L'ecclési_a_ste a d_i_t:--Un chien viv_a_nt vaut mi_eu_x
Qu'un lion m_o_rt (p. 201, l. 21).
O boucher_i_e!--ô soif du m_eu_rtre!--acharnem_e_nt
Horr_i_ble! (p. 210, l. 21).
Unrhymed lines (blank verse) and lines of which only the alternate
ones rhyme have been tried but discarded.
Rhyme is therefore an indispensable element of French verse, and is
vastly more important as a poetic ornament than it is in English;
so important that Sainte-Beuve calls it the sole harmony (_l'unique
harmonie_) of verse. Rhyme may be either masculine, when it involves
but one syllable (_divinité: majesté_, _toi: roi_), or feminine,
when it involves two syllables the second of which contains mute _e_
(_repose: rose_, _changées: ravagées_); and lines are called masculine
or feminine according to their rhymes. Masculine rhymes must
constantly alternate with feminine rhymes; that is, two masculine or
feminine lines of different rhymes may never come together; but the
younger poets have sought a greater liberty here as elsewhere, and
poems with but one kind of rhyme occur (see p. 208). Rhyme to be
perfect must satisfy the eye as well as the ear; masculine rhymes must
have identity of vowel sound and the final consonants must be the same
or such as would have the same sound if pronounced (_granit: nid_,
_héros: bourreaux_; not _différent: tyran_); but silent consonants
between the vowel and the final consonant do not count (_essaims:
saints_, _corps: morts_). Feminine rhymes must have identity of
rhyming vowels and of following consonant sounds if there be any; and
the final consonants must be the same (_fidèles: citadelles_, _jolie:
crie_; not _nuages: louage_). Variations from ordinary spelling are
sometimes used to make words satisfy this rule of rhyming for the eye
(_je vien_, _je voi_), but they are hardly approved. The ear seems
even sometimes to play the subordinate rôle in the rhyme, for words
are found in rhyme which satisfy the eye but not the ear (_Vénus:
nus_). Rhyme as above described is called sufficient (_suffisante_);
if it also involve identity of the consonant preceding the rhyming
vowel (_consonne d'appui_) it is called rich (_riche_); (examples:
_étoiles: toiles_, _bandit_;
The French ear is unlike the English in considering _rime riche_ an
additional beauty; the Romanticists especially have cultivated it, and
there are whole poems where simply sufficient rhyme is the exception.
A word may not rhyme with itself, but words identical in form but
different in meaning may rhyme with each other (cf. first, fifth, and
eleventh stanzas of _les Djinns_, p. 95.
By the use of lines of different length and especially by the
arrangement of the rhymes a great variety of stanza forms has been
created, as well as certain definite forms for complete short
compositions, known as fixed forms. The most common are the _ballade_,
_rondel_, _rondeau_, and _triolet_, developed especially in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and revived in our own, and the
sonnet, introduced from Italy during the Renaissance.
The _ballade_ consists of three stanzas, of eight or ten lines each,
that repeat exactly the same rhyme arrangement, and of a shorter
stanza of four or five lines, called the _envoy_, which repeats the
rhyme arrangement of the second part of the other stanzas. The line of
the ballade has generally eight syllables, but may have ten or twelve
(see pp. 1, 4, 5, 235).
The _rondel_, as usually printed, consists of three parts, the first
of four lines, the second of four, the last two of which are the first
two of the first part, and the third of five, the last one of which is
the first one of the first part; there are but two rhymes throughout.
The lines of the _rondel_ have usually eight syllables. This form was
practically superseded by the rondeau (see pp. 2 and 3).
The _rondeau_ also consists of three parts; the first has five lines,
the second three, and the third five, and the first word or words of
the first line, usually the first half of the line, are repeated at
the end of the second and third parts; there are but two rhymes. The
lines of the _rondeau_ have also usually eight syllables (see p. 6).
The _triolet_ consists of eight lines, usually octosyllabic. The first
line is twice repeated, in the fourth and seventh places, and the
second line is repeated once, making the final one. There are but two
rhymes (see p. 298).
The _sonnet_ has fourteen lines, usually Alexandrines, and is made up
of two parts, one of eight lines, called the octave, and one of six,
called the sestet; the rule allows but two rhymes to the octave
and three others to the sestet; the arrangement of the rhymes
is inflexible for the strict Petrarchan type (see below), but
considerable variations from it are common. For sonnets of the strict
type see pp. 257, 263, 280; for others showing variations see pp. 8,
13, 14, 199.
The rhyme arrangement of these various forms is most clearly shown
by letters as follows, capital letters indicating lines that are
repeated. _Ballade_: eight lines, _ababbcbC_, _ababbcbC_, _ababbcbC_,
_bcbC_; ten lines, _ababbccdcD_, _ababbccdcD_, _ababbccdcD_, _ccdcD_.
_Rondel: ABba_, _abAB_, _abbaA_. _Rondeau: aabba_, _aab refrain_,
_aabba refrain_. _Triolet: ABaAabAB_. _Sonnet: abba abba ccdede_.
For reference: Th. de Banville, _Petit traité de poésie française_,
1872; F. de Gramont, _les Vers français et leur prosodie_, 1875; Becq
de Fouquières, _Traité général de versification française_, 1879; A.
Tobler,
_Vom französischen Versbau alter und neuer Zeit_, Berlin, 1880, 3d
edition, 1894,French translation with excellent preface by Gaston
Paris, 1885; Clair Tisseur, _Modestes observations sur l'art de
versifier_, Lyon, 1893; A. Bibesco, _la Question du vers français et
la tentative des poètes décadents_, 1893, 2d edition, with preface by
Sully Prudhomme, 1896.