Page images
PDF
EPUB

§ 529. Poetical Licenses.

In verse, certain modes of spelling, certain constructions, etc., which have been for the most part banished from prose, are still allowed. These privileges granted to verse are spoken of as poetical licenses. For example—

1. The following words are spelt in two ways; in the first list will be found the usual spelling:

[blocks in formation]

zéphyre, or zéphire etc.

The absence or presence of s in the first person singular of certain verbs has been explained in § 369.

2. The following arrangement of words, among others, are unusual in prose:

(a) The Preposition and its noun before the verb, substantive, or adjective, upon which it depends:

Aux petits des oiseaux il donne leur pâture.
Et que si des destins la fatale puissance.
Mais des enfants l'amour est le partage.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

(RACINE.)

Et mes prétentions hautement étouffées
A vos vœux triomphants sont d'illustres trophées.

(b) The transposition of the subject and verb:

(MOLIÈRE.·

Ces yeux que n'ont émus, ni soupirs, ni terreur. (RACINE.) Périsse mon amour, périsse mon espoir. + (CORNEILLE.) (c) The transposition of the verb and substantive direct object:* Un courage élevé toute peine surmonte.

(RACINE.)

(d) Such transpositions as the following :-
Et, se promettant tout de leur vieille amitié

De mon trône en son âme elle prend la moitié.

(CORNEILLE.)

(ID.)

Ce dernier nous servit à sa seule prière.
Qui de leur amitié fut la preuve dernière.

etc., etc.

* For the insertion of the substantival Direct Object between the auxiliary and Past Participle, see § 458.

This Optative is found in prose, but for the most only in wellknown phrases; ex.: Vive l'Empereur, Dieu vous bénisse, etc. (§ 472.)

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

§ 530. Hiatus in verse.

The following remarks include some of those made in § 527:Till the end of the sixteenth century no "rules" were observed in respect to hiatus. The instinct which told a good writer to avoid everything which was unpleasant to the ear was the only guide. It would have been better if the matter had stopped there. An author with a delicate ear would have done without formal instructions. The "rules" only enabled one not thus endowed to avoid unpleasant combinations to some extent. There the good ended the rules only hampered the better writer.

:

The following examples are taken from the period immediately preceding Malherbe, who first insisted upon the banishment of the hiatus in verse.

Nymphe qui ait si folâtres cheveux.

...

(RONSARD.)

Que l'homme est malheureux qui au monde se fie. (ID.)
D'où est-tu? qui est-tu? Quelle est ta nourriture?

(REGNIER.)

The rules of Malherbe are open to the following objections:

1. They are too stringent; for there is nothing necessarily unpleasant in the recurrence of vowel sounds: Dieu, ciel, lier, vieux, religion, ouïr, fiancée, tua, alouette, etc., etc.

2. They go beyond their professed object; for they forbid combinations which cannot possibly contain hiatus:

(a) Where a stop occurs between the vowels :
Oh! sortons; la voici. Il la faut éviter.

(b) Where the first vowel sound is uttered by one person, and the second by another:

Eh bien! quoi?

Oh! ma mère, le temple est profané.

(c) Where by another rule (that of the cæsura) a pause is required. If the cæsura is weak, hiatus may perhaps be said to occur, but that would be equally true of the end of the line where the rule allows such hiatus:

Une vache était là: on l'appelle; elle vient.

According to rule,' these examples are all wrong. They are thus written in the original:

Ah! la voici; sortons. Il la faut éviter.
Oh! ma inère!

(RACINE.

[blocks in formation]

Une vache était là: l'on l'appelle : elle vient.

(LA FONTAINE.) This last example is certainly more unpleasant as La Fontaine wrote it.*

3. They are inconsistent, for they forbid hiatus as it is found in one form, but they allow it in another.

Thus, d'où est-il, qui êtes vous, tu es, etc., are wrong; but doué, inquiet, tué, etc., are right. (§ 80. 4.)

4. They are defective, for they really allow disguised hiatus.t L'étranger est en fuite, et le Juif est banni.

(RACINE.)

De son temple profané on a brisé les portes,
Mathan est égorgé.

(RACINE.)

Le chardon importun hérissa nos guérets.

(BOILEAU.)

Dieu des Juifs, tu l'emportes!

Oui, c'est Joas, je cherche en vain à me tromper.

(RACINE.)

Ces gens qui, par une âme à l'intérêt soumise.
Font de dévotion métier et marchandise. (MOLIÈRE.)

Où courez-vous ainsi tout pâle et hors d'haleine.

(RACINE.)

(BOILEAU.)

(BOILEAU.)

L'esprit à la trouver aisément s'habitue.

Rarement un esprit ose être ce qu'il est.

Que les rois dans le ciel ont un juge sévère,

L'innocence un vengeur et l'orphelin un père. (RACINE.)

* Compare this example from Molière :

Et l'on va plus avant, lorsque l'on le veut bien.

In reality some of these examples do not contain hiatus; but as in regard to hiatus no account is ever taken of the pause except at the end of the line, they are wrong from Malherbe's point of view.

5. They are defective, for they really allow undisguised hiatus when an e mute is cut off after a vowel.

Par cette fin terrible, et due à ses forfaits.
C'est un miracle encor qu'il ne m'ait aujourd'hui
Enfermée à la clef, ou menée avec lui.

§ 531. Rhymes.

:

(RACINE.)

(MOLIÈRE.)

Rhymes which to us are insufficient, may or may not have been so at the time they were written in all probability they were for the most part good, and it is the change which has taken place in our pronunciation which makes them appear faulty. Only one pair of rhymes calls for special remark here :*

Oi and ai

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to say with certainty if the following rhymes were all faulty at the time they were written (17th century), but that some at least were so is tolerably. certain (§ 85):

Ma colère revient, et je me reconnois :
Immolons en partant trois ingrats à la fois.

Comment, c'est un exploit que ma fille lisoit?
Va, je t'achèterai lę Praticien françois.

(RACINE.)

Il est de done Ignès, à ce que je connoi?
Oui, je m'en réjouis et pour vous et pour moi.

(ID.)

(MOLIÈRE.)

Mère écrevisse un jour à sa fille disoit :
Comme tu vas ! bon Dieu! ne peux-tu marcher droit?
(LA FONTAINE.)

L'honneur et la vertu n'osèrent plus paroître ;

La piété chercha les déserts et le cloître. (BOILEAU.)

There is little doubt that during the 18th century such rhymes were faulty: they are rare.

Je la fis en ce même endroit ;
Je chantois, La Fare écrivoit.

Rousseau conduit par Polymie
Fit passer dans nos vers françois
Ces sons nombreux, cette harmonie
Qui donne la vie et la voix, etc.

(J. J. ROUSSEAU.)

(BERNIS.)

* The subject of Rhyme is treated at great length in Quicherat,

pp. 332-386.

§ 532. e mute in verse.

The rules for e mute, like those for hiatus, rhyme, etc., satisfy the eye more than the ear; but they differ from them in one most important particular. Many of the rules for hiatus and rhyme* must always have been false in principle, and contrary to the professed object they had in view: whereas the rules for e mute were at one time sound and good, and have only ceased to satisfy the ear from the gradual change which has taken place in the pronunciation. When the present system of French versification arose, the e mute was sounded (§ 81), and even now it is an open question whether in reading serious verse, the e mute within the line should not have its full value. The actual state of the case seems at present to be this: the pronunciation of the mute e is subject to the rules a, B, y, d, given in § 81. 3, with a greater or less leaning towards d.

It may be thought that under such treatment all the rhythm would vanish, but it must be recollected that even when sounded, e rarely bears the phrase accent (p. 65), and that such rhythm as .French verse possesses does not depend upon the number of syllables (although these syllables are insisted upon), but upon the repetition at intervals of this phrase or sense accent. Whether it was always so is another question; it is so now.

Song writers of the present day offer many examples of verse constructed according to the modern every-day pronunciation: but usually in such songs the systems are mixed to satisfy the eye that the number of syllables are there, and to suit the music. In reading such verses many a written e would be omitted; in singing them, every e mute would probably be pronounced, and even dwelt upon.

† In Mr. Ellis's Early English Pronunciation will be found La Fontaine's Paysan du Danube, with every e mute marked. The piece is quoted from a work on declamation, by M. Féline.

Ellis: Early English Pronunciation, p. 324.

« PreviousContinue »