Part 3 — CHAPTER X OTHER ITALIAN AND FRENCH POETICAL FORMS OF A FIXED CHARACTER

§ 316. The madrigal, an Italian form (It. mandriale, madrigale, from mandra flock), is a pastoral song, a rural idyl. The Italian madrigals of Petrarch, &c., are short, isometrical poems of eleven-syllable verses, consisting of two or three terzetti with different rhymes and two or four other rhyming verses, mostly couplets: a b c a b c d d, a b a b c b c c, a b b a c c d d, a b b c d d e e, a b b a c c c d d, a b a c b c d e d e, a b b c d d e e f f, a b b c d d e f f g g.

The English madrigals found in Sidney and especially in Drummond resemble the Italian madrigals only in subject; in their form they differ widely from their models, as they consist of from fifteen to five lines and have the structure of canzone-stanzas of three- and five-foot verses. The stanzas run on an average from eight to twelve lines. As a specimen the twelfth madrigal of Drummond (Poets, iv. 644), according to the formula a₃ a₅ b₃ a₅ b₃ b₅ c₅ c₃ d d₅, may be quoted here:

Other madrigals have the following schemes (the first occurring twice in Sidney and once in Drummond, while the rest are found in Drummond only):

fifteen lines, a₃ a₅ b₃ c₅ c₃ b₅ b₃ d₅ d₃ e e₅ d₃ e f f₅; fourteen lines, a a₃ a₅ b₃ c₅ b₃ c d₅ e e₃ d f₅ d₃ f₅; thirteen lines, a a₃ b₅ c c₃ b₅ c₃ d d₅ e₃ f e f₅; twelve lines,a₂ b₅ b₃ a₅ c d₃ d c₅ c e₃ f f₅; eleven lines, a₃ b c a₅ b d₃ d e e f f₅; ten lines, a b₃ b a₅ a c b₃ c d d₅; nine lines, a₃ a₅ b c b₃ c c d d₅; eight lines, a₃ a₅ b b c₃ c d d₅; seven lines, a b a₃ c c₅ a₃ b₅; six lines, a b b a c₃ c₅; five lines, a b b₃ a b₅. For specimens of these and other madrigals in Drummond cf. Metrik, ii, § 508

§ 317. Some poems in Drummond’s and Sidney’s works entitled epigrams consist, as a rule, of two or more five-foot verses, rhyming in couplets. In Sidney there are also short poems resembling these in subject, but consisting of one-rhymed Alexandrines. We have also one in R. Browning (iii. 146) of seven one-rhymed Septenary verses; several others occur in D. G. Rossetti (ii. 137–40) of eight lines on the schemes a a₄ b b₄ a a₄ b b₄ styled Chimes (cf. Metrik, ii, §§ 570, 571.)

§ 318. The terza-rima. Of much greater importance is another Italian form, viz. a continuous stanza of eleven-syllable verses, the terza-rima, the metre in which Dante wrote his Divina Commedia. It first appears in English poetry in Chaucer’s Complaint to his Lady, second and third part,[204] but may be said to have been introduced into English literature by Wyatt, who wrote satires and penitential psalms in this form (Ald. ed. pp. 186–7, 209–34), and by Surrey in his Description of the restless state of a Lover (Ald. ed. p. 1). The rhyme-system of the terza-rima is a b a b c b c d c, &c. That is to say, the first and third lines of the first triplet rhyme together, while the middle line has a different rhyme which recurs in the first and third line of the second triplet; and in the same manner the first and third lines of each successive triplet rhyme with the middle line of the preceding one, so as to form a continuous chain of three-line stanzas of iambic five-foot verses till the end of the poem, which is formed by a single line added to the last stanza and rhyming with its second line.

The first stanzas of Surrey’s poem may be quoted here:

The terza-rima has not the compact structure of the sonnet, as in each of its stanzas a rhyme is wanting which is only supplied in the following stanza. For this reason it seems to be especially adapted for epic or reflective poetry.

Comparatively few examples of this form are met with in English poetry, as e.g. in Sidney, S. Daniel, Drummond, Milton, and Shelley (cf. Metrik, ii, § 572).

In Sidney and R. Browning (iii. 102) we also find a variety of the terza-rima consisting of four-foot verses, and in Browning some others formed of four-stressed verses (iv. 288).

Some similar rhyme-systems of three lines, occurring in Sidney and Drummond, are of less importance (cf. ib., § 573)

§ 319. Certain other varieties of the terza-rima, although found in recent poets, need only be briefly noticed here.

One of four lines on the model a a b a₅ b b c b₅ c c d c₅, &c., occurs in Swinburne, Poems, ii. 32, 34, 239; another on the scheme a a b a₅, c c b c₅, d d e d₅, &c., ib. i. 13; a third one, following the formula a b c₃ b₂, a b c₃ b₂, a b c₃ b₂, called Triads, ib. ii. 159 (cf. Metrik, ii, § 564).

Five-lined forms, similar to the terza-rima, occur in Sidney, e.g. abcdd, efghh, iklmm, the rhymeless lines being connected by sectional rhyme, the stanzas themselves likewise by sectional rhyme; another on the model a₅ b₃ c₅ c₃ B₅, B₅ d₃ e₅ e₃ D₅, D₅ f₃ g₅ g₃ F₅; and a third on the scheme a₃ a₅ b c₃ b₅, c₃ c₅ d e₃ d₅, e₃ e₅ f g₃ f₅, &c. A related form, a b a b c₄, c d c d e₄, ... y z y z z₄, is found in Mrs. Browning (iv. 44). For specimen cf. Metrik, ii, § 575.

A terza-rima system of six lines may be better mentioned in this section than together with the sub-varieties of the sextain, as was done in Metrik, ii, §578; they pretty often occur in Sidney, e.g. Pansies, ix (Grosart, i. 202), on the schemes a b a b c b, c d c d e d, e f e f g f, v w v w x w, ... x y x y z y y.

In Spenser’s Pastoral Aeglogue on Sidney (pp. 506–7) a rhyme-system according to a b c a b c₅, d b e d f e₅, g f h g i h₅, k i l k m l₅, &c. is met with; in Mrs. Browning (iii. 236) a much simpler system, constructed of five-foot lines on the formula a b a b a b c d c d c d e f e f e f, &c., is used.

A system of ten lines, consisting of five-foot verses (a b a b b c a e d D, D e d e e f d f g G, G h g h h i g i k K, &c., ending in a stanza of four lines, X y x y) occurs in Sidney, pp. 218–20 (221–4, xxxi); cf. Metrik, ii, § 580

§ 320. Still less popular was another Italian poetical form, the sextain, originally invented by the Provençal poet, Arnaut Daniel, and for the first time reproduced in English poetry by Sidney in his Arcadia.

The sextain consists of eleven-syllabled or rather five-foot verses and has six stanzas of six lines each, and an envoy of three lines in addition. Each of the six stanzas, considered individually, is rhymeless, and so is the envoy. But the end-words of the lines of each stanza from the second to the sixth are identical with those of the lines in the preceding stanza, but in a different order, viz. six, one, five, two, four, three. In the envoy, the six end-words of the first stanza recur, in the same order, alternately in the middle and at the end of the line. Hence the whole system of rhymes (or rather of recurrence of end-words) is as follows: a b c d e f . f a e b d c . c f d a b e . e c b f a d . d e a c f b . b d f e c a + (a) b (c) d (e) f.

The first two stanzas of Sidney’s Agelastus Sestine, pp. 438–9 (426–7, lxxiv), together with the envoy and with the end-words of the other stanzas, may serve to make this clear:

The other stanzas have the corresponding rhyme-words in this order:

III damage wayling publike sorrowe fortune Nature

IV Nature damage Fortune wayling sorrowe publike

V publike nature sorrow damage wayling fortune

VI fortune publike wayling nature damage sorrow

The envoy is:

This strict form of the sextain, which in Sidney, pp. 216–17 (219–21, xxx), occurs even with a twofold rhyming system, but, of course, with only one envoy, has, as far as we know, only once been imitated in modern poetry, viz. by E. W. Gosse (New Poems). Cf. Metrik, ii, § 576

§ 321. Besides this original form of the sextain several other varieties are met with in English poetry. Thus Spenser, in the eighth eclogue of his Shepherd’s Calendar (pp. 471–2), has a sextain of a somewhat different structure, the rhymeless end-words being arranged in this order: a b c d e f. f a b c d e. e f a b c d. d e f a b c. c d e f a b. b c d e f a + (a) b (c) d (e) f. Here the final word of the last verse of the first stanza, it is true, is also used as final word in the first verse of the second stanza, but the order of the final words of the other verses of the first stanza remains unchanged in the second. The same relation of the end-words exists between st. ii to st. iii, between st. iii to st. iv, &c., and lastly between st. vi and the envoy; the envoy, again, has the end-words of the first stanza; those which have their place in the interior of the verse occur at the end of the third measure.

Some other sub-varieties of the sextain have rhyming final words in each stanza.

In Sidney’s Arcadia, p. 443 (430–1, lxxvi), e.g. one sextain has the following end-words: light, treasure, might, pleasure, direction, affection. These end-words recur in the following stanzas in the order of the regular sextain; hence st. ii has affection, light, direction, treasure, pleasure, might, &c. In this variety, also, the rhyme-words of the envoy occur at a fixed place, viz. at the end of the second measure. Drummond wrote two sextains of the same elegant form.

In Swinburne also (Poems, ii. 46) we have a sextain of rhymed stanzas, the first stanza rhyming day, night, way, light,may, delight. All these recur in the following stanzas in a similar order, though not so strictly observed as in the sextain by Spenser, mentioned above (cf. Metrik, ii, § 577).

One example (probably unique in English poetry) of what is known as the Double Sextain is found in Swinburne’s The Complaint of Lisa (Poems, ii. 60–8), a poem in which he has given one of the most brilliant specimens of his skill in rhyming. It consists of twelve twelve-lined stanzas and a six-lined envoy. The first two stanzas rhyme a b c A B d C e f E D F, F a f D A C b e c E d B; the envoy on the scheme

(F) E (e) f (C) A (c) d (b) a (D) B;

where the corresponding capital and small letters denote different words rhyming with each other. Cf. Metrik, ii, § 581

§ 322. Side by side with these well-known poems of fixed form, mostly constructed on Italian models, there are some others influenced by French poetry which have been introduced into English for the most part by contemporary modern poets, as e.g. Swinburne, Austin Dobson, Robert Bridges, D.G. Rossetti, A. Lang, and E.W. Gosse[205]. These are the virelay, roundel, rondeau, triolet, villanelle, ballade, and chant royal. The virelay seems to have been in vogue in earlier English poetry. Chaucer, e.g. in his Legende of good Women, v. 423, says of himself that he had written balades, roundels, and virelayes. But only isolated specimens of it have been preserved; in more recent times it has not been imitated at all.

According to Lubarsch[206] the virelay consists of verses of unequal length, joined by concatenatio so as to form stanzas of nine lines on the scheme: a a b a a b a a b, b b c b b c b b c, c c d c c d c c d, &c. Apart from this, however, there were undoubtedly other forms in existence (cf. Bartsch, Chrestomathie de l’ancien français, p. 413). Morris, in the Aldine edition of Chaucer’s Works, vol. vi, p. 305, gives a virelay of two-foot iambic verses in six-lined stanzas on the model

a a a b a a a b, b b b c b b b c c c c d c c c d, &c.

(quoted Metrik, i, § 155)

§ 323. The roundel, used by Eustache Deschamps, Charles d’Orléans, and others, was introduced into English poetry, it seems, by Chaucer. But there are only a few roundels of his in existence; one of these occurs in The Assembly of Fowles (ll. 681–8); if the verses of the burden are repeated, as printed in the Globe Edition, pp. 638–9, it has thirteen lines (a b b a b a b a b b a b b, the thick types showing the refrain-verses):

Three other roundels of Chaucer on the scheme last mentioned have been published lately by Skeat in Chaucer’s Minor Poems, pp. 386–7; some other Middle English roundels were written by Hoccleve and Lydgate.

In French the roundel was not always confined to one particular metre, nor did it always consist of a fixed number of verses; the same may be said of the English roundels.

The essential condition of this form, as used by the French poets, was that two, three, or four verses forming a refrain must recur three times at fixed positions in a tripartite isometrical poem consisting mostly of thirteen or fourteen four- or five-foot verses. A common form of the French roundel consisted of fourteen octosyllabic verses on the model

a b b a a b a b a b b a a b.

Conforming to this scheme is a roundel by Lydgate[207]:

Another roundel of four-foot verses, by Lydgate (Ritson, i. 129), corresponds to a b a b a b a b a b a b a b (cf. Metrik, i, § 180); some other roundels, of a looser structure, consisting, seemingly, of ten lines, are quoted in the same place (cf. Metrik, ii, § 583).

A Modern English roundel of fourteen lines, constructed of three-foot verses, by Austin Dobson, has the scheme a b a b b a a b a b a b a b (quoted ib. § 583). The French roundel of thirteen lines may be looked upon as a preliminary form to the rondeau, which was developed from the roundel at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century.

§ 324. The rondeau is a poem consisting of thirteen lines of eight or ten syllables, or four or five measures. It has three stanzas of five, three, and five lines, rhyming on the scheme a a b b a a a b a a b b a. It has, moreover, a refrain which is formed by the first words of the first line, and recurs twice, viz. after the eighth and thirteenth verses, with which it is syntactically connected. Strictly speaking it therefore has fifteen lines, corresponding to the scheme a a b b a a a b + r a a b b a + r. The rondeau was much cultivated by the French poet, Clément Marot. It was introduced into English by Wyatt, from whom the rondeau Complaint for True Love unrequited (p. 23) may be quoted here:

This is the proper form of the rondeau. Other forms deviating from it are modelled on the schemes:

a a b b a b b a + r b b a a b + r(Wyatt, p. 24),

a a b b a + r c c b + r a a b b a + r (ib. p. 26),

a b b a a b + r a b b a + r (D. G. Rossetti, i. 179).

Austin Dobson, Robert Bridges, and Theo. Marzials strictly follow the form quoted above.

Another form of the rondeau entirely deviating from the above is found in Swinburne, A Century of Roundels,[208] where he combines verses of the most varied length and rhythm on the scheme A B A + b B A B A B A + b where b denotes part of a verse, rhyming with the second, but repeated from the beginning of the first verse and consisting of one or several words (cf. Metrik, ii, §§ 584, 585)

§ 325. The triolet and the villanelle are unusual forms occurring only in modern poets, e.g. Dobson and Gosse.

The triolet, found as early as in Adenet-le-Roi at the beginning of the thirteenth century, is a short poem of eight mostly octosyllabic verses, rhyming according to the formula a b a a a b a b, the first verse recurring as a refrain in the fourth, the first and second together in the seventh and eighth place. Two specimens have been quoted, Metrik, ii, § 586

§ 326. The villanelle (a peasant song, rustic ditty, from villanus) was cultivated by Jean Passerat (1534–1602); in modern poetry by Th. de Banville, L. Baulmier, &c. It mostly consists of octosyllabic verses divided into five stanzas (sometimes a larger or smaller number) of three lines plus a final stanza of four lines, the whole corresponding to the scheme a¹ b a² + a b a¹ + a b a² + a b a¹ + a b a² + a b a¹ a². Hence the first and the third verses of the first stanza are used alternately as a refrain to form the last verse of the following stanzas, while in the last stanza both verses are used in this way. A villanelle by Gosse on this model consisting of eight stanzas, perhaps the only specimen in English literature, has been quoted, Metrik, ii, § 587

§ 327. The ballade is a poetical form consisting of somewhat longer stanzas all having the same rhymes. Several varieties of it existed in Old French poetry. The two most usual forms are that with octosyllabic and that with decasyllabic lines. The first form is composed of three stanzas of eight lines on the model a b a b b c b C (cf. § 269). The rhymes in each stanza agree with those of the corresponding lines in the two others, the last line, which is identical in all the three, forming the refrain; this refrain-verse recurs also at the end of the envoi, which corresponds in its structure to the second half of the main stanza, according to the formula b c b C. The decasyllabic form has three stanzas of ten verses on the scheme a b a b b c c d c D (cf. § 271), and an envoi of five verses on the scheme c c d c D; the same rules holding good in all other respects as in the eight-lined form. It is further to be observed that the envoi began, as a rule, with one of the words Prince, Princesse, Reine, Roi, Sire, either because the poem was addressed to some personage of royal or princely rank, or because, originally, this address referred to the poet who had been crowned as ‘king’ in the last poetical contest.

In England also the ballade had become known as early as in the fourteenth century. We have a collection of ballades composed in the French language by Gower,[209] consisting of stanzas of either eight or seven (rhyme royal) decasyllabic verses with the same rhyme throughout the poem. Similar to the French are Chaucer’s English ballades in his Minor Poems, which, however, in so far differ from the regular form, that the envoi consists of five, six, or seven lines; in some of the poems even there is no envoi at all. Accurate reproductions of the Old French ballade are not found again until recent times. There are examples by Austin Dobson and especially by Swinburne (A Midsummer Holiday, London, 1884). They occur in both forms, constructed as well of four- and five-foot iambic, as of six-, seven-, or eight-foot trochaic or of five- and seven-foot iambic-anapaestic verses. (For specimens cf. Metrik, ii, § 588.)

§ 328. The Chant Royal is an extended ballade of five ten-lined ballade-stanzas (of the second form mentioned above), instead of three, together with an envoi. In Clément Marot we meet with another form of five eleven-line stanzas of decasyllabic verses also with the same rhymes throughout; the envoi having five lines. The scheme is a b a b c c d d e d E in the stanzas and d d e d E in the envoi.

A Chant Royal by Gosse, composed on this difficult model (perhaps the only specimen to be found in English poetry), is quoted Metrik, ii, § 589.

A more detailed discussion of these French poetical forms of a fixed character and of others not imitated in English poetry may be found in Kastner’s History of French Versification (Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1903), chapter x. Cf. also Edmund Stengel, Romanische Verslehre, in Gröber’s Grundriss der Romanischen Philologie (Strassburg, 1893), vol. ii, pp. 87 ff.

OXFORD: HORACE HART M.A. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY