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Outline of the Metres of Asinaria
- University of Wisconsin Press
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117 Outline of the Metres of Asinaria Gratwick (1993) 40–63, 251–60, and MacCary and Willcock (1976) 211–32, are most help for understanding, scanning, and reading Plautine verse: both are model presentations, attempting to teach from first principles to expertise in a few short pages. Not many readers will read enough plays to make doing the verse justice a high priority, but through the notation added to the text any newcomer can join in right away, and the following short profile will give you a fair idea of how the rhythm of the play swings and thumps along. The short solo “song” in Asinaria is quite clearly marked out as a run of word-phrases composed to repeat and vary rhythmic patterns (= 2 below; on Plautine music and dramatic structure: Moore [1998], pp. 183, 185). The rest of the script, however, is “sing-song/talk,” written in Plautus’ favourite (most common) regular metres (= 1A and 1B below). The lines feel extremely “free” (like some talking blues). They play off the drive of spoken intonation against the recurrence of chanted half-line and whole-line units; each line is “called home” by a regular verse-end cadence. In iambic septenarii the words’ own ordinary accentuation reinforces the verse cadence; in the other metres, there is often a clash between the two patterns. Across the length of the line, the sub-unit, or metron, of each verse has no underlying metronomic pulse. Thus a senarius can last anywhere between a light run of alternating “short” and “long” syllables (= 18 time-units, where a long lasts twice as long as a short) and a heavy run of continuous long syllables (= 23 timeunits ; see Gratwick and Lightley [1982] on heavily and lightly dramatic syllables). Most senarii are of 22 units, with one short syllable at either the first or the second “c” (a notation to be explained next): but enough lines have 21 or 23 units to downplay this norm, and, while 19 (and esp. 18) unit lines are far between, the few 20-unit verses are a significant 118 Language, Metre, and Text minority. The final metron of every verse ends with a “short” syllable before a final “long” (so no senarius can ever last for 24 time units). The longer lines work correspondingly further away from internal or overall isochrony. [NB In the text, the usual mid-verse word-break found in most lines is marked by a g a p.] 1. Iambic-trochaic Verse NB In each metron, “B” and “D” are always long; “a” and “c” are those tending to be long or short (“a” mostly long; “c” rather more longs than shorts). Any element may be either a long syllable or two short syllables except at line-end: here the final two syllables are always short followed by long, except in iambic septenarii, where the final two syllables are always long followed by long. Within these parameters, the verse abides by a complex of norms for relating syllable patterns to spoken accentuation; these norms all have their exceptions, and never explain all the lines, or all the words. Editing Plautus is forever a test of nerve in tolerating or eliminating transmitted anomalies and violations, in metre as in all other aspects. As with any formal poetry, reading Plautus is always an ongoing negotiation between the pull of verse and the impetus of word accentuation. 1A. Short Spoken Verse: Iambic Senarius 1–126, 746–829: senarius (usually with a word-break between linked “halflines ”). The final “c” is always a “short” syllable. aBcDa BcDaBcD or aBcDaBc DaBcD 1B. Longer Recitative Verse Here, any element may be resolved into two short syllables except at midverse and verse-end: cadences with “cD” have the penultimate syllable [54.198.45.0] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 00:14 GMT) Outline of the Metres of Asinaria 119 short; cadences in “BC” and “Da” have the penultimate syllable long; the final syllable of every verse counts as long. Just three varieties. All three long enough to feel close to a double line— “two-for-the-price-of-one.” This is why Plautin theatre is all gabble and patter. 830–50: iambic octonarius (varying between separate or linked halflines ) aBcDaBcD aBcDaBcD or aBcDaBcDa BcDaBcD 381–503, 545–745: iambic septenarius (as if an octonarius minus its last syllable) aBcDaBcD aBcDaBC 138–380, 504–44, 851–947: trochaic septenarius (as if a “cretic,” or “longshort -long” pattern, is followed by an iambic senarius) BcDaBcDa BcDaBcD...