On Quantitative Metre 337Here the word “continent” clearly does not become a cretic,
even when a third consonant follows like the “s” of “sailing”,
still less when a vowel follows; a slight weight is there, but it is
altogether insufficient to hamper the pure dactylic flow of the
line.
It is only a sufficient consonant weight that can change the
category; but even then the result depends less on the number
than on the power and heaviness of the consonants composing
the word; the theory that it is the number of consonants that
determines metrical length cannot stand always. Thus the word
strengthor the wordstrippedis long wherever it may occur,
butstringwith its five consonant sounds is long mainly by the
voice ictus falling on it; where that lacks it may remain short
by the inherent value of its vowel:heart-string,hamstringsound
more natural as trochees than as spondees;hamstringingcarries
weight as a dactyl, it is too weak to be a good antibacchius. In
these matters it is always the ear that must judge, there can be no
rule of thumb or fixed mathematical measure determinable by
the eye of the reader; it is the weight or lightness of the syllable,
the slowed down or unencumbered rapid passage of the voice,
the pressure or slightness of its step in passing that makes the
difference, and of that the ear alone can be the true judge or
arbiter.
In any case it is only the internal consonants that matter; for
it is doubtful whether initial consonants in a word that follows
can, even when they are many, radically influence the quantity
of a preceding syllable. This rule of backward influence could
prevail in the classical tongues because there the voice was more
evenly distributed over the words; this evenness gave a chance
to the short syllables to have their full sound-value and a slight
addition of consonantal sound might overweight them and give
them, either internally or in position, a decisive length value.
Intrinsic quantity also was not crushed under the weight of stress
as in English and turned into a secondary factor, — it was and
remained a prime factor in the rhythm. There is accentual pitch
and inflexion, but it does not take the first place. Thus the first
lines of the Aeneid, —