the _Ancien Renart_, but the
_Couronnement_ and _Renart le Nouvel_. _Renart le Contrefait_ has never
been printed. Rothe (Paris, 1845) and Wolf (Vienna, 1861) have given the
best accounts of it. Recently M. Ernest Martin has given a new critical
edition of the _Ancien Renart_ (3 vols., Strasburg and Paris,
1882-1887).

[63] The necessary expression of the genitive by _de_ is later than
this. Mediaeval French retained the inflection of nouns, though in a
dilapidated condition. Properly speaking _Renars_ is the nominative,
_Renart_ the general inflected case.

[64] This is a free translation of the last line of the original, which
is as follows:--

Pour renard qui gelines tue,
Qui a la rousse peau vestue,
Qui a grand queue et quatre pies,
N'est pas ce livre communies;
Mais pour cellui qui a deux mains
Dont il sont en ce siecle mains,
Qui ont sous la chappe Faulx Semblant.

Wolf, _Op. cit._ p. 5.

The final allusion is to a personage of the _Roman de la Rose_.

[65] Ed. Roquefort, vol. ii. See next chapter.

[66] By Dr. W. Foerster. Heilbronn, 1882.

CHAPTER VI.

EARLY LYRICS.

[Sidenote: Early and Later Lyrics.]

The lyric poetry of the middle ages in France divides itself naturally
into two periods, distinguished by very strongly marked characteristics.
The end of the thirteenth century is the dividing point in this as in
many other branches of literature. After that we get the extremely
interesting, if artificial, forms of the Rondeau and Ballade, with their
many varieties and congeners. With these we shall not busy ourselves in
the present chapter. But the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are
provided with a lyric growth, less perfect indeed in form than that
which occupied French singers from Machault to Marot, but more
spontaneous, fuller of individuality, variety, and vigour, and scarcely
less abundant in amount.

[Sidenote: Origins of Lyric.]

[Sidenote: Romances and Pastourelles.]

Before the twelfth century we find no traces of genuine lyrical work in
France. The ubiquitous _Cantilenae_ indeed again make their appearance
in the speculations of literary historians, but here as elsewhere they
have no demonstrable historical existence. Except a few sacred songs,
sometimes, as in the case of Saint Eulalie, in early Romance language,
sometimes in what the French call _langue farcie_, that is to say, a
mixture of French and Latin, nothing regularly lyrical