latin Poet may be considered as à fortiori credible of the lighter and more volant speech of the Athenian. With great caution, however, let the young Student proceed to investigate the metres of Terence in comparison with those of Aristophanes; or he may find himself sadly confused by their diversity, instead of being at all instructed by their similitude; notwithstanding the general agreement of both in the cause of so much apparent licence, namely, in the approach which Comedy always must make to the familiarity of common dis course. APPENDIX. On Syllabic Quantity, and on its Differences in Heroic and Dramatic Verse. 1. By syllabic quantity is here meant the quantity of a syllable under these circumstances: the vowel, being unquestionably short, precedes a pair of consonants of such a nature that it may any where be pronounced either distinctly apart from them, or in combination with the first of the two. If the vowel be pronounced apart from those consonants, as in TE-Tрaç, that syllable is said to be short by nature. πε-τρας, If the vowel be pronounced in combination with the first of those consonants, as in wer-paç, the syllable then is said to be long by position. 2. The subjoined list comprises all the pairs of consonants which may begin a word, and also permit a short vowel within the same word to form a short syllable. 1. πρ, κρ, τρ: φρ, χρ, θρ: βρ, γρ, δρ. ii. πλ, κλ, τλ: φλ. χλ, θλ.iii. πν, κν: χν, Ov.-iv. τμ. The only remaining pairs, BA, yλ: du: and uv, which are at once initial, and in a very few cases permissive, may, on account of that rarity, be passed over for the present. But the following pairs, кμ: Xμ, Ou: Tv: pv, though not initial, yet within the same word permissive, deserve to be stated here, as they will afterwards be noticed. 3. More than twenty other combinations of consonants, (along with, E, %,) though qualified to be initial, are of course foreign to the purpose, as never being permissive also; at least in the practice of those authors to whom these remarks are confined. The combinations last mentioned it may be allowed in future to call non-permissive; and for this reason, that neither within the same word, nor between one word and another, (of verse |