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MARGARET OF ANGOULÊME.
| Sophronius and Philitine: | |
| To their poor household let us bring Of all our store a bounteous freight. | |
| Dorothy: | This cheese shall be my plenishing, In frame of rushes neatly dight. |
| Chorus: | Sing Nowell, let the Nowell ring, For Christ is given to us outright. |
| Christilla: | And I for Mary's nourishing Have milk new-drawn and creamy white. |
| Philitine: | I 'll give my cage: therein shall sing My bird, to please her, an it might. |
| Chorus: | Sing Nowell, let the Nowell ring, For Christ is given to us outright. |
| Elpison: | These faggots of my gathering Shall warm them in their wintry plight. |
| Nephelé: | My flute shall be my offering; The Child shall hear it with delight. |
| Chorus: | Sing Nowell, let the Nowell ring, For Christ is given to us outright. |
| Sophronius: | I'll run upon their heralding, For I the best know wrong from right. |
| Philitine: | His face I'll kiss, in worshipping. |
| Christilla: | Ah no, the heel's too holy, quite. |
| Chorus: | Sing Nowell, let the Nowell ring, For Christ is given to us outright. |
These charming comedies were acted at Nérac, with other farces less innocent and pretty. "Pour nous divertir, nous faisons moineries et farces," writes Margaret; and these monkeries, of which the "Inquisitor" alone remains, were, we may well believe, conceived in the spirit of Marot's Frère Lubin. They, and her patronage of Lutheran refugees, brought Margaret into such disrepute with the Catholic party that an attempt was made to poison her at her own table; and one day
