(Ibid. p. 203.) Dit: C'est juste! marchons. Oh! les enfants, cela Soudain tout s'éclipsa, brusquement obscurci, Et je sentis mes yeux se fermer, comme si, (Ibid. p. 141.) The Décadents and Symbolistes present still more objection able instances: C'est l'heure précise, elle est unique, elle est (Verlaine, Choix, p. 293.) (Ibid. p. 273.) Cette chambre aux murs blancs, ce rayon sombre et On est puni par un regard très sec, Lequel contraste au demeurant avec (Ibid. p. 68.) Naturally much more liberty is allowed in comic and burlesque poetry, the very conflict between the rhythmical and grammatical accent being a condiment and adding to the fun. Thus in the Odes Funambulesques of Théodore de Banville extremely comical effects are produced by placing an unimportant word at the end of the line, and thus making it bear a strong accent which it would be without in the logical phrase, and compelling in that way the reader to give it an abnormal pronunciation: or: Jadis le bel Oscar, ce rival de Lauzun, Du temps que son habit vert pomme était dans un Etat difficile à décrire. (Odes Funambulesques, p. 149.) Danser toujours, pareil à Madame Saqui! Sachez-le donc, ô Lune, ô Muses, c'est ça qui Me fait verdir comme de l'herbe ! (Ibid. p. 194.) CHAPTER VI HIATUS I. The term hiatus is used to denote the clash in the body of the line of two successive vowel sounds, the first at the end of the first word and the second at the beginning of the next. Accordingly such common combinations as tu as, on avait, il aura, il a été, si elle, ni elle, qui a, lui ou elle, là où, ainsi on, à un homme, allé un jour, &c., are banished from the interior of a French verse. It follows from the definition of hiatus that a vowel sound ending one line does constitute a hiatus with the vowel sound beginning the next line, for the simple and obvious reason that the pause at the end of the line prevents the concurrence that is the necessary condition of a clash: Dans un lâche sommeil crois-tu qu'enseveli (Racine, Iphigénie, ll. 1107-8.) This deduction is simplicity itself, but the general neglect by French poets and theorists of the importance of the pause as annulling hiatus makes it clear that its application in this case was unconscious and called forth rather by convenience than by any reasoned consideration of the nature of hiatus. II. Since the time of Malherbe, hiatus between two vowels has been strictly forbidden. This rule, however, is liable to a few exceptions. The hiatus arising from the elision of the e after an accented vowel is admitted: Qui se lou(e) irrite l'envie. (Malherbe, Euvres, i. p. 275.) Devant Troi(e) en sa fleur doit être moissonnée. (Racine, Iphigénie, 1. 226.) De la massu(e) au front tous ont l'empreinte horrible. t Il est un sentier creux dans la vallé(e) étroite. (Théophile Gautier, Poésies Complètes, i. p. 21.) Elle est frappé(e) au coeur, la belle indifférente. (Alfred de Musset, Premières Poésies, p. 154.) Malherbe did not extend the rule to include such words, probably because such a course would have entailed their total exclusion from the body of a French verse, seeing that it is in that form only that they can occupy a place in the line. It is noticeable, however, that he avoided such hiatuses in the poems which he wrote when he was at his best, and objected to them altogether if it so happened that the two succeeding vowels were identical. Accordingly nis Commentary on the poems of Desportes he blames the following lines: Hélas! c'est fait de lui, il cri(e), il se tourmente. (Ibid. p. 376.) The adverb out is treated as a word beginning with a consonant, the ou being rightly considered as equivalent to a w: Oui, oui, je te renvoie à l'auteur des Satires. (Molière, Femmes Savantes, Act iii. Sc. 5.) Oui, oui, je m'en souviens: Cléotas fut mon père. (A. Chénier, Poésies, p. 43.) On the other hand, the conjunction et, of which the exists only for the eye and is not liable to liaison, is reckoned as a word ending with a vowel, so that such combinations as et il, et elle, et où, et as, el on, &c., must not appear in the body of the line. The Commentary on Desportes again makes that point quite clear. There we read the following notes: L'Amour qui nous assemble Veut qu'au bien et au mal nous ayons part ensemble. Il eût mieux dit: 'veut qu'au bien et qu'au mal, par ce moyen il eût évité l'entre-baillement qui rend ce vers malaisé à prononcer, en cette (Euvres, iv. p. 393.) rencontre: et au mal? Et au lieu de servir nous fait être maîtresses: entre-baillement. (Euvres, iv. p. 386.) III. In Old and Middle French the use of hiatus was subject to no restrictions, and could be applied at will: O il mena si grant chevalerie. (Aymeri, 1. 103.) It continued to be admitted in the first half of the six teenth century, but to a much more limited extent: Croy qu'à grand joye aura esté receu. (Clément Marot, Euvres, p. 4.) (Ibid. p. 11.) (Ibid. p. 20.) Car temps perdu, et jeunesse passée. Et qui diroit que tu as faict la faincte. IV. The poets of the second half of the sixteenth century were the first to perceive clearly that the hiatus between two vowels was apt to disturb the euphony of the verse, especially if the first word was polysyllabic. Consequently Ronsard in his Art Poétique (1565) advises poets to avoid it as much as possible: Tu éviteras, autant que la contrainte de ton vers le permettra, les rencontres de voyelles et diphthongues qui ne se mangent point; car telles concurrences de voyelles sans être élidées font les vers merveilleusement rudes en nostre langue, bien que les Grecs sont coustumiers de ce faire comme par élégance. Exemple: Vostre beauté a envoyé amour. Ce vers ici te servira de patron pour te garder de ne tomber en telle aspreté, qui escraze plustost l'aureille que ne luy donne plaisir 1. Apart from the hiatus resulting from the elision of an e after an accented vowel, which was also freely admitted in the sixteenth century, the cases of hiatus between two vowels found in the poetry of Ronsard and his school are in conformity with the views expressed in the Art Poétique. They occur mainly between monosyllabic words, such as et, qui, ni, ou, tu, si, &c., and a following word beginning with a vowel. These monosyllabic words being atonic and the voice gliding over them rapidly, the clash between the two successive vowels is so weak that it is almost imperceptible, and consequently not detrimental to the euphony of the verse: Que tu es à bon droict à Vénus consacrée. (Ronsard, Poésies Choisies, p. 23.) 1Œuvres, vii. p. 327. Aux hommes et aux temps, et à la Renommée. Et que mettre son cœur aux dames si avant. (Ibid. p. 48.) (Ibid. p. 68.) Et, n'ayant ny argent ny biens pour secourir. (Ibid. p. 70.) Par où elle passoit toute l'herbe mourut. (Ibid. p. 71.) (Garnier, Bradamente, 1. 504.) Où est le temps serein qui les cœurs esmouvoit? Si elle plaist, à quoi plains-je sans cesse? (Amadis Jamyn 1.) (Olivier de Magny 2.) Fille aisnée de Dieu, que tu es bonne et belle. (Du Bartas 3.) If of the two words constituting hiatus the first was accented and polysyllabic they generally placed it immediately before the cesural pause, which goes to prove that the poets of the second half of the sixteenth century were conscious that the pause was capable of annulling hiatus: Mais c'est trop babillé, | il se faut dépescher. (Ronsard, Poésies Choisies, p. 229.) Je n'ay jamais servi | autres maistres que rois. En pauvreté à ceux qui l'ont suivie. (Ibid. p. 233.) (Baïf, Poésies Choisies, p. 47.) Qui l'ayme et suis aymé, | et la baise et la voy. (Olivier de Magny, p. 87.) No such considerations have been taken into account since the beginning of the seventeenth century, and all successions of vowels, whether separated by a pause in the line or not, have been considered to constitute hiatus and consequently avoided. V. The first French poet to establish the law as it now stands was Malherbe in his Commentary on the poems of Desportes, one of the later disciples of Ronsard. With Malherbe, practice corresponds to theory, his complete poems only presenting seven cases of hiatus, of which three occur in his earliest poems: 1 See Contemporains de Ronsard, p. 140. 2 Ibid. p. 76. Ibid. p. 268. |