ere brought to light.

In the close of the mediaeval period, when old things were passing
away and new things were as yet unborn, the minds of men inclined
to fill the void with mockery and satire. Martin Lefranc (_c_. 1410-61)
in his _Champion des Dames_--a poem of twenty-four thousand lines, in
which there is much spirit and vigour of versification--balances one
against another the censure and the praise of women. Coquillard, with
his railleries assuming legal forms and phrases, laughs at love and
lovers, or at the _Droits Nouveaux_ of a happy time when licence had
become the general law. Henri Baude, a realist in his keen observation,
satirises with direct, incisive force, the manners and morals of his
age. Martial d'Auvergne (_c_. 1433-1508), chronicling events in his
_Vigiles de Charles VII._, a poem written according to the scheme of
the liturgical Vigils, is eloquent in his expression of the wrongs of
the poor, and in his condemnation of the abuses of power and station.
If the _Amant rendu Cordelier_ be his, he too appears among those who
jest at the follies and extravagance of love. His prose _Arrets
d'Amour_ are discussions and decisions of the imaginary court which
determines questions of gallantry.

Amid such mockery of life and love, the horror of death was ever
present to the mind of a generation from which hope and faith seemed
to fail; it was the time of the _Danse Macabre_; the skeleton became
a grim humourist satirising human existence, and verses written for
the dance of women were ascribed in the manuscript which preserves
them to Martial d'Auvergne.

Passion and the idea of death mingle with a power at once realistic
and romantic in the poetry of FRANCOIS VILLON. He was born in poverty,
an obscure child of the capital, in 1430 or 1431; he adopted the name
of his early protector, Villon; obtained as a poor scholar his
bachelor's degree in 1449, and three years later became a _maitre
es arts_; but already he was a master of arts less creditable than
those of the University. In 1455 Villon--or should we call him
Monterbier, Montcorbier, Corbueil, Desloges, Mouton (aliases
convenient for vagabondage)?--quarrelled with a priest, and killed
his adversary; he was condemned to death, and cheered his spirits
with the piteous ballade for those about to swing to the kites and
the crows; but the capital punishment was commuted to banishment.
Next winter, stung by the infidelity and insults of a woman to whom