there are two striking examples of this fact; for the accent of the (if anything) iambic metre in the word _peine_ is on a syllable which in prose is scarcely pronounced at all, and in _commençant_ the last syllable is at least as long as the last but one. Where modern French poets try to introduce something resembling rhythm, they generally do so less by means of the rhetorical accent in words of several syllables than by putting the more or less important parts of the sentence, such as article and noun or personal pronoun and verb, in thesis and arsis respectively. In the main it may fairly be said that in Romance poetry metre is entirely founded on counting the syllables of the verse, and rhythm, properly speaking, has disappeared, except so far as it shows its influence in the combination of verses of different lengths in a stanza. This leads us to another consideration, which is of the highest importance in studying Provençal versification. Rhythm showed its influence on the poetry of the troubadours, not only in the single verses, but also in the composition of several verses of different sizes and cadences into an organic whole—the strophe. The harmonious beauty and impulsive lyrical pathos of Pindar’s odes excite the same admiration as does the steady epical flow of Homer’s hexameters; and to the inheritance of the strophe, and its development into the stanza, mediæval poems, and especially the canzos of the troubadours, owe their greatest charm. To the relics of ancient literature already mentioned was added the rhyme, defined by strict rules and made obligatory; and this new principle contributed not a little to give variety and harmonious beauty to the mediæval stanza. In investigating Provençal versification, it will therefore be necessary to consider (1) rhythm, as shown in the manifold measures of verse, (2) rhyme, and (3) the mode in which by these two elements combined the stanza of the troubadours was formed. CHAPTER XXIX. RHYTHM.