{"id":"01KG6S6KNXGHMS915QG45ER6RE","cid":"bafkreigxooqcajpifduuajagxonohlu47utczvfomn7zvvjrefklmzufzq","type":"intro","properties":{"description":"# Introduction\n## Overview\nThis is an \"intro\" type entity, specifically an introduction to section III of a larger work. It discusses the use of the seven-line stanza in English literature, particularly its prevalence before and during the Elizabethan era. The text was extracted on 2026-01-30 from the file [pdf-01KG6Q7Q25RHMFT3SJXPV18VFF.txt](arke:01KG6S2X2EBB305ENM00G16GWA).\n\n## Context\nThe introduction is part of [section III](arke:01KG6S5HRFGJ1FBM87NDW94Z5Z) and originates from the text file [pdf-01KG6Q7Q25RHMFT3SJXPV18VFF.txt](arke:01KG6S2X2EBB305ENM00G16GWA), which is part of the [PDF Workflow Main Test 2026-01-30T00:26:53](arke:01KG6NWQ2H2K4PGG7H4ZHYCZ3Y) collection. The following subsection is [Openser’s seven-line stanza.](arke:01KG6S6KNXXG07T5XHRB1B9XN5).\n\n## Contents\nThe introduction discusses the history and use of the seven-line stanza in English literature, noting its popularity with Chaucer, who borrowed it from Guillaume de Machault. It mentions examples in Chaucer's *Canterbury Tales* and Lydgate's *Fall of Princes*. The text also references Gascoigne's description of the stanza as \"Rithme royall\" and Puttenham's views on its use in historical or grave poems, citing Chaucer's *Troylus and Crisyle* and Lydgate's *Fall of Princes*. The introduction concludes with a brief analysis of Shakespeare's prosody in relation to the customary rhyme scheme (ababbcc) and the use of a concluding couplet.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T06:25:50.553Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"Introduction","end_line":3471,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T06:24:43.553Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Introduction","source_file":"01KG6S2X2EBB305ENM00G16GWA","start_line":3457,"text":"### III\n\nThe metre of Lucrece was a favourite one in English literature long before the Elizabethan era. The seven-line stanza is more commonly used by Chaucer than any other. He seems to have borrowed it from the French poetry of his contemporary Guillaume de Machault. It is often met with in the Canterbury Tales (see *The Clerkes Tale*, *The Man of Lawes Tale*, *The Second Nonnes Tale*), as well as in *Troylus and Crisyde* and many of the shorter poems (cf. ‘The complaint to his empty purse’). It is the metre, too, of Lydgate’s monumental *Fall of Princes*. According to Elizabethan critics it was the stanza that was best adapted to serious themes. Gascoigne described it in his *Certayne Notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse or ryme in English* (1576) as ‘Rithme royall’: ‘and surely,’ he adds, ‘it is a royalle kinde of verse, seruing best for graue discourses.’ According to Puttenham, *The Arte of English Poesie*, 1589, the seven-line stanza was ‘the chief\n\nPassions are likened best to floods and streams\nThe shallow murmurs but the deep are dumb,\nSo when affections yield discourse, it seems,\nThe bottom is but shallow whence it comes.\n\n<!-- [Page 161](arke:01KG6QCD04HYZHW0217DSEQFZH) -->\n22\nLUCRECE\n\nof our ancient proportions used by any rimer writing anything historical or grave poem², and he refers to Chaucer’s *Troylus and Crisyle* and Lydgate’s *Fall of Princes* by way of proof that ‘the staffe of seven verses was most usual with our ancient makers’. The rimes, he points out, were capable of seven variations. Shakespeare followed the customary scheme which Chaucer had employed (ababbcc). Puttenham found fault with those who close the stanza with an independent couplet ‘concording with no other verse that went before’, but he finally admits that the ‘double cadence in the last two verses serves the ear well enough’. The comment well applies to Shakespeare’s prosody.\n","title":"Introduction"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6S5HRFGJ1FBM87NDW94Z5Z","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6S2X2EBB305ENM00G16GWA","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6NWQ2H2K4PGG7H4ZHYCZ3Y","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6S6KNXXG07T5XHRB1B9XN5","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T06:24:43.709Z","ts":"2026-01-30T06:25:50.743Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}