l'envoi

plural l'envois

1. alternativeAlternative form of envoi.

   Some enigma, ſome riddle, come, thy Lenuoy begin.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

   5 more examples

   TRAGICALL Tales tranſlated by TVRBERVILE In time of his troubles out of ſundrie Italians, vvith the Argument and Lenuoye to eche Tale

   1587, George Turberuile, “The Argument to the tenth Historie”, in Tragicall Tales […], London: […] Abell Ieffs, […], title page

   And then the women (as I haue giuen the bride her inſtructions) to breake in vpon him, i’ the l’enuoy.

   1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act V, scene iii, page 590

   I kept that for the Lenvoy; 'tis the daughter / Of your enemy, Duke Gonzaga. […] Long since I look'd for this Lenvoy.

   1636 (first performance), Philip Massenger, “The Bashful Lover”, in Three New Playes; viz. The Bashful Lover, The Guardian, The Very Woman. […], London: […] Humphrey Moseley, […], published 1655, pages 57 and 76; republished in Early English Books Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Text Creation Partnership, p. 2011

   His Complaint of Venus, Cuckow and Nightigale, and La belle Dame ſans Mercy, Have all a l’Envoy, and belong to this ſpecies of French verſe. His l’Envoy to the Complaint of Venus, or Mars and Venus, ends with theſe lines, v. 79. / And eke to me it is a grete penaunce, / Sith rime in Engliſh hath ſoche ſcarcite, / To follow word by word the curioſite / Of granſonflour of them that make in Fraunce.

   1774, Thomas Warton, The History of English Poetry, from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century. […], volume the first, London: […] J. Dodsley, […]; J. Walter, […]; T. Becket, […], page 464

   Other poets have given us their literary productions as the subject of criticism, impersonally as it were, and generally speaking, abstracted from their ordinary habits and feelings; and all, or almost all, might apply to their poetical effusions, though in somewhat a different sense, the l’envoy of Ovid. / Sine me, Liber, ibis in urbem.

   1816 October, “Art[icle] IX.—1. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto III. 8vo. 2. The Prisoner of Chillon, a Dream; and other Poems. By Lord Byron. 8vo. John Murray: London.”, in The Quarterly Review, volume XVI, number XXXI, London: John Murray