main theme of every verse. The
_Muse Normande_ of David Ferrand is a collection of such fragments of
many "Concours des Palinods" from its beginning till his death in
1660. They are chiefly written in that "langue purinique ou gros
normand" which was the distinctive patois of the working classes, and
especially of those "purins" or "ouvriers de la draperie" who dwelt in
the parishes of Martainville, of St. Vivien, and St. Nicaise in the
city. You may hear it to this day in the villages of Caux. Here the
gossip of the populace is reproduced, and you read of the burdens laid
upon the people, of the abundance of wine (which did away with any
need for beer), of the rivalries of corporations, of the amusements of
the town, the mysteries and Miracle Plays, the Basoche, and the rough
practical joking of the populace.

One of the most important subjects, for our purpose, in all David
Ferrand's verse is that famous "Boise de Saint Nicaise," round which a
seventeenth-century war waged, more bitterly and fiercely disputed
than half the contests which take up the pages of your sober royal
histories. You must know that this "Boise de Saint Nicaise" was an
enormous beam of wood, chained by iron bars and links to the church
walls, where every evening the gossips used to gather in the cemetery
and talk over the scandal of the parish, or regulate the proceedings
of the town. Thrice in 220 years had Rouen been besieged, once by the
English and twice by its own countrymen, and each time the virtues of
the famous "boise" had saved it from pillage and desecration. Upon its
black and shining length the disputes of every century had been heard
and settled: masters had brought up their quarrels with the workmen,
merchants had wrangled over sharp practice in their business, girls
had been summoned to receive a lecture from the elders of the parish
on the flightiness and immodesty of their behaviour. No parish had
ever such a palladium of its dignity. And you can easily conceive the
derision and contempt with which the mighty "boise" was treated by the
boys of the rival and neighbouring parish of St. Godard, who used to
sing--

"Les habitants de Saint Nicaise
Ont le coeur haut et fortune basse."

This was a bad pun on the _choeur_, or choir, of the church that was
too good for its worshippers. For there was a great contrast between
the populations on each side of the dividing line. St. Godard was
filled with magistrates and mighty