The rhetoric of verse in Corneille and Calderón

Abstract

Both Corneille’s and Calderón’s dramatic poetry are characterized by an intense use of rhetorical fi gures, mainly those of diction, and by their tendency to adjust the extension of (parts of) these fi gures to the measure of the verse line, thus mutually strengthening the rhetorical and poetical units. This study compares the most usual techniques of both poets in this respect, points out similarities and contrasts, and off ers a fi nal, tentative conclusion about a contrasting characteristic of French and Spanish poetry: a tendency towards coupling rhymes in French and their separation in Spanish.