REMARKS ON FRENCH VERSIFICATION.

I. GENERAL STATEMENT.

QUANTITY, as understood in Latin and Greek verse, is not a constituent element in French. French verse is built up on the accentual principle, and depends upon a definite number of syllables. Rhythm in French verse means an harmonious succession of accented and unaccented syllables. The last fully pronounced syllable of each line is accented; thus every line of poetry possesses at least one rhythmical accent (independent of the written accent or of any idea of quantity). Longer lines are divided by a caesura into two equal or unequal parts, and the syllable just before this caesura receives a rhythmical accent. Besides these two points (at the end of the line and before the caesura) upon which fixed accents fall, lines of greater length may have one or more movable points of accent, distributed through the line in harmony with the thought. Every syllable thus accented forms, with the unaccented syllables preceding it (or if there are none, by itself alone), a so-called rhythmical element. The rhythmical elements which make up a line may be equal or unequal in extent (that is, in the number of syllables they contain); the latter is the rule. Successive lines usually differ in rhythmical structure.

II. SYLLABLES.

1. IN a line of French poetry the silent syllables, or those containing mute e, which in prose are usually slighted, have in general their full value. Thus gloire, armes (p. 1, 1. 9), notre (p. 3, 1. 17) count as two syllables; féroces (p. 1, 1. 6), abreuve (p. 1, l. 10), Déchirent (p. 3, 1. 8) count as three; and République (p. 4, 1. 15) counts as four.

2. But a final mute e is elided before an initial vowel (or silent h) of a following word; thus gloire est (p. 1, 1. 2) counts as two syllables. And a mute syllable at the end of a line does not count in the enumeration of syllables; thus et notre gloire (p. 3, l. 17) forms the last half of an eight-syllabled line. And further, in the body

of a line, a final mute e unsupported by a consonant cannot count as a syllable. Thus words like voie, monnaie, are only admitted into the body of a line before an initial vowel or silent h, where the e is elided. Again a mute e unsupported by a consonant and not final, is suppressed entirely; that is, avouerai counts as three syllables, and is also written avoûrai: cf. also p. 2, 1. 13: ploîraient for ploieraient. Such combinations as voies, journées, louent are usually kept out of the body of the line.

3. Terminations in -aient of the imperfect and conditional tenses and the words aient and soient are admitted freely as monosyl. lables. Terms like voient (p. 3, 1. 17) may also be used as monosyllables.

4. Vowel combinations count in general as two syllables if they represent double vowels of the Latin, as na-ti-on (Latin nationem), or if they arise by the dropping of an intermediate consonant, as mendi-er (Latin mendicare). Vowel combinations count in general as one syllable when they correspond to a single vowel in Latin, as fier (p. 2, 1. 11), bien, from Latin ferum, bene. Ay is always dissyllabic, as pays (=pai-is), p. 11, 1. 15.

III. RHYME.

There can be no

1. RHYME is a first essential of French verse. French verse without rhyme. Blank verse is practically impossible in French. The French rhyme has been called by Sainte-Beuve l'unique harmonie du vers (a statement, however, which is an exaggeration).

2. Rhyme is either' masculine' or 'feminine.' (1) Masculine rhyme exists between words which end in a fully pronounced syllable; thus, arrivé : levé, vengeurs: défenseurs. (2) Feminine rhyme exists between words which end in a mute syllable; thus, esclaves : entraves, tremblent: rassemblent. These names are given because of the mute e in question, which is commonly the mark of feminine forms.

3. Masculine and feminine rhymes must always alternate. This principle allows much variety. The alternation may be line by line (cf. p. I, 1. 1-4), couplet by couplet, one couplet within another (cf. p. I, 1. 5-8), etc. But the rhymes must be so intermingled that two different masculine or two different feminine rhymes shall not appear in immediate succession. Before the seventeenth century this rule was not strictly enforced, and exceptions to it are met with in Modern French; cf. La Carmagnole, p. 10.

4. Rhyme, while appealing to the ear, must also to a certain extent appeal to the eye; there must be a certain correspondence of written form. Thus such combinations as clou and vous, abri and nid, ai and nez, bleu and peux are not allowed to rhyme. But words ending in the different sibilants, as nœuds: vœux (p. 6, 1. 18, 20), or in dentals, as répond: pont, etc., may rhyme together. And words of like form but different meaning rhyme perfectly together, as pas (step) and pas (not), la tombe and il tombe. Cf. the English, where the same thing is not allowed.

5. Sufficient rhyme' (rime suffisante) exists when different consonants precede the rhyming terminations, as son: canon. 'Rich rhyme' (rime riche) arises when entire syllables with their initial consonants rhyme together, as humain : main. Rhymes which extend back over more than one syllable are called doubles or surabondantes. Rimes plates are consecutive rhymes, the first two lines masculine, the next two feminine, and so on. Rimes croisées are alternate rhymes, the first and third masculine, the second and fourth feminine. Rimes mêlées are mixed or irregular rhymes, observing only the general principle of alternation between masculines and feminines.

IV. POETIC FORMS.-HIATUS.

SOME words have special forms which are allowable in verse beside the ordinary one: thus encor beside encore, Charle beside Charles (p. 88, 1. 13, 17), etc. This freedom helps in making up the required number of syllables. The first person singular of a verb may be used in rhyme without its final s, as in je voi, je vien, je croi. In the present subjunctive of dire the form die (p. 100, l. 17) may be used for dise.

Modern French poetry proscribes hiatus. By virtue of this rule expressions like the following are excluded from verse: il y a, si elle, tu es, tu as, tu auras, tu aimes. This tends to restrict the use of tu and toi, as compared with thou and thee in English poetry.

V. VARIETIES OF VERSE.

A LINE of French poetry may be made up of any number of syllables from one to thirteen, but those of one, nine, eleven and thirteen syllables are little used. The characteristics of varied verse structure may be seen in Victor Hugo's poem: Les Djinns, p. 67. The eightsyllabled line, either by itself or in combination with lines of four or six syllables, is a very common lyric metre. In Modern French it is employed exclusively in lyric poetry In lines of more than eight syllables a caesura or pause is required at a given syllable of the line. The ten-syllabled line with caesura at the fourth syllable (the early epic French line), is well adapted to lyric poetry (often in connection with lines of eight syllables); vid. p. 35: Mon Habit. The same line with a pause at the fifth syllable is also lyric. The line of twelve syllables, or Alexandrine,* while belonging preeminently to dramatic verse, is also admitted into sonnets and most other forms of lyric poetry, often in quatrains or in combination with shorter lines.

*The Alexandrine line has two distinct forms: the classic and the romantic. The former, whose laws were formulated by Boileau (1636-1711), is divided by an obligatory caesura after the sixth syllable into two equal parts, which in turn consist of two rhythmic elements each, so that the whole line is composed of four stress-groups of varying lengths. The sense must not be carried over from one line into the next (enjambement), or if it is, it must fill out the entire line. The romantic Alexandrine (so called because the Romanticists of the present century advocated its use) arose from a weakening of the accent of the hemistich and a corresponding disregard of the caesura. It combines the second and third stress-groups into one, and thus consists of but three rhythmic elements, each composed of a varying number of syllables. Enjambement or overflow is freely indulged in.

The name Alexandrine comes from a celebrated poem of the earlier language (twelfth century) on Alexander the Great, which was written in twelve-syllabled verse (though not the first one written in such verse).

NOTES.

OBSERVATION. The Latin accusative is in general the case which has served as the type for the modern French word. In the following notes that form is commonly given in referring to the etymology of nouns or adjectives. An asterisk prefixed to a word indicates that the form is non-classical Latin. The sign indicates whence; i. e., from which is derived.

I. NATIONAL AND REVOLUTIONARY SONGS.

Page 1. LA MARSEILLAISE. La Marseillaise is distinctively the Chant national, or national anthem of France. It was composed by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle (1760-1836). The circumstances of its composition are the following. The year 1792 saw the development of a hostile coalition against France on the part of foreign powers. Austria, Prussia, and Spain were threatening to send armies into France to put down the Revolution and restore Louis XVI. to his former rights. In April of this year war was declared by France against Austria, which was foremost in the coalition. After the news of this declaration had reached Strasbourg (then a part of France), the patriotic mayor of that town, Dietrich, had united around his table (April 24) the volunteers who were preparing for departure. Among the guests was a young officer of engineers named Rouget de Lisle. A wish having been expressed by the mayor that some war-song might be composed without delay, which should serve as a fresh inspiration to the soldiers and replace worn-out refrains, Rouget retired, during the ensuing evening, to his room, took his violin and composed both words and music of the hymn which has immortalized his name. The following day he sang before the mayor his Chant de It was immediately published at Strasbourg under the title,

guerre.