Martial d'Auvergne[161], or Martial de Paris (for by an odd chance both of these local surnames are given him, probably from the fact that, like Baude, he was a native of the centre of France and spent his life in the capital), like Coquillart and Baude, was something of a lawyer by profession, and has left work in prose as well as in verse. He certainly died in 1508, and, as he is spoken of as _senio confectus_, he cannot have been born much later than 1420, especially as his poem, the _Vigilles de Charles VII._, was written on the death of that prince in 1461. This poem is of considerable extent, and is divided into nine 'Psalms' and nine 'Lessons.' The staple metre is the quatrain, but detached pieces in other measures occur. A complete history of the subject is given, and in some of the digressions there are charming passages, notably one (given by M. de Montaiglon) on the country life. Another very beautiful poem, commonly attributed to Martial, is entitled _L'Amant rendu Cordelier au service de l'Amour_, a piece of amorous allegory at once characteristic of the later middle ages, and free from the faults usually found in such work. A prose work of a somewhat similar kind, entitled _Arrets d'Amour_, is known to be Martial's. In no writer is there to be found more of the better part of Marot, as in the light skipping verses:-- Mieux vault la liesse, L'accueil et l'addresse, L'amour et simplesse, De bergers pasteurs, Qu'avoir a largesse Or, argent, richesse, Ne la gentillesse De ces grants seigneurs. Car ils ont douleurs Et des maulx greigneurs, Mais pour nos labeurs Nous avons sans cesse Les beaulx pres et fleurs, Fruitages, odeurs Et joye a nos coeurs Sans mal qui nous blesse. There is something of the old _pastourelles_ in this, and of a note of simplicity which French poetry had long lost. [Sidenote: The Rhetoriqueurs.]