Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/355

 2*18. N" 18., MAYS. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

347

Age mur ; Vieillesse, and Decrepitude. The poem is of considerable length, and the descriptions of each picture much too long to be given here. Two fragments will show the great resemblance between the way in which he and Shakspeare describe the periods in question. The first is part of the description of " Pueritie," or from seven to fifteen years :

" Une pelote en sa main De laquelle soir et matin El se jouoit par druerie, Querant d'enfans la compaignie : Comment & 1'ecole aloit, Et souvent chantoit et baloit Se gouvernoit sans terminer Et se jouoit & toupiner, A croier avec ses semblables, Et conter choses delitables A ceulz qui de son temps estoit Et a- lui souvent s'esbatoient ; Par ces chemins, par ces voyes Queroient des nids par les-huyes Faisoient chapeaulz par ces bocages, Et se gisoient ces ombrages, Faisans pore'e de fleurettes, Et d'herbes verdes nouvelletes, Puis portaient armes et bougons, Cueilloient feugieres et jous, Pour soulz euls faire la jonchee, Et jouoient a- chiere liee. Aux barres, au tiers, h la quille Puis rit, et sault, puis court et brille, &c. &c."

The following is part of the description of " Adolescence," or from fifteen to twenty-five years of age :

" Sy fut pour traite gentement Com elle aime esbatement, Soulas, joie, et druerie Voulant mener joyeuse vie Soller, luitier et soy esbatre La sepmaine trois fbis oa quatre Si estait fait son. vestement De drap vert joliettement, Et or cainture et tassette, Menu cloue'e joliette. Sollers lachiez, chausses bien faites Gans en ses mains beaulz et honnestes, Les cheveslz blons et deliez D'un grand vert chapel dessuz liez : Et comme elle vouloit banter, Et souvent causer et chanter, Puis plan chant, puis le contrepoint, En celle n'ent de garde point Com el veult fleuter et harper, A chascun se vouloit harper S'y chevaulchoit joliement L'espervier portant liement En gibiers pour soy des duire, Lui semblait qu'el fust plus grant sire Quatre fois qu'el n'avoit vaillant : S'y aloit jouant et saillant ; " &c. &c.

Abbe de la Rue in his Essais historiques sur les Bardes, les Jongleurs et les Trouveres, gives some account of De Courcy and his works. It appears there is but one copy of Le Chemin de Vaillance known to exist, and that ia to be found in the

British Museum, King's MSS., No. 14. E. II. I found it in excellent preservation and beautifully illuminated. Those who are interested in those " bards" would find an hour agreeably spent in turning over its antiquated pages.

H. E. WILKINSON. Netting Hill Square.

CAMBRIDGE JEU D ESPRIT.

The following jeu d'esprit was circulated in Cambridge at the time when the Prince Consort was elected Chan- cellor of the University ; the other candidate being the Earl Powis. It completely deceived the editor of the paper to whom it was addressed, who had no notion that he was giving currency to an election squib. There is nothing in it to give offence to any one, and it really de- serves to be embalmed in "N. & Q." It was attributed (I believe correctly) to a Fellow of King's of high clas- sical reputation. CANTAB.

N. B. The notes are mine.

A FRAGMENT TOUCHING THE LYCEUM.

(To the Editor of ,.)

SIR, In an old English author, who (like Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy), abounds in passages of which the diction is cast in so an- tique a mould, that it is difficult to tell whether they were originally English, or were literally translated from the Greek, I find the following curious fragment. A learned friend has conjec- tured it to be a translation from Theophrastus, but it seems to myself to savour more of the style of Eudemus ; and it looks exceedingly like a pas- sage from one of the lost books of the Eudemian Ethics. Altogether, if the pressure of contem- porary politics will allow you to insert it, I think it would be found full of interest at the present moment to the learned world. . The author might seem to be of the Cynical School ; but the names of persons, all nearly contemporary, seem to fix it clearly on a Peripatetic teacher.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

RUBITER CANTABRIGIENSIS.

" Concerning literary men, why they should evermore be mercenary, and whether they be so, or whether this be a calumny of the multitude, it follows to inquire. Is it that, while they say excellent things of the nobleness of virtue and the dignity of science, they do not believe in them themselves, but repeat what is set down, like actors in the mimes? This were altogether base. Or is it that, being poor, and not having a sufficiency of daily things, neither gold in their souls, as Plato said", they are dragged away, like the incontinent, to act against their will the part of servile flatterers? This, again, were pitiable. Or is it rather that, where virtue and science are studied, not for the sake of good living, but for a livelihood, they make the intellect sharp, but leave the practical part of the soul no whit the better ? Now we see this, both in other cases, and especially in Academies, where men talk like philosophers, but live like sycophants, bowing down greatly to princes. Though some have thought this was rather the fault of the elder and craftier masters, who wheedle or compel the more generous and