Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/296

234 Differ tation on the Lives and Writings ther than that each flanza is of five verfes, and that the rhymes are intermixed. I cannot fay whether, or not, Stephen of Langton has left arty other pieces of poetry in French verfe. CHARD RY N91 ij iriDffi -T/m tnj; Odericus Vitalis aflerts that the Norman minftrels in the twelftk century celebrated the lives of faints in French verfe d ; and it is w r orthy of obfervation, that from thofe ftill exifting, it is clear the poets fet apart thefe holy poems, for ecclefiaftical feftivals and fab- baths, and that they kept, for the other days of the week, all their r*.' c r K- A r i compontions on profane luDjects e. Chardry was one of thofe poets, who exercifed their genius on fujbjecis of devotion, and we have from him the life of St. Jofaphat,, and that of the Seven Sleepers (brethren) in French verfe. In the firft, which contains no lefs than two thoufand nine hun- dred verfes, the poet begins by faying to his auditors that he prefers rather to bring them back to virtue by example, than by precept, and then proceeds to ftate hiftorically the life of his faint. But he finifhes his difcourfe by telling them that he fliould certainly feel more plea- fure in hearing the lives of the knights Rolland and Olivier than that of St. Jofaphat ; and even that he would rather hear a re- cital of the battle of the Twelve Peers of France than that of the Paffion of Jefus Chrift. This fneer afcertains, with ftill greater certainty, that the fame minftrels fang our myfteries and devout fables either in the courts of the Englim barons, or before the peo- ple, as they detailed to them the exploits related in the romances of - [d~ Oder. Vit. apud Duchefne. p. 598, (Yj Warton's Hift. of Englifh Poetry. the