ond in her
retreat at Woodstock; and _The Purgatory of St. Patrick_, translated
from the Latin at the request of an anonymous benefactor. Of these
only _The Lays_ need here concern us, as it is in them that our
interest lies, since they are perhaps among the first stories, given
literary form, which tell of love "for love's sake only,"--love
unqualified and unquestioning. They form, perhaps, the only collection
of lays now extant, and it is to them, therefore, that we must turn to
get some idea of the style of narration that gradually replaced the
taste for the epic as Norman influence grew and spread in England.
Beside the sensualism of the _Chansons de Geste_, the sentiment
expressed in them may seem naive; beside the gallantry of the
Provencal poetry, it may seem primitive; but nevertheless it is, in
its very simplicity, the profoundest note that can be struck in this
world of men and women. Marie makes no pretence to originality, but
even if she did not possess the supreme gift of creating beauty, she
at least possessed the lesser gift of perceiving it where it existed
and of making it her own, and her stories glow with colour, and
enchant by their simple yet dramatic appeal to the imagination. She
declares that _The Lays_ were made "for remembrance" by "Le ancien
Bretun curteis," and that "Folks tell them to the harp and the rote,
and the music is sweet to hear." Doubtless it was this sweet music
which both soothed and thrilled even before the words were understood,
for on sad and festive days alike, the sweet lays of Brittany were
always to be heard.

La reine chante doucement,
La voiz acorde a l'estrument:
Les mains sont belles, li lais bons,
Douce la voiz et bas li tons.

[11] Marie thus refers to Count William:--

"Pur amur le cumte Willaume,
Le plus vaillant de cest royaume,
M'entremis de cest livre feire,
E de l'Angleiz en Roman treire."

[Illustration: _Photo. Macbeth._

LADY PLAYING HARP.

Add. MS. 38117, Brit. Mus.

_To face page 32._]

Whether Marie was connected with the Court of Henry the Second and his
brilliant and artistic queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, where learned men
and poets congregated, we do not know, but it seems a very fair
conjecture that she was. Not only does she dedicate her principal work
to the king and his son, Count William, but her stories are coloured
with the courtly life and ideas of her time, notwithstandi