French alexandrine

According to verse historian Mikhail Gasparov, the French alexandrine developed from the Ambrosian octosyllable, by gradually losing the final two syllables, then doubling this line in a syllabic context with phrasal stress rather than length as a marker.

[1] The earliest recorded use of alexandrines is in the Medieval French poem Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne of 1150, but the name derives from their more famous use in part of the Roman d'Alexandre of 1170.

Significantly, they allowed an "epic caesura" — an extrametrical mute e at the close of the first hemistich (half-line), as exemplified in this line from the medieval Li quatre fils Aymon: However, toward the end of the 14th century, the line was "totally abandoned, being ousted by its old rival the decasyllabic";[5] and despite occasional isolated attempts, would not regain its stature for almost 200 years.

The règle d'alternance des rimes (rule of alternation of rhymes), which was a tendency in some poets before the Pléiade, was "firmly established by Ronsard in the sixteenth century and rigorously decreed by Malherbe in the seventeenth.

(Masculine rhymes are given in lowercase, and feminine in CAPS):[13] These lines by Corneille (with formal paraphrase) exemplify classical alexandrines with rimes suivies:

[10] This in part explains the strictness with which its prosodic rules (e.g. medial caesura and end rhyme) were kept; they were felt necessary to preserve its distinction and unity as verse.

La très-chère était nue, | et, connaissant mon cœur, Elle n'avait gardé | que ses bijoux sonores, Dont le riche attirail | lui donnait l'air vainqueur Qu'ont dans leurs jours heureux | les esclaves des Maures.

[19] My most darling was bare | but she knew my desire So her bright jewels she wore, | her tinkling chains, her treasure: Such an air of command | in her golden attire, Like to a Moor's slave girl | in the days of her pleasure.