370 Le Raman dc Rose. [APRIL 



So great was the estimation in which the Roman de Rose was held at the 

 court of Henry, that to read and recite it was the favourite amusement 

 of " gallant knights and gentle dames/' For this poem Nace was 

 rewarded by his sovereign with a prebend in the cathedral of Bayeux 

 a reward, however, which he appears to have considered as inadequate, 

 and as falling short of the expectations he had been encouraged to 

 form : 



" Li reis jadis maint bieu me fist, 

 Mult me duua, plus me pramist ; 

 E se il tot dune m'eust, 

 Co k'il me pramist., mielx me fust"* 



And he concludes his poem in a manner equally disappointed and 

 petulant : 



" Ci funt le livre Maistre Nace, 

 Qu'in velt avant fere, s'in face."t 



For the reason already assigned, we cannot notice the depredations of 

 either Hastings or Rollo in France ; but though the expedition of the 

 former into Italy has been related, that relation has not been in the words 

 of our author. Hence we proceed to give it entire, and as much in Nace's 

 manner as the genius of both languages will permit. 



After Hastings had laid waste the western provinces of France, and 

 committed excesses the bare recital of which makes us shudder, he found 

 that the country offered very little to tempt the cupidity of his follow- 

 ers ; and he resolved to sail for Rome, a city that he believed to be the 

 richest on earth. He accordingly collected about a hundred vessels, 

 and, accompanied by the royal Biorn, passed the straits of Gibral- 

 tar, and proceeded towards Italy. Though no mention is, as far as we 

 can remember, made of this expedition in the chronicles of that country, 

 and though the accounts given of it by Nace and the monk of St. Maur 

 possess little of the soberness belonging to history, there appears to be 

 some foundation for it. Luna, then a flourishing city, but now a petty 

 town on the gulf of Spezzio, was the first and only scene of Hastings's 

 depredations in Italy. His arrival at the port, we are told, was predicted 

 in an extraordinary manner : 



" In the cathedral of that city, matins had one morning begun, and proceeded 

 I wot not how far, and one of the choristers was reading a lesson (neither 

 do I know which it was), when he suddenly stopt short, in the very midst of 

 the chapter, and no other thing could he say than, ' A hundred ships approach 

 Porto Venere!' Wherefore the clergy around him inquire, 'What sayest thou? 

 thou takest no heed to the book.' Quoth he: ' I tell you that a hundred ships 

 approach Porto Venere!' So they again: ' Look well at the manuscript.' But 

 still he cried out, ' A hundred ships approach Porto Venere !' The same thing 

 he said a fourth time ; nor for the life of him could he say other. Which thing 

 proved to he a prophecy ; for the next morning, when all arose, they espied 

 the fleet of Biorn." (Tom. i. p. 25, 26.) 



When Hastings arrived at the port, the city appeared so magnificent 

 that both he and his chiefs were persuaded it must be Rome. Their 



* " Formerly the king did me much good : he gave me much, but he promised more. 

 If he had given me all he promised, it would have been much better for me." 



f " Here ends the book of Master Nace : if any person wishes to continue the subject, 

 let him do it." 



