It is worthy of notice that in the first lines the troubadour has used alliteration to increase the strange sound of his words. The lines serve at the same time as an example of another way of connecting stanzas with each other. All the different verses are without a rhyme in their own stanza, but find it in the corresponding verse of another, or of all the other stanzas. Rhyme of this kind is called by the ‘Leys d’Amors’ rim espar, while Dante uses the expression clavis. When the clavis runs through all the verses of each stanza, the case is described as rimas dissolutas. Arnaut Daniel seems to have been particularly fond of this form; for the sestina also, which he invented, and which Dante praised and imitated, is founded on the same principle. Other poets preferred generally to introduce only one clavis or, at most, two, interrupting in this way, sometimes with great effect, the equal flow of the rhymes. A modification of the rims espars is the rims capcaudatz. This takes place if the clavis is the last verse of the first stanza, and is introduced into the following, not in its corresponding place, but by way of first rhyme. Of the two stanzas, for instance, quoted by the ‘Leys d’Amors,’ the first ends with the line, ‘Li fizel de mortal pena,’ and the first line of the second accordingly shows the same rhyme in ‘verges eratz e vergena,’ and continues the scheme exactly in the same way as the first stanza. The various combinations of stanzas by means of the rhyme are one of the most interesting parts of Provençal versification, and show a great refinement of taste in the mediæval poets. To convey an idea of the skill manifested in this way, it will be useful to give a short sketch of a canzo which, in this as in all other respects, may be considered as the standard piece of Provençal poetry. This is Guillem de Cabestanh’s celebrated song, ‘Li douz cossire,’ through which, it is said, the poet lost his life, while making his name immortal. The poem consists of six stanzas, divided by means of corresponding rhymes into three groups of coblas doblas. But these three groups are again connected with each other; for the third stanza resumes the last feminine rhyme of the second, and uses it as first rhyme, introducing, however, new additional rhymes. The fifth stanza stands in exactly the same relation to the fourth. The four last lines of the second stanza show the following rhyming words—parvensa, temensa; fei, vei. The first rhyme of the third stanza must be feminine; and therefore the penultimate couple of rhymes is used, with some irregularity, as a kind of rims capcaudatz, and the beginning is En sovinensa tenc la car’el dous ris, vostra valensa el bel cors blanc e lis, &c.