A des chapelets de pendus
Que le matin caresse et dore.

Ce bois sombre, où le chéne arbore
Des grappes de fruits inouïs

Même chez le Turc et le More,
C'est le verger du roi Louis.

"Tous ces pauvres gens morfondus,
Roulant des pensers qu'on ignore,
Dans les tourbillons éperdus
Voltigent, palpitants encore.
Le soleil levant les devore.
Regardez-les, cieux éblouis,

Danser dans les feux de l'aurore.

C'est le verger du roi Louis.

"Ces pendus, du diable entendus,
Appellent des pendus encore.
Tandis qu'aux cieux, d'azur tendus,
Où semble luire un météore,
La rosée en l'air s'évapore,
Un essaim d'oiseaux réjouis
Par dessus leur tête picore.
C'est le verger du roi Louis.

Envoi.

"Prince, il est un bois que décore
Un tas de pendus enfouis
Dans le doux feuillage sonore,

C'est le verger du roi Louis."

There is, if we mistake not, a certain plate in Callot's "Miseries of War" which might serve as a fitting headpiece to the above. This wood, with its "fruits inouis" bathed in the morning sun and swinging in the morning breeze; the grim suggestion of—

"Ces pendus, du diable entendus,

Appellent des pendus encore;

the black birds blown about above, and the rumbling of "rs" in the refrain, as of distant thunder through the leaves;—all combine to make a most striking and effective picture. Other specimens as fine will be found in De Banville's "Trente-six Ballades Joyevses" (Alphonse Lemerre, 1873); or the curious may consult the beautiful "Livre des Ballades," issued by the same publisher in 1876, which contains a choice. selection from Froissart downwards. In England Ballades have been written by Mr. Swinburne and others. A large number, mostly on political themes, have also been printed in the "London" newspaper, and prove conclusively that this form presents no insurmountable difficulties to skilful writers. Many sprightly examples of most of the other forms, it should be added, are to be found in the same periodical.

There is a variety of the Ballade called the Double Ballade. This is simply a ballad of six huitains or dixains in lieu of three, generally without "Envoi." De Banville has written several. The unique English specimen is the "Ballade of Dead Lions," which recently appeared in the "London" for January 12, 1878. Another variety is the Ballade à double refrain,* which the "Art Poëtique" of Thomas Sibilet, 1555, declares to be "autant rare que plaisante." Indeed there seems to be but one well-known French example, the "Frère Lubin" of Clement Marot.

The CHANT ROYAL may be defined as a ballade of five stanzas of eleven lines with an "Envoi" of five.

* See No. ccxx.-[Ed.]

According to the strict rules it should be an Allegory, the solution of which is contained in the Envoi. Such is Marot's "Chant Royal de la Concepcion." The examples in English are at present (we believe) confined to three or four. One is the splendid Chant Royal of the God of Wine, published by Mr. E. W. Gosse in his article in the "Cornhill Magazine," already referred to,* which has the additional distinction of being the first of its class.

The rhymes play so important a part in the foregoing rules, that a few words on this head may not unfitly close these notes, especially as those who write the forms do not appear to be wholly agreed in the matter. On the one hand, it is advanced that the forms are sufficiently difficult in French, and that to transfer them to our tongue without at the same time adopting the French system of rhyming is to hamper them with superfluous difficulties. By the French system of rhyming, is meant the license used by French writers to rhyme words of exactly similar sound and spelling so long as they have different meanings. This is not held to be admissible in English, although cases might be cited. Milton, for example, has "Ruth and "ruth" in one of his sonnets. On the other hand, it is contended that if we import these forms, we must, to make them really English, adopt them with all their native difficulties, and add our own as well. It will be clear, however, to both sides that so long as these forms remain in the category of toursde-force, which they must do if the latter view be taken,

* See No. ccxxi. -[Ed.]

they will be of little or no service as popular additions to our stock of forms. As a middle course the present writer would suggest that it should be allowable to rhyme such words as "hail" and "hale ;" but not allowable to rhyme such words as "prove," "approve," "reprove," in which the philological relationship is of the closest. Even in the former case, however, the skilful writer will be careful not to bring the rhymes into close proximity; and, in the shorter forms, will probably find it best to avoid them altogether. The purist would never employ them under any circumstances.

A. D.