In sense 1 also 4–7 envoye, 9 envoi, and (with prefixed Fr. article) 6–7 l’envoy(e, 9 arch. l’envoi, -voy. [a. OF. envoy(e (mod. envoi), n. of action f. OF. envoiier (mod. envoyer) to send, f. phrase en voie on the way; cf. Sp. enviar, It. inviare.] Sending forth.
1. The action of sending forth a poem; hence, the concluding part of a poetical or prose composition; the author’s parting words; a dedication, postscript. Now chiefly the short stanza that concludes a poem written in certain archaic metrical forms. arch.
c. 1398. Chaucer (title), Th’ enuoye of Fortune.
1485. Caxton, Chas. Gt., 250. Thenuoye of thauctour.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1874), II. 230. Thenuoy.
1587. Turberv. (title), Tragicall Tales … with the Argument and Lenuoye to eche Tale.
1611. Cotgr., Envoy … th’ Enuoy, or conclusion of a Ballet, or Sonnet.
1640. B. Jonson, Underwoods, Misc. Poems, lx. Another answers, ’las! those silks are none, In smiling l’envoy.
1823. Sismondi’s Lit. Eur. (1846), I. vi. 173. The songs are usually in seven stanzas, followed by an envoy, which he calls a tornada.
1823. New Monthly Mag., VII. 194. The last chapter … the moral and envoy of the whole.
1880. Hueffer, in Macm. Mag., No. 253. 49. There are … six lines to a stanza and six stanzas to a poem, not counting the tornada or envoi of three lines.
† b. transf. The conclusion of a play; also, a catastrophe, dénouement. Obs.
1609. B. Jonson, Sil. Wom., V. iii. (1620), N. (… I haue giuen the Bride her instructions) to breake in vpon him, i’ the l’envoy.
1636. Massinger, Bashful Lover, V. i. Long since I look’d for this l’envoy.
2. The action of dispatching a messenger or parcel; hence, a mission, errand (arch.). Letter of envoy (rare), transl. Fr. lettre d’envoi, a letter advising dispatch of goods.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, V. 496. Nor did I feel so pressing the hard hand Of want in Orleans, ere he parted thence On perilous envoy.
1872. in Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., XII. 322. A letter of envoi was received.
