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Bouts-Rimés
Bouts-Rimés (French language, French, literally 'rhymed-ends') is the name given to a kind of poetic game defined by Joseph Addison, Addison in ''The Spectator (1711), the Spectator'' as "lists of words that rhyme to one another, drawn up by another hand, and given to a poet, who was to make a poem to the rhymes in the same order that they were placed upon the list". The more odd and perplexing the rhymes are, the more ingenuity is required to give a semblance of common sense to the production. For instance, the rhyme scheme ''breeze, elephant, squeeze, pant, scant, please, hope, pope'' is submitted, and the following stanza is the result: The invention of ''bouts-rimés'' is attributed to a minor French poet of the 17th century named Dulot, of whom little else is remembered. According to the Menagiana, about the year 1648, Dulot was complaining one day that he had been robbed of a number of valuable papers, and, in particular, of three hundred sonnets. Surprise being expressed a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Méry
Joseph Méry (21 January 179717 June 1866) was a French writer, journalist, novelist, poet, playwright and librettist. Career An ardent romanticist, he collaborated with Auguste Barthélemy in many of his satires and wrote a great number of stories, now forgotten. Nowadays he is perhaps best remembered as the co-librettist of the original version in French of Verdi's ''Don Carlos,'' which premiered in Paris in March 1867. Also, he was the author of the play ''La Bataille de Toulouse'' which Verdi had earlier adapted for his opera ''La battaglia di Legnano'' in January 1849. He was noted in his time for his wit and ability to improvise. He produced several pieces at the Paris theatres, and also collaborated with Gérard de Nerval in adaptations from Shakespeare and in other plays. A friend of Offenbach, he wrote libretti for three of the composer's works. His novella ''Histoire de ce qui n'est pas arrivé'' (1854) is a significant exercise in alternate history, in which Mér ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |