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Leonine Verses
properly speaking, are either hexameter verses, or alternate
hexameter and pentameter verses, rhyming at the middle and end of each
respective line. These fancies were common in the 12th century, and
were so called from Leoninus, a canon of the Church of St. Victor, in
Paris, the inventor. In English verse, any metre which rhymes middle
and end is called a Leonine verse. One of the most noted specimens
celebrates the tale of a Jew, who fell into a pit on Saturday and
refused to be helped out because it was his Sabbath. His comrade, being
a Christian, refused to aid him the day following, because it was
Sunday:
“Tende manus, Salomon, ego te de stercore tollam.”
Sabbata nostra colo, de stercore surgere nolo, Sabbata
nostra quidem Salomon celebrabis ibideri. '
Hexameters and pentameters.
“Help for you out of this mire; here, give me your hand, Hezekiah.”
“Ho! tis the Sabbath, a time labour's accounted a crime.”
“If on the morrow you've leisure, your aid I'll accept with much
pleasure.”
“That will be my Sabbath, so, here I will leave you and go.”
E. C. B.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Leonine Verses from Infoplease:
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