In the Middle Ages,
octosyllables were the standard form for didactic, narrative, and epistolary verse in Occitan, as in French.
(10.) According to my work on rococo meter, the alexandrine, decasyllable and
octosyllable combination is a favorite in rococo heterometrical poetry (Nell-Boelsche 243).
In the first section we have two monarhyme quatrains of
octosyllables (I assume the omission of a line at the beginning), followed in the second by a monorhyme quatrain of heptasyllables.
In Connecticut JOHN TRUMBULL , whose wit had been directed against collegiate follies in The Progress of Dulness (1772-73), pointed it now toward Tories and mob-directed rebels in the deft
octosyllables of M'FINGAL (1772-82), which became, perhaps after the ubiquitous
The lyric sequences in Piramus et Tisbe, with their use of disyllables and monorhymed
octosyllables, also generate a fascinating, although necessarily speculative, suggestion that this text may hint at the original form of that genre which repeatedly defies definition: the Breton lay.
At around the same time that Marie was "assembling" her Lais,(13) an anonymous nun of Barking composed a Vie d'Edouard le Confesseur, based on Aelred's Vita Sancti Edwardi regis et Confessoris, in 6685
octosyllables (between 1163 and 1170, according to its editor).(14) When Edward recalls his vow to visit Rome, the people express their fear of an imminent Danish invasion, whereupon the king sends ambassadors to seek advice from Pope Leo IX.
Laforgue uses octosyllables uniformly, though, as often in his verse, a certain flexibility is needed to make the count.
As for metre, all three translators hover around a preferred line lenght, not very far away from Laforgue's octosyllables. Dale again is tight, with nothing but eight- or nine-syllable lines except one of seven.
If this insistance on the plays' theatrical vitality encourages more actual productions, then it will have admirably served its purpose, though potential producers may feel the suppleness and verve of the original
octosyllables to be more effective in performance.
At around the same time that Marie was "assembling" her Lais, (13) an anonymous nun of Barking composed a Vie d'Edouard le Confesseur, based on Aelred's Vita Sancti Edwardi regis et Confessoris, in 6685
octosyllables (between 1163 and 1170, according to its editor).
Passage (a) consists of isosyllabic
octosyllables with metrically unordered word-accents (its runs of juxtaposed accented (////) and unaccented (vvvv) syllables violate the principle of foot-based alternating word-accent), while passage (b) has lines of varying lengths (8,6,7,10: it violates the isosyllabic rule) but with rule-governed alternation of word-accent within the syntactical unit.
Even the sense of rhythm has often been lost, many lines not even approximating to
octosyllables: the record is held by a seventeen-syllable monstrosity in line 6 of No.
