Demandant s’en a que repaistre.
Ouy vraiment, ce dist le maistre,
Ne soyez de rien en soucy
Car vous serez très bien servy,
De pain, de vin et de viande.”
The animal kingdom is represented by the mule, “la Mulle,” an inn frequented by Rabelais, too, the red donkey (“un asne rouge”), and the white horse that, like all the painted horses, had the bad habit of never moving (“le cheval blanc qui ne bouge”). We have seen above that the “White Horse” was popular in Italy, too, although an old Italian proverb pretends that it is just as capricious as a beautiful woman and a source of continual annoyances:—
“Chi hà cavallo bianco e belle moglie
Non è mai senza doglie.”
The most famous of all the cabarets immortalized by Villon is “le trou de la Pomme de Pin,” as he usually calls it. In the “Repues Franches,” from which we quoted the story of the Hotel du Pestel we read:—
“Et vint à la Pomme de Pin