357 



about 1220, and completed fifty years later by Jean de Meung, surnamed 

 Clopinel. 



The " Romance of the Rose " was beyond all doubt a reminiscence of 

 Provencal poetry, which for two centuries had charmed the populations of the 

 South by the soft and gracious imagery with which it expressed the senti- 

 ments of the heart. The Romance language of the South, the Oc language 

 purified, perfected, and developed, might have become, from the twelfth 

 century, the rival of the Latin, Italian, and Spanish languages; but the 

 troubadours, who were dreamy and pensive poets, were too addicted to 

 singing of love, of women, of flowers, and the enervating pleasures of earthly 

 life. Their chansons, their tcnsons, their planets, &c., which were recited to the 

 accompaniment of some stringed instrument, were imitated by the Northern 

 trouveres, but with less monotony and more force. "William de Lorris and 

 his successor added to the complimentary allegories and subtleties of the 

 "Romance of the Rose" the satirical and sarcastic element, which was, perhaps, 

 the outcome of the Gallic spirit. In short, the French language may be said, 

 in this work of the thirteenth century, to have already acquired all its original 

 qualities. The following description of spring may be quoted as a proof 

 thereof : 



" En mai estoio, ce songoie, 

 El terns amoreus plain de joie, 

 El terns oil tote liens s'esgaie, 

 Que 1'en ue voit boiaaon ne haie 

 Qui en mai parer ne se voille 

 Et covrir de novele foille. 

 Li boia recovrent lor verdure, 

 Qui aunt sec tant com yver dure ; 

 La terre meismea e'orgoille 

 Par la rosee qui la moille 

 Et oblie la poverte 

 Oil elle a tot 1'yver eate. 

 Lors devient la terre si gobe 

 Qu'el volt avoir novele robe," &c. 



William de Lorris belonged rather to the troubadour school, while Jean de 

 Meung had more in common with the trouveres of the Artois, Picardy, and 

 Champagne provinces, though the style of both, correct and full of elegance, 

 was thoroughly representative of the Oil language, which at that time was 

 almost in as much favour as Latin, though the latter still survived as a spoken 



