RHYME.
The immense number of rhyming words in the Provençal language has been
already referred to. Of the fifty-four forms of the verb of the first
conjugation, only nine have the accent on the root, while forty-five have
it on one of the final syllables; hence all the verbs of this conjugation
rhyme with each other in these forms. Again, all the derivative syllables
of the adjectives and nouns, like at-ada, ut-uda, or atge, ansa, ensa,
and many others, have the accent on these syllables, and offer great
choice of material to the poet in search of rhymes. Consequently, in all
Provençal poetry, the rhyme plays a principal part, and metrical scholars
considered it their most important task to introduce the student into
the minutest subtleties of its beauty. Dante intended to speak of rhyme
‘secundum se’ in one of the later parts of his book, which he never
wrote; in the existing parts he speaks of it only in connection with
the stanza. In accordance, however, with the ‘Leys d’Amors,’ it will be
necessary to consider the essence of rhyme in itself, before proceeding
to its influence on the combination of verses in a stanza, and of
stanzas in a poem.
The ‘Leys d’Amors’ uses the word rim or rima in a perfectly different
sense from the modern rhyme. Its definition is this: ‘Rims es certz
nombres de syllabas, ajustat a lui autre bordo per pario d’aquela
meteysha accordansa e paritat de syllabas, o de diversas am bela
cazensa.’ Rim exists therefore not only if the accordansa is the same,
which constitutes approximately what is now called rhyme, but also though
the ends of the two verses concerned sound quite differently, provided
that a certain harmony or cazensa is effected simply by their lengths
or accents. This must be borne in mind while we consider the division
of rims into four classes as given by the ‘Leys d’Amors,’ viz., rims
estramps, accordans, ordinals, and dictionals. The division is not very
logical; for some of the rims enumerated have nothing to do with the
essence of rhyme. Rim estramp in its exact meaning is nothing but the
absence of rhyme or even assonance between two verses. In the poetry of
the troubadours there is scarcely a line which has not its corresponding
rhyme, either in its own or in another stanza, so that rims estramps
are of no importance for the present purpose. Everything that is now
called rhyme and was used by the troubadours is contained under the
second head, rims accordans. This accordansa may be sonan, consonan, or
leonisme; and the rims sonans and consonans must be again subdivided into
bords (French, bâtard) and lejals. Rim sonan bord is what is now called
assonance, and is very frequently found in Spanish poetry. The ‘Leys
d’Amors’ gives examples of it con accen agut,
Encarcerat tenetz mon cor am_or_s,
E delivrar nol pot autra mas v_o_s;
and con accen greu,
La mors quieu port a mi dons es tan g_randa_,
Quieu lo thezaur del realme de F_ranza_, etc.
In the poems of the troubadours this assonance was not permissible.
Accordingly, the ‘Leys d’Amors’ does not approve of it, though admitting
that it was daily used in the mandelas, or popular chansons. ‘For these,’
says the author, with all a scholar’s contempt for popular poetry, ‘I
do not care, because I do not see nor can I find a known author for
them.’ Rim sonan lejal, which exists only with accen agut, is what is now
called masculine rhyme; that is to say, the last syllable in the rhyming
lines must contain the same vowel with identical consonants (if any)
after, but different ones before, it. The examples of this are of course
innumerable. The second kind of rims accordans is called consonan. This
also is subdivided into bord and lejal. The rim consonan bord is always
con accen greu, so that only the second and unaccentuated syllable agrees
with the corresponding one in the other verse, _e.g._:
Sino de liei que del sieu foc m’abran_d_a
Quar ela sab la maniera quos tu_d_a.
The modern ear would not discern this kind of rhyme; and the troubadours
also never used it. Perhaps the author of the ‘Leys d’Amors’ introduced
it merely in order to give completeness to his system. Rim consonan
lejal has always accen agut, and is found where the last and accentuated
syllable in two verses is exactly the same in spelling, but different
in meaning. Examples of this class are numerous in the poetry of the
troubadours: the following is from a canzo of Serveri de Gironne:
E costumatz tanh que sia tan gen (adj. gentilis)
Que governar se puesca tota gen (noun, gentem).
The same rhyme is also found in mediæval and modern French poetry, where
it is called ‘rime riche.’ The chief characteristic of an accordansa
consonan is the identity of vowels and consonants in the last syllable,
but in the last syllable only. On the other hand, in the third division
of accordansa, the leonisme, the last syllable but one, also must to a
certain extent agree in the corresponding verses. Leonismetat is again
subdivided into rims leonismes simples, and parfaitz. In the former the
consonants before the vowel in the last syllable but one must differ: in
the latter they must be identical. Rim leonisme simple con accen greu is
what is now called feminine rhyme, as in
tot autra dona d’esser bella
lai on es cesta damaisella.
Con accen agut, it is again one of those cases where, as in the rim
consonan bord, the rhyme is extended to an unaccentuated syllable, which
in this case appears before the rhyming syllables. The ‘Leys d’Amors’
gives the following example:
Tan prozamens feric G_ă_st_ó_s
De lansa massas e b_ă_st_ó_s.
The following is rim leonisme parfait con accen greu:
l’autrui beautat tein es ef_fassa_.
li viva colors de sa _fassa_;
con accen agut:
Al arma dona s_anĕ_t_á_t
Qui fug a tota v_anĕ_t_á_t.
The former would be called in German ‘weiblicher rührender Reim;’ and of
the latter the same may be said as of the leonisme simple con accen agut.
In this case the rhyme is extended backwards as far as the last syllable
but two; sometimes even the last four or five syllables are included in
the accordansa leonisme. The ‘Leys d’Amors’ gives an instance of what it
calls rim mays perfait leonisme, in which the last five syllables are
intended to rhyme in two different verses:
So don le cors p_ren noyridura_
Lo fai tornar _en poyridura_.
In case the leonismetat is effected by two separate words, these words
of course must always differ in their meaning. It may also be mentioned
that rims consonans as well as leonismes are called contrafaitz, if the
syllables or letters forming the rhyme are divided by the end of a word;
as, for instance:
a celz que la vezo ni l’auzon
quan las donas sa beutat lauzon.
Such is the division which the ‘Leys d’Amors’ gives of rhymes in
general. The system shows a certain scholastic consistency; but the real
essence and origin of rhyme are entirely overlooked, or even wrongly
defined. Entirely different things are brought under the same head, as,
for instance, assonance and masculine rhyme (rim sonan); while, on the
other hand, things which decidedly belong together are separated. Thus
the simple rhyme is called rim lejal sonan, while the simple feminine
rhyme, which is obviously derived from it, is classed together with
the rim leonisme, from which it differs essentially. The same is the
case with the rims consonan lejal and leonisme parfait con accen greu.
In subsequent chapters the work gives a complete list of the different
artificial rhymes. They are too numerous to be discussed here; besides
which, many of them are nothing but subtleties of the author, and are
hardly ever used by the better troubadours. It is only necessary to
consider those which are of real importance in studying the relics
of Provençal poetry. The order also in which the different kinds are
enumerated need not be followed: it is sometimes arbitrary, and sometimes
utterly confused.
After expounding what rhyme is, the ‘Leys d’Amors’ very properly proceeds
to ask where rhyme is to be found. Every possible combination in this
respect is brought under a new head, viz., rims ordinals. This expression
is exceedingly ill chosen; for the words rims ordinals suggest some new
kind of rhyme essentially different from rims consonans or sonans, while
in reality they indicate only the different positions which these same
rhymes can have in verse or stanza. The author avoids giving a definition
of rims ordinals, but begins at once to explain how ‘aytals ordes se fai.’
Rhyme, it is explained, may connect the different parts of one and the
same line with each other, or with the end of this line. The middle rhyme
is called, in correspondence with the bordos empeutatz, rim empeutat
or multiplicatiu. An example of the former mode occurs in one of Peire
Cardinal’s sirventeses:
Car los—garzos—vezon en patz sezer.
In the following line both kinds are combined, the rhyme being the same
in the middle parts of the verse and at the end of it:
Mon port—conort—e mon cofort.
In some cases, as for instance between the cæsura of the decasyllabic
verse and its end, the middle rhyme was strictly prohibited. But this
middle rhyme is found very often between the same sections of different
verses, as for instance in the above-mentioned sirventes of Peire
Cardinal:
que fan—l’efan—d’aquela gent engleza
qu’avan—no van—guerrejar ab Frances;
mal an—talan—de la terr’ engolmeza
tiran—iran—conquistar Gastines.
In order to display his art, the poet moreover made each pair of rhymes
in the same line a rim consonan lejal. This kind of rhyme was sometimes
carried to such an extent that each syllable of a whole verse agreed
with the corresponding syllable of another. This was called a rim
serpenti. Of such exaggeration there is probably no instance in the good
troubadours; the ‘Leys d’Amors’ gives the following:
Bos—dieus—clarratz[40]—cara
Los—mieus—gardatz—ara.
Next come the rhymes between the ends of the verses of one and the
same stanza. The simplest form possible in this case was that all
the verses of a stanza should have but one rhyme, which suggests the
tirade monorime in the popular epic. The ‘Leys d’Amors’ calls this rim
continuat. Although very simple, this rhyme was used by the most finished
troubadours, such as Marcabrun and Aimeric de Peguilhan. Sordello
bewailed in it the death of his friend Blacatz; and in the last-named
poem combined with the long verse of twelve syllables, it has an
excellent effect owing to its dreary monotonous sound.
When there are two or more rhymes in a stanza, their order is varied in
many different ways. The most simple mode is what the ‘Leys d’Amors’
calls rims encadenatz; and next to this the rims crozatz. Rims encadenatz
are crossed rhymes, viz., _a b: a b_. This position of the rhymes,
continued through a whole stanza, is not often to be found in the better,
or at least more artistic, troubadours. Johan de Pena, one of the less
celebrated, has used it in a stanza of charming simplicity:
Un guerrier per alegrar
vuelh comensar, car m’agensa
que non lo dey plus celar,
trop l’auray tengut en pensa;
e guerrejaray d’amor,
endomens que ma guerrieira
a trobat guerrejador
que guerreja volontieira.
Rims crozatz are found, to quote but one instance, in the two quatrains
of a sonnet.
These are the principal divisions of rhyme in its relations to a single
stanza. But the troubadours employed it also to keep up a certain
connection between several, sometimes all, the different stanzas of a
poem; and in this respect it must now be considered.
A change of rhyme from strophe to strophe—rims singulars—is rare, and,
as a rule, found only where the stanza is very long and artificially
composed. An example occurs in a song by Peire Cardinal, each stanza of
which consists of no less than fifteen lines. Gaucelm Faidit and the
Monk of Montaudon have used rims singulars also in shorter and simpler
stanzas. The ‘Leys d’Amors’ gives no rule as to their use, but confirms
indirectly what has been said, by giving as an example a very long and
complicated stanza. Directly opposed to the rims singulars are the rims
or coblas unisonans, where all the stanzas of a poem have the same rhymes
in the corresponding lines. Sometimes poems of this kind are very long,
so that the poet had to find a great number of consonant words, which
however, in the _langue d’oc_, was not as difficult as it would have been
in one of the Teutonic languages. But in spite of this some of the German
minnesingers, such as Count Rudolf of Neuenburg and Friedrich von Hausen,
who were under the influence of the troubadours, tried to compete with
them in the richness of their rhymes and the variety of their stanzas.
Of Friedrich von Hausen a song remains, which is an exact imitation, in
one stanza even a translation, of one of Folquet de Marseilles’ canzos,
which the German poet probably learned during the crusade of 1190, on
which he accompanied the Emperor Frederick I. Sometimes the stanzas of a
poem are grouped together in twos, threes, or fours, by means of equal
rhymes. Such cases are described by the ‘Leys d’Amors’ as coblas doblas,
triplas, &c. The better to display their skill, the greatest artists
among the troubadours liked to choose for their rhymes rare and unusual
words, the meaning of which, at the same time, was not easy to discover.
The greatest master in these ‘rims cars,’ and ‘motz oscurs,’ was Arnaut
Daniel, whom Dante, very likely for that reason, calls the first of all
troubadours. But Peire d’Alvernhe also says of his poems, as a proof of
their high art, ‘qu’apenas nulhs hom las enten.’ To give an idea of this
obscurity, which, however, did not increase by any means the beauty of
a canzo, it will suffice to quote a stanza from one of Arnaut Daniel’s
poems, entirely written in rims cars:
En breu brizaral temps braus,
el bizel brunel e brancs
qui s’entresenhon trastug,
desobre claus rams de folha,
car no chant’ auzels ni piula
m’ensenh amors, que fassa donc
tal chan qui n’er segons ni tertz,
ans prims d’afrancar cor agre.
It is worthy of notice that in the first lines the troubadour has used
alliteration to increase the strange sound of his words. The lines serve
at the same time as an example of another way of connecting stanzas with
each other. All the different verses are without a rhyme in their own
stanza, but find it in the corresponding verse of another, or of all
the other stanzas. Rhyme of this kind is called by the ‘Leys d’Amors’
rim espar, while Dante uses the expression clavis. When the clavis runs
through all the verses of each stanza, the case is described as rimas
dissolutas. Arnaut Daniel seems to have been particularly fond of this
form; for the sestina also, which he invented, and which Dante praised
and imitated, is founded on the same principle. Other poets preferred
generally to introduce only one clavis or, at most, two, interrupting in
this way, sometimes with great effect, the equal flow of the rhymes. A
modification of the rims espars is the rims capcaudatz. This takes place
if the clavis is the last verse of the first stanza, and is introduced
into the following, not in its corresponding place, but by way of first
rhyme. Of the two stanzas, for instance, quoted by the ‘Leys d’Amors,’
the first ends with the line, ‘Li fizel de mortal pena,’ and the first
line of the second accordingly shows the same rhyme in ‘verges eratz e
vergena,’ and continues the scheme exactly in the same way as the first
stanza. The various combinations of stanzas by means of the rhyme are
one of the most interesting parts of Provençal versification, and show a
great refinement of taste in the mediæval poets. To convey an idea of the
skill manifested in this way, it will be useful to give a short sketch
of a canzo which, in this as in all other respects, may be considered as
the standard piece of Provençal poetry. This is Guillem de Cabestanh’s
celebrated song, ‘Li douz cossire,’ through which, it is said, the poet
lost his life, while making his name immortal. The poem consists of six
stanzas, divided by means of corresponding rhymes into three groups of
coblas doblas. But these three groups are again connected with each
other; for the third stanza resumes the last feminine rhyme of the
second, and uses it as first rhyme, introducing, however, new additional
rhymes. The fifth stanza stands in exactly the same relation to the
fourth. The four last lines of the second stanza show the following
rhyming words—parvensa, temensa; fei, vei. The first rhyme of the third
stanza must be feminine; and therefore the penultimate couple of rhymes
is used, with some irregularity, as a kind of rims capcaudatz, and the
beginning is
En sovinensa
tenc la car’el dous ris,
vostra valensa
el bel cors blanc e lis, &c.
The highest principle of art, variety in unity, seems to be here
attained. In many cases this principle of connecting the different
stanzas led to the most childish and trifling artificialities, as, for
instance, in what the ‘Leys d’Amors’ calls rims retrogradatz, where the
second stanza begins with the last rhyme of the first, and reproduces all
the subsequent rhymes in reversed order.
This becomes yet more absurd if applied, as it sometimes is, to a single
stanza, or even a single verse. In this case the stanza or verse has to
be constructed in such a way that, without altering their meaning, the
lines or words can change their places. The following lines, for instance,
Vengutz es lo senhor d’amon
Salutz grans portar en lo mon,
could equally well be read the last first; or even the words could change
their position, in this way:
Le senhor d’amon es vengutz
portar en lo mon grans salutz.
The ‘Leys d’Amors’ adds, that he who likes to ‘despendre son temps’
with such trifles may even find words like papa, tafata, in which the
different syllables can be changed ad libitum. The fourth and last class
of rhymes, as given by the ‘Leys d’Amors,’ the rims dictionals, contains,
for the greater part, unimportant trifles of this kind. Rim dictional
itself means the combination of two words in the rhyming syllables,
which can be derived from each other, by either taking away or adding
a syllable. Thus the feminine and masculine forms of the adjective
and past participle, at-ada, ut-uda, stand in the relation of rims
dictionals. An example of another kind of derivation is given in the
following lines:
Mayres de Dieu prega to filh humil,
quem denhe dar, sil platz humilitat;
per miels tener lo dreg sendier util
que menals bos al port d’utilitat.
This is an arbitrary invention, without any intrinsic value for the uses
of genuine poetry. But some of the subdivisions given show how much the
decline of the poetry of the troubadours was the consequence of their
relying too much on the formal side of their art. Some poets seem to have
particularly delighted in introducing rims leonismes parfaitz, or, as
they are also called, rims equivocs, which, besides being different as
regards the meaning of the words, show also a slight difference in sound
of the vowels. In the following lines, for instance,
Sias tempratz e gent apres
En tas paraulas et apres,
the first apres, being the participle of apprendre, sounds the _e_ a
little more open than the second apres, afterwards. It was considered
a great proof of poetical finish to introduce different vowels in
combination with the same consonants into a stanza. The elder Gavaudan
seems to have written the following verses entirely for this purpose:
Mos sens es cl_a_rs
als bos entended_o_rs;
trop es osc_u_rs
a selh que no sap gaire;
per que cuj_a_rs
lai on no val val_o_rs,
non es sab_e_rs
ni sens a mo vejaire.
In a poem attributed by different manuscripts to Bernard de Ventadorn
and Daude de Pradas, the poet has introduced all the five vowels in this
way. This fact seems not to have been known to the author of the ‘Leys
d’Amors:’ he would probably otherwise have mentioned a practice so much
to his liking.