[94]
But if it makes no difference
whether the final syllable be long or short, the concluding feet in these two instances must be identical:
and yet somehow or other one gives the impression
of sitting down and the other of a simple halt.
This fact has led some critics to allow three timebeats for a final long syllable, adding the extra
[p. 561]
time-length which a short syllable derives from its
position at the end of a sentence to the long syllable
as well. And it not merely makes a difference with
what foot a sentence ends, but the penultimate
foot is also of importance.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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