is undoubtedly _Le Roman de la Rose_. It is indeed no single
achievement, but two very remarkable poems, written at two different
periods, by two authors whose characters and gifts were not only alien,
but opposed--two poems which reflect two different conditions of
society. Of its twenty-two thousand octosyllabic lines, upwards of
four thousand are the work of GUILLAUME DE LORRIS; the remainder is
the work of a later writer, JEAN DE MEUN.

Lorris is a little town situated between Orleans and Montargis. Here,
about the year 1200, the earlier poet was born. He was a scholar,
at least as far as knowledge of Latin extends, and learned above all
in the lore of love. He died young, probably before 1230, and during
the five years that preceded his death the first part of _Le Roman
de la Rose_ was composed. Its subject is an allegorised tale of love,
his own or imagined, transferred to the realm of dreams. The writer
would fain win the heart of his beloved, and at the same time he would
instruct all amorous spirits in the art of love. He is twenty years
of age, in the May-morn of youth. He has beheld his beautiful lady,
and been charmed by her fairness, her grace, her courtesy; she has
received him with gentleness, but when he declares his love she grows
alarmed. He gains at last the kiss which tells of her affection; but
her parents intervening, throw obstacles between the lovers. Such,
divested of ornament, allegory, and personification, is the theme
of the poem.

To pluck the rose in the garden of delight is to win the maiden; her
fears, her virgin modesty and pride, her kindness, her pity, are the
company of friends or foes by whom the rose is surrounded; and to
harmonise the real and the ideal, all the incidents are placed in
the setting of a dream. Wandering one spring morning by the
river-banks, the dreamer finds himself outside the walls of a fair
orchard, owned by Deduit (Pleasure), of which the portress is Oiseuse
(Idleness); on the walls are painted figures of Hatred, Envy, Sadness,
Old Age, Poverty, and other evil powers; but unterrified by these,
he enters, and finds a company of dancers on the turf, among whom
is Beauty, led by the god of Love. Surrounded by a thorny hedge is
the rosebud on which all his desire now centres. He is wounded by
the arrows of Love, does homage to the god, and learns his commandments
and the evils and the gains of love. Invited by Bel-Accueil, the son
of Courtoisie, to approach the