Chapter 2

But the rights of subjective personal emotion could not long be denied in lyric poetry. Even LECONTE DE LISLE had not succeeded in obliterating its traces entirely, and if he achieved a calm that justifies the epithet _impassible_, given so freely to him and to his followers, it is at the cost of a struggle that still vibrates beneath the surface of his lines. Presently emotion asserted its authority again, more discreetly and under the restraint of an imperious intellect in SULLY PRUDHOMME, readily taking the form of sympathy with the humble, in FRANÇOIS COPPÉE, or returning to the old communicative frankness of self-revelation with VERLAINE. With VERLAINE we reach a conscious reaction from the objective and impersonal art of the _Parnassiens_. That art found its end in the perfect rendering of objective reality. The reaction sought to get at the inner significance and spiritual meaning of things, and looked at the objective reality as a veil behind which a deeper sense lies hidden, as a symbol which it is the poet's business to penetrate and illumine. It also moved away from the clear images, precise contours, and firm lines by which the _Parnassiens_ had given such an effect of plasticity to their verse, and sought rather vague, shadowy, and nebulous impressions and the charm of music and melody (cf. VERLAINE'S poem, _Art poétique_, p. 288). This is in general the direction taken by the latest generation of poets, symbolists, decadents, or however otherwise they are styled, for whom VERLAINE'S influence has been conspicuous. They make up rather an incoherent body, whose aims and aspirations, more or less vague, are by no means adequately indicated by this brief statement of their tendency. They have by no means said their last word. But the accomplishment of their movement hitherto has been marred, and its promise for the future is still threatened, by a fatal and seemingly irresistible tendency toward unintelligibility.

Notes:

[1] Special commendation may be given to the large work by various scholars under the direction of Petit de Julleville now in process of publication, and also to the shorter histories, in one volume, of Gustave Lanson (1895) and F. Brunetière (1897). An English translation of the latter is published by T. Y. Crowell & Co., New York.]

[2] A large number of the _chansonniers_ are represented in the collection by Dumersan and Noel Ségur, _Chansons nationales et populaires de France_, 2 vols., 1566, to which an account of the French _chanson_ is prefixed. Specimens of the _chanson populaire_ may be read in T.F. Crane’s _Chansons populaires de la France_, New York, Putnam, 1891: an excellent historical sketch and a bibliography make this little volume a good introduction to the reading of French popular poetry.

Anthologies and collections : Crépet, _les Poètes Français_, 4 vols., 1887; G. Masson, _la Lyre française_, London (Golden Treasury Series); G. Saintsbury, _French Lyrics_, New York, 1883; P. Paris, _le Romancero français_, 1833; K. Bartsch, _Romanzen und Pastourellen_, Leipzig, 1870; Bartsch and Horning, _la Langue et la Littérature françaises depuis le IXe jusqu'au XIVe siècle_, 1887; L. Constans, _Chrestomathie de l'ancien français à l'usage des classes_, 1884; _Histoire littéraire de la France_, vol. xxiii; Darmesteter and Hatzfeld, _le Seizième siècle en France_, 1878; F. Godefroy, _Histoire de la littérature française depuis le XVIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours_, 6 vols., 1867; Lemerre, _Anthologie des poètes du XIXe siècle_, 1887-88; _le Parnasse contemporain_, 3 series, 1866, 1869, 1876.

For reference: Good historical and critical notices may be found in several of the above, especially in Crépet, Darmesteter and Hatzfeld, and the _Histoire littéraire_; Jeanroy, _Origines de la poésie lyrique en France_, 1889; G. Paris, _Origines de la poésie lyrique en France_, Journal des Savants, 1891, 1892; G. Paris, _la Poésie française au XVe siècle_ (leçon d'ouverture), 1886; Sainte-Beuve, _Tableau historique et critique de la poésie au XVIe siècle_; F. Brunetière, _l'Évolution des genres_, vol. i, 1890; Villemain, _Tableau de la littérature française au XVIIIe siècle, passim_; Th. Gautier, _Étude sur les progrès de la poésie depuis 1830_ (in _Histoire du romantisme_); C. Mendès, _Légende du Parnasse contemporain_, 1884; F. Brunetière, _Évolution de la poésie lyrique au XIXe siècle_, 2 vols., 1894; J. Tellier, _Nos poètes_, 1888.

VERSIFICATION.

The rules of French versification have not always been the same. The classical movement of the seventeenth century in its reforms proscribed certain things, like hiatus, overflow lines, mute _e_ before the caesura, which had been current hitherto, and the Romanticists of this century have endeavored to give greater diversity and flexibility to verse-structure both by restoring some of these liberties and by introducing new ones. Especially have great innovations been advocated in the last few years by the youngest school of poets, but they have as yet found no general acceptance.

The unit of French versification is not a fixed number of long and short, or accented and unaccented, syllables in a certain definite arrangement, that is, a foot, but a line. A line is a certain number of syllables ending in a rhyme which binds it to one or more other lines. The lines found in lyric verse vary in length from one to thirteen syllables; but lines with an even number of syllables are much more used than those with an odd number.

In determining the number of syllables the general rules of syllabic division are followed, and each vowel or diphthong involves a syllable. But the following points are to be noted:

1. Mute _e_ final or followed by _s_ or _nt_ is not counted at the end of the line.

2. Final mute _e_ in the body of the line is not counted as a syllable before a word beginning with a vowel or mute _h_ (elision).

3. Mute _e_ in the termination of the third person plural, imperfect and conditional, of verbs is not counted; nor is it counted in the future and conditional of verbs of the first conjugation whose stem ends in a vowel (_oublieront_, also written in verse _oublîront_; see p. 130, l. 14).

4. When two or more vowel sounds other than mute _e_ come together within a word they are sometimes treated as a diphthong and make but one syllable, sometimes separated and counted as two. Usage is not altogether consistent in this particular; the same combination is in some words pronounced as two syllables (_ni-ais, li-en, pri-ère, pri-ons, jou-et_), in others as one (_biais, rien, bar-rière, ai-mions, fou-et_); and even the same word is sometimes variable (_ancien, hier, duel_). In general such combinations are monosyllabic if they have developed from a single vowel in the Latin parent word.

5. Certain words allow a different spelling according to the demands of the verse (_encore_ or _encor_, _Charles_ or _Charle_).

Since the sixteenth century, hiatus has been forbidden by the rules of French versification. But, as we have just seen (under 4 above), two vowels are allowed to come together in the interior of a word. What the rule against hiatus does proscribe then is the use of a word ending in a vowel (except mute _e_, which is elided; cf. 2 above) before a word beginning with a vowel or mute _h_, and the use of words in which mute _e_ not final follows a vowel in the interior of the word; e.g. _tu as, et ont, livrée jolie; louent, allées_. But hiatus is not regarded as existing when two vowels are brought together by the elision of a mute _e_; e.g. in Hugo's lines, the _vie a_ in

L'ouragan de leur vie a pris toutes les pages (p. 108, l. 20), and the _joie et_ in Sois ma force et ma joie et mon pilier d'airain (p. 130, l. 8).

Cf. also 1 and 3 above.

The rhythm of the line comes from the relation of its stressed to its unstressed syllables. All lines have a stress (_lève_) on the rhyme syllable, and if they have more than four syllables they have one or more other stresses. Lines that consist of more than eight syllables are usually broken by a caesural pause, which must follow a stressed syllable. In lines of ten syllables the pause comes generally after the fourth syllable, sometimes after the fifth; in lines of twelve syllables, after the sixth.

The line of twelve syllables is the most important and widely used of all and is known as the Alexandrine, from a poem of the twelfth century celebrating the exploits of Alexander the Great, which is one of the earliest examples of its use. It is almost without exception the measure of serious and dignified dramatic and narrative poetry, and even in lyric verse it is used more frequently than any other. From MALHERBE to VICTOR HUGO the accepted rule demanded a caesura after the sixth syllable and a pause at the end of the line; this divided the line into two equal portions and separated each line from its neighbors, preventing the overflow (_enjambement_) of one line into the next. The line thus constructed had two fixed stresses, one on the sixth syllable, before the caesura, which therefore had to be the final syllable of a word and could not have mute _e_ for its vowel, and another on the final (twelfth) syllable. There are indeed in the poets of that period examples of lines in which, when naturally read, the most considerable pause falls in some other position; but the line always offers in the sixth place a syllable capable of a principal stress. There was also regularly one other stressed syllable in each half-line; it might be any one of the first five syllables, but is most frequently the third, second, or fourth, rarely the first or fifth; but the secondary stress might be wanting altogether; a third stressed syllable in the half-line sometimes occurs. The Romanticists introduced a somewhat greater flexibility into the Alexandrine line by permitting the displacement or suppression of the caesura and the overflow of one line into the next; the displacement of the caesura sometimes goes so far as to put in the sixth place in the line a syllable quite incapable of receiving a stress.

In the following stanza of Lamartine (see p. 60), which consists of Alexandrine lines of the classical type, the stressed syllables are indicated by italics and the caesura by a dash:

Sal_u_t, bois couronn_é_s--d'un r_e_ste de verd_u_re! Feuill_a_ges jauniss_a_nts--sur les gaz_o_ns ép_a_is! Sal_u_t, derniers beaux j_ou_rs!--Le d_eu_il de la nat_u_re Conv_ie_nt à la doul_eu_r--et pl_aî_t à mes reg_a_rds.

Cf. for examples of displaced caesura, Hugo's lines--

Je marcher_ai_--les yeux fix_é_s sur mes pens_é_es (p. 121,l. 25.) Seul, inconn_u_,--le dos courb_é_,--les mains crois_é_es (p. 121, l. 27.)

For examples of enjambement, cf. Leconte de Lisle's Lines--

L'ecclési_a_ste a d_i_t:--Un chien viv_a_nt vaut mi_eu_x Qu'un lion m_o_rt (p. 201, l. 21). O boucher_i_e!--ô soif du m_eu_rtre!--acharnem_e_nt Horr_i_ble! (p. 210, l. 21).

Unrhymed lines (blank verse) and lines of which only the alternate ones rhyme have been tried but discarded.

Rhyme is therefore an indispensable element of French verse, and is vastly more important as a poetic ornament than it is in English; so important that Sainte-Beuve calls it the sole harmony (_l'unique harmonie_) of verse. Rhyme may be either masculine, when it involves but one syllable (_divinité: majesté_, _toi: roi_), or feminine, when it involves two syllables the second of which contains mute _e_ (_repose: rose_, _changées: ravagées_); and lines are called masculine or feminine according to their rhymes. Masculine rhymes must constantly alternate with feminine rhymes; that is, two masculine or feminine lines of different rhymes may never come together; but the younger poets have sought a greater liberty here as elsewhere, and poems with but one kind of rhyme occur (see p. 208). Rhyme to be perfect must satisfy the eye as well as the ear; masculine rhymes must have identity of vowel sound and the final consonants must be the same or such as would have the same sound if pronounced (_granit: nid_, _héros: bourreaux_; not _différent: tyran_); but silent consonants between the vowel and the final consonant do not count (_essaims: saints_, _corps: morts_). Feminine rhymes must have identity of rhyming vowels and of following consonant sounds if there be any; and the final consonants must be the same (_fidèles: citadelles_, _jolie: crie_; not _nuages: louage_). Variations from ordinary spelling are sometimes used to make words satisfy this rule of rhyming for the eye (_je vien_, _je voi_), but they are hardly approved. The ear seems even sometimes to play the subordinate rôle in the rhyme, for words are found in rhyme which satisfy the eye but not the ear (_Vénus: nus_). Rhyme as above described is called sufficient (_suffisante_); if it also involve identity of the consonant preceding the rhyming vowel (_consonne d'appui_) it is called rich (_riche_); (examples: _étoiles: toiles_, _bandit_;

The French ear is unlike the English in considering _rime riche_ an additional beauty; the Romanticists especially have cultivated it, and there are whole poems where simply sufficient rhyme is the exception. A word may not rhyme with itself, but words identical in form but different in meaning may rhyme with each other (cf. first, fifth, and eleventh stanzas of _les Djinns_, p. 95.

By the use of lines of different length and especially by the arrangement of the rhymes a great variety of stanza forms has been created, as well as certain definite forms for complete short compositions, known as fixed forms. The most common are the _ballade_, _rondel_, _rondeau_, and _triolet_, developed especially in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and revived in our own, and the sonnet, introduced from Italy during the Renaissance.

The _ballade_ consists of three stanzas, of eight or ten lines each, that repeat exactly the same rhyme arrangement, and of a shorter stanza of four or five lines, called the _envoy_, which repeats the rhyme arrangement of the second part of the other stanzas. The line of the ballade has generally eight syllables, but may have ten or twelve (see pp. 1, 4, 5, 235).

The _rondel_, as usually printed, consists of three parts, the first of four lines, the second of four, the last two of which are the first two of the first part, and the third of five, the last one of which is the first one of the first part; there are but two rhymes throughout. The lines of the _rondel_ have usually eight syllables. This form was practically superseded by the rondeau (see pp. 2 and 3).

The _rondeau_ also consists of three parts; the first has five lines, the second three, and the third five, and the first word or words of the first line, usually the first half of the line, are repeated at the end of the second and third parts; there are but two rhymes. The lines of the _rondeau_ have also usually eight syllables (see p. 6).

The _triolet_ consists of eight lines, usually octosyllabic. The first line is twice repeated, in the fourth and seventh places, and the second line is repeated once, making the final one. There are but two rhymes (see p. 298).

The _sonnet_ has fourteen lines, usually Alexandrines, and is made up of two parts, one of eight lines, called the octave, and one of six, called the sestet; the rule allows but two rhymes to the octave and three others to the sestet; the arrangement of the rhymes is inflexible for the strict Petrarchan type (see below), but considerable variations from it are common. For sonnets of the strict type see pp. 257, 263, 280; for others showing variations see pp. 8, 13, 14, 199.

The rhyme arrangement of these various forms is most clearly shown by letters as follows, capital letters indicating lines that are repeated. _Ballade_: eight lines, _ababbcbC_, _ababbcbC_, _ababbcbC_, _bcbC_; ten lines, _ababbccdcD_, _ababbccdcD_, _ababbccdcD_, _ccdcD_. _Rondel: ABba_, _abAB_, _abbaA_. _Rondeau: aabba_, _aab refrain_, _aabba refrain_. _Triolet: ABaAabAB_. _Sonnet: abba abba ccdede_.

For reference: Th. de Banville, _Petit traité de poésie française_, 1872; F. de Gramont, _les Vers français et leur prosodie_, 1875; Becq de Fouquières, _Traité général de versification française_, 1879; A. Tobler,

_Vom französischen Versbau alter und neuer Zeit_, Berlin, 1880, 3d edition, 1894,French translation with excellent preface by Gaston Paris, 1885; Clair Tisseur, _Modestes observations sur l'art de versifier_, Lyon, 1893; A. Bibesco, _la Question du vers français et la tentative des poètes décadents_, 1893, 2d edition, with preface by Sully Prudhomme, 1896.

CHARLES D'ORLÉANS

BALLADE

Nouvelles ont couru en France, Par maints lieux, que j'estoye mort Dont avoient peu de desplaisance Aucuns qui me hayent à tort; Autres en ont eu desconfort, Qui m'ayment de loyal vouloir, Comme mes bons et vrais amis; Si fais à toutes gens savoir Qu'encore est vive la souris.

Je n'ay eu ne mal ne grevance, Dieu mercy, mais suis sain et fort, Et passe temps en esperance Que paix, qui trop longuement dort, S'esveillera, et par accort A tous fera liesse avoir ; Pour ce, de Dieu soyent maudis Ceux qui sont dolens de veoir Qu'encore est vive la souris.

Jeunesse sur moy a puissance, Mais Vieillesse fait son effort De m'avoir en sa gouvernance; A present faillira son sort, Je suis assez loing de son port.

De pleurer vueil garder mon hoir; Loué soit Dieu de Paradis, Qui m'a donné force et povoir, Qu'encore est vive la souris.

Nul ne porte pour moy le noir. On vent meilleur marchié drap gris; Or tiengne chascun, pour tout voir, Qu'encore est vive la souris.

RONDEL Laissez-moy penser à mon aise, Hélas! donnez-m'en le loysir. Je devise avecques Plaisir Combien que ma bouche se taise.

Quand Merancolie mauvaise Me vient maintes fois assaillir, Laissez-moy penser à mon aise, Hélas! donnez-m'en le loysir.

Car enfin que mon coeur rapaise J'appelle Plaisant Souvenir, Qui tantost me vient rejouir. Pour ce, pour Dieu! ne vous deplaise, Laissez-moy penser à mon aise.

RONDEL

Le temps a laissié son manteau De vent, de froidure et de pluye, Et s'est vestu de brouderye, De soleil luyant, cler et beau.

Il n'y a beste, ne oyseau, Qu'en son jargon ne chante ou crye: Le temps a laissié son manteau De vent, de froidure et de pluye.

Rivière, fontaine et ruisseau Portent, en livrée jolie, Gouttes d'argent, d'orfavrerie, Chascun s'abille de nouveau: Le temps a laissié son manteau.

RONDEL

Les fourriers d'Esté sont venus Pour appareillier son logis, Et ont fait tendre ses tappis, De fleurs et verdure tissus.

En estandant tappis velus, De vert herbe par le pais, Les fourriers d'Esté sont venus Pour appareillier son logis.

Cueurs d'ennuy pieça morfondus, Dieu mercy, sont sains et jolis; Alez vous en, prenez pais, Yver, vous ne demourrez plus: Les fourriers d'Esté sont venus.

RONDEL

Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder, La gracieuse, bonne et belle! Pour les grans biens qui sont en elle, Chascun est prest de la louer.

Qui se pourrait d'elle lasser? Tousjours sa beauté renouvelle; Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder La gracieuse, bonne et belle!

Par deçà, ne delà la mer Ne sçay dame ne damoiselle Qui soit en tous biens parfaits telle-- C'est ung songe que d'y penser: Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder!

FRANÇOIS VILLON

BALLADE DES DAMES DU TEMPS JADIS

Dictes-moi où, n'en quel pays, Est Flora, la belle Romaine; Archipiada, ne Thaïs, Qui fut sa cousine germaine; Echo, parlant quand bruyt on maine Dessus riviere ou sus estan, Qui beauté eut trop plus qu'humaine? Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!

Où est la très sage Heloïs, Pour qui fut blessé et puis moyne Pierre Esbaillart à Sainct-Denys (Pour son amour eut cest essoyne)? Semblablement, où est la royne Qui commanda que Buridan Fust jetté en ung sac en Seine?... Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?

La royne Blanche comme ung lys, Qui chantait à voix de sereine; Berthe au grand pied, Bietris, Allys Harembourges, qui tint le Mayne, Et Jehanne, la bonne Lorraine, Qu'Anglais bruslerent à Rouen; Où sont-ilz, Vierge souveraine?.... Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!

ENVOI

Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine Où elles sont, ne de cest an, Que ce refrain ne vous remaine. Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!

LAY OU PLUSTOST RONDEAU

Mort, j'appelle de ta rigueur. Qui m'as ma maistresse ravie, Et n'es pas encore assouvie, Se tu ne me tiens en langueur. Depuis n'euz force ne vigueur; Mais que te nuysait-elle en vie, Mort?

Deux estions, et n'avions qu'ung cueur; S'il est mort, force est que devie, Voire, ou que je vive sans vie, Comme les images, par cueur, Mort!

JE CONNAIS TOUT FORS QUE MOI-MÊME

Je congnois bien mouches en laict; Je congnois â la robe l'homme; Je congnois le beau temps du laid; Je congnois au pommier la pomme; Je congnois l'arbre à veoir la gomme; Je congnois quand tout est de mesme; Je congnois qui besongne ou chomme: Je congnois tout, fors que moy-mesme.

Je congnois pourpoinct au collet; Je congnois le moyne à la gonne; Je congnois le maistre au valet: Je congnois au voyle la nonne; Je congnois quand pipeur jargonne; Je congnois folz nourriz de cresme; Je congnois le vin à la tonne: Je congnois tout, fors que moy-mesme.

Je congnois cheval du mullet; Je congnois leur charge et leur somme; Je congnois Bietrix et Bellet; Je congnois gect qui nombre et somme; Je congnois vision en somme; Je congnois la faulte des Boesmes; Je congnois le povoir de Romme: Je congnois tout, fors que moy-mesme.

ENVOI

Prince, je congnois tout en somme; Je congnois coulorez et blesmes; Je congnois mort, qui nous consomme: Je congnois tout, fors que moy-mesme.

MAROT

RONDEAU

Au bon vieulx temps un train d'amour regnoit Qui sans grand art et dons se demenoit, Si qu'un bouquet donné d'amour profonde, C'estoit donné toute la terre ronde, Car seulement au cueur on se prenoit.

Et si par cas à jouyr on venoit, Sçavez-vous bien comme on s'entretenoit? Vingt ans, trente ans: cela duroit un monde Au bon vieulx temps.

Or est perdu ce qu'amour ordonnoit: Rien que pleurs feincts, rien que changes on n'oyt. Qui vouldra donc qu'à aymer je me fonde, Il faut premier que l'amour on refonde, Et qu'on la meine ainsi qu'on la menoit Au bon vieulx temps.

PIERRE DE RONSARD

A CASSANDRE

Mignonne, allons voir si la rose Qui, ce matin, avoit desclose Sa robe de pourpre au soleil, A point perdu, cette vesprée Les plis de sa robe pourprée Et son teint au vostre pareil.

Las! voyez comme, en peu d'espace, Mignonne, elle a dessus la place, Las, las, ses beautez laissé cheoir! O vrayment marastre nature, Puisqu'une telle fleur ne dure Que du matin jusques au soir!

Donc, si vous me croyez, mignonne, Tandis que votre âge fleuronne En sa plus verte nouveauté, Cueillez, cueillez vostre jeunesse: Comme à cette fleur, la vieillesse Fera ternir vostre beauté.

CHANSON

Pour boire dessus l'herbe tendre Je veux sous un laurier m'estendre. Et veux qu'Amour d'un petit brin Ou de lin ou de cheneviere Trousse au flanc sa robe légère Et my-nud me verse du vin.

L'incertaine vie de l'homme De jour en jour se roule comme Aux rives se roulent les flots: Puis apres notre heure dernière Rien de nous ne reste en la bière Qu'une vieille carcasse d'os.

Je ne veux, selon la coustume, Que d'encens ma tombe on parfume, Ny qu'on y verse des odeurs : Mais tandis que je suis en vie, J'ai de me parfumer envie, Et de me couronner de fleurs.

De moy-mesme je me veux faire L'heritier pour me satisfaire : Je ne veux vivre pour autruy. Fol le pelican qui se blesse Pour les siens, et fol qui se laisse Pour les siens travailler d'ennuy.

SONNET

A HÉLÈNE

Quand vous serez bien vieille, au soir, à la chandelle, Assise auprès du feu, devisant et filant, Direz, chantant mes vers, en vous esmerveillant : Ronsard me celebroit du temps que j'estois belle.