feast; and, in so doing, he evidently admitted proses and _farsurae_ with a far more liberal hand than did Eudes de Sully. The whole office, which is quite serious and not in the least burlesque, well repays study. I can only dwell on those parts of it which throw light on the general character of the celebration for which it was intended. The first Vespers on the eve of the Circumcision are preceded by four lines sung _in ianuis ecclesiae_: ‘Lux hodie, lux laetitiae, me iudice tristis quisquis erit, removendus erit solemnibus istis, sint hodie procul invidiae, procul omnia maesta, laeta volunt, quicunque colunt asinaria festa.’ These lines are interesting, because they show that the thirteenth-century name for the feast at Sens was the _asinaria festa_, the ‘Feast of the Ass.’ They are followed by what is popularly known as the ‘Prose of the Ass,’ but is headed in the manuscript _Conductas ad tabulam_. A _conductus_ is a chant sung while the officiant is conducted from one station to another in the church[1000], and the _tabula_ is the _rota_ of names and duties _pro cantu et lectura_, with the reading of which the Vespers began[1001]. The text of the Prose of the Ass, as used at Sens and elsewhere, is given in an appendix[1002]. Next come a trope and a farsed Alleluia, a long interpolation dividing ‘Alle-’ and ‘-luia,’ and then another passage which has given a wrong impression of the nature of the office: ‘_Quatuor vel quinque in falso retro altare_: Haec est clara dies, clararum clara dierum, haec est festa dies, festarum festa dierum, nobile nobilium rutilans diadema dierum. _Duo vel tres in voce retro altare_: Salve festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo, qua Deus est ortus virginis ex utero[1003].’ The phrase _in falso_ does not really mean ‘out of tune.’ It means, ‘with the harmonized accompaniment known as _en faux bourdon_’, and is opposed to _in voce_, ‘in unison[1004].’ The Vespers, with many further interpolations, then continue, and after them follow Compline, Matins, Lauds[1005], Prime, Tierce, the Mass, Sext, and second Vespers. These end with three further pieces of particular interest from our point of view. The first is a _Conductus ad Bacularium_, the name _Bacularius_ being doubtless that given at Sens to the _dominus festi_[1006]. This opens in a marked festal strain: ‘Novus annus hodie monet nos laetitiae laudes inchoare, felix est principium, finem cuius gaudium solet terminare. celebremus igitur festum annuale, quo peccati solvitur vinculum mortale et infirmis proponitur poculum vitale; adhuc sanat aegrotantes hoc medicinale, unde psallimus laetantes ad memoriale. ha, ha, ha, qui vult vere psallere, trino psallat munere, corde, ore, opere debet laborare, ut sic Deum colere possit et placare.’