BALLADES AND RONDEAUS, CHANTS ROYAL, SESTINAS, VILLANELLES, &c.,
SELECTED BY GLEESON WHITE.
LONDON:
WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED,
PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
NEW YORK: 3 EAST FOURTEENTH STREET.
To
Robert Louis Stevenson.
_The crowning pleasure in the compilation of this book is the
permission to dedicate it to you, and this token of personal admiration
is not without special fitness, since you were among the earliest to
experiment in these French rhythms, and to introduce_ CHARLES D'ORLÉANS
_and_ FRANÇOIS VILLON _to the majority of English readers_.
_"Those old French ways of verse making that have been coming into
fashion of late. Surely they say a pretty thing more prettily for
their quaint old-fashioned liberty! That_ TRIOLET--_how deliciously
impertinent it is! is it not?... The variety of dainty modes wherein
by shape and sound a very pretty something is carved out of nothing at
all. Their fantastic surprises, the ring of their bell-like returns
upon themselves, their music of triangle and cymbal. In some of
them poetry seems to approach the nearest possible to bird-song--to
unconscious seeming through most unconscious art, imitating the
carelessness and impromptu of forms as old as the existence of birds,
and as new as every fresh individual joy in each new generation,
growing their own feathers, and singing their own song, yet always the
feathers of their kind, and the song of their kind."--_
"Home Again."--GEORGE MACDONALD.
INDEX.
_* An asterisk is attached to the titles of those not previously
published. Names of American Authors are in Italic type._
BALLADES
AUTHOR. TITLE. SOURCE. PAGE
_Adams, Oscar Fay_ 'Pipes of Pan' _American_ 3
ALLEN, GRANT 'Of Evolution' _Evolutionist at 4
Large_
ANONYMOUS 'Of Bothers' _Cambridge Meteor_ 6
BLACK, WILLIAM 'Of Solitude' _Longman's Mag._ 5
DICK, COTSFORD 'Of Belief' _The Model, etc._ 7
" 'Of Burial' " 8
DOBSON, AUSTIN 'Of the Spanish _Old World Idylls_ 9
Armada'
" 'On a Fan' " 10
" 'Of Imitation' " 11
" 'Of Prose and Rhyme' " 12
GOSSE, EDMUND 'Of Dead Cities' _New Poems_ 13
GRANT, JOHN CAMERON Ballade Songs of Sunny South 14
" 'Lilith' _A Year of Life_ 15
HENLEY, W. E. 'Of Antique Dances' _Belgravia_ 16
" 'Of Dead Actors' _Magazine of Art_ 17
" 'Of June' _Belgravia_ 18
" 'Of Ladies' Names' _The London_ 19
" 'Of Spring' " 20
" 'Midsummer Days' " 21
" 'Of Youth and Age' " 22
" 'Of Hot Weather' " 77
" 'Of Aspirations' " 78
" 'Of Truisms' " 79
" 'Of Life and Fate' " 80
" 'Of the Nothingness " 82
of Things'
JEWITT, W. H. Ballade _Romance of Love_ 23
LANG, ANDREW 'Gringoire' _New Quarterly Mag._ 24
" 'Valentine' _Waifs and Strays_ 25
" 'Of Primitive Man' _Ballades in Blue 26
China_
" 'Of Sleep' " 84
" 'Of Summer' _Rhymes a la mode_ 27
" 'Of Yule' " 28
" 'Of Middle Age' " 29
" 'For the Laureate' _Longman's Mag._ 30
" 'Of the Southern " 31
Cross'
LE GALLIENNE 'Of Old Sweethearts' _My Ladies' Sonnets_ 32
"Love in Idleness" Ballade 33
" 'Of Dead Thinkers' 34
MCCARTHY, JUSTIN H. 'Of Roses'* 35
_MacCulloch, Hunter_ 'Of Death' _From Dawn to Dusk_ 36
_Matthews, Brander_ 'Of Tobacco' _American_ 37
" 'Of Adaptation' " 38
" 'Of Midsummer' " 39
" 'Rain and Shine' _The Century_ 40
" 'An American Girl' " 41
MOORE, GEORGE 'Of Lovelace' _Pagan Poems_ 86
_Moran, John_ 'From Battle, Murder' _American_ 42
_Moulton, L. C._ 'In Winter' _The Century_ 43
NICHOLS, J. B. B. 'Of his Lady' _Longman's Magazine_ 44
F. S. P. 'Of Exmoor' _Waifs and Strays_ 45
PAYNE, JOHN 'Of Past Delights' _New Poems_ 46
" Ballad " 87
" 'Singers of the Time' " 88
_Peck, S. M._ 'The Pixies' _'Cap and Bells'_ 47
PFEIFFER, E. 'Of the Thuner-See' _Songs and Sonnets_ 48
PROBYN, MAY 'Grandmother' _Ballad of the Road_ 49
_Roberts, C. D. G._ 'Philomela' _In Divers Tones_ 50
" 'Calypso' " 51
ROBINSON, A. M. F. 'Of Forgotten Tunes' _An Italian Garden_ 52
" 'Of Lost Lovers' _Handful of 90
Honeysuckles_
" 'Of Heroes' " 91
ROPES, ARTHUR REED 'Of a Garden' _Poems_ 53
_Scollard, Clinton_ 'Of the Bard' _Pictures in Song_ 54
" 'Of Dead Poets' " 55
" 'To Villon' " 56
" 'The Blithe Ballade' _With Reed and Lyre_ 57
" 'O Lady Mine' " 58
" 'Ships of Tyre' " 59
SHARP, WILLIAM 'Of Vain Hopes'* 60
" 'Of the Sea-Wind'* 61
" 'Of the Sea-Folk'* 62
_Sherman, F. D._ 'To Austin Dobson' _Madrigals and 63
Catches_
" 'Of Rhyme' " 64
SWINBURNE, A. C. 'Of Dreamland' _Poems and Ballads, 65
2d Ser._
" 'Of François Villon' " 93
" Villon's Epitaph " 94
" 'Of Bath' _English Ill. Mag._ 95
" 'Of Sark' " 97
SYMONS, ARTHUR 'Of Kings' _Time_ 66
TOMSON, GRAHAM R. 'Of Acheron' _Longman's Mag._ 67
" 'Of Asphodel' " 68
" 'Of the Bourne' _Harper's Mag._ 69
" 'Of Fairy Gold'* 70
" 'Of Might-be'* 71
" 'Of the Optimist' _St. James' Gazette_ 72
WHEELER, MORTIMER 'Of Old Instruments' _Mag. of Music_ 73
" 'Of Sea-Music' " 74
WHITNEY, ERNEST 'Nightingale and 75
Lark'
WILTON, RICHARD 'Grandchildren at 76
Church'
CHANTS ROYAL.
DOBSON, AUSTIN 'The Dance of Death' _Old World Idylls_ 98
GOSSE, EDMUND 'The Praise of _New Poems_ 100
Dionysus'
PAYNE, JOHN 'The God of Love' _New Poems_ 102
PFEIFFER, E. 'Children of the _Gerard's Monument_ 104
Mist'
_Scollard, Clinton_ 'King Boreas' _Pictures in Song_ 106
WADDINGTON, S. 'The New Epiphany' _Sonnets, etc._ 108
_Whitney, E._ 'Glory of the Year' _The Century_ 110
KYRIELLES.
PAYNE, JOHN Kyrielle _New Poems_ 115
ROBINSON, A. M. F. 'The Pavilion' _An Italian Garden_ 116
_Scollard, Clinton_ Kyrielle _Pictures in Song_ 116
PANTOUMS.
DOBSON, AUSTIN 'In Town' _At the Sign of the 117
Lyre_
"Love in Idleness" 'Monologue d'outre 119
Tombe'
PAYNE, JOHN Pantoum Songs of 121
Life and Death
_Matthews, Brander_ 'En route' _The Century_ 124
_Scollard, Clinton_ 'Sultan's Garden' _Pictures in Song_ 126
RONDEAUX REDOUBLES.
MONKHOUSE, COSMO 'My Soul is Sick' 128
PAYNE, JOHN 'My Day and Night' _New Poems_ 129
_Scollard, Clinton_ 'Prayer of Dryope' _Pictures in Song_ 130
TOMSON, GRAHAM R. 'I will go hence'* 131
RONDELS.
_Bunner, H. C._ 'O Honey of Hymettus' _Airs from Arcady_ 135
" 'Ready for the Ride' _The Century_ 135
CRANE, WALTER Two Rondels 136
DABSON, AUSTIN 'The Wanderer' _Old World Idylls_ 137
_Fay, A. M._ Rondel 137
GOSSE, EDMUND " _New Poems_ 138
GRANT, J. C. " _Songs from the 138
Sunny South_
HENLEY, W. E. Four Variations _The London_ 139
" 'The Ways of Death' " 141
MCCARTHY, JUSTIN H. Rondel* 141
MACDONALD, GEORGE Two Rondels _A Threefold Cord_ 142
MOORE, GEORGE Two Rondels* 143
MONKHOUSE, COSMO 'To a Sheet of 144
Paper'*
PAYNE, JOHN 'Kiss me, Sweetheart' _New Poems_ 144
_Peck, S. M._ 'Before the Dawn' _Cap and Bells_ 145
PFEIFFER, EMILY Rondel 147
PROBYN, MAY " _Ballad of the Road_ 145
" Rondelets " 151
ROPES, A. REED Two Rondels _Poems_ 146
_Scollard, Clinton_ 'Come, Love' _With Reed and Lyre_ 147
" 'Upon the Stair' _Pictures in Song_ 148
" 'I Heard a Maid' " 148
_Sherman, F. D._ 'Valentine' " 149
WARING, C. H. 'Love's Captive' _Fun_ 149
" 'Love' " 150
WILTON, RICHARD Rondel Sungleams 150
" 'Benedicte' _Sunday at Home_ 151
RONDEAUS.
_Bates, Arlo_ 'Might Love be 152
Bought'*
" 'In Thy Clear Eyes'* 152
BELL, C. D. 'The Sweet Sad Years' _Songs in Many Keys_ 153
" 'A Wish' " 153
BOWEN, H. C. 'To a Doleful Poet' _Longman's Magazine_ 154
BRIDGES, ROBERT 'His Poisoned Shafts' _Poems_ 155
BULLOCH, J. M. 'To Homer'* 155
_Bunner, H. C._ 'September' _Airs from Arcady_ 156
" 'Les Morts vont vite' " 156
CRANE, WALTER 'In Love's Disport'* 157
" 'What makes the 157
World?'*
THE SICILIAN OCTAVE.
Two Examples by Dr. 132
RICHARD GARNETT
DOBSON, AUSTIN 'O fons Bandusiæ' _Old World Idylls_ 158
" 'On London Stones' " 158
" 'To Ethel' " 159
" 'With Pipe and Flute' " 160
" 'To a June Rose' _At the Sign of the 159
Lyre_
" 'In After Days' " 160
" 'In Vain To-day' " 161
" 'When Burbadge " 161
Played'
_Chew, Beverly_ 'Old Books' _New York Critic_ 162
GRANT, J. C. 'A Coward Still' _Songs of Sunny 162
South_
_Grant, Robert_ 'Rondeaux of Cities' _The Century_ 163-4
_Goodale, E._ 'Could She have " 165
Guessed'
GOSSE, EDMUND 'Fortunate Love' _On Viol and Flute_ 165-8
" 'If Love should _New Poems_ 168
Faint'
HENLEY, W. E. 'My Love to Me' _The London_ 169
" 'With Strawberries' " 169
" 'A Flirted Fan' " 170
" 'In Rotten Row' " 170
" 'The Leaves are Sere' " 171
" 'With a Fan' " 171
" 'If I were King' " 172
" 'The Gods are Dead' " 172
" 'Her Little Feet' " 173
" 'When you are Old'* " 173
_Levy, Nathan_ 'My Books' _American_ 174
"Love in Idleness" 'Most Sweet of All' 174
_Lüders, C. H._ 'The Redbreast' _Hallo, my fancy_ 175
" 'To Q. H. F.' " 175
MCCARTHY, JUSTIN H. 'Love in London '* " 176
MARTIN, ADA L. 'Sleep' _Cassell's Magazine_ 176
MARZIALS, THEO. 'To Tamaris' _Athenæum_ 177
" 'When I see you' " 177
" 'Carpe Diem' 178
_Matthews, Brander_ 'Old and New' _American_ 178
" 'Sub Rosa' _The Century_ 179
MONKHOUSE, COSMO 'Violet' _The Spectator_ 179
" 'O scorn me not'* 180
" 'Ten Thousand 180
Pounds'*
PAYNE, JOHN 'One of these days' _New Poems_ 181
" 'Life lapses by' " 181
_Peck, S. M._ 'Beyond the Night' _Cap and Bells_ 182
" 'Among my Books' " 182
PFEIFFER, E. 'I go my Gait' _Gerard's Monument_ 183
_Roberts, C. G. D._ 'Laurels for Song' _In Divers Tones_ 183
" 'Without one Kiss' _Orion_ 184
_Scollard, Clinton_ 'Vis Erotis' _With Reed and Lyre_ 184
" 'When Sirius Shines' " 185
" 'At Peep of Dawn' " 185
" 'In Greenwood Glen' _Pictures in Song_ 186
_Sherman, F. D._ 'Her China Cup' _Madrigals and 186
Catches_
" 'Behind her Fan' " 187
" 'Valentine' " 187
" 'When Twilight comes' " 188
" 'Come, Pan, and Pipe' " 188
" 'An Old Rondo' " 189
STERRY, J. ASHBY 'A Street Sketch' _The Lazy Minstrel_ 189
" 'Dover' " 190
" 'Homesick' " 190
TOMSON, GRAHAM R. 'In Beechen Shade'* 191
" 'The Gates of Horn'* 191
WADDINGTON, S. 'If Love be True' _Sonnets, etc._ 192
" 'The Coquette' " 192
WEATHERLY, G. 'Yes or No' _Cassell's Magazine_ 193
WILTON, REV. R. 'My Window Birds' _Sungleams_ 193
" 'Snowdrops and " 194
Aconites'
" 'Chiff-chaff's " 194
Message'
WRIGHT, ARTHUR G. 'When Summer Dies' _Time_ 195
" 'My Little 195
Sweetheart'*
ROUNDELS.
BLOMFIELD, D. F. Three Roundels _English Ill. Mag._ 196-7
SWINBURNE, A. C. 'A Singing Lesson' _Century of Roundels_ 197
" 'In Guernsey' " 198-9
" 'The Roundel' " 199
SAYLE, C. 'Nothing so Sweet' _Bertha, etc._ 200
" 'The Trysting-Tree' " 200
SYMONS, ARTHUR 'Of Rest'* 201
WADDINGTON, S. 'Mors et Vita'* 201
WELLER, BERNARD 'Rondels of _Home Chimes_ 202
Childhood'
SESTINAS.
_Byrne, F. M._ Sestina _American_ 205
_Coleman, C. W._ 'Love's Going' _Harper's Magazine_ 206
GOSSE, EDMUND Sestina _New Poems_ 207
ROBINSON, A. M. F. 'Pulvis et Umbra' _An Italian Song_ 209
_Scollard, C._ 'Cupid and the _Pictures in Song_ 210
Shepherd'
SWINBURNE, A. C. Sestina _Poems and Ballads 211
(2nd ser.)_
TRIOLETS.
ALEXANDER, GRIFFITH 'My Sweetheart' 215
BRIDGES, ROBERT Two Triolets _Poems_ 215
_Bates, Arlo_ Four Triolets* _American_ 216
_Bunner, H. C._ Triolet _The Century_ 217
CRANE, WALTER Triolet* 217
DICK, COTSFORD 'Triolets for the _The Model_ 218
Twelfth'
DOBSON, AUSTIN 'Rose-leaves' _Old World Idylls_ 219
" 'Oh, Love's but a " 220
Dance'
GOSSE, EDMUND 'After Catullus'* 221
HENLEY, W. E. Triolet _The London_ 221
_Learned, Walter_ " _American_ 221
MCCARTHY, JUSTIN H. Triolets* 222
_Lüders, C. H._ " _Hallo, my fancy_ 223
"Love in Idleness" Triolet 224
MACDONALD, GEORGE Triolets _A Threefold Cord_ 224-6
_Peck, S. M._ 'Under the Rose' _Cap and Bells_ 227
PFEIFFER, E. Triolet _Gerard's Monument_ 228
RADFORD, ERNEST Six Triolets _Measured Steps_229-30
_Robertson, Harrison_ Two Triolets _The Century_ 228
ROBINSON, A. M. F. 'From Fiametta' _Handful of 231
Honeysuckles_
_Scollard, Clinton_ 'A Snowflake' _With Reed and Lyre_ 233
STERRY, J. ASHBY 'A Tiny Trip' _The Lazy Minstrel_ 233
SYMONS, ARTHUR 'Vestigia' _Home Chimes_ 235
"The Century" Triolet 224
" 'Apology for gazing' 233
" 'Rejected' 238
TOMSON, GRAHAM R. Triolets* 236-8
WARING, C. H. 'A Pair of Gloves' _Fun_ 239
WEATHERLY, G. 'In the Orchard' _Cassell's Magazine_ 240
VILLANELLES.
BEVINGTON, L. S. 'Roses' _Key Notes_ 243
DICK, COTSFORD 'A Vacation _The Model_ 244
Villanelle'
DOBSON, AUSTIN 'Tu ne quaesieris' _Old World Idylls_ 245
" 'When I saw you " 246
last, Rose'
" 'Theocritus' " 247
" 'On a Nankin Plate' " 248
GOSSE, EDMUND Villanelle _New Poems_ 249
" 'Little Mistress " 250
mine'
HENLEY, W. E. 'Where's the use of _The London_ 251
sighing'
" 'The Villanelle' " 252
" 'In the Clatter of " 253
the Train'
LANG, ANDREW 'To M. Boulmier' _Ballades in Blue 254
China_
"Love in Idleness" 'To the Nightingale' 255
MONKHOUSE, COSMO 'Hetty'* 256
NOBLE, J. ASHCROFT 'Life' _Verses of a 257
Prose-Writer_
PAYNE, JOHN 'The Air is White' _New Poems_ 258
_Peck, S. M._ 'Bonnie Belle' _Cap and Bells_ 259
" 'If some true " 260
Maiden's'
PFEIFFER, E. 'When the brow of _Sonnets v. Songs_ 261
June'
" 'O Summer-time' " 262
PROBYN, MAY 'In every Sound' 263
" 'The Daffodils' _Ballad of the Road_ 264
_Scollard, Clinton_ 'To Helen' _With Reed and Lyre_ 265
" 'To the Daffodil' " 266
" 'Spring knocks' _Pictures in Song_ 267
STERRY, J. ASHBY 'Dot' 268
_Thomas, Edith W._ 'Across the World'* " 270
" 'Where are the _The Manhattan_ 271
Springs'
TOMSON, GRAHAM R. 'To Hesperus'* " 272
" 'I did not Dream'* 273
WADDINGTON, S. 'Come, to the Woods' _Sonnets, etc._ 274
WILDE, OSCAR 'Theocritus' _Poems_ 275
VIRELAI.
PAYNE, JOHN 'Spring's sadness' _New Poems_ 276
VIRELAI NOUVEAU.
DOBSON, AUSTIN 'July' _Evening Hours_ 279
BURLESQUES, ETC.
Anonymous 'Ballade of Old _The Century_ 285
Metres'
" 'Ballade of the " 287
Prodigals'
_Bunner, H. C._ 'On Newport Beach' " 290
(Rondeau)
" 'Ballade of Summer " 283
Boarder'
" Chant Royal, 'Mrs. " 294
Jones'
_Cranch, C. P._ 'Young Poet's Advice' _New York Critic_ 284
DOBSON, AUSTIN Villanelle _Walnuts and Wine_ 293
G. H. 'Malapropos' _The Lute_ 294
HENLEY, W. E. 'Villon's Straight 288
Tip'*
" 'Culture in the 290
Slums'
LANG, ANDREW 'Ballade of Cricket' _Rhymes a la mode_ 286
MOORE, A. M. 'Ballade of _Hood's Annual_ 289
Ballade-mongers'
PREFACE.
* * * * *
This anthology is chosen entirely from poems written in the traditional
fixed forms of the _ballade_, _chant royal_, _kyrielle_, _rondel_,
_rondeau_, _rondeau redoublé_, _sestina_, _triolet_, _villanelle_, and
_virelai_, with the addition of the _pantoum_. That such a choice is
the result of circumstances it is needless to point out, since only
those that had found favour with English writers were available for
the purpose. So far as I know, this collection is the first of its
sort, although Mr. W. Davenport Adams' _Latter Day Lyrics_ included a
section chosen on the same lines. Having, in company, no doubt, with
many others, a genuine regard for the group Mr. Adams included there,
I had long hoped to see a more ample compilation of later work in
this school; but notwithstanding the steady increase in the number of
poems written in the forms systematically arranged herein, the ground
remained unoccupied, until the appearance of this book; which may
fairly claim to be the first in the field, since no other volume has
devoted its whole space to them, save in the rarer cases, where an
author has published a collection of original poems cast in one mould,
notably Mr. Swinburne's _Century of Roundels_ and Mr. Andrew Lang's
_Ballades in Blue China_.
In Mr. Adams' volume another valuable feature was the _Note on some
Foreign forms of Verse_ by Mr. Austin Dobson, which many years since
introduced to me the laws of the various forms and created my special
interest in them. It is no derogation to the charming group in the
former volume to say of the present collection, that it far exceeds its
predecessor in number and variety, for now there is a wide field to
choose from, whereas Mr. Adams was then limited to a selection from the
small number extant.
The rules which Mr. Austin Dobson was the first to formulate in English
are made the basis (side by side with the treatises of M. de Gramont,
M. de Banville, and other authorities) of the following chapter on the
rules of the various forms. Lest a name so intimately associated with
the introduction of the old French metrical shapes in English poetry
should appear to be brought in to add weight to my own attempt, and
the reputation of a master invoked for the work of one who at furthest
can but style himself an apprentice, I must ask that this necessary
tribute to Mr. Dobson's labours be taken only as an apology for so
freely using his material, and that his ready help is by no means to
be regarded in the faintest way as an imprimatur of any statements in
this prefatory matter, save those quoted avowedly and directly from his
writings.
It may be best to name at once the authorities who have been consulted
in the preparation of the introductory chapter. These include the
French treatises of De Banville, De Gramont, and Jullienne, Mr.
Saintsbury's _Short History of French Literature_, Mr. Hueffers'
_Troubadours_, an article by Mr. Gosse in the _Cornhill Magazine_,
July 1877, _Les Villanelles_ by M. Joseph Boulmier, _The Rhymester_ of
Mr. Brander Matthews, and many occasional papers on the various forms
that have appeared in English and American periodicals. To arrange in
one chapter the materials gathered from these and other sources is all
that I have attempted. If at times the need to crowd enough matter for
a volume into the limits of a few pages results in a want of lucidity,
I must plead the necessity imposed by limited space. To those who, by
their kindly permission, have allowed their poems to be quoted here,
the thanks that I can offer are as hearty as the expression of my
gratitude is brief. The somewhat onerous task of obtaining consent
from about two hundred authors has been turned to a pleasure, by the
evidence of interest taken in this, the first collection of the later
growth of this branch of poetic art. Nor did the help cease with the
loan of the poems; in many instances a correspondence followed that
brought to light fresh material, both for the body of the book and the
introductory chapter, and rendered assistance not easy to overvalue.
If any writer is quoted without direct permission, it was through
no want of effort to trace him, excepting in the case of a very few
that reached me in the shape of newspaper cuttings, wholly devoid of
any clue to the locality of the writer. To Mr. Austin Dobson my best
thanks are due. From Mr. Andrew Lang and Mr. Edmund Gosse I have also
appropriated material, acknowledged as often as practicable; also to
my friend, Mr. A. G. Wright, for invaluable help during the rather
monotonous task of hunting up and copying at the reading-room of the
British Museum; and to Mr. William Sharp, whose critical advice and
generous encouragement throughout have left a debt of gratitude beyond
payment.
In a society paper, _The London_, a brilliant series of these poems
appeared during 1877-8. After a selection was made for this volume, it
was discovered that they were all by _one_ author, Mr. W. E. Henley,
who most generously permitted the whole of those chosen to appear,
and to be for the first time publicly attributed to him. The poems
themselves need no apology, but in the face of so many from his pen,
it is only right to explain the reason for the inclusion of so large a
number.
From America Mr. Brander Matthews and Mr. Clinton Scollard have shown
sympathy with the collection, not only by permitting their works to
be cited, but also by calling my attention to poems by authors almost
unknown in England; while all those writers who in the new world are
using the old shapes with a peculiar freshness and vigour, gave ready
assent to the demand.
To Messrs. Cassell & Co., for allowing poems that appeared in
_Cassell's Family Magazine_ (those by Miss Ada Louise Martin and Mr.
G. Weatherley); to Messrs. Longman, for liberty to quote freely from
the many graceful examples that appeared in _Longman's Magazine_; to
Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., for endorsing Mr. Andrew Lang's
permission to include specimens from _Rhymes à la Mode_ and _Ballades
in Blue China_, the utmost thanks are due for the courtesy shown;
also to the proprietors of the _Century Magazine_, where so many of
the American poems (many since collected by the authors in their own
volumes) first appeared; and to Messrs Harper for permission to use
Mr. Coleman's _Sestina_, and Mr. Graham R. Tomson's _Ballade of the
Bourne_, which first appeared in their popular monthly. The poems that
are cited by the courtesy of Mr. John Payne appear respectively in
_Songs of Life and Death_ (W. H. Allen & Co.), _New Poems_ (ditto), and
_Poems by François Villon_ (Reeves & Turner), now out of print.
Having named so many who have lent aid, it is but fair to exonerate
them from any blame for errors that, no doubt, in spite of the utmost
care, may have crept in. In view of a later edition, I should be
glad to be informed of any additional data of the use of the forms
in English verse, which, if quoted, would add to the value of the
collection, or to have any erroneous statements corrected.
Notwithstanding the many shortcomings of my own share in the production
of this volume, I cannot doubt but that the charm of the poems
themselves will endear it to readers; and as a lover of the "Gallic
bonds," I venture to hope it may do some little towards their complete
naturalisation in our tongue.
GLEESON WHITE.
_August 1887._
NOTES
ON THE EARLY USE OF THE
VARIOUS FORMS.
SOME NOTES ON THE EARLY USE OF THE VARIOUS FORMS, AND RULES FOR THEIR
CONSTRUCTION.
In the limited space available, it is hardly possible to give more than
a very crude sketch of the origin of these forms; but some reference
to early Provençal literature is inevitable, since the nucleus of
not a few of them can be traced among the intricate rhyming of the
Troubadours. Yet it would be beyond the purpose to go minutely into the
enticing history of that remarkable period, nor is it needful to raise
disputed questions regarding the origin of each particular fashion. The
number of books on Provençal subjects is great, the mere enumeration
of the names of those in the library of the British Museum would fill
several pages. The language itself has a fascination which allures
many to disaster, for as Mr. Hueffer points out, it "looks at first
sight so like the Latin and more familiar Romance languages that it
offers special temptations" to guess at its meaning, with very doubtful
success.
The term Provençal is usually applied to a dialect more correctly
known as "the Langue d'Oc, which, with the Langue d'Oil, forms the two
divisions of the Romance language spoken in the country we now know as
France;" but Mr. Saintsbury remarks that, strictly speaking, the Langue
d'Oc should not be called "French" at all, since it is hardly more akin
to the Langue d'Oil than it is to Spanish and Italian, and that those
who spoke it applied the term "French" to northern speech, calling
their own Limousin, or Provençal, or Auvergnat. The limits where it
prevailed extended far beyond Provence itself. Authorities differ
with regard to the exact boundaries. It will suffice for the present
purpose to take those Mr. Hueffer adopts--namely, the district within a
boundary formed by a line drawn from the mouth of the Gironde to that
of the Saone, in the north, while the southern limit includes parts of
Spain, such as Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, and the Balearic Islands.
Herr Karl Bartsch, the eminent historian of Provençal literature,
divides it into three periods:--the first, to the end of the eleventh
century; the second, which is the one that marks the most flourishing
time of the poetry of the Troubadours, extending over the twelfth and
thirteenth; and the third period--of its decadence--in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries. To this may be added the attempt to revive
it in our own day, by the school of the so-called _Félibres_,
including Mistral, Aubanel, Alphonse Daudet, and others, who have
worked vigorously, and with no mean success, to produce a modern
literature in the old dialect, worthy of its former dignity. In this
preface it is impossible to mention any part of the prose of this
marvellous literature, which sprang almost suddenly into a gigantic
growth, that has been a fruitful theme for wonder and admiration ever
since, and left its influence widely felt. The point that is to the
purpose here, concerns the invention by the Provençal poets of many
set forms of verse, some few of which are still written, but most
so altered and renewed by later use, that their original character
is well-nigh obscured. The forms included in this book are often
erroneously attributed _en masse_ to the _jongleurs_ of Provence, yet
few assumptions are less true. Altered by the Trouvères, the fifteenth
century poets, the Ronsardists, and later writers, it is safer to
assign to the Troubadours only the germs which evolved gradually into
their now matured forms. To linger over the extraordinary period is
a temptation hard to dismiss; the very name still has a flavour of
romance, and brings a curious medley of images to the mind when it is
heard, many perhaps as far from the actual Provençal Troubadour as
_Nanki-Poo_ in the "_Mikado_" is from the wandering minstrel of the
court of King Thibaut. Of the Troubadours who have come down to fame,
four hundred and sixty are recorded by name, besides two hundred and
fifty-one pieces that have survived without evidence of their authors.
King Richard I. (our own Coeur de Lion), Guillem de Cabestanh, Peire
Vidal, Bertran de Born, The Monk of Montaudon, and many others, have
biographical sketches of exceeding interest allotted to them in Mr.
Hueffer's "The Troubadours." A halo of romance has gathered round
their names, and thrown a glamour over the record of their lives; to
read their history is to be transported to a region where all topics
but love and song are deemed unimportant trifles, unless the old
chroniclers are singularly untruthful in their statements. We know
now-a-days many a young poet's crushed life appears only in his verses,
and outside those he appears but an average Philistine to vulgar eyes.
Perhaps the "land of the nightingale and rose" was not so idyllic as
its historians paint it; but with every deduction, there yet remains
evidence of an exceptional importance attached to the arts, more
especially to that of song. To those who wrote, or rather sang, witty
impromptus (made often, we can but fancy, with much labour beforehand),
or produced dainty conceits in elaborate rhymes and rhythms, when
sound came perilously near triumphing over sense, a welcome was
extended, as widespread and far more personal in its application than
even that accorded to our modern substitute for the troubadour--the
popular novelist. The doings of the Courts of Love, set down in sober
chronicles, are hardly less fantastic than Mr. Gilbert's ingenious
operas. Matters of the most sentimental and amorous character were
debated in public, with all the earnestness of a question of state.
That their poetry was singularly limited in its character there is
little doubt, but Mr. Hueffer declares that it had its serious side,
often lost sight of, and that no small portion was devoted to stately
and dignified subjects. Mr. Lowell, on the other hand, in an essay on
Chaucer in _My Study Windows_, says--
"Their poetry is purely lyric in its most narrow sense, that is,
the expression of personal and momentary moods. To the fancy of
the critics who take their cue from tradition, Provence is a
morning sky of early summer, out of which innumerable larks rain a
faint melody (the sweeter because rather half divined than heard
too distinctly) over an earth where the dew never dries and the
flowers never fade. But when we open Raynouard it is like opening
the door of an aviary. We are deafened and confused by a hundred
minstrels singing the same song at once, and more than suspect the
flowers they welcome are made of French cambric, spangled with
dewdrops of prevaricating glass."
The forms in which the Provençal poets wrote were chiefly these:--The
oldest was called _vers_, and consisted of octosyllabic lines arranged
in stanzas; from this grew the _canzo_, with interlaced rhymes--later
on with the distinctive feature still prominent in French, but
unknown in English poetry, the rhymes _masculine_ and _feminine_.
The _canzo_ was used entirely for subjects of love and gallantry,
but the _sirvente_, composed of short stanzas, simply rhyming, and
corresponding one to the other, was employed for political and social
subjects, sometimes treated seriously, at others satirically. The
_tenso_ was a curious trial of skill in impromptu versification. Two
antagonists met and agreed that the one should reply on the opposite
side to any argument the first might select. The opening stanza,
chosen at will by the speaker, was imitated in the reply, both in
observance of its rhyme and rhythm, the same rhyme-sound being often
kept throughout the whole poem. It must not be forgotten that the
Langue d'Oc was singularly fertile in rhymes, so that the feat was less
arduous than it would be in other tongues. The _alba_, a farewell at
morning, and the _serena_, or evening song, the _pastorella_, devoted,
as its name implies, to pastoral subjects, appear to govern the themes
of the verses rather than the form. There is record, however, of the
_breu-doble_ (double short), invented by Guirant Riquier, a little
form with three rhymes, two of which are repeated twice in three
four-lined stanzas, and given once in a concluding couplet, while the
third finished each quatrain. The _retroensa_ is noticeable for its
refrain of more than one line. The sonnet has ceased to be claimed
as a Provençal invention, yet it must be noted, as at one time its
origin there was a favourite theory. The _ballade_, "a song serving
to accompany the dance," must not be confused with the later ballade;
and lastly, the greatest in most respects, the _sestina_, which, as
it occurs among the poems noticed technically later on, need not be
further mentioned here.
"The artificial verse-forms of Provence include some as peculiar and
arbitrary as ever issued from the brain of Persian poet--verse-forms
by the side of which the metrical glitter of _ballade_, _chant royal_,
_rondeau_, _rondel_, _triolet_, _virelai_ and _villanelle_ must pale,"
says a writer in the _Westminster Review_ (October 1878), and instances
the _tenso_ and the _sestina_ in proof of his assertion. Mr. Hueffer
also treats the _chant royal_ as mere child's play beside the intricate
feats displayed by the Troubadours. The above short list shows many
examples of forms using the refrain and some other features preserved
in Northern poetry; but the debt owed by the North to the Troubadours
is far less, according to later writers, than that assigned to
Provençal influence some few years ago. Mr. Saintsbury says that "poems
called _rondeaux_ and _ballades_, of loose construction and undecided
form, began to make their appearance at the end of the twelfth and
beginning of the thirteenth century," but the forms as we know them
owe their present shape to their reformation in Northern France,
culminating in the poems of Charles d'Orléans and François Villon.
In this revival, the _lai_ and _pastourelle_ kept their Provençal
titles, but were made much more exact in form, and never attained the
widespread celebrity of the newer shapes, which are to all intents and
purposes the models for the forms in this volume, save the _sestina_,
which is practically an Italian, and the _pantoum_, an Eastern form.
There is no space here to notice more than the names of a few of even
the most prominent of the poets who succeeded the Provençal singers
in their use of these forms. There are thousands of ballades in MSS.
in the Royal French Library, by known and unknown writers. Eustache
Deschamps (1328-1415), a friend of Chaucer's, "has left no less than
1175 ballades. Rondeaus, virelais, etc., also proceeded in great
numbers from his pen; also an important _Art of Poetry_, a treatise
rendered at once necessary and popular by the fashion of artificial
rhyming."[1] Some of the earliest ballades and rondel-triolets bear the
name of Jehan Froissart (1337-1410), the chronicler. Messire Guy de
la Tremouille, according to Mr. Gosse, is supposed to have been the
first to devise the elaborate rules of construction of the ballade,
which have been in force ever since. He was guard of the Oriflamme in
1383, and died in 1398; but Deschamps is more often credited with the
honour. That he cultivated the form we know, besides writing an "Art of
making Chansons, Ballades, Virelais, and Rondels," which is a valuable
relic of his time. Jehannot de Lescurel, "of whom absolutely nothing
is known, has left sixteen ballades, fifteen rondeaus (not in regular
form), and other pieces, said to be 'of singular grace, lightness, and
elegance.'"
[1] See Saintsbury's _Short History of French Literature_, p. 103.
Guillaume de Machault (1284-1377) was also a voluminous writer. One of
his poems, a _chanson balladée_, is printed in Mr. Saintsbury's _Short
History of French Literature_, which contains also a _Ballade_ by Alain
Chartier (1390-1458), the hero of the famous story of the kiss of Queen
Margaret of Scotland, and other specimens of this period, in a succinct
and trustworthy account of the growth of French poetry, surpassed by no
book in our own language.
Charles d'Orléans (1391-1466), noticed among the English writers,
is specially honoured as the master of the rondel; while François
Villon (1431-1485) stands out as the "prince of all ballade-makers."
For brief, but splendid sketches of these two, Mr. R. L. Stevenson's
_Familiar Studies of Men and Books_ should be consulted, while for
more prosaic description there is no lack of data. Since the revival
of interest in Villon, France has done tardy but unstinted honour to
her most famous poet, as it is the fashion just now to style him, but
there is a doubt whether the praise given is not in danger of being
exaggerated. Yet, making all allowances, there is vital humanity in his
wondrous writings, that now, after four hundred years, read as living
and modern in their presentation of life, as though they were by a
realist of our own day. In Villon, student, poet, housebreaker, we
find the forerunner of the Zola of to-day--one who, in so eminently an
artificial form as the ballade, cast aside all conventional restraints,
and sang of what he saw and knew. It is much to be regretted that
space forbids more translations of his poems to be included in this
collection. For those who wish to tackle him in his old, and by no
means easy, French, a good edition is published for a franc, in the
_Collection Jannet-Picard (Paris)_. Mr. Payne has translated the whole
of his authentic works into English in a volume, at present out of
print, which contains also a very graphic and full biography of this
remarkable man. Space forbids insertion of the sketch of his life
prepared for this chapter. Born in 1431, student 1448, B.A. in 1452,
writing his _Lesser Testament_ in 1446, his _Greater Testament_ in
1461; in those few years he contrived to win more fame, and, to speak
truly, more infamy, than a whole generation of lesser poets. He was
condemned to die--he wrote his marvellous _Ballade of the Gibbet_ while
lying under sentence of death--but escaped. Where he died is unknown,
the date of his _Greater Testament_ being the last record of Master
François Villon of Paris.
In 1493 appeared _L'art et science de rhéthorique pour faire rigmes et
ballades_, by Henry de Croï--an invaluable treatise on French Poetics.
The works of Pierre Gringoire (1478-1544) must be named, if only for
the fact of De Banville's splendid ballade in his comedy "Gringoire,"
founded on an incident in the poet's life. By Mr. Lang's permission a
translation is quoted in the body of this volume. Mr. John Payne also
englished it, in the _Dublin University Magazine_, 1879. The works of
Clement Marot (1497-1544) demand special note, since his _ballades_ and
_chants royaux_ are now accepted as the ideal models for imitation.
In his _Art Poëtique_, 1555, Thomas Sibilet reviews many of the
former writers, and gives the rules of the poetry then in force.
Immediately after this date came another change; with the famous
school of Ronsard (1524-1585) and the _Pléiade_, as they are styled,
one of whom, however, Du Bellay, was eager to abolish the _ballade_
and _chant royal_ in favour of the _sonnet_. The members of this group
produced some notable work in strict forms. Among the Ronsardists we
find Grévin the dramatist, who wrote some graceful poems which he
called _Villanesques_--a modified form of the _Villanelle_--and Jean
Passerat (1534-1602) who is specially noteworthy, since in his hand the
_Villanelle_ crystallised into its present shape, Joseph Boulmier, in
the last revival, making this form his special study, and writing all
his verses after Passerat's model given elsewhere in this volume.
The rondeau was revived in great splendour in the middle of the
seventeenth century. Foremost among the brilliant group is Voiture
(1598-1648), the acknowledged master of this form. Only thirty of
his rondeaus are left, but each one of these is a masterpiece, and
may be studied for all the subtle devices and dainty inventions that
the form has yet yielded. Benserade (1612-1691) and Sarrasin were
also famous for rondeau-making, the former translating the whole of
Ovid's _Metamorphoses_ into rondeaus, which were sumptuously printed
at the King's Press at a cost of 10,000 francs. When Voiture died in
1648, it is curious to note that Sarrasin wrote a "pompous funereal
poem--possibly the most funny serious elegy ever composed--in which,
among other strange mourners, he makes the 'poor little triolet,' all
in tears, trot by the side of the dead poet," who, according to Mr.
Gosse, from whom the above paragraph is quoted, had never written one
in his life. Sarrasin also left a curious specimen of the _Glose_,
written on the famous Sonnet "de IOB" by Benserade. In 1649 Gérard de
Saint Amant wrote a volume of sixty-four triolets. From the seventeenth
to the nineteenth century no important examples occur. About thirty
years ago De Banville revived these old shapes, and initiated a
movement that Daudet, Glatigny, Boulmier, and a host of others have
helped forward, so that now modern French literature is flooded with
examples of the forms-the ballade, rondeau, and triolet being the most
widely used.
Having imperfectly followed the growth of the forms in France, it
will be interesting to give a few notes of the various attempts made
to acclimatise some in England. Although no effort previous to 1873
warrants us in claiming an English pedigree for them, yet it is
curious to see how often the attempt was made to write them in our own
tongue. The sonnet gradually grew into use, until it became as little
an exotic as the potato, to employ an uncouth simile; the ballade and
rondeau--hardly more formal in their rules, and with susceptibilities
of infinite grace and beauty--failed to be even residents amongst
us, much less naturalised subjects, sharing the rights and duties of
citizens. Chaucer is believed to have used these forms, as in "The
Legend of Good Women" he says, speaking of himself--
"Many a himpne for your holy daies
That highten balades, roundels, virelaies."
His "Balade de Vilage sauns Peynture," however, does not correspond
with the accepted form. Mr. Gosse says that the Chaucer of 1651
contains a number of poems attributed to himself and Lydgate "which
are merely pieces in rhyme-royal, so arranged as to imitate the French
ballade: without its severity of form."
The following is a roundel attributed to Chaucer:--
I.-BURDEN.
So hath your beauty fro your hertè chased
Pitee, that mee availeth not to pleyne;
For daunger[2] halt your mercy in his cheyne.
II.
Giltles my deth thus have ye purchased,
I sey you soth, me nedeth not to fayne;
So hath, etc.
III.
Alas, that Nature hath in you compassed
So grete beaute, that no man may atteyne
To mercy, though he stewe[3] for the peyne.
So hath, etc.
[2] Dominion, power.
[3] Sterve.
This is given in Furnival's _Trial-Forewords to Chaucer's Minor Poems_,
and is especially interesting in connection with the history of the
forms in English use.
Of his immediate followers, Lydgate, a monk of Bury, author of _London
Lyckpenny_, is said by Guest to have written a "roundle," and one by
Thomas Occleve is printed in Morley's _Shorter English Poems_.
John Gower (1340-1408), author of _Confessio Amantis_, at the
coronation of Henry IV. presented the king with a collection of fifty
_Ballades_, written in the Provençal manner, "to entertain his noble
court." The thin oblong MS., on vellum, which contains them is still
extant in the Marquis of Stafford's library at Trentham, and in 1818 it
was printed for the Roxburghe Club; but as the poems are unfortunately
written in French, they do not assist in supporting a claim for the
early use of the form in England. Professor Henry Morley has translated
one for his _English Writers_; it follows the rhymes accurately, but
has a somewhat trite subject. A critic has well said of it, that the
poets of Gowers's day "were not burdened with solving 'the riddle of
the painful earth.' It may be that a good deal of their guileless
delight in things fresh and young was feigned, but then so is much
of our more pretentious philosophy." From its special interest it is
quoted here--
Winter departs, and comes the flowery May,
And round from cold to heat the seasons fly;
The bird that to its nest had lost the way
Rebuilds it that he may rejoice thereby.
Like change in my love's world I now descry,
With such a hope I comfort myself here,
And you, my lady, on this truth rely:
When grief departs the coming joys are near.
My lady sweet, by that which now I say
You may discover how my heart leaps high,
That serves you, and has served you many a day,
As it will serve you daily till I die.
Remember, then, my lady, knowing why,
That my desire for you will never veer
As God wills that it be, so be our tie:
When grief departs the coming joys are near.
The day that news of you came where I lay,
It seem'd there was no grief could make me sigh;
Wherefore of you, dear lady mine, I pray
By your own message--when you will, not I--
Send me what you think best as a reply
Wherewith my heart can keep itself from fear;
And, lady, search the reason of my cry--
When grief departs the coming joys are near.
_Envoy._
O noble Dame, to you this note shall hie,
And when God wills I follow to my dear.
This writing speaks, and says, till I am by,
When grief departs the coming joys are near.
John Shirley, who lived about 1440, made a collection of _Ballades_,
_Roundels_, _Virelais_, and Tragedies, in MSS., which are still
extant in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. After noticing Gower, who
wrote ballades in French, Charles d'Orléans, who wrote rondels in
English, comes as another instance of the early use, but again as a
mere exception, since the accident which led both writers to adopt
exotic forms is outside the history of our native poetry, and cannot
be brought forward to prove their early naturalisation. Of Charles
d'Orléans much might be said worth saying, but there are so many
sources of information open, that here we need note only the poems
written during his captivity. He is said to have been our prisoner for
about twenty-five years, and during that time to have acquired a taste
for our language. The Abbé Sallier, who unearthed the manuscript of
his poems in the Royal Library at Paris during the last century, says
he wrote but two in English; but in the MS. at the British Museum,
the Rev. H. F. Cary, the translator of Dante, found three, quoted in
his _Early French Poets_ (Bohn, 1846). The editor of that volume, the
Rev. Henry Cary, son of the author, mentions in a footnote a large
collection among the Harleian MSS., attributed to Charles d'Orléans,
but throws doubt on their being more than translations. Into this
question there is no space to enter. These are the three from Cary's
book:--
Go forth, my hert, with my lady;
Loke that ye spar no bysines
To serve her with such lolyness
That ye gette her oftyme prively
That she kepe truly her promes.
Go forth, etc.
I must, as a helis-body,[4]
Abyde alone in hevynes;
And ye that dwell with your mastris
In plaisaunce glad and mery,
Go forth, etc.
* * * * *
My hertly love is in your governas,
And ever shall whill that I live may.
I pray to God I may see that day
That ye be knyt with trouthful alyans.
Ye shall not fynd feyning or variaunce
As in my part; that wyl I truly say.
My hertly, etc.
* * * * *
Bewere, my trewe innocent hert,
How ye hold with her aliauns,
That somtym with word of plesuns
Resceyved you under covert.
Thynke how the stroke of love comsmert[5]
Without warnyng or deffiauns.
Bewere, my, etc.
And ye shall pryvely or appert
See her by me in loves dauns,
With her faire femenyn contenauns
Ye shall never fro her astert.
Bewere, my, etc.
[4] _Helis-body_--One deprived of health or happiness.
[5] _Comsmert_--Can smart, or comes smart.
Spenser (1553-1599) is said (but I cannot trace the authority) to have
used some of these forms. Again, Sir Philip Sidney's (1554-1586) famous
ditty, "My true love hath my heart," recalls the rondel, but cannot
claim to be one. Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649) has a fine sestina
(too long for quotation), "Sith gone is my delight and only pleasure."
_The Trivial Poems, and Triolets_ of Patrick Carey deserve mention.
This volume was unknown until the beginning of the present century,
although dated Warnefurd, 1651. The poems were brought into notice by
Sir Walter Scott, who obtained the MSS. from John Murray, and after
inserting a few in the _Edinburgh Annual Register_, 1810, published the
whole for the first time in 1819. The following specimen is taken from
Scott's reprint, p. 43:--
Worldly designes, feares, hopes, farwell!
Farwell all earthly joyes and cares!
On nobler thoughts my soule shall dwell
Worldly designes, feares, hopes, farwell!
Att quiett, in my peacefull cell,
I'le thincke on God, free from your snares;
Worldly designes, feares, hopes, farwell!
Farwell all earthly joyes and cares.
In the _Athenæum_, May 7, 1887, is a long article on Carey, signed C.
F. S. Warner, M. A. Charles Cotton, the friend of Izaak Walton, wrote
a rondeau, "a very ungallant example," cited in Dr. Guests' _History
of English Rhythms_. There is also one unquotable, by reason of its
subject, among the correspondence of Alexander Pope (1688-1744), and
in the _Rolliad_, 1784, a volume of satires in prose and verse, that
enjoyed a great popularity for a time, there is a set of five rondeaus,
written in pure form after the Voiture model. They satirise North,
Eden, Pitt, and Dorset, and are perfect in construction, and vigorous
in their ridicule. The popularity of these effusions led to many
imitations in the periodical prints at the beginning of this century,
few, however, of sufficient merit to be worth reviving. By the courtesy
of Mr. Austin Dobson, the owner, I am able to extract a specimen from a
scarce and little-known book, entitled _Rondeaulx; translated from the
Black Letter French Edition of 1527, by J. R. Best, Esq._;--
#Rondeaulx en Nombre trois cens cinquante.#
#Singuliers et a tous propos. Nouvellement#
#Imprimez a Paris. Avec Privelege#
#On les vend en la grant salle du palays au#
#Premier pillier en la boutique de Galliot du#
#Pre marchaut librarie jure de L'universite.#
The dedication to Robert Studley Vidal, Esq., is dated 1838. The first
poem is preceded by a quaint apology, that unfortunately is too long
to quote, but the rondeau itself, if its rhythm is faulty and its
language ungraceful, shows that the original had sterling advice to
offer, and that the translator was not ignorant of the true rules of
the form.
UNG BON RONDEAU
A good rondeau I was induced to show
To some fair ladies some short while ago;
Well knowing their ability and taste,
I asked, should ought be added or effac'd,
And prayed that every fault they'd make me know
The first did her most anxious care bestow
To impress one point from which I ne'er should go:
"Upon a good beginning must be based
A good rondeau."