VARIETIES OF RHYTHM 175
alteration of the poem that is the real reason why
the poem contains both trimeter and tetrameter
lines. Dr. Cheyne's criticism is tantamount to a
denial of the existence of a rhythm 4 : 3, just
as it would be tantamount to a denial of 3 : 2
to complain that Lamentations i.-iv. consists
partly of trimeters and partly of dimeters.
Of the forty distichs measured by Sievers in
Psalms ix., x. he regards twelve^1 as clear examples
and twenty-two others as probable examples of
4 : 3; the latter and larger group depend on
assuming some textual corruption, and a few,
or perhaps even most, of the smaller group are
in some degree ambiguous; but, even if we had
no other evidence than that of Psalms ix., x., it
would seem to me unsafe to deny the probability
of the actual existence of 4 : 3 distichs. We
shall have to examine some interesting examples
of these in the next chapter (p. 234); meantime,
I give two of the clearest examples in Psalms
ix., x., viz. x. 16 and ix. 9:
dfv Mlvf jlm hvhy^2
vcrxm Myvg vdbx
Yahweh^2 hath become king for ever and ever,
Perished are the nations out of his land.
1 Viz. ix. 9, 10, 12, 13, 20; x. 1, 2 (to vbwH), 13, 14 a, b and c, d,
15, 16.
2 Briggs reduces this to 3 : 3 by omitting hvhy: he is then compelled
to treat hvhy as a vocative and to render,
0 King, for ever and ever.