overflowing monosyllables gives the feeling of swift motion : "Non seulement il voit mais il entend. On passe, On court, on va. Voici le cri des porte-voix ". It has always been a difficult matter for poets to employ such abnormal ‘enjambement' and cæsura without destroying the rhythm, but such an accusation cannot be made against Victor Hugo. We find in the works of Théodore de Banville whole passages in which the lines run on to such an extent that the entire passage can only with difficulty be distinguished from prose.1 Even where he uses the ‘rime riche 12 it is not often heard owing to the dislocation produced by his method-a proof, indeed, that the use of the 'rime riche', a logical result of 'enjambement', was not sufficient to justify the abuse of 'enjambement'. It is the poet's part to use effects of this kind with method and restraint. The ear is the only safe guide to the proper use of 'enjambement', and from this point of view the author of the "Légende des Siècles" stands alone. Modern poets display much more daring even than Victor Hugo, and consequently, like Théodore de Banville, they sometimes relapse into what is practically prose. André Chénier delights in using 'enjambement' of the verb. Victor Hugo has a partiality for the overflow of noun and adjective. Leconte de Lisle and Rostand have carried the artistic use of 'enjambement' to the extreme, and de Hérédia uses it in his Sonnets discreetly and happily wherever he finds it necessary. Ex. Chénier. "Je te perds. Une plaie ardente, envenimée Me ronge." -p. 48. "Prends, mon fils, laisse-toi fléchir à ma prière; C'est ta mère, ta vieille inconsolable mère Qui pleure; qui jadis te guidait pas á pas, T'asseyait sur son sein, te portait dans ses bras; Que tu disais aimer, qui t'apprit à le dire, Qui chantait; et souvent te forçait de sourire 1 Cf. p. 52, n. I. 2 For 'rime riche see p. 48. Lorsque tes jeunes dents, par de vives douleurs, -p. 50. "Elle arrive et bientôt revenant sur ses pas, -P. 53. "Elle achève ses mots, et le cœur palpitant, -p. 27. The following 'enjambement' in Leconte de Lisle's "Poèmes barbares: Les Paraboles de dom Guy" has a striking effect: "L'Esprit m'a dit: 'Regarde... Un vol d'oiseaux funèbres, Silencieux, battait le flot lourd des ténèbres." -Leconte de Lisle, Paraboles de dom Guy. In "Cyrano de Bergerac" Rostand frequently obtains very happy effects: "Il promène en sa fraise à la Pulcinella Un nez!... Ah! messeigneurs, quel nez que ce nez-là." "Vous, la molle amitié dont vous vous entourez essemble à ces grands cols d'Italie, ajourés Et flottants, dans lesquels votre cou s'effémine." -Ibid. ii. 8, p. 94. "C'est trop! Dans mon espoir même le moins modeste Je n'ai jamais espéré tant! Il ne me reste Qu'à mourir maintenant! -Ibid. iii. 6, p. 132. In all these examples the rhyme is strongly accented. This is a necessary precaution, as it is requisite that the 'enjambement' should be but slightly noticeable. Otherwise the greater part of the effect would be lost, and, as we have already pointed out, the poetry could with difficulty be distinguished from prose. CHAPTER III HIATUS In the following word-groups, j'ai été, tu es, il a acquis, tu as, tu eus, &c., the strong vowel ending the word immediately precedes the strong vowel which begins the following word. As a result of such a juxtaposition of vowels a special position of the lips arises which the Romans called 'hiatus' (Lat. hiare = to gape). In Old French poetry, hiatus was allowed; but from Ronsard to Malherbe French poets avoided using it too frequently, following the advice of the former: "Telles occurences de voyelles sans être élidées font les vers merveilleusement rudes en notre langue... Exemple: 'Vostre beauté a envoyé d'amour'. Ce vers ici te servira de patron pour te garder de ne tomber en telle aspreté, qui écraze plustôt l'aureille, que ne luy donne plaisir." -Ronsard, vii., p. 327, ed. Blanchemain. Ronsard does not, however, seem to trouble himself greatly about the observance of his own piece of advice, even where it would have been easy for him to avoid running counter to it. In the following line:— "" 'Sacrilège meurdrier, si on pend un voleur", -Elégies, xxx, vol. iv, p. 347. he might very well have written si l'on and avoided the hiatus. Again he writes in the same pie‹ ›: "Que l'homme est malheureux qui au monde se fe", where he might equally well have had : "Que l'homme est malheureux quand au monde il se fie", which has almost the same sense, and does not cause any hiatus. Régnier, on the other hand, scorns those poets "Dont le savoir s'estend seulement Qu'à regratter un mot douteux au jugement, Prendre garde qu'un qui ne heurte une diphtongue"; and from them he selects Malherbe for his special contempt. Malherbe, who found the effect of the hiatus discordant, banished it from poetry entirely, and in all his work only three instances of its occurrence are to be found, and these, indeed, in the works of his youth. Finally, Boileau himself in his “Art Poétique” formulates the rule, if somewhat incorrectly: "Gardez qu'une voyelle à courir trop hatée Ne soit d'une voyelle en son chemin heurtée”. -i. 107. It will be observed that while there is no actual hiatus in these lines, he gives the effect of it by the imitations of hiatus-trop hâtée and chemin heurtée. We shall refer to these lines again in the course of the chapter (p. 40). This rule has prevailed to the present day. The French ear is repelled by the juxtaposition of two strong vowels-one at the end, the other at the beginning of a word, and even in prose it is, as far as possible, avoided; yet we must note that even the greatest poets do not always observe the rule, which may be formulated as follows:-Hiatus, i.e. the meeting of two strong vowels, one at the end, the other at the beginning of a word (and all words beginning with h mute are to be considered as commencing with a vowel) should be avoided when the two words occur within the line. The conjunction et must also be considered an open vowel.1 Had this rule been rigorously obeyed a great number of phrases would have been banished from French verse. Therefore there exists a number of definite exceptions, which are as follows: 1. The 'aspiration' or 'breathing' given to certain words, whether they commence with h, as héros, or not, as oui, onze, ouate, prevents the hiatus. We may therefore use in verse: le héros, que oui, &c. 1 In Old French the copulative et is often spelled e. As the t, moreover, is never pronounced, it is only right that et should be considered equivalent to a vowel. Ex.: "Quelle huée. Ayez pour Vishnou, pour Indra, Pour Brahma, pour Odin ou pour Baal un culte." —V. Hugo, Légende des Siècles (La Comète). "Qu'on me vienne aujourd'hui Demander: Aimez-vous? Je repondrai que oui." -La Fontaine. Oui is even found repeated twice in succession: "Oui, oui, vous me suivrez, n'en doutez nullement ". —Racine, Andromaque, iii. 2. 'Oui, oui, votre mérite à qui chacun se prend." -Molière, École des Maris, ii. 6. 2. Hiatus is permitted in such repeated interjections as: eh! eh! hé! hé! hi! hi! ah! ah! &c.; or in exclamatory phrases, where the word commencing with a vowel is virtually a part of the preceding word, as: hé oui! oh la! oh! "Mon père! Eh bien! eh bien! quoi? qu'est-ce? Ah! ah! Quel homme!" -Racine, Les Plaideurs, iii. 3. 3. Hiatus is also allowed when an interjection, either ending or not ending in h, is followed by a vowel: "Ah! il faut modérer un peu ses passions". -Molière. 4. It is allowable in certain everyday locutions, as: çà et là, peu à peu, à tort et à travers, tant y a, en chair et en os, sang et eau. "Tant y a qu'il n'est rien que votre chien ne prenne." -Racine, Les Plaideurs, iii. 3. "Je suais sang et eau pour voir si du Japon. -Ibid. "Le juge prétendait qu'à tort et à travers On ne saurait manquer condamnant un pervers." -La Fontaine, ii. 3. "On voyait çà et là des bœufs maigres errer." -Sully-Prudhomme, ii. 71. |