The _ballade_ consists of three stanzas, of eight or ten lines each, that repeat exactly the same rhyme arrangement, and of a shorter stanza of four or five lines, called the _envoy_, which repeats the rhyme arrangement of the second part of the other stanzas. The line of the ballade has generally eight syllables, but may have ten or twelve (see pp. 1, 4, 5, 235). The _rondel_, as usually printed, consists of three parts, the first of four lines, the second of four, the last two of which are the first two of the first part, and the third of five, the last one of which is the first one of the first part; there are but two rhymes throughout. The lines of the _rondel_ have usually eight syllables. This form was practically superseded by the rondeau (see pp. 2 and 3). The _rondeau_ also consists of three parts; the first has five lines, the second three, and the third five, and the first word or words of the first line, usually the first half of the line, are repeated at the end of the second and third parts; there are but two rhymes. The lines of the _rondeau_ have also usually eight syllables (see p. 6). The _triolet_ consists of eight lines, usually octosyllabic. The first line is twice repeated, in the fourth and seventh places, and the second line is repeated once, making the final one. There are but two rhymes (see p. 298). The _sonnet_ has fourteen lines, usually Alexandrines, and is made up of two parts, one of eight lines, called the octave, and one of six, called the sestet; the rule allows but two rhymes to the octave and three others to the sestet; the arrangement of the rhymes is inflexible for the strict Petrarchan type (see below), but considerable variations from it are common. For sonnets of the strict type see pp. 257, 263, 280; for others showing variations see pp. 8, 13, 14, 199. The rhyme arrangement of these various forms is most clearly shown by letters as follows, capital letters indicating lines that are repeated. _Ballade_: eight lines, _ababbcbC_, _ababbcbC_, _ababbcbC_, _bcbC_; ten lines, _ababbccdcD_, _ababbccdcD_, _ababbccdcD_, _ccdcD_. _Rondel: ABba_, _abAB_, _abbaA_. _Rondeau: aabba_, _aab refrain_, _aabba refrain_. _Triolet: ABaAabAB_. _Sonnet: abba abba ccdede_. For reference: Th. de Banville, _Petit traité de poésie française_, 1872; F. de Gramont, _les Vers français et leur prosodie_, 1875; Becq de Fouquières, _Traité général de versification française_, 1879; A. Tobler, _Vom französischen Versbau alter und neuer Zeit_, Berlin, 1880, 3d edition, 1894,French translation with excellent preface by Gaston Paris, 1885; Clair Tisseur, _Modestes observations sur l'art de versifier_, Lyon, 1893; A. Bibesco, _la Question du vers français et la tentative des poètes décadents_, 1893, 2d edition, with preface by Sully Prudhomme, 1896. CHARLES D'ORLÉANS BALLADE