336 



PROVERBS. 



another part, when he represents Philip Augustus as having set out with a 

 small escort, thinking that Eichard had not yet disembarked in France, 

 he borrows from the " Dit des Villains " a proverb afterwards put in the 

 mouth of Sancho Panza : " En un muis de quidance, n'a pas plein pot de 

 sapience." 



Proverbs were applied to history (see Figs. 283 and 284), and they also 

 had a large place in the comic theatre of the fifteenth century. The farce of 

 Maitrc Pathelin, attributed alternately to Pierre Blanchet and to Franois 

 Villon, abounds in vulgar proverb?, which add great zest to the dialogue. 

 The lawyer Pathelin goes off with a piece of cloth, which the shopkeeper 



Fig. 283. Device of Louis, Duke of Orleans 

 (1406). A knotted Stick, with the Motto, 

 " Je 1'envy," a term used in the game of 

 dice, signifying, "I utter defiance." This 

 was meant as a defiance to Jean sans Peur. 



Fig. 284. Device of Jean sans Peur, Duke of 

 Burgundy (1406). A Plane, with the 

 Motto, in Flemish, "Hie houd" (I have 

 him), which was a reply to the challenge 

 of the Duke of Orleans. 



Guillaume is induced, by his specious talk, to sell him on credit ; but though 

 he succeeds in satisfying even the judge that he had not cheated the shop- 

 keeper, he is in turn made the dupe of a humble shepherd, whom he had 

 taught how to hoodwink the judge, and obtain an acquittal for a robbery even 

 more impudent than his own. The moral of the comedy is comprised in the 

 proverb 



" Or n'es'-il si fort entendeur 

 Qui ne trouve plus fort vendeur." 



