OF SIX MEDIAEVAL WOMEN 





since they are perhaps among the first stories, 

 given literary form, which tell of love ce for 

 love's sake only," love unqualified and un- 

 questioning. They form, perhaps, the only 

 collection of lays now extant, and it is to them, 

 therefore, that we must turn to get some idea of 

 the style of narration that gradually replaced the 

 taste for the epic as Norman influence grew and 

 spread in England. Beside the sensualism of the 

 Chansons de Geste^ the sentiment expressed in 

 them may seem naive ; beside the gallantry of 

 the Provenfal poetry, it may seem primitive ; 

 but nevertheless it is, in its very simplicity, the 

 profoundest note that can be struck in this world 

 of men and women. Marie makes no pretence 

 to originality, but even if she did not possess the 

 supreme gift of creating beauty, she at least 

 possessed the lesser gift of perceiving it where 

 it existed and of making it her own, and her 

 stories glow with colour, and enchant by. their 

 simple yet dramatic appeal to the imagination. 

 She declares that The Lays were made " for 

 remembrance " by " Le ancien Bretun curteis," 

 and that " Folks tell them to the harp and the 

 rote, and the music is sweet to hear." Doubt- 

 less it was this sweet music which both soothed 

 and thrilled even before the words were under- 

 stood, for on sad and festive days alike, the sweet 

 lays of Brittany were always to be heard. 



La reine chante doucement, 

 La voiz acorde a 1'estrument : 

 Les mains sont belles, li lais bons, 

 Douce la voiz et bas li tons. 

 32 



