[196] For Amis, very popular in England, see Koelbing, "Amis and Amiloun," Heilbronn, 1884 (_cf._ below, p. 229), and "Nouvelles francoises en prose du treizieme siecle," edited by Moland and d'Hericault, Paris, 1856, 16mo; these "Nouvelles" include: "l'Empereur Constant," "les Amities de Ami et Amile," "le roi Flore et la belle Jehanne," "la Comtesse de Ponthieu," "Aucassin et Nicolette."--The French text of "Floire et Blanceflor" is to be found in Edelstand du Meril, "Poemes du treizieme siecle," Paris, 1856, 16mo.--For Marie de France, see H. Suchier, "Die Lais der Marie de France," Halle, Bibliotheca, Normannica, 1885, 8vo; her fables are in vol. ii. of "Poesies de Marie de France," ed. Roquefort, Paris, 1819, 2 vols. 8vo. See also Bedier's article in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, Oct. 15, 1891, also the chapter on Marie in Hervieux, "Fabulistes Latins," 1883-4, 2nd part, chap. i. [197] On this subject, see Gaston Paris's criticism of the "Origines de la poesie lyrique en France" of Jeanroy, in the "Journal des Savants," 1892. [198] One fact among many shows how constant was the intercourse on the Continent between Frenchmen of France and Englishmen living or travelling there, namely, the knowledge of the English language shown in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the authors of several branches of the "Roman de Renart," and the caricatures they drew of English people, which would have amused nobody if the originals of the pictures had not been familiar to all. (See Branches Ib and XIV. in Martin's edition.) [199] Jeanroy, "Origines de la poesie lyrique en France, au moyen age," Paris, 1889, 8vo, p. 68. An allusion in a crusade song of the twelfth century shows that this _motif_ was already popular then. It is found also in much older poetry and more remote countries, for Jeanroy quotes a Chinese poem, written before the seventh century of our era, where, it is true, a mere cock and mere flies play the part of the Verona lark and nightingale: "It was not the cock, it was the hum of flies," or in the Latin translation of Father Lacharme: "Fallor, non cantavit gallus, sed muscarum fuit strepitus," _ibid._, p. 70. On _chansons_ written in French by Anglo-Normans, see "Melanges de poesie anglo-normande," by P. Meyer, in "Romania," vol. iv. p. 370, and "Les Manuscrits Francais de Cambridge," by the same, _ibid._, vol. xv. [200] Anglo-Norman song, written in England, in the thirteenth century, "Romania," vol. xv. p. 254. [201] "La Plainte d'amour," from a MS. in the University Library, Cambridge, GG I. 1, "Romania," _ibid._ [202] Bele Aliz matin leva, Sun cors vesti e para, Enz un verger s'entra, Cink flurettes y truva, Un chapelet fet en a De rose flurie; Pur Deu, trahez vus en la Vus ki ne amez mie.