. The literature of all nations and all ages; history, character, and incident. f them all is commonly conceded to be thelove story of Aucassin and Nicolete, which belongs to thethirteenth century. It is nothing but a love-story, but itcontains the elements which appeal to the heart now asstrongly as six hundred years ago. It is brief, and is amedley of poetry and prose, as were many of the fabliaux ;but it is a little masterpiece, and a permanent part of litera-ture. Of the dramatic representations known as the Mys-teries, and the Moralities, little need be said here. ThePassion Play of Obera
. The literature of all nations and all ages; history, character, and incident. f them all is commonly conceded to be thelove story of Aucassin and Nicolete, which belongs to thethirteenth century. It is nothing but a love-story, but itcontains the elements which appeal to the heart now asstrongly as six hundred years ago. It is brief, and is amedley of poetry and prose, as were many of the fabliaux ;but it is a little masterpiece, and a permanent part of litera-ture. Of the dramatic representations known as the Mys-teries, and the Moralities, little need be said here. ThePassion Play of Oberammergau still exists, and is a type ofthem all. But it is of interest to remember that in Paris,which has ever siuce held the leading place as a dramaticcentre, was first incorporated that society of the Clerks ofthe Revels whose function it was to provide dramatic enter-tainments for the Parisians. They alternated their Morali-ties with little comedies or farces, some of which, in modi-fied form, still hold the stage. Thus early did the bent ofFrench o-enius declare The earliest form which French literature assumed is that of theChansons de Geste, Songs of Deeds; they are narrative or epicpoems, relating to episodes of French history, arranged in stanzas ofarbitrary length, each line containing ten or twelve syllables, endingwith rhymes in which the vowel sounds, though not the consonants,must agree ; these were called assonant rhymes. Their composerswere trouveres, of knightly or priestly rank. The best productions ofthis kind date from the twelfth century. The Chanson de Roland, the earliest of these, is supposed tohave been written before the close of the eleventh centurj. The oldestmanuscript of the poem is in the Oxford collection, and contains 4001ten-syllable lines. The author is believed to have been a Normantrouvere named Theroulde. It tells the tale of the death of Roland atRoncesvalles, and Charlemagnes vengeance. It has been translatedinto English by John
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