§ III. The Trochaic Tetrameter

Under this head we shall deal only with trochees as used in dialogue. Originally all dialogue was written in this metre, and they sometimes appear in extant plays when the situation is too hurried or excited for iambics though not agitated enough for lyrical dialogue. These passages are not usually long, and it is interesting to note that the longest are found in the two most melodramatic plays, Orestes and Iphigenia at Aulis. The metre is always the trochaic tetrameter catalectic (sometimes called the trochaic octonarius), that is, a line consisting of eight feet, mostly trochees, with “catalexis”. Catalexis occurs when the last foot of a line has not its full number of syllables, the remainder being filled by a pause in delivery.

Pure trochaic verses are occasionally to be found:—

– ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ –
κατα | πως αφ|ικομ|εσθα | δευρο | ταυτ αμ|ηχαν|ωꞈ| (Ion, 548).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

The mark ꞈ means that there is a pause equivalent in length to a short syllable. It is often found in the scansion of lyrics, and there one also at times uses -̭ ⏗̭ ⏘̭, which mean pauses equivalent to two, three, and four short syllables respectively. As in iambics, the last syllable may be short by nature:—

– ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑–
ουχι | σωφρον|ειν γ επ|εμψε | δευρο σ | η Δι|ος δαμ|αρꞈ (Heracles, 857).

This metre is plainly analogous to Tennyson’s

Dreary gleams about the moorland flying over Locksley Hall.

But such purely trochaic lines are rare. Other feet are usually admitted, especially the spondee:—

– ⏑ – – – ⏑ – – – ⏑ – – – ⏑ –
βλεψον | εις ημ|ας ιν | αρχας | των λογ|ων ταυτ|ας λαβ|ωꞈ (Iph. Aul., 320).

Spondees may occur only in the second, fourth, or sixth foot.

The tribrach also is often employed by Euripides:—

– ⏑ – – – ⏑ – – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – – – ⏑ –
ψηφον | αμφ ημ|ων πολ|ιτας | επι φον|ῳ θεσθ|αι χρε|ωνꞈ (Orestes, 756).

– ⏑ – – – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ –
ευτυχ|εις δ ημ|εις εσ|ομεθα | ταλλα δ | ου λεγ|ουσ ομ|ωςꞈ (Iph. Taur. 1232).

The fifth foot is the favourite place for the tribrach, and next to that the first:—

⏑ ⏑⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – – – ⏑ –
χρονιος | αλλ ομ|ως ταχ|ιστα | κακος εφ|ωραθ|η φιλ|οιςꞈ (Orestes, 740).

Euripides, late in his career, introduced a good deal of license, here as elsewhere. Firstly, tribrachs become far more frequent and occur in unusual places:—

⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ ᷋
ανοσι|ος πεφ|υκας | αλλ ου | πατριδος | ως συ | πολεμι|οςꞈ (Phœnissæ, 609).

To place a resolved foot practically at the end of the line is bold—the metre is shaken almost to pieces. Here, as in other respects, Euripides points forward to the conversational manner of the New Comedy. But he goes further, and allows feet hitherto not found in trochaics: the anapæst and the dactyl. The latter, however, is extremely rare and employed only with proper names:—

– ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ – – – ⏑ –
συγγον|ον τ εμ|ην Πυλαδ|ην τε | τον ταδ|ε ξυνδρ|ωντα | μοιꞈ (Orestes, 1535).

– ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – – ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ ᷋
εις αρ | Ιφιγεν|ειαν | Ελενης | νοστος | ην πεπρ|ωμεν|οςꞈ (Iph. Aul., 882).

The anapæst is commoner (there is a proper-name instance in the line just quoted):—

– ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – – ⏑ – – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑ –
ως νιν | ικετευσ|ω με | σωσαι | το γε δικ|αιον | ωδ εχ|ειꞈ (Orestes, 797).

– ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – – – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – – ⏑ ᷋
και συ | μητερ | αθεμιτ|ον σοι | μητρος | ονομαζ|ειν καρ|αꞈ (Phœn., 612).

There is no rule as to cæsura. The end of the fourth foot regularly coincides with the end of a word; such an arrangement is named diæresis. In all extant tragedy only one certain exception to this rule is found:—

– ⏑ – – – ⏑ – – – ⏑ – – – ⏑ ᷋
ει δοκ|ει στειχ|ωμεν | ω γενν|αιον | ειρηκ|ως επ|οςꞈ (Philoctetes, 1402).

Since diæresis is practically always found in so many hundreds of lines, being preserved even in the loosest writing of Euripides, why should we regard the recognized trochaic verse as an unity? Why not write, e.g.:—

οὐ γὰρ ἂν ξυμβαῖμεν ἄλλως
ἢ ’πὶ τοῖς εἰρημένοις,
ὥστ’ ἐμὲ σκήπτρων κρατοῦντα
τῆσδ’ ἄνακτ’ εἶναι χθονός (Phœnissæ, 590 sq.).

If the line falls into two clearly marked halves, why not show this to the eye? There is no unanswerable objection to doing so—the passage above corresponds exactly in rhythmical form to much English verse, e.g.:—

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

The practice in English is to break up the long trochaic “line” into two when the words at the diæresis rhyme (as in the above passage from Longfellow), but not to do so when the only rhymes occur at the catalectic foot. We print the opening of another poem by Longfellow thus:—

In the market-place of Bruges stands the belfry old and brown;
Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches o’er the town.

In Greek there is, of course, no rhyme-scheme to settle this, but the regular catalexis is felt to mark off separate units. The entire question depends upon personal fancy, though the instance from the Philoctetes shows that Sophocles at any rate regarded the whole octonarius as the unit.

Subjoined is the scheme:—

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
–⏑ –⏑ –⏑ –⏑ –⏑ –⏑ –⏑ –ꞈ
⏑⏑⏑ – – ⏑⏑⏑ – – ⏑⏑⏑ – – ⏑⏑⏑
⏑⏑⏑ [–⏑⏑] ⏑⏑⏑ ⏑⏑⏑
⏑⏑– ⏑⏑– ⏑⏑–
[–⏑⏑]