n(ē) ill(e) haúd | scit hoc | paulúm | lucrī ‖ quant(um) ḗ|ī da|mn(ī) adpór|tet.

Tū nés|ciēs | quod scī́s, | Dromō, ‖ sī sápi|ēs. Mū|tum dī́|cēs.

(T. Hau. 746.)

> –́> –̇> ⏑́ ⏑⏑ –̇⏑ –́> –̇> ⏑́ ⏑> ⌅
> –́⏑ –̇> –́⏑ –̇> –́> –̇> –́⏑ ⌅
> –́⏑ –̇> –́⏑ –̇> ⏑́ ⏑> –̇> –́> ⌅

Compare in English:

“Now who be ye would cross Lochgyle, this dark and stormy water?” (Campbell.)

[2612.] (1.) The Iambic Septenarius of the early comedy is not properly a “tetrameter catalectic” like the Greek, for the penultimate syllable is sometimes resolved, which is never the case in the Greek catalectic tetrameter. For the same reason the ordinary anacrustic ([2529]) scheme of the early Septenarius is erroneous; for a triseme cannot be resolved.

[2613.] (2.) When there is a diaeresis after the fourth foot, the verse is asynartetic (see [2535]).

[2614.] (3.) The Septenarius seems not to have been used in tragedy.

(B.) Later Usage.