rondeau

n. [ F. See Roundel. ] [ Written also rondo. ] 1. A species of lyric poetry so composed as to contain a refrain or repetition which recurs according to a fixed law, and a limited number of rhymes recurring also by rule. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ When the rondeau was called the rondel it was mostly written in fourteen octosyllabic lines of two rhymes, as in the rondels of Charles d'Orleans. . . . In the 17th century the approved form of the rondeau was a structure of thirteen verses with a refrain. Encyc. Brit. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mus.) See Rondo, 1. [ 1913 Webster ]