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{{Short description|Poetic stanza, rhyming ABABBCC}}
'''Rhyme royal''' (or '''rime royal''') is a [[rhyme|rhyming]] [[stanza]] form that was introduced to [[English literature|English]] poetry by [[Geoffrey Chaucer]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/rhyme-royal|title=Rhyme royal &#124; poetic form &#124; Britannica|website=www.britannica.com}}</ref> The form enjoyed significant success in the fifteenth century and into the sixteenth century. It has had a more subdued but continuing influence on English verse in more recent centuries.

==Form==

The rhyme royal stanza consists of seven lines, usually in [[iambic pentameter]]. The [[rhyme scheme]] is <math>\mathrm{ABABBCC}</math>. In practice, the stanza can be constructed either as a [[tercet]] and two [[couplet]]s (<math>\mathrm{ABA \,\, BB \,\, CC}</math>) or a [[quatrain]] and a tercet (<math>\mathrm{ABAB \,\, BCC}</math>). This allows for variety, especially when the form is used for longer [[narrative poetry|narrative]] poems.

Thanks to the form's spaciousness compared to quatrains, and the sense of conclusion offered by the [[couplet]] of new rhyme in the sixth and seventh lines, it is thought to have a cyclical, reflective quality.<ref name="auto">T Krier, "Rhyme Royal", in ''The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics'', edited by Roland Greene, 4th edition (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).</ref>

==History==

===Introduction and success===

Chaucer first used the rhyme royal stanza in his long poems ''[[Troilus and Criseyde]]'' and the ''[[Parlement of Foules]]'', written in the later fourteenth century. He also used it for four of the ''[[Canterbury Tales]]'': the [[Man of Law's Tale]], the [[Prioress' Tale]], the [[Clerk's Tale]], and the [[Second Nun's Tale]], and in a number of shorter lyrics. He may have adapted the form from a [[French literature|French]] [[ballade (forme fixe)|ballade]] stanza or from the [[Italian literature|Italian]] ''[[ottava rima]]'', with the omission of the fifth line. Chaucer's contemporary and acquaintance [[John Gower]] used rhyme royal in ''In Praise of Peace'' and in one short part, the lover's supplication, in ''[[Confessio Amantis]]''.<ref>James Dean, "Gower, Chaucer, and Rhyme Royal", ''Studies in Philology'' 88 (1991), 251–75.</ref> In the fifteenth century, rhyme royal would go on to become a standard narrative form in later [[Middle English]] poetry alongside the rhyming [[couplet]].

[[James I of Scotland]] used rhyme royal for his Chaucerian poem ''[[The Kingis Quair]]''. The name of the stanza might derive from this royal use, though it has also been argued that the stanza name comes from the use of poetry for addresses to royalty in festivals and ceremonies.<ref>Martin Stevens, "[https://doi.org/10.2307/461801 The Royal Stanza in Early English Literature]", ''PMLA'' 94 (1979), 62–76.</ref><ref>Elizabeth Robertson, "Rhyme Royal and Romance", in ''The Transmission of Medieval Romance: Metres, Manuscripts and Early Prints'', edited by Ad Putter and Judith A. Jefferson (Cambridge: Brewer, 2018), pp. 50–68 (pp. 53–4).</ref><ref name="auto"/> English and Scottish poets were greatly influenced by Chaucer in the century after his death and many made use of the form in at least some of their works. [[John Lydgate]] used the stanza for many of his occasional and love poems, and throughout his 36,000-line ''[[The Fall of Princes|Fall of Princes]]''. Rhyme royal was also chosen by poets such as [[Thomas Hoccleve]], [[John Capgrave]], [[George Ashby (poet)|George Ashby]], and the anonymous author of ''[[The Floure and the Leafe|The Flower and the Leaf]]''. The Scottish poet [[Robert Henryson]] consistently used the stanza throughout his two longest works, the ''[[Morall Fabillis]]'' and ''[[Testament of Cresseid]]''. A few fifteenth-century Middle English [[Chivalric romance|romances]] use the form: ''[[Generides]]'', ''[[Amoryus and Cleopes]]'', and the ''Romans of Partenay''.<ref>Elizabeth Robertson, "Rhyme Royal and Romance", in ''The Transmission of Medieval Romance: Metres, Manuscripts and Early Prints'', edited by Ad Putter and Judith A. Jefferson (Cambridge: Brewer, 2018), pp. 50–68 (p. 60).</ref> Rhyme royal was employed in drama in the later fifteenth-century [[The Digby Conversion of Saint Paul|Digby ''Conversion of Saint Paul'']].

===Early-modern uses===

In the early sixteenth century rhyme royal continued to appear in the works of poets such as [[John Skelton (poet)|John Skelton]] (e.g. in ''The Bowge of Court''), [[Stephen Hawes]] (''Pastime of Pleasure''), [[Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset|Thomas Sackville]] (in the ''Induction'' to ''[[The Mirror for Magistrates]]''), [[Alexander Barclay]] (''The Ship of Fools''), [[William Dunbar]] (''[[The Thrissil and the Rois]]'') and [[David Lyndsay]] (''Squyer Meldrum''). [[Thomas Wyatt (poet)|Sir Thomas Wyatt]] used it in his poem "[[They flee from me that sometime did me seek]]". The seven-line stanza began to be used less often during the [[Elizabethan]] era, but it was still deployed by [[John Davies (poet, born 1569)|John Davies]] in his ''Orchestra'' and by [[William Shakespeare]] in ''[[The Rape of Lucrece]]''.

The later sixteenth-century poet [[Edmund Spenser]] wrote his ''Hymn of Heavenly Beauty'' using rhyme royal, but he also created his own [[Spenserian stanza]], rhyming <math>\mathrm{ABABBCBCC}</math>, partly by adapting rhyme royal. The Spenserian stanza varies from iambic pentameter in its final line, which is a line of iambic hexameter, or in other words an English [[alexandrine]]. In the seventeenth century, [[John Milton]] experimented by extending the seventh line of the rhyme royal stanza itself into an alexandrine in "On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough" and for the introductory stanzas of ''[[On the Morning of Christ's Nativity]]''.<ref name="auto"/> Like many stanzaic forms, rhyme royal fell out of fashion during the later seventeenth-century [[Restoration (England)|Restoration]], and it has never been widely used since.

===Revivals===

In the eighteenth century, [[Thomas Chatterton]] used Milton's modified rhyme royal stanza with a terminal alexandrine for some of his [[Literary forgery|forged]] faux-Middle English poems, such as "Elinoure and Juga" and "An Excelente Balade of Charitie". The [[Romantic literature in English|Romantic]] writers William Wordsworth and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]], both figures who were influenced by Chatterton, adopted Milton's modified rhyme royal stanza in some works, such as Wordsworth's "[[Resolution and Independence]]" and Coleridge's "Psyche".

In the later nineteenth century [[William Morris]], strongly influenced by Chaucer, wrote many parts of ''[[The Earthly Paradise]]'' with the related rhyme scheme ABABBCBCC.<ref>Joseph Berg Esenwein and Mary Eleanor Roberts, ''The Art of Versification'', Revised edition (Springfield, 1921), pp 111–112.</ref> In the [[United States]], [[Emma Lazarus]] wrote some short sections of her cycle poem "Epochs" in rhyme royal.

Notable twentieth-century poems in orthodox rhyme royal are [[W. H. Auden]]'s ''Letter to Lord Byron'' (as well as some of the stanzas in ''[[The Shield of Achilles]]''), [[W. B. Yeats]]'s ''A Bronze Head'' and [[John Masefield]]'s ''Dauber''.

==English examples==

===Iambic pentameter===

Each example below is from a different century. The first is from Chaucer who may have introduced the form into English. The second is from 15th-century Scotland where the [[Scottish Chaucerians]] widely cultivated it. The third is from Thomas Wyatt.

;14th century — Chaucer
<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">
The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen,
That was the king [[Priamus]] sone of Troye,
In lovinge, how his aventures fellen
Fro wo to wele, and after out of Ioye,
My purpos is, er that I parte fro ye,
[[Tisiphone|Thesiphone]], thou help me for [[composition (language)|tendyte]]
Thise woful vers, that wepen as I wryt {{pad|2em}} <small>([[Troilus and Criseyde]] 1.1–7)</small>
</poem>

;15th century — Henryson
(Describing the god [[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]] hailing from an extremely cold realm)
<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">
His face [[wrinkle|fronsit]], his [[complexion|lyre]] was lyke the [[lead|leid]],
His teith chatterit and cheverit with the chin,
His [[eyes|ene]] [[wikt:sagging|drowpit]], how sonkin in his heid,
Out of his nois the [[mucus|meldrop]] fast can rin,
With lippis [[paleness (color)|bla]] and cheikis leine and thin;
The ice-schoklis that fra his hair doun hang
Was wonder greit and as ane [[spear|speir]] als [[length|lang]]. {{pad|2em}} <small>(''[[Testament of Cresseid]]'' 155–161)</small>
</poem>

;16th century — Wyatt
<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">
They flee from me that sometime did me seek
With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themself in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change. {{pad|2em}} <small>("[[They Flee from Me]]" 1–7, modern spelling)</small>
</poem>

;19th century — Emma Lazarus
<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">
It comes not in such wise as she had deemed,
Else might she still have clung to her despair.
More tender, grateful than she could have dreamed,
Fond hands passed pitying over brows and hair,
And gentle words borne softly through the air,
Calming her weary sense and wildered mind,
By welcome, dear communion with her kind. {{pad|2em}} <small>("Sympathy" 1–7)</small>
</poem>

;20th century – W. B. Yeats
<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">
Here at right of the entrance this bronze head,
Human, superhuman, a bird's round eye,
Everything else withered and mummy-dead.
What great tomb-haunter sweeps the distant sky
(Something may linger there though all else die)
And finds there nothing to make its terror less
''Hysterica passio'' of its own emptiness? {{pad|2em}} <small> ("A Bronze Head" 1–7)</small>
</poem>

===Other meters===

Although in English verse the rhyme royal stanza is overwhelmingly composed in iambic pentameter, occasionally other lines are employed. [[Thomas Wyatt (poet)|Thomas Wyatt]] used iambic dimeter in his ''Revocation'':
<poem style="margin-left:2em">
What should I say?
—Since Faith is dead,
And Truth away
From you is fled?
Should I be led
With doubleness?
Nay! nay! mistress. (1–7)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/the-oxford-book-of-english-verse/36-a-revocation|title=36. A Revocation|date=February 27, 2023}}</ref>
</poem>	

[[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] in his poem ''On an Icicle that Clung to the Grass of a Grave'' used anapestic tetrameter<ref>Edward Morton Payson, English versification, Modern Language Notes, Vol. 18, No. 6., p. 175.</ref> instead of iambic pentameter: 
<poem style="margin-left:2em">
Oh! take the pure gem to where southerly breezes,
Waft repose to some bosom as faithful as fair,
In which the warm current of love never freezes,
As it rises unmingled with selfishness there,
Which, untainted by pride, unpolluted by care,
Might dissolve the dim icedrop, might bid it arise,
Too pure for these regions, to gleam in the skies. (1–7)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.infoplease.com/t/lit/shelley/3/3/21.htmlFull|title=text at Infoplease}}</ref>
</poem>

==Other languages==

Outside English-speaking countries rhyme royal was never very popular. It was used in French poetry in the 15th century. Sometimes it occurred in Spanish and Portuguese poetry. Saint [[John of the Cross]] wrote the poem ''Coplas hechas sobre un éxtasis de harta contemplación''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Coplas_hechas_sobre_un_%C3%A9xtasis_de_harta_contemplaci%C3%B3n|title=Coplas hechas sobre un éxtasis de harta contemplación - Wikisource|website=es.wikisource.org}}</ref> Portuguese playwright and poet [[Gil Vicente]] used rhyme royal scheme in his ''Villancete'' (in the English translation by Aubrey Fitz Gerald Aubertine, the rhyme scheme of the original text is altered):
{{Verse translation|lang=pt|
Adorae montanhas
O Deos das alturas,
Tambem as verduras,

Adorae desertos
E serras floridas
O Deos dos secretos,
O Senhor das vidas;
Ribeiras crescidas
Louvae nas alturas
Deos das creaturas.

Louvae arvoredos
De fruto presado,
Digam os penedos:
Deos seja louvado,
E louve meu gado
Nestas verduras
Deos das alturas.
|attr1=Gil Vicente|attr2=Aubrey Fitz Gerald Aubertine|
Worship, O mountains,
The God unseen.
And ye pastures green;
 
Ye deserts adore,
And ye flowered hills,
The Lord who earth fills
With life evermore.
Praise Him, rivers and rills,
God of earth and sky:
Praise Him on high.
 
With fruits' fair stock
Ye woods Him praise.
Ye mountain-ways
And every rock;
Praise Him, my flock.
In these pastures green.
The God unseen.<ref>Lyrics of Gil Vicente by Aubrey F. G. Bell, Second Edition, Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1921.</ref>}}

The ''villancete'' is similar in form to the Italian ''ballata mezzana'' (used by [[Guido Cavalcanti]]) or to the Spanish [[glosa]]. It consists of three stanzas: the first is a short envoi, followed by two seven-line stanzas.

Danish poet [[Adam Oehlenschläger]] used rhyme royal in one poem in his ''Nordens guder''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/nordensguderetep00oehl|title=Nordens guder. Et episk digt af Oehlenschläger|first=Adam|last=Oehlenschläger|date=March 23, 1870|publisher=Kjøbenhavn, Selskabet til udgivelse af Oehlenschls̈agers skrifter|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

In Eastern Europe, rhyme royal is extremely rare. Polish poet [[Adam Asnyk]] used it in the poem ''Wśród przełomu'' (''At the breakthrough'').<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pl.wikisource.org/wiki/Poezye_T._1_(Adam_Asnyk)/W%C5%9Br%C3%B3d_prze%C5%82omu|title=Poezye T. 1 (Adam Asnyk)/Wśród przełomu - Wikiźródła, wolna biblioteka|website=pl.wikisource.org}}</ref> In Czech literature [[František Kvapil]] wrote the poem ''V hlubinách mraků''<ref>Zaváté stopy. Verše Františka Kvapila, V Praze, Nakladatelství J. Otto Knihtiskárna, 1887, s. 53–54.</ref> (''In Depths of Darkness'') in rhyme royal.<ref>Jakub Říha, Rym a strofika v českém verši, obzlváště u Jana Nerudy, Praha 2015, p. 93.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090123031246/http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2407.html They flee from me that Sometime did me Seek]

{{Poetic forms}}

{{Chaucer|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Poetic forms]]
[[Category:Rhyme]]
[[Category:Stanzaic form]]