Although the sonnet (60) actually goes: Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end, Each changing place with that which goes before, In sequent toil all forwards do contend. Nativity, once in the main of light, 5 Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crowned Crookèd eclipses 'gainst his glory fight, And Time that gave doth now his gift confound. Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth, And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,10 Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth, And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow. And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand, Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.
Colin Burrow, Fellow and Tutor, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge CB2 1TA tel: 01223 332483 web: http://www.english.cam.ac.uk -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Patrick Roper Sent: 12 November 2001 18:48 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: VIRGIL: pronunciation of Virgil Many thanks for these interesting and helpful comments. My own favourite from Shakespeare is "Much as the waves march towards the pebbled shore" where the shooshing sound runs in a wonderful counterpoint with the stresses of the pentameter. What you have described also reminds me of polyrhythmic music from Africa (or Steve Reich) and elsewhere. Trouble is I am sort of stuck with my school Latin. I don't think there is much I can do about that, but it was terribly pedestrian and dead with its BBC/Oxford accent. Perhaps I realised this when I lived in Italy and heard the wonderful liquid fluidity of Italian speakers many of whom, of course, will pronounce Latin in a similar way, though I appreciate this is likely to be no nearer Roman that English is to Anglo-Saxon. Apropos of all this, I remember one of my Latin masters used to wax lyrical over Virgil's phrase 'Nox ruit' from the Aeneid. The fact that I remember this after 50 years is a testament to his teaching ability, but I still do not understand why he found it so fascinating and powerful. Can anyone enlighten me ('nox deruit' as one might say?) Patrick Roper > From: Robert Dyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Also, I believe, L.P. Wilkinson, Golden Latin Artistry (although I > cannot find a copy), who promoted the view that you must read both > rhythms, the hexameter pattern plus the normal prose word > stress, for > the flow of the verse depends on whether the two rhythms > coincide (as > pretty well always in the last two feet) or conflict, > giving a sense of > difficulty and slowness. The editor, R.D. Williams, made a > tape of the > entire Aeneid, some decades ago, at the Australian National > University, > and this convinced me that this is correct way to read the > Aeneid. You > arrive at it by marking both rhythms on the text and > watching where the > two rhythms coincide and where they conflict. In reading you must > observe BOTH STRESSES. Thus in some verses you get a sequence of > stresses of one sort or the other, and this audibly slows down the > reading. I always began teaching it by pointing out the > correct way of > reading > > To be or not to be, that is the question. > > This line loses all sense if you read it with its basic > iambic rhythm. > The sense depends entirely on the violent contrast created by the > reversal of the metrical rhythm in the fourth iamb: THAT > is, instead of > that IS. The effect of conflict in Vergil is much the same. > > Rob Dyer > Paris > ------------------------------------------------------------ > ----------- > To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. > Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message > "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation > marks). You > can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
