The songs of the late sixteenth century, apart from folk-songs, were largely dance tunes set to lively words and supported with a polyphonic accompaniment. But slowly the polyphony became more simple and in the beginning of the seventeenth century the ‘chord-fornote’ accompaniment was adopted from Italy and came to most charming flower. With the French sense of grace and fitness the French composers made their _airs du cour_, or ‘court tunes,’ lyric and flowing, keeping the accompaniment in its proper place as a mere support to the melody and rounding off the pieces by means of a subtle and satisfying architecture. The many names under which the French aristocratic songs went are hardly to be distinguished with definiteness. The term _airs du cour_ covered almost any songs of a restrained, polished character. The _chanson_ was nearer the people, sometimes a ballad, very often a dance tune, and not infrequently a gross or indecent piece of little artistic value. The _romance_, which dates from the Troubadours, was touching and graceful, almost wholly confined to the tender sentiments. The _brunette_ was a simple love song, not very distinct in genre, the very name being a matter of doubt. The _bergerette_, in which class belong some of the most delightful of French songs, was a lyric of pretended pastoral nature, in which lovers carried on their romances in the guise of shepherds and shepherdesses. The _musette_ was written in supposed imitation of a street organ, invariably over a ‘drone bass,’ usually in fifths. The _vaudeville_, less distinguished in character than any of the others, was a mere adaptation of current street tunes (whence the name, _voix de ville_). These types of song found their way in great abundance into later French opera, especially that admirable achievement of the French, the _opéra comique_, and many of the best French songs of the eighteenth century are to be found in opera scores. But in the operas of Lully, the chief French dramatic composer of the seventeenth century, the lightness of touch which distinguishes the French had not yet come into its own and the somewhat ponderous classic tradition still dominated. Songs during this period were usually written independently, but they grew in popularity so steadily that the composers of light opera in the following century were forced to include one or more _romances_, _brunettes_, or _bergerettes_ in their works to insure their popularity. III