42 love's meinie. 



Trop parfoisaient beau servise 

 Ciz oiselles que je vous devise. 

 II chantaient un chant ytel 

 Com fussent angle esperitel. 



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 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. England was then a simple 

 country ; we boasted, for the best kind of riches, 



