This and the two following specimens, together with some included earlier under the head of Tail-Rime, illustrate the interest in complex lyrical measures characteristic of the period of French influence in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In 1152 Henry of Normandy (who ascended the throne in 1154) married Eleanor of Poitou, and in her train there came to England the great troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn. On the poems of this troubadour and others of the same school, see ten Brink's _English Literature_, Kennedy translation, vol. i. pp. 159-164. Other troubadours followed, and found a home in the court of Richard the Lion-Hearted, who himself entered the ranks of the poets. The result was a great mass of Norman French lyrical poetry, often in intricate forms, and a smaller mass of imitative lyrics in Middle English. As Schipper observes, the elaborate lyrical forms were inconsistent with English taste, and it was only the simpler ones which were widely adopted. On the general character of the Romance stanza-forms, and their influence in England, see Schipper, vol. i. pp. 309 ff. _ababccdeed_ Iesu, for þi muchele miht þou ȝef us of þi grace, þat we mowe dai & nyht þenken o þi face. in myn herte hit doþ me god, when y þenke on iesu blod, þat ran doun bi ys syde, from is herte doun to is fot; for ous he spradde is herte blod, his wondes were so wyde. (Song from Harleian MS. 2253; in Böddeker's _Altenglische Dichtungen_, p. 208.) _aabccbddbeeb_ Lenten ys come wiþ love to toune, wiþ blosmen & wiþ briddes roune, þat al þis blisse bryngeþ; dayes eȝes in þis dales, notes suete of nyhtegales, uch foul song singeþ. þe þrestelcoc him þreteþ oo; away is huere wynter woo, when woderove springeþ. þis foules singeþ ferly fele, ant wlyteþ on huere wynter wele, þat al þe wode ryngeþ. (Song from Harleian MS. 2253; Böddeker's _Altenglische Dichtungen_, p. 164.) _abcbdcdceccce_ Trowe ȝe, sores, and God sent an angell And commawndyd ȝow ȝowr chyld to slayn, Be ȝowr trowthe ys ther ony of ȝow That eyther wold groche or stryve ther-ageyn? How thyngke ȝe now, sorys, ther-by? I trow ther be iii or iiii or moo. And thys women that wepe so sorowfully Whan that hyr chyldryn dey them froo, As nater woll and kynd,-- Yt ys but folly, I may well awooe, To groche a-ȝens God or to greve ȝow, For ȝe schall never se hym myschevyd, wyll I know, Be lond nor watyr, have thys in mynd. (Epilogue of Brome Play of Abraham and Isaac. In Manly's _Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama_, vol. i. p. 56.)