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COUPLET

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 318 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COUPLET , a pair of lines of See also:

verse, which are welded together by an identity of See also:rhyme. The New See also:English Dict. derives the use of the word from the See also:French couplet, signifying two pieces of See also:iron riveted or hinged together. In rhymed verse two lines which See also:complete a meaning in themselves are particularly known as a couplet. Thus, in See also:Pope's Eloisa to See also:Abelard: " See also:Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul, And waft a sigh from See also:Indus to the See also:Pole." In much of old English dramatic literature, when the See also:mass of the See also:composition is in See also:blank verse or even in See also:prose, particular emphasis is given by closing the See also:scene in a couplet. Thus, in the last See also:act of See also:Beaumont and See also:Fletcher's See also:Thierry and See also:Theodoret the See also:action culminates in an unexpected rhyme: " And now See also:lead on; they that shall read this See also:story Shall find that virtue lives in See also:good, not See also:glory." In French literature, the See also:term couplet is not confined to a pair of lines, but is commonly used for a See also:stanza. A " square " couplet, in French, for instance; is a See also:strophe of eight lines, each composed of eight syllables. In this sense it is employed to distinguish the more emphatic parts of a See also:species of verse which is essentially See also:gay, graceful and frivolous, such as the songs in a See also:vaudeville or a comic See also:opera. In the 18th See also:century, Le See also:Sage, See also:Piron and even See also:Voltaire did not hesitate to engage their talents on the See also:production of couplets, which were often witty, if they had no other merit, and were well fitted to catch the popular See also:ear. This signification of the word couplet is not unknown in See also:England, but it is not customary; it is probably used in a stricter and a more technical sense to describe a pair of rhymed lines, whether serious or merry. The normal type, as it may almost be called, of English versification is the See also:metre of ten-syllabled rhymed lines designated as heroic couplet. This See also:form of See also:iambic verse, with five beats to each See also:line, is believed to have been invented by See also:Chaucer, who employs it first in the See also:Prologue The See also:Legend of Good See also:Women the composition of which is attributed to the See also:year 1385. That poem opens with the couplet: " A thousand times have I heard See also:man tell That there is joy in See also:heaven and See also:pain in See also:hell." This is an absolutely correct example of the heroic couplet, which ultimately reached such See also:majesty in the hands of See also:Dryden and such brilliancy in those of Pope.

It has been considered proper for didactic, descriptive and satirical See also:

poetry, although in the course of the 19th century blank verse largely took its See also:place. See also:Epigram often selects the couplet as the vehicle of its sharpened arrows, as in See also:Sir See also:John See also:Harington's " See also:Treason See also:cloth never prosper: what's the See also:reason? Why, if it prosper, none dare See also:call it treason." (E.

End of Article: COUPLET

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