pecially in those general satires which bear the name of Bible.

The Crede of Piers Plowman* is a bitter satire on the mendicant monks :

Than turned I ayen when I hadde al ytoted,
And fond on a freitoure a frere on a benche

A greet chorl and a grym, growen as a tonne

With a face so fat as a ful bleddere,

Blowen bretful of brethe, and as a bagge honged
On bothen his chekes, and his chyn with a chollede
So greet as a gos ey, growen al of grece,

That al wagged his fleish, as a quick myre.

The nobility of both sexes sang, loved, enjoyed themselves, and at times did not believe too firmly in God. The Vicomte de Baucaire threatens his son Aucassin with hell, unless he parts from Nicolette, his mistress. The youth replies that he cares very little about paradise, full of idle half-naked monks, filthy old priests, and ragged hermits; he would rather go to hell, where great kings, paladins, and barons, hold their plenary court; there he shall find beautiful

:

† Piers Plowman is a generic name, which most of the poets of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries have attached to their satires thus there is the Vision of Piers Plowman,' by Robert Langland, the "Crede of Piers Plowman," composed about the year 1390 &c. These different works must not be confounded one with another.

women, who have loved minstrels and jongleurs, fond of wine and mirth. A troubadour says his Pater, that God may grant to all lovers the pleasure which he enjoyed one night with his Ogine.

CHANGE IN LITERATURE-STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE

TWO LANGUAGES.

THE epoch of Anglo-Gallic, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman trouvères, troubadours, jongleurs, and minstrels, extended over a period of nearly three hundred years, from William the Conqueror to Edward III. Feudality altered by degrees its spirit and its customs; the crusades enlarged the circle of ideas and images; poetry followed the impulse of manners; the organ, the harp, and the bagpipe, acquired new sounds in the abbeys, in the castles, and on the mountains. Edward I., according to popular tradition, doomed to death the Welsh minstrels, who kept alive in the breasts of the ancient Britons the love of country and hatred for the stranger. Gray represents the last of these bards, commencing his song with these words:

Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!

Lays, satirical poems (sirvantois), versified romances, &c., became detached poetical compo

sitions, abridged histories, proportioned to the extent of the memory. You perceive, from the very form of the poems, as well as the style and the expression of the sentiments, that a revolution has been effected, that centuries have passed away.

The introduction of Provençal and French poetry, by the aid of Norman troubadours and jongleurs, was attended with the inconvenience of depriving the Saxon compositions of their native originality; they became nothing more than an imitation, occasionally, no doubt, a delightful one, of a foreign nature. A poet compares the object of his love with a bird whose plumage assumes the hues of every flower and precious stone. Too discreet to make known his mistress to the profane vulgar, the lover gracefully says:

Hire nome is in a note of the nyghtingale;

and he sends the inquisitive to Jean to enquire this name.

The language of Oil, in use among the conquerors, holding the spoils of aristocratic wealth, recorded the deeds of knights and the loves of noble ladies. William the Conqueror, according to Sugulph, abhorred the English language. He ordered that the laws and judicial acts should be