Golden Line - The Golden Line in Non-English Scholarship

The Golden Line in Non-English Scholarship

Non-English-speaking scholars who refer to the golden line in print usually pointedly use the English term: Thraede p. 51: “die Spielarten der ‘golden line.’ ” Baños p. 762: “el denominado versus aureus o golden line” Hellegouarc’h p. 277: “l’origine du ‘versus aureus’ ou ‘golden line.’” Schmitz p. 149 n 113, "der von John Dryden gepraegte Terminus Golden Line." Enríquez’s áureo verso is very different from the golden line used by English scholars. Baños, Enríquez, and Hellegouarc’h all refer exclusively to Wilkinson 215-217 and other English scholars for discussions of the term. Typical would be the French article of Kerlouégan, which never mentions the term, but which is entirely devoted to the form.

Precursors

These works are often cited in golden line literature, but they do not mention the term and are only peripherally connected to the form, except for Kerlouégan

• 1908 - Friedrich Caspari, De ratione, quae inter Vergilium et Lucanum intercedat, quaestiones selectae. Dissertation, Leipzig.
• 1916 - Eduard Norden, P. Vergilius Maro Aeneis Buch VI Teubner, Leipzig Berlin.
• 1949 - J. Marouzeau, L' Ordre des mots dans la phrase latine. Paris 3.107.
• 1972 - François Kerlouégan, “Une mode stylistique dans la prose latine des pays celtiques.” Études Celtiques 13:275-297.

Chronological listing of Non-English Golden Line Citations

• 1978 - Klaus Thraede. Der Hexameter in Rom. Munich: C. H. Beck’sche. p. 51: “die Spielarten der ‘golden line.’ (The first mention of the golden line in non-English speaking scholarship)
• 1987 - J. Hellegouarc’h, “Les yeux de la marquise...Quelques observations sur les commutations verbales dans l’hexamètre latin.” Revue des Études Latines 65:261-281.
• 1988 - S. Enríquez El hexámetro áureo en latín. Datos para su estudio, Tesis doctoral, Granada (available in microfiche). Enríquez refers to the definitions of several English scholars, but he himself includes any line with a verb in the center, surrounded by two substantives and adjectives. He therefore includes (p. 331) the following examples of the áureo verso:

florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva capella (Virgil Eclogue 2.64) aAVbB

Temporis angusti mansit concordia discors. (Lucan BC 1.98) AaVBb

His áureo verso includes not only the gold and silver lines defined above (of which Enríquez cites a large number of examples), but also lines without any chiastic structure at all. Perhaps this definition (which strikes English-speaking scholars as bizarre) is common in Spain, because Baños and Antolín also use Enriquez's definition.

• 1990 - Marina del Castillo Herrera, La metrica Latina en el Siglo IV. Diomedes y su entorno. Granada: Universidad de Granada. Connects Diomedes' teres versus with the áureo verso but does not define or elaborate.
• 1992 - J. M. Baños Baños, "El versus aureus de Ennio a Estacio", Latomus 51 p. 762-744.
• 1993 - Norbert Delhey. Apollinaris Sidonius, Carm. 22: Burgus Pontii Leontii. Einleitung, Text und Kommentar. Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte 40. Berlin/New York, p. 86. (silver lines).
• 1994 - J. J. L. Smolenaars, Statius: Thebaid VII, Commentary. Leiden: E.J. Brill, p. 37.
• 1995 - Fernando Navarro Antolín, Lygdamus : Corpus Tibullianum III. 1-6, New York : E.J. Brill, 1995, p. 381 (follows the aAVbB form of Enríquez).
• 1998 - Dirk Panhuis, Latijnse grammatica. Garant, Leuven-Apeldoorn "gouden, zilveren, en bronzen vers."
• 1999 - S. Enríquez. "El hexámetro áureo en la poesía latina", Estudios de Métrica Latina" I, pp.327-340, Luque Moreno-Díaz Díaz (eds.).
• 2000 - Christine Schmitz, Das Satirische in Juvenals Satiren. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2000, p. 148-9.
• 2004 - Andreas Grüner, Venus ordinis der Wandel von Malerei und Literatur im Zeitalter der römischen Bürgerkriege. Paderborn: Verlag Ferd.Schoning GmbH & Co, 2004, p. 88-94. "Seit Dryden bezeichnet man das betreffende Schema als golden line."
• 2004 - Enrico Di Lorenzo. L'esametro greco e latino. Analisi, problemi e prospettive, Atti delle "Giornate di Studio" su L'esametro greco e latino: analisi, problemi e prospettive. Fisciano 28 e 29 maggio 2002. Quaderni del Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità. Napoli, p. 77.
• 2008 - Unknown author "Gouden Vers: PV in het midden + 2 adj vooraan + 2 subst achteraan (of omgekeerd)"