'a 'no reino, i'a 'no fado
Au casteu de Tarascoun
I'a 'no fado que s'escound.

"Aqueu que ie durbira la presoun ounte es clavado
Aqueu que ie durbira
Beleu elo l'amara."[6]

We may note here instances of the special features of Provencal
versification mentioned above. The _i_ in _i'a_, the equivalent of the
French _il y a_, is really a consonant. This _i_ occurs again in the
fourth of the lines quoted, so that there is no hiatus between _que_ and
_ie_. In like manner the _u_ of _beleu_, in the last line, stands with
the sound of the English _w_ between this and _elo_. The _e_ of _ounte_
is elided. It will be observed that there is a caesura between the
seventh and eighth syllables of the long line, and that the verse has a
marked rhythmic beat, with decided trochaic movement,--

/_u/_u/_u/_|/_u/_u/_u/_u

In his use of French Alexandrine, or twelve-syllable verse, Mistral
takes few liberties as to caesura. No ternary verses are found in
_Mireio_, that is, verses that fall into three equal parts. In general,
it may be said that his Alexandrines, except in the play _La Reino
Jano_, represent the classical type of the French poets. To be noted,
however, is the presence of feminine caesuras. These occur, not
theoretically or intentionally, but as a consequence of pronunciation,
and are an additional beauty in that they vary the movement of the
lines. The unstressed vowel at the hemistich, theoretically elided, is
pronounced because of the natural pause intervening between the two
parts of the verse.

"Per ouliva tant d'aubre!--Hou, tout aco se fai!"

(Mireio, Canto I.)

In one of the divisions of _Lou Tambour d'Arcolo_ (The Drummer of
Arcole), the poet uses ten-syllable verse with the caesura after the
sixth syllable, an exceedingly unusual caesura, imitated from the poem
_Girard de Roussillon_.

"Ah! lou pichot tambour | devengue flori!
Davans touto l'arma | --do en plen souleu,
Per estela soun front | d'un rai de glori," etc.

Elsewhere he uses this verse divided after the fourth syllable, and less
frequently after the fifth.

The stanza used by Mistral throughout _Mireio_ and _Calendau_ is his own
invention. Here is the first stanza of the second canto of _Mireio_:--

"Cantas, cantas, magnanarello,
Que la culido es cantarello!
Galant soun li magnan e s'endormon di tres:
Lis amourie soun plen de