MAI,COI,M BOWIE N OTES APPENDIX | (Eturcs co,Hl)lètes (Paris, r945), pp.666-79 ancl 68o-6. FRENCH VERSIFICATION: z lbid,, pp. 666-7, A SUMMARY 1 lbid., p. 67r. 4 lbid., p. 67L. 5 G.W.F. I{egel, "fhe Phenomenology of Spirit, traus. A, V. Miller Cliue Scott (Oxforcl, r977), p. z4r, (All examples ir this appendix are clrawn fr.rn rinereenth-century verse and, rvhenever possible, frorn the poeurs anaryseci in the body of ,rr.î.,"k1. The regular alexandrine Ainsi,/toujours poussés//vers de nouveaux/rivagcs, z+ 4+ 4-l z Dans la nuit/éternelle//ernportés/sans retour, 3+1+1+3 Ne pourrons-nous/jamais//sur I'océan/cles âges 4+2+4+z Jeter I'tncre/un seul jour? 3'F 3 The sta'z¿rs of Lamartine's'r-e [.ac'are each courp'secl of three alexan- clrines followecl by a hexasyllable, i.e. \ z, r z, r z, 6. ihe scansion of the 6rsr stanza irrrmecliately rnakes several things clcar about the regular rrlcx- ancirine: It has a r fixed meclial caesurâ (marked //) after the sixth syllable, r.vhich enforces an accenr (stress) rn the sixth syllable. The only uth", oblligntu,y accent in the lirre falls on the final (rwelfth) syllable. z Tlre caesurit is a metrical j'ncrure rvhich us'ally c.ircicles lvith a signifìcant syntactical juncture (a'd rhus a pause), f<¡r reasons which wilr beco.re appa'enr. ßut it is fìrsr and forenrtxt the rine's principal pciinr of rhythuric articulation, not its rnosr obtrusive synractic break. li clivlicles the alexandrine i'r. rwo half-lines (hémisticltes). Each half-line usualb, ct¡tt- tairs one orhcr acc--err apart fr'm rhe one on its fì.al syllable. This 'sec.ndary' acce'r is mobile and rnay farI on any of rhe hcrnistich's other syllables. A sclre'ratization'f the rnetre of the reg,lar alexarclrire n,r>uld thus be: -1---'t- The brackets r<¡uncl tlre sec.nclary accents inclicate that these ¿ìccerts are 242 243 il I APPEND IX APPEN DIX ancl optional. ln other worcls, the alexanclrine may have only (diaeresis), ,e,s, both mobile and does oóe count mute or not? Tlre st¡nclarcl way of âccents (on 6 ancl r z)r or three (say on z, 6 and rL, ot 61 9 and r z), btrt it resolving the problern, two first i. crassical verse ar least, is etyrnological: sirce normally lras four which is why the regular alexandrine is called the nuit derives frorn the Latìn nox, noctem,1¡¡ii.¡ lra, only one r'.t vowel, so tétramètre (i.e. with four measures). There are thirty-six differ- nuìt is as alexandrin ,counted only one syllable (/nqi/) rather than two (/nyil). This possible confiSurations of the regular alexandrine, ranging principle is of course ent rhythrnic complicated as verse ù..o,',., freer a'cr admits changes from the lrasic two-accent 6+6' through tri-accentual pâtterns (6+4*z' in current pronunciation, to the tema-accentual combinations (r*5*4+ L, z+ As far as the (e 3+ t+6,etc.) 3+ 3+ 4' mute'e' atone) is concerned, a distinction must be rnade between ,e's' 4+z+r+5, etc.). line-terminal and line-internal oíes. The fact that the obligatory âccents fall at the end of the half-lines (i) Line-terminal 'e's'. 3 These are nor counrecr as sylrables (th.ugh they rnay that French âccetlt is by nature terminal (oxytonic)r it falls on the attrâct some degree indicates of en'nciation); they indicate th"t th. .hy*.î, r",r.,inin". last accentuable syllable of the word or word-group. During the course of its Thus riuageshas rwo syllables and áges i,", .rn., and togethei they c''sritnte phonetic development, French âccent has graclually weakened' so that it is a feminine rhyme' From the rnicrdre of the sixteenth .."nrury up t' the latter indiviclual words which have âccents as word'groups (syntactic half of the nineteenth not so much century' poets rigorously observed the arternation .f segments) (i.e. accent is reinforced by intonatiorl, lry the rising or falling masculine and femi.i.e rhynrcs (ra toi di r'arternance cres t.imes): i.e.a rnAscr- "Ihus a worcl which in one collocation might receive line rhyme-pair pitch of the voice). must be followed by a feminine one, ancl vice versa. becâuse it is the fir.ral ttnit will be withotrt âccent in other collocations (ii) Line-intcrnal 'e's'. accent A rine-internar 'e' is counted as a syllable, and * 'un Because verse pron.unced, in which it is not the final unit 'un stÍle' bur style orné', when it is immediately followecl by eitlrer. .onrnnrn, t.r* ii sense of rhythmicity and tencls to increase the segmentâtion mute) intensifies our or an aspirare 'h'. A line-internal 'e' is elided (not counred) .'"lr.n i, i, of utterauce, it will usu¡lly accentuate more elements than 'normal' speech imnrediately followed .h,. by a vowel or a mure Thus in the first stan za ot,Le would; for example, it is unlikely that Lamartine's 'nouveaux' or 'nuit' Lac', the final 'e's' of both 'éterneile' ancr 'ancre' are elidecr before a would receivc âccents in non-verse contexts. following vowel. 4 The weakness of French âccent partly explains why, up to the latter years of the nineteenth century' rhytne was considered inclispensable to Sumrnary to date and dift'erentiation French verse: rhyme gives more audibility to the final, line-clemarcative whh English uerse of 'Le Lac' is rimes croisées (alternat' The accent of the line. The rhyme-scheme regular alexandrine has two obrigatory âccenrs on syllabres 6 and tz, rhyrne: abab); the other principal rhyme-schemes are rimes plates and usually two other ing accents, mobile and optional. Becat,s. it is fixecr, the (enclosed rhyrne: abba). (conplets: aa, bb, etc.) and rimes embrassées medial caesura is a metrical eremenr, gou.r,ring the rhythmic ,na ,yni".ii. accentual pattern of a regular alexandrine, distribution 5 ìlhen kloking for the of rhe line. often the caesura coinci.les with the major syntactic confidently place accents on syllables 6 and rz and then juncture within the therefore, we can line, but it need not do so. Above all, it acts ,, u i ,1..u,, iclentify tlre principal syntactic clivisions (word-groups) within each hemi- for the line, a rhythmic pivot encouraging relationships .f ,;r;";;;;, stich, assigning an âccent to the last accentuâble syllable of any group which chiasmus, antithesis, complemenrarity, pãrailelis., b.t*å.n *"i*"f"ri the first line of 'Le f.ac' as (hémistiches).lnrhe obtains.'fhus we might describe our scansion of lines English iambicpentam"r.r, on the other lr."¿, ìi* caesura is mobile because it occurs at the rnajor jr.rncture Adv. (governing whole stanza)/Acli. phrase describitrg 'nous' syntactic within the line wherever that may be. Adv. of time+pâst part.//Adv. phrase of It thus has no metricar signifi.rn.., but d<¡es contribute place to the rhythmic variety of a sequence of rñres. c."á*"ii.rrry significant French words (nouns, Prep. tacli./Noun verbs, adjectives, adverbs) do not c.rnrist- ently enjoy a right to accent, do not have accent built intá them, *h"..r. number of syllables we then norate rhe.rhythm of the line by inclicating the their English equivalents do. French accenr is directry related ,u'ryno.rì. structure' rvithin each syntnctic segment, thus z*4*4{'e' to w.rcl-group; Engrish srress is word-rerated before it is phrase- of syllables: do two related. 6 Syllables. Two maior problems beset the c()tlnting Thus, very crudely put, in French verse rhythm derives f..r. iyniri, syllalrle (syrraeresis) or two whereas contiguous vowels, as in 'ntlit', cotlllt as one in English verse a syntax or wo.d-sequen.e is fitted to a m.tre. 2-44 245 1 A PPF,N D IX APPEND IX of syntactic structure cloes not, in Five furrher points Ilecause of this distinction' varia[rility sho.Lrlcl be added to the furegoing list of verse-fe¿rtuies: verse, leacl to metrical variety. In English syllable-stress metre' an The bar-line which English 7 we use in scansion ,., iiuid. one measure frorn the or ânapaestic foot is a repeated ttnit, repeated through next is called iarnbic, or trochaic, a coupe, and since ,¡. vowel of rhe rvorcl_group thin, albeit with conventional variations; ancl because English closes the rhythmic "...ri""*fl thick and rreasure, the coupe falls imrne{iately after rhe acccn_ rnele is cgnstrttcted on repetition aud recttrretrce, so the metricål structure tuated vowel. Tl"te coupe is a fiction, a ..l.,u",ri.nce <>f scansion, and does not predicts that of the ucxt. ln Frcnch verse, ol.l the other hand, bear on the enunciation of one line of the line, other thrn *rl.r. an ¿rrticulated although we may prerlict that one seqtlence of twelve syllables will be (unelidecl) e is involved. another, we cannot preclict the particular rhythrnic configur- 8 The e atone, as its name followecl by suggests, cannot bear an accent. This is why, in particular alexar.rdrine on the lrasis of the alexandrine which speaking of the terminality ation of â of Frencrr accenr, we needed ro specify rh. llnrt just as we cannot pre<lict the rhythmic configuration of a second accentuable syllable prececles it; of the word or word_group,, since the accentuated he rnistich 9n the basis 9f the first.