88 



fuch fpirlt and variety to the French numbers, and are now incorpo- 

 rated into its poetry. Had the bloated Ronfard trod in the fteps of 

 this accompliflied writer, and we find La Bruyere and others of that 

 day, fliarply reproving him for not imitating his Cmplicity, the French 

 poetry would have owed him more obligations : for the author of " La 

 Printems a la fccur d'Aftree," had a rich and copious fancy, and when he 

 chofe to lay afide his " Eftes-vous pas ma feule Entelechie ?" and fpeak 

 mortal language, could be as courtly and perfpicuous as he was tumid 

 and perverfe. But of the fervices that Mai-ot had rendered her poetry, 

 France is truly fenfible : and I much queftion, had he not given that 

 early turn to her language, which in a manner fixed the laws of her 

 poetry, whether Fontaine or Voltaire, with all their wit, and all their eafe, 

 could have fo eafily fuftained the naivete of the French Mufe : fure I am, but 

 for Marot, they had not left behind them fuch admirable monuments 

 of noble fimplicity. The couplets of Marot in the French rhime, pre- 

 fent to me a beauty not unlike the eyes of a fine woman, whofe beams, 

 emanating from a double fource, end in one point of luftre. This is 

 but a faint fketch of French poetry, and ftill lefs of the Italian or the 

 Englifli : but, though call into the back page, perhaps not wholly ua- 

 ufeful to the elucidation of our fubjeft. 



Number. 



French language, til! Marot gave It birth ; aad if he did not introduce it, he certainly 

 improved and fixed its laws. The rondeau confifts of thirteen verfes, as the fonnet does 

 of fourteen; eight of the rhimes mud correfpond in found, and be fet out in their 

 allotted places : the remaining five rhimes, having likewife the fame echoes, mud have 

 alfo their allotted places. It has two burthens, the firft placed after the eighth verfe, 

 and the lafl: concluding the piece. In addition to this, it is indifpenfably neceflary there 

 Ihould be a reft or paufe on the fixth verfe. I fpeak only of the French Rondeau ; 

 thus, then, the principal beauty and excellence of the rondeau lie in the rhime and its 

 happy difpofition. 1 fay nothing of the Triolet, whicli is only another fpecies of the 

 rondeau, fomewhat varied in the fituation of its rhimes. This had formed a part of 

 the earlier French poetry, but not Marot himfelf has been able to give currency to the 

 fettered rondeau. 



