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OTTAVA RIMA

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 368 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OTTAVA RIMA , a See also:

stanza of eight See also:iambic lines, containing three rhymes, invariably arranged as follows:—a b a b a b c c. It is an See also:Italian invention, and we find the earliest specimens of its use in the See also:poetry of the fourteenth See also:century. See also:Boccaccio employed it for the Teseide, which he wrote in See also:Florence in 1340, and for the Filostrato, which he wrote at See also:Naples some seven years later. These remarkable epics gave to ottava rima its classic See also:character. In the succeeding century it was employed by See also:Politian, and by See also:Boiardo for his famous Orlando Innamorato (1486). It was See also:Pulci, however, in the Morgante See also:Maggiore (1487), who invented the See also:peculiar See also:mock-heroic, or rather See also:half-serious, half-See also:burlesque, See also:style with which ottava rima has been most commonly identified ever since and in connexion with which it was introduced into See also:England by See also:Frere and See also:Byron. The measure, which was now recognized as the normal one for all Italian epic poetry, was presently wielded with. extraordinary See also:charm and variety by See also:Berni, See also:Ariosto and See also:Tasso. The merits of it were not perceived by the See also:English poets of the 16th and 17th centuries, although the versions of Tasso by See also:Carew (1594) and See also:Fairfax (1600) and of Ariosto by See also:Harington (1591) preserve its See also:external construction. The stanzaic forms inventedby See also:Spenser and by the Fletchers have less real relation to ottava rima than is commonly asserted, and it is quite incorrect to say that the author of the See also:Fairy See also:Queen adopted ottava rima and added a ninth See also:line to prevent the See also:sound from being monotonously iterative. A portion of See also:Browne's Britannia's Pastorals is composed in pure ottava rima, but this is the only important specimen in See also:original Elizabethan literature. Two centuries later a very successful See also:attempt was made to introduce in English poetry the flexibility and gaiety of ottava rima by See also:John Hookham Frere, who had studied Pulci and See also:Casti, and had caught the very See also:movement of their diverting measure. His Whistlecraft appeared in 1817.

This is a specimen of the ottava rima of Frere: But chiefly, when the shadowy See also:

moon had See also:shed O'er See also:woods and See also:waters her mysterious See also:hue, Their passive See also:hearts and vacant fancies fed With thoughts and aspirations See also:strange and new, Till their See also:brute souls with inward working bred Dark hints that in the depths of See also:instinct See also:grew Subjection—not from See also:Locke's associations, Nor See also:David See also:Hartley's See also:doctrine of vibrations. Byron was greatly impressed by the opportunities for See also:satire involved in. Frere's experiment, and in See also:October 1817, in See also:imitation of Whistlecraft, but keeping still closer to Pulci, he wrote Beppo. By far the greatest See also:monument in ottava rima which exists in English literature is See also:Don Juan (1819-1824). Byron also employed this measure, which was peculiarly adaptable to the purposes of his See also:genius, in The See also:Vision of See also:Judgment (1822). Meanwhile See also:Shelley also became attracted by it, and in 182o translated the See also:Hymns of See also:Homer into ottava rima. The curious burlesque epic of See also:William See also:Tennant (:784-1848), A nster See also:Fair (1812), which preceded all these, is written in what would be ottava rima if the eighth line were not an alexandrine. The See also:form has been little used in other See also:languages than Italian and English. It was employed by Boscan (1490-1542), who imitated See also:Bembo vigorously in See also:Spanish, and the very See also:fine Araucana of Ercilla y Zflniga (1533-1595) is in the same measure. Lope de See also:Vega Carpio wrote plentifully in ottava rima. In Portuguese poetry of the 16th and 17th centuries this measure obtained the See also:sanction of See also:Camoens, who wrote in it his immortal Lusiads (1572). Ottava rima has been attempted ix.

Gelman poetry by See also:

Uhland and others, but not for pieces of any considerable length. (E.

End of Article: OTTAVA RIMA

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