All the above systems are worked out with extreme care, and in the opinion of their authors leave no unexplained residuum. The earliest two (those of Ley and Bickell) have each found many adherents, the third is yet too recent to have done so. Still, in the majority of instances, perliajis even without exception, the declarations of ad- herence given in by other writers have regard merely to the acceptance of a metrical system and to principles, but not to the complete systems elaborated by their respective autliors. Tims C. A. Briggs, the principal English-speaking champion of Hebrew metre, declares that his views 'correspond in the main with those of Ley.' I A similar attitude towards Duhm (i.e. Bickell) is assumed by Cheyne.§ As a matter of
• ilHrice* bibtica regula ez^mplis iUustratce, 1S79, Carmina veUris tt'jstain^nti trntrictt 16S2, and a great number o( later publications in which he introduces many changes and im* provemenls on his earlier attempts at samsion.
t 'Abriss der biblisch-hebriiisuben Mctrik,' in ZDMG, 1S!>0. pp. S2S>-5S4 ; 1897, pp. 68»-712, etc. ; c(. his book <SrnmizU>ie der heb. Accent- und \ ocaitehre, CoUectaoea FriburKensia, fasc. v, Freiburg i. d- Schwciz, 1S96.
I General Introduction, p. 370, where at the same time an account is given of Brig}^* earlier metrical coutributiona.
S In Haupt'a SBOT,^ huuab,' p. 78.
fact, in these systems the leading possibilities are represented in such a way that everyone will feel himself more or less in sympathy with one view or anotlier.
The circumstance that theories so diametrically opposed are able time after time to maintain them- selves side by side, and that each of them can be held up as the infallibly correct one, is due to the peculiarly unfavourable conditions under which we have to work in this matter. («) We have to do with a text originally WTitten without vowels, and whose livin" sound was first marked at a very late period by additional points and lines. One is entitled to question tlie correctness of this vowel- pronunciation and accentuation, and there will be a disposition to draw the boundaries of this in- correctness nanower or wider according to the needs of a metrical system, irithout its being possible for an opponent to adduce conclusive evidence in favour ot the contrary position. (6) It is equallj' certain that the consonantal text of the OT has suffered seriously, not only through mis- takes but frequently also through conscious well- intentioned editing. Since the latter was always undertaken from religious points of view and would have little regard to the artistic form of the poems included in the collection of Sacred Writings, its employment must have been fraught \vith specially serious issues in the sphere with which we are dealing. Here again it is impossible to set objective limits to the changes which, upon the ground of an assumed metre, may be proposed with a view to the restoration of the original text. But, on the other hand, a metrical system which finds an easy application to the traditional text, including all the disfigurations it has under- gone in the course of time, only shows by this that it is itself untenable, (c) Finally, all in- formation about the music of the ancient Hebrews has been lost to us. But music was originally always combined with poetry, and protected the metrical form, just as, on the other hand, it helped what was defective.* This aid, too, we must entirelj- dispense with.
Under such conditions subjectivity finds here an open field without any sure boundaries. But this awakens the imagination and fires the courage. Besides, we have here to do with a subject akin to mathematics, a subject giving scope for playing witli numbers. It is a fact perhaps too httle observ'ed, that all departments of study akin to this oH'er a special incentive to the ingenuity. We need only recall the subject of Clironology. One must have at some time gone deeply for himself into the question of Hebrew metre and triumphed over the temptation to lose oneself there, before he can understand the attraction wielded by such specu- lations. Since the present writer has had this experience he has no finished metrical system to oiler, nor can he attach himself unreservedly to any of the others that have been proposed, al- though lie cheerfully concedes that to each of the above-named champions of metre we are indebted for much stimulus and help. He can therefore merely indicate what he considers probaljle, and empha.size some points which appear to him worthy of attention.
(1) As regards the scale for the length of the lines, the vastly preponderating probability appears to belong to the theory of Ley, wlio counts the 'rises' without taking account of the 'falls.' In favour of this there is first of all the practice of vowelless writing, with irregidar, in olden times doubtless very sparing, introduction of the vowel- letters, as contrasted with the regular employment
• Cf. W. Max Miiller, Liebfspofgie der aitcn ^-Etrt/pter, p. 11 : 'We, scanning Epigoni, forget only too often that the losi melody woa the main thing.'
P0P:TRY (HEBREW)
POETRY (HEBREW)
1
of these for the long vowels in Arabic. An exact niciisuremcnt of a verse by syllables eoulii hardly have been carried out with such a method of writ- ing, and, conversely, if it came into use, it must in course of time have brought about a correspond- ing transformation of the writing. Further, great weight must be laid upon the circumstance that the lines {stichoi) in Hebrew are without exception separated from one another by the sense. Where a perfectly exact, rigorously self-asserting system of metre is used, in course of time the separating of units of sense into single lines comes to be regarded as superfluous, and tlie sense Hows over from one line into another. We may compare, for instance, classical hexameters or ode-measure, and modem rhyming verse. The same view is favoured if we compare the Bab.-Assyrian and Egyptian poetical methods which, so far as one can yet see, are likewise to be brought under the above rule.* In general it may be added that a comjiarison ought to be made neither with extremely relined systems like the classical, nor decaying ones like the Syrian, but with primitive systems, even if these stand ethnologically far apart. The two-membered alliterative verse of the ancient Germans, which likewise takes account only of rises, api)ears to us to present the closest analogy, when, that is to say, it is looked at from the purely formal point of view, and without regard to the peculiar device by which the lines are connected.