parkling
with the wit of France, the wit that is to be inherited by Scapin and
by Figaro. The wolf, for his part, replies word for word by a verse of
Orgon's. Renard will only allow him to descend into the Paradise whither
he pretends to have retired, after he has confessed, forgiven all his
enemies--Renard being one--and is ready to lead a holy life. Ysengrin
agrees, confesses, and forgives; he feels his mind quite at rest, and
exclaims in his own way:

Et je verrais mourir frere, enfants, mere et femme,
Que je m'en soucierais autant que de cela.[375]

Nou ich am in clene live,
Ne recche ich of childe ne of wive.

The wolf goes down, Renard goes up; as the pails meet, the rogue
wickedly observes:

Ac ich am therof glad and blithe
That thou art nomen in clene live,
Thi soul-cnul (knell) ich wile do ringe,
And masse for thine soule singe.

But he considers it enough for his purpose to warn the monks that the
devil is at the bottom of their well. With great difficulty the monks
draw up the devil, which done they beat him, and set the dogs on him.

Some graceful love tales, popular in France, were translated and enjoyed
no less popularity in England, where there was now a public for
literature of this sort. Such was the case for Amis and Amile, Floire
and Blanchefleur, and many others.[376] As for _chansons_, there were
imitations of May songs, "disputoisons,"[377] and carols; love, roses,
and birds were sung in sweet words to soft music[378]; so was spring,
the season of lilies, when the flowers give more perfume, and the moon
more light, and women are more beautiful:

Wymmen waxeth wonder proude.[379]

Their beauties and merits are celebrated one by one, as in a litany;
for, said one of those poets, an Englishman who wrote in French:

Beaute de femme passe rose.[380]

In honour of them were composed stanzas spangled with admiring
epithets, glittering like a golden shower; innumerable songs were
dedicated to their ideal model, the Queen of Angels; others to each one
of their physical charms, their "vair eyes"[381] and their eyes "gray
y-noh": those being the colours preferred; their skin white as milk,
"soft ase sylk"; those scarlet lips that served them to read romances,
for romances were read aloud, and not only with the eyes[382]; their
voice more melodious than a bird's song. In short, from the time of
Edward II. that mixture of mysticism and sensuality appears