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THE BIBLE OF AMIENS.
to it, when they had got it out. Quick and clear in word and act, fearless utterly and restless always; — but idly lawless, or weakly lavish, neither in deed nor word. Their frankness, if you read it as a scholar and a Christian, and not like a modern half-bred, half-brained infidel, knowing no tongue of all the world but in the slang of it, is really opposed, not to Servitude,—but to Shyness![1] It is to this day the note of the sweetest and Frenchest of French character, that it makes simply perfect Servants. Unwearied in protective friendship, in meekly dextrous omnificence, in latent tutorship;
- ↑ For detailed illustration of the word, see ' Vald'Arno,' Lecture VIII.;
' Fors Clavigera,' Letters XLVI. 231, LXXVII. 137 ; and Chaucer,
' Romaunt of Rose,' 1212 — "Next him" (the knight sibbe to Arthur)
" daunced dame Franchise;" — the English lines are quoted and com-
mented on in the first lecture of ' Ariadne Florentina ' ; I give the
French here:—"Apres tous ceulx estoit Franchise
Que ne fut ne brune ne brise.
Ains fut comme la neige blanche
Courtoyse estoit, joyeuse, et franchie.
Le nez avoit long et tretis,
Yeulx vers, riants; sourcilz faitis ;
Les cheveulx eut tres-blons et longs
Simple fut comme les coulous
Le cceur eut doulx et debonnaire.
Elle n'osait dire nefaire
Nulle riens que fair e ne deust."And I hope my girl readers will never more confuse Franchise with 'Liberty.'
