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RONDEL

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 690 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RONDEL , a See also:

form of See also:verse closely allied to the See also:rondeau (q.v.) but distinguished from it by containing fourteen instead of thirteen lines, and by demanding a slightly different arrangement of rhymes. Moreover, the initial See also:couplet is repeated in the See also:middle and again at the See also:close. The arrangement of rhymes is as follows: a, b b, a; a b, a b; a, b, b, a, a, b. This form, which was invented in the 14th See also:century, was largely used inlater See also:medieval See also:French See also:poetry, but particularly by See also:Charles d'See also:Orleans (1391-1465), the very best of whose graceful creations are all rondels. One of the most famous of this See also:prince's rondels may be given here as a type of their correct construction: " Le temps a laissie son manteau De vent, de froidure et de pluye, Et s'est vestu de brouderie De souleil luisant, cler et beau. I1 n'y a beste ne oyseau Qu'en son See also:jargon ne chante ou crie: Le temps a laissie son manteau De vent, de froidure et de pluye. See also:Riviere, See also:fontaine et ruisseau Portent, en livree jolie, Gouttes d'argent d'or faverie; Chascun s'abille de nouveau; Le temps a laissie son manteau De vent, de froidure et de pluye." The rondel, in French, may begin with either a masculine or a feminine See also:rhyme, but its solitary other rhyme must be of the opposite See also:kind. The rondel was introduced into See also:English in the 15th century, but the See also:early specimens of it are very clumsy. It was revised in the 19th century, but it appears to suit the French better than any other See also:language. Correct examples are found in the poems of See also:Robert See also:Bridges, See also:Dobson, See also:Gosse and See also:Henley. The following, by See also:Austin Dobson, gives an exact impression of what an English rondel should be in all technical respects: " Love comes back to his vacant dwelling,—The old, old Love that we knew of yore ! We see him stand by the open See also:door, With his See also:great eyes sad, and his bosom swelling.

He makes as though in our arms repelling He See also:

fain would See also:lie as he See also:lay before;—Love comes back to his vacant dwelling,—The old, old Love that we knew of yore ! Ah ! who shall help us from over-spelling That sweet, forgotten, forbidden See also:lore ? E'en as we doubt, in our See also:hearts once more, With a See also:rush of tears to our eyelids welling, Love comes back to his vacant dwelling, The old, old Love that we knew of yore !" See also:Theodore de See also:Banville remarks that the See also:art of the rondel consists in the See also:gay and natural reintroduction of the refrain, which should always seem inevitable, while slightly changing the point of view of the reader. If this is not successfully achieved, " on ne fera que de la marqueterie et du placage, c'est-a-dire, en fait de poesie,—rien!" In See also:Germany, the rondel was introduced, in the 18th century, under the name of ringel-gedicht, by Johann Nikolaus Gotz (1731-1781), and was occasionally used, in the course of the 19th century, by See also:German poets.

End of Article: RONDEL

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