carried to such an extent that each syllable of a whole verse agreed with the corresponding syllable of another. This was called a rim serpenti. Of such exaggeration there is probably no instance in the good troubadours; the 'Leys d'Amors' gives the following: Bos-dieus-clarratz1-cara Los mieus-gardatz-ara. Next come the rhymes between the ends of the verses of one and the same stanza. The simplest form possible in this case was that all the verses of a stanza should have but one rhyme, which suggests the tirade monorime in the popular epic. The Leys d'Amors' calls this rim continuat. Although 6 very simple, this rhyme was used by the most finished troubadours, such as Marcabrun and Aimeric de Peguilhan. Sordello bewailed in it the death of his friend Blacatz; and in the last-named poem combined with the long verse of twelve syllables, it has an excellent effect owing to its dreary monotonous sound. When there are two or more rhymes in a stanza, their order is varied in many different ways. The most simple mode is what the 'Leys d'Amors' calls rims encadenatz; and next to this the rims crozatz. Rims encadenatz are crossed rhymes, viz., ab: a b. This position of the rhymes, continued through a whole stanza, is not often to be found in the better, or at least more artistic, troubadours. 1 Clarratz is evidently a mistake; very likely it should be read clartatz = clarté. Johan de Pena, one of the less celebrated, has used it in a stanza of charming simplicity: Un guerrier per alegrar e guerrejaray d'amor, que guerreja volontieira. Rims crozatz are found, to quote but one instance, in the two quatrains of a sonnet. These are the principal divisions of rhyme in its relations to a single stanza. But the troubadours employed it also to keep up a certain connection be tween several, sometimes all, the different stanzas of a poem; and in this respect it must now be considered. A change of rhyme from strophe to strophe— rims singulars—is rare, and, as a rule, found only where the stanza is very long and artificially composed. An example occurs in a song by Peire Cardinal, each stanza of which consists of no less than fifteen lines. Gaucelm Faidit and the Monk of Montaudon have used rims singulars also in shorter and simpler stanzas. The 'Leys d'Amors' gives no rule as to their use, but confirms indirectly what has been said, by giving as an example a very long and complicated stanza. Directly opposed to the rims singulars are the rims or coblas unisonans, where all the stanzas of a poem have the same rhymes in the corresponding lines. Sometimes poems of this kind are very long, so that the poet had to find a great number of consonant words, which however, in the langue d'oc, was not as difficult as it would have been in one of the Teutonic languages. But in spite of this some of the German minnesingers, such as Count Rudolf of Neuenburg and Friedrich von Hausen, who were under the influence of the troubadours, tried to compete with them in the richness of their rhymes and the variety of their stanzas. Of Friedrich von Hausen a song remains, which is an exact imitation, in one stanza even a translation, of one of Folquet de Marseilles' canzos, which the German poet probably learned during the crusade of 1190, on which he accompanied the Emperor Frederick I. Sometimes the stanzas of a poem are grouped together in twos, threes, or fours, by means of equal rhymes. Such cases are described by the 'Leys d'Amors' as coblas doblas, triplas, &c. The better to display their skill, the greatest artists among the troubadours liked to choose for their rhymes rare and unusual words, the meaning of which, at the same time, was not easy to discover. The greatest master in these 'rims cars,' and 'motz oscurs,' was Arnaut Daniel, whom Dante, very likely for that reason, calls the first of all troubadours. But Peire d'Alvernhe also says of his poems, as a proof of their high art, 'qu'apenas nulhs hom las enten.' To give an idea of this obscurity, which, however, did not increase by any means the beauty of a canzo, it will suffice to quote a stanza from one of Arnaut Daniel's poems, entirely written in rims cars: En breu brizaral temps braus, It is worthy of notice that in the first lines the troubadour has used alliteration to increase the strange sound of his words. The lines serve at the same time as an example of another way of connecting stanzas with each other. All the different verses are without a rhyme in their own stanza, but find it in the corresponding verse of another, or of all the other stanzas. Rhyme of this kind is called by the 'Leys d'Amors' rim espar, while Dante uses the expression clavis. When the clavis runs through all the verses of each stanza, the case is described as rimas dissolutas. Arnaut Daniel seems to have been particularly fond of this form; for the sestina also, which he invented, and which Dante praised and imitated, is founded on the same principle. Other poets preferred generally to introduce only one clavis or, at most, two, interrupting in this way, sometimes with great effect, the equal flow of the rhymes. A modification of the rims espars is the rims capcaudatz. This takes place if the clavis is the last verse of the first stanza, and is introduced into the following, not in its corresponding place, but by way of first rhyme. Of the two stanzas, for instance, quoted by the Leys d'Amors,' the first ends with the line, 'Li fizel de mortal pena,' and the first line of the second accordingly shows the same rhyme in 'verges eratz e vergena,' and continues the scheme exactly in the same way as the first stanza. The various combinations of stanzas by means of the rhyme are one of the most interesting parts of Provençal versification, and show a great refinement of taste in the mediæval poets. To convey an idea of the skill manifested in this way, it will be useful to give a short sketch of a canzo which, in this as in all other respects, may be considered as the standard piece of Provençal poetry. This is Guillem de Cabestanh's celebrated song, Li douz cossire,' through which, it is said, the poet lost his life, while making his name immortal. The poem consists of six stanzas, divided by means of corresponding rhymes into three groups of coblas doblas. But these three groups are again connected with each other; for the third stanza resumes the last feminine rhyme of the second, and uses it as first rhyme, introducing, however, new additional rhymes. The fifth stanza stands in exactly the same relation to the fourth. The four last lines of the second stanza show the following rhyming words-parvensa, temensa; fei, vei. The first rhyme of the third stanza must be feminine; and therefore the penultimate couple of rhymes is used, with some irregularity, as a kind of rims capcaudatz, and the beginning is En sovinensa tenc la car'el dous ris, vostra valensa el bel cors blanc e lis, &c. |