L'habilleuse avec des épingles | dans la bouche. Ayez pitié, je n'ai pas mangé, | je vous jure. VI. Now that the nature of the cesura has been explained, it is necessary to establish at what place it may occur in the different French lines. Before proceeding it should, however, be stated that only those lines that contain more than eight syllables have any fixed and obligatory cesura, the others not being sufficiently long to make a pause in the voice necessary. 1. The line of twelve syllables or Alexandrine, from the earliest times till the rise of the Romantic School at the beginning of the nineteenth century, practically invariably received the cesura after the sixth syllable (6+6 or 6+6°, or also in O. F., with epic cesura, 6+6 or 6°+6°): Bien sceivent li plusor, | n'en sui pas en doutanche (Doon de Mayence, 11. 2-8.) Sire, ce n'est pas tout | que d'estre roy de France, (Ronsard, Poés. Chois. p. 362.) Mais je sens affaiblir | ma force et mes esprits, (Racine, Mithridate, 11. 1693-6.) It thus falls into two equal parts or hemistichs, and in that form is known as alexandrin classique, from the fact that it was brought to perfection by the great poets of the seventeenth century, the classical period of French literature. The two divisions of six syllables could in their turn be subdivided into any two groups of syllables making up six (3+3, 2+4, 4+2, &c.). In this way it has been calculated that the classical Alexandrine can have as many as thirty-six different kinds of rhythms, though not infrequently the secondary accents, within the two hemistichs on which the variety of rhythm depends, are so slight as compared with that of the medial pause that they are rendered almost imperceptible. Moreover the subdivision 3+3 preponderates to such an extent that it cannot be said that these secondary pauses altogether dispose of the pendulum-like swing of the French classical Alexandrine to which it mainly owes its reputation for monotony. Still the examination of a passage written in the most regular classical Alexandrines will show that this measure is capable of greater rhythmical variety than is generally supposed: Oui, je viens | dans son temple || adorer | l'Éternel; Célébrer avec vous || la fameuse journée Où sur le mont Sina || la loi | nous fut donnée. Que les temps | sont changés ! || Sitôt que de ce jour La trompette sacrée || annonçait | le retour, Du temple, orné partout || de festons | magnifiques, Le peuple saint | en foule || inondait | les portiques; Et tous, devant l'autel || avec ordre | introduits, De leurs champs | dans leurs mains || portant | les nouveaux fruits, Au Dieu de l'univers || consacraient | ces prémices. (Racine, Athalie, 11. 1-11.) Or the opening of the second canto of Boileau's Art Poétique: Telle qu'une bergère, || au plus beau | jour de fête, De superbes rubis | ne charge point | sa tête, Et, sans mêler | à l'or || l'éclat | des diamants, Cueille en un champ voisin || ses plus beaux | ornements: Telle, aimable en son air, || mais humble dans son style, Son tour simple | et naïf || n'a rien de fastueux, 2. It has already been pointed out that the accents in the body of the hemistichs of the classical Alexandrine were very much less marked than that at the medial cesura. From the O. F. period onwards, however, Alexandrines are occasionally found with other and more important pauses and accents than that after the sixth syllable, which, instead of being cut into two equal halves, present a ternary division, or, in other words, two cesuras instead of one. Those ternary lines are very scarce in O. F., as also in the sixteenth century. A few are found in the Satires of Régnier: S'allonge, s'accourcit, | ses muscles estendant. (Sat., i. p. 6.) J'ay beu chaud, | mangé froid, | j'ay couché sur la dure. Facile au vice, il hait les vieux | et les dédaigne. (Sat., ix. p. 70.) Such rhythms were carefully avoided by poets of the type of Malherbe and Boileau, as being contrary to the rules of French prosody, but the really great poets of the seventeenth century, Racine and more especially Molière and La Fontaine, allowed their sense of rhythm to get the better of the narrowing canons of the 'Legislators of Parnassus.' Nevertheless such ternary divisions of the Alexandrine in the French classical poets are to be considered as isolated exceptions. The more usual can be classed into three divisions, according as the medial group of syllables contain four, five, or six syllables and the initial and final groups consist of any numbers of syllables, which if added to those of the medial group make up the number twelve: 4 +4 +4 Non je ne puis, | tu vois mon trouble et ma faiblesse. 3 +5+4 (Racine, Athalie, 1. 435.) Est-ce à vous de prêter l'oreille à leurs discours? 2 + 6 + 4 Et moi je lui tendais Examples in Molière : (Ibid., Britannicus, 1. 1434.) Et près de vous | ce sont des sots | que tous les hommes. 4 + 5 + 3 Dans la prison | qu'on doit vous donner | pour demeure. 3 +6 +3 (Euvres, iv. p. 422.) (Ibid., iv. p. 524.) (Ibid., iv. p. 40.) Et quand même | on pourroit se résoudre | à le faire. And in La Fontaine : Il n'avait pu donner d'atteinte à la volaille. 4 +4 +4 (Euvres, iii. p. 109.) 3 +5+4 (Ibid., i. p. 73.) 4 + 6 + 2 Cela dit, maître Loup s'enfuit, I et court encor. En toutes choses | il faut considérer | la fin. (Ibid., i. p. 219.) In the eighteenth century, André Chénier was the only poet who seems to have felt the effects which could be gained by the displacement of the principal cesura. He used it rarely and with discretion, but with a full consciousness of its rhythmical value : Se trouble, et tend déjà les mains | à la prière. (Poésies, p. 6.) Le jour où nous avons reçu le grand Homère. (Ibid., p. 25.) Il se traîne; | et souvent sur la pierre | il s'endort. (Ibid., p. 44.) (Ibid., p. 93.) Le rassure, et le loue, | et flatte sa beauté. (Ibid., p. 96.) But it is due to Victor Hugo and the other Romanticists, more especially Théophile Gautier and Sainte-Beuve, that the Ternary or Romantic Alexandrine, as it is called, has firmly established its claim in French poetry. Victor Hugo alludes to this innovation in a famous passage of the poem entitled Réponse à un Acte d'Accusa tion: Nous faisons basculer la balance hémistiche. C'est vrai, maudissez-nous. Le vers, qui sur son front Et sans cesse sautait sur la double raquette Qu'on nomme prosodie et qu'on nomme étiquette, (Contemplations, i. p. 25.) The most frequent divisions of the Ternary Alexandrine in the Romantic poets are the following, the most common of all being 4+4+4 and 3+5+4: 2 +6+4 Saigna | l'humanité gisante | aux quatre veines. (V. Hugo, Légende des Siècles, iv. p. 80.) Je vois, l'œil vaguement fixé | sur les passants. 3+ 6 + 3 (Ibid., p. 89.) (Ibid., p. 54.) Ibid., p. 59.) A midi | nous avions notre mur | pour frontière. 4 + 6 + 2 D'être pantin | après avoir été | génie ! La mélodie | encor quelques instants | se traîne. 3 +5+4 (Ibid., p. 69.) (Ibid., p. 129.) S'ouvre à moi | comme un gouffre obscur | au fond d'un autre. Il est nuit. La cabane est pauvre, mais bien close. 4+ 5+ 3 Toute la plaine fut un abîme fumant. (Ibid., p. 68.) (Ibid., p. 120.) (Ibid., p. 58.) (Ibid., p. 97.) La mort accourt | avec la rumeur | d'une foule. 4 +4 +4 On devinait | derrière un voile | un choc affreux. (Ibid., p. 61.) Dans les brisants, | parmi les la mes en démence. (Ibid., p. 120.) Variations are also found, especially in dialogue, in which the medial group consists of seven or even of eight syllables: I + 7 + 4 Fière, et faisant sonner la gloire dans le cuivre. Messieurs! | Avons-nous fait cela pour rire? Quoi! (Ibid., 1. 258.) These ternary lines were used comparatively sparingly even by the Romantic poets to produce special effects by the side of the classical Alexandrines, which in Victor Hugo preponderate in the ratio of about four to three. The following passage furnishes an example of their normal use by Victor Hugo: Ils se battent | combat terrible! - | corps à corps. |