² The author of Guillaume de Dôle was the first to mention the term: “Biau filz, ce fu ça en arriers Que les dames et les roïnes Soloient fere lor cortines Et chanter les chançons d'istoire,” ed. Servois, l. 1147. The first mention of the Chansons de toile seems to be by Gerbert de Montreuil, the imitator of Guillaume de Dôle, in his Roman de la Violette, 1. 2305. Henri d'Andeli makes use of the same term in his Lai d'Aristotc, 1. 374 (Fabliaux et Contes, ed. Méon, III, 96).

³ In referring to the poems I use throughout the numbers they bear in this edition.

⁴ Even M. Jeanroy, Les Origines de la Poésie Lyrique en France au Moyen Age, p. 217, does not make any distinction between Chansons d'istoire and Romances though he seems to feel that the latter is not always a satisfactory name for the Weaving Songs. There is no a priori objection to the Weaving Songs being called Romances but there is to calling all Romances Weaving Songs, and for the purposes of this study it is especially important that only those poems should be taken into account which really are Weaving Songs or have some claim to be considered as such.

⁵ Voretzsch, Einführung in das Studium der altfranzösischen Literatur, p. 173.

⁶ Bartsch, op. cit. Nos. LVI-LX. Cf. the recent edition by A. Cullman, Die Lieder und Romanzen des Audefroi le Bastard, 1914.

⁷ Bartsch, op. cit. Nos. XII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII.

⁸ In order to be considered a Weaving Song a poem should in our opinion show either an obvious weaving setting or contain such characteristic traits as are to be found in the unmistakable Weaving Songs, and preferably have both claims. Now if one studies these ten poems closely one is obliged to allow that even these few poems are not all really Weaving Songs, though they have been published together under the same title. Nos. IV and IX are incontestably Chansons de mal-mariée, for not only have they no weaving setting but they contain the theme of the unhappily married girl, which is quite another genre, (cf. Jeanroy, Les Origines, p. 218). Nos. VIII and X, while they may be Weaving Songs, probably belong to a later date. The former, M. Jeanroy (op. cit. p. 217, n.) considers to be by Audefroi, consequently a later imitation, and the latter shows such clear traces of Provençal influence in the mention of the losengier (ll. 4 f., 15f., and 51) that it would be very unwise to class it amongst the Weaving Songs. Piece VI opens with three lines which certainly give the impression of a Weaving Song; the rest of the poem, however, is closely akin to the Chansons demal-mariée (cf. Jeanroy, op. cit., p. 218). It would seem, therefore, to be a hybrid poem or rather a Chanson de mal-mariée cast in the mould of a Weaving Song. This poem is representative of a type, as pieces XII and XIV would seem to show. Another instance is the curious poem beginning: “Osteis ma kenoille je ne pux filer,” Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, XCIX, 373. These poems do not seem to me to be Weaving Songs but rather to have appropriated the weaving setting. Of the Chansons de mal-mariée I propose to publish a separate study later in another place.

The poems about Bele Doette (III) and Gaiete and Oriour (V) can hardly be considered Weaving Songs by any one. So far, indeed, are they from being Weaving Songs that they might be very fittingly designated by the term Romance or ancient Ballad in the English sense of the word. Consequently, whatever their origin may be, it will not be the same as the origin of the Weaving Songs. I do not pretend to know what the origin of these two poems is, but, if I were to look for it, I should be inclined to search amongst the many poetic situations contained in the Old Testament. There is a wealth of poetry and of poetic themes in the Bible, which, in spite of the countless religious poems of the Middle Ages based on almost every phase of biblical story, has not been fully credited with all the power of suggestion that it possesses and which may possibly have evoked imitation or lyric treatment at one time or another in the course of the many centuries these themes have been known. Looked at from this point of view the poem about Gaiete and Oriour (V) seems to call to mind the scene in Genesis XXIV, which describes how Abraham's servant goes to a certain well in order to take a wife for his master's son, Isaac, and there amongst the girls drawing water for their flocks, singles out Rebekah who consents to become Isaac's wife. Very similar to this is the account of Jacob's meeting with Rachel, his future wife, Genesis XXIV, 1-14, so similar indeed that it can be considered a second version of the same theme. Now it is not inconceivable that these two scenes in Genesis evoked some such poem as ours about the two beautiful sisters Gaiete and Oriour at the fountain. In it a young nobleman named Gerairt descries Gaiete at the fountain and takes her in his arms and kisses her; Gaiete offers no resistance and Gerairt takes her away to his own country and marries her. The general tenor of the poem and the mention of the quintain (1. 5) naturally transports us to France in the Middle Ages, but that would be expected from the nature of the case, if the theme underwent imitation by a French poet. There are some differences between the two themes, of course, but underlying the differences the similarities are still very great and comprise the salient points of the story. One or two are indeed very curious. It was not really to bathe, as the first verse implies, that Gaiete and Oriour went to the fountain but to draw water: “Quant avras, Oriour, de l'ague prise,” and that might be a reminiscence of the watering of the watering of the flocks at the well. Again the action takes place in the evening: “Lou samedi a soir,” which is all the more curious as there are so many more allusions to the early morning in old French lyrics than to the evening. But here it is not without significance perhaps, for it was in the evening that the women used to go to the well to water their flocks as is expressly stated: “And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water,” (Genesis, XXIV, 11). Lastly, in both themes the girl raises no objection to being taken away and both end with the marriage in the bridegroom's country. (Cf. note 24.)

In the same way it is clear that the song about Bele Doette (III) is not a Weaving Song either. It has none of the characteristic features of a Weaving Song, not even the weaving trait which was sometimes introduced into poems of a different nature, as we have seen. It also is a Romance like the poem just mentioned and probably its origin, if we could know it, is likewise very ancient.

⁹ Cf. Jeanroy, op. cit. p. 217, n. 1.

¹⁰ A curious instance of survival is to be found in the opening lines of the Scotch Ballad, Young Aikin: “Lady Margaret sits in her bower door

Quoted by A. G. Latham, Treasury of French Literature.

¹¹ I do not think Audefroi had any clear understanding of the nature of the poems he imitated. He wrote at a time when the real significance of the Weaving Songs had long been forgotten. For the most part his poems are variations of the theme of the unhappily married girl (Chansons de malmariée). It is only in piece LVIII that he imitates the Weaving Songs.

¹² A situation somewhat similar to this is to be found in the poem of Audefroi le Bâtard about the fair Beatrice (LVIII). It would seem that Audefroi here took the Aiglentine poem as his model and that constitutes the chief claim that his poem has to be considered a Weaving Song.

¹³ Jeanroy, op. cit., p. 220. This conception of love, as M. Jeanroy remarks, (ibid., p. 227 n. 2) was not limited to France; it is also to be found in the most ancient Spanish works.

¹⁴ The poems as we know them belong to the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century. They are mostly contained in that part of the famous Paris MS. 200S0 which belongs to the thirteenth century. Those, however, quoted in Guillaume de Dôle go back at least to the twelfth century, since that poem has been shown to date from the year 1200. Cf. the excellent note on the date of the Weaving Songs by M. Jeanroy, op. cit. p. 217.

^14a Professor Carleton Brown refers me to the story of Syndonia. Cf. Hulme's Introduction to the Harrowing of Hell, E. E. T. S. Extra Series C, p. lix. There is, however, no love theme coupled with this episode.

¹⁵ “Ex his testimoniis quod sequitur, videri Jacobi librum medio fere saeculo secundo prodiisse,” C. Tischendorf, De Evangeliorum apocryphorum origine et usu, p. 34. Cf. idem, Evangelia Apocrypha, 1876, Prolegomena p. XIII.

¹⁶ The gospel commonly denoted thus is really entitled Liber de ortu beatae Mariae et Infantia Salvatoris a beato Matthaeo evangelista hebraice scriptus et a beato Ieronimo presbytero in Latinum translatus; Tischendorf, De Evangeliorum apocryphorum origine et usu, p. 46, dates it thus: “De aetate libri si quaeritur, ut Hieronymi obitu non potest prior esse, ita nec multo posterior esse videtur. Hinc finem saeculi quinti conjecerim.” Cf. M. Nicolas, Etudes sur les évangiles apocryphes, p. 344.

¹⁷ Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, 1876, p. 20. Cf. the recent text published by Michel, Évangiles Apocryphes, p. 20, which is practically identical. Pseudo-Matthew has not this passage. The source of the Protevangelium in this account of the making of the veil is obviously the description in Exodus XXXVI, 35, 37, of the veil made by Moses for the tabernacle. Cf. Michel, op. cit. p. 21.

¹⁸ In Pseudo-Matthew only five.

¹⁹ In Pseudo-Matthew the account is slightly different: “Tunc Joseph accepit Mariam cum aliis quinque virginibus, quae essent cum ea in domo Joseph. Erant autem istae virgines Rebecca, Sephora, Susanna, Abigea et Zahel; quibus datum est a pontificibus sericum hyacinthum, et byssus et coccus et purpura et linum. Miserunt autem sortes inter se, quid unaquaeque virgo faceret; contigit autem ut Maria purpuram acciperet ad velum templi domini.” Tischendorf, op. cit. p. 69-70. That this story enjoyed great popularity in early times there can be little doubt, for it was retold several times in Romance versions and not only in prose but also in verse. Thus there existed a Provençal poem on the childhood of Jesus a few lines of which have been preserved and amongst them this episode of the casting of lots. Mary and her companions “Giteron sortz que obraria Caduna ni que faria, O canebe, o lin, o lana. Maria pres a obrar Porpra al temple per l'autar,” Zeitschrift für rom. Phil. VIII, 545. The old French version, which is obviously based on Pseudo-Matthew, is perhaps also worth quoting: “As queles (V vierges compaignes) li vesque ont donné soie, samit, bogherant et pourpre et lin et coton. Dont fisent ces virges le busque entre eles que Marie feroit, si avint que par le busque ele dut avoir le pourpre au voile dou temple nostre signor.” Les anfances nostre Dame et de Jesu, Paris, Bibl. Nat. MS. 1553, fonds français, fol. 274 v° a.

²⁰ Tischendorf, op. cit. p. 21.

²¹ Pseudo-Matthaei Evangelium, cap. VI, Tischendorf, op. cit. p. 63.

²² Tischendorf, op. cit. p. 63.

²³ Tischendorf, op. cit. p. 21 f. The text of Pseudo-Matthew is as follows: “Altera autem die dum Maria staret juxta fontem ut urceolum impleret, apparuit ei angelus domini et dixit: Beata es Maria, quoniam in utero tuo habitaculum domino praeparasti. Ecce veniet lux de caelo, ut habitet in te, et per te universo mundo resplendebit. Iterum tertia die dum operaretur purpuram digitis suis, ingressus est ad earn iuvenis, cuius pulchritudo non potuit enarrari,” Tischendorf, op. cit. p. 70. I add the old French version by way of comparison: En i autre jour endementiers que elle estoit d'encoste une fontainne li angeles de nostre signor s'apparu a li et li dist: ‘Beneoite es tu, Marie, qui as apparillie en ton ventre l'abitacion de diu. Li lumiere venra dou chiel et habitera en ti si que par ti tous li mondes resplendira.‘ Endementiers que elle au tierch jour ouvroit de ses dois pourpre vint a li uns jovenenchiaus qui biautés ne poroit estre racontee. Les Anfances nostre Dame et de Jesu, Paris, Bibl. Nat. MS. 1553, fol. 274 v° b.

²⁴ Just as the author of the Protevangelium borrowed the weaving setting of the Annunciation scene from Exodus XXXVI vv. 35 and 37 (cf. n. 17), so in my opinion the fountain tradition, which also appears for the first time in the Protevangelium, though it perhaps only receives its final shape in Pseudo-Matthew, was borrowed by the same writer from the setting of Genesis XXIV, vv. 11 ff. This passage describes how Abraham's servant meets with Rebekah while she is drawing water at the well and announces to her the mission entrusted to him by his master (cf. Thilo, Codex apocryphus, p. 366, n.). I have already had occasion to allude to this scene as being possibly the origin of the poem about Gaiete and Oriour (cf. note 8).

²⁶ Le camée byzantin de la Bibliothèque nationale sous le no. 262 donne la Sainte Vierge et l'ange dans un ovale… . Les deux figures sont de profil et se regardent, l'ange porte une verge et la Vierge tient un écheveau de fil qui parait sortir d'une corbeille. L'autre pierre cataloguée sous le no. 264 … . La Sainte Vierge et l'ange sont encore de profil et tiennent l‘écheveau de fil et la verge; l‘écheveau sort d'une corbeille. Rohault de Fleury, La Sainte Vierge, I, 78, and Pl. IX.

²⁵ Ibid. p. 78 ff. and Pl. VII, IX, X. Ivoire de Hanovre—Une boite en ivoire du cinquième siècle… . La sainte Vierge assise tient de la main gauche un fil qui s'enroule sur un fuseau, qu'elle tourne… . Pesaro (Pl. IX)—un morceau d'ivoire… . De la main gauche elle tient deux fuseaux … Ivoire Spitzer (Pl. X)—neuvième siècle… . la Vierge assise dans une riche maison tient un fuseau de la main droite et une pelote de la main gauche.

²⁷ Ibid. p. 78 ff. Une intaille sur émeraude du septième siècle … actuellement à Madrid … l'écheveau de fil et la corbeille.

²⁸ Cf. E. Mâle, L'art religieux du treizième siècle, p. 286.

²⁹ In addition to the examples quoted above see Rohault de Fleury, op. cit. I, 78-92, and Pl. VII, IX, X, XI. Cf. E. Mâle, op. cit. p. 286.

³⁰ Cf. E. Mâle, op. cit. p. 286.

³¹ The reason why the fountain tradition developed later than the weaving tradition is perhaps to be found in the fact that, though its ultimate source is the Protevangelium (cf. n. 24) it was not until it had been given shape and made popular by Pseudo-Matthew that it really became an independent tradition. That this tradition further was chiefly popular in the Eastern Church need not cause surprise, for the whole setting of the scene is completely Eastern. In the East these wells, marked by a few large slabs of rough stone about the well's mouth, were the chief meeting-place for the neighbouring inhabitants and this was especially the case in ancient biblical times as described in Genesis XXIV, v. 11, ff., to which this tradition ultimately goes back, (cf. n. 24). Thus the setting would naturally appeal to an Eastern mind or anyone acquainted with the customs of the East.

³² Cf. M. Nicolas, Études sur les Évangiles apocryphes, p. 313. The Provençal version of the childhood of Jesus alluded to above, (n. 19), also knew this tradition: “Anet querre d'aiga Maria.”

³³ Bibl. Nat. manuscrit grec, 47, (Pl. XV), onzième siècle. La Sainte Vierge puise de l'eau à une fontaine dans un vase d'or auquel pend une corde … elle se retourne pour voir l'ange qui est en l'air et se dirige vers elle. Rohault de Fleury, La Sainte Vierge I, 91.

³⁴ Ibid. p. 91. La Vierge puise de l'eau à une fontaine et retourne la tete pour voir l'ange qui est encore en l'air et lui addresse la parole.

³⁵ There must be many other churches in France which show similar representations of the Annunciation scene; I only instance St. Etienne du Mont because at one time I used to pass by it every day.

³⁶ Philipp Mousket in his Reimchronik 10520-75 shows a knowledge of both the Protevangelium and Pseudo-Matthew, cf. Gröber, Grundriss II, 1, p. 657.

³⁷ M. Nicolas, Études sur les Évangiles apocryphes, p. 401.

³⁸ Nicolas, op. cit., pp. 402, 330.

³⁹ R. Reinsch, Die Pseudo-Evangelien von Jesu und Maria's Kindheit in der romanischen und germanischen Literatur, p. 1 f.

⁴⁰ Grundriss der romanischen Philologie, II, 1, p. 446.

⁴¹ Einhard, Vita Caroli, cap. 19.

⁴² I shall deal more fully with this tradition when I come to study the Pastourelle.

⁴³ Ex quo aedificatum est templum hoc a Salomone, fuerant in eo filiae regum virgines, cap. VIII, Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, p. 66.

⁴⁴ It was known by Saint Bernard:—“Quid ergo sidereum micat in generatione Mariae? Plane quod ex regibus orta, quod ex semine Abrahae, quod generosa ex stirpe David.” Opera Omnia, ed. Migne, 1862, II, col. 433. Gottfried of Hagenau makes it the starting point of the legends he records of the life of the Virgin, cf. Schmidt, Gottfried de Hagenau, p. 19.

⁴⁵ Cf. Mâle, L'art religieux du treizième siècle, pp. 277-8.

⁴⁶ Ibid. p. 278.

⁴⁷ Ibid. p. 278, n. 2.

⁴⁸ Maria Regina propter Regiam Parentelam et generis nobilitatem. Quia regali ex progenie Maria, orta de tribu Juda clara ex stirpe David. Fuit enim de tribu sacerdotali et regia, quia Cristum paritura erat qui est rex et sacerdos, De laudibus beatae Mariae, VI.

In the Speculum beatae Marias Mary is Queen of heaven, earth, and hell. Cf. Mâle, loc. cit. p. 277.

⁴⁹ Gaston Paris expressed the opinion that these songs were composed originally “Pour être chantées dans les gynécées par les femmes qui y travaillaient,” Romania XI, p. 144. M. Jeanroy would seem to be of the same opinion. Cf. Les Origines de la Poésie Lyrique en France au moyen âge,“ p. 225.

⁵⁰ Saint Bernard speaking of the betrothal of Joseph and Mary comments on the custom: Mossiquidem Judaeorum erat, uta die desponsationis suae, usque ad tempus nuptiarum, sponsis sponsae traderentur custodiendae: quatenus earum ipsi eo sibi pudicitiam curiosius servarent, quo sibi ipsi fideliores existerent. Opera omnia, ed. Migne, 1862, II, col. 67.

⁵¹ A dove, the appointed sign, comes out of Joseph's wand and settles on his head. For the full account see the Protevangelium cap. IX (Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, p. 18, f.) and Pseudo-Matthew, cap. VIII (ibid. p. 66 f.).

⁵² This is the theme of the young, unmarried girl which M. Jeanroy recognized to be at the very source of the Lyric poetry of the Middle Ages: “Nous avons dit tout à l'heure (p. 150-1) que la forme préférée de la lyrique romane à ses débuts etait un monologue de femme; nous pouvons donc ajouter maintenant, de femme non mariée.” Les Origines de la Poésie Lyrique en France au moyen âge, p. 158, cf. ibid, p. 180. Gaston Paris was of the same opinion, cf. Mélanges de littérature française du moyen âge, p. 559, n. 6.

⁵³ When the high priest tells Joseph he has been chosen by God to take charge of Mary he pleads his age and the fact that he has children:—. Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, p. 18. Cf. Historia de navitate Mariae in Thilo, Codex apocryphus Novi Testamenti, p. 361.

⁵⁴ Protevangelium Jacobi, Tischendorf, op. cit., p. 26.

⁵⁵ Tischendorf, op. cit., p. 25.

⁵⁶ Ibid., p. 25.

⁵⁷ This allusion was first noticed, I think, by Gaston Paris. Cf. Mediaeval French Literature, p. 50.

⁵⁸ For particulars relating to this law of justification by cojuratores, see V. Duruy, Histoire de France, I, 136.

⁵⁹ Protevangelium Jacobi, cap. XVI, Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, p. 29.

⁶⁰ Ibid., cap. XVI, p. 29.

⁶¹ Tischendorf, op. cit., p. 29.

⁶² Ibid., p. 30.

⁶³ Suchier und Birch-Hirschfeld, Geschichte der französischen Literatur, p. 9.

⁶⁴ Esquisse de la littérature française.

⁶⁵ For instances see note 8.

⁶⁶ The Origin of the Aalis Songs, in Neophilologus, V, 289.

⁶⁷ As I have already stated (note 1) I call in this study by the name of Fountain Songs the poems which describe the visit of a young girl to a fountain and the meeting with her lover there. They show sufficiently marked characteristics to be treated together as a distinct class. Cf. Jeanroy, Les Origines, pp. 199-202.

⁶⁸ Bartsch, Romanzen und Pastourellen, II, 118. M. Jeanroy, who mentions a number of these fragments (op. cit. p. 199), is also of opinion that this theme existed at an early date.

⁶⁹ Bartsch, op. cit., II, 117; cf. Dras i gueoit Elaine, ibid., II, 59, 45.

⁷⁰ In our opinion the famous poem of the two sisters, Gaiete and Oriour (V), is at least indirectly allied to this theme. If, as I have suggested above, (n. 8) this poem goes back to the scene described in Genesis XXIV, it is at the same time connected slightly with the fountain songs, for I have also shown (n. 24) that this scene in Genesis was borrowed by the author of the Protevangelium and became the origin of the tradition that the Annunciation took place while Mary was drawing water at the fountain. It is this tradition, as I hope to prove, which lies behind the theme of the girl at the fountain.

⁷¹ E. Rolland, Recueil de chansons populaires, II, 129. The poem is taken from Chansons nouvelles ou Airs de Jean Planson et autres musiciens; following upon Recueil des chansons amoureuses de divers poetes françois non encores imprimées. Paris, N. et P. Bonfons, in 12, 1597. The same poem, though in such a corrupt form that the sense is not clear, has also been published by Damase Arbaud, Chants populaires de la Provence, II, 111. Both forms are quoted by Jeanroy, Les Origines, p. 200 f.

⁷² Cf. Jeanroy, op. cit., p. 216, n. 1, and p. 214, n. 1.

⁷³ E. Rolland, op. cit., I, 235.

⁷⁴ Ibid., II, 130,—“Oh! que me dira ma mère D'y avoir tant demeuré?” —“Va, tu lui diras, la fille, Que l'eau y était troublée; Que les canards du village Y ont été barbotter.”

⁷⁵ Mélanges de littérature française du moyen âge, p. 579.

⁷⁶ This poem might most appropriately have been called, Chanson de Marion.

⁷⁷ De Puymaigne, Chants populaires recueillis dans le pays messin, I, 265. It may not be advisable to draw any inference from the presence of the fountain theme in the shepherdess song as to the origin of the latter, but the impression received is that both it and the Chansons de Marion may like the Fountain songs have possibly originated somehow out of the Annunciation.

⁷⁸ Cénac-Moncaut, Littérature populaire de la Gascogne, p. 325, quoted by Jeanroy, Les Origines, p. 202.

⁷⁹ The Italian versions diverge considerably from the original theme. For references and further details, cf. Jeanroy, op. cit., p. 202, n. 2.

⁸⁰ Th. Braga, Cancionciro porluguez da Vaticana, no. 790, and 789. Cf. “Hirey, mha madre, a la fonte Hu van os cervos do monte,” no. 795.

⁸¹ Ibid., no. 797. Instanced by Jeanroy, op. cit., p. 162.

⁸² Ibid.

⁸³ Arbaud, Chants populaires de la Provence, II, 108.

⁸⁴ The three knights appear also in another poem mentioned by Jeanroy, Les Origines, p. 202, n. 2.

⁸⁵ Arbaud, Chants populaires de la Provence, II, 110.

⁸⁶ The usual signification attached to this trait is, I suppose, that it is nothing more than a pitiable excuse on t he part of the girl or her lover. Cf. Jeanroy, op. cit. p. 202.

⁸⁷ “Ad cantus revocatur aves, quae carmine clauso Pigrior hyberno frigore muta fuit. Hinc philomela suis attemperat organa cannis Fitque repercusso dulcior aura melo.” Wackernagel, Kirchenlied, p. 65. For other illusions to or songs about the nightingale in Latin, cf. Dümmler, Poetae latini aevi Carolini I, 273 f., II, 147, III, 126 ff.; Riese, Anthologia latina no. 658; Du Méril, Poésies inédites du moyen âge, p. 210, and further references given by Paul Meyer in his first edition of Flamenca, p. 318, n. 1.

⁸⁸ “… Flagrat odor cum suavis florida per gramina Hilarescit philomela dulcis sonus conscia, Et extendens modulando gutturis spiramina, Reddit veris et aestivi temporis praeconia,” Migne, Patrol. t. 141, col. 348. Cf. also, “Philomela praevia temporis amoeni” quoted by Pascal, Poesia latina medievale, p. 134.

⁸⁹ “Le héraut du printemps” Fables, Bk. IX, 17, 5.

⁹⁰ Referring to songs about spring this is what Gaston Paris says, “Elles ne mettent d'ordinaire en scène, dans un cadre de verdure et de fleurs, que des oiseaux, et notamment le rossignol qui avait pris, sans doute encore à l'occasion des fêtes de mai, une sorte de signification symbolique et mystique” and in a note on that he adds, “Les autres oiseaux aussi, mais à un moindre degré, étaient regardés non seulement comme les chantres, mais en quelque sorte comme les prêtres de l'amour.” Mélanges de lit. fr. du moyen âge, p. 554.

⁹¹ “Rossignolet, bien faites vostre office Les fins amans bien aprenez a vivre,” publ. by Jeanroy, op. cit., p. 487, l. 10.

⁹² Bartsch, Romanzen und Pastourellen, I, 71, 28, “Li rousegnols nos dit en son latin: Amant, amés, joie arés a tous dis” or again, ibid., l. 60, “Li rousegnols un sonet li a dit: Pucele, amés, joie arés et delit.”

⁹³ So fol sapte de Pascha clusa, El tems que. l rossinols accusa Tot[z] cels que d'amor non an cura, Flamenca, l. 2024. Cf. also “Vos ne savés que li loursegnols dit: Il dist c'amours par faus amans perist,” Bartsch, op. cit., I, 71, 2; “Vos avés bien le rousegnol oï Se bien n' amés, amors avés traï,” ibid., l. 16; and Die altfranzösischen Motette der Bamberger Handschrift, ed. Stimming, 16 a, 4.

⁹⁴ Bartsch, op. cit., I, 71, 44, “Buer fu cil nes ki est loiaus amis Li rousegnols l'en pramet paradis.” Cf. “Rossignolet, Jhesu de piteus estre, Assié nous tous delez toy a ta destre En ce biau paradis Qui est parez touz dis, La est joie et deliz, Diex, tant i fait bon estre, Li dous Jhesus siet du pere a la destre,” ed. Jeanroy, op. cit., p. 488, str. VI.

⁹⁵ It is hardly necessary to remark that there are frequent allusions in the literature of the Middle Ages to birds being despatched by lovers with messages of love (cf. Jeanroy, op. cit., p. 133, n. 1). In the well-known poem of Peire d' Alvernhe it is the nightingale that is the messenger: “Rossinhol, el seu repaire Iras ma domna vezer, E diguas li.l meu afaire Et ill digua.t del seu ver,” Appel, Chrestomathie, p. 97. Cf. “Chanconnete, va t'en tost Au roussignol an cel bois, Di qu'il m'en voist salüer La douce blonde au vis cler Et que je l'aim sanz fausser, Mais certes ne l'os nommer.” Die altfranzösischen Motette der Bamberger Hds., ed. Stimming, no. 2 a, also Jeanroy, op. cit. p. 467-8, Bartsch, Deutsche Liederdichter, XCVIII, 159. Savj-Lopez, Trovatori e poeti, p. 158 ff.

⁹⁶ , Electra, ed. Jebb, 1. 149. Cf. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie, II, 1353, n. 1.

⁹⁷ This is the usually accepted meaning of the expression: cf. Jebb's note to l. 149.

⁹⁸ Kaibel, Epigrammata graeca ex lapidibus conlecta, no. 628. Cf. Gruppe, op. cit. II, 1353, n. 1.

⁹⁹ This belief is mentioned in the Sahidic Fragments of the life of the Virgin, “And the angel departed from her. She conceived moreover by the hearing of the ears, and spent three other months in the house of Joseph, being pregnant with the Son of the living God,” Texts and Studies ed. Armitage Robinson, IV, 19. Cf. O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, II, 1615. Bishop Apa Epiphanius in his discourse on the Holy Virgin, Mary Theotokos, speaks of a cloud of light that is to cause her to conceive. He represents Gabriel as saying to Mary: “Open thy mouth and receive into thee the cloud of light and thou shalt conceive and bear a Son.” Miscellaneous Coptic Texts ed. Wallis Budge, 1915, p. 712. This is doubtless based on the lux de caelo of the account of Pseudo-Matthew already quoted, note 23.

¹⁰⁰ The same metaphor occurs in Peire de Corbiac's famous hymn to the Virgin: “Domna, verge pura e fina, Ans que fos l'enfantamens, Et apres tot eissamens, Receup en vos carn humana Jesu Crist, nostre salvaire, Si com ses trencamen faire Intra.l bels rais, quan solelha, Per la fenestra veirina,” quoted by Chaytor, The Troubadours, p. 93. It is also to be found in Rustebeuf, La chanson de Nostre Dame, ed. Kressner, p. 200.

¹⁰¹ Recueil de chansons pieuses du treizième siècle, ed. Edw. Järnström, p. 38, no. IX, str. 3.

¹⁰² If I am not mistaken the nightingale is even identified with Jesus himself in the line: “Rossignolet, Jhesu de piteus estre” quoted above, note 94.

¹⁰³ It will have been noticed that in this attempt to explain the Fountain songs I have not further investigated the fragments which represent girls washing clothes at the fountain, such as the “Dras i gaoit Perronele” quoted above. But here also the Virgin would appear to have been the prototype, for there was a tradition that she used to go to the fountain close by her house to wash coats, cf. C. Rohault de Fleury, La Sainte Vierge, I, 67.

¹⁰⁴ Tischendorf is of the opinion that at an early date a Latin translation appeared: “Denique in recentiora tempora ac fere Caroli Magni evangelium latinum de nativitate Mariae et infantia Salvatoris incidit, non modo evangelio Jacobi nixum, fortasse dudum ante in latinum libere translato, sed etiam arabicis ut videtur fabulis usum.” De evangeliorum apocryphorum origine et usu, p. 79. Though it originated in the East it was known very early in the West, cf. R. Reinsch, Die Pseudo-Evangelien von Jesu und Maria's Kindheit in der romanischen und germanischen Literatur, p. 1 ff.

¹⁰⁵ Cf. Reinsch, op. cit., p. 75, n. 1.

¹⁰⁶ Cf. Bourgain, La chaire française au douzième siècle, p. 353.

¹⁰⁷ Cf. Bourgain, op. cit. pp. 89, 119, 349, and Lecoy de la Marche, La chaire française au treizième siecle, p. 373. For innumerable hymns to the Virgin, see Dreves, Analecta hymnica.