first and second chapters of Lamentations may be com- pared to Sapphic odes. The resemblance of the He- brew verse composition to the classic metres is express- ly denied by Gregory of Nyssa (1 Tract, in Psalm, cap. iv). Augustine (Ep. 131 ad Xumerium) confesses his ignorance of Hebrew, but adds that those skilled in the language believed the Psalms of David to be written in metre. Isidore of Seville (Orig. i, 18) claims for the heroic metre the highest antiquity, inasmuch as the Song of Moses was composed in it, and the book of Job, " who was contemporary with Moses, long before the times of Pherecydes and Homer, is written in dactyls and spondees. Joseph Scaliger (Ajiimadv. ad Ens. Chron. p. 6 b, etc.) was one of the first to point out the fallacy of Jerome's statement with regard to the metres of the Psalter and the Lamentations, and to assert that these books contained no verse bound by metrical laws, but that their language was merely prose, animated by a poetic spirit. He admitted the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy, the Proverbs, and Job to be the only books in which there was necessarily any trace of rhythm, and this rhythm he compares to that of two dimeter iambics, sometimes of more, sometimes of fewer syllables, as the sense required. Gerhard Yossius (De Nat. et Const. A rtis Poet. lib. i, c. 13, § 2) says that in Job and the Proverbs there is rhythm but no metre; that is, regard is had to the number of syllables, but not to their quantity. In the Psalms and Lamentations not even rhythm is observed.
P>ut in spite of the opinions pronounced by these high authorities, there were still many who believed in the existence of a Hebrew metre, and in the possibility of recovering it. The theories proposed for this purpose were various. Gomarus. professor at Groningen (/>«- vidis Lyra, Lugd. Bat. 1637), advocated both rhymes and metre; for the latter he laid down the following rules. The vowel alone, as it is long or short, deter- mines the length of a syllable. Shiva forms no syl- lable. The periods or versifies of the Hebrew poems never contain less than a distich, or two verses, but in proportion as the periods are longer they contain more verses. The last syllable of a verse is indifferently long or short. This system, if system it may be called < for it is equally adapted for prose), was supported by many men of note ; among others by the younger Buxtorf, Heinsius, L. de Dieu, Constantin 1'Empcreur, and Het- tinger. On the other hand, it was vigorously attacked by L. Cappellus, Calovius, Danhauer, Pfeiffer, and Sol- omon van Til. Towards the close of the 17th century Marcus Meibomius announced to the world, with an amount of pompous assurance which is charming, that he had discovered the lost metrical system of the De- brews. By the help of this mysterious secret, which he attributed to divine revelation, he proposed to restore not only the Psalms, but the whole Hebrew Scriptures, to their pristine condition, and thus confer upon the world a knowledge of Hebrew greater than any which had existed since the ages which preceded the Alexan- drine translators. But Meibomius did not allow his enthusiasm to get the better of his prudence, and the condition on which this portentous secret was to be made public was that six thousand curious men should contribute £5 sterling apiece for a copy of his book, which was to be printed in two volumes folio. It is al- most needless to add that his scheme fell to the ground. He published some specimens of his restoration often Psalms and six entire chapters of the Old Test, in 1690. The glimpses which he gives of his grand secret are not such as would make us regret that the knowledge of it perished with him. The whole book of Psalms, he says, is written in distichs, except the first Psalm, which is in a different metre, and serves as an introduction to the rest. They were therefore intended to be sung, not by one priest, or by one chorus, but by two. Meibo- mius "was severely chastised by J. H. Mains, B. H. Gebhardus, and J. G. Zentgravius" (Jebb, Sacr. Lit. p. 11). In the last century the learned Francis Hare,
POETKV
322
POETHY
-. | iblished an edition of th< Be- trically divided, to which he prefixed
iti mi the ancient poetry of th< I
■ '■•. 1. I.
Bishop Bare maintained that in Bebrew poetry I was bad t<> the quantity of syllables. Be re- ts long vowels, and long vow< ;■ at hi- pleasure. The nil.- which he laid down are the following. In Bebrew poetry all the feel an- dissylla- ■ _ ir.l is bad to the quantity of a syllable. I 'i-i-t ..Ian equal or unequal number of sylla-
the number "i syllables be equal, tl are trochaic, if unequal, iambic. Periods for the most pan consist oftwo verses, often thrt e ..r four, sometimes i of the -aim- periods an- of ili. --1111.'
kind, that i-. either iambic it trochaic, with very few exceptions. Trochaic clauses generally agree in the number "i the feet, which are sometimes ilirec, as in . i : . \ i. l. an. I this is the most frequent : some- times five, as in l'-a. ix, 6. In iambic clauses the num-