rondeau, and not a distinct form, is grouped apart in this collection
for the sake of convenience. Since Mr. Swinburne devoted a volume,
entitled _A Century of Roundels_, to this particular form of the
rondeau, it has been used by other writers, and the name applied by
him has been kept by those who chose to follow the same form. Probably
Mr. Swinburne, during his readings in early French poetry, found poems
of this shape extant, or it may be that, for reasons of his own, he
formulated this variety, which slightly differs from any I have been
able to find. In Marot's _De l'Amoureux Ardant_ there is a likeness to
this shape, and in Villon's _Mort_ there is also a resemblance, but Mr.
Swinburne's roundel has eleven lines always, while Villon's has twelve,
rhyming a.b.b. a.a.b. refrain, a.b.b.a. refrain. Again, Mr. Swinburne's
roundel not only has a new rhyme order, A.B.A. refrain; B.A.B.; A.B.A.
refrain; but when the refrain consists of more than a single word it
rhymes with the B lines. The rhythm, too, of Mr. Swinburne's are in
every possible and--in any hands but his--impossible variety. The lines
vary from four to sixteen syllables, but are generally identical in
length in the same roundel. As an experiment in rhythm the _Century
of Roundels_ will, no doubt, always command attention, and there are
not wanting signs that his _Roundel_, keeping its length and other
details, may become a recognised shape in English verse; but it must
be distinctly understood that Mr. Swinburne is responsible for its
introduction, and to him, not to the early French poets, must be
awarded the honour of its invention, unless he himself refers it to an
earlier source for its authority; but it may be that with admiration
for the old shapes, he yet saw that for English use a variation was
preferable, and so rearranged the lines and the refrain of the olden
form in the way he considered best suited to our tongue.
The _Rondelet_ is a little form not noticed in De Gramont or De
Banville. Boulmier has printed several in his "Poésies en language du
XVe. Siècle" at the end of his volume, entitled _Les Villanelles_. Here
is one.
François Villon,
Sur tous rithmeurs, à qui qu'en poise,
François Villon
Du mieulx disant eut le guerdon
Né de Paris empres Pontoise
Il ne féit oncq vers à la toise
François Villon.
Here we find he adopts a seven-line stanza with four eight-syllable
lines, and three of four syllables on two rhymes, a, b, a, a, b, b,
a. While strongly resembling the triolet and the early rondel, it yet
seems worth noting as a pretty variety for trifling subjects. There are
several in English verse.
The RONDEAU REDOUBLÉ would fail to suggest kinship with either form
of the Rondeau, did not it include the name in its designation, as
De Banville notes. It is probable that many more poems were grouped
under the word Rondeau than we now are able to trace. The one we are
now describing is in no way a doubled rondeau, and hardly suggests
that form more than any of these that have the features of limited
rhyme sounds, and more or less frequent reiteration of a refrain. The
Rondeau Redoublé is written in six octosyllabic quatrains, rhyming on
two alternate rhymes, with half the initial line used (unrhymed) after
the last verse. Its one distinctive feature is this:--Each line of the
first quatrain is used again in the same order to serve for the last
line of verses two, three, four, and five; while the last line of the
sixth has a new wording for itself, but takes, in addition, a final
refrain of the first half of the initial line of the poem to conclude
the whole. As the rhymes of the first quatrain are a. b. a. b., it must
necessarily--to use as refrain the first line rhyming on _a_--reverse
the order for the second verse, which is therefore b. a. b. a., and so
on alternately until the end of the rondeau redoublé. Specimens of its
use are extant by Marot, La Fontaine, Benserade, and others, while
in modern French it is not infrequent, but in English it is rare. The
examples quoted in this book comprise all that diligent search could
discover except one of too fugitive a character to reprint. As the
poems written in this form in English show the rules of the verse as
plainly as the original French, it has not been thought needful to
quote one in its native tongue, especially as De Gramont, De Banville,
and Jullien reprint specimens in their handbooks. A form so simple
that, if well wrought, and the refrain brought in with skill, it can be
read in a casual way, without discovering that it was written to exact
rules, deserves more use. The disposition of the subject is excellently
laid out; a "text," four "divisions," and "in conclusion," with the
text repeated, is a method so familiar to Englishmen on Sundays that
the order for variations on the initial theme is peculiarly easy: nor
need the result be the least like a sermon, although this description
of its shape is suggestive of one.
Another form, the GLOSE, resembles the Rondeau Redoublé in many ways;
indeed, it may be almost looked upon as a freer form of that poem.
It appears, however, to be of distinct origin, and very rare in
French poetry, although much used in Spanish and Portuguese verse. It
begins, like the Rondeau Redoublé, with a quatrain, here called the
_texte_;--this is usually a quotation from a former poet. This text
the Glose proceeds to comment on, or amplify, in four stanzas of ten
lines, closing each as in the rondeau redoublé, with one of the lines
of the text in the original order; but the necessity for restricting
the rhymes to two is not observed here. Each stanza has the sixth,
ninth, and tenth (the refrain) line, rhyming on the same sound, but
the others appear to be chosen at the fancy of the writer, while the
final refrain of the rondeau redoublé is also wanting in the glose.
First employed solely for serious themes of religion or philosophy, it
is now in France, like the once sacred triolet, devoted to parody and
the lightest forms of humour. Owing to the impossibility of collating
the mass of periodical literature of the last ten or fifteen years, it
would be rash to say that the _glose_ has never appeared in English,
but not one has been discovered to include in this book. Yet, as De
Gramont places the shape among those he includes as frequently used in
France, it seemed best to give here a brief outline of its form. De
Banville quotes one by Jean François Sarazin formed on the sonnet "de
IOB" by Benserade, where fourteen quatrains are ended by the lines of
the sonnet, employed in their original order. This form offers a field
for serious comment or sarcastic parody that deserves working.
The SESTINA, invented by the famous troubadour, Arnaut Daniel, at the
end of the thirteenth century, has not been used in French poetry so
often as the ballade and rondeau. There are specimens in the poetry
of Pontus de Thyard, and one in the Pleiade of the sixteenth century,
besides many others, but it has been comparatively an exotic in French
poetry, as in English, until recent years. That it was used and admired
by Dante and Petrarch, alone gives the sestina a royal precedence over
all of the other forms. Many judges consider it to be the supreme work
of poetic art in fixed forms, while others claim similar distinction
for the chant royal, and not a few for the sonnet. To distinguish
between the charms of these three royal forms would need a Paris, nor
is it necessary to do so, since each will to his own taste, no matter
who claims authority on the ever-disputed question of supreme beauty.
Mr. Hueffer in his "Troubadours" has a chapter so full of interest and
teeming with information of the growth of the stanza, that in despair
of condensing its knowledge within the space possible here, the mere
notice of it must suffice. De Gramont give the rules of the poem as
written by the originator and followers in Italy, Spain, and Portugal:--
1st.--The Sestina has six stanzas, each of six lines, these being of
the same length.
2nd.--The lines of the six verses end with the six same words, not
rhyming with each other; these end words are chosen exclusively from
two syllabled nouns.
3rd.--The arrangement of these six terminal words follows a regular law
(a somewhat complex one, which is replaced in modern poetry by the one
given below).
4th.--The piece closes with a three-line stanza, using the six words,
three at the end; the other three, placed in the middle of its lines.
But, as now written, the words of the sestina at times rhyme with each
other; if so, De Banville says they should be in two rhymes alone (as
Mr. Swinburne uses them), but other writers allow three rhymes. But
these details all belong to the subtle laws of the verse which it is
not possible to include here. De Gramont's _Sestines_ is, perhaps, the
best authority for study.
For our purpose, enough to say that the six end-words must repeat
unchanged in sound and spelling throughout each succeeding verse.
The order in which they occur is best expressed by a numerical
formula. If the rules themselves were compressed, a more complex and
incomprehensible jargon of firsts and seconds and thirds, etc., could
hardly be found. The first verse has, of course, the initial order, 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6; the second, 6, 1, 5, 2, 4, 3; the third, 3, 6, 4, 1,
2, 5; the fourth, 5, 3, 2, 6, 1, 4; the fifth, 4, 5, 1, 3, 6, 2; the
sixth, 2, 4, 6, 5, 3, 1; the last half-stanza ends with 2, 4, 6, and
uses 1, 3, 5 at the beginning (not the first word always) of the line,
or at the half-line in rhymes that permit their introduction there. It
will be seen that no end-word occurs more than once in the same place,
and that the end-word of every stanza is invariably chosen to take its
place as terminal of the first line of the next verse.
As though this feat in rhyming were not complex enough, a double
sestina of twelve verses of twelve lines has been sometimes written.
There are two, at least, of these _tours de force_ in English--one,
"The Complaint of Lisa," in Mr. Swinburne's _Poems and Ballads_, Second
Series; another, by Mr. George Barlow, in _A Life's Love_, entitled
"Alone." It was hoped to include these, but the required space in
this little book would have excluded so many specimens of smaller
poems, that the desire to make this collection as widely varied and
representative as possible forbade their quotation.
THE TRIOLET, as we know it, may be regarded as almost an epitome of
the other forms, in its limited space. It introduces one refrain three
times, and the second refrain twice, keeps strictly to two rhymes, and
is inflexible in its laws, brief though it be. One poet says of it,
"It is charming--nothing can be more ingeniously mischievous, more
playfully sly, than this tiny trill of epigrammatic melody turning
so simply upon its own innocent axis." Those who are unaware of the
rules that govern this little stanza, yet often fall in love with the
verse itself, possibly because a good example has a pretty sequence
of sound, that allures the ear by its musical jingle, and reads like
a spontaneous and easy impromptu. Nevertheless, the subtle art needed
to acquire the ease that is the charm of a good triolet is generally
the result of infinite care. Few things are more simple than to write
a triolet--of a sort--yet the triolet affords so little space to
explain its motif, and within its five lines must tell its story, and
also carry the three other repeated ones easily, and with a definite
meaning. To introduce the refrain naturally as the only thing to say,
and yet with an air of freshness and an unexpected recognition of a
phrase heard before, is in itself no mean difficulty, even in the
ballade and rondeau; but when it comes three times in eight lines, and
has a second line attached to it on its first and last appearance,
it is a matter of small wonder that the successful triolets are not
very numerous. That the ideally perfect triolet is as yet unwritten,
or at least represented by very few, it may be urged; but if that be
true, it should only provoke more attempts, one would fancy. It might
be pertinent to ask, if this is the chief objection, how many ideally
perfect poems in any set shape, or in free form, the world acknowledges?
The triolet consists (to quote Mr. Dobson) of _eight_ lines with _two_
rhymes. The first pair of lines are repeated as the seventh and eighth,
while the first is repeated as the fourth. The order of the rhymes is
thus as follows:--a. b. a. a. a. b. a. b. The example (on page 214)
by--of all persons in the world--a grave French magistrate, Jacques
Ranchin, has been christened by Ménage the "King of _Triolets_."
The first triolet known is in the Cléomadés of Adenèz-le-Roi
(1258-1297), a poem of 20,000 verses. In old examples the triolet was
devoted to grave verse, but, as M. de Gramont shows, it has now not
only abandoned the old ten syllable lines, and is written in those of
eight and often six syllables, but from the elegiac dignity of its
former subjects, it has become in French verse the form especially
devoted to the most ephemeral and trivial subjects. Since M. de
Banville renewed its use, triolets are common in French newspapers, and
with all due deference be it said--possibly only thereby exposing my
own ignorance of the subtle charm conveyed to their readers by their
"argot" and "idiom"--as inferior as they are plentiful. There is one,
however, that has justly won great favour since its appearance in _Odes
Funnambulesques_ of M. Theodore de Banville.
These two French examples (on page 214) are hackneyed by frequent
quotation, but are so generally regarded as the most successful of
their class that it seemed best not to omit them, nor this one by
Froissart, given in most authorities, and called a rondeau by the
writer (rondel, rondeau, and triolet being evidently regarded as but
one form in his day--the beginning of the fifteenth century), and the
modern grouping completely unknown:--
Mon coer s'esbat en oudourant la rose
Et s'esjoïst en regardant ma dame.
Trop mieulz me vault l'une que l'autre chose,
Mon coer s'esbat en oudourant la rose,
L'oudour m'est bon, mès dou regart je n'ose
Juer trop fort, je le vous jur par m'ame
Mon coer s'esbat en oudourant la rose
Et s'esjoïst en regardant ma dame.
--_Froissart._
The weak point of the Triolet being the monotony of its refrain, every
attempt, at giving a new accent to the words, short of actual punning,
is welcomed as a relief. There is an air composed by Charles Delioux,
to which all triolets in the pure form may be sung. De Banville
quotes the melody in his "Odes Funnambulesques." Most people who have
attempted to make rhymes know that when once a haunting melody gains
control the words and sentences will try and fit themselves to it; so
perhaps a would-be writer of triolets could secure correct form by
learning this tune and writing his triolets to it. It is quite certain
that this alone would not ensure a good poem, but it might keep one
to the usual rhythm and exact number of syllables, with the correct
musical accent, singularly near, if not identical, with the poetical
one, when properly used. A quaint example found by Mr. Dobson in an old
French play is given on page 214, as it has not hitherto been printed
in England.
The VILLANELLE has been called "the most ravishing jewel worn by the
Muse Erato." The large number of Villanelles in modern English was the
most unexpected find that came to light in the course of collecting
material for the present volume. Many of these fulfil a condition now
held strictly binding, since promulgated by Joseph Boulmier in his own
Villanelles--that is, that their length should imitate the example of
Jean Passerat's famous model, and be complete in nineteen lines. The
rules sound simple, and the result must read easily; but the ease is
only to be attained by an elaborate amount of care in production, which
those who read only would hardly suspect existed. The accepted model
for all to follow will be found on page 242. The example that follows
is an interesting translation by Boulmier of Mr. Dobson's Villanelle,
"When I saw you last, Rose," first printed by his permission in
_Longman's Magazine_ (under the heading "At the Sign of the Ship") for
July 1887:--
ROSE.
Vous étiez encore petite
Rose, la dernière fois...
Dieu! que le temps passe vite.
Fleur innocente qu'abrite
Tendrement l'ombre des bois
Vous étiez encore petite.
Et déjà la marguerite
Va s'effeuillant sous vos doigts...
Dieu! que le temps passe vite!
Oh, comme se précipite
La vie. A peine j'y crois...
Vous étiez encor petite.
Dans votre sein qui palpite
Se glisse un hôte sournois...
Dieu! que le temps passe vite.
Chez vous Cupidon s'invite:
Adieu la paix d'autrefois!
Vous étiez encore petite:
Dieu! que le temps passe vite!
The Villanelle is written in five three-lined stanzas, concluding with
one of four lines. It will be seen that the refrain occupies eight of
the nineteen lines, and is of paramount importance; taken from the
first and third line of the first stanza, the two supply alternately
the last lines from the second to the fifth verse, and both conclude
the quatrain which ends the villanelle. Two rhymes only are allowed.
The refrains must repeat in the order quoted in the example, the first
refrain to conclude the second and fifth stanzas, the second refrain
for the first, third, and fifth, and both for the sixth.
"The primitive _Villanelle_ was, in truth, a 'shepherd's song,' and,
according to custom, its 'thoughts should be full of sweetness and
simplicity,'" a hint given in a "Note on some Foreign Forms of Verse"
that has been taken to heart by later writers, who almost invariably
select pastoral or idyllic subjects for this most artificial but dainty
lyric. Mr. Joseph Boulmier's "_Les Villanelles_," Paris, 1878, contains
a valuable essay on the history and construction of the poem, and a
series of forty original Villanelles, with twenty-two other poems, all
of singular beauty.
The LAI and the VIRELAI are so nearly related that they must be
considered together. De Gramont says, that the _lai_ has been unused
since the earliest days in French poetry, but as it is invariably
quoted in all treatises on the art, he prints a seventeenth century
one, evidently written as a specimen to illustrate its laws. De
Banville cites the following by Pere Mourgues, from his _Traité de la
Poesie_:--
LAI.
Sur l'appui du Monde
Que faut-il qu'on fonde
D'espoir?
Cette mer profonde
Et débris féconde
Fait voir
Calme au matin l'onde;
Et l'orage y gronde
Le Soir.
As no examples of the Lai are included in this volume, by the courtesy
of the author I am allowed to quote the following:--
FROM OVERSEA.
From oversea--
Violets, for memories,
I send to thee.
Let them bear thought of me,
With pleasant memories
To touch the heart of thee,
Far oversea.
A little way it is for love to flee,
Love wing'd with memories,
Hither to thither oversea.
--_William Sharp._
In the French example the form is seen to be composed of couplets of
five syllable lines, all on the same rhyme, separated by single lines
of two syllables, also on one rhyme throughout the stanza, which
therefore employs but two rhymes. The number of lines in each verse
was not fixed, nor the number of verses in the complete poem. The LAI
has preserved a curious old tradition in the form it appears either
in writing or print. As in the verse quoted, the first letter of each
line begins exactly under the preceding one; not with the short line
indented--that is coming under the middle of the larger ones--usual
in other poems composed of lines of irregular length. This detail was
called _Arbre fourchu_ (a forked tree), from the fanciful resemblance
of a trunk with bare branches projecting, found by imaginative persons
in its appearance on paper.
In the Lai each fresh stanza of the poem has its own two rhyme sounds,
without reference to the preceding ones. By curtailing this liberty,
and compelling each succeeding stanza to take the rhyme for its longer
lines, from the short line of the preceding verse the Virelai is
produced.
The VIRELAI (ancien) is a lai that preserves a sequence of rhymes
throughout. For example, in a twelve-line stanza the rhymes are A. A.
b. A. A. b. A. A. b. A. A. b. (the long lines being marked by capital
letters, and the shorter by small ones). Therefore, to follow the rules
of the virelai, the next verse must have its rhymes B. B. c. B. B. c.
B. B. c. B. B. c., and the next C. C. d. C. C. d., and so on until the
last verse (taking seven verses for an example) would have G. G. a. G.
G. a. G. G. a. G. G. a., its short lines rhyming with the two first
lines of the poem. Thus each rhyme appears twice, once in its longer
couplets, once in the short single lines. In the English examples this
rule is preserved, but the length of the lines are frequently varied.
The VIRELAI (Rhythme d'Alain Chartier) by Boulmier may be quoted as a
form yet unused (I believe) in England.
Triste remembrance!
Hé! Dieu! quand i'y pense
Ce m'est grand penance:
Las! de ma iouuence
A passé la flour.
Sanz doubter meschance,
Bercé d'esperance
Plain de desirance
Auecq Oubliance
Ay faict long seiour.
Nice troubadour
Assoty pastour
Serf ie feus d' Amour
Mais de ma folour
Ie n' ay repentance.
Ouyl, maugré Doulour
Bel Aage engignour
En moy fay retour,
Ne fust-ce qu'vng iour...
Et ie recommence.
The rhymes are a, a, a, a, b; a, a, a, b; b, b, b, b, a; b, b, b, b,
a. As but one example has come to notice, so it must speak for itself,
for it would be unfair to deduce rules from a single specimen. Before
leaving this heading there is another form, the _Virelai nouveau_,
singularly unlike its name. It is curious that both the Rondeau
Redoublé and this one, masquerading under the names of well-known
forms, should be each unlike their unqualified title, and yet so nearly
akin to the other.
The _Virelai nouveau_ is written throughout in two rhymes. Like the
_rondeau redoublé_, its first stanza serves as refrain for the later
ones, but its initial verse is but a couplet, and the two lines
close each stanza alternately until the last, where they appear both
together, but in inverse order. Unfortunately, space forbids an example
being quoted in its complete length. The one usually chosen is "Le
Rimeur Rebuté;" this commences with the couplet--
Adieu vous dy, triste Lyre,
C'est trop apprêter à rire.
Then follows a five-line stanza, rhyming a, a, b, a, a, with "Adieu
vous dy," etc., for its last line; then an eight-lined one rhymed
a, b, a, a, b, a, b, a, the last line being "_C'est trop_," etc.;
that is followed by a four-line one closing with first line; then
a sixteen-line one, using the second line for its refrain; then a
seventeen-line one, with first line ending it; and finally a five-line
stanza, its last lines being--
C'est trop apprêter à rire,
Adieu vous dy, triste lyre.
If this description conveys its intended meaning, it will be seen that
the verses are singularly irregular in form, and choose both the order
of the rhymes and the length of the verses exactly at the will of the
poet; but each paragraph must not only use its proper refrain to close
with, but must bring it in naturally and easily as an inherent part of
the verse. The last two lines in the inverted order must also be worked
in with equal skill. Excepting one by Mr. Austin Dobson, that appeared
in _Evening Hours_ about 1878, this form has been unused, or at least
unpublished, in English verse.
* * * * *
The poems in the following collections have been chosen for several
reasons--some for their intrinsic excellence, some as examples of pure
form, some for their bold attempts to produce variations from the
typical models. There has been no limit to the subjects, since the
purpose was to give a representative group of the rhythms, treated in
the most diverse ways. Even burlesque and diatribe of the use of the
forms, masquerading in guise of the enemy they professed to attack,
have been welcomed, as the points of the construction of the verse
are often seen more clearly in such examples. For similar reasons
the parody of the pioneer Ballade, Mr. Austin Dobson's _Prodigals_,
is quoted, since the doubtful honour of parody is at least a proof
of wide popularity, the only others marked in this way being Mr.
Swinburne's '_Dreamland_' and Mr. Lang's '_Primitive Man_.' Here,
too, in default of a better place, it may be noted that Mr. Henley's
'Villonism' is not an imitation of the incomprehensible ballades in
'Jargon' or 'Jobelin,' but a paraphrase in thieves' patter of to-day of
Villon's _Ballade of Good Counsel_.
It may be that such a medley of themes handled in so many different
ways, was never of set purpose grouped side by side before, but is to
be hoped that a method in the madness will be found. While conscious
of a few noteworthy examples, Rossetti's _Translations from Villon_ to
wit, being not included for reasons beyond my control, so it may be
that one or two here inserted would have been replaced by later comers,
had they not gone to the printer's eternity of stereotype. Started as
a collection, but turned perforce to a selection, from the increasing
number available, they yet do not aim so much at being a selection of
the best work solely, as of the best and least-accessible examples.
This explanation of the progress and purpose of the volume is offered
in common fairness both to its readers and to those authors who have
permitted their works to be included, also to those who by oversight or
too late discovery on my part have no examples of their poetry included
herein.
* * * * *