Note Chapter VIII, note 44 — Book V. Summary Review of the Preceding Books

[44] Candelabrum, describing French interpretation of prose rhythms by metrical terms, says: “Nor do they consider those feet according to shortness or length, but according to number of syllables and word-habit.” The whole passage is quoted by Thurot (484), who notes its correspondence to Maître Guillaume (quoted at 481): “The feet used in verse are three, dactyl, spondee, trochee. In dictamen, however, we use two, spondee and dactyl. Nor are the feet to be measured by length and shortness, but by the run (cursus) of the words. For every dissyllable, whether long or short, is a spondee; and a trisyllable with a short penult is a dactyl.” Ponce (quoted also at 481) lays down the same principle. The cursus, that is, was determined by the number of unstressed syllables between word-accents. The old terminology of quantitative metric was kept, partly because it was conveniently familiar, partly because the new rhythms were legitimate descendants of the old. But the abeyance of quantity could not be more clearly indicated than by the dictators’ habit of calling every dissyllable a spondee.