ondon, 1904); _The Royal Academy, its Uses and Abuses_, by H.J.
Laidlay (London, 1898), controversial; _Report from the Select
Committee of the House of Lords on the Chantrey Trust; together with
the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence and Appendix_
(Wyman & Sons, 1904), and _Index_ (separate publication, 1904).

CHANT ROYAL, one of the fixed forms of verse invented by the ingenuity
of the poets of medieval France. It is composed of five strophes,
identical in arrangement, of eleven verses each, and of an envoi of five
verses. All the strophes are written on the five rhymes exhibited in the
first strophe, the entire poem, therefore, consisting of sixty lines in
the course of which five rhymes are repeated. It has been conjectured
that the chant royal is an extended ballade, or rather a ballade
conceived upon a larger scale; but which form preceded the other appears
to be uncertain. On this point Henri de Croi, who wrote about these
forms of verse in his _Art et science de rhetorique_ (1493), throws no
light. He dwells, however, on the great dignity of what he calls the
"Champt Royal," and says that those who defy with success the ardour of
its rules deserve crowns and garlands for their pains. Etienne Pasquier
(1529-1615) points out the fact that the Chant Royal, by its length and
the rigidity of its structure, is better fitted than the ballade for
solemn and pompous themes. In Old French, the most admired chants royal
are those of Clement Marot; his _Chant royal chrestien_, with its
refrain

"Sante au corps, et Paradis a l'ame,"

was celebrated. Theodore de Banville defines the chant royal as
essentially belonging to ages of faith, when its subjects could be
either the exploits of a hero of royal race or the processional
splendours of religion. La Fontaine was the latest of the French poets
to attempt the chant royal, until it was resuscitated in modern times.

This species of poem was unknown in English medieval literature and was
only introduced into Great Britain in the last quarter of the 19th
century. The earliest chant royal in English was that published by
Edmund Gosse in 1877; it is here given to exemplify the structure and
rhyme-arrangement of the form:--

THE PRAISE OF DIONYSUS

"Behold, above the mountains there is light,
A streak of gold, a line of gathering fire,
And the dim East hath suddenly grown bright
With pale aerial flame, that drives up higher
The