love's meinie. 33 



our and endearment connected with liim, and with the 

 general idea of redness, — from the bishop called " Bright 

 Red Fame," who founded the first great Christian church 

 on the Rhine, (I am afraid of your thinking I mean a 

 pun, in connection with robins, if I tell you the locality 

 of it,) down through the Hoods, and Roys, and Grays, to 

 Robin Goodfellow, and Spenser's " Hobbinol," and our 

 modern " Hob," — joining on to the ^'goblin," which comes 

 from tlie old Greek K6fia\o<;. But I cannot let you go 

 without asking you to compare the English and French 

 feeling about small birds, in Chaucer's time, with our own 

 on the same subject. I say English and French, because 

 the orioj-inal French of the Romance of the Rose shows 

 more affection for birds than even Chaucer's translation, 

 passionate as he is, always, in love for any one of his little 

 winged brothers or sisters. Look, however, either in the 

 Frencli or English, at the description of the coming of 

 the God of Love, leading his carol-dance, in the garden of 

 the Rose. 



His dress is embroidered with figures of flowers and of 

 beasts ; but about him fly the living birds. The French 

 is : 



II etoit tout convert d'oisiaulx 

 De rossignols et de papeg-aux 

 De calendre, et de raesangel. 

 II semblait que ce fut une angle 

 Qui fuz tout droit venuz du ciel 



36. There are several points of philology in this transi- 

 tional French, and in Chaucer's translation, which it is 



9* 



