Avril, page 69 by Hilaire Belloc
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re,
Qu'il ne m'en souvient plus._
_Non qu'il ne me soit mal que la tombe posséde
Ce qui me fut si cher;
Mais en un accident qui n'a point de reméde,
Il n'en faut point chercher._
_La Mort a des rigueurs à nulle autre pareilles:
On a beau la prier;
La cruelle qu'elle est se bouche les oreilles,
Et nous laisse crier._
_Le pauvre en sa cabane, où le chaume le couvre,
Est sujet à ses lois;
Et la garde qui veille aux barrières du Louvre
N'en défend point nos rois._
_De murmurer contre elle et perdre patience,
Il est mal à propos;
Vouloir ce que Dieu veut est la seule science
Qui nous met en repos._
"_Vouloir ce que Dieu veut est la seule science
Qui nous met en repos._"
NOTES.
CHARLES OF ORLEANS.
THE COMPLAINT.
Line 5. _Prins._ An inaccurate pedantic past participle of _prendre_.
Line 14. _Faulse._ There is to be noted here and elsewhere throughout these extracts, until the modern spelling at the close of the period, the redundant "l" in many words. It was an effect of pure pedantry. The latin "l" had become _u_ in northern French. _Falsa_ made, naturally, "Fausse." The partial learning of the later middle ages reintroduced an "l" which was not known to be transformed, but was thought omitted.
Line 24. _Liesse._ One of the commonest words of this epoch, lost to modern French. It means joy=_laetitia_.
Line 25. Note the gender of "Amour," feminine even in the singular throughout the middle ages and renaissance--right up to the seventeenth century.
THE TWO ROUNDELS OF SPRING.
I
Line 1. _Fourriers._ The servants who go before to find lodging. The term survives in French military terminology. The _Fourriers_ are the non-commissioned officers and party who go forward and mark the Billeting of a regiment.