or Roundo, a sort of ancient poem, derived its name, according to Menage, from its form, and because it still turns back again to the first verse, and thus goes round. The common roundelay consists of 13 verses, eight of which are in one rhyme and five in another. It is divided into couplets; at the end of the second and third of which the beginning of the roundelay is repeated; and that, if possible, in an equivocal or punning sense. The roundelay is a popular poem in France, but is little known among us. Marot and Voiture have succeeded the best in it. Rapin remarks, that if the roundelay be not very exquisite, it is intolerably bad. In all the ancient ones, Menage observes, that the verse preceding has a less complete sense, and yet joins agreeably with that of the close, without depending necessarily thereon. This rule, well observed, makes the roundelay more ingenious, and is one of the finest of the poem. Some of the ancient writers speak of the roundelay or roundel as a kind of air appropriated to dancing; and in this sense the term seems to indicate little more than dancing in a circle with the hands joined.

ROUND-House, a kind of prison for the nightly watch in London to secure disorderly persons till they can be carried before a magistrate.