Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/311

offeverttl Anglo-Norman Poets of the i$th Century. 249 for their pleafure. He mentions fome [<?] Seruantois which he com- pofed in honour of the knights, and fongs and other pieces which he compofed for their ladies : in effecl:, to fatisfy the defires of .one or the other, his time was.almoft wholly taken up in rhyming. In reward for his labours he was admitted to all their feftivals, and parties of pleafwre. It is eaiily to be believed that, from this manner of life, this poet became an Epicurean, and .that his mufe was not remarkable for her chaftity. He acknowledges himfelf that fhe was often a libertine ; that in the bofom of pleafure he loved its enjoyments; and, as he himfelf exprefTes it with great energy, // ufafa vie in reliming it ; fo that it was age alone, and not diftafte, that brought on fatiety, and forc- ed him to renounce the life of a courtier. In his retreat he quitted the lute of Anacreon, and his penitential mufe would no longer iing any other than religious fubjecls. It is to this reformation that we are indebted for two works of Pyramus in French verfe. The firft is the life and martyrdom of king St. Edmund, and the fecond contains the " Miracles" of the fame faint. Thefe two works are in the Britifh Mufeum, Bibl. Cotton. Domitianus, A. XI. The firft of three thoufand two hun- dred and eighty-fix verfes, and from the proem we derive the de- tails, we have advanced, as to this poet. The fecond is of more than fix hundred verfes ; but as this manufcript, as far as it relates to the fecond part of the works of Pyramus, is incomplete; it is fair to prefume that it contained many more. The poet obferves, af- ter the end o the firft work, that he produced the fecond at the [0] Servantois, or Sorvantois, is an antient term of poetry, for a fort of verfe or fatire which the Trouveres fang in imitation of the Picards. Thefe poems were pri- marily levelled againft kings, princes, and ecclefiaftics ; but when applied to celebrate battles and victories, formed a mixture of panegyric and fatire. Communicated by Mr. Moyfant. I. H. M. VOL, XIII. K k command