VARIETIES OF RHYTHM 169
owing to its less fullness, but also owing to this
general absence of caesura, which is almost
constantly present in 4 : 4; or, if caesura is
present in 3 : 3, this rhythm still differs markedly
from 4 : 4 owing to the fact that in the one case
the caesura necessarily creates an unequal divi-
sion of the line, whereas in the other it regularly
creates an equal division of the line. In either
case the difference between 3:3 and 4:4 is
more than a mere difference of fullness, and the
effect is strikingly dissimilar.
We come now to consider distichs of which
the two lines are not of equal length, or, as we
may prefer to regard some of the examples, lines
of which the two parts separated by a caesura
are not of equal length. With reference to what
is in any case the normal echoing rhythm, viz.
3 : 2, it is unnecessary to add anything to what
has been already said above. But, as legitimate
variations of 3 : 2, Budde, as we have seen (p. 92),
admitted in addition to 2 : 2, which by his theory
of heavy words he endeavoured to equate with
3 : 2, distichs of the type 4 : 2 and 4 : 3. Whether
either 4 : 2 or 4 : 3 ever really produces the echo
that is characteristic of 3 : 2 is doubtful; for in
most cases at all events the longer line of 4 : 2
and 4 : 3 is itself divided into two equal parts
by a caesura ; so that 4 : 2, so far from producing
the echo which this arithmetical symbol might
suggest, often closely approximates in rhythmical