Page:The Waning of the Middle Ages (1924).djvu/125

Rh all the deceit and insults of men. With serious indignation she denounces the doctrine of the Roman de la Rose.

Then the multitude of fervent admirers of Jean de Meun appeared upon the scene. Among them were men of very varying spiritual bent, even ecclesiastics. The debate lasted for years. The nobility and the court took it up as a means of amusement. Boucicaut—encouraged, perhaps, by the praise of Christine de Pisan, for his defence of ideal courtesy—had already founded his “ordre de l’escu vert à la dame blanche,” for the defence of oppressed women, when the duke of Burgundy eclipsed him by founding in Paris, at the “hétel d’Artois,” on February 14, 1401, a court of love on a very splendid scale. Philippe le Hardi, the old diplomat, whom one would have supposed to be occupied with affairs of a very different nature, and Louis de Bourbon, had begged the king to institute a court of love to furnish some distraction during an epidemic of the plague which raged at Paris, “to spend part of the time more graciously and in order to find awakening of new joy.” The cause of chivalry triumphed in the form of a literary salon. The court was founded on the virtues of humility and of fidelity, “to the honour, praise and commendation and service of all noble ladies.” The members were provided with illustrious titles. The two founders and the king were called the Grands Conservateurs. Among the conservators we find Jean sans Peur, his brother Antoine, and his six-years-old son, Philippe. A certain Pierre d’Hauteville, from Hainault, was Prince of Love; there were also ministers, auditors, knights of honour, knights treasurers, councillors, grand-masters of the chase, squires of love, etc. Burghers and lower clergy were admitted, side by side with princes and prelates. The business of the court much resembled that of a “rhetorical chamber.” Refrains were set to be worked up into “ballades couronnées ou chapelées,” songs, sirventois, complaints, rondels, lays, virelais, etc. There were debates “in the form of amorous law-suits to defend different opinions.” The ladies distributed the prizes, and poems attacking the honour of women were forbidden.

In this pompous and grave apparatus of a graceful amusement one cannot help feeling the effect of Burgundian style beginning to influence the French court itself. It is equally