Sorrente : Sorrento, a village on the gulf of Naples
Page 55. — 1. 2. Lucrèce : Lucretius, the Latin poet, author of De Rerum Natura. (95-51 B.c.)
The Roman de Renart, one of the most popular poems of the middle ages, is common to both the early German and the early French literatures. The first known manuscript is in low Latin, and dates from about the middle of the 12th century. Written and rewritten, as all these mediaeval stories were, it is a shrewd satire on manners and morals, in which Renart the fox, and a rascal, generally outwits his more virtuous neighbors.
Page 58. — L 18. Patelin: l'Avocat Patelin^ an amusing comedy, written by Brueys and Palaprat in 1706, and based upon one of the \
popular of the mediaeval farces. The name Patelin has become in French the synonym for an hypocritical flatterer.
Page 62. — 1. lo. rhétorique d'ni3r88e: Ulysses was noted for his craftiness.
Page 63. — 1. 6. foloier: to commit a foolish act.
L i6. Florian: the fable writer^ who ranks after La Fontaine. (1755-
Page 64.^1. i. longrtemps en circulation: the first manuscripts date from about the middle of the 12th century.
1. 34. Les Jacobins : the Dominican order of friars, called the Jacobins, because, before the French Revolution, the order had a convent in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris. The Dominicans are an order of mendicant monks, founded by Dominic du Guzman, a Spanish monk, in 121 5. The first foundation in the United States was made in 1807. The Dominicans are also called preaching friars, and black friars, from their black robes.
Page 65. — 1. i. Les Franciscains: monks of the Order of St. Francis, established in 1209 by St. Francis of Assisi. They are also mendicant friars. Sometimes they are called gray friars, from their gray robes.
1. 3. L'Ordre des Templiers : This was a military and religious order, first established in Jerusalem in 1 1 18, for the protection of pilgrims and the Holy Sepulchre. The Knights Templars, or Knights of the Temple, were so called because they occupied an apartment of the palace of Baldwin II. in Jerusalem, near the Temple. The order grew very rich and powerful, and its members were scattered about Europe in various places. Finally, Philip the Fair brought charges against the Templars of Paris, in 1307, had them tried and condemned, confiscated their vast wealth, and, in 1 31 2, influenced Pope Qement V. to pronounce the dissolution of the Order throughout Christendom.
1. 7. Hospitaliers : an order of knights who built a hospital for pilgrims at Jerusalem in 1042. They were called Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and, after the removal of the order to Malta, Knights of Malta.
1. 31. L'Armorique : an old name for modern Brittany or Bretagne,
Page 66. — 1. 17. Beaumanoir: Jean III. de Beaumanoir, Marshal of Brittany for Charles de Blois, and a member of one of the oldest families of Brittany.
1. 19. Froissart: the most celebrated of the early French chroniclers, who describes the greater part of the period of the Hundred Years' War. (1337-HI0O
Page 67.— 1. 2. Montlort: John of Montfort, supported by the £iig< Ush in his claims to the ducal throne of Brittany.
L 3. Bdward d'Angleterre : Edward III.
L 30. Merlin : is supposed to have lived in the days of King Arthur, in the 5th or 6th century.
Page 68. —1. 10. roi de Saint Denis: Philip VI.
1. 18. Charles de Blois : the claimant for Brittany, who was supported by the French king, his uncle.
1. 25. Laval, Rochefort, Rohan : names of the old families of Brittany.
Page 69. — L 9. à Constantinople : referring to the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1203.
L 26. Lstare Jemsalem : the first words of the mass for the fourth Sunday in Lent
Page 70. — L 11. genestaie: a place where the genU^ or furze, is growing.
1.21. du Gnesclin: one of the greatest warriors of France, who played a prominent part in the first half of the Hundred Yeûs' War. (1314-1380.)
1. 22. Bayard : Le Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche. An illustrious captain who distinguished himself in the wars of Charles VIII., Louis XII., and Francis I. (1475-1524.)
