Note 55 — Chapter I

I am at a loss to know what Muratori means by saying, Son versi di dodici sillabe, ma computata la ragione de’ tempi, vengono ad essere uguali a gli endecasillabi. p. 551. He could not have understood the metre, which is perfectly regular, and even harmonious, on the condition only, that no ragione de’ tempi except such as accentual pronunciation observes, shall be demanded. The first two lines will serve as a specimen:— “O tu, qui servas armis ista mænia, Noli dormire, moneo, sed vigila.” This is like another strange observation of Muratori in the same dissertation, that, in the well-known lines of the emperor Adrian to his soul, Animula vagula, blandula, which could perplex no schoolboy, he cannot discover un’esatta norma di metro; and therefore takes them to be merely rhythmical.