hlawson38 wrote:Would knowing how to analyze the meter of the poetic line solve this problem??
Not in this case -
qua est elides to
qua'st, making it a long syllable no matter whether the
a is long or short.
But, you are really cheating yourself by not being able to scan meter when reading Vergil. It's so easy once you get the hang of it! Here, I cut my scansion teeth with
this video. You might be lost at first, but watch it all the way through at least twice, and ask about what confuses you after that. (Note that scanning becomes automatic after a while, allowing you to read aloud to full effect without pausing to analyze).
hlawson38 wrote:If parsed adjectivally, then both "qua" and "ea" would modify "cura". Is that allowed?
Hm. I can't think of a situation in which it would make sense, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that there absolutely isn't one.
hlawson38 wrote:I am tempted again to parse "qua" adverbially: "if at-all that concern exists".
That's how I'd do it. It's more or less the same
qua in:
... hoc regnum dea gentibus esse,
si qua fata sinant, iam tum tenditque fovetqueWhich is an ablative feminine in form, and adverbial in function. I've seen it expanded by some as
aliqua via, "by some way", and others as
aliqua ratione, "by some reason". I suspect that it is originally the former, but the sense of the latter is certainly there.