[181] _Voyez_ l’ouvrage de Naudé, intitulé: _Apologie des hommes accusés de magie_. Le nombre de ces hommes est très-considérable. [182] Allard, _Bibl. du Dauphiné_, à la fin. [183] Duplessis-Mornai, _Mystère d’iniquité_, p. 279. [184] This Ballad tongue, or rather Romance, was a mixture of corrupt Latin, Teutonic, and ancient Gallic. It was called thus, in order to distinguish it from the pure Latin and French. The principal dialects of the Romance tongue were the _langue d’oc_, spoken in the south of France, and the _longue d’oïl_, spoken in the north. It is from the _langue d’oïl_ that the French descend. The _langue d’oc_, prevailing with the troubadours who cultivated it, disappeared with them in the fourteenth century and was lost in numberless obscure provincial dialects. Voyez _Le Troubadour_, poésies occitaniques, à la Dissert., vol. i. [185] Fontenelle, _Hist. du Théâtre Français_. [186] Voyez Sainte-Palaye, _Mém. sur l’ancienne Cheval._; Millot, _Hist. des Troubad._ Disc. prélim., on ce que j’ai dit moi-même dans le _Troubadour_, comme ci-dessus. [187] It is necessary to observe that _vau_ or _val_, _bau_ or _bal_, according to the dialect, signifies equally a dance, a ball, and a folly, a fool. The Phœnician, root רע (_whal_) expresses all that is elevated, exalted. The French words _bal_, _vol_, _fol_, are here derived. [188] The sonnets are of Oscan origin. The word _son_ signifies a song in the ancient _langue d’oc_. The word _sonnet_ is applied to a little song, pleasing and of an affected form. The madrigals are of Spanish origin as their name sufficiently proves. The word _gala_ signifies in Spanish a kind of favour, an honour rendered, a gallantry, a present. Thus _Madrid-gala_ arises from a gallantry in the Madrid fashion. The sylves, called _sirves_ or _sirventes_ by the troubadours, were kinds of serious poems, ordinarily satirical. These words come from the Latin _sylva_ which, according to Quintilius, is said of a piece of verse recited _ex-tempore_ (l. x., c. 3). [189] _Voyez_ Laborde, _Essai sur la Musique_, t. i., p. 112, et t. ii., p. 168. On trouve, de la page 149 à la page 232 de ce même volume, un catalogue de tous les anciens romanciers français. On peut voir, pour les Italiens, Crescembini, _Della Volgar Poësia_. [190] See Laborde. It is believed that this Guilhaume, bishop of Paris, is the author of the hieroglyphic figures which adorn the portal of Notre-Dame, and that they have some connection with the hermetic science. (_Biblioth. des Phil. Chim._, t. iv. Saint-Foix, Essai _sur Paris_.)