Entertainment / Literature / Ballade: A French verse form consisting most often of three eight-line stanzas having the same rhyme pattern, followed by a four-line envoy. In a typical ballade, the last lines of each stanza and of the envoy are the same. Among the most famous ballades are Chaucer's 'Ballade of Good Advice' and Rossetti's translation of François Villon's 'Ballade of Dead Ladies,' which asks in each stanza and in the envoy, 'Mais ou sont les nieges d'antan?' (But where are the snows of yesteryear?') The ballade first rose to prominence in the 14th and 15th centuries, popularized by French poets like Guillaume de Machaut and Eustache Deschampes. It was perfected in the 16th century by François Villon, but it later fell into disrepute when 17th century poets like Moliere and Boileau mocked its conventions. See envoy, ballad.
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