38 love's MEINIE. 



first great Christian church on the Rhine, (1 

 am afraid of your thinking I mean a pun, 

 in connection with robins, if I tell 3^ou 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 the old Greek Ko/3aXo9. 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 original French of 

 the Romance of the Rose shows more affec- 

 tion 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 French 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 

 livino- birds. The French is : 



V3 



II etoit tout couvert d'oisiaulx 

 De rossignols et de papegaux 



