But Josquin evidently possessed a light-heartedness and vivacity that would not always brook restraint and that led him to introduce bits of quaint humor into his church music that, to say the least, displayed a lack of reverence and marred an otherwise admirable style. It is related that he much desired to receive a church benefice from Louis XII of France, at whose court he held an appointment, but as often as he applied to the proper official he received only the answer, _Lascia fare mi_. At length Josquin wearied of the delay and, seizing upon the musical sound of the courtier’s words, composed a mass on the subject _La, sol, fa, re, mi_, which appeared again and again, mimicking the official’s curt and oft-repeated answer. The musician’s wit pleased the king and won his promise of a benefice, which promise, however, was straightway forgotten. But the composer was in nowise discouraged. He dedicated to the king a motet for which he took the text from the 119th Psalm (118th in the Vulgate), _Memor esto verbi tui servo tuo, in quo mihi spem dedisti_ (‘Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope’), thinking thereby to quicken the memory of his royal master. Louis was evidently dull of understanding, for yet a second time the musical joker dedicated to him a motet, _Portio mea non est in terra viventium_ (‘My portion is not in the land of the living’), which evidently won the object of his desire, for still another motet, _Bonitatem fecisti cum servo tuo_, is generally regarded as a polite thank-offering for the appointment. It is further related that the king, who was wholly unmusical and who possessed a very feeble voice, requested the great musician to compose a piece in which his Majesty could join. The sagacious Josquin forthwith wrote a canon for two boys’ voices, supplemented by a part for the king consisting of one note sustained throughout.[23] In his celebrated _Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae_, a quaint conceit prompted him to build his subject, _Re ut re ut re fa mi re_, on the succession of syllables whose vowels correspond to the vowels in the words _Hercules Dux Ferrariae_. These were innocent pranks, but he carried his musical trifling to unpardonable extremes in his _Missa didadi_ (‘Dice’ Mass), in which he set himself the profane task of solving a dice-problem in terms of musical technique. But the faults of Josquin were in large measure the faults of his period. In common with Okeghem and others, he was exceedingly fond of inventing riddle-canons and other musical puzzles. So much did this practice, especially in connection with ecclesiastical music, arouse the indignation of Martin Agricola that this worthy scholar even threatened the composers with the terrors of the last day ‘when all will certainly not go well with the outrageous riddle-makers.’