On RY7HMICAL MEASURES. 107 



the hexameter. Trochaic and iambic verfes may be combined 

 into couplets in the fame manner. When the trochaic verfe is 

 cataledlic, the deficient time at the end is made up by the firft 

 fyllable of the fucceeding iambic, and the whole combination 

 proceeds as if it were trochaic. 



Non e|bur, ne|que aurejum 

 Meja re|nidet | in dolmo la|cunar. 



The latter of thefe two combinations being uneven, the reader 

 will be difpofed to paufe at the end of it, during the time of 

 an entire foot, and will be gratified, when the ftrudure of the 

 fentence permits him to do fo. The pafTion for variety, how- 

 ever, could not always be confined within this limit. In the 

 works of the ancients, we meet with couplets and flanzas, of 

 which the different lines are compofed of different and unequal 

 timed feet. This is a further departure from regularity. It is 

 like varying the naeafure of the bars in a piece of mufic. One 

 of the moft ftriking examples of this is, when couplets are 

 formed of hexameteF and iambic verfes. Although fuch li- 

 cence may not have the fame difagreeable efFedl in poetry, that 

 it often has in mufic, it feems at leafl to give an impreffion of 

 incongruity, which is probably heightened by the conftant re- 

 currence of the diflTerent meafures at ftated intervals. The fo- 

 lemn and majeflic movement of the hexameter does not feem 

 to afTort well with the airy flippant pace of the iambic- After 

 pronouncing the latter, a perfon requires fome time to recover 

 that firmnefs of tone and manner, with which he is difpofed to 

 pronounce the former. The 16th epode of Horace is com- 

 pofed in couplets of hexameter and fenarian iambic verfes, and 

 is the only inftance of this meafure, which occurs in his works. 

 In this piece, the contraft is very ftriking. The even lines 

 throughout the whole of it are pure iambics, which have a 

 more rapid movement than thofe which are mixed. The verfes 



O a of 



