CANZONE, a form of verse which has reached us from Italian literature. The word is derived from the Provencal canon, a song, but it was in Italian first that the form became a literary one, and was dedicated to the highest uses of poetry. The canzone strophe consists of two parts, the opening one being distinguished by Dante as the fronte, the closing one as the sirma. These parts are connected by rhyme, it being usual to make the rhyme of the last line of the fronte identical with that of the first line of the sirma. In other respects the canzone has great liberty as regards number and length of lines, arrangement of rhymes and conduct of structure. An examination of the best Italian models, however, shows that the tendency of the canzone-strophe is to possess 9, I o, 11, 13, 14 or 16 verses, and that of these the strophe of 14 verses is so far the most frequent that it may almost be taken as the type. In this form it resembles an irregular sonnet. The Vita Nuova contains many examples of the canzone, and these are accompanied by so many explanations of their form as to lead us to believe that the canzone was originally invented or adopted by Dante.
The Canzoniere of Petrarch is of great authority as to the form of this species of verse. In England the canzone was intro duced at the end of the 16th century by William Drummond, of Hawthornden, who has left some very beautiful examples. In German poetry it was cultivated by A. W. von Schlegel and other poets of the Romantic period. It is doubtful, however, whether it is in agreement with the genius of any language but Italian. CAOINE (pron. Keen), an Irish term for the wailing lamen tations uttered over the body of the deceased at wakes and funerals. These wailings, which are sometimes led by professional or semi-professional mourners, are more or less musical in char acter. The practice still lingers in remote parts of Ireland.