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FEW PLAIN RULES OF FRENCH PROSODY.

FRENCH versification is composed of two elements :measure, and rhyme.

The French verse is based upon the number of syllables, and is called "syllabic verse (vers syllabique): syllables are not measured, in French, as they are in Latin or Greek poetry, but they are counted.

There are six things to be observed in French poetry, namely: the NATURE OF THE SYLLABLES, the MEASURE, the ELISION, the PAUSE or CESURA, the RHYME, and the DISPOSITION.

I.

Syllables are either mute or sonant.

1

A mute syllable is that which, at the end of a word, ends with a mute e, alone or followed by s, or nt; as, j'aime, tu aimes, ils aiment.—A sonant syllable is, any syllable which is not mute.

A mute syllable, at the end of a verse, does not reckon in the number of its syllables.

II.

The Measure (mesure) is, the number of syllables which are reckoned in a verse.

1 This only applies to the termination of the third person plural in French verbs; for, in adjectives, substantives, adverbs, or the third person singular of a verb, ending

with ent, as prudent, événement, vivement, il vient, the e taking the sound of a, and that of i in the last case, the syllable is sonant, of pronounced.

We distinguish ten sorts of measures, or verses, accord

ing to the number of syllables. contains them all :

The following decastich

We say, a verse of four, of six, of seven, of eight, of ten, of twelve syllables, &c. Verses of twelve syllables are called, in French, vers alexandrins, vers héroïques, or more commonly grands vers.

III.

The Elision (élision) takes place, in French, only for the mute e, followed or not by s or nt, according to the two following rules:

First Rule. A final mute e, when alone, is cut off: 1st, at the end of a verse; 2nd, before a vowel or a silent h. A mute e followed by s or nt can only be cut off at the end of a verse; anywhere else, it counts as one syllable. Examples:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 J'aime une épouse in grate et n'ai me qu'elle au monde. On peut ê tre hé ros sans ce sser d'être hu main. Les hom mes a près l'or s'em pre ssent et se foulent. Jus tes, ne crai gnez point le vain pou voir des hommes.

Second Rule. A mute e at the end of a word, preceded by a vowel, as in nie, nies, nient, when not cut off, makes the verse either too long or too short. Thus the following verses would be faulty :

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Les hommes qui ni-ent Dieu mé ri tent le mé pris. L'ho mme qui ni-e Dieu mé ri te le mé pris.

We call "hiatus" the meeting of any other vowel than the e mute with another vowel. The hiatus is only allowed in the case of aspiration. Thus the following verse of Marot,

Un doux nenni avec un doux sourire,

is faulty; but both the following are good: Gardez qu'une voyelle à courir trop hátée

Ne soit d'une voyelle en son chemin heurtée.-BOILEAU.

IV.

The Pause (repos), also called Casura (césure), is a kind of suspension which divides, not the word, as in Greek or in Latin, but the sentence.

The pause is of two sorts, viz., that which is made in the verse, and that which is made at the end of the verse. The former is called "hemistich" (hémistiche), and the latter, "final pause" (repos final).

An hemistich is that part of a verse after which there is a pause or cæsura. None but the two longest kinds of verses require an hemistich. In verses of twelve syllables, it is made after the sixth, and in verses of ten, after the fourth. Examples :

Que toujours dans vos vers,-le sens coupant les mots,
Suspende l'hémistiche,—en marque le repos.-BOILEAU.

Un ennemi,—dit un célèbre auteur,

Est un soigneux,—

-un docte précepteur.-J. B. Rousseau. The final pause is a cæsura which serves to complete the sense before the beginning of another line; for, in the higher kind of poetry at least, though not in fables or such familiar compositions, French prosody does not generally allow us to carry over to the beginning of the second line

words necessarily depending on what is at the end of the first. This defect is called by the French, enjambement. Here is an example of it :

Cette nymphe royale est digne qu'on lui dresse
Des autels...

RONSARD.

V.

The Rhyme (rime) is the final consonance of two verses. There are two sorts of rhyme, viz., the "masculine" and the "feminine" rhyme.

A masculine rhyme is that of words the last syllable of which is a sonant syllable; and a feminine rhyme, that of words the last syllable of which is a mute syllable.1

In masculine rhymes, the consonance is on the last syllable of the verse, and in feminine rhymes, on the last but one. Examples:

C'est le plus bel endroit qu'on puisse désirer:
Je vous l'ai déjà dit, je veux y demeurer.

Comment me réjouir quand ma famille pleure,
Quand le deuil est partout dans ma pauvre demeure!

VI.

The Disposition (disposition) comprises:
1st. The disposition of the rhymes;
2nd. The disposition of the verses.

1.-As to the disposition of the rhymes, the fundamental principle is, that the masculine and the feminine rhymes must be so intermixed that two masculine or two feminine verses not rhyming together should never be found to follow each other.

1 Yet, in the third person plural of Imperfects or Conditionals, where the syllable ent is preceded by the vowels ai (or oi in old French),

as in marchaient (or, marchoient), marcheraient (or, marcheroient), the rhyme is masculine.