36 LOVE S MEINIE. 



finds his heart in heaven by the power of the singing 

 only : — 



Trop parf oisaient beau servise 

 Ciz oiselles que je vous devise. 

 II chantaient un chant ytel 

 Com fussent angle espeiitel. 



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

 " Oiseau," 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 fiidshed-f air, 

 As if they were angels, bom of the air, 



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

 which Eno-lishmen took delight in Chaucer's time. Eno^- 

 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, 



