any passages where the old
'common form' of the epic is observed, and where the old personages make
their appearance. Indeed their former adventures are sometimes served up
again with slight alterations. Besides this there is a certain number of
amusing stories and _fabliaux_, the most frequently quoted of which is
the tale of an ugly but wise knight who married a silly but beautiful
girl in hopes of having children uniting the advantages of both parents,
whereas the actual offspring of the union were as ugly as the father and
as silly as the mother. Combined with these things are numerous
allusions to the grievances of the peasants and burghers of the time
against the upper classes, with some striking legends illustrative
thereof, such as the story of a noble dame, who, hearing that a vassal's
wife had been buried in a large shroud of good stuff, had the body taken
up and seized the shroud to make horsecloths of. This original matter,
however, is drowned in a deluge not merely of moralising but of didactic
verse of all kinds. The history of Alexander is told in one version by
Reynard to the lion king in 7000 verses, and is preluded and followed by
an account of the history of the world on a scarcely smaller scale. This
proceeding, at least in the Vienna version, seems to be burdensome even
to Noble himself, who, at the reign of Augustus, suggests that Reynard
should exchange verse for prose, and 'compress.' The warning cannot be
said to be unnecessary: but works as long as _Renart le Contrefait_,
and, as far as it is possible to judge, not more interesting, have been
printed of late years; and it is very much to be wished that the
publication of it might be undertaken by some competent scholar.

[Sidenote: Fauvel.]

Renart is not the only bestial personage who was made at this time a
vehicle of satire. In the days of Philippe le Bel a certain Francois de
Rues composed a poem entitled _Fauvel_, from the name of the hero, a
kind of Centaur, who represents vice of all kinds. The direct object of
the poem was to attack the pope and the clergy.

Some extracts from the _Fabliau_ of the Partridges and from _Renart_ may
appropriately now be given:--

Por ce que fabliaus dire sueil,
en lieu de fable dire vueil
une aventure qui est vraie,
d'un vilain qui deles sa haie
prist deus pertris par aventure.
en l'atorner mist moult sa cure;
sa fame les fist au feu metre.
ele s'en sot bien entreme