Re: Fridh on clausulae

Our library does indeed have Ake Fridh's "Le problème de la Passion des
Saintes Perpétue et Félicité," but I would not put much faith in its
results; in fact, one could argue that the subject needs to be revisited
(not that I intend to do so). The "problem," by the way, is not
authenticity -- which Fridh takes for granted -- but the relationship
between the Latin and Greek versions.

The most obvious problem is that Fridh is as innocent of statistics as I
am, though I can sense some of the inadequacy by comparison with more
recent work in Classics, such as Martin Cropp's study of resolution in the
trimeters of the lost plays of Euripides, which was conducted with a
statistician as co-author. There is not a word about what constitutes
significant difference, or about size of samples affecting results (though
Fridh does sometimes seem aware of the latter problem, at least where
Saturus is concerned). Just as fundamental, however, is the problem that we
do not know what kind of clausula -- metrical or accentual -- to expect in
this author or these authors (Fridh assembles figures for both, but who
knows which set is the "significant" one?) or even whether we should expect
verbal artistry at all. There is also a strong likelihood that a study
based on different criteria would produce different results. Nor is the
possibility of variation within a single author considered (though there is
a footnote apparently directing the reader to works that argue that
Tertullian, for one, pursued different rhythmic effects in different
works), or the possibility of variation within a work -- decorating the
prologue, for example.

Our library does not have the Shewring articles (its holdings in the two
journals does not extend back far enough), but I might give them a look
through ILL.

James L. P. Butrica
St. John's NL  A1C 5S7
(709) 753-5799 (home)
(709) 737-7914 (office)