HE! qu'avons-nous affaire
Du Turc ny du Sophy,
Don don.
Pourveu que j'aye à boire,
Des grandeurs je dis fy.
Don don.
Trincque, Seigneur, le vin est bon:
Hoc acuit ingenium.
QUI songe en vin ou vigne,
Est ung présaige heureux,
Don don.
Le vin à qui réchigne
Rent le coeur tout joyeux,
Don don.
Trincque, Seigneur, le vin est bon:
Hoc acuit ingenium.
&c.
The poetry of Basselin is almost wholly devoted to the celebration of the physical effects of wine upon the body and animal spirits; and the gentler emotions of the TENDER PASSION are rarely described in his numbers. In consequence, he has not invoked the Goddess of Beauty to associate with the God of Wine: to
"Drop from her myrtle one leaf in his bowl;"
or, when he does venture to introduce the society of a female, it is done after the following fashion--which discovers however an extreme facility and melody of rhythm. The burden of the song seems wonderfully accordant with a Bacchanalian note.
VAUDEVIRE XIX.
En ung jardin d'ombraige tout couvert,
Au chaud du jour, ay treuvé Madalaine,
Qui près le pié d'ung sicomorre vert
Dormoit au bort d'une claire fontaine;
Son lit estoit de thin et marjolaine.
Son tetin frais n'estoit pas bien caché:
D'amour touché,
Pour contempler sa beauté souveraine
Incontinent je m'en suys approché.
Sus, sus, qu'on se resveille,
Voicy vin excellent
Qui faict lever l'oreille;
Il faict mol qui n'en prent.
Je n'eus pouvoir, si belle la voyant,
De m'abstenir de baizotter sa bouche;
Si bien qu'enfin la belle s'esveillant,
Me regardant avec ung oeil farouche,
Me dit ces mots: Biberon, ne me touche.
Belle fillette à son aize ne couche
Avecq celuy qui ne faict qu'yvrongner,
&c. &c.
The preceding extracts will suffice. This is a volume in every respect interesting--both to the literary antiquary and to the Book-Collector. A NEW EDITION of this work has appeared under the editorial care of M. Louis Dubois, published at Caen in 1821, 8vo. obtainable at a very moderate price.
[B] The host, at these public and private festivals, usually called upon some one to recite or sing a song, chiefly of an amatory or chivalrous character; and this custom prevailed more particularly in Normandy than in other parts of France: