dedicated to Saint Andrew; having a round wall within, manifestly of modern construction."

Ther emainder is, for the most part, equally humble with this extract.

MELLIN DE SAINT GELAIS.

MELLIN de Saint Gelais is commended by Joachim du Bellay, in that poet's address to the reader prefixed to his own works, for having been the first who distinguished himself as a writer of sonnets in the French language. He left only seventeen of them. At least, I find no more in the collection of his poems, published soon after his decease. But it was a prolific race, and in a short time multiplied exceedingly.

Two out of these seventeen will, I dare say, satisfy the reader as to quantity. And for the quality, I can assure him they are not the worst of the batch.

Il n'est point tant de barques à Venise,

D'huistres à Bourg, de lievres en Champaigne,
D'ours en Savoye, et de veaux en Bretaigne,
De Cygnes blancs le long de la Tamise,
Ne tant d'Amours si traitent en l'Eglise,
De differents aux peuples d'Alemaigne,
Ne tant de gloire à un Seigneur d'Espaigne,
Ne tant si trouve à la Cour de faintise,

Ne tant y a de monstres en Afrique,

D'opinions en une Republique,

Ne de pardons à Romme aux jours de feste, Ne d'avarice aux hommes de pratique,

Ne d'argumens en une Sorbonique,

Que m' amie a de lunes en la teste.

Oeuvres Poëtiques de Mellin de S. Gelais. Lyon. Par Antoine de Harsy, 1574, p. 84.

So

many barks are not for Venice bound;

Nor oysters, Bourg can shew, or calves Bretagne;
Or Savoy, bears; or leverets, Champagne ;
Or Thamis, silver swans, his shores around:
Not amorous treaties so at church abound,
Or quarrels in the Diet of Almaine,
Not so much boasting in a Don of Spain,
Not so much feigning at the Court is found:
Monsters so numerous hath not Africa,

Nor minds so various a republic bred,
Nor pardons are at Rome on holyday,
Or cravings underneath a lawyer's gown,
Or reas'nings with the doctors of Sorbonne ;
As there are lunes in my sweet lady's head.

De Monsieur le Dauphin.

Vous que second la noble France honore,
Pouvez cueillir par ces près florissans,
Oeillets pour vous seul s'espanouissans,
Esclos ensemble avec la belle Aurore,
Pour vostre front le rosier se collore,

Dont les chapeaux si haut lieu congnoissans,

Forment boutons de honte rougissans,

Sachant que mieux vous appartient encore.
Ceinte de liz la blanche Galathee

Ses fruits vous garde en deux paniers couverts,
L'un d'olivier, l'autre de laurier verds.
Ainsi chantoit des Nymphes escoutee

La belle Eglé dont Pan oyant le son,

Du grand Henry l'appella la chanson. (P. 87.)
On the Dauphin.

Thou, who art second in our noble France,
Mayst cull at will, along each blooming mead,
These pinks, whose hues for thee alone are spread,
First opening with the morning's early glance;
For thee the rose-bush doth his top advance,

Whose coronals, with buttons vermeil-red,
Blush all for shame to hold so high their head,
Trusting yet more thy pleasure to enhance.
The milk-white Galathea, lily-crown'd,

For thee in panniers twain her fruits doth screen, One veil'd with olive, one with myrtle green. Thus sang fair Ægle, while the nymphs around Smiled as they listen'd; and Pan heard the song, And to great Harry bade the notes belong.

The Sonnet was not the only form of composition adopted by Saint Gelais from the Italian tongue. He borrowed from it the Ottava Rima also.

In the Chant Villanesque (p. 235) he has counterfeited the charm of a rustic simplicity with much skill.

Mellin was supposed to be the natural son of Octavien de Saint Gelais, Sieur de Lunsac, and Bishop of Angoulême, and was born in 1491. The father, besides his own original works, among which the Vergier d'Honneur was one, was the author of translations into French verse of the Æneid, several books of the Odyssey, and the Epistles and Ars Amandi of Ovid. His profession did not restrain him from much freedom both in his life and writings. He is said to have bestowed great pains on his son's education, who profited as well as could be hoped under such a guide and tutor; for he learnt to write verses better than his father, but with a sufficient portion of ribaldry in them. Mellin had a high reputation in the courts of Francis I. and Henry II. He was abbot of Recluz, and royal almoner and librarian.

A copy of verses directed to Clement Marot (p. 176) when they were both in ill-health, shows his regard for that poet. It begins,

Gloire et regret des Poetes de France,
Clement Marot, ton ami Sainct Gelais,
Autant marri de ta longue souffrance,

Comme ravi de tes doux chants et lais, &c.

"Glory and regret of the Poets of France, Clement Marot; thy friend Saint Gelais, who is as much grieved by thy long suffering, as he is charmed by thy songs and lays, &c."

Both he and Clement celebrated the restoration of Laura's tomb, at Avignon, by Francis I.

He addresses also Hugues Salel, of whom we shall soon hear more; though they had not yet made an acquaintance with each other.

His conduct towards Ronsard was somewhat ungenerous; but that poet, with his characteristic generosity, forgave more than once the ill offices which Saint Gelais was supposed to have done him

at court.

His talent for epigrammatic satire was so much dreaded, that " Gare à la tenaille de Saint Gelais ;" "'Ware of Saint Gelais pincers," became a proverbial saying.

He was celebrated for his skill in Latin poetry, and composed the following verses, when near his end.

Barbite, qui varios lenisti pectoris æstus,

Dum juvenem nunc sors, nunc agitabat amor;
Perfice ad extremum, rapidæque incendia febris
Qua potes infirmo fac leviora seni.

Certe ego te faciam, superas evectus ad auras,
Insignem ad Cytharæ sidus habere locum.

Harp, that didst soothe my cares, when opening life
With love and fortune waged alternate strife,

Fulfil thy task: allay the fervid rage

Of fever preying on my feeble age;

So, when I reach the skies, a place shall be,

Near the celestial lyre, allotted thee.