Abstract: This article opens with a discussion of the antecedents of the burlesque rhymes of Verlaine’s first sonnet, “Monsieur Prudhomme,” before moving on to relate the rhyme changes in the four versions of the sonnet to the rules of classical versification. The distinctive refrain of this sonnet resembles the sonnet serpentin form, where the words of the first line are repeated in a different order in the last line. Antecedents of this form can be seen in Banville and Boulay-Paty, whose influence on Verlaine is noted. Finally, an intertextual reading of “Monsieur Prudhomme” is proposed.
