NA TIONA L POE 'I R ) '. 



4*7 



who are alluded to by M. Pauliii Paris in volume xxiii. of his " 

 Litteraire." 



These trouveurs of the nobility, imitators of the troubadours, would not 

 probably have succeeded in rehabilitating the poetry of the Tongue of Oil, which 

 had been cast into discredit by the trouveurs-jugglers, but for the assistance 

 of true poets, who, declining to emerge from their retreats in order to scour 

 the country, devoted their time to the composition of serious and valuable 

 works. Marie de France, who was one of this number, and who was a 

 Norman by birth, passed part of her youth at the court of Henry III., King 



Allegretto. 





A -hi! a - rnors, com du-re de-par -li - e Me con-ven ra 

 fe-re de latnei lourQuionqucs fust a-me e ne'ser-vi - et Dies 



V^ j- " 



me ra-inaiue a li par sa dou-cmir. Si voi-rement, qtn m'en para a doulour. 



:$!-:&= 





Las! qu'ui-jiidil? ja tie m'en |>ars-je mi 



e : Se li rot's va servir no - 





stre si - gnour, Li cuers remiint del tout en sa bail - li - e. 



Fig. 334. " Serventois " of the Trouveur, Quenes of Bethune, upon the Crusade. Published by 

 Fetis, after Manuscript in the National Library, Paris. 



of England, who had asked her to put into rhyme the legends which formed 

 part of the traditions of Brittany. In addition to these sombre and tragic 

 lays, which were well suited to her brilliant imagination, she composed for 

 Count William de Dampierre a collection of fables, imitated after .^sop, 

 called " Ysopet," in which we find something of the naivete and grace of La 

 Fontaine. These ingenious imitations of JEsop, which were in much favour 

 during the Middle Ages, were preceded by a great romantic and allegorical 

 composition entitled the " Roman de Rciiard " (the " Romance of the Fox "), 



