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rius multo syllaba producitur in verbo composito, si in ipsam juncturam cadit, ut in monoxęvoos Andr. 2. Eadem parsimonia in augmentis produ cendis utuntur, ut in ininλwo sup. 12. next Sophocl. Elect. 366. Rarior adhuc licentia est, ubi prapositio verbo jungitur, ut in normal Phan. 6oo. Sed ubi verbum in brevem vocalem desinit, eamque due consonantes excipiunt quæ brevem manere patiantur, vix credo exempla indu bie fidei inveniri posse, in quibus syllaba ista producatur. Ineptus esset, quicunque ad MSS. in tali causa provocaret, cum nulla sit eorum auctoritas; id solum deprecor, ne quis contra hanc regulam eorum testimonio abutatur; MSS. enim neque alter alteri consentiunt, neque idem MS. sibi ipse per omnia constat. Quod si ca, que disputavi, vera sunt, planum est, in fine vocis addendam esse literam, quam addidi.

This note is worthy of its learned writer; and from the laws which it lays down, and from Dawes's Canons respecting the power of the Tenues, Adspirata, and Media consonantes, when followed by the liquids and preceded by short vowels, a certain rule for the insertion of the N final might be derived, As to the omission of it in the last syllable of an Iambic foot, when a simple consonant follows, the voice of the Professor declares, ex cathedrá, that it is not to be allowed; and that no one would ask the reason, nisi qui sensu communi planè careat.

It is to be lamented that Mr. Porson did not probe this canon of Mr. Wakefield "even to the quick." Our readers probably expect that an examination of it should be attempted in the Review: yet, in following the Professor, our feelings, we confess, resemble those which Plato attributes to Socrates, when. he is detained by Callias in order to dispute with Protagoras, and allows that he is inclined to grant the desired gratification. "In the present instance, however, (he subjoins,) you might as well request me to follow the vigorous steps of Criso, or to enter the course with any other racer. I should then exclaim: Πολὺ σου μᾶλλον ἐγὼ ἐμαυτον δέομαι θέουσι τόποις ἀκολουθεῖν· 'Αλλ' iv yag dúvaμar." Plato. Protagor. vol. i. 336. A.

The canon of Mr. Wakefield, we believe, may be thus stated: "The last syllable of a word, though naturally short, may be considered as long, by the influence of the pause, if it terminate a foot in Anapestics or Iambics; or if it begin a foot in Heroics. From this concluding syllable, if a consonant follow it, the final N ought always to be banished."

This canon is evidently founded on a rule which has been adopted by some of the later editors of the Greek Heroic Poets with what propriety, we shall not attempt, on the present occasion, even to examine. It is thus mentioned by Ernesti, in his Note on Homer. Iliad. A. V. 2. [eOnxe.]

"Edd. Vett. 0xer. Recte. In litera N vel addenda, vel demenda, parum diligens Clarkius fuit, et constans, non satis consultis libris. In "MSS. et Edd. Vett. melioribus, ut Flor. et Ald. pr. in fine versus fere

additur:

additur: in medio versu, ubi syllaba ultima est in casura, plerumque omittitur. Igitur accuratus Editor hanc legem debebat sequi constanter."*

It is very certain that the genuine and antient mode of writing ought to be preserved uniformly when it is once discovered. No manuscript, however, either of Homer, or of the Tragedies and Comedies, has yet been collated, in which the Nipunov is constantly and according to rule either inserted or neglected. The famous Codex Paullinus Lipsiensis itself, which contains from Iliad A. to Iliad P. and appears to have given rise, in a great measure, to Ernesti's rule, is not perfectly consistent in its omissions. We are, indeed, firmly persuaded that Mr. Porson's opinion is correct, when he states that this is a point which cannot be determined by the written copies of the Poets: "MSS. enim neque alter alteri consentiunt, neque idem MS. sibi ipse per omnia constat.”

Mr. Wakefield asserts that the Tragic and Epic writers are every where quoted by the Grammarians and other authors, without the insertion of the N. He produces, however, no instances; and if such as may be found were accurately and nicely weighed, they would not, we are persuaded, tend much to the defender of this canon. Mr. Wakefield's chief reliance seems to be on the copy of Euripides edited by Aldus. He refers to this in his Silva Critica, and he cites from this in his Diatribe. It will be proper, then, carefully to examine how far it really tends to confirm or destroy Mr. W.'s opinion.

We shall present to our readers, therefore, a list of the passages in which the N is added, or omitted, collected from four of the Tragedies, in the Aldine edition.

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*This remark of Ernesti has been recorded in the Acta Eruditorum for July 1760, in which there is a review of his Homer.

The verses are numbered from Musgrave's edition. The Choral Odes are wholly omitted in this catalogue, which comprehends only examples from Iambics and Trochaics.

763. "EOTI

[ 763. Ἔστι δὲ τὶς σῶν ὄντος

ἤνεγκε νεκρόν;
τολμωσι φέρειν.

777.

804.

841.

μέγιστον Ἕλλησι φάος.

857. Ἔστι

γὰρ ἦ ταραγμός

998.

καὶ παισὶ θέλω

1143.

γέλασι δ ̓ ἔτη κακόν.

1178.

ἔἴρηκε κακώς.

1179. Η νῦν λέγων εστί τις.

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γένοιν ἂν Ἕλλησι

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δεύρ' ενόστησε γόνος.

The Florentine edition corresponds with Aldus in this instance, and affords two others, 1106 and 1272, noted in the opposite column.

TROADES,

454. Θηρσὶ δώσουσιν δάσασθαι,

in Vers. Troch.

659. Ἐλθουσ', ἀπώλεσέν μ', ἐν πέ

691. ἔδ ̓ ἐπὶ λάιφεσιν βεβώς.

722.

933.

ἐν Πανέλλησιν λέγων. ἔι σφε κρίνειεν Πάρις.

HERCULES

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To these instances of the omitted N final, in the Aldine Euripides, a few others may be added: but they must not be considered as any additional proofs that Aldus judged this letter unnecessary in order to lengthen the concluding syllable of a foot, when it was naturally short, and could admit such an adjunct. The Canons of Dawes, respecting the power of the mutes and liquids, were not promulgated till above two centuries after the learned Aldus Manutius Romanus had closed a life of indefatigable exertions: a life to himself highly honourable, and of most essential service to succeeding ages! The following are the passages to which we allude, in the four plays from which our citations have been taken : ANDROM. 853. Πᾶσι βροισιν ἢ τότ ̓ ἦλθεν ἢ τότε. TROADES. 412. Ει μή σ' ̓Απόλλων ἐξεβάκχευσε φρένας. 993. Αυλᾶις Αμύκλαις ἤγαγε πρὸς Ἴλιον.

1373: · ἀπόλλυσιν καλήν. This instance, though defective, and though it has been corrected, must not be neglected. Mr. Wakefield, in his edition, indeed, adopts Canter's correction, ἀπόλαυσιν, after Barnes and Musgrave. He has not, however, given any note on the passage. It surely was incumbent on him to have mentioned the lection of Aldus; and to have stated that the word davon was given in the text from a conjecture of Canter, which had been carefully recorded by the Cambridge and Oxford editors, and inserted by them in their editions of Euripides. Among the various and important duties of an editor, there is no one which demands more exact and religious observance, than the assignment of new readings to their original authors.

HERC.

HERC. FURENS 1. ΤΙΣ τὸν Διὸς συλλεκτραν ουκ διδε βροτῶν. 531. Γύναι, τι καινὸν ἦλθε δώμασι χρέος.

In these five instances, we deem the insertion of the N to be necessary for rendering the verses full and correct: ПãowἘξεβάκχευσεν Ηγαγεν - Οι δεν— Δώμασιν It must not be omitted that, in this last play, Aldus has himself published, V. 456 : Τῶνδ', ους πανύσαι ̓ ὄμμασιν προσδέρκομαι.

It is also to be remarked that Aldus, in these four plays, has omitted the N final, when the following word began with a double consonant, or with two mutes.

HECUBA. 774. Τίνος γ ̓ ὑπ ̓ ἄλλου ; Θρήξ νιν ὤλεσε ξένος.
TROADES. 932. Φρυξὶ στρατηγόυνθ ̓ Ελλάδ ̓ ἐξανιστάναι.
ANDROM. 638. Ξηρὰ βαθειαν γὴν ἐνίκησε σπορά.
HERC. FURENS. 15ο. Ὕδραν έλειον, ἐι διώλεσε κανών ;
(Troch.) —ελω κυμασι στενων λάβρως.

1009. Νῶτον παλάξας ὃς πεσήμασι στέγης.

From this examination, it appears that Aldus printed the first part of his Euripides carelessly; and did not attend with critical exactness to the insertion or omission of this final N. It never can be allowed, that, even in the opening of his edition, he deemed it a letter of no metrical influence, when placed after short vowels, which allowed its junction with them, and which were placed at the end of a foot in Iambics. It is neglected certainly in twenty-one passages of the Hecuba : but it is properly added to six others. These six assuredly would have been published equally without the N final, if he had taught himself to consider the rejection as an act of propriety. Typographical errors more frequently arise from the substitution of one letter for another, or from a letter omitted, than from the addition of a letter in a word to which it does not belong.

Aldus, however, as he proceeded in his author, began to use more caution; and in the latter plays he has seldom failed to add the N final, when a long syllable is demanded by the laws. of the metre. In the Andromache, the seventh Tragedy, the Aldine edition exhibits only one instance, V. 793. of this omitted final N,-and eight of its proper insertion.

In the Troades, which stands the twelfth play, this N is never omitted but in the nine passages, in which its presence is required by the laws of the Iambic verse, it is inserted correctly and regularly.

In the Hercules Furens, his last play, (for he never published the Electra,) the N is, indeed, omitted in six places: but it is properly inserted in seventeen verses, to the metre of which it gives stability and correctness.

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