Sorry to have taken so long to answer. I know the o is long, but ‹Alma Redemptoris› is, metrically speaking, an elegy and there are no metrical mistakes in the rest of it. The object is to deduce the original text of what is obviously a corrupt verse. What stands out like a sore thumb is the anapæst ‹prius ac› where, supposing ‹virgo› to be a spondee (as it otherwise is!) a dactyl is necessary, though the heard effect of a hexameter which starts with a spondaic word followed by a dactylic word or vice versa is that of an appalling breach of style, much worse than Cicero’s ‹o fortunatam natam me consule Romam !› and recalling Ennius’s ‹sparsis hastis longis campus splendet et horret›. But at least neither of these contains a false quantity. My suggestion to treat ‹virgo› like ‹ego› as far as the ‹o› is concerned was the least violent I could find, seeing that my inserted -que saves at little cost the latter syllable of prius as long. At all events an emendation is necessary, and if you can find a better one, I’ll of course adopt it.

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