Resumen de Rhythmic «cursus» in Pre-Conquest Anglo-Latin Literature
The study of Latin rhythmic patterns at the end of prose sentences has greatly benefited from Tore Janson’s use of the chisquared test, which allows greater statistical certainty to determine whether authors of lengthier texts are indeed employing the elusive phenomenon of cursus, and to a lesser degree what patterns they prefer. The period of development, after Late Antiquity but before the twelfth century, continues to be problematic since cursus is never discussed among the primary authors and its use is more difficult to discern. While Janson’s method has been used sporadically for preconquest Anglo-Latin texts, more extensive research has been lacking on this corpus specifically. This article presents much needed refinements to Janson’s application of the chi-squared test and proposes the new use of the binomial test to assess the presence of cursus in shorter texts. By tracing the use of rhythmic cursus through some of the main Anglo-Latin authors from the eighth to the eleventh centuries, this study is able to suggest further evidence on some of the literary relationships of texts ascribed to certain intellectual schools, due to use of cursus and preferences of patterns. This study also suggests that texts of this period do not use rhythmic patterns consistently across an entire text but rather employ or avoid them strategically.
