En l'an de l'incarnacion, VIII jors apres la nascion Jhesu qui soufri passion, en l'an soissante, qu'arbres n'a foille, oisel ne chante, fis je toute la rien dolante que de cuer m'aime: nis li musarz musart me claime. or puis filer, qu'il me faut traime; mult ai a faire. deus ne fist cuer tant de pute aire, tant li aie fait de contraire ne de martire, s'il en mon martire se mire, qui ne doie de bon cuer dire 'je te claim cuite.' envoier un home en Egypte, ceste dolor est plus petite que n'est la moie; je n'en puis mais se je m'esmoie. l'en dit que fous qui ne foloie pert sa saison: sui je mariez sanz raison? or n'ai ne borde ne maison. encor plus fort: por plus doner de reconfort a ceus qui me heent de mort, tel fame ai prise que nus fors moi n'aime ne prise, et s'estoit povre et entreprise, quant je la pris. a ci mariage de pris, c'or sui povres et entrepris ausi comme ele, et si n'est pas gente ne bele. cinquante anz a en s'escuele, s'est maigre et seche: n'ai pas paor qu'ele me treche. despuis que fu nez en la greche deus de Marie, ne fu mais tele espouserie. je sui toz plains d'envoiserie: bien pert a l'uevre. Though he has less of the 'lyrical cry' than some others, Ruteboeuf is perhaps the most vigorous poet of his time. [Sidenote: Lais. Marie de France.] There is one division of early poetry which may also be noticed under this head, though it is sometimes dealt with as a kind of miniature epic. This is the _lai_, a term which is used in old French poetry with two different significations. The Trouveres of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries made of it a regular lyrical form. But the most famous of its examples, those which now pass under the name of Marie de France, are narrative poems in octosyllabic verse and varying in length considerably. It is agreed that the term and the thing are of Breton origin; and the opinion which seems most probable is that the word originally had reference rather to the style of music with which the harper accompanied his verse, than to the measure, arrangement, or subject of the latter. As to Marie herself[75], nothing is known about her with certainty. She lived in England in the reign of Henry III, and often gives English equivalents for her French words. The _lais_ which we possess, written by her and attributed to her, are fourteen in number. They bear the titles of _Gugemer_, _Equitan_, _Le Fresne_, _Le Bisclaveret_, _Lanval_, _Les Deux Amants_, _Ywenec_, _Le Laustic_, _Milun_, _Le Chaitivel_, _Le Chevrefeuille_, _Eliduc_, _Graalent_ and _L'Espine_. Mr. O'Shaughnessy has paraphrased several of these in English[76]; they are all narrative in character. Their distinguishing features are fluent and melodious versification, pure and graceful language--among the purest and most graceful, though decidedly Norman in