treatises on French Prosody written for English readers. While this little book does not pretend to deal generally with that vast subject, the history of French Versification, we have, when occasion offered, explained singularities in the modern system of versification by reference to the prosody of Old French. The majority of the objections which are raised against the rules of Modern French verse have some foundation in fact; but most of the apparent singularities of these rules are to be explained by the study of the linguistic phenomena of the eighteenth, seventeenth, and sixteenth centuries. In a word, they are survivals. Apart from these exceptional cases, we have compared the prosody of the middle ages with that of modern poetry wherever such a comparison seemed of sufficient interest and impor tance. We have adhered in general to the usual terminology adopted by French prosodists. We have, however, not used the word assonance in the sense of vowel-alliteration generally, because this word is also used more especially to denote identity between the final sounded vowels of two lines (cf. chap. iv). We have, again, avoided the use of the terms isometric and heterometric to designate stanzas containing lines of equal or of unequal length respectively. These terms are well suited to languages, ancient or modern, in which the length of the line is determined by a number of feet constituting a metre. But in French, as in the other Romance languages, the length of the line is always determined by a number of syllables. For a different thing we must choose a different name. Hence in dealing with French verse we have chosen the word "isostichic" to designate stanzas formed of lines of the same length (orixos a line), and the word "heterostichic" to designate stanzas formed of lines of different length. If the words seem somewhat inharmonious, we must appeal to the example of the chemists. In a book destined rather for the cultured than the learned public, it has seemed unnecessary to give a long list of all the works and dissertations we have consulted. We have decided, therefore, to give a select bibliography of such works as are likely to be of the greatest use to the English reader. A fuller bibliography is to be found in the scholarly History of French Versification by Mr. L. E. Kastner, M.A. (Clarendon Press), which has appeared as our sheets were passing through the press. The general plan of our book is explained at the beginning of Chapter I, so that we need add but little here. We may, however, point out that our selections include specimens of French poetry from the twelfth to the twentieth century, and that the sonnets quoted suffice for the understanding of the literary evolution of this kind in France. We have drawn up a table of contents, an index, and a list of the poets quoted. We trust that these will be of use to the student. We have finally to thank Messieurs François Coppée, Anatole France, Henri de Régnier, Jean Richepin, Edmond Rostand, Sully-Prudhomme, José Maria de Hérédia, and Francis Viélé-Griffin, for the permission to reproduce the pieces taken from their works, to the very great advantage of our readers. We have also to thank their publishers, Messieurs Calmann - Lévy, Charpentier, and Fasquelle, the Société du Mercure de France, and M. Lemerre, who have, except in a single case, very kindly given gratuitous authorization for the reproduction of these pieces. We offer our best thanks to our friend Mr. F. B. Kirkman, to our colleague Professor Arthur Platt of the University College, London, to Professor Marcus Hartog of Queen's College, Cork, and especially to Mr. G. H. Ely, who have been kind enough to read our manuscript, and to whom we owe many interesting suggestions and important corrections. We desire to acknowledge here the very great courtesy and readiness to meet our wishes which have been shown to us by Messrs. Blackie, our publishers. We shall gladly welcome any suggestions and corrections from our readers, by which we hope to profit in a subsequent edition. L. M. B. CHAPTER VIII. A. The Strophe, the Stanza, and the Couplet-Poems of fixed form, composed of one Stanza B. Poems of fixed form, composed of Stanzas of |