1885.] 
J. Boxwell —On the Trishtubh Metre. 
81 
To tliese I add the Alcaic stanza for the following reason: Two 
lines have eleven syllables each. Two lines including the last have the 
characteristic trochaic ending. The first three Alcaic lines open in the 
same manner as about half the traishtubhs in the Rig Veda; and the 
dactyls of the first, second and fourth lines have very much the effect of 
the dactyls and anapaests which so constantly form the second or middle 
foot. That this division into classical feet is not unsound is shown thus. 
The law of syllabic length might be thus provisionally stated, 1 being 
practical certainty and the decimal showing the approach to certainty. 
11th 
syllable 
common. 
10th 
5 J 
— 
PO 
9th 
V-/ 
1-0 
8th 
}J 
— 
PO 
7th 
5? 
X 
6th 
5> 
sy 
0”9 
5th 
5 J 
X 
4tli 
>> 
— 
0-8 
3rd 
0’58 
2nd 
— 
0*8 
1st 
5J 
X 
But it has been shown that the 5th and 7th are not separately and 
independently indifferent like the 1st or 3rd. If either 5th or 7th is long, 
the other is almost always short; and in the rare instances of 5th and 
7fh long together, the 6th, already very steadily short, is so persistently 
short that a molossus may be considered inadmissible as middle foot. 
It is this quality of the middle foot which seems to me to give charac¬ 
ter, second only to the trochaic close. The fact that the 6th syllable, and 
with it either the 5th or the 7th, will be short, produces what I can only 
call a ripple or break, causing flexibility and variety. 
The trishtubh metre supplies examples of almost all the other lines 
from the tame English iambic to the quickest Sapphic. And indeed 
Shakespear’s iambics and Dante’s heroics contain many veritable traish¬ 
tubhs. The lines may be set in a scale. 
’Tis certain greatness, once fall’n 
out with fortune. 
AloXtSav Se ^tcrvcfrov KeXovro. 
Vitam quee faciunt beatiorem. 
Per me si va nella citta dolente. 
K/VearS pu> tis aXiKia re Xvrpov. 
Kat yap a l cfievye t, Tayetos Sia>£a. 
A i Se Stopa pirj Se/cer’, dAAa Suxrei. 
Tatas dadati dasushe vasuni. 
Purnagabhastim ilate supanim. 
Codat radhas upastutas cit arvak. 
Indram naras nemadliita havante. 
Tuamhatyat, Indara, Kutsam avas. 
Gobhir a^webhir vasubhir nirstas. 
Gomat a^vvavat rathavat viantas. 
