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Aucassin and Nicolete
Aucassin and Nicolete
Translated by Andrew Lang
Book Excerpt
er chains, lie at their feet. They listen, and look, and do not think of the minstrel with his grey head and his green heart, but we think of him. It is an old man's work, and a weary man's work. You can easily tell the places where he has lingered, and been pleased as he wrote. They are marked, like the bower Nicolete built, with flowers and broken branches wet with dew. Such a passage is the description of Nicolete at her window, in the strangely painted chamber,
"ki faite est par grant devisse
panturee a miramie."
Thence
"she saw the roses blow,
Heard the birds sing loud and low."
Again, the minstrel speaks out what many must have thought, in those incredulous ages of Faith, about Heaven and Hell, Hell where the gallant company makes up for everything. When he comes to a battlepiece he makes Aucassin "mightily and knightly hurl through the
press," like one of Malory's men. His hero must be a man of his hands, no mere sighing youth incapable of arms. But the minstrels
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FEATURED AUTHOR - 'The Plotting Shed' (see her blog http://www.intheplottingshed.com/) was Alex Martin's first writing space at the bottom of her Welsh garden. Now she splits her time between Wales and France and plot wherever she is. She still wanders aimlessly in the countryside with her dog and her dreams and she can still be found typing away with imaginary friends whispering in her ear, but these days she has the joy of seeing her stories published and the treasured feedback from readers who've enjoyed them.