On nobler thoughts my soule shall dwell
Worldly designes, feares, hopes, farwell!
Att quiett, in my peacefull cell,
I'le thincke on God, free from your snares;
Worldly designes, feares, hopes, farwell!
Farwell all earthly joyes and cares.
In the Athenæum, May 7, 1887, is a long article on Carey, signed C. F. S. Warner, M. A. Charles Cotton, the friend of Izaak Walton, wrote a rondeau, "a very ungallant example," cited in Dr. Guests' History of English Rhythms. There is also one unquotable, by reason of its subject, among the correspondence of Alexander Pope (1688-1744), and in the Rolliad, 1784, a volume of satires in prose and verse, that enjoyed a great popularity for a time, there is a set of five rondeaus, written in pure form after the Voiture model. They satirise North, Eden, Pitt, and Dorset, and are perfect in construction, and vigorous in their ridicule. The popularity of these effusions led to many imitations in the periodical prints at the beginning of this century, few, however, of sufficient merit to be worth reviving. By the courtesy of Mr. Austin Dobson, the owner, I am able to extract a specimen from a scarce and little-known book, entitled Rondeaulx; translated from the Black Letter French Edition of 1527, by J. R. Best, Esq.;—
Rondeaulx en Nombre trois cens cinquante.
Singuliers et a tous propos. Nouvellement
Imprimez a Paris. Avec Privelege
On les vend en la grant salle du palays au
Premier pillier en la boutique de Galliot du
Pre marchaut librarie jure de L'universite.
The dedication to Robert Studley Vidal, Esq., is dated 1838. The first poem is preceded by a quaint apology, that unfortunately is too long to quote, but the rondeau itself, if its rhythm is faulty and its language ungraceful, shows that the original had sterling advice to offer, and that the translator was not ignorant of the true rules of the form.
UNG BON RONDEAU
A good rondeau I was induced to show
To some fair ladies some short while ago;
Well knowing their ability and taste,
I asked, should ought be added or effac'd,
And prayed that every fault they'd make me know
The first did her most anxious care bestow
To impress one point from which I ne'er should go:
"Upon a good beginning must be based
A good rondeau."
Zeal bid the other's choicest language glow:
She softly said, "Recount your weal or woe,
Your every subject free from pause or haste:
Ne'er let your hero fail, nor be disgraced."
The third—"With varying emphasis should flow
A good rondeau."
In Mr. Oxenford's Book of French Songs, now published with Miss Costello's Specimens of the Early Poetry of France, in a volume of the Chandos Classics, there is one ballade given (with its original French, both without envoy); but although noting the peculiarity that each stanza has the same terminations, Mr. Oxenford has not kept it in his translation, nor has Miss Costello, in a numerous collection of ballades, rondels, lais, and other forms, once paraphrased them accurately, usually varying even the refrain; nor can I see, in her voluminous notes, that she draws attention to this important feature, although she gives the particulars of the eccentricities of rhyming known as Fraternisée, Brisée, and the like, and condemns their triviality rather strongly. In the edition before me no date is given; the authoress died in 1870. The oft-quoted Rondeau by Leigh Hunt is so beautiful in itself that all its shortcomings in the matter of form may be readily pardoned, and if—but the saving clause is great—others as beautiful could be built on the same shape, a "Leigh Hunt" variation would be a welcome addition to the forms in English; but it is no rondeau, and has not the faintest claim to be so styled. Probably it is familiar to all readers, but in case even one should not know it, it is quoted here:—
"Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in.
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets upon your list, put that in!
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad;
Say that health and wealth have missed me;
Say I'm growing old, but add—
Jenny kissed me."