Stanza

Forms: α. 6–7 stanze, (6 stands); β. 6–7 stanzo; γ. 6– stanza. See also STANCE sb.² 4. [a. It. stanza standing, stopping place, room, stanza, corresp. to Sp. Pg. estancia dwelling, room, Pr. estansa position, OF. estance (med.F. étance) stay, support:—popular L. *stantia, f. L. stant-em pr. pple. of stāre to stand. The It. word was adapted in Fr. as stance, whence STANCE sb.²; also in Ger. as stanze.]

  1.  Versification. A group of lines of verse (usually not less than four), arranged according to a definite scheme which regulates the number of lines, the metre, and (in rhymed poetry) the sequence of rhymes; normally forming a division of a song or poem consisting of a series of such groups constructed according to the same scheme. Also, any of the particular types of structure according to which stanzas are framed.

  α.  1588.  Shaks., L. L. L., IV. ii. 107. Let me heare a staffe, a stanze, a verse, Lege domine.

1596.  Lodge, Margarite of Amer., K 4. The first stands is the complaint, the second the counsel.

1605.  Chapman, etc., Eastward Hoe, V. H 3 b. This Stanze now following, alludes to the storie of Mannington, from whence I tooke my project for my inuention.

  β.  1589.  Greene, Menaphon To Gentlm. Stud. (Arb.), 15. Euerie stanzo they pen after dinner, is full poynted with a stabbe.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., II. v. 18. Come, more, another stanzo: Cal you’em stanzo’s?

1609.  Heywood, Brit. Troy, V. iii. 108. From Calliope hie Stanzoes flow.

1611.  Cotgr., Sestine, a Sestine, or stanzo of six verses.

1660.  F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 144. The musick changes to a very solemn base … with certain stanzoes sung in praise of their deceased Ancestors.

  γ.  [1589.  Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. ii. (Arb.), 79. Staffe in our vulgare Poesie I know not why it should be so called…. The Italian called it Stanza, as if we should say a resting place.]

1595.  E. C., Emaricdulfe, Sonn. xxxix. in Lamport Garl. (Roxb.).

1603.  Drayton, Bar. Wars, To Rdr. Therefore … I chose Ariostos stanza of all other the most complete and best proportioned, consisting of eight, sixe interwouen, and a couplet in base.

1612.  Benvenuto’s Passenger, II. i. 417. In euery corner they recite the pleasant Stanzaes of the gentle Furioso.

1621.  T. Williamson, trans. Goulart’s Wise Vieillard, 89. I will heereunto add further this Stanza of verses of the same quill.

1674.  Playford, Skill Mus., I. ii. 35. The double Bars are set to divide the several Strains or Stanzaes of the Songs and Lessons.

1693.  Dryden, Juvenal (1697), Ded. p. lxxxii. The Secchia Rapita is an Italian Poem … ’Tis written in the Stanza of Eight.

1706.  Congreve, Pindarique Ode, Disc. A 1 b. The Poet having made choice of a certain Number of Verses to constitute his Strophé, or first Stanza, was oblig’d to observe the same in his Antistrophé, or second Stanza.

1741.  Pope, Ess. Crit., 423. And each exalted stanza teems with thought!

1817.  Shelley, Rev. Islam, Pref. I have adopted the stanza of Spenser (a measure inexpressibly beautiful).

1842.  Tennyson, Talking Oak, 135. She came … And sang to me the whole Of those three stanzas that you made About my ‘giant bole.’

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Lit., Wks. (Bohn), II. 115. A stanza of the song of nature the Oxonian has no ear for.

  2.  In Italy, an apartment, chamber, room; spec. in pl. ǁ stanze (sta·ntse), applied to certain rooms in the Vatican.

1648.  J. Raymond, Voy. Italy, 34. At the right hand of this gallerie are severall stanzas full of Curiosities.

1670.  G. H., Hist. Cardinals, I. III. 79. The Agents of Serene Princes … have half a Stanza [in the Vatican].

1823.  Lady Morgan, Salvator Rosa (1824), I. iii. 90. A certain sympathy … between the brothers-in-law frequently carried Salvator to the stanza or work-room of Francesco. Ibid., 95. Having … studied or worked in the galleries, churches, or stanze of the eminent masters in Rome.

1878.  Mrs. Jos. Butler, Catharine of Siena, vii. 200. It forms also the subject of a fresco in one of the stanze of the Vatican.

  † 3.  (See quot.) Obs.

1675.  Covel, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakluyt Soc.), 219. Upon every stanza [i.e., ‘branch’ of an acrobat’s pole] he would set a cup of water; then raysing it, he would dance with all these in like manner without spilling one drop.

  Hence Stanzaed a. (in parasynthetic derivatives), having (a specified number of) stanzas; Stanza v. (nonce-wd.) trans., to write stanzas upon.

1755.  J. Shebbeare, Lydia (1769), II. 78. He … hit off an epigram or a three stanzaed song with some reputation.

1796.  Lamb, Final Mem., i. 199. (To Coleridge) Dyer stanza’d him in one of the papers t’other day.

1868.  Chronicle, No. 43. 67/1. The nine-stanzaed hymn.