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'''Rhyme royal'''  is the name of a [[stanza]], or verse form, in English literature. It was introduced into English Literature by Geoffrey [[Chaucer]] - it may be through his influence, as the great populariser of vernacular verse in English at a time when French was the usual language of literature, that the [[adjective]] '''royal''' follows the [[noun]] '''rhyme''' (a usual order in French), and  the spelling '''rime''' royal (or even '''rime roial''') is sometimes used - see also [[Rime - rhyme]]. It is sometimes said that the 'royal' is used as this was the stanza adopted by King James I of Scotland (or the anonymous writer of the 15th century book that has always been attributed to him) for his Chaucerian poem ''The Kingis Quair'' (~ 'The King's [note]book'); but it probably follows the name of the French verse form ''chant royal''. '''Rhyme royal''' was also used by other 'Scottish Chaucerian' poets, like Henryson, and English poets such as Lydgate, Wyatt, [[Spenser]] and [[Shakespeare]] (in ''<nowiki>[</nowiki>The Rape of <nowiki>]</nowiki>Lucrece''). 

The '''rhyme royal''' stanza has seven lines with ten syllables each. These are usually [[iambic]] [[pentameter]]s. The lines rhyme a b a b b c c. Here is an example from ''Lucrece'' (lines 155 - 161), in the New Arden edition of Shakespeare's ''The Poems'', ed F.T. Prince, London and New York, Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1960:

:::Such hazard now must doting Tarquin make, 
:::Pawning his honour to obtain his lust;
:::And for himself himself he must forsake.
:::Then where is truth if there be no self-trust?
:::When shall he think to find a stranger just,
::::When he himself himself confounds, betrays 
::::To sland'rous tongues and wretched hateful days?



[[category:verse forms]][[category:prosody]][[category:English Literature]]