Editing Triolet (section)

==History==

The triolet is a close cousin of the [[Rondeau (poetry)|rondeau]], the [[rondel (poem)|rondel]], and the [[rondelet]], other French verse forms emphasizing repetition and rhyme. The form stems from medieval [[French poetry]] and seems to have had its origin in [[Picardy]].<ref>Kitabayashi. ''A Geolinguistic Chronicle of Early Triolet Dispersal in Western European Languages'', p. 40.</ref>

The earliest written examples are from the late 13th century. In this century, possibly the earliest surviving triolet is from "Li Roumans dou Chastelain de Couci et de la Dame de Fayel", where it is referred to as simply a song ("chanson").<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hkitabayashi.blogspot.jp/2017/05/early-french-triolets.html|title = Amusing the Muses: Early French triolets|date = 14 May 2017}}</ref> Seven more easily datable 13th century triolets (also known as songs) are to be found in "Cléomadès" by Adenet le Roi.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hkitabayashi.blogspot.jp/2017/05/early-french-triolets.html|title = Amusing the Muses: Early French triolets|date = 14 May 2017}}</ref> In the early 14th century, the songwriter, Jean Lescurel, wrote many triolets under the term of rondel. Lescurel was followed by Guillaume Machaut and, at the end of the century, by Jean Froissart.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hkitabayashi.blogspot.jp/2017/05/early-french-triolets.html|title = Amusing the Muses: Early French triolets|date = 14 May 2017}}</ref> In the early 15th century, Christine de Pisan experimented with a slightly abbreviated seven-line variation of the triolet which she, like her predecessors, also termed a rondel. Toward the end of this century, Dutch language triolets (though designated as rondels) by Anthonis de Roovere appear.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hkitabayashi.blogspot.jp/2017/05/early-french-triolets.html|title = Amusing the Muses: Early French triolets|date = 14 May 2017}}</ref> Also, at the end of the 15th century, the term triolet appears for the first time. It was probably first so designated by Octavien de Saint-Gelais, whose colleague André de la Vigne appears to have designated his own triolets as rondelets.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hkitabayashi.blogspot.jp/2017/05/early-french-triolets.html|title = Amusing the Muses: Early French triolets|date = 14 May 2017}}</ref> In the 16th century, variously designated French and Dutch triolets continue to appear, though they largely lose favor by the end of the century.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hkitabayashi.blogspot.jp/2017/05/early-french-triolets.html|title = Amusing the Muses: Early French triolets|date = 14 May 2017}}</ref> In the 17th century from 1648 to 1652, triolets designated as triolets became suddenly popular in France during the civil uprisings of the "[[Fronde]]" when triolets were used for propaganda purposes and for character assassination. However, what remains easily accessible from this period are, basically, two poems, one by Marc-Antoine Girard, Sieur de Saint-Amant and another by Jacques de Ranchin. Saint-Amant's poem is a triolet about writing a triolet and Ranchin's, also known as the "king of triolets", is about falling in love on the first of May.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hkitabayashi.blogspot.jp/2017/05/17th-century-french-triolets.html|title=Amusing the Muses: 17th century French triolets|date=14 May 2017}}</ref> Though the triolet did not recover its former popularity in 18th century France, it did, with the appearance of Théodore de Banville in the mid-19th century, experience a revival of interest with triolets being written by Arthur Rimbaud, Maurice Rollinat, Alphonse Daudet, and Stéphane Mallarmé.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://hkitabayashi.blogspot.jp/2017/05/later-french-triolets.html | title=Amusing the Muses: Later French triolets | date=14 May 2017 }}</ref>

The earliest known triolets composed in English were written in 1651 by [[Patrick Cary]], briefly a [[Benedictine]] at [[Douai]], who purportedly used them in his devotions. None of Cary's poetry was published until the late 18th century and his triolets did not achieve notice until Sir Walter Scott published them in 1820.<ref>Kitabayashi. ''A Geolinguistic Chronicle of Early Triolet Dispersal in Western European Languages'', pp. 125 and 207.</ref>  Probably, the two earliest publications of a triolet in English were both translations of Ranchin's ''king of triolets'', with one being published in 1728 and the other in 1806.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hkitabayashi.blogspot.jp/2017/05/english-triolets.html|title=Amusing the Muses: English triolets|date=14 May 2017}}</ref> In 1835 a rondel of Froissart was translated into English as a triolet. In 1870 [[Robert Bridges]] became the first English poet to write original triolets in English that were published and achieved recognition in England.<ref>Kitabayashi. ''The Tower of Babel, A  Anthology from Various Languages'', pp. 18-19.</ref> This, though, was less through his own efforts than through the impact of an influential article written by Edmund Gosse and printed in 1877 in the Cornhill Magazine reintroducing the triolet to the English public at large, among whom it enjoyed a brief popularity among late-nineteenth-century British poets.<ref>Kitabayashi. ''A Geolinguistic Chronicle of Early Triolet Dispersal in Western European Languages'', pp. 214-215.</ref>

Not only did the triolet come to enjoy popularity in the late 19th century among English writers, but in the 18th and 19th centuries, it also came to enjoy a certain popularity among writers of other European languages. Among the various languages in which the triolet appeared, German writers of triolets, in particular, were not only numerous, but, by and large, made a point of developing it in new directions not seen with English and French writers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hkitabayashi.blogspot.jp/2017/05/german-triolets.html|title = Amusing the Muses: German triolets|date = 14 May 2017}}</ref> In addition to German, the triolet also appeared in Dutch, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and possibly other languages during these two centuries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hkitabayashi.blogspot.jp/2017/05/triolets-from-various-languages.html|title=Amusing the Muses: Triolets from various languages|date=14 May 2017}}</ref> Moreover, in Brazil in the late 19th century, the triolet spawned a new, somewhat abbreviated, six-line verse form known as the biolet.<ref>Kitabayashi. ''A Geolinguistic Chronicle of Early Triolet Dispersal in Western European Languages'', pp. 230-231.</ref>

Though possessing a long history, triolets, with the exception of France in the years from 1648 to 1652, have always been a relatively rare verse form. Nevertheless, the number of languages in which triolets have been written and the number of poets who have written triolets has steadily increased and it seems to be exhibiting a new vitality with the advent of the 21st century.<ref>[''The Tower of Babel, A Trioletic Anthology from Various Languages'', p. 2, Lulu Press Inc., 2017.]</ref>