The golden verses of Pythagoras

The madrigals are of Spanish origin as their name sufficiently proves. The word gala signifies in Spanish a kind of favour, an honour rendered, a gallantry, a present. Thus Madrid-gala arises from a gallantry in the Madrid fashion.

The sylves, called sirves or sirventes by the troubadours, were kinds of serious poems, ordinarily satirical. These words come from the Latin sylva which, according to Quintilius, is said of a piece of verse recited ex-tempore (l. x., c. 3).

[189]Voyez Laborde, Essai sur la Musique, t. i., p. 112, et t. ii., p. 168. On trouve, de la page 149 à la page 232 de ce même volume, un catalogue de tous les anciens romanciers français. On peut voir, pour les Italiens, Crescembini, Della Volgar Poësia.

[190] See Laborde. It is believed that this Guilhaume, bishop of Paris, is the author of the hieroglyphic figures which adorn the portal of Notre-Dame, and that they have some connection with the hermetic science. ((Biblioth. des Phil. Chim.)., t. iv. Saint-Foix, Essai (sur Paris).)

[191] Perhaps one is astonished to see that I give the name of sirventes, or sylves, to that which is commonly called the poems of Dante; but in order to understand me, it is necessary to consider that these poems, composed of stanzas of three verses joined in couplets, are properly only long songs on a serious subject, which agrees with the sirvente. The poems of Bojardo, of Ariosto, of Tasso, are, as to form, only long ballads. They are poems because of the unity which, notwithstanding the innumerable episodes with which they are filled, constitutes the principal subject.

[192] Pasquier, (Hist. et Recherch. des Antiq.), l. vii., ch. 12. Henri-Etienne, (Précellence du Lang. Franç.), p. 12. D’Olivet, (Prosod.), art. i., § 2. Delisle-de-Salles, (Hist. de la Trag.), t. i., p. 154, à la note.

[193] D’Olivet, (Prosod.), art. V., § 1.

[194]Ibidem.

[195] William Jones, Asiatic Researches, vol. i.

[196]Ibid., vol. i., p. 425.

[197] William Jones, Asiatic Researches, vol. i., p. 430.

[198] Wilkin’s Notes on the Hitopadesa, p. 249. Halled’s Grammar, in the preface. The same, Code of the Gentoo-Laws. Asiat. Research., vol. 1, page 423.

[199]Asiat. Research., vol. 1, page 346. Also in same work, vol. 1, page 430.

[200] W. Jones has put into English a Natak entitled Sakuntala or The Fatal Ring, of which the French translation has been made by Brugnières. Paris, 1803, chez Treuttel et Würtz.

[201] See Asiat. Research., vol. iii., p. 42, 47, 86, 185, etc.

[202]Asiat. Research., vol. 1, page 279, 357 et 360.

[203]Institut. of Hindus-Laws. W. Jones, Works, t. iii., p. 51. Asiat. Research., vol. ii., p. 368.

[204](Hist. génér. de la Chine), t. i., p. 19. (Mém. concern. les Chinois), t. i., p. 9, 104, 160. Chou-King. Ch. Yu-Kong, etc., Duhalde, t. i., p. 266. (Mém. concern.), etc., t. xiii., p. 190.

[205] The She-King, which contains the most ancient poetry of the Chinese, is only a collection of odes and songs, of sylves, upon different historical and moral subjects. ((Mém. concer. les Chinois), t. i., p. 51, et t. ii., p. 80.) Besides, the Chinese had known rhyme for more than four thousand years. (Ibid., t. viii., p. 133-185.).

[206] Le P. Parennin says that the language of the Manchus has an enormous quantity of words which express, in the most concise and most picturesque manner, what ordinary languages can do only by aid of numerous epithets or periphrases. (Duhalde, in-fol., t. iv., p. 65.)

[207](Ci-dessus), p. 31.

[208](Voyez) la traduction française des Rech. asiatiq., t. ii., p. 49, notes a et b.

[209]Voyez ce que dit de Zend, Anquetil Duperron, et l’exemple qu’il donne de cette ancienne langue. Zend-Avesta, t. i.

[210] D’Herbelot, Bibl. orient., p. 54. Asiat. Research., t. ii., p. 51.

[211] Anquetil Duperron, Zend-Avesta, t. i.

[212]Asiat. Research., t. ii., p. 51.

[213] L’abbé Massieu, Histor. de la Poésie franç., p. 82.

[214] In Arabic ديوان (diwan). ןאויד

[215] D’Herbelot, Bibl. orient., au mot Divan. Asiat. Research., t. ii., p. 13.

[216] It must be remarked that the word Diw, which is also Persian, was alike applied in Persia to the Divine Intelligence, before Zoroaster had changed the signification of it by the establishment of a new doctrine, which, replacing the Diws by the Iseds, deprived them of the dominion of Heaven, and represented them as demons of the earth. See Anquetil Duperron, Vendidad-Sadè, p. 133, Boun-Dehesh., p. 355. It is thus that Christianity has changed the sense of the Greek word Δαίμων (Demon), and rendered it synonymous with the devil; whereas it signified in its principle, divine spirit and genius.

[217]Asiat. Research., t. ii., p. 13.

[218]Voyez Anquetil Duperron, Zend-Avesta, t. iii., p. 527 et suiv. Voyez aussi un ouvrage allemand de Wahl, sur l’état de la Perse: Pragmatische-Geografische und Statische Schilderung … etc. Leipzig, 1795, t. i., p. 198 à 204.

[219] Voyez plusieurs de leurs chansons rapportées par Laborde, Essai sur la Musique, t. ii., p. 398.

[220] Laborde, ibid., t. i., p. 425.

[221] I will give, later on, a strophe from Voluspa, a Scandinavian ode of eumolpique style, very beautiful, and of which I will, perhaps, one day make an entire translation.

[222] It was said long ago that a great number of rhymed verses were found in the Bible, and Voltaire even has cited a ridiculous example in his Dictionnaire philosophique (art. Rime): but it seems to me that before concerning oneself so much as one still does, whether the Hebraic text of the Sepher is in prose or in verse, whether or not one finds there rhymed verses after the manner of the Arabs, or measured after the manner of the Greeks, it would be well to observe whether one understands this text. The language of Moses has been lost entirely for more than two thousand four hundred years, and unless it be restored with an aptitude, force, and constancy which is nowadays unusual, I doubt whether it will be known exactly what the legislator of the Hebrews has said regarding the principles of the Universe, the origin of the earth, and the birth and vicissitudes of the beings who people it. These subjects are, however, worth the pains if one would reflect upon them; I cannot prevent myself from thinking that it would be more fitting to be occupied with the meaning of the words, than their arrangements by long and short syllables, by regular or alternate rhymes, which is of no importance whatever.

[223] Vossius, De Poematum cantu et viribus rhythmi; cité par J. J. Rousseau, Dictionnaire de Musique, art. Rythme.

[224] Nearly all of the Italian words terminate with one of four vowels, a, e, i, o, without accent: it is very rare that the vowels are accentuated, as the vowel ù. When this occurs as in cità, perchè, dì, farò, etc., then, only, is the final masculine. Now here is what one of their best rhythmic poets, named Tolomèo, gives as an hexameter verse: