◆Pierre de Bourdeille, Seigneur de l’Abbaye de Brantôme. Was born in Périgord, 1527; died 1614. Of an old and distinguished family. Served his apprenticeship to war under the famous Captain François de Guise. Later Gentleman of the Chamber to two French Kings in succession, Charles IX. and Henri III., being high in favour with the latter; Chamberlain to the Duc d’Alençon. As soldier or traveller visited most parts of Europe; intimate with many of the most famous men of his day, including the poet Ronsard. Some time after the death of Charles IX. he retired (disappointed apparently by a diminution of Court favour, and suffering from the results of a serious accident due to a fall from his horse) to his estates in Guyenne, where he employed his leisure in the composition of a number of voluminous works based on reminiscences of the active period of his life. These are: _Vies des Hommes illustres et grands Capitaines français_, _Vies des Grands Capitaines étrangers_, _Vies des Dames illustres_, _Vies des Dames galantes_, _Anecdotes touchant des Duels_, _Rodomontades et Jurements espagnols_, and sundry fragments. [3] P. XXVI: Souvent femme varie, Bien fol qui s’y fie! (Woman is changing ever; fool the man who trusts her!) [4] P. 3: ◆The word which Molière popularized does not date from that time; it was used much earlier, and in the thirteenth century we see a man pay a fine of twenty ounces of gold for calling an unfortunate husband _coucou_ (cuckold). (_Usatica regni Majorici_, _Anno_ 1248.) About the middle of the fifteenth century, in a letter of remission to a guilty fellow, we find this curious remark: “_Cogul_, which is the same (in the vernacular) as _coulz_ or _couppault_, is one of the vilest insults to be thrust at a married man.” At times the word _coux_ was used: Suis-je mis en la confrairie Saint Arnoul le seignenur des Coux. But it was just about the fifteenth century that the confusion appeared between this word and the bird of April (cuckoo); the word _coucou_ (cuckoo), which had been explained by a fable, merely imitated the cry, whereas the word _cocu_ (cuckold) had been derived from the early Low Latin _cugus_. “Couquou, thus named after its manner of singing and because it is famed for laying its eggs in the nests of other birds; so, inconsistently, he is called a _cocu_ (cuckold) in whose nest another man comes.” (Bouchet, _Serées_.) There is also a play by Passerat on the metamorphosis of a cuckoo which is worth mentioning. (Bib. Nat., manuscrit français, 22565, f^o 24 v^o.) [5] P. 4: