But now when PITT, the all-perfect, sways, Too poor to be the purchase twice, The Dev'l grown wiser, to the gaze To pay the peace and honest praise, Of Eden lost. "A mere affair of trade to embrace, "Party were guilt in such a case, Thus Eden with unblushing face, To North would palliate his disgrace; When North, with smiles, this answer made: These rondeaus attacking North, Eden, Pitt and Dorset are attributed to Dr. Laurence, a friend of Burke's. XII THE VILLANELLE The word villanelle, or villenesque, was used toward the end of the sixteenth century to describe literary imitations of rustic songs. Such villanelles were alike in exhibiting a refrain which testified to their ultimate popular origin. The villanelle was, in a sense, invented by Jean Passerat (1534-1602). It is a poem of six stanzas of not more than two rhymes, the first five of which are composed of three lines, the last of four, the first line and the third line of the first stanza alternating as refrains. The tercets rhyme a b a, the quatrain usually a ba a. Passerat's villanelle about the turtle-dove and Wyndham's translation show all of these characteristics. J'ai perdu ma tourterelle; Tu regrettes ta femelle, Si ton amour est fidelle, Ta plainte se renouvelle, En ne voyant plus la belle, Mort, que tant de fois j'appelle, Je veux aller après elle. I have lost my turtle-dove; Is not that her call to me? To be with her were enough. You mourn for your mate in love, I chant in the same sad key, I have lost my turtle-dove. If your faith is not to move, Fast is my fidelity; To be with her were enough. Grief renews your song thereof, I have lost my turtle-dove, Seeing no more in the grove Death, besought all life above, Passerat had written other villanelles, so-called, that did not conform to this model at all. The great Hellenist was undoubtedly unaware of the innovation that he had introduced, but the form caught the attention of his contemporaries and became fixed in his lifetime. Pierre Richelet and other writers on the theory of poetry designated as villanelles only those poems that conformed to Passerat's classic example. L. E. Kastner, the eminent authority on French versification, mentions the fact that "Philoxène Boyer (1827-67) has left one well-known example of this form, La Marquise Aurore (which differs slightly from Passerat's model in that the third line of the first tercet is repeated before the first line. ..)" XIII THE SESTINA The sestina is also in a sense an invention, the first one being the work of Arnaut Daniel (died 1199), who was ranked by Dante highest amongst Provençal poets. Dante himself wrote sestinas in Italian, his most famous one beginning with the words "Al poco giorno ed al gran cerchio d'ombra." In the De Vulgari Eloquio he says that he copied the structure of his sestinas from Arnaut Daniel. The sestina in its pure medieval form is independent of rhyme. It is composed of six stanzas of six lines. The final words of the first stanza appear in inverted order in all the others. If we let the letters of the alphabet represent the six final words of the first stanza, we have the following graphic illustration of the order in which these words reappear in the five following stanzas: a b c d e f faebdc cfdabe ecbfad deacfb bdfeca These six stanzas are followed by a tornada, or envoy, When I waked out of dreaming, Her cheeks exceed the rose and lilies. To this happy blessed garden, Come, you Nymphs! come, Fairies! hither. So She seemed, in her walking, The Rose for anger at that Nymph Tears came from the Rose and Lilies! When PARTHENOPE came hither, (That hill was heaven! where I lay dreaming) And in her hand her Rose and Lilies As sacrifice given by that garden; (To Love, stood sacred that fair garden!) Would make me, night and day, come hither, Another one of his sestinas invokes the assistance of Echo, with what results the first stanza of the poem shows. Echo! What shall I do to my Nymph when I go to behold her? ECHO, Hold her! |