AFTER THE eighteen admirable pages in Tinker and Lowry
on Arnold's masterpiece, the many observations on it in
Professor Bonnerot's large volume, and the elaborate introduc-
tion to his translation ( Paris, [ 1947]), there might seem to be
little left to glean. I shall therefore add first some notes on the
metrical forms as illustrating Arnold's solicitous workmanship
in that somewhat neglected field, and as affording a contrast
to his perverse misunderstanding of the whole poem. Or if
further excuse were needed, one might recall the opinion of
T. Sturge Moore, in 1938, that " Empedocles more and more
appears the most considerable poem of a comparable length
by a Victorian."

Act 1, scene i, starts like a blank verse play on the Eliza-
bethan model, and is short. But scene ii, three times as long,
is nearly all lyrical, dominated by the long, gritty Ode de-
livered by Empedocles, but relieved by the two Songs of Cal-
licles, one of them in blank verse. Nearly two-thirds of Act II
is spoken by Empedocles, about evenly divided between blank
verse and free verse. The other third comprises three Songs
by Callicles. The whole poem runs to 1121 lines, a little less

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