VIRELAY, the title applied to more than one fixed form of verse (virer, to turn). Its history and character are very obscure. It may be connected with the Provençal ley. Historians agree that it is a modification of the mediaeval lai; but no example of But this seems to be a mere fragment of a virelay, which pro ceeds by "veering" the two rhymes ad libitum. This is the virelai ancien, of which examples are rare in recent literature. There is also the virelai nouveau, which was used by Alain Chartier in the 5th century. In French the old and popular Adieu dy triste
Lyre is a perfect example ; and in English we have one admirable specimen in Austin Dobson's "Good-bye to the Town, good-bye." A so-called Virelay is found among Chaucer's spurious works (Skeat, vii., 448). The New Virelay is written on two rhymes, and begins with two lines that recur throughout as refrains, and (reversed in order) close the poem in a couplet. The Virelay is a vague and invertebrate form of verse, and one of little importance.