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bears a very strong resemblance to the corresponding description near the beginning of R. R. Special attention may be called to the following fragments of detail:

Lors est chel jour grans joie née, (16)

Quar toute riens vivans s'esjoie.

Sour l'ierbe qui est arousée, (22)

Dont la terre s'est revestue,'

Et cil bois dont teüs m'estoie, (30)

Qui en yver sont desnué,2

Ont tout leur poure abit mué,

Pour le temps dont cascuns s'orgueille.

Quant tout bois et vergier et pré (42)
Sont tel, n'est nus ne s'esjoisse,3
Conbien que de son cuer joie isse.

Jean de Condé, like his father, Baudouin, was especially interested in pointing a moral to adorn his tale; but he was also fond of the conventional setting. An interesting little Debat de l'Amant Hardi et de l'Amant Cremeteus' begins with a brief but rather comprehensive description of spring, at the conclusion of which the poet tells of his entering a "moult biel vregier." Here he encounters two ladies, who are arguing a question in love casuistry which they ask him to answer.

La Messe des Oisiaus of Jean de Condé is particularly important in relation to the part taken by birds in mediæval love allegory; but a number of features should be considered here. The poet says he went to bed

une nuit de may (3)

Tout sans pesance et sans esmay;"

and dreamed that he sat under a pine tree listening to the birds sing just before dawn. Of them he says:

Ains nus n'en vit tant en sa vie, (17)

Qu'il sembloit bien que par envie

1 Cf. F. L., 11. 7, 8.

2 Cf. F. L., 11. 11,

12.

3 Cf. F. L., ll. 13, 14.

4 Dits et contes, Vol. II, pp. 297 ff.

5 Ibid., III, pp. 1 ff.

6 Cf. F. L., 1. 21.

Li uns pour l'autre s'efforchast;'

A l'oir m'orent tost emblé (24)

Mon cuer et en joie ravi.2

Altogether the place seemed like a "drois paradis." Farther on the poet continues:

Leveis ert en haut li soliaus, (91)

Si ert li tans et clers et biaus,

Li ore douche et atemprée;

Si ert revestie la prée

De verte herbe et de flours diverses,
Blanches, jaunes, rouges et perses;
Asés y ot d'arbres divers,

De fueille viestis et couviers,

Et fuison y ot de floris.

Soon the nightingale sang mass before Venus, and other birds joined in a beautiful service:

Ki chanter les ot, bien li samble (126)
Qu'oncques nul jour chose n'oïst

De coi ses cuers tant s'esjoïst.

Among the other birds the goldfinch is mentioned (1. 173) as joining in a second "alleluye." After the service love suits were presented to the goddess. A sick man in a litter was healed by the sweet odor of leaves plucked from a rose (11. 348 ff.) A company of canonesses in white, accompanied by many knights, complained of the action of certain gray-clad nuns in enticing their lovers away. With the ensuing debate we are not here concerned.

NICOLE DE MARGIVAL

In La Panthère d'Amours, by Nicole de Margival, the spring setting is not presented; but the action in some respects resembles that of F. L. The poet dreams that the birds carry him to a forest full of beasts, all of which, except the dragon, follow one particularly beautiful panther, with a sweet breath that can cure all imaginable ills. After a time the beasts all disappear, and the poet, left alone, hears the sound of music and sees a great company of richly attired people approaching him, singing and

1 Cf. F. L., 11. 447, 448.

2 Cf. F. L., 11. 101-3.

3 Ed. H. A. Todd, Société des Anciens Textes Français (Paris, 1883).

dancing. Among them is the God of Love, their king; and under his direction the poet undertakes a search for the beautiful panther which symbolizes his lady. She is finally found in a valley surrounded by a thorny hedge. Her breath is curative like the smell of the rose in R. R., the laurel and the eglantine in F. L., etc. The God of Love explains to the poet all this symbolism, very much as the lady in white explains the allegory of F. L.

WATRIQUET DE COUVIN

Several of the poems of Watriquet de Couvin, a diligent disciple of Guillaume de Lorris during the first half of the fourteenth century, contain details similar to those of F. L. Most of these poems may be summarized rapidly.

In Li Dis de l'Arbre Royal,' an elaborate compliment to the descendants of Philippe le Bel, the poet dreams that he is

En .i. bel vergier verdoiant, (20)
Loing de la ville, en .i. destour,

Enclos d'un haut mur tout entour.

He wanders, listening to the birds, till he comes to a wonderful tree-such a tree as was never seen before "en terre, ne en mer." Some lines farther on he continues:

Atant souz l'arbre errant m'assis, (118)

Que je ne voil plus atargier,

S'esgardai aval le vergier

Que de biaus iert suppelatis,

Ou douz mois qu'arbres rapareille

Flors et fueilles pour lui couvrir.

The scene of the Tournois des Dames is the "haute forest de Bouloigne," which is

plains de si grant melodie (33)

En avril quant li bois verdie,
Que nulz croire ne le porroit,
Qui li douz rousignol orroit
Chanter en icelle saison.

1 Dits de Watriquet de Couvin, ed. A. Scheler (Bruxelles, 1868), pp. 83 ff.

2 Cf. the description of the laurel and medlar trees in F. L., 11. 86–88, 109–12. 3 Dits, pp. 251 ff.

Then after further description of the birds' song, the poet remarks:

And again:

Je ne sai d'autrui, mais à mi (52)
Semble de l'ostel et de l'estre
Ce soit fins paradis terrestre,'
Tant est de melodie plains.

Et puis i refont si grant noise (64)
Cil autres oiselés menus,

Qu'il n'est hons joenes ne chanus
Grant deduit n'i poïst avoir.

The goldfinch is mentioned among other birds.

Li Dis de l'Escharbote' also begins with a spring setting. The poet enters a garden, falls asleep, and dreams that he encounters a "sergent," very noble and courteous, in whose company he Journeys through a valley to a beautiful city that seems like an "earthly paradise." This city is the world, in which blind Fortune reigns as mistress; and its inhabitants, following her lead in caring for nothing but pleasure, are precipitated into the bottom of the valley. They are like the "escharbote,"

Qui vole par les haus vergiez (211)

De fleurs et de feuilles chargiez,

Où li roussignols chante et crie."

Of all the poems of Watriquet de Couvin, however, Li Dis de la Fontaine d'Amours' presents the most details worth citation. One morning in spring the poet says he found

1Cf. F. L., 1. 115.

Un vergier de lonc temps planté (7)

Où d'arbres avoit grant plenté,

Qui fait avoient couverture

Et de couleur de maint tainture.
Lors entrai dedenz sanz esmai

En ce jolif termine en mai,
Qu'oiselés de chanter s'esforce
Au miex qu'il puet selonc sa force;
En pluseurs liex, par divers chans,
Mainent joie a ville et à champs,

2 Dits, pp. 397 ff.

3 In contrast with the usual signification of the colors, as noted in chap. ii above, the members of this company, with their slight resemblance to the green-clad followers of the Flower, are clad in white. No specific significance is attached to the color, however.

4 Dits, pp. 101 ff.

Et toute riens iert en delis.

Tant iert plains de grant melodie (23)
Cis vergiers, n'est hons qui vous die
Ne fame, de sa biauté nombre.
Pour reposer visai .i. ombre

Par desouz une ente florie,
Soutilment par compas norrie,
Et tainte en diverse couleur;

N'est hons, tant eüst de douleur,'

Qu'à l'oudeur ne fust alegiez.

In this delightful place is the beautiful fountain of love, the subject of the poem.2

GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT

The poets and poems heretofore discussed, except R. R., are of value in this investigation rather as showing how conventional certain elements of setting and machinery became, than as very likely to have had any direct influence upon the author of F. L. The case is different with a group of French poets now to be considered.

Oldest of these, and in many ways the master of the school, was Guillaume de Machaut. The opening lines of his Dit du Vergier were among the first French sources specifically suggested for F. L.,' and deserve citation here:

1Cf. F. L., 11. 81–84.

Quant la douce saison repaire

D'esté, qui maint amant esclaire,
Que prez et bois sont en verdour
Et li oisillon par baudour
Chantent, et par envoiseure,
Chascuns le chant de sa nature,
Pour la douceur du temps féri,"
Ou doulz mois d'avril le joli,
Me levay par un matinet,

2 Other poems by Watriquet with the spring setting are (1) “Li Mireoirs as Dames" (Dits, pp. 1 ff.); (2)“ Li Dis de' Iraigne et du Crapot "(pp. 65 ff.); (3) “Li Disdes IIII. Sieges" (pp. 163 ff.); (4) “Li Dis des .VIII. Couleurs” (pp. 311 ff). In (2) and (3) the scene is a "vergier;" in all the song of the birds is prominent; in (2) the poet falls asleep beneath a "buisson" and dreams. The nightingale and the hawthorn are several times mentioned.

3 By Sandras, Étude sur Chaucer, p. 98. I quote from Euvres choisies de Machault, ed. Tarbé (Paris, 1849), pp. 11 ff. The text differs in some details from that given by Sandras. 4 Cf. F. L., 1. 15. 5 Sandras, séri.

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