Page images
PDF
EPUB

"O-Jehovah,

I have-heard thy-specch; I-was-afraid;

O-Jehovah,

Revive thy-work in-the-midst-of-the-years;"*

the word, 'O-Jehovah,' is twice to be read separate ; and the words added to it make a trimeter. But this verse:

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Though the-fig-tree shall-not blossom;"

is of a different sort, consisting of the subject and predicate: Though the fig-tree,' being the subject; 'shall not blossom,' the predicate. So in a verse containing twelve terms, those terms may be reduced to six meaFor you are not to reckon either the syllables or the words; but only the things. And for this reason a particle is often joined to the word next to it. The verses of the Psalms observe the same order:

sures.

"Have-mercy-upon-me, O-God, according-to-thy-goodness; According-to-the-multitude-of-thy-mercies,† blot-out my-transgres

[blocks in formation]

"In-God I-will-praise his-word."

In-Jehovah I-will-praise his-word."

So likewise the Proverbs of Solomon:

"Wisdom crieth without;

In-the-streets she-uttereth her-voice."

'I am aware, adds he, that some verses are to be found, which I cannot accommodate to these rules and forms; and perhaps a great number. But by observing these things, the intelligent may perhaps receive new

In order to make out this trimeter, it is necessary to suppose that

.as one word בקרב שנים Azarias reads

+Azarias takes the liberty of joining the two words together by a Maccaph, which is not to be found in our editions, in order to bring the verse within his rules. The reader will observe, that this distich, which in the Hebrew contains but seven words, cannot be rendered in English in less than one-and-twenty words. By this he will judge, under what great disadvantage all the foregoing examples, whether of the parallelism, or of the metre of things, must appear in an English version, in which many words are almost always necessary to render what is expressed by one word in Hebrew.

light, and discover what has escaped me. However, they may be assured, that all the verses that are found in the sacred writings; such as the Song at the Red Sea, of the Well, of Moses, of Deborah, of David, of the book of Job, the Psalms, and the Proverbs; all of them have an established order and measure; different in different places; or even sometimes different in one and the same poem: as we may perceive in reading them an admirable propriety and fitness; though we cannot arrive at the true method of measuring or scanning them.

"It is not to be wondered, that the same song should consist of different measures; for the case is the same in the poetry of the Greeks and Romans: they suited their measures to the nature of the subject and the argument; and the variations which they admitted were accommodated to the motions of the body, and the affections of the soul. Every kind of measure is not proper for every subject: and an ode, a panegyric, or a prayer, should not be composed in the same measure with an elegy. Do not you observe, says he, in the book of Lamentations of Jeremiah, that the periods of the first and second chapters each of them consist of three propositions; and every one of these of a subject, and a predicate, and of the adjuncts belonging to them? The third chapter follows the same method; and for this reason is placed next to them in order: but of this chapter every period is distributed into three initial letters. But the fourth chapter does not perfect the sense in every verse; but consists of two and two, which make four. But the fifth chapter,

* He said above, that in the 1st and 2d chapters each separate verse, or line, was a single proposition: he now says, that this is not the case in the 4th chapter; for it does not perfect the sense in every verse; that is, each verse does not consist of one single proposition. As for example, the first line, or verse:

"How is obscured the gold! changed the fine gold!" "How is obscured the gold!" makes one proposition, and two measures; "changed | the fine gold!" another proposition, and two other measures; which, according to him make a tetrameter. This, he says, makes the difference between the three first and the 4th chapter. But there seems to be no such difference; many single lines in the three first containing two propositions, and many in the 4th containing only one.

which contains a prayer, you will find to be built on another plan: that is, one and one, which make two;* or a dimeter: like the verses of the books of Job, Psalms, and Proverbs. So the Song of Moses, and the Song of Deborah, have a different form; consisting of three and three, which make six; that is hexameters ; like the heroic measure, which is the noblest of all

measures.

"Upon the whole, the author concludes, that the poetical parts of the Hebrew Scriptures are not composed according to the rules and measures of certain feet, dissyllables, trisyllables, or the like, as the poems of the modern Jews are: but nevertheless have undoubtedly other measures which depend on things,† as above explained. For which reason, they are more excellent than those which consist of certain feet, according to the number and quantity of syllables. Of this, says he, you "may judge yourself in the songs of the prophets. For do you not see, if you translate some of them into another language, that they still keep and retain their measure, if not wholly, at least in part? which cannot be the case in those verses, the measures of which arise from a certain quantity and number of syllables."

Such is R. Azarias's hypothesis of the rhythmus of things; that is, of terms and of senses; of the grammatical parts of speech, and of the logical parts of proposi

66

* According to the author's own definition of his terms, one and one which make two," should mean, one term and one term, making two measures, or a dimeter: but the 5th chapter does not at all seem to answer that description. Besides, he says, the verses of it are like those of Job, Psalms, and Proverbs, of two of which books he said before, that the verses were trimeters. I know not what he means, unless it be that one and one sentences make two, that is a distich; and that this chapter consists of distichs, of two short lines, as the books of Job, Psalms, and Proverbs, for the most part do; which is true.

+ Perhaps the harmony might depend in some degree on both for it may be often observed, that where the words of a hemistich happen to be longer, and consequently to consist of more syllables than the words of the adjoining hemistich, there the things expressed are fewer. See for example, Psal. cviii. 4, 5. Which seems to prove, that the measures of the verses did not depend on the things expressed only, but on the syllables also.

says,

tions. The principle seems to be right: but, I think, he has not made the best use, of which it was capable, in the application. He acknowledges, that it will not hold in all cases. I believe, there is no such thing to be found in the Hebrew Bible as a whole poem consisting of trimeters, tetrameters, or hexameters only, measured and scanned according to his rules. The Song of Moses, Deut. xxxii. is a very apt example for his purpose; but will not in all parts fall in with his measures. Besides, there is no sort of reason for his making it to consist of hexameters, rather than trimeter distichs; such as, he the Psalms and Proverbs consist of. Examine the 111th and 112th Psalms by his rules; and though they will fall into his trimeters for the most part pretty well, yet we are sure, that these were not to be coupled together to make hexameters; for they are necessarily divided into twenty-two distinct short lines by the initial letters. The Hebrew poetry, consisting for the most part of short sentences, must in general naturally fall into such measures as Azarias establishes; or with some management may be easily reduced to his rules. Every proposition must consist of a subject, and a predicate, joined together by a copula: and the predicate including the copula will generally consist of two terms, expressing the action, and the thing acted upon. In Hebrew, sometimes the subject is combined with the copula in one word; and sometimes the predicate: sometimes all three make but one term. In these cases the addition of a simple adjunct (for the shortness of the style will not admit of much more) to the subject, or the predicate, or both, furnishes a second, a third, and sometimes a fourth term; that is makes the verse a dimeter, trimeter, or tetrameter. For instance; in dimeters:

"They-made-him-jealous, with-strange-Gods;
They-provoked-him, with-abominations."

In trimeters:

Deut. xxxii. 16.

"I-will-bless Jehovah, at-all-time;

His-praise [shall be] in-my-mouth, continually.
My-soul shall-make-her-boast, in-Jehovah ;
The-meek shall-hear-it, and-rejoice.
O-magnify-ye Jehovah, with-me;

And-let-us praise his-name, together."

Psal. xxxiv. 1-3.

In these examples the first part of every line makes an entire proposition, and the last is an adjunct making the second, or the third term. In the following, the subject and the predicate, with their adjuncts, consist of two terms each of them: that is, of two measures; and being joined together, make a tetrameter;

"The-counsel of-Jehovah shall-stand for-ever."

The next line is in the same form, except that the verb is understood, and the latter adjunct divided into two terms; and makes a second tetrameter to pair with the

first.

"The-thoughts of-his-heart, from-age to-age."

Something of this kind must necessarily be the result of this sententious way of writing: it is what comes of course, without much study. But whatever attention the Hebrew poets might give to the scanning of their verses by the number of terms; it does not appear to have been their design to confine all the verses of the same poem to any set number of terms. Whereas they do plainly appear to have studied to throw the corresponding lines of the same distich into the same number of terms, into the same form of construction, and still more into an identity, or opposition, or a general conformity of sense. I agree therefore with Azarias in his general principle of a rhythmus of things: but instead of considering terms, or phrases, or senses, in single lines, as measures, determining the nature and denomination of the verse, as dimeter, trimeter, or tetrameter; I consider only that relation and proportion of one verse to another, which arises from the correspondence of terms, and from the form of construction; from whence results a rhythmus of propositions, and a harmony of sentences.

« PreviousContinue »