part of Benserade, the latter that of Voiture. Benserade had sent a sonnet on the sufferings of Job to a lady of quality, and Voiture shortly after this addressed another to a lady under the name of "Uranie". The Prince of Conti avowed his admiration of Benserade, and became the leader of the "Jobelins;" the Duchess of Longueville declared her preference for Voiture and was installed leader of the "Uranistes". All the wits took different sides. Corneille himself wrote a sonnet to state that he would not dare to declare himself for either party.1 In At the present day, however, it is generally admitted that it would be difficult to say which of the rival sonnets is not the better, but the worse. "Sic transit gloria mundi!" The fashion came to an end in the seventeenth century, but took a new lease of life in the nineteenth under the influence of the Romantic movement. Théophile Gautier, Musset, Beaudelaire, and Joséphin Soulary have left us fine examples of the art. Sully-Prudhomme has committed some of his philosophic thoughts to this form of writing. Finally, de Hérédia has given to the sonnet a vividness, finish, and variety which it had never previously attained. His work Les Trophées, containing 117 sonnets, is a masterpiece in this form of verse. these he reviews the fables of mythology, such as the stories of Hercules, the Centaurs, Perseus and Andromeda; he knows well how to penetrate into the atmosphere not only of mythical antiquity, but also of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In portraying the wondrous history of the conquerors of the New World he breathes their spirit; he gives us dazzling visions of the tropics and of the East, and he presents to us his own thoughts which the beauty of nature has stirred within him, and the impressions which his study of letters has engraved on his mind. One finds in his work skilfully yet dreamily wrought reminiscences of André Chénier, whose Fragments and Bucoliques had a great influence on 1 See Selections (p. 269). See also Corneille, Poésies Diverses, Sonnets XXXVIII and XL. his mythological poems; one sees traces, too, of the infuence of Leconte de Lisle and of Théophile Gautier, whose counsels, ever wise and ever kindly, he took pleasure in following in his Orient and Tropiques. That he recognizes Victor Hugo as his master we see in his sonnets on the "Conquistadores", who are, as it were, the suggestions of a mighty epic. Ever original and personal in his work, he draws his inspirations from every source, becomes in turn littérateur, painter, binder, vintager, conquistador", and even Centaur. He suggests rather than insists on the feelings by which all these divers beings have been animated. His ideas stand out in extraordinarily bold relief within the narrow space into which he has to compress them. He propounds them in deepsounding verse, revelling in rich rhyme, harmoniously alliterative, and ever, with the rarest exceptions, arranged in strictly orthodox sonnet form. His work is the most striking proof that difficulties stimulate genuine talent, and that the true artist is able so to handle them as to bring into strongest prominence his most admirable effects. Rules of the Sonnet.-The following are the rules of the orthodox sonnet: (1) The sonnet must consist of fourteen lines of equal length, divided into two quatrains (forming an octave), and a sextet formed of two tercets. (2) The rhymes of the quatrains must be as follows:abba, abba. (3) The first two lines of the sextet must rhyme together, cc. (4) The last four lines must rhyme as follows:-dede or deed. Hérédia's sonnet, Selections, p. 275, shows the construction. effrayons, lèvres, rayons, chèvres. dede (rimes croisées). In the sonnets, pp. 275 and 276, we have abba, abba, cc followed by deed (rimes embrassées).1 The sonnets referred to above are the regular forms of the sonnet, and all others are irregular. It is in the sextet that irregularity occurs. In the poems of de Hérédia we find the following variations in the last six lines: "Bacchanale", Trophées, p. 27, cddcee; "La Magicienne", ib. 29, cdeded; "Le Naufragé", ib. 45, cdcdcd; "La Soirée", ib. 85, cddcdc; "A Claudius Papelin", ib. 105, cdcdee; "L'Ancêtre", ib. 115, cddcee; "Vision de Rhem", ib. 121, cddcee; "l'Orient", ib. 123, cdcdee; "Le Bain", » ib. 144, cddcee; "La Mort de l'Aigle", ib. 151, cddcee.2 As the aim of the sonnet is perfection of form, its laws must be obeyed implicitly. Severe critics are very hard on the irregular sonnet, which they call "licentious" or "libertine". Théophile Gautier affirmed that it was better to write none at all than to perpetrate irregular forms. To add to the difficulties of this form of verse certain observances have been introduced which have become the rule, and whose infringement stamps the sonnet as imperfect. These are :— (1) To avoid awkward 'consonnances' at the hemistich and the end of the line. (2) Never to repeat the same word. (3) To keep the rhyme always as rich as possible for eye and ear. (4) To end the sonnet by a line pregnant with meaning, even more sonorous than the preceding lines, and opening up to the imagination a vast horizon of dreamland or of thought if the sonnet be serious, or stimulating the mind by some brisk flash of wit if the poem be in a lighter vein. De Hérédia has excelled all others in the observance of this last rule, which has an intense charm for the intellect and the emotions. His final lines are particularly well wrought, and often illumine the whole sonnet with a lightning flash of dazzling brilliancy. 1 Cf. Selections, loc. cit. "Le récif de corail and la Sieste". 2 Selections, p. 276. APPENDIX NON-TRADITIONAL VERSE-BLANK VERSEMETRICAL BLANK VERSE-'DECADENT VERSE' By the side of French verse based on number of syllables, the cæsura, and on rhyme, we find many interesting attempts at various times to introduce a new metrical system. The most important of these innovations are those which relate to 'Blank Verse', to 'Metrical Verse', and to 'Decadent (or Free) Verse'. We shall examine these forms in succession. 1. Blank verse.—By this is meant rhymeless verse, as in English, which had no rhyme until the twelfth century. Molière uses it frequently in his comedy Le Sicilien ou l'Amour Peintre. These lines are not separated from one another in the ordinary editions of the play; we here separate them in order to show them clearly to the reader, and we append the number of syllables each line contains. "Chut, n'avancez pas davantage Et demeurez en cet endroit Il fait noir comme dans un four. Le ciel s'est habillé ce soir en Scaramouche (8) (8) (8) (8) (12) De tous les soucis qu'il peut prendre! Le mien me fait ici Epouser ses inquiétudes, Et, parce qu'il est amoureux, Je n'aie aucun repos. (6) (6) -Le Sicilien, i. 1. The whole play is not written in blank verse, but many instances of it occur. Molière tried this innovation to determine if it were possible to use a special language in comedy more flexible than rhymed verse, and less commonplace than prose. Such a form of verse was intended to attract the hearer by its rhythm without tiring him by the regularity of ordinary rhymed verse. Molière never entirely abandoned this idea, and we find several instances of its occurrence in L'Avare. Au mémoire que nous avons. Frosnie. Hé! C'est toi, mon pauvre La Flèche. D'où vient cette rencontre? La Flèche. Ah! ah! C'est toi Frosine. Que viens-tu faire ici? Frosnie. Ce que je fais partout ailleurs. -L'Avare, Act i, sc. 4, &c. In the eighteenth century Houdard de la Motte came forward as an ardent partisan of blank verse, and was severely taken to task by Voltaire, who wrote in his preface to Edipe (1730): "Whether our verses are to be rhymed or not is no longer the question. Messieurs Corneille and Racine employed rhyme. Our desire, if any, to open another road is caused rather by our impotence to tread in the footsteps of such great men as these, than by a desire for something new. The Italians and English |