CA INTRODUCTION § 1. RHYTHM AND METRE Rhythm is a term which can be applied to any movements recurring at regular intervals, as the ticking of a clock, the tramp of soldiers marching, the cantering of a horse. Such movements, as well as the sounds produced by them, are said to be rhythmical. If words are so grouped together as to produce similar effects, they are said to be in metre. The term metrical has, therefore, the same relation to language that rhythmical has to inarticulate sounds. To understand the laws of metre, and the technical words employed, we can use no better illustration than that of dancing, especially such dancing as is described in Homer (Il. xviii. 567 sqq.), where one, standing in the midst, sings a song to the accompaniment of his lyre, while youths and maidens dance round him, joining in the song.1 The same time must have been kept in the song, as in the accompaniment on the lyre, and in the dance. In what 1 For this illustration, and some remarks which follow, I am indebted to the Leitfaden in der Rhythmik und Metrik der Classischen Sprachen, of Dr. J. H. Heinrich Schmidt, 1869, pp. 19 sqq. E b ever way, accordingly, we suppose the time to have been marked for the one, the other must have been susceptible of the same marks or divisions. Now when a number of persons are keeping step together, either in marching or dancing, it is observed that the foot first raised from the ground is planted somewhat more firmly, or heavily, than the other. If recruits are being drilled in marching, to the call of "left, right! left, right!" we may notice the initial pause or balance on the right foot, followed by the decided planting of the left, which "marks the time." In like manner, in dancing, whichever foot leads off, we shall observe the momentary pause on the other, while that is uplifted, followed by its more marked and decided planting on the ground. If the dancers, as in Homer's Linus, or in a Greek chorus, are to sing as well, there must be a corresponding stress of the voice, recurring at fixed intervals, in time with the more distinctly-marked tread of the feet. Hence it has come about that terms strictly applicable to marching or dancing have been used to distinguish metre. The planting of the foot with a firm, well-marked tread, was called thesis. Its raising, while the less distinctly-marked tread was made by the other, was called arsis. And these terms have been applied (by modern writers, however, in just the converse sense) to the alternations of stress and lightness in metrical feet. In fact, the very term foot, used to designate the component. parts of a metre, bears witness to the close connection once existing between the song and the dance. The learner will find it a useful exercise to recite aloud, or sing to any suitable air, passages in well-marked metre like the following; and try to hear mentally, at the same time, the sound of feet marching or dancing to the tune. If he can be his own choreutes, so much the better.1 "We sigh for our country, we mourn for our dead; In the first of these extracts, the ear will catch four beats or ictuses in each of the longer lines, and three in each of the other. Moreover, the first and third beats are stronger and more marked than the second and fourth. If we imagine soldiers starting to march to the sound of these lines, sung to a musical accompaniment, the first, or strong step, made with the left foot, will coincide with the first syllable in "Rally"; the second, or less strongly-marked one, with the right, will coincide with "round," and so on. 1 "With regard to the strictly lyrical parts of poetry . . . I have no hesitation in saying, that the only proper way to obtain a full perception of their rhythmical beauty is to sing or chant them to any extemporised melody; which would be much more readily done were not music so unworthily neglected in our higher schools."Professor Blackie, On the Pronunciation of Greek, 1852, p. 64. The defect Professor Blackie complains of has been largely supplied since he wrote. In the seventh line, an initial syllable, "for," precedes the strong beat on the first syllable of "victory." This answers to the anacrusis before spoken of, and represents the pause or lighter tread on the right foot, before the more distinctlymarked tread of the left. It will be noticed that such a light syllable has really to be allowed for, in the time, at the end of each of the shorter lines. Otherwise the strong beat would come twice in succession. The second line, for instance, is timed as if it really were: "Give it to the breezes." In music, the place of the syllable thus allowed for would be denoted by a rest of the proper duration. Comparing the second and third extracts, we observe that they differ only in the fact that the initial syllable, or anacrusis, is present in the latter, absent in the former. If the first line of the couplet from the Tempest began with 'Oh," the metre would be the same in both. Being in triple time, these lines could be sung to certain kinds of dance music. The first syllable in "merrily" would answer to the strong tread of the left foot stepping out, followed by two lighter steps of the right and left alternately the syllables of the second "merrily" would answer to a like succession of movements, beginning with the right foot; and so on. To make the metre of the words correspond exactly to the movement of the feet, it is obvious that two short syllables must be supplied, or equivalent time allowed for them, at the end of each line. : This illustration may help to make clearer what is meant by metrical ictus, or stress, and also by the terms thesis and arsis, as rightly employed by the old Greek musicians. At this point comes in the difficulty, how to reconcile the claims of the ictus with those of accent and quantity. This |