verse form
After the 12th century Roman d'Alexandre, about the life of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). The Roman d'Alexandre is an epic novel in which this verse form was used for the first time.
It is a verse of twelve syllables, six iambics, with a rest in the middle, usually with alternating male and female rhymes, especially in epic poems and tragedies.
The alexandrine was forgotten for centuries and was reintroduced by Ronsard and the poets of the Pléiade. Popular in Dutch in the seventeenth century with Vondel, Hooft, Cats and Huygens, among others.
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