poetry at the time these 'branches' were composed, when the short, joyous Fabliaux of the Trouvères were received with such general satisfaction; and he even ventures to express his disbelief (p. 455), that a Frenchman could have written so complete and sustained a work as the Reinaert," Nie glaube ich dass ein Franzose etwas du Art machen Könne." This declaration is, on the other hand, treated very contemptuously by Edelstand du Meril,* who argues that as the names of many of the actors in the fable, as Chanticleer the cock, Cuwart the leopard, Firapel, the leopard, have no signification except in France, the fable must have assumed its popular form in that country. Another distinction between the two classes of works may here be pointed out. The wolf and his injuries.

form the main action of the Latin and Germanic works; while, on the contrary, in the French poems, taken as a body, the fox always appears, and that very justly, as the chief actor; although there is frequently not only no connexion between the several histories, but oftentimes positive contradictions. The object of the more recent writers, again, appears to have been, to represent the other animals as obtaining the advantage over the fox, while he at the same time gets the upper hand of the wolf. In the Latin poem the cock is the only animal by whom Reynard is outwitted, but in the French works he is so by the raven, the cat, and the sparrow.

It is most likely that the greater part of these French

* Poésies Populaires Latines, p. 205-6.

stories, and, besides these, many others similar to them, were generally current among the common people; and only required to be adopted and put into rhyme by the poets. Many that were formerly in existence have been lost, such as the story of the ant, that of the death of the lion, and many others which now exist in other forms, but not in the old French, from which they are known to have been derived.

Pierre de St. Cloot is considered to be author of the oldest existing branches of "Le Roman du Renart." He likewise wrote Le Testament d'Alexandre, a part of the great romance on the subject of Alexander, and flourished about the beginning of the thirteenth century. Pierre, who refers to a book as his authority for what he relates

66

'Que se li livres nos dit voir,

Ou je trove l'estoire escrite"-v. 4938-9.

avows himself as the historian of Reynard, both at the beginning and at the end of the seventh branch of Méon's collection; which is certainly one of the earliest but not one of the best told divisions of the work. The branch in question commences :—

"Pierre who was born at St. Cloot,
Has taken pains and trouble too,
Prompted by his friends' intreaty,
In verse as best he may to greet ye,
With a merry jest and wile

Of Renard, who is full of guile.'

"Pierres qui de Saint Clost fut nez,

S'est tant traveillez et penez,

Whether Legrand d'Aussy and Raynouard have any grounds for also attributing to Pierre the first, second, and third branches, appears extremely problematical, inasmuch as the affair with the cock, related in the seventh branch, is told likewise, but in an inferior manner, in the third. That he was the author of other portions of the work may reasonably be concluded from a passage in a later writer, who charges him with leaving out the best parts of his subject :

"Perroz, who plied his wit and art

To tell in verse tales of Renart,

And of Isengrim so stout

The best part of his tale left out.”*

From which it appears that we are certainly acquainted with the name of one of the least important authors of "Renard;" and know nothing as to who was the author of the most remarkable parts; to say nothing of those oldest branches which seem to have perished, or which at least have not yet been discovered The German Heinrich der Glichsenare preceded Pierre by twenty or thirty years at least, and he alludes to French poems which must have appeared soon after the middle of

Par proiere de ses amis,
Que il nos a en rime mis

Une risee et un gabet

De Renart, qui tant set d'abet.”—v. 4851-6.

* "Perroz qui son engin et s'art

Mist en vers fere de Renart.

Et d'Ysengrim son chier conpere,

Lessa le miez de sa matere."-v. 9649-50.

the eleventh century; in fact there is no doubt that, at the time when the Latin works were written, there existed compositions in the French language on the subjects of Reynard and Isengrim, the loss of which is greatly to be lamented.* It ought to be added that two other writers of later date than Pierre avow themselves authors of parts of these poems-Robert de Lison as the author of the twenty-third, and a "Prestre de la Croix en Brie" of the twentieth branch.

§ xv. But it is time to refer to what has been produced in Flanders, on the subject of our hero, and in doing so we have a pleasant duty to perform, inasmuch as we shall be instrumental in awakening public attention to a poet whose extraordinary merits have been hitherto, through the influence of fortuitous circumstances, entirely overlooked; the credit due to his skill and ability having been bestowed upon a later writer, who was in fact little more than a translator. allude to the clever author of the Flemish poem entitled, "Reinart," which was originally published by Gräter in 1817, afterwards reprinted by Grimm, and

We

* It is not too much to expect that some of these earlier French poems on the subject of Reynard may yet come to light. If lost, they were probably in existence up to a later period than is generally supposed; some of them being perhaps contained in one or other of the numerous MSS. of "Renart," mentioned in Van Praet's catalogue of the Ancient Library of the Louvre, Inventaire de l'ancienne Bibliothèque du Louvre, fait en l'Année 1373, par Gilles Mallett, Garde de la dite Bibliothèque, &c. 8vo. Paris, 1836.

since more fully edited by Willems, from the manuscript purchased by the Belgian Government at Heber's sale.*

The name of this heretofore disregarded votary of the Muses, appears from the first line of this poem to have been Willem:

"Willem die vele boeke maecte,"

says the Comburgh MS., the only one which has yet been printed. The Amsterdam MS. on the other

hand, has

"Willem die Madock maecte,"

from which it has been supposed that his name was Willem die Matoc (from the old Flemish Mate, socius, likewise pauper, miser, with the diminutive oc, therefore sociolus, or pauperculus); a piece of knowledge which serves to explain the hitherto unintelligible passage at the termination of Jacob van Mearlant's Reimbibel.

"Want nit nes niet Matoc's drom

No Reinaert's, no Artur's boerder."

"Willam die Matoc," says Grimm, "must without doubt be looked upon as the author of 'Reinaert.' It is most probable, that he was an earlier poet than Maerlant, and not merely a contemporary: I believe he must be placed soon after the year 1250."

* Reinaert de Vos, Episch Fabeldicht van de twaelfde en dertiende Eeuw, met Anmerkingen en Ophelderingen von J. F. Willems. Gent. 8vo. 1836.