36 love's meinie. 



finds liis heart m heaven by the power of the smging 



only : — 



Trop parf oisaient beau servise 

 Ciz oiselles que je vous devise. 

 II chantaient uu chant ytel 

 Com fussent angle esperitel. 



We want a moment more of word-chasing to enjoy this. 



" Oiseaii," as you know, comes from " avis ; " but it had 



at this time got " oisel " for its singular number, of which 



the terminating " sel " confused itself with the " selle," 



from "ancilla" in domisella and demoiselle; and the 



feminine form " oiselle " thus snatched for itself some of 



the delightfulness belonging to the title of a young lady. 



Then note that " esperitel " does not here mean merely 



spiritual, (because all angels are spiritual,) but an " angle 



esperitel " is an angel of the air. So that, in English, we 



could only express the meaning in some such fashion as 



this : — 



They perfected all their service of Love, 

 These maiden birds that I tell you of. 

 They sang such a song, so finished-fair, 

 As if they were angels, born of the air. 



39. Such were the fancies, then, and the scenes, in 

 which Englishmen took delight in Chaucer's time. Eng- 

 land was then a simple country ; we boasted, for the best 

 kind of riches, our birds and trees, and our wives and 

 children. We have now grown to be a rich one ; and our 

 first pleasure is in shooting our birds ; but it has become 

 too expensive for us to keep our trees. Lord Derby, 



