The immense number of rhyming words in the Provençal language has been already referred to. Of the fifty-four forms of the verb of the first conjugation, only nine have the accent on the root, while forty-five have it on one of the final syllables; hence all the verbs of this conjugation rhyme with each other in these forms. Again, all the derivative syllables of the adjectives and nouns, like at-ada, ut-uda, or atge, ansa, ensa, and many others, have the accent on these syllables, and offer great choice of material to the poet in search of rhymes. Consequently, in all Provençal poetry, the rhyme plays a principal part, and metrical scholars considered it their most important task to introduce the student into the minutest subtleties of its beauty. Dante intended to speak of rhyme ‘secundum se’ in one of the later parts of his book, which he never wrote; in the existing parts he speaks of it only in connection with the stanza. In accordance, however, with the ‘Leys d’Amors,’ it will be necessary to consider the essence of rhyme in itself, before proceeding to its influence on the combination of verses in a stanza, and of stanzas in a poem.

The ‘Leys d’Amors’ uses the word rim or rima in a perfectly different sense from the modern rhyme. Its definition is this: ‘Rims es certz nombres de syllabas, ajustat a lui autre bordo per pario d’aquela meteysha accordansa e paritat de syllabas, o de diversas am bela cazensa.’ Rim exists therefore not only if the accordansa is the same, which constitutes approximately what is now called rhyme, but also though the ends of the two verses concerned sound quite differently, provided that a certain harmony or cazensa is effected simply by their lengths or accents. This must be borne in mind while we consider the division of rims into four classes as given by the ‘Leys d’Amors,’ viz., rims estramps, accordans, ordinals, and dictionals. The division is not very logical; for some of the rims enumerated have nothing to do with the essence of rhyme. Rim estramp in its exact meaning is nothing but the absence of rhyme or even assonance between two verses. In the poetry of the troubadours there is scarcely a line which has not its corresponding rhyme, either in its own or in another stanza, so that rims estramps are of no importance for the present purpose. Everything that is now called rhyme and was used by the troubadours is contained under the second head, rims accordans. This accordansa may be sonan, consonan, or leonisme; and the rims sonans and consonans must be again subdivided into bords (French, bâtard) and lejals. Rim sonan bord is what is now called assonance, and is very frequently found in Spanish poetry. The ‘Leys d’Amors’ gives examples of it con accen agut,

and con accen greu,

In the poems of the troubadours this assonance was not permissible. Accordingly, the ‘Leys d’Amors’ does not approve of it, though admitting that it was daily used in the mandelas, or popular chansons. ‘For these,’ says the author, with all a scholar’s contempt for popular poetry, ‘I do not care, because I do not see nor can I find a known author for them.’ Rim sonan lejal, which exists only with accen agut, is what is now called masculine rhyme; that is to say, the last syllable in the rhyming lines must contain the same vowel with identical consonants (if any) after, but different ones before, it. The examples of this are of course innumerable. The second kind of rims accordans is called consonan. This also is subdivided into bord and lejal. The rim consonan bord is always con accen greu, so that only the second and unaccentuated syllable agrees with the corresponding one in the other verse, e.g.:

The modern ear would not discern this kind of rhyme; and the troubadours also never used it. Perhaps the author of the ‘Leys d’Amors’ introduced it merely in order to give completeness to his system. Rim consonan lejal has always accen agut, and is found where the last and accentuated syllable in two verses is exactly the same in spelling, but different in meaning. Examples of this class are numerous in the poetry of the troubadours: the following is from a canzo of Serveri de Gironne:

The same rhyme is also found in mediæval and modern French poetry, where it is called ‘rime riche.’ The chief characteristic of an accordansa consonan is the identity of vowels and consonants in the last syllable, but in the last syllable only. On the other hand, in the third division of accordansa, the leonisme, the last syllable but one, also must to a certain extent agree in the corresponding verses. Leonismetat is again subdivided into rims leonismes simples, and parfaitz. In the former the consonants before the vowel in the last syllable but one must differ: in the latter they must be identical. Rim leonisme simple con accen greu is what is now called feminine rhyme, as in

Con accen agut, it is again one of those cases where, as in the rim consonan bord, the rhyme is extended to an unaccentuated syllable, which in this case appears before the rhyming syllables. The ‘Leys d’Amors’ gives the following example:

The following is rim leonisme parfait con accen greu:

con accen agut:

The former would be called in German ‘weiblicher rührender Reim;’ and of the latter the same may be said as of the leonisme simple con accen agut. In this case the rhyme is extended backwards as far as the last syllable but two; sometimes even the last four or five syllables are included in the accordansa leonisme. The ‘Leys d’Amors’ gives an instance of what it calls rim mays perfait leonisme, in which the last five syllables are intended to rhyme in two different verses:

In case the leonismetat is effected by two separate words, these words of course must always differ in their meaning. It may also be mentioned that rims consonans as well as leonismes are called contrafaitz, if the syllables or letters forming the rhyme are divided by the end of a word; as, for instance:

Such is the division which the ‘Leys d’Amors’ gives of rhymes in general. The system shows a certain scholastic consistency; but the real essence and origin of rhyme are entirely overlooked, or even wrongly defined. Entirely different things are brought under the same head, as, for instance, assonance and masculine rhyme (rim sonan); while, on the other hand, things which decidedly belong together are separated. Thus the simple rhyme is called rim lejal sonan, while the simple feminine rhyme, which is obviously derived from it, is classed together with the rim leonisme, from which it differs essentially. The same is the case with the rims consonan lejal and leonisme parfait con accen greu. In subsequent chapters the work gives a complete list of the different artificial rhymes. They are too numerous to be discussed here; besides which, many of them are nothing but subtleties of the author, and are hardly ever used by the better troubadours. It is only necessary to consider those which are of real importance in studying the relics of Provençal poetry. The order also in which the different kinds are enumerated need not be followed: it is sometimes arbitrary, and sometimes utterly confused.

After expounding what rhyme is, the ‘Leys d’Amors’ very properly proceeds to ask where rhyme is to be found. Every possible combination in this respect is brought under a new head, viz., rims ordinals. This expression is exceedingly ill chosen; for the words rims ordinals suggest some new kind of rhyme essentially different from rims consonans or sonans, while in reality they indicate only the different positions which these same rhymes can have in verse or stanza. The author avoids giving a definition of rims ordinals, but begins at once to explain how ‘aytals ordes se fai.’

Rhyme, it is explained, may connect the different parts of one and the same line with each other, or with the end of this line. The middle rhyme is called, in correspondence with the bordos empeutatz, rim empeutat or multiplicatiu. An example of the former mode occurs in one of Peire Cardinal’s sirventeses:

In the following line both kinds are combined, the rhyme being the same in the middle parts of the verse and at the end of it:

In some cases, as for instance between the cæsura of the decasyllabic verse and its end, the middle rhyme was strictly prohibited. But this middle rhyme is found very often between the same sections of different verses, as for instance in the above-mentioned sirventes of Peire Cardinal:

In order to display his art, the poet moreover made each pair of rhymes in the same line a rim consonan lejal. This kind of rhyme was sometimes carried to such an extent that each syllable of a whole verse agreed with the corresponding syllable of another. This was called a rim serpenti. Of such exaggeration there is probably no instance in the good troubadours; the ‘Leys d’Amors’ gives the following:

Next come the rhymes between the ends of the verses of one and the same stanza. The simplest form possible in this case was that all the verses of a stanza should have but one rhyme, which suggests the tirade monorime in the popular epic. The ‘Leys d’Amors’ calls this rim continuat. Although very simple, this rhyme was used by the most finished troubadours, such as Marcabrun and Aimeric de Peguilhan. Sordello bewailed in it the death of his friend Blacatz; and in the last-named poem combined with the long verse of twelve syllables, it has an excellent effect owing to its dreary monotonous sound.

When there are two or more rhymes in a stanza, their order is varied in many different ways. The most simple mode is what the ‘Leys d’Amors’ calls rims encadenatz; and next to this the rims crozatz. Rims encadenatz are crossed rhymes, viz., a b: a b. This position of the rhymes, continued through a whole stanza, is not often to be found in the better, or at least more artistic, troubadours. Johan de Pena, one of the less celebrated, has used it in a stanza of charming simplicity:

Rims crozatz are found, to quote but one instance, in the two quatrains of a sonnet.

These are the principal divisions of rhyme in its relations to a single stanza. But the troubadours employed it also to keep up a certain connection between several, sometimes all, the different stanzas of a poem; and in this respect it must now be considered.

A change of rhyme from strophe to strophe—rims singulars—is rare, and, as a rule, found only where the stanza is very long and artificially composed. An example occurs in a song by Peire Cardinal, each stanza of which consists of no less than fifteen lines. Gaucelm Faidit and the Monk of Montaudon have used rims singulars also in shorter and simpler stanzas. The ‘Leys d’Amors’ gives no rule as to their use, but confirms indirectly what has been said, by giving as an example a very long and complicated stanza. Directly opposed to the rims singulars are the rims or coblas unisonans, where all the stanzas of a poem have the same rhymes in the corresponding lines. Sometimes poems of this kind are very long, so that the poet had to find a great number of consonant words, which however, in the langue d’oc, was not as difficult as it would have been in one of the Teutonic languages. But in spite of this some of the German minnesingers, such as Count Rudolf of Neuenburg and Friedrich von Hausen, who were under the influence of the troubadours, tried to compete with them in the richness of their rhymes and the variety of their stanzas. Of Friedrich von Hausen a song remains, which is an exact imitation, in one stanza even a translation, of one of Folquet de Marseilles’ canzos, which the German poet probably learned during the crusade of 1190, on which he accompanied the Emperor Frederick I. Sometimes the stanzas of a poem are grouped together in twos, threes, or fours, by means of equal rhymes. Such cases are described by the ‘Leys d’Amors’ as coblas doblas, triplas, &c. The better to display their skill, the greatest artists among the troubadours liked to choose for their rhymes rare and unusual words, the meaning of which, at the same time, was not easy to discover. The greatest master in these ‘rims cars,’ and ‘motz oscurs,’ was Arnaut Daniel, whom Dante, very likely for that reason, calls the first of all troubadours. But Peire d’Alvernhe also says of his poems, as a proof of their high art, ‘qu’apenas nulhs hom las enten.’ To give an idea of this obscurity, which, however, did not increase by any means the beauty of a canzo, it will suffice to quote a stanza from one of Arnaut Daniel’s poems, entirely written in rims cars:

It is worthy of notice that in the first lines the troubadour has used alliteration to increase the strange sound of his words. The lines serve at the same time as an example of another way of connecting stanzas with each other. All the different verses are without a rhyme in their own stanza, but find it in the corresponding verse of another, or of all the other stanzas. Rhyme of this kind is called by the ‘Leys d’Amors’ rim espar, while Dante uses the expression clavis. When the clavis runs through all the verses of each stanza, the case is described as rimas dissolutas. Arnaut Daniel seems to have been particularly fond of this form; for the sestina also, which he invented, and which Dante praised and imitated, is founded on the same principle. Other poets preferred generally to introduce only one clavis or, at most, two, interrupting in this way, sometimes with great effect, the equal flow of the rhymes. A modification of the rims espars is the rims capcaudatz. This takes place if the clavis is the last verse of the first stanza, and is introduced into the following, not in its corresponding place, but by way of first rhyme. Of the two stanzas, for instance, quoted by the ‘Leys d’Amors,’ the first ends with the line, ‘Li fizel de mortal pena,’ and the first line of the second accordingly shows the same rhyme in ‘verges eratz e vergena,’ and continues the scheme exactly in the same way as the first stanza. The various combinations of stanzas by means of the rhyme are one of the most interesting parts of Provençal versification, and show a great refinement of taste in the mediæval poets. To convey an idea of the skill manifested in this way, it will be useful to give a short sketch of a canzo which, in this as in all other respects, may be considered as the standard piece of Provençal poetry. This is Guillem de Cabestanh’s celebrated song, ‘Li douz cossire,’ through which, it is said, the poet lost his life, while making his name immortal. The poem consists of six stanzas, divided by means of corresponding rhymes into three groups of coblas doblas. But these three groups are again connected with each other; for the third stanza resumes the last feminine rhyme of the second, and uses it as first rhyme, introducing, however, new additional rhymes. The fifth stanza stands in exactly the same relation to the fourth. The four last lines of the second stanza show the following rhyming words—parvensa, temensa; fei, vei. The first rhyme of the third stanza must be feminine; and therefore the penultimate couple of rhymes is used, with some irregularity, as a kind of rims capcaudatz, and the beginning is

The highest principle of art, variety in unity, seems to be here attained. In many cases this principle of connecting the different stanzas led to the most childish and trifling artificialities, as, for instance, in what the ‘Leys d’Amors’ calls rims retrogradatz, where the second stanza begins with the last rhyme of the first, and reproduces all the subsequent rhymes in reversed order.

This becomes yet more absurd if applied, as it sometimes is, to a single stanza, or even a single verse. In this case the stanza or verse has to be constructed in such a way that, without altering their meaning, the lines or words can change their places. The following lines, for instance,

could equally well be read the last first; or even the words could change their position, in this way:

The ‘Leys d’Amors’ adds, that he who likes to ‘despendre son temps’ with such trifles may even find words like papa, tafata, in which the different syllables can be changed ad libitum. The fourth and last class of rhymes, as given by the ‘Leys d’Amors,’ the rims dictionals, contains, for the greater part, unimportant trifles of this kind. Rim dictional itself means the combination of two words in the rhyming syllables, which can be derived from each other, by either taking away or adding a syllable. Thus the feminine and masculine forms of the adjective and past participle, at-ada, ut-uda, stand in the relation of rims dictionals. An example of another kind of derivation is given in the following lines:

This is an arbitrary invention, without any intrinsic value for the uses of genuine poetry. But some of the subdivisions given show how much the decline of the poetry of the troubadours was the consequence of their relying too much on the formal side of their art. Some poets seem to have particularly delighted in introducing rims leonismes parfaitz, or, as they are also called, rims equivocs, which, besides being different as regards the meaning of the words, show also a slight difference in sound of the vowels. In the following lines, for instance,

the first apres, being the participle of apprendre, sounds the e a little more open than the second apres, afterwards. It was considered a great proof of poetical finish to introduce different vowels in combination with the same consonants into a stanza. The elder Gavaudan seems to have written the following verses entirely for this purpose:

In a poem attributed by different manuscripts to Bernard de Ventadorn and Daude de Pradas, the poet has introduced all the five vowels in this way. This fact seems not to have been known to the author of the ‘Leys d’Amors:’ he would probably otherwise have mentioned a practice so much to his liking.