The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-08-08
DOWN AMONG THE DEAD TONGUES.
No. 1874 TERPsICHoRE STREET,
July %, 1875.

NO. 1Jt 1ERPSICHORE OTREET,
July %, 1876
NJ Dear Whitney-Since / last met you, I
have had an assault of my arch-fend and been
tied down by what 1 call rheumatism, but what
my very witty and very comforting physician,
DR.. Frank L. fancy, calls an ''imposture OF govt.
Hence the delay in handling the prosody ques-
ton, out of the Eneid, and opining as to the
correctness of either 'haud passbus 9Guis' or
of mon passibus Rquis."
According to some. the former might be as cor
rect the latter reading; for In some OF the "a
rior7in, in two instances at least, we find "se-
quiturque patres, baud passibus equis," instead
of sequiturque patrem, non passibus &quis."
We're 'patres,' the father and mother whom the
boy Iulus would then to be supposed to be fol-
lowing, the "haud passibus aquis might be
fairly tenable If instead Of pdtres both parents,
the word be patrem, the father only, then is baud
wrong, and the adverb non the right term.
Out Of several texts of Virgil in my library,
find non used with pdtren in the singular num-
Der. According to Heyne and Father LaRne, the
editor and annotator OF the Virgil Delphini,
patrem is the proper term, and if it be 80, the
baud can not figure in the line, because it would
radically destroy the prosody Of the verse.
The reason OF this is quite plain. The Latin
heroic verse is comp osed OF spondees and dac-
tyls, arranged according to he rules of vereifca
ton and the better convenience of the poet. The
spondee is metrical foot of two long, and the
dactyl one of one long and two short syllables.
Now, 1t is an invariabe canon Of Latin prosody
tlat, worn tuus III NOWol VI Will sIo Gull
sonant M, and if the word Immediately following
shall begin with a vowel also, the vowel, or the
M, as the case may be, must be cut off. The
scanning Of the verse will make the matter more
apparent. Virgil exhibits little Iulus enclaspng
his fathers hand, in the following verse, scanned
as follows:
I'm phi Gu it, Sc qui tur que pa trem
non pass i-bus aquis.
The line shows four dactyls and two spondees.
It is perfect in construction. Not let us suppose
that baud, and not non, be the correct word let
us also bear in mind that the word pdtrem ends
with the letter NJ, which must be cut off before
vowel following; let US also remember that
according to the best opinions, h in Latin is not
held to bs letter, but a mere aspiration, which
does not affect the remaining letters aud. Now
let us write the verse with baud instead Of non.
and we have the following pro-odisc monstrosity:
Impli Gu 1t Sc qui tur que pa fraud
passbus @quis.
You immediately perceive that instead OF the
two syllabled spondee trena and non, We have by
crasis single syllable fraud for q poetic foot,
which calls for two sylla oles. Hdud, therefore,
preceded by pdtrena is wrong, while non is cor
rect. You are, trust satisfied that, without ao1s,
the verse cannot be properly scanned. Walker,
called Alexander, my royal namesake, has yon on
the hip. Yet you can avid his claim to correct
ness against your incorrectness. Write him, be-
fore g. you give it up so, Mr.. Brown" to satisfy
you why he is right ana You are wrong. The
y" ghosts word to Thousand pounds but that
this little word baud will give our friend Alleck
some pause. Faithfully you're,
A. DTMITRY.