Chapter V: Part III: Technical

CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE ORIGIN OF RHYME.

Definition of rhythm 299

Metrical system of Greek, of Roman, and of early Teutonic poems 300

Different meanings of arsis and thesis 300

The leonine hexameter 302

Rhyme independent of metrical accent 303

Known to ancient poets 303

Wilhelm Grimm’s history of the rhyme 303

Examples from Virgil and Horace 304

Rhyme destructive of the rhythmical principle 306

Influence of rhythm on Provençal poetry 308

CHAPTER XXIX.
RHYTHM.

Stability of metrical rules in Provençal poetry 311

Las Leys d’Amors 311

Dante’s ‘De Vulgari Eloquio’ applicable to Provençal poems 313

The limits of the length of a verse 313

Verses most frequently used 316

The decasyllabic verse (endecasyllabus) 318

The cæsura 318

In ‘Boethius’ and epical poems 320

The lyrical cæsura 323

CHAPTER XXX.
RHYME.

Definition of the Leys d’Amors 326

Accordansa sonan, consonan, and leonisme 326

Rime riche 328

The position of rhyme (‘rims ordinals’) 330

Artificialities 331

Connection of stanzas by means of rhyme 333

The ‘clavis’ 335

Guillem de Cabestanh’s canzo ‘Li douz cossire’ 336

Further artificialities 337

CHAPTER XXXI.
THE STANZA.

Its formation 340

Dante’s work of great value 340

Definition of Leys d’Amors unsatisfactory 341

Musical considerations 342

Pedes and cauda 344

Frons and versus 345

Pedes and versus 347

Frons and cauda 347

Concatenatio 348

The tornada 351

Metrical analysis of a canzo by Bernart de Ventadorn 353

CHAPTER XXXII.
SOME INTERLINEAR VERSIONS.

Canzo by Guillem de Cabestanh (‘Li douz cossire’) 358

Idyll by Marcabrun (‘A la fontana’) 364

_PART I._

GENERAL