"
All this is clearly analogous in form no less than in matter to our
_cante-fable_. Mr. Motherwell speaks of _fabliaux_, intended partly for
recitation, and partly for being sung; but does not refer by name to
_Aucassin and Nicolete_. If we may judge by analogy, then, the form of
the _cante-fable_ is probably an early artistic adaptation of a popular
narrative method.
STOUR; an ungainly word enough, familiar in Scotch with the sense of wind-
driven dust, it may be dust of battle. The French is _Estor_.
BIAUCAIRE, opposite Tarascon, also celebrated for its local hero, the
deathless Tartarin. There is a great deal of learning about Biaucaire;
probably the author of the _cante-fable_ never saw the place, but he need
not have thought it was on the sea-shore, as (p. 39) he seems to do.
There he makes the people of Beaucaire set out to wreck a ship. Ships do
not go up the Rhone, and get wrecked there, after escaping the perils of
the deep.
On p. 42, the poet clearly thinks that Nicolete, after landing from her
barque, had to travel a considerable distance before reaching Biaucaire.
The fact is that the poet is perfectly reckless of geography, like him
who wrote of the set-shore of Bohemia.
PAINTED WONDROUSLY. No one knows what is really meant by a _miramie_.
PLENTIFUL LACK OF COMFORT: rather freely for _Mout i aries peu conquis_.
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