COUPLET (Fr., dint. of couple, pair, from Lat. copula, bond). Any two lines which rhyme together. The term is, however, more frequently used by critics to denote two lines which con tain the complete expression of an idea, and are, therefore, to a certain extent independent of what goes before or what follows. The poetic wits of the age of Queen Anne excelled in this kind of aphoristic versifiention. Pope, it has been said, reasons in couplets. For example: "ris with 1.111' judgments as our watches, male Ou just alike, yet each believes his own." COUPON, 1:55'itun ( Fr. coupon, from cooper, to cut, from coup, It. coil)°, Lat. collie', from tlk. Kaa0or,ko/ophos„ blow with the fist, from (ioXdr TELP, kali/dein, to strike). An undertaking on the part of an oliiigor on a money bond or other interest or dividend bearing obligation to pay a definite amount of accrued interest or divi dends to the holder thereof at a specified date. It is usually so attached to the bond, debenture, or other principal instrument that it can Con veniently be cut ofT (whence the name) and pre sented for payment. Each interest or dividend
coupon constitutes in law a separate claim or demand. and may be separately enforced. Cor porate bonds and similar securities are usually issued in this form. and so, sometimes, are shares of preferred stock, in which case the coupons rep resent the guaranteed dividend payments. Of course the coupon does not, in any of these forms, confer any additional legal rights on the holder of the security against the person bound thereby nor increase the liability of the latter. A gen eral agreement to pay interest or dividends at such a rate would he equally valid and effica cious. The advantage of the coupon lies in the convenience to the holder of furnishing him with a separate undertaking for each interest or dividend payment for presentment and collec tion, and in the fact that corporate coupons are usually of a negotiable or quasi-negotiable char acter, facilitating their transfer from hand to hand. See NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENT.