LA FONTAINE AND KRYLOV: THE ART OF NEGLIGENCE

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In the French vers libres of the seventeenth century, we expect to find, most commonly, varied sequences of long lines (alexandrines and decasyllables) and short lines (eight or fewer syllables), linked by unsystematic rhyme groups in neighboring rhyme (AABBCC...), in four-line groups (alternating rhyme, ABAB, or enclosed rhyme ABBA) or in varied groups of five or more lines on two or more rhymes. An isolated line with no answering rhyme was unknown. Two of the great fabulists have produced one fable with a missing rhyme: La Fontaine (“La Cour du Lion”) and Ivan Krylov («Купец»). Critics who have noticed the missing rhyme in “La Cour du Lion” have assumed that La Fontaine was negligent or careless. No commentator of Krylov’s «Басни», so far as I can determine, has noted the missing rhyme in «Купец». Each fable belongs to the mid-career of the poet: “La Cour...” was published in an augmented edition of the Fables in 1678; «Купец» appeared in the «Басни» of 1830, four years after Nicholas I replaced Alexander I as Tsar. This study will consist of a close reading of “La Cour du Lion” and «Купец». The historical context for the publication of each fable will be considered and I propose that, in each case, the line with a missing rhyme be considered as a deliberate phenomenon in the poetic discourse of the fable, rather than as an act of negligence by the fabulist.