ClAv{i}g{e}r [A]lcIdEs, mAgnUm J{o}v{i}s IncrEmEntUm.
Hercules, king of clubs, great offspring of Jupiter.
The last syllable of every verse is a _common_ affair.
An elegiac, lack-a-daisical, or pentameter verse, consists of four feet
and two long syllables, one of which is placed between the second and
third foot, and the other at the end of the verse. The two first feet
may be dactyls, spondees, or both; the two last are always dactyls, as
REs Est InfElIx, plEn{a}qu{e} frAud{i}s {a}mOr:
Love is an unlucky affair, and full of humbug.
We feel compelled, notwithstanding what has been before said, to make a
few additions to what is contained in the Eton Grammar with respect to
verses.
The rhythm of Latin verses may be easily learned by practising (out of
school), exercises on the principle of the examples following--
DUm d{i}dl{e}, dI dUm, dUm dUm, dEedl{e}dy, dEEdl{e} d{e}, dUm dum;
DUm d{i}dl{e}, dUm dum, dE, dEedl{e}d{y}, dEedl{e}d{y}, dUm.
N.B. The following familiar piece of poetry would not have been admitted
into the Comic Latin Grammar, but that there being many various readings
of it, we wished to transmit the right one to posterity.
Patres conscripti-- took a boat and went to Philippi.
Trumpeter unus erat qui coatum scarlet habebat,
Stormum surgebat, et boatum overset-ebat,
Omnes drownerunt, quia swimaway non potuerunt,
Excipe John Periwig tied up to the tail of a dead pig.
Here, also, this poetical curiosity may perhaps be properly introduced.
Conturbabantur Constantinopolitani,
Innumerabilibus sollicitudinibus.