{{Short description|Poetic composition combining prose and verse}} {{Italic title}} A '''''prosimetrum''''' (plural '''''prosimetra''''') is a poetic composition which exploits a combination of prose (''prosa'') and verse (''metrum'');<ref name="braund">Braund, Susanna. "[http://www.paulyonline.brill.nl/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/prosimetrum-e1010870 Prosimetrum]". In Cancil, Hubert, and Helmuth Schneider, eds. ''Brill's New Pauly''. Brill Online, 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2015.</ref> in particular, it is a text composed in alternating segments of prose and verse.<ref name="pepp1">Brogan, T.V.F. "Prosimetrum". In Green et al., pp. 1115–1116.</ref> It is widely found in Western and Eastern literature.<ref name="pepp1" /> While narrative ''prosimetrum'' may encompass at one extreme a prose story with occasional verse interspersed, and at the other, verse with occasional prose explanations, in true ''prosimetrum'' the two forms are represented in more equal measure.<ref name="hr11">Harris & Reichl, p. 11.</ref> A distinction is sometimes drawn<ref name="hr36">Hanson, Kristin, and Paul Kiparsky. "The Nature of Verse and Its Consequences for the Mixed Form". In Harris & Reichl, p. 36.</ref> between texts in which verse is the dominant form and those in which prose dominates; there the terms ''prosimetrum'' and ''versiprose'' are applied respectively.
==Usage of term== The term ''prosimetrum'' is first attested in the ''Rationes dictandi'' of Hugh of Bologna, in the early 12th century. Sources differ on the date, one suggesting around 1119,<ref name="dronke2" /> another about 1130.<ref>Ricklin, Thomas. "Femmes-philosophie et hommes-animaux: essai d'une lecture satirique de la ''Consolatio philosophiae'' de Boèce". In ''Boèce ou la chaîne des savoirs: actes du Colloque international de la Fondation Singer-Polignac, Paris, 8–12 juin 1999''. Louvain: Peeters, 2003. p. 131. {{ISBN|90-429-1250-2}}</ref> Hugh divided metrical composition into three kinds: quantitative verse (''carmina''), verse based on syllable count and assonance (''rithmi''), and "the mixed form ... when a part is expressed in verse and a part in prose" (''prosimetrum'').<ref name="dronke2">Dronke, p. 2.</ref> The derived adjective ''prosimetrical'' occurs in English as early as Thomas Blount’s ''Glossographia'' (1656) where it is defined as "consisting partly of Prose, partly of Meteer or Verse".<ref>Ziolkowski, Jan. "The Prosimetrum in the Classical Tradition," in Harris & Reichl, p. 48.</ref>
Works such as historical chronicles and annals, which quote poetry previously composed by other authors, are not generally regarded as "true" ''prosimetra''.<ref>Ziolkowski, pp. 55–56.</ref> In the Old Norse-Icelandic tradition, however, vernacular histories and family sagas that quote verses by other authors are commonly accepted as ''prosimetra''.<ref>Ross, pp. 80–81.</ref> Researchers of Old Norse Íslendingasögur have recently made more extensive attempts at cataloging and systematically understanding the prosimetric aspects in that literary corpus.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Þorgeirsdóttir |first1=Brynja |last2=Gropper |first2=Stefanie |last3=Quinn |first3=Judy |last4=Wills |first4=Tarrin |last5=Wilson |first5=Alexander |date=2022 |title=Investigating the Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum: A New Methodology |journal=Viking and Medieval Scandinavia |volume=18 |pages=51–82 |doi=10.1484/J.VMS.5.132122}}</ref>
Quoted or "inset" verses are a familiar feature of longer historical texts in the Old Irish and Middle Irish traditions as well.<ref name="Mac Cana pp. 110-111">Mac Cana, Proinsias. "Prosimetrum in Insular Celtic Literature." In Harris & Reichl, pp. 110–111.</ref> The role of such verse quotations within the prose narrative varies; they may be mined as historical source-material, cited as factual corroboration of an event or recited by a character as dialogue.<ref name="Mac Cana pp. 110-111"/><ref>O’Donoghue, pp 11–12.</ref>
==Examples== *''Satyricon'' (c. 1st century CE) by Petronius<ref name="pepp1" /> *''The Mahabharata'' (c. 4th century?)<ref name="pepp1" /> *''Maqamat Badi' az-Zaman al-Hamadhani'' (4th century)<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Qian |first=Ailin |date=2012 |title=The Maqāmah as Prosimetrum: A Comparative Investigation of Its Origin, Form and Function |type=PhD |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |citeseerx=10.1.1.475.6202 }}</ref> *''Consolation of Philosophy'' (c. 524) by Boethius<ref name="pepp1" /> *''One Thousand and One Nights'' (c. 8th century?)<ref>Heinrichs, Wolfhart. "Prosimetrical Genres in Classical Arabic Literature". In Harris & Reichl, p. 249.</ref> * ''De rectoribus christianis'', by Sedulius Scottus (9th century) *''The Ring of the Dove'' (c. 1022) by Ibn Hazm *''Cosmographia'' (c. 1147) by Bernard Silvestris<ref name="pepp1" /> *''De planctu Naturæ'' (c. 1168–72) by Alain de Lille *''Acallam na Senórach'' (c. 12th century)<ref>Jones, Jones, and Knight, p. 87.</ref> *''Buile Shuibhne'' (c. 12th century)<ref>Mac Cana, p. 115.</ref> *''Pantheon'' (1188) by Godfrey of Viterbo *''Gesta Danorum'' (c. 1208) by Saxo Grammaticus *''Aucassin et Nicolette'' (c. 13th century)<ref name="pepp1" /> *''The Secret History of the Mongols'' (c. 13th century)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Heissig |first1=Walther |title=The Present State of the Mongolian Epic and Some Topics for Future Research |journal=Oral Tradition |date=1996 |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=89 |url=https://journal.oraltradition.org/wp-content/uploads/files/articles/11i/9_heissig.pdf}}</ref> *''La Vita Nuova'' (c. 1295) by Dante Alighieri<ref name="pepp1" /> *''Eyrbyggja saga'' (c. 13th century)<ref>O’Donoghue p. 101.</ref> *''Grettis saga'' (c. 14th century)<ref>O’Donoghue, pp. 181–182.</ref> *''Arcadia'' (1504) by Sannazaro *''Diana'' (1559), by Jorge de Montemayor *''The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia'' (1590), by Philip Sidney *''The Lover's Watch'' (1686), by Aphra Behn (translation of ''La Montre d'amour'' [1666] by Balthazar de Bonnecorse) *''Oku no Hosomichi'' (1694) by Matsuo Bashō<ref>Green et al., p. 1510.</ref> * ''Spring and All'' (1923) by William Carlos Williams * ''In Parenthesis'' (1937) by David Jones<ref>Harris & Reichl, p. 14.</ref> *''Pale Fire'' (1962) by Vladimir Nabokov<ref>Alexis, André. ''Beauty and Sadness''. Toronto: House of Anansi, 2010. p. 157. {{ISBN|978-0-88784-750-9}}</ref>
==See also== * Menippus * Haibun * Maqāma<!-- Maqāma is "a prosimetric humorous discourse" per Eckhardt quoted in Dronke 126 -->
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== *Dronke, Peter. ''Verse with Prose from Petronius to Dante''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. {{ISBN|0-674-93475-X}} *Green, Roland, et al., ed. ''The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-691-15491-6}} *Harris, Joseph, and Karl Reichl, ed. ''Prosimetrum: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Narrative in Prose and Verse''. Cambridge, Eng.: D. S. Brewer, 1997. {{ISBN|0-85991-475-5}} *Jones, Samuel, Aled Jones, and Jennifer Dukes Knight, ed. ''Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 24/25, 2004 and 2005''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-674-03528-7}} *O’Donoghue, Heather. ''Skaldic Verse and the Poetics of Saga Narrative''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-19-926732-3}} *Ross, Margaret Clunies. ''A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics''. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2005. {{ISBN|978-1843842798}} {{authority control}}
Category:Literary genres