second tornada it generally agrees with the first, being, however, always the shorter of the two. All this, of course, the author of the 'Leys d'Amors' could not know, because he was ignorant of the metrical and musical formation of the stanza; but it is of the highest importance for the study of Provençal versification, and shows again the great value of Dante's work in that respect. The above-stated rule is confirmed by so many examples from the canzos of the troubadours that it is scarcely necessary to bring new evidence for it. It will be more useful to mention some of the more important exceptions, which in this, as in other cases, 'firmant regulam.' If the last stanza of a poem ends with two versus, the tornada sometimes repeats only one of them. Sometimes also part of the cauda remains unrepeated. In other cases the tornada repeats exactly the metre of the cauda, but differs slightly from its rhymes. In a sirventes of Marti de Mons, which was written in the fifteenth century (1436), and by which the poet gained the 'englantina' in the competition of the Academy of Toulouse, the cauda of the last stanza consists of the following four verses:

doranavant no cal plus dart ny lansa

depus que dieus s'es mes de nostra part;
qu'a tout l'erguelh al verenos leupart

que ta lonc temptz nos ha donat dampnatge.

The first of these lines serves as concatenatio; and for that reason its rhyme agrees with the first part of the poem. In the tornada this reason of course did not exist; and therefore the poet very skilfully

rhymes the first line with the last line of the tornada instead of making it like the first verse of the cauḍa. The tornada, therefore, is this:

Confort d'amors, fons he cap de paratge
vostre car filh faytz que prim ho de tart
nos velha dar totz ensemps bona part
de paradis, le sobrier heretatge.

In many cases also there is no tornada at all, or it may be said to consist of the last stanza of the poem, if in this the senhal and dedication are introduced.

The principles insisted upon in the foregoing remarks may perhaps best be illustrated by an accurate metrical analysis of the subjoined canzo of Bernard de Ventadorn. For the purpose in question this poem has the double advantage of presenting a great complication of metrical rules, and of showing at the same time how the troubadours succeeded in combining such a complicated structure with the beauty of genuine poetry.

a.

Be m'an perdut lai enves Ventadorn

tuit mei amic, pos ma domna nom ama,
et es be dreitz que jamais lai no torn,
qu'ades estai vas mi salvatg' e grama.
veus per quem fai semblan irat e morn,
quar en s'amor mi deleit em sojorn,
ni de ren al nos rancura nis clama.

b. Aissi col peis qui s'eslaiss' el cadorn
e no sap re tro que s'es pres en l'ama,
m'eslaissei eu vas trop amar un jorn;
qu'anc no saup mot tro fui en mei la flama
que m'art plus fort que no fai focs de forn;
e ges per so nom posc partir un dorn,
aissim te pres s'amors que m'aliama.

A A

C.

Nom meravilh si s'amors mi te pres,

que genser cors no cre qu'el mon se mire;
bels es e blancs e frescs e gais e les,

e totz aitals cum eu volh e dezire ;
no posc dir mal de leis, que non i es ;
qu'el n'agra dig de joi, seu l'i saubes,
mas no l'i sai: per so m'en lais de dire.

d. Totz temps volrai sa honor e sos bes
elh serai hom et amics e servire,

e.

e l'amarai, be li plass'o belh pes,
qu'om no pot cor destrenher ses aucire.
no sai domna, volgues o non volgues,
sim volia, qu'amar no la pogues;
mas totas res pot hom en mal escrire.

A las autras sui aissi escasutz :
laquals si vol mi pot vas si atraire,
per tal coven que nom sia vendutz
l'onors nil bes que m'a en cor a faire ;
qu'enojos es prejars, pos es perdutz:
per mius o dic, que mals m'en es vengutz,
qu'enganat m'a la bela de mal aire.

f. En Proensa tramet mans e salutz,

e mais de bes qu'om no lor sap retraire,
e fatz esfortz, miraclas e vertutz,

car eu lor man de so don non ai gaire ;
qu'eu non ai joi mas tan com m'en adutz
mos Bels Vezers en Faituratz sos drutz
en Alvergnatz lo senher de Belcaire.

g.

Mos Bels Vezers per vos fai deus vertutz
tals c'om nous ve que no si' ereubutz

dels bels plazers que sabetz dir e faire.

This poem consists of six stanzas and a tornada. The length of each stanza is seven verses, that of the tornada three. In each stanza there is, according to Dante's expression, a diesis or volta, for there is the required reiteratio unius odæ. This reiteratio takes place before the volta, while after the volta

no division is possible. The stanza therefore must be divided into two pedes of two lines each and a cauda of three lines. According to rule, the metrical division is marked by a strong grammatical break (at least a semicolon), the only exception being stanza 6, where a punctuation in the volta is not possible. The tornada repeats as usual the form and rhymes of the cauda; and in it the poem is dedicated to the poet's lady-love, who is addressed by a senhal. Bel Vezer was in this case Agnes de Montluçon, wife of the troubadour's lord and protector, who raised him from the state of a common servant and gave him the first lessons 'del gay saber.' The verse of the stanza is decasyllabic; it occurs with masculine and feminine rhyme. The stanza may be formulated metrically by using capital letters for the decasyllabic line, and adding to them the sign for the accen greu; the volta may be marked by a semicolon, and the division of the pedes from each other by a colon:

N

A B A B~; A A B~.

Hence it appears that in each stanza there are only two different rhymes, the cauda repeating those of the pedes, which is the simplest form of concatenatio. Moreover, each couple of stanzas have the same rhyme, or are coblas doblas; the poet in consequence had to find, three different times, eight masculine and six feminine rhyming words, which, though not a very difficult task in the langue d'oc, required a certain amount of skill. In the last group of stanzas this number was increased by the tornada to ten and seven

g I

respectively. Nevertheless there are only two cases of the same words with the same meaning occurring in the rhymes, or of motz tornatz en rim as the 'Leys d'Amors' calls them. Both these cases, f3 = and e 4g 3, occur in the tornada, where they were not as strictly forbidden as in other positions. On the other hand there are many examples of 'rime riche' in its masculine as well as feminine form. The former or rims consonans lejals are a 1 = b 1 = b 6, c 6 = d 1, d 5 d 6, e 3 =e5 = f 5. The latter or rims leonismes parfaitz are e 2 = But in all these cases it is very doubtful whether these rhymes were intentional, since they exhibit no system or order. A remarkable sense of the effects of sound is shown in the alliterative use of the letter ƒ in 6 4 and 5, by means of which the pains of the unhappy lover are onomatopoetically expressed.

=

f 2.

In the verse of ten syllables the cæsura is always of importance: it therefore remains to take note of it. The cæsura, where it appears feminine, has been divided into the epical and the lyrical, the difference being that in the epical pauza del bordo the accent always remains on the fourth syllable, after which another unaccentuated syllable is added to the first hemistich, while in lyrical poetry the accent itself is removed from the fourth to the third syllable. In the present poem the pauza con accen agut is by far the more common; where it occurs with accen greu it always takes the lyrical form. These cases are d 5 and 6, e 1, and f 1.

It be worth while to notice that once, d 5, may