humour of the scholarly tavern,
which was the "Mermaid" of that generation: as the startling regret of:

Helas! et le bon roy d'Espaigne
Duquel je ne scay pas le nom....

and the addition, after the false exit of "je me desiste".

_Encore fais une question_

He laughed well over it, and was perhaps not thirsty when it was
written.

_THE DEAD LORDS._

_Qui plus? Ou est le Tiers Calixte
Dernier decede de ce nom,
Qui quatre ans tint le papaliste?
Alphonce, le roy d'Arragon,
Le Gracieux Duc de Bourbon,
Et Artus, le Duc de Bretaigne,
Et Charles Septiesme, le Bon?....
Mais ou est le preux Charlemaigne!_

_Semblablement le roy Scotiste
Qui demy face ot, ce dit on,
Vermeille comme une amatiste
Depuis le front jusqu'au menton?
Le roy de Chippre, de renom?
Helas! et le bon roy d'Espaigne
Duquel je ne scay pas le nom?...
Mais ou est le preux Charlemaigne!_

_D'en plus parler je me desiste
Le monde n'est qu'abusion.
Il n'est qui contre mort resiste
Le que treuve provision.
Encor fais une question:
Lancelot, le roy de Behaigne,
Ou est il? Ou est son tayon?....
Mais ou est le preux Charlemaigne!_

_ENVOI._

_Ou est Claguin, le bon Breton?
Ou le conte daulphin d'Auvergne
Et le bon feu Duc d'Alencon?...
Mais ou est le preux Charlemaigne!_

THE DIRGE.

This is the best ending for any set of verses one may choose out of
Villon. It follows and completes the epitaph which in his will he orders
to be written in charcoal--or scratched--above his tomb: the sad,
sardonic octave of "the little scholar and poor." It is a kind of added
dirge to be read by those who pass and to be hummed or chaunted over him
dead. But it is a rondeau.

See how sharp it is with the salt and vinegar of his pressed courageous
smile--and how he cannot run away from his religion or from his power
over sudden and vivid beauty.

"Sire--et clarte perpetuelle"--which last are the best two words that
ever stood in the vulgar for _lux perpetua_.

It is no wonder that as time went on, more and more people learnt these
things by heart.

_RONDEAU._

_Repos eternel, donne a cil,
Sire, et clarte perpetuelle,
Qui vaillant plat ni escuelle
N'eut oncques, n'ung brain de percil.
Il fut rez, chief, barb