[191] Perhaps one is astonished to see that I give the name of _sirventes_, or sylves, to that which is commonly called the poems of Dante; but in order to understand me, it is necessary to consider that these poems, composed of stanzas of three verses joined in couplets, are properly only long songs on a serious subject, which agrees with the _sirvente_. The poems of Bojardo, of Ariosto, of Tasso, are, as to form, only long ballads. They are poems because of the unity which, notwithstanding the innumerable episodes with which they are filled, constitutes the principal subject. [192] Pasquier, _Hist. et Recherch. des Antiq._, l. vii., ch. 12. Henri-Etienne, _Précellence du Lang. Franç._, p. 12. D’Olivet, _Prosod._, art. i., § 2. Delisle-de-Salles, _Hist. de la Trag._, t. i., p. 154, à la note. [193] D’Olivet, _Prosod._, art. V., § 1. [194] _Ibidem._ [195] William Jones, _Asiatic Researches_, vol. i. [196] _Ibid._, vol. i., p. 425. [197] William Jones, _Asiatic Researches_, vol. i., p. 430. [198] Wilkin’s _Notes on the Hitopadesa_, p. 249. Halled’s _Grammar_, in the preface. The same, _Code of the Gentoo-Laws_. _Asiat. Research._, vol. i., p. 423. [199] _Asiat. Research._, vol. i., p. 346. Also in same work, vol. i., p. 430. [200] W. Jones has put into English a Natak entitled _Sakuntala_ or _The Fatal Ring_, of which the French translation has been made by Brugnières. Paris, 1803, chez Treuttel et Würtz. [201] See _Asiat. Research._, vol. iii., p. 42, 47, 86, 185, etc. [202] _Asiat. Research._, vol. i., p. 279, 357 et 360. [203] _Institut. of Hindus-Laws._ W. Jones, _Works_, t. iii., p. 51. _Asiat. Research._, vol. ii., p. 368. [204] _Hist. génér. de la Chine_, t. i., p. 19. _Mém. concern. les Chinois_, t. i., p. 9, 104, 160. _Chou-King._ Ch. _Yu-Kong_, etc., Duhalde, t. i., p. 266. _Mém. concern._, etc., t. xiii., p. 190. [205] The _She-King_, which contains the most ancient poetry of the Chinese, is only a collection of odes and songs, of sylves, upon different historical and moral subjects. (_Mém. concer. les Chinois_, t. i., p. 51, et t. ii., p. 80.) Besides, the Chinese had known rhyme for more than four thousand years. (_Ibid._, t. viii., p. 133-185.). [206] Le P. Parennin says that the language of the Manchus has an enormous quantity of words which express, in the most concise and most picturesque manner, what ordinary languages can do only by aid of numerous epithets or periphrases. (Duhalde, _in-fol._, t. iv., p. 65.) [207] _Ci-dessus_, p. 31. [208] _Voyez_ la traduction française des _Rech. asiatiq._, t. ii., p. 49, notes _a_ et _b_.