Rejoice ye reames of England and of Fraunce,
A braunche hath sprung oute of the floure de lys.
Another roundel of four-foot verses, by Lydgate (Ritson, i. 129), corresponds to a b a b a b a b a b a b a b (cf. Metrik, i, § 180); some other roundels, of a looser structure, consisting, seemingly, of ten lines, are quoted in the same place (cf. Metrik, ii, § 583).
A Modern English roundel of fourteen lines, constructed of three-foot verses, by Austin Dobson, has the scheme a b a b b a a b a b a b a b (quoted ib. § 583). The French roundel of thirteen lines may be looked upon as a preliminary form to the rondeau, which was developed from the roundel at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century.
§ 324. The rondeau is a poem consisting of thirteen lines of eight or ten syllables, or four or five measures. It has three stanzas of five, three, and five lines, rhyming on the scheme a a b b a a a b a a b b a. It has, moreover, a refrain which is formed by the first words of the first line, and recurs twice, viz. after the eighth and thirteenth verses, with which it is syntactically connected. Strictly speaking it therefore has fifteen lines, corresponding to the scheme a a b b a a a b + r a a b b a + r. The rondeau was much cultivated by the French poet, Clément Marot. It was introduced into English by Wyatt, from whom the rondeau Complaint for True Love unrequited (p. 23) may be quoted here:
What ’vaileth truth, or by it to take pain?
To strive by steadfastness for to attain
How to be just, and flee from doubleness?
Since all alike, where ruleth craftiness,
Rewarded is both crafty, false, and plain.