ly (from the French) "rhymed ends," the name given
in all literatures to a kind of verses of which no better definition can
be found than was made by Addison, in the Spectator, when he described
them as "lists of words that rhyme to one another, drawn up by another
hand, and given to a poet, who was to make a poem to the rhymes in the
same order that they were placed upon the list." The more odd and
perplexing the rhymes are, the more ingenuity is required to give a
semblance of common-sense to the production. For instance, the rhymes
_breeze, elephant, squeeze, pant, scant, please, hope, pope_ are
submitted, and the following stanza is the result:--

Escaping from the Indian _breeze_,
The vast, sententious _elephant_
Through groves of sandal loves to _squeeze_
And in their fragrant shade to _pant_;
Although the shelter there be _scant_,
The vivid odours soothe and _please_,
And while he yields to dreams of _hope_,
Adoring beasts surround their _Pope_.

The invention of bouts-rimes is attributed to a minor French poet of the
17th century, Dulot, of whom little else is remembered. According to the
_Menagiana_, about the year 1648, Dulot was complaining one day that he
had been robbed of a number of valuable papers, and, in particular, of
three hundred sonnets. Surprise being expressed at his having written so
many, Dulot explained that they were all "blank sonnets," that is to
say, that he had put down the rhymes and nothing else. The idea struck
every one as amusing, and what Dulot had done seriously was taken up as
a jest. Bouts-rimes became the fashion, and in 1654 no less a person
than Sarrasin composed a satire against them, entitled _La Defaite des
bouts-rimes_, which enjoyed a great success. Nevertheless, they
continued to be abundantly composed in France throughout the 17th
century and a great part of the 18th century. In 1701 Etienne Mallemans
(d. 1716) published a collection of serious sonnets, all written to
rhymes selected for him by the duchess of Maine. Neither Piron, nor
Marmontel, nor La Motte disdained this ingenious exercise, and early in
the 19th century the fashion was revived. The most curious incident,
however, in the history of bouts-rimes is the fact that the elder
Alexandre Dumas, in 1864, took them under his protection. He issued an
invitation to all the poets of France to display their skill by
composing to sets of rhymes selected for the purpose by the poet, Joseph
Mery (17