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Ictus and Accent in Early Latin Dramatic Verse
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
That accent as well as quantity plays a certain rô1e in the structure of early Latin dramatic verse is no new doctrine. It has been present in some form or other to the minds of most writers on Plautine and Terentian prosody since the time of Bentley, who in his Schediasma de metris Terentianis (1726, second edition 1727) laid the foundations of modern research into this somewhat thorny subject. Unfortunately, however, the question has been complicated from the very first by the introduction of a third term into the discussion, viz. the term ictus, with the result that the fundamental issue has been obscured and to some extent side-tracked. Bentley was himself responsible for this result; for it was he who introduced into his text of Terence those ictus-marks which have figured in most texts of Plautus and Terence down to the present day. And his whole theory of Terentian verse was dominated by the postulate that it was delivered on the stage with a stress of the voice falling rhythmically on the ‘rise’ (or, as he called it, the ‘arsis’) of each foot: e.g.
Malúm quod ísti dí deaéque omnés duínt.
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 1929
References
page 82 note 1 In the course of his exposition Fränkel finds himself driven to admit certain exceptions to his general principle—exceptions which he confesses that he cannot explain; but they are not such as to lead him to modify his general position. They are found in the third dipody of the iambic trimeter and the corresponding places of the of the trochaic tetrameter catalectic and the first colon of the iambic tetrameter catalectic; also in the initial foot and a half of the trochaic tetrameter catalectic. See pp. 21, 22 on the final rise, and p. 245 on the last rise but one, of the lines that end with a rise; and pp. 91 sqq. on the beginning trochaics.
page 83 note 1 That a very different interpretation of this supposed fact is possible I will suggest below.
page 85 note 1 See pp. 5 and 343 sq. of his book.
page 85 note 2 Evidence in support of the existence of an ictus metricus has been quoted from ancient authorities by Professor Sturtevant in several articles published in American journals. But it is not overwhelming. See a recent article byProfessorMountford, J. H. in Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. LVI, 1925, pp. 150–161CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
page 85 note 3 I may add that a count of the total number of accented rises in this passage (Rud. 83–184) yields the number 5 as the average figure per line of six feet. I include secondary as well as principal accents.
page 86 note 1 I have discussed lines of this type inWhat is Rhythm? (Oxford, 1925), p. 212Google Scholar sq., and also in an article that appeared long ago in the Classical Review (1906, pp. 156 sqq.). My main contention had been anticipated by Hingst, T. in his dissertation De spondcis tt anapaestis (Leipzig, 1904)Google Scholar. See also . MrHall's, F. W. article on ‘Nuances in Plautine Metre’in the Classical Quarterly (1921, pp. 99 sqq.)Google Scholar.
page 86 note 2 What is Rhythm?, pp. 208–211. This work appears to be unknown to Fränkel. At any rate he makes no allusion to my theory of the structure of early Latin verse, therein contained.