CHAPTER I PRINCIPLES OF FRENCH VERSIFICATION A VERSE can be defined as a series of words united by a rhythm or succession of times divisible into measures which by their disposition give pleasure to the ear. While the poetic rhythm of the classical languages depends principally on the quantity of the syllables, and that of the Germanic languages on their intensity, in the Romance tongues, and consequently in French, the rhythm of poetry is chiefly based on a fixed number of syllables in each line regardless of their quantity, together with the addition of rime (assonance or vowel-rime at first and later full rime), which serves the purpose of indicating more forcibly the end of the line. or rhythmical entity. Yet French verse is in a measure accentual in so far that the last sounded syllable of the line must be a stressed syllable, as also the last sounded syllable immediately preceding the cesural pause. The place of the other accents, however, is free, and it is largely to this freedom in the disposition of the accents, other than that at the cesura and at the end of the line, that French versification owes one of its chief advantages-the multiplicity of possible rhythmical periods and combinations. If, for example, the opening lines of Racine's Athalie are examined: Oui, je viens dans son témple | adorer l'Éternél; 1 The word accent is used throughout in the sense of tonic accent or stress-accent. French words are accented on the last syllable (donnér), but if the last syllable is mute the accent falls on the penultimate or last syllable but one (dónne, dónnes, dónnent). Those words that are accented on the last syllable are termed oxytonic, and those that are accented on the last syllable but one, paroxytonic. A proparoxytonic is a word accented on the syllable before the penultimate, but such words are unknown to French, and only occur in certain of the Romance languages, notably in Italian. In French versification an oxytonic word is known as masculine, and a paroxytonic word as feminine, irrespective of their grammatical gender. it will be noticed that (a) the number of syllables is the same in both lines, (b) that both the lines have an accented syllable at the cesura and at the end of the line, but (c) that the second line has not the same number of stress-accents as the first. To sum up, the fundamental principles of French verse are (1) syllabism, (2) rime, and (3) to a certain extent. accentuation, and so closely are they united and related that all attempts-fortunately only isolated experiments 2to write French verses without the strict observance of these three principles have ended in failure. Finally it should be noticed that the laws which govern the accentuation of single French words do not necessarily apply when these words are united in the sentence. On the contrary, in the living enchainment of the sentence it frequently happens, under the impulse of emotion or for the sake of emphasis, that the normal accentuation is disturbed by the action of the so-called accent oratoire (or accent emphatique, as it is sometimes called), through which the accent is not infrequently placed on words that are usually unstressed, or shifted on to a syllable which under ordinary circumstances only bears a secondary accent. Thus in the following lines from Racine's Andromaque, in which Hermione after having egged on Orestes to murder Pyrrhus turns round on him and bitterly reproaches him for the deed, the normal accentuation would be modified as follows under the play of the emotions, although, in a matter where a good deal depends on subjective treatment, it is certain that no two readers would invariably agree in the accentuation of all the words of the same passage: Tais-toi, pérfide, Et n'impute qu'à tói ton lâche párricide. 1 This is not true of strophic poetry; see chap. ix. 2 For such experiments see chap. xi. 3 The importance of the accent oratoire has been clearly demonstrated by G. Paris in his Étude sur le rôle de l'accent latin dans la langue française. He sums up his view by saying (p. 17): La langue française a développé les accents secondaires aux dépens de l'accent principal et donné à l'accent oratoire une puissance exceptionnelle; elle a, en un mot, effacé l'accent tonique, autant que lui a permis la nécessité de conserver Funité et le caractère de ses mots. Bárbare, qu'ás-tu fait? avec quelle furie (Act v. Sc. 3.) CHAPTER II THE COUNTING OF SYLLABLES I. THE e mute (-e, -es, -ent), which ought more properly to be termed the feminine e, at the end of the line is never counted in scansion. Thus the following lines: Seigneur dans cet aveu dépouillé d'artifice; (Racine.) Parmi les noirs déserts et les mornes silences; (V. Hugo.) (Ibid.) are scanned thus, without taking into account the feminine endings (-e, -es, -ent): Sei-gneur-dan-cet-ta-veu-dé-pou-yé-dar-ti-fic'; Et-les-vas-tes-eaux-se-re-mu'1. Thus although the first and second of the lines quoted above really contain thirteen syllables and one syllable more than the following line, for example: Le faux est toujours fade, ennuyeux, languissant, they are both known as dodecasyllabic lines (Alexandrines), the line with an oxytonic or masculine termination being the normal line in French and that which gives its name to each class of verse. Nevertheless the two must not be looked upon as identical in any way or interchangeable, but as different species of one and the same verse. Italian, on the other hand, proceeds in exactly the opposite fashion. In that language, as also in Spanish, the feminine syllable at the end of the line is counted, and it is the line with a paroxytonic or feminine ending which is looked upon as the normal line. Consequently a line containing the same number of syllables as a French feminine decasyllabic line, for example, is called endecasillabo in Italian: Vínse le crúde immágini di morte; and a masculine endecasillabo is known as endecasillabo trunco (truncated) as opposed to the normal endecasillabo piano, because it only contains ten syllables in reality: La cóppia allór fra quélle béstie entrò. But on the other hand, as Italian possesses proparoxytonic words or parole sdrucciole (gliding), as they are called in that language (cápito, II. Mute e not followed by -s or -nt is elided in the body of the line if the next word begins with a vowel or h mute: Dit-on quell(e) aventur(e) a terminé ses jours? Lent(e) et molle rivièr(e) aux roseaux murmurants. (Racine.) (V. Hugo.) It should be noticed that stops do not in any way affect elision: Le vent impétueux qui soufflait dans ses voiles (A. Chénier.) Mort(e) et moi, je suis là, stupide qui l'appelle. (V. Hugo.) III. Before the so-called h aspirée mute e cannot be elided. Thus the following line of Racine: Quelle honte pour moi, quel triomphe pour lui, scans as follows: Quel-le-on-te-pour-moi-quel-tri-om-phe-pour-lui. But as the h aspirée has been silent since the end of the seventeenth century, a few poets have sometimes taken the liberty of eliding e before it: Bien que votre parente, est-ell(e) hors de ces lieux. (Corneille 1.) Aurait rendu comme eux leur dieu mêm(e) haïssable. The rule is that onze, onzième, oui, ouate should be treated as if they began with h aspirate, but occasionally l'onze and l'onzième are found in certain poets, while there are also examples of oui treated in the same way: Tu l'as formé pour moi, Mascarill(e)?-Oui, pour vous. perdono), an endecasillabo ending with one of those words really consists of twelve syllables, and is known as endecasillabo sdrucciolo: L'invidia, figliuól mío, sè stessa lácera. The same applies of course to the other kinds of lines. Lastly, it should be mentioned that versi bi- or even quadrisdruccioli are possible in Italian, though little used, as that language also possesses words in which the tonic accent is followed by three or even as many as five atonic syllables. 1 Quoted by Quicherat, p. 57, note 3. |