vehicle for major works. Czech The Czech alexandrine is a comparatively recent development, based on the French alexandrine and introduced by Karel Hynek Mácha in the 19th century. Its structure forms a halfway point between features usual in syllabic and in accentual-syllabic verse, being more highly constrained than most syllabic verse, and less so than most accentual-syllabic verse. Moreover, it equally encourages the very different rhythms of iambic hexameter and dactylic tetrameter to emerge by preserving the constants of both measures: iambic hexameter: s S s S s S | s S s S s S (s) dactylic tetrameter: S s s S s s | S s s S s s (s) Czech alexandrine: o o s S s o | o o s S s o (s) Hungarian Hungarian metrical verse may be written either syllabically (the older and more traditional style, known as "national") or quantitatively. One of the national lines has a 6+6 structure: o o o o o o | o o o o o o Although deriving from native folk versification, it is possible that this line, and the related 6-syllable line, were influenced by Latin or Romance examples. When employed in 4-line or 8-line stanzas and riming in couplets, this is called the Hungarian alexandrine; it is the Hungarian heroic verse form. Beginning with the 16th-century verse of Bálint Balassi, this became the dominant Hungarian verseform. Modern references In the comic book Asterix and Cleopatra, the author Goscinny inserted a pun about alexandrines: when the Druid Panoramix ("Getafix" in the English translation) meets his Alexandrian (Egyptian) friend the latter exclaims Je suis, mon cher ami, || très heureux de te voir at which Panoramix observes C'est un Alexandrin ("That's an alexandrine!"/"He's an Alexandrian!"). The pun can also be heard in the theatrical adaptations. The English translation renders this as "My dear old Getafix || I hope I find you well", with the reply "An Alexandrine". Notes References French poetry Spanish poetry German poetry Polish poetry Czech poetry Types of verses Sonnet studies