and his six assessors, and there also Under these and other regulations sat with them, the capitouls or chief the "floral games" became celebrated magistrates of the town as judges; and throughout Europe; and within fifty years there was a great assemblage of knights, from their first institution they were the of gentlemen, and of ladies. The prize resort of all persons of distinction. In was given to the candidate whose verses 1388, the reigning king of Arragon sent were determined by the majority of the ambassadors to Charles the Sixth of judges to be the most worthy. France, with great pomp and solemnity, requesting that some of the poets of the "floral games" at Toulouse might be permitted to come to the court, and assist in establishing similar games there; promising that, when they had fulfilled their mission, they should receive rewards equal to their merits, and consistent with his royal munificence.

The "floral games" of Toulouse continued to be celebrated in like manner, at the sole expense of the institutors, till the magistrates seeing the advantage they were of to the town, by the vast concourse of people brought thither, and considering that their continuance must be precarious while they depended upon the ability and disposition of a few individuals for their support, resolved to convert the institution into a public concern; and, with the concurrence of the principal inhabitants, it was determined that the expense should in future be defrayed by the city, that to the original prize two others should be added, a silver eglantine, and a silver marigold; and that occasional ones might be distributed at the option of the judges to very young poets, as stimulants to them to aim at obtaining the principal prizes.

After about thirty years it was judged expedient to appoint a committee, who should draw up such a code of statutes as might include every possible case that could occur, and these statutes were laid before the judges for their approbation.

Among these decrees the principa! were, that no prize could be given to a heretic, a schismatic, or an excommunicated person; that whoever was a candidate for any of the prizes. should take a solemn oath that the poetry was his own composition, without the least assistance from any other person; that no woman should be admitted to the competition, unless her talents in composing verses were so celebrated as to leave no doubt of her being capable of writing the poetry offered :-that no one who gained a prize was allowed to be a candidate again till after a lapse of three years, though he was expected in the intervening years to compose verses for the games, and recite them; and that if any or all the prizes remained undisposed of, from no verses being produced that were judged worthy of them, the prizes were to remain over to the next year, then to be given away in addition to the regular prizes of the year.

This account of the institution of the "floral games" is from the oldest registers relative to them; wherein there is no mention made of the lady Clemence Isaure till 1513, nearly two hundred years after their institution; and it is well known that the statue of the lady Clemence in the consistory, was not put up till the year 1557. In that year it had been proposed in the college of the Gay Science to erect a monument to her memory in the church of La Dorade, where she was reputed to have been buried; but this idea was afterwards changed for putting up her statue in the room where the "floral games" were held. that time the statue was always crowned with flowers at the time of the celebration of the games, and a Latin oration pronounced in honour of her. A satirical sonnet in the Provençal language upon the idea of erecting either a monument or a statue to a lady who never had any eixstence in the world, is preserved in Pierre Caseneuve's "Inquiry into the Origin of the Floral Games."

From

But by whomsoever the " floral games" of Toulouse were instituted, it is remarkable, that the festival was constantly observed for more than four centuries and a half without interruption. It did not cease to be celebrated till the revolution. It was not, however, continued entirely according to the original institution, since for a considerable time the use of the Provençal language, in the poetry for the prizes, had been abandoned, and the French substituted for it. At what period this change took place does not seem to be well ascertained. The number of prizes, too, was increased to five, the principal of which was still the golden violet; but instead of one

605

eglantine, and one marigold of silver, two of each were given. The violet was appropriated to the best ode; the others were for a piece in heroic poetry, for one in pastoral poetry, for a satirical piece, and for a sonnet, a madrigal, a song, or some other minor effusion.

Three of the deputies to the parliament
had for some time presided at these
games, instead of the chancellor of the
Gay Science with his six assessors; and
with them were associated the capitouls,
All
or chief magistrates of the town.
the other magistrates, and the whole
body of the parliament, attended in their
robes of office, with the principal gen-
tlemen of the town, and a brilliant as-
These
semblage of ladies in full dress.

were ranged round the room in seats
raised like an amphitheatre, and the
students of the university sat on benches
in the centre. The room was ornamented
with festoons of flowers and laurel, and
the statue of Clemence Isaure was
crowned with them. After the oration
in honour of her was pronounced, the
judges, having previously consulted to-
gether in private, and assigned the prizes
to the pieces which they thought most
worthy of them, stood up, and, naming
the poem to which one was given, pro-
"Let
nounced with an audible voice,
the author come forward." The author
then presented himself; when his name
was declared, it was followed by a
grand flourish of music. The same cere-
mony was repeated as each piece was
announced. The whole concluded with
each author publicly reading his poem.

Many of these prize poems are to be
Several
found in different collections.
prizes were in latter times adjudged

Toulouse, our kind feelings have been
cultivated, and our literature is enriched
by a race of poets, whom we may venture
to array against the united armies of con-
It may be doubted
tinential bards.
whether a May prize of Toulouse was
ever awarded for sweeter verses, than
Matt. Prior's on Chloe's May flowers.
THE GARLAND.

The pride of every grove I chose

The violet sweet and lily fair,
The dappled pink, and blushing rose,
To deck my charming Chloe's hair.

At morn the nymph vouchsaf'd to place
Upon her brow the various wreath ;
The flowers less blooming than her face,
The scent less fragrant than her breath.
The flowers she wore along the day,

And every nymph and shepherd said,
That in her hair they looked more gay
Than glowing in their native bed.

Undrest at evening, when she found

Their odour lost, their colours past,
She changed her look, and on the ground
Her garland and her eye she cast.

The eye dropt sense distinct and clear,
As any muse's tongue could speak,
When from its lid a pearly tear
Ran trickling down her beauteous cheek.

Dissembling what I knew too well,

"My love, my life," said I," explain This change of humour; pr'ythee tell : That falling tear-what does it mean?"

She sighed; she smil'd; and, to the flowers
Pointing, the lovely moralist said,

"See, friend, in some few fleeting hours
See yonder, what a change is made!

And that of beauty are but one,
At morn both flourish bright and gay;

Both fade at evening, pale and gone.

to females, without any strict investiga-"Ah, me ! the blooming pride of May,
tion having been previously made into
the possibility of the pieces to which
they were decreed being female com-
positions. It was owing to having
gained a silver eglantine at one of these
festivals that the celebrated Fabre d'Eg-
lantine assumed the latter part of his

name.

He was a Languedocian by birth, a native of Limoux, a small town about four leagues from Toulouse.*

Without such encouragements to be poetical, as were annually offered by the "floral games" at conductors of the

• Plumptre.

"At dawn poor Stella danc'd and sung; The amorous youth arcund her bowed, At night her fatal knell was rung;

I saw and kissed her in her shroud.

and finally “points a moral” of sovereign virtue to all who need the application, and will take it to heart.

SPRING.

Lo! where the rosy bosom'd hours,
Fair Venus' train appear,
Disclose the long expected flowers,
And wake the purple year!
The attic warbler pours her throat,
Responsive to the cuckoo's note,

The untaught harmony of spring:
While whispering pleasure as they fly,
Cool zephyrs through the clear blue sky
Their gathered fragrance fling.

Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch

A broader, browner shade;
Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech
O'er-canopies the glade,

Beside some water's rushy brink
With me the muse shall sit, and think

(At ease reclined in rustic state)
How vain the ardour of the crowd,
How low how little are the proud,
How indigent the great!

Still is the toiling hand of care;
The panting herds repose:
Yet hark, how through the peopled air
The busy murmur glows!
The insect youth are on the wing,
Eager to taste the honied spring,

And float amid the liquid noon :
Some lightly o'er the current skim,
Some slow, their gayly-gilded trim
Quick-glancing to the sun.

To Contemplation's sober eye

Such is the race of man:
And they that creep and they that fly,
Shall end where they began.

Alike the busy and the gay
But flutter through life's little day

In fortune's varying colours drest.
Brushed by the hand of rough mischance;
Or chill'd by age, their airy dance
They leave in dust to rest.

Methinks I hear in accents Iow
The sportive kind reply;
"Poor moralist! and what art thou?
A solitary fly!

Thy joys no glittering female meets,
No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets,
No painted plumage to display:
On hasty wings thy youth is flown.
Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone-
We frolic while 'tis May."

Gay.

Then, too, a bard of the preceding centuries introduces "the Shepherd's Holiday," the day we now memorialize, with nymphs singing his own sweet verses in "floral games."

Nymph 1.

Thus, thus begin, the yearly rites
Are due to Pan on these bright nights,
His morn now riseth, and invites
To sports, to dances, and delights:

All envious, and profane away,
This is the shepherd's holiday.
Nymph 2.

Strew, strew, the glad and smiling ground,
With every flower, yet not confound
The primrose drop, the spring's own spouse,
Bright daisies, and the lips-of-cows,

The garden-star, the queen of May,
The rose, to crown the holiday.
Nymph 3.

Drop drop your violets, change your hues,
Now red, now pale, as lovers use,
And in your death go out as well
As when you lived unto the smell :
That from your odour all may say,.
This is the shepherd's holiday.

Jonson.

It is to be observed as a remarkable fact, that among the poets, the warmest advocates and admirers of the popular sports and pastimes in village retreats, uniformly invigorate and give keeping to their pictures, by sparkling lights and harmonizing shadows of moral truth.

But hark! the bagpipe summons on the green,
The jocund bagpipe, that awaketh sport;
The blithsome lasses, as the morning sheen,

Around the flower-crown'd Maypole quick resort;
The gods of pleasure here have fix'd their court.
Quick on the wing the flying moment 'seize,
Nor build up ample schemes, for life is short,

Short as the whisper of the passing breeze.

Strathspeys and reels,

Put life and metal in their heels.