He ends with a joke upon his own misfortunes : "Bien sai Pater, ne sai qu'est notre, Que li chiers tenz m'a tot ostei, Qu'il m'a si vuidié mon hostei Et je n'ai plus que vos véeiz." "I know Pater well, but I know not For the dear season has deprived me of all, And I have nothing more than you see." Credo was the title of the Creed, and meant also in the Latin of that time I trust you, or give you credit; Rutebuef puns on the word, and means that he has nothing to pawn, and cannot live upon credit. To explain the first line, it is only necessary to say that the poet had a family, which was a burden to him in his misfortunes; and his next poem is a complaint on his marriage, which he tells us took place in the year 1260. This piece, also, is a continued lamentation over his poverty, though he again shows himself a confirmed punster. "Or me covient froter au lange; Je ne dout privé ne estrange Que il riens m'emble; N'ai pas busche de chesne ensamble : N'est-ce assez ? Mes pos est brisiez et quassez, Je qu'en diroie? Ni la destruction de Troie Ne fu si grant comme est la moie !" "I have not a shirt to my back; I fear neither acquaintance nor stranger I have not two logs of oak together: Is this not enough? My pot is broken and smashed, Not even the destruction of Troy In the original, the fourth and fifth lines of this extract admit of two interpretations, the translation just given is of course the one primarily intended, but they also in a double-entendre allow of being thus interpreted: I have not two logs of oak together, because I am there with nothing but beech (fou, from fagus) and aspen wood (tremble.)" These extracts will give a tolerable idea of the position and character of the poet. Several other poems describe his wretchedness and misfortunes. He certainly had many friends and benefactors, by his own confession; and though his poetry is often playful, and sometimes very poor, yet it is also very frequently dignified, and his satire is bold and stinging. Besides occasional allusions in various parts of his works, Rutebuef has left us five poems on the subject of the Crusades, urging warmly the policy of undertaking and entering into these wars, and supporting his remonstrances by reasons that seemed, we have no doubt, very conclusive at that time. One of these poems introduces two knights, a Crusader and one who had declined taking the cross, arguing the subject, and, although the poet gives the palm to the former, the arguments of the other, put in his mouth by one who was prejudiced on the other side, are in our opinion by much the most forcible. Some of them are singular enough :— Dont l'arme est por meilleur tenue; Se Diex est nule part el monde, Il est en France, c'est sens doute; For which their soul is esteemed better; When they come back again. If God is anywhere in the world, He is in France, without any doubt: In other pieces Rutebuef breaks out into exclamations of the deepest indignation against those who prefer their pleasures and comforts at home, to buying paradise by risking their lives in war against the Infidels; and his anger is particularly excited by the corruptions and vices of the clergy, which he represents as a great hindrance to the success of the Crusader. Indeed the Minstrel shows himself everywhere a bitter satirist upon ecclesiastics, and in this respect he identifies himself entirely with the popular feeling of the time. The religious orders, which were multiplying so rapidly during the reign of the pious Louis, are all and each visited with the lash. It was they who enriched themselves with the goods of the wealthy knights, whom they persuaded to go to the war in the east; they rolled in riches and worldly comforts, while the laity in general were pressed down by heavy imposts, and dear times; it was they who were lifting up the papal power against the best interests of the King and the State, and in return the Pope was supporting them against the University and the civil institutions. The Jacobins, in particular, had provoked his wrath by their successful hostility against the University and its champion William de Saint-Amour. "Quant Jacobin vindrent el monde, S'entrèrent chiés Humilité : Lors estoient et net et monde Et s'amoient Divinité; Mès orguex, qui toz biens esmonde, Que par lor grant chape roonde Jacobin sont venu el monde Jacobins came into the world Clad in robe of white and black: He may believe it that will. * In sooth, their dress is neat and clean, If a wolf had a round cape, He'd look mightily like a priest." (La Descorde de l'Université et des Jacobins.) In a piece entitled Les Ordres de Paris, Rutebuef attacks the Jacobins again, and accuses them of their overbearing behaviour, and of taking advantage of the opportunity afforded them by their occupation, to put themselves into rich men's wills: "Li Jacobin sont si preudoume In the same piece, the minstrel satirises the King for his foundation of the Hospital des Quinze-Vingts, by the rue St. Honoré. "Li Rois a mis en .i. repaire, "The King has placed in a dwelling, The whole day they cease not to roar, Rutebuef never lets slip an opportunity of putting in a sly reflection on his monkish opponents. In a fabliau, where he is describing the sacristan of a monastery, who was extremely pious and virtuous, he omits not to tell us that "when people offered candles to the Virgin, he failed not to let them burn, and never put them out in order to reserve them for his own use, unless it were the large ones, of which he preserved a reasonable portion for the good of the monastery." "Quant la chandoile estoit esprise (Dou secrestain et de la femme au Chevalier.) We would willingly say more of this fabliau, and of one or two others, for the light they throw upon the manners and feelings of the thirteenth century, but our space forbids us at present. Moreover, we expect that the new Collection of Fabliaux, which M. Jubinal has in the press, will give us an opportunity of returning to this subject another time. Rutebuef has left us seven satirical poems on the monks, besides four on their quarrel with the University. The second volume of the works of this trouvère contains chiefly his religious pieces, among which are La voie de Paradis ( a prototype of the famous" Pilgrim's Progress"), long and curious metrical lives of St. Mary the Egyptian and St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and a very singular miracle play of St. Theophilus; this latter representing a popular legend of the middle ages, analogous to the famous story of Dr. Faustus of a somewhat later period. The whole number of poems by Rutebuef which are preserved, and which are all included in these volumes, amount to fifty-six. Nearly half of the whole work consists of explanatory and illustrative notes, full of curious information of all kinds, with many inedited fragments of early literature, that throw light on matters alluded to in Rutebuef's poems, and of an appendix of similar pieces, which, though not written by this poet, bear still a remarkable analogy to some of his productions. Among the illustrations are two Greek versions of the legend of Theophilus. Altogether, this work is very well and very carefully edited, and we can recommend it to a large circle of readers, for the mass of popular information which, in a cheap form, it contains on the history and manners of the period, on the history of the monastic orders, on the state of literature, and particularly of education, and of the Universities of the Middle Ages. All persons interested in these subjects owe thanks to M. Jubinal; and we trust since his researches among the libraries of Switzerland, and more particularly that of Berne, we may expect from him many more contributions to the history of early French literature. On a former occasion, we mentioned briefly his Report to the Minister of Public Instruction on the MSS. of the Berne library; he has since published it in a separate form, as our readers will have seen by the title which we have given at the beginning of our article. In this edition he has added to the Report a small collection of very interesting poems selected from some of the Berne manuscripts. 6 REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. en Correspondance Diplomatique de Bertrand de Salignac de la Mothe Fénélon, Ambassadeur de France Angleterre de 1568 à 1575. Publiée sous la direction de M. Charles Purton Cooper. Paris et Londres. 2 tom. 8vo. 1838. THESE two volumes are parts of a very extensive and important scheme, the publication, namely, in one consecutive series, of all the despatches of the French Ambassadors in England and Scotland during the sixteenth century. The books of this description which we already possess are of great value as materials for English history, and it cannot be doubted that the present collection, whilst it will surpass all similar works in completeness, will excel them also in utility. A more stirring period, or one at the present time more interesting, than that embraced in Mr. Cooper's scheme can scarcely be found in English history. The separation of the English Church from Rome; the cruelties of the reign of Henry VIII.; the establishment of the Reformation under Edward VI.; the restoration of Popery under Mary; the re-ascendancy of Protestantism under Elizabeth; the manifold intrigues of the Roman Catholics, leading to the death of Mary and the attempted Spanish Invasion; and, finally, the Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland in the line of Stuart (for we believe Mr. Cooper's scheme extends to 1603), all these are turning points in our history; stages in our national advancement; events upon which too much light cannot be thrown. We shall watch the progress of this collection with interest, and in the full expectation that it will guide our way through many a dark passage in our annals. La Mothe Fénélon, whose despatches during two years of his long embassy are included in the volumes before us, was a gentleman of Perigord, boasting a long line of noble ancestors, and himself the fourteenth in direct descent from Anthon de Salagnac, whose existence is dated in 997. The family GENT. MAG. VOL. XI. name was de Salagnac, or, as usually spelt, de Salignac; La Mothe and de Fénélon, being added in the fifteenth century. The celebrated Archbishop of Cambray, the author of Télémaque, was of the same family, being the sixth in descent from Armand, the ambassador's eldest brother. Fénélon's embassy to England extended from 1568 to 1575, six years and two months of a period in the highest degree critical and important. The despatches now published relate to the first two years of his embassy: those distinguished by the flight of Mary Queen of Scots into England, the inquiry at York, and the production of her letters to Bothwell; the seizure in England of the money sent by Spain to pay the troops of the Duke of Alva in Flanders; the seige of Rochelle and the defeat of the Huguenots at Jaseneuil and Moncontour; the scheme for a marriage between Mary and the Duke of Norfolk; and, finally, by the breaking out of the rebellion in the North. These events are here so copiously illustrated that an account of them all might be written from the present volumes alone. The writer, occasionally sending off his despatch. upon the spur of the moment, and always labouring under that ignorance of our institutions and our character as a people, which so few Frenchmen can overcome, is sometimes mistaken; butthe despatch of to-morrow generally suffices to correct the errors in that of to-day, and, between the two, there is little difficulty in arriving at the actual truth. Some of his spellings of English names are very singular, and amongst them we discover proofs of the writer's ignorance of the language of the people to whom he was sent ambassador. Thus "My lor Quiper" is the way in which, misled by pronunciation, he writes "My Lord Keeper," but then, he adds, immediately afterwards, as if "Quiper" were the name of a person, and not the title of an officer, "garde des sceaulx." (i. 210, ii. 51.) The same ignorance may also be 2 N T La femme ar Chevalier.) of one or two others, for s of the thirteenth century, "er, we expect that the new Col 2 te press, W... give us an opporKateboer has left us seven In their quarrel with the Uni of this trouvère contains chiefly La rue de Paredis a prototype of the ong and car pas metrical lives of St. Mary the car, and a very singular miracle play of St. 24 popular legend of the middle ages, analoFaastas of a somewhat later period. The I, JE Ent to ity-six. Luer which are preserved, and which are all wye work consists of explanatory and illustrative notes, nji a. klacs, with many inedited fragments of early it in matters alluded to in Rutebuef's poems, and of an Feces, which, though not written by this poet, beat still as of the legend of Theophilas. s productions. Among the illustrations are Tus work is very well and very carefully edited, and we can in a age orce of readers, for the mass of popular information ta onay vem, a ceatas on the history and manners of the period, re meaasi e orcers, on the state of literature, and particular.y versities of the Middle Ages. Ali gersons a noak the Coca.es o Switzerland, and more particularly that we thanks to M. Jubinal; and we trist since his exect from him many more contributions to the history of Les supõe scãesed 2 in a separate form, as our readers wh 1820 of Préče Instrection on the MSS. of the Bernie On a former occasion, we menticand briety dớc why oh we have given at the beginning of our article. I he has avced to the Report a sma" collection of very interesting from some of the Seene maruSCUPËS, W' |