[110] The following is an account of these forms, in their more important developments. The _ballade_ consists of three stanzas, and an _envoy_, or final half-stanza, which is sometimes omitted. The number of the lines in each stanza is optional, but it should not usually be more than eleven or less than eight. The peculiarity of the poem is that the last line of every stanza is identical, and that the rhymes are the same throughout and repeated in the same order. The examples printed at the end of this chapter from Lescurel and Chartier will illustrate this sufficiently. There is no need to enter into the absurdity of _ballades equivoquees_, _emperieres_, etc., further than to say that their main principle is the repetition of the same rhyming word, in a different sense, it may be twice or thrice at the end of the line, it may be at the end and in the middle, it may be at the end of one line and the beginning of the next. The _chant royal_ is a kind of major ballade having five of the longest (eleven-lined) stanzas and an envoy of five lines. The _rondel_ is a poem of thirteen lines (sometimes made into fourteen by an extra repetition), consisting of two quatrains and a five-lined stanza, the first two lines of the first quatrain being repeated as the last two of the second, and the first line of all being added once more at the end. The _rondeau_, a poem of thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen lines, is arranged in stanzas of five, four, and four, five, or six lines, the last line of the second and third stanzas consisting of the first words of the first line of the poem. The _triolet_ is a sort of rondel of eight lines only, repeating the first line at the fourth, and the first and second at the seventh and eighth. Lastly, the _villanelle_ alternates one of two refrain lines at the end of each three-lined stanza. These are the principal forms, though there are many others. [111] Ed. Montaiglon. Paris, 1855. [112] The Rondeau is not in Lescurel systematised into any regular form. [113] Ed. L. de Mas Latrie. Societe de l'Orient Latin, Geneva, 1877. This is a poem not much shorter than the _Voir Dit_, but continuously octosyllabic and very spirited. The final account of the murder of Pierre (which he provoked by the most brutal oppression of his vassals) is full of power. [114] Ed. P. Paris. Societe des Bibliophiles, Paris, 1875. This is a very interesting poem consisting of more than 9000 lines, mostly octosyllabic couplets, with ballades, etc. interspersed, one of which is given at the end of this chapter. It is addressed either to Agnes of Navarre, or, as M. P. Paris thought, to Peronelle d'Armentieres, and was written in 1362, when the author was probably very old. [115] Deschamps is said to have been also named Morel. A complete edition of his works has been undertaken for the Old French Text Society by the Marquis de Queux de Saint Hilaire. [116] Ballades, 147, 149. Ed. Queux de St. Hilaire.