Thomas à Becket by Garnier de Pont Sainte-Maxence (1173) likewise presents the strophic form, but of five mono-rimed lines instead of four: La l'unt trait e mené li ministre enragié : N'en ferai,' fait il, 'plus que je n'ai comencié.' Outside the chansons de geste proper the Alexandrine is found in the Roman de Jules César (thirteenth century), and in the roman d'aventure, Brun de la Montagne (fourteenth century). A few examples in mono-riming strophes of four lines can also be instanced from the medieval drama, notably passages in Jean Bodel's Jeu de Saint-Nicolas, Adam de la Halle's Jeu de la Feuillée, and Rutebeuf's Miracle de Théophile: Hé, las! chetis! dolenz! que porrai devenir? A seignor et a mestre qui toz maus fet venir? (Rutebeuf, p. 216.) It is not found in O. F. literary lyric poetry, but is used in popular or semi-popular romances and pastourelles : Bele Ydoine se siet desous la verde olive (Bartsch, Rom. und Past., p. 59.) During the latter part of the fourteenth and the whole of the fifteenth century the Alexandrine was totally abandoned, being ousted by its old rival the decasyllabic. It reappeared for the first time in Jacques Milet's Destruction de Troyes (1452), but without making any impression. It fared little better in the first half of the sixteenth century. Fabri (1521) calls it une antique maniere de rithmer 2, and Jean Le Maire de Belges (b. c. 1473), who used it in 1 Paul Meyer, Recueil d'Anciens Textes, ii. p. 317. a passage of about 100 lines in the Concorde des deux Langages (1511): Voicy le noble roc, qui les nues surpasse, Des plus hauts monts qu'on sache au monde l'outrepasse, Or est tout ce Rocher, divers, glissant et lubre. remarks at the end of the piece: ... composé de rhythme Alexandrine... laquelle taille jadis avoit grand bruit en France, pource que les prouesses du Roy Alexandre le grand en sont descrites es anciens Rommans: dont aucuns modernes ne tiennent conte aujourdhuy1. Clément Marot, who applied this measure in a few short poems, was also obliged to take the same precaution, by adding the superscription vers alexandrins 2. A few isolated examples in this period are likewise found in the works of Coquillard (c. 1422-1510) and Roger de Collerye (1494–1538). 4 6 The Alexandrine was revived by Ronsard and the poets of the Pléiade. Pasquier claims that Baïf was the first to reintroduce it in lyrical poetry, but, be that as it may, it was Ronsard especially who, by his wonderful rhythmical genius, reinstated that measure and subsequently imposed it as the French verse par excellence, so that it may be said, without any fear of contradiction, that three quarters of the French verses that have been composed since the 1 Euvres, iii. pp. 128-31. 2 Thomas Sibilet, who represents the school of Marot, says of the Alexandrine: Ceste espece est moins frequente que les autres deux (the octosyllabic and decasyllabic line), et ne se peut appliquer qu'à choses fort graves, comme aussi au pois de l'oreille se trouve pesante (Art Poëtique, ed. 1556, p. 28). 3 Euvres, i. pp. 4 and 23. 4 Euvres, p. 263. 5 Jacques Peletier du Mans, Art Poëtique (1555): Le dodecasilabe, autrement vers Alexandrin, etoit fort rare, jusques a cet age (p. 57). Recherches, Bk. vii. p. 625: Le premier des nostres qui les (les vers de douze syllabes) remist en credit, fut Baïf en ses Amours de Francine. This is a moot point, as the Antiquités de Rome and the Regrets of du Bellay also appeared in 1548, the year of publication of the Amours de Francine. beginning of the seventeenth century are dodecasyllables or grands vers, as the French sometimes term them. After writing Acts ii, iii, and v of his Cléopátre (1552) in decasyllables, Jodelle used the Alexandrine exclusively in his next tragedy, Didon, and since that time it has ranked as the standard tragic line, although a few sixteenth-century tragedies, such as Bastier de la Peruse's Médée (1553), Gabriel Bonnin's La Soltane (1561), and Jean de la Taille's La Famine (1573), still present the decasyllabic by the side of the dodecasyllabic line. It was not till the seventeenth century that the Alexandrine was introduced into comedy by Pierre Corneille, whose example in this respect has likewise been invariably followed since. The lines containing less than eight syllables, more particularly those of seven and six syllables, have at no time been completely neglected, though they cannot compare in the frequency of their use to the measures already discussed. IV. THE HEPTASYLLABIC LINE. From the twelfth century onwards the heptasyllabic line occurs in lyrical compositions, combined with other measures or in short isometric strophes. Though less common than the decasyllabic and octosyllabic lines it is not unusual in the poetry of the trouvères: Chançon legiere a entendre (Quesnes de Bethune 1.) Aucassin et Nicolette is the only O. F. narrative poem which contains that measure: Aucassins s'en est tornés De s'amie o le vis cler. Nus ne le puet conforter, Ne nul bon consel doner 2, &c. It is also found in the Lai du Chevrefuel of Marie de France-in strophes of eight lines with cross rimes, 1 Brakelmann, p. 71. 2 Cf. ed. H. Suchier, p. 9. But it was in the second half of the sixteenth century that the seven-syllable line reached the height of its vogue, the poets of the Pléiade affecting it for the Ode, probably on account of its external resemblance to the Latin versus Pherecrateus secundus (— — — ~ ~ - ~). The poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries curtailed the use of the heptasyllabic line considerably. Malherbe still continued to use it for the Ode, and La Fontaine composed a few of his Fables entirely in that metre. In the eighteenth century Chaulieu (1639-1720) and Piron (1689-1773) employed it in longer poems-épigrammes and épîtres1. Of the Romanticists, Lamartine and Victor Hugo have not been adverse to the seven-syllable line. The latter has availed himself of it in one long poem of the Légende des Siècles Le Romancero du Cid-and notably in several short chansons in the Contemplations and other collections of poems. Théophile Gautier has also several examples of this measure, but of modern poets Théodore de Banville and Richepin have favoured it most-proportionately. V. THE HEXASYLLABIC LINE. Both in Old and Modern French the line of six syllables is generally found combined with longer or shorter lines. However it occurs occasionally in isometric strophes both in popular and literary O. F. lyrical poetry, more particularly in the former: En l'ombre d'un vergier Et dit 'e, ae! o, or ae! Bien m'ont amors desfie.' (Bartsch, Rom. und Past., p. 72.) This measure is also met with, unmixed and riming in couplets, in the Cumpoz or Computus (i. e. ecclesiastical tables 1 Cf. Crépet, Les Poètes Français, iii. p. 177-8. and calendar) and in the Bestiaire of the Anglo-Norman priest Philippe de Thaün, who wrote at the beginning of the twelfth century. The opening lines of the Cumpoz are quoted: Philipes de Thaün En fait u en escrit... After having been neglected by the poets of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the line of six syllables was taken up again by the poets of the Renaissance, who employed it preferably in short strophes of four or six lines. This line hardly maintained its position in the seventeenth century. The same may be said of the eighteenth century, though more than one poet of that period showed that it could be used effectively in longer strophes. In the nineteenth century it has been revived by the Romanticists, either mixed or in short strophes of four, five, or six lines, and has continued to find favour with their successors. The following table, compiled by Becker (Zts. f. rom. Phil., xii, 89), is interesting as indicating the percentage of the most important lines in the works of some of the great poets of the nineteenth century. The symbol X2 denotes the decasyllabic with medial cesura (5+5): |