COUPLET, a pair of lines of verse, which are welded to gether by an identity of rhyme. In rhymed verse two lines which complete a meaning in themselves are particularly known as a couplet. Thus, in Pope's Eloisa to Abelard : Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul, And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.
In French literature, the term couplet is not confined to a pair of lines, but is commonly used for a stanza. A "square" couplet in French, for instance, is a strophe of eight lines, each composed of eight syllables. In this sense it is employed to distinguish the more emphatic parts of a species of verse which is essentially gay, graceful and frivolous, such as the songs in a vaudeville or a comic opera. In the 18th century, Le Sage, Piron and even Voltaire did not hesitate to engage their talents on the production of couplets, which were often witty, if they had no other merit, and were well fitted to catch the popular ear. This signification of the word couplet is not unknown in England, but it is not customary ; it is probably used in a stricter and a more technical sense to describe a pair of rhymed lines, whether serious or merry. The normal type, as it may almost be called, of English versifi cation is the metre of ten-syllabled rhymed lines designated as heroic couplet. This form of iambic verse, with five beats to each line, is believed to have been invented by Chaucer, who em ploys it first in the Prologue The Legend of Good Women, the composition of which is attributed to the year 1385. That poem opens with the couplet : A thousand times have I heard men tell That there is joy in heaven and pain in hell.
This is an absolutely correct example of the heroic couplet, which ultimately reached such majesty in the hands of Dryden and such brilliancy in those of Pope.