728 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters . 
d’un Verole belong, according to Toldo, to the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury. 1 Le Testament de Jehan Ragot, of the same period, is 
an imitation of Villon. Compared with its model the piece is 
a wretched performance. 2 3 Of greater merit is Le Testament 
et Epitaphe de Maistre Francoys de Levrault belonging to the 
same period.’"' The testator leaves his soul to God; he does not 
care what becomes of his body. He has no money to bestow on 
prayers for his soul, for he cannot even pay his debts. The 
testament is made up of satirical bequests to his son, to his 
friends, and to his enemies. To one Jehan le Guenais, “the 
most cursed, infected, and detestable liar that was ever born on 
earth, hated of the people and loved of the devil,” he gives 
mischance, a wretched life, a cable for his neck, and the curse 
of Sodom and Gomorrah. 
Of similar character is the Legat testamentaire du Prince 
des Sots, a prose piece belonging apparently to the later six¬ 
teenth century. 4 In this the Prince of Fools is made to leave 
his dominion to one whom he considers eminently worthy of 
it. La Terrible Vie, Testament, et fin de VOyson, a piece of 
verse belonging to the same period, is an example of the animal 
testament. 5 It is characterized by a monstrous exaggeration 
that recalls the methods of the Irish saga-teller. The Testa¬ 
ment of a Usurer, reported by Drexelius, seems to have been in¬ 
vented by some moralist to emphasize the sin of usury. 6 The 
testator instead of giving his soul to God is made to bequeath 
it to the devil, to whom he also recommends the souls of his 
wife and children who through their extravagance have led him 
to usurv. 
Le Testament de la IAgue belongs to the last decade of the 
sixteenth century. 7 The Ligue, a combination of catholics 
formed to combat Protestantism, gives an account of her rise 
and fall. How she lies dying and wishes to make her testa- 
1 Zt. f. Rom. ph., XXV, 217 and 218. 
2 Montaiglon, V, 147. 
3 Montaiglon, X, 128. 
4 E. Fournier, Varietes Historiques et Litteraires, Paris, 1855, III, 353. 
s Montaiglon, X, 159. 
e Peignot, II, 270. 
7 See Campaux, p. 284. 
