KHYTHM. 



or however ignorant we may be of the melody of ancient 

 mufic, the rhythm, or time of that melody, being regulated 

 entirely, as has been already obferved, by the metrical feet, 

 mult always be as well known to us as the profody and con- 

 ftruAion of the verfe ; fo that we have nothing to do but 

 to apply to the long and fhort fyllables any two notes, one 

 of which is double the length of the other, in order to know 

 as exaftly as if we heard, in what manner any particular 

 kind of metre was fet by the ancients with refpect to time 

 and cadence, that boalted rhythm, which we are fo often 

 told was every thing in their mufic. It may, therefore, 

 afford fame gratification to the curiotity of thole w-ho have 

 never confidered the poetry of the ancients in this point of 

 view, if I produce a few examples, which will, perhaps, 



help to throw a little light upon the dramatic mufic of the 

 Greeks, and give fome idea of the rhythmical reiources of 

 the poet-mufician in one of the molt interelting provinces of his 

 art. 



" The firlt example fhall be of the Iambic verfe, which 

 chiefly prevails in the Greek tragedies, and in which the 

 dialogue and foliloquy, indeed all but the chorus and ode, 

 were generally written. I mall content myfelf with apply- 

 ing notes of correfpondent lengths to the fyllables, and 

 marking the time ; leaving the melody to the imagination ot 

 the reader. Should I preiume to fupply it, I might expia 

 to be reproached as another Salmoneus for my temerity. 



" Demens ! qui iiimboset non imitabile fulmen, &c." 





This meafure, when pare and unmixt, confifted of fix 

 Iambic feet, as, 



£ques | fonan[te ver'bcriijbit Cinlgula. 



Such verfes, however, feldom occur. The laws of this 

 metre only required that the fecond, fourth, and lalt feet 

 fhould be Iambics ; in the other places, Spondees, Ana- 

 pselts, and Daftyls, were admitted. This metre anfwers to 

 our Alexandrine, or veri'e of twelve fyllables ; but more ex- 

 actly in the number and kind of feet, than in its cadence, or 

 general effeft upon the ear. The paufc after the third foot, 

 to effential to a melodious Alexandrine, has no place but by 

 accident, in the Iambic, which runs more fwiftly, and has 

 a more profaic effect.. This, undoubtedly, led the ancients 

 to meafure it per dipodiam, or by double feet (lee Hor. Art. 

 Poet. v. 252. pes citus : unde, &c), which anfwerto double 

 bars in modern mufic. Ariofto wrote fome comedies in 

 this Iambic meafure. One of his lines will, perhaps, be as 

 exaft a reprefentation of the ancient Iambic as can be pro- 

 duced, in point of cadence. 



Per dio fon qua|fi in per.fier di | tornarmene. 



The following Alexandrine of Spenfer may alfo ferve for 

 the fame purpofe. 



" So in his angry courage fairly pacified." 



The above Greek lines are the beginning of the Hecuba of 

 Euripides, and were fung by the ghoit of Polydorus. The 

 bars in the verfe are only to fhew how the ancients divided it 

 into three portions of two feet in each ; but the bars of 

 time, the thefis, or beat, mult always fall in the middle of 

 the foot : " 1 " f I P- For the fake of diftinguifhing the 



feet more clearly, Dr. Burney barred them fingly ; though 

 it would have been more conformable to the ancient manner 



&c. 



of fcanning this kind of verfe, and probably more expreffive 

 of its cadence and effeel, to have made but three bars in each 

 line. The Iambics of Greek comedy differ from thefe only 

 in a little more liberty of construction ; thofe of the Roman, 

 in Plautus and Terence, are fo licentious, as often not to 

 differ perceptibly from profe, even in the judgment of 

 Cicero himfelf: "propter fimilitudincm fermonis, fie fxpc 

 funt abjefti, ut nonnunquam vix in his numerus et verfe 

 fenttri poffit." Orator, cap. 55. 



Betides this metre, the dialogue admitted, occafionally, 

 Trochaic verfes. They are generally introduced in fcenes 

 of hurry and diforder ; being, as Ariftotle has defcribed 

 them, and as their name implies, a voluble and dancing mea- 

 fure. A character which the reader will not be inclined to 

 difpute, when he compares the aacient Trochaic with a mea- 

 fure exaftly correfponding to it in our own language, but 

 which we have not yet admitted into our tragedy. 



I7« 'civ iioV, 0; •3t;?u')J I I'QjjZi 7k bofj.*/ i-1*i; ; 



This is a pure Trochaic, and i< preciiely in the meafure 

 ef our 



" Jolly mortals fill your glaffes, 



Noble deeds a>e done by wine." 



The whole difference is, that the ancient Trochaics were 

 written in one line ; but this is merely to the eye ; for thev 

 really confilt of two verfes ; the laft fyilable of the fourth 

 foot being, as Dr. Burney believes, conilantly, tl*e end of a 

 word. 



Mr. Weft, in his tranflation of the " Iphigenia in Tauris" 

 of Euripides, has given a whole lcene of Trochaics in the 

 correfpondent Engliih meafure. A fingle line of the 

 original, with his tranflation, will be a fufficicut example of 

 Trochaic rhythm. 



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