Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/337

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1920 PARIS AND GHARTRE8, 1136-1146 329 sa charge, residait en 1142 dans la ville de Paris, ou sans doute il s'etait refugie apres son eclatante disgrace.^ Now Richard of Poitiers, in a late redaction of his chronicle,^ inserts a notice of Hugh after mentioning the death of Fulk of Jerusalem and the succession of Baldwin. Fulk, however, died in November 1 143, or more probably 1144,^ and Baldwin succeeded him at the following Christmas. Richard then writes : Hiis etenim diebus viguit apud Parisius quidam scolasticus Hugo nomine a conscolasticis Primas cognominatus, persona quidem viHs, vultu deformis. Hie a primaeva aetate litteris secularibus informatus, propter faceciam suam et litterarum noticiam fama sui nominis per diversas provincias divulgata resplenduit. Inter aUos vero scolasticis in metris ita facundus at que promtus extitit, ut sequentibus versibus omnibus audientibus cachinum moventibus declaratur, quos de paupere mantello sibi a quodam presule dato declamatorie composuit. De Hugone lo Primas Aurelianensi Here follow the verses about the cloak, which are known from other sources. It is not easy at first sight to understand how so sound a scholar as Haureau should have built up his story upon this basis. Richard of Poitiers or his interpolator says that Hugh was a popular versifier at Paris at a date which may be placed about 1144 or 1145. He then quotes a poem in which he is described as of Orleans. There is not a word about his dismissal from Orleans, though the scurrility of his preserved compositions would un- doubtedly have justified his expulsion from any decent society. The evidence, so far, tells us only that, when resident at Paris, Hugh was known as the Primate of Orleans. The explanation of Haureau 's view is to be found in another work of this learned and entertaining writer. In his Notices et Extraits de quelques Manuscrits de la Bibliotheque Nationale, vi (1893), 129-31, he published an improved text of the poem beginning ' Dives eram et dilectus ', which is well known from its inclusion among the works of Walter Map.^ This describes the hard case of Primas, who was driven out, from what cause is not said, from some house apparently of canons. There is no hint that it was at Orleans. But the poem was written when the author was an old man : Modo curvat me senectus et aetate sum confectus. We have therefore to inquire what is known of Hugh's age. Dr. WiUielm Meyer of Spires unearthed in 1907 a series of ' Bibl. de VJScole des Chartes, liv. (1893) 794.

  • MS. Reg. 1911, in the Vatican, whence printed in the Monumenta Oerm. Hist.

xxvi. 81 n. » See T. A. Archer, anie, iv. (1889) 99 f.

  • Poems attributed to Walter Mapes, pp. 64 £f., 1841.