The origin of the sonnet in southern Europe is a matter of some disagreement. Some scholars trace it to the _canzone_ strophe (_e.g._ Gaspary, in his _Geschichte der Italienischen Literatur_), others to the combination of the _ottava rima_ with a six-line stanza (Welti, in his _Geschichte des Sonettes in der deutschen Dichtung_), others to Provençal and even German influence. (See Schipper, vol. ii. pp. 835 ff., and Lentzner's _Das Sonett und seine Gestaltung in der englischen Dichtung_, p. 1.) It seems first to have been a recognized form in Italy in the latter part of the thirteenth century (see Tomlinson's _The Sonnet: its Origin, Structure, and Place in Poetry_); and was made glorious by Dante, Michael Angelo, Tasso, Ariosto, and--above all--Petrarch. On the different forms of the Italian sonnet, see Tomlinson's essay, just cited. "The object of the regular or legitimate Italian sonnet," says Mr. Tomlinson, "is to express one, and only one, idea, mood, sentiment, or proposition, and this must be introduced ... in the first quatrain, and so far explained in the second, that this may end in a full point; while the office of the first tercet is to prepare the leading idea of the quatrains for the conclusion, which conclusion is to be perfectly carried out in the second tercet, so that it may contain the fundamental idea of the poem." (pp. 27, 28.) The Italian form is always marked by the division into octave and sestet, although English usage has been very irregular in marking this division by a full pause. The octave is based on only two rimes (_abbaabba_); the sestet on either two or three, the most common arrangements being _cdecde, cdcdcd, cdedce_, and _cddcee_. With regard to the pause at the point of division Lentzner says: "It should not be a full pause, because this would produce the effect of a gap or breaking-off, ...--not like the speaker who has reached the end of what he has to say, but like one who reflects on what has already been said, and then takes fresh breath to complete his theme."[35] Most critics prefer those forms of sestet which avoid a final riming couplet. This Mr. Courthope explains as follows: "The reason for the avoidance of the couplet in the second portion of the sonnet is, I think, plain. In the first eight lines the thought ascends to a climax; this part of the sonnet may be said to contain the premises of the poetical syllogism. In the last six lines the idea descends to a conclusion, and as the two divisions are of unequal length it is necessary that the lesser should be the more individualised. Hence while, in the first part, the expression of the thought is massed and condensed by reduplications of sound, and the general movement is limited by quatrains; in the second part the clauses are separated by the alternation of the rhymes, the movement is measured by tercets, and the whole weight of the rhetorical emphasis is thrown into the last line." (_History of English Poetry_, vol. ii. p. 91.)