[98]
For the mere fact that
words are separated from each other involves an
imperceptible length of time: for instance, the
spondee forming the middle foot of a pentameter must
consist of the last syllable of one word and the first
of another, otherwise the verse is no verse at all.
It is permissible, though less satisfactory, for the
spondee to be preceded by an anapaest: e.g. muliere
non solum nobili, verum etiami nota.1
1 pro Cael. xiii. 31. “A woman, not only of noble birth, but even notorious.”
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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